Many of us develop Smart Devices data applications that require some or most of the following:
a. Access to the backend server database from your device application.
b. Caching frequently used data within SQL Mobile on devices thus enabling offline scenarios where SQL server connectivity is not available.
c. Use RDA, SQL Merge, Web Services or hand-crafted mechanism for synchronizing SQL Mobile with backend SQL Server database.
I’m working on certain features that provide out-of-box support for writing offline data applications on devices that can be easily synchronized with the backend server database. Many developers are writing such applications however the current synchronization mechanisms are either too difficult or don’t offer all the flexibility the developers need.
I was wondering if you can share some of your experiences writing such applications and what real-life scenarios you’re enabling. Your feedback will help us understand your pain points and provide us an opportunity to build a better platform.
Regards,
Manav
Program Manager – Visual Studio for Devices
Data Applications - Feedback Required
guiguigui
Its suprisingly quite easy to use and configure, but is an addition burden in terms of an extra license for us/clients to acquire as its effectively another piece of software we have to maintain.
OneBridge is good because as well as performing synchronisation, you can also sets tasks such as sending files (I.E. CAB files) to the device and installing them, and getting SPs to run on the server etc.
But we do have issues with it at times, mainly due to it not refreshing when changing the database server etc.
Tryst
Hervens
I am also working on a similar offline database application on a PDA which would keep synching with Web Database through Web Service. I have been working on the design right now. I wanted to know if we can use any Data Application Block compatible to System.Data.SqlServerCe
Regards,
Suman Ghosh
Kolja
Data Access Application block won't be compatible with SqlServerCe - however you can use the design principles and construct one for your mobile application. The block was written with .NET 1.1 and mobile devices require Compact Framework
-Manav
WebSigMan
Thanks for your feedback. We're working on a synchronization API that would seemlessly synchronize your SSCE database with any back-end database. This API will be available on desktop and later on device side. You can read more about it on http://blogs.msdn.com/stevelasker/archive/2006/10/13/occasionally-connected-systems-sync-framework.aspx link. Please feel free to share your feedback about specific device scenarios you would want us to enable.
BTW - This is going to be free!
Manav