David Boschmans Weblog : Web Development

Web Trend Map 2007 Version 2.0

David Boschmans — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 20:56:35 GMT

[Via Michael] Information Architects Japan Interface & Strategy has created a v2 of the web trend map. It shows the 200 most successful websites on the web, ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective.

Technorati tags: Web Trend Map v2, Web 2.0

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

Silverlight and Expression Blend tutorials for hungry designers

David Boschmans — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:46:18 GMT

Last Thursday designer Celso Gomes (Channel9 interview and interview) has launched a new web site with an excellent series of tutorials all of them built in using Expression Blend and Silverlight!

Check out http://www.nibblestutorials.net/ and the blog at http://blog.nibblestutorials.net/.

Nibbles are a series of "snack tutorials for hungry designers" that cover the use of Expression Blend to build WPF and Silverlight content.

Celso is an amazing interactive designer working at Microsoft who is responsible for the beautiful sample applications that ship with Expression Blend and did some of the earliest design explorations for Silverlight. He also delivered two designer sessions at Mix07. The first session "DES02 - Building Rich Web Experience with Silverlight and Microsoft Expression Studio for Designers" (Play (Silverlight) - Launch PPTX) and discusses the ins and outs of how to create stunning looking sites and Web experiences with Silverlight and Microsoft Expression Studio. The second session "DES07 - Design Rich Client Experiences with Expression Blend and WPF" (Play (Silverlight) - Launch PPTX) covers the use of Expression Blend to create interfaces using media, controls and rich layout.

For those of you who attended the Belux MSDN event last week on Expression Blend & Silverlight, the tutorials are an excellent starting point to familiarize with Silverlight and Expression Blend.

Subscribe to Celso's blog (RSS Feed) as he plans to add new nibbles weekly.

Technorati tags: Silverlight, Expression Blend, Nibblestutorials

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

MSDN Event in Luxembourg: Building Web Applications Using ASP.NET "Orcas" and Visual Studio "Orcas"

David Boschmans — Sun, 20 May 2007 14:57:19 GMT

Next Tuesday - May 22nd - MSDN Belux organizes a seminar in Luxembourg on Building Web Applications Using ASP.NET "Orcas" and Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas".

I've reviewed the slide deck and these are the topics that Patrice & Grégory - the Wygwam boys hosting the seminar - will be covering following technologies:

Visual Studio "Orcas":

Multi-targeting
Split view
Javascript Intellisense - documentation - Debugging
Rich CSS support

IIS 7:

II6 Architecture vs. IIS7 Architecture
Configuration
II7 Extensibility

ASP.NET "Orcas"

Data Driven Applications
ASP.net Ajax Extensions + Ajax Control Toolkit
Silverlight

LINQ:

Concepts
LINQ Architecture
DLINQ Designer
Using LINQ with ASP.net

Details on the sessions can be found below:

May 22: MSDN Event (Luxembourg) - FR : Building Web Applications Using ASP.NET "Orcas" and Microsoft Visual Studio Codename "Orcas"

Event, Microsoft, Luxembourg - Tue, Mar 22 Free of charge
Walk through the most exciting releases of ASP.NET, Visual Studio and Internet Information Services (IIS) yet—ASP.NET “Orcas”, Visual Studio “Orcas” and IIS 7. Learn how the new releases enable developers and IT operators to dramatically reduce the amount of time, effort and code required to develop and deploy real-world Web applications. ASP.NET “Orcas”, Visual Studio “Orcas” and IIS 7 each provide much improved administration and management support, on top of dramatically improved performance.
Morning session in French (May 2, 2007).

May 22: MSDN Event (Luxembourg) - ENG : Building Web Applications Using ASP.NET "Orcas" and Microsoft Visual Studio Codename "Orcas"

Click the links to register for this free seminar.

Technorati tags: MSDN Belux, Visual Studio "Orcas", ASP.NET "Orcas", IIS7, LINQ

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

Silverlight and Flash/Flex comparison: what's in a name?

David Boschmans — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 22:55:58 GMT

Michael Schwarz has an excellent post up on his blog on the Rich Media Platform Comparison. Michael compares 2 a set of features of the Microsoft platforms Silverlight and .NET, versus the Adobe's Flash/Flex platform. Check his blog for an overview table.

While the name "Silverlight" was announced last week, it hasn't essentially changed from what the WPF/E February CTP had on board as features. Silverlight is only the rename for the codename of Microsoft's cross-browser/cross-platform plug-in (WPF/E) for delivering the next generation media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web. It's great to see that - for once - Microsoft has a cooler final name that what the codename sounded like.

The components of a Silverlight page are:

WPF/E Plug-in
- ActiveX control for Internet Explorer
- Traditional plug-in for other browsers
agHost.js
- Host-independent wrapper for WPF/E plug-in
HTML and JavaScript
- Import agHost.js and instantiate plug-in
XAML (inline or not!)

Ever thought were "Ag" in agHost.js comes from? Think about the symbol for silver ...

Here are some other very interesting posts on Silverlight:

Junior Dev has a user control for Silverlight control instantiations inside a regular .aspx page.
Forest Key interview [via Scott Barnes]
Sean Alexander has a series of must-read blogs on Silverlight:
SilverLight, Microsoft Expression, & Visual Studio bring RIA's to life
Channel9 video: James Clarke: Creating Silverlight Media with Expression Media Encoder

More developer-related information on the Silverlight platform can be expected at Mix07. After Mix07 we should have a better view on the capabilities of this new platform. Looking forward to be in Las Vegas next week. Countdown has started: 8 days 21 hours 16 minutes to go! Watch this Silverlight community site after Mix07!

Stay tuned!

Technorati tags: Silverlight, WPF/E, Mix07

How businesses are using Web 2.0

David Boschmans — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 18:04:28 GMT

The McKinsey Quarterly conducted a survey in January 2007 on "How businesses are using Web 2.0".

The respondents to the survey say that Web 2.0 technologies are strategic and that they plan to increase these investments. Web 2.0 is in this survey defined as Blogs, Collective intelligence, Mash-ups, Peer-to-peer networking (P2P), Podcasts, RSS (Really Simple Syndication), Social networking, Web services and Wikis.

The most frequently cited investments from these Web 2.0 technologies are Web services, Collective Intelligence and P2P. There's a great importance on technologies that enable automation and networking. Web 2.0 technologies are also often used to communicate with customers and business partners and to encourage collaboration inside the company.

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, McKinsey survey

The Panel: Code and Examples for creating front end experiences

David Boschmans — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:56:00 GMT

The Panel is the place to collect showcases of new user experiences and provide insights on how they were implemented. WPF applications and Windows Live gadgets are featured.

Each featured project provides the applications as well as the source code and explanation in order to help you leverage the new technologies and build better user experiences.

Download the Code and Examples from the Microsoft Download Center.

The currently available downloads are:

Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets:
- Events.gadget
Windows Live gadgets:

Visit the Panel website for more instructions and descriptions for each showcase application.

Technorati tags: The Panel, Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets, Windows Live Gadgets, gadgets

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