text:
The evolution of the virtual chalkboard has accelerated as demand has increased for the convenient, learn-at-your-own-pace access to continuing education units, new technologies and methods, industry-specific degrees, and more. Online curricula are expanding with developments in all sectors of the electrical industry. There's always a rush for license renewal coursework and new Code content, such as significant triennial changes to the National Electrical Code (NEC). Green-oriented techniques and alternative-energy creation and distribution also are broadening the development of coursework and tools. Educational programming experts say it's not just electrical contractors and apprentices pursuing online options. Demand also is increasing for the supplier network that positions the Internet as the ultimate platform for delivering manufacturers' product training and other complex information.
Growing into its own
According to the United States Distance Learning Association, online education has significantly increased, with more than 96 percent of the nation's colleges and universities currently offering online learning opportunities. The number of students engaged in online learning is expected to exceed 2.6 million. A recent U.S. Department of Education evaluation of evidence-based practices in online learning found that, on average, students using a combination of face-to-face and online learning performed better than those only receiving face-to-face instruction.
The energy industry has quickly connected with online solutions to maintain and attract a technical work force. The Energy Providers Coalition for Education (EPCE), a signature initiative of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), is a national alliance that has expanded beyond standard job training to provide online programs that are contextualized, credit-bearing courses leading to certificates, associate's, bachelor's, and master's degrees for industry career paths in electric utilities and nuclear power.
"Unlike what's available through other online adult education providers, our online education is built by the industry for the industry and is geared specifically for technical careers in the energy industry," said Christine Carpenter, EPCE director at CAEL.
Representing more than two-thirds of the energy and utility industry, EPCE's joint efforts develop and sponsor online curriculum with qualified accredited high schools and colleges and universities, such as Bismarck State College, Clemson University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Like many online ventures, EPCE's success correlates directly to student engagement and highly interactive content that features educational animations, simulations, innovative web labs, discussion forums and threaded dialogue posts.
"At the undergrad level, it's a little more difficult to make online programs effective, but for practitioners who are trying to add to their skillsets or get new knowledge, I think it's very effective and can provide instructor feedback," said Tom Korman, associate professor of construction management at California Polytechnic State University where administrators recently established a master of science (M.S.) degree program in fire protection engineering (FPE) offered both on campus and online.
Additionally, online learning enables the educator to assess student progress in real-time.
"Its diagnostics and other capabilities provide a more efficient, almost programmatic, personalized learning solution that allows for more time to focus on lab and hands-on work versus sitting in a classroom," Greg Clayton, vice president of the technology professional business unit with Delmar, part of Cengage Learning.
Geographical limitations have always been a driving force behind online education for contractors, said Greg Mankevich, executive director for the National Electrical Contractors Association's (NECA) Management Education Institute (MEI).
"Our courses are sponsored by chapters, and some geographic areas can't get enough students to attend a live course," he said. "Online provides another avenue for that learning."
Using online resources, MEI has partnered with BlueVolt, a learning and management system, to create and launch several courses, including Contractor 101, which covers the fundamentals of electrical contracting and the organization of contractor business and management operations.
The methodology that Mankevich believes was born out of necessity is gaining momentum, despite an industry dynamic where training is often an afterthought in good economic times and a budget reduction in tough economies.
"ECs can get less expensive online training, and it can be done at their convenience, as opposed to a specific time where you have to be away," Mankevich said.
Blended learning bridges gaps
Don't look for online learning to replace traditional bricks and mortar for electricians anytime soon. Developmental costs are expensive, and courses can be tricky to test market.
"If a live seminar doesn't do well, upfront costs are minor. If online doesn't do well, you've already made a significant investment. The whole idea behind the online situation for us is that it supplements the live courses," Mankevich said.
Those factors have given rise to the trend of "blended learning." A hybrid that marries face-to-face instruction with online components, blended learning helps students with content through more than one learning style, said Lisa Bordeaux, BlueVolt director of sales and business development.
"With a blended approach, students are actually more prepared when they come in, and their ability to build on that baseline is significantly improved," Bordeaux said.
Bordeaux and Mankevich applied the theory with MEI's basic estimating course using online techniques to condense class instruction by four hours.
"We put together an online introduction covering the Manual of Labor Units. Now everyone starts at the same level knowing background information and definitions going into the live course," Bordeaux said.
Cengage Learning created a web portal, www.informationdestination.com, to provide blended learning applications and tools specifically for the construction industry.
"The blended learning approach breaches the fear that some educators and industry leaders have about making a big change to online. It's considered risky to change from a tried-and-true method of education to something that is very different but potentially a lot better." Clayton said.
Clayton pointed out that an increased emphasis on blended learning is possible partly because of the customer.
"Today's customers are not the same type of students we saw coming into the industry roughly 20 to 25 years ago. These students were born in the information age, and they're accustomed to working with technology. It's not as big of a jump for them as it is for the educators," he said.
The National Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (NJATC) also is recognizing that delivering learning content to electronic devices is second nature to new International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and NECA students.
"We know this is a generation that is growing up with gaming, and they may not even do homework on a laptop or desktop. It might be on their phones," said Bill Ball, NJATC director of inside curriculum and electronic media for learning management systems (LMS).
Ball and NJATC officials studied available research and identified that blended learning could have significant impact for its nearly 40,000 apprentices in 285 training centers nationwide. In addition to the typical online courses, NJATC LMS will include enhanced interactive exercises, animated real- world training called academies, and various training calendars displaying student schedules, local training events and educational opportunities from training partners, such as Klein Tools, Milwaukee Tools, Thomas & Betts, Fluke Corp. and Lutron.
Traditional classes and hardcopy textbooks are accompanied by the opportunity to do homework online for the first time in five decades. Corporate training partners are helping facilitate the new instructional design that will electronically convert approximately 19,000 questions from the roughly 50 workbooks an apprentice will use in five years.
"Online is going to flatten our world. It will allow apprentices to learn from each other through other efforts like chatworlds, virtual tutoring and epublications," Ball said, adding that the method will allow students to experience blended learning features with LMSs, including trackable assessments and social learning enhancements.
Other Online and On-Site Training Modules
Contractors can also seek out online training modules from a number of manufacturers and distributors. Here are a couple of examples.
Graybar and Schneider Electric offer online e-learning courses that are available anytime, anywhere. Attendees receive expert instruction, directly from the manufacturer, ensuring accurate, up-to-date materials. Courses are available on electrical distribution equipment, arc flash, NFPA 70E, electrical safety, PLCs, drives, communications, power management and more (http://schneider-electric.syberworks.com/graybar/index.htm).
Another site is https://www.gelearningcentral.com, where users can gain knowledge in several areas. It's a one-stop shop for professional and technical skills development. Industry professionals can access continuing education courses on-site at the GE Lighting & Electrical Institute, through requested CEU programs, and online. Learning Central offers a wide variety of free e-learning courses that you can take online, including circuit breaker basics, value selling and switchboard basics.
A contractor's perspective
There's no argument among online learning providers that blending virtual material with class and lab work that offers live interaction and hands-on training is still needed in construction trades. Wilson Construction Co., an outside line contractor specializing in pole, transmission and switchyard work, partners with BlueVolt to develop employee orientation, wellness and corporate aircraft etiquette training along with energy distribution skills programs.
"You can complete a lot of forklift modules in the online series, but you really need to drive the forklift. We also do poletop rescue training, and you obviously can't do that completely online," Wilson said.
Safety content has been a natural fit for the Portland, Ore.-based firm. When company officials determined that half of their recordable safety occurrences were attributed to employees under one year of service, it established a consistent new-hire safety initiative.
"We can see our incident and accident occurrences going down which is a dollar-saver in terms of worker compensation and lost-time days over the last two years," Wilson said.
Delivery options mushroom
With no one-size-fits-all learning solution, it is anticipated that the use of database-oriented applications will continue to stretch online content delivery.
"The other piece that's becoming popular with practitioners is the use of online tools and tablet technology on the job site. We're seeing a new market developing, and it's starting to mushroom as the hardware makes information more accessible," Clayton said.
