Microsoft rant

[altivo]

Well, admittedly, it's not all Microsoft but a good chunk of it is.

Due to an anticipated change in some base software on our network (which involves switching as many as 15 workstations from Windows to Linux, yay!) I find myself confronted with the need to find a new way to maintain a database that is stored in Microsoft SQL Server 2000. We need to keep the database, and we can keep the server, so I don't have to export the data or anything like that. In fact, the actual maintenance of the data can still be done from a Windows based workstation if necessary (though I'd prefer something more platform independent, it is SQL after all.)

The Linux workstations will interact with the database as well, but there's a vendor who promises to make that work as part of the cost of the switch.

Soooo... What I need is a formatted data screen to update, delete, or add records to one table. At the moment, it looks like only one table is involved. Since the present vendor whose product created and uses this database is very bad about support and documentation, there is no schema and no explanation for anything. I was able to find the right parameters for access by looking through the console on the Windows 2000 server, though, and then did succeed in getting Excel to query the database and display the records. I did not succeed in getting Open Office to do the same, though I'm assured it will. (Unfortunately, though Open Office is enough like Microsoft Office that simple jobs are easy, when you get down into lower layers like ODBC access, it isn't the same and isn't at all documented... The only relevant documents I could find were written in Dutch.)

I ordered in a couple of books on SQL and SQL Server from a neighboring library. Good grief. They total 2400 pages and weigh over ten pounds. And the indexes are so poor they might as well have been omitted. It appears that Microsoft provided nothing at all in the way of printed documentation with either the SQL Server (just the CDs) or Office 2000 Professional (again, just licenses and the CDs.) Fumbled around in Access today (I hate Access) and managed to create a rudimentary "data access page" that can view individual records and will indeed update them via ODBC and SQL. That becomes a web page, which, of course, ONLY works with Internet Explorer 5 or later. But I can live with that for now. Cosmetics of screen layout and decisions on which fields need to be available I can handle, with the users. Done that many times. The remaining hassle: finding a way to tell this thing to retrieve a particular record, based on the key, rather than having to scroll through 5000+ records until you find the one you want. So far, not a hint have I found anywhere, though I'm sure such a basic functionality must exist in there.

Get that to work, and I'm home free. Then I can turn my irritation onto Open Office for not having better examples and documentation on their ODBC interface. It's there, it looks usable, but getting it to actually function is apparently very obtuse.

Comments

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall a Perl/CGI book in the series with critters on the cover explaining how to interface with SQL/ODBC databases using Perl (creating a web interface). Unfortunately, I can't recall which one specifically had it ...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminder to specifically check O'Reilly publications. You're right, they may have something that goes right to the point. Unfortunately, public libraries usually consider them too detailed and exotic for purchase, so I'll have to go farther afield to get one if I need it. I own the basic ones on CGI, PERL, and HTML myself and they've grown pretty dog-eared (oops, sorry) over the years.