SQL Server Everywhere Gets a New Name
You know you’ve got a successful product when everyone cares about the name. Since we’ve posted the June CTP, we’ve received feedback that the name was causing some confusion with some partner products. We care a lot about the partner community and have decided to change the name, again.
And the new name is….
SQL Server Compact Edition
Yup, that’s right, we’ve gone a little retro and have used the original name. So, why Compact? Because that’s exactly what it is. The compact version of the mighty SQL Server family. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to answer questions about how Express and Everywhere compare. Calling it Compact Edition worked for several reasons.
- It helped identify its role in the SQL Server family. In order to help clear up the confusion with Express, I’ve written a whitepaper that not only talks about the feature comparison of Express and Compact Edition, but it delves into the differences in a local database programming model. The paper will be released soon, once we finish the name changes, <g>
- By leveraging an existing name, it allowed us to quickly turn around the name change and meet our commitment to ship in ’06. You’d be surprised at how much work goes into naming a product. In addition to all the legal name issues, we have to localize the product in 20+ languages and release on several mobile platforms. This all takes time.
- In order to maintain backwards compatibility of the source code developers have been writing for years, we never changed the names of the dlls, namespaces or types. Going back to SQLce meant all the SQLce samples, namespaces, and type names will again be relevant. By doing a quick search on SQLce, you’ll get years of content available at your fingertips. Of course, you no longer need to worry about the device limitation.
A couple of Q & A’s
Q Does SQLCE mean it’s limited to the CE, mobile platform?A
No. This has caused the most angst about the name. SQL Server Mobile edition was too limiting as it implied a limitation to mobile scenarios. We do plan to use SQLce in multiple locations and new environments. Mobile would have been too limiting. The trick is to not confuse the fact that we have a CE platform, and use the Compact name as it applies to the SQL Server family
Q Does the new name reflect any changes in supported platforms?A
Yes. We continue to add to our platforms supported. Based on your feedback, we’ve added Windows 2000. SQLce will be an important part of our database strategy to help developers, enterprises, ISV’s and end users manage data wherever they are, whether or not they’re connected to “the network” As the Microsoft platform reaches further out, SQLce will continue to reach with it. SQL Server Compact Edition is our default database for local storage.
Q What’s the release date?A
Very, very soon. We had the RTM bits complete and were ready to launch at our next big developer event. Because of the name change, we won’t be able to go RTM on that same date as it will take us several weeks to re-localize the runtime, all the docs and update the tooling with the new name. We will release the current RTM quality bits as a release candidate (RC), and aprox. 5 weeks later release the renamed packages. All of this fits within the next several weeks.
Q What functionality is in the new SQL Server Compact Edition product?A
Since the June CTP, the team has been busy integrating feedback and some minimal feature work including
- Finished the |DataDirectory| support on all the SqlCeConnection objects.
- With the addition of Visual Studio SP1, the DataDirectory macro will automatically be added to your connection string and the ClickOnce bootstrapper will be automatically checked when a SQLce data file is added to your project.
- With the support of Scott Swigart, the team has done some performance work to deal with the differences in desktop environments. The team can, and will do more performance work, but they did improve a number of scenarios including new row insert performance.
On devices, “disk” space is very expensive. SQL Mobile only added the minimal amount of partition space when the .sdf file filled up. That meant that when you’re doing a lot of inserts, the engine was continuing to have to increase disk partitions. On desktop, we’ve increased the amount of space when the .sdf file filled up. This work was only applied to the Desktop as we don't want to degrade device scenarios. The team is looking to expose this configuration option in the next release. - Worked out the quirks of creating a desktop MSI and appropriately GAC the managed components. The native dlls required some updating as well to properly support GAC’d deployment and private deployment
- Vista work to support UAC
- Addition of the ClickOnce bootstrapper and integration into VS
- A number of bug fixes in the Tooling of SQLce within VS – coming with Visual Studio SP1
- Support for SQLce within SQL Server Management Studio – coming with SQL Server Management Studio SP2
Q Why so long, for so little amount of feature work?A
Great question. With the name change, it was felt the product should have a consistent tooling and runtime experience. While we did have some work to do within the product, most of the time has been waiting for a consistent tooling experience within Visual Studio. With VS Sp1 the tooling won’t jump from SQL Server Mobile Edition to SQL Server Everywhere Edition to SQL Server Compact Edition. Visual Studio has a lot of components and teams delivering, so it took several teams to incorporate the name changes.
