SQL Server Compact 3.5 B2 & Sync Services for ADO.NET Documentation released

For those that have downloaded Visual Studio 2008 to get the latest version of SQL Server Compact and Sync Services for ADO.NET, you'll notice that we don't install the documentation for these products with Visual Studio.

Why?  Well, our documentation process here at Microsoft can be quite complex.  With all the integration and multiple languages we support, we have to lock things down very early.  We had some tough choices to make.  Deliver less content, but ship "in the box", or take some more time, get the latest and greatest we can provide, ship at the same time as Visual Studio, but make the documentation available as a web download.  We decided to go for the web download, and will continue to update the docs as we have time to integrate the latest and greatest.

Behind the scenes
Blogs do a great job to get to know some of the folks behind the scenes.  So you know the people responsible for the docs, let me thank Sonal Mangrulkar who's been developing our SQL Server Compact docs and Michael Blythe for the Sync Services documentation.  They've done a herculean effort, while juggling many other deliverables as well.  Writing documentation while the product is evolving and changing is difficult enough.  Trying to write samples that are constantly breaking, or trying to get time with the developers to explain how this works is a constant effort.  While we could always do more, Michael and Sonal are very dedicated to helping you out.  They do listen to feedback and incorporate as much as possible.  Many of you know Bill Vaughn, and Sonal certainly knows Bill.  Bill has provided frequent, and passionate <g> feedback, as well as many other folks from our device community.

So, thanks, and here you go:
SQL Server Compact 3.5 Documentation
Sync Services for ADO.NET Documentation

We should have the SQL Server Compact MSI's available soon so that developers using Visual Studio 2005 and .NET FX 2.0 can get started for the low, low price of just 2mb.  ...stay tuned...

Steve

Comments

• Anonymous
  July 31, 2007
  does sqlce 3.5 beta2 and Sync Services for ADO.NET beta2 support smart deive application?

• Anonymous
  July 31, 2007
  Unfortunately no, not yet.  We’re still working out the exact schedule for device support, but it won’t be in the RTM release of 3.5.  We’re hopeful for SP1 which is scheduled to ship with SQL Server 2008, but we haven’t finalized that just yet.   Steve

• Anonymous
  November 05, 2007
  Steve, thanks. You mean that on RTM there will be no support for synchronizing with SQL 2008? Will it be available with a SP when SQL 2008 ships? thanks

• Anonymous
  November 06, 2007
  Hi Pablo, Based on my reply, and your subsequent reply, I'm not sure if we're getting things confused. Sync Services, the runtime, will work with any ADO.NET provider, including SQL Server 2008.  From a tooling point of view, including the Sync Designer, SQL Server 2008 will not have shipped when VS 2008 ships, so we're unable to finalize any SQL Server 2008 tooling scenarios.  As such, we will need a service pack to VS 2008 to assure data tooling scenarios are enabled. So, Sync Services, yes.  Just change the connection string, and it will work against SQL Server 2008. Designer, no.  It will not be able to connect to SQL Server 2008. Steve

• Anonymous
  November 06, 2007
  Thanks Steve, now it is clear for me! :)