Our company is planning on purchasing a copy of Visual Studio Professional 2013 for some features that are absent from the Express edition, mainly, the ability to create installers, plugin functionality, and likely the ability to use NoSQL databases. We only plan on buying one copy as our budget is tight, where the rest of the developers when not needing to use the Professional features can use the Express edition.
I know that Express has a database explorer, so that still allows basic SQL functionality, but we are interested in exploring object-oriented databases, mainly MongoDB or other NoSQL databases. My question is - can you use MongoDB (or other object-based databases) with the Express edition, or does it require the Professional edition?
From my research so far, MongoDB compiles to 32-bit and 64-bit, but because VSE can only do 32-bit builds, there will be issues with using it in VS Express.
Next, if the
Professional edition is necessary to work with MongoDB, would we then be able to open solutions/projects created with the Professional edition in Express?
Thank you.