In some cases, it is necessary for two clients to connect simultanously to a single Microsoft Jet OLE Database via ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). Normally, any changes introduced by a client are not immediately propagated to the other because of the buffering; this leaves a problem, if the programmer wishes the changes to be synchronized.

Microsoft describes how the issue can be resolved by using a library known as Jet And Replication Objects (JRO). Delphi's convenient set of wrappers for ADO does not include JRO; it can be imported, but using Microsoft's solution requires a simple trick, as described below:

Handling the JRE library

First, you will have to import the JRO type library. In the menu, select Project->Import Type Library, and in the list, pick up "Microsoft Jet and Replication Objects (version) Library". Push "Create Unit". In the source, usually called JRO_TLB.pas, amend the following line:

uses Windows, ActiveX, ADODB_TLB, Classes, Graphics, OleServer, StdVCL, Variants;

To:

uses Windows, ActiveX, ADODB_TLB, ADODB, Classes, Graphics, OleServer, StdVCL, Variants;

This makes Delphi identify the _Connection type in the new unit as the _Connection described in the Borland libraries (i.e. ADODB_TLB._Connection and ADODB._Connection, respectively). Build the unit and register the component.

Writing

Before each group of writes to the database, begin a transaction:

var
	Connection : TADOConnection;

{...}
procedure WriteToDatabase;
begin
	{...}
	Connection.BeginTrans;
	{ Write to the database } 
	Connection.CommitTrans;
	{...}
end;

Reading

For reading you'll need to instanciate a JetEngine object:

uses
	{...}
	ADODB,
	JRO_TLB.	{ <-- Add the unit! }

var
	JE: JetEngine;
	Connection: TADOConnection;

begin
	JE = JetEngine.Create;
	{ ... } 
end;

procedure ReadFromDatabase;
begin
	JE.RefreshCache(Connection.ConnectionObject);
	{ ... } 
end;

As you can see, a single call will suffice. As covered elsewhere, you can also use the JetEngine object for compacting the database. To do just that, it is not even necessary to alter JRO_TLB.pas.