Question : How will adding a VBA reference to ADO 2.8 affect my database?

I am using Access 2003 with some VBA code. The VBA code accesses the data from an ADODB.Connection call. To enable this in my testing environment I need to go to Tools -> References and select one of the MS ADO references to get that line of code to work.

Does doing this affect only that one Form object or does the reference become active for the entire database.

Really my concern is this. The database is heavily used in a Classic ASP/IIS environment. I do not want this reference to override what the ASP processor is using to process the SQL code. Also, I don't want to open up some sort of additional vulnerability.

I'm a newbie to VBA and am unclear of the ramifications of adding the reference are.

Answer : How will adding a VBA reference to ADO 2.8 affect my database?

As mx as pretty much said, the reference will affect ONLY your application ... you can have several apps running side by side, all accessing the same data store, and all using different methods/versions ... for example, one can connect with 2.8, while another connects with 2.5 while still another connects with DAO. None of this will affect the data store (i.e. database) in any way.

ASP code is processed and generated on the server ... in other words, when ASP code calls for a library (like ADO) it's calling for that library on the SERVER and not the workstation - so the server would use whatever ADO reference that ASP requires. Your desktop wouldn't come into play ... the only thing your browser does is receive the results (which the server also processed and provided to your browser).

In short, you can set whatever reference you want on the desktop and have no affect whatsoever on ASP running on a server.