Irwin Dolobowsky's Blog : XML Dev Center

Xml Team is back!

irwando — Wed, 05 Jan 2005 07:28:00 GMT

Well, we're all back from the holidays here, spinning up again, looking forward to kicking out Yukon Beta 3 and Whidbey Beta 2. As I promised, changes are coming after the new year. The Xml Team blog should replace this one in the next day or two. In the mean time, go check it out here. I'm also going to add all of our indiviual blogs as links to the XmlTeam blog for a one-stop shop for finding all of your friendly neighborhood XML team members.

Site Change - New Year, New Blog

irwando — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 01:16:00 GMT

Tomorrow, hopefully, you'll all notice some changes to the blog here on the MSDN XML Dev Center. No, I'm not leaving, I promise. However, the blog here is being changed to move to a new blog - the XmlTeam blog. This blog will have contributions from various members of the XML team. My hope is that with more folks contributing you'll see more frequent posts and a bigger variety of posts.

You can see the new blog now up at http://blogs.msdn.com/XmlTeam .

He's Back Folks!

irwando — Sat, 11 Dec 2004 00:41:00 GMT

I know everyone missed me the last two weeks, but rest assured, I'm back and on top of things. Thanks to all those who were patient in waiting for a response from me. I was bouncing around the East for two weeks in Bermuda and New Jersey, loving every minute of it. Of course, now I'm back in bright, sunny Seattle. Well, I'm back in Seattle at least.

Coming Up

I know articles have been a bit slow lately, mostly from folks out on vacation. End of November to the end of December is always a bit of a slow down around here as everyone heads out for the holidays. Fear not though, we've got a few in the pipe:

Venkat Prasad writes a piece on Exchanging XML data with SQL Server 2000 and Reporting Services via Web Services.
Helena Kupkova will show us how to create bookmarks in XML Streams with the ResetableXmlReader.
Radhakrishnan Srikanth will present a series of articles on different components within System.Xml giving advice on usage patterns and scenarios. Should be great intro reference material for anyone developing XML apps.

We'll also be mixing in some Sql Server XML related articles now and then, and hopefully some other app-building stuff as well. We're actually doing some internal app-building here to test our Whidbey components, and I'm hoping to turn a lot of the development work there into articles up here. I've also set a goal for myself of the new year for updating the home page layout. We're going to do a bit of re-organizing which should result in a more dynamic, relevant front page.

From You!

Keep the questions and feedback coming, I appreciate it all. Over the last couple of weeks I have seen a few general problem areas:

XML in Compact Framework - Unfortunately, this is not something our team owns. The Mobile team owns this, so if you have questions about XML components in the Compact Framework head over there.
XML Downloads - The page is a bit old, that should be updated next week. Just to clarify the latest bits are:

As I continue to see more trends in questions I'll try and point them out up here.

Of course, it wouldn't be a blog post if I didn't ask for some feedback. Starting soon (right after the new year) we'll being thinking about Tech Ed '05. The XML group should be there with talks and a booth again, but is there something you specifically want to see? A particular topic discussed in a talk or other forum? No promises, of course, but send me your ideas and I'll see what I can do.

Happy Holidays!

Praise XML!

irwando — Sat, 20 Nov 2004 00:07:00 GMT

Read through my RSS items, I found a reference to this post about "The Church of XML". Seems like someone's been burned by this stuff a bit, huh? While the article is a obviously dripping with sarcasm, I actually thought it was a pretty funny read that, at the center, may actually have a few grains of truth. Here's what I seemed to get out of it (putting a little more positive spin on things):

XML is here to stay and you're probably (eh, definitely) going to have to deal with it
Just because XML is here doesn't mean you have to use it; there are times, many of them, when it isn't needed

The first point is something we all need to accept now and move on. Our group has recently begun our roadmap work for the next version of our products and I have been writing the section on SqlXml. One of the sections involves messaging to customers as to what benefits the proposed technologies will offer. Right off the bat I start with, "Plain and simple, if a customer is producing an application which transmits or receives data or other information from another system, they will more likely than not have to deal with XML." Anyone want to argue with me on that? Feel free to drop me a line, but I'm going to stand by that. XML has become the defacto standard for communication between systems. Unless you control the whole system being built and will never need to share with someone out of your control, I'm better that XML will be involved somehow, somewhere.

This brings me to the second part. If you do control everything, if you have a small app that doesn't communicate over a network or does so with a restricted set of clients, do you need XML? Maybe, maybe not. I have, in the past, recommended folks not use it. Building a small app to act as a front end to Sql Server that only a couple of folks around the office need access to? I'm pretty sure Dataset and ADO.NET will satisfy you quite well. Now am I going to stop folks from using XML if they want to? Nah, that's just not good for my job security. But I'll gladly recommend an alternate technology if need be. I think that's why I love being in the SqlXml group here. Really, it's all about how to get XML to and from other formats so you don't have to deal with it when it isn't appropriate. Hopefully going forward we will expand that beyond just to and from the database.

