- ADO.NET Data Services for Java and PHP developers
-
Every time I talk about ADO.NET Data Services, I mention that they can be consumed by any API that allows you to make http requests. I usually show how you can use the Add Service Reference feature of Visual Studio to generate proxy classes to make it simple to interact with the data service. Finally, I mention that Java and PHP toolkits exist to accomplish similar levels of developer productivity. However, I don’t think I have ever put links to those toolkits in any of my presentations. Here they are:
http://tinyurl.com/DataServicesJava
http://tinyurl.com/DataServicesPHP
SharePoint 2010 exposes lists as an ADO.NET Data Service. Therefore, you can use these toolkits to interact with SharePoint!
- FOLLOW UP: Developer Dinner on SharePoint 2010
-
Thanks to everyone for coming out. As I mentioned at the dinner, we will skip December due to the holidays. We will start up in January again. Topic and date TBD. Here’s the deck I used today:
Keep an eye out for the hidden slides. There are quite a few more slides than I actually went through.
- SQL Azure and SSMS: happy together
-
SQL Server Management Studio Support for SQL Azure
http://blogs.msdn.com/ssds/archive/2009/11/10/9920168.aspx
More details:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee621784.aspx
One of the things they don’t mention in the post is that all this works in SQL Server Management Studio Express! Go get it:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=c772467d-e45b-43e1-9208-2c7b663d7ad1
Happy SSMSing with SQL Azure!!!
- Going to PDC?
-
I am looking to connect with my customers at PDC. So if you work or are doing work (as contractor, consultant, etc.) for a US Government organization, then drop me a line here. I’d love to connect at PDC.
- Simple, short videos on the Windows Azure Platform
-
Windows Azure Platform
Windows Azure
SQL Azure
.NET Services
Short, sweet, clear. Brilliant!
- Developer Dinner on SharePoint 2010
-
Sorry for the short notice…
The next developer dinner is on Nov 11th. Details:
http://tinyurl.com/SP2010dinner
Please note the announcement calls out that the dinner IS NOT at the Microsoft Reston office. It is at a nearby hotel.
- Tallahassee follow up
-
Thanks for taking the time to attend our developer day!
For resources from my Windows 7 for .NET Developers session, see this post:
http://tinyurl.com/Win7DevDinner
The two decks and the GuestBook demo I used for the Windows/SQL Azure session are from the Windows Azure Training Kit:
http://tinyurl.com/WindowsAzureTrainingKit
The two helpful tools I demonstrated for SQL azure are:
http://sqlazureexplorer.codeplex.com/
http://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/
These are MUST HAVE tools for anyone working with SQL Azure right now.
- SDL Developer Starter Kit - “Just Do It!”
-
For those of you who haven’t heard of it, the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) is “A Microsoft-wide initiative and a mandatory policy since 2004, the SDL introduces security and privacy early and throughout the development process. Combining a holistic and practical approach, the SDL is risk-based with the goal of protecting end-users by reducing the number and severity of vulnerabilities in code.”
As a company, Microsoft has received lots of recognition for SDL. Customers often ask “How does Microsoft build software?” That’s not an easy question to answer, because different teams used different processes depending on size, preference, etc. On thing that’s consistent though is that every team uses SDL. So can you!
http://tinyurl.com/sdldevkit
“The Microsoft SDL - Developer Starter Kit offers content, labs, and training to help you establish a standardized approach to rolling out the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) in your organization—or enrich your existing development practices.”
Seriously, why wouldn’t you take the time to review this? Are you using Team Foundation Server? Amongst tons of other great resources from the link above, you will find SDL Process Templates for VSTS. No excuses. Like Nike says, “Just Do It!”
- FOLLOW UP: DevDinner - Developing for Windows 7 using the .NET Framework
-
As always, thanks to those of you who attended. You can find the deck here:
The Surface 1.0 videos are there as well.
Some of my code demos came from other sources:
http://tinyurl.com/Windows7TrainingKit
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/WindowsAPICodePack
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/SensorsAndLocation
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/WindowsTouch
Don’t forget that these resources have tons of samples, slides, hands on labs, etc.
