Question

I’ve got a Windows 8 store app where I’ve created an “App_Data” folder. I added an sqlite database file and now I’m trying to get the file path to create a connection.

Answer 1

I added my existing sqlite file to the project’s Common folder and I set the Build Action to Content. You cannot write to this file, so you need to copy it to the application’s local storage folder. I created a StorageManagement class to initialized my database when the application starts up.

    public static class StorageManagement
    {
        public static async Task<bool> DoesFileExistAsync(string file)
        {
            try
            {
                await Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder.GetFileAsync(file);
                return true;
            }
            catch
            {
                return false;
            }
        }

        public static async void InitializeDatabaseAsync()
        {
            if (!DoesFileExistAsync("MyDb.sqlite").Result)
            {
                string databaseFile = Path.Combine(Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.Current.InstalledLocation.Path, @"Common\MyDb.sqlite");
                StorageFile file = await StorageFile.GetFileFromPathAsync(databaseFile);
                await file.CopyAsync(Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder);
            }
        }
    }

If the database file isn’t already in the local storage folder, only then will it copy the file from the common folder. I can then create my sqlite connection using the file in the local storage.