Clark Sell

The OData Deep Dive with Woody is coming to Chicago and Madison

csell — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:42:23 GMT

OData Deep Dive with Chris Woodruff

Recommended Audiences:

Solution Architects, Software Developers, Developers, Architects

Abstract

The Open Data Protocol (OData) is an open protocol for sharing data. It provides a way to break down data silos and increase the shared value of data by creating an ecosystem in which data consumers can interoperate with data producers in a way that is far more powerful than currently possible, enabling more applications to make sense of a broader set of data. Every producer and consumer of data that participates in this ecosystem increases its overall value.

OData is consistent with the way the Web works - it makes a deep commitment to URIs for resource identification and commits to an HTTP-based, uniform interface for interacting with those resources (just like the Web). This commitment to core Web principles allows OData to enable a new level of data integration and interoperability across a broad range of clients, servers, services, and tools.

OData is released under the Open Specification Promise to allow anyone to freely interoperate with OData implementations.

In this talk Chris will provide an in depth knowledge to this protocol, how to consume a OData service and finally how to implement an OData service on Windows using the WCF Data Services product.

Agenda

Introductions (5 minutes)
Overview of OData (10 minutes)
The OData Protocol (45 hour)
15 minute break
Producing OData Feeds (1 hour)
15 minute break
Consuming OData Feeds (1 hour)

Dates, Times and Locations

1. Chicago, IL June 21

a. 8:30 am - 12:00 pm

b. Microsoft Offices, Downers Grove, IL

c. http://bit.ly/DownersOData1

2. Chicago June 21

a. 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm

b. Microsoft Offices, Downers Grove, IL

c. http://bit.ly/DownersOData2

3. June 22, 2010

a. 8:30 am - 12:00 pm

b. Microsoft MTC, Chicago IL

c. http://bit.ly/MTCOData1

4. June 22 2010

a. 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm

b. Microsoft MTC, Chicago IL

c. http://bit.ly/MTCOData2

5. July 7^th 2010

a. 1 pm – 5 pm

b. Herzing College, Madison WI

c. http://bit.ly/MadisonOdata

Bio

Chris Woodruff (or Woody as he is commonly known as) has a degree in Computer Science from Michigan State University’s College of Engineering. Woody has been developing and architecting software solutions for almost 15 years and has worked in many different platforms and tools. He is a community leader, helping such events as Day of .NET Ann Arbor, West Michigan Day of .NET and CodeMash. He was also instrumental in bringing the popular Give Camp event to Western Michigan where technology professionals lend their time and development expertise to assist local non-profits. As a speaker and podcaster, Woody has spoken and discussed a variety of topics, including database design and open source. He is a Microsoft MVP in Data Platform Development. Woody works at RCM Technologies in Grand Rapids, MI as a Principal Consultant.

Woody is the co-host of the popular podcast “Deep Fried Bytes” and blogs at www.chriswoodruff.com. He is the President of the West Michigan .NET User Group and also is a co-founder of the software architecture online portal nPlus1.org.

Woody has worked in many arenas throughout the years, including healthcare, manufacturing, publishing, promotion execution and the automotive industry. He has experience with starting and running new ventures, including past work with technology startups. Woody continues to develop his expertise by learning & developing new technologies to better meet the needs of his clients, while devoting his free time to improving the development community at large, and giving back to the community in which he lives.

Developer Smackdown #25 | Multi-Touch with Travis Feirtag

csell — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:35:26 GMT

In this version, Clark and Mark sit down with Travis Feirtag and talk multi-touch. We explore the importance of user experience and what role multi-touch plays in applications today. Of course we dive into what that means to .NET. Listen along as we start touching UX.

Listen Here –> Play Now

Show Notes

Who is Travis Feirtag you ask?

First and foremost, I am a proud father and loving husband for my wonderful family. My wife, Julie and our four children live in Lake Mills, Wisconsin. It is unbelievable watching our children grow and learn. My chest puffs up with pride when I speak of them. They are the best part of my life.

Secondly, I have been an engineer since I got my first computer when I was ten years old. It is my second love after my family, of course. If there is such a thing as destiny then it was fateful that I have become an engineer. I drive my wife crazy talking about technology. Of course, if our children love tech as much as their dad then mommy is in trouble :)

I have spent many years working, exploring, making mistakes and learning from them. In my opinion, it is truly through our mistakes that we gain the most useful experience in life. I believe that I am open-minded about new technologies but I do not adopt a technology simply because it is new. I have a considerable amount of experience but there always is so much more to know. For the last nine years, I have been spending most of my time using .NET technologies. Microsoft has done their homework when creating the .NET framework. It is the most cohesive set of development technologies from them to date.

I was on the executive committee of the Wisconsin .NET User Group for 3 years. And was the president of the Madison .NET User Group for two years and I now serve on the Board of Directors, which means that I am involved in the regional and national .NET developer community. I have been a full-time engineering consultant in the Southern Wisconsin region for over 10 years now.

