OLEDB Simple Provider (OSP) Toolkit Documentation

Introduction

A StackOverflow question prompted me to look for an OLE DB Provider for Xml. This gave the top result of the Microsoft OLE DB Simple Provider | Microsoft Docs. There is some eye-catching text in its description that says

Simple providers are intended to access data sources that require only fundamental OLE DB support, such as in-memory arrays or XML documents.

I blogged the Xml aspect previously, so putting the Xml to one side, the text (I have bolded) says in-memory arrays. I have been looking for some kind of ADO interface for an in memory array for a little while. What is disappointing is that this technology is old so we cannot invest too much time in it. Nevertheless, I have done some surfing and am depositing some findings here on this post.

No Xml please, tell me about In-memory arrays

So I used Google to exclude Xml from results, Provider=MSDAOSP; in memory array -xml - Google Search.

From the link Implementing an ADO Server we can see that the interface guid (IID) is E0E270C0-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341}. Looking up this in the registry I find

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{E0E270C0-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341}]
@="OLEDBSimpleProvider"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{E0E270C0-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341}\ProxyStubClsid]
@="{00020424-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{E0E270C0-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341}\ProxyStubClsid32]
@="{00020424-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{E0E270C0-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341}\TypeLib]
@="{E0E270C2-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341}"
"Version"="1.5"

So in the above there is a type library guid (LIBID) so we can look for that and we find

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{E0E270C2-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341}]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{E0E270C2-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341}\1.5]
@="Microsoft OLE DB Simple Provider 1.5 Library"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{E0E270C2-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341}\1.5\0]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{E0E270C2-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341}\1.5\0\win32]
@="C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\simpdata.tlb"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{E0E270C2-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341}\1.5\0\win64]
@="C:\\Windows\\System32\\simpdata.tlb"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{E0E270C2-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341}\1.5\FLAGS]
@="0"

In the above we can see a path to the type library C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\simpdata.tlb . An excel workbook's VBA project can make a reference to this type library by selecting Microsoft OLE DB Simple Provider 1.5 Library because happily the type library is restricted to automation types; with a VBA reference one can inspect the type library via the Object Browser. However for fans of IDL and because it can be pasted as one long text document here is the IDL as given by OLEView.exe.

// Generated .IDL file (by the OLE/COM Object Viewer)
// 
// typelib filename: simpdata.tlb

[
  uuid(E0E270C2-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341),
  version(1.5),
  helpstring("Microsoft OLE DB Simple Provider 1.5 Library")
]
library MSDAOSP
{
    // TLib : OLE Automation : {00020430-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
    importlib("stdole2.tlb");

    // Forward declare all types defined in this typelib
    interface OLEDBSimpleProviderListener;
    interface OLEDBSimpleProvider;

    typedef enum {
        OSPFORMAT_RAW = 0,
        OSPFORMAT_DEFAULT = 0,
        OSPFORMAT_FORMATTED = 1,
        OSPFORMAT_HTML = 2
    } OSPFORMAT;

    typedef enum {
        OSPRW_DEFAULT = 1,
        OSPRW_READONLY = 0,
        OSPRW_READWRITE = 1,
        OSPRW_MIXED = 2
    } OSPRW;

    typedef enum {
        OSPFIND_DEFAULT = 0,
        OSPFIND_UP = 1,
        OSPFIND_CASESENSITIVE = 2,
        OSPFIND_UPCASESENSITIVE = 3
    } OSPFIND;

    typedef enum {
        OSPCOMP_EQ = 1,
        OSPCOMP_DEFAULT = 1,
        OSPCOMP_LT = 2,
        OSPCOMP_LE = 3,
        OSPCOMP_GE = 4,
        OSPCOMP_GT = 5,
        OSPCOMP_NE = 6
    } OSPCOMP;

    typedef enum {
        OSPXFER_COMPLETE = 0,
        OSPXFER_ABORT = 1,
        OSPXFER_ERROR = 2
    } OSPXFER;

