Offline Data Synchronization

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fenno
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Fenno

One of the requirements of a development project I am working on is for
end users to be able to take their laptop off the network and do work
on the application (VB.NET win-forms app with SQL Server database).

Then at some time later, the user should be able to come back into the
office, re-connect to the network and everything they've done will
synchronize with the main SQL Server database.

I have been trying to find some design patterns relating to this, but
no luck. Does anyone know any good articles on this topic. Or better
still, a design pattern?

Thanks in advance
 
Design solution highly depends on subject area, environment where the app
will work, etc.

What I can tell you for sure is that you will have to have somekind of
applicatin cache, that will store data when laptop is off network.
Then detect when network appears and flush data into the database.

To resolve conflicts ( when data was changes by 2 offline laptops and after
that they become online ) you can introduce the notion of timestamps.
Then you can introduce some logic, comparing timestamps.

Also you can introduce some remote endpoint. Laptops will communicate with
this endpoint ( service or smth else ) and it in its turn will communicate
with Db server.
 
it depends on what type of application you are building, if its the new vsto
stuff, caching and offline scenarios are internally supported already.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney [MVP ASP.NET]

[Shameless Author plug]
The Microsoft Office Web Components Black Book with .NET
Now Available @ www.lulu.com/owc
Forth-coming VSTO.NET - Wrox/Wiley 2006
 
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