4/19/2007 3:35:28 PM

[This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]

The most up-to-date version of this file is available online at the Microsoft Download Center.

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Contents

1.0 Introduction

Microsoft® SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta (SQL Server Compact Edition) is the next version of SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (version 3.1). SQL Server Compact Edition can be deployed on desktop computers, Windows mobile devices, and Tablet PCs. The development support for SQL Server Compact Edition (SSCE) will be provided by Microsoft Visual Studio® Code Name "Orcas" and the database administration support will be provided by Microsoft SQL Server Code Name "Katmai". "Orcas" is the next version of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and "Katmai" is the next version of Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

SSCE components are available in three Microsoft Windows Installer (.msi) files:

  • SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Design Tools (SSCEVSTools-ENU.msi): This file installs the SSCE design-time components with "Orcas." The design-time components are the user interface, dialogs, and design-time environment, which are used to write applications for SSCE. The SSCE design-time components will be installed under the directory: %Program Files%\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\Common7\IDE\. These components are tied to Visual Studio and cannot be shipped independently of Visual Studio. SSCE samples and SSCE header files (for native development) are also installed by this .msi file.
  • SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 (SSCERuntime-ENU.msi): This file installs the SSCE runtime components for desktop and Tablet PCs in a central folder: %Program Files%\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v3.5. The SSCE desktop and Tablet PC runtime components are required for developing applications in Visual Studio and for running SSCE-based applications on the desktop. This .msi file also installs:
    • Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET components (Code Name "OCS"). The Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET components are installed at %Program Files%\Microsoft Synchronization Services\ADO.NET\v1.0.
    • System.Data.SqlServerCe.Entity.dll, which is the SSCE 3.5 data provider for ADO.NET Entity Framework.
  • SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 for Devices (SSCEDeviceRuntime-ENU.msi): This file installs the SSCE devices runtime components in %Program Files%\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v3.5\Devices. The runtime components are required for developing Windows mobile and Windows CE device-based applications in Visual Studio and for deploying the applications on mobile devices.

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1.1 New Features in SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta

SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta introduces the following new features for software developers.

  1. SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta implements the timestamp (row version id) data type.
  2. SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 BETA supports local transaction scope on a desktop and Tablet PC.
  3. SQL Server Compact Edition Table Designer in Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" has been enhanced to provide a user interface for creating primary key and foreign key relationships between tables.
  4. SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta support for Transact-SQL statements has been extended as follows:
    • Nested query in SELECT FROM clause
    • CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY
    • CAST
    • TOP
  5. SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta supports data replication with SQL Server 2005 by using Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET. Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET is available for desktop and Tablet PCs only.
  6. SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta supports the ADO.NET Entity Framework. The support for ADO.NET Entity Framework is available for desktop and Tablet PCs only.
  7. SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta can be installed side-by-side with the previous version, SQL Server Compact Edition 3.1, on desktop and Tablet PC computers. Using SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5, you can open database files (*.sdf) created in SQL Server Compact Edition 3.1. Be aware that when a database file is opened in SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5, the file is updated to 3.5 and you will no longer be able to open the database by using SQL Server Compact Edition 3.1. Databases created by using SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 cannot be opened by earlier versions of SQL Server Compact Edition.

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1.2 Obtaining SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta

SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta installs with Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas". The SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Device runtime .cab files are installed when the Smart Device Programmability option is selected during the installation of "Orcas". The "Orcas" Beta is available at the Microsoft Download Center.

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1.3 SQL Server Compact Edition Books Online

SQL Server Compact Edition Books Online provides detailed information about the development, administration, and deployment of SQL Server Compact Edition on desktop computers, Windows mobile devices and Tablet PCs. SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Books Online is available for download at the Microsoft Download Center.

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1.4 Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET

Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET provides the ability to synchronize data from disparate sources over two-tier, N-tier, and service-based architectures. Rather than just replicating a database and its schema, the Synchronization Services application programming interface (API) provides a set of components to synchronize data between data services and a local store.

To learn more about this technology, see the product documentation available online at the Microsoft Download Center. The Synchronization Services components are available with SQL Server Compact Edition at the Microsoft Download Center.

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2.0 Installing SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta

This section contains installation-related information.

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2.1 Installing and Uninstalling SQL Server Compact Edition Runtime on Mobile Devices

SQL Server Compact Edition can be deployed on Windows mobile devices either by manually copying and installing the CAB files or through Visual Studio. The SSCEDeviceRuntime-ENU.msi file places the SSCE 3.5 CAB files for deploying SSCE on the Windows mobile devices. The CAB files are placed under the folder %Program Files%\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v3.5\Devices.

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To uninstall SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta from a mobile device

  1. Click Start, Settings, System, and then Remove Programs.
  2. From the list of installed programs, select Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta.
  3. Click Remove.

