Just had lunch with Tim Wragg and Dave Lemphers to discuss the upcoming Microsoft Office System Special Interest Group (MOSSIG) where Dave, me and Trent Innes are going to be doing a panel session.
If our lunch time discussion / debate / food fight was anything to go by, the panel session should be a ripper !!
I have had a few questions recently about whether I am planning to update the .NET 3.0 über demo to:
- (A) make it good and a useable sample :-)
- (B) to use .NET 3.5 / VS 2008.
The simple answer is Nope .... I don't need to, the fine folk in Redmond have done it for me...
Check out the Dinner Now demo / sample. You can find it at: http://www.dinnernow.net.
" DinnerNow is a fictious marketplace where customers can order food from local restaurants for delivery to their home or office. This sample is designed to demonstrate how you can develop a connected application using several new Microsoft technologies.
The demo utilizes several technologies including: IIS7, ASP.NET Ajax Extensions, Linq, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Powershell, and the .NET Compact Framework.
The DinnerNow sample application is now available for download. You can download the entire DinnerNow sample code from CodePlex. "
Rather puts my effort to shame :-)
With TechEd US well under way in Orlando... It's time to start kicking TechEd Australia into gear.
Below is our current session list thinking (i.e. subject to change etc. etc. etc.) around the Connected Systems (Web Services and SOA) track.... Let me know what you think!
The track names are somewhat irrelevant when you are actually attending sessions, but it does provide a neato way to organise the thousands of worker ants (including me) prepping behind the scenes.
Having said that, the Connected Systems Track has a wonderful marketing blurb that goes something like:
"Building modern applications can be a challenge. To reduce risks and ensure faster release to market, it's important to use tools that maintain the parameters of existing systems along with visual model-driven development for composition of services. Providing a standard way to exchange digital identities across federated systems is also vital for providing a safe and user-friendly experience.
If your job is to design, develop or deploy these applications, the Connected Systems track is for you. Find out how you can apply real-world best practices and get a holistic up-to-date view of the entire spectrum of Microsoft's application messaging, integration and workflow technologies. Learn how to build and manage the entire lifecycle of your composite applications and you'll have the power to really make your mark."
More interestingly, the key products and technologies covered are:
- Windows Communication Foundation.
- Windows Workflow Foundation.
- Windows CardSpace.
- Microsoft BizTalk Server.
- Microsoft BizTalk Adapters.
- Host Integration Server.
Anyway .. back to the session list ... The session list looks something like this:
Programming Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation: A Developer's Primer
How do you actually build and consume WCF-based services? At its core, the WCF programming model is simple and straightforward, requiring actually very little work on behalf of the developer. The session describes the essential WCF programming concepts: clients, services, contracts, and end points; and shows how to build, configure, and host simple services. After attending this session you will be able to start programming and exploring WCF.
Custom Activities with Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation: A Developer's Primer
Windows Workflow Foundation provides the tools and runtime for building workflow enabled applications. Activities are the building blocks of those workflows and provide the model for reuse and encapsulation of business processing logic. This session provides developers with the information needed to start writing custom activities for Windows Workflow Foundation today. We cover the responsibilities of the activity developer related to the runtime execution of activities, as well as how to develop activities for a rich design-time experience. Find out how to build both simple and complex activities including features such as asynchronous processing, custom design surfaces, validation and databinding; and how to incorporate them into your workflows.
Introduction to Microsoft Windows CardSpace
Windows CardSpace, formerly codenamed “InfoCard”, is a piece of client software that enables users to provide their digital identity to online services in a simple, secure, and trusted way. CardSpace is an implementation of an identity selector on Microsoft Windows. Other operating systems will see their own identity selector implementations. The architecture upon which CardSpace has been built—consisting of subjects, identity providers, and relying parties—is called “The Identity Metasystem.” This isn’t just a Microsoft initiative, but rather it is the shared vision of many across the industry as to how we can solve some of the fundamental identity challenges on the Internet today. The initial vision for the Identity Metasystem was developed by Microsoft’s Identity Architect, Kim Cameron, and has been broadly adopted and championed by thought-leaders such as Doc Searls and Lawrence Lessig. We look into how CardSpace can change the way we handle Identity from a Developer perspective in this talk.
