On Tue, 20 Apr 1999, C. E. Steuart Dewar wrote:
> I've been having a conversation with a user who wants to sync to multiple
> desktops.
You mean taking the same device, and synchronizing it to two separate PCs
(or Macs)? There is no network file sharing involved?
> I have presented my "theory" on what is happening and would be
> interested if anyone here can validate/disprove this:
>
> With the Palm desktop software, the syncing mechanism depends upon the
> uniqueID for each event in order to match up events and "know" that they are
> the same event. The Palm OS is set up so that the handheld and desktop
> create uniqueID's that cannot possibly overlap each other, so there is no
> chance that two events would get mistakenly associated.
No, not really. The desktop does not create Unique IDs in most situations.
New PC records are stored without IDs until they are sent to the device,
at which point the handheld assigns an ID itself. Thus there is no
potential for overlap.
> The downside of this approach is that syncing to two desktops COULD result
> in an identical uniqueID being generated independently on the two desktops.
No. As the handheld is the only point where IDs are created, there is no
chance for overlap.
> On syncing, those two separate events would ultimately get narrowed down to
> one as one of the events would get overwritten.
If there are multiple records for the same ID, I'm not sure what would
happen. Some research would be needed to tell for certain.
> I presume this problem is why palm Computing officially states that
> syncing to multiple desktops is not supported.
Do they? Where? I find this a most curious statement, seemingly unrelated
to reality. Most people I know of synchronize with multiple computers, and
I can't think why Palm would sell extra cradles and serial cables if they
didn't support this.
Are we talking about the same thing? Are you sure you aren't putting the
Palm desktop files on a network? _That_ is unsupported, precisely because
the desktop files don't have internal synchronization.
> The user I have talked to has seen this exact problem occur sporadically
> as he needs to have data entered on three desktops as well as his Palm
> Organizer.
What _exact_ problem? Can you give a time-line explaining the scenario and
the problem?
> However, this is only true of the Palm software - most other conduits
> (PocketMirror, DesktopToGo, Intellisync etc.) appear to have a more
> universal syncing mechanism since some of those products also handle WinCE.
> Those conduits sync by comparing the appointments themselves (hence the need
> to specify a date range over which to sync) rather than by matching up
> records in the database. So, in theory, THESE types of conduits should NOT
> be concerned about syncing to multiple desktops since they aren't paying any
> specific attention to the uniqueID (since it's not present in MS Outlook
> anyway, etc.).
There are various ways of coercing foreign databases to be syncable, and
it's certainly possible the some apps use date ranges and direct
comparisons, but it becomes more difficult to track modifications to
records.
In general, however, there shouldn't be any possibility for confusion
between multiple desktops, as modifications by one desktop should simply
appear as _local_, handheld, modifications to another desktop. That's the
result of synchronizing each desktop to the handheld in turn, and it
simplifies the logic considerably.
Now, there is a mechanism to perform a "fast" or "slow" sync, which is
different depending on which desktop you sync to. But both techniques
should be perfectly reliable.
> Before I have this user rush out to switch everything to MS Outlook and
> another conduit, I just wanted to know if anyone had direct experience with
> this, or would confirm this theory...
I'm afraid I can't help with either. But I'd certainly like to help you
track down this apparent multiple-data-entry bug.
--
Kenneth Albanowski ([EMAIL PROTECTED], CIS: 70705,126)