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2.2 Installing and Uninstalling SQL Server Compact Edition Runtime on Desktop and Tablet PC

SQL Server Compact Edition has a separate installer (SSCERuntime-ENU.msi) for desktop computers and Tablet PCs. Some of the important considerations when you install SQL Server Compact Edition on a desktop computer or Tablet PC are as follows:

  • To install or uninstall SQL Server Compact Edition, you must be an administrator on the desktop computer or the Tablet PC.
  • Unless you are using the OLEDB data provider, the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or a later version is required before you install SQL Server Compact Edition. You can download the .NET Framework 2.0 from .NET Framework 2.0 Download Center.
  • You do not need Visual Studio or SQL Server 2005 installed before you install SQL Server Compact Edition on a desktop computer or Tablet PC.
  • To replicate data between SQL Server and SQL Server Compact Edition, you require SQL Server 2005.
  • To develop applications, you can use OLEDB or ADO.NET. For richer support, you can install Visual Studio.
Note:
SQL Server Compact Edition should be installed on desktop computers and Tablet PCs by the SSCERuntime-ENU.msi only. Any other mode of installing SQL Server Compact Edition might lead to serviceability problems.

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To uninstall SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta

1. Double-click Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.

2. From the list of installed programs, select Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta.

3. Click Remove.

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2.3 Installing and Uninstalling SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta Server Tools

SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Server Tools can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center.

If you are installing SQL Server Compact Edition Server Tools on a computer that is running Windows XP SP2 that uses Windows Firewall, you must specifically enable the HTTP and/or HTTPS services.

For more information about how to install and configure a server environment for Remote Data Access or merge replication, see "Installing a Server Environment" and "Configuring and Securing Server Environment" in SQL Server Compact Edition Books Online.

To enable the HTTP or HTTPS service

1. Double-click Windows Firewall in Control Panel.

2. Click the Advanced tab.

3. In Network Connection Settings, select the connection, and then click Settings.

4. Select Web Server (HTTP) or Secure Web Server (HTTPS), make sure the server name or IP address is correct, and then click OK.

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To uninstall SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Server Tools Beta

1. Double-click Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.

2. From the list of installed programs, select Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Server Tools Beta.

3. Click Remove.

After uninstalling, you should restart IIS or reboot the computer running IIS.

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3.0 Supported Operating Systems and Platforms for SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta

4.0 Deploying SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Beta Applications

This section describes support for deploying SQL Server Compact Edition applications.

4.1 SQL Server Compact Edition Desktop Deployment Support in Visual Studio

You can deploy a SQL Server Compact Edition application to a desktop computer or a Tablet PC by using ClickOnce support in Visual Studio. DataDirectory substitution string also simplifies deploying an application. For more information about ClickOnce and DataDirectory, see the Installing a Development Environment and Installing on a Desktop and a Tablet PC (SQL Server Compact Edition) topics in SQL Server Compact Edition Books Online and Microsoft Knowledge Base article 920700.

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4.2 SQL Server Compact Edition Mobile Devices Deployment Support in Visual Studio

You can use Visual Studio  to deploy a SQL Server Compact Edition application to either an emulator or a device in the following ways.

A Pocket PC 2003 application can be deployed on:

  • Pocket PC 2003 Device
  • Pocket PC 2003 Emulator
  • Pocket PC 2003 SE VGA Emulator

A Windows CE 5.0 application can be deployed on:

  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Pocket PC Device
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Pocket PC Emulator
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition GSM (virtual radio) Emulator
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition GSM VGA (virtual radio) Emulator
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Pocket PC VGA Emulator
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Smartphone Device
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Smartphone GSM (virtual radio) Emulator
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Smartphone GSM QVGA (virtual radio) Emulator
  • Windows CE 5.0 Devices

A Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Pocket PC application can be deployed on:

  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Pocket PC Device
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Pocket PC Emulator
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition GSM (virtual radio) Emulator
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition GSM VGA (virtual radio) Emulator
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Pocket PC VGA Emulator
  • A Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Smartphone application can be deployed on:
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Smartphone Device
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Smartphone GSM (virtual radio) Emulator
  • Windows Mobile Version 5.0 Smartphone GSM QVGA (virtual radio) Emulator

