Frans, when/Is there plans to implement compact framework support?

Answer wrote:

Frans, when/Is there plans to implement compact framework support?

This is planned for the update in may/june.

On saturday I tried if I could compile the 1.0.2004.2 code base on the CF, and was somewhat succesful, with the difference that I have to add some dummy classes and re-definitions of system interfaces to make the code compile, plus have to add conditional compilation flags to some code. So I couldn't get it compile in full though it is possible with the proper dummy code.

It wasn't that hard to do, I estimate it would take a week or so to get everything up and running, that is with a proper SqlCE DQE.

I have absolutely NO experience with compact framework applications, so it was a bit of a quest to find out that there are in fact 2 different things: PocketPC and Windows CE, though I couldn't find out anything if the CF is different on those systems so I assume it's not.

The 2 scenario's I see for the CF support are: 1) on the CF side, a database generic project is used which consults a webservice for data manipulation 2) on the CF side, SqlCE is installed and the handheld is operating on its own.

I see no use of connecting from the CF application directly to an sqlserver instance on a server somewhere as that would be very insecure: anyone can connect to the server in that scenario. Or am I mistaken?

Well, #1 is the most important for me, as thats the way i was planning on implementing it. I think your right though, i dont see a reason to connect directly to the SQL server as you probably wouldnt want your CF device handling the most the business logic anyway.

Although i am sure someone somewhere has a use for it

As long as support for #1 and #2 is there, i would be happy.

Answer wrote:

Well, #1 is the most important for me, as thats the way i was planning on implementing it. I think your right though, i dont see a reason to connect directly to the SQL server as you probably wouldnt want your CF device handling the most the business logic anyway.

Although i am sure someone somewhere has a use for it

There is a SqlClient namespace for the CF so you could connect to an sqlserver instace .

As long as support for #1 and #2 is there, i would be happy.

The main challenge is to get the stuff compiled. The rest is pretty straight forward (SqlCE is very limited but all limitations can be handled).

I'm not aware of any other CF targeting databases like Oracle, is there any?

Not that i am aware of, however i am not very familar with the CF or mobile development yet. However it is a requirement that that down the road i can integrate the mobile devices into my business system i am going to create. Thats why i am investegating llbgen capabilities now

And constantly naggin at you about your favorite piece of technology, webservices. The CF doesn't handle remoting.

Answer wrote:

Not that i am aware of, however i am not very familar with the CF or mobile development yet. However it is a requirement that that down the road i can integrate the mobile devices into my business system i am going to create. Thats why i am investegating llbgen capabilities now

Well, nagging is good, I then know what customers want

And constantly naggin at you about your favorite piece of technology, webservices. The CF doesn't handle remoting.

Yes I learned that some time ago . Fortunately, webservices now work, so that should be easy (although vs.net with its wsdl.exe which sees all the types as datasets doesn't co-operate that much.. )

Personally I'd love to see #2 done since I don't use web services, but rather our own binary protocol to sync data to/from the CF devices to our PostgreSQL database.

Regarding the differences between Pocket PC and Windows CE. Hmm, well Windows Mobile 2003 on Pocket PC is built on top of Windows CE .NET 4.2 and Pocket PC 2002 is on top of Windows CE 3.0. Since they are the same OS, just with extras on top for Pocket PC, I can't imagine that anything would differ (especially with the CF).

As for other databases that target CE and have CF providers, the only other one I can think of that compares to SqlCe is Sybase's SQL Anywhere from iAnywhere (a division of Sybase IIRC).

Hurry up Frans! I made my own simple O/R framework the CF a bit ago, but it doesn't compare to LLBLGen

wojo wrote:

Personally I'd love to see #2 done since I don't use web services, but rather our own binary protocol to sync data to/from the CF devices to our PostgreSQL database.

Regarding the differences between Pocket PC and Windows CE. Hmm, well Windows Mobile 2003 on Pocket PC is built on top of Windows CE .NET 4.2 and Pocket PC 2002 is on top of Windows CE 3.0. Since they are the same OS, just with extras on top for Pocket PC, I can't imagine that anything would differ (especially with the CF).

thanks for the info!

As for other databases that target CE and have CF providers, the only other one I can think of that compares to SqlCe is Sybase's SQL Anywhere from iAnywhere (a division of Sybase IIRC).

Ah, ok. Well I'll go for SqlCE first.

Hurry up Frans! I made my own simple O/R framework the CF a bit ago, but it doesn't compare to LLBLGen

Heh, yeah yeah . I spend the last 3 hours fighting an oracle bug so I don't even make the RC1 date for 1.0.2004.2 today sob.

Otis wrote:

Heh, yeah yeah . I spend the last 3 hours fighting an oracle bug so I don't even make the RC1 date for 1.0.2004.2 today sob.

And such is the life of a software developer!

Well... keep up the great work Frans! I know it'll be worth the wait; it always is

And let me know if you have any questions about the NET CF or SqlCE. I work quite a bit in them and I'd be happy to help out in any way I can.

wojo wrote:

Otis wrote:

Heh, yeah yeah . I spend the last 3 hours fighting an oracle bug so I don't even make the RC1 date for 1.0.2004.2 today sob.

And such is the life of a software developer!

Well... keep up the great work Frans! I know it'll be worth the wait; it always is

I hope so! .

One deception already occured: in .NET 2.0, IXmlSerializable isn't implemented as I'd hoped. I'll download beta 2 this weekend to see if I can come up with a preliminairy solution for that. Other than that, it should be a great achievement

And let me know if you have any questions about the NET CF or SqlCE. I work quite a bit in them and I'd be happy to help out in any way I can.

I will! Thanks for the offer! Others have offered CF/CE help as well, so it shouldn't be hard to get this on the tracks

Otis wrote:

Answer wrote:

Well, #1 is the most important for me, as thats the way i was planning on implementing it. I think your right though, i dont see a reason to connect directly to the SQL server as you probably wouldnt want your CF device handling the most the business logic anyway.

Although i am sure someone somewhere has a use for it

There is a SqlClient namespace for the CF so you could connect to an sqlserver instace .

As long as support for #1 and #2 is there, i would be happy.

The main challenge is to get the stuff compiled. The rest is pretty straight forward (SqlCE is very limited but all limitations can be handled).

I'm not aware of any other CF targeting databases like Oracle, is there any?

Well, Oracle has also a database platform for PocketPC known as Oracle Lite. I haven't tried this with the Compact Framework only with the older eVB (embedded VB). I found a link on the Oracle forums on Oracle Lite and the CF

http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jsp?forum=59&thread=291010&message=&tstart=30&trange=15922209

As Always the information is limited. We don't have customers asking for Oracle on the PDA yet, but looking forward to the SQLCE implementation. We also use the PDA as the main SQL database and do a merge replication every now and then with the central backend (GSM/GPRS). We have little to no problems with this scenario.

Willem Jan Kortleve

Thanks for the link, Willem Jan.

I did recall something about Oracle lite indeed. I'll go first with SqlCE and see how it goes. Porting the Oracle code to Oracle Lite wouldn't be that hard I think after that.