Alternate to RDA

[Guest]

Greetings,

I am trying to develop an application that synches to a desktop application.
As far as i have researched RDA and Merge replication are the only two
options that i have come across. Both required IIS.

Given the policy issues of installing IIS based application at my client
location, Is there no alternate way.
I can ask my client to always use a Active Sync to connect to the desktop
application. so I do NOT need any wireless or stuff like that.

Can i not use ACTIVE SYNC or some other mode that does not use IIS to
connect to an SQL Server 2000 database?

Thanks in advance

 

[Ginny Caughey [MVP]]

Boris,

Other than web services (which also requires IIS or some other web server)
I'm not aware of any other way to connect to SQL Server. Usually people in
your situation use XML or CSV files as an intermediate format between SQL
Server and SQL CE.

Ginny Caughey
..NET Compact Framework MVP

 

[Guest]

Thanks much for the reply. Saves me a lot of time on researching.

But out of curiosity, I wonder, knowing many of the big corporations have
strict group and local policies (machine and user) rights, why was IIS chosen
as a medium.

I understand that https is a choice for safe transfer - RDA does encryption
while transferring etc etcetera.

But I personally think, there must been a way to transfer and/or talk to a
SQL installation through a "hard wire" mechanism without IIS, Something that
uses software like Active sync etc.

Thanks for your reply anways, I appreciate that.

 

[Darren Shaffer]

Boris,

If you have a highly reliable connection from device to server, you
can use System.Data.SqlServer and access your server from your
Compact Framework app in the normal "ADO.NET way" without
a replication/RDA approach.

One other intriguing possibility with SQL Server 2005 is that
it has the ability to serve as a web services endpoint (no IIS
requirement), so you could synchronize your data on device
with SQL Server 2005 using a few web services and not have IIS
in the architecture at all.

Most enterprise mobile solutions have mobile users outside the
firewall and back end databases behind it, so the idea of
using a web server like IIS to broker data synchronization
provides a secure mechanism through which mobile devices can
reach back-end corporate databases.

--
Darren Shaffer
..NET Compact Framework MVP
Principal Architect
Connected Innovation
www.connectedinnovation.com

 

[Ginny Caughey [MVP]]

Boris,

I think most big companies feel comfortable knowing that SQL Server security
and the professionals that manage the SQL servers are controlling how data
is moved around. (I talked to a number of DBAs at TechEd in the SQL Mobile
booth, and they were generally quite comfortable with that sceanrio.)
Whatever mechanism you use though, something has to provide the TCP/IP
"plumbing", and IIS can do that in a secure manner, although it can be a bit
of a pain to set up initially.

Personally, I'd like to see both options available - merge replication/RDA
using IIS and/or being able to write a desktop app that can provide the data
update functionality from data moved around by Activesync. Who knows, one
day that may happen. But for now and in the near future that isn't an
option.

Ginny Caughey
..NET Compact Framework MVP

 

[Ilya Tumanov [MS]]

AS is the least secure option as it has no authentication and/or encryption.

Direct connection to SQL Server 2000 (which is supported by NETCF) is more
secure as it has authentication.

IIS is the best as it allows for strong encryption and authentication.



IIS was chosen as transport exactly because it's the best option for large
enterprises.

It also works over internet and can go through enterprise firewall/proxies
thus allowing operations on a global scale.

Of course, IIS and SQL Server should be configured and maintained by IT
department, not installed on every PC.



If you're looking for a small scale solution like synchronizing one PC with
one PPC, you can consider using XML or CSV files synchronized by AS.



If you're into enterprise grade solution and accessing enterprise SQL
Server, you need to go through your IT anyway.

They would setup and maintain IIS and SQL Server to be used by your
application.


Best regards,


Ilya

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

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[Alberto Silva - Mobile Devices MVP]

Besides the other comments, you can take a look at www.primeworks.pt

João Paulo has a product, called Data Port Component, which allows you to
programatically send and receive data from/to a PDA, IIRC over ActiveSync
and TCP/IP

 

[Pete Vickers [MVP]]

HI,
SqlLinkCE on our site (http://www.gui-innovations.com/html/sqllinkce.html)
allows the PPC to access SqlServer, Access, MySql etc without using IIS

HTH

Pete

 

[John T]

Can i not use ACTIVE SYNC or some other mode that does not use IIS to
connect to an SQL Server 2000 database?

For my upcoming product update, I decided to use a different storage
solution primarily for this reason. Take a look at this product:
http://www.db4o.com/

One nice feature is built-in replication support.

One issue I know is looming but haven't addressed yet is reporting from it
(on the desktop). I expect I'll serialize my objects to XML or create a
temporary Access database for "old fashioned" <smile> report engines to use.

--
John T
http://tknowlogy.com/TknoFlyer
http://www.pocketgear.com/products_search.asp?developerid=4415
Reduce spam. Use Sender Policy Framework: http://spf.pobox.com
____________________

 

[Bartek Szafko]

Hi,

I am currently developing a mobile solution for SOHO market and I came
accross a similiar problem. Most of our users don't want to use iis to
do synchronization.

My idea is to use MS Web Services Enhancments to create a SOAP Server
connected to TCP/IP port. It works just like normal web service but
without IIS and can be bind to any free tcp port.

There has been an article on codeproject.com about it

 

[Lars Black]

I use RemObjects SDK for the very same purpose..

http://www.remobjects.com/

Cheers,
Lars