Database Development & protection ?

[cgchris99]

I have an idea for an application but have two questions.

1) what app do I use to program with. I have a lot of programming experience but nothing with a pda.

2) How can I protect the database. I want them to be able to download the database from my website because it will have updates to it monthly.

I don't want them to be able to read the database with any other app or have them be able to give it to someone else.

Any ideas or thought would be great

thanks.

[srouleau]

Chris,

To answer your questions ...

1) There are several free choices available to you. You can download the eMbedded Visual Tools from Microsoft's web site. There are versions which approximate C++ and VB development on Windows CE devices. Make sure you get version 3.0, not the latest .NET, as this will not let you program for most current PDAs.

(I say approximate above because there are limitations to what you can and cannot do in the languages, compared to a desktop version).

2) One way would be for you to encrypt the data, and have your application decrypt the database. This would, unfortunately, impose restrictions on where you can export your application but this may not be an issue for you. You can make the encryption as easy or as complex as you want.

Another possibility would be to use a custom format that only your application knew about; no encryption.

Hope this helps,