Re: Requirements to Run ADO.NET Application

If you are to do web application, go with server based database. Jet database (Access) can be used in web app in certain extent, but not recommended. So, if you r web app needs database, learning SQL Server is the easiest.

As for deploy your ADO.NET web app, you may or may not need to deploy/install SQL Server on your web app host, depending on the host services. If a host hosts thousands of web apps, all of which use SQL Server, it is unlikely the host install thousands SQL Server instances on its web server(s). There may be only one or two SQL Server instances, each have hundreds or thousands database attached. In this case, you deploy your database to the server, not SQL Server. There is many ways to deploy your SQL Server database to an existing SQL Server.

So, if your web app uses database (sever based, such as SQL Server), you do not need anything to run your app, as long as you can getthe database setup correctly, which is not part of .NET and depending what type of database you use.

Jet Engine comes with all Windows OS. Before MDAC2.6, each new version MDAC includes Jet Engine update. After MDAC2.6 (latest is MDAC2.8), Jet Engine update is not included in MDAC any more, but Jet Engine still exists in your Windows OS, you just need to download its latest update seperately (SP8, available in year2001 or 2). If you use Vista, Win2003SP2, or have your Windows Update active, you probably has the latest updated Jet Engine any way. Even you use older Windows OS, it is for sure you have Jet Engine available, just may not be in its latest update.


"Jonathan Wood" <jwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:O1VoGeW9HHA.1208@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Norman,

Do not beconfused with application (you developed), application development framework (.NET Framework) and various type s of data source, be it server-base database system (MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle), or file base database system (Jet database, *.mdb/*.mde, or you can loosely call it Access database), or even a flat text file.

I didn't think I was confused on that issue.

When you do ADO.NET app, you could then use a *.mdb file as data source (using OleDb namespace in ADO.NET), you could even use Excel *** (*.xls) or comma delimited flat text as data source. In this case, yes you do not need anything else installed besides .NET.

Well, that's the exact info I'm after. However, it's a little confusing because of Miha's comments that the "JET driver is installed with MDAC" and that driver was "pulled out of MDAC for a while." This seemed to suggest to me that, on some systems with .NET, additional drivers may be required to use MDB files.

However, if you need truy database system, then you have make your choice of database system products, which most likely is not a part of either Windows or .NET, and most likely, it cost money to buy and cost time to learn and use. In this case, you app might be a very small part of the entire system and cost the least to build.

That's the approach I'll take for Web development. Not for desktop applications.

Thanks.

Jonathan


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