You can catch Travis and all of his great work at:

Multi-Touch Screen Types:

Infrared - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared
Resistive - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistive_touchscreen
Capacitive - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitive_sensing

Flick Gestures:

Flick Gestures Explained - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms694980%28VS.85%29.aspx
System.Windows.Input - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms604577%28v=VS.100%29.aspx
Application Gestures - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.ink.applicationgesture%28VS.90%29.aspx
Simple Gesture Sample - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ptorr/archive/2010/03/23/simple-gesture-sample.aspx

Windows Touch Pack - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/whats-the-microsoft-touch-pack-for-windows-7

Looking too start doing development for Windows Phone 7, check out http://Developer.WindowsPhone.com

Bamboo Tablets - http://www.wacom.com/index2.php

Developer Smackdown Musing #23 | Intro to OData

csell — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:22:25 GMT

In this version of The Smackdown, Clark and Mark introduce OData. Our goal was to simply bring some awareness to what is this thing called OData and how can you start finding more information about it.

Listen Here –> Play Now

Show Notes

Great Sites:

Downloads:

Tips and Tricks

Internet Explorer Feed Reading View

To toggle the the feed reading view of an ATOM or RSS feed in Internet Explorer do the following:

Select Tools
Select Internet Options
Select the Content Tab
Select the Settings button
un-Check the “Turn on feed reading view”

Debugging Silverlight Out of Browser Applications

Silverlight Out-of-Browser Support - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd550721(VS.96).aspx
Channel 9 Silverlight Out-of-Browser debugging video - http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/MSDNSweden/Debugging-Silverlight-4-Out-Of-Browser-applications-in-Visual-Studio-2010/
Silverlight 4 debugging overview - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc838267(VS.96).aspx

DeveloperSmackdown Musing #22 | Why Projects Fail

csell — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:08:00 GMT

This time we talk about our vast experience with failed projects. Project "X" is the big topic but there were others.

Listen here –> Play Now

Show Notes

Why do so many projects fail? Well, in our experience, it has to do with some combination of the following:

Statement of Work
Conditions of Satisfaction
Define "Done"
Define Assumptions
Requirements
- Can change - just not constantly
- Good ones can actually be tested
Use Business Analysts for appropriate context
Build and Deployment: How to get the application created and installed - always underestimated

Cover your ass with detailed status reports (Weekly!)

What did you do this week
What is planned for next week
What did you do that was unplanned (KEY! - This is why you didn't finish everything you planned)
What resources do you need to get the job done
What issues are blocking you

Document, Document, Document!!!

Resources:

Failing project sound effect: http://www.SadTrombone.com

Developer.WindowsPhone.com

Tips or Tricks

Generate from Usage - Visual Studio 2010 Refactoring Tool

Where’s Waldo This April

csell — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:49:30 GMT

On thing I promise this blog will never become is an event calendar. Unfortunately, until I can give my site a major overhaul things will a bit screwy. This month ( April ) is a very VERY busy month and there are some cool things going on. What? Ask no longer. ~~Unf~~ortunately for you, I am pretty much speaking at all of this…

April 10th – Windows Phone 7 Dev Camp

from Dave Bost’s Blog….

With the excitement over the Windows Phone 7 Series, developers are chomping at the bit to start building apps. Although were a few months away from releasing Windows Phone 7 Series to the world, now is a good time as any to start ramping up our developer muscle to build amazing applications targeting the new Windows Phone.

This DevCamp will start the day off by providing a walk through of the the development tools including Visual Studio and Expression Blend. From there, attendees will break off into groups to hash out their phone applications. At the end of the day, each team will be given an opportunity to showcase their ideas.

Who: Developers, Designers, Mobile Enthusiasts and Entrepreneurs

When: Saturday, April 10, 2010 @ 8:30am – ? (map)

Where: ITA, 200 S. Wacker, Chicago, IL.

Register Here

April 13th – Wisconsin .NET Users Group Meeting

Re-MIX, MIX redux. or just plain MIXed Up

Did you miss the Microsoft MIX 2010 conference? Well let’s have a fun chat about MIX. With so much stuff covered in those 72 hours, it’s just impossible to try and cover it all in less than 2 hours. If you’re looking for slides then this isn’t the session for you. We are going to take a technology tour for a few of the technologies that were making all the buzz on the floors of the MIX conference.

Introduction to MEF

ASP.NET MVC

OData

Silverlight 4

Windows Phone 7 ~~Series~~

IE9

As if that wasn’t good enough, I have a Zune HD to give away.

When: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 from 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (CT)

Where: Direct Supply - 6663 N Industrial Road, Milwaukee, WI 53223

Register Here

April 19th – McHenry Cloud Users Group Meeting

“Hello World” on the Microsoft Azure Platform.

When: Monday, April 19, 2010 from 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM (CT)

Where: Panera Bread - Crystal Lake - Private Meeting Room, 6000 Northwest HWY, Crystal Lake IL, 60014

Register Here

April 22nd – LCNUG Meeting

Re-MIX, MIX redux. or just plain MIXed Up

Did you miss the Microsoft MIX 2010 conference? Well let’s have a fun chat about MIX. With so much stuff covered in those 72 hours, it’s just impossible to try and cover it all in less than 2 hours. If you’re looking for slides then this isn’t the session for you. We are going to take a technology tour for a few of the technologies that were making all the buzz on the floors of the MIX conference.

Introduction to MEF

ASP.NET MVC

OData

Silverlight 4

Windows Phone 7 ~~Series~~

IE9

As if that wasn’t good enough, I have a Zune HD to give away.

When: Thursday, April 22, 2010 from 6:45 PM - 8:45 PM (CT)

Where: College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois

Register Here

April 27th – Pewaukee Users Group Meeting

If your from the area this should look a bit odd. Why? Well there is no such user group. We had a great opportunity to provide our community the ability to spend some time with Group Program Manger Jay Schmelzer.

