SQL Server Compact Code Snippet of the Week #11 : detect if SQL Server Compact is available

It can sometimes by useful to find out if SQL Server Compact is available on a system, for example in installers and if your application supports several database products. This week’s code snippet allows you to detect if the ADO.NET Provider is available and properly installed (it does not detect if the unmanaged DLL files are present). The code detects both if the AD.NET Provider is present, and if the DbProvider interface is properly registered (either in machine.config or in a local config file)

public bool IsV40Installed()
{
    try
    {
        System.Reflection.Assembly.Load("System.Data.SqlServerCe, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91");
    }
    catch (System.IO.FileNotFoundException)
    {
        return false;
    }
    try
    {
        var factory = System.Data.Common.DbProviderFactories.GetFactory("System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0");
    }
    catch (System.Configuration.ConfigurationException)
    {
        return false;
    }
    catch (System.ArgumentException)
    {
        return false;
    }
    return true;
}

Replace Version=4.0.0.0 with Version=3.5.1.0 and use System.Data.SqlServerCe.3.5 for the DbProvider invariant name for SQL Server Compact 3.5