13.2.2- What is the Active Connection?

What is the Active Connection?

The active connection identifies the data store connection. In the Recordset.asp example above, we used a connection string to specify the connection we wanted:

objRS.Open "Movies", strConnect, adOpenForwardOnly, adLockReadOnly, adCmdTable

Instead, you could use a Connection object, like we did in the Connect.asp example in Chapter 12 :

objConn.Open strConnect

objRS.Open "Movies", objConn, adOpenForwardOnly, adLockReadOnly, adCmdTable

We discussed this earlier in the chapter. Essentially, you'd use the first technique if you're only making a single query to the data store – because it saves us from creating an explicit Connection object in our code, and keeps the code more tidy.

By contrast, you'd use the second technique if you were making a number of queries to the same data store. You can create the connection once using the Connection object, and then use the open connection each time you need it:

objConn.Open strConnect

objRSTitles.Open "SELECT Title FROM Movies", objConn

objRSLinks.Open "SELECT * FROM MovieLinks", objConn

...

That's a useful technique, because creating a connection is a resource-expensive task.

The ActiveConnection Property

Alternatively, you can set the ActiveConnection using the Recordset object's ActiveConnection property. For example:

objRS.ActiveConnection = strConnect

or

Set objRS.ActiveConnection = objConn

Although the two lines above appear to achieve the same thing, we get the same subtle difference. In the first, a connection string is passed in, and this causes a new connection to be created. In the second, the existing Connection object (objConn) is used as the connection.