从Windows Forms App和Windows Phone App访问SQL数据库

Question

I have a project assignment from the university and want to ask you if you can show me the right approach. I'm not asking for any code or to write me something. I just want some guidelines to follow.

Firstly, to explain a bit.. I have to design and implement an Info System in .NET. It should have a Desktop App (based on Windows Forms), a Mobile App (Windows Phone 7.1) and a database (MS SQL). The idea is to have a database, hosted on a remote machine. The desktop and mobile apps should be able to connect to that database and do some stuff with it (mobile app will be only for viewing data, not modifying). The system must be multi-client - the database should be able to be accessed from multiple desktop and mobile clients at a time.

I'm ready with the GUI and it's time to do some real work. What's the easiest way to get that communication done? I thought of a WCF Service Application, which will provide the clients' access to the DB. My idea is to have the database and the service on a machine with a public IP address. The apps (desktop and mobile) will connect to that machine and respectively to the SQL through the WCF.

I saw some tutorials around, but didn't find one that shows how to make that WCF Service work with both Windows Forms app and Windows Phone app. I'm not very familiar with WCF - should I have IIS to run the service? I'm also not sure what kind of techniques I have to use on the client side to do the connection...

Is this approach rght? Can this be done in the way I explained? What should I be aware of? I will appreciate every kind of advise and reproach.

Answer 1

The easiest (and in your case, most efficient) way would be to use Windows Azure . For the purpose of your project, you can always sign up for the free trial.

Specifically, you can leverage Windows Azure SQL Database . Or, if you are so inclined, you could use Mobile Services , which also relies on SQL databases but you will have a much better time setting it up in your Windows Phone app (doesn't matter whether you want to read or write data).