Data Access, Reimagined -- Visual Studio Magazine

Data Driverby David Ramel

Data Access, Reimagined

"There are lots of discussions about using database[s] in Windows Store apps in MSDN forum[s]," reads a brand-new blog post by Microsoft's Robin Yang on MSDN.

Yes, developers are apparently still struggling with data access in the new Windows 8 ecosystem.

A quick check bears this out. In fact, just a week ago, a developer asked, "Is [it] possible to use 'LINQ to SQL' database in Windows 8 metro apps--or any other easy option is there to use local database?"

The answer was predictable: "It seems there is no official announcement of support for Linq to Sql or EF for database access in Windows 8 Metro Apps. You can try to use Web services to access the data."

Such questions have appeared on StackOverflow.com for well more than a year. A few examples:

Many reader answers point to using SQLite, which is exactly what Yang's post did (the post indicates the author of the post's content is Aaron Xue, though it was posted by Robin Yang).

I earlier touched on and provided links for a few other options such as IndexedDB and Web services/the cloud.

But HTML5/JavaScript seems to be the popular programming model of choice for Windows Store apps, and Yang has also conveniently provided a three-part series on this (authored by Roy Tian), titled "Using HTML5/JavaScript in Windows Store apps: Data access and storage mechanism." You can find this series (along with other posts) on the Windows Store apps development suppport blog page.

So check out these latest posts to bone up on Windows Store app data access--and perhaps keep waiting for SQL Server CE support.

What do you think about data access in Windows Store apps? Please share your thoughts here or drop me a line.

Posted by David Ramel on 01/11/2013

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