David Boschmans Weblog : Microsoft AJAX

Link dump: User Experience, Web Platform, Office System and more

David Boschmans — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:47:36 GMT

Here are some interesting links that I found while catching up on blogs:

User Experience:

Your Britain in pictures: BBC + Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth: The BBC is collaborating with Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth to create three- dimensional representations of some of the most dramatic buildings in Britain by combining hundreds of different photographs. Sit back and enjoy a virtual tour of some of Britain's most striking buildings.
Bart has a list of Microsoft Virtual Earth updates for Belgium
Rebuilding Microsoft Outlook with WPF: This Hands-On Lab will take you to the next level of Windows user interface development. Through the power of WPF (.NET 3.0, Blend and Visual Studio 2005) you will be able to build a replica of the Outlook 2007 UI in a couple of hours.
2x Brad Abrams: a) Introducing Acropolis on .NET Rocks! #248 and b) Brad on Silverlight in Tom's PodLeaders podcast
Lynda.com are now offering free Expression training which can be downloaded without a login [Via Ed Dunhill]:

Web Platform

Silverlight with JavaScript tutorials from wynapse.com: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06
A sample for Controlling Page Flow with Workflow Foundation from Matthew Winkler.
New ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit Release [via ScottGu]

Office System

Maarten has a compilation of OpenXML News. Also, a good read to stay up to date with the latest developments in the OpenXML space.
Productivity from Microsoft at Work:
- Audiocast: Top 10 tips for Microsoft Office Excel 2007 - Be more productive when working on spreadsheets by using tips in this 60-minute podcast.
- Audiocast: Top 10 tips for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 - Create better presentations by using tips in this 60-minute podcast.
- Audiocast: Top 10 tips for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 - Get tips on how to better manage your e-mail in this 60-minute podcast.
Microsoft SDK for Open XML Formats: strongly typed part classes for use with Open XML documents

Security

Windows Vista - 6 Month Vulnerability Report

Windows Server

Windows Home Server goes RC - Sign up via Microsoft Connect
Windows Server 2008: some general information & webcasts and a set of links for developers & it pro's

Sample App

.NET StockTrader Sample Application: An End-to-End Sample Application Illustrating Windows Communication Foundation and .NET Enterprise Technologies

Technorati tags: User Experience, Expression, WPF, Acropolis, Silverlight, ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, Office, Open XML, Security, Windows Server 2008

June 6 > MSDN Evening - Securing ASP.NET AJAX enabled web applications, lessons from the field

David Boschmans — Wed, 23 May 2007 23:25:04 GMT

Our last MSDN event is only a couple of days away and we're already looking forward to the next one on ASP.NET AJAX Security.

On June 6th Erwin Geirnaert, ZION Security , will deliver the session: "Securing ASP.NET AJAX enabled web applications, lessons from the field"

AJAX is changing the way Web applications look and how they are developed, but Web developers are not aware of the security risks they are introducing into their applications with these emerging technologies. While most developers are aware of the importance of designing and testing for security in their applications, few of them are aware of the unique security implications of AJAX technologies. AJAX fundamentally changes the user experience and server interactions in Web applications, so developers may be taking otherwise secure applications and opening up new angles of attack for hackers by hastily adopting these new approaches without understanding their vulnerabilities.
This talk will discuss and demonstrate the security pitfalls common in ASP.NET AJAX development and is based on experiences while analyzing real world ASP.NET AJAX applications.

This promises to be an interesting session, especially with the buzz on developing AJAX enabled web applications these days. A lot of web developers don't realize about the security implications when using AJAX. Erwin has gained a lot of experience in this domain by testing real life applications on security risks.

Session details:

Speaker: Erwin Geirnaert, ZION Security
Level: 300 (advanced)
Prerequisites: knowledge about ASP.NET development and ASP.NET AJAX concepts
Location: Utopolis, Mechelen
Date: 6 June 2007, 18:30 – 20:30 (Registration open at 18:15)

Technorati tags: AJAX, Security, ASP.NET AJAX

Silverlight covered at IT Works Seminar

David Boschmans — Sun, 20 May 2007 16:49:05 GMT

Next Wednesday May 23rd I'll be speaking at the IT Works seminar "AJAX, Flash, Apollo, Silverlight: how do you build Rich Internet Applications ? ".

