I am a programmer who has a desktop program developed on Vb.net. This program works under Windows with a local Access database. Now what I need is to add functions to query and update the database but from a mobile device (Android and IOS). I understand that the most correct way is to develop a program in Xamarin, but I do not know very well how to access the customer's data. I have little experience with mobile devices and I do not know how to approach the project. I know this is a very generic question, but perhaps someone with more experience in this field could give me a vision on how to approach the project.
The final result will be to access local data from a mobile app
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I am not very familiar with Access database till now i was only programming to SQL Server but now it's time to do so. I am building WinForms application which will be using Access database and i have some question related to that point if you don't mind. My application will be used by multiple users and there will be one access databsae. My questions as below:
Is there any problem with accessing access database in same time by many users or only one user can be connected?
If i develop my program to use access 2016 and some of my users will have diffrent windows version and also diffrent access version
will it works?
Should i know something else? :)
If your client want to have a file based database and this is a project constraint , MS Access is the best choice. If you want a more detailed advice, please let me know how many users will perform Read/Write or Read transactions, the size of the database and if the application will run in client-server mode in a LAN/WAN, Cloud or Remote Desktop environment.
Back to your questions:
Depending on these conditions you may range from 10 to 20/25 users. Remember that you can always try with MS Access and later upgrade to a MS SQL database in a couple of hours.
If your front-end application can link to a 2016 Access database, it will do that without installing MS Access to the clients that will run your App, i.e. the vb.net compiled App will install all needed drivers. If you develop your App within MS Access 2016 (Access Form and reports, some VBA) you can run it with the free runtime version of MS Access, but this only when no older version of Access is installed on the running workstation.
Please check with your client the real reasons for a file-based database...
To answer the questions as asked:
You might run into an issue with this, as access was really designed as a personal use database. Having anything more than a small handful of users hitting against it at once will in fact cause problems, as it's not really well designed for that purpose...
This should in theory be fine, as the application itself is interfacing with the database, not the end user...
It seems like you're taking a step backwards using access for this, and SQL might very well be better suited for this purpose. This isn't me trying to just bash access either, this comes from personal experience. Going with this sort of design is likely to cause you more headaches than good.
I have to develop and enterprise app that should work in both windows phone 7 and 8(app targeting to older and latest OS). This is an app porting from android to windows phone.
The proposed app has lots of database interactions like order processing and payments(bulk CRUD operation should be handled) in both offline and online mode.
Also, at the time of login , the app should check for the DB change in the server and need to make the corresponding changes in the local phone app database accordingly either by downloading the SqlLite file or any otherway from the server.
I heard that, Windows phone supports following approaches to deal with database interactions;
LINQ to SQL Data Context(WP7)
SQLLite(WP8)
SQL CE(WP7.5)
SterlingDB
And i would like to design the database/table using an IDE like SQLLite manager or sql server ,for easy of db design.
My Question is: which DB approach is good for my app to achieve the following requirements?
App target the OS WP7 and WP8.
DB design support(IDE to add/modify the DB or tables)
offline data Sync
LINQ Support.
DB changes in server need to be get updated in the local app(by downloading .sdf/.sql kinda file).
I've successfully used the SQLite C# Community port on both WP7 and WP8. I think it is a little out of date now - and doesn't seem to me actively maintained - but it has worked well for me. See http://code.google.com/p/csharp-sqlite/ for more info.
You can also use the native SQLite library on WP8 - and this is the officially recommended WP8 solution and is maintained - but I've found this requires more project level setup.
For LINQ support, I personally use SQLite-net - https://github.com/praeclarum/sqlite-net/ - but other solutions are available - e.g. Vici CoolStorage - http://viciproject.com/
For offline data sync and for sdf updates, I've not seen any automated solutions - I believe you may have to code this yourself.
