Problems Saving SQL Compact Edition Database to Another Computer on the Same Network

Question

I am using SQL CE 3.5 for one of my projects, the front end is a WPF application that processes data files and uploads data to the SQL CE database.

Currently, the application and the database are on the same machine.

The client wants him to be able to run the application from any computer on the network, but the database must remain in the general location of the server.

The user will select the path to the SDF file in the application, and then, when any file is processed, the application will upload the data to the database.

My question is: to store the SDF file in a network shared location and access it from any computer, then it will work fine or can it give a problem?

Answer 1

in fact, this is not possible - SQL CE does not support network operations: everything related to the sdf file (temporary data) is written to the local computer, and not to the network source, so the server cannot process requests correctly.

You can use SQL Express Server, which acts as a data warehouse, for the local client the only thing you need is the Microsoft Synchronization 2.1 library (it also works with SQL CE 4.0 SP1)

To summarize, create a SQL CE database, fill it with tables, index them, then move it to SQL Server express, add a synchronization module to your application (in a separate ofc stream) and it.

Another solution is to use MS Access DB, which allows such a mess, but incredibly slowly, not to mention not allowing simultaneous writing to db.