I'm actually programming a quite big application and I was wondering when I should open/close a database connection.
My first thought was to open it at the beginning and keep the same DB connection the whole time. But this approach seems to have risks of failing (not sure why tho).
My second idea was to open/close as soon as possible like mentioned here: Best Practice on initializing a Database Connection
but as mentionned by someone in comment: "For the database, opening a connection is a very expensive operation." So the question remains:
When do I open / close a DB connection?
For context:
My application has multiple workspaces, for example, one workspace to see information about users, another one to process them, and so on. I had the idea to open the DB connection when I open a new workspace but when using the application it is possible to stay a very long time on the same workspace, which would be as bad as my first thought. But opening / closing the DB connection after seeing the info of one client isn't the smartest idea either.
Should I use a time-based refresh of the DB connection? Every 5 minutes I close and reopen a connection?
I'm not sure how to do this properly.
Related
I'm wondering is there a way to recognize the OfflineComamd is being executed or internal flag or something to represent this command has been passed or mark it has been executed successfully. I have issue in recognizing the command is passed or not with unstable internet. I keep retrieve the records from database and comparing each and every time to see this has been passed or not. But due to the flow of my application, I'm finding it very difficult to avoid duplicates.IS there any automatic process to make sure commands executed automatically or something else?
2nd question, I can use UITimer to check isOffline() to make sure internet is connected or not on the forms. Is there something equivalent on server page or where queries is written to see internet is disconnected or not. When the control moved to queries and internet is disconnected I see the dialog open from form page being frozen for unlimited time and will not end. I have to close and re-open the app to continue the synchronization process.At the same time I cannot set a timeout for dialog because I'm not sure how long it will take the complete the Synchronization process. Please advise.
Extending on the same topic but I have created a new issue just to give more clarity on my questions.
executeOfflineCommand skips a command while executing from storage on Android
There is no way to know if a connection will stay stable as it requires knowledge of the future. You can work like transaction services do where the server side processes an offline command as a transaction using the approach of 2-phase commit.
In this approach you have an algorithm similar to this:
Client sends command to server
Server returns a special unique ID for the command
Client asks server to perform the unique id
Server acknowledges that the command was performed
If the first 2 stages didn't complete you just do that again. The worst thing that could happen is some orphan commands on the server.
If the 3rd option didn't complete you just do it again. The server knows whether it processed the command and will just acknowledge it if it was already processed.
Just wondering if there is a way that I can close all SQL connections and commands in the cleanest possible way when a connection is lost in VB.NET (can also be in C#.NET).
What I'm trying to achieve:
Using the System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkAvailabilityChanged event, I'm monitoring whether the connection has been lost. If it has been lost, I'm disabling all user input - works great. Network comes back on, UI is enabled. (thumbs up)
Now, however, comes my predicament. If an SQL query is executing before the connection drops and then the network is lost, then the query returns a null value as expected, however if that was mid population of datatables/fields, then I get NullReferenceExceptions.
My question is:
Is there anyway to cleanly exit a sub after the connection has dropped? I've tried Application.ExitThread, but that doesn't seem to quite cut it. Do I need to put dropped connection handlers within my objects, so that when the connection is dropped, the respective object won't return or try to assign null data?
Any help is greatly appreciated. Not asking for plain code, need explanations if at all possible. Cheers.
If you follow the "using" best practice, like:
Using cn As New SqlConnection(connectionString)
...
End Using
Then the compiler will generate code that cleans up the connection when an exception is thrown.
The Access database just needs to be open and it will usually crash within the next 20-40mins, resulting in the following error message:
Your network access was interrupted. To continue, close the database, and then open it again.
More details:
The database is split, with the back end and front end on a server. The computers are then connected to the server via LAN (ethernet).
Although there are multiple computers connected to the server, the database only has one user at a time.
The database has been fine for almost a year, until this week where this error has started occurring.
We never have connectivity issues with the server.
I have seen several answers saying it is:
the databases fault, as it is starting to corrupt
the servers fault, as it broken, dropping my connection briefly
microsofts fault, they should patch it
I am hoping this is a problem with the database itself, as I am not responsible for the server.
Does anyone have a definitive solution?
I have recently experienced the same problem, and it all started when I moved my DB in an extrernal disk. The same db was working just fine in the local disk, or in the previous external disk. So, i am guessing is just a bug that has to do with the disk letter changing or something like this.
The problem sounds like an unstable LAN connection OR changes the LAN location (e.g. new hardware or changs to admin settings) causing increased latency.
If you have forms in the FE bound to BE tables the latency can cause the connection to be severed resulting in the error you see.
I'm not a network admin but the main culprits I've seen are:
Users connecting to the network using a VPN using an unstable connection (cell phones, crappy wifi, or just bad ISP service).
Network admins capping persistent connections to a share causing disconnects.
Unstable network hardware or bad hardware configuration.
"Switching" between wired and wireless LAN connections.
I don't think the issue is the database other than having bound forms to a BE database which is more of a fundemental design problem than anything else.
Good luck!
I use Access 2010. I had the same issue but solved it in the following ways.
On the external data ribbon, go to the Import & link group and click on Linked Table Manager.
Click on select all.
Click on Ok to refresh the links.
In cases where the path of the BackEnd database file has been changed, browse to the new location and select the new path. This will also refresh the links. This will solve the problem. It did for me.
