Help with choosing platform 1

[goolawah]

I have a simple application working fine in MS Access with some VBA code. It reads a text file generated by another application "A", uses (Pervasive ODBC)linked tables to look up additional information (prices etc) in another application "B" and outputs a "merged" text file ready to be imported into application "B".

The requirements have expanded from the original spec (which worked fine) and I have had to include additional linked tables to look up further information. I have found it impossible to use the data from these tables (one won't even open) and, after much investigation, it seems most likely that there is a problem somewhere in the way the data is structured in application "B", and/or Pervasive ODBC, that Access doesn't like.

I have no trouble viewing the data via ODBC from other applications. The problem only occurs with Access.

I am wondering if I should try developing it in VB.NET? I realise it would be a bit of a learning curve but I would welcome that (I think) and there is no desperate urgency to get it done.

Any feedback from those more experienced than me would be most appreciated.

 

[ca8msm]

I would definately move away from Access based applications if it is possible.

VB.NET is a good choice (although I'm bound to say that in this forum!) and should dramatically increase the performance and maintainability of the application.


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[goolawah]

Thanks for that. I'll install VB.net and get on the learning curve.

Do I correctly assume that I can compile and distribute a run-time version of my application for installation on another target machine?

Are there any pre-requisites for the target machine?

 

[earthandfire]

The main pre-requisite is the appropriate version of the .Net Framework (1.1 for VB.Net 2003, 2.0 for VB.Net 2005)

Hope this helps.

 

[goolawah]

Thanks for that earthandfire.

I have now installed my eval copy of VB.net 2003 just to make sure I can do this project before committing more heavily to this direction.

At this stage I am assuming that I can largely re-use the logic I had done in a VBA module in Access. Before I get to that I need to confirm that I can open (read-only) Pervasive data files in the external application I am linking to, using ODBC.

In Access I create a linked table but, at first look, I can't see how to do tis in VB.NET. I can see how to open SQL Server databases.

Can anyone give me a pointer please?

 

[earthandfire]

http://www.carlprothman.net/Default.aspx?tabid=81

has a connection string for most databases including Pervasive as does

http://www.connectionstrings.com/

If you are doing any database connectivity, you should keep those two links in your favourites.

Hope this helps.

 

[ca8msm]

Also, these faq's might help:

faq855-5780
faq855-5662


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