Hi All,

I have a website which is live. I need to do some work on it and I'd rather not work on the live site. At home I am running vista ultimate x64, 2gb ram and vs2005. Can someone tell me what would be the best method for copying the site and making a local copy to work on? The site uses a sql2000 database. I would not be opposed to switching it to a sql2005 express db if there's a reason for it as long as i dont have to change all the code. I'm guessing i would just need to update the connection string.

I think i could probably do this on my own, but I'd just like to make sure I'm doing it correctly before i get into it and discovered i botched something somewhere.

thanks
 

Most providers will let you ftp the files to and from their machines.

I suppose some would let you zip them up, but I haven't seen it. :(

 i think you misunderstood my question. I have no problems accessing the files. I run the machine the site is on :) I just want to know what's the best method for ensuring that i can have a local copy that will behave the same as the remote copy. Do i just copy all the files into a folder and then open that folder in VS2005? what about the sql database? i dont have a copy of sql2000 running on my desktop.

thanks 

 You can download SQL 2005 Express for free, and install it.  Then, just change the connection strings.   Change them back before uploading, though.                                                                                                                                                  

how is that going to work if sql2000 is what the live site is using? it seems like a bad idea to use sql2000 on the live site and use sql2005 to develop with. 

 You just change the connection string, and SQL 2005 Express will open locally.  Providing you have a copy of the database  

You can then view the page using IIS to test it out. 

merk:

how is that going to work if sql2000 is what the live site is using? it seems like a bad idea to use sql2000 on the live site and use sql2005 to develop with. 

Well, yes, it is a bad idea, if by "bad idea" you mean "increases the risk that it will work fine in development but not in production".

But spending wads of money to buy the 2000 version may be a worse idea given their budget.

The other alternative, developing on the production machine, invites its own set of risks which could be far more severe in their effects.

With care, and assuming the database is being used for simple, straight-forward inserts, updates, deletes and selects, the risk is manageable - particularly if a test script on a dummy database on the 2000 machine is run as a proof-of-concept when trying "new" techniques in the database.

merk:

I just want to know what's the best method for ensuring that i can have a local copy that will behave the same as the remote copy. Do i just copy all the files into a folder and then open that folder in VS2005? what about the sql database? i dont have a copy of sql2000 running on my desktop.

Hi merk,

If you have permission detach/attach database on the remote server. You can simply copy the SQL 2000 database to your local machine and attach it to the local SQL Server 2005 instance. SQL 2005 instance is compatible with SQL 2000 database (Compatibility level: SQL Server 2000 (80)).

If you cannot copy the database file from the server, I think you have to create a local database with same schema (the database on the server also come from your development environment. You can create your local database schema with the same steps).

Now the concern is how to synchronize the data between local and remote databases. In my opinion, you can develop a web page to select data from each table and export them into some files, such as excel file (the first link below), and then you can copy the excel files on local machine and import them in your local tables (the second link below). Following links include the related articles about this scenario. I hope they are helpful to you.

How To Use ADO.NET to Retrieve and Modify Records in an Excel Workbook With Visual Basic .NET
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316934/en-us

How to import data from Excel to SQL Server
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321686/en-us

At last, please don't forget to change your connection sting in web.config to point to the correct SQL Server instance. For example:

    Data Source=myServerAddress;Initial Catalog=myDataBase;Integrated Security=SSPI;

thanks for the reply. I do have admin access to the sql server. however, i do not have a copy of sql server (2000 or 2005) to install on my desktop.  Can i instead convert the sql2000 database into a sql express database?

I'm not worried about keeping the data in sync between them. I'll just be copying the database once to have a development copy and after that it doesn't matter about the data.

thanks for the help


 

 SQL Express will work fine locally.  

merk:

i do not have a copy of sql server (2000 or 2005) to install on my desktop.  Can i instead convert the sql2000 database into a sql express database?

Hi merk,

You needn?t convert the database. SQL Server 2005 Express edition is one of the SQL Server 2005 editions.

You can simply copy the SQL 2000 database to your local machine and then attach it to the local SQL Server 2005 instance (works for all SQL 2005 editions). SQL 2005 instance is compatible with SQL 2000 database (Compatibility level: SQL Server 2000 (80)). At last, change the connection string in web.config.

 ah very cool. i just assumed i would have to do some sort of conversion process. Do you happen to know if the same is true with sql express 2008? i just downloaded that but havent installed it yet. If it'll work with that, i might as well just try using that.

thanks