Examples extending Pocket Outlook

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dvae c
  • Start date Start date
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Dvae c

Does anyone have any examples or general guidelines for extending and
how to keep in sync a seperate database that I want to use to extend
Pocket Outlook? I want to add additional details to a contact. I
know it needs to be stored in a seperate database and can probably
store the OID. I am not sure though of how to go about ensuring that
they are in sync (adds/deletes are reflected). Probably need some
sort of routine to compare the two, but not sure the best way to go
about it.
 
Do you intend this additional data to be synchronised to the desktop or just
used on the device itself?

If you want to implement desktop synchronisation you can not work on the
basis of the Oid alone because when the records are synced to Outlook on the
desktop they are assigned a different type of identifier - a GUID value
which will be different to the Oid used in Pocket Outlook. In this case you
will need to store some additional verifying fields to determine matching
records (e.g. first and last names).

If the data is to be stored only on the device then an Oid is enough to
uniquely identify a contact on the device. However these values do not
survive a cold reset or transfer to a different device. So the safest method
is to store this along with some other unique fields such as both first and
last names.

Because Pocket Outlook does not expose any events when items are changed or
deleted it would be necessary to cycle through the contacts and check each
record corresponds with your database, deleting any records no longer
present in the contacts application.

Peter
 
I will end up sending the contacts to a central SQL Server database.
Basically want to take contacts from each individual and send key
contact data back up to server so that management has a complete contact
listing from all sales reps. On the handheld a routine will need ensure
the additional contact information (in a SQL Server CE database) is in
sync with the pocket outlook. The reset is a good point and something I
need to consider. I was looking for some code examples in doing the
comparison so that it was efficient.
 
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