Express trial

I'm trying out the Express Trial with VS Studio 2008 and Sqlite3 1) I'm finding that System.Data.Sqlite is not found. Is there a way to fix this ? 2) Also when messing around with the data providers while working with the designer I don't get a SQLite provider. Am I suppose to ? If not, does any of the other products like professional provide that ? thanks

1. Could you clarify whether this is at design time or runtime?  If at runtime then you may need to reference System.Data.SQLite so that it gets copied to your app directory.  You can find it under Providers / SQLite3 in the LightSpeed install directory.  If you wish to use a different version of SQLite then you may need to set up a binding redirect -- let us know if this is the case.

2. LightSpeed doesn't include or install the VS integration components for any database -- we include only the runtime components.  If you visit the SQLite for .NET site (http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/) and run their installer it will give you the option of VS integration.  Select VS2008 integration and you should be good to go.

The only difference between Express and Professional is that Express limits the number of runtime tables to 8.  Otherwise, all Professional features are included in Express.

Design time

Could you clarify what http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/ does please. The seem to be one of your competitors, or perhaps you work with them. thanks

No, they are not a competitor.  They produce an open-source SQLite implementation for .NET (an ADO.NET provider for SQLite), and this is the SQLite implementation that LightSpeed uses for talking to SQLite databases.  The two products operate at different levels -- LightSpeed's competitors are things like the Entity Framework, which also sits over database providers such as System.Data.SQLite.

Regarding your designer issue with SQLite, can you tell us more precisely what you are doing and what error you are seeing?  Thanks!

Ok, I installed the SQLite 1.0.63. I do get some design time stuff in the Server Explorer and in the Toolbox under SQLite. I'm still a bit confused (sorry) on what it takes to get intellisense to give me System.Data.SQLite. I can get it when I drop a SQLiteConnection object on the form. But I many not want a design time connection object there. I've tried linking in the paths to the System... SQLite.dll folder and such.. Doesn't seem to work. I've even dropped the dll and lib into the working directory and path, which would normally work. What am I missing here ? thanks

It sounds like you're talking about dropping a SQLiteConnection onto a Windows Form or Web Form.  Is that correct?  If so, LightSpeed isn't involved: you're using the SQLite ADO.NET interfaces directly.  So in that case you're better off posting this query on the SQLite forums.

If you are using LightSpeed then you do not need to create a SQLiteConnection at all.  LightSpeed will create connections for you at runtime based on the LightSpeedContext.ConnectionString and the LightSpeedContext.DataProvider.  At design time you should be able to drag tables from your SQLite database in Server Explorer onto the LightSpeed design surface: but this is not creating a design-time connection object, it's just a way of creating your domain model.