Can I import from SQL Express?

Yes, There are four steps to Create a BarScan Import from a SQL Express Database.

1. Install SQL Server Express 2008
2. Connect to a SQL Database or install the sample database, ‘IbmSql’ for testing.
3. Create the ODBC datasource.
4. Create the BarScan formatted import.

Step 1 – Install SQL Server 2008

1. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/express/Database/ .  You will see the following screen or one similar to it.
   
2. Click on the “Install” button.  You may see several dialogs basically asking if it is ok to do the installation.  Say “Yes” or “Allow” or “OK” to all of them.  Also, if you see a yellow band appear at the top of the browser, click on it and allow installation to proceed.
3. You will eventually come to the dialog that asks you to install the Web Platform.  Click on “Get the Microsoft Web Platform”.  The dialog looks similar to this:
   
4. You may see several dialogs basically asking if it is ok to do the installation. Click on “Run”, “Yes”,  “Allow” or “OK” to all of them.  Keep checking for a yellow band appearing at the top of the browser, click on it and allow installation to proceed.  If it appears, right click on it and select “Run Add-on”.  Several more dialogs may appear.  Also click through them to allow installation.
5. You will eventually get a dialog that asks “Install SQL 2008 Express with Tools”.  Click on the “Install” button.
   
6. Accept the license.
   
7. You will be prompted for the authentication mode. Select “Mixed Mode”, and enter a password.  DO NOT FORGET THIS PASSWORD.   We suggest “sql2008password” (without quotes).  Click on the “continue” button.
   
8. Depending upon the speed of your computer, installation may take about ¼ to ½ hour.
9. If you see the following, you will also need to install Service Pack 1 after this installation is complete.  Take note of this.  However, at this time click on “Run Program”.
   
10. It will again take some time to install, about 30-45 minutes.  Finally you will see this concluding dialog. Click on the “Finish” button.
    
11. Next click on the “Exit” button of the launching dialog.

Step 2 – Install your Database or the Sample Database

1. Start the SQL Server Management Studio.  (Start-> All Programs-> Microsoft SQL Server 2008-> SQL Server Management Studio).
   
2. Upon starting, it will try to connect to the database engine.  Click on “Connect”.  Take note of the Server name, as you will need it later when creating an ODBC Datasource.
   
3. Within the object explorer, right click on the “Database” entry.  A popup will appear.  Select “Restore Database”.
   
4. A “Restore Database” dialog will appear for specifying where to get the backup from.  Set the following fields in the order specified:
   1. In the section “Source for restore”, select option “From device”, click on the button with “…” to specify the file path.  You will get the dialog below.  Click on the “Add” button to add the file that you are restoring from.  In this case the file is “IBMTEST.BAK”.  Note that you must select the file and “Add” it to the list by first selecting the “Add” button then click on “Ok”.  The path must also be included, wherever it happens to be on your computer. In the example below the full path specified is “C:BarScanIbmTest.bak”.
   2. In the section “Destination for restore” select the “To Database”.  This is a combobox list.  Select “IbmSql”.
   3. Make sure that in the list of backup sets to restore that there is a checkmark in the “Restore” column of the grid.
      
   4. The final dialog should look something like this.  Note that the path and server in the backup set list will have different values depending specifically on your computer and the path to the backup file.
      
   5. Click on the Ok Button to restore the backup data.  Eventually you should get a message saying that the restore was successful.  Click on the “Ok” button and you will be done restoring the backup database with the data that will be accessed from BarScan.
      

Step 3 – Create the ODBC DataSource

1. From the Start button, activate the Control Panel.
2. Within the Control Panel, select “Administrative Tools”.  Note: if you do not see “Administrative Tools”, select a different view of the items.  In Windows, select “View By:Large Icons”.
3. Within “Administrative Tools” select “Data Sources (ODBC)”.
4. The ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog will appear.  Select the “System DSN” tab.
   
5. Click on the “Add” button.  The “Create New Data Source” dialog will appear.  Select “SQL Server Native Client 10.0” then click on the “Finish” button.
   
6. The “Create a New Data Source to Sql Server” dialog will appear. Enter
   1. Name: BarScanSample
   2. Description: Sample BarScan Data
   3. Server: Enter the server name that you took note of above. In this example it is “W7-X86-VSQLEXPRESS” (without the quote marks).  It will differ according to your machine, something like “<YourMachine>SQLEXPRESS”.  IMPORTANT: You may be tempted to click on the drop down button for the Server field, but in this case this generally does not give you a proper server name.  You will likely see the current <yourmachine> name but it will not have the text “SQLEXPRESS” appended to it.  The entire text “<YourMachine>SQLEXPRESS” is critical to a working connection.
   4. Then click the “Next” button.
   5. Skip through the dialogs, continuing to click on the “Next” button until you see the option to change the default database. Change it to ‘IbmSql’ as follows:
      
      This is important.  Without selecting the correct default database you will not see the proper list of tables from Bar|Scan.
7. Click the ‘Next’ button, then click on the ‘Finish’ button when it becomes available.
8. A verification Dialog will appear. Click on the “Ok” button.
   
9. You are now done creating the ODBC data source. You should now be back at the ODBC Data Source Administrator. There should be a new line in the list of data sources.
   
10. Click on the “Ok” button to finish.

Step 4 – Create the BarScan Formatted Import

1. Start BarScan with Administrator Privileges.  Note: This is important. If you do not, you will have to repeat almost all of the steps below.  To do this, right click on the desktop icon and select ‘Run as administrator’.
   
2. Login.
3. Open the Demonstration Company (DEMOCO).  File-> Company-> Open.
4. Open the Formatted Import screen.  File-> Import-> Formatted Data.
5. Add a blank Import.
   1. Click on Add Blank.
   2. Click on the ‘Edit’ tab.
   3. Switch from ‘EXPORT’  to ‘IMPORT’.
   4. Select the table to import into.  In this example it is the ORGANIZATION table.
   5. Enter a title for the import.
   6. Click on the ‘Files’ tab.
   7. Select the file format:  ODBC.  At this point, the screen should look something like this:
      
6. Enter an Odbc filename reference as follows:
   1. Right click on the “File Name” field.  A popup list will appear. Select “Look Up Value”.
   2. A dialog will appear that looks similar to this:
      
   3. Click in the “Select” section, on the ‘”Available data sources”.  You will see the odbc data source that you previously created.  In this case it is “BarScanSample”.
      
   4. Click on the “Ok” button.
   5. A “Select Data Source” dialog will appear similar to the following:
      
   6. Scroll down and select the “bsorg” table, then click on the ‘Ok’ button.
      
   7. The import filename field will be filled in. In this case it is similar to_DSN=BARSCANSAMPLE;UID=??;TRUSTED_CONNECTION=YES;WSID=W7-X86-V;DATABASE=IBMSQL;TABLE=BSORG;
   8. Note that you should have different values for DSN,UID and WSID.
   9. From here on treat this as a normal import. Create your external structure, select the value replacement expressions,links and operations as you would for a normal import. Note that it will be easier if you use the provided function to help populate these lists, such as the ‘Import Structure’ button and the “QuickAdd” button.
   10. Here are some screens for a completed Organization import.