Jay Schmelzer is a Group Program Manager on the Visual Studio Team at Microsoft. Jay and his team are responsible for the Visual Studio design-time tools and runtime components used to build applications that leverage Microsoft Office client and server products, many of the Visual Studio features vital to end-to-end application development experience including Data Design-time, building and consuming WCF services and Deployment, as well as the application programmability and extensibility available in Visual Studio Tools for Applications. Prior to joining Microsoft, Jay was a partner with a leading consulting firm and specialized in the design and development of enterprise applications. Jay has authored several articles and books on application development and is a frequent speaker at application development conferences.

Jay will be coving the following topics:

· Overview of SharePoint 2010, a developers perspective – SharePoint 2010 includes many new developer-oriented capabilities. Developers can build collaboration applications leveraging the new platform capabilities, more easily deploy their solutions taking advantage of the more flexible deployment model SharePoint 2010 provides and monitor the behavior of their applications using built in monitoring capabilities in SharePoint 2010.

· SharePoint development with Visual Studio 2010 – Visual Studio 2010 provides first class support for professional developers targeting SharePoint. Visual Studio 2010 provides the continuum from collaboration with SharePoint Designer, to an integrated and familiar developer experience in Visual Studio to integration with the ALM capabilities of Visual Studio Ultimate and TFS.

Food will be served.

Where: Microsoft Office – Waukesha, N19 W24133 Riverwood Dr. Suite 150, Waukesha Wisconsin 53188

When: Thursday, April 27th, 2010, 6pm – 9pm

Register Here

April 28th – Jay Schmelzer at the Centare offices

SharePoint 2010 and Visual Studio 2010: What are the Possibilities?

In this session you will discover why SharePoint 2010 maintains a positive user experience when it works together with Office 2010 and more. With functionalities such as reviewing documents on a team site or work on presentations while offline, SharePoint 2010 users can stay productive and innovative as they go about their tasks, maintaining the rich user experience they are accustomed to.

As organizations introduce new tools to help their end users be more productive and innovative, some employees may wonder how they would have time to jump between the different products.

Overview of SharePoint 2010, a developers perspective

SharePoint 2010 includes many new developer-oriented capabilities. Developers can build collaboration applications leveraging the new platform capabilities, more easily deploy their solutions taking advantage of the more flexible deployment model SharePoint 2010 provides and monitor the behavior of their applications using built in monitoring capabilities in SharePoint 2010.

SharePoint development with Visual Studio 2010

Visual Studio 2010 provides first class support for professional developers targeting SharePoint. Visual Studio 2010 provides the continuum from collaboration with SharePoint Designer, to an integrated and familiar developer experience in Visual Studio to integration with the ALM capabilities of Visual Studio Ultimate and TFS.

Agenda
8:15am – 8:45am – Welcome, continental breakfast and registration
8:45am – 9:00am - Introductions
9:00am – 11:00am - SharePoint 2010 and Visual Studio 2010: What are the Possibilities?
11:00am - 11:30am – Wrap-Up and Q&A

Why you should register...

As organizations introduce new tools to help their end users be more productive and innovative, some employees may wonder how they would have time to jump between the different products.

About the Presenter:

Jay Schmelzer is a Group Program Manager on the Visual Studio Team at Microsoft. Jay and his team are responsible for the Visual Studio design-time tools and runtime components used to build applications that leverage Microsoft Office client and server products, many of the Visual Studio features vital to end-to-end application development experience including Data Design-time, building and consuming WCF services and Deployment, as well as the application programmability and extensibility available in Visual Studio Tools for Applications.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Jay was a partner with a leading consulting firm and specialized in the design and development of enterprise applications. Jay has authored several articles and books on application development and is a frequent speaker at application development conferences.

Where: Centare Group, Ltd. 125 N. Executive Drive Brookfield, WI 53005

When: Wednesday, April 28th, 2010, 8:40am – 12:00pm

Register Here

April 29th – 2010 Launch

Visual Studio 2010 will ship on April 12th. We will be celebrating this HUGE release with a number of LIVE launch events taking place around the US as well as the World. The theme for this launch event is “Life Runs on Code”. We will have sessions covering Application Lifecycle Management, SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 development, Windows, Web as well as the recently announced Windows Phone 7 development all with Visual Studio 2010.

One of the first launch events will be taking place in Chicago on April 29th. I will be presenting the Web and Windows Phone 7 sessions in Chicago. We hope to see you there!

What: Visual Studio 2010 Launch (Chicago)

Where: Chicago Marriott Oak Brook, 1401 W. 22nd Street, Oak Brook, IL (map)

When: Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Register Here

These events are happening all over the US, for other cities, visit the Launch site. We are also hosting a number of smaller launch events. You can find a city near you by visiting MSDN Events.

April 30th – Jay Schmelzer at Clarity Consulting

Exclusive opportunity to meet with a Visual Studio Group Program Manager

Jay Schmelzer is a Group Program Manager on the Visual Studio Team at Microsoft. Jay and his team are responsible for the Visual Studio design-time tools and runtime components used to build applications that leverage Microsoft Office client and server products, many of the Visual Studio features vital to end-to-end application development experience including Data Design-time, building and consuming WCF services and Deployment, as well as the application programmability and extensibility available in Visual Studio Tools for Applications. Prior to joining Microsoft, Jay was a partner with a leading consulting firm and specialized in the design and development of enterprise applications. Jay has authored several articles and books on application development and is a frequent speaker at application development conferences.

