MSDN Blogs

Events This Week – November 30th, 2009

gduthie — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:37:00 GMT

Here are the events listed in Community Megaphone for the next week (or so) for the Mid-Atlantic area, as well as webcasts of interest…this list includes events imported from the UGSS event calendar, and all events entered in Community Megaphone are also automatically synced to the UGSS event calendar:

Cloud side chat: Microsoft Online Services and the evolving world of software + services
Tuesday, December 01, 2009 8:00 AM, Online
Software-plus-Services is the next logical step in the evolution of computing. It represents an industry shift toward software design that is neither exclusively PC nor browser-centric and blends traditional client-server architecture with cloud-based software delivery. Microsoft Online Services is at the center of that evolution, delivering communication and collaboration software services, hosted and managed by Microsoft.
Join Bharat Shah, General Manager of Engineering for Microsoft Online Services, for a fireside chat with the Microsoft Insiders. Bharat leads the engineering teams that are delivering the Business Productivity Online Suite, which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online, and Live Meeting. Bharat will take your questions and talk about how Microsoft engineering is tackling the challenges of delivering highly available, enterprise software services for organizations around the world and how cloud computing and software-plus-services is changing the way Microsoft thinks about software.
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

MSDN Events Presents > The MSDN Mid Atlantic Roadshow
Tuesday, December 01, 2009 1:00 PM, Harrisburg, PA
Join Microsoft Evangelists Dani Diaz, G. Andrew Duthie, and David Isbitski as they tour the Mid Atlantic this Fall presenting an afternoon packed full of cutting edge tips and techniques for developers and architects. Dig deeper into data access and network options in Silverlight, and check out the most important features in Windows 7 for Developers like Trigger Start services and the new Windows Troubleshooter. Finally, we’ll show you how to add several of the new interface options you won’t want to miss including Multi-Touch and the Ribbon Menu.
Free admission and a chance to score some great giveaways!
Reservations are required, and seating is limited. Register today to reserve your seat.
This event will be held at Computer Aid, Inc. (CAI), Suite 300.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Cloudside chat: Microsoft Online Services and the evolving world of software + services
Tuesday, December 01, 2009 6:00 PM, Online
Software-plus-Services is the next logical step in the evolution of computing. It represents an industry shift toward software design that is neither exclusively PC nor browser-centric and blends traditional client-server architecture with cloud-based software delivery. Microsoft Online Services is at the center of that evolution, delivering communication and collaboration software services, hosted and managed by Microsoft.
Join Bharat Shah, General Manager of Engineering for Microsoft Online Services, for a fireside chat with the Microsoft Insiders. Bharat leads the engineering teams that are delivering the Business Productivity Online Suite, which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online, and Live Meeting. Bharat will take your questions and talk about how Microsoft engineering is tackling the challenges of delivering highly available, enterprise software services for organizations around the world and how cloud computing and software-plus-services is changing the way Microsoft thinks about software.
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

Ft. Lauderdale Online: How to make a mockery / Becoming a unit test ninja - Gill Zilberfeld / Dror Helper
Tuesday, December 01, 2009 6:30 PM, Online
12/01/2009 - 6:30 PM - Online - How to make a mockery
So you’ve decided you want to unit test. Good for you. But are you ready for the next step? In the real world, applications are so complex, that in order to test a component in isolation, you need a new set of tools. Topics Covered:
• What’s the problem?
• Why is it so confusing?
• That’s how I roll (my own mocks)
• All sorts of Isolation frameworks
• Road-bumps and stabilizers
Becoming a unit testing ninja
Tools are not enough. If you want to succeed overtime, you need more ammunition. Some people call them best practices. We call them real life lessons. Let’s share.
• Unit vs. Integration tests
• Supporting environment
• Tools we use
• What is a good test
• How to test hard-to-test scenarios
Dror Helper is an experienced software developer currently working at Typemock where he develops unit testing tools. Over the past 7 years, he has designed and developed applications in various fields including video streaming, eCommerce and performance tools.
He is passionate about programming best practices and unit testing and is part of the Typemock’s pre-sale team, demoing their product to customers worldwide.
Gil Zilberfeld has been in software since childhood, starting with Logo turtles. He has 15 years in commercial software companies with vast experience in development and development practices. Currently Gil is the Technical Evangelist of Typemock, promoting unit testing and some incredibly cool tools. He's also taken part in the Alt.Net Israel community, and has run talks in both conferences (so far).
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 - Solution Accelerator
Thursday, December 03, 2009 9:00 AM, Online
Moving to Windows7? Learn how Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 can make your job easier.
This Solution Accelerator is the recommended process and toolset for automating desktop and server deployment.
Learn more about installation, image creation, and deployment scenarios for using MDT. Senior Software Development Engineer Michael Niehaus will be leading this session and he’ll answer any questions you may have.
Michael is the lead developer for the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2004, Michael spent his entire career in enterprise IT, focused on deploying and managing Microsoft software.
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

MSDN Events Presents: The MSDN Mid Atlantic Roadshow
Thursday, December 03, 2009 1:00 PM, Reston, VA
Join Microsoft Evangelists Dani Diaz, G. Andrew Duthie, and David Isbitski as they tour the Mid Atlantic this Fall presenting an afternoon packed full of cutting edge tips and techniques for developers and architects. Dig deeper into data access and network options in Silverlight, and check out the most important features in Windows 7 for Developers like Trigger Start services and the new Windows Troubleshooter. Finally, we’ll show you how to add several of the new interface options you won’t want to miss including Multi-Touch and the Ribbon Menu.
Free admission and a chance to score some great giveaways!
Reservations are required, and seating is limited. Register today to reserve your seat.
This event will be held at the Microsoft Reston Office.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 - Solution Accelerator
Thursday, December 03, 2009 4:00 PM, Online
Moving to Windows7? Learn how Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 can make your job easier.
This Solution Accelerator is the recommended process and toolset for automating desktop and server deployment.
Learn more about installation, image creation, and deployment scenarios for using MDT. Senior Software Development Engineer Michael Niehaus will be leading this session and he’ll answer any questions you may have.
Michael is the lead developer for the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2004, Michael spent his entire career in enterprise IT, focused on deploying and managing Microsoft software.
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

CMAP .NET Essentials
Thursday, December 03, 2009 7:00 PM, Columbia, MD
The CMAP .NET Essentials Special Interest Group meets once a month. The purpose of the group is to demonstrate how .NET technologies are used to implement a given set of business requirements. This is our first meeting for the season and everyone is welcome to attend
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

