deployment

Good afternoon Bill,

Although you may have already seen them, let me bring the following links to your attention:

• Delivering Applications
  
  
• Walkthrough: Packaging a Smart Device Solution for Deployment 

Kind regards,
Jacques

Good morning Jacques,

Thanks for that!
I now have a CAB file that I can send off for testing and my project is inching along somewhat like the turtle in the great race.

I have more questions but I put them in new posts.

Bill

Hi Jacques,

I have a CAB file which seploys on my device but now I have discovered that it only works well after I have tested the application with VS2008 by deploying/debugging. That process is installing dependencies like SQLCE.wce5 and NETCFv35 and more I believe.

The question is do I have to get the user to install these CABs or can I include them in my CAB somehow. I followed the instructions in the walkthrough above to create my CAB but it seems to miss some of the dependencies.

Bill

Bill,

As a start, let me bring the following MSDN article to your attention as none of our devices come de-facto with SQL components (*):

How to: Install SQL Server Compact 3.5 on a Device

This said, you coud indeed embed CAB files (E.g. the SQL Components) in your application CAB file and add a SETUP.DLL to your cab file that will be in charge of installing the embedded CAB files upon installation exit.

--

(*) We decided not to embed SQL in our OS for several reasons such as – to name a few

• reduce the size of the OS image
• not all customers will use SQL
• let customers install their preferred SQL flavor
  
  E.g.
  SQL CE 2.0,
  SQL CE 3.0,
  Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition,
  Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition...

--

Regards,
Jacques

Thank you.

FYI
It turns out that I had to install ( so far ) these two CABs  NETCFv35.wce.armv4 AND sqlce.wce5.armv4i

I'm OK with doing it separately so all is well.

Bill

For my own information, what pushses you to use CF 3.5 and not stick with CF 2.0 that defacto comes with our WORKABOUT PRO3 Windows CE 5.0 OS?

It is just because that was how I started. So now that you say that I will try my application with 2.0 and see.
Thanks again.

Hi,

I have converted my application to CF 2.0 now and I am happy to report that it runs well when installed with sqlce.wce5.armv4i.
It even runs when it is installed on top of the total recall profile from the previous developer. This is good!

One issue is that when the unit is cold restarted and the recall profile is invoked my application disappears.
How could a user of this profile append my application to it after installing the two CABs?

Also I have been using a 4G SD-MMC Card that I bought yesterday for $5.96 + HST and my database seems to work well on it. More testing will need to be done here. Ultimately some of my users will have fairly large tables to deal with in the application.

Finally when that default profile is in play the connection to windows mobile device centre is extremely slow compared to after a reset back to factory. What could cause that I wonder.

Regards, Bill

Bill

One issue is that when the unit is cold restarted and the recall profile is invoked my application disappears.

Can you please elaborate?
Can you please confirm the Autorestore profile was created after you installed your application and SQL components?
Is your application missing or just its Desktop shortcut icon?

Regards,
Jacques

Yes ... The application gets installed in "Program Files" from the CAB and after the cold reset the folder and exe are gone.

Maybe I should change it so it gets installed on the Flash?

Add your programs and data to the Total Recall profile so they survive a cold boot!