Doing all this tooling work, and supporting new scenarios, we didn’t want to take a great product, SQL Server Mobile, and make it less stable, so we wanted to take the time to make sure we had a great end to end experience. I won’t say it’s perfect, and we’ll be doing more work in Orcas to round out the tooling and experience to make it easier to use SQLce as the default local database for client applications, but we got a lot done within an interim release and service pack.
Q What can we expect from the next release, and when will it be available?
A The SQLce team has spent most of their time this last year working on the next release. We already have a 3.5 release mostly done which incorporates several new features including all the OCS work we’ve been doing. You can see on the screen cast I did earlier at: https://blogs.msdn.com/stevelasker/archive/2006/10/13/occasionally-connected-systems-sync-framework.aspx The 3.5 release is scheduled to release with the next release of Visual Studio code named Orcas, which is scheduled for the end of ’07, beginning of ‘08
Q Will SQLce be in the .NET Framework
A No. The current design of the. NET framework is anything that ships in the framework, must only ship in the framework and ship on its schedule. I say current because we recongnize the deployment and servicing issues of the framework and are working on some exciting new things that will make this mo' better. Because SQLce will ship more frequently, and we're working on some new deployment characteristics of the framework, we’ve taken the painful decision to not ship in the framework. As an example, if we had shipped in the 2.0 framework for Tablet PCs only, we would not have been able to ship this release to the broader platforms. Version 3.5 will ship with, or before Orcas. 4.0 will ship at the same time as the next release of SQL Server. This means SQLce will have shipped 3-4 times in the same time as SQL Server and Visual Studio. In order to ease deployments, we do support private deployment of the SQLce runtime within each application. This eases the need to admin deploy the runtime throughout your users.
Q Will Compact Edition Support Side by Side
A Yes. One of our main goals of SQLce is to make developers productive building client applications that enable end users. Part of that productivity involves stability of their client apps. An application that was installed, and working perfectly fine with SQLce 3.1, shouldn’t be forced to upgrade to 5.0 just because they also installed another application that just happened to use 5.0. We haven’t forgotten dll hell and having MDAC upgrade and break your existing apps.
That's all for now. Enjoy, and keep the feedback coming,
Steve
Comments
Anonymous
October 31, 2006
Well they are all one and same thing. SQL CE has gone thru several versions and name changes which hasAnonymous
October 31, 2006
I'm a bit confused on some schedules, could you clarify something for me? You mention that the new version is very near to shipping, in a matter of weeks - which is awesome. Later, you mention that the OCS work is part of the 3.5 cycle, due for Orcas. Will the OCS bits work against the release coming out in a few weeks? In other words - if we get the OCS CTP, can we test it, and create apps with it, against the version that RTMs soon, or will we have to use the CTP only against a v3.5 SQLce CTP? Thanks for the update Steve - I'm not trying to be grumpy, just want to understand when things are expected to come out so I can try to plan for pilot projects and things.Anonymous
October 31, 2006
Steve Lasker reports that due to customer feedback Microsoft has renamed SQL Server Everywhere to SQL...Anonymous
October 31, 2006
Hmm. Is there a web page describing the differences between SQLCE and SQl Sever Express? Honestly, I am a little confused with these two products now. -- Robert KozakAnonymous
October 31, 2006
Yeah, I'm also a bit confused about the release dates. I gather that 3.0 is what's coming 'very very soon' and will not include OCS stuff.. 3.5 = OCS + Orcas tooling, 4.0 = Features that will be included with the next version of SQL (Entity SQL-in-the-DB?) Seems like a long time to wait for OCS.. :(Anonymous
October 31, 2006
Any movement on the 4 gig limit??? To be useful for your intended audience this needs to be removed and you need to limit it to not allow connections across a network share. The way it is right now is of VERY limited use.Anonymous
October 31, 2006
Release Dates: SQL Server Mobile Edition (3.0) was released with Visual Studio 2005 (Whidbey) SQL Server Compact Edition (3.1) will release in the next several weeks. This will enable the device scenarios on the larger desktop/win 32 platform. This platform supports Merge Replication and RDA. In order to tap into the existing tooling within Visual Studio, 3.1 is not the physical version number, but more a reference point. Technically, they still use 3.0 managed versions. Consider 3.1 as a service pack for 3.0. SQL Server Compact Edition (3.5) will ship with, or before, Orcas (end of ’07). The new sync runtime will ship with 3.5 and only work with SQLce 3.5. As you may have seen in the screen cast, the client side portion of sync services are simplified as the knowledge of change tracking is incorporated into the SQLce storage engine. Yes, the CTP will require 3.5. 3.5 will run side by side, SxS with 3.1 so you can opt-in to which apps will use 3.1 and 3.5. We’ll have a CTP available soon, so while it will take a bit to ship, we want to make sure we’re shipping the right thing. Having the CTP available soon will give you the opportunity for feedback, and to get started soon. No promises, but if we get enough positive feedback, we could consider a GoLive license for early adopters. No problem Austin. Lots of data to digest SQL Server Express, SQL Server Compact Edition We have a white paper that we just finished up that will help explain things a bit. As soon as it’s available, I’ll post a link to it. Consider SQLce as the default local database. Express is the entry point to data services. 4gb limit. This will be relaxed, but not immediately. 4gb was huge for a device. For desktops, we realize some scenarios may find that limiting. As discussed with the Insert performance discussion, 4gb is a little hard backed into the product, so it’s not as easy to just flip the bit. However, we will increase this. 4gb is still a lot of data to move across the wire, so I’d love to hear of scenarios where you really need 4gb locally. We’ve found most customers partition their data as maintain 4gb across flakey networks can be difficult. But, we do know there are valid scenarios. We’d just like to understand the types of data. Large rows. Large columns, many tables, embedded images, etc. Network Shares SQLce does support network shares, but not from concurrent machines which is that I assume you’re asking for. At this point, we don’t plan to enable this as it encroaches on the data service scenarios that historically open the can of worms we’d like to contain. Jet was plagued with issues from multiple users working from a shared file. Everything from file corruption, to scalability issues. We’d rather leverage the Data Service SKU’s, including the free SQL Server Express Edition for shared data, and the OCS features to synchronize that central data between clients. We do plan to enable peer to peer as well, but that’s another discussion. SteveAnonymous
October 31, 2006
I'm really torn about this post. On the one hand Microsoft has repeated one of their most annoyingAnonymous
October 31, 2006
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October 31, 2006
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October 31, 2006
[via Steve Lasker] In the beginning it's SqlCe, then SQL Mobile, and then SQL Server Everywhere,...Anonymous
October 31, 2006
crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/ [via Steve Lasker ] In the beginning it's SqlCe, thenAnonymous
October 31, 2006
So people where just getting used to the name SQL Everywhere and now Microsoft has decided to renameAnonymous
October 31, 2006
Así es, la versión compacta de SQL Server vuelve a cambiar de nombre, al parecer para quedarse con SQLAnonymous
October 31, 2006
Question de marketing oblige je pense, SQL Server Everywhere change à nouveau de nom avant sa sortieAnonymous
October 31, 2006
Will 3.5 and 4.0 still have the native DLL's that we can use with ADO under VB6 and VS2003 as we can with SQLev?Anonymous
November 01, 2006
Any news about hosting this in IIS ? A lot of web developers are looking for an Access replacement, they had hopes for Express but it didn't live up to the promise of xcopy deployment in a shared hosting environment. The new VistaDB looks like it will fill the gap if this doesn't like John though many prefer to stick with MS products as much as possible.Anonymous
November 01, 2006
According to Steve Lasker in this blog post , M$ has gone and renamed SQL Everywhere to SQL Compact EditionAnonymous
November 01, 2006
The IM volume I received today about the http://blogs.msdn.com/stevelasker/archive/2006/10/31/sql-server-everywhere-gets-yet-another-name.aspxAnonymous
November 01, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
November 02, 2006
SQL Server Everywhere becomes CompactAnonymous
November 02, 2006
No new software, but a new/old name... The recently renamed SQL Server Everywhere (the successor to SQLAnonymous
November 02, 2006
No new software, but a new/old name... The recently renamed SQL Server Everywhere (the successor to SQLAnonymous
