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LiteDB .NET (How It Works For Developers)

Updated:July 28, 2025

LiteDB is a simple, fast, and lightweight embedded .NET document database. LiteDB .NET was inspired by the MongoDB database and its API is very similar to MongoDB’s official .NET API. LiteDB is a serverless database that works well for small projects and mobile applications.

This article will provide you with accurate instructions on utilizing the capabilities of LiteDB in your projects. We also introduce the use of IronPDF, a .NET library made by Iron Software, for generating and manipulating PDFs and how you can employ it to output a LiteDB database contents as a PDF for viewing and sharing.

Key Features of LiteDB

Embedded Database: No need for a separate server. LiteDB runs within your application's process.
Single Data File: You can store in a single file database, all of your data, simplifying deployment and backup.
BSON Format: Uses BSON format for storage, ensuring fast read and write operations.
LINQ Support: Fully supports LINQ for querying, making it intuitive for .NET developers.
ACID Transactions: Ensures data integrity with support for ACID transactions.
Cross-Platform: Works on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Setting Up LiteDB in .NET Projects

Open your project in Visual Studio. Then, in the Solution Explorer, right-click on your project and choose "Manage NuGet Packages." Search for LiteDB and install it to incorporate this database solution into your project effortlessly.

Alternatively, you can install it by using Package Manager Console. To install LiteDB in the NuGet Package Manager Console, use the following command:

Install-Package LiteDB

Getting Started with LiteDB

Once installed, you can start using LiteDB in your application. Let's go through some examples to illustrate its usage.

Example 1: Creating and Inserting Data

First, let's create a simple Product class to represent our data:

public class Product
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public decimal Price { get; set; }
}

public class Product
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public decimal Price { get; set; }
}

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

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Next, we'll create a database and insert some products:

using LiteDB;
using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Open the database (or create it if it doesn't exist)
        using (var db = new LiteDatabase(@"MyData.db"))
        {
            // Get a collection (or create, if it doesn't exist)
            var products = db.GetCollection<Product>("products");

            // Create a list of products to insert into the database
            var productList = new[]
            {
                new Product { Id = 201, Name = "Apple", Price = 0.99m },
                new Product { Id = 202, Name = "Banana", Price = 0.59m },
                new Product { Id = 203, Name = "Orange", Price = 0.79m },
                new Product { Id = 204, Name = "Grape", Price = 2.99m },
                new Product { Id = 205, Name = "Watermelon", Price = 4.99m }
            };

            // Insert each product into the collection
            foreach (var product in productList)
            {
                products.Insert(product);
            }

            Console.WriteLine("Product inserted successfully.");
        }
    }
}

using LiteDB;
using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Open the database (or create it if it doesn't exist)
        using (var db = new LiteDatabase(@"MyData.db"))
        {
            // Get a collection (or create, if it doesn't exist)
            var products = db.GetCollection<Product>("products");

            // Create a list of products to insert into the database
            var productList = new[]
            {
                new Product { Id = 201, Name = "Apple", Price = 0.99m },
                new Product { Id = 202, Name = "Banana", Price = 0.59m },
                new Product { Id = 203, Name = "Orange", Price = 0.79m },
                new Product { Id = 204, Name = "Grape", Price = 2.99m },
                new Product { Id = 205, Name = "Watermelon", Price = 4.99m }
            };

            // Insert each product into the collection
            foreach (var product in productList)
            {
                products.Insert(product);
            }

            Console.WriteLine("Product inserted successfully.");
        }
    }
}

Imports LiteDB
Imports System

Friend Class Program
	Shared Sub Main()
		' Open the database (or create it if it doesn't exist)
		Using db = New LiteDatabase("MyData.db")
			' Get a collection (or create, if it doesn't exist)
			Dim products = db.GetCollection(Of Product)("products")

			' Create a list of products to insert into the database
			Dim productList = {
				New Product With {
					.Id = 201,
					.Name = "Apple",
					.Price = 0.99D
				},
				New Product With {
					.Id = 202,
					.Name = "Banana",
					.Price = 0.59D
				},
				New Product With {
					.Id = 203,
					.Name = "Orange",
					.Price = 0.79D
				},
				New Product With {
					.Id = 204,
					.Name = "Grape",
					.Price = 2.99D
				},
				New Product With {
					.Id = 205,
					.Name = "Watermelon",
					.Price = 4.99D
				}
			}

			' Insert each product into the collection
			For Each product In productList
				products.Insert(product)
			Next product

			Console.WriteLine("Product inserted successfully.")
		End Using
	End Sub
End Class

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Code Description

The code initializes a connection to a LiteDB database named "MyData.db" and retrieves a collection called "products." It then creates an array of Product objects with various properties, such as ID, Name, and Price. Each product in the array is inserted into the "products" collection within the database. After successfully inserting all products, it prints a confirmation message to the console.

