Disconnected DB Application

[mwa]

I have been tasked with writing an Asset Inventory application in VB.net/VS2008 that will be loaded on to laptops. The laptops will have bar code scanners attached via Bluetooth. The application will be connected to our network and will download the current inventory into a local database from a SQL Server database. The laptop will then be disconnected from the network. The user will begin scanning all items and the app will need to store/validate the scans with the local database. Once all the scans have been complete, the laptop will be reconnected to our network and the scanned data will need to be pushed up to the SQL Server.

I'm looking for some general direction/design considerations for this application and database. What database should I use to store the scans? Access? XML? SQLLite? How do I get this database onto the laptop? Build it on the fly? Download it from a server? How should I sychronize the database once the scans are complete? Anything else that I need to consider? Any links to code samples would be helpful.

Thanks in advance...

mwa
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[Qik3Coder]

Wow.

Are you taking into consideration how much total stock you have? So that you have some way of reeconciling that all of it came back?

if the total db size is not really big then you could probably do XML, but this will have limited scalability.

If you do access/excel or some other lighter tool, then you will have to deal with data transformations, as you convert from one unit of storage to another.

I would recommend installing SQLExpress on their laptops so you have to power that you would normally have when they are connected.

Keeping track of the changed rows is going to have to work like a queuing system. you have the "This is what we have in stock" database information, and then you have the "This is what this user has checked out"
You can wire this to work either in connected or disconnected mode, it will be close to the same code.

If you go to the effort of having a config screen for them to specify the "data from"/"data to" locations, then you can write your processes to hit either of those, independent of whether it's on their machine or on the server.

That should get your wheels turning.



If [blue]you have problems[/blue], I want [green]source code[/green] AND [green]error messages[/green], none of this [red]"there was an error crap"[/red]

 

[mwa]

We're not really tracking stock... It's more like we are just locating assets. We have 70+ sites and each site has a couple thousand asset items... Things like desks, computers, vehicles, golf carts, etc. In our Enterprise level financial application, the location (Site, Building, Room) of each item is tracked. We need the application to allow the user to enter a location and then scan every item in that location. The application will check the expected location against the actual location and spit out an exceptions report. The exceptions will then be transferred from one location to the next in our Enterprise application.

So, with all that being said, back to my original question about the local database. I'm not sure I'm comfortable installing SQLExpress on each of the laptops. It seems like overkill because at most, there will only be 2 or 3 thousand records. It seems like an Access DB would suffice and would require less overhead. But how would I create the Access DB? Create it on the fly when the application loads? Or, create the .mdb and somehow copy it to the laptop on installation?

mwa
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