Re: Indirect Sync A97 - Replication Manager

On Sun, 1 Jan 2006 19:55:17 -0500, "Tom Stoddard"
<tomshome@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>> Is it true that Microsoft has now made the files necessary to
>> implement indirect synchronization for A97 public? Does that mean it
>> is no longer necessary to purchase a copy of a Developer's version to
>> legally implement A97 indirect replication? I assume the combination
>> of Microsoft's publicly available files and MichKa's TSI Synchronizer
>> would be used to make indirect replication possible.
>>
>> Yes? No? Maybe? Other?
>>
>I've recently spent some time implementing indirect synchronization in a
>project I'm working on. I wanted to be able to configure my application to
>control synchronization programatically and to support both direct and
>indirect methods. I spent a lot of time experimenting with the TSI
>synchronizer and found that I could do just about everything I wanted to do
>by using it's properties and methods. However, I encountered some problems
>which I was not able to solve which forced me to use JRO and some querying
>of a system table to work around. I'll try to give you a quick overview of
>what I learned.
>
>There are people who have said that indirect synchronization can now be
>accomplished without installing Replication Manager but I have not been able
>to do that with Jet 4.0. The reason this is being said is that there is an
>update to replication manager which includes the jet synchronizer
>(mstran40.exe). It's true that if you download the service pack,
>jet40repl.exe, and install it, you will have a directory on your computer
>which will include the synchronizer. You can even start and stop it by
>double clicking on the file itself in windows explorer. You might be able to
>use the synchronizer with JRO at this point but you will not be able to
>control it using the TSI Synchronizer. I should explain that JRO has a
>method for initiating indirect syncrhonization which I do use but I never
>tried using it before I installed Replication Manager. That's why I said the
>JRO might work. However, before you can use the JRO method you need to set
>up a drop box on your computer. The easiest way I've found to do this is by
>using the TSI Synchronizer. I believe, however, that all that it does is to
>set a registry setting in the Transporter key under the jet 4.0 key. I have
>never tried to set this manually so I don't know if that is all that is
>needed or not. You would also need to make sure the synchronizer is running
>before you try to do indirect synchronization. The TSI object has a way of
>doing this, JRO does not.
>
>I tried installing the service pack alone without having Replicaton Manager
>installed and here's what happened: The TSI synchronizer object has a
>property called "running" which when set to true will start the jet
>synchronizer and when set to false will stop the jet synchronizer. The jet
>sychronizer must be running in order for an indirect sychronization to
>succeed whether you initiate the syncrhonization with the TSI Synchronizer,
>JRO or even Replication Manager. With only the service pack installed, when
>I try to execute the line of code "sync.running = True" I get an error
>stating that the synchronizer could not be found. As soon as I install
>Replication Manager I can run the same code with no error and the jet
>sychronizer starts and stops on command. I can't figure out what Replication
>Manager does to enable the TSI Synchronizer to be able to find the jet
>synchronizer. I tried adding a Replication Manager key to the registry
>manually and putting a SynchronizerPath key in it with a path to the jet
>synchronizer file but that didn't work. When I install Replication Manager
>it does exactly that and the TSI object begins to work. This tells me that
>something else is being done when Replication Manger is installed. I don't
>know if that something else is the installation of a file or the
>registration of a dll or a registry key or something else. All I know is
>that the TSI synchronizer can start and stop the jet synchronizer once
>Replication Manager is installed.
>
>Now for the next problem I encountered. After installing Replication Manager
>I could then synchronize indirectly by using the "synchindirect2" method of
>the TSI Synchronizer object. There are two methods available, one is
>"synchindirect" the other is "synchindirect2". The difference is explained
>in the help file. Basically I needed to use 2 because I wanted to be able to
>let the user know whether or not the synchronization succeeded and I also
>wanted to know when it was safe to stop the jet synchronizer from running.
>The synchindirect2 method returns an ExchangeID which can be used to get a
>HistoryItem object which has a status property which will let you know what
>the current status of the synchronization attempt is. I got everything to
>work flawlessly by using a timer event in the form I use to perform the
>synchronization. In the timer event I would check the HistoryItem.status
>every second until it returned either success, failure or cancel at which
>time I would report that to the user and stop the jet synchronizer from
>running by using the TSI Synchronizer object. I thought I was finished but
>then I decided that I would use the same form to enable the user to compact
>and repair the back end database as well as perform the synchroniztion. I
>discovered that when I attempted to compact the database after using the TSI
>Synchronizer object to do an indirect synchronization that I would get an
>error. For some reason, after the synchronization, an ldb file is left in
>the database directory which indicates that the database is opened by
>another user and this prevents me from being able to compact and repair the
>database. The only way I could get the ldb file to disappear was to close my
>front end application and then reopen it.
>
>My solution to this problem was to use JRO instead of TSI to initiate the
>indirect synchronization. I still use TSI to configure the settings I need
>such as the drop box folder and the databases which the synchronizer is
>managing and I still start and stop the jet synchronizer by setting the TSI
>running property. I only use JRO to do the actual synchronization. When I do
>this, the ldb file disappears as soon as the synchronizer is stopped. Don't
>ask me why, it just works. However, now that I'm using JRO in can't use TSI
>to get the ExhangeID so that I can track the status of the synchronization.
>Instead, I studied the MSysExchangeLog system table and found that I could
>query it and get the same information the the TSI HistoryItem gave me
>before. So now I query the MSysExchangeLog table of the database I'm
>synchronizing immediately after initiating the synchronization to get the
>ExchangeID and then I query it repeatedly in my timer event to check on the
>status until the status indicates that the synchronization is complete.
>
>This has been a long tedious process.

Your description is much appreciated. Thanks you. I'm sure it will
be useful to me as I try to do the same with A97.

Has anybody had any luck with A97 using TSI Synchronizer but no
Replication Manager? Mr. Fenton says that he "thinks" it is doable,
but does not offer specific experience because, I think, he has been
successful with other methods.

Thank you.

I Need Help

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Dropbox Declaration for indirect synchronize.
    ... JET without Replication Manager? ... After we set up the server and create the replica, then, we ... indirect dropbox property in the TSI Synchronizer. ... The registry key will be set, or you can query the TSI Synchronizer ...
    (microsoft.public.access.replication)
  • TSI Synchronizer Error
    ... I have the TSI Synchronizer installed on two different machines at home and ... installed the jet synchronizer which I downloaded from microsoft. ... when I try to run it by using the TSI synchronizer object I get an error ... transporter keys just as if replication manager had done it. ...
    (microsoft.public.access.replication)
  • Re: TSI Synchronizer Error
    ... remote synchronizer can't find the local machine's synchronizer. ... the dropbox locations through replication manager configuration at ... IndirectDropboxPwd property of the TSI synchronizer object. ...
    (microsoft.public.access.replication)
  • Re: Testing Connection
    ... >>> I have code that initiates an indirect synchronization using the ... > What if I can't be sure of the dropbox location? ... machine can have only one synchronizer running at a time and no ... synchronizer can have more than one dropbox, I don't see any reason ...
    (microsoft.public.access.replication)
  • Re: Indirect Sync A97 - Replication Manager
    ... You only need the mstran file for indirect synchronization, ... >The real test is whether or not the TSI Synchronizer object is able to ... >control the Jet Synchronizer. ... I was never able to get this to work without having Replication Manager ...
    (microsoft.public.access.replication)