Tip of the Month (October 2004)

Synchronizing Some Tables All of the Time and Some Tables Part of the Time

Your Visual CE application may have reference data that only needs to be synchronized periodically (for example, a parts list) and working data that has to be synchronized every day (for example, the orders). There are two different ways to set this up.

Option A:

Which tables are synchronized and how they are synchronized is determined by the settings you make using Visual CE's FILE | SYNCHRONIZE. All these settings are stored in a file in the windows folder on the desktop called WCEODBC.INI.

Create two versions of this file. One for daily synchronizations and one for periodic synchronizations:

1. Connect your handheld to your desktop
   
   
2. Bring up Visual CE on the desktop and select FILE | SYNCHRONIZE
   
   
3. Make your settings for the daily synchronization
   
   
4. Go to your windows folder and make a copy of the WCEODBC.INI file. Call this copy WCEODBC_DAILY.INI
   
   
5. Make your settings for the periodic synchronization
   
   
6. Go to your windows folder and make a copy of the WCEODBC.INI file. Call this copy WCEODBC_PERIODIC.INI

From then on, before you synchronize, just replace the WCEODBC.INI in the windows folder on the desktop with either WCEODBC_DAILY.INI to WCEODBC_PERIODIC.INI

Option B:

This option makes use of "Customizing Synchronization for a Specific Handheld" as described in last month's Tip of the Month. You may want to review that first.

Set up two different synchronization strategies:

1. Connect your handheld to your desktop
   
   
2. Bring up Visual CE on the desktop and select FILE | SYNCHRONIZE
   
   
3. Type DAILY into the dropdown in the upper right hand corner
   
   
4. Make your settings for the daily synchronization
   
   
5. Type PERIODIC into the dropdown in the upper right hand corner
   
   
6. Make your settings for the periodic synchronization

When it comes time to synchronize, on the handheld select START | SETTINGS | SYSTEM | ABOUT | DEVICE ID and set the Device Name to either DAILY or PERIODIC. Then synchronize.