Cross platform datastore for storing application data?

Question

Our application currently stores bunch of configuraton & application specific data to files on disk. Configuration data is stored in a single .ini file where as application data is distributed across multiple files. The application has grown now and data manipulation using files is becoming a nightmare. We would like to make a switch to database now. We have the following requirements/questions.

1. Is there a platform agnostic low footprint database solution much like files but let you issue sql queries? We do not want to go with enterprise class database solutions like MySQL or MSSQL or Oracle since the application does not have huge amounts of data to store.
2. We would like to bundle this database with our application but do not want to invest a great deal of effort in bundling/installing drivers and managing this database.
3. We are also looking for an abstraction library for this database for applications to easily access them.

Is there a solution out there that satisfies the above requirements using C++ targeting Windows and *nix platforms?

Answer 1

SQLite is a perfect match for what you want (you don't specify your programming language, but SQLite has bindings to many common languages).

Answer 2

I sounds like you're describing XML. It may be a match for the requirements you have.

Have a look at these resources:

• W3Schools XML Tutorial
• XML Wikipedia page
• XML.com