Best Practices for uploading files to database

Question

I am looking for any best practices or ideas on how you would create an interface with a DB from a .NET web application to upload data from Excel files Should I use a mechan

Answer 1

You should upload the data and then flag it if it fails validation checks. For actually loading the data, you have a few options:

• The ADO.Net bulk-load API - use the bulk load API to put it in a staging table. The snippet below shows a process to open a .CSV file and programatically load it into a staging table.

.

  public void Load() {
        bool OK = File.Exists(_filename);
        if (OK) {
            string sql = String.Format("Select * from {0}", FileName);
            OleDbConnection csv = new OleDbConnection();
            OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand(sql, csv);
            OleDbDataReader rs = null;
            SqlConnection db = null;
            SqlCommand clear = null;

            SqlBulkCopy bulk_load = null;
            try {
                    // Note two connections: one from the csv file
                    // and one to the database;
                    csv = new OleDbConnection();
                    csv.ConnectionString = ConnectionString;
                    csv.Open();
                    cmd = new OleDbCommand(sql, csv);
                    rs = cmd.ExecuteReader();

                    // Dung out the staging table
                    db = // [Create A DB conneciton Here]
                    clear = new SqlCommand("Truncate table Staging", db); // Left to the reader
                    clear.ExecuteNonQuery();

                   // Import into the staging table
                    bulk_load = new SqlBulkCopy(db);
                    bulk_load.DestinationTableName = Destination; // Actually an instance var
                    bulk_load.WriteToServer(rs);
                } catch (Exception ee) {
                    string summary = ee.Message;
                    string detail = ee.StackTrace;
                    //Notify(DisplayType.error, summary, detail);
                } finally {
                    if (rs != null) rs.Close();
                    if (csv != null) csv.Close();
                    if (bulk_load != null) bulk_load.Close();
                }
            }
        }

• Use BCP or SSIS to import it, either directly from the spreadsheet or from a .CSV file.