I'm developing a project for gathering customer feedback using a Samsung Q1 Ultra, a cheap touchscreen PC. The project consists of two parts: a PC based application that builds the survey and stores the info on an SQL Server, and a survey viewer on the Samsung device which downloads survey data from the SQL Server and stores it on a SQL Server Compact 3.5 database.
My question is, how best can I transfer survey data from the SQL Server to the handheld device's database? Writing a tonne of code to copy data from one database to another seems overcomplicated - is there a handy function or somesuch that I can use to copy data from identical tables on these two separate databases?
Any help, suggestions greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Since you are copying from one device to another, you're going to need to do some sort of transfer system (replication, export/import, etc.) obviously.
My initial suggestion would be to have the handheld devices just access the main database on the server remotely... This means that each of the individual handheld devices (should you add more than one) would be working from the same data. Other than that approach, I would suggest something like this (after adding a linked server entry):
select * into targetTable from [sourceserver].[sourcedatabase].[dbo].[sourceTable]
A quick search on Google actually returned a question similar to yours here on the site.
SQL Server Replication might work for this. That MSDN section has tutorials, how-tos and walkthroughs. It isn't all that difficult to understand, but there is some setup. However, once you're done, you can basically put it on automatic pilot.
This article is a pretty good overview.
Related
I was wondering how to append data from a SQL Server database to another on a second computer. I've already used the MERGE method by setting the source and target table from the same SQL Server but this time the case is different. I'm trying to retrieve records from 2 standalone POS machines in a grocery stores to the server.
Is there any easy way to achieve this? Is a SQL Server stored procedure using the computer's name or ip address the way to go?
we have solved this problem on many projects and it depends on the scenario of your synchronization, whether it is a manual or automated etc.
In one project, we finally programmed our own synchronization service in .NET. But today we prefer products that offer this functionality out-of-the-box. I personally have experience with DevArt Data Compare, which works great, can be automated and can synchronize data from multiple sources into one (https://www.devart.com/dbforge/sql/datacompare/). In our case, we used it to synchronize from a production server to several test servers via Data Compare and it is orchestrated from one asset.
In addition to Data Compare we also used SymmetricDS (https://github.com/JumpMind/symmetric-ds) which is now unmaintained and is offered in a commercial version (https://www.jumpmind.com/products/symmetricds/overview). It is definitely a good tool but for us the Data Compare from DevArt was better in terms of price and it is able to solve most synchronization scenarios for a good price.
Regards.
I have been hurting a wall for quite a while now, I am making an application linked to a software that we are using, which will allow the user to either access data from the software with my application and update data with my application on the software.
So here is the whole idea:
So my app will be linked to the software's database (Software Patient) with the help of foreign key (patientId on "App Patient").
And I need to be able to search for email, password, firstName, lastName, secretStuff directly from my app and be able to update data as well on both databases.
The biggest issue here is that I can't make a third table that merge all the data into one because the data from the software's database (Software Patient) will be updated quite a lot directly from the software by others people.
The current stack is composed of :
My application: Node.js with Sequelize, GraphQL & PostgreSQL
Software that we use: SQL Server Express
Thank you in advance!
The app you are developing must get data from your commercial Software Patient (we'll call it SP) system. That presents several questions. You really really need clear answers to these questions to finish designing the data flow in your app. Some of the questions:
How will your app get data from SP? Will you issue SQL queries to SP's database? Does SP publish an Application Programmer Interface (API) for this purpose? Or a data export function you'll use in you app's workflow?
Must your app's view of SP data be up-to-the-minute? Will an hourly update be enough? Daily?
Will your app change SP data, insert new data, or delete data in the SP system? If so see the first question.
Must you reverse-engineer SP, that is, guess how its data is structured, to make your app work? Or can you get specs / documentation from SP's developers?
If you update a reverse-engineered database, dude, be careful!
If your app will use SQL to get data from SP, it will send that SQL to SP's SQL Server Express database. nodejs has tooling for that, but both the tooling and the SQL dialect used in postgreSQL are different. Maybe it would be wise to use SQL Server throughout: doing so reduces the cognitive load on people who will maintain and enhance your app in the future. Neither they nor you will have to keep straight the differences between the two DBMSs.
If you'll use an API, great! That's a clean interface between two systems. (It will probably have some irritating and confusing bugs, so allow some time for that. I've had to send pull requests to several API maintainers.)
If you figure out the answers to these sorts of questions, you'll make a good decision about your question of the third table. It's impossible to address your specific third-table question without some of these questions.
And. Please. Don't forget infosec. You have a duty to keep personal data of the patients you serve away from cybercreeps.
This question is quite general, however, i can not find a good answer for it.
What are the possibilities for using an external database with MS Access?
I see that MySQL can be used, but I would have to setup a ODBC connection and install drivers on every machine. The issue is that I have a software developed in MS Access that uses a lot of data, and it gets very slow at processing the data when i include a lot of data.
The software analyzes data from wind turbines, so it is used by different customers and it may contain a lot of different turbines with 50,000+ rows in each data set.
