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Migrating from Other Databases

Migrating your existing database structure and data to VistaDB is very easy. The VistaDB Data Migration Wizard (DMW) lets developers visually migrate their existing databases to VistaDB. Select a database source for migration and the wizard walks you through the process step-by-step.

Select which tables, columns, indexes and relations to migrate and you may optionally rename these items before migration. Once the options are set, the wizard generates a new VistaDB database (.VDB) and migrates the existing data to the new database without ever disturbing your original data. The following databases are supported for migration:

VistaDB 3.3

• MS-Access (MDB)
• SQL Server (MDF)
• SQL Compact Edition or SQL CE (SDF)
• VistaDB 2.x

VistaDB 2.x

• MS-Access (MDB)
• Advantage (ADT, ADM, ADI)
• APOLLO (DBF, SMT, NSX)
• Clipper (DBF, DBT, NTX)
• dBASE (DBF, DBT, MDX)
• DBISAM (DAT, IDX)
• FoxPro 2.6 (DBF, DBT, CDX, IDX)
• InterBase (using BDE Migration Wizard)
• Oracle
• Paradox (using BDE Migration Wizard)
• SQL Server (MDF)
• Visual FoxPro (DBC, DBF, FPT, CDX)

Jet/Access to VistaDB

Before migrating your Access databases to SQL Server, take a close look at VistaDB. The MSDE and SQL Server 2005 are overkill for building desktop, workgroup and ASP.NET database applications. VistaDB gives you all the speed and power of Jet, but in a smaller and more robust database format that, unlike Jet/Access, won't run into problems when working in shared network environments. Unlike Access, VistaDB does not require Jet or MDAC which means no more configuration headaches when it comes time to deploy your applications. Use the VistaDB Data Migration Wizard and migrate your Access databases to VistaDB in minutes. And when it comes time to deploy, VistaDB features Copy 'n Go!™ deployment, plus VistaDB be freely distributed so cost is not a factor.

Microsoft has officially dropped support for the JET MDAC API, which means developers will need to find a new solution for building smaller database applications. Don't wait, migrate your Access databases to VistaDB today. Learn more

From the Microsoft MDAC Roadmap page under "Deprecated MDAC Components":

Jet: Starting with version 2.6, MDAC no longer contains Jet components. In other words, MDAC 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, and all future MDAC releases do not contain Microsoft Jet, Microsoft Jet OLE DB Provider, or the ODBC Desktop Database Drivers. No new feature enhancements will be made to Jet.

Xbase to VistaDB (APOLLO)

Xbase developers can finally migrate their legacy Xbase DBF databases to a modern RDBMS without losing any of the legendary speed and power provided by such Xbase engines as APOLLO. VistaDB is a next generation data engine that provides a robust single-file data store along with a faster data engine and built-in SQL-92 query processor for managing data. In general, VistaDB is more robust, faster and provides more features than the DBF format and Xbase data engines such as APOLLO. Index corruption, inherent with all Xbase data engines, is a thing of the past with VistaDB. Use the VistaDB Data Migration Wizard to migrate your DBF files to VistaDB quickly and easily. VCL developers using Delphi/C++Builder will be happy to know that the VistaDB VCL components TVDBDatabase, TVDBTable and TVDBQuery can coexist with APOLLO in your Borland IDEs -- there is absolutely no conflict between APOLLO and VistaDB. Learn more

MSDE to VistaDB

VistaDB is a good alternative to MSDE for developers building .NET applications. The MSDE is a stripped down version of SQL Server and as we experienced, the MSDE and SQL Express are sometimes overkill for building small to midsize database applications. Even in its most basic form, the MSDE is still over 40MB in size. Compare that to VistaDB's 500KB footprint. There is simply no comparison between trying to deploy a 40MB+ MSDE database application and deploying a 400KB VistaDB database application. Unlike the MSDE, VistaDB includes easy-to-use visual utilities for managing your VistaDB databases. The Data Migration Wizard will easily migrate your MSDE databases to VistaDB. And, if in the future, you decide to upgrade your VistaDB database to the MSDE, VistaDB provides the ability to migrate to SQL Server format. Learn more