Without much fanfare, I’m back.
What brings me from my blogging hiatus? Last week’s Expression Studio 2 launch, of course. My team and I have been working on this release at a breakneck pace this past year and have been deeply focused on launch since MIX 08. Accordingly, it is great to see the fruits of our labor being praised by customers, partners and the press.
You can start using the tools today. Fully-functional, 30-day trials for the Expression product family are available for download today and thousands of designers and enthusiasts are exchanging ideas on the Expression Community site.
One thing I am really excited about with this release is the in-the-box video tutorials provided by Total Training. More than four hours of content is available to help Expression users get started with the latest features. But wait, there’s more. Total Training has also produced a full series of tutorials that build on the in-the-box tutorials. These materials will be available as part of Total Training Online in June. In the interim, you can access a free 7-day guest pass to Total Training Online to review the Expression Studio v1 content already there. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, the training is available in English only.
Last, but certainly not least, I encourage you to read about the Expression Professional Subscription. It is the most convenient, most economical way of getting access to all the products professional designers need to create, test and deploy on the Microsoft platform. With a $999 estimated retail price for the first year and $649 annual renewal you get access to the latest versions of each of the following:
Expression® Studio Visual Studio® Standard Office Standard Office Visio® Professional Windows® XP Windows Vista® Business Edition Virtual PC Parallels Desktop for Mac Pre-configured virtualized server environments Other vendors charge more for suites that only include design tools. With the Expression Professional Subscription you get design, development and productivity tools in addition to the latest client & server operating systems and virtualized environments to really put the tools to the test. Even better, the subscription includes a snazzy Welcome Kit.
Designer extraordinaire, Celso Gomes, has created a new blog for designers on Silverlight, Windows Presentation Foundation and Expression Studio tutorials. The coolest feature is his tutorial engine is built in Silverlight as well. The first set of tutorials on creating Silverlight apps with Expression Blend is already available.
Celso does amazing work. His fingerprints are all over the Silverlight keynote & launch content. You can spend a few minutes learning how to do some really cool things from a masterful professional designer.
Well this latest news is enough to bring me back from my blogging hiatus. At 3:00 PM Pacific, CNET announced Microsoft Silverlight as the Webware 100 Award winner in the Publishing category.
We are very honored and excited about this award considering it seems like just yesterday that we unveiled Silverlight at the National Association of Broadcasters conference and we are busy putting the final touches on Silverlight 1.0.
It is always great to see one's work receive industry recognition when that recognition comes from actual user votes. There were many popular finalists in the Publishing category and having Silverlight come out in the top must mean we are delivering something useful and valuable to end-users, designers, developers and content owners.
It appears those of you who voted are as excited about Silverlight as we are. I am looking forward to seeing all the amazing things you do once all that creative energy is unleashed when Silverlight 1.0 is released this summer.
Today, during the MIX07 Keynote, Ray Ozzie and Scott Guthrie unveiled the .NET capabilities of Silverlight and previews of the latest Expression Studio and Visual Studio tools for building Silverlight applications.
This announcements comes on the heels of the rich media functionality announced 2 weeks ago at the National Association of Broadcasters conference. Everyone who has worked on this project is elated, excited, ecstatic, energized, and euphoric with all the buzz and clear designer and developer interest around what we are delivering. [Check out: technorati, flickr, twitter, facebook)
With Silverlight we are changing the conversations people have ]bout building RIAs and delivering rich media experiences in a broad, quick and easy way. No longer is it an either/or proposition where you have to make tradeoffs between:
- High-quality animation or performance
- Developer/designer productivity or skills reuse
- Broad audio/video reach or low cost of delivery
With a cross-platform implementation of .NE T at its core and Windows Media as its foundation, Silverlight turns each of the ORs above to ANDs.
- You want high-quality, performant vector animation? Check.
- Your developers and designers want an efficient workflow that allows them to reuse their existing skills and maintain creative control? Check.
- You need to deliver your existing media assets at a low cost? Check.
Exciting times.
Go check out the latest Silverlight news at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight.
Also, we have launched the Silverlight Community Site at http://www.silverlight.net where you can see demos, download samples and participate in the discussion on the Forums.
Today, at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft unveiled Microsoft Silverlight, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.
Helpful links:
Get ready to Light up the Web...
I am sure you have heard the news already but wanted to post anyway following a long day of meetings and press briefings that prevented me from doing so sooner.
Well, the rumors are true: Microsoft has officially joined OpenAjax Alliance (OAA).
Over the past year we were really focused on bringing ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 to market much faster than anyone thought we would when the technology was first previewed back in October 2005. Delivering a cross-browser, cross-platform AJAX framework that seamlessly integrates with ASP.NET on the server (ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions) while providing a client-side library that can be used to enhance any server framework (Microsoft AJAX Library) was no small feat.
