Best .NET3.5 based strategy for creating disconnected db application

Question

My requirements are:

Relatively small database: 25-30 tables with 4-5k rows in each.

4-5 users with their own copies of local database on their laptops. Sync when needed or at the end of the day.

Free solution, as am making this setup for a NFP ogranization.

I have been researching various options in last few days. At last I was thinking of narrowing to Datasets, while serializing them to XML, but it seems that it is not a good idea afterall (answers to my previous questions suggested that strongly.)

So my question now is what approach (database and the access tech.) should I take? I would like to use c# and an easy to use technology to access my database and sync it at the end of the day.

According to this link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8fxztkff.aspx, MS suggests two different approaches. I am surprised to see that they have not mentioned LINQ here.

So group, what path do you recommend?

Thanks a lot for reading.

Answer 1

Add -> New -> "Local Database Cache". This should provide all the sync you need (via ADO.NET Sync Framework), running (IIRC) by SQL CE by default, which is (I believe) free.

Answer 2

Have a look at the Microsoft Sync Framework.

Introducing the Microsoft Sync Framework – a comprehensive synchronization platform enabling collaboration and offline for applications, services and devices with support for any data type, any data store, any transfer protocol, and network topology.