VistaDB Database

  • Thread starter Thread starter Johnny Jörgensen
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J

Johnny Jörgensen

Hi all

I just saw an ad in the latest ComponentSource newsletter for a database
engine called VistaDB 3.0.

http://www.vistadb.net/default.asp

It looks very interesting as a database engine for smaller applications
where you would normally use access. Plus it can be embedded into the exe.

I've just started doing a small database application, and my concern has
been this: Should I use access or SQL server?

Access is simpler and actually quite sufficient for my needs (very small
database - only a few tables), but it seems old fahioned to me. But at the
same time, I've been reluctant to choose SQL Server because it complicates
the administration and deployment. Access is simply a file you copy, but
with SQL server you have to install the engine and check in the installation
if it exists, attach the database... Not extremely complicated but still a
little overkill for my application.

So I though of testing VistaDB, but I just wonder if anybody knows of it and
has experiences using it they would like to share???

Cheers,
Johnny J.
 
Hi Johnny,

Check out System.Data.SQLite, it's also a lightweight database but fast
and very stable. You simply deploy the dll with your application so
there's no setup. All data is put in a single file. I use it for
instance to log a lot of production (debug) data including images,
calculation results, traces, ... Afterwards it's simply copying the
(easily 1-1.5G) file from the machine to the devstation to analyse.

http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/

The ADO.NET above uses the SQLite library which you can find at the
following location.

http://www.sqlite.org/

There you can also find extra information regarding the SQL that is
implemented (pretty complete :-)).

Don't know how it behaves on Vista.

HTH,

-- Freddy
 
That looks interesting too, but what I liked about VistaDB is that it is
embeddeable (is that an actual word? :-) )

I wonder about the performance, though... Hence my post. But I will take a
look at SQLite too.

Cheers,
Johnny J.
 
Johnny Jörgensen said:
Hi all

I just saw an ad in the latest ComponentSource newsletter for a database
engine called VistaDB 3.0.

http://www.vistadb.net/default.asp

It looks very interesting as a database engine for smaller applications
where you would normally use access. Plus it can be embedded into the exe.

I've just started doing a small database application, and my concern has
been this: Should I use access or SQL server?
Click to expand...

There is MS SQL Server 2005 Express Edition which is free to download and
distribute.
Access is simpler and actually quite sufficient for my needs (very small
database - only a few tables), but it seems old fahioned to me. But at the
same time, I've been reluctant to choose SQL Server because it complicates
the administration and deployment. Access is simply a file you copy, but
with SQL server you have to install the engine and check in the
installation if it exists, attach the database... Not extremely
complicated but still a little overkill for my application.
Click to expand...

With ADO.NET and the MS DB provider like SQL Client, you can deploy a SQL
Express MDF file, just like you can with an MDB file. All you have to do is
provide the connection string. I have found SQL Server 2005 Express pretty
easy to use in an ASP.NET solution and easy to connect with .NET Server
Explorer where you just drag the database to App_Data in the Solution
Explorer. I would assume it would be the same for a .NET NT Service, Console
Application and Windows desktop solution as well.

SQL Server Express doesn't seem like you have to deploy the Admin part of
the solution to a Client machine, but I have not gotten to that part, yet.
Yes, you would have to Attach the file using SQL Exress 2005 Manager to
administer the database with its Manager solution, just like you would with
SQL Server Manger if it's the Standard Edition of SQL Server 2005 or
previous versions were being used.

So I though of testing VistaDB, but I just wonder if anybody knows of it
and has experiences using it they would like to share???
Click to expand...

This VistaDB seems interesting. It's something to keep in mind. Maybe, there
will be some kind of (free) Express Edition.
 
Johnny said:
That looks interesting too, but what I liked about VistaDB is that it is
embeddeable (is that an actual word? :-) )
Click to expand...