I'm happy to see that Microsoft Silverlight will be covered at this seminar. The last IT Works seminar I attended was one on AJAX technologies and frameworks. It gave a nice overview of AJAX as a technology and a number of AJAX frameworks. No ASP.NET AJAX coverage at that time (which was a litle bit unfortunate) but in this upcoming seminar ASP.NET AJAX will be introduced by covering a number of case-studies. Wilfried Jansoone from Guidance will discuss these case studies that use ASP.NET AJAX in both enterprise as conusmer scenarios. Really useful if you're wondering how AJAX technologies can enhance both the user experience as the backend performance of your applications.

During this seminar I will introduce the Microsoft Silverlight technology and how it can be used for building Rich Internet Applications. This will be the first seminar in Belgium where Silverlight will be publicly discussed by Microsoft. If you can't attend but want to learn more on Silverlight, check also the Mix07 web site.

Other sessions on the agenda are a number of case studies on Flash/Flex, an Open-Laszlo case study and an introduction on Adobe Apollo. I'm really looking forward to learn more on how these frameworks were used in enterprise scenarios and the SLAs they should meet.

Given the Microsoft technology coverage - which is not really what IT Works attendees expect - I do expect quite some questions on the broader Microsoft developer platform stack during the seminar. See you there!

The full agenda can be found on http://www.itworks.be/event.php?id=XMLD44&se=programme. Register here if you want to attend this seminar.

Technorati tags: IT Works, ASP.NET AJAX, Silverlight, Rich Internet Applications

Project code name "Astoria"

David Boschmans — Thu, 10 May 2007 14:15:34 GMT

Last week at Mix07 Microsoft announced a project code named Astoria.

The technology code named Astoria is a technology that enables applications to expose data as a data service that can be consumed by web clients within corporate networks and across the internet. The Astoria data service is reachable over regular HTTP requests, and standard HTTP verbs such as GET, POST, PUT and DELETE are used to perform operations against the service. The use of web-friendly technologies make Astoria ideal as a data back-end for AJAX-style applications, Rich Interactive Applications and other applications that need to operate against data that lives across the web.

Pablo Castro has some more in depth posts up on his blog on Astoria:

For developers this is interesting as they will be able to use flexible data services that are naturally integrated with the web, use URIs to point to pieces of data and utilize simple, well-known, formats to represent the data, such as JSON and plain XML. Astoria provides web developers with a simple and clean way to access data when developing Ajax or Silverlight applications, using the familiar HTTP verbs such as GET, POST or DELETE, to point and manipulate their data.

There is currently an online service preview of Astoria available at http://astoria.mslivelabs.com/. So you can consume the web data service API directly from there. If you want to install the bits yourself to try them out, you can donwload them together with the documentation and samples at Microsoft Project Codename "Astoria" CTP. The Astoria downloadable bits can be used to build data services that are entirely contained within a single computer or network and the online service preview lets you create online stores that are hosted by Microsoft and that are accessible over the internet. The payload format for the Astoria service is controllable by the application, but all options are simple, open formats such as plan XML and JSON.

Technorati tags: Mix07, Astoria, Silverlight

The .NET Show discusses ASP.NET AJAX Extensions

David Boschmans — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:52:11 GMT

In this episode of the the .NET Show Matt Gibbs, prinicpal development manager, and Brad Abrams, group program manager, join the .NET Show to discuss and demonstrate the new ASP.NETAJAX Extensions, which enables you to quickly create Web pages that include a rich user experience with responsive and familiar user interface (UI) elements.

The download is available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4c500b1f-83df-4f11-a357-e1e26f367153&displaylang=en&tm.

If you're interested in more information on ASP.NET AJAX and how it will be integrated in Visual Studio codenamed "Orcas", it's worth reading the "An Overview of Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" White Paper". In the section "Enable New Web Experience" the platform (IIS, ASP.NET, etc) and the advanced collaboration between designers and developers is discussed.

