Background:
I've been using LabVIEW for a few years for automation testing tasks and until recently have been saving my data to "[DescriptorA]\[DescriptorB]\[test_info].csv" files. A few months ago, a friend turned me on to the concept of relational databases, I've been really impressed by their response times and am reworking my code and following the examples with the Database Connectivity Toolkit (DCT) to use "[test_info].mdb" with my provider being a Microsoft jet oldb database.
However, I'm beginning to see the limitations of the DCT namely:
No support for auto-incrementing primary keys
No support for foreign keys
Difficult to program stored procedures
and I'm sure a few more that I don't know yet.
Now I've switched over to architecting my database in MySQL Workbench. Suffice to say I'm a bit out of my depth and have a few questions that I haven't seen covered in tutorials
Questions (General):
Using Microsoft jet oldb I made a connection string "Data Source= C:\[Database]\[databasename.mdb]" in a .UDL file. However, the examples I've seen for connecting to MySQL databases use IP addresses and ports.
Is a MySQL database still a file?
If not, how do I put it on my networked server \\[servername\Database\[file]?
If so, what file extensions exist for databases and what is the implication of each extension? I know of .mdb, but are there others I could/should be using (such as .csv's vs .txt's)
My peers, who have more work experience than me but no experience with databases, espouse a 2GB limit on all files (I believe from the era of FAT16 disks). My current oldb database is about 200mB in size so 2GB will likely never happen, but I'm curious:
Do file size limits still apply to database files?
If so, how does one have the giant databases that support major websites?
Questions (LabVIEW Specific):
I can install my [MainTestingVi.exe], which accesses the jet oldb database, on a Windows 10 computer that is fresh out of the box. When I switch over to having a MySQL database, are there any additional tools that I'll need to install as well?