Microsoft introduced their synchronization platform known as the Microsoft Sync Framework. This framework allows developers to create offline applications, devices and services that will integrate any type of data with any application.
The framework, built to be very extensible has many features highlighted by:
- Add sync support to new and existing applications, services, and devices
- Enable collaboration and off-line capabilities for any application
- Roam and share information from any data store, over any protocol, and over any network configuration
- Leverage sync capabilities exposed in Microsoft technologies to create sync ecosystems
- Extend the architecture to support custom data types including files
The framework includes a number of providers to support common data sources and the developer can also create their own custom providers. The three providers included with this SDK are:
- Sync Services for ADO.NET: Synchronization for ADO.NET enabled data sources.
- Sync Services for File Systems: Synchronization for files and folders.
- Sync Services for SSE: Synchronization for Simple Sharing Extensions (SSE) such as RSS and ATOM feeds.
Microsoft has stated this framework is not a competing product to Google Gears which is a browser add-in but the Microsoft Sync Framework is a tool that lets developers sync any data.
Supported operating systems include Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Window XP and will be include in Visual Studio 2008 which is being released at the end of November.
Information about the Microsoft Sync Framework can be found on the Microsoft web site where the framework can be downloaded and Microsoft also has forums to post questions about using the framework.