Visual Studio enables the creation of new Web experiences by empowering Web developers and simplifying Web development. Visual Studio code name “Orcas” gives developers the tools they need to build the next generation of Web experiences more quickly, more efficiently and easier than before:

Enabling Web developers to program “AJAX-style” interactive Web user interfaces
- Visual Studio provides developers with all the tools and framework support required to create compelling, expressive AJAX-enabled Web applications. Developers will be able to take advantage of these rich client-side and server-side frameworks to easily build client-centric Web applications that integrate with any backend data provider, run within any modern browser and has complete access to ASP.NET application services and the Microsoft platform.
Designing and implementing a Web service
- As the concept of what a Web service is evolves, Visual Studio will enable developers to configure service endpoints, using the same tools and code regardless of what wire protocol (HTTP, TCP/IP) is used to transmit messages, and testing the service without code. Developers and partners will be able to extend the underlying protocols to handle any definition of a Web service.
Easily consume Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services
- Developers can use RAD tools to quickly and easily create client connections and proxies to existing services, testing them without needing to write code. In addition, developers can use the same techniques and tools for consuming WCF services no matter where they are.
Leverage SOAs and WCF in mobile applications
- Developers will be able to build a mobile device client application that works in a partially connected environment. The application will be able to send and receive data to/from a server even if the device disconnects or roams. By providing the logic to solve the addressability and storage issues, a developer can focus on the mobile application functionality and not worry about the different identities, connection methods or storage models required.
Service Implementation integrated with workflow design
- With Visual Studio the developer can orchestrate behavior across services with Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) to visualize, create, edit, and debug workflow tasks and dependencies.

Download the white paper at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=17319EB4-299C-43B8-A360-A1C2BD6A421B&displaylang=en.

Related to this and also useful to check out especially when looking forward to "Orcas" is Wally's podcast show #90 on "ASP.NET Podcast Show #90 - Orcas Beta1 Intellisense and Debugging of Web Services and AJAX - video". Topics discussed during the show:

Web Services.
Intellisense of Web Services on the client.
Debugging support on the client to the server and then back to the client.
Adding References to a .js JavaScript file.

Download is here. Enjoy!

Technorati tags: ASP.NET AJAX, Visual Studio "Orcas", .NET Show

Scott Guthrie Shooting Private Donut and a cool WPF/E video player

David Boschmans — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 12:46:59 GMT

Scott Guthrie debuts in Red vs Blue!

In this Red vs. Blue episode, the concept of ASP.NET AJAX is introduced and Scott Guthrie becomes part of the battle! Check it out at Channel9.

In addition, a slick, lightweight video player was developed in “WPF/E” to deliver the video content. Check it out!

More ASP.NET web development learning series can be found at http://learn2asp.net/.

Technorati tags: ASP.NET AJAX, WPF/E

2 new bloggers for our Belgian community

David Boschmans — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 00:39:01 GMT

I'm happy to welcome two new Belgian technology bloggers to the blogosphere! Both are actively using the new Microsoft productivity and collaboration platform: Microsoft 2007 Office system.

Kevin DeRudder is a u2u colleague of Jan Tielens, focusing on the web technologies ASP.NET and AJAX but also caught the SharePoint virus. He has been helping Jan out on integrating ASP.NET AJAX support to the SmartPart. Jan and Kevin promised to record a web cast for msdn.be of the SmartPart at work using AJAX connections. Looking forward to that web cast!
Kevin already has posts on ASP.NET AJAX Basics, Canceling an Asynchronous Request and Localize your Control Toolkit controls. Keep on blogging Kevin!

My colleague Tom Mertens points to the blog Kris Gielen. Kris is a Training Professional who blogs on the Microsoft 2007 Office system, and how he uses these tools being and end-user and power-user. He recently started a series of posts titled "10 reasons why I like Microsoft Office 2007". Check out his random thoughts, his series on 2007 Office system and much more on his blog.

Keep it coming guys!

Technorati tags: Kevin DeRudder, ASP.NET AJAX, Kris Gielen, Office tips and tricks

IntelliSense support for JavaScript and ASP.NET AJAX rocks in Visual Studio "Orcas"

David Boschmans — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 00:02:42 GMT

Yesterday I listed ASP.NET AJAX as one of the technologies discussed. During my talk I mentioned that IntelliSense support for JavaScript and ASP.NET AJAX programming would be available in Visual Studio "Orcas". Meanwhile I downloaded the March CTP of "Orcas" and it rocks! This CTP is the first build having this support.

