Advise to What is the best synchronization way?

Question

I am encharged to build a web/desktop/mobile app for reservations, so obviously everything should be synchronized whenever a reservation is made either by the desktop, the mobile or the web app, I am thinking on using WPF and SILVERLIGHT for the dev, my question is I'm just seeking for advices before I start this up, are there protocols or ways to do the synchronization in WPF? Or would it be better using another language?

Excuse me if my question sounds dumb, the thing is I have never done something with synchronization and I'm seeking for guidenss.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

are there protocols or ways to do the synchronization in WPF?

You can use a Client-Server architecture to handle syncronization between all your clients. The way this can work is you'll have a central server that handles the back-end logic of your buisness (Manages reservations in your example) and the clients act as the front-end applications that show the user data received from the server, let's him manipluate it through a UI, and send it back to the server for further proccessing such as saving the data in the database. If you choose DotNet platforms as your development enviornment, You can use Windows Communication Foundation as your communication framework between your clients and your server.

would it be better using another language?

Your syncronization shouldn't rely on the UI framework you choose to develop your apps on, wether it's WPF, Silverlight or any other framework. It should be a seperate layer (like WCF) that keeps the coupling between your UI and DAL loose.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

Consider Sync Framework. Its like... in the name.

Okay, just got home, so can expand this answer.

Microsoft has an example where by it uses Sync Framework, SQL Server and SQL Server Express on the client, syncing using WCF to transfer ADO.Net DataTables and DataSets.

The important thing to realise about why you WANT to use Sync Framework is that it will handle all of the delta/diff/federation stuff for you. It is possible to have Sync Framework to two way sync your data, whilst only sending the delta across the wire.

Remember, don't reinvent the wheel.