Been working in Visual Studio 2005 and got to the point where
I needed to build a native program that interfaces with SQL Server
via the bulk copy API.  So, I d/l'ed SQL Server 2005, installed it
and tried a simple example from MSDN from the bcp_bind
documentation.

Fails because it is unable to find "sqlfront.h."  I search the web.
Best suggestion I can find is to install the "Platform SDK"   Installed
that.  Installed everything I could find from the SQL Server 2005
distribution CDs.  "sqlfront.h" is not in
"Visual Studio 8/VC/PlatformSDK/include or
"VIsual Studio 8/VC/include", where I would have thought they might
end up.

Found a reference that indicated there may be some kind of SQL
Server SDK that I might need to download, but so far I've been unable
to find one.  Other suggestions indicate it may be included in the
Platform SDK, but I already tried that, no cigar...

Did a search of the whole computer.  It found a copy of sqlfront.h,
one in "Microsoft Visual Studio/VC98/include"-- which is one from
VS 6.0, as I also have VS 6.0 on this system as that is what our
current development uses, we're trying to move some things to
..NET, and that's the only one it found..  Can I just use the includes
from VS 6.0?  Are these the latest ones and that's why I've been
unable to find ones for VS 2005?   Did Platform SDK install it in
the wrong tree?   If so, how do I correct for that?  Can VS 2005
link with the associated  library files from VS 6.0?  How are you
*supposed* to get these darn files so the stupid example will
compile?

I'm on XP SP2 BTW, if that is of any relevance.

Uninstalling VS 6.0 is not an option, that's what all our current
development is using.  Installing VS 2005 on another PC is
not an option, I'm the only developer in this particular office and
they aren't going to buy me a new PC to do this.  Deciding NOT
to transition to .NET and VS 2005 is an option however, and the
one I'm currently giving the most serious consideration.  Uninstalling
VS 2005 and going to VS 2003 or something could be an option,
but it would be nice to know if it would actually fix the problem.
Reverting to an eariler SQL Server version could be an option as
well, but again, it'd be nice to know that it would actually fix the
problem.

I also noted that doing searches for stuff on MSDN does not
make it very clear WHICH version of whatever (VS, VC++,
SQL Server, etc.) the information applies to.  Often I would find
pages and wonder if it applies to the .NET version or is leftover
from some previous incarnation of the product and possibly no
longer applies to the .NET version.  Best I can tell, you can't
restrict searches by product version (if I'm wrong, please enlighten
me).  What a nightmare-- I've just spent 2 days trying to get the
simplest of example programs to compile a native program on
VS 2005.  Plenty of other people seem to have inquired about
the location of sqlfront.h though, I notice, yet so far I've not found
a response that was helpful to me.

Has ANYONE been able to compile a native VC++ program that
talks to SQL Server on the 2005 versions of VS & SQL Server?
Was it my mistake because I happened to choose to try
the "latest" versions of these products just as they came out,
and thought I could actually do something useful with them?

If you've been able to make it work, where does your sqlfront.h file
live on your system?  Any idea how it got there?

"sqlfront.h" and all the other include files and libraries you'll
need will typically be found in

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\DevTools

During SQL Server installation make sure you check the "Development
Tool" option.

I've quite happily built native C++ programs that use
bcp_bind/bcp_sendrow/bcp_batch etc.
using Visual Studio .NET 2003

Somone else just informed me of the DevTools...  I have an 80\Tools
directory and a 90\Tools directory but no DevTools under either.  I'm
sure I would have checked any "development" options in the install, as
that is all I'm doing-- this is not a production system it's purely a
development system.  I'm currently searching for "sqlfront.*" on the
installation media, after I finish that I'll try the Sql Server
installation again and see if I can find something I missed...

So far, explorer search hasn't found sqlfront.* on either of the two VS
2005 CDs or the
SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition CDs, and it apparently does search
the .cab
files.  Silly me though, perhaps I was assuming that such an include
file would be
on the DEVELOPER edition of SQL Server, maybe I should try the standard
edition...


Thanks for the info,

I checked-- in Workstation Components, books online and development
tools,  it shows everything in Client Compoments including Software
Development Kit as being installed.

Database Services, Analysis Services, Integration Services,
Notification Services show not installed.  However, if I select them to
be installed and continue, it ultimately tells me everything is already
installed and so there's nothing for it to do.

I'm thinking I need to blow away the entire SQL Server installation and
reinstall absolutely EVERYTHING and see where that gets me.  I did
install it in pieces somewhat originally, because I didn't know where
they had hidden the darn development tools-- apparently in
"documentation" which I usually think is huge and mostly already
available online, so I didn't install it.  And, installing it later
seems to have
left it half uninstalled and thinking it's all installed...

AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!


Looks like they merely renamed the include files and didn't tell me
anywhere-- the
bcp_bind example was for SQL Server 2000, and it hasn't been updated.

Apparently, "sqlfront.h" and "sqldb.h" no longer exist.  The old bulk
copy functions
are now ODBC based and use the include "sqlncli.h" and an odbc handle
instead of
a DBPROCESS structure.  There was an article in the books online
entitled
"Converting from DB Library to ODBC Bulk Copy functions" that explains
the
difference, which I never found because I didn't know about it and
doesn't mention
the differences in the includes, which is what breaks when you try the
example found
on the MSDN library (which is for SQL Server 2000).

So, I'm going to work on converting the example to an ODBC version
based on the
articles I've found......

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