Among the topics Jay can cover include:

Overview of SharePoint 2010, a developers perspective – SharePoint 2010 includes many new developer-oriented capabilities. Developers can build collaboration applications leveraging the new platform capabilities, more easily deploy their solutions taking advantage of the more flexible deployment model SharePoint 2010 provides and monitor the behavior of their applications using built in monitoring capabilities in SharePoint 2010.

SharePoint development with Visual Studio 2010 – Visual Studio 2010 provides first class support for professional developers targeting SharePoint. Visual Studio 2010 provides the continuum from collaboration with SharePoint Designer, to an integrated and familiar developer experience in Visual Studio to integration with the ALM capabilities of Visual Studio Ultimate and TFS.

Agenda:

8:15am – 8:45am – Welcome, continental breakfast and registration

8:45am – 9:00am - Introductions

9:00am – 11:00am - SharePoint 2010 and Visual Studio 2010: What are the Possibilities?

11:00am - 11:30am – Wrap-Up and Q&A

Where: Clarity Consulting, 1 N Franklin St, Suite 3400 Chicago Illinois 60606-4425

When: Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Register Here

May 1st - Chicago Code Camp

"The Code Camp Manifesto" declares a simple idea to bring developers from disparate platforms and languages together into one software community.

By and For the Developer Community

Always Free

Community Developed Material

No Fluff only Code

Never occur during work hours

Where: IIT- Stuart Building, 10 West 31st Chicago, IL 60616

When: Saturday, May 1st, 2010

Register Here

We do have a number of special Guests coming by. We are a stop on the DotNetRocks Road Trip. Carl and Richard will partying with us at the Chicago Code Camp.

Developer Smackdown Musing #17

csell — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:35:28 GMT

Mix10 Smackdown – Were kicking off things.

In this musing Clark and Mark kick off their trip to the Microsoft Mix 2010 Conference in Vega$. We will explore some of the different techniques they use to navigate such a conference.

Listen here –> Play Now

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Show Notes:

DeveloperSmackdown.com got stickers. We would love to give you one. If yo

u see us, feel free to ask. If you’re not in the area just email the show and we will figure out how to get you one.

ASP.NET MVC2 Released!!! Now that makes us really happy!!

Some great Mix10 links:

Want to see Clark on This Week in Channel 9 show 98?

Have you missed the buzz that is Windows Phone 7 Series? I am sorry if you have. Make sure you check out both Mix and Charlie Kindel’s Blog for a ton of great information.

This week we announced Chicago Code Camp 2. While the site isn’t anything special yet, we are working on it. We would love to see you there, so go register at the Chicago Code Camp site.

Tips and Tricks:

Symbolic Links Defined per msdn.com

“A symbolic link is a file-system object that points to another file system object. The object being pointed to is called the target.”

Useful links

Rocket Dock. What is Rocket Dock, well this following was taken directly from RocketDock.com:

“RocketDock is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher. It provides a nice clean interface to drop shortcuts on for easy access and organization. With each item completely customizable there is no end to what you can add and launch from the dock.

Now with added Taskbar support your minimized windows can appear as icons on the dock. This allows for better productivity and accessibility.”

Developer Smackdown Musing #16

csell — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:06:53 GMT

Bamboozled in the Office

It's the first show of the new year and decade. Mark and Clark talk about, well, nothing that they planned on. The show gets bamboozled right from the start and the discussion turns toward where most development is done and that's in your office at home. We talk about what went into the design and what makes the office work from two similar but still different points of view.

Listen here –> Play Now

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Show Notes

Design thoughts for your home office

Isolation - Use every opportunity to separate your office from the world (insulation, doors, walls, etc.) It will help you create a space where you can think.
Design the desk - sketch out the space on paper and figure out how much desk you can fit into the space
- How will you use the desk space - keyboard, mouse, monitors, laptops, writing area. Space == Goodness
- Get those monitors off the desk with monitor support arms. You gain not only desk space but also flexibility in positioning.
Make sure you have plenty of power. Don't just plug in a surge protector in a surge protector to get more outlets. More outlets doesn't equate to more power. Get an electrician to help if you can.
Same thing goes for networking. You'll never have enough. Wireless is great for general internet/network access but if you are going to run servers or push a lot of media (audio/video) around the house then go gigabit! With that you need Cat5E or Cat6 cabling EVERYWHERE. The first cable that isn't rated high enough will slow the network down. Also, plan your network to get the most speed and flexibility - use switches not hubs!
Make sure there's plenty of light
Audio and video - from just listening to your Zune for music and Smackdown podcasts to watching UTube, DVD's or training videos. Make the space enjoyable.
If you're a book whore like the two of us (Clark is way more than me by the way), plan on lots of shelf and cabinet space. Cables and boards and DVD drives and mice and keyboards have to go somewhere.

Resources:

IKEA - Great place for inexpensive but highly effective office furniture
Workspaces.com - More expensive but more customized office solutions
Software KVM's Clark is using and has tested
IOGear - Hardware KVM that Mark is using

Tips and Tricks

Clark's Tip #1 - Workspaces.com - he recommends them HIGHLY and for good reason. His "command center" desk is something to envy.

Mark's Tip #1 - NewEgg.com - Great prices for all things technical very quick response. Awesome place to shop.