Wilson Construction is exploring the option of supplying foremen with smart phones.
"We're looking at possibly pushing a safety question of the day to cell phones in the morning as a way to interact and learn daily," Wilson said.
BlueVolt's Bordeaux and staff are bullish on game-based and mobile platforms.
"The modality for training is evolving. Learning from other people through some sort of social environment using today's devices and being able to share your experiences are more technologies that we see on the horizon," she said.
MCCLUNG, owner of Woodland Communications, is a construction writer from Iowa. She can be reached at email@example.com.
Some Online Learning Resources
California Polytechnic State University—fpe.calpoly.edu
Cengage Learning—www.informationdestination.com
EPCE/Council for Adult and Experiential Learning—www.cael.org


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The Accounting Historians Journal Vol. 9, No. 1 Spring 1982 John Freear UNIVERSITY OF KENT AT CANTERBURY THE FINAL EXAMINATIONS OF THE INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS IN ENGLAND AND WALES, 1882-1981 Abstract: This study considers the final examinations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, from 1882-1981. Discussion of the likely pur-poses of the examinations, and of possible ways of assessing their efficiency, is followed by a review of the final examination structures from 1882 onwards. Final-ly, material on the achieved pass rates is presented. The structural changes illus-trate some shift in emphasis from bookkeeping and law towards managerial ac-counting and economics, taxation, and systems and data processing. Pass rates have declined from around 60 percent to around 40 percent over the period, though not evenly. Introduction This study stems from a project carried out for the Research Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (henceforth the Institute). Most of the work was done in 1977 and 1978, although there have been subsequent additions to the data on examination results to bring them through 1980. The In-stitute was granted a Royal Charter in May 1880, and held its first examinations for admission in 1882. This study is confined to the final examinations of the Institute from 1882 to 1981, and has four aims. First, it considers what might be the purposes of Institute examinations. Second, it indicates some of the problems arising from attempts to appraise its success or failure in achieving those purposes. Third, it outlines and seeks to explain the principal structural changes that have occurred in Institute final examinations from 1882 to 1981. Fourth, it reviews the final examination pass rates over the period 1882 to 1980. As mentioned, this study concentrates on the final examinations of the Institute, which represent its central examining function. However, it should be mentioned that the In-stitute has held preliminary, intermediate and post-qualifying exami-nations for varying periods since 1882. Throughout the history of the Institute, professional training has been based on apprenticeship, known first as articles of clerkship

subset: commoncrawl


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Happy Friday! It's the end of the week. You're tired from a long week of work/school. We're REALLY tired from running around the biggest technology show in the world. Let's kill some time until the end of the day.
Sure, some of what we saw out in Las Vegas will turn out to be vapor, but that doesn't make it less awesome. The whole Giz staff will be hanging around in the discussion below prepared to talk about CES—or about whatever you guys want.


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Rob T needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
2 winners were selected from 56 designs submitted by 21 freelance designers.
We need two new logos for a couple of our sites which are being completely redesigned. The first site is FreeWii.com, which is an incentive-based website that gives away Nintendo Wii consoles, games, and accessories. The second logo will be for QuikPrizes.com, which we are currently in the process of launching.
QuikPrizes and FreeWii
Desired Color Scheme:
open to ideas on color, need both white/black backgrounds, FreeWii logo should use a similar blue/white color scheme as the device
Desired Style:
See description for style info.
Accepted File Formats:
png, psd, gif, jpg and as many other formats as you can provide it in.
QuikPrizes.com will be our incentive site network, similar to FreePay. Most of our other freebie sites will be branded as "QuickPrizes" sites. FreeWii will be part of the QuikPrizes network, but due to it's branding potential, we want it to have a separate logo/design that is unique to the site, but matches with the rest of the QuikPrizes network.
The QuikPrizes logo should signify the two parts of it's name - we give away free prizes, and we do it Quick! This logo should be clean, use bold colors, and should look good on a black or white background, both of which are needed. Please plan to provide the logo in as many file formats as possible (png, psd, gif, jpg, etc). I would like the original to be high-res, approx. 1200 x 300 pixels or larger. Exact dimensions are not terribly important, but it should be a long rectangle.
The FreeWii logo will need to be themed similarly to the QuickPrizes logo, but customized for the FreeWii.com site. We have not yet begun the redesign of this site, so we will likely redesign the site around the colors and theme of the logo. I'd like this logo to incoporate some 'Wii' colors - primarily White and light blue (see current site for ideas), but feel free to use other colors as well. We will want the dimensions and resolution of the logo graphic for FreeWii to be roughly the same as the specs for QuikPrizes given above.
I'm also considering having a third graphic created that will link FreeWii with QuikPrizes - i.e. 'FreeWii - a member of the QuikPrizes Network' or something like that that would be displayed elsewhere on the page - submissions including that third graphic incorporating will be given more consideration, since it will take more work off my back when we are incorporating the rest of the designs.
Thanks, and Good Luck!
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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"What are you waiting for?" That's the question asked by long-time land bull Murray Wise, president of Murray Wise Associates, Inc., in his latest blog/email posting. We thought his points are enlightening and, therefore, we share them below:
Three or four years ago, people began to suggest that farmland prices were getting too high for their taste. Some suggested that "maybe I'll wait and get them at a lower price later."
This week, a co-worker asked if any of those people had succeeded in buying at a lower price. I couldn't think of any. Some came back later and bought land at a price that was higher than the price they said was too high. The rest are still waiting. So it's worthwhile to ask what it will take to bring back the prices they missed.
Let's do the math. We'll use Iowa's Farmland Value Survey, just for illustration purposes, since Iowa State's University Extension and Outreach Land Values Survey gives us data going back several decades. In Iowa, prices have risen every year except one since 1999. (The one exception was 2009, when the average price per acre declined 2.2%.)
So let's picture a fellow who got interested in farmland in 2009, when land in the average county was selling at $4,371 per acre. (I actually know a number of such "fellows," but we'll talk about one just to keep it simple.) Then he watches it rise to $5,064.
"Too much, too fast," he says. "I'll get it when the price backs off a bit." So he waits, and a year later it's at $6,708. He remembers that $4,371 price and decides to wait a bit longer. Fast forward to the latest average price in the survey: $8,296 (with high-quality land significantly higher). Still waiting.
So what's it going to take to get back to that level? Prices will pretty much have to drop by half. That hasn't happened since the 1980s, when we had a combination of inflation, record interest rates and a soybean embargo that created a "perfect storm." But for all of our problems today, there's no reason to expect anything similar.
Beyond that, farmland values have been remarkably resilient through turbulent markets that hammered every other investment class. Remember what happened to the stock markets after the 9/11 attacks? Iowa farmland increased by a nice 3.7% for 2001 and 8.2% in 2002. It took the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression to produce the piddling 2.2% loss in 2009 (mentioned earlier).
So friends are waiting on a price that isn't coming back. Maybe they have their money under the mattress, or sitting in CD's at 1.5%. Or they're taking their chances in the stock, bond and commodity markets.
Will 2013 repeat the 23.7% increase we saw on Iowa farmland in 2012? Probably not, though anybody who's looking for that kind of quick profit doesn't need to be buying farmland anyway.
But it's even more unlikely that we'll see a return to the prices of five years ago. If you're waiting for those, you may as well stop looking. On the other hand, I think farmland continues to be a great investment at the current price levels, and those who buy today will enjoy solid returns and stability for years to come.
Commentary from Murray Wise, Murray Wise Associates, LLC, Champaign, Illinois.
If interested in seeing a copy of LandOwner, just drop me an email at [email protected] or call 800-772-0023.


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About Me
I simply enjoy learning new things and believe knowledge is power. I recently picked up on Java about a month ago. I like giving back to people that help me out, so I figured why not write a tutorial for people while I am still a noob at the language. Maybe my prospective of it at a noob level will help people starting off in Java. So here is my first tutorial of many provided to this community.
In this tutorial we will start with the basics of Java, to hopefully help guide you through the stepping stones of doing useful things with Java.
Tutorial Index:
- Java and the Computer
- First Program and its Structures
- Common Variable Types
- Assignment of Variables
- Basic Operators
- String Concatenation(+)
- Your First Problem
Java and the Computer
In this picture you will get a basic understanding of how information is processed. On the left we have all the inputs to the computer, which stores it into memory to be processed by the Central Processing Unit(CPU), the information is then put out to some kind of output which you see a list of on the left.
The CPU reads instructions differently then we do. When we add numbers together we thing x + y = z, but this is how the CPU will process that information:
//z = x + y //Read location x //Read location y //Add //Write to location Z
This is important to remember because it will be the building blocks to how you will be assigning things in your programs.
Programming languages are easier to understand than the language the CPU reads. This is why we create the languages, but in the end all the languages we use has to be translated so the CPU can understand them.So why Java you ask?
- "Most Popular" language
- Runs on a "Virtual Machine" (JVM)
- More Complex then some (eg. Python)
- Simpler than others (eg. C++)
The image above shows how Java is compiled. You first write your Java code to a text editor, and it gets saved as a .java source code file.This source code is then compiled by a Java compiler, and saved as byte-codes also known as a .class file. It is then pasted through the JVM to the operating system you are currently running.
The way Java does this is what makes it popular. You do not have to write a different code for every operating system on the market. One code will work for any operating system since it is ran through the JVM.
Now that we have the boring parts down let us leap into the first program almost everyone writes and its structures!
First Program and its Structures
Hello World!...This has become the universal program for every programmer to start at. Almost every tutorial you find has you start with this program...and so shall I but with a little twist. />
class Hello{ public static void main(String[] args){ //Program executes here System.out.println("Hello D.I.C's!"); } }
Copy this and run it, you should get an output on your console like:
Hello D.I.C's!
No offense to anyone here />
Let's look deeper into the structure of this program:
class CLASSNAME{ public static void main(String[] args){ STATEMENTS } }
Simple enough right? So the CLASSNAME in our program was Hello, and the STATEMENTS we chose to do was print a message to the system.
So lets look at outputs and get some more sense on what we just accomplished.
System.out.println(some string); outputs to the console
Make sense? Ok then let's move onto Variables.
Common Variable Types
A variable is how we store data we want saved into the memory to be processed.
boolean: True value. (True and Fasle)
int: Integer. (0, 1, -47)
double: Real Numbers. (3.14, 1.0, -2.0)
String: Text. ("hello", "Example")
These are the basic variable types you will be using throughout most of your programs. If you are interested in learning the other types simply Google for them and you will find a list of all types available to you in Java.
Assignment of Variables
So now that you know the variable types, let me show you how you assign them a value to be used inside your program. When you assign a value to a variable, it will call the variable and pull the value you stored in the memory for that variable.
A variable is a named location that stores a value of ONE particular type.
String foo; //String is the type foo is the name you created.
Use = to give variable a value.
String foo; foo = "IAP 6.092"; //So you assign type String to foo, the assign it the string value IAP 6.092
You can also combine a variable with the declaration(the foo = "IAP 6.092 above").
double badPI = 3.14; boolean isJanuary = true;
So in this program as an example:
class Hello{ public static void main(String[] arg){ String foo = "IAP 6.092"; System.out.println(foo); foo = "Something Different"; System.out.println(foo);
So here you would get:
Something Different
As your output.
Ok so we have done a lot of reading so we will keep this one simple. Operators are symbols that help perform arithmetic of variables. Here are the operators you can use:
Assignment: =
Addition: +
Subtraction: -
Multiplication: *
Division: /
Order of Operations is simple if you have taken any basic math classes(which I assume you have if you are getting into this stuff).
Follows standard math rules:
- Parenthesis
- Multiplication and Division
- Addition and Subtraction
Make sure to follow these rules or you will get a logical error in your calculations. This means you will not receive an error when run, but you will not get the output you are looking for. These errors are the hardest to find.
This is an example of operators in java:
class doMath{ public static void main(String[] arg){ double score = 1.0 + 2.0 * 3.0; System.out.println(score); score = score/2.0; System.out.println(score); } }
The output of this would be:
String Concatenation(+)
This involves adding string together. It is fairly simple here are some examples
String text = "Hello " + "D.I.C's!"; //Hello D.I.C's! text = text + "Community" + 6; //Hello D.I.C's! Community 6
Simple right? Ok so I think you know enough now to work out your first assignment.
Gravity Calculator: Compute the position of a falling object x(t) = 0.5 * a(t2) + Vi(t) + xi
a Acceleration(m/s2) value = -9.81
t Time (s) value = 10
vi initial velocity (m/s) value = 0
xi initial position value = 0
t Time (s) value = 10
vi initial velocity (m/s) value = 0
xi initial position value = 0
Modify the given code to compute the postion of an object falling for 10 seconds , outputting the position in meters.
class GravityCalculator { public static void main(String[] arguments) { double gravity = -9.81; // Earth's gravity in m/s^2 double initialVelocity = 0.0; double fallingTime = 10.0; double initialPosition = 0.0; double finalPosition = 0.0; System.out.println("The object's position after " + fallingTime + " seconds is " + finalPosition + " m."); } }
Hint: the correct value is -490.5 m. Java may output more digits after the decimal depending on how you are compiling it, but that is not important right now.
Answer is provided below. Good luck and I hope this tutorial has helped you.
This post has been edited by cronus8992: 13 November 2013 - 03:49 PM


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Data Storage Architecture with SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition
Brian Noyes
IDesign, Inc.
March 2007
**Technical Reviewers
**Sitaram Raju, Sachin Sinha
Microsoft Corp.
Applies To:
SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition
Data Storage Architecture
Summary: SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (SSCE) provides a powerful yet lightweight data storage engine for building a variety of application types. This paper introduces data storage concerns for client applications and small-scale server applications. It discusses the feature set of SSCE and how that feature set addresses data storage concerns. It covers different application architectures where SSCE might be a good fit, highlighting the attributes of the application types and how SSCE can meet the requirements for each application type. (17 printed pages)
Click here to download the Word document version of this article, DataArchSSCE.doc.
Data Storage Challenges
Data Storage Overview
Data Storage Applications
Data Storage Options
SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Overview
Architecting Solutions with SSCE
Selecting the right data storage architecture for your applications can be a daunting task. The number of choices for a data storage technology is large and growing every day. The data storage technology you select depends on a number of factors. You must analyze tradeoffs between platform requirements, size, performance, ease of deployment, ease of data access, and data store capabilities.
For server applications servicing large numbers of users, the choice is clear: use SQL Server 2005. Which server-based edition of SQL Server 2005 you use depends on the scale and focus of your application, but the feature list makes it fairly easy to decide which version you need. Furthermore, changing versions is a simple licensing decision and usually does not require an architecture change.
For client-side applications or small-scale server applications, selecting a data storage technology is a little more challenging. For client applications, it does not make sense to put a full scale instance of SQL Server 2005 on each client computer because of cost, complexity, platform requirements, and a number of other factors. For small-scale server applications, the extra horsepower of SQL Server 2005 may not be needed, and the licensing cost may be prohibitive for small projects. For mobile device applications, a full version of SQL Server is not supported by the platform.
This white paper discusses data storage architecture challenges, scenarios, and solutions using the new SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (SSCE). It covers the similarities and differences between SSCE, other SQL Server 2005 editions, and other relational database technologies, including the EDB embedded database engine on mobile devices.
Data Storage Challenges
For either client application or small-scale server applications, you need to address a number of data storage challenges:
- Data storage location. If you are building a distributed client application and can afford to store your data on a back-end server and retrieve the data over the network, you can just use SQL Server 2005 on the server. If you are building a mobile device or client application, you will likely need a local data store on the client to cache data when you are offline. You may also need to cache on the client to avoid retrieving large datasets, such as a product catalog, repeatedly over the network. For client applications, the data may only be needed locally, in which case storing on a back-end server does not make sense.
- Ease of data access. Productivity is a very important part of getting applications to market on time and in budget. Your data storage technology should make it very easy to read and write data from your storage location.
