Today’s release of Microsoft Sync Framework includes the latest version of Sync Services for ADO.NET.  A great deal of work has gone into this release and I thought I would take some time to point out some of the top new features in version 2 since our previous release.

• Peer-to-peer synchronization support:

Beyone the traditional hub-and-spoke synchronization support built into Sync Services for ADO.NET.  v2 now supports peer-to-peer synchronization.  The focus with this part of the API is collaborative applications. For example, in an application that allows users to share project notes, project team members often require a local copy of data that they can work with. When they have made changes, they can synchronize with another team member to exchange changes. 

• Sync Services is now based on Microsoft Sync Framework:

Sync Services now uses Microsoft.Synchronization.dll. If you installed Sync Services by using SyncSetup.exe, this DLL is already installed. This enables Sync Services for ADO.NET to take advantage of all the features and capabilities built into the Sync Framework.

• Synchronize with devices: 

Sync Services for ADO.NET 1.0 enabled synchronization between a server database and a SQL Server Compact 3.5 database on the desktop. Now, you can also synchronize between a server database and a SQL Server Compact 3.5 database on a device.

• Support for SQL Server 2008 Integrated Change Tracking:

If you are using SQL Server 2008, Sync Services for ADO.NET has the ability to take advantage of the new SQL Server integrated change tracking feature. This feature addresses many of the issues of custom-tracking systems and provides a straightforward way to track changes. Change tracking is also supported by the Local Database Cache in Visual Studio 2008 SP1. Developers can now specify that the Configure Data Synchronization wizard should enable SQL Server change tracking on the server and generate the commands necessary to select and apply changes to the server database. Unlike custom change tracking systems, SQL Server change tracking does not require any schema changes in the server database.

• Support for the new data types in SQL Server 2008:

Sync Services for ADO.NET has added support for a number of new data types including those added in SQL Server 2008.

• The ability to trace the synchronization process: 

In distributed applications, tracing can be crucial because it enables you to troubleshoot issues that might otherwise be difficult to identify. Sync Services includes tracing for the client and server synchronization providers.

Liam Cavanagh