One of the topics that I’m particularly passionate about around building applications that work in both connected and disconnected mode. I’ve had a bit of experience with this both at AutumnCare and now at Intilecta so I would like to think that I’ve encountered most of the issues that typically arise. Typically the one that causes most headaches is how you go about synchronising data between the server and the client applications. At AutumnCare we used webservices to pass serialized objects and changeset along the wire; at Intilecta we are using Merge replication to make our lives easier. Now there is a new kid on the block in the form of the Microsoft Sync Services. Although the first CTP of this has only just been released, Steve has been talking about this for quite some time. In fact if you caught the Microsoft Developer Show late last year you will recall that we talked about what the future of occasionally connected applications might look like.
If you are building Occasionally Connected applications (ie client applications for mobile devices, tablet pcs or UMPCs) then you should really check out the CTP which you can download here. There is a forum and samples that you can also download.