Mark's Tip #2 - In Visual Studio, use "Control -" (Ctrl and the minus key) to walk or navigate yourself back from things like "Go To Definition". Each time you hit it, it will step you back one jump.

Clark's Tip #2 - In Visual Studio, use "Control ." (Ctrl and period) to resolve references and insert the using statement or the full type qualifiers in your code.

Developer Smackdown Musing #15

csell — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:23:41 GMT

Martin Woodward talks about Teamprise

In this version of The Smackdown Mark and Clark have the awesome opportunity to spend some time with Martin Woodward. Martin recently joined Microsoft as a result of the Microsoft Teamprise acquisition joining the Visual Studio ALM Suite of tools. Martin tells us all about getting his Microsoft chip installed as well as some Teamprise stuff too.

Listen here –> Play Now

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Show Notes

Martin Woodward blogs at http://woodwardweb.com and is one of the hosts of RadioTfs. RadioTfs is a podcast focused on everything Team Foundation Server.

What is Teamprise?

Teamprise offers a suite of client applications for accessing Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server from outside the Visual Studio environment (IDE).

Teamprise enables software development teams to use the source control, work item tracking, build, and reporting features of Team Foundation Server from other platforms, including Macintosh and UNIX systems, and from within Eclipse-based IDEs.

During the show Martin referenced the Teamprise Build Extensions. You can find that and many other utilities on their labs page.

The beta “Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010 codename “Eaglestone” release can be found here: http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2010/03/04/microsoft-visual-studio-team-explorer-2010.aspx

Remember those 3270 screens you loved so much? Check out Teamprise on the mainframe.

We did talk about fun “build” related software check out:

Clark talked about starting to get into the ZWave world. Here are a number of good starting places:

Tips and Tricks

Unfortunately there were no tips and tricks for this show.

Developer Smackdown is getting stickers

csell — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:58:08 GMT

After almost 8 months of working on DeveloperSmackdown.com, we are getting stickers made. Why? Why not! We really enjoy working on The Smackdown. Overall progress is slow, but progress is progress. About the stickers…. Mark and I are *not* artists by any stretch but we sure try. Expression Design to the rescue. Here is what we’ve come up with:

We would love to know what you think. Next time we cross path, I might just have one for you.

As always *thank you* for listening to the show.

TWC9: Windows Phone 7 Series, Hanselcart, MS Deploy

csell — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:16:59 GMT

I got to make my debut on This Week On Channel 9. It was a great deal of fun!! A big thank you to both Brian and Dan for having me on the show.

Check it out here!

Show Notes:

This week on Channel 9, Brian, Clark Sell, and a surprise guest discuss the week's top developer news, including:

Clark Sell guests hosts.

Interesting because: Clark is an awesome developer ninja, and host of Developer Smackdown and Thirsty Developer.

Windows Phone 7 Series was announced (Gizmodo Review | Channel 9 Hands-on Look | MIX2010 Developer Story)

Interesting because: Microsoft is back in the mobile game. Developer story coming next month at MIX.

Scott Hanselman's project to build Hanselcart: An Embedded Social Proxy.

Interesting because: As teams become more and more globally distributed, we need better ways of applying that "personal touch."

10-4 Episode 41: Downloading and Installing the Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate.

Interesting because: It's never been easier to install Visual Studio 2010 (including Team Foundation Server).

Fix for IntelliSense crashes in Visual Studio 2010 RC.

Interesting because: Your feedback matters! This issue was reported by the community and fixed in a matter of days.

Visual Studio Lab Management 2010 RC VHD available for download.

Interesting because: You can now evaluate/learn Lab Management without needing to spend a lot of time setting up your test rig.

Free eBook on virtualization R2

Interesting because: Virtualization is becoming an increasingly popular tool in a developer's arsenal.

Clark's Pick of the Week: MS Deploy for deploying web applications.

Interesting because: With so many deployment options to choose from how do you know which one to use? This one gets Clark's endorsement, and he explains why.

Brian's Pick of the Week: Augmented Reality with Bing Maps, a TED talk

Interesting because: Wow. Just, wow. You have to watch the video to believe it.

The Smackdown, Version 13, Windows Home Server

csell — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:25:18 GMT

Clark and Mark explore how Windows Home Server joined their arsenal of computer hardware and software. Listen to why and how they both leverage Windows Home Server.

Show Notes

Home Server Hardware

Important Links

Tips and Tricks

Listen to the show.

Enter the Codeproject.com Windows @ Work Contest & Win a HP Touchsmart Notebook

csell — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:01:41 GMT

Submit a great article explaining how you built an app for Windows 7 – complete with code - and if yours you could win a fully loaded HP Touchsmart tx2z Notebook!

Link: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9702411

Computers don’t lie, we just don’t always listen

csell — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:38:36 GMT

This past week I did one of those TFS restores to swap out hardware. Things went great except for SSRS. Who knows what went wrong but looking back, the journey to resolution was interesting. All to often we see the error and start to hunt and peck. Sometimes we end up down dead end roads other times we are just lucky. Reflecting back, hind sight is always 20/20. In this case the solution was somewhat obvious from the start.

Let the journey begin..

Stand alone TFS installations usually have 2 main IIS Web Sites. #1. Default, which will include SharePoint and Reporting Services. #2. Which is TFS. During the restore process I had a problem where TfsAdminUtil.exe RestoreDT was actually having problems talking with SSRS. I kept getting the following:

…..

