.NET Framework - SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 Express Version Installation nightmare

Asked By gran

26-Apr-07 06:53 AM

Well good old Bill Gates has done it again. Microsoft couldnt have
made the installation of SQL Server 2005 Expess and  Visual Studio
2005 Express any more confusing and painfull if they had tried.

Why is the visual Studio shell bundled with SQL Server Advanced
toolkit (I'm referring to the screen that open up when you click on
the Visual Studio menu item)? Surely this should be a separate
download in the Visual Studio download area, or bundled with the
Visual Studio program applications.

And I assume it is the product that is refered to as the "Business
Intelligence Development Studio" in the SQL Server toolkit download
area.

So, after about 4 days of lost time over the past few weeks, I have
finally got SQL Server Express, Visual Studio Express and Visual Basic
2005 up and running, but I'm now just as confused as when I started.

Why is Visual Basic 2005 showing up as a separate application and not
accessed from within Visual Studio?

Why are DB connection strings defined in the Visual Basic application
hard coded to the MDF filepath, whereas they are "normal"  Server
\databasename style in Visual Studio

Why is there ABSOLUTLY NO DOCUMENTATION on how to use Visual Studio
from within the Visual studio help menu. Why does the help open by
default to SQL Server help and not Visual studio or installed
allpications help.

Where are some web based help sites that show me the basics of exactly
what a "solution", "project" and item are.

I've got 10 yrs experience developing on MS Acess and Visual Basic for
applicaitons, and now want to migrate to something that offers the dot
net component, but where exactly does that sit in all this?.

Now I know why most develpers say it takes 3-5 time longer to develope
the same applicaiton in native visual basic compared to Access!

Thanks in advance

Grant

27-Apr-07 01:35 AM

AFAIK there is no "Visual Studio Express Edition" product.


You download the Express product/products that best suit your needs from
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/downloads/

They are all seperate products and are not supposed to integrate their IDEs.

The paid products (VS Standard edition and up) do integrate these products.

--
Rory

26-Apr-07 09:47 AM

Hi Grant,

Back in 1999, I rewrote an application.  The plan was VB on the front end
and Sybase SqlAnywhere on the backend.  After being 10% of the way into the
project with 25% of the budget spent, I too came to the conclusion that it
takes 3 to 5 times as long to develop in VB compared to Access.  Access,
however, does not perform well in a multi-user environment.  I restarted the
project, wrote a VB DLL then runs in the Access process space and delivered
an application built using Access on the front end with Sybase on the back
end running 125 times faster than normal Access. Plus it is fully mult-user
and never breaks.

Fast foward to today.  .NET and specifically VS 2005 has some serious
problems.  However, ADO.NET is incredible.  The disconnected datasets (which
mirrors my VB DLL) coupled with the binding source architecture allow you
build, in a reasonable amount of time (1.5 - 2 times Access development
time), really high performance multi-user applications that don't break.

For the application I'm finishing up now, the Windows form clients are up
here in Maine while the database server is in New Jersey connected by a
fractional T1 over the Internet.  I am absolutely blown away by the
performance.  You would think the database was local.

So take heart - you are moving in the right direction.

Jim

27-Apr-07 10:03 AM

I, too had one heck of a time getting SQL Server 2005 Express
installed alongside of Visual Studio .NET 2005. However, I am using
the full Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition package. The trouble is
that VS2005 actually includes the SQL2005 database engine so that the
developer can utilize local data files (.MDF) as a SQL Server
datasource. This fact causes subsequent attempts to install the
separate SQL Server 2005 Express Edition to be frought with confusion.

First off, SQL Express is provided in various different packages. If
you want it this way, download File A. If you want it that way,
download File B. Though they do provide some documentation outlining
the features covered in each package, that documentation is not real
clear. File C might actually include everything in File A plus *some*
of File B, but if you then want the rest of what is included in File
B, you need File D, which also gives you some additional
functionality, yet. Now, it's likely that this is not really the way
it is set up, but the documentation leads me to this misunderstanding.

Secondly, depending on the package you download, it may refuse to
install, stating that there is nothing to do. I assume this is because
of the SQL 2005 data engine facilities included in the VS2005
installation. That would be all well and good, except the VS2005
installation does not provide everything that that *is* included in
that package that doesn't think there is anything left to install. I
typically have to install Visual Studio 2005, remove anything SQL-
related through the Control Panel and then install the SQL Server 2005
Express package of my choosing.

In short, I have to agree with Grant. It really shouldn't be this
confusing.

Rich