Question Best Data solution - Advice Please?

[Stuart Marshall]

Hello all

I have often posted on here and you guys have really helped and I wondered if you could help me with a dilemma I have.

I am planning on creating a application in VB.net which will reference information in an Database.

However the end result of this application must be installable on a stand alone machine and in some way reference the database I have created.

How can I create the database, populate it with data and then include it for the application to reference?

Whats the best Option?

 

[jmcilhinney]

There are lots of options.

If you have Access, you can create an MDB or ACCDB database. An MDB doesn't require you to to anything extra, as the Jet database engine is essentially part of Windows. An ACCDB database requires the Office 2007/2010 driver, which is a free download or comes with Access.

You can use SQL Server CE, which is a free download and integrates with VS. Either the user can install SQL Server CE or you can just deploy a few extra DLLs with your app. The database is an SDF file.

You can use SQL Server Express, which is a free download and integrates with VS. It requires a server to be installed, but you can make this an automatic part of your installer if you want. The database is an MDF file and does offer some extra features over the others mentioned.

These are just the Microsoft options. There are other options too.

 

[Stuart Marshall]

Thank you very much for your help.. I will explore those options.

 

[cjard]

If you mean that you keep hold of the database data, and you then send your app to a compny 100 miles away who will not have your database, you need to look at running a database that is contactable over the internet: sqlserver express or oracle express would be my first choices