November 02, 2006
We're in about the same situation as you, John, We need a database to satisfy the smart-client needs SQL Compact/Express satisifies this, but we know that 4GB will be a barrier since client data will definately (not might, not may, not have the potential to) exceed this in about 5-6 months after deployment. I'm with you, partitioning the DB to seperate physical SQL databases to get by the 4GB barrier starts to get frightening. We're also implementing what amounts to our own OCS stack to support the occassionally connected scenario. I was briefly excited about OCS, but coupled with the new knowledge that OCS in SQL Compact isn't coming for over a year, we're looking for a DB. You mentioned a few of the DB's we're looking at: VistaDB, Firebird. DB4O (DB4O.com) is getting alot of buzz and we're looking into the viability of the company and the potential of the product.Anonymous
November 02, 2006
SQLCE goes back to being SQLCE with a different meaning for "CE". I see this as a positive decision....Anonymous
November 02, 2006
SQLce was in platform builder 5.0 catalog. Do you know why CE 6.0 doesn't have SQLce in the catalog?Anonymous
November 02, 2006
Here's for no limit on size and go live licences sooner rather than later (i.e. before christmas would be a very good thing)... Come 'on Microsoft, we know you can do it! :)Anonymous
November 02, 2006
SQL Server Everywhere はSQL Server Compact Edition3.1に再改名(SP+Windows 2000、Vista+使用分野拡張)Anonymous
November 04, 2006
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November 05, 2006
Software / Hardware The Windows Live Soapbox team unveils My Mobile Soapbox msmobiles.com gives us theAnonymous
November 06, 2006
SQL Server Compact Edition RC1 is released on web. You can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=85E0C3CE-3FA1-453A-8CE9-AF6CA20946C3&displaylang=enAnonymous
November 06, 2006
At Tech Ed EMEA today SQL Server Compact Edition RC1, formerly known as Everywhere edition, was announcedAnonymous
November 06, 2006
Microsoft has released SQL Server Compact Edition RC1 to the web, along with some tools for VS2005 (Anonymous
November 06, 2006
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November 06, 2006
We also store thousands of documents in the database and use SQL Server CE for single-user installations and SQL Server Express 2005 for multi-user installations. The 4 GB limit is a problem, we are currently compressing the binary document data and then store it in the database. This gives us some breathing room and also can actually improve performance under some conditions. It would be really nice if you could remove the 4 GB limit in SQL Server CE and SQL Server 2005 Express. Otherwise we may have to switch to different databases. GerritAnonymous
November 11, 2006
We are also looking at storing many documents in SQL Server CE, but 4GB is too small for this.Anonymous
November 20, 2006
Will this architecture handle schema changes on the source database? If so, how is this accomplished?Anonymous
December 21, 2006
I'm developing a game browser that will undoubtably require more than 4 GB over time. What is this the purpose of this limitation on desktop apps?Anonymous
December 21, 2006
We chose SQL Server CE (or whatever it’s called now) because it’s only going to run on PDA’s linked together in almost real time over the internet. The PDA’s generate all the base data which has to be kept in sync with all the other PDA’s on that particular node with no reference to any central server. The chances of the data exceeding 4gig on a single device are nil as every day when the app boots it backs up yesterday’s data to the SD card. Our problems relating to the application were very specific, that’s why we chose the product. Getting the data from the PDA to the companies system (and other PDA’s) is done via the standard cellular phone system which negates any middleware on any PC although a small interface is required. Of much interest to me is the remark that “peer-to-peer” was to be implemented in the product as this may enable the removal of substantial amounts of code from the application running in precious memory on the PDA especially in large metropolises with lots of WIFI hotspots and thus remove the need to use the mobile phone network in some scenarios and to enable the use of distributed database designs. I’ve often wondered why it was that a version of Access (front end) was never natively linked to SQL CE specifically for use as a bridge between the two environments, as it exists on just about every corporate and small business PC on the Planet and it’s almost impossible not to use it outside of the large central server systems. SQL Server CE needs to be kept tight, lean and mean and stable before any changes to its repository size are implemented as to me it’s first and foremost for the mobile market with desktop devices being of secondary consideration only.Anonymous