Jeff King of the webdevtools team has an excellent blog post on "JScript IntelliSense in Visual Studio "Orcas"". He briefly covers:

Proactive Completion List
Keywords in Completion List
ASP.NET AJAX Concepts in Completion List
IntelliSense from Script Libraries for ASPX Pages
IntelliSense from Script Libraries for JS Files
Enhanced Function and Parameter Tips
Type Inferencing

I haven't had the time to look at all these features but the weekend is not over yet! Get the March CTP "Orcas" bits and have a look yourself! And for those of you looking for more AJAX goodness: a new release of the AJAX Control Toolkit is available for download.

Technorati tags: JavaScript IntelliSense, ASP.NET AJAX, Visual Studio Orcas

Building better Web Experiences: from ASP.NET AJAX to WPF/e

David Boschmans — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 01:13:48 GMT

This afternoon I did a workshop on Microsoft's Web Platform & Tools for LBi. I think it went really well, despite the amount of topics the cover and the time constraints. I started to discuss the importance of building better online experiences and how these influence business opportunities. Next we took a dive into the different web technologies.

From the technology side I started with covering ASP.NET AJAX. As most of the developers where already familiar with ASP.NET AJAX and even had some hands-on experience we could almost immediately dive into some examples. I showed some of examples of the AJAX Library, the ASP.NET AJAX Extensions and the AJAX Control Toolkit. While preparing my demos I had to update some of them to the latest bits. This migration guide (RC to RTM) were of great help to get them to work.

Some sample sites build using ASP.NET AJAX can be found here. I showed PageFlakes and ... the audience was impressed.

Next we had a look at the Windows Presentation Foundation as one of the elements of the .NET Framework 3.0 Framework for building desktop and (Windows) web applications. After looking at the architecture the coding and compilation/XAML parsing model I showed some demos from this list. I also showed how designer and developers can work better together using the XAML collaboration model to design user interfaces. Most developers where impressed when they saw how this worked: creating a XAML based UI in Expression Blend beta 2 - saving the project - opening it in Visual Studio 2005 + Cider - adding some code - etc. In a couple of weeks I'll be visiting the designers of LBi!

Moving from WPF to WPF/E was a little step but it remains difficult to explain the differences. Hopefully we'll soon get rid of the confusing codename (WPF/E). I hope the final name won't get any link to WPF ... Main difference is that WPF/E is cross-platform & cross-browser where WPF only runs on Windows because it requires the .NET 3.0 runtime. WPF/E doesn't need the .NET 3.0 runtime but a lightweight browser plug-in that will be made freely available. It's currently in February CTP status.

Some examples using WPF/E can be found here. I also showed the WPF/E SDK and the Visual Studio template that comes with it. The programming model even lets you integrate ASP.NET AJAX and WPF/E applications very easy. More on developing WPF/e applications using the SDK can be found on the WPF/E quickstart page.

Finally I explained how Windows Live gadgets and Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets can embrace the technologies above to extend the reach of connected applications. Karsten and Charles have some examples of a Vista gadget using WPF. I don't have an example yet of WPF/E in a Windows Vista Sidebar gadget, but I'll have a look at it in the upcoming weeks.

These are the technologies I covered during the workshop. Of course if time would have permitted I could have talked about creating Media Center experiences using MCML. A deeper look at the Expression Tools is definitely something that not only designers should do but also developers. Till today - and the availability of the March CTP of Visual Studio "Orcas" - Cider is just not sufficient for exploring XAML in Visual Studio. And yes, the development experience of WPF/E will only get better when getting closer to a beta stage.

If you want to experience all of this live, you can at Developer & IT-Pro Days 2007. During the web developer pre-conference all (except WPF) will be covered by Jeff Prosise.

Technorati tags: ASP.NET 2.0, ASP.NET AJAX, WPF, .NET Fx 3.0, WPF/E, Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets, Windows Live Gadgets

Visual Studio "Orcas" March 2007 CTP is available for download

David Boschmans — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 13:42:54 GMT

... from the Microsoft Download Center.

Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" is the next generation development tool for Windows Vista, the 2007 Office System, and the Web.

Visual Studio code name “Orcas” delivers on Microsoft’s vision of smart client applications by enabling developers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality rich user experiences. This new version enables any size organization to rapidly create more secure, manageable, and more reliable applications that take advantage of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System. By building these new types of applications, organizations will find it easier than ever before to capture and analyze information so that they can make effective business decisions.

The highlights of this CTP include:

The LINQ Project: this CTP represents a major milestone in the LINQ project.
VB 9.0 Language Support
C# 3.0 Language Support
LINQ to ADO.NET
LINQ To SQL Designer
LINQ over XML (XLinq)
System.Xml Bridge Classes added
LINQ to Objects API
ADO.NET vNext
Web
Client App-Level Services
C# Workflow Rules
XML
MSBuild
UAC Manifests in the Managed Build Process
IDE
CLR
Office
Team Architect
Team Developer
Team Test
Team Foundation Server
Visual C++

More details can be found here.

Downloads:

Microsoft Pre-release Software Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" - March 2007 Community Technology Preview (CTP)
- The downloads are rather big and consist of the Orcas base image (1,12 Gb but common for all Orcas CTPs) and 8 files of the differencing images (March CTP specific).
Microsoft Pre-release Software Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" - March Community Technology Preview (CTP) (Team Foundation Server - Self-extracting Install)
- This CTP is available as a Virtual PC image or as a self-extracting install
  - VSMar2007CTP_TFS_2PartsTotal.part1.exe (700 MB)
  - VSMar2007CTP_TFS_2PartsTotal.part2.rar (159.6 MB)
Microsoft Pre-release Software Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" - March Community Technology Preview (CTP) (Self-extracting Install)
- This CTP is available as a Virtual PC image or as a self-extracting install (7 files)

Technorati tags: Visual Studio Orcas, March CTP

SmartPart for SharePoint: now with AJAX support

David Boschmans — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 17:45:49 GMT

During last TechEd in Barcelona, Jan and Patrick delivered a session "Building Web Parts the Smart Way", where they showed the power of the SmartPart. As we launched ASP.NET AJAX during the conference - which resulted in an AJAX pre-conference and 7 AJAX related sessions - there was quite some interest from SharePoint developers in how to get ASP.NET AJAX to work with SharePoint. A lot of people have been looking into this. See Jan's AJAX-related blog posts for more resources. But this was something that wasn't covered during TechEd: Developers.

Last Thursday Jan took the time to build on the groundwork of Eric Schoonover and ASP.NET AJAX-enable the SmartPart. Read the how-to guide in his blog post and have a look at the screencast in which demonstrates the use of ASP.NET AJAX together with the SmartPart, from within SharePoint.

This often used technique will enhance the user experience of web parts running in SharePoint environments but it will also ease the life of web developers when enabling existing applications with ASP.NET AJAX.

Jan promised to do a full web cast on the "SmartPart with AJAX support" for the MSDN Belux web site. Watch our blogs for more news on the availability of the web cast.

Technorati tags: SmartPart for SharePoint - ASP.NET AJAX Support, ASP.NET AJAX

e-Learning: Free ASP.NET AJAX Training

David Boschmans — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 16:44:24 GMT

[Via Brad Abrams] In the Microsoft e-learning developer catalog (web section) a new online course on "Developing Enhanced Web Experiences with Microsoft® ASP.NET AJAX Extensions" is available for free.

I have been playing around with ASP.NET AJAX since the CTP's and beta's but I'm going to block some time early next week to go through this online course. I'm sure there will be some useful content that I can reuse when doing my web experience workshop at the end of next week.

For all web developers AJAX is a hot topic these days. This is an excellent (and free!) way to increase your knowledge on AJAX technologies.

Title: Clinic 5230: Developing Enhanced Web Experiences with Microsoft® ASP.NET AJAX Extensions

Course Type: Self-paced Course
Available Offline: Yes
Estimated Time of Completion: 2 Hours
Language: English
Description:
In this 2-hour clinic you will learn about the rich functionality that ASP.NET AJAX Extensions provides for building highly responsive and enhanced web applications. In addition to learning about the different server and client components of ASP.NET AJAX, you will also learn how to build new ASP.NET AJAX applications and how to upgrade existing ASP.NET applications to take advantage of ASP.NET AJAX.
This clinic is appropriate for experienced .NET Web Developers and Software Architects who are looking to incorporate ASP.NET AJAX within their existing and future solutions.