Rules Engine Use and Extensibility in Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation
Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) includes a fully functional rules engine which you can use within software you are developing. Learn about the WF Rules extensibility mechanisms, which support more advanced scenarios. See an example of how to externalize rules from your application so that they can be maintained separately from your code. This allows rules to be edited at runtime with no redeployment. In addition, learn how to author and execute rules without even having a workflow or the WF runtime. Also, see how you can create custom expression and action types that can be used directly in your rules.
Building Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation Enabled Windows Communication Foundation Services in .NET Framework 3.5
The .NET Framework 3.0 has great software for building communications and great software for building business logic. How do you use them together? This session demonstrates how easy it is to build communications aspects with Windows Communication Foundation and business logic with Windows Workflow Foundation.
Architecture of Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation and Common Extensibility Points
This session provides a deep dive into the architecture of the Windows Communication Foundation's service model and channel model. Learn about the role of bindings in creating the channel stack; and about the many extensibility options you can use to change the behavior of the runtime.
WCF Performance Best Practices
Abstract TBD
Building Connected Systems on the Microsoft .NET Framework Using the Windows Communication Foundation Adapter in BizTalk Server 2006 R2
Building applications today requires the ability to create secure, reliable connections between systems; manage complex business processes, transactions and rules; and integrate with systems of all kinds. Microsoft provides a number of technologies and products to help in building these applications, but understanding how these tools all work together can be difficult. In this session, we examine using Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and Windows CardSpace together to build today’s connected systems. Discussion includes the integration points available in these products, with an emphasis on the WCF adapters and including the adapter framework in BizTalk Server R2, and how to apply the technologies together.
Microsoft BizTalk RFID at Work
Microsoft BizTalk RFID is an innovative device management and event processing platform at the edge of the enterprise. It is designed to provide a scalable, extensible platform for development, deployment, and management of rich RFID and sensor solutions. Core components include a device abstraction framework and robust set of tools that enable customers and partners to build .NET based RFID and sensor applications with: • “Plug and Play” services for a rich set of heterogeneous RFID and sensor devices • Application services for interacting with devices and tag reads for filtering, transformation, and aggregation of events • Management tools to manage devices and design and deploy RFID business processes • Extensibility points to implement standards based solutions The platform also provides customers and partner with a rich set of primitives to orchestrate and build end-end, "integrated" real time plant to business via deep integration with the EIA / B2B / BPM capabilities of BizTalk server. Come and learn how this brand new framework will help you track and trace physical objects as they move through the supply chain, and orchestrate supply chain visibility solutions at the edge of the enterprise, with real-world demos.
Building EDI/AS2 Solutions with Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2
BizTalk Server 2006 R2 includes new features that add native support for EDI messaging protocols such as EDIFACT and ANSI X12, as well as the AS2 secure communication protocol. Come see these features in action and learn how BizTalk now provides a robust EDI solution.
Building an Enterprise-Wide Instrumentation Solution Using the Microsoft BizTalk BAM Infrastructure
Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) is a powerful feature of BizTalk Server and is often marketed as allowing "the business" to understand what is happening within your BizTalk solution. BAM does this really well, but it can in fact be used in a variety of other ways which can deliver huge value to customers and address a number of issues they have with BizTalk based solutions and non-BizTalk based solutions. In this session, we cover some of the fundamentals of BAM and detail how you can utilize BAM to collect a variety of information and produce a "tracking portal" which you can use to support your application, perform manual repair of messages, and generally observe your solution. We also show how BAM is not just for BizTalk solutions and how it can be used to produce an enterprise-wide instrumentation solution that is highly scalable and flexible; we touch on the new Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) BAM Interceptor technology that enables data to be collected from Workflows and WCF services enabling a true end-to-end instrumentation solution.
