After reading many posts on this site, I am considering replacing my accdb be (2007) with SQL Server or SQL Server Express? My fe is currently accdb (accde upon deployment). Is there any advantage to connecting to SQL using .adp as opposed to .accde? I currently link to tables in SQL using ocdb and it seams to work fine.
The only other question I have is, how much effort is it to create my fe forms using Visual Basic in Visual Studio Express? The idea of having a standalone exe makes it tempting. Am I looking at a big learning curve to go from vba to vb? I'm assuming the functionality of my code can be replicated in vb with some changes required.
Just seems like a good time to make this decision, while I'm still in the design stage.
It’s a big leap to go from a full access application to a .Net application with an SQL server backend. I have been going through this for 4 or 5 applications over the past year and what I did was to split the move into 2 parts.
First I migrated the data to SQL server but kept the access front end. I then look closely at the reasons why I would change the front end, for some of the applications it is just not worth the time to rewrite them when the only feature I would be gaining is an .exe extension and not a .mdb one!
Some however it was worth the time and so I have migrated them over but you have to look at what you are gaining, the Access front end / SQL server backend is a very powerful combination
I have worked with MS Access since version One and SQL Server since version 6.5. Access is indeed a relational database, and always has been. I've even seen Data Warehousing done in Access. My answer to RYK would be this: Access is an AWESOME front end for SQL Server for all the reasons that really matter. Access includes Forms, Queries, Reports, Macros and Code Design all in one package. Access has all of these features AND they are extensive. Form design is elegant. Report design is feature rich. Queries and Data Design does everything you want it to. VBA is fully functional. VB.NET/C# will work but .NET development takes longer than Access development. Access even lets you quickly test data scenarios and situations before the data is imported to SQL Server. If anyone knows of an application that has more features than Access all in one app please, please let me know what that is. Access even allows users to perform ad-hoc queries if they know how to. I should add that I am an ASP.NET VB.NET C# Developer and Crystal Reports Designer. I also design Oracle solutions. For over 10 years now if you Have MS Office and SQL Server you can do ANYTHING with data, and do it easier. (Excel Reports, Visio Data Modeling, Data Warehousing, Word Mail Merging, Full featured database apps, you name it) Visual Studio and .NET just add different flavors of icing to an already large and delicious cake.
May I suggest you download and give Visual Studio Lightswitch a go. Really fantastic for replacing/upgrading Access forms apps. You also would not need to worry about what connections to use etc. I find this tool really useful and friendly to replace/replicate access apps and spreadsheets the business was used to use.
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I am working using Tableau and have to write down multiple different SQL each time, while making new data sources.
I have to save all changes on SQL for every data source.
Currently I would paste the SQL on notepad and save them on separate folder in my computer, along with description of the changes.
Is there any better way to do this?
Assuming you have permission to create objects in the database, begin by creating database views, As #Nick.McDermaid commented.
Then, instead of using Custom SQL data source in Tableau, just connect to the View as if it were a table.
If you need to track the changes to these SQL views of your data, you will need to learn how to use source control for the .sql files that can be scripted from within SQL Server Management Studio:
Your company or school may have a preferred source control system already in use, in which case you should use that. If they don't, or if you are learning at home, then Git and Subversion are popular open source choices.
There are many courses available on learning platforms like Coursera that will teach you how to learn how to use those systems.
I had similar problem as you.
We ended up writing the queries in SQL Editor SQL Work bench (https://www.sql-workbench.eu/), then managed the code history and performed code peer-review (logic, error check, etc) in team shared space (like confluence).
The reasons we did that is
1) SQL queries are much easy to write on Work Bench
2) Code review is a must! You will find through implementing a review process more mistakes than you could ever think about
3) The shared space is just really convenient as it is accessible by everyone, and all errors are documented. After sometimes you get a lot of visible knowledge accumulated.
I also totally agree with Nick as this is one step to a reporting solution. But developing a whole reporting server is heavy, costly and takes time. Unless management are really convinced of the importance of developing a reporting solution, you may have to get a workaround with queries and Tableau (at least that was the case for us)
A little late to the party, but I would suggest you simply version the tableau workbook. The contents of the workbook are XML, so perfect for versioning using file based tools (Dropbox, One Drive, etc.) or source control (git, etc.). The workbooks themselves are usually quite small, so just make sure to keep the extract data separate if you use it.
I am primarily a web developer, mostly working with PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript. I was recently contacted by a local Sheriff's Office (small town word of mouth, nerds are always needed) to digitize a 4 page monstrosity of a form... because nobody could read the handwriting of the deputies.
The catch here is that this is a small town department and, while they are fancy enough to carry computers in the field, they are not connected to the Internet. Visual Basic was the first solution that came to mind and I have been scrambling to learn the basics. I am confident in my ability to organize the content of the form and perform any necessary validation but I am unsure where to begin in terms of storing each report locally (database) and printing the end result.
