Help Wanted
Hi Folks;
Those of you who have been around for a while will likely know that part 4 of the tutorial had some code that became outdated when VB2005 came out of Beta. I’ve updated the code samples in the article and its zip file but lack the time right now to do a full validation due to work.
As such, I need your help. If someone out there could be so kind as to start at Part One and work through the tutorial using the current release of VB2005 to check for issues it will be much appreciated.
I’ll try to get parts 5-7 up soon and move on to the remaining article content. Then I’ll work on getting samplecode online.
Also, new content is always appreciated. If you have an article or sample you want to submit feel free to let me know and I’ll create a contributor account for you in the CMS.
I’m also looking for someone to manage the Spanish language articles and moderate the new Spanish language topic in the forums.
Thanks!
October 26th, 2006 at 10:56 pm
Well, if you want I can help you with the Spanish language
October 29th, 2006 at 3:02 am
I went through your tutorial (parts 1-5) and I have to say I was very pleased with the work you did. It was very straightforward and easy to follow. I like the way you explain things. There were only a few VERY small things I found that you might want to take a look at.
1, The links at the bottom of the page for the next section need to be fixed on Chap 2 and Chap 3 pages.
2. Not sure why but the code you provided for autosizing the date column did not work in my case (dgvStatus.AutoSizeRowsMode = DataGridViewAutoSizeRowsMode.AllCells) Using VB Express 2005. All my columns remained at a fixed width.
3. In Chap 3, in the section on building the connection, there are several errors where a space is missing in the code (for example: “txtServer.Text&” vice “txtServer.Text &”) This appears to be corrected in the downloadable code though.
Everything else was great. I’m anxiously awaiting the next two chapters. THANKS!
October 29th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Thanks Glen, I’ve resolved the issues with the links and the ampersands, I’ll be looking into the autosize code.
October 29th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
Hi… you can count on me if you need an spanish translator for articles..
lichig[_AT_]gmail.com
Regards.
November 2nd, 2006 at 5:20 pm
Mr. Hillyard,
I want to thank you for your website — it has helped me very much in learning MySQL and VB.NET.
I went through your tutorial and even created my own application using Connector/NET. However, I started experimenting with Connector/ODBC becuase I wanted to use the GUI tools in VB.NET. It took a while for me to get the hang of it, and decided to create my own (bare-bones) tutorial based on my experience, as I could not find another tutorial exactly like it.
Here is the URL:
http://home.comcast.net/~mking56/MyODBC_TutorialWeb/myodbc_tutorial.htm
I am still making it pretty, but the baseline is there. If you find it worthy, and would like to link to it, or use it on your website, you are welcomed to it.
Any comments you wish to make are highly regarded.
Thanks,
Matt
November 2nd, 2006 at 9:19 pm
Hi Matt,
I read your tutorial “MyODBC Connector and Visual Basic .NET. Databinding Step-By-Step” and I found it very well done. Here are two things to look at it:
1. MySQL Connector/ODBC was created to connect to a MySQL database server using the ODBC database API functions. We used this Connector/ODBC driver in the old days to build Windows applications using VB 6.0. Today, with VB.NET, we don’t use it any more. MySQL has a Connector/NET driver named MySQL .NET Data Provider to build Windows application in .NET platform using VS.NET 2005. I believe, if we’re building Windows or Internet web database applications for MySQL server the native .NET Data Provider is the right one to be used.
2. For many years, Microsoft databinding technologies have not proved good performance for real production applications. Every thing that we built at this time in VS 6.0 was in unbound mode, in other words, we practically wrote the entire application. We know that very well. I know that in .NET, Microsoft has done an incredible job improving these technologies for Windows and Internet. Still these upgrades need to prove in real production environment. Couple of months ago I did some testing bounding a ComboBox with three thousands records from SQL Server 2005 table and it was very slow. In fact, I’m writing a paper now about that.
Feel free to contact me for any questions.
Thanks
Ernest Bonat, Ph.D.
Note: Matt, if you write the same tutorial with MySQL Connector/NET or MySQL Visual Studio Plugin, everyone will love it.
November 2nd, 2006 at 10:35 pm
Ernest,
Thank you very much for the background. I am only vaguely familiar with the history of database development, and I never used VB6 — I am starting with VB.NET, so I do not have the background you have. Your explanation helps me understand why I had (and still have) a hard time finding good information about MyODBC and VB.NET.
I can see, thanks to your explanation, why the .NET Connector is preferred. However, I have not found a way to use the GUI databinding tools built into VS2005 with the .NET Connector. Is there a way of doing it that I do not know about?
