Not very 21st century though, huh?
The new version absolutely must use Microsoft SQL Server - there's no doubt in my mind about it, so to keep costs down I propose using SQL Express 2008 R2 to develop against.
Step 1 will be to download and install SQL Express, create a database with the same (or similar) data structure as the current database, and finally get some data into it.
The way I see it is that the starting point should be to port the existing application to use SQL Express rather than Access with no (obvious, or as little as possible) functional changes to the application resulting in a working product on SQL Express with the existing data. As time ticks by and the project progresses I will still need to use the existing application to run my business, and so the data will grow and change and I do not want to have any porting issues come switch-over day.
Anyway that's my rationale. So lets begin!
I downloaded SQL Express 2008 R2 With Tools from Microsoft and followed the installation procedure giving a named instance of SQLExpress and selecting Mixed Mode for authentication. Once that was done I fired up Management Studio and logged in to check things out.
So far so good.
Next was to port over the existing database from Microsoft Access. To do this I opened the existing database in Access and used the Uplift Wizard
... selected ALL tables ...
... accepted the default options ...
... selected "No application changes." as I want to manage the code changes myself when porting the current application to SQL Express ...
... and on the final step clicked Finish. The wizard threw up a few progress dialogues but nothing scary and in the end I was presented with an uplift report in Access.
I closed access and then used Management Studio to check the new database. It's all there! Excellent.
Step 1 is complete as I have a populated SQL database that I can use. On to step 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment