First you need to decide which method you are going to use to give users access to the database. The first (and slightly less secure way) is to create an actual login for each person going to use the database. This will require you to get the users credentials in a form before attempting a connection to the database. The alternative to this method is to create only on login for a specific application and then create a table with an encrypted field for the password for the users. Then when the application connects to the database (using the credentials you created every time), it will look into a table to see if the credentials the user supplied are correct. I will walk you though both methods in this tutorial. Both steps require you to start from the beginning. Let’s get started.

First let’s open our Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio by going to Start->Programs->Microsoft SQL Server 2008->Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.

Once in, you should see a pane to the left of the window that looks like the above image. Expand the Security group.

You screen should now look like above.

Right-click on the logins group and select new login.

You will then be presented the above screen. This is the screen we will use to configure the user to have access to the database.

Fill in the login name with what you want the username to be. If you are using the table method for authenticating, it is common practice to name this something like “appname_login” where appname is the name of your application that is connecting to it. Select the SQL Server Authentication radial button. Now you need to type in the password you want that user to start out with in the boxes provided twice. Then select whether they will be forced to adhere to password policies (change x amount of days, certain length, certain types of text, ect…), and password expirations. Also check the box if you want the user to have to change there password the next time they log-on. Finally select the default database (which in this case is TT) and select the default language.

Now, in the left pane, click on User Mapping and check the box for the database we want the user to have access to and then select the access type from the bottom window on the right that you want them to have.

Now if you expand the Login directory you will see the user we just created. The user will also appear listed under the users group that is under the security group of TT since we mapped his credentials to that database. Simply do this for each user that you want to have access to the database if you are using the login for each user method. If you do not want to use the table method, you can discontinue reading here as the remaining steps will be fore creating a table for credentials and how to set it up. There are two ways to create a table, you can do it in the Graphical Interface, or you can write the script yourself. What I would recommend if you are new to SQL is to create it in the graphical interface and then view the code that it creates so that you can get an understanding of what the commands and syntax of SQL are. Let’s do it in the graphical interface:

Expand the databases collection, and then expand your database that you created. Once you do that right click on the table collections and select New Table…

Once the information loads, you will see a properties window to the right that will allow you to name the table. Name it something like ‘Users’ or ‘Credentials’. Once you do that we need to fill out the information for the table.

To create the info just begin typing in the appropriate box. Once you insert information into the box and move to the next field, the builder will auto-create the next line(column for the table). Make three columns to match what I have above. This will allow us to store the username, password, as role as a role for the user. This will allow us to use this field in our application to determine what the users can and can’t do easier. Also note that I have made the length of the password 255 characters. This is because I intend to encrypt the password that goes into this field which will take up more characters than required. I will cover this in a future tutorial.

Now that we have finished making our changes we can save the table but first let’s take a look at the code that this is going to generate. Right-click anywhere on the editor window and a menu will pop-up allowing you to select ‘Generate Change Script…’.

Once you select that menu option, the above window will appear with the script that the system would run to create the table. Look over it and try to understand what they do. Look the commands up in the help file and Google them to see what they do. This will be a good way to understand the commands. You can copy and paste this information into an SQL file and run it to create the table. Click on No to close the window once you are done and you will be taken back to the original screen.

Once you have everything in the table we will need, we can right-click on the tab for the editor and select save. This will save the table to our database.

Once the file finishes saving you should see it in the tables folder if you expand it’s view as above.

Now we need to insert some info into the table. Right-click on our database and select New Query as pictured above.

The query to insert people in this table will be as follows: -Note- It is good practice to capitalize all SQL command and tables so that you get differentiate the text easily.

INSERT INTO DBName..TableName VALUES(‘UserName’,’Password’,’Role’)

For example, if I wanted to create a user in the table for me with the password of password123 and the role of Admin the query would look like this:

INSERT INTO TT..USERS VALUES('MMaguire','password123','Admin')

Type your query into the text box and click on the green play button on the top portion of the screen to run the query.

You should see this message if your query has been successfully ran. If not, please check your query for mistakes. Now we can do a select statement on the table to see our user that we just inserted.

SELECT * FROM TT..USERS

Once you run the select statement, the screen in the middle will show you the results returned as above. You can now do the above steps for each user (inserting them with the query). Once you do that your table is completed. This will conclude this tutorial. Next, we will look at using Visual Basic to call this table and verify a user has permissions.

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First, it is important to note, that for security reasons, MS SQL comes with all connections via TCP/IP and Named Pipes disabled. Named pipes is a way for the connection to distinguish which instance of SQL you are trying to connect to (sort of like a port would act for TCP/IP). Named Pipes is not a network protocol though. It is a type of transmission that occurs over TCP/IP. We will be working with TCP/IP connections in the tutorials on this site, so we will not be enabling named pipes connections, however, when the point comes that you would do that, I will make note of it for you.

The first thing we need to configure are the connection properties that tell our server how people will be connecting to it. To do this we need to use the SQL Server Configuration Manager.

Goto Start ->All Programs -> Microsoft SQL Server 2008->Configuration Tools->SQL Server Configuration Manager.

This window will come up. This is the tool that allows you to configure how application will “talk” with your server. You will see the SQL Server Network Configuration category with a plus next to it. Expand this field.

In here you will see a category called Protocols for “your instance name here”. Whatever you called the instance you created during the installation will show there. By default it is called SQLExpress. Select this category and the pane to the right will populate with the connection setting for that instance. (Note – if you have more than once instance installed, each instance will have it’s own category under SQL Server Network Configuration)

All you need to do to enable the connections to the server is right-click on TCP/IP and click on enable.

This window will pop up to alert you that your changes will not take effect until we restart the service for this particular instance that we are modifying. Next, select the option in the left pane that says SQL Server Service.

This pane show you the services for all instances that are currently on your machine. Right now, we only have the three since we only have on instance installed. The SQL Server Browser is used across all instances but each instance will have an SQL Server and SQL Server Agent. All we need to do to make our TCP/IP changes take effect is to restart the SQL Server.

To restart the service simply right-click on it and select restart; a screen will appear that show you the progress of stopping the service and then starting it back up. After it does that, you can close out of that window as we are done with it. Next, we need to create the database that we will be using. To do this we are going to use one of the included tools that came with the software: SQL Server Management Studio.

Start->All Programs->Microsoft SQL Server 2008->SQL Server Management Studio

This screen will come up asking for authentication. You will need to be logged in as the user you added during installation in order for windows authentication to go through. The first thing we need to do in here, is create out database that we will be using.

This is the main window of the management studio.

To create our database, right-click on the Databases folder and click on New Database.

This screen let’s you configure and name your database. All we need to do is select a name for our database and type it in. I called mine ‘TeamTutorials’. Click on OK to create the database.

Now in our Management Studio if we expand the Databases folder, we will see our database that we created in there. Next we are going to change a setting that will be helpful down the road.

At the top of the window, click on Tools and select Options from the menu.

This window will appear, click on the designers category (you do not need to expand the field). Once you are there un-check the box next to “Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation.” This will allow you to make changes to your tables after you have built them and put data in them. This is more of a protective measure than anything. Just to be safe, I wouldn’t recommend turning this off if you plan on keep very private or important information in the database that you can’t afford to lose. Next we need to create the tables we will be using. Our tool here will allow us to create them using a graphical interface so you don’t have to write any code, this is acceptable but I might recommend at least keeping the scripts it generates for reference. This way if you need to do it again sometime, you can just run the script to create the database and make changes as necessary. We will cover creating the tables and setting them up in a way that suites our needs in the next tutorial. I hope this tutorial was easy to follow and helps you. Thanks for reading.

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***NOTE*** The first several steps are only required if you don’t have .NET 3.5 installed on your machine already. There is also extra windows (not all of which are pictured in this tutorial) for PowerShell and Windows Installer 4.5. It won’t require you to download them and install it if you already have them.

Once you are at the pager, click on the Free Download button and it will take you to a login page. You need to register or already have a live account. It is free to register so go ahead. Once you get past that and log in, it will ask you to verify some information Once you verify the information and click on continue you will go to the download page.

Near the top of the download page, you should see the download now image. Click on this to begin the download. This will download a 605 kilobyte file that will download and install the software for you. Once this file downloads, launch it and you can start the installation process.

You will be given a window that has the EULA for .NET Framework 3.5. Review this document and agree to continue.

Next, this window will appear and start downloading the .Net Framework.

Once you are done downloading, it will automatically begin installing it for you.

This window will come up during the process….this part may take some time, so please be patient and let it complete.

You will get the above window alerting you that your machine must be rebooted before continuing. Save and close out of anything you are doing (and bookmark this page to come back an finish) and the give it the ok to reboot. Once windows reboots it may or may not restart the installation. If it doesn’t, just click on the setup icon and it will resume.

It should begin to download another file like shown above. Just download the file and then run it to resume the rest of the installation.

This window lets you pick which version you want to install. The options for additional services and with tools both will also install Windows PowerShell which is a scripting utility. I am going to go with the tools as well. This will give us the manager which will allow us to create databases, columns, and information. Click on install to begin installing the needed software.

This window will then come up and show you the progress of your install. You will then be prompted to restart your computer. Tell it to restart again. Once you reboot it will come back to the installation screen and continue installing again.

This screen will appear and test your machine to make sure it can run SQL 2008. If anything in here fails, it will need to be resolved before installation can continue.

This screen is were you select what type of install you want to use but seeing as we downloaded the express edition that is already marked for us and it is all grayed out. Just go ahead and click next.

This screen gives us the Terms of Service for SQL 2008. Read and understand these terms and check to box saying that you agree with them. Once you have done that, click on next to continue.

This window shows you what needs to be installed for everything to work. Click on install to begin the process.

This screen lets you pick extra features that you can install if you would like. For this tutorial I am selecting all of them. Click the select all button and then click next to continue.

This screen lets you pick the name of the instance and where to put it. An instance name will allow you to install several different instances of SQL and call them independently. You can name it anything you would like. Click next to continue.

This screen checks to ensure you have enough hard drive space for the installation to continue. Click next to continue.

This window let’s you pick what account on your computer should run the service for the SQL server. Select the system account for the top service and make sure that both of them are set to automatic.

This window lets you pick whether you want to authenticate users using windows authentication or using database credentials separately. Check the box that uses both and add you current user for the windows part and then type in the password twice that you want to be associated to the built-in database administrators account.

This windows lets you select whether or not you would like to send error messages to Microsoft for reporting. You can also opt to send operating information to Microsoft to help them make better products. Click next and it will go through another system check to ensure more things are ready for the install. Click next on that screen as well.

This window reviews all of the configuration options that we selected. Make sure everything looks the same as it should and then click next to finish the installation process.

This screen shows the installation process and will continue once the installation is completed. Click next to go to the final screen. The final screen gives you some information that may be helpful to you so read through it. Click on close once you are finished. I hope this tutorial was easy to follow and you learned from it. Next tutorial will walk you through configuring your database for access and creating the tables for it as well.

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