Output is as:

LiteDB .NET (How It Works For Developers): Figure 1 - Console output from the previous code

Example: Streamlining User Data Management

Imagine you're developing a mobile application that manages user accounts. Each user has a profile containing their name, email address, preferences (stored as a JSON object), and a list of favorite items. Here's how LiteDb.NET can simplify your data storage:

This code defines a User class to represent user data and a UserManager class to manage user operations in a LiteDb.NET database

using LiteDB;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class User
{
    [BsonId]
    public string Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Email { get; set; }
    public Dictionary<string, string> Preferences { get; set; }
    public List<string> FavoriteItems { get; set; }
} 

public class UserManager
{
    private readonly LiteDatabase db;

    public UserManager(string connectionString)
    {
       db = new LiteDatabase(connectionString);
    }

    public void SaveUser(User user)
    {
        var collection = db.GetCollection<User>("users");
        collection.Insert(user);
    }

    public User GetUser(string userId)
    {
        var collection = db.GetCollection<User>("users");
        return collection.FindById(userId);
    }

    public void UpdateUser(User user)
    {
        var collection = db.GetCollection<User>("users");
        collection.Update(user);
    }

    public void DeleteUser(string userId)
    {
        var collection = db.GetCollection<User>("users");
        collection.Delete(userId);
    }
}

using LiteDB;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class User
{
    [BsonId]
    public string Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Email { get; set; }
    public Dictionary<string, string> Preferences { get; set; }
    public List<string> FavoriteItems { get; set; }
} 

public class UserManager
{
    private readonly LiteDatabase db;

    public UserManager(string connectionString)
    {
       db = new LiteDatabase(connectionString);
    }

    public void SaveUser(User user)
    {
        var collection = db.GetCollection<User>("users");
        collection.Insert(user);
    }

    public User GetUser(string userId)
    {
        var collection = db.GetCollection<User>("users");
        return collection.FindById(userId);
    }

    public void UpdateUser(User user)
    {
        var collection = db.GetCollection<User>("users");
        collection.Update(user);
    }

    public void DeleteUser(string userId)
    {
        var collection = db.GetCollection<User>("users");
        collection.Delete(userId);
    }
}

Imports LiteDB
Imports System.Collections.Generic

Public Class User
	<BsonId>
	Public Property Id() As String
	Public Property Name() As String
	Public Property Email() As String
	Public Property Preferences() As Dictionary(Of String, String)
	Public Property FavoriteItems() As List(Of String)
End Class

Public Class UserManager
	Private ReadOnly db As LiteDatabase

	Public Sub New(ByVal connectionString As String)
	   db = New LiteDatabase(connectionString)
	End Sub

	Public Sub SaveUser(ByVal user As User)
		Dim collection = db.GetCollection(Of User)("users")
		collection.Insert(user)
	End Sub

	Public Function GetUser(ByVal userId As String) As User
		Dim collection = db.GetCollection(Of User)("users")
		Return collection.FindById(userId)
	End Function

	Public Sub UpdateUser(ByVal user As User)
		Dim collection = db.GetCollection(Of User)("users")
		collection.Update(user)
	End Sub

	Public Sub DeleteUser(ByVal userId As String)
		Dim collection = db.GetCollection(Of User)("users")
		collection.Delete(userId)
	End Sub
End Class

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This implementation effectively leverages LiteDb.NET's capabilities for user data management. The User class stores user information, while the UserManager class provides methods to save, retrieve, update, and delete users within the database.

LiteDB, embedded NoSQL database for .NET

LiteDB is perfect for small to medium-sized applications without user concurrency needs. For instance, it's great for a personal console app where you want to store data simply and swiftly. Developed solely in C#, it's lightweight, takes up less than 450KB, and doesn't rely on external dependencies.

