I cannot connect to SQL Server Express using VB.NET

Question

Can someone tell me what I am missing? I am using this connection string to connect to my database and still it won't connect:

Dim str As String = "Provider = .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server; Data Source=C:\Users\konin\Documents\UHMS\bin\Debug\UHMS.mdf;Integrated Security=True;Connect Timeout=30;User Instance=True"

This is the process I used to get the data source:

1. right-click the database
2. select properties and click select data source

I hope I am clear enough. Thanks for reading.

Edit:

Error Message is as follows:

unable to connect to database please contact administrator

Answer 1

Can you post the error? I've never seen the Data Source connected to a .mdf, only with "AttachDbFilename", you might want to take a look here for details on Connection strings for SQL.

Answer 2

Most likely, you'll need something like this:

Dim str As String = "Server=.\SQLExpress;AttachDbFilename=C:\Users\konin\Documents\UHMS\bin\Debug\UHMS.mdf;Database=dbname; Trusted_Connection=Yes;"

You'll still need to have SQL Server Express installed on your machine in order to load this *.mdf file.

Answer 3

Assuming yours is a web application... you need to place your file based database in the App_Data folder of your project for it to work. I noticed is located in the Debug folder...