I have a solution where the master database is copied and deployed to 3 laptops and 3 iPads for offline use.

I need to add new functionality that will only be used on the laptops. If I add that functionality and it requires new fields to be added to the database and the MirrorSync layouts, can I copy the master and deploy it to the laptops only, or do I need to deploy a new copy to all 6 devices?

In other words, if didn't deploy a new copy to the iPads, would the sync from the iPads to the master fail after adding the functionality?

The old iPads will be fine syncing, even after new fields are added to the MirrorSync script on the server. We match all the fields by name at the time of the sync.

Ok, great. So if I'm understanding correctly, MS is only going to attempt to sync the fields that are on the MirrorSync layouts on the REMOTE (OR iPad) COPY. If there are extra fields on the MirrorSync layouts on the host, they will be ignored. Correct?

Eventually of course, the iPads will get the new version, but I'm trying to avoid having to bring all of the devices in house at once when pushing out this functionality.

Hey Jason, that's (almost) exactly right. I say almost because it's not the fields on the layout that matter, it's the fields that were pasted into the MirrorSync script. That's splitting hairs though, the net result is as you describe - fields that existed on the iPad at the point in time when the MirrorSync script steps were pasted will be compared to the currently (recent) list of fields from when the configuration process was most recently run. MirrorSync will re-order and omit fields as necessary to get those two lists to match.

Makes sense. Thanks, much!

Jesse - I ran some tests on this and found something that doesn't seem to jive with my understanding. I have a hosted master database and a local copy of the master database deployed on a laptop and an iPad. I added several fields to the master database and copied/pasted new script steps into the master MirrorSync script. Then I made a fresh copy of the database and deployed it to the laptop ONLY. The iPad still had the old version (before adding the new fields).

I could successfully sync data in the new fields from the laptop without issue. I could also continue syncing from the iPad, sending updates to the master, with no errors reported. This is what I was hoping to do so I could deploy to the iPads at a later time but allow users to keep working.

BUT, I noticed that if I made changes to a record on the iPad and synced it to the master, it erased any data in the NEW fields on the matching record in the master database. Any thoughts on this?

Hey Jason - I was not aware of that issue. I will try to reproduce the problem here and let you know what I find.

Jason- I was not able to reproduce your error. Can you try to reproduce the error again and submit a bug report? Please be sure to include the name if the primary key as well as the name of the layout that you are seeing the fields being erased.

I was able to replicate it a couple times this evening. Just submitted logs.

Thanks,

Jason