Database for an open source project

Question

What database would you use for an open source project?

I am looking for something that has little or no settings required by the end user.

Update: The database size will be relatively small (less than 100,000 records). The application will be written in C #.

Answer 1

If you are looking for an embedded database (I think you will if you ask for something easy for the end user), then SQLite is the most widely deployed SQL database in the world.

Depending on which language you are using, you may need the appropriate shell for the SQLite library.

Update:. For .NET, the best shell for SQLite System.Data.SQLite.dll is from phxsoftware .

Answer 2

SQLite is nice if you want a DB SQL query:

http://www.sqlite.org/

It does not require a server; you just need to enable and use the appropriate API libraries in your project. Your database is stored as a separate file on disk.

Answer 3

If this is a web application with PHP, then MySQL ... it is installed almost everywhere where PHP is installed (this is almost every host).

If this is not ... refer to other answers :)

Answer 4

It really depends on how hard this database should do, but I think it's worth taking a look at SQLite. This is an amazing little piece of C / C ++ code that is distributed under a public domain license (which means that you can literally do whatever you want with it, including reselling it).

If you don't need atomic transactions or very intensive type checking, then probably there is no better database. You add the library to your application and works as an SQL database. Most programming languages ​​have bindings for it. It will be difficult for you to describe the case when you need some other database.

Answer 5

Go with SQLite . The end user does not need any installation. It just works.

Answer 6

What about an object database like db4o.net ?

Answer 7

You looked at SQL Server Express. It's not open source, but it's free. I am a big fan of SQLite, but if you are in the .net world and want to use the microsoft stack, this might be the best choice. It provides some things, such as T-SQL and a strong type system that SQLite does not provide. It has performance and db size limitations not found in all versions of SQL Server, but it probably doesn't matter for your application.

Answer 8

I would add comments to SQLite. It works great for what it is - and for most small, without installing DB, it works very well.

There are a couple of other options.

Firebird is one of the options. It has a pretty impressive list of features and also includes a .net provider (albeit in beta).

Another option, although not open source, is VistaDB . This is a 100% control option, unlike SQLite and Firebird (and most other databases), and because of this it has many advantages. It is quite consistent with the syntax of MS SQL, supports stored procedures and many other nice features. They have an Express version that is free and can be used in open source projects.

Answer 9

It will depend on what you mean by “end user” As other SQLite has said , a great choice if you are looking for something built-in or for use on the desktop. If you are thinking of some kind of web application, I would say that MySQL or PostgreSQL , as they will provide better performance and will be able to more naturally handle a large data set.

Answer 10

If it is only windows Sql Server Compact Edition is a good choice for small applications. It is freeware.