Excel not getting data from SQL Server - sql

We have dedicated cloud server hosting SQL Server 2014 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 which is working without issues.
I have got a query that gets data out of the FilteredOpportunities view that I can run in SQL Server Management Studio as a windows user but not a SQL User (displays only column names), when I try to run it in SQL Server Management Studio on my laptop using the sql user (can't use windows authentication as it is not on the same domain), it only returns the column names and nothing else.
The account has every permission that you could possibly think of granted to it to try and get the data out but it wont budge.

You cannot query CRM's filtered views with a SQL-user. For that you will need to use a windows user.
If you want to query directly with a SQL-user, you can use the underlying dbo.OpportunityBase-table. This will not apply the CRM security model.
Instead, you might want to consider using one of the CRM webservices for supported access to data with the security model enforced. If your purpose is to get data into Excel, it is directly supported to use the web services. See Export to an Excel dynamic worksheet.

I have found the answer. A bit clunky bit it works. I can conenct to the database with a SQL user (because i cant use windows authentication as I am on a different domain) then I can add code to the top of my exsisting code to impersonate a user with the rights to read the data. For those wondering the code is:
DECLARE #uid uniqueidentifier
SET #uid = convert(uniqueidentifier, '((UID of the user you want to impersonate))')
SET CONTEXT_INFO #uid

Related

Appropriate action installing another SQL application at work

hope everyone are okay...
I need to install any Sofware for the use of SQL. I'm just a begginer and started an online course. We have a account at work called Administrator and the only account has acces to SQL Managment studio 2014. Inside there are multiple databases linked to the external objects for stock contol purposes to collect data and view data, database was created by another company not us. Id like to download an SQL Software to run simple queries. But would need to know if it would affect any other databases or servers inside our network?.. just need to set it up for my local use.
Thanks

Moving Access 2016 application's data from Access to SQL Server 2016

I have a seemingly straight forward project, which unexpectedly faces many obstacles.
I need to move backend data of the existing Access 2016 application from Access to SQL Server 2016.
The challenges I face are:
The simplest and recommended way to migrate Access to SQL Server is using Microsoft SQL Server Assistant (SSMA) for Access. The problem is that my Access is 32-bit Click-to-Run edition. Because the target is SQL Server 2016, I should use SSMA for Access v.7.6.0, which is available only in 64-bit. To use it, I need to install 64-bit Access Runtime, which could not be installed, because per the error message “Windows Installer and Click-to-Run editions of Office programs don't get along”. The earlier version of SSMA for Access 6.0 comes in 32-bit and connects to Access fine, but could not connect to SQL Server 2016, as 2014 is the latest version it supports. Ignoring the warning and forcing the connection to SQL Server 2016 causes error collecting data… Thus, I could not use SSMA.
I was able to migrate the data from Access to SQL Server using SSIS. Now, my challenge is to repoint existing Access tables to their SQL Server copies. I was trying link, but it appears that existing Access tables could be linked only to the file system data source. If I try to make link from the SQL Server side, I could only create new linked tables, which do not do me much good as I am trying to avoid massive changes in the application. Could it be that I am missing something simple here?..
Some Access tables have columns of attachment data type. SSIS doesn’t handle attachment data type correctly. To the best of my knowledge, neither does SSMA. So, when I get to link Access tables to SQL Server, I would probably need to write some code to move attachments from the backup Access database to SQL Server. Is there some other an easier solution?
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
That is correct. It is a mess. You can use another (virtual) machine with a clean 64-bit Access install.
Delete the current tables in the frontend and link the SQL Server tables. They may be given a "dbo_" prefix which you can remove by renaming the tables.
This is a rewrite. Attachment fields are not supported in SQL Server. Neither are other fancy features like lookup fields and multivalue fields.

How to get all username status in a VB.Net application

I am a bit new to this VB.NET application stuff. I currently try to develop a application using Microsoft Visual Basic. Net with Remote SQL Server 2005.
In my application include user login using Username and Password. The application will use from many branches. Every branch have their own Username and Password. I create User Master table in SQL Server Database with SLN, User_name, Password, Branch, Note fields.
Now I want to design a VB.Net Form in my application where I can get all Username and Branch login status in a DataGridView like....
Header - *Branch Username Status*
Value - Kolkata U00001 Logged
How can I get this? If any senior vb.net developer or expert solve the same i will be very thanks full to him. Thanking you.
Here is some SQL to extract the current users:
select distinct DB_NAME(dbid),loginame, dbid
FROM sys.sysprocesses
where [dbid] not in(0,1,4) -- exclude list
Note there are two levels of security in SQL Server - SQL Security and "Integrated" security. The latter uses the windows login, SQL Security is managed by you within SQL Server. It looks like you intend to add an SQL user/login named for the branch with a defined password that everyone in the branch will use. Not a great idea IMO. You can use integrated security and add each windows user to SQL server and then add the SQL users to security groups to control access to the SQL objects. This would require each user to authenticate with your windows servers first locally before they can connect to the remote server.
I'd highly recommend you upgrade to at least SQL Server 2008 R2.

SQL Azure data not writing?

