Portable DB Suggestions?

[Rachel Mant]

If you're so concerned with having the application portable, write your own database format for the application, that way you can keep the dependencies to a minimum and have full control as to how the data is stored. (just my 2cents)

The worst thing about the darkness is the light at the end - DX-MON

[CarlG]

Yes, I too can recommend SQLite. It is simply Great! "Small, Fast, Reliable - choose any 3". :) / Carl

[Rachel Mant]

Access isn't portable though, it's windows only and this guy wants his software to be able to run on all platforms.

The worst thing about the darkness is the light at the end - DX-MON

[KCorax2]

SQLite is horrible with respect to features. There aren't even foreign keys on this thing, transactions and all. If you go with something that small, you could as well do binary serialization to file and then use Linq to object + some data structures to query things. I'd go for SQL Compact for which you can even do Linq to SQL using sqlmetal. It works very well, and it's deployable easily on Windows CE and clickonce applications. If performance doesn't cut it (because both SQLite and SQLCE are very very slow) I'd go with Firebird and hand coded queries. Firebird is actually fantastic when you look at the feature list. A very complete DBMS.

[chaiguy1337]

My impression was that Sqlite was very limited, especially with regards to concurrency. I think it has to lock the entire table at a time rather than just a row, if I recall. If you're not doing anything with concurrent connections it's probably not a big deal, I guess. Also, I've heard[^] good things about VistaDB. It's 100% managed code, no wrappers. In fact they've even got preliminary tests working under Silverlight and it already supports Mono.

“It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic, is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.” –Theodore Roosevelt {o,o}.oO( Check out my blog! ) |)””’)          http://pihole.org/ -”-”-

[Ed K]

You can also use it with Castle.ActiveRecord which makes it even sweeter!

ed ~"Watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -Frank Outlaw.

[Jawz X]

I agree. I recently used it for a project and it is great. They are even include LINQ support in the framework for the .NET lib. I'm not sure where they are at with that yet, but SQLite is the way to go. Regards, Frank

[codebozo]

I concur - db4o would be an excellent choice. It is a true OODB, it has a LINQ provider and it's free as long as the project is truly a "personal project".

[Paul Sanders the other one]

Why do you need a database? I wrote just such a utility for myself a year or so back and I just write the whole thing out to a text file whenever a change is made. This takes approximately 0.000 ms on a modern PC. You can download a (free!) copy of Snippets from here: http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/freebies[^]

Paul Sanders http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk

[User 4448075]

Advantage Database Server is free for up to two local server licenses. It has a small footprint and is more or less completely documented in a single paperback book, yet it has a dot net provider and lots of medium weight capabilities such as transactions, replication, triggers, and debuggable sql scripts. It also has a lot of backward compatibility with xbase data. http://www.sybase.com/products/databasemanagement/advantagedatabaseserver[^]

[myker]

You might take a look at VistaDB too... It's compatible with SQL Server, supports multi-threading concurency, is completely written in managed code, and has an excellent .NET provider. Works with isolated storage and reduced permissions as well, which is a plus for portable apps. Linq support, however, seems to be lacking, but I believe it's a planned feature. Plus, the db engine is less than a 1 MB... www.vistadb.net. ~myker