Rich Internet Applications and the Programmable Web

Application Architecture Pocket Guides for RIA and Web

hansw — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:58:00 GMT

The smart folks from the Patterns & Practices group have released some application archtecture guides to help folks building Microsoft RIA (Silverlight) and Web applications.

For a look at the RIA pocket guide, have a look at JD Meier's post here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/jmeier/archive/2008/11/24/ria-architecture-pocket-guide.aspx

For the Web pocket guide:
http://blogs.msdn.com/jmeier/archive/2008/11/24/web-application-architecture-pocket-guide.aspx

You can browse the index of Pocket Guides at the Pocket Guide Index page at our Application Architecture KB on CodePlex.

More Web Downloads from MSFT

hansw — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:35:00 GMT

Thanks to David Lymburner for putting this list together.

Windows Live ID Web Authentication SDK 1.2

Brief Description

The Windows Live™ ID Web Authentication software development kit (SDK) gives you a platform-neutral way to bring the power of the Windows Live ID authentication service to your own Web site. (Only for sites not affiliated with Microsoft.)

Overview

Introducing an easy way to integrate the Windows Live ID authentication service into your Web site!

Important Web Authentication is designed for use only by sites that are not affiliated with Microsoft. If your site is associated with Microsoft, please contact the Windows Live ID team to determine the proper implementation.

The Windows Live ID Web Authentication SDK describes a platform-independent interface for implementing Windows Live ID sign-in on Web sites of all kinds. This release includes a sample application for each of seven different programming languages: ASP.NET (C# and VB), Java, Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby. For each language there is a function library that you can use to extend the sample.

The SDK consists of the samples and libraries available on this page together with the SDK documentation. For a link to the documentation on MSDN®, see Related Resources later on this page.

Use of the SDK is governed by the Windows Live SDK License Agreement at: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb226715.aspx

Benefits

The ability to use Windows Live gadgets and controls to incorporate authenticated Windows Live services into your site.
An HTTP-based, platform-neutral interface for implementing Windows Live ID authentication in your existing site, even if it is hosted by a third-party.
Freedom from the technical details of authentication! The Windows Live ID authentication service handles this for you.
A huge user base: any of the millions of users who have a Windows Live ID can become a user of your site.

Providing Feedback
This SDK is a work in progress, so we appreciate your input!

To provide general product feedback or obtain support, visit the Discussion Forum (see Related Resources on this page).
To provide feedback on the SDK documentation, use the Click to Rate and Give Feedback feature located in the upper-right corner of each topic.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e565fc92-d5f6-4f5f-8713-4dd1c90de19f&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft® Silverlight™ 2 Software Development Kit Documentation

Brief Description

October 2008
This package contains the product documentation for Microsoft® Silverlight™ 2.

Overview

The Microsoft® Silverlight™ 2 SDK Documentation is the Silverlight product standalone documentation provided for download. It is in CHM format (compiled HTML) and can be viewed on a PC or by installing a CHM reader on MAC.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bce7684a-507b-4fc6-bc99-6933cd690cab&DisplayLang=en

Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication SDK 1.2

Brief Description

The Windows Live™ ID Delegated Authentication software development kit (SDK) gives you a platform-neutral way to access users' information from Windows Live services while they remain in firm control of their own data.

Overview

Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication helps you get permission to access users' information on Windows Live services. Then you can deliver great new functionality to users while they remain in firm control of their own data.

This release includes sample applications for each of seven different programming languages: ASP.NET (C# and VB), Java, Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby. For each language there is a function library that you can use to extend the sample.

The SDK consists of the samples and libraries available on this page together with the SDK documentation. For a link to the documentation on MSDN®, see the Related Resources section on this page.

Use of the SDK is governed by the Windows Live SDK License Agreement at: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb226715.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a2466abf-9629-42d8-b991-1d3faf2fe872&DisplayLang=en

IIS Media Pack 1.0 - 32-bit

Brief Description

IIS Media Pack 1.0 provides media-specific extensions that make delivering media from IIS simple and cost-effective. Built on IIS 7.0, the IIS Media Pack supports all media file types, protects media assets, and increases scalability by supporting more concurrent users per server

Overview

IIS Media Pack 1.0 provides media-specific extensions that make delivering media from IIS simple, and cost-effective. Building on the security, reliability and manageability of IIS 7.0, IIS Media Pack protects media assets as it increases scalability by supporting more concurrent users per server. IIS supports all media file types, including WMV, FLV, and MP4, and provides a great way to use your existing Web infrastructure to deliver compelling rich media content to clients such as Microsoft Silverlight.

