SQLite + Visual Studio 2013 Express - design-time Support issue

Question

I am trying to decide if I can use Visual C# 2013 Express Edition with SQLite for a project that I am going to be working on. On the SQLite page it says:

Visual Studio design-time Support, works with all versions of Visual Studio 2005/2008/2010/2012/2013. You can add a SQLite database to the Servers list, design queries with the Query Designer, drag-and-drop tables onto a Typed DataSet, etc. Due to Visual Studio licensing restrictions, the Express Editions can no longer be supported.

What does this mean exactly? Does it just mean that I cannot 'drag and drop' control onto the Windows Form? Shouldn't I be able to reference this Assembly in my code and just work with it? Are there any other issues that this implies?

Answer 1

Sorry for being late with the answer, maybe it'll help others though.

Yes this means you only will be able to access SQLite db from your code not from IDE: you wont be able to connect to it from the Database Explorer etc. So it will be impossible to auto-generate a typed dataset or linq context. So you'll have to do that manually or use an old-shool approach of creating a connection and command objects, passing a query as a string etc.

    var conn = new SQLiteConnection("data source=db");
    conn.Open();
    using (SQLiteCommand cmd = conn.CreateCommand())
    {
        cmd.CommandText = "select * from customers";
        var rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
        while (rdr.Read())
        {
            MessageBox.Show(rdr["name"].ToString());
        }

    }

ps: you'd better download an appropriate nuget package by rightclicking References in the Solution Explorer than get assemblies from the sqlite site. much easier.

pps: to manage db structure i use SQLite2009 Pro, its free and quite handy.