Pocket Access - Sync questions...

[famousdavis]

I'm a principal and teacher at an elementary school, and I'm using Sprint DB to develop a personal application to help me administrate my education program (that is, I'm a homeschool dad with four children, two of whom are homeschooling this year! :lol: ). I've got questions relevant to my Pocket Access database....

I've learned how to create the database design with Microsoft Access on the desktop, then copy/convert to my PPC and sync data thereafter (which was big ordeal -- it's NOT as easy as it ought to be :( ). Now I'm curious about a few things:

1) If one user updates the desktop version of the database, and another user updates the same database copy on a PPC, what happens when it's time to sync? I don't want to deal with having to sort through the fact that a primary key value is utilized twice -- once on the desktop version, and once on the PPC version (my tables have autoincrement for the primary key of each table).

2) Is there an easier method for changing a database design than the process I'm using? I've found it a tricky matter to change the database design on the desktop, then replicate the PPC version afterwards. Part of the problem stems from the fact I like to keep the same database filename intact, except for a version suffix, ie, Database v1.0.mdb is changed and I rename the database Database v1.1.mdb. (It seems that the ActiveSync process only reads the filename up to the first period in the filename, and then truncates everything after that -- it took a long time to figure THAT out). So, I tinker with the filename and the destination of the PPC version until ActiveSync doesn't balk when I ask it to copy/convert the desktop version of my database. Isn't there any easy, foolproof way for updating and propagating design changes?

[easylife]

Hmm... Pocket Access in ActiveSync was a remnant from the Handheld PCs Pocket Access program, but I don't believe that a comparable program exists on the PPC. Are you able to view & edit your access database on your PPC through another program? Perhaps that program offers an Access syncronization module on the desktop...? :?

[famousdavis]

Are you able to view & edit your access database on your PPC through another program? Perhaps that program offers an Access syncronization module on the desktop...? :?

Well, mind you I don't know a lot about the history of the PPC and its predecessors, but Pocket Access appears to be a "database engine" and nothing more. To develop any kind of an application requires buying one of the database programs that are for Pocket Access databases -- I'm using Sprint DB, which I've grown to really like a lot.

So, yes, I see my database on my PPC through the application forms I've built with Sprint DB. But, no, Sprint DB doesn't do any sync'ing with my desktop database -- that's handled exclusively via ActiveSync.

[werner_s]

Data will be overwritten where autoincrementing fields are the same.
That's where the use of a GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) comes in handy. Put a new field (type=text) before the first autoincrementing field (type=integer), assign a primary key to it. The data for that field will need unique values like a GUID. There's a (trial) program at Handango with that functionallity (autocreate guid's when entering data).

[smart_brain]

Data will be overwritten where autoincrementing fields are the same.
That's where the use of a GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) comes in handy. Put a new field (type=text) before the first autoincrementing field (type=integer), assign a primary key to it. The data for that field will need unique values like a GUID. There's a (trial) program at Handango with that functionallity (autocreate guid's when entering data).

can u post the link to it ?

thanks in advance :)