"WinFS" consists of the following five components:
- "WinFS" Core, including the relational storage engine
- Data Model
- Schemas
- Services
- APIs
The following figure gives a graphical view of the building blocks in these components.
"WinFS" Core
"WinFS" Core is made up of the core services that you would expect from a file system. Think of "WinFS" Core as the fundamentals, which includes operations and file system services. Some examples here are security, manageability, Win32 file access support, import/export, quotas, and so on.
Data Model
Moving beyond the core services, the "WinFS" data model provides some of the technical innovations mentioned earlier in this documntation, including basic item structure, relationships, and the ability to extend both items and relationships.
Schemas
Without built-in schemas, "WinFS" would be no better than the existing file system, because "WinFS" would not understand your data in richer ways or provide a more structured way to handle metadata. "WinFS" schemas include schemas for your everyday information such as documents, e-mail, appointments, tasks, media, audio video, and more. "WinFS" also includes system schemas that include configuration, programs, and other system-related data.
Services
Synchronization and rules fall into the services area of "WinFS". These technologies "sit on top" of "WinFS" to provide you with capabilities that extend beyond the fundamentals of the system. Synchronization will enable you to synchronize "WinFS" systems across a network, as well as build synchronization adapters to synchronize "WinFS" to other systems. For example, you may want to synchronize contact information from your CRM system to "WinFS" so that you can relate that data to other data in "WinFS" or work with that data offline through WinFS. Synchronization adapters can be bi-directional, so any changes made to the data in "WinFS" can be synchronized back to the other partner system.
APIs
As a developer, you write to APIs. "WinFS" includes a rich API that is part of the overall WinFX programming model in "Longhorn". Through the "WinFS" API, you can program the different building blocks of the "WinFS" system, including data operations, rules, synchronization, and the data model.