With IIS 7.0 and IIS Media Pack 1.0, you can:

Save bandwidth costs by throttling the speed at which content is downloaded
Decrease network traffic by metering your media deliveries
Monetize media assets with Web playlists that personalize content and prevent ad skipping
Intelligently deliver multiple media formats from a single server, including .wmv, .flv, and .mp4 files

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2cf81f25-1692-41f7-b916-db5c7e44e6ea&DisplayLang=en

IIS Media Pack 1.0 - 64-bit

Brief Description

Overview

Save bandwidth costs by throttling the speed at which content is downloaded
Decrease network traffic by metering your media deliveries
Monetize media assets with Web playlists that personalize content and prevent ad skipping
Intelligently deliver multiple media formats from a single server, including .wmv, .flv, and .mp4 files

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=93d59f79-9555-473d-a07a-e21020d1fc25&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft Urlscan Filter v3.1 (x64)

Brief Description

IIS Security Tool
This MSI package will install Urlscan v3.1 on your system.

Overview

UrlScan version 3.1 is a security tool that restricts the types of HTTP requests that Internet Information Services (IIS) will process. By blocking specific HTTP requests, UrlScan helps prevent potentially harmful requests from being processed by web applications on the server.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=361e5598-c1bd-46b8-b3e7-3980e8bdf0de&DisplayLang=en

Woodgrove Online Bank Silverlight demo now RTM bits

hansw — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:21:00 GMT

Back in march I wrote about a great Silverlight 2 OnlineBanking demo. At the time the code was based on Silverlight 2 beta 1.

Marley Gray sent out a note to the silverlight discussions alias that it has been updated to Silverlight 2 RTM bits.
You can view the online demo here:
http://www.bankingwithxaml.com/woodgrovefinancial/woodgrovebank.html

If you want to download and run the code local, you can get the zip file here:
http://www.bankingwithxaml.com/woodgrovefinancial/WoodgroveFinancial-rtm.zip

Folks have been having trouble with the download link above so I have made the code also available here:

Cheers,
Hans

Latest web from downloads.microsoft.com

hansw — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:44:00 GMT

Latest web downloads from Microsoft ... thanks to David Lymburner.
Cheers,
Hans

Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio October 2008 CTP

Brief Description

Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio extend Visual Studio to enable the creation, building, debugging, running and packaging of scalable services on Windows Azure.

Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio extend Visual Studio to enable the creation, building, debugging, running and packaging of scalable services on Windows Azure.

Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio includes:

C# and VB Project templates for building Cloud Services
Integration with the Development Fabric and Development Storage services
Debugging Cloud Service Roles running in the Development Fabric
Building and packaging of Cloud Service Packages
Browsing to the Azure Services Developer Portal
Role configuration
SSL Certificate selection

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=63d0d248-1b08-4f7d-abde-62eb75cb1e69&DisplayLang=en

Windows® Azure™ Software Development Kit (October 2008 CTP)

Brief Description

The Windows Azure SDK provides developers with the APIs, tools, documentation, and samples needed to develop Internet-scale applications that run on Windows Azure.

Overview

The Azure Services Platform is designed to help developers quickly and easily create, deploy, manage, and distribute web services and applications on the Internet. Windows Azure is an operating system for the cloud that serves as the development, run-time, and control environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers on-demand compute & storage to host, scale, and manage web applications on the internet through Microsoft data centers.

Windows Azure is elastic, flexible, and interoperable. With Windows Azure developers can achieve high levels of service availability and application interoperability while maintaining freedom of choice.

The Windows Azure SDK provides developers with the tools and APIs needed to develop, deploy, and manage scalable services in Windows Azure.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bb893fb0-ad04-4fe8-bb04-0c5e4278d3e9&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft Project Code Named “Velocity” Community Technology Preview 2 (CTP2)

Brief Description

"Velocity" is a distributed in-memory application cache platform for developing scalable, high-performance applications. "Velocity" can be used to cache any common language runtime (CLR) object and provides access through simple APIs. The key aspects of "Velocity" are distributed cache performance, scalabily, and availability.