The demos I wrote (mostly the .NET 4.0 and touch demos) need a little clean up, organization, etc. before I make them public. I’ll blog about them soon.
Joe Healy has some additional .NET samples here. Some of my stuff was inspired by Joe. Also, a shout out to Jared Bienz. The Sensor and Location demo I showed was a modified version of the Hands On Lab he wrote that’s in the latest release of the Windows 7 Training Kit.
Also, there is a new set of videos collectively titled Windows 7 New Features for Managed Code Developers:
http://www.msdev.com/Directory/SeriesDescription.aspx?CourseId=130
I haven’t had a chance to review them, but I don’t believe these videos cover .NET 4.0. I think it is all 3.5 SP1.
As I mentioned, keep an eye out for next month’s dinner. We will be announcing it soon. The topic will be SharePoint 2010 from a developer’s perspective. As I mentioned last night, I never really warmed up to SharePoint development until now. To me, SharePoint 2010 is the first version that feels familiar and approachable for the typical ASP.NET developer. I hope to convey that at the next dinner.
As always, if you or your company do work for the US Government, are looking to adopt any of the new Windows 7 features in your applications, and want to some help from our team of evangelists, then feel free to contact us through our team blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/publicsector/contact.aspx
- Hello, anyone out there? (aka I’m back)
-
My blog has been dead for quite some time. My last post was over a month ago. I haven’t given up on blogging. I took the last month off to bring my new son into the world. I’m back. It will take me some time to get caught up from being away from work for a month. I will be blogging again in the coming weeks.
Over the last few months, I have been spending most of my time on Windows 7 related work (mostly multi-touch) and learning what’s new SharePoint 2010 for developers. I’ll be sharing some of the things I have learned about Windows 7 development at our next Developer Dinner. Here’s the link to the announcement on my team blog:
Microsoft Developer Dinner Series for Partners: Developing for Windows 7 using the .NET Framework
As for SharePoint 2010, well there isn’t much I can share just yet. We’ll definitely have a developer dinner on SharePoint 2010 for devs. My team is also planning a full day SharePoint event in November. The event will be delivered in DC and Reston. The DC event will also be available online. More details are available here:
Maximize Your SharePoint Investment: Leverage It as a Development Platform!
- Another example of Silverlight used in the US Government
-
Adam Kinney just published a Channel 9 interview about another use of Silverlight in the US Government:
U.S. Army using Silverlight for Resourcing Troops
“Dan Hickman from ProModel tells the story of converting their Predictive Troop Resourcing application for the U.S. Army from a Windows Forms application to a Silverlight-based application. Reusing existing .NET code, working with familiar controls from IdeaBlade, and helping to get Silverlight on the approved browser plug-ins list for the Army; ProModel was able to build the application in a very short amount of time.”
I just watched it myself. Worth watching…
- Hidden gems in the gaming starter kit
-
Yesterday I blogged about the SketchFlow starter kit and how great I thought it was. Well, last night, I went ahead and tried the Venture into Gaming with Behaviors in Expression Blend 3 starter kit from:
http://adamkinney.com/Blog/4-Expression-Studio-3-Starter-Kits-available-for-download
Much to my surprise, this felt more like a Blend 3 Fundamentals through Building a Game. To understand what I mean, here are the individual modules in the kit:
01_BLN03SP1EN720_Organizing_and Importing_Assets into_Expression_Blend
02_BLN03SP1EN720_Creating_the_Game_Interface_Using_Expression_Blend
03_BLN03SP1EN720_Understanding_Layout_Containers
04_BLN03SP1EN720_Creating_a_User_Control
05_BLN03SP1EN720_Adding_and_Applying_Behaviors
06_BLN03SP1EN720_Adding_Game_Walls_and_Creating_Animation
07_BLN03SP1EN720_Animating_Controls_with_the_Visual_State_Manager
08_BLN03SP1EN720_Working_with_Texts_and_Embeding_Fonts_with_Expression_Blend
09_BLN03SP1EN720_Adding_Audio_Resources_to_a_Silverlight_Game
10_BLN03SP1EN720_Publishing_and_Testing_Your_Silverlight_Game
If you are looking to warm up to Blend a bit more through a video walkthrough + hands-on-lab kind of approach, then I’d definitely recommend this kit. If you already understand these concepts, then you might want to skip this one. On the other hand, it is kind of fun to see how easy it is to build a simple game with the skills you already have.
