SQL Anywhere Mobile - Binary Downloads.

Author

Binary Downloads.

Mark Hampton

2005-10-27, 8:20 am

Just a thought for someone like Breck, or a possible future extension.

It would be nice to be able to have a table (or tables) in the consolidated
database with long varbinary data that get downloaded to a remote database,
but instead of storing the data in a table, let me store it in the file
system.

Basically a way to synchronize software via mobilink. Let the download
scripts determine if the data needs to be downloaded, and when the data gets
to the remote, pass it to a stored procedure to write it out.

Question for experts is, do you think this can be done now in ASA 8/9 or
would modifications be needed to Mobilink or the ASA Engine?

David Fishburn

2005-10-27, 8:20 am

"Mark Hampton" <mhampton. removeme@datavantage
corp.com> wrote in
news:43459e59@forums
-1-dub of sybase.public.sqlanywhere.mobilink:

MH> It would be nice to be able to have a table (or tables) in the
MH> consolidated database with long varbinary data that get downloaded to
MH> a remote database, but instead of storing the data in a table, let me
MH> store it in the file system.

This may make the Jasper release of MobiLink.
You will be able to use the ML protocol to transfer files between the
server and the client.

MH> Basically a way to synchronize software via mobilink. Let the
download
MH> scripts determine if the data needs to be downloaded, and when the
MH> data gets to the remote, pass it to a stored procedure to write it
MH> out.
MH>
MH> Question for experts is, do you think this can be done now in ASA 8/9
MH> or would modifications be needed to Mobilink or the ASA Engine?

Yes, this can be done fairly easily today.
The LONG BINARY column is no issue.
On the client side you can use the sp_hook_dbmlsync stored procedures to
automatically write out the file to the filesystem using the
xp_write_file() stored procedure.

The only issue with this, is the "files" must be entered into the
database. This means the size of the transactions can increase
dramatically and if you are on platforms like CE, this can cause
synchronize to take a long time due to transaction log growth, rollback
log growth, cache pressure and other items.

There are other 3rd party solutions to move files between these
machines:
iAnywhere's Manage Anywhere
iAnywhere's Afaria

Plus a raft of other products.

--
David Fishburn
Certified ASA Developer Version 8
iAnywhere Solutions - Sybase
Professional Services
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/url]

Greg Fenton

2005-10-27, 8:20 am

David Fishburn wrote:
> iAnywhere's Manage Anywhere
> iAnywhere's Afaria
>

The above products are also more suited to "deployment" of software.
They are scriptable, maintain device configuration details, have
alerting mechanisms, offer "trickle synchs", etc... These are the kinds
of features that you will inevitably start building (or at least wanting
to build) if you go down the path of using ML to send out software updates.

Hope this helps,
greg.fenton
--
Greg Fenton
Consultant, Solution Services, iAnywhere Solutions
--------
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Breck Carter [TeamSybase]

2005-10-27, 8:20 am

In addition to what David and Greg said... you can avoid storing the
file in the *consolidated* database now, by using SELECT xp_read_file
in your download cursor. However, on the remote side it still has to
go into a table first, and that causes the bloat that David discussed.

Jasper is gonna be wonderful on *so* many levels... :)

Breck

On 6 Oct 2005 14:59:53 -0700, "Mark Hampton"
<mhampton. removeme@datavantage
corp.com> wrote:

>Just a thought for someone like Breck, or a possible future extension.
>
>It would be nice to be able to have a table (or tables) in the consolidated
>database with long varbinary data that get downloaded to a remote database,
>but instead of storing the data in a table, let me store it in the file
>system.
>
>Basically a way to synchronize software via mobilink. Let the download
>scripts determine if the data needs to be downloaded, and when the data gets
>to the remote, pass it to a stored procedure to write it out.
>
>Question for experts is, do you think this can be done now in ASA 8/9 or
>would modifications be needed to Mobilink or the ASA Engine?
>
>

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