Extracting a SQL CE DB from Isolated Storage in WP7 Mango.

Introduction By now, most of you have heard that Windows Phone 7 – Mango release will support Local Databases (SQL CE) using Linq to SQL. But what you probably haven’t heard much about is how to extract the .SDF that is created in isolated storage to your local computer and view the contents. I find this extremely important for debugging application and making sure my database is setup exactly like I want it. So, that is what we are going to do today. Getting Started with a sample application: For this tutorial, we will need a sample application that uses a local database. If you are already using a local database (SQL CE) in your mango application then you can skip this section otherwise go ahead and download the “Local Database Sample” from MSDN. Below is an excerpt from the MSDN Page On Windows Phone OS 7.1, you can use LINQ to SQL to store relational data in a local database that resides in your application’s isolated storage container. This sample is a to-do list application that uses a multi-table local database. Items that appear in the list are added, updated, and deleted from a local database, where they will persist between application launches. For step-by-step information about how to develop this application, see How to: Create a Local Database Application with MVVM for Windows Phone.