What database should I use?
I am currently under the design phase of a WPF application. I have never deployed an application before and I am not sure what database I should use. I want my application to be deployable on any Window's 7 machine without the need of a special install (i.e. SQL Server). I don't want to be in the deployment phase and find out that I should have used another database. Can I simply run a SQL script on the install to generate all the tables and fields required for the software to properly run? Thanks!
SQLCE fits the bill, (and there are probably others as well); small footprint, file-based and just one (or very few) extra DLL's to include in your app. Personally I wouldn't use it for anything other than a smal, single-user app, but if yours is single user and the amount of data is small, you could do worse.
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2011/01/11/vs-2010-sp1-and-sql-ce.aspx
if you do not use too complex queries, you can use sqllite
Here you can find it and c# connector here
If you are creating a WPF app with no plans beyond the next few years, SQL CE will be fine and will work well.
But if you are thinking about compatibility with (or a transition to) a potential Windows 8 Metro version of your app (in which SQL CE is not supported), or another OS (e.g. OS X), you should consider SQLite.
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I would started a database project (Accounting Application) for now Mac version which will be available in AppStore.
For future might be on iOS, Windows and web base.
I need database app that don't need the database ported to other platforms just by changing the UI and other sources I able to port it, no need to touch the database.
I'm a bit confuse to choose a suitable database SDK or etc!
Ror example I can choose:
• SQL Server
• MySQL
• SQLlite
• FileMaker
• Cocoa SQL
Remember I need:
1- Something not to complicate and easy to use it on XCode.
2- Have a bit security on the file.
3- the most XCode user using it.
4- Price is no problem.
5- Unicode fully compatible.
For my situation, which one do you recommend.
I think you're approaching the problem backwards - first you should be deciding on what development and deployment platform you want to use, and then select the best database server compatible with that platform.
What I mean by this is that whether you're using SQL Server, MySQL, SQLite, or any other faceless database engine, that doesn't answer the question of how you're going to develop or deploy the application.
You also need to decide whether to write one application for deployment on all platforms, or if you're OK with rewriting the application for deployment on certain platforms. The only technology choices I'm aware of that will work across all the platforms you've mentioned is an HTML 5 web app (using Ruby, Java, .NET, PHP, or some other web development system) or FileMaker (using FileMaker Pro for Mac / Windows / Web deployment and FileMaker Go for iOS deployment). If you're OK with writing a desktop/iOS version separately from a web version, then you need to ask yourself how many versions you want to write. If you pick something like C / C++ / Obj-C, then you're going to need to pretty much re-write it for each platform you've mentioned (although you can port from iOS to OS X with less effort than the other platforms). If you pick Java, then you're set for web deployment, Mac deployment (although you can't distribute Java apps via the Mac App Store) and Windows deployment, but you'll need to use Obj-C or HTML 5 for iOS.
So in summary, the right approach is:
Pick your deployment target(s)
Based on that choice, pick your development system(s)
Based on that choice, pick your database engine.
If its for a single user application SQLite is probably the best option - its purpose built for embedded apptications. Its also portable between os types.
I'd second the recommendation of SQLite as a lightweight database portable to multiple platforms. But what do you mean by "fully compatible" with Unicode? See: http://www.sqlite.org/version3.html
It's hard to say what you need from your description, but from what I can glean, SQLite would be the logical choice. However, if you insist on actually having a database server, you should investigate PostgreSQL. It has a far more permissive license than MySQL.
I would advise you to pick a Database Management System based on your data management requirements rather than on your choice for other components of your system. In the end almost all of them support SQL. SQLite is a good choice for a portable client-only solution. SQL-Server, MySQL, Postgres, DB2 and Oracle are optimized for server-side transaction processing (lots of inserts and updates). Vectorwise, Vertica and MonetDB focus on analytical queries (e.g., statistical analytics on your data like group by). If you make a bad choice here you might face scalability/performance issues later which may be very expensive.
So pick your DBMS based on the anticipated usage pattern.
BTW: A License for an Oracle DBMS instance can easily go up to a couple of ten thousand dollars. So be careful when saying "Price is not a problem".
I am looking for a easy to use and deploy sql type database i can ship with a desktop application.
This will be a small application user's can download from my website.
In the vb6 days, access was the common database for small desktop apps, what is my option these days?