Exception Message: Client found response content type of 'text/html; charset=utf-8', but expected 'text/xml'.

…..

The file you are attempting to save or retrieve has been blocked from this Web site by the server administrators.

….

Well after a while I just gave up and reconfigured TFS by hand. I knew that decision was going to bite me in the rear later on but at 2am with time running out, it was time to get-er-done. So once the rest of the restore was done I kicked off a new project creation and guess what, SAME &^%$^# ERROR… After some sleep it was time to hit it again. Looking back at the error what struck me as odd was the error seems to imply that SharePoint was getting the web request rather than SSRS. Sure enough after some digging around a bit more in IIS, IIS Logs, TFS it turned out my SSRS installation was actually instanced so instead of the normal http://server/Reports, it was http://server/Reports_TFS. Well that fix was easy, tfsadminutil.exe configureConnections did that. Re-ran “Create New Project” and it failed again but this time a bit farther down the stack.

This time the project creation wizard was saying it was looking for http://server/reports still but everything was configured to be …/reports_tfs. I have no clue where that was coming from but my solution was to just reconfigure SSRS IIS apps to drop the notion of the instance. Re-Ran the Creation Wizard and now SSRS was hooped. The SSRS manager couldn’t find the SSRS services. Well that must have meant somewhere in SSRS land it was in fact still pointed to …/Reports_TFS. Sure enough in the config file for SSRS the URL was there. Fixed that..

Re-Ran the Project Creation Wizard, Failed. At this point I was ready for a drink. Now SSRS was hooped trying to create db objects. Well it was trying to create db objects that were not on the new instanced SSRS installation. I searched around for a bit and said screw it. Lets just rename the db to remove the …$tfs instance name and reconfigure SSRS to point at the new DB name. Once that was done.

Moral of the story, more often that not the that error we sometimes just ignore is always a great pointer. Just don’t ignore it so fast.

T4 – Text Template Transformation Toolkit

csell — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:12:49 GMT

Chances are you have never heard of T4. Don’t worry, most haven’t. This tool was introduced when the DSL tools hit the market. As the name implies, it’s a code generation engine. It’s my understanding, T4 is used under the scenes by the DSL tools to generate out it’s artifacts. This is also the tool that things like Linq to SQL and the Entity framework use to generate its artifacts. Very Cool, and a bit daunting at first.

There are a number of great resources on Code Generation. I don’t want to recover what has been written better than I could but I do want to talk about the start of my journey with T4. So like anyone I hit the ole WWW in search for answers. The following resources got me rolling:

Needless to say you don’t really need anything to get started. I don’t want to rehash anything already stated above, but I do want to cover a few good little hints I have learned so far.

You can include other TT files.
- <#@ include file="core.tt" #>
“Class level functions”. These have listed at the bottom of the TT file in a <=+ => if there are other code blocks in the TT file.
Set your output file type. While you don’t really need it in VS if you are using the command line it will still save a few headaches. It can be whatever type of file type you want.
- <#@ output extension="XML" #>
Assembly References. Just like a normal .NET program you have to reference what you need. I was a bit surprised I had to reference System.Core for some Linq Queries.
- <#@ assembly name="System.Core" #>
Imports. Nothing different from a using statement in C#
- <#@ import namespace="System.Xml.Linq"#>
You can’t pass in parameters into the T4 Engine. Well you can, but not with the host that ships out of the box. Kathleen Dollard is actually working on a host that will address that situation but I have cheated in the meantime. I have an settings file ( like a config ) which I set the setting file from my own host which in turn calls the T4 Engine. The the templates just read that file getting whatever dynamic settings they need.
I have been driving my templates with Powershell.
You can specify template framework versions, although you don’t have to.
- <#@ template language="C#v3.5" HostSpecific="true" #>

I will indeed post more on T4. It’s just amazing and we all should use it more. As I do it more and more I find myself coming up *MUCH* more creative ways to generate the same artifact with less.

More to come…..

Blogging again????

csell — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:02:10 GMT

You know sometimes it’s just sad how fast time can go by. Looking back it’s been well over a year maybe two since I last blogged. WOW, that’s not cool. So what the hell happened, well LIFE I guess. Let’s see:

I had my second child ( girl, Addison ). We are blessed to have one of each and both healthy.
I got to meet Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and all of the rest of the Microsoft executives
Bought a Honda ( needed a 4 door with 2 kids )
This fiscal year I will have billed over 2300 hours which doesn’t account for my other job. Can you say Year of the Death March!!!
Ran into Sieg from the Deadliest Catch at SeaTac
Learned how to make the perfect Margarita!

Regardless a lot has happened and it’s time to talk technology again. I love it and really miss doing it. With all of the great stuff here upon us now, it’s time to start sharing. I was reading MSDN Magazine the other day when I ran across an article about MSBuild and best practices which really got me thinking. There were two items that really stuck out for me:

Compilation of large source trees. I think it’s a must read but caution readers that “large” can mean many different things.
Reference Management

While both were explained pretty well, lets put #2 into practice. *I’M LAZY* ( in a good way of course ). I would much rather write something once rather than screw with it time and time again, especially the stuff you have to do like build work.

So lets talk assembly references….

Assembly references can be easy as you want it to be but sometimes a little prep work will go a long way. The .NET compilers and runtime both have a specific order in which they look for references. If you look in your framework folder for Microsoft.Common.Targets you will find the following:

The SearchPaths property is set to find assemblies in the following order:

Files from current project - indicated by {CandidateAssemblyFiles}

$(ReferencePath) - the reference path property, which comes from the .USER file.