As to more tutorials, I may take you up on that. However, Mike already has an excellent tutorial on Connector/NET and this is the first I have heard about MySQL Visual Studio Plugin. I will have to look that one up.
Thanks,
Matt
November 3rd, 2006 at 9:50 pm
testing testing, please ignore
November 3rd, 2006 at 9:51 pm
test
November 3rd, 2006 at 10:49 pm
Matt,
As I said before, we (me and my VB.NET developer’s friends) don’t use GUI databinding tools built into VS.NET 2005 for any thing today. We can’t risk at the client site with some thing that may be does not work in real production application development. Even the MySQL Visual Studio Plugin is in beta version now. If you would like to have a good proved integration tool for VB.NET 2005 and MySQL 5.0 I recommend you to use MySQLDirect.NET Data Provider from Core Lab (http://crlab.com/index.html). I have been using for more than a year and I like it. Try and let me know what you think!
Thanks
Ernest Bonat, Ph.D.
November 3rd, 2006 at 10:58 pm
Hi Ernest;
First thanks for your input. I notice from Google that you write content on VB, would you be interested in contributing content as well?
November 3rd, 2006 at 11:07 pm
Ernest,
I’ve seen that connector on the Internet, but it looks like it costs some money. I’m not broke (although I am married — small difference), but I like seeing what I can do with the free tools, first. But with your recommendation, maybe I will try to sneak this one by the wife…
November 3rd, 2006 at 11:45 pm
Hi Mike,
Yes, I would like to contribute VB content to your site. I have been doing VB from version 1.0 for DOS (1990) and I have co-authored 17 articles on Database Windows Application Development and GUI Guides Design using VB. For more info about me you may look at my website http://www.evisualwww.com. Let me know how can I help?
Thanks
Ernest Bonat, Ph.D.
November 4th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
Hi Ernest,
Any VB.NET related articles are welcome, whether directly related to MySQL or on VB.NET in general. Database related content is always good. I’m afraid there’s no compensation as the site pretty much makes enough to pay for hosting but links to the author will be provided.
Mike
November 6th, 2006 at 10:19 pm
Hi Mike,
I can provide an article (development paper, tutorial, tip, case study) to your website in VB.NET / MySQL every month. Send me your article content guidelines to follow to and in what format it must be (HTML, PDF, etc.)
Thanks
Ernest Bonat, Ph.D.
November 14th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
Hello Mr. Hillyard,
I apretiate Your work and is very helpfull. In the time You had problems with the site i thoght it could be a hosting problem, therefore if you are interested, i would like to sponsore Your site with hosting on my server. I have a small hosting-webdesign company. If You are interested You are welcome. You have my Email, so contact me.
Thnx
November 16th, 2006 at 2:03 am
I often wondered how this all worked but I guess I will never know.
November 16th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Hi shopper!
I did not understand your post. Let me know if you need some help!
Thanks
Ernest Bonat, Ph.D.
Visual WWW, Inc.
November 23rd, 2006 at 11:24 pm
Hi Ernest,
You said that you don’t use GUI databinding tools built into VS.NET 2005. Do you think they’re not stable enough for a real application?
I tried the MySQLDirect.NET Data Provider from Core Lab on your recommendation and see that it allows you to use the GUI databinding tools in VS.NET 2005. Do you still not recommend using them with MySQLDirect.NET for a real application?
If it’s better not to use the GUI databinding tools - even with MySQLDirect.NET - then wouldn’t the free MySQL Connector/Net do the trick?
I’m new at this so if you can suggest any best practices for ASP.NET / MySQL for real-world applications, I’d be very grateful to hear them. I’m just getting started on a project and would let to get off on the right foot.
Thanks.
November 24th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
Hi P Sydney,
In 1993 with VB 3.0 Microsoft introduce the databinding technology using the Data Control. This control was completing unuseful for building production Client/Server business applications. Problems: a lot of crashes and very slow data retrieval and transaction. The same problems appear in VB 4, 5, 6 and VB.NET 2002 and 2003. How about VB.NET 2005? Here is the situation. Personally, I have no info from any of my clients, friends, developers and students that the data databinding in VS.NET 2005 is working properly for building enterprise production Windows and Internet web applications today. I understand that Microsoft introduced a lot of databinding components in this release, but this need to be proved in real life. So far, I have no proof today.
