Windows Live ID - something to read up on
Another recent announcement that has relevance to Office Live developers is regarding the updated Windows Live ID service, formerly known as Passport. Live ID is what Office Live uses for authentication in our v1.0 Beta today, and also what we plan to continue to use in future releases.
Some developers writing Office Live apps may want to familiarize themselves with it, others do not need to worry about it. For example, if you are customizing existing Office Live Business Applications or creating new ones (via Sharepoint templates), you should be fine without needing to delve into authentication.
However, if you are thinking about how to integrate Windows Client apps with Office Live, Windows Live ID will eventually be important to you. Here's a snippet from a white paper on their service that will hopefully make it clear:
A second SDK—the Windows Live ID Client SDK—runs on end users' computers. This SDK makes it easier to write new client applications that understand Windows Live IDs and supports the sharing of authentication state across multiple rich clients and browsers. It also manages short-lived certificates issued by the Windows Live ID Certificate Authority; these certificates can be used in security-sensitive applications such as peer-to-peer communication channels.
The article pretty much just annnouces their intention to release some SDKs, but doesn't provide a specific timeline for it. So to keep up with changes to the Live ID or find out when the SDK is ready, check out their blog on MSN Spaces. I'll also try to post something back up here when they have something more to show.
Now, you may ask, how would I write a Windows App that works against Office Live? As mentioned before here and elsewhere, Office Live is moving to the WSS v3 platform in an upcoming release. We are hoping to expose many of the web services that WSS v3 provides, and maybe a few of our own. Again, take that with a grain of salt and invest your time at your own peril (no guarantees, warrantees implied)... the Office Live API story is not yet complete.