Overview

Microsoft project code named "Velocity" provides a highly scalable in-memory application cache for all kinds of data. By using cache, application performance can improve significantly by avoiding unnecessary calls to the data source. Distributed cache enables your application to match increasing demand with increasing throughput using a cache cluster that automatically manages the complexities of load balancing. When you use "Velocity," you can retrieve data by using keys or other identifiers, named "tags." "Velocity" supports optimistic and pessimistic concurrency models, high availability, and a variety of cache configurations. “Velocity” includes an ASP.NET session provider object that enables you to store ASP.NET session objects in the distributed cache without having to write to databases, which increases the performance and scalability of ASP.NET applications.

For community technology preview 2 (CTP2), Microsoft project code named "Velocity" offers several new enhancements that include a high availability feature, performance improvements, PowerShell integration, and new configuration storage options. There is also a new 64-bit version of "Velocity" specifically customized for x64-based computers.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b24c3708-eeff-4055-a867-19b5851e7cd2&DisplayLang=en

SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Service Pack 3 - CTP

Brief Description

Download the CTP of SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP3.

Overview

The CTP version of SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Service Pack 3 (SP3) is now available.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Server Express) is a free, easy-to-use, lightweight version of SQL Server 2005. It is fast and easy to learn, allowing you to quickly develop and deploy dynamic data-driven applications. SQL Server Express provides powerful and reliable data management tools along with rich features, data protection, and fast performance. It is ideal for embedded application clients, light Web applications, and local data stores. Designed for easy deployment and rapid prototyping, SQL Server Express is available at no cost, and you are free to redistribute it with applications. If you need more advanced database features, you can upgrade SQL Server Express seamlessly to more sophisticated editions of SQL Server.

These packages have been made available for general testing purposes only. Do not deploy the CTP software in production. Peer-to-peer support is available in the SQL Server 2005 forums.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=80dff99c-cc82-4639-92bb-bbdaff677792&DisplayLang=en

Windows Live Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio

Brief Description

November 2008 CTP
Visual Studio Tools for Windows Live Services

Overview

This CTP is an update to July 2008 CTP Release. In this CTP, we have made Windows Live Tools compatible with Windows Azure and upgraded to Silverlight 2.0. This package includes following:

ASP.NET Server Controls
• Contacts
• IDLoginStatus
• IDLoginView
• Map
• MessengerChat
• SilverlightStreamingMediaPlayer

Visual Studio Project Template
• ASP.NET Windows Live Web Site
• Windows Live Web Application
• Windows Live Web Role (template for Windows Azure Cloud Project)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f438b207-96af-497c-94db-152d48344af5&DisplayLang=en

Visual Round Trip Analyzer

Brief Description

Tool to view web page performance
Web page performance visualizer and analyzer

Overview

The Visual Round Trip Analyzer tool helps web developers and testers visualize the download of their page, identify best practices and changes that improve web performance. The network Round-Trip between the client and server(s) is the single biggest impact to web page performance – much greater than server response time. VRTA examines the communications protocol, identifying the causes of excessive round-trips, and recommending solutions. Performance engineers, testers, developers, operations personnel should use VRTA to conduct their web performance analysis.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=119f3477-dced-41e3-a0e7-d8b5cae893a3&DisplayLang=en

Azure Services Training Kit - PDC Preview

Brief Description

Azure Services Training Kit

Overview

The Azure Services Training Kit will include a comprehensive set of technical content including samples, demos, hands-on labs, and presentations that are designed to help you learn how to use the Azure Services Platform. This initial PDC Preview release includes the hands-on labs that were provided at the PDC 2008 conference. These labs cover the broad set of Azure Services including Windows Azure, .NET Services, SQL Services, and Live Services. Additional content will be included in future updates of this kit.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=413e88f8-5966-4a83-b309-53b7b77edf78&DisplayLang=en

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Application Templates: All Templates

Brief Description

This download package includes all forty of the Application Templates for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 plus the Application Template Core solution, which is required to deploy server administration templates.

Overview

This download package includes all forty of the Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 plus the Application Template Core solution, which is required to deploy server admin templates.

