And if that is not possible, what are the implications of using SQL Express? Would there be anything wrong with using SQLExpress for the CMS db, and postgresql for my app?
Orchard does use NHibernate under the bonnet (http://www.orchardproject.net/docs/Orchard-dependencies-and-libraries.ashx), however the orchard web platform installer only allows you to choose between the sql compact database or a SQL Server instance (including express) -
see http://www.orchardproject.net/docs/Installing-Orchard.ashx
So out of the box at the moment no but as Raymond points out you can always write your own provider and contribute it to the Orchard project. (Check out this forum response to mysql - http://orchard.codeplex.com/Thread/View.aspx?ThreadId=229968).
NHibernate is the ORM that Orchard is using to access the database. NHibernate supports postgresql so the answer is yes. And ofcourse you can also write your own dataaccess layer that services access.
A few months after this question was asked, Marek Habersack added Mono support to Orchard. Part of that effort was adding support for running Orchard on PostgreSQL.
The patches for this must have been accepted as the current instructions for running Orchard on Mono do not require them to be added.
There were problems, at least initially, with the connection being dropped but there are reports of it running well.
I am not deeply familiar with this particular product, but unless they explicitly state that they support a certain SQL implementation, the chances are extremely slim that it would just happen to work. A quick look around their site suggests that you will need to use Microsoft's SQL Server.
Related
My company's main software application hasn't been updated in twenty years. I expect to soon be working on a complete rewrite of it. To that end, I am beginning to work my way through the book "Pro ASP.Net Core 3" by Adam Freeman (8th edition).
Our application was written to be independent of specific database types. Most of our customers use PostgreSQL, but a few use SQL Server. Therefore, we use ODBC because ODBC drivers exist for both of those databases, as well as several others. The application does not do anything fancy with the databases, and ODBC works well. We configure an ODBC DSN to talk to whichever database the customer has, and the application itself doesn't have to be changed.
A search on "Entity Framework Core ODBC" led me to the EF Core Github, where people have asked similar questions, and the answers were mostly along the lines of "why on earth would you want to do that?". Well, I need to do that.
Can I use EF Core with ODBC, or is there some other way that I can set up an Entity Framework Core application that does not have to be modified if the underlying database changes from PostgreSQL to SQL Server?
You could use your appsettings.json to store a value used to swap between the two. Those environment configs get reloaded on change (though you might have to restart your application to read them again, I'm not sure on that one).
Regardless something along the lines of this would suit your needs I think.
if (Configuration.GetSection("dbOptions")["postgres"]))
services.AddDbContext<ApplicationDbContext>(options => options.UseNpgsql(Configuration.GetConnectionString("PostgresConnectionString")));
else
services.AddDbContext<ApplicationDbContext>(options => options.UseSqlServer(Configuration.GetConnectionString("SqlServerConnectionString")));
EDIT: I placed this in Startup.cs where you would normally configure the DBContext. I use a similar solution reading off the Environment type to load either the Prod or QA connection strings based on deployment. In principle, this should accomplish the same task without the need for rebuilding and redeploying the code base.
So, I've read repeatedly that EF Core will support NoSQL databases but I can't seem to find any "official" NoSQL database providers, or even a NoSQL framework in the source code. (By "find" I mean search for "nosql".)
I've had a quick look at ADO.NET (paid) and crhairr/EntityFrameworkCore.MongoDb but they are both third-party. MongoDB (the specific database I was looking into) has their own .NET driver but it doesn't seem to integrate EF Core.
Anyway, what I really want to know is:
Does/will EF Core support NoSQL databases? What does "support" entail?
Does/will the MongoDB .NET driver support EF Core?
The results of my research so far seem to indicate that I'm misunderstanding something and it would be great if anyone could point it out.
Currently, the 2.1 EF Core roadmap doesn't show any new providers for NoSQL DBs.
(https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/what-is-new/roadmap)
Yet, they are now focused for Azure Cosmos, which is a cloud DB service. In Cosmos, you can use MongoDB API. More info about the progress (https://github.com/aspnet/EntityFrameworkCore/issues/8443) and Cosmos & MongoDB(
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/create-mongodb-dotnet)
For non third party MongoDB provider, it will take some time. You must understand, that .NET Core is a huge change from .NET Framework, because it now embodies the open source culture. Many libraries and tools are available and will be available without "Made by Microsoft" stamp. It's up for the community to create libraries and tools for .NET Core.
