This week, while attending the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2011 in Anaheim, I saw the session of Todd Bleeker, who is always brilliant and involving. Todd showed how to startup developing a custom Service Application based on a WCF service. In case you are interested in going deeper on this topic, I’d like to remind you that in my book there is a whole chapter (Ch.15) about developing service applications for SharePoint 2010. Moreover, even if you don’t have my book (and in case you should) you can freely download related code samples, where you will find a full service application that will allow you to understand:

• How to develop a real service application from scratch
• How to provision a custom database for your service application
• How to implement custom creation, administration, and properties management pages for your service applications, leveraging SharePoint 2010 native controls
• How to authenticate your users, at the service interface, via Claims-based authentication
• How to leverage service applications load balancing through the Round Robin default load balancer provided by SharePoint 2010 environment

I hope you will enjoy this sample, and drop me an email (paolo at devleap.com) in case you need further assistance or in case you have any questions about developing great and powerful applications with SharePoint 2010.