SQL Data Access in Windows 8 HTML5/Javascript Desktop Development

Question

Hi exalted sages of the development world,

I humbly come before thee with a noob question. I'm actually pretty excited about Windows 8 Metro HTML5/Javascript development, but I haven't dived in to it yet. One initial question that immediately came up that Google has failed me on so far is how do I do local data access with metro HTML apps? I understand that I can use some of the new HTML5 local storage features, but what do I do say if I want to have an application that writes/receives data to say a SQL CE database on the local machine as opposed to a remote one? Is there some kind of programmable built in object that I can access with Javascript to do data manipulation with that would take the traditional place of a web server?

Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

There is no client for SQL access in WinRT. To access such databases, you have to create a web service and call it (similarly to Silverlight). WCF RIA Services are supported for this.

To store and retrieve data locally, there is JET API. HTML and JavaScript apps support IndexedDB. All these options read and write data to the app’s isolated storage; they do not enable free access to the file system.

Taken from http://www.itwriting.com/blog/4874-data-access-in-windows-8-winrt.html