jamescon's WebLog : Dinnernow.net

Just released - Windows Server 2008 Developer Training Kit (beta 3)

jamescon — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:37:13 GMT

Hungry for some more developer resources or more developer labs? My team just released a Windows Server 2008 Developer Training Kit. This kit was originally designed and used as part of our early adoption program for ISVs (known as Touchdown). The kit includes 15 presentations on topics ranging from IIS7 to the .NET Framework 3.0 technologies, HPC, and virtualization. It also includes 7 hands-on labs, all based on the DinnerNow scenario. These labs include:

Introduction to Windows Communication Foundation
This lab provides the basic introduction to building services and clients including the use of data contracts, service contracts and configuration of both. The lab also includes information on how to declaratively secure a service.
Integrating CardSpace into Web Sites
This lab walks the user on how to can integrate CardSpace into Web sites. The user will modify existing registration and sign-in pages to allow customers to use CardSpace for site features that require the customer’s identity.
Introduction to Windows Workflow Foundation
This lab walks the user through the basics of creating a workflow and learning about the Visual Studio environment for building workflows. The lab also covers some of the common base activities and passing parameters to a workflow.
Using Windows Eventing
This lab introduces the improvements made to the event logging, viewing and management features in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
Extending Windows PowerShell and the Microsoft Management Console
In this lab, the user walks through the creation of Cmdlets for Windows PowerShell and a Snap-in for Microsoft Management Console 3.0 (MMC) using managed code.
Extending IIS 7.0 with Custom Handlers
This lab walks the user through the extension of IIS administration interface and addition of custom handlers written in managed code.
Using Transactional NTFS (TxF)
This lab is focused on adding Transactional NTFS capabilities to an existing application by using managed wrappers, in just a few lines of code.

You can download the kit from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B36EE81A-AFF5-4314-95D7-DAD3ACFA8094&displaylang=en

After downloading the kit, simply run the self extracting exe, select an installation location, and press the install button. The files contained in the kit will be extracted to your local machine.

As part of the kit we have created some navigation pages that allow you to browse the list of presentations and hands-on labs. Once the installation is complete, the default navigation page will be displayed automatically. You can view the list of presentations and labs either by technology or based on the 4-day agenda we used for the in-person training events.

Congratulations and thanks to the numerous folks in evangelism who have contributed to this content, including: Jason Olson, David Aiken, Matt Winkler, Nigel Watling, Brett Hill, Volker Will, and Justin Smith.

Come and get it while it's hot - DinnerNow.net 1.1 Released

jamescon — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 08:11:49 GMT

It seems like it was just yesterday when I blogged about releasing the first version of the DinnerNow sample application.... wait, it was yesterday. :)

Today David and Johnny fixed some issues with the Dependency Checker in the DinnerNow package and we released an updated version to CodePlex. You can download version 1.1 here.

Along the way we (ur...David) also learned how to automate the installation of specific features (such as MSMQ and the .NET Framework 3.0) on Vista and Windows Server "Longhorn".

Get DinnerNow

jamescon — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 13:35:16 GMT

For the last few months our evangelism team has been working on a sample application named DinnerNow.net. Basically, the sample focuses on the scenario of ordering food from various restaurants from an online marketplace. While the scenario sounds simple, what is interesting is that we've used several Microsoft technologies to show the entire lifecycle of orders. For example, the sample uses all of the .NET Framework 3.0 technologies (WPF, WCF, WF, & Windows CardSpace), PowerShell, MMC, SideBar gadgets, Linq, Virtual Earth, and more. Matt Winkler has a more detailed list of the technologies were using in the scenario here.

Late last night we released all of the source code, documentation, and scripts for the DinnerNow.net sample application on CodePlex. Thanks to David Aiken, all of the source code has been packaged up as a “ready-to-run” MSI with PowerShell scripts for building and configuring the various components of the application. The MSI also includes a custom dependency checker. The dependency checker will help you ensure that the correct components (.NET Framework 3.0, Linq, etc.) installed on your machine.

How can you get DinnerNow?

Download the DinnerNow MSI from CodePlex at http://www.codeplex.com/dinnernow
View other DinnerNow resources, such as screencasts, at http://www.dinnernow.net

We are in the process of building additional screencasts, quickstart tutorials, and several other resources to compliment the sample application. We are also actively fixing bugs and enhancing the demo scenario. If you have any feedback or suggestions about the DinnerNow sample, please either email DinnerNow Team, discuss the demo in the forums, or create a workitem in CodePlex for any bugs or issues you encounter.