Options for Real Time Reads/Updates from SQL Server

I am new to windows mobile development and my terminology is limited so bear
with me.

I am trying to find a solution that will allow a windows mobile device (upon
scanning a barcode) to get the current inventory from a sql server and allow
updating of the inventory to the sql server. It will also need to read/update
other misc fields. I will always have a wireless connection available. After
reading through similar posts and white papers, I understand that these are
my options:

1. Use ActiveSync (not an option because the data needs to be real time).
2. Use server side code and build an ASP.NET page for windows mobile device.
Consequences would be if the network went down the mobile devices would be
unusable.
3. Build an application for the mobile device and use web services to
read/update the data on the sql server.

I will have about thirty mobile devices connected at once, so I am lead to
believe option #2 will allow for easy updates and deployment.

Q1. Am I missing any options?
Q2. Can you suggest that one option is better than the other?

Thanks for your insight!

Bryan
Wed Oct 18 13:23:54 CDT 2006

I would suggest that you check out the Mobile Client Software Factory
from the patterns and practices website. It contains some best
practices for semi-disconnected devices, replication, etc... One of the
options you did leave out is just making database connections directly
from the mobile device which is just another spin on option #3.

Bryan Phillips
MCSD, MCDBA, MCSE
Blog: http://bphillips76.spaces.live.com



"Brian Kudera" <BrianKudera@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4BFA5503-AA06-4E86-926C-E6F2DF469C03@microsoft.com:

> I am new to windows mobile development and my terminology is limited so bear
> with me.
>
> I am trying to find a solution that will allow a windows mobile device (upon
> scanning a barcode) to get the current inventory from a sql server and allow
> updating of the inventory to the sql server. It will also need to read/update
> other misc fields. I will always have a wireless connection available. After
> reading through similar posts and white papers, I understand that these are
> my options:
>
> 1. Use ActiveSync (not an option because the data needs to be real time).
> 2. Use server side code and build an ASP.NET page for windows mobile device.
> Consequences would be if the network went down the mobile devices would be
> unusable.
> 3. Build an application for the mobile device and use web services to
> read/update the data on the sql server.
>
> I will have about thirty mobile devices connected at once, so I am lead to
> believe option #2 will allow for easy updates and deployment.
>
> Q1. Am I missing any options?
> Q2. Can you suggest that one option is better than the other?
>
> Thanks for your insight!

denis
Fri Oct 27 22:58:21 CDT 2006

I would suggest you go down the web-service path

1) You then simply develop a regular mobile app to consume the service
2) Data can be temporarily persisted on the mobile device in the case there
is a temporary problem with the network connection
3) You can additionaly build a regular desktop app or a ASP.NET web app (or
even PHP etc) to consume that same web-service if you need for example to
provide interface to the data to desktop users. That way you need to
implement only the UI several times, and most of the app logic/database
connectivity is in the web service itself and can be reused by different
types of apps. Additional plus is the firewall-friendly nature of
web-services.

Doing a similar thing myself, and 3) is what I like the most. :)





"Brian Kudera" <BrianKudera@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4BFA5503-AA06-4E86-926C-E6F2DF469C03@microsoft.com...
>I am new to windows mobile development and my terminology is limited so
>bear
> with me.
>
> I am trying to find a solution that will allow a windows mobile device
> (upon
> scanning a barcode) to get the current inventory from a sql server and
> allow
> updating of the inventory to the sql server. It will also need to
> read/update
> other misc fields. I will always have a wireless connection available.
> After
> reading through similar posts and white papers, I understand that these
> are
> my options:
>
> 1. Use ActiveSync (not an option because the data needs to be real time).
> 2. Use server side code and build an ASP.NET page for windows mobile
> device.
> Consequences would be if the network went down the mobile devices would be
> unusable.
> 3. Build an application for the mobile device and use web services to
> read/update the data on the sql server.
>
> I will have about thirty mobile devices connected at once, so I am lead to
> believe option #2 will allow for easy updates and deployment.
>
> Q1. Am I missing any options?
> Q2. Can you suggest that one option is better than the other?
>
> Thanks for your insight!