Iridium

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Iridium?

Iridium is a ORM (Object Relational Mapper) for .NET. It allows applications to access relational and non-relational database in an object-oriented fashion where tables are mapped to classes and records in related tables are mapped to object relations

Is Iridium only intended for use in mobile apps?

Absolutely not. Iridium is a full-featured database access library that works great on servers and in .NET desktop applications. In fact, in many instances, Iridium is used in shared libraries that are shred between a mobile app and server-side applications.

Does Iridium support my SQL database of choice?

It most probably does. Iridium drivers are provided for Microsoft SQL Server, MySql, PostgresSQL and of course Sqlite.

Where can I find documentation?

Full documentation can be found on the Iridium docs website: http://iridiumdb.com/docs/iridium

How is Iridium different from SQLite.NET?

SQLite.NET is a very thin layer on top of SQLite and is missing most of the core ORM features like relations and full LINQ support. Another important difference is that Iridium supports multiple database types and can be used in any application type with any database backend, all using the same code.

How is Iridium different from Entity Framework Core?

Entity Framework Core is advertised as "lightweight" but they must have a different kind of gravity in Redmond. The Entity Framework libraries and its dependencies are huge and add a lot weight to an app. Iridium is less than half of the size and offers most of the core features.

Binary size Size added
Minimal iOS app 4.5 MB -
Minimal iOS app + Iridium 13.4 MB +8.9 MB
Minimal iOS app + EF 23.6 MB +19.2 MB

Adding Iridium DB to an existing app adds less than 9MB to the app size, less than half of Entity Framework Core.

Can Iridium be used in commercial applications?

Yes. Iridium is open source and licensed under the MIT License. Attribution is not required but is appreciated.

How can I contribute?

Iridium is hosted on GitHub so all you need to do is fork the GitHub project and create a pull request with your contribution. If you're interested in contributing to documentation, please send an e-mail to support@iridiumdb.com .

What is Iridium Script?

Iridium Script is a separate open source library for expression parsing and scripting. More information can be found on the documentation page for Iridium Script.

What is Iridium Core?

Iridium Core is a library containing several low-level components such as a dependency injection container, a generic caching class, reflection extensions and a JSON parser / serializer. The library is a dependency for both Iridium and Iridium Script.

This site was built with the Iridium Web Framework and SASS and uses Iridium DB to connect to a SQL Server database (Amazon RDS).