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Part Two
"How on earth do you write software
that can copy files between the desktop and the Pocket PC?" This was the
conundrum I set out to crack. There had to be a way, after all, the install programs
manage it, as do various other C programs I have seen.
This
meant I was going to have to delve deep into that black sticky mess that all non-C
programmers fear, the API's.
First off, API calls aren't
all that scary. As long as you are careful when using them, and save your code
before every test, they are a boon and can help greatly with seemingly impossible
tasks. For the task at hand, I knew that the solution lay not in calls made on
the Pocket PC, but on the desktop machine itself.
The
goals
I will attempt to explain within this article how
to copy Access database files to the Pocket PC (Part I), and its follow up, how
to copy both databaseas well as other files to the device (Part II).
My
first port of call was the eVB Help file, which taught me about the DESKTOPTODEVICE
and DEVICETODESKTOP calls. These calls allow easy transmission of access databases
from the desktop pc to the pocket pc, and back again.
Creating
the Visual Basic Project
Create a new Visual Basic
6 project on the desktop PC, giving it a form and a module. I always find
it best practise to place function declarations off in a module called modGlobalDeclarations
as you always know where to find them.
On the form, place
two text fields called txtDesktopDB and txtPPCDB, with labels reading
'PC File' and 'Pocket File' respectively. You will also need two buttons labelled
'Download' and 'Upload'.
In your module place the following
declarations:
'==================================================
'
adofiltr library calls
'==================================================
Declare
Function DEVICETODESKTOP Lib "adofiltr.dll" _
(ByVal desktoplocn
As String, _
ByVal tablelist As String, _
ByVal sync As Boolean, _
ByVal overwrite As Integer, _
ByVal devicelocn As String) As Long
Declare
Function DESKTOPTODEVICE Lib "adofiltr.dll" _
(ByVal desktoplocn
As String, _
ByVal tablelist As String, _
ByVal sync As Boolean, _
ByVal overwrite As Integer, _
ByVal devicelocn As String) As Long
'==================================================
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