Creating Our Module Structure

• From your solution explorer right click on your project name
• Click Add => New Folder
• Name it anything you want, i named mine Modules
• Right Click on the Modules folder or whatever you named it and choose Add => Module…
• Name it whatever you want, i just named mine”Added” without the double quotes

New Module

Once you click Add, your new Module should be created and should look like this

New Module File

Now that we have our Empty Module created the first thing we need to do is add a new Method.
Within our Method will contain the code we want to execute when we call that method, so to create the method insert this line of code between the Module End Module block

Public Sub MsgAdded()

End Sub

MsgAdded is the method we will call on our submission from whatever form we want.
The next thing we need to do is create a new form instance, this will be the form that will be displayed when we call it.
Remember, this form will not be added to our project.

Dim AddedMessage As New Form

Now that we have added a declaration as a new form we now need to set some properties for that form, so lets do that.

AddedMessage.Name = "FormMessage"
AddedMessage.Text = "Contact Added"
AddedMessage.Size = New Size(313, 123)
AddedMessage.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.FixedDialog
AddedMessage.StartPosition = FormStartPosition.CenterScreen
AddedMessage.MinimizeBox = False
AddedMessage.MaximizeBox = False
AddedMessage.BackColor = Color.White
AddedMessage.ShowIcon = False
AddedMessage.Show()
AddedMessage.TopMost = True

Let me explain what these properties are and why they are set.

	VALUES
AddedMessage.Name	Identifies the control by the Name property
AddedMessage.Text	The text that is displayed in the title bar
AddedMessage.Size	Over rides the default form size, if not set, default size will be initiated
AddedMessage.FormBorderStyle	Sets the Border style of the fom
AddedMessage.StartPosition	Sets the positioning of the form when called
AddedMessage.MinimizeBox	Determines if the Minimize button is visible or not, Values are Boolean (True or False)
AddedMessage.MaximizeBox	Determines if the Maximize button is visible or not, Values are Boolean (True or False)
AddedMessage.BackColor	Sets the background color of the form
AddedMessage.ShowIcon	Determines weather to show the icon in the title bar or not, Values are Boolean(True or False)
AddedMessage.TopMost	Determines if the form should always remain over top of other windows

Our new form is now set and can now be called by calling MsgAdded()

Now lets go a head and create our message to be displayed.
We are just going to use a Label control, and we are going to create this essentially the same way we did the form.
The first thing we need to do is create our Label to hold our message.
Insert this below AddedMessage.TopMost = True

Dim MessageLabel As New Label
Now we need to set some properties of our label.


MessageLabel.Name = "LabelMessage"
MessageLabel.Text = "Contact Has Been Saved Successfully"
MessageLabel.Width = AddedMessage.Width
MessageLabel.Location = New Point(55, 41)

Now that our label message has been created we have to tell the form to add the label to the form.
Under MessageLabel.Location = New Point(55, 41 insert this

AddedMessage.Controls.Add(MessageLabel)

Now when we call the new form, the form will add the Label control.
Remember, MessageLabel is the name of the label we created.
Anytime you add controls to a form this way you need to specify the Name of the control you want to be added inside the Controls.Add(ControlName) method.

So far we have accomplished the following tasks

1. Created a new Form
2. Set properties to our new form
3. Created a message that will be stored in a label control
4. Set the properties of the Label control
5. Told our new form to add the Label control

The final task we need to is trigger a event to call our new form, this part is pretty easy and it can be used on any form you have in your project.

• Open your Form1
• Drag a button on to your form
• Double click on the button to create a Button1_Click event
• Type in the following code
• MsgAdded()

Run the application (F5) or click the little Green Play Button at the top
When you click the button you will see your new form appear.

This concludes another Visual Basic tutorial.
I hope that you find use of this tutorial and can use this within your own project(s)

Note!
This tutorial was created to show users how to connect their desktop application to a server hosted at winhost.com
This tutorial does not cover the uploading proccess of your application.
The uploading proccess can be done using the Click Once feature built in to Visual Studio

Something Useful

This tutorial uses the following requirements and they should be used by you to ensure it will work correctly.