- Ease of querying. A robust data storage technology enables you to easily search for and select individual records or collections of records, and do so quickly.
- Ability to synchronize data stores. For mobile client applications, the offline data stored locally must be synchronized with back-end data stores. Writing synchronization mechanisms from scratch is error prone and time consuming. The data storage technology should support synchronizing multiple data stores.
- Security. Particularly in the case of mobile devices or portable client computers, security is very important in terms of protecting the data when it is stored so that, if the computer is stolen, the data is inaccessible to an unauthorized user. Also, when you synchronize the data, there must be protection for the data in transit.
- Data integrity. When you read and write data from your store, you need to be sure the data is stored consistently and that no data corruption occurs. Transactional data stores provide mechanisms for ensuring this, and should be favored over non-transactional data stores.
- Ease of deployment. For client applications, a lightweight footprint and easy installation process is critical for supportability and maintainability. The configuration required in the client application should also be minimized to tie the application to the data store.
Data Storage Overview
A range of options are available for data storage. Not long ago, many applications serialized data in proprietary formats to flat files on disk. XML provides a more structured and easy-to-consume way of storing arbitrary data in files, but does not address many of the challenges described in the previous section. Relational database technologies are really the only widely available data storage technology to address the full range of challenges needed for robust data storage.
Even once you have narrowed your focus to database technologies, there are a number of options available. You need to use other criteria to select the appropriate technology, and select the right database technology based on the way each option addresses the challenges discussed in the previous section. In addition, you need to consider whether the database will run as a single-user client database or a multi-user server database.
In client applications, you should narrow your focus to one of two options, depending on whether it is a desktop application or a mobile device application. For desktop applications (running on a desktop workstation, laptop, or Tablet PC), focus on SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (SSCE) or SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SSE). For mobile devices running Microsoft Windows CE or Mobile operating systems, you can choose between SSCE or the EDB embedded database engine.
For a number of reasons discussed in more detail later in this white paper, SSCE provides a great and easy-to-use solution for most client business applications. SSE is only needed for specialized client-side applications, but makes a great choice for small-scale server applications that support moderate user loading, and that need a more robust and scalable architecture. EDB may be a good choice if you need native support on the device and are concerned about the disk and memory impact of installing SSCE on the device, but you will have to weigh this against the greater productivity and features of SSCE.
For small-scale server-side applications and caching needs, either SSCE or SSE may be appropriate. For a Web application that has any potential to grow and scale in the future, SSE is a better option because it supports a wider range of capabilities as compared to SSCE.
Data Storage Applications
Applications come in many shapes and sizes. As mentioned earlier, large-scale server applications really need the SQL Server 2005 Workgroup, Standard, or Enterprise editions and are not the focus of this white paper. For client applications and small-scale server applications, you can categorize applications into a number of application types. These types include:
- Field force applications. These are client applications used by mobile workers in the field. These applications typically run on portable computers or Tablet PCs, but may also run on mobile devices. They provide interactive data presentation and interaction for working with distributed customers or equipment.
- Personal information management (PIM) applications. These are client applications used to store and access collections of information items, such as contacts, schedules, tasks, notes, and so on. They can run on desktops, portable computers, or mobile client devices, but more and more these types of applications are being developed for low-footprint installation on mobile devices.
- Small-scale Web applications. These are simple Web presence client applications for presenting dynamic information over the Web to a small audience of users. Examples might be small companies, community and nonprofit organizations, or clubs. These require that a Web server be exposed, but could potentially be run from a desktop operating system such as Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional.
- Caching applications. Whether or not a client application is designed to work offline, it usually does not make sense to make a full roundtrip to the database every time you need to obtain lookup information such as city, state, postal code, product catalog listings, and so on. Implementing a client data cache can provide significant performance improvements for presenting lists or searching in lookup tables that change infrequently. Additionally, some applications may be designed with a distributed architecture involving smart client, mobile device, or Web client applications that communicate with a centralized back-end application server. The application server may need to cache data locally to avoid roundtrips to the database server. The need to cache data on the local machine does not warrant the purchase or overhead of installing a full instance of SQL Server locally on the application server.
Data Storage Options
To make good architecture decisions, approach the solution objectively with a good understanding of the available options. For the data storage needs of your architecture, there are a number of options to examine. Again, this paper focuses on client-side and small-scale server data storage. For these parts of your architecture, your primary options are file storage, EDB, SSCE, and SSE. To make the right selection, you must examine the capabilities and limitations of each choice, and weigh them against your requirements.
Flat or XML Files
Using flat files or XML files may seem attractive on the surface from a simplicity standpoint: most developers already know how to use Microsoft .NET or XML serialization to read and write data from files, or can use the capabilities of a dataset to read and write it as XML from a file. However, files have problems in terms of consistency and reliability. If an application is interrupted or shuts down without properly completing I/O operations and closing the file, the contained data can be corrupt and the file lock may prevent the application from behaving properly. These problems can be solved through disciplined coding and error handling, but achieving that removes the simplicity that initially made flat files attractive.
There is also no inherent ability to query files, and you generally must read all or most of the file into memory data structures to make the data usable. As a result, flat files and XML files are not appropriate for data that will be queried, read, and written throughout the execution of the application. For simple data such as configuration settings and preferences, XML configuration files are appropriate. It may also be preferable to store large documents and files as flat files with metadata in the database, depending on the access patterns. But most random access read/write data for your applications should be stored and accessed through a database engine.
The EDB embedded database engine is a native part of the Windows CE 5.x, 6.x, and Mobile 6.x operating systems. EDB is a simple relational data engine that allows you to store tabular data with a limited type system and limited query capabilities. EDB is an attractive option when you want a capability that is native on a device or that can be installed with a minimum footprint and overhead on the device. EDB can be faster than SSCE for certain kinds of simple data retrieval, but may also be slower if complex query operations are needed. One of the biggest downsides to using EDB is that you only have access to it by using a low-level API in Microsoft Visual C++. If you are writing your application by using the .NET Compact Framework to realize the productivity benefits associated with managed code development, you must write a separate data access component that works with the EDB database using C++, and then you need to interoperate with that component from your managed code. The complexity this introduces likely outweighs the benefits of using EDB. Only if you are already writing your application with embedded C++ and are focused on minimizing your footprint and maximizing performance of the application will you want to consider EDB.
SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (SSCE)
SSCE is a lightweight (< 2 MB), free relational database engine that can be installed on any current Windows operating system. Because SSCE is the primary focus of this white paper, the full feature set is described in a later section. At a high level, SSCE supports tables, relations, constraints, complex query processing, transactions, replication, and data security. To program against SSCE, you use an ADO.NET managed provider with data access coding patterns similar to what you use for other managed providers, such as the SQL Server SQLClient managed provider. You can also access SSCE from unmanaged clients by using OLE DB. SSCE runs in-process as a set of libraries referenced by the using application, and is easy to deploy either with your application libraries or as a separate MSI install. SSCE can be easily deployed with ClickOnce applications or Xcopy-deployed onto mobile devices. SSCE will also be installed natively on Windows Mobile 6.0 or later.
The SSCE type system is a subset of the SQL Server 2005 type system, and does not support all features that a full SQL Server instance supports. Commonly used features from SQL Server for server applications that are not present in SSCE include stored procedures, triggers, views, functions, user defined data types, and the ability to participate in SQL Server Service Broker messaging.
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SSE)
SSE is a fairly small footprint (< 55 MB), free database engine service that can be installed on any current desktop or server Windows operating system. Because SSE runs as a Windows Service, it requires a Windows Installer (MSI) installation on the target machine. SSE can be deployed through the ClickOnce Bootstrapper to allow it to be used by ClickOnce-deployed applications. SSE supports user instance isolation, which can ease ClickOnce deployment by ensuring that one user's data is automatically protected from other users' data.
SSE supports most of the capabilities of a full instance of SQL Server, including tables, views, stored procedures, triggers, functions, and SQL CLR. You access data in a SSE instance from managed code the same way that you do from a full SQL Server instance, using the SQLClient managed provider. You can also access it from unmanaged applications by using an OLE DB provider.
