I'm currently trying to develop a program which stores lots of data, similar to an address book, I suppose, with the intent that new data will be periodically added to the program over time.
I know that I could set up a SQL server, and have the program interface with that, but if I want to share my program with other people, I can't guarantee that they'd have access to the server, or that they can set up a server of their own to hold the data.
I also know that I could simply hard-code all of the data into instantiated objects, but that is inelegant, and promises to be incredibly irritating to alter or maintain.
Is there someway I could design the program in such a way that it maintains a database-like structure, yet has no reliance on external programs (such as a SQL server)?
"SQLite is a software library that implements a self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine."
http://www.sqlite.org/
Sure. You can use XML. XML can be also used as a datasource for ASP.NET components, just like a database.
You could use a flat file database like SQLite which is linked in on compile and could be distributed with your code.
You have several options:
Use flat-file database like SQLite (ADO.NET provider)
Save your data into a file in some format like XML or CSV, or use binary serialization (or something more elaborate if you don't want to have all the data in memory)
Have a public SQL server accessible from the internet
Of course these is always SQL Server express from MS for this purpose.
no you do not neet a server. the most flexibel solution would be to use NHibernate with FluentNHibernate.
There are different drivers for different databases like SQlite, MsAccess and also for Server like MsSql, Oracle, ....
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I am current building (in C#) a fairly basic point-of-sale program for a local community in Uganda to use in tracking business at their sunflower seed press. I was thinking that I would need some sort of database (like a SQL database), but I've never set up a database before, so I'm wondering what the best way to do this is. Maybe a database isn't the best way. The program will not have internet access, so everything will have to be done locally on the machine.
I think your first step should be designing out what data you need to store. Build an Entity Relationship Model and decide what your domain model is going to be. There are many different Database Engines out there that you can use that have different features, installation requirements, etc. A database engine can be installed locally, or on a remote machine to connect to. If you're writing a C# app, you'll probably want to use the System.Data namespace. You can use plain ADO .NET, or use something like Linq To Enttiies to help create proxy classes for your data tables.
You can access a SQL database using the same API for queries / record extraction regardless of the DB Engine uses. In some caess, you may need to use a seperate library that provides an implementation (or a better one), as in the case of an Oracle Database and the Oracle Data Access Components. Right out of the gate, .NET works very well with Microsoft SQL Server, but other options would work.
The details of what database engine are not as important as defining a good set of data tables to represent your data.
Yes. If it has lots of data you have to consider using database. Whether you have internet or not, as long as you have local network, you can easily do database.
Set up a database server ( maybe sql)
Do your database and install it on the database server
Do your application and connect to your database through connection string.
You are on the right track to use a database to store data. It is pretty easy to accomplish. Your computer does not need to be connected to the internet.
SQL Server Express Edition is free with a limit of 10 gigs of data. This will probably be much, much more space than you will need.
From C#, use ADO.NET. It is very simple if you know some SQL. Code samples here.
I will be using GridViews in my application and other data containers but I do not want to use MSSQL or anything like that as it is a simple program.. Can I store the data in someway in the project itself? as my data souce? Like for instance I can have a class called Employee and I want to store the employee information (data) somewhere within the project and then be able to grab it anytime i want.. without the need of using MSSQL or any database system. Is there something like this?
You can try SQL compact edition, See http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2011/01/11/vs-2010-sp1-and-sql-ce.aspx
I'd consider either XML files, or sql compact edition (which is similar, but not the same as SQL server) - both are very easy to use for small amounts of data. SQL CE just requires a couple of DLL's if I remember correctly (and its free)
Flat files, or XML for more structured data are probably the best bets.
I have a server application written in C#.
As the application running, there will be tens of thousands of key->value mapping generated, and this info needs to be persisted. For each of these mapping records, there will be update/delete operation.
What is the best approach to store it? No database.
Is there any performance issue with ConfigurationManager in such case?
How about for thousands of records? Is it possible to avoid using any database?
Thanks!
I know you said "No database", but consider the use of SQL Server Compact which provides a free, small-footprint SQL Server capability that you don't need to install - it's kind of like a grown up version of Jet.
Alternatively, you might want to see if you can find an ISAM implementation.
Assuming the fact you're required to have no database by your hosting, there are still several options:
SQL Server Compact approach when you just place your DB files under App_Data and use ADONET to get to those as if it was a fully functional SQL server.
OLEDB connection to csv, dbf or any other structured file.
