Again, thank you Lowell ... having read and discussed a lot about VS2010 & SQL Server, I, too, think that there are way too many variables in areas of the project that seem totally unnecessary and superfluous for the Express versions. Yes, I can understand the need for all of them in production Server environments, but to make the Express versions so unnecessarily complicated seems a bit pointless to me ... still, I've used MS products for enough years to expect the "challenge" by now !!!
At the moment, my Connection String is as follows (I have tried a few hundred variations so far ...) :
string myDBlocation = @"Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=KAELC_DB;Integrated Security=True"; //Connect Timeout=30;User Instance=True";
... and I access it in various places like this :
using (SqlConnection myDB = new SqlConnection(myDBlocation))
Lowell (3/20/2012)
gary.p.heath (3/20/2012)
OK, thank you, that makes sense.No, my program is a Windows Form with multiple Tabs that allows the user to update the database (yearly maintenance) and then process the data on a regular (monthly-ish) basis, there is nothing like that screen of yours.
So I need to copy the database itself onto the USB when I deploy the Project, and create a small Setup program of my own that will copy the database, create a backup, amend the Config file and allow the "string" in the program to pick up the parameters of the new user's machine from that config file ?
I'd forgot the program of my own that will copy the database", and instead add documentation ("A SQL Server Instance of at least SQL Express is required") and instructions on how to restore the database.
then additional instructions on how to change the connection string to point to their server.
there are WAY to many variables in my opinion related to trying to create a program that will create the database...which comes right back down to the program needing to know where an exisitng database is (or installing SQL Express silently)
is your conneciton string hardcoded into the application?
Private Const SqlConnectionFormat As String =
"data source={0};
initial catalog={1};
user id={2};
password={3};
Trusted_Connection=False;
Application Name=Stormrage.ReportGrid.exe;"