DBF files and DataGrid...

[willempie]

does anybody using DBF files (with CodeBase) in a DataGrid ??

Or how can i browse / show multiple record in a Grid or List ?
i've 10K records to browse, when i convert them to a SQLCE table or create
a datatable it takes very much time !!

thanks !
Wim

 

[Ginny Caughey [MVP]]

Wim,

If Codebase provides a DataAdapter, that would be the way to go. I have what
you want working with a different 3rd party product, but it is still in
beta. DataGrids are very fast with SQL Mobile by the way using the
SqlCeResultSet.

 

[Cindy Winegarden]

Hi Wim,

Why in the world would you want to present 10,000 records to a user to
browse? Have you thought of asking the user to enter some parameter value
that will filter the list down to a manageable level? An example of this
would be last names beginning with "A."

 

[willempie]

Why?
its an article / price list , some user has just 200 records other ones will
have a lot more on there list.
Some of them want to see all the articles there are so the can pick the one
they want without EXACTLY knowing what the article code should be or which
discription is given.
We have to deal with daily products (fowers) and every day new article name
(colors/weigth/packeging eand so on)
Also is this list used to create purchase orders, so they can pick out the
articles they want to order
------------------------

There is no dataAdpter avialble. Codebase provides for the PocketPC/CE
environment a good fast DBF access and manupulation.
Because there is no support for datagrid i made a function that when the
PDA receives new data (DBF format) that make an SQLdatabase and import all
the data needed for the Datagrids. When i've 1000 records it will take about
8 minutes! to import that data into the SDF file
when i've 4000 records it takes al lot more.. and when i'm want to show
those 4000 i a datagrid it takes 16 sec. to fill the datgrid!

 

[Ginny Caughey [MVP]]

Have you considered populating the SQL Mobile database on the desktop from
the DBF data and then just using that file on the device? Although I tend to
agree with Cindy that searching through 10,000 items in a datagrid might not
be practical, searching through that many records in a SQL Mobile database
can be quite fast depending on how you do it. In fact, if you bind a
SqlCeResultset to a DataGrid, even if you have 10,000 records, you only take
an initial hit for the number of records that are represented by visible
rows. Combined with a way for the user to tell you what he's interested in
so you can refine the SqlCeResultSet, this could give you very good
performance.

The sticking point at the moment is how to create the sdf file on the
desktop side. You can see from this article posted today that there will be
a new version of SQL Server Everywhere Edition that will run on mobile and
desktop devices, and best of all for SQL Mobile users you don't need to
learn any new technology. That means that work can begin immediately on
prototyping for this new version of SQL Server, although it can't be used
for production until release - planned for the end of the year. Here's the
link: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/letter.mspx

Here's a blog discussing using SQL Mobile on the desktop:
http://blogs.msdn.com/smartclientdata/archive/2005/07/15/439008.aspx

 

[willempie]

Ginny thanks for the reply, (Cindy as well)
i'm not well familiar with SQL (ce) and learnd a lot last weeks, i've not
used SqlCeResultSet (not even overview whats possible with it). This is one
part of the problem.
Today i wrote a few functions and using a Listview and vScollbar to create
an custom browser, It's not needed to edit the data in this part. It's not
very fast, but exceptable enough to browse. Now when a table (DBF) is
openihe data is directly on the screen and you can use the scrollbar to skip
and select the items and even the Keyboard reacts good.
i build this all on a form an have the rebuild it to a new class. for now i
think i can go on with this sulution. But i 'll sure look after yours
because probaly in the (near ) future i need this as well

thanks a lot

(i'm using vs 2003 and VB.net, openNetCf , Codebase and foxPro)