Can anyone give me assurance (or not).
I am writing a real website app using VWD Express and SQL 2005 Express.

I'm worried that when I am ready to go live with the app as well as a year or more from now, that all my effort will be unsupported on some provider somewhere.

Does anyone know for sure that VWD Express and SQL 2005 Express are 100% transferable from the .NET Express framework for into the full blown .NET 2.0 framework?

Thanks to anyone who knows authoritatively, not someone's hope or guess.

VV

Yes, you can. Pages you build in VWD run fine on the full blown framework version.

That's because the .NET Framework that comes with VWD *is* the full blown version. So, whether you can create pages with VWD, Notepad or the "real" VS 2005, they all run against the same framework.

The same applies to SQL Server. The databases created by the express edition are 100% compatible with SQL Server 2005.

The other way around is a different story. Obviously, the standard and professional version of VS 2005 and SQL Server 2005 support features that VWD / SQL Express don't understand. So, generally speaking, you can't easily maintain a (larger) site developed in VS 2005 in VWD, although this also largely depends on the way things are designed. (You're using Class Libraries vs code in App_Code folder for example).

HtH,

Imar
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Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.

Victor

There's only one .NET 2.0 framework, and it's only the toolset that's different. SQL Express is actually SQL Server 2005 (with a few minor changes), but to all purposes the same. So databases in SQL Express can be directly attached to the full SQL Server 2005.

Everything you write in VWD Express will work in Visual Studio 2005. Both tools in fact, share the same code base.

There may be database things you need to do - database connections and methods may need to change, as the full SQL Server 2005 doesn't support user instancing (ie User Instance=true in the connection string), but that's a configuration issue. Code and the database will be exactly the same.

I switch between databases and tools frequently with no problems.

Dave

Imar S. and Dave S.
Great to hear from you both. Essentially you both said the same thing and took a load off my mind. Thanks much. I feel confident that my test (learning) app will have a long life span.
VV.