News from the Front

First, congrats to Jean Paoli on his being awarded the IDEAlliance XML Cup Award.

As for the rest of us around here, most of our work now has been focused on Sql Server 2000 Service Pack 4, Sql Server 2005, and Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2. We're also beginning roadmap planning for the next version of our products after that. Always an interesting process where we get to review what we've done, where we want to go, and what is going to get us there. Its still early in the process, but I'll try and keep everyone up to date on thought as I can.

Ooooh, good segue here...if you want to learn a lot more about this and want to help us out, we're hiring! Click here to check the career center for jobs available in the group. There's a place up there for you to submit your resume if you're interested. I'll even make a special deal for my loyal readers of one week, if you contact me with a link to your resume on-line, I'll forward it along for you. Please indicate preference for a position.

That's it for this week folks. Thanks to everyone who's already sent in questions and comments on the site, I've enjoyed speaking to you all. There will probably not be a post next week due to Thanksgiving, but I should be back the week after that. Happy Turkey Day to all!

First Post (redux)

irwando — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 11:46:00 GMT

Redux? Yes, that seems to be appropriate. I think I've done 2 or 3 of these "first post" entries now, but a new endeavor calls for a new First Post for what I'm sure will become the millions of my fans out there. So here we go...

Welcome to my blog! My name is Irwin Dolobowsky and I've been a Program Manager at Microsoft for 3.5 years now, all within the XML group. After interning at Microsoft in 2000, I came back to work on SqlXml, which I've owned since about month two of my employment. Since then I've also had the opportunity to work on various technologies here, including System.Xml and the SOAP Toolkit. My latest gig is this place - I've now taken ownership of the MSDN XML Developer Center from Dare. Whether this is a good or bad thing remains to be seen.

What can you expect out of my blog? Well, I must admit my knowledge of all things XML is not nearly as extensive as my predecessor, but I think I can hold my own. Expect to hear about what the latest out of the XML team is here at Microsoft as well as comments and pointers on whatever pops up on my XML Radar (which is actually RSS Bandit and a Search Folder searching titles, but it works quite well). I've also have some ideas on how to update this Developer Center to make it more dynamic and a one-stop shop for all XML related info at Microsoft. If you're curious, the following are a list of items I'd like to change here:

Bring out the MVP's - I love these folks. I always enjoy meeting up with them at conferences or chatting with them over MSN Messenger. They're out there championing our technologies every day. I want to let everyone know who they are and what they do! Other Dev Centers have the MVP of the month, links to blogs, latest posts from them, etc. Well, so too shall the XML Developer Center
Bring out the Team - My goal is to walk around the office here and poke some folks with a stick to get them to start up (or post to existing) blogs and newsgroups. We've got some brilliant folks here, and while we many not always have the most intellectual conversations, a lot of the time we do. A number of people here are already blogging, but you have to find them! We'll make that easier.
The Latest and Greatest - Releases, Newsgroup Postings, KB articles. These are dynamic things and to keep track of all of them requires visits to several sites and applications. Instead, come here to see what the latest happenings are and decide what you want to drill down into.

You'll see some other changes as well, perhaps a few tweaks to site layout and organization. I've gotten a few comments already, but if you have more feedback for me on the above or anything about the Dev Center, please drop me a line. I look forward to hearing from you! And now, off to play a little Halo 2...

Still Here, New Beginnings

irwando — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 07:30:00 GMT

Yes, for my faithful readers, I am still here. It has been quite some time since I last posted, but I hope to make these much more frequently again. Curious what I've been working on? Well...

SqlXml 3.0 SP3 - We're fixing issues with SqlXml running on Windows Server 2003, including removing our dependency on the SOAP Toolkit. This should be out this week.
SqlXml in Sql Server 2005 - Still working on that. As anyone who grabbed Beta 2 saw, we're there! Now to finish nailing that down.
SqlXml Long Term - We had planned on a new mapping stack in Whidbey, but that was cut due to varying circumstances. However, there are those of us who still believe greatly in a mapping technology as well as the need for tools and components which shred XML into ANY other form. I'm currently investigating the possibilites there.
.Net Framework 1.0 SP3 & 1.1 SP1 - I was the System.Xml contact point for the Framework's recent service packs, so I spent lots of time running around with shipping resposibilities.

As you can see, I've managed to keep myself pretty busy lately.

New Responsibilities

As Dare mentinoed, he is leaving our group for greener pastures and is leaving me the Xml Dev Center on MSDN to run. I'm very excited about this opportunity and have already formed some plans for updating it. Current thinking has the Dev Center becoming more dynamic with links to latest KB articles, downloads, conference information, maybe standards information, etc. I hope to make it a one-stop shop for any XML related information you need. Of course, the biggest thing is to make everyone out there happy with it and make it useful for you. So if you have suggestions for me, please leave a comment and let me know what you'd like to see!