The limitations of SSE compared to a full instance of SQL Server are fairly easy to understand. SSE uses only one processor on the computer even if more are present; it uses only 1 GB of memory; and it only allows databases to grow to 4 GB in size. Additionally, SSE can be a Subscriber but not a Publisher for all types of replication, and can send and receive SQL Server Service Broker messages as long as the messages are passed through a full instance of SQL Server (that is, no peer-to-peer messaging between SSE instances without a full instance in the chain).
SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Overview
At a conceptual level, SSCE can be thought of as a significantly scaled-down version of the SQL Server 2005 database engine. However, it is a separate database engine designed to maximize the key features needed for simple, secure, and transactional relational data storage while minimizing the disk, memory, and installation requirements for the hosting application.
SSCE History
The heritage of SSCE traces back to SQL Server CE 1.0, which was released in 2001. This was the first Microsoft-released relational data engine for mobile device operating systems, and was based on SQL Server 2000 database capabilities. Versions 1.1 and 2.0 followed to improve the user experience, with 2.0 providing integration with .NET Compact Framework applications. Along with .NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition was released as the next-generation mobile database engine. SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition offered a lot of new features, including better reliability and performance, better synchronization options, and better integration with both SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
When SSCE was first announced at TechEd 2006, the new name for this version was announced as SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition. This name only existed for a short while between the first announcement and when Microsoft refined the plans and release features for SSCE and announced those and the new name at TechEd Europe 2006 in November 2006. As a result, you may find some materials that will linger for a while on the Web with the name SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition, or SQL Everywhere, for short—treat those as synonymous with SSCE. It is important to note that SSCE is a completely different and significantly more capable data engine than the earlier SQL Server CE editions were, so those need to be carefully distinguished.
SSCE Core Capabilities
The core capability of SSCE is to allow secure transactional relational data access and storage. You can execute SQL queries that include Data Definition Language (DDL) and Data Manipulation Language (DML) queries through the SSCE engine. With SSCE, you create a database instance as a single .sdf file. Within that database you can define tables with primary keys and constraints. SSCE supports full referential integrity through foreign key constraints, and cascading deletes and updates.
Additionally, SSCE supports the following features:
- Multiple concurrent connections for multi-threaded data access.
- Password protection and 128-bit encryption of the .sdf SSCE data file.
- A wide range of column data types.
- Scrollable, updateable cursors for fast and easy connected-data access.
- Databases that can grow up to 4 GB in size.
- Synchronization with SQL Server through merge replication and Remote Data Access (RDA).
SSCE New Capabilities
All of the core features of SSCE were actually part of SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, which was released with SQL Server 2005 and .NET 2.0 in October 2005. SSCE adds a number of peripheral features that distinguish it from the Mobile Edition:
- SSCE can now be run on any supported Windows operating system, including mobile devices, Tablet PCs, portable computers, desktops, and servers.
- SSCE can be deployed by using ClickOnce.
Data Synchronization with SSCE
When SSCE is used as a local data cache for a client or middle-tier application in a distributed application architecture, you usually need to be able to synchronize the SSCE database with a back-end database server. You may need to populate the SSCE database tables initially from a back-end database, and you may also need to be able to push updated or new records from the client to the server database.
With SSCE, you have a number of options for synchronization. There are two built-in synchronization options: merge replication and RDA. Both of these capabilities allow you to synchronize data in both directions: from an SSCE database to a SQL Server 2005,. or SQL Server 2000 database over HTTP. Besides these capabilities, you could implement a custom synchronization solution by making calls to your own exposed Web service endpoints, allowing you to pass the data through custom business logic layers in both directions on the server side. Also, coming in the near future with the next release of Visual Studio (code named Orcas), there will be a new synchronization subsystem called the Occasionally Connected Systems (OCS) synchronization framework.
Merge replication is the most powerful built-in synchronization option because it allows the autonomous and independent updating of records on both the client (SSCE) and server (SQL Server) databases at the same time. SSCE participates in merge replication as a subscriber, and can subscribe to merge replication publications exposed from either SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005. Merge replication handles many clients easily, because it also supports conflict detection and resolution on the server side. Merge replication is a little more complicated to set up, and requires specific database design features and configuration on the server side.
RDA is the easiest built-in synchronization option to use. With RDA, there are no specific requirements on the server-side database. To synchronize data with RDA, you pull an entire result set into the SSCE database from the server side to initialize a table with the current data from the server. You can then push changes (inserts, updates, and deletions) back to the server when you choose to synchronize. To obtain changes that were made on the server side since the data was initially pulled, you have to pull the same result set again (after pushing your changes so that the pulled data contains your changes). RDA does not have any concurrency conflict detection or resolution. So, if you use it with an application on which multiple clients can modify different records at the same time, the last client to write changes to a record could overwrite recent changes by another client (last-in-wins).
The OCS synchronization framework, when released, will allow you to choose between database-to-database synchronization capabilities similar to both RDA and merge replication, or a more service-oriented approach in which you plug your own service endpoints into the synchronization pipeline. The former approach is simpler to set up because it requires the least custom code. The latter approach is a little more complex but enables you to insert business logic between the client end and the server, and also enables you to target other data sources that could be wrapped in an appropriate synchronization service. Figure 1 shows the architecture of the new OCS synchronization framework.
Figure 1. OCS synchronization framework
The OCS framework provides an out-of-the-box solution for service-oriented data synchronization, as well as numerous extensibility points to allow more explicit control of the synchronization process. The client calls through a synchronization provider to perform synchronization of data. The provider can call out to custom logic, such as validation logic, if needed. The synchronization provider then calls through a synchronization agent to the synchronization service on the server. The service exposed can be one provided with the framework or a custom service you expose. The service calls through a synchronization provider on the receiving side, which can also call out to custom logic. The synchronization gets dispatched through an appropriate synchronization adapter and its associated database commands. The adapters and commands follow a similar architecture to the TableAdapters associated with ADO.NET 2.0 typed datasets.
SSCE Concurrency
SSCE allows multiple connections to the same database (.sdf file) from the same application or even multiple applications on the same computer. This gives you more freedom to structure your application as needed, such as allowing the user to continue to interact with data while performing synchronization with a back-end database, or to have multiple applications on the same machine share an SSCE data store. Transactional concurrency locks are made by the database engine to prevent concurrent connections from accessing the same records at the same time. The technical limit on concurrent connections for a single database is 256, but 70-80 is a better practical limit from a performance perspective.
SSCE Security
Role-based security and permissions are not supported in SSCE. SSCE databases are intended to be used as a simple data storage mechanism for local data storage and access on a client computer, or for simple persistent data caching on an application server. As a result, role-based security and permissions at a table level were not included in the interest of keeping the database engine as small and fast as possible. Access control to the database as a whole can be enforced through password-protected access. Protection of the data while it is stored on disk can be done easily by encrypting the database.
SSCE Unmanaged Code Access
SSCE allows you to easily access the data store from unmanaged applications, as well. SSCE includes an OLE DB provider so that applications using Microsoft Access, Microsoft Visual Basic 6, C++, or other forms of unmanaged code can still access and use data that has been placed into a SSCE database. This can help with migration from unmanaged applications and legacy data stores to incrementally move forward to SSCE and managed code, for example.
SSCE Performance
SSCE performance is very good for all of the usage scenarios described in this document. If you compare SSCE performance with SSE, EDB, or Microsoft Access, there is no clear winner across all scenarios. For each combination of query size, storage pattern, and other variables, the performance of one product may look better than the other, but a few trends can be consistently measured.
If you compare SSCE with SSE, several patterns emerge from performance testing. Transactions are slightly faster to begin and commit in SSCE than in SSE, but only by a fraction of a percentage (20 percent). SSCE is faster than SSE for parameterized queries that insert large numbers of rows (> 100), but SSE is faster for single row or small numbers of row inserts. SSCE is about twice as slow as SSE for a single row select and is comparable for 100 rows or more, with the connected model of SqlCeResultSet. However, with the SqlCeConnection API, the first open and the last close are significantly slower in SSCE than SSE (> 1000 times in some cases) owing to the significant overhead of starting and shutting down the storage engine. An optimization for better performance is to open a SqlCeConnection prior to transactions and close it at the very end. In this case, performance is comparable to the SqlCeResultSet API.
