This is probably a very basic question, but I'm in the process of making a Windows Forms based application, which will involve a hefty amount of data storage. It will essentially be a sports simulator where there'll be hundreds of teams, with thousands of players.
So I need to figure out the best way to store this data. Windows Forms is relatively new to me as I've been mostly working with ASP.NET, but I've come up with the following ideas:
Compact SQL database in the program directory
Files containing the serializable objects.
Are there any other solutions out there that may be better? Or which of these should I pick?
Your requirements are extremely vague, but in general stay away from serialization for any kind of persistent data store.
If your data is relational (it has internal structure, such as "teams must contain players" or "a player can be a member of only one team") then I suggest a relational DBMS such as SQL Server Compact Edition or SQLite.
If your data is not relational, I suggest a key/value store like RavenDB.
Also, do not put data in the program directory; it may not be writable by the user. Store data in the user directory.
If you have any need to execute queries against the data, I would stay away from serializing it in a proprietary format.
If there is only one user, then you could do something simple like an Access MDB via the JET drivers, SQLLite or NoSQL.
If there are going to be multiple concurrent users, you'll almost certainly need to look at a 'server' based SQL - e.g. SQL Express (although note the DB Size limitations), MySQL etc.
Could use an .MDB Access database to store the data. Not as reliable in my experience as SQLite.
Also, you don't mention if you need to persist these data after the form closes? If you don't you may just want to use in memory DataSet's (or DataTables) to keep the data quickly accessable.
Related
My WinForms C#/.NET application requires a table/grid control to display records to the end user. The records will be simple, containing only two fields, a string and a date/time field. I need to persist the data and I am wondering what the most efficient control and storage back-end is to use. The data is non-critical (i.e. - not health or financial records, or anything sensitive requiring extensive safety or any encryption).
One solution I have found so far is the DataGrid control in conjunction with SQL Server Compact Edition. I learned about this solution from this tutorial:
http://www.dotnetperls.com/datagridview-tutorial
It seems though that this may be overkill for my application. In addition, I am worried about the complexities of installing SQL Server CE, especially when it comes to admin vs. user account privilege issues during installation:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983326(v=vs.80).aspx
Is there a table or grid control with built-in file load/save capabilities that uses a simple disk file as the storage method, perhaps a comma delimited ASCII file? I'd like something that I can still use SQL (via LINQ) to interface with. also, I am hoping that this can be done transparently. That is, if I want to upgrade to an SQL database engine solution later, the code from my end that interfaces with the data would not change (except perhaps for the database open/create code of course).
Or am I better off simply biting the bullet and going with SQL Server CE or perhaps SQLite:
Good embedded database solution (like SQLite) for .Net
If you have any caveats or anecdotes regarding installation issues and ease of use, they would be appreciated.
In my projects, we use Object datasources. Grid's can be bound to collections of objects just as easily as they can dataTables. You can store/restore the data using a simple serialization engine (XmlSerializer is rather easy to implement). Make a basic object, use List or BindingList as the dataset, and serialize/de-serialize it in the backEnd when you need it.
List and BindingList both support Linq queries.
Adding database save later is as simple as writing the code that saves the object to the database, in place of the serialization code, no change to the front end at all.
As far as a "Correct" solution is concerned...there are so many different ways to do it that it boils down to personal preference, and possibly actual requirements and expected future development. I find it easier to code using objects because the data manipulation is easier, but if you are going for straight record entry, no data manipulation required, going direct to a database is easier. It just depends on the data and what you plan on doing with it.
I strongly recommend you to use an embedded database, because it will be easier to go to a full database in a near future. SQL Server CE is a good option, and if you want to go big you can simply go to a full SQL Server Database with minimal changes in your code, the only downside of SQL Server CE is that you need to install it and it requires the .NET Framework 4, aside from that I don't see a big problem with it.
I'm currently working on a project that will be taking in a large amount of data over a set period of time. I currently do not have access to any database engine on the network my software will be deployed on. As such, I'm working with an XML dataset, and employing an MVC type framework. I chose XML originally because it can mimic to a decent degree the relational design of a database. I store the data in a singleton and my win-forms access the data via objects in my singleton and the win-forms do not have direct knowledge of the underlying data structure.
I'm using .NET 3.5, as the PC's my software will be deployed on are XP computers and not internet connected, and therefore, do not have access to download .NET 4.0.
I'm accessing the XML using LINQ to XML objects and storing the element/attribute values into objects and collections that can be accessed through properties and methods in my data access layer.
