OakLeaf Systems: SQL Server Compact Edition Blogstorm

Coinciding with the landing of Hurricane Dean on the unfortunate city of Chetumal, located on the Yucatan Penninsula's Atlantic coast, the SQL Server Compact Edition (SSCE) team launched a mini-storm of blog posts, to wit:

LINQ with SQL Server Compact (a.k.a. DLINQ with SQL CE) by Pragya Agarwal provides sketchy details for using SqlMetal.exe to create partial classes for SSCE databases. As noted in my July 29, 2007 LINQ to SQL to Support SQL Server Compact Edition post, LINQ to SQL graphical O/R Designer doesn't support SSCE.

Sync Services for ADO.NET and SQL Server Compact Presentation by SSCE Program Steve Lasker provides links to three PowerPoint presentations about occasionally connected services (OCS): Tech Ed US '07 DAT 325- Synchronization Options for SQL Server Compact, Optimizing Online, Enabling Offline with SQL Server Compact and Sync Services for ADO.NET, and Logical Queuing Demo. Logical queuing combines SSCE's Sync Services and MSMQ or a queued WCF channel to sync updates when the back end is ready to accept them.

Article updated on Code Project by Rafik Robeal points to a version of Take Data Offline Using Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET from the CodeProject site that's updated to Beta 2.

Rafik's August 17, 2007 Updates, updates, updates … post summarizes the significant changes to Sync Services from Beta 1 to Beta 2. Rafik also updated his Sync Services demos.

Chetumal side story:I've had a continuing interest in Mayan archeology since my college days at UC Berkeley. In 1992, I took a month off and flew my 1955 Piper PA23-150 Apache (2061P) down the east coast of Mexico with stops at Vera Cruz, Villahermosa (Olmec, not Maya), Palenque, and Merida, where I put up at the Casa del Balam hotel. (Merida has an international-class airport). At the time, students at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán were staging a rambunctuous sit-in across the street from the hotel, reminiscent of the uprisings during UC Berkeley's Free Speech movement. I also enjoy middle-eastern food and was surprised to find several excellent Lebanese restaurants in Merida, which provided relief from the relatively simple Yucatecan cuisine. A fantastic beach at Progresso is just a few km from Merida.

I made side-trips to Dzibilchaltun (for a swim in the Xlacah cenote -- swimming is now discouraged), Chichen Itza, Uxmal (plus Sayil, Kabah, Labna and Xlapak), Cancun (a.k.a. Puerto Juarez, which was then undergoing a major construction boom), Tulum, Coba, and Yaxchilán, along with Isla Mujeres and Cozumel for skin diving. All the major Mayan sites have nearby airports at least 1 km in length. A trip down south down the Atlantic coast took me over the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (including the Arrecifes de Sian Ka'an), the second-longest barrier reef in the world to Chetumal. There wasn't much of interest in the city, but the food was good. I doubt if any area near Chetumal is over 10 meters above sea level, so a storm surge of 4 to 6 meters undoubtedly wreaked a great deal of havoc in the town of about 130,000 souls.