Many of you may recall the "Atlas" project began a few months before Visual Studio 2005 and .NET Framework 2.0 were released. In addition to developing "Atlas" concurrently with the most advanced VS and .NET release to date, we also accomplished some pretty noteworthy firsts along the way to releasing ASP.NET AJAX 1.0. For example, there were the regular Community Technology Preview (CTP) releases every 6-8 weeks, the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit shared source project, the Go-Live licensing with the March 2006 CTP at Mix, the refactoring of the framework into the supported "core" and Futures CTP, and the release of the source code for both the client-side script and server-side managed code.
What does all this have to do with OpenAjax Alliance? It should be clear from our actions during the development of ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 that we have maintained our deep commitment to our developer community. We have been transparent, agile and open. We have solicited and incorporated feedback to help solve real problems in close to real-time. We made it possible for the broader developer community to do AJAX without doing AJAX. Over the past year we have focused on shipping both platform and tools components any developer can use to build enhanced browser-based Web experiences using the skills they already have.
With today's announcement we continue our work on behalf of developers by joining with other industry leaders and AJAX vendors to promote and contribute to a high degree of interoperability among the myriad AJAX frameworks.
It is great to see industry watchers like Ryan Stewart recognize our efforts and commend the work we are doing around standards, openness and interoperability. Stay tuned to Bertrand Le Roy's blog if you want to follow our OAA participation more closely. (Bertrand is Microsoft's OpenAjax Alliance representative.)
By the way, if you happen to be in New York City for AjaxWorld East, be sure to check out Brad Abram's keynote tomorrow morning. He will be sharing his thoughts on AJAX development starting at 7:30AM.
I am excited to announce the launch of a new, free, 2-hour "Developing Enhanced Web Experiences with Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Extensions" clinic created by Microsoft E-Learning. The delivery of this clinic helps us reach a major milestone in our content & training roadmap for ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 following its release back in January. The clinic was created by professional instructors from around the world with contributions and input from members of the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX product team.
From the course description:
In this 2-hour clinic you will learn about the rich functionality that ASP.NET AJAX Extensions provides for building highly responsive and enhanced web applications. In addition to learning about the different server and client components of ASP.NET AJAX, you will also learn how to build new ASP.NET AJAX applications and how to upgrade existing ASP.NET applications to take advantage of ASP.NET AJAX.
This clinic is appropriate for experienced .NET Web Developers and Software Architects who are looking to incorporate ASP.NET AJAX within their existing and future solutions.
Here is a list of the modules and lessons covered in this clinic:
- Clinic Overview
- Module Introduction
- Navigation Overview
- Overview of ASP.NET AJAX
- Module Introduction
- Introduction to AJAX and ASP.NET AJAX
- Introduction to the Architecture of ASP.NET AJAX
- Module Summary
- Programming with ASP.NET AJAX
- Module Introduction
- Building a Simple ASP.NET AJAX Application
- Using the AJAX Library to Enhance Web User Interfaces
- Calling Web Services and Web Methods from the Client
- Module Summary
- Additional Information
- Module Introduction
- Glossary
- Next Steps
Please help me spread the word about this free training for AJAX development using the Microsoft platform. Also, send me any feedback you have. I would also like to get your feedback on follow-up lessons and content you would like to see.
Sam Spencer, Program Manager on the Web Development Tools team, has posted a quick overview of some of the new CSS editing capabilities coming in VS "Orcas."
He writes about how the designer and CSS property grid tool window make it easy to analyze and tweak styles applied directly to elements as well as those that are inherited.
ASP.NET AJAX Architect, Nikhil Kothari, has released 3 updated server controls (one existing, two new) for ASP.NET AJAX 1.0:
UpdateHistory
A non-visual control that allows you to add history entries to the browser's navigation stack selectively for some post-backs, and not for some others. This helps fix the back button to make it work, and allows you to implement Ajax patterns such as "logical navigation" and unique URLs.
StyledUpdatePanel A simple derived UpdatePanel that adds CSS class semantics. A simple addition, but a useful feature, nevertheless, that didn't make the feature cut.
AnimatedUpdatePanel Another derived UpdatePanel that displays new content using a variety of animations or effects: slides, wipes, cross-fades as well as a visual highlight. This allows you to implement the "visual notification" Ajax patterns such as the one second spotlight and one second mutation.
In addition to samples, Nikhil also includes a "WPF/E"-hosted video in his post showing all 3 controls in action so you OS X users can enjoy it too.
Now that the "WPF/E" February 2007 CTP is available, I'm sure many of you want to see how cool it is and want to know what all the buzz is about? Just point your browser to http://www.vista.si/ and experience the better Web of the future.
If your Slovenian is not quite what it used to be, first click the icon at the top (if necessary, to install the latest "WPF/E" CTP) then click the icon with the Vista ribbon to launch the app.
Go ahead and interact with this browser-based emulation of Windows Vista, Microsoft's new flagship operating system. You can resize, move, minimize & maximize windows; transparency is enabled; the clock in the Sidebar works as expected; you can even "launch" things from the Start menu. Amazing.
Of course, since "WPF/E" can be programmed with standard JavaScript, you can use it to easily enhance and interact with your existing ASP.NET AJAX applications.
- Want to save some serious time developing your ASP.NET 2.0 Web sites using Visual Studio 2005?
