ClickOnce applications using VistaDB

ClickOnce applications have many benefits including ease of deployment, optional automatic updates and framework requirement checks.The only real complicated issue with ClickOnce is how to deploy the database. I can’t imagine trying to deploy Sql Server as a part of your application! VistaDB is a perfect fit to be embedded in a ClickOnce application due to the ease of XCopy deployment. Our 100% managed engine means you don’t need any permissions on the client side, no installs or registry permissions are required.  VistaDB can also deploy one dll to either a 32 or 64 it machine, there is no need to target a specific CPU type in advance of the deployment.

This article explains how to get a simple Windows Forms application (databound using Entity Framework) up and running with VistaDB and ClickOnce deployment.  There are a few manual steps, but almost all of these will apply to any client side xcopy deployable database. They obviously do not apply to SQL Server!

Databound WinForms Project

The Windows Forms project used in this example is very simple and consists of the following:

• A VistaDB 4 Database containing one table named Employees with the columns and data shown in the grid to the right.
• An ADO.NET Entity Model (EF model) of the VistaDB database, built using the Visual Studio wizards.
• One Form (shown on the right) that contains a grid and a button that populates the GridView with a simple linq query against the EF model.

More...