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This might be a really dumb question... but in VS2013 when trying to add a local database to my Windows Forms Application Project the option is now shown in the C# items menu. The only DB that is available is a Service-Based DB. From what I understand, this is related to SQL Compact Edition but I do have SQL Server 2012 installed. Any ideas? Or are there any significant differences between the Local DB and Service-Based DB?

Don
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A service-based database is a database that is only accessed through a server. It uses an MDF data file, which is SQL Server format. To be able to connect to a SQL Server database the SQL Server service must be running, because it's that that processes your requests and access the data file.

A local database is one that is local to your application only. It uses an SDF data file, which is SQL Server CE (Compact Edition) format. There is no need to install a server to access an SDF database. You simply distribute the DLLs that constitute SSCE along with your app and access the data file directly.

You'd normally only use SSCE if the data was to be accessed by your app only and there was a relatively small amount of data. For your project you would use SQL Server. For testing purposes you can use the free Express Edition. When deployed you might still use SSEE or you might use a full version of SQL Server. Note that Microsoft include SSEE with their own RMS POS software. SSEE is limited to databases of 4GB though, so even if you start out with SSEE and it can handle the load, you may still have to upgrade at some point in the future based on data capacity.

Source of info:jmcilhinney post.

for help on creating the database have a look at this tutorial it may be of some help.

Hope this info helps you :)

Jared6243
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  • Hey Jared, that does answer my second question so thanks for that. But that I am really curious about is why I cannot add a Local DB to my Visual C# Web Forms Application project by right clicking the project and selecting New Item? – Don May 18 '14 at 03:51
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It turns out VS2013 dropped the .sdf format.

Is Microsoft dropping support for SDF database files in Visual Studio?

The answer is yes: Microsoft is silently dropping support (as usual IMHO) to Sql Compact Edition.

It started abandoning Sql CE 3.5 in Vs2012 It continued dropping Sql CE in Sql Management Studio 2012 and finally in VS2013

You can use CompactView or install SQL Server Compact Toolbox extension in VS2013 or (my prefered solution) use Sql management Studio 2008

UPDATE thanks to Nicolas' comment

As stated by Microsoft:

SQL Server compact edition is in deprecation mode with no new releases planned near future. Last release SQL CE 4.0SP1 (and earlier releases that are still in the support cycle) will continue to be supported through its lifecycle and Microsoft is committed to fix any major, production blocking issues found in these releases.

Community
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Don
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Have you tried adding your local database from inside the project? Have a look and see if you can add your database from datasources.

Jared6243
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  • Well that is essentially my problem. From what I've seen, normally you can add a local database to a project by simply right clicking it and selecting add and then selecting local database. Just in my case, Local Database is not one of the options. – Don May 23 '14 at 05:29