Looking at SQL CE it seems to have a quite a few limitations such as count(distinct) etc
SQL express needs to be installed and running as a service (could i include the SQL express deployments in my deployment so the user doesn't even know its been installed? I assume size would then be an issue)
SQL 2005/2008 is not an option due to size and licensing restrictions.
I would like to use c#, wpf and entity framework.
What would seem to be the best options based on your knowledge and experience?
Thanks
SQLite (also see corresponding wrappers for the .NET Framework) might do the trick for you.
FirebirdSQL. More functions, plus UDFs made in C/C++ or even Delphi.
My development group uses Visual Source Safe for version control; this choice was originally made due to cost and its tight integration with Visual Studio.
As our repository has grown Source Safe has really started to show its limitations and we are considering moving to another solution. Up for discussion are Team Foundation Server, Subversion, Git, and Mercurial.
We are largely a data shop, so another major factor for us is being able to easily version SQL Server 2005/2008 projects. This is one of the benefits of using Source Safe, and also of Team Foundation Server - the integration with Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.
I'm wondering if anyone has had experience versioning SQL Server with Subversion, Git, or Mercurial and can provide some solid pros/cons for each of these systems, as well as how you went about implementing them.
My honest answer is don't do any integration with your database tooling and SCM if you can avoid it. Use the filesystem where possible. It's another layer of integration which is going to be a pain. Small separate tools are better than a behemoth.
We use Subversion and SQL 2005 together in the following manor:
We use TortoiseSVN only. No VS/SSMS integration at all.
We have a principle of "automate everything", so we never rely on GUI tools to do work.
We keep all scripts inside SVN along with the code. The code, schema and scripts are versioned together.
Schema changes are numbered in order of application i.e. 000-create-table-users.sql. We write down the maximum script number deployed in each environment. Each script performs a migration to the next database r number. When we deploy, we check out the source and run all scripts from the last version number to the highest number.
Any non-schema scripts (sprocs/views) are idempotent (can be executed any number of times with the same result). They are applied via a nant plugin we wrote. These are replaced every time we deploy. Don't forget to refresh your views!
We avoid any scripts where possible anyway as we use NHibernate so there are less problems with script versioning anyway.
From this structure, we can re-create the environment and database at any point in time on any machine which is important.
We do NOT use it for unit testing however - we rely on the NHibernate schema generation to do this on top of an SQLite database.
The only negative point we've encountered has been making sure that developers adhere to the process. Herding cats is a very appropriate description.
Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition (codename "DataDude") is what you need.
It allows you to version your database objects in ways that will blow your mind. (eg upgrade a customer site to a specific version, or rollback to a previous version without destroying any data).
Check out the features at Gert Drapers' blog, starting with this post.
Or if you prefer a podcast, listen to DotNetRocks with Chris Sells in show 494.
I don't know whether you're limited to TFS for source control, when using DataDude -- but it is the undeservedly "underhyped" member of the Visual Studio family.
This might be a useful tool for you:
http://www.liquibase.org/
It's designed so that it's easy to version control in any system, and manages your upgrade scripts in a sane way.
Git and Mercurial are the only ones you should consider IMHO, the other 2 are too old-fashioned. Modern SCMs should treat branches like git does.
For git vs. mercurial comparisons see:
http://rg03.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/mercurial-vs-git/, http://www.russellbeattie.com/blog/distributed-revision-control-systems-git-vs-mercurial-vs-svn.
I have no past experience with SSMS SCM integration though, but AFAIK neither of the systems mentioned (except from TFS) have one. I wouldn't call it a disadvantage tho - git GUI for example is a pretty handy tool, which you'll find more enjoyable than such an integration. This is at least my case when moving from SVN (with VS integration using Ankh) to Git (with no integration at all)...
Mercurial has VS integration with VisualHG, if you think DVCS is the way to go. We use that for C++/C# projects in our shop, and it works well enough. (OTOH, I've never used any "full" integration, so I'm happy to work with the explorer extension and/or command-line for detailed VC work.)
We've now added VSS support to SQL Source Control, which integrates with SSMS to provide fully integrated source control for database development. To try this out, please visit:
http://www.red-gate.com/MessageBoard/viewtopic.php?t=12265
TFS is missing a few features of VSS, notably keyword expansion. If you don't embed revision keyword info within your source files, then it should not be a concern.
There are potentially quite a number of alternatives - SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) supports integration with any Microsoft Source Code Control Interface MSSCCI Provider. So you can broaden the search to source control systems that feature an MSSCCI compatible provider.
