Question

So I have been doing some PHP and Python/Apache/MySQL (WAMP!) development for a while now, and I’m trying to branch out into C#, ASP.Net, IIS and MSSQL.

Anyway, I’m trying to figure out how the database connection works and how I add and edit tables in Visual Web Developer. I created the database in database explorer, but I don’t see a way to add tables, or look at the columns set up. In addition, I have no real understanding of how the aspx page (I’m using Web Forms, but I’m willing to switch to MVC if it works better).

Basically my question is – how do I connect with and modify the database in Visual Studios/Visual Web Developer? In PHP it was all code, but here it seems to be mostly a visual (shocking, considering the name) method.

Answer 1

to connect to sql server you still need a connection string, for example any of those you can find here depending on your server setup: http://connectionstrings.com/sql-server-2008

then you do not really need to use visual DragDroppable components, from the code you create a connection and a command object and for example you do the following, this is called ADO.NET

using (var conn = new SqlConnection(strconString))
{
    string cmdstr = "SELECT ID, FirstName, LastName FROM dbo.Employee"

    using (var cmdselect = new SqlCommand(cmdstr, conn))
    {
        conn.Open();
        using(var dtr = cmdselect.ExecuteReader())
        {
           while (rdr.Read())
           {
              // here you use the values from the DataReader...
           }
        }
    }
}

this just to start, search about ADO.NET or SqlCommand here in StackOverflow, plenty of samples…