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Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0 CTP2

Time: 09:15 EST/14:15 GMT | News Source: Microsoft | Posted By: Jonathan Tigner

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 CTP (CTP2) are:

New database providers (SqlSyncProvider and SqlCeSyncProvider): Enable hub-and-spoke and peer-to-peer synchronization for SQL Server, SQL Server Express, and SQL Server Compact. Sync Framework automatically creates all of the commands that are required to communicate with each database. You do not have to write synchronization queries as you do with other providers. The providers support: flexible initialization options; batching of changes based on data size; and maintenance tasks, such as metadata cleanup and server database restore.

Custom filters: Enable a filtered replica to store item data only for items that are in the filter, such as a media storage replica that stores only songs that are rated as three stars or better. As the rating on a song changes, an item might move in or out of the filter. A filter-tracking replica is another replica in the community that can identify which items are in the filter and which have moved in or out of the filter recently. A filter-tracking replica may store item data for items that are not in the filter. Sync Framework supports efficient synchronization between filtered replicas and filter-tracking replicas, and maintains all of the necessary metadata.

Improved conflict handling: Sync Framework added several features in this release that make it easier to handle conflicts.
- Constraint conflict handling: Sync Framework now supports constraint conflicts, which are conflicts that violate constraints that are put on items or change units, such as the relationship of folders or the location of identically named data within a file system. A destination provider can report a constraint conflict to Sync Framework, and use Sync Framework components to resolve the conflict and determine how to apply the resolution to the destination replica.
- Conflict logging: Sync Framework defines a set of conflict log interfaces and provides components that help manage conflicts in the log. Sync Framework also provides an in-memory implementation of the conflict log interfaces for replicas that do not contain a conflict log. It can be useful to save conflicts in a log so that they can be processed separately from the synchronization session, such as when a user needs to review conflicts and decide how to resolve them.
- Last-writer-wins conflict resolution: An application might want to resolve concurrency conflicts (in which an item is updated by more than one replica) by keeping the most recently made change, regardless of where the change was made. Sync Framework supports this resolution option by enabling an application to retrieve the time a change was made on the source and destination replicas. The application can then compare the two times and apply the last change.
- Improved simple provider conflict handling: Simple providers include a new set of conflict handling interfaces that make it easier to specify resolution actions for concurrency and constraint conflicts.
Data conversion between providers: In some scenarios, synchronization providers synchronize the same type of data (such as sales data), but the data format that each provider requires is different. To address this scenario, Sync Framework enables you to implement interfaces that convert data to the format that each provider requires. In addition to data conversion APIs that can be used for any type of custom provider, Sync Framework also includes conversion APIs specifically for the file synchronization provider.

Change application service: Sync Framework includes a change applier implementation that most applications use to apply changes to a replica. In this CTP, Sync Framework introduces the change application service, which performs the same actions as the change applier, but in a more granular way. A destination provider that requires greater flexibility than the standard change applier can use the change application service to perform only the set of actions that are required.