If you compare SSCE performance with EDB on a device, EDB can be significantly faster (100 percent or more) for certain scenarios such as determining database size, and doing inserts or updates. However, most search and query operations favor SSCE by 20-30 percent or are roughly equal in performance.
Architecting Solutions with SSCE
To understand how to integrate SSCE into your application architecture, it is best to discuss its use in the context of the four application types summarized earlier in this white paper: field force applications, personal information management (PIM) applications, small-scale Web client applications, and application server caching.
Field Force Applications
Field force applications (FFAs) are typically client applications designed to run on a mobile device, Tablet PC, or portable computer as part of a larger distributed system that consists of multiple tiers, services, databases, and other architectural elements. FFAs usually share one or more of the following attributes:
- They allow the user to perform their job functions while disconnected from the back-end network—on-site at a client location, on the road, in an airport, or from home. FFAs are usually designed for occasional connectivity, meaning that when users are running the client application, they do not need to have a network connection of any kind.
- FFAs often involve multiple clients that can concurrently access and use data from the back-end database, both in a connected and disconnected mode.
- FFAs must be able to replicate data from the back-end database to the client databases for offline support. They also need to be able to replicate modified, added, or deleted data records from the client to the server when the application is able to connect to the network.
- FFAs must be ClickOnce deployable, allowing frequent updates to functionality, as well as to the database used for local storage.
Examples of FFAs include:
- Point-of-contact (POC) sales applications for retail, insurance, real estate, financial management, and many other industries.
- Customer Resource Management (CRM) applications with extended reach for distributed teams through mobile devices, portable computers, and Tablet PCs.
- Healthcare provider applications that provide medical record history access, provider-patient interaction record keeping, ordering of prescription medications, labs and diagnostics, and data collection from measurement devices.
- Inventory management applications for warehouses, shipping departments, business office management services, janitorial supplies, and other applications involving recording and tracking item counts and available at field locations.
- Data collection and measurement applications such as utility companies, telecommunications, polling, census, and voting applications.
FFA solution architectures can vary widely depending on the number and type of client platforms and the scale of the application. A typical architecture is depicted in Figure 2. FFAs usually consist of multiple clients involving either PDA/Phone platforms, Tablet PCs, portable computers, or a mix of these. They usually connect to the back-end services through secured Web services or virtual private network (VPN) connections so that they can synchronize with back-end data from any available Internet connection, instead of having to return to the home network to do so. The front end exposed to them is often placed in a perimeter network (also known as DMZ, demilitarized zone, and screened subnet) to limit the number and type of ports opened from it, and the connections into the back-end network are limited. For larger scale applications, the perimeter network Web server may be connected to an application server where business logic and data access components run, and that application server talks directly to the back-end database.
Figure 2. Field force application architecture
For data synchronization purposes, a more direct route is often taken to limit the complexity of the application. When using RDA or merge replication, the synchronization architecture looks more like Figure 3. In this case, the client applications connect through HTTP to the back-end database, with Internet Information Services (IIS) exposing the HTTP endpoint through which synchronization communications are done.
Figure 3. Field force synchronization architecture
To perform data access on the client side, normal disconnected ADO.NET data access approaches can be used, such as using typed datasets and their associated table adapters to read and write data from a local SSCE Northwind data store as shown in the following code sample. As you can see, the typed dataset abstracts away all the details of the underlying store, and this data consumer code is no different than it would be if the data were in SQL Server, SSE, or another data store that is accessed through a supported managed ADO.NET provider. Inside the CustomersTableAdapter, SqlCeConnection and SqlCeCommand objects are defined by the Visual Studio designer and they do all the work of retrieving and updating the data in the SSCE database using normal ADO.NET data access patterns.
Code sample: Read/Write Data Access with Typed DataSets
private NorthwindDataSet LoadDataSet() { NorthwindDataSet nwData = new NorthwindDataSet(); CustomersTableAdapter adapter = new CustomersTableAdapter(); adapter.Fill(nwData.Customers); return nwData; } private void SaveChanges(NorthwindDataSet nwData) { CustomersTableAdapter adapter = new CustomersTableAdapter(); adapter.Update(nwData); }
The SqlCeResultSet also allows for a connected data access model, as shown in the next code sample. In this method, a SqlCeConnection is created, along with a SqlCeCommand to retrieve a row of data (although it works with multi-row result sets as well). We then open the connection, execute the command to retrieve the SqlCeResultSet, and do a data record update through it. In this simple example, the connection is closed through the using block, but normally you would use a SqlCeResultSet if you were going to hold onto it spanning a longer scope of code, and wanted to be able to read and write to the database without having to open and close the connection. In that case, you would not close the connection immediately after using the result set; you would leave it open, and close the SqlCeResultSet when you were done using it.
Code sample: Read/Write Data Access with SqlCeResultSet
private void UpdateCompanyName(string custId, string companyName) { // Set up connection, just need path to sdf file SqlCeConnection conn = new SqlCeConnection( @"Data Source ='.\Northwind.sdf'"); // Set up select query that brings rows into the result set string selQuery = "SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE [Customer ID] = @CustID"; SqlCeCommand getCustCmd = new SqlCeCommand(selQuery, conn); getCustCmd.Parameters.Add("@CustID", custId); using (conn) { conn.Open(); // Pull the row into the result set, // using options to allow connected, random, read-write access SqlCeResultSet resultSet = getCustCmd.ExecuteResultSet( ResultSetOptions.Scrollable | ResultSetOptions.Updatable); // Move to first record if (resultSet.ReadFirst()) { // Get the column position int ordinal = resultSet.GetOrdinal("Company Name"); // Set the value resultSet.SetString(ordinal, companyName); // persist resultSet.Update(); } else // No match { throw new ArgumentException("Customer not found"); } } }
Personal Information Management Applications
PIM applications are simple data applications that run against local data stores on mobile platforms for easy access and storage of personal information. PIM applications usually share one or more of the following attributes:
- Run on mobile platforms, including phones, PDAs, Tablet PCs, or portable computers.
- Provide simple data entry and lookup against local data stores for application data.
- Require a minimum footprint for availability on mobile devices.
Examples of PIM applications include the following:
- E-mail, instant messaging, contacts, tasks, notes entry, storage, and retrieval.
- News reader, RSS aggregation.
- Calorie counting, time management, exercise logging.
- Language tutor, vocabulary coach, dictionary, thesaurus.
- Shopping list, CD/DVD collection.
The solution architecture for PIM applications is very simple, as shown in Figure 4. It follows a classic client-server design in which the server is a local database engine on the device or portable computer. EDB could be used for mobile devices, but SSCE makes a simple-to-use, powerful, yet lightweight option for any Windows platform, including mobile devices. For example, SSCE offers richer query support than EDB, and it is easier to develop applications using SSCE in managed code.
Figure 4. PIM application architecture
A PIM application that uses SSCE for a database engine is likely to use the SqlCeResultSet API to make data retrieval and storage as simple as possible. The code for this would look very much like the second code sample in the previous section.
Small-Scale Web Applications
For simple Web sites with low traffic expectations, there is no need to buy expensive server software or to pay for higher cost hosting options that involve a database instance just to have a dynamic, data-driven Web site. Both SSCE and SSE provide a simple and free option for storing dynamic data that can be used to render content on Web pages. Whether the Web site uses ASP.NET or some other Web technology capable of doing data access through an OLE DB provider, the data that feeds the site's pages can be served up by SSCE or SSE.
Web applications that are suitable for SSCE or SSE are those that have a small user base—the total number of users may be large, but the number of concurrent requests per second should be fairly small.
Examples of Web applications that might be candidates for SSE or SSCE include:
- Hobby/club sites with a small member base.
