May 14, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I'm assisting another developer with database development. He described his problem, and basically described merge replication.
The application has a master server, SQL Server 2005, and mobile client databases, which are all MS Access databases. When the client has a connection to the server (which it doesn't always have), the user can choose to sync the data. This should cause new rows on Access to be inserted into SQL Server and vice versa, and update both databases with whatever version of the row in either database is newest (based on timestamps). The amount of data is relatively small, but there are over 70 tables.
This describes merge replication, except that the client database is MS Access!
What kind of solution should I be investigating? Replication appears to require SQL Server instances on the mobile clients. Does SSIS provide this type of solution? I'm not familiar with SSIS but could read up on it if needed.
Or, should this be custom-coded? In Access? In SQL Server? Is there a set-based way to accomplish this?
I'm just looking for a direction to go.
May 15, 2008 at 6:19 am
If this is new development, you should do your best to convince the developer to use a SQL Server Compact Edition database (assuming this ends up a single-user application on the client).
If that is done, merge replication will be built right into the SQL Server solutions - and the local database engine being used on your mobile applications will be free (nice bonus there).
Otherwise, you will end up custom coding some kind of merge replication. Your developers may be brilliant and are able to build something flawless, but why build something you already have and that has been tested by lots of other people?
May 15, 2008 at 6:22 am
As an aside, with a little work you could create an example to show the developer. Using Merge Replication requires about 5 lines of code and the replication wizard actually gives you the code in both VB and C#.
There are glitches to work through depending on what your solution is doing, but it is pretty easy to set up and you get a pile of management tools for the replication.
Viewing 3 posts - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply