Programmatically Adding a DSN to a

Machine Using Visual Basic .NET

2005

Jennifer Lewis
Programmatically Adding a DSN to a Machine Using Visual Basic .NET 2005
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Overview
While it is relatively simple to manually add a DSN to a machine, you may have a project
where you have to automatically add a DSN to a machine. For example, if you are installing
a PC-based application on a machine that uses a DSN that connects to a SQL Server or to a
local database, you may want to improve the user experience by adding an additional
program in your Setup and Deployment package that automatically creates the DSN rather
than have the user manually create the DSN. Using .NET, you can create a program that will
automatically create a DSN on a machine.

In a nutshell, here is what you will be doing:

• You will be using one of the Windows DLLs (ODBCCP32.dll) that contains the
function SQLConfigDataSource. This function adds the DSN to your machine.
• You will also be importing the Microsoft.Win32 library because you will need to
access the registry to add the User ID that connects to the data source (if applicable)

In this illustration, Visual Basic .NET 2005 will be used to connect to a SQL Server data
source. However, you should be able to use other .NET languages and/or other versions of
.NET, and you should be able to connect to other data source types, like Access or Oracle.

What You Need in Your Project

1) For registry access, you will need to import the Microsoft.Win32 library at the top of your
code.

2) Right after the class declaration statement (Public Class or Module), declare the
function SQLConfigDataSource.
Option 1
Public Class Startup
' This ODBC function allows you to automatically create a DSN
Private Declare Function SQLConfigDataSource Lib
"ODBCCP32.DLL" (ByVal hwndParent As Integer, ByVal fRequest As
Integer, ByVal lpszDriver As String, ByVal lpszAttributes As String)
As Integer

Option 2
Module CreateDSN
‘ This ODBC function allows you to automatically create a DSN
Private Declare Function SQLConfigDataSource Lib "ODBCCP32.DLL"
(ByVal hwndParent As Integer, ByVal fRequest As Integer, ByVal
lpszDriver As String, ByVal lpszAttributes As String) As Integer

3) The function SQLConfigDataSource accepts 4 parameters:

a. Parent – this value is almost always zero.
b. The type of DSN to create. A value of 4 is a system DSN, while a value of 1 is
a user DSN.
c. The driver name. This is the driver of the data source. For example, if you are
creating a DSN to connect to a SQL Server data source, the driver name is SQL
Server. Reference your database documentation to find out what the database
driver is called.
d. The attributes. This contains the information such as: the server, the name you
want to give to the DSN, the database to connect to on the data source, and
whether it’s a trusted connection or not.

Document Written on 11/24/2008

Programmatically Adding a DSN to a Machine Using Visual Basic .NET 2005
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Before you call the function, it’s best to create variables to hold the information. In this
example, we are using an instance of the StringBuilder class to build the attributes.
serverName = "Enter the server name here"
DSNName = "Enter the name of the DSN Here"
driverName = "SQL Server"
databaseName = "Enter the database name here"
description = "Enter the DSN description here"
AttrBuilder.Append("SERVER=")
AttrBuilder.Append(serverName)
AttrBuilder.Append(Chr(0))
AttrBuilder.Append("DSN=")
AttrBuilder.Append(DSNName)
AttrBuilder.Append(Chr(0))
AttrBuilder.Append("DESCRIPTION=")
AttrBuilder.Append(description)
AttrBuilder.Append(Chr(0))
AttrBuilder.Append("DATABASE=")
AttrBuilder.Append(databaseName)
AttrBuilder.Append(Chr(0))
AttrBuilder.Append("TRUSTED_CONNECTION=NO")
AttrBuilder.Append(Chr(0))
Attr = AttrBuilder.ToString

After building the attributes, call the SQLConfigDataSource function. In this example,
we are building a System DSN.
iReturn = SQLConfigDataSource(0, 4, driverName, Attr)

The function returns a 1 if it was created successfully. Be sure to add logic to check the
return code to make sure the function returned a successful result.

4) If your data source requires an ID and password, you need to add the ID to the registry.
Add the following lines to create the registry entry:
Dim regKey As RegistryKey, regSubKeySW As RegistryKey
Dim regSubKeyODBC As RegistryKey, regSubKeyODBCINI As RegistryKey
Dim regSales As RegistryKey

regKey = Registry.LocalMachine
regSubKeySW = regKey.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE")
regSubKeyODBC = regSubKeySW.OpenSubKey("ODBC")
regSubKeyODBCINI = regSubKeyODBC.OpenSubKey("ODBC.INI")
regSales = regSubKeyODBCINI.OpenSubKey(DSNName, True)

regSales.SetValue("LastUser", "Enter the User ID to connect to

SQL Server here")
Note in the final line, you would need to change the line Enter the User ID to
connect to SQL Server here to the user ID needed to connect to the SQL Server
data source.

If your data source doesn’t require a user ID and password to connect (ex: many Access
databases), you do not need to do this step.

The following page contains a full illustration of the source code that creates a DSN called
Sample that connects to SQL Server DevSQL and access SQL Server database Bogus. The
user to connect to the SQL Server DevSQL is SampleUser. Note: This code is a console
application.

Document Written on 11/24/2008

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Appendix: The Source Code Illustration

Imports Microsoft.Win32 ' for registry access
Imports System.Text ' for the StringBuilder

Module CreateDSN
' This ODBC function allows you to automatically create a DSN
Private Declare Function SQLConfigDataSource Lib "ODBCCP32.DLL"
(ByVal hwndParent As Integer, ByVal fRequest As Integer, ByVal
lpszDriver As String, ByVal lpszAttributes As String) As Integer

Sub Main()
Dim iReturn As Integer ' return code for
SQLConfigDataSource
Dim AttrBuilder As New StringBuilder

Dim Attr As String ' Attributes to be passed to

SQLConfigDataSource
Dim serverName As String ' SQL Server Machine Name.
Dim DSNName As String ' DSN Name
Dim driverName As String ' DB Driver
Dim databaseName As String ' Database
Dim description As String ' DSN Description

' Set up the variables to be passed to SQLConfigDataSource

' In this example, we are setting up a DSN to connect to SQL
Server

serverName = "DevSQL" ' CHANGE THIS VALUE TO THE SERVER

NAME
DSNName = "Sample" ' CHANGE THIS VALUE TO WHAT YOU
WANT TO CALL THE DSN
driverName = "SQL Server"
databaseName = "Bogus" ' CHANGE THIS VALUE TO THE SQL
SERVER DB NAME
description = "Sample DSN" ' CHANGE THIS VALUE TO THE DSN
DESCRIPTION
AttrBuilder.Append("SERVER=")
AttrBuilder.Append(serverName)
AttrBuilder.Append(Chr(0))
AttrBuilder.Append("DSN=")
AttrBuilder.Append(DSNName)
AttrBuilder.Append(Chr(0))
AttrBuilder.Append("DESCRIPTION=")
AttrBuilder.Append(description)
AttrBuilder.Append(Chr(0))
AttrBuilder.Append("DATABASE=")
AttrBuilder.Append(databaseName)
AttrBuilder.Append(Chr(0))
AttrBuilder.Append("TRUSTED_CONNECTION=NO")
AttrBuilder.Append(Chr(0))
Attr = AttrBuilder.ToString

' ADD the DSN

' If the 2nd parameter = 1, add as a User DSN
' If the 2nd parameter = 4, add as a System DSN
' Leave the 1st parameter as 0

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iReturn = SQLConfigDataSource(0, 4, driverName, Attr)

If iReturn <> 1 Then ' ERROR!

Console.WriteLine("ERROR with creating " & DSNName)
Else
' Update the registry with the user id - can't pass User ID
and Password for creating
' a SQL Server DSN, so you have to do it through the
registry
Dim regKey As RegistryKey, regSubKeySW As RegistryKey
Dim regSubKeyODBC As RegistryKey, regSubKeyODBCINI As
RegistryKey
Dim regSales As RegistryKey

regKey = Registry.LocalMachine
regSubKeySW = regKey.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE")
regSubKeyODBC = regSubKeySW.OpenSubKey("ODBC")
regSubKeyODBCINI = regSubKeyODBC.OpenSubKey("ODBC.INI")
regSales = regSubKeyODBCINI.OpenSubKey(DSNName, True)

' CHANGE THE FOLLOWING LINE'S VALUE TO THE USER ID NEEDED

TO CONNECT TO THE SQL DATA SOURCE
regSales.SetValue("LastUser", "SampleUser")

Console.WriteLine(DSNName & " created")

End If

Console.WriteLine("Press any key to continue....")

Console.ReadLine()
End Sub

End Module

Document Written on 11/24/2008