There is an open issue on MongoDB's site about providing an officially supported EF Core provider. If this is something important to you, you can vote for it there. (note, you must sign up for an account on their site to vote)
https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/CSHARP-3837
Update:
3/31/2022 - Status was changed to Backlog
4/28/2022 - Status was changed to Needs Scope, Quarter set to
FY23Q2
6/22/2022 - Status was changed to Scoping
7/29/2022 - Quarter set to FY23Q3
1/20/2023 - Status was chagned to Backlog
I tried to google this but I failed.
Is there a way (I know it is, found this link but with insufficient details) to connect to crystal server's database?
We are runnig many reports daily which sometimes fail, sometimes don't run at all, we accept this as a part of server imperfection. The issue is, that checking each reports instance through CMC is very inconvenient and time consuming. If I could check it directly in some other way it would be much easier to manage.
The server version is 12.0
While the CMS repository is a plain database, querying it directly (using SQL) is discouraged, unsupported and generally a bad idea.
If you want to query the repository, you have several other options:
Use the built-in Query Builder web application (a web application called AdminTools, normally deployed on your application server). This offers a SQL-like interface for querying the repository, though a lot of SQL features are not available (e.g. table joins). Official documentation is also generally lacking for Query Builder, but if you're interested, there's a very good guide available here.
Use the Java or .NET SDK to query the repository. SDK documentation is available on SAP SCN. This is the most powerful option, but also requires you to do everything yourself. And it will take some time to become familiar with all the different classes and how they relate to the BI Platform.
Use a 3rd-party tool. Different solutions exist, with different feature sets, although it seems that most stopped working when BI4 came out, and the ones that exist usually require a server component as well.
Additional information:
How to browse CMS repository (SAP Wiki)
Query Builder in BO – Browse / Query BO Repository
BusinessObjects Query builder - Basics
Using Query Builder to Explore Your BusinessObjects Repository
You could also more-or-less automate the querying of the repository (although it's very basic) by following the instructions outlined in this blog post.
I want to build a website that displays data from an external databases. The data must be displayed in the form of charts, because charts are more expressive. I've never developed any websites yet, can anyone give me some advice about existing web frameworks and what are the advantages and disadvantages of them?
Which framework should I choose? The data are stored in an SQL Server. Because new data report types might be required in the future, the framework must be easy to modify and expand.
This is purely subjective and there are many answers to this. With that said I'll tell you what I'd use:
You mentioned that your database is using SQL Server. I'll assume that you'll want to host your website on a windows server for sake of argument. Given that, I'd choose either ASP.NET or ASP.NET MVC given that they are natural picks for a windows server hosting websites on IIS. Then I'd find myself a nice jQuery charting plugin see this SO question.
Im new to Microsoft entity framework and wonders if it's possible to use this framework with a DB2 iSeries AS/400? Are there any problems at all when working with this kind of "legacy systems"? and the EF framework?
You can use Entity Framework to connect to an ISeries DB2 database one of three ways:
1. If you purchase the license to IBM's DB2 Connect product. The license is around $12,000 which is outrageous. Also, there is not enough good documentation for how the DB2 Connect product actually works, how it installs, or its possible benefits. I've contacted one of their resellers to get a test install and it was not an intuitive process so we never purchased the product. Likewise, there doesn't appear to be any demos. I don't understand how IBM can have one of the best servers available but don't bend over backwards to leverage their product to Microsoft developers.
That said, if you research this topic you will find much information saying that you can use Entity Framework using their ADO.Net data server provider. I went down this path but I will warn you that their data server provider only works when DB2 connect is installed. This is confusing because IBM advertises this ability but doesn't often show the direct correlation between the two products so you're often left thinking that it will work without db2 connect which it will not at this time.
2. Purchase a third party data provider designed for Entity Framework. Progress software's Data Direct is super easy to use. I don't like how their server licensing works though because their server license is per core processor for your app server. This is flawed because this assumes you only have one app server when in reality, people regularly need to have different app servers for load balancing. I would prefer they just license per one ISeries server. However, you can purchase the licenses for each individual user if you decide to do that.
3. Write your own data provider. This is possible but there are obvious drawbacks.
It sort of looks like it is - see here:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/db2luw/v9r5/topic/com.ibm.swg.im.dbclient.adonet.doc/doc/c0054118.html?resultof=%22%65%6e%74%69%74%79%22%20%22%65%6e%74%69%74%69%22%20%22%66%72%61%6d%65%77%6f%72%6b%22%20
but quite honestly, I'm not 100% sure - especially not if it supports EF 4.0 (yet).
Or check out the IBM DB2Connect site and search from there...