"How do you allow users of a web application tool to use tool while working off-line?"
I was looking into Google Gears as a possible answer to the above question. In fact I was watching this very interesting Google Gears presentation by Aaron Boodman when a thought came to me: "Does Microsoft has something similar to Google Gears coming out?".
Ironically enough, I googled "Microsoft's Answer to Google Gears" and found out that, indeed, it appears that Microsoft is firing back with their own off-line web application solution; the Microsoft Sync Framework. The CTP1 Refresh was released in December. Here are a list of features:
- Add sync support to new and existing applications, services, and devices
- Enable collaboration and offline 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
I will have to do some more investigation into this and get back to you with my findings. In the meantime, check out the following links for some information and the afformentioned application and you can download the latest CTP:
Is this Google's answer to Google Gears? Regardless, will either one of these solutions make my life easier by giving me a way to allow my customers to work with their essential website tools off-line?