Enabling and Configuring Data Synchronization

Synchronizing data successfully requires the correct development, configuration, and customization by developers, administrators, and users. Each role has a unique task in the synchronization workflow.

1. When a mobile business object (MBO) is being developed in Unwired WorkSpace, the developer enables synchronization for the mobile business object:
   1. After creating an MBO, the developer must check the Syncable property available from the Properties view. If you do not check this property, the data for this object cannot be synchronized.
   2. If the syncable object is a child of another object, the parent is also synchronized, so the parent object must also be set to Syncable.
   3. The developer defines the client parameters by which synchronization is performed, by selecting Filter by in the Properties view. For each parameter you can specify a default value, whether a value is required, from where the value of the parameter is retrieved, and so on.
   4. To enable users to trigger synchronization, add a Synchronize interface element to the device application, using either the Device Application Designer or through the APIs.
2. When the developer has finished the development process, the administrator must deploy the objects to a production version of Unwired Server. To ensure that syncable objects are configured and deployed correctly, the administrator must:
   1. Configure Unwired Server synchronization properties. If the MBO has been developed to use push synchronization, the administrator must also enable push synchronization and configure gateway properties for server-initiated synchronization. Two tabs, Push and Synchronization are available for this purpose when you click Server Configuration in Sybase Control Center's left navigation pane.
   2. Determine how quickly synchronization needs to happen.

      Typically, Unwired Server retrieves data from a data source when a device user synchronizes. However, if an administrator wants to preload data for a mobile business object, a data refresh should be scheduled. Preloaded data is available when a mobile-device user synchronizes, speeding up the process because Unwired Server does not need to check the data source for changes first.

   3. Determine the synchronization frequency.

      The Unwired Server administrator can initiate synchronization between the server and device applications by setting up subscriptions for the clients. When a device application receives a notification from the subscription, the application can download the new data to the device.

      When a subscription notification is generated, Unwired Server retrieves data from the data source and saves it in the server cache. If new data exists for a mobile-device subscriber, and "push" is enabled in the subscription, the server notifies the client; if either no new data exists or "push" is disabled, no notification is sent.

   4. Choose the correct deployment behavior.

      If a mobile business object has been reconfigured with the Syncable property, the entire deployment package that contains the modified mobile business object must be redeployed. In this case, the administrator should choose Replace as the deployment behavior, otherwise the property is not updated correctly.

3. Once the object is deployed, the end-user can further customize the synchronization behavior:
   
   

   • The user can trigger an upload simply by opening an object from a device application.
   • The user can trigger a download by adding or modifying the data for an object from the device application.
   • If a Synchronize command has been implemented in the device application's user interface, the user can trigger both an upload and download transaction.
   • A user can create a subscription, based on a template provided by the administrator so that they are notified of any data updates that may occur.