Accessing a Databse via VB Express ?

[Terbinator]

Basically my coursework for Computing is a MS Access DB with a VB Express front end. I have absolutely no idea where to start and the attempts to contact my tutor for guides/tutorials have returned nil results.

So yeah any help would be appreciated. The program in a nutshell will be a booking/tracking system for my client ( a chiropodist in this case) and revolve around creating, ammending, and tracking previous appointments, personal data for patients etc - nothing too fancy.

All ideas welcome.

[scaryjim]

When you say VB Express do you mean using VBA, Windows Forms or web based?

Either way, I'd start with SQL Server Express rather than Access - or is Access specified by your course? (Shame on them if it is!). The below assumes you have to use Access, if not let me know and I can give you a few pointers on using SQL Express instead.

Start by writing up a data schema and dividing it out into all the appropriate tables / relations etc. Remember than any data, particularly text data, that you change / update / insert regularly is better off as a lookup to avoid input errors. Then I'd write queries for both data access and data entry (this is the bit where SQL Express is vastly superior to Access, btw: stored procedures make this step a piece of cake) - if you hunt on google and the MSDN website you should be able to find ways of making parameterised queries in Access and utilising them with DAO / ADO / .NET (whichever is most appropriate for your particular flavour of VB / VBA / VB.NET). Don't even think about starting the front end until you've got ~ 90% of your database done - it's much easier to visualise what elements you need on your forms if you know what the data model behind them is like. Then start writing the front end, modifying the database where necessary (and remember that it *will* be necessary - there's always something you forget when designing the backend database for an application ).

I've done quite a lot of data appliction design over the years, and I *always* follow the same basic procedure of defining the data elements then building the front end around that. It's served me well enough If you want any more pointers just ask

[Terbinator]

Yeah i was going to do the database first for the reasons you've mentioned. The course requirment is to use VB Express forms (lol i know) and Access is only what we've had suggested/used in college.

[scaryjim]

I take it in that case you're using the VB Express Edition of Visual Studio (as downloaded from Microsoft yeah)? In which case you'll be using the .NET Forms API - I'd definitely get SQL Express Edition and the SQL Management Studio Express: very good experience for going into the industry as it's what most software houses will be using (it's what I use at work). Very easy to set up, and much more flexible than Access. The MSDN website has all the SQL Server books to work through to teach yourself T-SQL and how to work with stored procedures, and the .NET framework has the System.Data.SqlClient namespace which makes it really easy to connect to and run your stored procedures from your VB code.

Have a good Google for best practices in coding, too. Your tutors at college (college? or uni?) probably won't be overly concerned about whether you've stuck to standard naming conventions, written modular reusable code etc. but you might as well get into good habits early rather than struggle to break bad habits later!

[LiamV]

Unfortunately, Microsoft's Visual Studio Express tools don't contain the Data Source Wizard that is bundled with the Pro edition, would make your life very easy in this project!

So considering your software limitations, I suggest you research the use of the ADO.NET OleDbConnection and OleDataAdapter classes within the .NET framework, and apply the concepts in a Console application first, and then move on to display/modifying data in Windows Forms Application.

A few good places to start would be here on the MSDN website
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bh8kx08z.aspx

OleDbConnection Reference
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...onnection.aspx

OleDataAdapter Reference
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...taadapter.aspx

If you're the kind of person who learns through example code, then look at this page:
http://www.java2s.com/Code/VB/Databa...tionString.htm

I've created database applications in .NET (C#) before, so don't hesitate to ask if you need a shove in the right direction!