For more limited needs webhosting4life.com has completely ASP .NET 3.5 / windowserver 2008 sites with SQL Server (not mySQL) for 10 buck a month.



Worth checking out. Supports subdomains etc 5 sql databases ( and each additional is a couple bucks a month)



Can use management studio. Another package for 20 a month lets you install com

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the info.  I will check them out. 

This hosting site says they support IIS/ASP.NET and I assume they will support SF Enterprise Server.  Am I correct to assume this?

Thanks,

Jeff

If they support ASP.NET web services and SQL Server hosting, then you should be good.

Hi SF,

I have already posted these questions earlier, but I did not get a reply to them.  I want setup a test for hosting my database on the internet and I had these questions about the steps or how tos:

1. I believe my SF license gives me 2 ES licenses to do testing is that correct? 

2. Purchase a basic SQL Server Hosting package at HostMySite...Right?

3. Setup ES on HostMySite...How?

4. Implement ES logic in my windows app...How?

5. What else am I missing?

Thanks,

Jeff

Some of your questions are more training than questions. So let me answer these as best as I can and just point you in the right direction:







Correct. I have added a Development SDK license to your account. You will just need to login to the My Account area and create the license file once you know what host name you are going to use for testing (i.e. es.mytestsite.com).







Correct.







Correct. You will setup a hostname to which you will access this ES web service (same concept as a web site). So when you setup your hosting environment, you will assign a host name to it like www.jeffpagley.com. Once this is done, you can setup your ES license in the SF My Account area. In order to setup the ES site, though, even before you get your license, you will want to use the ES ZIP file instead of the install. You will just extract this ZIP into your hosted site. After that, you will add your license file to the site, and you should be good to go as far as initial setup is concerned. You will still need to define your data source connection in the config file (look at the docs on this as it shows how to setup all of your config files).







Taking advantage of an ES server is just a matter of changing your connection within the SF app to use an enterprise data source item instead of an SQL data source item. The help docs (and the sample that comes with SF) should be able to get you through this step. If you get stuck then post where you are stuck and we will get you through. But once this is done and your ES server is setup...then you are running.



This entire process is not too complicated. So if you catch yourself getting bogged down, then post where you are stuck and we will help you through the process as best we can. The hardest part in a scenario like this is getting the hosting site configured, etc. which isn't too hard either.



Good luck!

Trent,

Thanks for the info.  I am going to setup the test and I will take you up on your offer to help me when I get stuck.

Jeff

Hi Trent,

I have a test database hosted on WebHost4Life.com.  I have successfully connected to it from my windows application using SF and I have edited and saved data!  My URL is www.prospecthelper.com.  They have given me a default.asp page located in a directory d:\hosting\member\jpagley\site1.  When I type in www.prospecthelper.com in the browser it is loading this page. 

As you mention for setting up ES, is this the directory I upload the ES Zip file and extract it into this directory?  Also, once I extract this zip file, where do I add the license file?

Being new to all of this, do you recommend I rename the folder "site1" to something else or create a subfolder to keep the ES web service separate from my main official ProspectHelper.com site which I am going to create later?  Just looking for best practices here.

Also you mention in another post, it would be easy for me to setup a way for my app to check a version via a web service and have my app automatically download and install the latest version from this site if they have permissions.  How do I accomplish this?

One other question.  I am going to have multiple databases hosted on this site.  When using ES, I believe I can have different clients connected to different hosted databases.  The only limitation would be the number ES licenses I have purchased determines the number of client machines that can connect to different databases using ES.  Is this correct?

All the help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeff

Yes, just extract to the destination. The license file will go in the "bin" folder.







This is really up to you. Generally I give it a meaningful name.







Well, this is a pretty loaded question You still have to write the logic, but in short you have to create the version that to which your application will query. In suprt-short explanation, I get the version from the local assembly, then query the Version table to see if they match. If not, then I will download from a pre-determined location OR pull the downhload location of the new build from the same version table (i.e. a VarChar field containing the URL for that version).







Well, if you are going to use different databases and then each of those databases have a different DataSourceKey on the BO, then yes (same applicaiton but more than one database being accessed within the application). The data source key on the client and the ES server must match. If you are going to use the same BOs and then want to redirect them to different databases (i.e. 2 different clients with the same data source key names) then this will not work and you will need to have a separate ES site for each database. If your application already handles different clients with the same database, then this is not an issue.

Hi Trent,

Thanks for the info.  Right now I do have the logic to check for new versions by reading the Version Number in a table in the database.  If they are different, the application shells out and runs the update from a predetermine location.  Right now I am in the test phase of my system and I am running all of this on a local network.  But for my production system, I will need to host the database on the internet.  I am going to have a lot of databases hosted on the internet and did not want have to update each database with the new version number. So some how I want all of the clients to receive a version number from a single source by querying the it from a web page or web service to determine whether or not they need to run an update.  Then if different, then have the client app automatically download and install the update exe from the website.  Does this seem to be a reasonable thing to do?

Also, I am sorry, but I guess I am still not sure how the ES Licensing works.  Let me explain what I want to do this way.  All of the clients will be running the same exe, which I believe they will ALL then have the same data source key.  However, each client will need to connect to their own database, BUT all of the databases are attached to the same SQL Server hosted by WebHost4Life site.  How does the ES licensing work in this scenario?

Thanks,

Jeff

Sounds good to me.







Well, the issue is that the database that is used gets configured on the ES side. When the connection string is established within the config file, you specify the database. So it would be better to purchase smaller hosting CALs and then setup an ES site for each client that will have a different database name. That would be the most simple solution. Trying to change the database on the fly on the ES side could be more overhead and a lot more work.