I am moving my site to a host that has SQL Server 2005. I am pretty good
with Access, but I don't know much about SQL Server.

I'm currently using SQL Server 2000, and I access it with Access 2000, which
means I can't do a lot.

Would I be able to work in it using SAL Server Express? What I am
particularly interested in, is being able to run queries (views).

I need to update stock every day. If I was using Access I would import or
link the new stock table, and then join the 2 tables by the product number -
(the product table and the new stock table), and pull the records where the
stock amounts were different, then copy the column from the stock table to
the product table (or do an update query, although copying is usually
quicker and easier).

I would do that, not just for stock amounts, but for price changes, to add
descriptions, and a few other things.

How can I do that in SQL Server 2005? What program do I need to have on my
desktop to do that?

Please explain in baby terms, if possible!

Thanks!

On Nov 25, 6:42 pm, "JA" <jarmour at kc.rr.com> wrote:
If your question is more on SQL server express I can help slightly.
SQL Server express does not have import/export capabilities. But you
can backup and restore databases. I do not know what restrictions your
ISP or web server are, but if you could backup from your copy and do a
restore on the web server that could work. Although, if you want to do
this often you would want to automate this.

HTH

If the host that has SQL Server 2005 allows remote connections, then you can
download SQL Server Management Studio Express
(http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/express/bb410792.aspx) and use it to run
queries. You will need the IP address (or full DNS name) of the host (and
valid account credentials) to register in SSMS. The link above has the
download for SQL Server Books Online which is the official documentation for
SQL Server 2005 and will be useful to find your way around SSMS.

However, some hosts do not allow remote connections. In that case you would
have to use some mechanism to load the data via a Web page on your site.
There are different ways to do it. I prefer loading via XML files as both
..NET and SQL Server 2005 provide good support to parse XML data. Essentially
you would load the new data via files and then build some routines to
process and update the appropriate tables. Alternatively, this process could
be fully automated via Web service that feeds data changes.

HTH,

Plamen Ratchev
http://www.SQLStudio.com