Server Admin Templates:
Server admin templates are created as site definitions, providing tighter integration and enhanced functionality within the Windows SharePoint Services platform. They will require a server administrator to install. If you do not have Central Server Admin rights, you can still install the site admin templates (see second list below) in the sites/workspaces that you own or administrate.

Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management
Help Desk
Budgeting and Tracking Multiple Projects
Inventory Tracking
Bug Database
IT Team Workspace
Call Center
Job Requisition and Interview Management
Change Request Management
Knowledge Base
Compliance Process Support Site
Lending Library
Contacts Management
Physical Asset Tracking and Management
Document Library and Review
Project Tracking Workspace
Event Planning
Room and Equipment Reservations
Expense Reimbursement and Approval Site
Sales Lead Pipeline

Site Admin Templates:
Site admin templates are easy for site administrators to install in a template gallery without requiring server administration access.

Board of Directors
Employee Training Scheduling and Materials
Business Performance Rating
Equity Research
Case Management for Government Agencies
Integrated Marketing Campaign Tracking
Classroom Management
Manufacturing Process Management
Clinical Trial Initiation and Management
New Store Opening
Competitive Analysis Site
Product and Marketing Requirements Planning
Discussion Database
Request for Proposal
Disputed Invoice Management
Sports League
Employee Activities Site
Team Work Site
Employee Self-Service Benefits
Timecard Management

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5807b5ef-57a1-47cb-8666-78c1363f127d&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft® Expression® Encoder 2 Service Pack 1

Brief Description

With Expression Encoder 2 Service Pack 1 (SP1), you can quickly and easily produce Silverlight 2 experiences, encode H.264/AAC video, and publish to IIS and to other servers that support the WebDAV protocol.

Overview

With Expression Encoder 2 SP1, you can quickly and easily create Silverlight 2 experiences using templates that include rich functionality such as DVD-style chapter navigation, subtitles, and metadata; encode H.264/AAC video; and publish to Internet Information Services (IIS) and other servers that support the WebDAV protocol for use with IIS Smooth Streaming.

Installation instructions

Install Expression Encoder 2 Trial if you don't already have Expression Encoder 2 installed.
Install Expression Encoder 2 Service Pack 1.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a29be9f9-29e1-4e70-bf67-02d87d3e556e&DisplayLang=en

Light Up the Web with Microsoft Silverlight 2.0

Brief Description

Light Up the Web with Microsoft Silverlight 2.0

Overview

Silverlight 2 enables the .NET Framework Developer to bring his knowledge to other devices and platforms. Learn how to create UI using XAML markup and code, build reusable custom controls, retrieve data from web services, and manipulate data with XML and LINQ using managed code.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=79b4dfe8-e308-4da1-9241-5f709de3557d&DisplayLang=en

IE8 for Developers

Brief Description

IE8 for Developers

Overview

Put the power of the Web at your service through IE8! Learn how you can leverage the new features of IE8 like Web Slices, Accelerators, and Visual Search. This session also provides handy learning such as preparing your sites for the brand new IE8!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a662f545-ec62-4b7b-92cb-c0d0e2a6e018&DisplayLang=en

Data Access with LINQ

Brief Description

Data Access with LINQ

Overview

LINQ is a groundbreaking innovation in Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework version 3.5 that bridges the gap between the world of objects and the world of data. LINQ enables .NET developers to query and transform data using their .NET language of choice. Get on board in this session to learn and experience powerful data access with LINQ!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4bda14aa-3c91-4dc5-8ce9-3770525b9f37&DisplayLang=en

PlayReady PC Runtime v1.2 (x86)

Brief Description

Download the latest version of the PlayReady PC Runtime.

Overview

Microsoft PlayReady technology is optimized for the mobile industry to support the growth of online content services, and includes features designed to make it easier than ever for consumers to enjoy mobile digital entertainment. This runtime allows PC based applications to access PlayReady content using the PlayReady PC Runtime API.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1f93c0ac-21ae-4eb2-acd2-86ab616b8ba6&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft® Silverlight™ Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Brief Description

Add-on for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 for developing Silverlight 2 applications

Overview

This package is an add-on for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 to provide tooling for Microsoft Silverlight 2. It can be installed on top of either Visual Studio 2008 SP1 or Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with SP1, and it provides a Silverlight project system for developing Silverlight applications using C# or Visual Basic.