My main concern is that as the XML file gets larger, the overhead could become overly cumbersome. Other than setting up a database server, would there be a better data storage system to use that would be better than XML? I need my data to follow a relational format for what I'm attempting to accomplish. I've already looked into using delimited/csv formats and those do not satisfy my project requirements.
EDIT: This datasource cannot be embedded into the application, and there will be multiple applications accessing the datasource. There are 2 applications that will be used, a "host" application that will be managing the data and a "client" application which will be used for data collection. The "client" application will have multiple instances over multiple workstations on the LAN.
SQL Server Express LocalDB is an embedded version of SQL server, but requires only a file on the machine running it. This might be a good option, will be smaller, faster, and easier to work with than XML, will have identical syntax and similar performance to a real SQL server and you can use all of the built in .Net SQL libraries and features without installing a third party data store.
You can also have multiple apps connect to the same DB file, and still get ACID features of SQL server.
http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/editions/2012-editions/express.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlexpress/archive/2011/07/12/introducing-localdb-a-better-sql-express.aspx
If file size is your primary concern, you could use compression on the files to keep them smaller on disk. .NET 3.5 has some compression algorithms built in. XML is very repetitive text, which compresses very well. If you are free to break your data up into many files, that many also help keep the sizes down.
JSON is lighter-weight than XML. As for whether you can use it in a relational fashion , that would depend on exactly what you are trying to do. Some relational uses of JSON have been covered here:
Using JSon like a Relational SQL Database (Javascript)
I'm currently developing app that requires storage of lots of information from different controls. I've never done this before, and after reading couple things on this topic got a little confused. Do I need to download SQL server 2008 and work with it in order to store data from WinForm? If yes, then what is the service-side item for? Can I use for storage?I don't need to import data from database(at least not for now), I just need stuff to save somewhere, and I would like to know where exactly. Thank you!
You can choose to store your data in a serverless database (SQL CE, SQLite for example) if you don't need fancy database stuff like stored procedures, weird indexes etc. Both of the above mentioned technologies are compatible with Entity Framework, hence you can use code first approach (you can write the classes and the database would be generated on the fly).
here you can read more about it.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/318010/Entity-Framework-Code-First-Let-s-Try-It
And here's SQLite assembly for .Net
http://system.data.sqlite.org/index.html/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki
Good luck
You don't have to store anything in a database, you could for example serialize whatever you need to store into isolated storage
I have read one line from your question " SQL server 2008 and work with it in order to store data from WinForm"; Mean you want to save some data and that will be coming from data entry from winform.. RIght?
If that is the case you can adopt any of the RDBMS software that suites your finance + capacity needs and other perameters.
You can surely go for SQL server 2008 or Oracle or MySql or (List will go one).
What is the nature of your data?
Just because it's big does not necessarily mean a full-blown DBMS (or even an embedded database) is the best fit. Have you considered simply serializing the data to plain files?
But if your data is "relational" and you need to do the things such as querying, integrity enforcement, transactions, concurrent access by multiple clients (etc..), then you should definitely consider a database approach, including MS SQL Server, Oracle, IBM DB2, Sybase etc...
There are good open-source DBMSes as well: PostgreSQL, Firebird, MySQL...
All other applications I've written have been network/web apps where I've used an SQL database to store data and that has made sense to me.
If I'm creating an application that does not need to be networked ever, is there a standard way to store this data permanently? A text file is possible, but doesn't give me the benefits of querying an SQL server nor is it very secure. Is there something similar to an SQL server that I can initiate and save on starting up my program?
Perhaps there is some structure I've never come across?
From what I've read I might be able to do something as mentioned above like with SQLite. Does that make sense for large and distributed applications?
Thanks in advance for any clarifications on how to design these types of programs.
Edit: to clarify what #TomTom was saying, it is not a large amount of data like he is suggesting. I would be surprised if it ever got over several gigs of data. My point in saying large was that it seemed unreasonable to create some sort of a data structure that I could save into a text file, load up/search through to grab my data compared to using an SQL-like database.
Reading through the answers apparently SQLite or something similar is reasonable to use for desktop applications. I'll continue looking into it and probably use it to track data for my next project.
You can use an embedded database - this can be a SQL database, but does not have to be.
For windows, look at SQLite, SQL Server Compact and RavenDB (for a non SQL, document database).
You could still use SQL database, but locally. Try SQLite.
Other option to use Windows built-in database engine which name is Esent. Fast, but not really convenient to use its Api.
I have a C# application that allows one user to enter information about customers and job sites. The information is very basic.
Customer: Name, number, address, email, associated job site.
Job Site: Name, location.
Here are my specs I need for this program.
No limit on amount of data entered.
