Winforms: Write app.settings during Setup - winforms

I've battled with modifying Configuration settings in the App.config file in the past, and gave up any hope of making it work. Now again, I find myself in the same shoes, but this time determined to sort it out!
The application Im creating is a WindowsForms .NET 3.5 (SP1) app. It is to be used in a closed, networked environment. It is not a SmartClient app, but an "always-connected" one, and transacts over the local network with a central database server.
The app works fine, and now that Im ready to deploy and create the setup files, I must ask 2 very important questions:
How do I (especially!) 'modify' the ConnectionString value from the Setup Wizards? ;and
How/where do/should I encrypt this value?
This is surely something every developer goes thru when moving from development to production, and I would sincerely appreciate any help.
Thank you!

This question provides good information on how to modify the configuration file (in general) during setup.

Related

How to transfer live WordPress site to Wamp?

I've got a wordpress site that I have been using for a year now and it is hosted with HostGator. I have got a few tests i would like to run on the site, but I would like to test it offline using wamp first before making it LIVE.
The problem is previously I was always making changes to the LIVE site, usually at hours when I get little to no traffic. However, that has changed now and I do get traffic most hours through out a 24hr day.
So my problem is:
How do i download my existing website to laptop (wamp) and make those changes with new theme? (total newbie, sorry!)
I use Windows 7, so not sure what I need to be doing to get the site working like a live site offline.
Once I have implemented the new changes, what is the best way to upload the updated site back to the HostGator server without having any downtime or errors for site visitors?
Is there anything else I need to install or do inorder for this to work? I hope you can give me as much information as possible or any links to any guides or articles that explain how to do this.
Thanks so much for any help you can offer!!!
If you're using Hostgator, the process is simple:
Install XAMPP or WAMPP on your computer;
Go to your cPanel, backup and download your website;
Extract the backup to your computer, specially the homedir and the sql;
Go to your local environment, access http://localhost/phpmyadmin
Create a new database, doesn't matter the name but for the example let's call it "database";
Inside that database, import the one taken from the backup;
create a new folder inside your htdocs with the name of your website, "example.com";
Extract the content of the homedir there;
edit wp-config with the following data:
Host: 'localhost'
Username: 'root'
Password: blank
access http://localhost/example.com
You can check a good tutorial about the subject here.
About putting the site live, I recommend you to use a GIT repository, however it's understandable that might be a little complicated and perhaps too much work for what you're trying to achieve.
Try to move your files directly from your local to live environment using Filezilla or WinSCP, the drag and drop should replace the files live and the downtime should be minimal.
Instead of WAMP, you can always use VirtualBox to install CentOS or Ubuntu/Debian.
You can go one further and install either CentminMod to automate creating a LAMP, or a full panel like ISPConfig or Virtualmin.
That take care of create the environment.
Create a new account on the LAMP, using the same domain name.
You can FTP with Windows to get the files, but networking Windows and Linux is a pain. The better option is to use the command line (CLI) in the Linux VM to ftp the files from Hostgator to the VM. This guide will help with that process: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/FTP-3.html
Then your only concern is the MySQL database. And for this, you have several options.
For me, the easiest is to buy (or try!) SQLyog on Windows, and then copy the database from the Hostgator source to the localhost destination. Some mild networking is needed for Windows to see the Linux VM, but nothing as complex as file sharing (the FTP issue). SQLyog is far quicker than backing up the database, then restoring it -- especially since you can run into memory issues doing it this way. It fully depends on the size of the database.
The cheap/free backup>restore method is to use phpMyAdmin.
WordPress also has plugins, of varying cost, but you still have the possible backup>restore memory issue there as well.
When done, just copy it the other way, again using SQLyog and CLI ftp. You'll still have some downtime, but it will hopefully be minimal.
As a newbie, this probably seems like rocket science, but at least it gives you a good place to start. Welcome to the world of locally dev'ing sites!

Eclipse can't connect database

Is it possible to build desktop application whit small data base on linux/ubuntu? I have try eclipse+derby- not work, driver load, but can't connect to db. Eclipse +sqlite- not work too, No suitable driver. For a week from now i trying and can't connect to my db. If some1 have WORKING tutorial how to do this in ubuntu+eclipse, pls share. 1 week google, so please if some1 pass this to help me.
Now im using SQLite, i have load the sqlitejdbc-v051.jar in build path and use
Class.forName("org.sqlite.JDBC").newInstance();
but the result is: No suitable driver found for jdbc:derby:/home/vasil/MYDB
Have you taken a look at this site? It seems to be a fairly decent walkthrough. Is the db server that you are trying to connect to running and somewhere accessible to your application?
Take a look at this question. It seems to be very similar to yours. I havn't used derby but I have used many other db servers. It sounds like you dont have the driver on your applications classpath.
Also, this tutorial might also be helpful. It shows how to use jdbc to connect to a db.

