The problem with installing SQL Server Express via the Microsoft Web Platform Installer

  • December 26, 2010
  • James Skemp
In the past I've talked up Microsoft's Web Platform Installer. With this tool installed you can easily get an IIS server correctly setup. However, as I work my way through Pete Brown's Silverlight 4 in Action I found myself needing to install AdventureWorks (something I had looked into in the past as well). Unfortunately, Web Platform Installer installs one of the 'lower' versions of SQL Server Express, without the advanced services, which is required for AdventureWorks.

Read More

Installing SQL Server Express 2008 on Windows Server 2003

  • December 20, 2009
  • James Skemp
SQL Server Express is an easy way to add Microsoft SQL Server to a Windows-based server. While limited in functionality, SQL Server Express is still a viable solution. In this article I'll be covering a custom install of SQL Server Express 2008 on Windows Server 2003. Server system For this install I was running Windows Server 2003 R2, Enterprise Edition, Service Pack 2 on Sun VirtualBox, with 256 MB of RAM.

Read More

Programmatic SQL command timeout using a SqlDataSource (C#)

  • June 24, 2009
  • James Skemp
Granted, in the case where this came up, I should have moved away from a SqlDataSource, but I wrote it using one, and a re-write isn't possible at the moment. So, I had to find a way yesterday to programmatically set the command timeout of a select, using a SqlDataSource (that was programmatically written). After much research, I found that you have to set the timeout on selecting. After opening a dummy document to see if I could determine how it was normally done, I came up with something like the following:

Read More

Programmatic MSSQL data source in ASP.NET (C#) without System.Web

  • June 6, 2009
  • James Skemp
In a similar article I detailed how I was doing programmatic access of Microsoft SQL Server. However, on another project I was creating a class in App_Code. Using my method required the use of a couple additional namespaces from System.Web. That seemed a bit excessive. So I did some digging around and came up with what I believe is a better solution, for use in classes/non-Web code. First, the following must be included in.

Read More

Programmatic MSSQL data source in ASP.NET (C#)

  • June 1, 2009
  • James Skemp
I keep having to search through code to find it, so, since writing about it makes it easier for me to find … here’s how I’ve been programmatically making calls to Microsoft SQL Server. If I’m doing something wrong, please comment below or send me an email. Some times have been changed to dummy values. SqlDataSource dataSource = new SqlDataSource(); dataSource.ConnectionString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["ConnectionString"].ConnectionString; dataSource.SelectCommand = "stored_proc"; dataSource.SelectCommandType = SqlDataSourceCommandType.StoredProcedure; dataSource.SelectParameters.Add("id", value); dataSource.

Read More