MEDC Europe 2006

I am going to MEDC Europe 2006 - are you? This is the place to be if you want to stay ahead on Windows Mobile technologies. As the banner says, register now for an early-bird rebate. See you in June!

Synchronizing multiple PDAs

So far, the Data Port Sync preview has already some synchronization capabilities. It will only work safely with one PDA and still has no collision handling code. When the same row is updated on both ends the PDA prevails, but this will change soon as collision-handling policies become available.

The day's work was spent on calculating INSERT order for tables (reverse of DELETE) so that database structure and constraints are not violated. Also, work is under way to support multiple PDAs synchronizing against the same database.

Hope that by the end of the week I will have more to write about.

DataPortSync pre-released

I finally managed to get the code to synchronize an Access database with a SQL Mobile one. There are still hundreds of little issues to solve like retrieving error information from the custom Access provider and making sure the IDENTITY values are correctly recorded. But it is working!

If you want to take a look at how the code is coming, download the latest version of DesktopSqlCe (1.3.200) and the DataPortSync pre-release 1.0.200. Be prepared for a bit of a rough ride!

Second step to Sync

Before synchronizing two databases, one must know what has changed in both of them. Getting to know what changed involves some exercise, especially when using two database engines that will not support any data tracking (at least with exposed APIs). Microsoft Access and SQL CE / Mobile fall in this category and require some work and data in order to track changes.

After figuring out a simple means of doing this, using additional tracking tables and columns on the tracked database, I wrote a new sample using the pre-release code of Data Port Sync and DesktopSqlCe (some minor errors were corrected meanwhile). After selecting an Access database, this sample prepares it (according to the user's selection of tables and columns) and exports it to the device. Preparation involves adding new tables to the database and new columns to the tracked tables.

After all is ready, you can start playing with both databases and the code will report what changed and in what table. Tracked rows are uniquely identified across both databases with a GUID value. I expect to upload the sample to the site very soon. Stay tuned.

First step to Sync

Today, I published the first sample for a new product - Data Port Sync. This is a .NET component that handles most of the chores required to synchronize a Microsoft Access database with either SQL CE 2.0 or SQL Mobile. It's ultimate purpose is to help developers build their own customized synchronization solutions and builds on three fundamental components:

1. A Microsoft Access data tracker - prepares a database for tracking and tracks changes made to the database. Tracking is achieved by adding some control tables and columns to the tracked tables.
2. SQL CE / Mobile data tracker - uses the same data tracking algorithms to track changes made to a mobile database.
3. Data transport - building on DesktopSqlCe, I'm adding some direct access features for Access databases (so that .NET developers don't have to bother with INSERT commands).

The challenge I'm facing now is to build a number of samples that will cover all the bases, from simple database export and import, to complex merging procedures. So, I'm spending most of my time writing a C# object model to wrap my C++ code, but then I'm starting to get used to it.

Here is the first sample: an Access to SQL CE 2.0 / SQL Mobile export tool. You will need to download the latest version of DesktopSqlCe (soon to be renamed).

Enjoy.

Another issue with BLOBs and SQL Mobile

I just received a kbAlertz with this interesting title:

An .sdf database file in SQL Server Mobile is larger than the same .sdf database file in SQL Server CE 2.0 when you use the ntext data type or the image data type

SQL Mobile is a rewrite, not an upgrade of the SQL CE 2.0 code, so one should expect some differences in behavior. I am collecting a list of these, both high and low-level and will publish them soon.