Database Synchronization with the Microsoft Sync Framework
Despite the availability of wireless and cellular networks, many applications must support data presentation and collection services while offline or in remote offices. The Microsoft Sync Framework is a highly flexible framework for synchronizing files and data between a client and a master data store. With great flexibility often comes complexity and confusion, however.
Last spring, I lead the Allen Park Neighborhood Center (APNC) team at the annual Lansing Michigan Give Camp during a very sleep-deprived weekend. At the event, more than 100 developers and designers donated their time to create a dozen Web sites and database applications for local charities. The APNC has a service program in which volunteers canvas the entire neighborhood every spring. They survey residents on numerous community health and well-being measures and then work to connect people with available services. The APNC needed a way to collect these surveys while out in the neighborhood and then synchronize the data back to the SQL Server database.
This type of scenario occurs at many businesses and non-profit organizations. A central SQL Server 2008 Standard (or Enterprise) instance will synchronize to multiple SQL Server 2008 Express instances at remote locations, perhaps connected over slower network lines, with the need to take the data offline on laptops or tablets at each remote location. Once the data is updated on the laptop, it needs to be synchronized with the SQL Server 2008 Express instance, and the Express instance is then synchronized with the central SQL Server 2008 Standard/Enterprise instance. The code in this article is a sample database synchronization library for this common scenario - the need to synchronize SQL Server between server editions and offline databases. The sample application is written as a hybrid C# and Visual Basic client.
Synchronization might appear relatively straightforward, but it can quickly become complicated and problematic, driving the need
Last spring, I lead the Allen Park Neighborhood Center (APNC) team at the annual Lansing Michigan Give Camp during a very sleep-deprived weekend. At the event, more than 100 developers and designers donated their time to create a dozen Web sites and database applications for local charities. The APNC has a service program in which volunteers canvas the entire neighborhood every spring. They survey residents on numerous community health and well-being measures and then work to connect people with available services. The APNC needed a way to collect these surveys while out in the neighborhood and then synchronize the data back to the SQL Server database.
This type of scenario occurs at many businesses and non-profit organizations. A central SQL Server 2008 Standard (or Enterprise) instance will synchronize to multiple SQL Server 2008 Express instances at remote locations, perhaps connected over slower network lines, with the need to take the data offline on laptops or tablets at each remote location. Once the data is updated on the laptop, it needs to be synchronized with the SQL Server 2008 Express instance, and the Express instance is then synchronized with the central SQL Server 2008 Standard/Enterprise instance. The code in this article is a sample database synchronization library for this common scenario - the need to synchronize SQL Server between server editions and offline databases. The sample application is written as a hybrid C# and Visual Basic client.
Synchronization might appear relatively straightforward, but it can quickly become complicated and problematic, driving the need