January 16, 2007
Hi Dave, It's called SQL Server Compact Edition. And with the launch yesterday, I think we can finally put the name changes behind us. As for the p2p scenarios, we are definitely looking at enabling p2p with SQLce and the new Sync Platform. Our initial release is a little more focused on hub/spoke relational type sync, but rest assured, we are expanding on that. No info on when, so unfortunately, you'll likely need to keep your code for a bit longer. As we have more info, I'll be sure to publish info on it. Thanks for the feedback on the focus. We discuss it quite often, SteveAnonymous
January 16, 2007
Hi Jason, I talked a bit about the 4gb limit here: http://blogs.msdn.com/stevelasker/archive/2006/11/13/doc-storage-in-sqlce-and-the-4gb-limit.aspx On devices, it was considered more than enough. We are looking at expanding the limit, but there were enough assumptions in the code based on the 4gb limit that will require additional time before we can expand the limit to something beyond normal limitations on the desktop, or remove it all together. SteveAnonymous
January 24, 2007
So SQL Server Compact Edition has been release officially. Remember? It's that product that...Anonymous
February 01, 2007
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February 05, 2007
介绍 SQL Server Everywhere 更名的原因和实施情况。Anonymous
February 21, 2007
So, what are the main differences between SQL Mobile 2005 and SQL Compact Edition? The main page of SQL Compact edition shows some features but doesn't show differences between version 3.0 and 3.1 Actually I'm using version 3.0 and it works fine, but should I use version 3.1?Anonymous
February 24, 2007
Hi Raul, The main difference between 3.0 and 3.1 is the desktop licensing change. If you're using 3.0, I assume you're working on devices, which for this release, there isn't any change. For the desktop experience there were several minor changes to round out the desktop experience. |DataDirectory| support for ClickOnce deployment, ClickOnce bootrapper for VS 2005 deployment. There was some performance work done to account for the environment differences between the device and desktop. There’s a good KB article describing the changes here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920700 Hope that helps, SteveAnonymous
February 24, 2007
Hi Tom, Visual Studio and SQL Server Management Studio don’t support network shares, which is a definite bummer. I actually didn’t realize that, and will see about opening a bug to fix this in Orcas. The SqlCeConnection object does support UNC shares, as well as different extensions. So, for development with VS and Management Studio, I’m afraid you’ll have to have everything local. SteveAnonymous
April 28, 2007
Thanks Steve for the information :)Anonymous
July 12, 2007
Sommerferie og interne konferencer (TechReady for nørder og MGX for ikke nørder) er så småt ved rammeAnonymous
July 12, 2007
Sommerferie og interne konferencer (TechReady for nørder og MGX for ikke nørder) er så småt ved rammeAnonymous
July 19, 2007
Monday, November 20, 2006 4:35 PM by geblack Will this architecture handle schema changes on the source database? If so, how is this accomplished?Anonymous
September 18, 2007
Hi Steve, What is the difference between sql server mobile edition 2005 and sqlce 3.0 Can I use both as a database for my pocket pc based devices. Pls do let me knowAnonymous
September 20, 2007
Hi Tech, SQL Server 2005 Mobile (aka v3.0) and SQL Server Compact 3.1 are the same product: ++. You could think of SQLce 3.1 as a service pack to SQL Mobile. Since we changed the name to reflect the larger desktop scenarios, we decided to bump the version to .1 as well. Don't ask, it's a long story <g> 3.1 adds bug fixes, applicable to devices, and of course the remove of the desktop restrictions. We added some ClickOnce support for desktop as well. So, the short story for devices, is yes, you should think of 3.1 as a service pack. As with service packs, it's fully backwards compatible. SteveAnonymous
October 06, 2007
Is there a web page describing the differences between SQLCE and SQl Sever Express? Honestly, I am a little confused with these two products now.Anonymous
November 06, 2007
Is SQL compact going to be release along with Visual Studio 2008 late in Nov 2007?Anonymous
November 06, 2007
Yup, SQL Server Compact 3.5 will be included within Visual Studio 2008, which Soma announced would be released in November. We'll also be releasing direct to the web, but with the integrated experience, we'll be within VS as well. Steve