Single user per application. No concurrent activity or multiple users.
Allow user entries/data to be exported to an external file that can be easily shared between applications/users.
Allows for user queries to display customers based on different combinations of customer information/job site information.
The data will never be viewed or manipulated outside of the application.
The program will be running almost always, minimized to the task bar.
Startup time is not very important, however I would like the queries to be considerably fast.
This all seems to point me towards a database, but a very lightweight one. However I also need it to have no limitations as far as data storage. If you agree I should use a database, please let me know what would be best suited for my needs. If you don't think I should use a database, please make some other suggestions on what you think would be best.
My suggestion would be to use SQLite. You can find it here: http://sqlite.org/. And you can find the C# wrapper version here: http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/
SQLite is very lightweight and has some pretty powerful stuff for such a lightweight engine. Another option you can look into is Microsoft Access.
You're asking the wrong question again :)
The better question is "how do I build an application that lets me change the data storage implementation?"
If you apply the repository pattern and properly interface it you can build interchangable persistence layers. So you could start with one implementation and change it as-needed wihtout needing to re-engineer the business or application layers.
Once you have a repository interface you could try implementations in a lot of differnt approaches:
Flat File - You could persist the data as XML, and provided that it's not a lot of data you could store the full contents in-memory (just read the file at startup, write the file at shutdown). With in-memory XML you can get very high throughput without concern for database indexes, etc.
Distributable DB - SQLite or SQL Compact work great; they offer many DB benefits, and require no installation
Local DB - SQL Express is a good middle-ground between a lightweight and full-featured DB. Access, when used carefully, can suffice. The main benefit is that it's included with MS Office (although not installed by default), and some IT groups are more comfortable having Access installed on machines than SQL Express.
Full DB - MySql, SQL Server, PostGreSQL, et al.
Given your specific requirements I would advise you towards an XML-based flat file--with the only condition being that you are OK with the memory-usage of the application directly correlating to the size of the file (since your data is text, even with the weight of XML, this would take a lot of entries to become very large).
Here's the pros/cons--listed by your requirements:
Cons
No limit on amount of data entered.
using in-memory XML would mean your application would not scale. It could easily handle a 10MB data-file, 100MB shouldn't be an issue (unless your system is low on RAM), above that you have to seriously question "can I afford this much memory?".
Pros
Single user per application. No concurrent activity or multiple users.
XML can be read into memory and held by the process (AppDomain, really). It's perfectly suited for single-user scenarios where concurrency is a very narrow concern.
Allow user entries/data to be exported to an external file that can be easily shared between applications/users.
XML is perfect for exporting, and also easy to import to Excel, databases, etc...
Allows for user queries to display customers based on different combinations of customer information/job site information.
Linq-to-XML is your friend :D
The data will never be viewed or manipulated outside of the application.
....then holding it entirely in-memory doesn't cause any issues
The program will be running almost always, minimized to the task bar.
so loading the XML at startup, and writing at shutdown will be acceptible (if the file is very large it could take a while)
Startup time is not very important, however I would like the queries to be considerably fast
Reading the XML would be relatively slow at startup; but when it's loaded in-memory it will be hard to beat. Any given DB will require that the DB engine be started, that interop/cross-process/cross-network calls be made, that the results be loaded from disk (if not cached by the engine), etc...
It sounds to me like a database is 100% what you need. It offers both the data storage, data retrieval (including queries) and the ability to export data to a standard format (either direct from the database, or through your application.)
For a light database, I suggest SQLite (pronounced 'SQL Lite' ;) ). You can google for tutorials on how to set it up, and then how to interface with it via your C# code. I also found a reference to this C# wrapper for SQLite, which may be able to do much of the work for you!
How about SQLite? It sounds like it is a good fit for your application.
You can use System.Data.SQLite as the .NET wrapper.
You can get SQL Server Express for free. I would say the question is not so much why should you use a database, more why shouldn't you? This type of problem is exactly what databases are for, and SQL Server is a very powerful and widely used database, so if you are going to go for some other solution you need to provide a good reason why you wouldn't go with a database.
A database would be a good fit. SQLite is good as others have mentioned.
You could also use a local instance of SQL Server Express to take advantage of improved integration with other pieces of the Microsoft development stack (since you mention C#).
A third option is a document database like Raven which may fit from the sounds of your data.
edit
A fourth option would be to try Lightswitch when the beta comes out in a few days. (8-23-2010)
/edit
There is always going to be a limitation on data storage (the empty space of the hard disk). According to wikipedia, SQL Express is limited to 10 GB for SQL Server Express 2008 R2