The ActiveX Data Source control reads from the DDFs and caches the contents when appropriate. This means that at any given time, there may be two versions of the dictionary: the contents of the DDFs themselves and the contents of the ActiveX access method control’s memory image of those files. In version 3 of the ActiveX controls, the RefreshLocations property determined whether the control would read DDF information from the DDFs themselves or from a persisted memory image (thus saving time on starting the application).

This function has been preserved, but the meaning of RefreshLocations has been expanded to signify whether an operation should be performed using the DDFs themselves or the ActiveX control’s memory image of the dictionary information.

In other words, if an operation could refer to either the control’s memory image or the DDFs, setting RefreshLocations to False causes the control to limit that operation to working with only the control’s memory image. If RefreshLocations is True, the operation will affect both the memory image and the files themselves. As a result, RefreshLocations is an overriding property that affects most of the DDF handling methods and properties of the ActiveX control.