Clinic Overview

Module Introduction
Navigation Overview

Overview of ASP.NET AJAX

Module Introduction
Introduction to AJAX and ASP.NET AJAX
Introduction to the Architecture of ASP.NET AJAX
Module Summary

Programming with ASP.NET AJAX

Module Introduction
Building a Simple ASP.NET AJAX Application
Using the AJAX Library to Enhance Web User Interfaces
Calling Web Services and Web Methods from the Client
Module Summary

Additional Information

Module Introduction
Glossary
Next Steps

Technorati tags: ASP.NET AJAX, Web Experiences, e-learning, Visual Studio 2005

Interesting links from my unread RSS Feed Items

David Boschmans — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 00:34:58 GMT

Due to a busy travel schedule and working on the agenda of Dev & IT-Pro Days 2007, I haven't been able to read all the posts from the blogs I'm subscribed to. But this week I've a couple of days of holidays, which allows me to catch up on "unread" RSS feeds. Here are the most interesting links I came across:

Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System. (Via Alexander Windel)
The Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System Best Practices Analyzer programmatically collects settings and values from data repositories such as MS SQL, registry, metabase and performance monitor. Once collected, a set of comprehensive ‘best practice’ rules are applied to the topology.
Administrators running this tool will get a detailed report listing the recommendations that can be made to the environment to achieve greater performance, scalability and uptime.
Install instructions can be found here.
patterns & practices Performance Testing Guidance
The purpose of this project is to build some insightful and practical guidance around doing performance testing and using Visual Studio 2005. It's a collaborative effort between industry experts, Microsoft ACE, patterns & practices, Premier, and VSTS team members.
Usage Scenarios:
- Improve efficiency and effectiveness of your performance testing
- Learn expert techniques performance testing
- Apply expert techniques for performance testing using Visual Studio.NET 2005
OneNote 2007 PowerToys (Via Chris Pratley)
A set of nex PowerToys for OneNote 2007 is about to be released by Daniel Escapa.
The ones out so far are:
- Word Count
- Send to OneNote (from the file explorer/shell)
- Export Outlook Notes to OneNote

The 3^rd installment of the “Live From Redmond”: AJAX Security Webcast Series is now available for on-demand viewing. On-Demand HERE
This Webcast will cover advanced cross-site scripting (XSS) attack methods, such as Web malware, XSS in e-mail, Datamining with AJAX and virus’s that run inside of Web browsers. We will cover the impact of these attacks and how they can be used to steal cookies. In addition, we will review how mistakes in AJAX style programming could introduce security vulnerabilities into your code.
Keyboard Shortcut Reference Posters:
SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2: Now fully compatible with Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system
Virtual PC 2007 is now available: Whether Microsoft virtualization technology is an important component of your existing infrastructure or you're just a Virtual PC enthusiast, you can now download Virtual PC 2007 absolutely free.
Hooked on LINQ: This website aims to be the premier community resource for LINQ (Language Integrated Query) for Microsoft®'s .NET. (Via Frank Arrigo and Brain Madsen)
Windows Sidebar Styler: This is an application which takes advantage of various technologies introduced in Windows Vista in order to provide extensions to the existing functionality of Windows Sidebar. Haven't tried it but worth having a look at. (Via Eric Nelson)
DinnerNow v1.2 is now available (via James Conard)
Support for Reflector 5.0 in TestDriven.NET 2.3 (via Jamie Cansdale & Lutz Roeder)

Technorati tags: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, OneNote 2007, AJAX Security, SQL Server SP2, VPC 2007, LINQ, DinnerNow, Reflector 5.0

Nice list of demo-able WPF applications

David Boschmans — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:56:18 GMT

At Designertopia a couple of weeks ago I had some informal talks with people from McCann-Erickson on how the web might evolve in the next couple of years. I told them a little bit about the upcoming Microsoft platform technologies and how this can create new opportunities to reach people.

