Answered Question about application deployment..

[crystaluz]

Hello there...

I have developed an application with MS SQL Server as its backend. If I deploy the application, can I install it at other workstation which doesn't have MS SQL Server installed?

 

[jmcilhinney]

If you are deploying an MDF file with your app that will get attached on demand then your users will need SQL Server Express installed. If you're connecting to a database that's already attached to a database instance then your users don't need SQL Server installed, but they will need access to an instance of SQL Server that has the required database attached. Often SQL Server will be installed on a common server and each workstation will connect to it when required. The location of the database instance is specified in your connection string, so you'll just have to change that if the data source is in a different location. That's one of the main reasons that connection strings are stored in the config file.

 

[crystaluz]

So, you means if I want to install the application in a single computer (no network), the computer must have SQL Server installed?

 

[jmcilhinney]

So, you means if I want to install the application in a single computer (no network), the computer must have SQL Server installed?

Of course. If you write an application that uses a SQL Server database then how could it possibly work if there's no SQL Server available? You can install SQL Server Express without issue, even if you used a full SQL Server during development. If you want to avoid having to install a server then don't use a server-based database. If you just want to be able to distribute a data file then use Access, SQL Server CE or some similar data format.

 

[crystaluz]

Now I do understand. Perfect answer.. Thank you very much