This topic will give you some start information about db4o and will help you to get your environment ready to work with db4o.
The db4o .NET distribution comes as one MSI installer file,db4o-x.x-net.msi. You can also choose to download db4o-x.x-net.zip archive. In this case you will have to extract the contents to any folder before starting to use db4o.
db4o-X.X/doc/reference
contains reference documentation, which you are reading.
In addition to it you will find the following docs in your distribution:
db4o-X.X/doc/tutorial/db4o-tutorial.exe
This is the interactive "formula-1" tutorial application for .NET. Examples can be run "live" against a db4o database from within the application. It is recommended to take a first quick "drive" with "formula-1" before studying other db4o documents.
db4o-X.X/doc/tutorial/db4o-X.X-tutorial.pdf
The PDF version of the tutorial allows best fulltext search capabilities.
db4o-X.X/doc/api/db4o.chm
The API documentation for db4o is supplied as a compiled Help file. While you read through the rest of this documentation, it may be helpful to look into the API documentation occasionaly.
Additional online resources are available here: http://developer.db4o.com/Resources
The db4o object database engine for .NET platforms consists of one single DLL. This is all that you need to program against.
db4o is available in two separate distributions for Microsoft .NET. One distribution is for the .NET Framework 1.1 and the other is for the .NET Framework 2.0. Be sure to use the correct one for your project environment.
/db4o-X.X/bin/net[-2.0]/Db4objects.Db4o.dll
is the standard db4o engine for the .NET framework.
/db4o-X.X/bin/compact[-2.0]/Db4objects.Db4o.dll
is built for the .NET CompactFramework.
Since version 6.0 you will also see legacy libraries in the distribution. These are provided for users, which are not ready yet to upgrade their applications for the new db4o syntax.
To use db4o in a development project, you only need to add one of the above db4o.dll files to your project references.
Here is how to do this with Visual Studio .NET:
To use db4o in a development project, you only need to add Db4objects.Db4o.dll file to your project references.
Here is how to do this if you are using MonoDevelop: