Can't Open .sdf DB On Emulator (Pocket PC)

Hi,

I'm a developer of VB.NET mobile applications at work. We have used Access in the past, and manually pushed flat files to and from the scanner. We are now exploring SQL CE.

Trouble is, I am having a difficult time figuring out how to open SQL CE databases on the Pocket PC emulator. I've worked more on the middleware programs in the past - and have just dealt with ADO.NET connection strings - not the actual development on the scanner itself.

I am try to figure out how to actually connect to SQL Server CE on the Pocket PC 2003 SE emulator.

When I deploy the application on the emulator, it installs SQL Server CE onto the emulator. However, I'm not sure how to install the sample database (starting off with Northwind.sdf for testing purposes) onto the emulator. I'm also not positive the connection string is correct - as it seems to be different than typical ADO.NET.

Here's my code (for connecting to the database) so far.





Code Snippet

Public Class SampleInventorySystem

Private _conn As SqlCeConnection
Public Sub New()

' This call is required by the Windows Form Designer.
InitializeComponent()


_conn = New SqlCeConnection("Data Source = .Northwind.sdf") 'This is one of 'many connection strings I've tried



End Sub
Private Sub SampleInventorySystem_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load


Dim cmd As New SqlCeCommand()


cmd.Connection = _conn
cmd.CommandText = "SELECT [Employee ID], [Last Name], [First Name], Photo FROM Employees"




Try


_conn.Open()
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show("Error opening database", "Error")
End Try

End Sub

End Class
When I deploy the application, the Try Catch block catches the error "Error Opening Database". I've also tried putting the full path for the connection string. Is there a folder which I should directly put the .sdf file into the emulator - similar to the folder directory of the scanner? (i.e. Storage Card/...)

Thanks for your help!