Microsoft Sync Framework - Merge Conflict Resolution Policy

Question

Do you know how the Merge Conflict Resolution Policy in Sync Framework works? The doc here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd569762.aspx says that Merge is supported by default by the framework. However, the framework tracks row-level changes, not column-level, so how merging might work exactly?

Answer 1

none of the existing database providers in Sync Framework support Merge Conflict Resolution. as you have mentioned, change tracking is at the row level, so not unless you write your own custom code to track the column changes and merge the source and destination column values in a resulting data row to be applied, there is nothing out of the box to let you do this.

imho, i wouldn't be relying that much on the article you linked above as it has inconsistencies. for one, it states that Sync Services for ADO.NET supports synchronization of data and schema between Sql Server and SQL Ce. Sync Framework only does data sync, not schema sync. it provisions a basic schema but not the entire schema (FKs, Indices and other constraints are not provisioned, likewise a schema change on one side will not be synched with replica)

the article also does not clearly distinguish the offline providers (SqlCeClientSyncProvider/DbServerSyncProvider/SyncAgent) vs the collaboration/peer-to-peer providers (SqlCeSyncProvider/SqlSyncProvider/SyncOrchestrator). these providers differ very in the way they store metadata about what to sync and what has been synched and writing custom providers for each is completely different as well.