The DistributionPublication object exposes the properties of a Distributor's image of a snapshot, transactional, or merge replication publication.
For snapshot and transactional replication, a replication Distributor maintains an image of articles defining a publication. The Distributor replicates the articles to Subscribers, enabling one type of replication load balancing.
Use DistributionPublication object methods to monitor merge replication.
There is no requirement that an instance of Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 create Distributor-maintained data images. Snapshot and transactional replication publications created on the Distributor enable one type of third-party, or heterogeneous, replication.
With the DistributionPublication object, you can:
For more information about using SQL-DMO in heterogeneous replication, see Programming Replication from Heterogeneous Data Sources.
Note DistributionPublication object properties are read/write only when using the object to create a distribution publication. When a DistributionPublication object references a Distributor's image of an existing publication, all properties are read-only.
The DistributionPublication object is compatible with instances of SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server version 7.0. However, the DistributionPublication2 object extends the functionality of the DistributionPublication object for use with features that are new in SQL Server 2000.