multiple databases?

[bwistar]

hey rushang and wayland,

congrats on this release. very cool.

does DejaOffice allow synchronizing with multiple ACT! databases yet?

[DJOCTO]

Thanks Bevan!

I think the wireless protocol handles multiple databases now. However, our focus is to switch over to direct Wi-Fi sync, as that solution incurs no monthly fees. It is the ideal sync system for our CompanionLink Express ($49.95) users who need to update ACT!

Overall, however, multiple databases are a thing of the past. It worked well with ACT! 6, because dBase protocols could switch open files easily, but overall file size was capped. Starting with ACT! 2005 (7) the .Net/SQL model is different. There is no way in Framework API to open a database under 3-5 seconds. The nature of sync updates means that if we are updating many records from the handheld, we may need to open different databases on a record-by-record case. The worst case is a new open command for every record update. Very very painful to do this. The good thing on SQL is we gain nearly unlimited capacity and sharability that we didn't have before.

The solution is to take what used to be multiple databases, and combine them into Groups in the SQL database. That way, sync tools only open the database once, but can easily update the various tables and groups within the open database. This will yield best performance, even on large databases shared between many users.

I hope this information helps.

Wayland