SharePoint 2010 for Developers
Tuesday, December 08, 2009 8:00 AM, Online
SharePoint 2010 has just come out in public beta and there are many new features for Developers. There are new tools in Visual Studio and SharePoint Designer, new capabilities for developer workstations, many new features in the SharePoint platform, new deployment opportunities for SharePoint applications and a new focus on SharePoint as an application development platform. In this discussion we will spin through the 20 top new features in SharePoint 2010 for developers in 15 minutes and then take questions from the audience. For links to where Microsoft has published full details of the new features see http://blogs.msdn.com/pandrew.
Paul Andrew is a Technical Product Manager on the SharePoint team at Microsoft. He has also worked at Microsoft as a Developer Evangelist and as a Developer Consultant in Microsoft Consulting Services. Before Microsoft Paul worked as a development team lead at an independent software vendor building embedded software for access control and alarms systems.
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

MSDN Events Presents: The MSDN Mid Atlantic Roadshow
Tuesday, December 08, 2009 1:00 PM, Roanoke, VA
Join Microsoft Evangelists Dani Diaz, G. Andrew Duthie, and David Isbitski as they tour the Mid Atlantic this Fall presenting an afternoon packed full of cutting edge tips and techniques for developers and architects. Dig deeper into data access and network options in Silverlight, and check out the most important features in Windows 7 for Developers like Trigger Start services and the new Windows Troubleshooter. Finally, we’ll show you how to add several of the new interface options you won’t want to miss including Multi-Touch and the Ribbon Menu.
Free admission and a chance to score some great giveaways!
Reservations are required, and seating is limited. Register today to reserve your seat.
This event will be held at the Claude Moore Auditorium of the Roanoke Higher Education Center.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Hampton Roads .NET Users Group
Tuesday, December 08, 2009 6:00 PM, Chesapeake, VA
Consider if you will, an ASP 3.0 to SharePoint/MOSS Enterprise Content Management migration project which used many of the technologies available in the stack: Publishing features, Business Data Catalog, Single Sign-On, custom SharePoint lists/document libraries, custom web parts, custom site branding, custom site metadata, and many other “enterprisey” whiz-bang gizmos. Now imagine that after many burned clock ticks of active development, barely a scratch was made in the feature set. This discussion will explore how a simplification of the software architecture and engineering processes allowed the project to achieve an unprecedented 24x gain in productivity while generating a successful end solution which is maintainable, scalable, and manageable.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

SharePoint 2010 for Developers
Tuesday, December 08, 2009 6:00 PM, Online
SharePoint 2010 has just come out in public beta and there are many new features for Developers. There are new tools in Visual Studio and SharePoint Designer, new capabilities for developer workstations, many new features in the SharePoint platform, new deployment opportunities for SharePoint applications and a new focus on SharePoint as an application development platform. In this discussion we will spin through the 20 top new features in SharePoint 2010 for developers in 15 minutes and then take questions from the audience. For links to where Microsoft has published full details of the new features see http://blogs.msdn.com/pandrew.
Paul Andrew is a Technical Product Manager on the SharePoint team at Microsoft. He has also worked at Microsoft as a Developer Evangelist and as a Developer Consultant in Microsoft Consulting Services. Before Microsoft Paul worked as a development team lead at an independent software vendor building embedded software for access control and alarms systems.”
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

What's New in Office 2010 and Implications for IT Pros
Thursday, December 10, 2009 8:00 AM, Online
Let's talk about what's new in Office 2010, specifically about implications for IT Pro's. Topics to include security improvements, Backstage capabilities, hardware requirements, how to host the Web Apps, improvements to application compatibility testing, tips/tools to get your end users prepared, and much more. Reed Shaffner is a Technical Product Manager for the Office client, with a focus on IT Professionals. He is a frequent and very popular speaker at major industry events and at corporate executive briefings.
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

MSDN Events Presents > The MSDN Mid Atlantic Roadshow
Thursday, December 10, 2009 1:00 PM, Malvern, PA
Join Microsoft Evangelists Dani Diaz, G. Andrew Duthie, and David Isbitski as they tour the Mid Atlantic this Fall presenting an afternoon packed full of cutting edge tips and techniques for developers and architects. Dig deeper into data access and network options in Silverlight, and check out the most important features in Windows 7 for Developers like Trigger Start services and the new Windows Troubleshooter. Finally, we’ll show you how to add several of the new interface options you won’t want to miss including Multi-Touch and the Ribbon Menu.
Free admission and a chance to score some great giveaways!
Reservations are required, and seating is limited. Register today to reserve your seat.
This event will be held at the Microsoft Malvern Office, Suite 210, Great Valley Corporate Center.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

What's New in Office 2010 and Implications for IT Pros
Thursday, December 10, 2009 6:00 PM, Online
Let's talk about what's new in Office 2010, specifically about implications for IT Pro's. Topics to include security improvements, Backstage capabilities, hardware requirements, how to host the Web Apps, improvements to application compatibility testing, tips/tools to get your end users prepared, and much more. Reed Shaffner is a Technical Product Manager for the Office client, with a focus on IT Professionals. He is a frequent and very popular speaker at major industry events and at corporate executive briefings.
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

Want your events listed? You can add them here.

You can also add your events via the Community Megaphone web service API, which is now live. You can get more information on the API, and how to sign up, at http://www.communitymegaphone.com/API.aspx. You can also email me for more information.

Windows Server AppFabric

rafael.godinho — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:25:21 GMT

Olá pessoal,

Durante o Microsoft PDC 2009 foi anunciado o Windows Server AppFabric Beta 1, uma evolução das tecnologias de fornecimento de aplicações, como Internet Information Services (IIS) e o Windows Process Activation Service (WAS). O AppFabric fornece capacidade para hospedagem de serviços e também cache distribuídos para as aplicações.

O AppFabric permite a hospedagem de serviços WF ou WCF e é baseado em uma tecnologia que até à pouco tempo era conhecida para codename “Dublin”. Especificamente para serviços WF, ele possui um conjunto de funcionalidades de persistência que permite armazenar estados de processamento de Workflows, recuperar um Workflow persistido para processamento e também escalar estes serviços em várias servidores.

Além da persistência de Workflows, o AppFabric também conta com um ambiente para monitoração da saúde dos serviços, contando também com funcionalidade para log de falhas que podem ocorrer no processamento, o que facilita muito no troubleshooting.

Uma outra funcionalidade que sempre foi muito pedida é a possibilidade de auto-start ou warm-up dos serviços, o que reduz a latência da primeira chamada ao serviço.

