This is a big question right now, and the field is changing rapidly. There
seem to be two primary choices:
(a) Roll your own database format, which is used by your custom
application; implement a conduit or serial syncing solution on the desktop
to talk a protocol to your custom application. I did this for a similar
kind of application that talked to Oracle. It's not hard, but you do end up
duplicating other people's solutions, and it can be a pain to maintain. You
also don't get any local data management tools (like SQL on the Palm, for
example).
(b) Use someone else's product. Right now I know of three; I'd love to hear
of more, if other people have used 'em.
-- Oracle Lite, which supports synchronization and a local database. I
looked at this for a while, and I'll keep my peace on it. I wasn't
impressed. It's also expensive, over $100 per Palm, last time I looked.
-- SQL Anywhere seems to get good reviews here, but it's also fairly expensive.
-- IBM just released DB2 Everywhere, which is free. I downloaded it and
looked at it a bit; looks pretty nice. You can synchronize it with a
desktop product provided by IBM; this means you pay per seat costs only on
syncing stations.
Regards,
Ben
>I am looking for any information about products/solutions that would allow
>me to create records on the Palm hand held via a custom application, then
>update(sync) the data to a SQLServer database on an NT server, via dialup
>TCP/IP or typical Palm conduit methods. Any information appreciated.
>
>I am investigating the possibility of doing this on hundreds/thousands of
>palm pilots, and would like to keep the 'per seat costs to a minimum. I
>have looked at several out of box products, but most seem to have a per seat
>cost that was too expensive for our potential volume
>
>Eliot
