i am running a website on Windows 2000 server with ASP 3 webpages and
Access 2000 database. (with a hosting company)
traffic is slow at this time but expect to grow. lately i have been
reading about sql database and sql server, specially this article:
http://www.aspfaq.com/show.asp?id=2195
will someone help me understand:
1. with *SQL Server*, do i keep my current Access 2000 database and
ASP pages?
Yes
if not, then -
a. what sort of DB i will need? (we r a non profit, so need
inexpensive things)
Depends on what your trafic will look like and how your skills are.
b. will ASP pages need be redesigned? how big/difficult is that
transition?
Not redesigned, but perhaps tweaked a bit. This mainly depends on
"how" you coded the ASP in the first place. See below
2. if i start using *SQL database*, then which SQL database?
This depends on what you know or are willing to learn. On Windows
based servers, Microsoft SQL Server is the most common choice. On
Linux based servers, mySQL is most common.
3. Where does *mySQL* fit in this scene?
mySQL is an open source implementation of SQL database.
4. What do i do with my current ASP webpages?
Modify them to work with the syntax of SQL used by the database of
your choice.
5. i guess, i will need an SQL server if i have to use SQL database?
any recommendations for a cheaper hosting company?
This is the big one. Not necessarily. If you are doing mainly lookups
from a database, this is not too big a deal and you should be able to
live with Access for quite some time. Actual hit rates and numbers
will help decide this for you.
From your comments, it does not appear that you understand that Access
uses SQL to do it's work in one way or another. SQL stands for
"Structured Query Language". It is generally a standardized language,
so for the most part, you can have one query and run it on any number
of database systems that support SQL. For example:
SELECT FName, LName FROM People
That is a SQL statement that will retrieve the First name and Last
Name from a table named People. It should work in Access, SQL Server,
mySQL, Oracle and probably most SQL based databases. You run into
problems when you get a little more tricky. Even seemingly simple
things like dates need a bit of tweaking to make work. For example
SELECT LName FROM People Where LogDate = #10/1/2003#
Will work fine in Access but it needs to be recoded as
SELECT LName FROM People WHERE LogDate = '10/1/2003'
(notice the change from # to single quotes) if you were to do the same
thing in SQL Server. Wildcard search characters are another bugaboo.
You use asterisk in Access, but % in SQL Server. For what it's worth,
SQL Server is the more standard way of doing it. Access is the
exception there.
Bottom line: You will need to do the following things to convert to
SQL Server:
1. Transfer the data from your Access database to SQL Server. At the
very least, you will need to recreate the schema (database structure)
in SQL Server. Note that there are more - and different data types in
SQL Server, so make sure you choose the correct ones.
2. Recode your connection string from Access to SQL Server. If you use
a DSN, this is quite simple. Otherwise, you will need to recode
wherever you make a connection.
3. Recode whatever SQL statements need syntax changes to support SQL
Server. There really are not tha many changes if you are not doing
complex queries.
If you have any SPECIFIC problems, dont hesitate to post the code and
the particulars. Im sure someone will be kind enough to help.
