Database Confusion

[DreamWarrior77]

Ok so I am looking to create an online chat/messaging membership software with .net but am confused at the choices I have. In visual studio the way it is currently setup I have these options:

Microsoft Access Database File
Microsoft ODBC Data Source
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server Database File
Oracle Database
<other>

ok but I have always used and am familiar with mysql as this is what I use with my web hosting and wordpress so I went to mysql.com
and it seems I have 3 choices here:

MySQL Installer
MySQL Connectors - Connector/NET
MySQL for Visual Studio

Hoping someone can kind of specify the differences and help me figure out what would be best for me in this situation, and by situation I mean an SQL database on a hosted server that will be secure and able to handle a lot of queries for a busy Chat/Messaging service. Would the other database choices offer anything different than MySQL?

[jmcilhinney]

I'm not quite sure why you need to ask here rather than read up on the MySQL web site to find out what each of those does but here goes:

MySQL Installer

That would install MySQL itself, i.e. the database server.

MySQL Connectors - Connector/NET

That provides a DLL (maybe multiple, not sure) that contains the types used to connect to and communicate with a MySQL database from .NET code. For example, it includes the MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlConnection class for making a database connection that is equivalent to System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection for SQL Server, etc.

MySQL for Visual Studio

That provides tools that integrate into Visual Studio to help you develop against a MySQL database. It includes things like typed DataSet and Entity Framework support. These components used to be part of Connector/Net. I'd expect this to add MySQL to the list of data source options you posted above but I've never used it so I'm not sure.

[DreamWarrior77]

ok Thanks, I'm going to just install MySQL for Visual Studio..

[DreamWarrior77]

Just installed and will do some research on usage in the morning but wondering about it because it asks for connection details so I am wondering if I should create an SQL database on my web host and just enter the details in visual studio OR somehow create it on my PC and then upload it to my web host? Does this matter? It seems it gives me some advanced options via visual studio that I am not sure if I have the option of setting via my web host.. I would assume this might be somewhat important.

[jmcilhinney]

I am wondering if I should create an SQL database on my web host

Depending on your definition, either every database is a SQL database or there's no such thing. SQL is a language that (pretty much all) databases use, not a database itself.

If you want to develop for MySQL databases and you want actually test your code then obviously you need a MySQL database to test against. That database can be anywhere: on your machine, on a server on your network or in the cloud. As long as you can connect to it, you can test your code.

[techgnome]

I am wondering if I should create an SQL database on my web host and just enter the details in visual studio OR somehow create it on my PC and then upload it to my web host? Does this matter? It seems it gives me some advanced options via visual studio that I am not sure if I have the option of setting via my web host.. I would assume this might be somewhat important.

Yeah, it's kind of important... hosting databsases on the web is a tricky business. Depending on the host, if they've got their stuff together and know what they are doing, won't expose the database publicly to the interwebnettubes. This means you wouldn't be able to access it directly from your app. You would either need to create the databsase locally and then load it to the remote one later, but then if it's a desktop app, you'd still have the same problem, OR.... you'll need to create a set of web api services that sit on the server that you can call/invoke that will then talk to the database and return data back to your app.

I'm guessing that since it is a chat app, the database will need to be centralized/online somewhere where all clients can access it.

-tg