Can I use one .mdf file in multiple projects?

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I have a project PROJECT_A which contains mdf file database. In the solution of this project I added one new project - PROJECT_B.

My question is:Can I use .mdf file from PROJECT_A in PROJECT_B?

What I have tried:

tried google but not getting solution

Posted 23-Jul-19 1:27am

Member 14519466

Updated 24-Jul-19 10:04am

v2

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OriginalGriff · Answer 1 · 2019-07-23T03:00:00

Solution 2

Yes.
But ... since different projects within the same solution can generate different executables (they always generate different assemblies) it may be that these two will be accessing the DB at the same time. If that is the case, I'd strongly suggest using SQL Server or MySQL instead of directly accessing the MDF file. While you can do it, it's always given me some difficult and intermittent problems - a server based DB system is designed for that kind of thing.

Posted 23-Jul-19 3:00am

OriginalGriff

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Member 14519466 23-Jul-19 9:02am

Hello OriginalGriff,

My client wants service database(.mdf). So I can not use SQL Server.

TheRealSteveJudge 23-Jul-19 9:15am

You seem to have understood the question and gave a good advice. 5*

Member 14519466 23-Jul-19 9:29am

okay

TheRealSteveJudge · Answer 2 · 2019-07-23T01:55:00

Solution 1

Maybe you did not enter the right search criteria.

I entered "mdf file open multiple applications"
and found
How to use same .mdf file among multiple applications ?[^]

Posted 23-Jul-19 1:55am

TheRealSteveJudge

Updated 23-Jul-19 1:58am

v2

Comments

Member 14519466 23-Jul-19 8:14am

Hello Steve,

Maybe you did not enter the right search criteria also.
It is not my solution that i am looking for

TheRealSteveJudge 23-Jul-19 8:35am

Hi,
then I would like to apologise.
Your problem looked to me very similar to the one described in the link.
Best regards,
Stephan

Member 14519466 23-Jul-19 8:40am

Oh, It's Okay Stephan don't mind!

#realJSOP · Answer 3 · 2019-07-23T03:44:00

Solution 3

Yes. If more than one of the apps will be writing to the database, simply add a TIMESTAMP column to the affected table(s) to help mitigate the possiblility of contention between apps.

Posted 23-Jul-19 3:44am

#realJSOP

Benktesh Sharma · Answer 4 · 2019-07-24T10:05:00

Solution 4

It is possible, and yes you can do that. .mdb is simply a file. And access engine (assuming it to access db) will tell if a connection cannot be made (due to too many users) and therefore manages the concurrency. I have interacted with .mdb file on a multithreading environment where two processes can use the same file. In that scenario, I was checking if the file is open, then use the opened instance which will be slightly different in your case if the project A and project B are in different machines and then you are dealing with network shared resource and there could be connectivity related issues.

Posted 24-Jul-19 10:05am

Benktesh Sharma

Comments

Member 14519466 24-Jul-19 23:22pm

Porject A and Project B are in same machine

Benktesh Sharma 25-Jul-19 10:31am

That is even easier. Another suggestion is to make a third project (a dll) that only does the database reading and writing and refer to that dll from both projects. This way you can scale the mdb to something else and individual projects won't need to worry about the data access. Lets say the dll has class ProcessData with member functions to do read/write. Then both project can refer to the dll and file read/write can be handled at one place.