- Small user group organizations.
- Internal Web applications for small companies.
Unless the expected utilization of the Web application is extremely low with little potential to scale to larger numbers of users, SSE is generally a better option for small-scale Web applications than SSCE. If the application remains a single-process Web application with a very low number of requests per hour (< 300-500 requests per hour, for example), either SSCE or SSE should be able to handle the throughput required.
However, as the complexity of the application grows and/or the number of requests per second increase, SSE offers better options for incrementally scaling the application to meet increased demand. As described earlier in this paper, SSE supports stored procedures, functions, and other enterprise-level features that can provide a more layered and decoupled architecture for complex applications. Additionally, because SSE runs as a service, concurrent access from multiple Web application processes is better supported from the same or even different computers. There are more options for role-based security in SSE, and the upgrade path to a full version of SQL Server is seamless—no change in data access code should be required, because SSE and SQL Server use the same data provider. Also, the file formats for SSE and SQL Server are the same, so the SSE database can just be attached to a full SQL Server instance and it is ready to go. Switching from SSCE to SSE or a full version of SQL Server requires a data migration, as well as re-coding some of the data logic since SSCE uses a different data provider from SSE or SQL Server.
If you choose to use SSCE for Web applications, some configuration is required to allow SSCE to be hosted in the Web application process.
Caching Applications
Caching applications can be client-side applications, or application server applications that need to maintain a local data cache of lookup values or rarely changing data to avoid unnecessary roundtrips to the back-end database. Caching is used to allow the application to retrieve the needed data from the local computer to improve performance and reduce network traffic. Caching application use cases include frequent access to lists of relatively static data records that are used for presentation purposes (drop-down selection or reference lists), or for application server lookups in business logic.
For the fastest data retrieval, data can be cached in memory and returned directly when the cached values are needed. However, you may not want to or be able to refresh the cache from the server each time the application restarts, so a local data store for the cached values may be needed. Additionally, if the lists of values you are caching are very large, such as a product catalog, you may not want to hold the entire catalog in application memory as the items in the collection are only accessed sporadically. For either of these reasons, using SSCE as a local data cache storage location may be a good choice for your architecture.
Cached data needs to be initialized from the server the first time the application is run, and cached data often has an expiration date or time associated with it when the cache must be refreshed from the source. The time-out associated with the cache is determined by the application requirements, how frequently the data changes, and how much latency in the cached data can be tolerated by the application and the users.
When designing a data cache into an application, you must choose between a passive or active data caching strategy. With passive caching, the application tries to obtain the needed data from the local data cache. If the data is not present, application logic retrieves the data from the server and stores the results in the cache for subsequent retrievals. When the cache becomes invalid due to a time-out or other criteria, the application must refresh the cache from the source. With active caching, the cache is actively kept up to date based on some criteria, such as a timed refresh from the server. When an active caching strategy is used, the application code is simpler because it can always simply refer to the local cache for its data. However, additional code is required to initialize the active cache and keep it up to date.
For a caching application, you might want to do two-level caching. You might want to cache the data in a persistent store, such as SSCE, to allow the cache to be resident on the local machine to survive application restarts or to avoid having to load all of the cached data into memory. However, you may also cache some of the data from the persistent cache in memory to provide the fastest possible retrieval time when the data is needed (for example, to drive auto-completion logic on text box or drop-down list input controls). For these two levels of caching, you could have the same or different caching strategies (active versus passive).
Figure 5 shows a sample caching application architecture, with caches existing in both the client application and the middle-tier application server. The client application caches data both in the persistent SSCE store and in memory because memory consumption is usually less of a concern in a client application. The application server cache stores large lookup lists such as a product catalog persistently to avoid consuming memory for scalability reasons, but avoids the performance impact of making roundtrips to the database server whenever a product catalog lookup is required for something like locating all products within a certain price range. The main difference between a caching application and one that synchronizes (such as a field force application) is that data is only pulled from the server into the local data cache in a caching application. With synchronization, the data from the cache is also synchronized back to the back-end database after edits have been made.
Figure 5. Caching application architecture
Many applications need a reliable, transactional, persistent, efficient data store but do not necessarily require the full range of capabilities offered by SQL Server 2005. SSCE provides a free, powerful, and easy-to-use database engine that can be used in a wide range of application scenarios and architectures. It can be used for field force applications, personal information management applications, small Web applications, or application data caching. It provides a number of current and emerging data synchronization options to allow it to be part of a larger distributed application architecture involving back-end SQL Server 2005 databases. SSCE should be one of the database technologies considered for any application needing a lightweight relational data store.
About the author
Brian Noyes is chief architect of IDesign (www.idesign.net), a .NET architecture and design consulting and training company. He is a Microsoft Regional Director, Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), and internationally known writer and speaker. His latest book, Smart Client Deployment with ClickOnce, part of the Addison Wesley .NET Development series, released in December 2006. His previous book, Data Binding with Windows Forms 2.0, continues in the best seller lists. You can reach him at firstname.lastname@example.com or through his blog at http://www.softinsight.com/bnoyes.
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text: Just wrapped up filming my first commercial, shot for MiiR, with my co-director Eric Becker of We Are Shouting. It was a really fun shoot and the footage is looking great. We are hoping to have everything wrapped up in the next week. For now, here are some of the production stills by Scott Everett. Thanks Scott! Behind every great production is a wonderful crew, and the crew on this commercial was no exception. From left to right in the crew shot (last image) is Caven Keith, DJ, Lauri, Becker, Rodrigo, Nina Carduner, Scott Everett, Keatley, and Sarah Finkelstein. Not pictured is our hair and makeup artist Annabelle Petry.


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The Regatta
The 2009 IRA National Championships will be held at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center on Lake Natoma in Sacramento, Calif., June 4-6.
Harvard heavyweight crew will compete in five races at the national championships, while the lightweight varsity eight will compete in the only lightweight event at the regatta.
The Crew Calendar
The EARC Sprints took place a week earlier than in 2007 and 2008, giving the Crimson and the rest of the EARC crews an extra week to train and prepare for the national championships.
The Automatic Bid
Harvard heavyweight and lightweight crews received automatic bids to the IRA National Championships based on their performances at the EARC Sprints last month.
For the first time in the history of the IRA, crews had to qualify or be invited to the regatta. The IRAs are also being held on the West Coast for the first time in the 107 years of the event.
Sprints Recap
Both the heavyweight and lightweight varsity eights finished second in their respective races at the EARC Sprints last month.
The lightweights won the Jope Cup as team champions for the 20th time in program history. Harvard claimed gold in the third varsity eight, silver in the varsity eight and freshman eight and bronze in the second varsity eight and freshman eight. The Crimson claimed the team trophy for the third in the last six years.
The heavyweights were second in the Rowe Cup standings after all five boats qualified for the grand final. The freshman eight and third varsity eight won silver as well, while the second freshman eight was third and the second varsity eight was fifth.
Back in the Boathouse
Senior Mortiz Hafner (Switzerland) and Blake Puscek (Canada) took last year off from Harvard to train in their home countries for the 2008 Olympics in Bejiing.
An Odd Year
The Harvard lightweights have won seven national titles. All seven titles came in years that ended with an odd number.
Six of the heavyweight's nine national crowns have also came in a year that ended with an odd number.
Count 'Em Up
Fifteen Harvard rowers who are competing at the IRAs this year won a medal at the event in 2008. Four of them won gold (open four), one silver (pair) and 10 bronze (freshman eight, open four and four without coxswain).
The Last Time Here
Harvard picked up five medals at the 106th IRA National Championships last year in New Jersey. The Crimson underclassmen from both the heavyweight and lightweight programs contributed to the five medals brought back to Newell Boathouse.
The Crimson won gold and bronze in the open four as 10 underclassmen stood on the podium in Harvard jerseys. The freshman eight picked up a bronze medal, while the men's pair and four without coxswain won a silver and bronze, respectively.
Heavyweights: Dual Racing Recap
The varsity eight and second varsity eight began their 2009 campaign on the West Coast at the San Diego Crew Classic. The Crimson took third in both their races, falling to California and Washington in both events.
