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SQL Server Forum / DB Engine / SQL Server CE / February 2008SQLCE work with other databases?
Hello, I'm working on a project at work for a Logistics company. I am in the process of developing a manifest application for a mobile scanner (Symbol MC3000) that runs Windows CE. I have a sample application thats using the "SqlCeRemoteDataAccess" object. and the app connects to a SQLCE version running on a server and extracts some data from an SQL database and then passes it back to the database (.sdf) running on the server. Example code: http://csharp.paste-bin.com/13122 The clients Database is actually a FoxPro database, i was wondering if anyone has had experience or can point me in the direction of if its a all possible to get SQLCE objects to run with a FoxPro Database on the server. can SQLCE connect to a ODBC connector? P.S. if anyone is interested, this is the URL i used to develop my application: http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2003/01/06/sqlce20.html?page=2 Kind regards, Mike Mike, I have experience working with DBF files on the device (using the Codebase library www.codebase.com ). I also have one application still in production that uses SQL Compact on the device and DBF files on the desktop. To move data between the DBF and SQLce I have a desktop application that works with a temp SQLce database, which I copy to/from the device using Rapi. (You can connect to SQLce on the desktop using either OleDb or the SqlServerCe namespace depending on your development language.) As far as I know there is no RDA type solution for working with Foxpro data.  SignatureGinny Caughey Device Application Development MVP www.wasteworks.com Scalehouse and Billing Software for Waste Management > Hello, > [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > Mike I used the exact same setup as Ginny Caughey, except that the backend database they used was MS Access. Microsoft provides a tool for this called ADS, but it doesn't work on Vista so I had to make my own sync tool If you decide to use the same approach, then I suggest you look into OpenNETCF's Desktop Communication library instead of wrapping the Remote API yourself (even though it is rather straight forward) SignatureRegards, Christian Resma Helle http://christian-helle.blogspot.com > Mike, > [quoted text clipped - 35 lines] >> >> Mike On Feb 27, 11:28 am, fod...@gmail.com wrote: > Hello, > [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > > Mike First of all, thank you both for your replies. Ginny with regards to your application still in production, are you able to give me a little more detail on how this works and more direction. from reading your explanation I gather you have the following set up: http://www.carousel-worldwide.com/images/Scanner_DB_Solution.JPG Any Advice/Problems you encountered would be of great help. Kind Regards, Mike Mike, Your diagram is roughly what I'm doing except I'm not using ODBC to connect to the DBF data on the desktop. I'm actually using PInvoke from a C# app to exported functions in a DLL I wrote that accesses the data since the data is not created using the Foxpro product but instead something similar. In any case, there is a Foxpro OleDb provider that I have tested that would probably be a good choice for you. Since my desktop app manages extracting the data to download, creating the SDF file, copying the SDF file to the device, then copying the SDF file back from the device and inserting the data into the desktop DBF files, all under my programmatic control, there really haven't been any major issues. The main thing to watch out for is being sure when you want to delete the device SDF file, which you can also do using Rapi. With DBF files where you are inserting data while the data is also in use multi-user by other users or processes, you need to make sure that whatever tool you use to do this is compatible at the index level. I don't expect you'd encounter any problems using the Foxpro OleDb provider sharing data with a Foxpro application, but you should test to make sure. One other tip you might find useful is that I ended up actually working with two SDF files on the device rather than one, since reference data (customers, products, etc.) might not need to be refreshed as often as you'd want to upload transactions from the device. Similarly, the desktop application also has an option to download the device-side application, CABs, etc. as well as the option to put everything on a storage card or not. SignatureGinny Caughey Device Application Development MVP www.wasteworks.com Scalehouse and Billing Software for Waste Management > On Feb 27, 11:28 am, fod...@gmail.com wrote: >> Hello, [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > > Mike On Feb 27, 3:58 pm, "Ginny Caughey [MVP]" <ginny.caughey.onl...@wasteworks.com> wrote: > Mike, > [quoted text clipped - 77 lines] > > > Mike Hi Ginny, Sorry i did mean Ole instead of Odbc. Im just working on a example of this system. One question i have is... what method did you use to "Sync" the data from the .dbf to the .sdf my first idea was to download the .dbf information to an multi dimensional ArrayList and then read through that ArrayList and create the .sdf There are possible problems with this and the ArrayList could be considered the "third Database" in the equation. its probably the only way, i'm just wondering if you had a better method Thanks, Mike Mike, I work with the DBF data directly on the desktop to create the SDF file. I use SqlCeResultSet to insert data. As I read each record I need from the DBF file, I insert it into the SQLce table, then skip to the next record in the DBF file and repeat. It would be similar to using a DataReader to walk though data using ADO.NET or an AdoResultSet in ADO. SignatureGinny Caughey Device Application Development MVP www.wasteworks.com Scalehouse and Billing Software for Waste Management > On Feb 27, 3:58 pm, "Ginny Caughey [MVP]" > <ginny.caughey.onl...@wasteworks.com> wrote: [quoted text clipped - 116 lines] > > Mike Hello Ginny, I have had my head buried in a sample app hence the lack of replies :). Rather then going through the DataReader route of reading each row of results. did you look into doing some sort of Extract and Dump the results as a table into the Sqlce database? from my premiliary research it doesn't seem possible, did you come across this? Kind Regards, Mike Mike, I didn't take that approach for a couple of reasons. The main reason was that I never wanted the whole table. That's actually pretty common with mobile apps - you just want a subset of the enterprise data on them no matter what technology you use on both layers. I aso wanted to massage the data a bit and in some cases de-normalize it for better performance on the device, so the tables in the SDF file don't match those on the desktop precisely. And the second reason is that even if I could bulk dump the data from the DBF files that would be faster than extracting it record by record, there's no fast bulk insert for SQL Compact for loading it. You can improve performance, if it's an issue, by not building the indexes until after you load the data and by loading the data in transactions that are some group of rows > 1 and less than a whole table, but that's about it. The biggest performance gain overall for my customers was giving them the option to build and download new SQL Compact tables from reference data that changes infrequently only when they choose to do that while still allowing them to upload the relatively few inserts and updates while that data is fresh. SignatureGinny Caughey Device Application Development MVP www.wasteworks.com Scalehouse and Billing Software for Waste Management > Hello Ginny, > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > Mike |
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