This download will install the following:

Silverlight 2 developer runtime
Silverlight 2 software development kit
KB956453 for Visual Studio 2008 SP1
and/or
KB956485 for Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with SP1
Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1
and/or
Silverlight Tools for Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with SP1

Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 includes:

Visual Basic and C# Project templates
Intellisense and code generators for XAML
XAML design preview
Debugging of Silverlight applications
Remote debugging of Silverlight applications for Mac
Web reference support
WCF Templates
Team Build and command line build support
Integration with Expression Blend

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c22d6a7b-546f-4407-8ef6-d60c8ee221ed&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft Online Services Sign In Tool V1

Brief Description

Client application that enables single sign-on to Microsoft Online Services

Overview

Service Client application that enables single sign-on to Microsoft Online Services. With this tool, users can configure Outlook, Internet Explorer and LiveMeeting, then use it logon to the licensed, hosted applications subscribed on Microsoft Online Services.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=01f6c0e4-f897-442a-8462-425f8edddad9&DisplayLang=en

Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio October 2008 CTP

On a personal note... Obama wins

hansw — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:12:00 GMT

As an American who was born and raised in Chicago (currently living in Toronto) I can't tell you how great I feel to today. Wow Look at Grant Park... How proud I am of Chicago...

Way to go America !!!! Way to go Chicago.

Obama is the next US President

Cheers

Top Web 2.0 online news and reviews collaborative, monitoring and analysis site application for CEO’S and Entrepreneurs!

hansw — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:05:00 GMT

http://ceoworld.biz/ceo/2008/10/31/top-web-20-online-news-and-reviews-collaborative-monitoring-and-analysis-site-application-for-ceo%E2%80%99s-and-entrepreneurs/

Nice to see Feedables at number 23. I homestead a feedables site called riafeeds. It attempts to aggregate the top rss feeds on Rich Internet Applications. http://www.riafeeds.com/.

Got any good RIA RSS Feed suggestions? Please comment.

Cheers

Phil Haack PDC presentation on ASP.NET MVC beta on channel 9

hansw — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 20:34:00 GMT

Phil Haack Sr. Program manager for the ASP.NET MVC team presented at the PDC. You can watch it on here: http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC21/

I really liked his HaackedOverflow demo and the nice interative flow of development. He even demos OpenID authentication in his sample application.

On stage he invited Jeff Atwood from http://stackoverflow.com/ which is the probably the best asp.net MVC app out there. Another MVC site I seen is the MIX09 site: http://2009.visitmix.com/ ...
Both these sites to me seem really fast and clean.

ASP.NET MVC Presentation at TechDays Toronto

hansw — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:33:00 GMT

Today I presented an intro to ASP.NET MVC beta to 300+ folks at the Toronto Congress Centre. This was the largest audience I have presented to thus far. Overall I am pretty happy with how it went.... Only a few folks got up and left and the demos it did blow up too badly. I finished a little early but had about 10 people lined up afterward for questions. Overall a great experience which I plan to do again. I will post a link to the video when it comes available.

I did have a little issue with advancing the slides because of presenter mode in powerpoint which I never used before .... Hopefully it won't be too difficult to watch.

ASP.NET MVC is currently not that well known in Toronto with less than 5 people from the audience actually having played with it before my talk. Also practically only 2 people were practising TDD or Test Driven Development.

Here is a link to the powerpoint deck, (Car vs. Motorcycles)

In regards to the demos and code I really did not due too much more than the default project which is created when you create a new ASP.NET MVC webproject. You can get the latest ASP.NET MVC code here .. currently in beta (ASP.NET MVC beta).

You can find videos of both the routing and the Unit testing demo's I did here.

(Routing) & (Unit Testing) Thanks to Stephen Walther for these.

Lastly I would really like to thank Scott Hanselman for his deck and his stellar presentation skills. (Sadly I did not do his jokes justice). Check out his blog you will be glad you did.

Finally I want to thank Microsoft Canada DPE for allowing me to present... in particular Christian Beauclair, John Bristowe, and Paul Laberge.