In SSMS, Check out Tools -> Options -> Source Control to see what provider plug-ins are installed on your system.
For example, Team Foundation Server's integration with SQL Management Studio is courtesy of the TFS MSSCCI Provider. I think there's a provider for CVS/Subversion ("Aigenta Unified SCC") and so on.
As to a pros/cons list, I think provided there's a compatible provider, you can open the question up to a wider audience. My main experience is with VSS, TFS and Subversion. It really comes down to your team, and environment. Can you elaborate more on your environment?
E.g.
would you be interested in establishing CI (continuous integration)?
automated builds/automated versioning?
support for multiple environments?
configuration management?
what team size do you have? likely to have lots of merges/branching etc?
do you have a bug tracking system in place already (you get work items/bug tracking as part of a TFS roll out)?
Our core business application uses a library (C# project) of business objects. Data access is done using the Wilson O/R Mapper (we're migrating to NHibernate this summer). The application has 3 front-end UIs: Windows Forms, ASP.NET, and a Windows Forms app that is installed on tablet PCs. The three front-ends perform different functions but they all access a core subset of the business classes.
The tablet PC application is the problem. We try to limit the amount of data pushed to the tablets to reduce the time it takes them to sync using SQL Server merge replication. The problem we've run into is when we add new functionality to the main application that we have no need to distribute to the tablet PCs or, if it's sensitive data, a strong need to not distribute it. Some of this can be controlled through replication, but we occasionally introduce dependencies in the core business objects that must be present in order for the O/R mapper to work.
Ideally, we would have two versions of the core business object library, Full and Compact. This seems like it would be a maintenance nightmare. Are there any strategies for managing this? Or alternatives? How does Microsoft manage the full and compact .NET Frameworks?
Your question talks about Tablet PC, which is really just XP and therefore the CF really isn't relevant, but for the sake of the question subject itself we can still talk about maintaining code used by the CF and the FFx (assuming you actually meant Windows Mobile or Windows CE).
First thing to know is that CF assemblies are retargetable. This means that a CF assembly can be directly used by a full-framework app without any recompiling (assuming it doesn't use any device specific stuff like P/Invoking coredll witout checking the runtime environment, using the WindowsMobile namespace, etc).
If using retargeting doesn't get you all the way there, then you can deal with the maintennace using compiler directives as well as partial classes. Daniel Moth covers tips on these quite well in his MSDN article.
One thing you may be able to do is if you can compile for each platform seperately you may be able to use compiler directives to limit what is needed by the Tablet PC platform. However with you using an OR mapper that may prove to be difficult.
Now in an ideal world you would actually have your Domain objects (the ones that map to the OR) with very very little business logic shared. Then have a BO layer that consumes these Domain objects. If you managed to break out your code base this way you could in theory then have just seperate layers you need to deploy depending on your need.
However it sounds to me more like you need to perform an intelligent split.
What you probably need to do is segment your code such that the Tablet PC BO are in the core root BO asseymbly. Then have a BO extension assembly that has the additional objects, rules, etc that are needed for the Winform / Web app versions.
So while you would have two domain level business object components at this point you would not actually have any duplication. As your Tablet PC BO object would also be the base for the Winform / Asp.net app. Then the extension dll would only contain the extras needed for the bigger versions of hte applications.
If you followed this approach it might make things easier to manage. Just look at it from the Common stuff needed everywhere and the specialized approach. :)
I can go into much greater detail if you want, just wanted to give you a basic hit.
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Okay, I will shortly be starting down the path of windows mobile development. I know nothing about the subject really and I am looking for people with experience to let me know of any gottchas you may know of.
Right now I dont even have a breif of what is requied but the assumption is that the application will be very little more than a bunch of CRUD forms for updating data. The only other requirment knowladge I have is that the application will need to support offline storage when there is no signal avaliable. This in turn will obviously require some kind of syncronization when signal returns.
My initial thoughts are that the application will primarily be a front end to interact with a web service layer. Im assuming that WCF will be an appropriate technology for building these services? I also thought that SQL Server CE would be a good route to go down with regards to the offline storage issues.
Any knowlage that you feel is useful within this domain would be appreciated. Advice, links, books anything appreciated.
EDIT: It has been noted that there are two ways to go with off-line synchronization. To either use some form of message queuing or to use SQL synchronization tools. Could anyone offer a good comparison and introduction to these?
