MSDN Magazine June 2001

Article
10/24/2019

June 2001

SQL Server CE: New Version Lets You Store and Update Data on Handheld Devices

Handheld device users need to be able to synchronize with a main data store when it's convenient and, preferably, when the back-end database server isn't busy. SQL Server 2000 Windows CE Edition allows you to build a traveling data store that can be displayed and run on a variety of devices. SQL Server CE supports a subset of the full SQL Server package, and can be used as a standalone server or in tandem with SWL Server and IIS. The architecture of SQL Server CE, along with data manipulation, synchronization, and connectivity issues, are discussed in this article. Topics such as making your data public, choosing the right type of replication, and handling errors are also covered. Paul Yao and David Durant

Pocket PC: Seamless App Integration with Your Desktop using ActiveSync 3.1

ActiveSync 3.1, AvantGo channels, and Internet Explorer 5.0 Mobile Links allow you to provide content for Pocket PC users over the Internet or company intranet. This article explains how to take advantage of ActiveSync and AvantGo functionality as well as how to extend ActiveSync's data synchronization capabilities by writing a custom service provider for Windows CE. The second part of the article uses eMbedded Visual C++ to develop ActiveX controls for the Pocket PC that work on both the desktop PC and on the Pocket PC platforms. Customizing the Pocket PC's Today screen using a custom Today item is demonstrated. Dino Esposito

FrontPage 2002: Build Database Connectivity and Office XP Collaboration Features Into Your Site

FrontPage 2002 is packed full of improvements and new features, and includes tighter integration with Microsoft Office. The result is that documents created in Word and Microsoft Excel drop right into your Web site. Tools such as the clipboard, context sensitive search, and advanced copy and paste features have been introduced. Improved views and editing features make content creation faster and easier. Enhanced publishing features give you finer control over what is published, and reports detail publishing and usage statistics. There are also many new wizards to help you fly through tasks such as database connection. This article looks at these and other important features you'll want to explore. Marnie Hutcheson

DirectX 8.0: Enhancing Real-Time Character Animation with Matrix Palette Skinning and Vertex Shaders

DirectX 8.0 allows the creation of smooth and realistic character movements that are more life-like than simple articulated structure animations. This is made possible by its improved support for vertex tweening and blended vertex deformations, also known as soft-skinning. After a brief history of the use of these techniques in DirectX, soft-skinning using the fixed function pipeline is discussed. This is followed by the use of matrix palettes from within vertex shaders to create a customized soft-skinning solution that takes advantage of the benefits of vertex shaders, such as hardware acceleration and custom lighting algorithms without the limitations of fixed-function solutions. Benjamin Freidlin

.NET Mobile Web SDK: Build and Test Wireless Web Applications for Phones and PDAs

Cell phones, PDAs, and other wireless devices that connect with the Internet enjoy growing popularity, making wireless applications more important and especially useful to companies with remote employees. This article presents an overview of the .NET Mobile Web SDK for building wireless apps. The technologies and design decisions that influence the development of mobile Web applications are discussed along with specific strategies for setting up a development environment using an emulator and building a real-world mobile Web application. Eric Griffin

WinInet: Enable HTTP Communication in Windows-Based Client Applications

The Internet provides the infrastructure for applications to communicate, and that can include non-UI communication between Win32-based applications. If you think beyond the standard browser usage of HTTP, you can use this protocol to retrieve information from Win32-based applications and save it to a Web server. After explaining how HTTP can be used in this way, this article shows how to use Microsoft SQL Server, ASP, IIS, WinInet, and Visual Basic to implement two examples. The first reports usage data-how often an application is used and by whom. The second monitors application errors and reports error details for use by helpdesk staff or engineers in the debugging process. Todd Meister

Editor's Note: All Your Catchphrase

New Stuff: Resources for Your Developer Toolbox

Theresa W. Carey

Web Q&A: Navigating Backwards, Ditching the Frameset, Referencing XML Nodes, and More

Edited by Nancy Michell

Data Points: Revisiting the Ad-Hoc Data Display Web Application

John Papa

Cutting Edge: DataGrid In-place Editing

Dino Esposito

.NET Column: Delegates, Part 2

Jeffrey Richter

Advanced Basics: Using Inheritance in Windows Forms Applications