data storage

[Fred Blair]

I have been having trouble with SQL Express, getting it installed, etc. I
am trying to work on an application that will give a test to only one
student at a time. It will have 50 multiple choice questions that do not
change often. I want to capture the student's answers so we can see what
questions students are missing to see if we need to change our training.

Would it be better to store the questions, answers, results, etc. in an XML
file instead of trying to create tables in SQL Express and then have
problems installing everything on another computer when I am through
developing it?

I use one piece of software now that uses XML for all the data storage and
it seems to work quickly.

Any thoughts on data storage in XML?

Thanks,
Fred

 

[Cor Ligthert[MVP]]

It is never better to use an XML file instead of a database to store data.

Some reasons:
as the computer goes down all the information is gone you were busy with
as there is a writting error at saving the XML file then you are
probably overwritting the original one and as you do not save the original
one in advance you have nothing anymore
you cannot work with more than one person concurrent on the questions

Cor

 

[Cor Ligthert[MVP]]

To add something to my message.

As it is to sent data, then XML is a perfect solution.

Cor

 

[Chris Dunaway]

I have been having trouble with SQL Express, getting it installed, etc. I
am trying to work on an application that will give a test to only one
student at a time. It will have 50 multiple choice questions that do not
change often. I want to capture the student's answers so we can see what
questions students are missing to see if we need to change our training.

Would it be better to store the questions, answers, results, etc. in an XML
file instead of trying to create tables in SQL Express and then have
problems installing everything on another computer when I am through
developing it?

I use one piece of software now that uses XML for all the data storage and
it seems to work quickly.

Any thoughts on data storage in XML?

Thanks,
Fred

If your data needs do not require the full muscle of Sql Server, you
might try Sqlite. It requires zero configuration and has many nice
features.

http://www.sqlite.org/

Chris

 

[Chris Dunaway]

I have been having trouble with SQL Express, getting it installed, etc. I
am trying to work on an application that will give a test to only one
student at a time. It will have 50 multiple choice questions that do not
change often. I want to capture the student's answers so we can see what
questions students are missing to see if we need to change our training.

Would it be better to store the questions, answers, results, etc. in an XML
file instead of trying to create tables in SQL Express and then have
problems installing everything on another computer when I am through
developing it?

I use one piece of software now that uses XML for all the data storage and
it seems to work quickly.

Any thoughts on data storage in XML?

Thanks,
Fred

And here is a CodeProject article that explains how it could be used
in .Net. It's in C#, but you should be able to make use of it.

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/database/cs_sqlitewrapper.aspx

Chris

 

[Chris Dunaway]

I have been having trouble with SQL Express, getting it installed, etc. I
am trying to work on an application that will give a test to only one
student at a time. It will have 50 multiple choice questions that do not
change often. I want to capture the student's answers so we can see what
questions students are missing to see if we need to change our training.

Would it be better to store the questions, answers, results, etc. in an XML
file instead of trying to create tables in SQL Express and then have
problems installing everything on another computer when I am through
developing it?

I use one piece of software now that uses XML for all the data storage and
it seems to work quickly.

Any thoughts on data storage in XML?

Thanks,
Fred

Oh, and one more thing, you should be able to use Sqlite with
LinqToSql if you are using VB 2008:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/linq/linqToSql_7.aspx

Chri

 

[Chris Dunaway]

I have been having trouble with SQL Express, getting it installed, etc. I

Sorry for yet another post, but here is another link:

http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/

Chris

 

[Michel Posseth]

Personally i would prefer SQL server annywhere edition aka SQL server
compact edtion
cause if he wants to scale out in a future release of his program this would
be a lot easier to acomplish


http://www.microsoft.com/Sqlserver/2005/en/us/compact.aspx


SQL server compact has a one dll runtime and is easily upgraded to a full
sql server for possible future needs

regards

Michel Posseth