Cheers

Long time since my last post...

hansw — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:41:00 GMT

Wow Silverlight 2 shipped last week and I did not even post on it. Get the latest here: http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/

I really got distracted by the economy meltdown and how to prepare for it.
A great site to help the understand these economic times I highly recommend Catherine Austin Fitts @ http://www.solari.com/blog.

Anyway I am presenting at Canada Tech Days on ASP.NET MVC ... which just shipped a beta: You can get it here: http://www.asp.net/mvc

In preparing for this talk on MVC I have been getting to know a little about the guys behind ASP.NET MVC... I stumbled across Scott Hanselman and Phil Haack.

Hanselman is a great technical communicator. He was a stellar hire for Microsoft. He really gets web development and can articulate it masterfully. Check him and ASP.NET MVC out here:http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ASPNETMVCSourceCodeAvailable.aspx

His podcasts are great as well. http://www.hanselminutes.com/archives.aspx Scott interviews the guys from stackoverflow who have a slick ASP.NET MVC implementaiton.
http://stackoverflow.com/ (What a wicked fast site.)

Well... I continue to prepare for thursday... I will try and post the great MVC resources I find along the way.

cheers,

New RIA downloads available from downloads.microsoft.com

hansw — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:41:00 GMT

Here are some new RIA related downloads compiled by my colleague David Lymburner I thought I would share:
Cheers,
Hans

Delivering the next generation web with Silverlight

Brief Description

Delivering the next generation web with Silverlight

Overview

Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) are gaining popularity with the growth and use of web 2.0. Watch how Windows Server 2008 can help your customers create the next generation of interactive web experiences.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5ddb2eb9-0d99-4448-baf3-44aa49c37c77&DisplayLang=en

Hands on Labs for Developing Applications on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Brief Description

A set of 10 Hands on Labs for Developing Applications for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with Visual Studio 2005

Overview

A set of 10 Hands on Labs for Developing Applications for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with Visual Studio 2005. These labs are provided in C# and VB.NET languages. Each Hands on Lab is expected to take 60 minutes to complete and no SharePoint development experience is required. Participants are expected to have .NET development experience. The download includes lab manuals, completed lab exercises and any resource files required by the labs. The HOLs included are:

1. Web Parts
2. Data Lists
3. Event Handlers
4. Workflow
5. Silverlight
6. Page Navigation
7. Page Branding
8. Web Services
9. Content Types

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b885dce8-c93f-48aa-b798-4422febcc200&DisplayLang=en

ADO.NET Data Services Silverlight 2 B2 Client Refresh

Brief Description

Refresh to enable the Data Services client in Silverlight 2 Beta 2 to interoperate with Data Services in .NET 3.5 SP1 RTM

Overview

This refresh consists of an updated version of System.Data.Services.Client.dll for Silverlight 2 Beta 2 that enables the Data Services client in Silverlight 2 Beta 2 to interoperate with Data Services in .NET 3.5 SP1 RTM.

Note that this refresh is only a temporary release to allow continued interoperability between the Silverlight 2 Beta 2 data services client and server. It's an unsupported release and still a Beta release. Once Silverlight 2 RTM is released, all developers should stop using this release and use the Data Services library included in the Silverlight 2 SDK RTM release.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=cf8f88c3-d869-46de-a7bf-fb7712c791b7&DisplayLang=en

Mix it up (Build it up) Experience the new web: Developing Next Generation Websites with Microsoft Tools

Brief Description

This website is a site for customers to download the past events resources e.g. powerpoints and view video. For each series of mix it up, there will be posting of speaker powerpoint slides for customers to download.

Overview

This website is a site for customer to download the past events resources e.g. powerpoints and view video. For each series of mix it up, there will be posting of speaker powerpoint slides for customers to download. The powerpoints include

Keynote: Creating applications and mash-ups on the web.
Mix 01: Building facebook applications with visual studio 2008.
Mix02: Enhance your web applications with Windows Live.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=20cb2802-5fd8-4f0f-a419-e3fd19ea7512&DisplayLang=en

Silverlight 2 Beta 2 hour presentation

hansw — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:52:00 GMT

I was asked to put together an hour presentation on Silverlight 2 for my communities day with MCS. I really want to thank Lindsay Rutter for her 6 MSDN web casts called "Look what you can do with Silverlight 2.

