developing application for mobile barcode scanner

thanks

that was really helpful article.

could you please also tell me the tools i need to use the application for mobile device?
i am confused about "windows CE 5.0" and "windows mobile" .
and which version of visual studio i need to use, as currently i am using VB6.0.

thanks and regards.

raza

you need VS2005/2008 Standard edition at least to be able to develop for Smart devices.

the only caution is to remember that 2008 uses sql ce compact while 2005 - sql ce mobile. The latter is convertible into the former of course, but vs2008 assemblies won't like sql ce mobile sdf file :) You will have equivalent version of SQL Server on desktop side.

re. Windows CE vs Windows Mobile - CE is usually more general than Mobile, so WinMo is just a subset of Windows CE. You should have some SDK shipped with Dolphin, so you can use eg the emulator and have a platform recognized as Windows CE 5.0. By default VS installs some SDKs for Pocket PC/Windows Mobile, but not for CE. So check vendor's site for cf.net SDKs

you'll have to upgrade to visual studio 2005 or even better visual studio 2008..VB6.0 doesn not have access to the object model that the article is referencing...

thanks alexey_gusev:

i have some confusion still in my mind.
let me explain you about my situation.

i have a database server on which i installed "SQL server Express 2005". and about 10 pcs are accessing that database from that server. i use ODBC to communicate with database.

An application for inventory control system is running on those PCs. This application is built in VB6.
i did not even installed any client application of SQL server on those PCs.

now i want to run a Module of application on a Mobile Scanner. i planned to use Dolphin 6100 for this purpose. (i know i have to build this new module in VB.NET)

now i want to make my mobile scanner (Dolphin 6100) to interact with database ,as othrer PCs are doing at the time.
but
as you told i need some "sql ce compact while 2005 - sql ce mobile" .
so do you mean i need to instal these sql servers on mobile scanner and then how i will communitate this sql server to the SQL SERVER EXPRESS 2005 already running on my database server????

could you please explain me how to do this?
i am new with mobile kind of things.

thanks and regards.

raza

ok, I wasn't clear enough :)

by "sql ce compact while 2005 - sql ce mobile" I meant the following: when you develop your module for Dolphin in vb.net you will use sql ce client assemblies, NOT the server. vs2005 and vs2008 has different versions of those clients, hence my note about caution on that way.

in practice it means that you add something like that to your code:

Imports System.Data.SqlServerCe
Imports System.Data

and add references to proper assembly (some of them may be added by wizard already, so probably only sql ce one is required manual addition)

thanks alexey_gusev

it was really helpful.

one last thing,
i am good enough to interact with database with ado through VB6.0. but installing visual studio 2008 first time on my machine.
if you could please provide me little code sample for interacting with database through ado in VB.NET, it will be quite help full. Or you can refer me a good website for this.
sample may contain connection with database, retrieving some fields from a table and updating or inserting new data into table. i guess most of things should be same as in VB 6, but may be there could be syntax difference, when writing code for a mobile device.

thanks and regards.