Harvard's varsity eight won all four of its regattas over the four weeks leading up to Sprints. In fact, the Crimson swept all five races in two of those dual regattas. The varsity eight sports a 6-0 record. The closest race was against Brown for the Stein Cup. The Bears used a strong finishing sprint to close the gap against the Crimson and finished less than a second behind Harvard.
The freshman eight is also unbeaten in dual racing this season with a 6-0 dual racing record, while the second varsity eight is 3-2. The third varsity eight is 3-0 against other third varsity boats.
The Unbeaten
The varsity eight will look to finish off an undefeated dual campaign when it races Yale in the 144th Harvard-Yale Regatta June 13. The Crimson has gone undefeated 19 times under Harry Parker, but has not done so since 2005. Harvard came close in 2007, winning four of its five regattas. Yale pulled off the upset in the 142nd edition of the Regatta with one of the closest finishes in series history, 0.5- second margin.
The Polls
Harvard varsity eight ranks third in the IRA Coaches Poll released June 1. The Crimson stands behind California and Stanford and is followed by Wisconsin, Washington and Brown.
The Crimson is also ranked third in the freshman eight and sixth in the second varsity eight.
IRAs ... A Heavyweight History Lesson
The IRA Regatta took place for the first time in 1895 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Harvard first rowed at the IRAs in 1896, placing second to Cornell and ahead of Penn and Columbia in a race on the Hudson River. The Crimson raced again in 1897 but did not come back for almost 100 years. The Crimson returned to IRAs in 1995, when it placed fourth in a race won by Brown here on the Cooper River.
After a short eight-year absence, Harvard returned again in 2003, when it won the Varsity Challenge Cup with an open-water victory over Washington. That helped propel the Crimson to the Ten Eyck Cup, representative of overall team supremacy.
The Crimson was impressive again in 2004, posting an open-water victory in the Varsity Challenge Cup over Washington. The depth of the program – producing a silver medal in the JV and freshman races, as well as a gold in the freshman four – produced Harvard's second Ten Eyck trophy in as many seasons.
The dominance continued in 2005 with a come-from-behind win in the Varsity Challenge Cup over Princeton and California for Harvard's third-straight title. With a little help from the freshman eight taking the silver in the grand final, the second varsity winning the petite final and the freshman four with coxswain taking the bronze, the Crimson took home the Ten Eyck Cup for the third time in a row.
The Hardware
The varsity eight competes for the Varsity Challenge Cup, which was first presented in 1898. Harvard has won the cup three times. The second varsity competes for the Kennedy Challenge Cup, originally presented in 1899. The Crimson claimed the cup for the first time in 2006. The freshman men race for the Steward's Cup, first awarded in 1900. The Ten Eyck Cup is presented to the university that amasses the largest number of points. First presented in 1952, the Crimson has won the trophy three times (2003, 2004, 2005).
All-Ivy League Honors
Nine members of the Harvard varsity eight were named second-team All-Ivy League after earning a silver medal at the EARC Sprints May 10 in Worcester, Mass.
Chris Kingston (cox), Simon Gawlik (stroke), Anthony Locke (seven), David Wakulich (six), Henrik Rummel (five), Richard Anderson (four), James Bayley (three), Blake Pucsek (two) and Noah Bruegmann (bow) made up the Crimson varsity eight.
Gawlik and Rummel earned conference honors for the second time as they were first-team selections in 2007.
...And More Honors
Junior Noah Bruegmann was named Academic All-Ivy League for his efforts on the water and in the classroom. Bruegmann is a chemistry and physics concentrator. He was one of the five men chosen from Harvard.
The Varsity Eight
The current varsity eight line-up is unbeaten in dual racing and finished second at Sprints. Harvard mentor Harry Parker made a change in the line-up after the West Coast trip and since then, the boat has gone 6-0.
The varsity eight boat is made up of three seniors, three juniors and three sophomores, including the coxswain. Two members of the boat were in the 2007 boat that won gold at the Sprints and silver at IRAs.
The 1V has an international flare as six members of the boat hail from outside the United States. Two rowers and the coxswain hail from Europe (England and Germany) ,while three come from Canada.
The Second Varsity Eight
Harry Parker has again made changes to its second varsity eight after a fifth-place finish at Sprints. The 2V went 3-2 in dual racing. Sophomore Ben French, who won a bronze medal at the IRAs as a freshman moves into the stroke seat, replacing senior Sam Kenary and senior William Rueter returns to the boat to replace classmate Tom Fleming.
Rueter will row in the bow seat, while Duncan Gilchrist moves to the five seat, Mark Fuller moves from the two seat to six and John Stroh switches to the two seat from the six seat.
The Fours
Junior Kelly Evans and sophomore Ryan Bucke rowed in the gold-medal winning open four last year and will compete in the varsity four race this year. Junior Spencer Livingston, junior Ivan Posavec and sophomore Alex Soutter will join them.
The open four will be comprised of sophomore Tian Feng, sophomore Conner Griffith, sophomore Phil Matthews, junior Karl Hirt and freshman Edward Winters-Donaldson.
IRAs ... A Lightweight History Lesson
The lightweights have been rowing at the IRA Regatta since 1990, when the event became the national championship for lightweight crew. Prior to competing at IRAs, the Crimson competed at the Empire State Regatta for the national title.
Harvard has won seven national titles since 1990 with the most recent coming in 2003.
The Crimson and six other varsity eights will compete for the 1992 Trophy. Cornell has won three straight IRA titles and is the only school to win back-to-back titles.
Lightweights: Dual Racing Recap
Princeton and Harvard make up the top two crews in the Ivy League, the EARC and the nation. The Tigers are the only team to beat the Crimson varsity eight this spring, as Harvard enters the weekend with an 8-1 dual racing record.
Harvard took on defending national champion Cornell and Penn in its first regatta of the spring. Due to dangerous wind, the crews raced on time instead of head-to-head. Harvard won by nine seconds over the Big Red in the first of four-straight dual race wins. The Crimson also beat Penn, Columbia and Georgetown that day.
The Crimson swept the next two regattas and won back the Biglin and Haines Cups after a one-year absence from Newell Boathouse. In the final regatta of the season. Harvard beat Yale, but fell to Princeton in the Goldthwait Cup.
The second varsity eight sports a 5-3 record, while the freshman eight is 7-2 and the second freshman eight is 3-2. The Harvard freshman eight started the season off at 7-0.
In the Polls
Harvard ranks second in latest USRowing Collegiate Lightweight men's varsity eight poll released May 20. The Crimson garnered one of the 11 first-place votes.
Breaking Down the Boat
Head coach Charley Butt has kept the same varsity eight all season long. The varsity eight is comprised of three sophomores, three juniors and three seniors. Jeff Overington and Mortiz Hafner are three-year members of the varsity boat, while Stephen Barchick and Martin Eiermann have spent two seasons in the Crimson's top boat.
Like its counterpart on the heavyweight side, the lightweight varsity eight has several rowers from across the globe. Five members of the boat are from the United States, while the others are from Switzerland, South Africa, Germany and Canada.
Ivy League Honors
The varsity eight made its way back to the grand final at the EARC Sprints and onto the medal stand earning all nine members of the boat second-team All-Ivy League honors.
Dexter Louie (cox), Moritz Hafner (stroke), Jeff Overington (seven), Will Newell (six), Andrew Trott (five), Jared Dourdeville (four), Martin Eiermann (three), Stephen Barchick (two) and Michael Silvestri (bow) made up the Crimson varsity eight.
And More Honors
Sophomore Jared Dourdeville earned Academic All-Ivy League honors for his efforts on the water and in the classroom. Dourdeville is an engineering sciences concentrator. He was one of five Harvard men to me named to the team.


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Gasoline From Gut Bacteria? Yes, We Can
E. Coli headlines usually bring bad news about food poisonings and product recalls. Not this time. The WSJ's Ramy Inocencio speaks with Lee Sang-yup at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology about making gas from our gut bacteria.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
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