Tip of the Month (July 2009)

Retiring A Handheld

Visual CE's FILE | SYNCHRONIZE allows you to specify different synchronization settings for different handhelds. You do this by selecting FILE | SYNCHRONIZE, selecting (or typing in) the name of the handheld in the "Handheld" control in the upper right, and then make settings specific to that handheld. Handheld specific settings can be:

• Desktop Data Source
• Desktop Database
• The Sychronize On Connect setting
• The Sychronize On Install setting
• For each table, the synchronization operator (<--->, <---, --->, etc.)

These handheld-specific settings are saved in a file called WCEODBC.INI that is in the windows folder of your desktop machine. You can open this file using a text editor such as Notepad (START | PROGRAMS | ACCESSORIES | NOTEPAD).

If your handheld gets lost, stolen, or just plain wears out, you would probably "retire" the handheld from your desktop system. If you do this, you probably should also remove any handheld-specific settings in the WCEODBC.INI file.

PLEASE NOTE: before making any changes to the WCEODBC.INI file, we strongly suggest you make a backup copy of it first.

In the WCEODBC.INI file, there are several places handheld-specific entries are made:

1. When you set "Desktop Data Source" in Visual CE's FILE | SYNCHRONIZE dialog, we put an entry in the [VICESYNC] section that looks like
   DataSource=MS Access Database
   This is the data source used when the "Handheld" dropdown in Visual CE's FILE | SYNCHRONIZE dialog is set to "all others". If you have specified a different data source for a particular handheld (for example, MyHandheld), you will see an entry that looks like
   DataSourceMyHandheld=MS Access Database
   If you retire MyHandheld, you should remove the DataSourceMyHandheld entry.
   
   
2. When you set "Desktop Database" in Visual CE's FILE | SYNCHRONIZE dialog, we put an entry in the [VICESYNC] section that looks like
   Database=C:\MyDatabase.mdb
   This is the database used when the "Handheld" dropdown in Visual CE's FILE | SYNCHRONIZE dialog is set to "all others". If you have specified a different database for a particular handheld (for example, MyHandheld), you will see an entry that looks like
   DatabaseMyHandheld=C:\MyDatabase.mdb
   If you retire MyHandheld, you should remove the DatabaseMyHandheld entry.
   
   
3. When you set "Synchronize On Connect" in Visual CE's FILE | SYNCHRONIZE dialog, we put an entry in the [VICESYNC] section that looks like
   AutoStartOnConnect=1
   This setting is used when the "Handheld" dropdown in Visual CE's FILE | SYNCHRONIZE dialog is set to "all others". If you have specified a different value for a particular handheld (for example, MyHandheld), you will see an entry that looks like
   AutoStartOnConnectMyHandheld=1
   If you retire MyHandheld, you should remove the AutoStartOnConnectMyHandheld entry.
   
   
4. When you set "Synchronize On Install" in Visual CE's FILE | SYNCHRONIZE dialog, we put an entry in the [VICESYNC] section that looks like
   AutoStartOnInstall=1
   This setting is used when the "Handheld" dropdown in Visual CE's FILE | SYNCHRONIZE dialog is set to "all others". If you have specified a different value for a particular handheld (for example, MyHandheld), you will see an entry that looks like
   AutoStartOnInstallMyHandheld=1
   If you retire MyHandheld, you should remove the AutoStartOnInstallMyHandheld entry.
   
   
5. When you set the synchronization operator (<--->, <---, --->, etc.) for a table (for example, MyTable) in Visual CE's FILE | SYNCHRONIZE dialog, we put an entry in the [MyTable] section that looks like
   Synchronize=3
   This is the synchronization operator used when the "Handheld" dropdown in Visual CE's FILE | SYNCHRONIZE dialog is set to "all others". If you have specified a different synchronization operator for a particular handheld (for example, MyHandheld), you will see an entry that looks like
   SynchronizeMyHandheld=3
   If you retire MyHandheld, you should remove the SynchronizeMyHandheld entry. Please note: if you have five tables and you have a handheld-specific operator for each of the five tables, you will have to remove the entry in each of the five table sections.

In addition...

If you are synchronizing multiple handhelds to the same desktop table, in your database there is a table called SYWARE_SyncInfo. You should remove all the rows in that table whose value in the "DeviceName" column matchs the name of the device being retired.