Hi,
   Let me first say that I have worked through the book and found it very useful and informative. I kind of feel like the deployment chapter left me hanging, though, and I have a couple of questions. We use SQLExpress as the development database. Almost universally, these apps will be deployed on a full-blown SQL Server.

Question 1: The login control looks to some provider, which then presumably looks for the aspnetdb as it's data store. If I deploy my app on a server w/ SQL Server 2005, what do I need to modify in order to get it to work? I did some experimenting with the machine.config file and changed the connection string to one specific to SQL Server (replaced "./SQLExpress" with "(local)", removed User Instance=True), but that did not help.

Question 2: Is there any advantage (other than portability of the files) to keeping the databases in the app_data folder and only attaching them when the app requests it (for example, filling a gridview from a SQLDataSource)? Why not just attach them to the SQL Server instance manually? What happens when multiple users are accessing the web site? If two different instances of the web site are both attempting to attach the database at the same time, what happens? Does the first attempt succeed and the second fail, because the database is already attached, or does the provider recognized the db is attached and just continue on?

I appreciate any feedback or suggestions.

Thanks,

Mike

Hi,
   I have managed to find an answer to Question 1. Look here:

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archi...25/423703.aspx

This blog describes how to remove the default connection string for the membership provider which specifies the SQLExpress instance and add a connection string (with the same name) that points to your local SQL Server 2005 instance.

What you are looking for is about 3/4 of the way down the page-> a description of modifying the web.config file. You can skip most of the steps in the post, as they are just instructions on how to create the database. We already have the database in the app-data folder, so we don't need to create it. (When you build your own app, however, the rest of the post will come in handy as it documents the steps to create and configure the database.)
Here is an extraction:

    <connectionStrings>

        <remove name=”LocalSqlServer”/>

        <add name="LocalSqlServer" connectionString="Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=appservicesdb;Integrated Security=True" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>

    </connectionStrings>

*note the database name the author of the blog used is "appservicesdb". You will need to substitute the name of your database, probably aspnetdb. Also, instead of "Data Source=localhost", I used "Data Source=(local)". May not make a difference.

I made this work. I attached the database to SQL Server manually, and then made the changes mentioned in the post.

I hope this helps some people. I know it helped me.

Mike

Hi Mike,
        The SQL Server deployment bit is of course a great idea, I would have included that if I had thought of it. In hindsight it's obvious of course :-). Perhaps it's because I'm used to running SQL 2k developer edition, and to deploy on SQL 2k full version requires minimal changes. I suspect it's too late to change for the C# edition, but I might see if I can add a section on this for future editions of the book.

Chris

Chris Ullman
Programmer/Technical Author
http://www.cuasp.co.uk

RE: Question 2 - in some circumstances (not necessarily these circumstances), you will get an error when trying to attach, the first attempt will succeed and the second will fail. We have had some experience of this with technical reviewers of the chapters.

App_Data is mainly there for portability, also ASPNET 2.0 restricts direct access to the folder as well so there is some security involved too - so you can put xml and sitemap files in there as well. Also any database added to App_Data becomes available within Server Explorer and when you deploy your site, any database within App_Data is deployed to the main site.

Does this answer your question?

Chris

Chris Ullman
Programmer/Technical Author
http://www.cuasp.co.uk

Yes, it does. Thank you.

I can see the advantage of having the database in the app_data folder. It seems to be most helpful during development. It also seems to be a good place for the sitemap files, as you pointed out in your post.

Thanks,

Mike