Over the past few months I have been working on firming up some prototyping work that was discussed on this forum several months ago ( http://groups.google.com/group/gears-eng/browse_thread/thread/1f643beb7265c842/80555a275f9f3409#80555a275f9f3409 ). In brief, I am working on implementing a module to enable secure, relational synchronization between a MobiLink server, and an UltraLite relational database running in the browser.
Since I would eventually like to see this module embraced by the broad Gears project, I would like to solicit some early feedback on the API. However, I do recognize some aspects of the proposed module may make it unsuitable for broad adoption in the short term. If that is the case, we may still pursue releasing a parallel ‘patched’ distribution of Gears that contains this module (as discussed in the previous conversations). In response to the request that we work with the Gears team to ensure that, “the two versions don’t clobber each other in the wild,” I have prepared a formal API proposal document. I am currently hosting that document on my blog at http://iablog.sybase.com/efarrar/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/uldatabase_proposal.html . While I am hosting the document at the moment, I would like to add it to the official Gears wiki alongside the other API proposal documents. The purpose of the document is to outline the purpose and APIs of the proposed ULDatabase module. Since I want to conform to the ‘feel’ of the other Gear’s modules, I am welcoming any comments or criticisms on this API, or on the idea as a whole. I should mention that this document only discusses the APIs of the proposed module, and does not address the complications of the coexistence of a parallel distribution. That said, we have spent a good deal of time looking into the complications of coexistence (using the feedback from the previous conversation), and are confident that we have a working solution. We can discuss the coexistence issues in more detail if it turns out we need to go that route. Thanks in advance, Eric Farrar