• Visual Studio 2010
• .NET Framework 4.0
• SQL Server Management Studio 2008

With that out of the way now, lets get started on the tutorial.

Step 1 – Setting up the server to work with this

Once you have your host created at Winhost navigate to the control panel and login
After logging in click on Sites tab.
You should now see a list of domains you have assigned to your account

Click on the Manage link and that will take you to the management section of that domain.
This section allows you to configure your site.

The first thing we are interested in is configuring the .NET framework we want the server to use.
Click on the ASP.NET Version icon
From the ASP.NET Framework Version dropdown list choose 4.0 than click Update.
Now our server is ready to use applications created using the .NET Framework 4.0

There’s one more thing we need to set up…A database.
Click on the MS SQL 2008 icon.
Click the Add button.
In the Database Name field type in the name of the database you want to create.
You can type in any name you want.
Now click Create.

Now you have your database set up, we can now minimize our web browser for now and load up Visual Studio.
We will need to go back into our control panel once we’re done with our application to grab the details of our database.

Step 2 – Creating your data application

Once you have VS open you can go a head and create your application.
Once your application is complete we will need to modify the Connection String in the app.config file.

Step 3 – Modifying the App.config file

Now that you have your application created we need to use the connection string that we were given when we created our database on Winhost.
So go back to your control panel and go back to your MS SQL 2008.
Click on the Manage link to manage the database.
You should now see your database details, such as

• Server name
• Database name
• Database user etc.

You need to grab the complete connection string

“Data Source=???:???.winhost.com;Initial Catalog=DB_8754_databasename;User ID=DB_8754_databasename_user;Password=******;Integrated Security=False;”

Jump back to your project and open the App.config file.
You should see a connection string within the <connectionStrings> attribute.
Replace everything after connectionString= with the connection string you coppied from your control panel.
The complete connection string should look something like this

connectionString=”Data Source=???.winhost.com;Initial Catalog=DB_8754_databasename;User ID=DB_8754_databasename_user;Password=password”
providerName=”System.Data.SqlClient” />

Now go a head and save your project.
We are now ready to attach our database to the server.

Step 4 – Attaching our database to the server

In your Visual Studio click on the Server Explorer tab.
You should see your database listed here.
Right click on it and choose Publish To Provider
Your database should be selected by default, if it isn’t go a head and select it.
Now you can click Next to choose a path where you want the script file to be generated to.
You can now click Finish and it will start gether all the Objects.
Once this is complete successfully you will see a .MDF.sql file wherever you told it to download to.
The next thing we need to do is tell the server our database is being hosted on to use this database, so lets do that now.

• Open SQL Server Management Studio
• In the Connect to Server dialog just click Cancel for now.
• At the top click on File => Open => File
• Browse for the .MDF.sql file you downloaded earlier.
• You will now be asked to connect to a server.
• Go back to your Winhost control panel => Site Manager => MSSQL 2008
• Click on the Manage link beside your database
• Copy the Database Server name and go back to SQL Server Management Studio and paste it in the Server Name field (See screenshot 1.1)
• Go back to your control panel and grab the Database Username and paste that in to the Login field
• Now put in your password (This is the same as your login password to the control panel)
• Also make sure Authentication is set to SQL Server Authentication and click Connect
• You will now see a list of queries. (See screenshot 1.2)
• At the very very top of that window type in the following

USE databaseName
GO

• Now at the top, click on Execute
• The command should be executed successfully

Screen 1.1

Screen 1.2

Your database is functional on your server and is now ready for use.
Now if you go back to your VS => Server Explorer and you create a new database connection, you will now be able to interact with the database that’s on the server.
When you make changes to the database they will be applied automatically on the server end.
You can also do your Database Management from SQL Server Management Studio by connecting to it the same way we did previously.
All that is left now is for you to upload your project to your server.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and i hope it has helped you out in some way.

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