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5.0 Known Issues

  1. No support for server-generated keys and server-generated values.
    When using the ADO.NET Entity Framework, an entity’s keys may be marked as server generated. This enables the database to generate a value for the key on an insert (entity creation). Additionally, zero or more properties of an entity may be marked as server generated values. A SQL Server Compact Edition database may generate default values for null-valued properties (if a default value has been specified as part of the column definition) when an entity is created or updated.
    This release of SQL Server Compact Edition, when it is used with the ADO.NET Entity Framework, does not support entities with server-generated keys or values, even though such entity types might be defined in the Model (.csdl) or Target (.ssdl) files.
  2. Paging queries do not support SKIP expressions.
    LIMIT and TOP expressions are supported in Paging queries. Paging queries are intended to support stateless paging (scrolling or windowing) through the results of a query. Paging queries in the ADO.NET Entity Framework can be specified by using the LINQ Skip and Take operators. For example,
    customers.OrderBy(c => c.Name).Skip(100).Take(20)
    Paging queries can also be expressed by using the SKIP, LIMIT, and TOP constructs of Entity SQL. For example:
    SELECT value c
    FROM NW.Customers AS c
    ORDER BY c.Name skip 100 limit 20;
    This release of SQL Server Compact Edition, when it is used with the ADO.NET Entity Framework does not support SKIP expressions in paging queries. The LIMIT and TOP expressions are supported.
  3. Full outer joins not supported.
    Entity SQL supports multiple joins including inner joins, left outer joins and full outer joins.
    This release of SQL Server Compact Edition does not support Entity SQL queries with full outer joins that use the ADO.NET Entity Framework. As an example, the following query will not be supported:
    SELECT c.Name, c.Id, o.Id
    FROM NW.Customers AS c full
    OUTER JOIN NW.Orders AS o ON c.Id = o.CustomerId
  4. No support for COLLATE subclauses in the ORDER BY clause of an Entity SQL query.
    Entity SQL enables a COLLATE subclause to be specified as part of each key in an ORDER BY clause. The COLLATE subclause is applicable only for string-valued expressions, and determines the comparison semantics to use for that expression.
    This release of SQL Server Compact Edition, when it is used with the ADO.NET Entity Framework, does not support the use of a COLLATE subclause in the ORDER BY clause of an Entity SQL query. The following query will not be supported:
    SELECT value c
    FROM NW.Customers AS c
    ORDER BY c.Name COLLATE Traditional_Spanish_ci_ai
  5. Unlike SQL Server, SQL Server Compact Edition does not support modulo operations (denoted by %) on real, float, money and numeric data types. In SQL Server Compact Edition, the following queries cause an error message: 
    Entitiy SQL: ( CAST ( 1 AS Edm.Int16) % CAST ( 1 AS Edm.Decimal) ) 

T-SQL: SELECT cast (1 as smallint) %cast (1 as decimal(28,4))
    You will see the following error message:

    Modulo is not supported on real, float, money, and numeric data types. [ Data type = numeric ]
  6. DISTINCT in aggregates (max, min, sum, count) is not supported in the 3.5 version of SQL Server Compact Edition. Entity SQL and T-SQL queries will cause a "not supported" exception. An example of the Entity SQL query follows.
    SELECT count(distinct [TaskId]) FROM ArubaContainer.TaskSet AS [Task]
  7. No support for command time-outs.
    The ADO.NET Entity Framework enables time-outs for commands to be specified by using the ObjectContext.QueryTimeout property or the EntityCommand.CommandTimeout property.
    This release of SQL Server Compact Edition, when it is used with the ADO.NET Entity Framework, does not support time-outs. That is, the command time-out must not be set to a value other than zero. If a connection time-out property is set, a NotSupportedException(“CommandTimeout”) exception is raised by the SQL Server Compact Edition database.
  8. Supports only Unicode strings.
    The ADO.NET Entity Framework provides support for both Unicode and non-Unicode strings. This release of SQL Server Compact Edition supports only Unicode strings. Literal <literal> of type 'String' is not supported by the current provider. The 'near constant literal’ exception is raised by SQL Server Compact Edition in non-Unicode strings.
  9. Limited support for Language Integrated Query.
    The ADO.NET Entity Framework supports the Language Integrated Query. This release of SQL Server Compact Edition when it is used with the ADO.NET Entity Framework has limited support for Language Integrated Query. The release has been tested for the Entity SQL queries
  10. Time-out in transaction scope.
    If the queries in a transaction scope take too long to finish and the transaction scope times out, the data might get committed to the database. To avoid such a situation, increase the time-out value.
  11. SQL Server Compact Edition crashes when ESCAPE NULL is used in a query.
    SQL Server Compact Edition stops responding when an index is created on the column specified in the WHERE clause and NULL is used in the ESCAPE clause. If there is no index on the column specified in the WHERE clause, then specifying ESCAPE NULL in the query causes no problem.
  12. Side-by-side limitation in using SQL Server Compact Edition 3.1 and SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5.
    SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 is supported side-by-side on desktop computers and devices that run SQL Server Compact Edition 3.1. The behavior of side-by-side execution differs for desktop computers and devices:
    Desktop computers - SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 applications can run at the same time as SQL Server Compact Edition 3.1 applications. The same application thread cannot access both SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 and SSCE 3.1 libraries.
  13. SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 .msi files when uninstalling "Orcas" CTP and "Orcas" Beta 1
    SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 .msi files are not removed when you uninstall the Visual Studio (code name "Orcas") CTP. The SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 .msi files should be manually uninstalled from the Control Panel, using Add or Remove Programs. For more information about the SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 .msi files, see the     Introduction section of this ReadMe.
    If SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 .msi files are not manually removed after uninstalling “Orcas” CTP, the latest version of SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 .msi files will not be installed with “Orcas” Beta.
    However, if “Orcas” Beta is uninstalled, all SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 .msi files will also be uninstalled. This can create problems if two “Orcas” editions are installed side-by-side on the same computer. For example, if “Orcas” standard and "Orcas" Visual C# Express are installed side-by-side and “Orcas” standard is uninstalled, it will remove all the SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 .msi files. As a result, “Orcas” C# Express will not function correctly.
    To address this problem, run “Orcas” in repair mode to reinstall the SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 .msi files.

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6.0 Additional Information