I am trying to make life a little easier for several coworkers and of course ME!. We need to update a database that controls our invoicing function. This database is housed in SQL Server 2008 R2. I need to provide users with a way (based on their function) to enter information affecting the invoice. For example, John has customer interaction and sends them a pdf of a document on Monday. We need to capture that John sent Customer A a pdf on Monday and it was associated with Project 123. Simultaneously, Ann is color correcting a piece for Customer A but on Project 126. I have over 50 people working in various areas who may or may not need to enter information. My hope is to make the application generic enough that the user simply selects from drop downs tied back to the original database.
The majority of the users (80%) use Mac OS. I have donwloaded XCode and I was hoping to use this to create the application that will update the backend database.
I am new to creating this type of application. I have done this with VB and VBA but do not have access to those tools here. So if there is another tact that I should take, I am more than willing to rethink my approach.
Key points are that I need to draw information from and update a SQL 2008 database. Second, I cannot use something like Excel as a front end, since I will have multiple users accessing information simultaneously.
You're unlikely to find many examples of connecting a Mac app directly to SQL Server, because that's a rare combination. Macs, unlike Windows PCs, aren't often used in an enterprise setting, so the software ecosystem to support enterprise development is much weaker.
If you're feeling brave, there are vendors out there that sell ODBC drivers for Mac OS X, some of which connect to SQL Server. So your problem becomes finding Mac ODBC examples, which is IMHO an easier problem. Google "mac os x odbc drivers". I have not tried any of them, so I can't speak to their quality.
This is going to be a lot of work, especially since you're new to the platform. You might want to consider exposing the database as an OData source (the name of the server-side technology is "WCF Data Services"). There are OData client-side librarires for the Mac. Google "mac os x odata". This approach completely bypasses the business of ODBC drivers, at the cost of some server-side development.
Im really confused as to whether what Im trying to achieve is possible and if there are better alternatives to it, so here it is:
Ive created web application for a business, it allows customers to view details etc, and most importantly make reservations.
These reservations are stored into a mysql database which all is provided by my web hosting service.
everything up to here is fine and without problems
The next thing im trying to achieve introduces complications:
So I am trying make a application which will run on only one machine, and its supposed to connect to that database and retrieve all those reservations.This is where Im trying to implement a Visual basic application.
The easiest way would off been to email the business reservation every time its made, however this complicates things for the end user.It would be much easier to have an application that retrieves the data, simply on their desktop or a local drive as oppose to email.
I did research into vb.net and Net Connectors, but then came across the problem of my host not allowing remote connections to the database.
And this where Im stuck at now, I have no idea how to achieve the task
Thanks in advance for any guides or help
If your web host will not allow a remote connection to the database then you wont be able make a WinForms application to sit on the customers desktop - as you've worked out.
The simpliest solution is have a restricted Admin.aspx WebPage in the
website. This webpage would show all the reservations, allow Searching by From
and To Dates and possibly even allow for approval or rejecting bookings. This is a very common approach - I'd also recommend you have a special CSS for mobile phone webbrowsers so that your customers can view the bookings from their phone.
I have here a simple question for those expertise out there (but please explain well, I'm very new). I made a visual basic 2008 application that allows you to login from a database. I followed this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0dcPiLYrck
But the problem is that I have to keep debugging my app if I make a new user. Is their a way where I can upload my information through the internet and the application can pick it up from there? Also in my bin/release folder I get 2 sql files, how would I get rid of these but still be able to connect?
Thanks,
Kevin
I'm not sure if you're talking about a desktop application or a web application here. But to answer the question about making a new user, if you go by the video (which is desktop development) you will need to make a new form that will insert a username and password into the database. You don't always need to have the application running in debug mode. You can find the file folder that this application was created in and find the .exe that was created and execute the application from that.
I'm not sure what you'r talking about with the SQL files. If they have the extension of .mdb and mdf, then yes you will need those files because that is your physical database.
For more information about desktop development you can check out Microsoft's Beginer Devloper Learning Center. At that website you should be able to find all kinds of tutorials, walk throughs and examples of how to create desktop applications much like you saw in the youtube video.
Good luck and hope this helps.
I asked myself the same thing. Unfortunately, i don't believe that is easy to make a thing like this, especially for a newbie like me XD But maybe you can ask directly to the autor of the video, he of course know very well the databases of Visualbasic. Bye!