RDA vs Replication

[Jorden Epps]

Hello all,

I've worked through several of the samples provided with SSCE. I like both
the RDA and the REPL samples, but am still a little confused on when it's
best to use one over the other. My impression is that RDA is simpler and
easier, and requires very little if any modifications to the SQL 2K server.
Once the IIS virtual dir is set up, your off and running. The advantage
being if you have several SQL Servers, you can sync your data with them
easily. The one down side I saw is that if you want to refresh the local
database (RDA file) you have to delete and recreate it, and reinforce all
PK-FK links, Default values, etc...

The Repl seemed more powerful, and flexible, but had definite setup
requirements, as well as the fact (if I interpreted it correctly) that you
could only sync (replicate) with that specific SQL Server.

Does anyone have a definitive chart/list the compares and contrasts RDA and
REPL? How about "real world" scenarios when one method would be better than
the other. How about ADOCE vs OLEDB for CE
I'm still learning this stuff, so I'm sure I missed something.

[Kevin Collins]

You have a pretty good assesment there.

The big differences between replication and RDA in terms of fucntionality
are:

1) With RDA you have to write more code as you need to do a seperate method
for each table. Whereas with replication you have one set of methods for
the entire database
2) With RDA you have to use code to add R.I., constraints and indexes. With
replication that all comes for free.
3) With RDA you have to use code to get subsets of data down to the device.
With replication you can setup horizontal dynamic filters to remove that
type of logic from the application and put it on the server. When deploying
lots of devices, this is an easier method of controlling the data going down
to the device.
4) With RDA you have to use code similiar to that in the RDA Northwind
example to manage ranges of IDENTITY values. With replication that comes
for free and woudn't have any application bugs associated with doing it
yourself in code on the device.
5) With RDA, the database will be somewhat smaller than with replication and
the transfers could be faster because less data would be transferred over
the wire.
6) Both RDA and Replication use the same transports going to the IIS server.

The main reason RDA was produced was to allow for data access to version of
SQL Server prior to SQL Server 2K and to people that did not want to setup a
publication.

Hope this gives you some help in differentiation.

"Jorden Epps" <je...@capu.net> wrote in message
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