A MobiLink project is created by an administrator using the MobiLink 12 plug-in for Sybase Central. You must first define a MobiLink project before you can work with remote tasks.

A MobiLink project is a collection of the following:

A sample MobiLink project is provided in %sqlanysamp12%\MobiLink\CustDB\project.mlp.

A MobiLink Agent is an application that runs on the client device. The Agent's purpose is to receive and execute tasks from the MobiLink server and report the status of those tasks back to the MobiLink server.

The MobiLink Agent can manage multiple remote databases on the client device. If remote databases on the client device need to synchronize with different consolidated databases, the device would require a different MobiLink Agent for each different consolidated database with which the application needs to synchronize.

The MobiLink Agent ID is a string that identifies an Agent running on a client device to the MobiLink server. It can be viewed by the administrator working with the MobiLink project. Since each Agent runs on a single client device, this ID also identifies the device to the administrator.

Each MobiLink Agent must have a unique ID. The Agent ID can either be specified at start-up with the mlagent command or a default value is assigned in the form Agent_computername_UUID, where computername is the host name of the computer that the Agent is running on and UUID is a universally unique identifier.

It is highly recommended that case not be used to differentiate between Agent IDs. For example, do not create Agent ID Agent_XYZ and agent_xyz as different Agent IDs. When the consolidated database is case-insensitive, this recommendation is a requirement. When the consolidated database is case-sensitive, this recommendation is not enforced.

A unit of work is called a remote task. A remote task is a collection of commands. The MobiLink Agent receives work to do in the form of remote tasks, and reports the status of work it has attempted back to the administrator.

A command is an instruction in a task that carries out some action. A task can have several commands and there is a set order to the commands. A command includes an action to perform, input parameters, and instructions about what to do if the command fails.

A deployed remote task is a task that has been copied into the consolidated database. Only deployed tasks can be assigned to an Agent for execution.

Status information is information about remote tasks, such as whether or not the tasks completed successfully. This information is stored on the client in the agent database when tasks execute, and sent to the server at various times so the administrator can see the status of the remote tasks in the system.

An Agent database is an UltraLite database on the remote device that is used by the MobiLink Agent to store information about tasks and configuration.

The default location of the Agent database is %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\SQL Anywhere 12\MobiLink Agent on Windows and My Device\Application Data\SQLAny12\MLAgent on Windows Mobile.

The Agent database file name is whatever was specified with -n option for mlagent.exe, plus the extension .udb. If the -n option is not provided, the default name is mlagent.udb.

A remote database is an UltraLite or SQL Anywhere database on a remote device that contains your application data, is involved in MobiLink synchronization, and is managed by a MobiLink Agent. Each remote database has a remote schema name that identifies its schema.

A remote schema name identifies a group of databases with the same schema. Typically all databases with the same remote schema name are databases for the same version of an application. A schema includes things like: table definitions, stored procedures, triggers, publications and synchronization profiles. A schema does not include items that would normally vary from one instance of a database to another such as synchronization users and database users.

A remote database cannot be managed remotely unless it has a remote schema name, so at least one remote schema name must be defined before an Agent can be created in Sybase Central.

When you add a consolidated database to a project, either with the Create Project Wizard or the Add Consolidated Database Wizard, the wizard automatically checks if there are any remote schema names defined in the consolidated database that are not already in the project. If there are, you are asked if you want to import them.

A server-initiated remote task is any remote task that is run when the Agent receives notification from the server to run the task. A task may have a schedule, but still be initiated by the server.