Announcing Sync Framework v2 CTP1

I just wanted to give you a heads-up about the availability of Sync Framework v2 CTP1 .  Sync Framework 2.0 expands on the capabilities offered by Sync Framework 1.0:

• Adds features that cater to new scenarios or scenarios that were difficult to support.
• Reduces the amount of work required to develop providers.
• Supports more data sources with new built-in providers.

The major new features included in this initial CTP are:

• Simple Providers
  • Reduces the amount of work required to develop providers, especially when the data source has very few synchronization-related capabilities, such as change-tracking.
  • The goal is to enable a developer to write a provider without having to become a synchronization expert. The majority of the code that is required for a simple provider is limited to that responsible for interacting with the data source.
• Change Unit Filtering
  • Different data sources can have different representations of the same data types, with some data sources offering a richer and more complete representation than others. This is especially true when you compare data type representations on a PC and on a device; the device will often support only a subset of the data supported by the PC.
  • Sync Framework caters to scenarios in which a mixture of data sources is being synchronized, each with a different representation of the data type. Filtering support has been added to enable a provider to specify that the replica it serves is only able to store a subset of the data. The synchronization metadata and synchronization process have both been enhanced to handle this filtering efficiently.
• Filter negotiation
  • When a destination data source is only storing a subset of data, then it is more efficient if the source provider uses a filter to enumerate only the data that can be stored by the destination.
  • Filter negotiation allows a destination provider to specify it would like one or more filters to be used by the source provider; the source provider can accept or reject a filter. If a source provider does not support the requested filters then the destination provider can choose to receive all the data and do the filtering itself.
  • Sync Framework is responsible for calling the providers appropriately to negotiate filter usage.

For more details please visit the Microsoft download center at:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=109DB36E-CDD0-4514-9FB5-B77D9CEA37F6&displaylang=en

Happy Synching!

-Rob