The hintpath from the referenced item itself, indicated by {HintPathFromItem}.

The directory of MSBuild's "target" runtime from GetFrameworkPath. The "target" runtime folder is the folder of the runtime that MSBuild is a part of.

Registered assembly folders, indicated by {Registry:*,*,*}

Legacy registered assembly folders, indicated by {AssemblyFolders}

Look in the application's output folder (like bin\debug)

Resolve to the GAC.

Treat the reference's Include as if it were a real file name.

So what if your not one of those nine?!?!?

Since it’s all just angle brackets we can extend the “out of the box” search paths. As it was explained in the article you can override the property AssemblySearchPaths. Aaron had a great post on MSBuild Property Evaluation, it’s something you should read. Overriding a property is as simple as importing your own target file into the stack and then resetting the property ( for most cases ). You could also just add a the same property further down the stack in the same file. Both are essentially the same. With MSBuild the *stack is always important*. If you were to import your target file or override a property to early you might change the way the entire build system works. There are a number of properties that work like:

<AssemblySearchPaths Condition=" '$(AssemblySearchPaths)' == ''">

This is a very common practice throughout MSBuild implementations. As you can tell it’s just a way or protecting yourself from a change in behavior upstream. Remember MSBuild parses top down to you have no influence what might be done afterwards. In our case what we want to do is import our targets file after the Microsoft.Common.Targets file in the csproj or vbproj file(s).

<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />

<Import Project="..\MyTargets.targets" /> *NEW*

By doing so AssemblySearchPaths will be “” and initialize itself as expected. So if we want to add to it it’s as simple as ( snip from MyTargets.Targets ):

....
    <PropertyGroup>

      <AssemblySearchPaths>
          $(AssemblySearchPaths);
          C:\binaries\;
      </AssemblySearchPaths>
    </PropertyGroup>
....

Define a Property Group
Define the Property ( AssemblySearchPaths )
Set it to itself and add to itself

Important point, Reference Paths are folders not files. So now if you compile from the cmd line or from VS you will have your paths in the stack. The easiest way to see what is going in is to simply run msbuild.exe /t:rebuild /v:diag on your sln file. That will dump everything that took place during the execution from MSBuild. Even the order of folders it searched for. You will actually be able to see the reference pats listed that it couldn't find.

But we are not done yet. We have a hardcoded path and remember, I’m lazy. How about we bootstrap ourselves into the build process and read the file system building the search paths based on a “root” folder you specify? Then any machine should work without any change.

<Project InitialTargets="bootstrap" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

    <PropertyGroup>
        <referencePath>$(SolutionDir)..\MyBinaries\**\*.*</referencePath>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <Target Name="bootstrap">
   
    <CreateItem Include ="$(referencePath)">
      <Output ItemName="binariesFound" TaskParameter="Include"/>
    </CreateItem>
    
    </Target>

  <PropertyGroup>
      <AssemblySearchPaths>
        $(AssemblySearchPaths);
        @(binariesFound->'%(RootDir)%(Directory)');        
      </AssemblySearchPaths>
    </PropertyGroup>
  
</Project>

Important points:

InitialTargets was set. This gives us the ability to run *first*. Why? Well we want to read the file system and build the list of folders.
We create an item during the execution of the target rather than statically.
We later transform that target just adding the folder rather than the whole file path.

Team Build has a similar concept but much easier. At the bottom of any tfsbuild.proj fiile there is a commented collection called AdditionalReferencePath. It works the same it’s just that the Team Build process does it all for you already.

Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.targets ( 2005 )

csell — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:41:16 GMT

Have you ever wanted to *see* the target stack in the TeamBuild targets? Well the wait is over. I wish I could say I generated this on the fly but that isn't the case, but one day that will happen. I intend to keep growing this map as I come across new items and documentation. If you would like a copy feel free to reach out.

Click on the image below for a larger clickable map.

The VSTS Resources Map

csell — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:29:28 GMT

The amount of VSTS resources can get very overwhelming. We have a very strong community with a ton of resources. Lately I re-found my love for mind maps and decided to create a map around VSTS resources. I intend to keep growing this map as I come across new items. If you would like a copy of the map feel free to reach out.

Click on the image below for a the larger clickable map.

Chicago VSTS Users Group, Round 2

csell — Tue, 01 May 2007 07:58:00 GMT

Since I am speaking this time, I can't help but self promote can I? Right now I am in the middle of sketching out content and I would love nothing more than to hear from you. While I have a few tricks up the ole sleeve please ping me and share what's on your mind. Now for the official blurb!!

Join us for ROUND 2 of the Chicago Visual Studio Team System User group!

Join us each month for new topics including how the different role based editions can help your team to finish your projects on time, on scope and on budget, dive into the many features included in the powerful and robust Team Foundation Server product, or speak to one of the many partners who have extended the platform to enable continuous integration scenarios, integrate into Microsoft outlook, even an Eclipse plug-in!

