Defining Synchronization Methods

See Also

Synchronization is the process of maintaining the same data in a publication on the server and on the local offline computer. When a user synchronizes the offline version of the solution, the offline data is merged with the data in the team solution on the server. There are two synchronization methods available—one record at a time or all records at once.

As a solution developer, you can use Access Workflow Designer to define the synchronization method for your team solution. Access Workflow Designer treats each update (or insert or delete) to each table as a separate transaction. When you synchronize, each transaction is played back individually.

For simple forms where all updates are to a single table, updating one record at a time works well. In other cases, in lieu of true transactional replication, you can choose to update all rows at once. The benefit of updating all rows in a single transaction is if one piece of the update fails, the entire update transaction fails. This is especially important if updates depend on one another. For example, in a banking scenario, you would not want the crediting of an account to succeed if the debiting of the other account failed.

To specify synchronization options for your solution

  1. Open your solution in the Access Workflow Designer. For details, see Opening your Solution in the Access Workflow Designer.

  2. From the Access Workflow Designer, select the team solution in the Object List.

  3. In the Solutions Properties pane, select the Offline tab.

  4. Choose the type of synchronization you want.
  5. Click Save.