.Net certification preparation - C# Discussion Boards

Software/Dev Site
Personal Site

Niels Penneman7-Jan-04 10:34

Niels Penneman

7-Jan-04 10:34

Ermm... load the assembly at runtime?
Dim x As Reflection.Assembly = System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFile("path")
You could use this for plug-ins ...

greetz Wink | ;-)

*Niels Penneman*

meuri7-Jan-04 22:52

meuri

7-Jan-04 22:52

That's exactly what I needed, an example Big Grin | :-D

I'm sorry but I'm new in C# Roll eyes | :rolleyes:

Thanks a lot!

Software/Dev Site
Personal Site

Niels Penneman8-Jan-04 7:16

Niels Penneman

8-Jan-04 7:16

I think this is a good idea to write an article about. Maybe next week I'll describe how to support (.NET DLL) plug-ins in your .NET application Smile | :)

Perhaps I include the VB.NET code too

greetz Wink | ;-)

*Niels Penneman*

Software/Dev Site
Personal Site

Niels Penneman8-Jan-04 11:34

Niels Penneman

8-Jan-04 11:34

If you need some more details, a basic plug-in system and Assembly.Load are described in this article by Shoki Smile | :)

greetz

*Niels Penneman*

.Net certification preparation

r i s h a b h s6-Jan-04 20:03

r i s h a b h s

6-Jan-04 20:03

dear all,
can someone plz. link me to the resources and preparation material for the Microsoft .Net C# (windows forms) certification exams.

rIsHaBh

Heath Stewart6-Jan-04 20:36

6-Jan-04 20:36

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/default.asp[^]

...contains links to exam information, training material, third-party test and practice test providers, certified member benefits - everything.

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.21
GCS/G/MU d- s: a- C++++ UL@ P++(+++) L+(--) E--- W+++ N++ o+ K? w++++ O- M(+) V? PS-- PE Y++ PGP++ t++@ 5 X+++ R+@ tv+ b(-)>b++ DI++++ D+ G e++>+++ h---* r+++ y+++
-----END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----

Mazdak6-Jan-04 23:34

Mazdak

6-Jan-04 23:34

rishabhs wrote:
can someone plz. link me to the resources and preparation material for the Microsoft .Net C# (windows forms) certification exams.

Sample exams:

http://www.transcender.com[^]

Mazy

No sig. available now.

Bo Hunter7-Jan-04 4:19

Bo Hunter

7-Jan-04 4:19

Just so you know this is what Heath said to the last
guy that asked about getting certified in .Net.

Heath Stewart said
"Personally, I am not certified because I really don't want to be. I know a large number of people with certifications that know crap. They studied for the tests, memorized a few things, took the tests (sometimes a couple times) and got their certs. They're still idiots."

Thank You
Bo Hunter

Heath Stewart7-Jan-04 5:57

7-Jan-04 5:57

And this question prompted me to write in my personal message board on my profile page. I mean, he's going to get certified and doesn't even know how to find cert material? Mad | :mad:

Every cert candidate should know about http://www.microsoft.com/traincert[^]!

My post you quoted obviously made an impression (either good or bad) and I'd appreciate knowing what you think. See http://www.codeproject.com/script/profile/whos_who.asp?id=46969[^] to post your comments. Smile | :)

Embedded Database

Luther Baker6-Jan-04 19:58

6-Jan-04 19:58

I am writing a simple checkbook application.

Does the Windows OS provide a simple dbase?

I don't want a dependency on Access or SQL Server unless they component I'd be using ships as part of the OS.

I could resort to file based storage, but I was hoping some Windows software (IE?) depended on a simple dbase, and said dbase might provide a public interface to my C# application?

Articles?

Thanks,

-Luther

Heath Stewart6-Jan-04 20:33

6-Jan-04 20:33

Actually, a Jet database (.mdb file, which Access uses) doesn't require Microsoft Access at all. It simply uses the Microsoft Jet database engine that should be installed when you install MDAC 2.6 or higher, which is required for ADO.NET anyway. I might be wrong and it might be a separate download (they keep changing all that), but it'll be small and probably already installed because a lot of stuff uses it. That's probably the best database file you could use. With technologies behind it like DDL, you can even create a database from scratch, although shipping a .mdb file with a schema already created would probably be easier (almost like a template from which databases are created).

As far as SQL Server / MSDE go, this would be overkill for a simple checkboox application anyway. This is more for hard-pounding applications that need transactional services (not that a register wouldn't necessarily benefit from that), replication, user authentication and security, etc.). Besides, it's a big install and can be the cause of many headaches - especially for computer neophites.

Luther Baker6-Jan-04 20:46

6-Jan-04 20:46

What is MDAC?

If I want to sell this checkbook application - can I guarantee user's will have MDAC installed, and consequently, the Jet database?