Já a funcionalidade de cache é baseada no codename “Velocity” e disponibiliza uma infra-estrutura de cache distribuído para a criação de aplicações escaláveis, com alta disponibilidade e desempenho. Permitindo as seguintes possibilidades:

Cache de qualquer objeto CLR serializável
Scale-out pela adição de mais de um nó de cache
Cópias backup para permitir alta disponibilidade
Balanceamento de carga
Integração com o ASP.NET Session State Provider

Se vc ficou interessado, baixe agora mesmo o setup e faça seus testes:

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2

Windows Server AppFabric

Controlling Simplex and IPM termination conditions

Nathan Brixius — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:17:00 GMT

On our MSDN message board there was a question about how to control when the SimplexSolver aborts. You can do this by providing an abort callback to the params object sent to the solver. For example, to terminate after 100ms:

    private static void PetrochemLinearModel() {
      SimplexSolver solver = new SimplexSolver();
      int sa, vz;
      solver.AddVariable("SA", out sa);
      solver.SetBounds(sa, 0, 9000);
      solver.AddVariable("VZ", out vz);
      solver.SetBounds(vz, 0, 6000);

      int goal;
      solver.AddRow("goal", out goal);
      solver.AddGoal(goal, 0, true);
      solver.SetCoefficient(goal, sa, 20);
      solver.SetCoefficient(goal, vz, 15);

      int demand1, demand2, demand3;
      solver.AddRow("demand1", out demand1);
      solver.SetCoefficient(demand1, sa, 0.3);
      solver.SetCoefficient(demand1, vz, 0.4);
      solver.SetLowerBound(demand1, 1126);

      solver.AddRow("demand2", out demand2);
      solver.SetCoefficient(demand2, sa, 0.4);
      solver.SetCoefficient(demand2, vz, 0.2);
      solver.SetLowerBound(demand2, 1500);

      solver.AddRow("demand3", out demand3);
      solver.SetCoefficient(demand3, sa, 0.2);
      solver.SetCoefficient(demand3, vz, 0.3);
      solver.SetLowerBound(demand3, 500);

      Stopwatch s = new Stopwatch();
      var param = new SimplexSolverParams(() => s.ElapsedMilliseconds > 100);
      s.Start();
      var solution = solver.Solve(param);
      Console.WriteLine(solution.LpResult);
      Console.WriteLine("goal = " + solution.GetValue(goal).ToDouble());
      Console.WriteLine("sa   = " + solution.GetValue(sa).ToDouble());
      Console.WriteLine("vz   = " + solution.GetValue(vz).ToDouble());
    }

If you are using the InteriorPointSolver, the callback can reference solver properties (including iteration count and duality gap) to do more sophisticated stuff. For example:

      var param = new InteriorPointSolverParams();
      param.IterationStartedCallback = () => {
        Console.WriteLine("{0}\t{1:f6} {2:e6}", solver.IterationCount, solver.Primal, solver.Gap.ToDouble());
        return false;
      };
      var solution = solver.Solve(param);

Kalistick et Microsoft travaille ensemble sur une application stratégique de Bayer

blaisev — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:10:06 GMT

Pour en savoir plus, rendez vous sur le témoignage.

J’ai déjà eu l’occasion de vous parler de Kalistick, une startup du programme iDEEs.

Ils fournissent une plateforme Saas pour piloter la qualité des développement C#. Marc Rambert, son CEO, avait été interviewé il y a quelques mois par l’équipe d’Innovation TV. Nous avions aussi eu l’occasion de travailler ensemble sur un rédactionnel “BI for IT”, récemment paru chez Windows IT Pro.

Nuevo vídeo de VirtusBooks

juanjoc — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:08:00 GMT

No se lo pierdan, esta gente de Virtus360 tiene la respuesta a muchas de las preguntas que nos estamos haciendo todos sobre cómo será el futuro de la enseñanza.

Una de las primeras buenas ideas es que su plataforma es multieditorial, por lo que los claustros de profesores de los colegios pueden elegir cuál será la combinación que mejor se ajusta a las necesidades de su alumnado concreto.

Por otro lado, consiguen unas aplicaciones multimedia espectaculares y muy enfocadas a la enseñanza, capítulo a capítulo, a partir de los PDFs que las editoriales ya tienen.

Si les interesa el tema, búsquen más info en su site, o síganlos en Twitter. También aparecen en este artículo en El País.

Windows Identity Foundation Simplifies User Access

Bruce Kyle — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:54:00 GMT

Microsoft Windows Identity Foundation has been released to the Web (RTW).

It helps simplify user access for developers by externalizing user access from applications via claims and reducing development effort with pre-built security logic and integrated .NET tools. Users can benefit through single sign-on and seamless collaboration across organizational boundaries.

At PDC, Microsoft announced that Windows Identity Foundation will be available in Windows Azure. This means that a federated identity can be used to provide a single sign on to multiple applications, both in the enterprise and in the cloud.

This claims-based architecture is more flexible approach to establishing a users' identity, than a straight forward, on-premises Active Directory system. The claims-based architecture can accept digital identifiers from multiple sources, such as LDAP directories, Active Directory, Outlook or Lotus Notes directories, certificates from security services, or a Windows token.

Once a user's identity verifier is supplied, a central brokering authority compares the "claim" to that required by a particular application. If there's a match, use of the application can proceed.

Any company that has, or plans to have, more than one Web application or Web service, can benefit by starting with a claims-based model for identity. One of the major benefits is to have application developers focus only on application business logic while the identity related requirements can be handled by external issuing authorities like Active Directory Federation Services ADFS 2.0 (previously known as “Geneva” Server). Or if you have in-house identity
expertise, you can build a custom provider using WIF.

To get started, see Microsoft Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) Whitepaper for Developers.

Code Sample

The WIF object model for claims may seem a bit complicated at first glance, with subjects, issuers, claim types and values, but in practice it’s easy to use.The following code sample shows a typical example from a claims-aware ASP.NET Web application. This example sends a personalized email to the user when she clicks a button.

protected void SendLetter_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
IClaimsIdentity id =
((IClaimsPrincipal)Thread.CurrentPrincipal).Identities[0];

    // you can use a simple foreach loop to find a claim...
    string usersEmail = null;
    foreach (Claim c in id.Claims) {
        if (c.ClaimType == ClaimTypes.Email) {
            usersEmail = c.Value;
            break;
        }
    }

    // you can also use LINQ to find a claim
    string usersFirstName = (from c in id.Claims
        where c.ClaimType == ClaimTypes.GivenName
        select c).First().Value;

    StringBuilder body = new StringBuilder();
    body.AppendFormat("Dear {0},", usersFirstName);
    body.AppendLine();
    body.AppendLine("Thank you for shopping with us!");
    new SmtpClient().Send(new MailMessage(
        "admin@fabrikam.com",
        usersEmail,
        "Message from Fabrikam",
        body.ToString()));
}

In this example, the code uses Thread.CurrentPrincipal to access the user’s identity. Then it loops through all of the claims for the user, using IClaimsIdentity.Claims, looking for the ones it needs right now: first name and email address. It then uses those claims to send a personalized email message to the user. The example also shows two ways of finding claims. The code finds the email claim with a foreach loop, and uses a LINQ expression to find the first name claim.

