Hello
I'm building an app for retail commercial distribution, and I'm agonizing over which database to use. I'd like to use SqlExpress, as it's supported by the code generation tool I use, but I'm wary of the download size.
SqlExpr32.exe is 35 megabytes, yet Microsoft maintains that it's a "fast download", a claim whose logic escapes me. If I try to force something like that on my buyers, I won't have any buyers (Framework 2.0 is going to be hard enough for them to swallow).
I recently made the difficult decision to forfeit the use of my preferred code generator (DeKlarit) in favor of the VistaDB embedded database, but this article has got me thinking about SqlExpress again.
Is there a lightweight distribution that I'm not aware of
Thanks,
Jeff Bowman
SqlExpress Bootstrapping
jimmy_iitd
Hi Karl, thanks for confirming my suspicions.
FWIW, I went with Vista over SQLite because the latter doesn't yet support ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN, which I need for schema migrations between my release versions.
Lavanya.R
Microsoft has another option: The Free Server 2005 Everywhere Edition is the next version of SQL Server mobile edition, but designed for use on desktops also.
You can use SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and Visual Studio to manage Everywhere Edition databases.
Deployment
---------------
2MB of disk space.
If you use ADO .net you need .net framework 2.0.
I was successful in downloading it, creating a database and table using SSMS on Windows XP Sp2.
Karl
gr8Kiwi
Jeff,
SQLExpress has the best performance, price, features, documentation, and support.
But I know what you mean about download size :(
Your users will also need to have XP SP2 for sqlexpress. SP2 might also be considered a large download (about 266 MB).
I have done some testing with both VistaDB and SQLite. Both are good for embedded use but not really designed for client-server stuff.
The last version of Vista I tried required using a custom API for best performance.
SQLite www.sqlite.org has ADO.net wrappers including visual studio support. http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlite-dotnet2
Karl Tarbet
David Griffin
I too went for VistaDB as well for the ease of deployment.
FWIW, there is a code generation tool and framework at MyGeneration.com and they support VistaDB in their code templates.
I tend to get everything set up in SQL server, then use the VistaDB migration tool to get it into VistaDB, simply because the UI offerings in SQL Ent Mgr are far superior. So to is Studio Express Mgr.
my 2c worth...