open an mdb or accdb in arcpro sdk

Question

I'm migrating a Desktop Add-in to ArcPro.

The code opens an .mdb file using adodb and reads and writes to it.

I can't get any of the COM Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (adodb) libraries to work with the  'ArcGIS Pro Module Add-in' template.  I get the same error with all versions when I try to open my connection:

"Provider cannot be found. It may not be properly installed."

Changing the ADODB --> 'Embed Interop Type' property to 'No' doesn't help either.  I still get the same error.

Any ideas how I can open an mdb (or even an accdb) file using the ArcGIS Pro sdk?

Wolf · Answer

This article explains the reasons why support for personal geodatabases was dropped with ArcGIS Pro: It's Not Personal: A quick history of the geodatabase and why personal geodatabases are not in ArcGIS Pro (esri.com)

What release of ArcGIS Pro are you using?   You can write a 'Plug-in Datasource' extension using the Pro SDK to implement a reader for your .MDB access database (aka 'personal geodatabase').  'Plug-in Datasources' only allow read access to the data and hence there is no easy way to write to an access database.

I would suggest writing your ArcGIS Pro add-in so that it reads and writes to a File Geodatabase instead of the old 'personal geodatabase'.

Let me know if you're interested in the 'personal geodatabase Plug-in DataSource' for ArcGIS Pro.   I can probably find the code for that.  I think the Plug-in DataSource is using this NuGet to access the .MDB files:
NuGet Gallery | System.Data.OleDb 7.0.0  This will work in you x64 Add-in but is limited to access of tabular data only (no spatial data).

SteveCole · Answer

At the risk of telling you something you already know, ESRI doesn't directly support MS Access in Pro but it is technically possible using OLE connections. ESRI has a blog post about this so I think you'll need to find the appropriate SDK bits that accomplish what is described in the blog post.