I'm looking to build a specialized msi installer, preferably with VS2010 to do the following:
Be able to configure SQL server connection.
Pick the database to be used from the SQl server.
Create database table with specified credentials.
Assign a new DB user a set of permissions.
Also configure the IIS application.
I looked into a default installer project in VS2010 and it has nothing related to dealing with SQL server and IIS. Any idea how can I do all this?
Visual Studio setup projects do not offer support for SQL scripts and IIS. The best you can do is write some custom actions (using custom code) to handle this during install.
Commercial setup authoring tools offer the most control over SQL scripts and IIS elements. You can find a list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_installation_software
You can also try WiX. It has a steep learning curve, but it's free and gets the job done.
Related
Me and my team are developing a SQL Server database. We want to work on different PCs, but with the same database. Is it possible that we can synchronise our work on each PC, or share our database while working somehow?
If possible how can Team Foundation server be used for that?
You can use SQL Server Database Tools (SSDT) to represent your database as a series of scripts. These scripts can then be added to source control. Git is by far the most popular source control system there is and Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Team Services have great Git support.
Each developer will use Visual Studio (or VS Code) on their own machine to do their database work. When the developer wants to share their changes, they commit them to source control. Other developers can then update their local version of the code with the new changes. SSDT adds support for bringing your database and database project in sync.
Now that your code is in source control you can go a step further and add things like continuous integration builds and automated deployments with VSTS Build and Release Management. That way you can automatically test database changes and even run unit and integration tests before deploying to test and production environments.
The following Channel9 video gives an introduction to these tools: Database Continuous Integration and Deployment with Visual Studio SQL Server Data Tools in < 10 minutes
If you only care about schema changes (and not data changes), you can use visual studio's SQL Server projects, and a source control system, to help manage this. You can then use the Schema Compare tool to compare your project to the server, the server to your project, or server to server.
There are some tools from the likes of Redgate, etc, that allow this process to be automated. I've not used those, but they may be another option.
I have a windows forms application, that i want to deploy as installation project using visual studio 2010.
I am using SQLite database and i want to create a connection string while the installation to the installation directory.
On the other hand, i do not know should i attach my empty database to the install project or i have to create it while the installation?
I found lot of web sites, but none of them helped.
Thank you in advance all the help and please refer helper links in this topic.
Here is a tutorial which can get you started:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307353
Visual Studio is very limited when it comes to the setup project features. It doesn't support SQL connections, so you can do it only through a custom action.
If you need advanced features (like an SQL connection), I recommend a different setup tool:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_installation_software
I have developed a windows form application. I have also created a database on sql server and added data to this database.
Now i want to install this application at clients place. I want to know the ways to move my created database on client's location. How can i do this during application installation? If i have to include database scripts in installation file and run it.how can i do it? If its a long process please specify links which helps me in accomplishing this task.
Thankyou very much.
Look at the GDR R2 database project (part of Visual Studio).
You can use this to reverese engineer your existing database into scripts within a Database project, and place under source code control. You can synchronise existing and deploy fresh databases from this project.
Visual Studio 2010 SQL Server Database Projects
An Overview of Database Build and Deployment
Visual Studio Database Guide
You can also use commercial tools such as those sold by RedGate.
Hey, I've just finished writing a VB.NET application. Now I want to package the executable and the database ofcourse into a single installer file. I tried using QSetup, InstallShield to make SQL Server embedded into the setup file, and finally after hours of try&fail I have no idea. Anyone?
You can do a rightmouse on the properties of your Visual Studio Setup Project, and then there is this button 'Prerequisites'. There you can tick 'SQL Server Express ...' Or the 'SQL Server Compact 3.5'
link to image
You're probably best off just to set the connection file directly to the mdf, and attach it when the program is run. This is easier as it doesn't require a custom setup script to install the database to the database directory itself.
Note: Consider using the Compact Version, it's smaller, people don't like a full blown engine on their computer :)
InstallShield has a concept called Setup Prerequisites where you can teach it how to install additional packages along with your own. In older versions this would happen before calling your MSI. In newer versions you can have a "Feature" prerequisite where the prereq can associated to a feature and only installed if that feature is selected to be installed and after it's been selected but still before the main activity of your MSI occurs during the install execute sequence.
InstallShield also has a pattern for executing SQL scripts against your database instance so that you can then load your database into your newly installed instance.
All of this is quite powerful but it does take a bit of digging to learn.
As far as I know, anything but the SQL Server Compact Edition (SQL Server CE) cannot be embedded into your setup, really. Microsoft doesn't want that - you need to have SQL Server Express installed separately - any other edition can't even be shipped with your software (the client must have a license and installation separately).
You can indeed distribute SQL server with your custom application:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb264562(SQL.90).aspx
I have a WPF desktop application that uses a custom database for storage.
I need to prepare a setup project (from Visual studio 2008) (full setup, not ClickOnce).
I can add the to the list of prerequisites to the application and it does install during the setup of the application.
My question is: How can I run a script during the setup to create the database that the application needs? OR how can I restore the database to the client machine during the setup?
Another related question, what would happen if already exists on the client machine? How to detect the instance name and connection data? And then how to be able -if needed- to change the Connection string used by Entity framework to connect to that database?
Thanks,
Ed
SQL Server Express Edition is generally a really poor choice for a local database. It's a server-class engine that likes to use a lot of resources and runs as a service (so it's using up those resources even when your app isn't running). In other words, it belongs on a server.
The only place I've seen SQL Server Express used on a desktop that almost makes sense is as part of the Microsoft Small Business Accounting app, and in this case you generally install that program on a machine who's primary purpose is doing the accounting for your business.
What you should do is use a desktop or in-process class engine like SQL Server Compact Edition, Sqlite, or even Access. This will also greatly simplify your deployment.
If you insist on pushing through with this, know that the installer will create a new instance of sql server on the system. SQL Server will be fine with this. However, you'll need to account for that in the connection string of your app, and that can be a little more complicated. Additionally, to set up the database you have a couple options:
Create it from client code on first start of the app
Create it with a custom installer action (hard to get right because msi permissions)
Distribute an pre-build *.mdf file and attach with custom installer action or on first start of the app.