Claims Aware Web Site, Web Service

WIF offers built-in Visual Studio project template for creating a claims-aware ASP.NET application or WCF Web Service. Each template is available within the Visual Studio development environment when you navigate to File –> New –> Web Site… and select Claims-aware ASP.NET Web Site or Claims-aware WCF Service.

For more details, see Microsoft Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) Whitepaper for Developers.

Developer Resources

See the following PDC Videos:

Windows Identity Foundation Overview. Hear how Windows Identity Foundation makes advanced identity capabilities and open standards first class citizens in the Microsoft .NET Framework. Learn how the Claims Based access model integrates seamlessly with the traditional .NET identity object model while also giving developers complete control over every aspect of authentication, authorization, and identity-driven application behavior. See examples of the point and click tooling with tight Microsoft Visual Studio integration, advanced STS capabilities, and much more that Windows Identity Foundation consistently provides across on-premise, service-based, ASP.NET and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) applications.
Software + Services Identity Roadmap Update. At PDC 2008, Microsoft unveiled a comprehensive offering of identity software and services, based on the industry standard claims-based architecture, and designed to address the rapidly growing requirements of modern applications both on-premises and cloud. In this session, we demonstrate the progress we’ve made using real-life use cases, discuss lessons learned in adoption of claims based identity, and preview new scenarios and capabilities of the evolving identity software + services portfolio.
How Microsoft SharePoint 2010 was Built with the Windows Identity Foundation
Leveraging and Extending Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Identity Features
The ‘M’-Based System.Identity Model for Accessing Directory Services

Comprehensive Identity, Access Management

Windows Identity Foundation is part of Microsoft's identity and access management solution built on Active Directory that also includes:

Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 (formerly known as "Geneva" Server): a security token service for IT that issues and transforms claims and other tokens, manages user access and enables federation and access management for simplified single sign-on
Windows CardSpace 2.0 (formerly known as Windows CardSpace "Geneva"): for helping users navigate access decisions and developers to build customer authentication experiences for users.

Bruce D. Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation

Special thanks to Information Week: Microsoft Azure Supports Federated ID

How to disable Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) ?

Windows SDK Team — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:53:07 GMT

Here is the scenario - You have a legacy application where you wish to load a DLL or module at a fixed or preferred base address. Why would you need it?, that is because in the EXE or DLL code you may make use of the absolute addresses and pointers. This application would work great on Windows XP or older OS, but on Windows Vista you would see that your DLL fails to load at preferred address as some other module is already loaded in the asked virtual address space range. You would notice that all the dlls including system dlls and custom dlls would be loaded at random addresses.

Here is why it happens:

Starting from Windows Vista a new security feature is added called Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) which will randomize all (system + user) Loaded DLLs. You may find more information at MSDN: Windows Vista ISV Security .

In any version of Windows OS there is *no* guarantee that a process or DLL will always load at same address space or it will get a particular /FIXED (Fixed Base Address). You may specify a preferred base address using /BASE (Base Address) linker option and in case “preferred” base address in not available your application must be adaptive to the rebasing/relocation of the image or DLL.

Ideally we should never make this assumption or requirement that a DLL will not be relocated. We must not rely on where the process or DLL is loaded.

DLL relocation may happen when "almost anything" changes, including the installation of service packs, QFEs, third party products, and other major versions of Windows.

Out of curiosity, you may have a question:

1. Is there any way to disable ASLR ?

Unfortunately there is no legitimate way to disable ASLR on Windows Vista and later. In fact, it is a security enhancement and no one should try disabling it.

2. What is the memory address space range in virtual memory map where system DLLs and user DLLs could load?

I would say, there is as such no specific virtual address space range, the DLLs can be loaded at any random address.

You may find more information about ASLR at following blog posts:

http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2008/02/06/ws2008-dynamic-link-library-loader-and-address-space-load-randomization.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.04.vistakernel.aspx?pr=blog

Early in the boot process, the Memory Manager picks a random DLL image-load bias from one of 256 64KB-aligned addresses in the 16MB region at the top of the user-mode address space. As DLLs that have the new dynamic-relocation flag in their image header load into a process, the Memory Manager packs them into memory starting at the image-load bias address and working its way down.

Executables that have the flag set get a similar treatment, loading at a random 64KB-aligned point within 16MB of the base load address stored in their image header. Further, if a given DLL or executable loads again after being unloaded by all the processes using it, the Memory Manager reselects a random location at which to load it. Figure 7 shows an example address-space layout for a 32-bit Windows Vista system, including the areas from which ASLR picks the image-load bias and executable load address.

Hence, to determine the range is impractical. The only way is to look at all the base addresses for all the system DLLs, and the add 16MB to the highest one and subtract 16MB from the lowest one. Please note that the base address in any of the system DLLs could change with any update so there is no dependable way to get the range.

There is a flag in the EXE header that marks if it will get a random base address (/DYNAMICBASE)

The base address that is chosen will be somewhere in this range: (BaseAddressInExeHeader-16mb) >= NewBaseAddress <= (BaseAddressInExeHeader +16mb)

The moral of the story is – “no virtual address” is guaranteed available and we should not rely that a process or DLL will be loaded at same address space or at preferred base address every time. The long term and most suitable solution is to have “relative offsets”, where you use relative offsets to the function address instead of using absolute addresses. The preferred way is to get a function pointer in a loaded DLL is to call GetProcAddress Function. GetProcAddress( ) gives you the address of an exported symbol from a loaded DLL. To get the base address of a loaded DLL, you can use EnumProcessModulesEx Function and then for each, call GetModuleInformation Function .

-Sandeep Sharma

Windows SDK

Visio 2010 Beta SDK released

chhopkin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:52:45 GMT

If you have not yet seen the post on the Visio Insights blog, click here to get the beta SDK for Visio 2010.

Road Trip Diary, Part 3: The Big Apple

Joey deVilla — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:43:03 GMT

When people in Toronto and area refer to “The Big Apple”, we’re usually not talking about New York, but the Big Apple in Coburg, Ontario. It’s one of the must-visit stops on that stretch of Highway 401 that spans the Toronto-Montreal corridor: roadside rest stop, mini-amusement park, apple pie facvory, apple museum and giant apple-shaped building with a balcony on top giving a commanding view of the cars whizzing by.

There’s no shortage of interesting signs on the grounds:

Apparently, the Big Apple is about 13,000 kilometres from the city of my birth, Manila:

The place is heaven for people who like pie:

They have a mascot, but no one was running around in the giant apple costume today. Damir and I had to settle for the little statue by the counter:

We arrived in the Ford Flex just before a busload of people, which means that we didn’t have to wait for pie:

More scenes from the Big Apple to follow!