Now, this is me. I’m a freelance consulting software developer with 4 part-time developers doing MySQL/PHP Internet development. Can I go to my clients and build business applications with some tool or technologies that may be does not work? Can I take this risk? No, I’ll never take this risk. If I take the risk and after 3 or 4 months of development time the application does not work because I use databinding components. I’m complete DONE!. I can’t afford to do that. I really know that I have to use proving tools or technologies. I can’t put my name in front of some thing that may be does not work. This is very clear for me.
About MySQLDirect.NET: this tool is very good for application integration with VS.NET 2005. You can build your application in one solid environment without using MySQL GUI tools or Toad for MySQL, or Navicat program. About MySQLDirect.NET databinding I have no info about it too.
Here is a question for you. Would you like to try MySQLDirect.NET databinding in your application and let everyone know if it works?
Thanks
Ernest Bonat, Ph.D.
Visual WWW, Inc.
http://www.evisualwww.com
November 24th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Hi Ernest,
Thanks for the detailed reply. I understand what you’re saying about insisting on using proven technologies for your clients. Please bare with me, I’m just a bit unclear about what specifically you’re referring to when you say the “databinding components”. Here are two methods that I’m familiar with for accessing the database:
1. The Typed Dataset/Table Adapter method (http://www.asp.net/learn/dataaccess/tutorial01cs.aspx?tabid=63) where, for instance, you take a GridControl and choose a Data Source object (a Typed Dataset/Table Adapter) to bind it to the grid.
2. Programmatically accessing the database using ADO.NET (SqlConnection, SqlCommand, and SqlDataReader classes or their MySQLDirect equivalents), and then binding those results to the data Web controls through their DataSource properties.
Are you saying that both of these methods are unproven, or just method 1? If one method works better than the other, I’d prefer to use the more reliable method. If they essentially do the same thing under the hood, then I’ll have to make a decision. This is really what I was getting at when I asked you about (basic) best practices.
If I do decide to use MySQLDirect.NET, I’ll be happy to report back on the approach I used and how well it worked.
Also, thanks to Matt for letting us talk about this on his site. This is very useful for me.
November 24th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
Hi P Sydney,
Definitely the first method is not good. This one can make you very upset at the end of the day. I did try that in 2003 with VB.NET 2003 and SQL Server 2000 and I don’t want to remember it now. The second one is OK as long as you use stored procedures and functions everywhere, but need to be proved in real production environment at this point too.
I don’t use any of them. I do every thing unbound (for MySQL Server 5.0) using stored procedures and functions everywhere, MySqlDataReader object to read a load all my controls and the MySqlCommand execute method to change (inset, update and delete) the database tables. I can guarantee that the above approach is solid and proved. Me and my developers are doing that from 1996 using VB 6.0 / Access / SQL Server / Oracle / IBM DB2 – guest what? – Every thing work perfect! Even today with MySQL/PHP web applications development we’re using stored procedures, functions, triggers and views everywhere – That’s the real beauty of MySQL 5.0 Server today!
I can’t wait my time and fail at the client site – this world is very small! They pay me to have milk and bread every day when I wake up every morning .
I hope this helps you to make some decisions. Feel free to contact me at any time you need.
Note: Mike Hillyer is in charge of this website and thank much to him for all his work and time! He is Canadian like me .
Thanks
Ernest Bonat, Ph.D.
Visual WWW, Inc.
http://www.evisualwww.com
November 24th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
Hi Ernest,
Thanks again, this is exactly what I was looking for - a tried and true approach that I can use as a solid foundation for learning this stuff.
And thanks to *Mike* - the site looks great - I’ve bookmarked it for future use. Make that three Canadians if you count me.
November 24th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
Hey P Sydney,
No problem at all. Feel free to contact me at any time you need. I check this site practically every hour from Monday to Friday. Just an idea - learn how to develop stored procedures, functions, triggers and views and MySQL 5.0 and you’ll be very surprised about your application’s performance.
Thanks again and happy ASP.NET/MySQL programming!
Ernest Bonat, Ph.D.
Visual WWW, Inc.
http://www.evisualwww.com
November 29th, 2006 at 12:49 am
Hi VBMySQL.com Team. Like Alex (if you need it yet, I can translate to Spanish Tutorials or anything. Just email me specifying what is my work.
Best regards,
Al
February 19th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
I am hoping that lack of entries since November does not mean the project has died!!!
I have tried registering for the forum but so far nothing but an automated response but no validation has followed.
I hope everyone is OK
David
February 21st, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Hi there.I can help to translate to Spanish documents and source code, if you need help yet.
Regards from Quito, Ecuador
Luis Alberto