    [
      odl,
      uuid(E0E270C1-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341),
      version(1.4),
      oleautomation
    ]
    interface OLEDBSimpleProviderListener : IUnknown {
        HRESULT _stdcall aboutToChangeCell(
                        [in] long iRow, 
                        [in] long iColumn);
        HRESULT _stdcall cellChanged(
                        [in] long iRow, 
                        [in] long iColumn);
        HRESULT _stdcall aboutToDeleteRows(
                        [in] long iRow, 
                        [in] long cRows);
        HRESULT _stdcall deletedRows(
                        [in] long iRow, 
                        [in] long cRows);
        HRESULT _stdcall aboutToInsertRows(
                        [in] long iRow, 
                        [in] long cRows);
        HRESULT _stdcall insertedRows(
                        [in] long iRow, 
                        [in] long cRows);
        HRESULT _stdcall rowsAvailable(
                        [in] long iRow, 
                        [in] long cRows);
        HRESULT _stdcall transferComplete([in] OSPXFER xfer);
    };

    [
      odl,
      uuid(E0E270C0-C0BE-11D0-8FE4-00A0C90A6341),
      version(1.4),
      oleautomation
    ]
    interface OLEDBSimpleProvider : IUnknown {
        HRESULT _stdcall getRowCount([out, retval] long* pcRows);
        HRESULT _stdcall getColumnCount([out, retval] long* pcColumns);
        HRESULT _stdcall getRWStatus(
                        [in] long iRow, 
                        [in] long iColumn, 
                        [out, retval] OSPRW* prwStatus);
        HRESULT _stdcall getVariant(
                        [in] long iRow, 
                        [in] long iColumn, 
                        [in] OSPFORMAT format, 
                        [out, retval] VARIANT* pVar);
        HRESULT _stdcall setVariant(
                        [in] long iRow, 
                        [in] long iColumn, 
                        [in] OSPFORMAT format, 
                        [in] VARIANT Var);
        HRESULT _stdcall getLocale([out, retval] BSTR* pbstrLocale);
        HRESULT _stdcall deleteRows(
                        [in] long iRow, 
                        [in] long cRows, 
                        [out, retval] long* pcRowsDeleted);
        HRESULT _stdcall insertRows(
                        [in] long iRow, 
                        [in] long cRows, 
                        [out, retval] long* pcRowsInserted);
        HRESULT _stdcall find(
                        [in] long iRowStart, 
                        [in] long iColumn, 
                        [in] VARIANT val, 
                        [in] OSPFIND findFlags, 
                        [in] OSPCOMP compType, 
                        [out, retval] long* piRowFound);
        HRESULT _stdcall addOLEDBSimpleProviderListener([in] OLEDBSimpleProviderListener* pospIListener);
        HRESULT _stdcall removeOLEDBSimpleProviderListener([in] OLEDBSimpleProviderListener* pospIListener);
        HRESULT _stdcall isAsync([out, retval] long* pbAsynch);
        HRESULT _stdcall getEstimatedRows([out, retval] long* piRows);
        HRESULT _stdcall stopTransfer();
    };
};

So in the interface definition we can see some usefully unique keywords which we can use a search terms to search for sample code. And we find a good but old volume Serious ADO: Universal Data Access with Visual Basic - Rob MacDonald - Google Books which gives us some hints about how to write a VB6 component but it becomes apparent that one needs an actual VB6 copy because there is a widget to implement an interface that is otherwise restricted to VB6 developers. I have tracked the type library

MSDATASRC     Microsoft Data Source Interfaces for ActiveX Data Binding Type Library     C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msdatsrc.tlb

And I give the type library's IDL

// Generated .IDL file (by the OLE/COM Object Viewer)
// 
// typelib filename: msdatsrc.tlb

[
  uuid(7C0FFAB0-CD84-11D0-949A-00A0C91110ED),
  version(1.0),
  helpstring("Microsoft Data Source Interfaces for ActiveX Data Binding Type Library")
]
library MSDATASRC
{
    // TLib : OLE Automation : {00020430-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
    importlib("stdole2.tlb");

    // Forward declare all types defined in this typelib
    interface DataSourceListener;
    interface DataSource;

    typedef [uuid(7C0FFAB1-CD84-11D0-949A-00A0C91110ED), public]
    BSTR DataMember;