[This article also appears in Global Nerdy.]

Majority of social network users are female!

chrismoore — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:43:00 GMT

This post over on Pingdom provides an enlightening graphic showing the split of male vs. female social networking users, broken down by site. . .

Look at some hdden code in your VB project

Calvin_Hsia — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:41:00 GMT

Some code is always added to your VB project.

Try this:

Start VS (2008 or 2010 beta: the numbers below are for 2008)

File->New->Project->VB->Console App.

Build->Build Solution.

(I like to use temporary projects: see Use temporary projects in Visual Studio. I’m also using the General Profile (Tools->Import/Export Settings->Reset All Settings)

The build output window shows this:

------ Build started: Project: ConsoleApplication1, Configuration: Debug Any CPU ------

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Vbc.exe /noconfig /imports:Microsoft.VisualBasic,System,System.Collections,System.Collections.Generic,System.Data,System.Diagnostics,System.Linq,System.Xml.Linq /optioncompare:Binary /optionexplicit+ /optionstrict:custom /nowarn:42016,41999,42017,42018,42019,42032,42036,42020,42021,42022 /optioninfer+ /rootnamespace:ConsoleApplication1 /doc:obj\Debug\ConsoleApplication1.xml /define:"CONFIG=\"Debug\",DEBUG=-1,TRACE=-1,_MyType=\"Console\",PLATFORM=\"AnyCPU\",_MYTYPE=\"Empty\"" /reference:"C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5\System.Core.dll","C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5\System.Data.DataSetExtensions.dll",C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Data.dll,C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Deployment.dll,C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.dll,C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Xml.dll,"C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5\System.Xml.Linq.dll" /main:ConsoleApplication1.Module1 /debug+ /debug:full /filealign:512 /out:obj\Debug\ConsoleApplication1.exe /resource:obj\Debug\ConsoleApplication1.Resources.resources /target:exe Module1.vb "My Project\AssemblyInfo.vb" "My Project\Application.Designer.vb" "My Project\Resources.Designer.vb" "My Project\Settings.Designer.vb"

ConsoleApplication1 -> C:\Users\calvinh\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\ConsoleApplication1\bin\Debug\ConsoleApplication1.exe

========== Build: 1 succeeded or up-to-date, 0 failed, 0 skipped ==========

You can make your programs smaller by removing some features.

Now right click on the Project in Solution Explorer, and “choose Open Folder in Windows Explorer”, navigate to the ConsoleApplication1.EXE file to see how big it is.

Open a Visual Studio Command Prompt( Program Files->Visual Studio->Visual Studio Tools) and do this:

dir "C:\Users\calvinh\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\ConsoleApplication1\bin\Debug\ConsoleApplication1.exe"

The size I get is 14,336 bytes.

Now use the Intermediate Language Disassembler :

Ildasm "C:\Users\calvinh\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\ConsoleApplication1\bin\Debug\ConsoleApplication1.exe"

You can navigate the tree view to see things like MyProject, MySettingsProperty, etc.

For example, even if you’re not using web services, this code is in your binary:

.method private static !!T Create__Instance__<.ctor T>(!!T 'instance') cil managed

{

.custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Diagnostics.DebuggerHiddenAttribute::.ctor() = ( 01 00 00 00 )

// Code size 32 (0x20)

.maxstack 2

.locals init ([0] !!T Create__Instance__,

[1] bool VB$CG$t_bool$S0)

IL_0000: nop

IL_0001: ldarg.0

IL_0002: box !!T

IL_0007: ldnull

IL_0008: ceq

IL_000a: stloc.1

IL_000b: ldloc.1

IL_000c: brfalse.s IL_0018

IL_000e: call !!0 [mscorlib]System.Activator::CreateInstance<!!0>()

IL_0013: stloc.0

IL_0014: br.s IL_001e

IL_0016: br.s IL_001d

IL_0018: nop

IL_0019: ldarg.0

IL_001a: stloc.0

IL_001b: br.s IL_001e

IL_001d: nop

IL_001e: ldloc.0

IL_001f: ret

} // end of method MyWebServices::Create__Instance__

Where does all this code come from? Is there a simple way to get rid of it?

VB Intellisense and background compiler know about this extra stuff too.

Type in this:

Dim r = My.WebService

Notice that after “My.” you see a a list of members of “My.”

Application

Computer

MySettings

Resources

Settings

User

WebServices

You can make the colored ones disappear.

Try this:

Project->Settings->Compiler->Advanced Compiler Options->Custom Constants

Put in _MYTYPE="Empty"

Immediately, you’ll see that there are compile errors for the My.Webservice line and that intellisense doesn’t show the colored members.

Now rebuild and see that the file size is 12,288.

This size difference is multiplied if you have multiple VB projects.

You can see some of the source VB that is used to generate this code:

File->Open->File-> "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll"

This will open the DLL in the VS Resource Editor. Navigate in the treeview to RCDATA->300 and you’ll see a binary dump of some code.

If you right click on the 300, choose Export->T.VB, then open T.VB, you see the contents below:

Now you can see the effect of changing “_MYTYPE” in the code.

How to loop through the app-domains in the current process

Ajay Bandooni — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:38:53 GMT

Consider a scenario where we have a VSTO add-in and an automation add-in for Excel and we want to share some objects from the VSTO addin to the Automation add-in. Because the VSTO add-in is loaded in its own separate appdomain and the automation add-in is loaded in the different(default) appdomain, sharing objects is not that easy. One way to share objects could be to use "RequestCOMAutomationService" method as described in the following blog article:

http://blogs.msdn.com/andreww/archive/2008/08/11/why-your-comaddin-object-should-derive-from-standardolemarshalobject.aspx

However, by using the above mentioned method, the object would be shared "ByVal". What if we want to share the objects "ByRef"

One of the solution to share objects "ByRef" is to use appdomain's "CreateInstanceAndUnwrap" method to create objects and to get the proxy objects. However to use "CreateInstanceAndUnwrap" method we need reference to the appdomain in which the actual objects will be created.

In our scenario we need to have reference to the VSTO appdomain so that we can create objects in it and can obtain proxy objects in the automation appdomain.

Since VSTO appdomain is automatically created by VSTO runtime, we do not have reference to it. We need a way to loop through the appdomain present in the current process (Excel) and get a reference to the VSTO appdomain.

To find the VSTO Appdomain (in a collection of appdomains), we will use its name. To find the VSTO appdomain's name, in the VSTO add-in code, we can use following code:

AppDomain ad = System.Threading.Thread.GetDomain();
String VSTO_AppDomain_Name = ad.FriendlyName.ToString();

This VSTO appdomain name can be shared with the Automation add-in using the RequestCOMAutomationService technique mentioned above or by using any other way.

