Disconnected Data Windows Program using Sql Server Compact

Question

I am going to need to create a small windows application that stores basic data about people.

The requirements are:

1. Recruiters go out into the field and gather demographic data about people they talk to.
2. Recruiters return 'home' and contribute their gathered data into the main database (SQL Server 2005).

This is the first time I have ever done anything like this. So I am just looking for suggestions. I know I want to use C# to build the windows app and don't have a problem using .net 3.5.

I think a good place to store their data would be in a SQL Server Compact Edition database.

That's as far as I am. I mainly build ASP.net webforms, so this is a bit of a departure for me (but that's a good thing).

How would you tackle this? I am especially interested in how I might get the local data into the big database? Does the .net or sql server have any tools that make this easy? Any suggestions and considerations are welcome.

Answer 1

I would start with the Sync Framework. There's even a sample using SQL Compact as an offline data store.