Homegrown solution - something like an IDictionary<> collection persisted manually into an XML, flat file, binary array or whatever else.
So you can always use XML for it. Or really use ConfigurationManager files (here is some example MSDN or here Loading custom configuration files)
You may not be able to use a fully fledged database, but you could consider an embedded SQL Engine:
SQL Compact Edition or SQLLite
I've never used SQL CE, but SQLLite is just a single DLL.
Obviously you don't have all the features of a fully fledged database engine, but they are still pretty powerful and certainly much better than Configuration Manager for persisting data.
I agree with Steve Morgan. I recommend SQL Server Compact.
Here's our situation.
We're receiving a dump of relational data in Access 2007 format. There are quite a few tables involved. We're writing a console app in c# to run various queries against this data. We only need read-only access - we're not updating the Access database.
I haven't used Access in a project since pre-Linq days, and I'm hoping we don't have to go back to coding strings of sql against an ADO.Net connection just because the database is Access. I gather Linq 2 Sql is out of the question, but might Entity Framework be usable?
How would you approach this problem?
EDIT: The console app will be dropped by a business analyst into a folder containing the Access database, and when run will generate a text file created by querying the data. So unfortunately it's not an option to transfer the data to Sql beforehand!
If you must keep the data into Access, you can pull it into a Dataset via ADO.NET, and then use the LINQ extension methods that work against a Dataset to work against the data.
It's not nearly as nice as working with SQL Server, but it does work.
I would fully import the data into Sql Server, after which I would gleefully destroy all copies of the original Access file. Then you could get as Linq-y as you like.
Linq2Sql no, LinqXml yes! How hard would it be to dump the access file to xml?
I'm not sure I understand the question, but have you considered a SQL Server linked server to the Access file? You could then use SQL Server to do the manipulation. I don't know what the limitations/pitfalls of that are, but it's a solution often suggested when there's no good direct way to manipulate the Jet/ACE database.
Complete newbie question here: I'm just playing with C# for the first time and want to make a Windows Forms application which stores some info in a database structure, but obviously don't want to require something like MySQL to be installed on each client's computer. How do I go about this?
You can use SQLite. It doesn't require any installation or server on the client's computers. Here is an blog describing how to use it with .NET. It is easy to use, just add a reference to the System.Data.SQLite.dll.
Here is an open source data provider for .NET: System.Data.SQLite
From homepage: "SQLite is a software library that implements a self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine. SQLite is the most widely deployed SQL database engine in the world. The source code for SQLite is in the public domain."
You use a database that doesn't require an install. There are a few out there - there's Microsoft SQL Server Compact, which frankly is badly named, as it won't support the more useful SQL functions like stored procedures, views and so on. There's also VistaDB which does support stored procs, but requires purchase if you want Visual Studio plugins.
The answer is Embedded Databases. You've got quite a large list of Embedded databases that you can use:
Commercial:
VistaDB - This database is written completely in managed C#.
Open Source:
Firebird - .NET Driver
SQLite - .NET Driver
You could write your data to XML files, or you could take a look at the Sql Server Compact Edition.
You could also work with objects and serialize/deserialize these to disk as binaries.
Of course the type of storage you choose depends a lot on the kind of data you're storing (and the volume of it).
Use SQL Server CE
An easy way to do it from .NET 3.5 onwards is to store your data in XML files and use Linq to XML. This allows you to use SQL-like commands on your data which are actually compiled into your application, so you get full IDE IntelliSense support and error checking.
Perhaps you could serialise a dataset and save it as XML. I'm a little confused why if you're playing around you would need to install MySQL on all client's computers. You could look at using SQL Express which is free perhaps?
Serialise Dataset:
http://blogs.msdn.com/yosit/archive/2003/07/10/9921.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163911.aspx
The Easiest way will be SQL Server Compact, Because it integrates directly into the Visual Studio IDE (I'm just hazarding the guess here that you use VS). Add the "Local Database", Create your tables and be sure to make your Table Adapter with Select, Update, Insert and Delete methods. If during Database Creation you called your Dataset "DS" you will be able to instantiate a Table Adapter Object from
DSTableAdapters
Namespace, and Use GetData() or Fill() methods to retrieve your Data, and Insert(), Update() and Delete() to Manage it.
VelocityDB works in a server less mode but can also be combined with a server when there is a need for it. It outperforms all the other choices mentioned here by roughly a magnitude, see comparison here. It allows you to use almost any .NET data structures persistently. The entire database engine and the optional server is implemented using C# code.