Framework

Bryant Likes has been experimenting with the CTP1 of the Microsoft Sync Framework and in particular the NTFS provider sample that is shipped as part of the SDK. Check out this forum thread to see what he was up to.

The samples only shows how to sync files between to folders that could be on the same box or shared across a LAN setup. Brian tweaked the sample code to enable synchronizing files over the internet. This is really cool addition to the sample and commonly requested by developers. Brian shared the code with all of us on his blog.
 

Synchronization Services for ADO.NET

Roger Jennings have been following Synchronization services since day one and has written excellent article about the framework. Below is a reference to his article about sync services and a short summary from the author:

My "Update Local Data Caches with Sync Services" article in the May 2007 issue of Visual Studio Magazine carries this deck:

"The Microsoft Synchronization Services 1.0 API for SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition and the new Sync Designer in the Orcas March 2007 CTP team up to generate a local data cache that synchronizes incrementally and bidirectional with SQL Server [Express]."

Sync services and the Sync Designer is the technology behind Occasionally Connected Systems, which--together with the Entity Framework--comprise the Dynamic Development "Pillar of Katmai."

As you may know, I authored an early article introducing the framework to the developers entitled "Take Data Offline Using Microsoft synchronization Services for ADO.NET". This article covers the basic concepts of data synchronization and briefly discuss the architecture of the framework. It then walks through the process of building simple bidirectional sync application using the SyncAdapterBuilder. If you are new to sync, you should start here.
 

Dino Esposite wrote an excellent article on this topic. In his article, he discusses how efficient the binary serializer is for DataSet and how to take advantage of it.

• Q&A on OCS & Sync Services for ADO.NET
• Additional Q&A on the Visual Studio Orcas Sync Designer

• Introducing the Microsoft Sync Framework: Next Generation Synchronization Framework
• Caching with SQL Server Compact and the Microsoft Sync Framework for ADO.NET

Sébastien Pertus

• Introduction à Microsoft Synchronization Framework  
   

I turns out that Microsoft Solution Architect Memi Lavi was visiting this web site and seemed to have loved it and is parsing it on his blog. That's very faltering, thanks Memi. I've not had the opportunity to meet with Memi before; one reason is that he is not in Redmond or even the US! Isn't that cool!? blogs are not only for external audience, but also for microsofties to learn about each others and exchange experiences.

In his blog, Memi shared the work he did building sync solution using Oracle as a backend database. He wrote a pretty detailed post on his sample, check it out.

Nobody can show you the sync designer in action better than Steve Lasker. Steve posted two screen casts showing how to use the designer to build offline application for a 2-tier setup. In the second screen cast, Steve shows how to change the application to work in n-tier environment where the client sync component communicates with the server component through WCF. The sessions are available here:

Screen cast #1: First look at the Visual Studio Orcas Sync Designer
Screen cast #2: Going N Tier w/WCF, Synchronizing data using Sync Services for ADO.NET
 

Very interesting interview with Milin Lele, VS program manger. Milind led the team that built the sync designer in VS 2008. He knows it better than anyone and in this interview he shows all the features of the designer and walk through the process of adding database cache component to a given project.

In my blog post about SQL CE, I discussed the need for it and why it is uniquely positioned to be the store of choice for rich desktop application. Sync Services takes the value add to another new level.

I ran into a great article on MSDN on how to design solutions using SQL CE. It is really a great read:

"SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (SSCE) provides a powerful yet lightweight data storage engine for building a variety of application types. This paper introduces data storage concerns for client applications and small-scale server applications. It discusses the feature set of SSCE and how that feature set addresses data storage concerns. It covers different application architectures where SSCE might be a good fit, highlighting the attributes of the application types and how SSCE can meet the requirements for each application type"

Read more ...
 

Roger Jennings
Steve Lasker
Rafik Robeal
Andrei Maksimenka

SQLCE Team Blog
Sync Team Blog

MSDN Sync Developer Center

MSDN Sync Forums
MSDN VS Forums