I would like these turbine data to be stored in a separate file that is pointed to by MS Access, so I include the software + whatever turbine data wanted.
As it is now, i have a lot of Access database files where the data is included in the software. It becomes impossible to keep track of - Especially when I do an edit to the source code of the software, which is do a lot these days.
Another issue is that the users may only have Access Runtime.
What are my options here? Is the best method to use the Access Link function?
Best regards, Emil.
Edit:
SQL's - Can they be combined? :
SELECT q_DataLimited.YAW001, q_DataLimited.YAW002
FROM q_DataLimited
WHERE (((q_DataLimited.YAW002)>Degree_dsp() And (q_DataLimited.YAW002)<Degree_dsp_high()));
And
SELECT Count(q_WindRose_PCU.YAW001) AS CountOfYAW0011
FROM q_WindRose_PCU;
Edit 2:
Public Degree As Long
Public Function Degree_dsp() As Long
Degree_dsp = Degree * 20
End Function
I have the degree as a counter outside the function in a form being:
For Degree = 0 To 17
DoCmd.OpenQuery "q_WindRose_PCU"
DoCmd.Close
Next Degree
Edit 3:
How to combine a query and the append of it to a table?
SELECT q_PowerBinned.Bin, Avg(q_PowerBinned.POW001) AS AvgOfPOW001, StDev(q_PowerBinned.POW001) AS StDevOfPOW001, Avg(q_PowerBinned.WSP001) AS AvgOfWSP001, StDev(q_PowerBinned.WSP001) AS StDevOfWSP001, Avg(q_PowerBinned.POW002) AS AvgOfPOW002, StDev(q_PowerBinned.POW002) AS StDevOfPOW002, Avg(q_PowerBinned.WSP002) AS AvgOfWSP002, StDev(q_PowerBinned.WSP002) AS StDevOfWSP002, Count(q_PowerBinned.Bin) AS CountOfBin
FROM q_PowerBinned
GROUP BY q_PowerBinned.Bin;
And then the append of the above to a table:
INSERT INTO t_Average_Stored ( Bin, PowAvg001, WindAvg001, PowAvg002, WindAvg002, n_samples, PowDev001, WindDev001, PowDev002, WindDev002 )
SELECT q_Average_Temp.Bin, q_Average_Temp.AvgOfPOW001, q_Average_Temp.AvgOfWSP001, q_Average_Temp.AvgOfPOW002, q_Average_Temp.AvgOfWSP002, q_Average_Temp.CountOfBin, q_Average_Temp.StDevOfPOW001, q_Average_Temp.StDevOfWSP001, q_Average_Temp.StDevOfPOW002, q_Average_Temp.StDevOfWSP002
FROM q_Average_Temp;
I see already a few suggestions in the comments, but I am going to answer the general question you posted. In short, the possibilities are endless.
MS Access, and Excel for that matter, have excellent external data tools that allow you to connect to almost any external data source and leverage on regular SQL-based databases or even use OLAP cubes to do your analysis. Access itself should be powerful enough to handle the data sets you mention. Even Access 2010 should be able to handle millions of records with relative ease.
MS Access does have a significant limitation, which is the 2GB file size. Once your database reaches 2GB, everything goes out the window and you are very likely to get data corruption. This is a well known issue, but I don't think you are anywhere near these limits.
Before considering an upgrade, though, there are a few things to suggest:
Analyze the structure of your data and your database. Perhaps your tables are too big (lots of columns) and unnecessarily redundant. It may make sense to process the raw data you receive to split it into different tables that reduce the redundancy and improve performance.
Look into indexing some key fields in your tables. This is heavily dependent on the type of analysis you do and what queries are most common. Read up on indexes and how to use them and explore some options with actual datasets. You may be surprised how queries that used to take minutes to run become almost instantaneous when the right indexes are created and maintained.
Analyze your queries for performance. If I remember correctly, MS Access 2010 had a performance analyzer, which could improve your queries to make them run more efficiently.
If you have already looked into the items above and you decide you really need to take a step up, one fairly easy path (and inexpensive) is to install SQL Server Express, which you can download for free from Microsoft. Access was made to talk to SQL Server and the performance is many times better. You can run SQL Server Express in your personal pc and use it as a back-end for Access, or you could actually install it in a networked pc and use it as a server (behind a firewall, of course, NEVER connected to the Internet). In this setup you can access your data from several PCs.
One key thing to keep in mind once you start using Access as a front end, is that you want to push the processing to the back end, not keep it in Access. The best way to do this is to create what Access calls pass-through queries. These queries are written in the backend's native SQL language and are sent to the back end server for processing. Only the processed data comes back. If you don't do this, for example by creating the queries in the visual editor in Access instead, the raw data will be sent to Access and then Access will try to create your results. This, as you can imagine, can actually be a lot slower than your initial situation, so don't do it.
If you are not a SQL expert and need a visual editor, there is a tool that you can download from Microsoft: SQL-Server Management Studio Express. The query editor is not that different from Access and will allow you to create queries in a visual manner, but in Transact-SQL (the language of SQL Server). You can also manage your SQL Server Express with this tool and maintain your data in this manner (import, export, etc). You can create the SQL statements you need in this editor and then copy and paste into the pass-through queries in Access. The data will be available for you in the program you are familiar with, but with the power of a much bigger database engine behind the scenes.