Here are her blog posts for the MSDN Web casts:
http://blogs.msdn.com/lindsay/archive/2008/05/27/upcoming-silverlight-2-webcast-series.aspx
My one hour presentation and code examples are taken from her 6 part series.

Below is the ppt and example Visual Studio projects. I started the presentation with the NBC Olympics player which is a great Silverlight 2 application.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=0824_hd_ccb_au_l1808r1

I ended my presentation with a demo of documatrix from my good friend over at http://www.hatchinnovations.com/
Have look at a great Line of business Silverlight application http://www.hatchinnovations.com/products.aspx?ProductID=1000

For up to date RIA news check out http://www.riafeeds.com/

windows 2008 Workstation Lenovo T61p

hansw — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:41:00 GMT

I configured my Lenovo 4 gigs/64bit 2.2 ghr dual core as Windows server standard 2008 workstation for my new RIA development machine

So far I have followed keith Comb's post
http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2008/02/01/installing-windows-server-2008-ee-on-a-lenovo-thinkpad-t61p.aspx

As well as Ohad's Blog post:

http://weblogs.asp.net/israelio/archive/2008/02/21/windows-server-2008-as-workstation.aspx

I also downloaded and installed winamp 5.54 x86 so I can listen to http://deepmix.ru/

http://www.winamp.com/player/free-download-full?lang=en-us

I had to associate the file extenstion .pls to load with winamp exe which is located here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Winamp\winamp.exe (It is good to have some tunes when coding ;)

Ohad references Microsoft KB article 947036 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947036 How to enable Windows Vista user experience features on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 which is also a great reference.

I also installed silverlight 1.0 when I browsed over to Channel 9 http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/Going+Deep/John-Sheehan-Inside-Application-Virtualization/ ... I had to close the browser instance and reload channel 9 for it to work.

I have also installed the full Office 2007 suite and Visual studio 2008 team suite without any issues.

One thing to note is NOT to enable Hyper V as this will disable the laptop's ability to sleep.

Overall the I really like the setup and the performance is great. (A lot better than the 32 bit Vista image I had loaded before.)

Cheers,
Hans

Twistori : Watch the Life Stream in real time

hansw — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:11:00 GMT

My good bud from Feedables Davie just showed me this on his iphone....

http://twistori.com/#i_love

twistori mash up on twitter... what key word tweets updated every second...

Killer App. Nice work coming from Vienna

About

Name twistori
Location Vienna, Austria
Web http://twistori.com/
Bio The twistori team! @amyhoy and @thomasfuchs

HEY! YOU! GET ON TO MY CLOUD (Life after Jurassic OO Middleware)

hansw — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:45:00 GMT

Thanks to Miha Kralj for sending this GEM.
Next Generation IT - Computing in the Cloud... Life after Jurassic OO Middleware
http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2008_01/column3.pdf

Uber cross group collaboration. Some questions...

Which cloud to join? DELL, IBM, MSN, Google, Amazon, HP/EDS, how does the enterprise decide on what business services to outsource to the cloud?

The next big thing ... cloud to cloud integration services... How do the Clouds share CRUD?

Also how does a Popfly Application Creation Experience become the norm in the enterprise?

Below is the summary.

Cheers,
Hans

It is painfully clear that current middleware cannot provide agility nor provide cost
effective scalable commodity infrastructure. Current IT applications programming
technology is too complex and too inefficient to leverage next generation
infrastructures
On top of this we are facing an acute shortage of skilled application developers.
Hence we need to consider simpler alternative solutions, of which cloud
computing and functional Infrastructure enabled Domain Oriented Programming seem
to be the most promising on the horizon. Simple services enable agility and leverage
scaleable commodity technology. Functional Services enable rapid application
development and enable the service infrastructure to handle concurrency. Domain
Oriented Programming enables domain specific service development on top of which
Business Programming empowers business teams with embedded developers to
deliver applications quickly.

Author Dave Thomas, cofounder/chairman of Bedarra Research Labs
http://www.bedarra.com/

TimeTube

hansw — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:29:00 GMT

Timetube rocks!

The folks over a dipity get it. I totally agree with Seth Godin here.

What a way better YouTube UX.

Cheers,
hans