Some more points, which are listed on their GitHub page:

Serverless NoSQL Document Store
Simple API, similar to MongoDB
Thread-safe
Written entirely in C#, LiteDB is compatible with .NET 4.5, NETStandard 1.3/2.0, packaged into a single DLL file that occupies less than 450KB.
ACID with full transaction support
Data recovery after write failure (WAL log file)
Datafile encryption using AES cryptography
You can easily map your Plain Old CLR Objects (POCO) classes to BsonDocument using either attributes or the fluent mapper API provided by LiteDB.
Store files and stream data (like GridFS in MongoDB)
Single data file storage (like SQLite)
Index document fields for fast search
LINQ support for queries
SQL-Like commands to access/transform data
LiteDB Studio – Nice UI for data access
Open source and free for everyone – including commercial use

Introduction to IronPDF: A C# PDF Library

LiteDB .NET (How It Works For Developers): Figure 2 - IronPDF webpage

IronPDF, a premier C# PDF library, facilitates seamless creation, editing, and manipulation of PDFs in .NET projects. It offers a comprehensive API for tasks like HTML to PDF conversion, dynamic PDF generation, and data extraction. Utilizing a .NET Chromium engine ensures accurate rendering of HTML into PDF files, catering to diverse project needs across .NET Core, .NET Standard, and .NET Framework. IronPDF guarantees precision, simplicity, and efficiency in PDF generation from HTML content with support for web, desktop, and console applications.

Installing IronPDF Library

To initiate IronPDF in your project, install the library via the NuGet Package Manager within Visual Studio. Then simply follow these straightforward steps:

Open Visual Studio and navigate to Solution Explorer.
Right-click on Dependencies and select the "Manage NuGet Packages" option.
Choose the "Browse" tab and search for "IronPdf."
Select IronPDF and click "Install."

Alternatively, within Visual Studio, you can utilize the Package Manager Console to install the library by executing the following command:

Install-Package IronPdf

Example Usage of IronPDF with LiteDB

Here's a straightforward code example illustrating the usage of IronPDF to generate a PDF from HTML content, employing the 'using' statement to ensure proper resource disposal. Here we combine the functionality of LiteDB and IronPDF by showing how you can output the data within a LiteDB as a PDF for viewing purposes:

using LiteDB;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using IronPdf;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        using (var db = new LiteDatabase(@"MyData.db"))
        {
            // Retrieve the 'products' collection or create it
            var products = db.GetCollection<Product>("products");

            // Add some initial products to the collection
            var productList = new[]
            {
                new Product { Id = 101, Name = "Apple", Price = 0.99m },
                new Product { Id = 102, Name = "Banana", Price = 0.59m },
                new Product { Id = 103, Name = "Orange", Price = 0.79m },
                new Product { Id = 104, Name = "Grape", Price = 2.99m },
                new Product { Id = 105, Name = "Watermelon", Price = 4.99m }
            };

            // Insert products into the LiteDB collection
            foreach (var product in productList)
            {
                products.Insert(product);
            }

            Console.WriteLine("Product inserted successfully.");

            // Fetch all products from the database
            var allProducts = GetAllProducts(db);

            // Generate HTML content from the product list
            string htmlContent = GenerateHtml(allProducts);

            // Generate the PDF from the HTML content
            GeneratePDF(htmlContent);

            Console.WriteLine("PDF generated successfully.");
        }
    }

    public static List<Product> GetAllProducts(LiteDatabase db)
    {
        var products = db.GetCollection<Product>("products");
        return products.FindAll().ToList();
    }

    public static void GeneratePDF(string data)
    {
        // Set your IronPDF license key here
        IronPdf.License.LicenseKey = "Your-License-Key";
        Console.WriteLine("PDF Generating Started...");

        // Create a PDF renderer
        var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
        Console.WriteLine("PDF Processing ....");

        // Render the HTML as a PDF
        var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(data);

        // Save the PDF to a file
        string filePath = "Data.pdf";
        pdf.SaveAs(filePath);

        Console.WriteLine($"PDF Generation Completed, File Saved as {filePath}");
    }

    public static string GenerateHtml(List<Product> products)
    {
        // Build HTML table from product list
        StringBuilder htmlBuilder = new StringBuilder();
        htmlBuilder.Append("<html><head><style>table { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; } th, td { border: 1px solid black; padding: 8px; text-align: left; }</style></head><body>");
        htmlBuilder.Append("<h1>Product List</h1>");
        htmlBuilder.Append("<table><tr><th>ID</th><th>Name</th><th>Price</th></tr>");

