If you're working over the internet I would stay away from remoting, although it has some benefits (namely the ability to compress data and send true byte streams) and use Web Services.

Another option is to not use a remoting architecture at all, but ship the data back via plain HTTP - that would be the most efficient way as you can compress everything, but there's also the issue of decompressing the data on the client. And if you ever move stuff to a PDA type app decompression may or may not work.

Remember too that dial up modems compress data streams and XML (datasets over the wire) will compress significantly. In many cases sending zipped content is no more efficient than sending plain text over slow connections.

Finally you will want to try to build your app around atomic data aquisition as opposed to sending huge chunks at a time. In a distributed app it's almost always better to send data in smaller chunks 'just in time' rather than trying cache and sending it all out at once.


Just a few random thoughts <g>...

+++ Rick ---




>Hi all,
>
>I need suggestions on how to load data into a smart client app very fast.
>Here is the scenario: each user has msde/access on their laptop. They are on the road most of the time and they may have dsl or dial-up connection.
>The key requirements is that the download of data and upload of data must be fast. The download data is bascially 1 or more files( they come from mainframe..and could be xml, tab delimited etc) which represent different categories. One user can download one or more files.
>I came down to two ways of handling the download: zip the files up and send them over the wire or use web services/remoting and get data as datasets. My only concern is that users may have slow dial-up connection, the download may take very long time.
>I estimate that the size of each download file may be 1 mb.
>
>Any suggestions are welcome. Also, if you know of any articles/samples on smart client, please let me know.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Vlad