Today I delivered a presentation about this at McCann-Erickson. I explained why user-experience is so important these days. I started with some ASP.NET AJAX samples and then showed a lot of demos based on the Windows Presentation Foundation. While I had most applications installed locally on my demo box, this published list of WPF apps below helped me a lot, to show the power of the deployment models.

Here is the list of some public WPF applications that you can download or play with today. Note that the deployment model has been added so that you know what you are getting into as far as installation goes. Lots are using ClickOnce application files and .xbaps, so installation is trivial!

Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista - New IM client (SCREENCAST).
New York Times Reader - Next-generation online reading experience for the NY Times (MSI).
Microsoft Calendar Printing Assistant - Generate printed calendars from your Outlook schedule (MSI).
Microsoft Expression Blend - Designer tool for building WPF experiences (MSI).
Microsoft Expression Design - illustration and graphic design tool (MSI).
Microsoft Windows Live for TV - 3D access to Messenger contacts from Media Center or IE (MSI).
Electric Rain Standout - High-end custom presentation software (SCREENCAST).
Wikipedia Explorer - 3D exploration of related articles from Wikipedia (APPLICATION).
iBloks - Mashup application for creating 3D movies (MSI).
RikReader - RSS Reader that integrates with Internet Explorer 7 (APPLICATION).
Nostalgia - Yahoo! Flickr browser and photo manager (APPLICATION).
Cine.View - Netflix movie queue manager (APPLICATION).
Cool Text Vector Draw - A vector drawing program with 1200 fonts available via a web service (XBAP).
Actipro Wizard - A control for building wizard dialogs in WPF (XBAP).
UniveRSS - A 3D Vista RSS reader (APPLICATION).
Xceed Datagrid for WPF Live Explorer - Hands-on demo of Xceed's free new Datagrid for WPF (XBAP).
DominoKen - Artistic 3D XBAP demonstration from Microsoft Japan (XBAP).
Denounce - Stand-alone podcast listener and blog reader (APPLICATION).
British Library Turning the Pages - British Library's 'virtual viewer' for some of their most precious books (XBAP).
ITN Hub Player - Video clips and news stories from ITN (APPLICATION).
Evolution Media Center - HTPC Front-end with stunning animations and dynamic XAML-skinning (ZIP).
OTTO - Online clothing shopping (APPLICATION).
Metaliq - Snowboarding data visualization (ZIP).
WeatherNews - 3D Weather visualization (XBAP).
Shiseido - Make up online shopping (XBAP).
DOSV - Computer Configuration (XBAP).
Warner - Movie Previews and Showtimes (XBAP).
Notescraps - Random information manager (MSI).
Valil.Chess.WinFX - Chess game (XBAP, APPLICATION)
NetAdvantage for WPF - Infragistics NetAdvantage for WPF 2007 controls (APPLICATION).
fnac.com - French electronics retailer shopping experience - must set machine to French locale to run it (APPLICATION).

After having demo-ed some of these applications I went through some of the WPF/e applications, how they will be running cross-browser, cross-platform.

Here's a list of the "WPF/E" (codename) CTP (February 2007) SDK Samples (online):

Page Turn Media: The Page Turn sample shows how "WPF/E" uses XAML to create a compelling presentation of images. It also shows an additional navigation element that allows users to quickly jump to a specific image.
Media Library: This example uses a real world scenario of a video site. The sample is rendering a progressive download video feed from Channel 9 and uses ASP.NET AJAX to improve the interaction parameters of this sample (watch how back button works). Notice how resize works as the underlying presentation player (XAML) is vector-based.
Sprawl Game: "WPF/E" is perfect for creating casual games. This sample shows a typical casual game. All the elements of this game were created using the Microsoft Expression suite.
Simple Video Playback: The simple video playback samples provide the essentials you need for showing video playback on your site. The minimalist control uses an efficient design that hides the control when it is not needed using subtle animations.
Film Strip Slideshow: Learn the value proposition of "WPF/E" while viewing a "WPF/E" sample. This example uses animation to implement a slide show style presentation.

You can also download these samples from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=515684FD-C8A0-4588-88C5-54CE224925E7&displaylang=en.

Finally I briefly touched on the Windows Media Center development capabilities and how this might become increasingly important with the convergence of the internet and television.