- Tired of mundane copy & paste or tedious global search-and-replace as your primary tools for cleaning up your code?
- Do you want to make your ASP.NET 2.0 solutions easier to maintain in the future?
- Do you like having access to useful, whizbang (and very cool) utilities that actually help you get real work done?
- What if those utilities were free?
Well, if you answered yes to any of the above questions, you should be ecstatic and astounded to know Developer Express has released Refactor! for ASP.NET for immediate and free download.
One cautionary note to existing users of Refactor! Pro:
Refactor! for ASP.NET is incompatible with existing Refactor! Pro installations. Do not install Refactor! for ASP.NET alongside Refactor! Pro. Instead, those Refactor! Pro customers still within their free one-year maintenance update period can download a free update to Refactor! Pro that includes these new ASP.NET refactorings.
Also, since Refactor! is a VS add-on, it does not work with Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition. You must have Visual Studio 2005 Standard or above.
So, how cool is Refactor! for ASP.NET? Watch this 12-minute video overview to see for yourself.
The v2.1.3 release includes 25 refactorings, with 9 dedicated to ASP.NET development:
- Add Validator
- Extract ContentPlaceHolder
- Extract ContentPlaceHolder (and create master page)
- Extract Style (Class)
- Extract Style (id)
- Move to Code-behind
- Move Style Attributes to CSS
- Rename Style
- Surround with Update Panel
(the "Extract to User Control" refactoring will arrive in a future drop)
Also included are 16 standard refactorings that work inside both C# and VB code-behind files (most also work on code placed inside inline <script> tags):
- Extract Method
- Extract Property
- Flatten Conditional
- Inline Temp
- Introduce Constant
- Introduce Local
- Move Declaration near Reference
- Move Initialization to Declaration
- Reorder Parameters
- Rename
- Replace Temp with Query
- Reverse Conditional
- Safe Rename
- Simplify Expression
- Split Initialization from Declaration
- Split Temporary Variable
If you get stuck or need support (note: it is currently in Beta) you have a couple options:
- Contact support@devexpress.com, or
- Subscribe to the devexpress.public.refactor.asp newsgroup at news.devexpress.com
I am sure after a few uses, Refactor! will become a staple in your development process just like Reflector if it has not already.
Hats off to Developer Express for continuing to enhance the Web development capabilities of Visual Studio 2005 in some very clever and unique ways. The next time you come across a fellow ASP.NET developer let them know about this time-saving solution.
I am wrapping up my week by clearing the backlog of blogging I intended to do but have not had time until now.
If you have not already heard, Molly E. Holzschlag, of Web Standards Project (WaSP) fame has signed on to lend her experience and expertise to Microsoft Internet Explorer on a contract basis.
While IE is not a product I look after directly (it's my colleague's, Pete's, baby) the products I do look after (IIS, ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, Visual Web Developer Express Edition) rely on a Web browser at some point. That is why I am so excited Molly is lending her passion for standards and interoperability to our efforts.
Welcome aboard, Molly! Now get to work. ;-)
The official ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 documentation was released today and includes samples, tutorials, samples in addition to API references. So we have shipped the product, released the source and now the updated docs are available for download.
We are still not done and have even more exciting training and samples coming. Stay tuned...
If you have read the main ASP.NET Community Site page or Scott's blog today, you already know we have delivered on our promise to make the ASP.NET AJAX source code available following last week's release.
Here is the blurb...
Following the release of ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 last week, Microsoft has made the source code for the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions available for immediate download. Now developers will have the tools they need to maintain and debug their ASP.NET AJAX Web sites and to better understand how the server features of ASP.NET AJAX work. With this source code release, Microsoft continues to break new ground in transparency and engagement with the .NET Framework developer community.
Remember this source code release is under the Microsoft Reference License (Ms-RL) so you can view and debug but not recompile or redistribute.
You may also be interested in Steve Marx's project out on CodePlex for improving the Microsoft AJAX Library for PHP development.
Enjoy,
Keith
The DownloadCENTER at IIS.net is an inclusive community destination for discovering new components, modules and 3rd-party solutions related to the Internet Information Services (IIS) Web server.
With the worldwide release of Windows Vista tomorrow, this new section of IIS.net is particularly relevant to ASP.NET developers interested in the future of the Microsoft Web stack.
For example:
- The latest release of IIS, IIS7, is included with Windows Vista and has a completely modular architecture which features over forty pluggable components that can be easily added, removed or even swapped with custom implementations.
- The integrated pipeline gives ASP.NET developers a familiar event model and unified programming framework for enhancing the server.
- The powerful extensibility support is available to both .NET (managed) and C/C++ (native).
- The new management & configuration system and tools make it easier to setup your sites so you can spend less time troubleshooting and more time implementing.
There are already numerous downloads for all versions of IIS available today. Many are provided by Microsoft but, even more exciting are those contributed by the IIS community. In the future, the DownloadCENTER will host a large number of extensions specific to IIS7 submitted by Microsoft, ISVs and the broader IIS community.
To learn more about the DownloadCENTER, go check out Bill Staples’ blog post about it or, better yet, go visit today.