I'm new to Azure, and exploring it for my company's internal company site. We've been using a local MS SQL 2008 Express database, which I have setup to sync with Azure for testing. Everything sync perfectly, all the data is there, but for some reason one data point will not come across in my ASP code.
The data point is a pdf filename. I'm not storing the files in the database, just the filename (for now). Everything worked fine on the local SQL server, but since the switch no luck. The odd part is that the if statements still work for the data, it just won't put the filename in a my response.write() method, therefore, it isn't putting the filename in my link for the user to download.
Anyone have ideas?
According to Security Guidelines and Limitations (SQL Azure Database):
"SQL Azure Database supports only SQL Server Authentication. Windows Authentication (integrated security) is not supported. Users must provide credentials (login and password) every time they connect to SQL Azure Database."
So I recommend you change your connection string to this format:
"Server=avl6qnn22s.database.windows.net;Database=CRMDB;
User ID=WebSvrAdmin#avl6qnn22s;Password=password;Trusted_Connection=False;"
Also I advise you not to use NVARCHAR(MAX) to store a filename. This will lead to degraded performance. Replace for
nvarchar(4000)

Building an auditing system; MS Access frontend on SQL Server backend

So basically I'm building an app for my company and it NEEDS to be built using MS Access and it needs to be built on SQL Server.
I've drawn up most of the plans but am having a hard time figuring out a way to handle the auditing system.
Since it is being used internally only and you won't even be able to touch the db from outside the building we are not using a login system as the program will only be used once a user has already logged in to our internal network via Active Directory. Knowing this, we're using a system to detect automatically the name of the Active Directory user and with their permissions in one of the DB tables, deciding what they can or cannot do.
So the actual audit table will have 3 columns (this design may change but for this question it doesn't matter); who (Active Directory User), when (time of addition/deletion/edit), what (what was changed)
My question is how should I be handling this. Ideally I know I should be using a trigger so that it is impossible for the database to be updated without an audit being logged, however I don't know how I could grab the Active Directory User that way. An alternate would be to code it directly into the Access source so that whenever something changes I run an INSERT statement. Obviously that is flawed because if something happens to Access or the database is touched by something else then it will not log the audit.
Any advice, examples or articles that may help me would be greatly appreciated!
Does this work for you?
select user_name(),suser_sname()
Doh! I forgot to escape my code.
Ok, it's working here. I'm seeing my windows credentials when I update my tables. So, I bet we missed a step. Let me put together a 1,2,3 sequence of what I did and maybe we can track down where this is breaking for you.
Create a new MSAccess database (empty)
Click on the tables section
Select external data
Pick ODBC database
Pick Link to the datasource by creating a linked table
Select Machine datasource
Pick New...
System Datasource
Pick SQL Server from the list and click Next, Finish.
Give the new datasource a name and description, and select (local) for the server. Click Next.
Pick "With Windows NT authentication using the network login ID". Click Next.
Check Change the default database to, and pick the DB. Click Next. Click Finish.
Test the datasource.
Pick the table that the Trigger is associated with and click OK.
Open the table in Access and modify one of the entries (the trigger doesn't fire on Insert, just Update)
Select * from your audit table
If you specify SSPI in your connection string to Sql, I think your Windows credentials are provided.
I tried playing with Access a bit to see if I could find a way for you. I think you can specify a new datasource to your SQL table, and select Windows NT Authentication as your connection type.
Sure :)
There should be a section in Access called "External Data" (I'm running a new version of Access, so the menu choice might be different).
Form this there should be an option to specify an ODBC connection.
I get an option to Link to the datasource by creating a linked table.
I then created a Machine datasource. I selected SqlServer from the drop down list. Then when I click Next, I'm prompted for how I want to authenticate.
CREATE TRIGGER testtrigger1
ON testdatatable
AFTER update
AS
BEGIN
INSERT INTO testtable (datecol,usercol1,usercol2) VALUES (getdate(),user_name(),suser_sname());
END
GO
We also have a database system that is used exclusively within the organisation and use Window NT logins. This function returns the current users login name:
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.UserName() RETURNS varchar(50)
AS
BEGIN
RETURN (SELECT nt_username FROM master.dbo.sysprocesses WHERE spid = ##SPID)
END
You can use this function in your triggers.
It should be
select user name(),suser sname()
replace spaces with underscores
you need to connect with integrated security aka trusted connection see (http://www.connectionstrings.com/?carrier=sqlserver)
How many users of the app will there be? Is there possibility of using windows integrated authentication for SQL authentication?
Updated: If you can give each user a SQL login (windows integrated) then you can pickup the logged on user using the SYSTEM_USER function.
My solution would be not to let Access modify the data with linked tables.
I would only create the UI in Access and create an ADO connection to the server using windows authenticated in the connection string. Compile you Access application as dbe to protect the VB code.
I would not issue SQL statement, but I would call stored procedures to perform the changes in the database, and create the audit log entry in an atomic transaction.
The UI (Access) does not need to know the inner works on the server. All it needs to do is request and update/insert/delete using the stored procedures you would create for this purpose. The server should handle the work.
Retrieve a record set with ADO using a view with the hint NOLOCK implemented in the server and cache this data in Access for local display. Or retrieve a single record and lock only that row for editing.
Using linked tables your users will be locking each other.
With ADO connections you will not have the trouble to set ODBCs on every single client.
Create a table to set the server status. You application will check it before any action. you can use it to close the server to the application in case that you need to perform changes or maintenance.
Access is a great tool. But it should only handle its local data and not be allowed to mess with the precious server.