Package & Deployment wizard: Update a database

External Since: Feb 17, 2005 Posts: 2

Dear,

I have developed a standalone VB6.0 application which uses an access
database. I deployed this application with the "Package &
Deployment"-wizard from Visual Basic, and it works fine.

Due to some new requirements I had to add an extra column to one of
the tables in the database and write some extra code. The deployment
of the new code and keeping the data is not a problem: I just create a
new setup-package without including the database so only the .exe is
replaced. But how do I modify the table in the database??

Up till now I needed to manually modify the database. Is there a way
to do this through the setup? f.e. including an sql-script,... ?

The end goal is of course that the end-user can update his application
just by running the new setup-package provided by me!

Thanks in advance!
Thomas

External Since: Aug 04, 2004 Posts: 9

"Thomas" <thomas.vangeel.TakeThisOut@belgacom.net> wrote in message
news:1a35b56f.0502170216.5aa8a7aa@posting.google.com...
| Dear,
|
| I have developed a standalone VB6.0 application which uses an access
| database. I deployed this application with the "Package &
| Deployment"-wizard from Visual Basic, and it works fine.
|
| Due to some new requirements I had to add an extra column to one of
| the tables in the database and write some extra code. The deployment
| of the new code and keeping the data is not a problem: I just create a
| new setup-package without including the database so only the .exe is
| replaced. But how do I modify the table in the database??
|
| Up till now I needed to manually modify the database. Is there a way
| to do this through the setup? f.e. including an sql-script,... ?
|
| The end goal is of course that the end-user can update his application
| just by running the new setup-package provided by me!
|
| Thanks in advance!
| Thomas

I don't think there is a way to do that directly in the setup. I think
you can get the setup to run a separate small VB program, though.

Whether it is a separate program run from the setup, or a command in the
main program, the simplest way I have found to change the database
structure is to run a VB procedure that creates a new empty database in
the new format, then copies the data from the old database into the new
one. The exact sequence needed depends on the structure of your data.
The other choice is to use a VB procedure to add the new field
definition to the existing database.