Microsoft has made available as a free download the Software Development Kit for Syndicated Client Experiences Starter Kit & Reader. The SDK is designed to permit building applications similar to the New York Times reader introduced in late 2006 for Windows Vista users.

The Syndicated Client Experiences Starter Kit & Reader leverages the Windows Presentation Foundation, the advanced unified programming model and presentation system that is integrated into the latest Windows client. The best way to understand what the SSK has to offer is to take a look at the New York Times reader, because that application is based on the Syndicated Client Experiences Starter Kit & Reader.

"We're delighted to announce the public release of the reader toolkit on windowsclient.net. We've made a number of improvements to the kit to broaden its usage; the reader toolkit is now known by the rather more accurate but slightly less memorable name: the Syndicated Client Experiences Starter Kit. This reflects its potential to go beyond a news reading scenario and handle other kinds of data synchronization and display needs. For example, you could use this as the basis of a client for financial data analysis, where the application downloaded stock prices and other financial information and presented it in a rich client experience," revealed Tim Sneath, Microsoft group manager for client platforms.

Sneath mentioned that the SDK has been in beta testing, and already providers of web-based content are leveraging the tool in order to build their own WPF applications. The Starter kit will enable the taking a variety of forms of digital content from documents to podcasts and integrate them into rich, syndicated multimedia and content applications. The Syndicated Client Experiences Starter Kit & Reader will ultimately enable the creation of Syndicated Client Experiences applications that will leverage the Microsoft Sync Framework-based Subscription Center in order to synchronize content between the web and the users' machines.

"The great thing about the starter kit is that the source code is available, so you can customize it to your heart's content: changing templates and styles, modifying the way it handles data, adding new features, and so on. We've also created a sample MSDN Magazine reader application built with the starter kit, which is of course also provided with full source code. Even if you're not interested in the reader toolkit itself, you'll find this a really useful application in its own right," Sneath added.