XML vs Access

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wayne Wengert
  • Start date Start date
W

Wayne Wengert

I am planning to convert a VB6/ADO application to VB.NET. In the VB6 app,
the application builds an Access database and uses that as the data store.
The Access database usually has less than ten tables (all the same
structure) and each table usually has less than 50 rows. The tables have
about 25 fields each.

In the new .NET version should I use XML instead of Access for the data
store? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
 
Wayne said:
I am planning to convert a VB6/ADO application to VB.NET. In the VB6
app, the application builds an Access database and uses that as the
data store. The Access database usually has less than ten tables
(all the same structure) and each table usually has less than 50
rows. The tables have about 25 fields each.

In the new .NET version should I use XML instead of Access for the
data store? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
Click to expand...

You could if you want I guess, If you drop access that's allways good
as you wont have a dependancy on a rather bulky .MDB file, but you'll
loose the power of SQL statements. I really guesss it depends on what
your doing with the data, if its just simple input output, display on
screen stuff XML would be a nicer option as it'll have nice little xml
files, and so on.

Also I don't really know that much about the XML set of objects in the
framework, there might be some nifty things of searching and stuff
(similar to SQL, but obviously not SQL).

Anyone got anything to add to this?
 
Phil;

Thanks for the response. I didn't realize that you could not use SQL
statements against an XML data store!

Wayne
 
Wayne said:
Phil;

Thanks for the response. I didn't realize that you could not use SQL
statements against an XML data store!
Click to expand...

Wayne as I said, I'm just saying what I know, I only ever serialze XML
for simpel storage methods, I'm sure there is some way (SQL or not) of
searching and querying the store, maybe you can connect it to the JET
adapater. I'm just telling you from my experiance :)

Peace
 
As a real newbie I appreciate all input. So much to learn - it seems like
there is always one more layer to peel...

Wayne
 
You could probably use the XPATH query functionality in the ms XMLDOM.

I am planning to convert a VB6/ADO application to VB.NET. In the VB6 app,
the application builds an Access database and uses that as the data store.
The Access database usually has less than ten tables (all the same
structure) and each table usually has less than 50 rows. The tables have
about 25 fields each.

In the new .NET version should I use XML instead of Access for the data
store? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
 
You can use a DataSet instead of the access table, and serialize it to XML,
initial load time is going to be a little slower, but it doesn't seem like
you have too much data to worry about that. You'll loose stored procedures,
but you can still execute some SQL statements against the dataset. Look
into WriteXml and ReadXml on DataSet and Select on DataTable.

Just might be enough for you to skip Access.
 
remember with the XML approach you will be very restricted
if your app is multi user

guy
 
Back
Top