Concurrent SQLServer and App Developement within VStudio

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Not new to programming, but am new to VStudio and SQL Server. I'm taking the step from Access DB's to SQL Server. I'm looking for a strategy to develop my SQLServer DB (tables etc) while also working on developing my application that will be distributed to access it in visual studio and would like to be able to work within the VStudio interface for all our efforts. Here's the scenario:

1. Need to be able to access a local development copy of the eventual SQL server DB on multiple development machines both inside and outside of our working team.
2. I would like to be able to connect to the local copy using connection methods that would be similar to the final installed client application. I know that the connections strings will change eventually
3. The local development copy of the DB would eventually be deployed to our company wide SQL server.

I'm interested in some 'best practices'. I've been experimenting with .mdf files and SQLExpress on local machines but i'm not getting reproducable results on various development machines. I'm also finding it time consuming to install and configure SQLExpress suitably for each development machine.

There seems to be several methods that could possibly work but I simply havn't found the one yet that would fit my scenario.

Any help would be appreciated.

Posted 28-May-13 2:59am

Matt Riemenschneider

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Corporal Agarn · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-28T03:41:00

1) Do not use Microsoft's convert from Access to SQL, or at least make sure what is happening. We have zip codes that are float because the person who did the conversion did not know what they were doing. They are no longer here.
2) Think about a three tier implementation. At lest one Development SQL instance, one user test SQL instance, and one production instance. A SQL server may be accessed by anyone you give permissions to. Thus your question about people outside your team being able to access the development system is part network and part SQL security.
3) Think about how to keep everything in sync. Data on the development server may be changed for a test. The developer may need current data to test a problem.
4) Develop a good backup and recovery.

Good luck. I hope this at least gives you a starting point, or sparks an idea.