newbie - VB.net and MSDE / JET question

[M Davidson]

Hello All,

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

I'm attempting to learn VB.net with the goal of creating the front end
for a database. I am quite comfortable with Access and wanted to write the
front end for an Access database (Jet).

The texts that I've purchased all show how to connect to an Access Database
(through JET) but only show how to retrieve a dataset or group of records,
none show how to add, update or delete records using JET. All these same
texts, in the following chapter, then show how to connect to, retrieve, add,
update and delete records using MDSE or SQL server.

Problem is, as stated, I'm comfortable with Access (and JET) but I don't
have the first clue at using MSDE or SQL Server (not to mention that I can't
afford SQL Server) Through additional reading, I've heard that I can
"Upsize" my Access database to be used on MSDE, but again my lack of
knowlege of MSDE is what scares me.

Is it possible to add, update and delete records from an Access Database
using JET through VB.net?

If anyone could suggest any texts regarding this question, I'd greatly
appreciate it. Also suggested reading on MSDE would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Mike

 

[Michael C#]

Let me throw my $.02 in. You can grab a copy of MSDE from Microsoft's
website - it's a free download. So if, and when, you decide to tackle an
MSDE project, it's available there for you.

As far as Access, you might try using the wizard to automatically generate a
Data Form for you. Then look at the code underneath to see how it handles
everything. There are probably tons of tutorials available out there -- you
might try Googling "ADO.NET code samples" and "VB.NET Dataset Tutorials."
Most of the books I've found deal more with ASP.NET data connections, but
there might be a some out there for Windows Forms + ADO.NET.

Once you get into it, you might find that programming MSDE is similar to
programming for Access on the front end. Basically you replace all the
SqlClient stuff with OleDb, and modify your Connection String. I think they
went to great lengths to keep programmers from having to worry too much
about which database is running on the back end.

Thanks