There are plenty of novice coders out there who would like to move their old style ASP applications based on an MS Access database to .NET 2.0.
Its a great idea and it helps you learn how all those functions work in the .NET framework, and I would like to make the suggestion that if you are moving your applications across that you think about using MS SQL Server Express instead of MS Access. Its a lot more scaleable provides an easy upgrade path for your application to a full SQL Server install and whats more its free!
The only thing putting people off the migration is how on earth do you migrate your tables to SQL Express as there is no import utility! Well the easiest way I have found is to:
- Go into the Access database you want to export from, select a table you wish to export and then select export from the file menu.
- In the "Save as type" box scroll down to ODBC Databases
- Select OK on the box that appears
- Now unless you have a DSN already setup to your SQL Express Database you will need to setup one here by clicking on NEW
- Scroll down and select SQL Server
- Then browse to where your SQL Server Express .MDF file is and there you go!
Now the only down side in this approach is that you have to do this for each table! Ouch! If anyone has come up with a better way of doing this please let me know.