Microsoft Sync 2.1 with CE 4.0 - Can localDB be the replacement?

Question

Hello
We are working on WPF desktop with CE 4.0 as the local client db and tried to use Synch 2.1 for synching the db to the server but we are issues. After research, we found that CE 4.0 doesn't support Sycn 2.1 which is not a good thing. I have come across few
work arounds and like to hear the thoughts.
Can we use local db which is currently out there for developers only and roll out? Anybody out there used LocalDB for clients and sync purposes?
Any other options>
Vijai

Answer 1

Hi,
Your understanding is correct. Compact 4.0 does not support data replication with SQL Server using Sync Framework, merge replication or remote data access (RDA). 
Alternatively, we can use SQL Express LocalDB for synchronization. LocalDB uses the same sqlservr.exe as the regular SQL Express and other editions of SQL Server. It supports ADO.NET Sync Framework and more features compared with SQL Server
Compact.
Erik has generalized an excellent table to compare features. See his article
here.
In addition, there are significant differences between LocalDB and SQL Server Compact:
1. Execution mode: SQL Server Compact is an in-proc DLL, while LocalDB runs as a separate process.
2. Disk usage: all SQL Server Compact binaries amount to some 4MBs, while LocalDB installation takes 140MBs.
3. Features: SQL Server Compact offers core RDBMS functionality like querying, while LocalDB provides a much richer set of features, including Stored Procedures, Geometry and Geography data types, etc.
Administration permission is required to install LocalDB.
For your reference:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlexpress/archive/2011/07/12/introducing-localdb-a-better-sql-express.aspx
Thanks.
Tracy Cai
TechNet Community Support