I'm no native English or American speaker so I couldn't tell but I get
the meaning. :-)

Looked at VistaDB and it seems an interesting package. They also need to
distribute an assembly with your app (about 700k compared to 385k for
SQLite) *but* you can embed that assembly using the Microsoft ILMerge tool.

Tried to embed SQLite with ILMerge but that doesn't work (probably
because there's unmanaged code in there). Bummer. :-/
I wonder about the performance, though... Hence my post. But I will take a
look at SQLite too.
Click to expand...

Embedding or not shouldn't make a difference performance-wise so it's
just the db-engines compared to each other. I would also be interested
in comparing the two, I'll let you know when/if I get around to it.
 
Thanks everybody who have taken the time to give their input on this matter.
I wasn't really looking for other solutions, though. Most of the other
solutions (except one), I already knew about.

What I really wanted was some information on the VistaDB solution so that I
could make an educated comparison to the other possibilities and make a
decision about what the best solution for my project is.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any information about VistaDB. I don't know if
it's safe to assume that nobody has tested it... Maybe I should be the first
then?

Thanks again for taking the time...
Johnny J.
 
Maybe I should be the first then?
Click to expand...

I'll be the first to acknowledge that I'm a big fan of 3rd-party add-ons for
the .NET Framework - the one that I use most often is:
http://www.siberix.com/

However, I can't see any value in paying for a 3rd-party product:
https://secure.vistadb.net/shop/etishop.asp?promo=SPECIAL&vref=purchase

when Microsoft already produce a (more or less) equivalent one free of
charge...

I guess it depends how important it is to you to be able to embed your
database file in your app - it's of no importance to me...

Horses for courses... :-)
 
Hi Johnny,

I've been using VistaDB (version 3) since it was in alpha (about 7 months
prior to it's GA release).

I like it quite a bit. Easy to deploy, identical datatypes to SQL2005,
stored procedures, etc... Plus it's not terribly expensive.

It's good stuff, and I would highly recommend it. Their support is
excellent and their forums are very helpful.

I think if you have any specific pre-sale questions, you should ask in their
forums.

hth,
Brian
 
Have you got any idea of how the performance is compared to e.g. Access and
SQL Server?

Cheers,
Johnny J.
 
I think the performance is great. I haven't run into any issues.
I don't have any exact numbers, however, I think I remember there being some
comparisons on the vistadb.net website (perhaps in their faq section).

I believe they offer a 30-day trial. You should just check it out, fool
around with it for an hour or two and see if it's what you're looking for.

Best of luck,
Brian
 
The SQLite DLL has is already a managed dll with embedded unmanabed
code. You can create one DLL with both by including the original
SQLite code in your app instead of using the DLL. I'm not sure why
this would be necessary though.

As far as performance, SQLite is 4x faster than MSSQL in our tests.

Sam
 
Here's a thread from teh SQLite.NET mailing list that has some
comparison information with other databases, including VistaDB.

"
VistaDb 2.1.7 w/ ADO.NET 2.0 Provider
VistaDb is a commercial embedded product having similar limitations as
Firebird. The provider runs on the Compact Framework but only to
connect to a VistaDB server. It does have row-level locking, and lots
of customized classes for bulk loading data and other Vista-specific
operations. Vista's ADO.NET 2.0 provider is lacking, however. It has
no DbProviderFactories support, no ConnectionStringBuilder, no
GetSchema() on the connection object, and no VS2005 data designer
extensibility features.
"

http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/forums/thread/622.aspx

Some VistaDB employees also have posts on that thread.

HTH,

Sam
 
Johnny,
So I though of testing VistaDB, but I just wonder if anybody knows of it
and has experiences using it they would like to share???
Click to expand...

Like Brian, I have been using VistaDB since version 2.0 and can thoroughly
recommend it.

As Brian has said, support is excellent. Most issues are dealt within a
couple of days and distributed with each build. One lacking problem, is
documentation, but Jason (the boss) has improved on this fantastically since
taking over.

David McCallum.
 

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