Could someone please provide a walkthrough for deploying a SQL Server / VC# app?

I have just completed (basically) a beginner's database application with SQL Server and Visual C#. I am using Visual C# Express, not the full-scale Visual Studio thing, which apparently makes deploying the application properly a bit more complicated. I've seen where some other people have asked about how to deploy such an application from that IDE, but I'm not able to fully understand and use some of the answers that they've been getting back.
Therefore I must ask how to deploy this application properly, but I must also ask that there be a simple walkthrough given. College doesn't teach much about how to deploy these things, so I'm very newbish at it. Thanks!
I don't know of an automated way to deploy the database. If it's the first time the database is hitting the server, I backup on the source, and restore on the target...simple.
As far as the code, here's what I do:
Publish (right-click, Publish) the code to a local directory (I use C:\Websites\SiteName).
Use and ftp client to promote the output to the server.
Make any necessary adjustments to the web.config to point correctly to your target database.
When and if you need to make changes later, you might want to consider a tool I use for this purpose, BeyondCompare. It can perform a diff between your local files and the target site via FTP, and tell you exactly what you need to deploy to make it work. This won't detect changes in your db, however, though there are plenty of Sql diff tools along the same lines. My general principle is "make the local site work perfectly, and then make the target site just like the local site".
Things to watch for in #3 above are that the target address is right in the connection string, along with whatever security credentials you will need to connect to the db.
HTH.

Syncing a site with a local machine?

I do my web development and testing on my laptop running an installation of xampp - I upload things to my host, but I always go through cpanel's file manager to do it. I realize that there's definitely a better way to go about it, but I need to be pointed in the right direction to do so, also other tips on how to manage stuff would be appreciated.
FTP - can I keep my site's stuff synched to a local directory on htdocs so I can keep my site backed up on my computer yet update the site with whatever changes I make locally? Can anyone recommend a good client (preferably free) that I can use to do this?
Database stuff - how do I backup / sync databases in the same way? Ideally I'd like to do the same thing as with my files. Merge / upload whatever I've developed with a click or two. Is this possible? Is this wise?
Any help and advice would be appreciated. :)
I do my development in Eclipse which allows me to combine development and sync via FTP in one environment. It will also tell you if a file changed on the server and allow you to decide whether to override it or not. You can also disable the syncing of certain types of files with pattern matching and use other technologies like WebDAV or SSH to sync (if supported by your host of course).

Update a local/client Microsoft Access Database from a server (MS SQL Server2005)

I've got a website that runs on a shared hosting environment, using ASP.net 2.0 (C#) and MS SQL Server 2005. I've recently been asked if I can integrate my website with a piece of third party desktop software that uses the Access runtime as its database (transparent to the end user).
Primarily I want to be able to offer users of my website the option of exporting their data into the Access database on their local machine. The data schema's match sufficiently, the question is how to actually do this, and in the simplest way possible for the user.
Simply having a webpage update the local Access database isn't possible due to the obvious security restrictions. I've considered asking them to upload the Access database to the server, so I can migrate the data then allow them to download it again, however the competency of the users of this software is such that even locating the Access database, let alone uploading and downloading it from the website might be too complicated.
I've also considered if Adobe Air or Silverlight could help here, but don't know them well enough to know for sure. Similarly I'm assuming another exe could be written to perform this task that the user could simply download and run, however my experience is in web development, not program development, so this isn't a 100% certainty for me, or an ideal development option for me.
So, can this be done, and if so what technique can achieve this, with the stated aims being ease of use for the end user, followed by ease of development by someone with web development as their main skill. Many thanks!
You may find this answer of interest: Best way to stream files in ASP.NET
It is about transferring a file from the server. You could save Excel or CSV and use that to update Access.
Instead of trying to do this in a web page you might just expose some views from your sql server to some client specific logins.
Then within the Access application, allow them to tie to your sql server. You might even provide an access application for getting the data from your site and stuffing it in their local access database.
In my work we have done something similar that is transparent to the user by creating an ActiveX control. The problem is that you are limiting the users to use only Internet Explorer.
I think that the best way to achieve what you are trying to do is by installing a service in the client's computer. If creating a service is beyond your experience you can post a project in a place like oDesk and find somebody that can help you with the development for the money that you are willing to pay to complete your project.
Good Luck.

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