I think it was quite an eye-opener for most of the people that were there. Especially that none of them were deep tecnical. I hope they will be using these ideas when building new creative ideas!

Technorati tags: ASP.NET AJAX, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/e), demo applications

Developer & IT-Pro Days 2007 - Pre-conference on ASP.NET AJAX and WPF/E

David Boschmans — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 04:28:48 GMT

I'm in Seattle, WA this week attending a Microsoft internal training event. While traveling to the US I've been working hard on the agenda of our upcoming Belgian Developer & IT-Pro Days 2007. This annual primary developer event on Microsoft technologies takes place in the ICC in Ghent, 27-28-29 of March 2007.

For the first time we're organizing a pre-conference on March 27th. The pre-conference will discuss the Microsoft Web Platform and its related technologies.

Web, Microsoft, and You: Introducing ASP.NET AJAX and WPF/E:

ASP.NET AJAX is a free framework that simplifies the development of AJAX-enabled Web pages and Web applications. It is both a set of server-side extensions to Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 and a client-side library written entirely in JavaScript that is agnostic to browser types and server platforms. WPF/E enables developers to build even richer browser-based applications by escaping the bonds of HTML and JavaScript.
Together, these two frameworks represent the cutting edge of Web development and comprise the future of Web programming on Microsoft platforms. In one action-packed day, you'll learn about ASP.NET AJAX and WPF/E and come away with an understanding of where to target your development efforts for years to come. The future of Web development is today!

Session 1: The Microsoft Web Story: ASP.NET 2.0, ASP.NET AJAX, and WPF/E
If you build Web apps for Microsoft platforms, times are changing--and fast. First there's ASP.NET 2.0, which is arguably the richest server platform available for building scalable, high-performance Web apps.
Then there's ASP.NET AJAX, which extends ASP.NET 2.0 with a rich AJAX framework. Finally, there's WPF/E, which extends browsers to support incredibly rich and interactive content. This session surveys these technologies, overviews their features and capabilities, and sets the stage for the drill-downs in subsequent sessions.
Session 2: The ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions
The ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions are the half of ASP.NET AJAX that run on the server. They include a suite of server-side controls that make AJAX programming as simple as dragging controls onto a form, and a set of ASMX extensions that enable Web services to serve as endpoints for asynchronous XML-HTTP requests from JavaScript clients. This session drills down into the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions and provides critical information not only about they're used, but how they work.
Session 3: The Microsoft AJAX Library
The heart of ASP.NET AJAX is the Microsoft AJAX Library, which is a JavaScript framework that runs on the client and is not only browser-agnostic, but server-agnostic as well. This session takes a deep dive into the client-side framework and demonstrates how developers can leverage it and extend it to build cutting-edge Web apps. Among other things, you'll learn how the Microsoft AJAX Library adds OOP to JavaScript and how to use this knowledge to implement features that aren't possible from the server side
Session 4: Introducing WPF/E
WPF/E, which is short for "Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere", is a subset of WPF that combines XAML and JavaScript to create incredibly rich browser-based content, and it's the perfect medicine for boring, plain-vanilla Web pages. This session introduces developers to the wonderful world of WPF/E and provides a glimpse at the future of Web programming on Microsoft platforms.

This pre-conference consists of 4 breakout sessions will be delivered by Jeff Prosise. Jeff is not only an excellent speaker and teacher, he also delivered the highest rated pre-conf on ASP.NET AJAX at TechEd: Developers in Barcelona last year. The sessions that Jeff will deliver in Belgium will be different talks from those delivered at TechEd: Developers. Meanwhile the ASP.NET AJAX bits have been RTM'ed and thus new material and best practices are available. In the 4th session Jeff will take a dive in the WPF/e set of technologies. Using these technologies anynone will be able to build rich interactive applications that integrate AJAX like functionality with media (video, audio, etc).

Register before February 28th and get 15% off!

If you plan to attend and already registered: add the event to your calendar!

More info on the pre-conference and the main conference can be found on http://www.microsoft.com/belux/devitprodays/. I'll be posting updates on the agenda of the main conference soon!

Technorati tags: ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, Developer & IT-Pro Days 2007, Jeff Prosise