You wrote, "The database has been fine for almost a year, until this week where this error has started occurring."
Clearly something has recently changed for this to be happening and without narrowing the field of possibilities it's anyone's guess. However, in my experience Jet DB crashes when two or more users are accessing and editing the same record(s) at the same time. So, if you've recently added new users this is a possibility.
Note: Jet is a file-server DB not a client server, which means the app was probably designed for a specific number of front-end users. Without knowing more I would start there.
I resolved my issue on this when I figured out that I had a offline directory setup and the sync was having an issue I turned off the sync and tested it and the error went away.
I have an access database that has been used for many years, converted from Access 2000 to 2007 and was fine. In the last couple weeks it has been doing strange things!
There is a form for 'editing' a record. When the user clicked on the button to open this form, a small white box appeared and said 'Record Deleted'.
After that, the database was corrupted. I support this database and I can not even get into it in design view. When I try to open it (holding the shift key down while opening it), it takes a while, then it displays the Access design page that has the 'blank database' icon and to the right it lists the frequent opened databases.
So, I can't even get the to objects. The only option I had was to restore from a previous night backup. This meant the users lost all their work for the day. Today, one week later, it has happened again. All the users work was lost because I had to restore from backup.
I don't know where to begin to trouble shoot this since I can not get into it in design view when it has become corrupted. Looking for any suggestions to debug this. I can use a copy of the database I had restored.
Thanks
As a first and most important suggestion. You should split your database.You can do this from the database tools tab on top. By doing this you will have a seperate back end independat of the front end and your client will not loose any data as if they get the error / corrupted database it would not affect the data secured in the backend
Second I havent had the exact same error but in the past I have faced instances where the forms just dont work. a recommendation i read somewhere was to create a new blank form and copy over the elements from this form onto that and delete this form. I doubt if there is any problem with the VBA but it would be worth compiling the code to check.
Apologies if this does not help much, but I hope the first suggestions helps protect your client data in the instance your database crashes.
First, check if any automated VBA code or macro is running on OnOpen, OnLoad, OnCurrent, AfterUpdate, OnDirty, etc. events of the troubleshooting forms. Simply open the VBA window and look at code on the specific form's module. Or in the case of macros, open form in design view and check the Event tab of Property Sheet (and the same for specific buttons, textboxes, etc.). There may be DoCmd.RunCommands occurring when users interact with form controls.
Also, if you find yourself unable to open forms or deal with a corrupted database, consider beginning with a blank Access .accdb file and import all objects from the previous Access 2000 .mdb file. And if specific controls don't function properly, recreate them as needed.
As mentioned above, split your database between BackEnd (only tables) and FrontEnd (forms, queries, macros, modules) which prevents corruption, efficiently runs systems as only data is sent across the network and not whole application items, and overall fosters a better multi-user environment. Each user can have copies of the FE on their local machines but all will connect to one BE on a shared network. To help, Access 2007-2013 has a button for this on the Ribbon under Database Tools.
We are using ASP.NET MVC with LINQ to SQL. We added some features and tested them all to perfection on our QA box. We are using Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2005. So when we pushed out changes to the Live web server we also used Red Gate SQL Compare to push new database changes to the LIVE database. We tested again between the few of us, no problems. Time for bed.
The morning comes and users are starting to hit the app, and BOOM. We have no idea why this would happen as we have not been doing any new types of code things that we were not doing before. However we did notice that during the SQL Compare sync the names of all the foreign keys were different between the two databases, not the IDs in the tables, FK_AssetAsset_A0EB67 to FK_AssetAsset_B67EF8 (for example, don't remember the exact number of trailing mixed characters during the SQL Compare), we are not sure why but that is another variable in this problem.
Strangely once this was all pushed out we could then replicate the errors on QA, but not before everything was pushed to LIVE.
QA and LIVE databases are on the same SQL Server, but the apps are on different instances of Windows Server 2003.
Errors generated:
Index was outside the bounds of the array.
Invalid attempt to call FieldCount when reader is closed.
Server failed to resume the transaction.
There is already an open DataReader associated with this Command which must be closed first.
A transport-level error has occurred when sending the request to the server.
A transport-level error has occurred when receiving results from the server.
Invalid attempt to call Read when reader is closed.
Invalid attempt to call MetaData when reader is closed.
Count must be positive and count must refer to a location within the string/array/collection. Parameter name: count
ExecuteReader requires an open and available Connection. The connection's current state is connecting.
Any one have any idea what the heck could have happened?
EDIT: Since we were able to replicate the errors all of a sudden on QA, it might not be a user load issue... Needless to say we all feel really screwed here.
Concurrency always brings bugs out of the woodwork. I'd recommend you check for objects that could be shared among requests (such as static members and singletons) and refactor your code so that as little as possible is shared.
As far as specifics go, for the error "There is already an open DataReader associated with this Command which must be closed first," you may want to try adding MultipleActiveResultSets=True to your connection strings.
It sounds like you're crossing the streams a bit and trying to share DataContexts across requests. My suggestion would be to wire in a dependancy injection framework that creates a new instance of the dependancy for each request.
I use Castle's IoC and wire it into the controller factory so that when it sees a dependancy on a repository it creates a new instance of that repository for each request. If you go this route let me know and I can shoot you a few more resources.