        // Add each product row to the HTML table
        foreach (var product in products)
        {
            htmlBuilder.Append($"<tr><td>{product.Id}</td><td>{product.Name}</td><td>{product.Price:C}</td></tr>");
        }

        htmlBuilder.Append("</table></body></html>");
        return htmlBuilder.ToString();
    }
}

using LiteDB;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using IronPdf;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        using (var db = new LiteDatabase(@"MyData.db"))
        {
            // Retrieve the 'products' collection or create it
            var products = db.GetCollection<Product>("products");

            // Add some initial products to the collection
            var productList = new[]
            {
                new Product { Id = 101, Name = "Apple", Price = 0.99m },
                new Product { Id = 102, Name = "Banana", Price = 0.59m },
                new Product { Id = 103, Name = "Orange", Price = 0.79m },
                new Product { Id = 104, Name = "Grape", Price = 2.99m },
                new Product { Id = 105, Name = "Watermelon", Price = 4.99m }
            };

            // Insert products into the LiteDB collection
            foreach (var product in productList)
            {
                products.Insert(product);
            }

            Console.WriteLine("Product inserted successfully.");

            // Fetch all products from the database
            var allProducts = GetAllProducts(db);

            // Generate HTML content from the product list
            string htmlContent = GenerateHtml(allProducts);

            // Generate the PDF from the HTML content
            GeneratePDF(htmlContent);

            Console.WriteLine("PDF generated successfully.");
        }
    }

    public static List<Product> GetAllProducts(LiteDatabase db)
    {
        var products = db.GetCollection<Product>("products");
        return products.FindAll().ToList();
    }

    public static void GeneratePDF(string data)
    {
        // Set your IronPDF license key here
        IronPdf.License.LicenseKey = "Your-License-Key";
        Console.WriteLine("PDF Generating Started...");

        // Create a PDF renderer
        var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
        Console.WriteLine("PDF Processing ....");

        // Render the HTML as a PDF
        var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(data);

        // Save the PDF to a file
        string filePath = "Data.pdf";
        pdf.SaveAs(filePath);

        Console.WriteLine($"PDF Generation Completed, File Saved as {filePath}");
    }

    public static string GenerateHtml(List<Product> products)
    {
        // Build HTML table from product list
        StringBuilder htmlBuilder = new StringBuilder();
        htmlBuilder.Append("<html><head><style>table { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; } th, td { border: 1px solid black; padding: 8px; text-align: left; }</style></head><body>");
        htmlBuilder.Append("<h1>Product List</h1>");
        htmlBuilder.Append("<table><tr><th>ID</th><th>Name</th><th>Price</th></tr>");

        // Add each product row to the HTML table
        foreach (var product in products)
        {
            htmlBuilder.Append($"<tr><td>{product.Id}</td><td>{product.Name}</td><td>{product.Price:C}</td></tr>");
        }

        htmlBuilder.Append("</table></body></html>");
        return htmlBuilder.ToString();
    }
}

Imports LiteDB
Imports System
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Text
Imports IronPdf

Friend Class Program
	Shared Sub Main()
		Using db = New LiteDatabase("MyData.db")
			' Retrieve the 'products' collection or create it
			Dim products = db.GetCollection(Of Product)("products")

			' Add some initial products to the collection
			Dim productList = {
				New Product With {
					.Id = 101,
					.Name = "Apple",
					.Price = 0.99D
				},
				New Product With {
					.Id = 102,
					.Name = "Banana",
					.Price = 0.59D
				},
				New Product With {
					.Id = 103,
					.Name = "Orange",
					.Price = 0.79D
				},
				New Product With {
					.Id = 104,
					.Name = "Grape",
					.Price = 2.99D
				},
				New Product With {
					.Id = 105,
					.Name = "Watermelon",
					.Price = 4.99D
				}
			}

			' Insert products into the LiteDB collection
			For Each product In productList
				products.Insert(product)
			Next product

			Console.WriteLine("Product inserted successfully.")

			' Fetch all products from the database
			Dim allProducts = GetAllProducts(db)

			' Generate HTML content from the product list
			Dim htmlContent As String = GenerateHtml(allProducts)

			' Generate the PDF from the HTML content
			GeneratePDF(htmlContent)

			Console.WriteLine("PDF generated successfully.")
		End Using
	End Sub

	Public Shared Function GetAllProducts(ByVal db As LiteDatabase) As List(Of Product)
		Dim products = db.GetCollection(Of Product)("products")
		Return products.FindAll().ToList()
	End Function

	Public Shared Sub GeneratePDF(ByVal data As String)
		' Set your IronPDF license key here
		IronPdf.License.LicenseKey = "Your-License-Key"
		Console.WriteLine("PDF Generating Started...")

