Over the past few months I have been working on firming up some
prototyping work that was discussed on this forum several months ago
(
http://groups.google.com/group/gears-eng/browse_thread/thread/1f643beb7265c842/80555a275f9f3409#80555a275f9f3409
). In brief, I am working on implementing a module to enable secure,
relational synchronization between a MobiLink server, and an UltraLite
relational database running in the browser.
Since I would eventually like to see this module embraced by the broad
Gears project, I would like to solicit some early feedback on the API.
However, I do recognize some aspects of the proposed module may make
it unsuitable for broad adoption in the short term. If that is the
case, we may still pursue releasing a parallel ‘patched’ distribution
of Gears that contains this module (as discussed in the previous
conversations).
In response to the request that we work with the Gears team to ensure
that, “the two versions don’t clobber each other in the wild,” I have
prepared a formal API proposal document. I am currently hosting that
document on my blog at
http://iablog.sybase.com/efarrar/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/uldatabase_proposal.html
. While I am hosting the document at the moment, I would like to add
it to the official Gears wiki alongside the other API proposal
documents.
The purpose of the document is to outline the purpose and APIs of the
proposed ULDatabase module. Since I want to conform to the ‘feel’ of
the other Gear’s modules, I am welcoming any comments or criticisms on
this API, or on the idea as a whole.
I should mention that this document only discusses the APIs of the
proposed module, and does not address the complications of the
coexistence of a parallel distribution. That said, we have spent a
good deal of time looking into the complications of coexistence (using
the feedback from the previous conversation), and are confident that
we have a working solution. We can discuss the coexistence issues in
more detail if it turns out we need to go that route.
Thanks in advance,
Eric Farrar