John,
It depends on what you want to be able to do in offline mode.
1. Are you planning on using SQL-Server merge replication to subscribe for
the data so that its easy to offline and then merge any changes later?
Note: this may involve a large investment in time to get it right.
2. Are you planning on keeping some data in a local database and still
support editing? MSDE or the upcoming SQL-Server Express might be the
solution here. Note: there are some catches to using MSDE
3. Are you planning on keeping some data in local storage, but only require
read-only access. Depending on the amount of data, MSDE or SQL-Server
Express might be overkill. For small amounts of data you might consider
storing the data in Access or even persisting the a DataSet to XML and using
something like the QueryADataSet assembly I've been developing for providing
query capability while offline.
Depsite Microsoft's best intentions, MSDE and/or SQL-Server Express edition
aren't always the best solution to a problem.
Hope this helps
Adrian Moore
http://www.queryadataset.com
"John" <Jo**@nospam.infovis.co.uk> wrote in message
news:uY**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
Hi
I need to develop an app in vb 2005 which can work in both offline and
online modes and will be running on client laptops. I have listened to the
following web cast;
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/We...CountryCode=US
What I need to know is, do the laptops need to have a local version of sql
server (mobile, express etc.) to accomplish the offline mode?
Thanks
Regards