SQL2008 to SQL2005

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   Is there a way to get an entire PC database out of SQL2008 and installed into SQL2005? I am asking becasue I am probably going to switch hosts, and it is very suprising that many hosts still only offer SQL2005. I really just wanted to keep my options open.

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carstone Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 12-July-2006 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote carstone Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: SQL2008 to SQL2005 Posted: 23-March-2009 at 11:02am
	Is there a way to get an entire PC database out of SQL2008 and installed into SQL2005? I am asking becasue I am probably going to switch hosts, and it is very suprising that many hosts still only offer SQL2005. I really just wanted to keep my options open.

cognecy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 18-March-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 8	Post Options Post Reply Quote cognecy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 23-March-2009 at 3:10pm
	As we do a tremendous amount of work with the ProductCart database I would like to offer my perspective on this. I personally do not recommend using SQL2008 for ProductCart just yet. There are too many things that have changed in 2008 that can make a productcart installation buggy. I could go into the nitty-gritty details but that would make for a very long reply. If you must use it then I Highly recommend using it in SQL2005 compatibility mode. As far as I know, ProdutCart has not yet been officially certified for use on SQL2008. Now to your question yes you can move from 2008 to 2005 but you really need to make sure you do not let an average host or DBA that does not have any experience with ProductCart do it. I have said this before and I will say it again, I have seen the ProductCart database bring even seasoned DBAs to their proverbial knees trying to migrate it. It is not because it is a particularily complex database but it really does require some good knowledge of the application. We would certainly be happy to help you out with this if it is something you are not comfortable doing yourself. email: mark@cognecy.com Edited by cognecy - 23-March-2009 at 3:14pm
	Mark Shipp Cognecy Solutions, LLC Hosting/Design/Customization/Database Migration www.cognecy.com www.cognecy.co.uk

Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 23-March-2009 at 3:26pm
	I will add to this that I'd take Mark's response as gospel. For any advanced MSSQL projects that we receive, and in particular MS-Access to MSSQL conversions, there is no debate about who takes care of them for us. They go straight to Mark. If he says it can be done, but needs expert handling, you will be well ahead of the game to simply hire him and get it done. 2 cents...

carstone Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 12-July-2006 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote carstone Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 23-March-2009 at 3:38pm
	Excellent, thanks for the replies. Your "buggy" comment may be an explanation why I am having problems when I upload CSV files, even when they are FTP'd to the server first. Something odd always goes awry in a field, even when I am not touching that field with the CSV. I think the problem is isolated to me.

cognecy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 18-March-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 8	Post Options Post Reply Quote cognecy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 23-March-2009 at 4:04pm
	Greg - as always, thanks for your kind words. Carstone: The problems with your CSV files could be caused by a lot of things and would have to be looked at closely to make a determination if it is DB related or not. I will try to explain a bit. With all future releases of SQL2005 and SQL2008, Microsoft is turning off support for Text and Image datatypes (this includes ntext which the ProductCart Database uses a lot of). The big reason for the NText datatype is for backwards compatibility to SQL2000 and SQL7 and it allows for a very lengthy text entry (millions of characters). You might say whats the problem with that? Well, the big problem is that you cannot group, sort or query text and image datatypes (a DBA's nightmare if you are trying to cleanup corruption in a database) Up until recently this was our our only option but after the release of SQL2005, Microsoft introduced the nvarchar(MAX) datatype and some others that allow for extended entry (millions of characters) and all but makes the old text and image datatypes obsolete. Now we can search group and sort on this new datatype and every character is index-able (a DBA's #1 wish comes true). Now to back up that is not to say that SQL2008 cannot handle these old datatypes but it can be tricky getting it to work properly if it does not work out of the shoot (as I have learned). Running anything in compatibility mode is not the same as running it with the correct software it was designed for. Do not get me wrong, however, SQL2008 is actually a wonderful Database Software and I think will end up overshadowing the fame of both SQL2000 and SQL2005 combined. BUT (you know there has to be a "but" in there), we are still working with several different versions of ProductCart that go back to SQL7 and we still have to maintain a common standard in the DB design. I really hope my Geek-Speak did not confuse?
	Mark Shipp Cognecy Solutions, LLC Hosting/Design/Customization/Database Migration www.cognecy.com www.cognecy.co.uk

carstone Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 12-July-2006 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote carstone Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 23-March-2009 at 8:45pm
	Hi Mark, I really appreciate the time you took to reply to this. I shot you an email to discuss this a little deeper. Thanks for your help!