Front-end for Sql server - What's best?

  • LAN only-Access is fine. WAN-Unless you have Access 2000 or are using passthrough queries, get rid of the Access altogether. You're probably the reason everyone is surfing the internet so slowly and mail takes 5 minutes to transverse the WAN. Access+WAN=disaster. VB+Crystal+SQL is the way to go. Crystal has "drill-down" capabilies that other reporting software is missing. "Drill-down" allows you to run summary reports, then select specific totals and view the individual records behind them. This reduces the number of reports you have to write to begin with. Also, you can create an external reference in VB for your Crystal reports and add reports without having to recompile the app. You can simply release the new reference file. Crystal also offers much more dynamic reporting capability than data reports. VB.Net comes with Crystal 8 to replace the data report writer. Even with Crystal, it's still best to write an SP in SQL to gen the report data. Also, different versions of Crystal don't play nice on the desktop and can be problematic.

  • What IS the best programming language for SQL Server? As this thread points out, everyone is going to have their own opinion based on their experience-levels and background. I've been working on a project since early Spring that is written in C# (using SQL Server 2000 backend). I think C# is an awesome language - I'd recommend at least looking into it. If you're looking for something 'new' why not give it a shot? I can't imagine now, after writing C# for 3 months, ever going back to VB or Powerbuilder [oh..and I would never recommend trying to link tables and write any new stuff in VBA..yuk].

    Good Luck!

  • quote:


    What IS the best programming language for SQL Server? As this thread points out, everyone is going to have their own opinion based on their experience-levels and background. I've been working on a project since early Spring that is written in C# (using SQL Server 2000 backend). I think C# is an awesome language - I'd recommend at least looking into it. If you're looking for something 'new' why not give it a shot? I can't imagine now, after writing C# for 3 months, ever going back to VB or Powerbuilder [oh..and I would never recommend trying to link tables and write any new stuff in VBA..yuk].

    Good Luck!


    wish I were at the same point you are. Throw us a couple bones in terms of likes of C# vs. both VB6 and VB.NET. I'd be interested to hear of what you have discovered so far in relation to what you used to work with (benefits/drawbacks etc).

    also any idea where I can find a SQL Server Datatype to C# Datatype mapping? I posted this question on another thread here an no mapping yet. this is not the .NET datatypes (i.e. sqldbtype) but pure C# datatype.

    here is a link to .NET sqltype types but can't find mapping to pure C#.

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfsystemdatasqltypes.asp

    Brian Lockwood

    President

    LockwoodTech Software

    Brian Lockwood
    President
    ApexSQL - SQL Developer Essentials

    http://www.apexsql.com/blog

    Stand up for an Independent SQL Community - be Informed

  • Hi Wing,

    quote:


    should I continue using MS-access as my front-end or use another programs as front-end such as fox-pro, powerbuilder ?


    I would suggest to you to check out a tool called Clarion. It's been around for almost 20 years and is one of the best RAD tools around. http://www.softvelocity.com/core/default.html will give you some ideas. I have some links and stuff on my website http://www.icetips.com. Some other links include http://www.clarionmag.com, http://www.clarionfoundry.com, http://www.clarionshop.com, http://www.capesoft.com, http://www.tomruby.com/clarion/ You can also visit comp.lang.clarion usenet newsgroup at http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=is&lr=&group=comp.lang.clarion or the google links at

    http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Programming/Languages/Clarion/

    Hope this helps:)

    Best regards,

    Arnór Baldvinsson

    San Antonio, Texas, USA


    Arnór Baldvinsson
    San Antonio, Texas, USA

  • The report writer in Access is, IMHO, the best available.

    Crystal and all similar products are limited in many ways and do not provide the power and usability of the Access reports.

    I'd also stear clear of .NET.

    I'm using it for my own small project at the moment and it is astonishing how immature it is.

    If you want to use it for generating the sort of web[service] based applications that MS thinks we should all be writing you may get away with it, otherwise I'd leave it for a year or two.

    Choosing a programming language is a very personal thing - they all have benefits and weaknesses but in most cases you should just choose the one that you think is most easy to read (to start with).

    If you think it looks sensible now you will probably be more productive in it.

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