Background: In our organization, there is a html tool which runs in the Browser(IE11). The tool has a couple of stages and data from each stage is stored in a SharePoint list. In the final stage, all this data needs to be reconciled from a data set which comes from banks in a spreadsheet. Here the tool uses ADODB connection to connect to the Excel file, read the data from it and match with the data on SharePoint.
Problem: Recently after a windows 10 upgrade, the tool stopped exactly on the connection line throwing an error - "Provider cannot be found. It may not be installed correctly". I also got the Microsoft access Database engine re-installed from IT but to no good(this was after reading about answers to my query online)
I am the developer of this tool and it works just fine on my laptop. Below are the specifications of the connection string and other details of software installed
Windows Version: 1511(OS Build 10586. 1176) Windows 10 64 bit
IE: 11
IE version: 11.1176.10586.0
IE Update Version: KB4040685
Office: 2016
Connecting to Excel(version) - 2007-2010 (xls, xlsx format)
Connection Object: ADODB.Connection (via ActiveXObject in JavaScript )
Connection String Parameters •Provider - Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12 •Extended Properties - Excel 8.0 (Also tried Excel 12.0 xml) •HDR - Yes •IMEX = 1
OLEDB Drivers installed on the machine: Microsoft ACE 12.0, 16.0 and Jet 4.0
This is the exact same configuration on my laptop and the tool is easily able to connect to Excel or Access also for that purpose.
I have also tried the below, nothing was a success 1.Used Jet.4.0 in the connection string - Here I got error "External table is not in the expected format" & "Unexpected error from database" 2.Tried using ODBC drivers with error - "Data source name not found and no drivers installed" 3.Opened the tool in 32 bit environment 4.Made a HTA app and ran that in 32 bit mode
I also found that in my laptop in the Microsoft Shared folder within program files, there exist Office 14 & 15 folders, but they don't exist in the newer laptops and the same in 32 bit folder of Program files(x86). Would it be possible that having those folders is making the difference?
Please help.
I have learned that installing Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 (or 2007) on end-user machines fixes the issue, as adodb.dll file is required to be registered on computers using that provider.