I'm very new to SQL and made a small program where a user can input some data, click submit and the data is then stored in a table in the database.
I know want to move the application onto a friends computer, which i'm assuming has no SQL software installed, what would be the easiest way to do this, when obviously the connection string is unique to my computer and the database is stored on my computer.
You will have to install SQL Server on their machine first and foremost. Once this is done, you can obtain a relevant connection string. Note, for the 'Server name' part of the connection string, if you are using SQL Express, instead of using 'localhost', or the name of the server instance (i.e. 'MyMachine'), you would use 'localhost\SQLEXPRESS'/'MyMachine\SQLEXPRESS'.
After setting up the SQL Server instance on the new machine, to copy the required database, first detach the database to avoid any corruption. Now you are free to merely copy the file from your machine to theirs and go through the usual attachment process using SQL Server Management Studio (SQLMS).
I hope this helps.
You can use SQL CE or other file databases. On this way you need to install SQL CE(you can include SQl CE installer into your program installer) on target computer and after that you can easy copy db-file from you computer to target computer.
Also, you can use relative path to db-file from your exe file instead of fixed connection string:
string dbDirPath=Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory,"DB" );
private const string CONN_STR_TEMPLATE = "Data Source={0};Persist Security Info=False;";
string dbFilePath = Path.Combine(dbDirPath, "my.sdf");
_connStr =String.Format(CONN_STR_TEMPLATE,dbFilePath);
You cannot simply copy your database since SQL Server database is NOT a standalone database as SQL Compact edition/MS Access. You may configure your router to remote access SQL Server instance over the Internet by forwarding the port
