Category Archives: SQL Server 2005

Cannot install Sql server Express 2005 in Windows Server 2008 x64 “cannot continue because the installation package could not be opened….”

The standard lightweight version of SQL Express 2005 is missing files that are required to install on Sever 2008 x64. You cannot install the lightweight version on server 2008 / 64-bit windows OS. Instead you must simply download the full package including advanced features. This more complete version will install fine on Server 2008. Bear in mind that you don’t actually need to install the advanced features.

Silverlight and LINQ problems: ‘YourDataClassesDataContext’ does not contain a constructor that takes ‘0’ arguments

After rebuilding my DBML file with SQL metal, my DataContext class no longer has a parameterless constructor. This is due to differences between the was that Visual studio generates the DBML (with SQL metal) and how SQLMetal command-line does by default.

The parameterless constructor simply takes the connection string from web.config rather than requiring one to be passed in as an argument. There may be switches for SQLMetal to handle this, but in the mean time here is a quick solution (which is simply what VS2008 adds when using the DBML builder) :

Add the following method to the DataClasses.designer.cs

public MyDataClassesDataContext() :
base(global::System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings[“MyConnectionString”].ConnectionString, mappingSource)
{
OnCreated();
}

Named pipes / Connectivity error. Cannot see SQL server connection or databases from Visual studio 2008

Can be caused by the SQL server browser service being disabled.  Set to automatic and start the service. Restart the ‘add connection’ wizard from Visual studio and the local SQL server host and databases should be discoverable again.

SQL server browser service

SQL server browser service