[Stewmeister]

I have been requested by God (my boss) to investigate using Blackberry as a mobile business solution for our clients.

I have researched into Blackberry today and, as usual, he who must be obeyed wants answers yesterday. My concerns are as follows:

1) Our application must allow users to browse Parts and obtain prices while on site. This must be functional even during times of no connectivity so the solution must allow offline functionality. The parts table can hold up to 70 000 records and i believe the only appropriate form of data storage on Blackberry devices is RMS. Will RMS/Blackberry be an effective solution for applications that must support times of no connectivity and data of this volume???

2) Are there any other data storage/Database platforms available on Blackberry devices that may be applicable to the above scenario???

3) If the answer to either of the questions above is 'Yes', would it be feasible to implement 'Push' technology that updates data stored on each Blackberry device when a Part record is updated on the server? Unlike current Pocket PC implementations which currently require the user to 'check' for any changes in part details, it would be great to 'Push' updated records from the server to the devices whenever a record is changed!!

Apologies for my 'L' plate knowledge of Blackberry development. Any urgent assistance or advice will be rewarded in virtual beer/wine!!!

Steve

[simon.hain]

1) certainly possible, question is: is there enough memory on a BB to store these records? one could try with a 8700 maybe.
2) you have to implement an own solution based on persistent objects. best would be a store logic based on your search parameters as you have to load at least a part of your store into memory
3) push would be possible as well as an automatic update (pull)

feel free to contact me if you are interested to exchange non-virtual beer or equivalents with development work

gs
simon

[Stewmeister]

Thanks for the help Simon.

Will look into device memory specifications and review maximum sizes of each record within the server database.

Will BB device memory used by RMS persist when the device is restarted? What i really need is a permanent data source that does not require populating every time the device is turned on.

With regard to a 'persistent objects' solution, would this still allow a user to perform a whole new search even though they have no database connectivity to the server?? The application i am designing essentially requires search ability against the remote device's local data store (which effectively needs to be the WHOLE Parts table).

Is it possible to store data devices in the form of XML files or am i talking the impossible with regard to Blackberry?? I assume I am (I don't even have a device so someone please throw me a white cane and tell the DJ to crank up "I Just Called To Say I Love You").

I'm heading back to the bar....anyone else having a cold one with Simon and I??

Steve

[JuneK]

Persistant storage implies just that - stays over device restarts.

If the whole DB will fit in memeory, and the app is appropriately coded, you can do offline searches.

Is it possible to store data devices in the form of XML files

If you mean can you store the data as XML - I don't think you can do it natively. As there isn't a lot of memory on these devices, you probably wouldn't want to in any case. A custom DB structure would be more memory efficient.

[Stewmeister]

Thanks for that...looks like I'll be appearing on these forums repetitively over the next few months!! lol

Does anybody have any links to any sample applications/code that can give an example of data storage/retrieval on Blackberry devices??

Many thanks,

Steve

[simon.hain]

there is some example in the pdf-guides you can find on the RIM-website.

a short example code from one of my apps that let you store a few strings:

public String getStore(int id) {
        String[] storeData;
        try {
            synchronized (userStore) {
                storeData = (String[])userStore.getContents();
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            storeData = null;
        }
        if (storeData != null && storeData[id] != null) return storeData[id];
        else return "";
    }
    
    public void setStore(String userData, int id) {
        synchronized (userStore) {
            String[] storeData = (String[])userStore.getContents();
            if (storeData == null || storeData.length != 4) storeData = new String[4];
            storeData[id] = userData;
            userStore.setContents(storeData);
            userStore.commit();
        }
    }