Advanced Microsoft BizTalk 2006 R2 Concepts
Business processes are a required component in most Enterprise Integration solutions today. Business processes are modeled, designed, and built inside BizTalk Server 2006 R2 using Orchestrations. Orchestration can range from a few simple shapes to a complex multi Orchestration, Transactional process. This session focuses on highlighting key Orchestration features to shorten development time and increase overall Business Process reusability. Also, messaging-only scenarios using WCF are discussed, and the power of BizTalk as a Web service routing system is shown. Topics covers are: Untyped Messages, Dynamic Transforms, Starting Orchestration and Passing Port Parameters, using Helper .NET Components, and Message Only WCF Calls.
One of these.... Microsoft Surface
"Popfly is the fun, easy way to build and share mashups, gadgets, Web pages, and applications. Popfly consists of two parts:
- Popfly Creator is a set of online visual tools for building Web pages and mashups.
- Popfly Space is an online community of creators where you can host, share, rate, comment and even remix creations from other Popfly users. "
It's all built using Silverlight so its a great little web experience - It kind of reminded me of a web version of iBloks.
Check out the Popfly Screencast for a quick 15 min overview.
Chris Vidotto showed me this case study this morning.
Normally my eyes glaze over when I see a new case study... but this one is really cool. It's for Blue C Sushi which operates a small chain of "sushi train" restaurants in Seattle.
They have used BizTalk 2006 R2 RFID to monitor the timing and contents of plates while capturing data that can detail customer purchases.
What I found really interesting was the RFID business benefits they have identified, especially around business intelligence/insight and the better quality control and customer service that resulted (after all, nobody wants to eat stinky sushi).
Check it out - If you eyes glaze over... drink more coffee.
Ask The Experts format for TechEd - New and Improved (who said "wouldn't be hard" under their breath? :-))
http://blogs.msdn.com/davidlem/archive/2007/05/09/ask-the-experts-tech-ed-oz-everyone-s-an-expert.aspx
Go and check it out and tell Uncle Dave what you think !!
If you didn't get a chance to hang out in Vegas for MIX07, and the recordings just don't do it for you ... why don't you check out ReMIX Australia!!! And as an added bonus (for me anyway :-) ... it's in Melbourne - YAY!
Check out the registration at: http://www.microsoft.com/australia/remix07/
I have it on good authority that you'll walk away with:
- Microsoft Expression Web - worth around $550.
- A choice of 20 sessions to check out from expert leaders & case studies.
- Action packed evening at Galactic Circus on Monday.
- Participate in Meeting Point – pick the conversations you want to hear and be part of.
- Discover: Internet Alley; the entertainment lounge & web jams.
- Opportunities to network and create new business contacts and friendships.
Well, put me in a bun and call me a hotdog, I'm excited !!!
What are these marvelous things that will fill your head with joy I hear you ask? They are the session recordings from MIX 2007 that is currently in progress in Las Vegas.
A good place to start is with the with the keynote from Ray Ozzie and Scott Guthrie... They make an avalanche of announcements and show a lot of eye popping things mostly around Silverlight, Expression and Dynamic Languages... It also includes some pretty cool customer demos.
And for fun ... count how many times you say "Holy C**p" (or "wow" if you prefer to use the correct Vista terminology :-) during the keynote. Very very impressive stuff coming... really gives you a warm fuzzy feeling inside knowing that you are a Microsoft developer.
What do you get if you give WPF/E a sexy new name and a sexy new logo (So so pretty!)? .... You get Microsoft Silverlight
"Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web."
Check out Tim Sneath's blog entry for a nice top ten list of reasons why you might want to use Silverlight (aside from the cool name and logo). I wonder if his number 10 reason is the "sneak peek" Scott Guthrie mentioned during his channel 9 interview?