EDIT 2: After a little more digging I get the impression that there are basically 3 different approaches I can use here:
Emmbeded Database to query against then syncronization online, when able
MSMQ along with .NET remoting
WCF with ExchangeWebServiceMailTransport bindings using Exchange Server.
Now, there has been a nice few points raised on the first issue, and I think I understand at some level the issues I would face. But I'd like to get a little more information regarding MSMQ implementations and using WCFs new bindings.
Here a few words from my experience so far (about 9 months) of .net Windows Mobile development.
Well you are occasionally connected. (Or more likely occasionally disconnected). You have to choose whether you are going to use messaging with queues (i.e. WCF/SOAP/XML or something like it) or database synchronisation. I choose the SQL synchronisation route so I can't really comment on messaging. The SQL synchronisation route is not hassle free!
If you go down the sync route with SQL compact like me you basically have two choices. SQL Server merge replication or the newer ADO.NET Synchronisation services. If you choose the former you need to be really careful with your DB design to ensure it can be easily partitioned between mobile subscribers and the publisher. You really need to think about conflicts, and splitting tables that wouldn't normally be split in a normalised DB design is one way of doing that. You have to consider situations where a device goes offline for some time and the publisher DB (i.e. main DB) and/or a subscriber alters the same data. What happens when the device comes back online? It might mean resolving conflicts even if you have partitioned things well. This is where I got burnt. But SQL Merge Replication can work well and reduces the amount of code you have to write.
Roll your own DAL. Don't attempt to use datareaders etc. directly from UI code and don't use typed datasets either. There may be third party DALs that work with Windows Mobile (i.e. I know LLBLGEN does, might be worth a look) but Linq-to-SQL is not supported and anyway you need something lightweight. The chances are the DAL won't be too big so roll it yourself.
If you are using .net you'll probably end up wanting some unimplemented platform features. I recommend using this inexpensive framework to give you what your missing (especially as related to connectivity and power management) - http://www.opennetcf.com/Products/SmartDeviceFramework/tabid/65/Default.aspx
Windows Mobile devices partially switch off to save power when not in use. If you are doing a polling type design you'll need to wake them up every x mins. A normal .net timer class won't do this. You'll need to use a platform feature which can be used from OpenNetCF (above). The timer class is called LargeIntervalTimer and is in the OpenNetCF.WindowsCE assembly/namespace (I think).
Good Luck!
SqlCE is only one of the options available for local data storage on a Windows Mobile device, and although it's an excellent database it has limitations. For one thing, SqlCE will not work (period) under encryption (in other words, if your user encrypts the location where your SDF file is, you will no longer be able to access the data).
The second (and most critical) weakness of SqlCE lies in the RDA/Merge Replication tools. SqlCE Merge Replication is not 100% reliable in situations where the network connection can drop during replication (obviously very common in Windows Mobile devices). If you enjoy trying to explain missing or corrupted data to your clients, go ahead and use SqlCE and merge replication.
Oracle Lite is a good alternative to SqlCE, although it too doesn't work properly under encryption. If encryption is a potential problem, you need to find a database engine that works under encryption (I don't know of one) or else write your own persistence component using XML or something.
Writing a WM application as a front end that primarily interacts with a web service in real time will only work in an always-connected environment. A better approach is to write your application as a front end that primarily interacts with local data (SqlCE, Oracle Lite, XML or whatever), and then create a separate Synchronization component that handles pushing and pulling data.
Again, SqlCE merge replication does this pushing and pulling beautifully and elegantly - it just doesn't work all the time. If you want a replication mechanism that works reliably, you'll have to write your own. Oracle Lite has something called a snapshot table that works very well for this purpose. A snapshot table in Olite tracks changes (like adds, updates and deletes) and allows you to query the changes separately and update the central database (through a web service) to match.
This thread I just posted on SO a few days ago has proven to be a great resource for me thus far.
Also the Windows Mobile MSDN WebCasts are a wealth of information on everything from just getting started up to advanced development.
I would suggest Sqlite for local storage. From the last benchmark I ran it was much better than SqlCe and you don't have to do stupid things like retain an open connection for performance improvements.
Trade-offs being that the toolset is less rich and the integration with other MSSql products is nil. :(
you might want to refer to this:
getting-started-with-windows-mobile-development
You shouldn't be intimidated for windows mobile development. It isn't much different from desktop development. I strongly recommend that you use .NET Compact Framework for development and not C++/MFC.
