Data Port Sync Released

Version 1.0.500 of Data Port Sync has been released. I will be adding more samples to the code to better illustrate what is an arguably complex piece of software. If you want to take a look at how the whole process works, I advise you to start by the JetSync sample (only available in C# but I'm porting it to VB). This sample does the whole synchronization process for one database:

1. Prepares the Access database for synchronization by adding the tracking columns and tables
2. Exports the database to the device in SDF format (either SQL CE 2.0 or SQL Mobile)
3. Tracks the changes on both ends and
4. Merges them according to a very simple rule: the Access database always wins

There is another C# sample (Prepare) that you may use to prepare and "unprepare" Access databases and I have used it together win an end-user sample that I am also shipping (this time it's a VB sample that I will port to C#) that does steps 2 to 4 and is supposed to act as a template for a custom solution.

All thoughts and suggestions are most welcome for this product.

Standalone device emulator

Good news: the standalone device emulator is here!

Synchronization stability

Data Port Sync is now undergoing a testing phase and although things are looking bright, I had overlooked one important detail: what happens when something fails?

There are four phases to the synchronization process: 1) preparation of the Access database; 2) exporting the Access database to the device in SDF format; 3) tracking changes on both ends and 4) merging the changes. When I designed the tracking code I assumed it would be okay to immediately mark the changes in the database, both in the user table and in the tracking table. As a matter of fact, this is a reasonable solution if you just want to track changed data, but it is not very safe if you need to process this information subsequently. If that process fails, you essentially lose the tracking information (at least with the way I was doing it).

To solve this issue, the data tracker now makes no change to the database. It generates a list of changed rows (for both databases) and the generation of this list is only affected by the posterior changes made to the database. The importance of this is that if the merge process fails, I can roll everything back and rerun the data tracker. All changes will be there.

Data Port Sync will become a product by the end of this month, before I go to MEDC Europe in Nice. Stay tuned.

SQL Mobile DateTime parameters

Looks like I have found another small issue with SQL Mobile. I found out about this after a customer reported not being able to run a parameterized INSERT command with a DataTime parameter through DesktopSqlCe. The OLE DB provider reports the DateTime value as having 8 bytes when it in fact has 16. The ADO .NET provider seems to work correctly.