How to Handle these things???? 1

[gazal]

Hi Friends,

I am planning to deploy a standalone Access / VB application to a network and multiuser application.

In which my Access database will reside on server and my VB client will communicate with the access database. Now i want to know how do i handle the following possibilities:

1) What if there is a Power Failure, how do i save the ongoing transaction?

2) What id the user end tasks or restarts the application (May be the Restart logic will work for this also)

3) How to control the client application from server, for example logging out a specific client etc...


I am using Win-98 SE, VB6 SP5, Access 2000...

Please suggest...

Regards
Gazal

 

[btaber]

Make your life easier, use MSDE. Access is not a very scaleable database, you will probablly run into problems with record locking, and it is horribly slow with multiple users. (I know from expierence) MSDE is a freely redistributable version of Microsoft SQL Server. It can support up to 25 users and will work perfectly for what you need.

The other beautiful thing is that if you find you need to expand to more that 25 users, all you have to do is get MS SQL Server full version and just put it in place, not changes to your application.

I hope you used ADO in your app, it is easier to work with. If not, I can give you some tips on going from DAO to ADO.

Brian

 

[gazal]

Hey Brian

Thanks a lot for your suggestion i never knew there is something like this available for free i am downloading it and am sure that it would be of great help, and yes i am using ADO only....

Million Thanks buddy........

Gazal

 

[btaber]

No problem. Couple of notes:

Be sure to get the sp3 version. Fixes slapper worm

You need to run setup from the command line with a sa password:
setup SAPWD="strong password"

After installing, to be able to communicate from another computer, you need to enable the netork protocols. The program to configure them should be located under:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Binn\SVRNETCN.exe

Be sure to check when you are installing it if you want windows integrated authentication or SQL auth. I went with the SQL auth because I used that in sql7, but windows integrated is more secure.

Your connection string will be something to the effect of:
strConnect = "Provider=sqloledb;" & _
"Network Library=DBMSSOCN;" & _
"Data Source=127.0.0.1,1433;" & _
"Initial Catalog=fargo;" & _
"User ID=sa;" & _
"Password=mystrongpassword"



Good luck!


Brian

 

[gazal]

hi brian
thanks for the notes, i downloaded MSDE and even installed it with Strong Password Parameter, but isnt there anything like Enterprise manager or Sql query analyzer??? how do i create tables, procedures etc....

Please help fast...

Regards

Gazal

 

[strongm]

One of the things 'missing' from MSDE in comparison to the full version of SQL Server is Enterprise Manager...

Still, as long as you have Acess 2000 or later this isn't a problem. Just create a new Access Project, selecting the New Database option. In the ensuing dialog box, just choose the PC that MSDE is running on, and select the database you are interested in.

Bingo, one mini enterprise manager...

 

[gazal]

HI strongm

its a great tip, but i m not able to connect to MSDE, by the way u suggeste, it gives me error OVERFLOW.... please note the Sql Server Agent is running properly in the system tray...

Please guide....

Regards & Thanks

Gazal

 

[TallOne]

Hello,
I think you need to upgrade to the latest release of Office 2000 along with the latest service pack. That should solve your problems.

Hava a good one!

 

[RoyVidar]

Disclaimer - don't use VB, but experienced the same using Access.

Some third party tools are available to provide some of the "missing" functionality in MSDE, some of them even free. Check out MSDE 2000 Partners.

Here's a link on an owerflow error, suggesting the same as TallOne, but with some more info "Overflow" Error Message When You Try to Upsize to SQL Server 2000

Roy-Vidar

 

[gazal]

Thanks RoyVider

Your links were of great help...

Regards

 

[JCruz063]

Gazal,
Just so that you know - MySQL is a free full-blown database server software and many people recommend it. I haven't used it myself but I've heard very good things about it. If you don't have that many users, you can stay with MSDE. But, if your needs grow and you can't afford SQL server, MySQL might do the job. The link below takes you to MySQL's home page.

MySQL Database Server

JC

Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly...

 

[btaber]

Good point JC. MySQL is a beautiful database server, I am a web programmer also, and I use it all the time on linux for my web sites. stored procedures are new in mysql, and I am not sure how easy it would be to go from mssql to mysql though.

Brian

 

[gazal]

Hey Guys

Thanks a lot for your suggestion and tips, as directed by RoyVider i downloaded TeraTax GUI based interface for MSDE, now one last help, how can i import my access tables along with data to MSDE????

Thanks again
Gazal

 

[mmilan]

Something else I've encountered on the database server side of things is a little beauty called SQLite. It basically embeds into your code, and stores it's data as a simple file. It is claimed (and one of my colleagues who uses it has corroborated this) that it blows the stripy pants off MSSQL and MYSQL in terms of performace, though I don't think it is quite as feature rich.

Going from a MSSQL backend to MYSQL is not a straight forward process, and MYSQL does sometimes do things a little differently. That having been said, I've used it with PHP, and I haven't encountered that many problems with it...

One of the strengths with a lot of the GPL stuff is that they tend to have semi-official sites that are frequented by most of their communities - usually an excellent source of info...

mmilan

 

[gazal]

Hi Firends

Once Again thanks a lot for your help and suggestions but here is something great i found on Planetsourcecode.com, Yes its a complete MSDE Explorer, Create Tables, and all other basic stuff and top of it, its along with Source code in VB 6, and fully customizable as per your requirements, But please dont forget to vote for Andrea....

Here is the link

http://www.planetsourcecode.com/vb/scripts/showcode.asp?lngWId=1&txtCodeId=40912

Regards and Thanks

Gazal