Another matter that makes things complicated is the fact that they want the end result to look exactly the same as the original form, only typed instead of hand written.
So, to sum things up, here are the questions I have:
There seem to be several options for databases in VB 2010 Express. What is the best option for LOCAL storage of records?
It looks as though the best way to format the form the exact way they want it to look with populated data would be to create a form within the application with just this content on it. Is this the best solution or might there be a better way - possibly outputting to another file? And if the data is put on another form, how would I go about printing it?
Many thanks!
The word "best" is of course subjective, so instead I'll give you some pros and cons for a database.
SQL Server Express is a really awesome database to work with that acts almost exactly like the big paid version. Some high-level things like replication and encryption aren't supported but you don't have a need for that probably. I've built many websites that target it with zero performance problems. The downside of SQL Server Express is that you need to install it on every machine and it pretty much needs to be running all the time. It doesn't "weigh" a whole lot but its still going to be running in the background 24/7. If you create an installer from within Visual Studio/VB Express (which you should) you can check it as a prerequisite and the installer will pretty much take care of it for you. As a major security target you are opening a potential for security issues which you should be aware of.
SQLite would another great choice, there's some great .Net wrappers available. If you're used to using SQL Server or MySql you might find SQLite limiting but you get used to it. SQLite doesn't have a "database engine" and its goal is to be a very lightweight open source SQL database system.
The third option that I'd recommend is just writing to an XML file. Simple, no engine, no tables, no third-party whatever, just raw text that anyone can parse if something breaks. EDIT And VB.Net has some wonderful built-in XML syntactic things such as XML literals:
Dim MyXml = <Person>
<FirstName><%= txtFirstName.Text %></FirstName>
<LastName><%= txtLastName.Text %></LastName>
</Person>
For the form generation, I'd recommend using something like iTextSharp. (Free but make sure you check that the license matches yours.) Take their actual PDF Form (or create a PDF of theirs), use Acrobat or something similar to turn it into a "PDF Form" and then just use iTextSharp to fill in the form. There's a bunch of support on this site if you've got any questions about it.
I have developed C# application that stores and retrieves data from SQL database.
But when my client had to deploy the application he needed to install sql server express 2008 ,that is its requirement.Now he wants that software to install with no extra installing add-on.so i except for dot net framework there should not be anything extra to install.
i have seen some databases like SQL compact,SQL lite ,SQL CE and blackfishSQL but i really donot know that do they require extra install and what effort do i have to make to change my whole code according to selected database
I looked at this
Please help me
I suggest going with SQLite or Server Compact (SQL CE). They don't require extra install.
Another option is to include SQL Server Express in your setup project, so it will be installed automatically if needed.
SQLite has a reputation of being fast and robust.
However, if you like Microsoft products and you already have everything working in SQL Express, then SQL CE might be a better choice from development tools support point of view.
SQLite is by far the most popular option usually considered for such scenarios. It does not require any extra installation..the DB interface itself is available in a dll and all u need to interact with your database is the interface dll. As to the extent of efforts that would be required to port your application, it would depend on the extent to which you have used Sql Server specific SQL constructs..the closer your code is to ANSI SQL, the easier it would be to port it to any other ANSI SQL compliant database like SQLite. Usually the task becomes much easier if you have used ORM technologies in your application, since they provide an additional layer of abstraction between you client code and the database
I'm sure the original poster no longer needs this information anymore - but for the sake of others googling the same issue - let me add a bit of my own.
I'm only recently in the process of converting a C# program from using SQL Express to SQL Compact - and its relatively easy when compared to converting to a SQLite project. The code is extremely simple. Where in SQL Express you might use SqlCommand, this simply becomes SqlCeCommand. Very easy to convert from one to the other.
I’m interested in knowing some different approaches for retrieving data from Analysis Services, to use in either objects in code, or for end-user reporting.
I’ve used two different approaches in the past, one was using ADOMD to pull results and put these into a dataset, the other was using SQL OPENQUERY to a linked SSAS server to get results out as a SQL stored procedure result set. Both of these had advantages and disadvantages.
Over the years I’ve seen various questions along this line, so forgive me for any duplication, but what other methods are there for getting SSAS data into a format where other people’s code could use it?
I’ve considered XML result sets from SSAS over HTTP, then Linq to XML – Anyone have any experience with that?
Ideally I’d like a dataset with typed columns, or objects with properties, but I’m more interested in general approach than code samples. How have you got data from SSAS, apart from SSRS/Other dashboard controls?
I know MS is supposed to support XML/A (XML for Analysis). I am shortly releasing an ajax library to do XML/A requests from web pages.
