managing device date/time

[J. R. Zanetti]

Hi NG, we are looking for some help about controlling
device system time.
Our need is to prohibit our mobile application users to
change date/time on their PDAs. Our application is
disconnected and connects to a database server for
exchanging data every now and then.
Our first idea was synchronizing time with the database
server when a connection is estabilished for data
synchronization. This way we could ensure time is
synchronized each time data sync occurs, even if users'
behavior between synchronizations can't be controlled.
Our sync manager doesn't allow time synchronization, which
is instead supported by more sophisticated sync tools. Can
anyone suggest a smart way to get server time (maybe a
network service?).
Having the device time synchronized with the server's, how
could we ensure that device time is not changed by users
between syncs? We thought about a background application
on the devices monitoring time, but we don't like this
solution very much.
Can anybody give us some suggestions?

Any help is appreciated, thank you very much.
Best regards,

J.

 

[Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]]

There are several versions of the Network Time Protocol out there. You can
read the RFCs for them and implement something that can use such a server.
We have support for this in the devices that we sell (we support both UDP
and TCP versions of the protocol).

The only way that I can think of to prevent the user from changing the time
is to prevent access to any method through which the time could be changed:
block access to the control panel, don't show the clock, etc.

Paul T.

 

[J. A. Zanetti]

Thank you very much for your helpful hints.
I would need an example about disabling access to control
panel through code. Could you be so kind to provide one?
That would be indeed a correct solution for our mainly
disconnected application.
Thanks again,

J.

 

[Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]]

You need to make your app take over the whole user interface and prevent
access to it by not exposing the Start menu, etc. There's no way, other
than that, that I know of.

Paul T.