Microsoft Sync Framework : Video

Looking Forward - Offline Capable Applications Using SilverLight and Sync Framework

liamca — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:47:00 GMT

Right from the first release of Microsoft Sync Framework, one of the most common requests we have received is for the ability to take SilverLight applications offline, meaning that users can continue to access their applications and data regardless of connectivity to the backend web application. Using this architecture, developers can build much richer applications and also take advantage of the local machine resources to provide fast data access. In addition, the ability to easily deploy SilverLight applications either within a browser of within an out-of-browser application makes this platform a very popular choice when building rich internet applications.

In the past there were a few issues that we had when trying to enable this functionality, but now with the latest release of SilverLight, much of what we require to provide offline capabilities is available. At this year’s Professional Developer Conference (PDC), Mark Scurrell introduced everyone to this set of capabilities in his session: "Using the Microsoft Sync Framework to Connect Apps to the Cloud" (overview starts at 44:40 minutes into session). Using the PDC conference session web site he showed how we built a rich SilverLight application that allows a user to take the sessions data offline into isolated storage, and while the user is offline they can continue to view sessions, add sessions to their calendar, rate attended sessions and then, once back online, the application automatically takes the changes and uploads them to the main agenda web site (demo starts at 48:00 minutes into session). The screenshot to the left shows an example of what this application looks like.

In order to truly take advantage of SilverLight's cross platform capability we had to come up with a solution where we could still support clients that do not have a Sync Framework runtime. To do this what we did was build the architecture such that all of the core Sync Framework logic resides on the service (in this case a Windows Azure Webrole), and that is where all of the heavy lifting of the synchronization process is executed. From the service we exposed a simple HTTP-based synchronization protocol that the client consumed, allowing any client to participate in synchronization. Currently the best offline store within SilverLight is isolated storage, and as you can see in Mark's demonstration of filtering data, this is sufficient to build a rich and very quick data-access application.

Over the next year you will see more of how we plan to enable this scenario and we will provide additional details on what you can do to get started to build these offline-capable applications using SilverLight.

Liam

PDC Keynote Recording - Kelley Blue Book's use of SQL Azure Data Sync

liamca — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:54:00 GMT

Last week at PDC we announced the availability of our first CTP of SQL Azure Data Sync. In the keynote, Andy Lapin of Kelley Blue Book explained how they keep their community databases up-to-date using this technolgy to synchronize data between their on-premises SQL Server and SQL Azure. The recording is now available for you to view (the Kelley Blue Book portion of the keynote starts at about 1:18:00).

Ultimately, one of the goals of this CTP is to get your feedback. What is it that you like or dislike about it? Are you primarily interested in the Visual Studio integration or would you like us to see us add additional capabilities such as advanced monitoring or logging to the SQL Server provisioning tool. So please send us your thoughts (good or bad) here:

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/syncfeedback/threads

Liam

Sync Framework and our upcoming conferences

liamca — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:31:00 GMT

The next few months are going to be very busy for us here in the Sync Framework team. Not only do we have Sync Framework v2 coming out shortly, we also have a number of conferences where we will talk about the work we have been doing with some of external companies and internal groups here at Microsoft to allow developers to plug-in synchronization to systems like SQL Server and SQL Azure.

Starting in November, we will be at SQL PASS, and then at the PDC for the launch of SQL Azure. Last week I recorded a Channel 9 video along with Buck Woody and Michael Rys on the upcoming SQL PASS Summit. You can view the video here:

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/LarryLarsen/Upcoming-SQL-PASS-Summit-1/

Here is a summary of the video:

Join thousands of SQL Server & BI professionals at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle from Nov. 2-5 for the largest SQL Server conference in the world! PASS Summit offers 168 technical sessions presented by SQL Server experts, one-on-one time with Microsoft’s SQL Server engineering team, free troubleshooting & design architecture guidance from Microsoft consultants, keynotes from Microsoft’s senior executives and much more!

Senior Data Platform Technology Specialist Buck Woody stopped by the Channel 9 studio to talk to Michael Rys, Principal Program Manager in SQL Server Engineering Team, and Liam Cavanagh, Senior Program Manager, about upcoming sessions you won’t want to miss this year’s PASS Summit conference.

Liam Cavanagh

New Webcast Video - Drill Down Into the Next Release of the Microsoft Sync Framework

liamca — Sat, 02 May 2009 03:14:00 GMT

We recently had a chance to record an MSDN webcast describing a handful of the new features that will ship in the next CTP of Sync Framework v2. This particular session focuses primarily on those features we have built related to our offline and collaboration database scenarios. Please register at the following location:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032413045&CountryCode=US

This session is a deep dive into the next release of the Microsoft Sync Framework with a focus on our database scenarios. Specifically, this session will discuss some of the work we have done in order to allow developers to synchronize SQL Compact in a peer to peer fashion. In addition, we will discuss the improvements we have made around batching to make it easier to use, expose more control over memory usage and provide resumability over transient networks that go up and down when performing sync operations. Furthermore, we will examine some of the performance related features baked into the runtime to improve the time it takes to initialize your client side database and synchronize large tables that have a less frequent rate of change. This will also include a discussion around some of the lessons we learned when performing scale and performance testing in an environment with 4000 clients and as much as 400 concurrent sync operations on a single server. These best practices were compiled at the end of one of the largest external implementations of the Microsoft Sync Framework in the world. Finally, we will go over some of the new scenarios that we have enabled as a result of building on top of the Sync Framework, which provides much more flexibility around the shape of your topology. These scenarios include taking data stored in SQL Data Services and ADO.NET Data Services offline, USB shuttle scenarios, and traditional scenarios such as branch-office. This session will include demos that provide a deep dive into the use of these features as well as benchmark data around the performance of the Sync Framework in a large distributed environment.

Enjoy and please send any and all feedback our way!

Sean Kelley

New File Sync Provider Webcast

liamca — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:46:00 GMT

We have posted a new video webcast of the File Sync Provider now available for download (we will make it available on demand within the Sync Framework dev center as a featured video soon).

In this webcast, Ashish Shah, Principal Development Lead in the Sync Framework team walks through an overview of the files sync provider provided within the Sync Framework.

During the session, Ashish discusses a variety of scenarios supported by this provider as well as a summary of the feature set and a look at some of the programmatic requirements associated with creating a true file sync solution such as SyncToy.

Liam Cavanagh

PDC Session Recordings on Sync Framework

liamca — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:41:00 GMT

We are just about finishing off day 3 of the Professional Developer Conference and, wow what a week it has been so far! It has been great meeting with many of you at our Sync booth as well as at our various sessions. During this week we have introduced Sync Framework v2 (CTP1) and a new SQL Services Labs site that incorporate two of our newest sync related projects (Codename "Huron" and Codename "Anchorage").

For those of you who were not able to come to the PDC, I wanted to point you to the recordings of our Sync Framework sessions that are now available for viewing.

Microsoft Sync Framework Advances (Presenter: Lev Novik)
This session shows you how the next version of the Microsoft Sync Framework makes it easier to synchronize distributed copies of data across desktops, devices, services, or anywhere else they may be stored.

Windows 7: Programming Sync Providers That Work Great with Windows (Presenter: Jason Roberts)
Learn how you can enable your application to synchronize with other applications that use the Microsoft Sync Framework. This session covers how to implement sync for contacts and other PIM data, how to package sync providers for distribution and installation, and how to register sync provider for use on Windows.

Sync Framework: Enterprise Data in the Cloud and on Devices (Presenter: Liam Cavanagh)
See how synchronization plays a pivotal role in transitioning to a managed cloud environment by creating a central hub of information in the cloud. Using synchronization, organizations can enable more efficient mobile and enterprise-to-enterprise scenarios.

We also had a number of related sessions that you might also find of interest (some of these will be posted over the next few days):

- Liam Cavanagh

Webcast - Synchronizing Data: Inside the Microsoft Sync Framework

liamca — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:54:00 GMT

A few days ago, a number of people from the Sync Framework engineering team were interviewed by Charles Torre (from Channel 9). He shot a 1 hour video interview where we explained how the Microsoft Sync Framework works internally, some key concepts that developers need to take care of when creating new providers and how the Sync Framework team is focusing on both managed and native developer solutions.

The video can be viewed at: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles/Inside-the-Microsoft-Sync-Framework/ or downloaded directly in the following formats:

I hope you enjoy watching the interview!

Liam

Video - Building Offline Enabled Applications

liamca — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:02:00 GMT

At TechEd 2008 Developers in Orlando a number of our mobility specialists and Microsoft MVP's got together to discuss the concept of building offline applications for mobile and remote users. In this panel we discussed various concepts including optimizing data synchronization, scalability as well as techniques to improve the user experience of your mobile applications.

You can view this video recording in various formats here:

Building Offline Enabled Applications [MP4] [WMV Hi] [WMV Lo]

Panel Members:

Ginny Caughey - Microsoft MVP, Wasteworks
Steve Lasker - Sr. Program Manager, Microsoft SQL Server Compact
Rob Tiffany - Microsoft Mobility Architect
Rob Relyea - Architect, WPF Team
Liam Cavanagh - Sr. Program Manager, Microsoft Sync Framework

TechEd Developer Conference - Day 1

liamca — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:25:00 GMT

It has been an exciting first day for us at TechEd here in Orlando. The day started out with a demonstration of the Microsoft Sync Framework in Bill Gates keynote. Great work Moe, Lev, Zach, Tim and Lito!

Sync Framework Keynote with Bill Gates (6 min 28 sec)

In this demonstration we showed how the Microsoft Sync Framework could integrate SQL Server 2008, SQL Server Data Services as well as Devices together with some pretty cool implementations photo sync, location based services and the new Spatial data types in SQL Server 2008.

Next, we had the chance to talk to the press about some great new consumer partnerships that we have formed. The new partners include include SmugMug, a photo sharing site for both consumers and professionals, Ontela, which provides technology infrastructure to wireless carriers that allows consumers to unlock the photos in their camera phones, and Fujitsu Siemens Computers, which is deploying the Microsoft Sync Framework enabled SyncToy solution with more than 400,000 removal storage and USB devices for consumers and business users, while collaborating on synchronization, backup, and restore for future projects.

Finally we announced today that the Microsoft Sync Framework for Windows will be released in Q3 2008 with full support for the FeedSync open protocol format. Additionally, a CTP for Windows Mobile support will also be available in Q3 2008.

Whew, I am tired! Hopefully the rest of the week will be just as exciting!

Liam Cavanagh

Sync to the Web - Enable Offline Access to Web Data from any Data Store

liamca — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:07:00 GMT

At MIX 2008 Liam Cavanagh discusses how to use the Microsoft Sync Framework along with SQL Server Data Services to provide synchronization cabability across multiple applications.

In the demonstration, he synchronizes contacts between Microsoft Access, Outlook and SQL Server Data Services. However, by building new providers, any application can participate in synchronization.

Later in the presentation Neil Padgett goes through a detailed internals discussion of the Microsoft Sync Framework metadata and provider models.

MIX 2008 Recorded Session - Using Microsoft Sync Framework and FeedSync

liamca — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:39:00 GMT

At the recent MIX 2008 conference in Las Vegas, Neil Padgett presented the Microsoft Sync Framework.

This session is now online and in it you will learn:

Why it is important to be able to take data offline.
How Microsoft Sync Framework can be used to used to take this content offline and how the open FeedSync protocl can be leveraged.
How Microsoft Sync Framework can integrate sync into SQL Server Data Services to enable data to be synchronized to a highly scalable, on-demand data storage and query processing utility service.
What is Project Codename “Astoria Offline” and what it promises for taking web services offline

The session is available in multiple formats including:

Don't forget to catch us at TechEd 2008 and PDC 2008.

Please visit our sync developer center to learn more about Microsoft Sync Framework.

Liam Cavanagh

Microsoft Sync Framework & Sync Services for ADO.NET Video Webcasts

liamca — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:55:00 GMT

I wanted to point you to some video webcasts on the Microsoft Sync Framework and Sync Services for ADO.NET which are now available for download. If you would like to watch them online, you can alternatively go to our Sync Developer Page and click on the appropriate videos.

Introduction to Microsoft Sync Framework - Synchronization Framework for Enabling Roaming, Offline, and Collaboration Across Devices, Services & Apps

Presenter: Moe Khosravy & Liam Cavanagh

In this session we will introduce Microsoft Sync Framework. Attendees will learn about the capabilities of the sync platform and see a demonstration of multi-master synchronization across devices and services. We will use this demonstration to guide our walk through of the key components involved in building an application using Microsoft Sync Framework. Finally we will provide a glimpse into upcoming Microsoft products which will ship with out of the box support for Microsoft Sync Framework.

Implementing Solutions that Leverage Microsoft Sync Framework to Provide Synchronization Capabilities Across Devices, Services and Applications

Presenter: Neil Padgett and Liam Cavanagh

This session will focus on the steps a developer needs to take to incorporate synchronization into their application or services. First we will demonstrate how an existing line of business application can easily add synchronization support to allow users to work offline. Next we will describe the steps involved in building a service which exposes synchronization over FeedSync using Microsoft Sync Framework. We will briefly describe how support for Microsoft Sync Framework has been added for applications or services using file system or Microsoft SQL Server.

Introduction to Sync Services for ADO.NET and the Visual Studio Designer

Presenter: Liam Cavanagh

In this session we will introduce Sync Services for ADO.NET which is a part of the Microsoft Sync Framework. Specifically, we will discuss how Sync Services for ADO.NET enables synchronization of information between database systems and how Sync Services for ADO.NET helps developers avoid many of the common issues associated with taking data offline.