Tip of the Month (May 2003)

Specifying Usernames and Passwords When Synchronizing

Visual CE can synchronize to a variety of ODBC-enabled databases, including Microsoft Access, SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, etc. Some databases require a username and password before they can be accessed.

If you are synchronizing by bringing up Visual CE on the desktop and selecting FILE | SYNCHRONIZE | GO, you will be prompted for the username and password. However, if you have turned on the "Synchronize on connect" option, you may need make other arrangements to specify them when a handheld is connected.

If you want to be prompted for the username and password, use a text editor like notepad to modify a file called WCEODBC.INI (this file is in the C:\Windows or C:\Winnt folder of your desktop computer). Change:

[VICESYNC]

to

[VICESYNC]
PromptForLogin=1

This will cause a username/password dialog box to appear when synchronization is started.

Alternatively, you can embed the username and password right in the WCEODBC.INI file. To do this, use the UID= and PWD= keywords. For example, if the username was "SYWARE" and the password was "secret", your WCEODBC.INI file would look like this:

[VICESYNC]
UID=SYWARE
PWD=secret

Note for SQL Server users: If you are synchronizing to a SQL Server table, make sure the table has a primary key.