Agenda for May 9^th meeting:

6:00pm - 6:30pm Welcome, Introductions and Pizza

6:30pm - 8:30pm Clark Sell Presents MSBuild and CI using TFS

8:30pm - 9:00pm Q&A, Raffle and Wrap Up

Presenter Bio:

Clark Sell is a Senior Consultant and Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) Ranger for the Financial Services practice of Microsoft Services. He has 8 years experience as architect, developer, tester, and product manager in the software industry, specifically focused on Financial Services customers and software. In this capacity, his primary focus is Visual Studio Team System. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2005, Clark was a Software Architect at Allstate Insurance Company. You can read his blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/csell. Clark is a graduate of Western Illinois University.

Be sure to bring your Smart card badge from the April meeting to qualify for special prizes! We will be issuing smart cards in May to new members while supplies last.

Date:        Wednesday May 9, 2007
Time:       6:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Microsoft Corporation
                  77 West Wacker Dr, Suite 2300
                  Chicago, IL 60601

Click here to register.

Microsoft Acquires devBiz, Makers of TeamPlain Web Access

csell — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:19:13 GMT

Enough said.

http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/

http://www.devbiz.com/

Announcing the Chicago VSTS Users Group

csell — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:11:55 GMT

Join us for the maiden voyage of the Chicago Visual Studio Team System User group!

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System is the best integrated software development platform to build the mission-critical applications that businesses depend on. It extends Visual Studio's integrated and productive experience from the developer to the entire development team by delivering powerful new role-based tools for software architects, developers, testers and project managers. It also includes an integrated team server and customizable processes to help teams drive predictability, visibility, and control into their software development process. Join us each month for new topics including how the different role based editions can help your team to finish your projects on time, on scope and on budget, dive into the many features included in the powerful and robust Team Foundation Server product, or speak to one of the many partners who have extended the platform to enable continuous integration scenarios, integrate into Microsoft outlook, even an Eclipse plug-in!

Agenda for April 11th meeting:

6:00pm - 6:30pm Welcome, Introductions and Pizza
6:30pm - 8:30pm What is Visual Studio Team System?
8:30pm - 9:00pm Q&A, Raffle and Wrap Up

Click here to register

You may also access the registration site at: www.microsoft.com/events and reference Event ID 1032333482

Virtual PC 2007 Released

csell — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:22:28 GMT

You can read more about Virtual PC 2007, and download it, from the newly updated Virtual PC website.

Some key features of Virtual PC 2007 include:

Support for x64 Windows as a host operating system
Support for hardware virtualization support
Support for Windows Vista as a guest and host operating system
Support for PXE network booting of virtual machines
Support for the use of full screen virtual machines on multi-monitor systems

A long time ago Andrew Connell put together a great article HOWTO: Use Virtual PC's Differencing Disks to your Advantage. If you do anything with Virtual PC make sure you read this. Not only does it save you a great amount of disk space but it will save you a great deal of time when setting up new virtual images.

Team Foundation Power Tools v1.2 Released

csell — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:08:00 GMT

Team Foundation Server is happy to announce the release of version 1.2 of Team Foundation Power Tools (formerly known as Power Toys). In this release we've added 2 new command line tools for the developer and 3 non-command line tools. This version includes some bug fixes to previous Power Tools, support for Vista, and adds the following new functionality:

Workspace Command (tfpt.exe) - Use the workspace command for additional workspace operations not supported in the currently shipping Team Foundation Server command line (tf.exe).
Treeclean Command (tfpt.exe) - Use the treeclean command to see and optionally delete files in the current directory and all subdirectories that are not under version control.
Process Template Editor - A tool to provide UI for authoring work item types and some of the associated Process Template components.
Check-in Policy Pack - A set of handy check-in policies to address needs customers have expressed.
Build Test Tools Task - A tool that allows running unit tests by simply specifying the DLLs or even specifying a file name pattern in TfsBuild.proj, instead of using .vsmdi files to specify tests to run.

Please note that the Process Template Editor has some additional pre-requisites, they are identified on the download page.

You can locate the Team Foundation Power Tools V1.2 release here and you can get help on the forums for these tools here.

VSTS Case Studies

csell — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 02:52:01 GMT

From time to time I am asked where one can get their hands on case studies around VSTS. You can find all VSTS case studies here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/aa718812.aspx. Today we just released two new case studies focused around ROI.

VSTS Books

csell — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 20:13:00 GMT

Ever wonder what VSTS books are out there. Well wonder no more. The list is in no particular order:

5 things you didn’t know about me.

csell — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 18:00:41 GMT

Jeff Beehler and Buck Hodges both decided to tag me and I hear tag backs are not allowed. So it's time to kick off this new year of blogging with a few items you may have never guessed.

I have a 10 month old son, Ethan. It's amazing just how fast your life can change.
I love Motorsports. While there is number of different leagues, I most enjoy watching NASCAR. A few friends and I try to attend one race a year and so far I have been to Michigan, Charlotte, Atlanta, Memphis and Indy.
Given I love Motorsports you could imagine I also love cars. So much so I am actually doing my own body off restoration on a 1970 Camaro. Yes it's turned into a slow moving project but it's still a great time when I get to turn some wrenches and lay a few welds.
I didn't aspire to be a programmer when I went to college. In fact I really didn't aspire to do anything much with computers but I loved the internet. My father was a geek since the dawn of time so I had always grew up around them. At that point in time I would have just rather worked on cars. Once I got into college that quickly changed and I graduated with an IT degree. My first job out of college was actually working on the ole Y2K bug.
I am an Eagle Scout.

I am sure these guys don't read my blog but I read theirs. In the spirit of this now you've been tagged too: Kevin Hammond, Richard Turner, Paul Andrew, Keith Brown