1
Overview

1.1.2.1 Supported Languages

Oracle Lite for Windows CE supports the following languages:

Table 1-1 Supported Languages and Subdirectory Descriptors

1.1.2.2 Supported Chipsets

Oracle Lite for Windows CE supports the following chipsets and form factors:

Table 1-2 Supported Chipsets and Subdirectory Descriptors

1.2.3.1 JDBC

The Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) interface specifies a set of Java classes that provide an ODBC-like interface to SQL databases for Java applications. JDBC, part of the JDK (Java Developer's Kit) core, provides an object interface to relational databases. Oracle Lite database supports JDBC through an Oracle Lite database, Type-2 JDBC driver that interprets the JDBC calls and passes them to Oracle Lite database. The Mobile Development Kit requires JDK version 1.3.1.

For more information see the Oracle_Home\Mobile\SDK\Examples\Java directory.

1.2.3.2 ODBC

Windows CE does not support the ODBC driver manager. To use Oracle Lite database as the database in your Visual C++ ODBC applications, you need to:

• Install Microsoft Embedded Visual Tools 3.0 or Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 and the Windows CE Toolkit for Visual C++.

• Use the compile-time flag -D SQL_NOUNICODEMAP while building your application.

• Link your application with the olod2040.LIB library from the Oracle_Home\Mobile\SDK\wince\platform\Lib directory. (platform is MIPS or SH-3.)

1.2.3.3 Object Kernel API (OKAPI)

OKAPI is the application programming interface (API) to the Oracle Lite object kernel. OKAPI includes support for the following database features:

• run-time class creation and access to class information

• direct object access based on object identity and navigation

• object clustering and grouping

• queries on classes and their subclasses

• object naming and inter-object relationships

• binary large object (BLOB) data

• transaction and crash recovery

For more information, see the Oracle Lite Object Kernel API Reference.

1.2.3.4 Mobile Sync API

This API allows the application to programmatically control the replication process. The application invokes Mobile Sync API functions to initiate the replication process and captures error messages generated by the Mobile Sync API. The Mobile Sync API supports COM, Java, and native C applications. See Section 2.5 for more information.

1.2.3.5 Active Data Objects for CE (ADOCE)

ActiveX Data Objects is a programming interface which enables applications written in high level languages, such as Visual Basic, to access Oracle Lite database functionality. For more information on this development interface, see Chapter 3.

1.3.2.1 Creating a Publication Item Declaratively

This method takes advantage of a part of the Mobile Server called the Packaging Wizard. No programming is required because a publication item is automatically created when publishing the application on to the Mobile Server repository. The developer then needs to execute a synchronization process which automatically creates the mobile database publication item objects such as tables and indices based on the snapshot (data subset) information provided to the Packaging Wizard. This graphical tool is used to package and publish an "application" which contains snapshot definitions into the Mobile Server repository. Mobile Server creates the necessary replication environment to synchronize data even if no application information other than the snapshot has been implemented.

The convenience of a graphical too is a safer and less error prone technique for developers to create mobile database. It requires the following steps to be executed before actual application programming begins:

• Packaging the Application

• Create the Database in the Oracle Database Server

• Publishing the Application into the Mobile Server Repository

• Setting Up Mobile Client

• Deploying Application and Data

The Mobile Server architecture has been designed to allow a centralized server to be used to manage and deploy mobile applications. This documentation provides a step-by-step approach in Chapter 4.

1.3.2.2 Creating the Publication Item Programmatically

The second way to create a database and populate data is to create a publication item programmatically using the Mobile Server Admin API. A publication item includes data replication objects such as publications and subscriptions. A database schema must exist before the Mobile Server Admin API can be invoked. Three basic steps are required to create a distributed database schema:

• Creating a Publication

• Creating a Publication Item

• Create User ID

• Creating a Subscription

Publications are template groups containing metadata such as table subsetting definitions and indexes. You can create publications using the Mobile Server Admin API. This API contains Java functions that implement the publish/subscribe model. You can call the functions in these APIs in Java programs as standard function calls.

A publication item is a SQL select statement that specifies which data subset a client can access. A publication item usually corresponds to a replica table on the client device. You can create publication items using the Mobile Server Admin API. This API contains Java functions that implement the publish/subscribe model. You can call the functions in this API from within Java programs as standard function calls.

Each client is identified by a user ID. For development purposes, a user ID must be created using the Mobile Server Admin API in order to assign data subscriptions to a particular user.

Subscription links a user to a publication. You can create subscriptions using the Mobile Server Admin API. This API contains Java functions that implement the publish/subscribe model. You can call the functions in this API from within Java programs as standard function calls. To create publications and subscriptions using Java, see Section 2.3.