Although there is no managed API which enables us to loop through the appdomains, there is a way to loop through the app-domains in a process. The following code can be used to loop through the appdomains and to get reference to the VSTO appdomain:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices; 
using mscoree; 
AppDomain VSTOAppDomain = null; 

private void FindVSTOAppDomain(string VSTOAppDomainName) 
{ 
    IntPtr enumHandle = IntPtr.Zero; 
    CorRuntimeHostClass host = new mscoree.CorRuntimeHostClass(); 
    try 
    { 
        host.EnumDomains(out enumHandle); 
        object domain = null; 
        while (true) 
        { 
            host.NextDomain(enumHandle, out domain); 
            if (domain == null) break; 
            AppDomain ad = (AppDomain)domain; 
            if (ad.FriendlyName.Equals(VSTOAppDomainName)) 
            { 
                VSTOAppDomain = ad; 
            } 
        } 
    } 
    catch (Exception ex) 
    { 

    } 
}

To use above code we need to add COM reference to the mscoree.tlb to the project. mscoree.tlb can be located at:
"C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\vXXXXXX\mscoree.tlb".

For more information, please refer to: http://blogs.msdn.com/jackg/archive/2007/06/11/enumerating-appdomains.aspx

Debogage .NET 4.0

Sebastien Bovo — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:32:00 GMT

Visual Studio 2010 et le .NET Framework 4 sont disponible en Beta 2 depuis quelques semaines. Afin de vérifier un comportement qui m’a un peu surpris, je vais les utiliser pour le débogage.

Voici le contexte : Dans un précédent billet, je parlais du deployment retail="true" pour ASP.NET en faisant référence au billet de Scott Guthrie. Je pensais que retail=true était la solution pour s’affranchir du debug=true dans tous les Web.config du serveur. C’est seulement en parti vrai car le timeout des pages ASP.NET n’est pas modifié et reste démesuré si vous avez debug=true dans votre Web.config.

Voici la preuve…

Page d’exemple

J’utilise un page exemple qui ne se termine jamais. Dans la vrai vie, nous aurons une boucle infinie plus complexes ou un bloclage quelconque. Dans tous les cas, le débogage est identique. Mon but est d’obtenir le timeout des pages ASP.NET.

<%@ Page Language="C#" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        DateTime t1 = DateTime.Now;
        while (true)
        {
            DateTime t2 = DateTime.Now;
        }
    }
</script>

Clin d’œil à Visual Studio 2010 et l’utilisation du zoom (CTRL+mollette de la souris) :

Cette page doit être positionnée dans un site Web utilisant un pool d’application configuré avec le Framework 4.0.

Avant de lancer WinDbg, naviguons vers notre page de test.

Lancement de WinDbg, chargement des symboles et SOS

Veillez bien à lancer Windbg en tant qu’administrateur et attachez-vous au processus W3WP.EXE en cours d’exécution (F6) :

Chargement des symboles publics :

.sympath SRV*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols/

Chargement de SOS livré avec le .NET Framework 4.0 :

.load C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.21006\SOS

Affichage des objets

Maintenant, cherchons notre page en court d’exécution

!DumpHeap -type System.Web.HttpContext

!do 062d9d18

Comme il s’agit d’un objet de type TimeSpan, nous devons utiliser la méthode !DumpVC (Pour information, voici le pointeur MSDN vers SOS - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb190764.aspx)

!DumpVC 532747bc 062d9dd0

La valeur du timeout donnée est un nombre de ticks CPU. Sachant qu’il y a 10000 ticks par millisecondes. Pour obtenir le temps en secondes, nous devons donc diviser la valeur par 10000 puis par 1000. Utilisons Windbg comme calculatrice :

?1100000000/10000/1000

Le timeout de la page ASPX est de 110 secondes.

Nous avons bien le comportement normal et celui par défaut décrit dans le fichier "Web.config.comments" :

Maintenant, regardons avec exactement la même démarche, ce que nous avons avec debug=true (dans Web.config) et retail=true (dans le Machine.config) :

Je vous passe toutes les copies d’écran, voici juste les deux dernières commandes :

Le timeout est de 30 000 000 secondes soit 347 jours. Effectivement, dans ce cas, nous avons tout le temps de déboguer nos pages… Et le retail=true n’a pas changé ce comportement.

La conclusion est : vérifiez que vous n’avez pas debug=true dans tous les Web.config en production même si vous avez retail=true.

Plutôt intéressant :-) Qu’en pensez-vous ?

Sebastien.

Two birds, squared! [Silverlight/WPF Data Visualization Development Release 3 and a DataVisualizationDemos update]

Delay — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:21:00 GMT

We shipped the November 2009 release of the Silverlight Toolkit a little over a week ago and it includes a handful of improvements to the Data Visualization assembly. It also adds support for the new Silverlight 4 Beta! And while we were busy getting the October/November Toolkits out the door, the WPF team previewed WPF 4 along with the .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta!

Which means there are now four platforms of interest to developers: Silverlight 3, Silverlight 4, WPF 3.5, and WPF 4. And the Silverlight/WPF Data Visualization assembly supports them all!

Silverlight/WPF Data Visualization Development Release 3

As with previous Data Visualization Development Releases, I've updated to the most recent Toolkit code. And like last time, the Silverlight Toolkit shipped most recently so the code in the new Development Release is identical to what just went out with the Silverlight 3/4 Toolkits. However, people using Data Visualization on WPF 3.5 or 4 can take advantage of the latest changes by updating to the binaries included with this Development Release or by compiling the corresponding code themselves.

[Click here to download the SilverlightWpfDataVisualization solution including complete source code and pre-compiled binaries for all four platforms.]

Notes:

This is the first release I know of that supports four different platforms with distinct implementations on each. While the code and XAML are 99+% identical across the platforms, each has at least one customization that makes it unique. [Bonus points for identifying them all! :) ]
Previously, there was a single Visual Studio 2008 SilverlightWpfDataVisualization.sln file for both Silverlight 3 and WPF 3.5. Because Silverlight 4 and WPF 4 use Visual Studio 2010, there's a new SilverlightWpfDataVisualization4.sln file for those two platforms. The two solutions (and the projects within) look and act exactly the same - they're separate because they compile with different tools and because separation lets people who haven't upgraded continue to use the VS 2008 solution.
I always strive for code that builds with no compile or code analysis warnings, and that's still the case when compiling for Silverlight 3, WPF 3.5, and Silverlight 4 (though the last is a bit of a cheat because code analysis doesn't work there yet). But the new .NET 4 tools include some improvements, and there were three new kinds of warnings when I first compiled for WPF 4. Two of them were easily addressed with trivial changes I already made, but the third requires a bit more (potentially destabilizing) work that was not done for this release: Warning 2 CA1062 : Microsoft.Design : In externally visible method 'Foo', validate parameter 'Bar' before using it. As it happens, there was already a work item for this task because we knew we weren't checking everywhere we should. So if you see this warning when compiling the WPF 4 assembly, please don't be alarmed!
Whereas it used to be fine to wrap platform-specific code in #if SILVERLIGHT blocks, that doesn't work anymore because there are now cross-version changes within each platform. Therefore, I've switched to the form #if !NO_FEATURE instead. It's usually best to avoid double-negatives, but their use here is a consequence of a deliberate decision. My goal is that, by default, the code tries to use every feature it supports and if the target platform doesn't implement something, there's a compile error. At which point it's easy to identify the problem and add the relevant #define to the project file to "turn off" the unsupported feature. This seem better to me than forcing developers to know all the relevant flags and use them to "turn on" features for each platform. Just another example of the pit of success, really... :)
WPF 4 includes the Visual State Manager classes in the framework, so the WPF 4 Data Visualization assembly no longer has a dependency on the WPF Toolkit!

