Welcome Readers!
Uses of the .NET and
ASP.NET infrastructures
by Shannon Margolis
Microsoft's .NET technology is a technology designed to connect. What to
connect? Well everything that can be connected through software - people,
systems, computers, and other things and devices. A more thorough definition
of .NET would be that it is a top level domain, initially designed to be
used by Internet Service Providers, but now it has expanded and everyone
can make use of a .net domain. It uses the Internet DNS (domain Naming System)
and it is an abbreviation of the word 'network'. .NET can hold servers that
provide web services or the tools needed to create these services. What are
Web Services and their benefits? Well they can be called enhancements that
help businesses expand and connect with their customers and partners. Their
benefits are that they make the communication between business partners much
easier and even increase the profits by making a business known and available
to much more people through the help of the Internet. An Important part of
the .Net technology and framework is the ASP.net set of technologies. These
web development technologies are used in the creation of Websites and Web
services usable on the .NET infrastructure. ASP.NET was built by Microsoft
from one of their older technologies and web programmers can use any programming
language they want to write ASP.NET, from Perl to C# and of course Visual
Basic.NET and any other language understood by the .NET technology. The advantages
of the ASP.NET technology are that it makes building Websites, Web applications
and Web services very easy and with less code that older languages. Also,
the applications compiled in ASP.NET run faster and with less errors You
can find many free tutorials and documentation about how to use the .NET
framework and about the ASP.Net platform so getting started in this domain
can be pretty easy. You can also find many examples amd articles about things
that are easy to make and that you can study and use for learning and understanding.
After learning a little you will be able to create easy-to-build applications
that allow users to organize their own page's appearance. Also, if you're
going to use ASP.NET applications you should get one of the specially designed
software packages for ASP , like Visual Studio.NET or the ASP.NET Web Matrix.
So the .NET and ASP.NET technologies are very popular and have an extremely
large number of business-enhancing uses and applications. A good place to
start learning more about how people-ready applications and systems can be
built using the .NET 2.0 framework is the Microsoft Practice section of www.unitekconsulting.com.
About
the Author:
Shannon Margolis
IT Marketing Coordinator
www.unitekconsulting.com
Converting Microsoft Access Databases to MySQL by
David Badurina
For small and large database projects, Microsoft Access works wonderfully.
If you have a database with hundreds of thousands of records, maybe even
connecting to other databases remotely, Access will work just fine. Security
isn't too much of a problem (no Access database is truly secure), and with
a wide range of options for publishing and reporting on your data, in many
cases Access is as good as it gets.
That
is, until you try to put it online. That's where converting your Access database
to MySQL comes in.
While
Microsoft Access is great as a desktop solution, it weakens greatly when
transferred online. The limits on users and speed still exist, and it's not
built to work well on platforms other than Microsoft. Unfortunately for Microsoft
Access, most web servers run a form of Unix, not Windows.
Enter
MySQL.
MySQL
is a relational database system designed specifically for use online and
housed on the most common servers online. It's fast, robust, clean, free,
and fairly intuitive to work with as long as you have a very solid understanding
of all things SQL. Converting to MySQL from Microsoft Access isn't without
it's set of problems, however there are a few things you can do to make sure
that this conversion goes smoothly.
1. Organize
and clean your Microsoft Access database before converting to MySQL! This
can't be stressed enough and it's pretty much the sole reason your conversion
from Access to MySQL will fail or succeed. Think of upgrading from Access
to MySQL like a complicated high-wire act. If one person has trouble going
across that wire, chances are making him ride a bicycle across it while balancing
a ball on his nose will only end up in disaster ... and a broken bicycle.
Re-design your Microsoft Access database if you have to, but be absolutely
sure that your database is designed flawlessly.
2. Set
up your MySQL database. Just as making sure your Access database is designed
flawlessly, your MySQL database must be designed just as flawlessly. MySQL
has different data types than Microsoft Access does - you won't find memo
fields, for instance - so be sure that your existing data will fit into the
structure you build for MySQL. Otherwise, all you're going to get is a mess
of mish-mashed data.
3. Export
your Microsoft Access data to text files. Fortunately, MySQL has a very handy
interface called phpMyAdmin. This allows you to interact directly with your
tables through a somewhat graphical UI. All you need to have are tables and
fields set up that match your data, and you can click, "Import Data
from Text File" through phpMyAdmin. Browse to the text file, import
it, and congratulations, your data is online!
While
there is certainly more details to be learned regarding the process of converting
from Microsoft Access to MySQL, always keep in mind the fundamentals. Databases
that are designed perfectly will circumvent 95% of the problems that generally
befall poorly designed ones. Converting Access to MySQL isn't terribly difficult
or time consuming, but it can be very tricky. Back up your data, make sure
you've designed databases properly on both sides, and your data could be
up in no time. Then, it's on to PHP!
About the Author:
David Badurina, President of Blue Moose Technology, LLC, is a relational
database design expert specializing in turning hideous data nightmares
into efficient, intuitive database applications. Watch David's database
design tutorial videos right now at www.bluemoosetech.com