After my presentation about Sync Services for ADO.NET at MSDN Live in Bergen I got some questions. Since the questions are relevant for everyone that participated at MSDN live I will address them here in my blog. The questions concerned both SQL Server Compact and Sync Services for ADO.NET.

What is the max size of a Sql Server Compact database?

4 GB is the max size of a SQL Server Compact database and it supports multiple connections up to 256.

Read more here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983341(vs.80).aspx.

How do to redistribute SQL Server Compact with my application?

There are two deployment options; traditional Microsoft Windows Installer and “xcopy” deployment.

If you choose to use the Windows Installer option you choose SQL Server Compact as a prerequisite and the installer will automatically download the bits for SQL Server Compact from somewhere in the internet cloud.

If you go for the xcopy option, you have to add the SQL Server Compact dlls as a part of your project. You find these dlls under C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\.

Read more here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983326(VS.80).aspx.

Is Sync Services for ADO.NET shipped with the next version of .NET Compact Framework?

Sync Services for ADO.NET is not supported for .NET Compact Framework in VS2008 Beta 2. I think Microsoft will ship this feature for .NET CF in a later stage.

There are several threads on the Sync Services forum about this topic.

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1475649&SiteID=1

Yesterday at MSDN Live in Bergen I got a really good question after my presentation. The question was asked by a Master class student that working on a master thesis about occasionally connected clients. He asked me how he could learn to use Sync Services for ADO.NET and Sql Server Compact. My presentation gives an overview of the technologies, but if you want to dive deeper you have to dig the web for more information. Since I’ve already dug the web for information about this technologies I will post the links If found useful here. This will give you a good starting point to learn more about these technologies. I recommend you to start with Rafik Robeals “Take data offline” article on CodeProject and then start to watch the webcast if linked to.

Articles

• http://www.codeproject.com/smartclient/takedataoffline.asp
  Rafik Robeal is a member of the Sync Services for ADO.NET team in Redmond and he has published an article on CodeProject to give developers an introduction to Sync Services for ADO.NET. This article is a very good start if you want to learn about Sync Services for ADO.NET
• Visual Studio Magazine
  Update Local Data Caches with Sync Services for ADO.NET
• Visual Studio Magazine
  Lighten Up Your Local Databases
• http://www.syncguru.com/Projects.aspx
  A Sync Services for ADO.NET demo series written by Rafik Robeal
  

Blogs

• http://blogs.msdn.com/stevelasker/
  Steve Lasker is the program manager of the UI Frameworks Client team
• http://blogs.msdn.com/synchronizer/default.aspx / http://www.syncguru.com
  Rafik Robeals developer in the SQL Server Replication & Synchronization team. He is currently working on Sql Server merge functionality and Sync Services for ADO.NET
• http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlservercompact/
  SQL Server Compact team blog

Webcasts

• http://shrinkster.com/sel
  Offline Data Synchronization and Caching for Smart Clients part 1
• http://shrinkster.com/sem
  Offline Data Synchronization and Caching for Smart Clients part 2
• http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=293600
  Steve Lasker demonstrates the Sync Designer in VS2008. He show you how to cache data locally on the client using SQL Server Compact and Sync Services for ADO.NET
• http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=294031
  Steve Lasker demonstrates how to use Sync Services for ADO.NET with Windows Communication Foundation
  

Others

• http://del.icio.us/goeran.hansen/sync-services
  My delicious bookmarks on “Sync Services for ADO.NET and Sql Server Compact” resources
• http://shrinkster.com/seq
  Sync Services for ADO.NET forum
• http://shrinkster.com/sep
  SQL Server Compact forum
• http://shrinkster.com/seo
  Smart Client Architecture and Design Guide
• Q&A on OCS and Sync Services for ADO.NET
  QA for Ocasionally Connected Clients and Sync Services for ADO.NET

Happy coding! If you have some additional resources, feel free to drop me a comment.