在哪里存储应用程序数据

Question

I'm building a C#/WPF job search tracking application to keep track of resumes submitted, interviews, followups, etc and am not sure of the best way to store the data. Where/how would YOU store the data? My first thought was XML to keep it simple, but it seems like I should "model" my data since there will be lots of related bits of information. Would SQLite be a better choice? Other recommendations?

Answer 1

Since I assume you want to query and update that data I would even suggest an ORM like Entity Framework - it's easy to get started and the basic stuff like querying and updating will be very straightforward if you have worked with LINQ before - saves you the hassle of writing your own SQL queries. This also will allow you to easily extend your model later on should you decide to do so.

Edit:

There are self-contained light-weight alternatives that would still allow you to use LINQ:

SQL Server Compact :

Microsoft SQL Server Compact is a free SQL Server embedded database ideal for building standalone and occasionally connected applications for mobile devices, desktops, and Web clients.

Here' an article that describes how to get LINQ to SQL to work on it. Apparently you can also use LINQ to Entities on it but there's quirks (such as design-time support) that you'll have to work around.

SQLLite :

SQLite is a software library that implements a self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine. SQLite is the most widely deployed SQL database engine in the world.

There's a LINQ provider for it called DBLinq As @Robert Harvey pointed out in his answer there's (almost) full support for EF since there's an ADO.NET provider for SQLLite:

Support for the ADO.NET 3.5 Entity Framework

Supports nearly all the entity framework functionality that Sql Server supports, and passes 99% of the tests in MS's EFQuerySamples demo application.

Answer 2

Generally, you want to store the data from your application in a database. For WPF and C#, that database is usually SQL Server or SQL Server Express, because Visual Studio 2008 easily integrates with those.

Do not use XML for this. XML is not intended to be a large scale storage medium; the purpose of XML is to provide a common language for different computer systems to talk to each other.

SQL Server Express is usable on any Windows PC; you just need to deploy the redistributable, using a named instance. See also http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd981032(SQL.100).aspx . If it's a small application and you want to go simpler, you can use SQL Server Compact Edition, or SQLite with the ADO.NET provider.