Since I do not want to sound like a Microsoft shill, I definitely want to mention other options for external data that could be equally or even more powerful than SQL Server Express. The only reason I mentioned these is because you are already familiar with Microsoft products and the learning curve is a bit less steep. Also, most things should work together out of the box.
The first option that comes to mind is SQLite, which is a high performing database that is actually file-based. It is very small, yet very powerful and fast, and it is ideal for a locally based application like what you mention. There are also lots of graphical interfaces for SQLite and you can connect to it via ODBC from Access. Again, you want to run everything using pass-through queries and let SQLite pick up the load. SQLite is Open Source and it is free.
If you are keen on having "a real database server", then MySQL is probably the next step up. Also Open Source and free, it is very popular, which means lots of places to get support and different graphical interfaces to choose from.
Any search for Open Source Database will give you even more options to try and choose from.
One key thing to keep in mind: if you install any database server in your PC, it will become a server, and will start advertising its services in your local network or on the internet if you bring it to a local Starbucks. Be careful with that, learn how to start/stop the services in your PC, and make sure you turn them off when you are not behind a firewall. There are many exploits for different database servers and you will get quickly detected once your PC starts advertising its newly acquired abilities.
Just to close, there is no difference in the performance of Access and the runtime. Just the ability to edit the queries and so on. Whatever front end you create in Access, your users will be able to utilize in the same manner.
Excuse me if the question is simple. We have multiple medical clinics running each running their own SQL database EHR.
Is there anyway I can interface each local SQL database with a cloud system?
I essentially want to use the current patient data that one is consulting with at that moment to generate a pathology request that links to a cloud ?google app engine database.
As a medical student / software developer this project of yours interests me greatly!
If you don't mind me asking, where are you based? I'm from the UK and unfortunately there's just no way a system like this would get off the ground as most data is locked in proprietary databases.
What you're talking about is fairly complex anyway, whatever country you're in I assume there would have to be a lot of checks / security around any cloud system that dealt with patient data. Theoretically though, what you would want to do ideally is create an online database (cloud, hosted, intranet etc), and scrap the local databases entirely.
You then have one 'pool' of data each clinic can pull information from (i.e. ALL records for patient #3563). They could then edit that data and/or insert new records and SAVE them, exporting them back to the main database.
If there is a need to keep certain information private to one clinic only this could still be achieved on one database in a number of ways, or you could retain parts of the local database and have them merge with the cloud data as they're requested by the clinic
This might be a bit outdated, but you guys should checkout https://www.firebase.com/. It would let you do what you want fairly easily. We just did this for a client in the exact same business your are.
Basically, Firebase lets you work with a Central Database on the Cloud, that is automatically synchronised with all its front-ends. It even handles losing the connection to the server automagically. It's the best solution I've found so far to keep several systems running against one only cloud database.
We used to have our own backend that would try its best to sync changes, but you need to be really careful with inter-system unique IDs for your tables (i.e. going to one of the branches and making a new user won't yield the same id that one that already exists in any other branch or the central database). It becomes cumbersome very quickly.
CakePHP can automatically generate this kind of Unique IDs pretty easily and automatically, but you still have to work on sync'ing all the local databases with the central repository.
Is there a way to show table relationships as can be done in Access? Consider two tables:
Services
serviceid
application id
Application
application id
application name
I have already set up the diagram.
When opening the table service id I want to see the related application details like in Access.
Is this possible?
First of all, you an always use access to connect to SQL Server and see relationships through it.
The built in database diagram feature will also show relationships, as you describe. You can find it under the database in question in the diagrams node.
Here is an article about different options to produce an ERD.
Update:
In order to see results, I would suggest using access to connect to SQL Server, as described in the link above.
The SQL Server GUI does not have this facility, and if you want to see results from several tables you need to write the SQL queries that will generate the wanted data.
You could also create a VIEW:
CREATE VIEW ServicesApplication AS
SELECT S.ServiceID, S.ApplicationID, A.ApplicationName
FROM Services AS S
LEFT JOIN Applications AS A
ON S.ApplicationID = A.ApplicationID
That way you can always access the coupled data easily by manipulating the ServicesApplication view instead of the separate tables.
SQL 2008 doesn't have anything built in to provide that functionality. Almost sounds like you're looking to trouble shoot an application by looking at database entries...if thats true I'd recommend learning tsql well enough to write these statements as you need and not rely on another application to provide a visual interface. heh, if I'm completely wrong with that, ignore me :)
If you still want the 3rd party application route...I beleive TOAD has that functionality within it, though I've never connected it to a MS SQL 2008 server before. There are other third party applications out there that will provide this functionality, though I imagine they aren't all free. If you're looking for a free solution and already have Access going, Oded probably has the best idea here...connect MS access to the SQL 2008 server (linked tables) and use MS access to provide the features you want from ms access :)