		' Create a PDF renderer
		Dim renderer = New ChromePdfRenderer()
		Console.WriteLine("PDF Processing ....")

		' Render the HTML as a PDF
		Dim pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(data)

		' Save the PDF to a file
		Dim filePath As String = "Data.pdf"
		pdf.SaveAs(filePath)

		Console.WriteLine($"PDF Generation Completed, File Saved as {filePath}")
	End Sub

	Public Shared Function GenerateHtml(ByVal products As List(Of Product)) As String
		' Build HTML table from product list
		Dim htmlBuilder As New StringBuilder()
		htmlBuilder.Append("<html><head><style>table { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; } th, td { border: 1px solid black; padding: 8px; text-align: left; }</style></head><body>")
		htmlBuilder.Append("<h1>Product List</h1>")
		htmlBuilder.Append("<table><tr><th>ID</th><th>Name</th><th>Price</th></tr>")

		' Add each product row to the HTML table
		For Each product In products
			htmlBuilder.Append($"<tr><td>{product.Id}</td><td>{product.Name}</td><td>{product.Price:C}</td></tr>")
		Next product

		htmlBuilder.Append("</table></body></html>")
		Return htmlBuilder.ToString()
	End Function
End Class

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The code connects to a LiteDB database, adds a list of products, retrieves all products, and generates an HTML representation of the product list. This HTML content is then used to create a PDF file using the IronPDF library. The process includes methods for adding products, fetching them, converting the product list to HTML, and generating the PDF.

Output

LiteDB .NET (How It Works For Developers): Figure 3 - Console output from the previous code

PDF File Output

LiteDB .NET (How It Works For Developers): Figure 4 - Outputted PDF from the previous code

Conclusion

LiteDB presents C# developers with a lightweight, serverless embedded document database solution, ideal for small projects and mobile applications, boasting features like MongoDB-inspired API, embedded databases, and cross-platform compatibility.

Simultaneously, IronPDF emerges as a premier C# PDF library, simplifying PDF generation and manipulation within .NET projects with its HTML to PDF conversion and NuGet integration. Both LiteDB and IronPDF offer valuable tools for developers, with LiteDB excelling in database management and IronPDF in PDF handling.

IronPDF provides a free trial to unlock its full potential in PDF generation and manipulation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I convert HTML content to PDF in C#?

You can convert HTML content to PDF in C# using IronPDF. The library provides methods such as RenderHtmlAsPdf which allows for the conversion of HTML strings into PDF documents.

What is the best way to integrate LiteDB with a .NET project?

To integrate LiteDB with a .NET project, you can use the NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio to install LiteDB. This allows you to manage your database directly within your application using C#.

How can I generate PDFs from LiteDB data?

To generate PDFs from LiteDB data, you can use IronPDF. By extracting data from LiteDB and rendering it using IronPDF's capabilities, you can create PDF documents for reporting or sharing purposes.

Can I use IronPDF to manipulate existing PDF files in C#?

Yes, IronPDF can be used to manipulate existing PDF files. It provides functionalities to edit, merge, and extract content from PDFs within C# applications.

Is it possible to use LiteDB for mobile applications?

Yes, LiteDB is particularly suitable for mobile applications due to its lightweight, serverless nature, and ability to store data in a single file.

What are some common troubleshooting steps for LiteDB integration?

Common troubleshooting steps for LiteDB integration include checking for correct installation via NuGet, ensuring your database file path is accessible, and confirming that your project's .NET version is compatible with LiteDB.

How can I ensure data integrity using LiteDB?

LiteDB supports ACID transactions which ensure data integrity and reliability. You can use transactions to maintain consistency and handle concurrent data modifications.

What are the benefits of using IronPDF for PDF generation in .NET?

IronPDF offers benefits such as easy HTML to PDF conversion, high accuracy in rendering, and comprehensive PDF manipulation features, making it ideal for generating and handling PDFs in .NET applications.

Chipego Kalinda

Chat with engineering team now

Software Engineer

Chipego has a natural skill for listening that helps him to comprehend customer issues, and offer intelligent solutions. He joined the Iron Software team in 2023, after studying a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. IronPDF and IronOCR are the two products Chipego has been focusing on, but his knowledge of ...Read More