DataVisualizationDemos Sample Project Updated

The DataVisualizationDemos application is a collection of all the Data Visualization samples I've posted to my blog. Like the Data Visualization assembly itself, the demo application runs on Silverlight 3 and 4 as well as WPF 3.5 and 4 and shares the same code and XAML across all four platforms. Not only is it a convenient way to look at a variety of sample code, it also has links back to the relevant blog posts for more detail about each sample.

Click here to download the complete source code for the cross-platform DataVisualizationDemos sample application.

Notes:

I've followed the same dual-solution and #if approaches that I describe above.
Because WPF 4 now supports easing functions, the "Gelatin Sales" example on the "Charting Introduction" tab runs on that platform - as does the entire "Jelly Charting" demo. And boy, is it smooth on WPF! :)

With the release of Silverlight/WPF Data Visualization Development Release 3, it's easy for anyone to compile and run the Data Visualization assembly on any of Microsoft's four premier development platforms. So what are you waiting for? ;)

Fire Side Chats

nickmac — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:18:31 GMT

Hi All,

We recently started running a series of Live Meeting sessions where senior Microsoft executives talk about the areas they are working on and where you get the opportunity to pose questions to them. You can pre-submit your questions when you register or ask them live during the chat. The chats are specifically designed with the user group leader and members in mind, together with other technical community experts. Each is an hour in length, repeated at different times of day so you don’t need to attend at 3:00am just because you don't happen to live in Redmond. Upcoming events include Microsoft executives from Windows, Office, Developer Tools, Exchange/OCS, Microsoft Research, Microsoft IT and more. In addition, we'd love to hear from you with suggestions as to who you would to hear from.

If you would like to register for any fire side chat, please go to http://ug.gitca.org/sites/FireSideChats and click on the register link. You can also find the up to date list of Fire Side Chats at the site, as well as a link to a survey so you can give us feedback.

Here are the Fire Side Chats we have scheduled for the remainder of 2009: -

Dec 1st
Cloud side chat: Microsoft Online Services and the evolving world of software + services

Dec 3rd
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 - Solution Accelerator

Dec 8th
SharePoint 2010 for Developers

Dec 10th
What’s new in Office 2010 and Implications for IT Pro’s

Dec 15th
What’s new in Office 2010 for Developers

Dec 17th
SharePoint 2010 for IT Professionals

Jan 12th
Microsoft IT: Chief Architect and CTO

You can find more details on each of these (and register) at http://ug.gitca.org/sites/FireSideChats - I hope you will join us!

Nick.

Windows Home Server - Power Pack 3 Arrives

nickmac — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:14:31 GMT

Hi All,

The next major update for Windows Home Server, Power Pack 3, was set to roll out starting November 24th. The new update will deliver support for the newly launched Windows 7 operating system as it will allow WHS computers to back up and restore Windows 7 PCs. It will also offer Windows 7 Library integration, enhancements for Windows Media Center, and better support for netbooks, reports the Windows Home Server blog.

With the Libraries integration, WHS users can install the WHS Connector on computers running Windows 7 in order to access the server’s shared folders from within their Libraries, just like how other network shares can also be added to a particular Library.

Other changes include the addition of Windows Search 4, a TV archive, and a console view which you can read more about in the full list of updates available here.

Windows Home Server users won’t have to do anything special to receive the update assuming they already have Automatic Updates turned on. If so, the update will be installed automatically.

Nick.

Memory Usage via Task Manager

howardk — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:04:13 GMT

Ever wondered which columns in Task Manager mean "memory in use"? I stumbled over a simple, clear definition (finally):

"Memory usage" = working set
"Virtual memory" = committed memory

First time I ever found a simple definition, and I (like many) have used Task Manager for years.

Understanding is a good thing.

Technorati : Memory
Del.icio.us : Memory
Zooomr : Memory
Flickr : Memory

Save your customer time and money

SBSC Canada — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:56:11 GMT

New LiveMeeting Now Available!

December 9^th 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. EST

Selling and Positioning Project and Visio 2007

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Microsoft enables you to take advantage of up to 30% of subsidy dollars!
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Buy 10K of Project and 5K of Visio in Open/Select (multiple transactions allowed) during October 1, 2009 – February 26th 2010 and receive 1 computer based training for the first: 50 Visio and 100 Project customers.

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Online seating will be limited!

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SMB Communities Manager

Subscribe by RSS

Thank you for reading... This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Way to Expose Custom method in an Entity class from WCF Data Service

DataProgramability — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:49:59 GMT

There are scenarios where we may want to add additional methods to an Entity class.

When we implement them we have to extend the Entity Data Model Class project by implementing a partial class in our Entity Project. We then create a data service and reference the EDM class project . You can add custom behaviors on WCF Data Services and expose the methods on the Entity Class.

Below are the steps that we need to take in order to consume a custom method added to our Entity class from our WCF Data Services.

Way to Do it!

Suppose we add below Method in our Entity Class

=======================================

public partial class AdventureWorksEntities

{

public int contactid(string firstname)

{

AdventureWorksEntities aw = new AdventureWorksEntities();

Contact contact = (from c in aw.Contact where c.FirstName == firstname select c).FirstOrDefault<Contact>();

return contact.ContactID;

}

Note we have added a new class file to the Entity Project and expanded that class.

