VB.Net 2003 standard connecting to SQL Server

[Decidion]

I received a copy of VB.NET 2003 standard from Microsoft as part of a
promotion by viewing ASP.NET webcasts. Included was an ASP training CD and
"ASP.NET Programming with Visual Basic.NET" by G. Andrew Duthie.

From all I can tell it is a full *standard* version.... not something
gimped. Yet when I try creating a data connection and point it to SQL Server
a message comes back telling me that it is ".....unable to connect and that
this version of Visual Studio can only use the SQL Server Desktop Edition and
MS Access as data sources....".

What?!?!?!!?

They sent me this copy with training materials that are using full SQL
Server databases, not desktop editions. So I cant use the software they
provide to actually *do* the exercises?

Perhaps this is a bug? Perhaps I am doing something wrong? Can anyone help
me out?

As a side note, I reveiwed the VB.Net 2003 product page and looked at their
comparison between the standard and professional versions and nowhere can I
find it saying that you can only connect to SQL Server DE and MS Access with
the standard edition. In fact it is even misleading because it says you can
upgrade old vb apps with the standard edition.... what they should have said
is that you can upgrade old database apps as long as they use SQL Server DE
or MS Access as a datasource!

Any help, advice, clarification and direction would be greatly appreciated!!

Dec

[Joseph MCAD]

Jan. 6, 2005

I had that happen to me once with the Professional Edition. I had to
uninstall and then reinstall it. If that doesn't work then you will want to
uninstall and reinstall the SQL Server too. It was rather frustrating, but
fortunately I was going to reformat my hard drives so I was going to have to
do it anyway. I found that it might have also been caused by specifying an
instance name for the server when I installed SQL Server (it isn't supposed
to matter either way though). If you stay with the default name when you
install it, you might prevent it from happening again. You should be able to
connect to it just fine (and I have), so this is just a bug. It is a rather
time-consuming one too! If this reply helps you, then please click the "Yes"
just above this message where the question asks "Was this post helpful to
you?". Thanks and happy waiting for it to install again! :)
Joseph MCAD

"Decidion" wrote:

I received a copy of VB.NET 2003 standard from Microsoft as part of a
promotion by viewing ASP.NET webcasts. Included was an ASP training CD and
"ASP.NET Programming with Visual Basic.NET" by G. Andrew Duthie.

From all I can tell it is a full *standard* version.... not something
gimped. Yet when I try creating a data connection and point it to SQL Server
a message comes back telling me that it is ".....unable to connect and that
this version of Visual Studio can only use the SQL Server Desktop Edition and
MS Access as data sources....".

What?!?!?!!?

They sent me this copy with training materials that are using full SQL
Server databases, not desktop editions. So I cant use the software they
provide to actually *do* the exercises?

Perhaps this is a bug? Perhaps I am doing something wrong? Can anyone help
me out?

As a side note, I reveiwed the VB.Net 2003 product page and looked at their
comparison between the standard and professional versions and nowhere can I
find it saying that you can only connect to SQL Server DE and MS Access with
the standard edition. In fact it is even misleading because it says you can
upgrade old vb apps with the standard edition.... what they should have said
is that you can upgrade old database apps as long as they use SQL Server DE
or MS Access as a datasource!

Any help, advice, clarification and direction would be greatly appreciated!!

Dec

[Chris]

The standard edition does not include all the data wizards that the
more advanced versions do.

You can connect to SQL server but you must code it yourself.

I recommend checking out the Microsoft Data Application Block. It
makes it easy to write code to connect to SQL server and it's free

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ml/daab-rm.asp

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

"Decidion" <De******@discussions.microsoft.com> schrieb:

I received a copy of VB.NET 2003 standard from Microsoft as part of a
promotion by viewing ASP.NET webcasts. Included was an ASP training CD and
"ASP.NET Programming with Visual Basic.NET" by G. Andrew Duthie.

From all I can tell it is a full *standard* version.... not something
gimped. Yet when I try creating a data connection and point it to SQL
Server
a message comes back telling me that it is ".....unable to connect and
that
this version of Visual Studio can only use the SQL Server Desktop Edition
and
MS Access as data sources....".

Standard edition is lacking designers and wizards for SQL Server databases
and other databases except MSDE and Microsoft Access. Nevertheless, you
still /can/ build applications that work together with SQL Server, but you
will have to establish connections etc. by code. Connection strings for SQL
Server can be found at <URL:http://www.connectionstrings.com/>.

--
M S Herfried K. Wagner
M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
V B <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/dotnet/faqs/>