How to determine which tables are used by ASP.NET web solution? - c#

Problem is a bit complex(or not) so I don't know exactly how to ask this question.
My project is hybrid of MVC and WebForms approach. It uses 3rd part software and it is packed with one quite big solution with a lot of little sub-systems. Whole project uses two databases A and B.
I wanna stop using both databases and merge it to single one - lets say it will be A. To achieve this I have to create some deploy script to migrate B tables into A. I am not only sure which tables I really want.
Main problem is I am not able to determine which tables are currently used (because some of them for sure are not - this is really messy). Additionally some table names are same in A and B. Is there any automated way to do this? This project is quite big and we hadn't been supplied with documentation. Manual way for identifying this stuff would be quite horrible.
Any ideas for speed up would be appreciated.
Best Regards.

You can use SQL Profiler to seen what users are accessing your database.
If the two applications have different sql user login's you can quite easy see what queries are being run and which tables are being accessed.
Sql Profiler

Related

Building C# and SQL Server database dependant application

Let's say I need to create an application like a books library management system for example that has a front-end like Windows form/WPF and it stores information to database. How to approach making such a solution.
Do we need to create a database first with all tables in C# or is the other way.. SQL to C#?
How do people generally do this? Can someone point me to a sample free project or a book that does this to reinforce my understanding.
Both ways are possible. People usually only focus on one side and use a tool for the other.
Database first approach: Codesmith is an exemple of tool that'll generate C# files after you created the database.
Code first approach: Entity Framework is (an exemple) for the other way around, you write your model in C# and it will generate the database accordingly.
Now pointing you at one or the other would be a bit subjective and also not really match Stack Overflow spirit.

Single solutions with varous database management software

Actually I am new to the software development, I have an idea to create an web application in which I am going to use front end C#.Net and Back end:SQL Server. What happen if my client ask me to use other database management software other than SQL Server? Is there any solutions to run same application without changing the SQL code like dynamic database creation based on the client requirement?
Help me..
Each Database like SQL Server , Oracle is having it's own coding syntax and are totally different . It's not possible to use the code of one DBMS for another.
In most cases SQL statements will work across various Database as it's standard for relational databases . But moreover when work with different databases you need to work in it's own standard.
Also there are different kind of databases available such as RDBMS ,NoSQL etc.. so each different in it's own way.
There might be some tools available to help you to convert one code to another.
You need to isolate database access from the rest of the program so that database specific code is in one place only.
For this convenience you need to learn MVC to perform these tasks. It can happen to certain level but still altogether certains functionalities need specific methods to be called but it increases efficiency...

How to transfer data (Entities) from one database to another

I have a system (using Entity Framework) that is deployed in various production systems and also on a quality control system. My problem is that data entry is often done only on one of those occurrences of my system (different databases).
I want to find the best way to transfer my data from one database to another database. Ids can change, as long as the relations between my objects are maintained. 98% of my data in in DB, some of it is external files, I can manage those separately, manually.
Currently we use a xml structure as a transition file. The file is then imported in the destination system, and code manually imports the entities and re-creates the data.
I'm looking for a more generic way to do this, with less code. Since all my data in stored in Entities couldn't I simply create a big List and throw all my objects in there, then serialize that in some matter into an external file and finally generically import all the entities in there in my destination system? (I'll probably have to be careful in maintaining relation ids, but should be ok...)
Anyways I'm wondering if anyone would have smart approaches, I'm pretty sure I,m not the first with a similar problem.
Thanks!
You need to get some process around this. If all environments contain the same data (unlikely) you can replicate. It is the most automatic. But a QA environ should not update production, so you have to really think this through.
If semi-automated is okay, there are tools out there you can use from a variety of vendors. I use Red Gate tools, personally, but others are also fine.
Can you set up a more automated push with EF? Sure, but the amount of time you spend is really not worth it.
In my opinion you can check some of the following approaches:
1) Use Sql Compare or Sql Data Compare. Those tools are from Red Gate and can be found here
2) Regular backups and restores of the databases. You could, if it is an option regularly backup your most up-to-date database and restore it on the destination systems. I have no experience in automatizing this but here is a link to do that through .net.
3) You could always give it a go creating a version control system of your own. I would picture one such system selecting all records from a certain table (or all of them), deleting all records in the target database and inserting them. This seems pretty complex though, as you have to worry about relationships, data dependencies, etc.
Hope this helps in some way.
Regards
If you for some reason will not be satisfied with existing tools may be you'll want take a look at the Sync Framework and implement this functionality yourself for your very particular data bases.
Given what you described, pushing data from One SQL Server to another for demo purposes, you should consider SQL Server Integration Services.
If you're got a simple scenario where you just move the data and objects from DB to the next you can use their built-in Wizards. If you need to do custom stuff you can build complex workflows using C# and SQL (tools you already know). Note: most of what you're going to want comes with the standard edition so if you're using express this is less interesting.
The story for Red Gate products is more compelling when you don't have SQL Server (So you have to go out and buy something) and if you are interested in finding out what the changes are between DB's (like viewing code changes in a .cs file in a source control product)