If its small and redistributable, I don't mind bundling it - but I'm not sure Mr. John Doe is going to have ADO.NET installed (consequently MDAC and consequently JET) Is an MDAC installation the byproduct of a common application like IE or Office or something.

Also - you've described the database, but I'm a neophyte when it comes to connecting to .NET dbases. I am extremely familiar with JDBC. Is there a similar C# API?

ODBC wrappers?

From your description, I don't even think I have to "start" the Jet Database, I just need to find the set of classes that transparently access JET to read and write mdb files.

Is that conceptually correct?

I'll google around. Someone's bound to have an example. At least now I have an idea what I am looking for.

Thanks,

-Luther

Heath Stewart6-Jan-04 20:57

6-Jan-04 20:57

See http://www.microsoft.com/data[^].

MDAC is the Microsoft Data Access Components, which include ADO, OLE DB, and ODBC. OLE DB providers are the "database drivers" which ADO.NET uses. Microsoft Jet is indeed a separate download, but is pretty small. See the Downloads section of the page linked above (which redirects, actually).

Without MDAC 2.6 or higher installed (MDAC 2.8 is the latest), you cannot use ADO.NET. The Microsoft Jet database engine installs the components necessary to use .mdb files. I'm not sure which one actually installs the Microsoft Jet OLE DB provider, but I'm betting it's the latter one.

MDAC will most likely be on the system. Less likely is that Jet will also be installed. Unfortunately, the .NET Framework setup includes neither technology ( WTF | :WTF:

?). These aren't hard to package, though. The site I linked even discuss deployment.

Luther Baker6-Jan-04 21:04

6-Jan-04 21:04

There's a whole slew of pertinent information there.

Thanks!

-Luther

Luther Baker6-Jan-04 20:35

6-Jan-04 20:35

I just noticed this post:

Re: I should use what provider?
Heath Stewart
14:45 4 Jan '04

<snip>
... If you need a real RDBMS, look into the Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/msde/default.asp[^] ...

I think this post answers my question.

I do just want simplistic inserts and selects. Is there another angle?

-Luther

By the way, how does one post hrefs to this forum? try this

Heath Stewart6-Jan-04 21:04

6-Jan-04 21:04

You don't need a "real" RDBMS for a simple register. Trust me - as someone that has built many installations and consulted both small and large companies on installations, MSDE is not something to be trivialized. Installing it the first time and attaching databases is difficult enough because you have to worry about SQL Server instances and which MSI to use. Maintaining that database through successive installations is a complete nightmare! For the app I designed at my company, we've had to write several utility programs just to update the MSDE installations and then upgrade database changes for both MSDE and SQL Server.

Besides, this runs as a service and it can be hefty. It's too much burden on users' systems for something so simple. MSDE is better suided for data mining and analysis, web sites, and other concurrent-access applications.

lutherbaker wrote:
By the way, how does one post hrefs to this forum? try this

As with all web pages, unless you use a relative path or root-relative (absolute) path (which cannot include the hostname), you must include http:// before the hostname. Examples:

Document-relative: somedir/file.html
Root-relative (absolute): /rootdir/somedir/file.html
Fully-qualified: http://host.domain.tld/rootdir/somedir/file.html

Joel Lucsy7-Jan-04 4:17

Joel Lucsy

7-Jan-04 4:17

You might want to try SQLite. Look at http://www.sqlite.org and look for the WiKi pages. On there you'll find .NET libraries. I think it would be perfect for the kind of thing you're doing.

--
Joel Lucsy

Luther Baker7-Jan-04 9:54

7-Jan-04 9:54

Actually I have Smile | :)

I would head that way if MS didn't already natively provide some alternative.

I've browsed those docs and one day - I'd like to try my hand at doing something like that in C#.

I wish there were more such simple/in-depth projects online. I can't peruse postgresql src without shutting down all communication with the outside world for 1~6 months Wink | ;)

Thanks,

-Luther

henningbenk7-Jan-04 6:19

henningbenk

7-Jan-04 6:19

Perhaps you could just create a dataset with the tables needed and save/load this as an XML-File.

Luther Baker7-Jan-04 9:50

7-Jan-04 9:50

Hi,

As I mentioned in the original post, "I could resort to file based storage" ... If I could cap the total amout of data - or develop a scheme to incrementally load/search data that exceeded some memory limit. I'm just worried that such a solution will not scale well.

Unless I'm reading the entire file into memory, I think this might be a bit slow and I would probably have to implement a searchable object hierarchy. While not the end of the world, thats just not where I want to focus my time right now. SELECT statements are just fine.

I've looked at SQLlite (open source file/embedded dbase) and one day, I may implement a small, file dbase - but for now, runtime XML access/storage might not be feasible.

I will try to encapsulate the data access anyway. It may make sense to use an XML solution for testing and prototype demonstrations.

Thanks,

-Luther