Our DataServices class looks like below

DataServices Class

=============================

[System.ServiceModel.ServiceBehavior(IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults = true)]

public class DataService : DataService<EDM.AdventureWorksEntities>

{

public static void InitializeService(IDataServiceConfiguration config)

{

try

{

config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("*", EntitySetRights.AllRead);

config.SetServiceOperationAccessRule("*", ServiceOperationRights.All);

config.UseVerboseErrors = true;

}

catch (Exception e)

{

throw new DataServiceException(e.Message + "\n" + e.StackTrace);

}

[WebGet]

public int ContactidTest(string FirstName)

{

AdventureWorksEntities aw = new AdventureWorksEntities();

if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(FirstName))

{

throw new ArgumentNullException("FirstName",

"You must provide a First name argument");

}

return aw.contactid(FirstName);

}

Consumer Application consumes DataServices as below

============================================

try

{

var proxy = new ServiceReference1.AdventureWorksEntities(new Uri("http://localhost:6102/DataService.svc/"));

var contacts = proxy.Execute<int>(new Uri(string.Format("http://localhost:6102/DataService.svc/ContactidTest?FirstName='{0}'","gustavo")));

string s = contacts.ToString();

foreach (var contact in contacts)

{

textBox1.Text = contact.ToString();

}

catch (DataServiceQueryException ex)

{

throw new DataServiceException(ex.Message + "\n" + ex.StackTrace);

}

You will note in the above we are using the URI from Execute method of the DataServices proxy class.

There is other method (CreateQuery) of the proxy class which you can use in case the method in entity would have been returning an entity instead of a scalar value as above.

Link below gives elaboration as to how to use CreateQuery , Execute etc.

http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/gilf/archive/2008/11/14/consuming-data-services-service-operations.aspx

Not all public method are exposed, unless you want them to be exposed using the WebGet attribute

Author : Ambuj (MSFT) , SQL Developer Technical Lead , Microsoft

Reviewed by : Bindesh (MSFT) , SQL Developer Engineer , Microsoft

Welcome!

Fernando Azpeitia — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:41:00 GMT

Welcome to our official SQL Server Full-Text Search (FTS) Blog!

This blog was just born recently J. We, the SQL Server FTS team, are planning to start posting here tons of useful information related with our Full-Text Search (FTS) feature in SQL Server. This information will cover the vast majority of themes of interest within our customers and other interested parties. The posts and articles published here will cover various areas of this feature, from deep dives in some of our architecture/behaviors to overall summaries from recent SQL conferences and main customer interactions.

Announcing news, new content, best practices, known issues, etc.. ; as well as to gather suggestions, questions and answers will be common practices on this blog.

When possible, the information will be organized into specific topics/areas, to facilitate navigating through it. Some samples of useful topics will be:

o “General information”

o “Latest events and developments”

o “Querying”

o “ Indexing”

o “External Components: WordBreakers (WBs) and iFilters”,

o “Upcoming Future”

o Etc…

You will soon find these sections on the lef-side panel of this blog. These, as well as the Tags association we are going to provide for each topic we discuss, should facilitate navigating and consuming this information to all of you.

We hope this blog grows steadily and provides critical insight and best practices to our community out there! Please feel free to comment our posts and let us know your questions or topics you need help with.

Thanks!

New TPC Results on SQL Server 2008 R2

Data & SQL Storage Performance Team — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:31:55 GMT

On November 2, 2009, Unisys published two new TPC results (TPC-E and TPC-H) using the newly announced SQL Server 2008 R2* and Windows Server 2008 R2**. These results were published on the 96-core Unisys ES7000 system. These are the first SQL Server TPC results using more than 64 cores and they demonstrate the outstanding scalability of the Windows and SQL Server platform.

The TPC-E publication was 2,012 tpsE with a price performance of $958.23 USD/tpsE. The configuration will be available by May, 6, 2010. The TPC-H publication was 102,778 QphH@3000GB with a price performance of $21.05 USD/QphH@3000GB. This configuration will also be available by May 6, 2010.

You can see all the details for these outstanding results on the TPC web site at the following links:

Unisys ES7000 7600R Enterprise Server – TPC-E

Unisys ES7000 7600R Enterprise Server – TPC-H

* – SQL Server 2008 R2 will be generally available by May 6, 2010.

** – Windows Server 2008 R2 is generally available now.

- Jamie

Updates to Windows Azure from PDC

Tom — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:06:15 GMT

Wow there have been a lot of updates to the Windows Azure Platform that were announced at the PDC. I would love to hear from folks to let me know what they are most excited about. I was most impressed with the announcement of Dallas. I think that has the potential to change the way that we get information and consume it. It is great that companies like NASA can expose lots of information to people in a structured manner and allow the consumer to decide what they want to do with it.

I have been looking into the methods to debug applications in Windows Azure and hope to be able to talk about that very soon on this blog. So stay tuned for that and please let me know if you have any ideas of the types of data/information you would like to see.

Web Site Projects and Windows Azure

jnak — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Currently (November 2009), the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio only support Web Application projects – the type of Web projects that have a project file and are compiled.

For most folks, they reason to choose a Web Site project was for the ability to update it easily on the server and generally, the target customer for Windows Azure is typically using a Web Application project. (for a good article about the differences and when to use each one, please see this post)

Because Windows Azure has a deployment model where you can’t update the files on the server itself and considering the target customer, this seemed like a reasonable approach.

That said, there are a lot of apps out there that are in the Web Site format that folks want to deploy to Windows Azure and we’re figuring out the best way to support this moving forward.

For the time being, most folks are doing the conversion from Web Site to Web Application project and I wanted to point to a good post off the Visual Web Developer blog that will help make this easier: http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2009/10/29/converting-a-web-site-project-to-a-web-application-project.aspx

Stylizing your Excel worksheets with Open XML 2.0

Chris Quon — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:48:00 GMT

It’s a long overdue post so I will get right to it. This is not a post about Themes and I probably will never get into it. The class that applies the actual styling is a collection called CellFormats , which holds a number of CellFormat objects, which basically indexes the Ids of defined Fonts, Fills, Borders, Alignments, etc.. There is also another collection called CellStyleFormats that makes the indents in the ribbon control (under styles group box) to show what your styles implement. Filling...(read more)

PEX - invalid detour, process is not instrumented

alvarorahul — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:42:00 GMT

I got the above error the other day while experimenting with moles. I got it at the below line:

[TestMethod]
public void MyUnitTestMethod()
{
    //some code
    MMyClassToBeTested.Constructor = (myClassObject) => { return; };
    //some code
}

At first I thought maybe I've written the lambda wrong, so re-wrote that. Tried various other things, finally even deleted the test project and re-created it.

Finally i thought... lets go through the documentation again... and there it was.. an attribute to be added.. which does it all...

[TestMethod]
[HostType("Pex")]
public void MyUnitTestMethod()
{
    //some code
    MMyClassToBeTested.Constructor = (myClassObject) => { return; };
    //some code
}

It turns out that since moles require runtime instrumentation, they must be run using the "Pex" HostType. This is achieved by adding the HostType attribute to the test method.

Till my next post.

Regards,

AlD