Remote File Viewer

A few days ago a Pocket PC Developer Network forum reader asked for a RAPI remote file viewer (like the one that ships with Visual Studio). I know that OpenNETCF has a free library to support this, but I decided to reinvent the wheel just for the fun of it. The (still crude) result is here. There are a few interesting points to note (especially for the beginner) like how the returned array of CE_FILE_DATA structures is read into a list. Adding file upload and download features should be a snap, now.

WTL on MSDN Magazine

This helps explain why I'm a WTL addict. Shame you don't see articles like these for Windows Mobile...

The collapsible toolbar

Here is an interesting challenge: implement the behavior of this collapsible toolbar. I'm wondering if this can be done by reusing the shell's toolbar control or if the whole thing needs a custom implementation. I will investigate an post back my findings.

After a bit of a rush trying to amend my own lack of testing before publishing new product releases (I should know better at 42...) I will also start looking at what it takes to implement the "Consumer Templates-less" OLE DB library for Windows CE (and Win32, why not?).

DBPROP_SSCE_TEMPFILE_MAX_SIZE

Never set this property to zero - SQL Compact Edition will not open your database... Yes, I just got my hands really dirty with this one.

New year, new life

This is what we say in Portugal: "Ano novo, vida nova" - "New year, new life" meaning that the turn of the year is a great time to ponder about last year and make the changes for the new one. Focusing deeper on less things is definitely something I will do this year. I just created a new blog for all the issues that pertain to my work at Primeworks and will keep this for all the other stuff, especially the native code stuff.

The community project that I chose to focus on is to create a replacement for the ATL OLE DB Consumer Templates. More and more I see native code developers looking for an easier way to access SQL Compact Edition databases from C++, and my solution for tweaking the PPC 2003 SDK header files does not feel right. Besides, Microsoft does not ship the Consumer Templates header files anymore so this must mean that this code is not supported (but is it licensed?). Developing a new library for OLE DB on devices will surely be an interesting challenge and will keep me busy writing code and publishing articles throughout 2008.

Once again, thank you Microsoft for the fifth MVP award!