The biggest nugget for me was the module on Behaviors. If you haven’t looked at Behaviors, then GO DO IT NOW. Here’s a good post on behaviors:
http://team.silverlight.net/announcements/product-feature-highlight-expression-blend-3-ndash-behaviors/
“A Behavior is in essence a reusable piece of interactivity that can be applied directly to user interface elements in Expression Blend.”
I don’t remember where, but I saw someone describe Behaviors as "ASP.NET AJAX Control Extenders for Silverlight/WPF." Not a bad way of describing them if you are familiar with the concept of ASP.NET AJAX Control Extenders.
Once you have wrapped your head around Behaviors, you’ll want to check out the following two links to download more:
http://gallery.expression.microsoft.com/en-us/site/search?f%5B0%5D.Type=Tag&f%5B0%5D.Value=Behavior
http://expressionblend.codeplex.com/
In general, http://gallery.expression.microsoft.com is a great resource. There are all sorts of useful things to download there including Art/Design assets, Web Templates, Samples, Themes, Behaviors, Code Snippets, Tools/Addins.
- Get up to speed on SketchFlow FAST
-
SketchFlow is a feature of Expression Blend 3. If you aren’t familiar with SketchFlow, then you should check out:
http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/SketchFlow_OverView.aspx
“SketchFlow revolutionizes how quickly and efficiently you can demonstrate your vision for an application. It provides an informal and quick way to explore, iterate and prototype user interface scenarios, allowing you to evolve your concepts from a series of rough ideas into a living and breathing prototype that can be made as real as a particular client or project demands. This rapid, iterative and cost effective approach to prototyping allows you to concentrate on what matters most, being creative and building the best solution for your client, on time and within budget.”
Digging into SketchFlow has been on my TODO list for quite some time. In many ways, I am glad I hadn’t gotten around to it. A week or so ago, Adam Kinney blogged about:
4 Expression Studio 3 Starter Kits available for download
One of the starter kits is on SketchFlow. I just finished it. If you want to get your head around SketchFlow fast, then this is the resource for you!
- Windows 7 RTM: Get your apps ready!
-
I’m sure you’ve heard that Windows 7 has Released to Manufacturing (RTM):
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/07/22/windows-7-has-been-released-to-manufacturing.aspx
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/07/21/when-will-you-get-windows-7-rtm.aspx
(MSDN subscribers get it on Aug 6th)
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/07/22/our-next-engineering-milestone-rtm.aspx
The next step is to make sure your apps are ready for and take advantage of Windows 7.
Yochay has a great post on guiding you through ensuring you are ready:
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/developers/archive/2009/07/23/is-your-application-ready-for-windows-7-rtm.aspx
- Prism Visual Studio Templates (including MVVM)
-
Prism is:
“The Composite Client Application Guidance is designed to help you more easily build modular Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight client applications.”
What most people find, once they take the time to dig in to Prism, is that it is MUCH more. Prism has guidance on how to build an app that targets both Silverlight & WPF, has some plumbing that makes MVVM easier in Silverlight apps by providing a basic commanding implementation, etc. However, the learning curve to get proficient with Prism can be a turnoff for some. Even once you “get it,” you then realize that there is a fair amount of Visual Studio solution/project setup just to get to the point of being able to start building your parts of the application. The good news is that David Hill has just released some templates for Visual Studio 2008 to make the basic setup for your Prism based apps much easier:
http://blogs.msdn.com/dphill/archive/2009/05/29/prism-quick-start-kit.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/dphill/archive/2009/06/15/prism-quick-start-kit-update.aspx
I just went through the walkthrough in the first link. Here is what you get after the “Prism Shell” and “Prism Module” templates:
You get the skeleton of a basic composite application using MVVM. I think this is a big time saver. I will definitely be keeping an eye out as David evolves the templates / quick start kit.
UPDATE: I was so excited to share my discovery of David’s work that I forgot to add a few more helpful resources I have found:
Code Snippet for Prism DelegateCommand
A code snippet to quickly write Prism commands