There are just not enough hours in the day to check out all of the amazing new stuff coming for developers ... or to reel off the puns that immediately spring to mind ... Go towards the light, Have you seen the light?, there is a silver lining, this will really light up your web experience.... Oh what fun times are ahead!
I have started getting the inevitable question that comes with any new technology (in this case WCF and WF) - How fast is it? ... or more accurately: "What are it's scalability and performance characteristics".
I am yet to actually come up with any sort of useful answer to this because the answer is always "it depends" .... as in "it depends how you design, build and host your workflows / WCF services".
While I realise this is about as useful as answering the question "how fast does your car go" with "it depends how far I push the accelerator down"... I have come across some very good articles that attempt to address this piece of string question. And at the risk of committing the cardinal sin of answering a question with a URL.. here are some URLs...
These are quite an interesting read... although nothing super surprising, it is comforting to know we are moving forward in the distributed coms space (if you ignore those pesky primitive message payloads :-)
After seeing my blog entry about Jamie's Security Interchange, Jamie quickly responded to my question about writing on his arm with the witty retort "How else am I meant to remember my password"... Actually he said "That's my password you idiot"... but my version proves my point a little easier :-)
And there you go ... That's why we need this!
 | So Jamie Sharp (our resident security boffin) has been bugging me all day to blog about the upcoming Melbourne Security Interchange - which I am more then happy to do as it's a great idea.
One question though: Why do security guys always write on their arms (see marketing image left) ... I thought this would be the ultimate data security anti-pattern?
Anyhow:
You are invited to attend the inaugural Melbourne Security Interchange. The Security Interchange is a community driven event that promotes peer networking, panel discussions and interaction with security experts. The aim of the Security Interchange is to run a monthly event delivering technical sessions focused on the latest Information Security topics. Put your hand up and get answers to your questions, mix with your peers and tap into key security insights. The event will be held at the Microsoft Southbank office on the 16th April from 5:30-7:30pm. This month’s topic ‘Taking the Religion out of Information Security Vulnerabilities’ presented by Jeff Jones, Security Strategy Director, Microsoft Corporation. http://blogs.technet.com/security Details
Monday 16th April 5:30-7:30pm
Microsoft
Level 5, 4 Freshwater Place
Southbank VIC 3006
Drinks and pizza will be provided so please RSVP jamiesh at microsoft com if you wish to attend. |
| | |
Microsoft and Business Process Management: A Technology Overview.
The lads from K2.net came by the office the other week to take us through their upcoming "BlackPearl" release which is built on top of Windows Workflow Foundation... it has some very exciting features and looks really spicko to boot.
One thing the session did cause though was a heady debate around how it is positioned against BizTalk, SharePoint Workflow, Windows Workflow Foundation etc. etc.
It quickly became obvious that Chris V and I need to flesh out (to include partner offerings etc.) the "Demystifying Workflow" presentation that we put together for the Microsoft Australia SOA and Business Process Conference and have since rolled out to anyone willing to listen :-)
Luckily though, Nick Ward pointed me to a white paper that we released in February (so may be old news to some of you) called Microsoft and Business Process Management: A Technology Overview.
The white paper is written by the one-and-only David Chappell and is up to his usual high standard...
So if you are keen to understand Microsoft's range of offerings that fall under the umbrella of "BPM technology", check it out.
Just saw this ... it made me smile.
Expression Tools Being Added to MSDN
We will be making Expression Web available starting today to all MSDN Premium subscribers. We will also make Expression Blend available to MSDN Premium subscribers shortly after the Expression Studio release later in Q2 2007.
Expression Blend and Expression Web are intended to help creative professionals collaborate with developers to create rich user experiences for the Web, Windows Vista applications and beyond, which means we need to make sure both tools are readily available to our developer community.
The decision extends to all MSDN Premium subscribers, including those with Visual Studio Professional and Visual Studio Team Edition’s.
yay!
