c# and MSDE

[Jason]

If I've got simple Access DB, and I've got a front end with a with a
datagrid and use SQL SERver 2005 Expression edition to create the
connections, develop the app then I give the DB and the front end
application to end users, do they need to have MSDE installed on there PC?

 

[Jani Järvinen [MVP]]

Jason,

If I've got simple Access DB, and I've got a front end with a with a
datagrid and use SQL SERver 2005 Expression edition to create the
connections, develop the app then I give the DB and the front end
application to end users, do they need to have MSDE installed on there PC?

I didn't completely understand your question (could you rephrase it a bit?),
but if your application is connecting to a SQL database, then yes, somewhere
on the network there has to be an SQL Server instance running.

Now, if you build your application so that it expects to find the SQL Server
installed on the same machine as your application ("localhost"), then yes,
users need to install SQL Server Express on their PCs.

--
Regards,

Mr. Jani Järvinen
C# MVP
Helsinki, Finland
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.saunalahti.fi/janij/

 

[Jason]

Thanks for the reply..... I'm a little confused also, which makes sense
since I'm a novice at DB's

I've got a small MS Acess database and I've got a small front end that has a
datagrid to display some of the information in the Database. I've got
VS.net 2005 and since I am a novice, I've been reading through books, that
pertain to C# 2005. All the examples I find are making a SQL connection and
use the MSDE.

Thats great if you download and install that, but if I do will my clients
also need to do that same? Can I use ADO Jet to connect to a MS Access DB.
Do you know of any examples that connect to the Northwind DB so I can use
something else as a working example rather then having to involve MSDE.

Thanks

 

[Jani Järvinen [MVP]]

Jason,

I've got VS.net 2005 and since I am a novice, I've
been reading through books, that pertain to C# 2005.
All the examples I find are making a SQL connection and use the MSDE.

Yes, many code examples available use SQL Server as the example database,
because in many applications don't find Access to be a robust enough
database. But the other side of the coin is that at least Microsoft is a
company doing business for money. There's obviously more money to be made
with SQL Server than Access.

One way or other, I agree that there could be more basic Access material
available. But even so, there's a lot of material available, trust me!

Thats great if you download and install that, but if I do will my clients
also need to do that same?

The short answer is, yes, they would. If you write your C# application to
use SQL Server, then one has to be available. For simple solutions/single
user databases, Access is usually just fine.

Can I use ADO Jet to connect to a MS Access DB.

Yes, you definitely can. You would just have to use the OLEDB provider, and
a different connection string. That's basically all you need, although this
isn't just so simple in practice. See this page for example, or your Visual
Studio documentation under Data Access:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnanchor/html/adonetanchor.asp

Or:

http://samples.gotdotnet.com/quickstart/winforms/

Do you know of any examples that connect to the Northwind DB so I can use
something else as a working example rather then having to involve MSDE.

I think there's an Access version of the Northwind database available, but
then again I haven't been using Access much. In any case, here one tutorial
for you:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/csref/html/vcwlkadotutorial.asp

And another:

http://www.csharphelp.com/archives/archive70.html

Try googling with "C# data access oledb" and you should find plenty more
tips. Make also sure you read through your Visual Studio documentation,
there's a lot to learn!

Good luck!

--
Regards,

Mr. Jani Järvinen
C# MVP
Helsinki, Finland
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.saunalahti.fi/janij/

 

[John Vottero]

If I've got simple Access DB, and I've got a front end with a with a
datagrid and use SQL SERver 2005 Expression edition to create the
connections, develop the app then I give the DB and the front end
application to end users, do they need to have MSDE installed on there PC?

First, MSDE is SQL Server 2000 and is obsolete and will NOT be supported on
Vista.

If you have SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, why are you using Access? Is
the data in a SQL 2005 database? If Access has a future, it will be as a
front-end to SQL Server databases, JET is dead (IMHO).

If you're using SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and you expect the data to
be on the PC where your app is installed then yes, you need to install SQL
Server 2005 Express Edition on that PC. Microsoft makes it very easy to
install SQL Server 2005 Express Edition as part of your setup, look up
"bootstrapping" or "ClickOnce" in the documentation.

You might also want to look in to SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition which
is even easier to deploy.