ActiveSync - Which one to opt for FlatFile or Database?

Question

Hi,
Please suggest which ActiveSync is better in terms of Performance, FlatFile or Database.
We need to use the better performing out of these two.
Please suggest.
Thanks,
Jolly

Answer 1

Other issues...
We use DBTables for the reasons suggested above. We use logic to limit the number of rows we read and we do write data back to the tables from within IM. These DB tables are used primarily to read data from source systems into IM and to map the data to existing accounts, or create new ones as necessary.
What we do... and I expect this is common... is we get a full extract from our source system, and we compare our current table to the data coming from the source system. Then we update any rows in our table where the data has changed, and update a timestamp. The active sync then reads any rows with a timestamp since the last Sync run.
So in a sense, we're doing the same processing that you would do with a text-based diff file.
The advantages of doing the DBTable method are that it behaves (mostly) like a real resource, so you can (1) do reconciles and (2) if you have any data corruption, you can reload the entire data source (by resetting the "last read" date in the resource config). We also update the rows -- we read the row, determine what account the row should be associated with, then write an account attribute out to the table so we don't have to correlate multiple times -- which as JerseyGuy notes can't be done with a text file.
Main disadvantage of the DBTable is that it won't detect deletes. We have a special value that we write to a row when it's deleted, and the Sync workflow detects that value and changes the operation when that value is encountered. But it won't natively detect the deletion.
Edited by: etech on Jan 22, 2008 10:05 AM