    [
      odl,
      uuid(7C0FFAB2-CD84-11D0-949A-00A0C91110ED),
      hidden,
      oleautomation
    ]
    interface DataSourceListener : IUnknown {
        [hidden]
        HRESULT _stdcall dataMemberChanged([in] DataMember bstrDM);
        [hidden]
        HRESULT _stdcall dataMemberAdded([in] DataMember bstrDM);
        [hidden]
        HRESULT _stdcall dataMemberRemoved([in] DataMember bstrDM);
    };

    [
      odl,
      uuid(7C0FFAB3-CD84-11D0-949A-00A0C91110ED),
      oleautomation
    ]
    interface DataSource : IUnknown {
        [restricted, hidden]
        HRESULT _stdcall getDataMember(
                        [in] DataMember bstrDM, 
                        [in] GUID* riid, 
                        [out, retval] IUnknown** ppunk);
        [hidden]
        HRESULT _stdcall getDataMemberName(
                        [in] long lIndex, 
                        [out, retval] DataMember* pbstrDM);
        [hidden]
        HRESULT _stdcall getDataMemberCount([out, retval] long* plCount);
        [hidden]
        HRESULT _stdcall addDataSourceListener([in] DataSourceListener* pDSL);
        [hidden]
        HRESULT _stdcall removeDataSourceListener([in] DataSourceListener* pDSL);
    };
};

So the restricted method on the interface DataSource prevents VBA from implementing this interface. Any source code for VB6 would rely upon a widget. This means that only the Delphi article, Implementing an ADO Server and any C++ source code we can find can give us a clue as to how this can be implemented. It ought to be possible to implement in C#.

API Links

MSDATASRC.DataSource Interface Methods

DataSource Interface and Methods is defined in MSDATASRC namespace as imported by reference to C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\msdatsrc.tlb

• addDataSourceListener
• getDataMember
• getDataMemberCount
• getDataMemberName
• removeDataSourceListener

MSDATASRC.DataSourceListener Interface Methods

DataSourceListener Interface and Methods is defined in MSDATASRC namespace as imported by reference to C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\msdatsrc.tlb

• dataMemberAdded
• dataMemberChanged
• dataMemberRemoved

MSDAOSP.OLEDBSimpleProvider Interface Methods

OLEDBSimpleProvider Interface and Methods are defined in MSDAOSP namespace as imported by reference to C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\simpdata.tlb

• addOLEDBSimpleProviderListener
• deleteRows
• find
• getColumnCount
• getEstimatedRows
• getLocale
• getRowCount
• getRWStatus
• getVariant
• insertRows
• isAsync
• removeOLEDBSimpleProviderListener
• setVariant
• stopTransfer

MSDAOSP.OLEDBSimpleProviderListener Interface Methods

OLEDBSimpleProviderListener Interface and Methods are defined in MSDAOSP namespace as imported by reference to C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\simpdata.tlb

• aboutToChangeCell
• aboutToDeleteRows
• aboutToInsertRows
• cellChanged
• deletedRows
• insertedRows
• rowsAvailable
• transferComplete

Other OLEDB Links

• OLE DB Simple Provider (OSP) Toolkit
• OLE DB Programmer's Guide Appendix G: OLE DB Methods to Interfaces Table
• OSP Toolkit Files and Redistribution: File Listing
• OSP Language Reference
• OSP: Limitations
• OSP: Building a Simple Provider
• OSP: Toolkit Components
• OSP: Notifications
• OSP: Using the RegisterProvider.reg File
• OSP: Full Registration
• OSP: msDataSourceObject
• Visual Basic: Code Sample Information

Other Links

• Microsoft OLE DB Simple Provider | Microsoft Docs
• Provider=MSDAOSP; in memory array -xml - Google Search
• Implementing an ADO Server
• OLE DB Providers
• DSO(data source object) Interop problem in IE | PC Review
• getRWStatus "getVariant" - Google Search
• Serious ADO: Universal Data Access with Visual Basic - Rob MacDonald - Google Books