Some useful links:
Mobile section at the Code
Project. You would find a lot of
articles, a little digging is needed
to find the appropriate one.
Smart
Device Framework from OpenNetCF
offer valuable extensions to the
compact framework.
When you install
the Mobile SDK, you will find under the
Community folder links for the
Windows Mobile and CF framework
blogs. These are also valuable
resources.
Regarding your application, you are right about the WCF and the SQL Server CE. These are the proper ways for handling communication and storage.
Some hints for people coming from a desktop world:
You need to have some sort of power management. The device may automatically go to suspend state. Also, you shouldn't consume power when you don't have to.
Network connectivity is a difficult issue. You can register notifications for when a specific network (Wi-Fi, GPRS) becomes available or unavailable. You can also set the preferred means of communication.
Make the UI as simple as possible. The user uses his thumb and/or a pen and he is probably on the move.
Test in a real device as early as possible.
"24 Hours of Windows Mobile Application Development" from the Windows Mobile Team Blog has some good resources
If you can, try to start from the user use cases and work back to the code, rather than vice versa. It's really easy to spend a lot more time working on the tools than working on the business problem. And thinking through user requirements will help you consider alternate strategies, because a lot of the patterns you know from normal .NET don't apply.
I've done lots of intermittent application development of exactly the type you are describing, and an on-board database works just fine. The MSMQ/WCF stuff just adds conceptual overhead without adding much value. You need a logical datastore locally anyway, and replication at this level is a simple concept that you want to keep simple, so the audit trail is easily monitored and debugged. MSMQ and WCF tend to hide things in unfamiliar places.
I upvoted the SqlLite suggestion BTW. MS doesn't have their persistence story stabilized yet for CE.
For the database replication bit I highly recommend Sybase Ultralite. In terms of flexibility and performance it knocks the socks off SQL CE
I had to do this once. Weird setup with Macs for development, and we were all Java programmers. And a short deadline. PowerPC macs too, so no chance to install Windows for Visual Studio development, never mind that the money for this would never have appeared.
We ended up writing applications using Java, running on the IBM J9 virtual machine, with SWT for a user interface. Entirely free development stack. Easy to deploy. Code ran on any platform we desired, not just PocketPC/WinMob.
Most of the work was on the server side anyway - the database, the web service server. The logic. The reporting engine. The client side wasn't totally simple however - would get the form templates from the server (because they changed frequently), the site details (multi-site deployment), generate a UI from the form template (using some SWT GUI components that are wonderful for PocketPC development, like the ExpandBar), gather data with a point and click interface (minimising keyboard entry where possible), and then submit it back to the server.
For offline storage we used XML files on the device itself. More than enough for our needs, but yours may differ. Maybe consider SQLite?
There are a couple links you can check out to start with:
http://developer.windowsmobile.com
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsmobile/default.aspx
If you have a sticking point while developing, there are also Windows Mobile dedicated chats on MSDN that you can attend and ask your questions. The calendar hasn't been updated yet, but the next ones should be in January. You can find the schedule here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/chats/default.aspx
I am going to add an additional question to this post, as its been active enough and hopefully will be helpful to others as well as me. Ok, so after playing around I now realize that standard class libraries cannot be included in windows mobile applications.
Now the overwhelming advice here seems to be use an embedded database, though I now do have use cases and it appears that I will need to have document synchronization as well as relational data. With this in mind service layer interaction seems inevitable. So my question is how would I share common domain objects and interfaces between the layers?
"Document synchronization" - does that mean bidirectional? Or cumulative write-only? I can think of mobile architectures that would mainly collect and submit transactions for a shared document - if that's your requirement, then we should discuss offline - it's a long (and interesting) conversation.
Owen you can share code from Compact Framework -> Desktop, it's only Desktop -> Compact Framework that has compatability issues if you use certain objects that are not supported by the CF.
While a desktop lib doesn't work on CF a CF lib WILL work on the desktop, you can also run CF.exes on the desktop!
Just create a CF library as the project that defines your base objects / interfaces etc.
This book sshould e essential reading for all Windows Mobile developers: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/books/10294.aspx
For developing windows mobile applications you must have the basic tools like silverlight, visual studio, windows phone emulator and sqlite as your database storage.