ORM, C# and MySQL - Take2

This questions actually refers to another one already asked, now I want to reformulate it :)
My issue is: There is an online shop running on MySQL database, hosted somewehre on the internet. Now I'd like to do some administration stuff from my C# application.
What I want to do: All I want is to run SQL-queries on that database and get the results as entities in my application so I can browse through them like through normal Lists/Classes and then post back the changes to the database. The problem is not the connection to the database - it works fine (using SSH and Connector/NET driver) - but the question, how to turn the SQL-results into C# classes.
I had a closer look at Fluent NHibernate and SubSonic, but I still can't figure out which one suits best or - even worse - if these are really the right approaches to my problem.
So I don't want to build an application which stores its own data in a database but gets the data it needs from a public database.
I hope I could make myself more clear this time :)
Thanks in advance!
ORM is definitely the way to, because it allows you to abstract your data access.
You may find a code generator helpful (to avoid the repetitive task of writing the classes and all their properties): NHibernate Code Generation.
This way you can still use classic NHibernae instead of Fluent Hibernate, which by the way looks pretty useful.

Methods for storing searchable data in C#

In a desktop application, I need to store a 'database' of patient names with simple information, which can later be searched through. I'd expect on average around 1,000 patients total. Each patient will have to be linked to test results as well, although these can/will be stored seperately from the patients themselves.
Is a database the best solution for this, or overkill? In general, we'll only be searching based on a patient's first/last name, or ID numbers. All data will be stored with the application, and not shared outside of it.
Any suggestions on the best method for keeping all such data organized? The method for storing the separate test data is what seems to stump me when not using databases, while keeping it linked to the patient.
Off the top of my head, given a List<Patient>, I can imagine several LINQ commands to make searching a breeze, although with a list of 1,000 - 10,000 patients, I'm unsure if there's any performance concerns.
Use a database. Mainly because what you expect and what you get (especially over the long term) tend be two totally different things.
This is completely unrelated to your question on a technical level, but are you doing this for a company in the United States? What kind of patient data are you storing?
Have you looked into HIPAA requirements and checked to see if you're a covered entity? Be sure that you're complying with all legal regulations and requirements!
I think 1000 is to much to try to store in XML. I'd go with a simple db type, like access or Sqlite. Yes, as a matter of fact, I'd probably use Sqlite. Sql Server Express is probably overkill for it. http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/ is the .net provider.
I would recommend a database. You can use SQL Server Express for something like that. Trying to use XML or something similar would probably get out of hand with that many rows.
For smaller databases/apps like this I've yet to notice any performance hits from using LINQ to SQL or Entity Framework.
I would use SQL Server Express because it has the best tool support (IDE integration) from Microsoft. I don't see any reason to consider it overkill.
Here's an article on how to embed it directly in your application (no separate installation needed).
If you had read-only files provided by another party in some kind of standard format which were meant to be used by the application, then I would consider simply indexing them according to your use cases and running your searches and UI against that. But that's still some customized work.
Relational databases are great for storing data in tables, and for representing the relationships between tables. Typically there are also good tools for getting the data in and out.
There are other systems you could use to store your data, but none which would so quickly be mapped to your input (you didn't mention how your data would get into this system) and then be queryable against with least effort.
Now, which database to choose...
Use Database...but maybe just SQLite, instead of a fully fledged database like MS SQL (Express).

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