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Instead of typing in all of the parameter details yourself, you can get ADO to do it for you, simply by calling the Refresh method. For example, let's say we've set up usp_AddEmployee with the same parameters as before. The page we use to run it is the same as before up to here:

Then we'd call the Refresh method.

This tells ADO to ask the data store to provide the details of each parameter, and it creates the Parameters collection for you. You can then fill in the values:

Notice that we haven't had to create any parameters, including the one for the return value.

This may look like a really good shortcut, but you should be aware that it imposes a performance penalty, since ADO must query the provider for the details of the parameters for the stored procedure. Despite this it's exceedingly useful, especially if you are having trouble getting the values for your parameters correct.

In fact, you can build a little utility to be used as a development tool, which does a refresh and then constructs the Append statements, ready for you to paste into your code. It might look something like this - an ASP page called GenerateParameters.asp:

The code for this is pretty simple. The first thing to do is include the connection string, plus another file for the ADOX constants:

Then we create a form, specifying that its target will be the ASP page called PrintParameters.asp:

We then use ADOX to get a list of stored procedures from the SQL Server, and we construct a list box containing the stored procedure names:

It's a simple form, with a TEXTAREA for the connection string, and a SELECT for the stored procedures. What you won't have seen before is the ADOX bits. ADOX is the ADO Extensions for Data Definition and Security, and gives you access to the catalog (or metadata) of a data store.