While I am currently focused on Pentaho's Mondrian, it should work for MS SQLs XML/A too. If you are interested, I am doing a presentation on it on January 13. (see: http://wiki.pentaho.com/display/COM/January+13,+2010+-+Roland+Bouman+-+OLAP+and+Analysis+for+web+applications+using+XMLA) I will be releasing my code by that time too (probably underr a LGPL license)
I would love to get feedback from people that use other XML/A servers, so if you are interestd, it would be great to work together on this.
UPDATE:
the project is now available at http://code.google.com/p/xmla4js/ There is API documentation, code samples, and build scripts. It's LGPL so you're free to use it in your applications, even for commercial purposes. The license does require that you release any modifications to the library itself as LGPL (but this does not affect the application that uses the library)
UPDATE2
The project no resides on github at https://github.com/rpbouman/xmla4js
It works in the browser as well as in nodejs.
I've never used it myself, as we only use ADOMD and Excel to connect to SSAS, but at some point we considered using HTTP and XML. We ended up going the ADOMD route because of a shortened dev schedule, but I guess it's another option that allows for access to SSAS outside of the .Net world.
Here's a link which I found useful when prototyping: Configuring HTTP Access to SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services on Microsoft Windows Server 2008
XMLA is the "high power" approach -- but I'm not aware of a toolkit or library that really exposes the full capabilities of XMLA; I think you would have craft it up yourself. For the projects I've done, that's just way too much work.
Instead, I used ADOMD.NET for retrieving results in code; the CellSet class in particular is fairly rich. For end user analysis (slice and dice), most often I use Excel Pivot Charts (which are fabulous!); sometimes I also use Visio Pivot Diagrams. For fixed reporting, Reporting Services can access SSAS directly, and it even has it's own query builder.
BTW, in case it helps, I have a chapter in my book about integrating SSAS with web sites as a way of offloading SQL Server: Ultra-Fast ASP.NET. My code examples use ADOMD; I also walk through building a simple cube, configuring automatic updates with SSIS, using proactive caching, building simple MDX queries, etc.
Another approach is to use the MSOLAP OLE DB provider. Our code is currently using this method.
Another way (and I would say the simplest one) to get data from SSAS OLAP cubes into .NET is by using LINQ + ADO.NET Entity Framework + SSAS Entity Framework Provider .
(I work for the company that developed SSAS Entity Framework Provider).
yesterday i went for an interview to be a sql / .net developer. my experience with sql is limited to basic pl/sql with oracle. they drilled me "do you know ssrs, do you know tsql, etc" well i kept saying no because i havent worked with them.
question: what do i have to learn in order to be able to work with microsoft sql? is it really that much different than oracle?
Grab a copy of SQL Server Express (see here) and start playing with it. There are sample databases that you can download to get you started.
SQL is the same, as it's a standard. T-SQL is an add on that has some flavors that are helpful to know. The way you setup procedures, functions, etc. is also different than PL-SQL, so that would be good to read up on. Outside the SQL Server engine and the various built-in tools, there are a lot of other MS products:
SSRS - SQL Server Reporting Services features a reporting engine, which are developed in Visual Studio.
SSIS - SQL Server Integration Services is a data import/export, etc. process, it's very handy to use for data import/export and other batch processing
SSAS - Analysis Services for OLAP
And so on. I don' tknow that SSAS helps you in this regard, but SSRS is pretty big so as a developer, reporting is a key feature and that would be handy to know something about. SSIS is good to know a little bit about, but might not be that handy, depending on what the org's needs are.
HTH.
SQL is pretty much SQL. There are some engine-specific differences but for most apps they're not significant. The management tools are obviously different. The OOB tools are vastly different.
SSRS is a reporting package (think Crystal reports on double steroids and you'd be close) not a DB engine. That should be listed as a separate job requirement.
I'd say get an MSDN license OR the free trial for SQL Server and install them all and try them out. Bookstore is a fairly generic app that you can extend forever and tryout new things.
Just keep in mind that someone hiring you is still going to want actual app experience, not your trials. If you can't get it at work, volunteer at an organization.
A good place to start is reading the MSDN SQL Server resource page. You'll find good information there about the whole MS SQL Ecosystem.
Then get a trial license, a virtual machine and start playing around.
It's kinda limited to their knowledge, as if you know basic ANSI sql then you can get almost all the basics running on SQL Server as they have a common base. As for SSRS, that is specific and will require reading and playing with it to learn. The SQL2008 Express with Advanced services should help you out.
With .net developer interviews I've been to they expect you to know the basics at minimum and be able to do joins and stuff in sql. Learning how to do temp tables and stored procedures as well as updates/selects/deletes and stuff should get you a bit further.
Potentially if they want that kinda experience either they are aiming the roll too low, or you've managed to slip through the net for a higher level role (which is sometimes a good thing) :-)