Developing an easy radio message logging app

[Untouchab1e]

Well, I need to develop a simple radio message logging app for use on a small military exercise.

Equipment
A laptop running Windows

Thats about it..

Now, the app is quite simple in itself, it needs to let me easily submit a new message report simply containing "from", "to", "message", "category" (and time\date, etc). Now the problem is that I have no experience with programming anything up against a database. I know basic SQL but I just dont know how to work with databases programatically.

Points of issue

What kind of local SQL database solution works best with vb.net and Visual studio? Maybe I should use an Access database instead?
When I click submit (on a new message report) how can I make an entry in a local SQL database of some sort?
How can I load up a list of the message log entries already made in a listview or something?

If anyone can help me or point me to relevant guides I would be most greatful as I dont have alot of time!

[BackWoodsCoder]

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=337051

that should help you out with database work in vb

[Untouchab1e]

Thanks, would listview be the best tool to display the data?

[Niak32]

@Untouchab1e
I have done a radio logging database for groups in my state. I used access the first season then VB but went back to access as it was a hell of a lot simpler for a single user database, even a couple of computers. never figured out how to do reports in a VB App.

See attached database for a quick mock up of what you might want

RadioLogger.zip

open the form frm_main manually or autoexec will do it if enabled.