Question about OCA

[jasonwucinski]

Hi everyone,
I hope this is in the right place.
I'm trying to teach myself how to create an Occasionally Connected Application. I want to create a simple app (like a survey) that will store all the data on a server but have the front end run on the users computer. The users computer may or may not be connected to a server when the data is entered (they may be collecting data in the field). Can someone take a look at my general plan on how to make this and give me feedback (am i going about this right? is there a better way? am i missing anything? etc) Below is my proposed plan on creating this application:

Program does 3 things:
1. Shows data from database (ie, displays survey data stored on server)
2. Saves data to database (ie, new entries or changes to old entries)
3. Has a background thread that checks for network connection
a. If no connection exists:
i. Gets data, to show, from local database
ii. Saves data to local database
b. If connections exists:
i. Sync local database with network database
ii. To read data: Gets data to show from local database which is now synced with network)

iii. To save changes/new entry: Save changes to local database then sync changes with network, then send update call to anyone else running this app on a different computer so they will get the same changes


Thanks for any advice anyone can give
jason

 

[MattP]

Pretty good example here:

How Do I: Create an Occasionally Connected Application?

 

[jasonwucinski]

thanks, i'll take a look