Visual Basic .net 2003 Standard & SQL Server Problems

[Microsoft]

Hi,

I have Visual Basic .net 2003 (Standard Edition) & SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition. When trying to create a connection in the server explorer from the .net IDE I get a number of problems;
a.. Under the "Connection" tab, under "1. Select or enter a server name:" when I either select the drop down box or click the refresh button I get an error dialog saying "Error enumerating data servers. Enumerator reports Unspecified error'". The dialog caption is "Microsoft Data Link Error". Strangely "3. Select the database on the server:" does actually list the databases on my default instance and the "Test Connection" button results in "Test connection succeeded".
b.. If I ignore the error above and click on "OK" I get the following error message "Unable to connect to database. It is only possible to connect to SQL Server Desktop Engine databases and Microsoft Access databases with this version of Visual Studio". The dialog caption is "Server Explorer". I can't actually find any details of such a restriction in the online documentation and this link 'http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/productinfo/features/default.aspx' says "Unless otherwise noted, all of the features listed below are available in every member of the Visual Studio family product line which enables Visual Basic .NET development including: Visual Basic .NET 2003 Standard..." without any such exclusion noted against "Using ADO.NET, Visual Basic .NET developers can gain high-speed access to Microsoft SQL ServerT, Oracle, DB2, Microsoft Access, and more".
Has anyone else had these problems - I have searched online and can't find anything about either. Any help would be much appreciated.

Barry-Jon

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Barry,

b.. If I ignore the error above and click on "OK" I get the following
error message "Unable to connect to database. It is only possible to
connect to SQL Server Desktop Engine databases and Microsoft Access
databases with this version of Visual Studio". The dialog caption is
"Server Explorer". I can't actually find any details of such a restriction
in the online documentation and this link
'http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/productinfo/features/default.aspx'

I don't know exactly where this restrictions are documented, but they are
true. You can only access MSDE or Microsoft Access databases with the
Server Explorer in Visual Basic .NET Standard.

 

[Peter van der Goes]

Hi,

I have Visual Basic .net 2003 (Standard Edition) & SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition. When trying to create a connection in the server explorer from the .net IDE I get a number of problems;
a.. Under the "Connection" tab, under "1. Select or enter a server name:" when I either select the drop down box or click the refresh button I get an error dialog saying "Error enumerating data servers. Enumerator reports Unspecified error'". The dialog caption is "Microsoft Data Link Error". Strangely "3. Select the database on the server:" does actually list the databases on my default instance and the "Test Connection" button results in "Test connection succeeded".
b.. If I ignore the error above and click on "OK" I get the following error message "Unable to connect to database. It is only possible to connect to SQL Server Desktop Engine databases and Microsoft Access databases with this version of Visual Studio". The dialog caption is "Server Explorer". I can't actually find any details of such a restriction in the online documentation and this link 'http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/productinfo/features/default.aspx' says "Unless otherwise noted, all of the features listed below are available in every member of the Visual Studio family product line which enables Visual Basic .NET development including: Visual Basic .NET 2003 Standard..." without any such exclusion noted against "Using ADO.NET, Visual Basic .NET developers can gain high-speed access to Microsoft SQL ServerT, Oracle, DB2, Microsoft Access, and more".
Has anyone else had these problems - I have searched online and can't find anything about either. Any help would be much appreciated.

Barry-Jon

And, as you can download MSDE free,

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...d1-a0bc-479f-bafa-e4b278eb9147&displaylang=en

then use the GUI tools that come with your SQL Server Developer Edition to create and manage databases on your MSDE instance, you should have no difficulties with your VB .NET database projects.

 

[Barry Jon]

Thanks Peter,

I uninstalled MSDE 2000 prior to installing SQL Server 2000 Developer
Edition. I then found I could not use Developer Edition with Visual Basic
..net Standard Edition and tried to reinstall MSDE. The MSDE installation seems
to go fine but when the Service Manager loads is tells me "Not Connected -
\\" no servers are in the Server drop-down and no services are listed in
the Services drop-down. I am very new to all of this and would very much
appreciate any help/advice you could offer. I then uninstalled
Developer Edition to no avail and tried again and have now reinstalled developer edition and still no joy. I am running Windows XP Pro. What am I doing wrong?

Barry Jon

Hi,

I have Visual Basic .net 2003 (Standard Edition) & SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition. When trying to create a connection in the server explorer from the .net IDE I get a number of problems;
a.. Under the "Connection" tab, under "1. Select or enter a server name:" when I either select the drop down box or click the refresh button I get an error dialog saying "Error enumerating data servers. Enumerator reports Unspecified error'". The dialog caption is "Microsoft Data Link Error". Strangely "3. Select the database on the server:" does actually list the databases on my default instance and the "Test Connection" button results in "Test connection succeeded".
b.. If I ignore the error above and click on "OK" I get the following error message "Unable to connect to database. It is only possible to connect to SQL Server Desktop Engine databases and Microsoft Access databases with this version of Visual Studio". The dialog caption is "Server Explorer". I can't actually find any details of such a restriction in the online documentation and this link 'http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/productinfo/features/default.aspx' says "Unless otherwise noted, all of the features listed below are available in every member of the Visual Studio family product line which enables Visual Basic .NET development including: Visual Basic .NET 2003 Standard..." without any such exclusion noted against "Using ADO.NET, Visual Basic .NET developers can gain high-speed access to Microsoft SQL ServerT, Oracle, DB2, Microsoft Access, and more".
Has anyone else had these problems - I have searched online and can't find anything about either. Any help would be much appreciated.

