Getting Started with Lync 2010 SDK
This topic introduces the Microsoft Lync 2010 SDK development models, lists the Lync SDK hardware and software requirements, and describes the Lync SDK installation process.
Lync Controls
Use Microsoft Lync 2010 Controls to integrate Microsoft Lync 2010 features such as search, presence, instant messaging (IM) calls, and voice calls, into applications. You can drag a single or drag multiple Lync 2010 Controls into existing business applications to add Lync 2010 UI features and functionality.
Lync API
Use Microsoft Lync 2010 SDK UI Automation to integrate Lync 2010 features into existing business applications. To develop and deploy these applications, users must have access to the Lync SDK or the appropriate redistributable components. For information about application development and debugging prerequisites, see Walkthrough: Start an Instant Message Conversation (Lync 2010 SDK).
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 maintains compatibility with your existing Microsoft Unified Communications Client API (UCCP) and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Automation API-based applications so that your existing custom applications continue to interoperate with Lync Server 2010 and other Lync 2010 endpoints. Many of the new Lync 2010 features are not available to a UCCP-based custom application.
Lync SDK provides programmatic access to Lync 2010 features without the complexity of the Microsoft Unified Communications Client API SDK or Communicator 2007 Automation API. Although still an asynchronous client-server API, Microsoft Lync 2010 API simplifies how you manage the presence of contacts and peer-to-peer sessions:
Lync 2010 APIContact class and its properties have replaced the UccContact, UccSubscription, IUccPresentity, CategoryContext, CategoryInstance, and IUccPresenceContactCardInstance interfaces and associated event interfaces that you used to implement contact presence in your UCCP-based application.
Event handling is implemented by using the Microsoft .NET Framework eventing model. You no longer have to obtain IConnectionPoint and IConnectionPointContainer interfaces from the platform objects and advise for the asynchronously raised events.
The coding patterns that you use with Lync SDK are significantly different from what you used for UCCP:
The reduced complexity of Lync 2010 API means that a one-to-one replacement relationship between UCCP and Lync 2010 API is not possible.
To replace the features that are provided by UCCP, you should create a new managed project and new Lync 2010 API code.