Microsoft Sync Framework for SQL Server CE and SQL Server sync fails for column datatype real and float

Question

I am developing a Winforms application with .NET Framework 4.6 that runs online as well as offline. The cloud DB server is SQL Server 2016 and client will use SQL Server CE 4.0.

I intend to achieve this using the Microsoft Sync framework to synchronize the data between the 2 servers.

This is my code:

public static void Synchronize(string scopeName, string serverConnectionString, string clientConnectionString)
{
    Initialize(scopeName, serverConnectionString, clientConnectionString);

    Synchronize(scopeName, serverConnectionString, clientConnectionString, SyncDirectionOrder.UploadAndDownload);
    CleanUp(scopeName, serverConnectionString, clientConnectionString);
}

private static void Initialize(string scope_name, string serverConnectionString, string clientConnectionString) 
{
    // SQL Server Connection
    SqlConnection serverConnection = new SqlConnection(serverConnectionString);

    // Scope Description
    DbSyncScopeDescription svrScopeDescription = new DbSyncScopeDescription(scope_name);

    // Table List
    ArrayList tablesList= new ArrayList {
                    "SYNC_TEST"
                      /* OTHER TABLES */
                };

    // Table/scope Descption
    foreach (String table in tablesList) 
    {
        DbSyncTableDescription svrTableDescription = SqlSyncDescriptionBuilder.GetDescriptionForTable(table, serverConnection);
        svrTableDescription.Columns["PK"].IsPrimaryKey = true;
        svrScopeDescription.Tables.Add(svrTableDescription);
    }

    // Apply SQL Server Scope Provision
    SqlSyncScopeProvisioning serverProvision = new SqlSyncScopeProvisioning(serverConnection, svrScopeDescription);
    serverProvision.SetCreateTableDefault(DbSyncCreationOption.Skip);
    serverProvision.Apply();

    // create a connection to the SyncCompactDB database
    SqlCeConnection clientConn = new SqlCeConnection(clientConnectionString);

    // get the description of Scope from the SyncDB server database
    DbSyncScopeDescription clntScopeDescription = SqlSyncDescriptionBuilder.GetDescriptionForScope(scope_name, serverConnection);

    // create CE provisioning object based on the Scope
    SqlCeSyncScopeProvisioning clientProvision = new SqlCeSyncScopeProvisioning(clientConn, clntScopeDescription);
    clientProvision.SetCreateTableDefault(DbSyncCreationOption.CreateOrUseExisting);

    // starts the provisioning process
    clientProvision.Apply();
}

private static void Synchronize(string scopeName, string serverConnectionString, string clientConnectionString, SyncDirectionOrder syncDirectionOrder) 
{
    try
    {
        // create a connection to the SyncCompactDB database
        SqlCeConnection clientConn = new SqlCeConnection(clientConnectionString);

        // create a connection to the SyncDB server database
        SqlConnection serverConn = new SqlConnection(serverConnectionString);

        // create the sync orchestrator
        SyncOrchestrator syncOrchestrator = new SyncOrchestrator();

        // set local provider of orchestrator to a CE sync provider associated with the 
        // ProductsScope in the SyncCompactDB compact client database
        syncOrchestrator.LocalProvider = new SqlCeSyncProvider(scopeName, clientConn);

        // set the remote provider of orchestrator to a server sync provider associated with
        // the ProductsScope in the SyncDB server database
        syncOrchestrator.RemoteProvider = new SqlSyncProvider(scopeName, serverConn);

        // set the direction of sync session to Upload and Download
        syncOrchestrator.Direction = syncDirectionOrder;

        // subscribe for errors that occur when applying changes to the client
        ((SqlCeSyncProvider)syncOrchestrator.LocalProvider).ApplyChangeFailed += new EventHandler<DbApplyChangeFailedEventArgs>(Program_ApplyChangeFailed);

        // subscribe for errors that occur when applying changes to the server
        ((SqlSyncProvider)syncOrchestrator.RemoteProvider).ApplyChangeFailed += new EventHandler<DbApplyChangeFailedEventArgs>(Program_ApplyChangeFailed);

        // execute the synchronization process
        SyncOperationStatistics syncStats = syncOrchestrator.Synchronize();

        // print statistics
        Console.WriteLine("Start Time: " + syncStats.SyncStartTime);
        Console.WriteLine("Total Changes Uploaded: " + syncStats.UploadChangesTotal);
        Console.WriteLine("Total Changes Downloaded: " + syncStats.DownloadChangesTotal);
        Console.WriteLine("Complete Time: " + syncStats.SyncEndTime);
        Console.WriteLine(String.Empty);
    }
    catch (Exception e) 
    {
        String x = e.Message;
        String y = e.StackTrace;
        String z = e.Source;
        String x1 = e.InnerException.ToString();
        String y1 = e.TargetSite.ToString();
        String z1 = e.Data.ToString();
    }
}

private static void dbProvider_SyncProcessFailed(object sender, DbApplyChangeFailedEventArgs e) 
{
    throw new NotImplementedException();
}

private static void dbProvider_SyncProgress(object sender, DbSyncProgressEventArgs e) 
{
    throw new NotImplementedException();
}

static void Program_ApplyChangeFailed(object sender, DbApplyChangeFailedEventArgs e)
{
    // display conflict type
    Console.WriteLine(e.Conflict.Type);

    // display error message 
    Console.WriteLine(e.Error);
}

private static void CleanUp(string scopeName, string serverConnectionString, string clientConnectionString) 
{
    SqlConnection serverConnection = new SqlConnection(serverConnectionString);
    SqlCeConnection clientConnection = new SqlCeConnection(clientConnectionString);

    SqlSyncScopeDeprovisioning serverDeprovisioning = new SqlSyncScopeDeprovisioning(serverConnection);
    SqlCeSyncScopeDeprovisioning clientDeprovisioning = new SqlCeSyncScopeDeprovisioning(clientConnection);

    serverDeprovisioning.DeprovisionScope(scopeName);
    serverDeprovisioning.DeprovisionStore();

    clientDeprovisioning.DeprovisionScope(scopeName);
    clientDeprovisioning.DeprovisionStore();
}

This works well if the direction is only download.

However when I change the direction to Upload, UploadDownload or DownloadUplaod I am getting an error for every column with data type real of float.

Error Screenshot

Could some one please help me out, towards what I am doing wrong?

Answer 1

I had the same issue. No support whatsoever on internet. It started working fine once I converted from float to decimal. Float is considered as approx./rough datatype and decimal is of exact precision and hence it works. I even tried the library dotmim as mentioned but it also didn't work. Not much support for it either.