Barry-Jon

And, as you can download MSDE free,

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...d1-a0bc-479f-bafa-e4b278eb9147&displaylang=en

then use the GUI tools that come with your SQL Server Developer Edition to create and manage databases on your MSDE instance, you should have no difficulties with your VB .NET database projects.

 

[Peter van der Goes]

Thanks Peter,

I uninstalled MSDE 2000 prior to installing SQL Server 2000 Developer
Edition. I then found I could not use Developer Edition with Visual Basic
.net Standard Edition and tried to reinstall MSDE. The MSDE installation seems
to go fine but when the Service Manager loads is tells me "Not Connected -
\\" no servers are in the Server drop-down and no services are listed in
the Services drop-down. I am very new to all of this and would very much
appreciate any help/advice you could offer. I then uninstalled
Developer Edition to no avail and tried again and have now reinstalled developer edition and still no joy. I am running Windows XP Pro. What am I doing wrong?

Barry Jon
I'm not sure you're doing anything wrong, but perhaps the instructions we use for classroom/lab installs of MSDE to work with Visual Studio .NET 2003 will be helpful:
<quote>
1. Before you begin, check the PC to ensure there are no remnants of prior MSDE installation attempts hanging around. The place to check is: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server. If you locate a folder named Microsoft SQL Server, delete it and its contents!



2. Execute the file: SQL2KDeskSP3.exe(or whatever the file name for your MSDE download is). This step will extract the contents of the file to a designated folder. Make a note of the destination folder. You'll need it later. This step does not install MSDE (although the dialogs seem to hint that it does)!



4. Navigate to the folder you created in Step 2. In that folder, you will find a subfolder named MSDE. In MSDE, you will find SETUP.EXE. Executing SETUP.EXE will install MSDE.



5. To execute SETUP.EXE correctly, you must supply an instance name and a system administrator password as part of the command: i.e. the command must be:



SETUP.EXE INSTANCENAME="NetSDK" SAPWD="yourSAPassword"



where yourSAPassword is your actual system administrator password. This password is needed only to install MDSE, not to use it. Access to MSDE is controlled by normal "NT Security" which should allow users access based on network logon and password. It is very important the the INSTANCENAME parameter be NetSDK, as this name will enable you to generate the sample databases automatically instead of having to run SQL scripts from the command line.



6. Once installation is complete, you must reboot the PC before you will see MSDE. After the reboot, you should see the MSDE icon in SysTray.



7. You now must execute the file: ConfigSamples.exe to configure sample applications and MSDE system databases. This step will also create user databases in the following location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data.

</quote>



If you have trouble locating the ConfigSamples.exe, it's a small file (56k) and I can send it to your email if needed.



Hope this helps.

 

[Peter van der Goes]

Thanks Peter,

I uninstalled MSDE 2000 prior to installing SQL Server 2000 Developer
Edition. I then found I could not use Developer Edition with Visual Basic
.net Standard Edition and tried to reinstall MSDE. The MSDE installation seems
to go fine but when the Service Manager loads is tells me "Not Connected -
\\" no servers are in the Server drop-down and no services are listed in
the Services drop-down. I am very new to all of this and would very much
appreciate any help/advice you could offer. I then uninstalled
Developer Edition to no avail and tried again and have now reinstalled developer edition and still no joy. I am running Windows XP Pro. What am I doing wrong?

Barry Jon
I'm not sure you're doing anything wrong, but perhaps the instructions we use for classroom/lab installs of MSDE to work with Visual Studio .NET 2003 will be helpful:
<quote>
1. Before you begin, check the PC to ensure there are no remnants of prior MSDE installation attempts hanging around. The place to check is: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server. If you locate a folder named Microsoft SQL Server, delete it and its contents!



2. Execute the file: SQL2KDeskSP3.exe(or whatever the file name for your MSDE download is). This step will extract the contents of the file to a designated folder. Make a note of the destination folder. You'll need it later. This step does not install MSDE (although the dialogs seem to hint that it does)!



4. Navigate to the folder you created in Step 2. In that folder, you will find a subfolder named MSDE. In MSDE, you will find SETUP.EXE. Executing SETUP.EXE will install MSDE.



5. To execute SETUP.EXE correctly, you must supply an instance name and a system administrator password as part of the command: i.e. the command must be:



SETUP.EXE INSTANCENAME="NetSDK" SAPWD="yourSAPassword"



where yourSAPassword is your actual system administrator password. This password is needed only to install MDSE, not to use it. Access to MSDE is controlled by normal "NT Security" which should allow users access based on network logon and password. It is very important the the INSTANCENAME parameter be NetSDK, as this name will enable you to generate the sample databases automatically instead of having to run SQL scripts from the command line.



6. Once installation is complete, you must reboot the PC before you will see MSDE. After the reboot, you should see the MSDE icon in SysTray.



7. You now must execute the file: ConfigSamples.exe to configure sample applications and MSDE system databases. This step will also create user databases in the following location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data.

</quote>



If you have trouble locating the ConfigSamples.exe, it's a small file (56k) and I can send it to your email if needed.



Hope this helps.


--
Peter [MVP Visual Developer]
Jack of all trades, master of none.



Arrrgh!

Pay no attention to the skip in step numbers. The missing step was specific to our lab environment.