Merge Replication and MSDE

I suppose it depends on what you want to do as a result
of the synchronization finishing. The easiest way to make
the process event-driven is to add an additional step to
the merge agent's job and modify the other steps to
always culminate in the execution of your new step. This
additional step could execute a SP, or run a command,
whatever you have in mind.
The alternatives are is to query the history tables (eg
MSdistribution_history), or
tempdb.dbo.MSreplication_agent_status or run the
penultimate script on
http://www.replicationanswers.com/OtherSQL.htm. These 3
solutions each are essentially polling methods and you
might end up doing a lot of unnecessary server work that
way.
Rgds,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com
(recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)

>--Original Message--
>I hava a scenario where I have an SQL Server set up as
the publisher (merge)
>and the subscribers are Laptops with MSDE which work
mostly offline.
>The subscribers are updated once they are online with
the publisher.
>My question is: How can the subscriber tell if the MSDN
database has
>finished the replication with the publisher?
>You see some times the laptops are online just a few
minutes and the
>connection is slow. I need to make sure the subscribers
are online just long
>enough to complete the merge !
>I appreciate any help I get can on this issue :-)
>Regards
>Peter
>.
>
You see I want to make sure the the Subscribers are online long enough to
finish the merge replication.
Is it possible to Start the merge replication using a Stored Procedure
etc... ? That way the users can initiate the merge replication themselves.
By the way, MS Access 2003 is used as a front end to the MSDE database, so
inisiating a merge replication would preferably be started from Access (and
hopefully the user would get some indication that the merge replication was
completed)
ragards
Peter
"Paul Ibison" wrote:

> I suppose it depends on what you want to do as a result
> of the synchronization finishing. The easiest way to make
> the process event-driven is to add an additional step to
> the merge agent's job and modify the other steps to
> always culminate in the execution of your new step. This
> additional step could execute a SP, or run a command,
> whatever you have in mind.
> The alternatives are is to query the history tables (eg
> MSdistribution_history), or
> tempdb.dbo.MSreplication_agent_status or run the
> penultimate script on
> http://www.replicationanswers.com/OtherSQL.htm. These 3
> solutions each are essentially polling methods and you
> might end up doing a lot of unnecessary server work that
> way.
> Rgds,
> Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com
> (recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
> http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)
>
> the publisher (merge)
> mostly offline.
> the publisher.
> database has
> minutes and the
> are online just long
>
|||To kick off the merge agent using stored procedures, you
can use sp_start_job. There are other programattic
options, usually involving ActiveX controls or command-
line execution, but the above system stored procedure
should do.
Rgds,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com
(recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)
|||Can you give me an example on how a sp_start_job would typically look like to
start the merge replication.
Another question: There are several subscribers. Is it one merge agent for
each subscriber ?
regards
Peter
"Paul Ibison" wrote:

> To kick off the merge agent using stored procedures, you
> can use sp_start_job. There are other programattic
> options, usually involving ActiveX controls or command-
> line execution, but the above system stored procedure
> should do.
> Rgds,
> Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com
> (recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
> http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)
>
|||exec msdb..sp_start_job 'DH1791628-xxxPublisher-
xxxPublisher-DH1791628-3'
One merge agent per subscriber - yes.
Rgds,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com
(recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)
|||I use SQLDMO to start the Merge Agent in my VB application
I can then check the status of the Job to determine when it has completed.
-Mike
"Peter" <Peter@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:55FC83AF-6BE4-4439-9CC4-B73DB0506385@.microsoft.com...
> You see I want to make sure the the Subscribers are online long enough to
> finish the merge replication.
> Is it possible to Start the merge replication using a Stored Procedure
> etc... ? That way the users can initiate the merge replication
themselves.
> By the way, MS Access 2003 is used as a front end to the MSDE database, so
> inisiating a merge replication would preferably be started from Access
(and
> hopefully the user would get some indication that the merge replication
was[vbcol=seagreen]
> completed)
> ragards
> Peter
> "Paul Ibison" wrote: