It used to be an arduous process to create a database using Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects  (ADO). You had to know a great deal of the ADOX and ADO libraries. When Microsoft developed the .NET Framework and the new process of creating a database through the ADO.NET technique, database development was significantly simplified but you were still required to write some code to perform some of the routine operations.

As implemented in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, ADO.NET has become even easier, so easy that you can create a complete functional graphical database with little to no code. To illustrate this, we will create an application that would help a company that rents cars to perform daily business operations.

We will start our database with the list of employees of the company, who are people who process daily rental transactions.

1. To start the database, click Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft SQL Server 2005 -> SQL Server Management Studio
2. Select or accept the Server Type, the Server Name, and the Authentication
3. Click Connect
4. Expand the Databases node
5. To create a new database, right-click the Databases node and click New Database...
6. Set the database name to bcr (which stands for Bethesda Car Rental) and accept the default owner or change it
7. Click OK
8. Expand the bcr node and the Tables node under it
9. To create a new table, right the Tables node under bcr and click New Table...
10. Set the first column name to EmployeeID
11. Set its Data Type to int
12. In the lower section, expand Identity Specification and set the (Is Identify) field to Yes
13. On the Table Designer toolbar, click the Set Primary Key button
14. Complete the table with the following columns
     

    Column Name	Data Type	Allow Nulls
    EmployeeID	int
    FirstName	varchar(30)
    LastName	varchar(30)	Uncheck
    Title	varchar(50)
    HourlySalary	decimal(8,2)

15. Save the table as Employees and close it
16. In the Object Explorer, right-click dbo.Employees and click Open Table
17. Create the following records:
     

    EmployeeID	FirstName	LastName	Title	HourlySalary
    1	Patricia	Katts	Regional Manager	28.45
    2	Julienne	Mukoko	Sales Manager	26.65
    3	Bertrand	Yamaguchi	Sales Representative	12.85
    4	Hermine	Calhoun	Sales Representative	11.95

18. Close the table
19. Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 or Microsoft Visual Studio
20. Create a Windows Forms Application named bcr1
     
    
21. To create a new form, on the main menu, click Project -> Add New Item...
22. In the Templates list, click Windows Form and set the name to Employees
     
    
23. Click Add
24. On the main menu, click Data -> Show Data Sources
25. Click Add New Data Source...
26. In the first page of the Data Source Configuration Wizard, make sure that Database is selected and click Next
27. If a bcr connection appears in the combo box, fine; if not, click New Connection and create a connection to the bcr database. Click Next
28. Expand the Tables node and click the check box of Employees
29. Change the DataSet Name to dsEmployees. Click Finish
30. In the Data Sources window, click Employees and click the arrow of its combo box to select DataGridView (it should be selected already as the default).
    Drag the Employees node and drop it on the form
31. While the DataGridView control is still selected on the form, in the Properties window, click the ellipsis of the Columns field and make the following changes:
     

    Selected Columns	HeaderText	Width
    EmployeeID	Employee ID	75
    FirstName	First Name	80
    LastName	Last Name	80
    Title		130
    HourlySalary	Hourly Salary	75

32. Click OK
33. Set DataGridView's Anchor property to Top, Bottom, Left, Right
34. Under the DataGridView control, add a button and set its properties as follows:
    Text: Close
    (Name): btnClose
    Anchor: Bottom, Right
     
    
35. Double-click the Close button and implement its even as follows:
     

    System::Void btnClose_Click(System::Object^ sender, System::EventArgs^ e) { Close(); }

36. Access the first form
37. Add a button to it and set its properties as follows:
    Text: Employees
    (Name): btnEmployees
38. Double-click the Employees button
39. In the top section of the file, under the #pragma once line, type #include "Employees.h"
40. Scroll to the bottom of the file and implement the even as follows:
     

    System::Void btnEmployees_Click(System::Object^ sender, System::EventArgs^ e) { Employees ^ frmEmployees = gcnew Employees; frmEmployees->ShowDialog(); }

41. Execute the application to test it
42. Access the Employees form
43. Using the + button, add the following employees:
     

    EmployeeID	FirstName	LastName	Title	HourlySalary
    5	Olivier	Perez	Personnel Manager	24.05
    6	Henry	James	Sales Representative	12.05
    7	Emile	Bemba	Sales Representative	14.15

     
    
44. Close the forms