VistaDB - http://www.vistadb.net/

This is a follow up thread on VistaDB that originated here: http://community.discountasp.net/showpost.php?p=31857&postcount=11 where I asked:

and received the response:

Hi Raymond,

I'm happy to develop a proof of concept application using a 30 day trial version of VistaDB 3 on the DASP servers if you guys are happy for me to do it. I thought it was best to run this concept by you first because this product is reported as a serverless embedded file based database, which means that the database files and the means to access them via the VistaDB database engine will all reside on the web server. This in turn means that the database engine will run in process with the ASP.NET worker process when active.

I'm pretty sure that DASP will not need to do anything on behalf of the customer for us to get this thing working successfully because from what I've read, the database engine assembly is simply xcopy/ftp deployed with the rest of the application - but a proof of concept application would definitely prove the theory.

The reason I'm interested in investigating this product further is really as a viable alternative to MS Access for web applications. It certainly is not a complete replacement for SQL Server because it does not have all the features of a server based database product e.g. there is no support for caching and the lowest level of concurrency locking supported is row level. However the fact that it is so closely related to SQL Server in terms of T-SQL syntax and ADO.NET Provider Factory 2 compliance means that it could well be a good interim product for those starting out new application development with a view to eventually deploying to SQL Server.

In addition, despite it's obvious limitations, I think there are likely to be many web applications where this products' design type and performance will be acceptable.

Please let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Joe

 

That would be great if you can do that. I'm reading up on it now. As soon as I find out more about this product I'll post it to this thread. Its always great trying out new things. Whether it will work or not is not the point, its the thrill of trying that makes it fun.

 

...It's been discussed on StackOverflow many times, might be worth looking:
http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=VistaDB

 

Nothing to install by asp.net

Hello, VistaDB was designed to be xcopy deployable. The only thing the user needs to do is deploy the runtime into their BIN folder and have access to the App_Data. Since Discount asp.net already does this there should be nothing they need to do for the user.

VistaDB runs in medium trust - no need to put in the GAC or to install on the server.

If you are interested in using VistaDB with your project download the trial and take a look at the "How to deploy VistaDB" topic in the help file.

If you have any question feel free to drop by the VistaDB forums (http://forums.vistadb.net) and post them there.

 

Oh, I should have also added that we have setup a Discount asp.net account in the past to test VistaDB and it worked fine at that time (about 1.5 years ago). The Discount Asp.net team was very helpful getting things up and running.

If you run into problems deploying let me know and I can help you as well.

VistaDB has a lot of limitations (being file based and 100% managed are quite a challenge) but there are lots of blogs, and small sites that don't need anything more than that. The true xcopy and go ability is what a lot of people are attracted to when they first hear about it.

(btw, in the interest of full disclosure I am the owner - this topic came up on my Google Alerts and I thought I would step in and answer the question)

 

...Cool, thanks for posting this info.
All the best,
Mark

 

For those interested in VistaDB as a database solution, the small proof of concept application that I put together to prove the feasbility of the product on DiscountASP.NET is now complete and is uploaded to this location: http://www.jjssoftware.co.uk/VistaDBMembership

This test application was finished about a week ago but along the way I did find what I suspected was a bug in VistaDB v3.5.3.83 and have since had it confirmed as a bug from VistaDB technical support.

Further details are included here http://www.jjssoftware.co.uk/VistaDBMembership/readme.txt and also over in the VistaDB forum here http://forums.vistadb.net/yaf_postst3744_VistaDBMembershipProvider--any-password-will-do.aspx

Generally I am pleased with the results of these tests and the original goal of this mini project which was to prove VistaDB as an easily usable product on DiscountASP.NET has been a success. If I had chosen a different subject to work through other than testing the VistaDBMembershipProvider functionality, I'm sure this work would have been much more pain free.

 

...Good job testing that and thanks again for the in-depth feedback.
Here's a little music for ya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_2rrxONlLo
All the best,
Mark

 

Grrrr - "This video is not available in your country due to copyright restrictions"..that'll be the BPI meddling with what us Brits are allow access to.

 

...Man that stinks. ;-)
We shared it on Twitter all day yesterday, cool video.
(Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling")

 

Updated...FYI:
http://www.vistadb.net/blog/post/20...w-Build-87-with-Entity-Framework-Support.aspx