Custom Import Wizzard

My project will require the user to import data (registered Voters) from a
text file. This text file will be created by thier county's Board of
Elections & thus be formatted differently county by county, generally with
columns in differing order. Also some counties will provide less/more data
than others. So I want to write (or include) an import wizard (kind of like
SQL Server has) that will map the source columns to the destination columns,
upon the first & subsequent loads. The reason I want to do it this way is
primarily becasue I'm using the SQL Compact Edition as the DB & there is no
supplied import method for this.
So is there any place (I did spend most of the morning searching the web
with no luck) where i can get sample code, directions, a book or anything to
get me started down the right path?
Thanks
Gary

amdrit
Fri Apr 25 12:25:43 CDT 2008

Is the data fixed length rows, comma seperated values, something else? Will
the data be constant or will there be extra data in some files and less in
others and will all the required data be present?

The approach I generally take is to build an engine that allows me to supply
a schema of what I want, and then a mapping of what is.

There are a lot of examples for reading fix length rows or csv files, just
google for it (i.e., C# fixed length files). The first result on this alone
seem to kill two birds with one stone. Read a fixed length file and specify
definitions for later processing.




"NYWGUY54" <NYWGUY54@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4116281B-F75E-4F49-AC3C-29154F270960@microsoft.com...
> My project will require the user to import data (registered Voters) from a
> text file. This text file will be created by thier county's Board of
> Elections & thus be formatted differently county by county, generally with
> columns in differing order. Also some counties will provide less/more data
> than others. So I want to write (or include) an import wizard (kind of
> like
> SQL Server has) that will map the source columns to the destination
> columns,
> upon the first & subsequent loads. The reason I want to do it this way is
> primarily becasue I'm using the SQL Compact Edition as the DB & there is
> no
> supplied import method for this.
> So is there any place (I did spend most of the morning searching the web
> with no luck) where i can get sample code, directions, a book or anything
> to
> get me started down the right path?
> Thanks
> Gary

NYWGUY54
Fri Apr 25 14:26:01 CDT 2008

The data will come from varying sources with different formatting. I expect
them to be variable lenght rows, comma delimited. The columns will be ordered
differently as well as some will provide more & some less data (columns). If
users were expected to import a file that was consistantly formatted from
county to county then that would be a whole lot easier. I'm looking for a way
to look at the data in the text file determine which column it belongs to
then map that column to my table(s) then do the import.

"amdrit" wrote:

> Is the data fixed length rows, comma seperated values, something else? Will
> the data be constant or will there be extra data in some files and less in
> others and will all the required data be present?
>
> The approach I generally take is to build an engine that allows me to supply
> a schema of what I want, and then a mapping of what is.
>
> There are a lot of examples for reading fix length rows or csv files, just
> google for it (i.e., C# fixed length files). The first result on this alone
> seem to kill two birds with one stone. Read a fixed length file and specify
> definitions for later processing.
>
>
>
>
> "NYWGUY54" <NYWGUY54@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:4116281B-F75E-4F49-AC3C-29154F270960@microsoft.com...
> > My project will require the user to import data (registered Voters) from a
> > text file. This text file will be created by thier county's Board of
> > Elections & thus be formatted differently county by county, generally with
> > columns in differing order. Also some counties will provide less/more data
> > than others. So I want to write (or include) an import wizard (kind of
> > like
> > SQL Server has) that will map the source columns to the destination
> > columns,
> > upon the first & subsequent loads. The reason I want to do it this way is
> > primarily becasue I'm using the SQL Compact Edition as the DB & there is
> > no
> > supplied import method for this.
> > So is there any place (I did spend most of the morning searching the web
> > with no luck) where i can get sample code, directions, a book or anything
> > to
> > get me started down the right path?
> > Thanks
> > Gary
>
>
>

Martin
Wed Jun 18 15:09:58 CDT 2008

Can the Import Wizard of OrchidGrid achieve what you want?

Could get it from www.springsys.com





> My project will require the user to import data (registered Voters) from a
> text file. This text file will be created by thier county's Board of
> Elections & thus be formatted differently county by county, generally with
> columns in differing order. Also some counties will provide less/more data
> than others. So I want to write (or include) an import wizard (kind of
> like
> SQL Server has) that will map the source columns to the destination
> columns,
> upon the first & subsequent loads. The reason I want to do it this way is
> primarily becasue I'm using the SQL Compact Edition as the DB & there is
> no
> supplied import method for this.
> So is there any place (I did spend most of the morning searching the web
> with no luck) where i can get sample code, directions, a book or anything
> to
> get me started down the right path?
> Thanks
> Gary