Mark Brown's Web Platform Blog

Microsoft at the Country Music Association Festival

On June 11-14 2009, over 200,000 people will be attending the Country Music Association’s Music Festival in Nashville, Tennessee.  For the first time in the history of the Music Festival, Microsoft is will have a significant presence at the event.  The CMA is interested in aligning technology and country music cultures so the CMA and Microsoft have embarked on a number of initiatives designed to drive buzz and excitement around the digital lifestyle and country music and Microsoft will be showcasing technology such as Silverlight with Deep Zoom technology and Microsoft Tag.

Here’s a rundown on what you can find if you’re fixin’ to be at the CMA Festival next week:

“Be this Close” Silverlight Deep zoom online game

• Interactive search, on CMA site and radio partner web sites (see list below)
• Ex. “Find the picture of Blake Shelton kissing a fan with a orange hat at the 2007 CMA Music Fest”

“Where Am I” – Microsoft Tag

• Microsoft Tag will be featured in a number of ways throughout the Music Festival experience.  Attendees will be able to scan signs located throughout the venues to learn more about the physical environment and what’s happening around them.  Their location will also be mapped via Windows Live Search Maps making the task of navigating the enormous number of venues easy and convenient for festival attendees.  Tag will also be featured in an event wide contest called “Tag Hunter” which will be distributed event wide by a legion CMA “Fun Squad” members. To check out Tag for your phone, get it here, http://gettag.mobi/

Cell Journalists Online Photo Shared Experience” – Windows Mobile

• Attendees can participate in the event by acting as cell journalists.  Using Windows mobile or other cell phone cameras, pictures taken from the event are automatically uploaded to a shared server hosted by ASP.NET and displayed throughout the event – including the Jumbotron.  Windows Mobile users will have a customized, high-end experience.

Microsoft Booth and E-Mail Kiosk Featuring Internet Explorer 8 and Microsoft Surface and Meet Some Stars!

• Attendees will be able to test drive our latest and greatest browser to learn about the tremendous innovations Microsoft is delivering in making the web a safer and more productive environment.  In addition to IE, attendees will be able to experience not one, but two, Microsoft Surface stations.  Microsoft Partner Interknowlogy will be showcasing a Surface based Jukebox application featuring country music and visits by country music celebrities.  Winchester ammunition will be showcase their award winning ballistic simulator built on Surface.  Zune and Xbox will also be in the house showcasing. And if you want to rub elbows with a few Country Music Stars these ones will be hanging out at the Microsoft Booth (#334) here below:
• Thursday 6/11/2009
• 9:00 AM James Otto
• 11:00 AM Love and Theft
• 1:30 PM Randy Rodgers Band
• 2:00 PM Bucky Covington
• Friday 6/12/2009
• 9:00 AM Whitney Duncan
• 11:00 AM Point of Grace
• Saturday 6/13/2009
• 11:00 AM Lee Brice
• Sunday 6/14/2009
• Jessica Harp

And if you’re not planning to be there because the Sheriff won’t let you leave your county or because your Maa said “no” then you can check it out online.

• Main Site: http://cmafest.com/2009/
• IE 8 Web slice : http://ieaddons.com/en/details/music/CMA_Music_Festival_2009/
• “Be This Close” interactive Silverlight game - http://www.cmafest.com/2009/videophotos/games/bethisclose/
• Microsoft page on CMA Site: http://www.cmafest.com/2009/microsoft

New Windows Web App Gallery Release - AmpliFeeder

 

It’s a busy day at the office as we have another new application up in the Windows Web Application Gallery today, AmpliFeeder. AmpliFeeder is a distributed social activity aggregator. In their own words…

 

You are no longer defined by your activity on just one website, message board or social network. Every photograph you upload, every page you bookmark or share, every tweet you twitter helps to define you just a little bit more. AmpliFeeder pulls all of your online activity into one place to display a new aggregated you, redefining ideas of what a blog or personal page should be.

 

Simple. Powerful. Flexible

Combine and archive your activity from lots of different services. Adding new services is a complete breeze. It's easy.

 

Easy to style and personalize

AmpliFeeder is built to make theming and personalisation as simple as possible with standard XHTML & CSS. Be unique

 

Pull yourself together

Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google Shared Items, Tumblr, Digg, Reddit, LastFM, Stumbleupon, Delicious, Upcoming, Mixx & more

 

Open Source and AGPL Licensed

Runs on industry standard ASP.NET 3.5, SQL Server Express and IIS: A rock solid foundation for exceptional web applications

New Windows Web App Gallery Release - nopCommerce

 

The good times just keep on rolling over here on the Web Platform team here at Microsoft. We have just released a new application out onto the  Windows Web Application Gallery, nopCommerce.

 

nopCommerce is the leading ASP.NET online shop e-commerce solution. nopCommerce can be installed and set-up by anyone with the most basic web site building and computer skills. nopCommerce is a secure, scalable and extendable e-commerce platform. It has user friendly administration tool to manage your storefront and customers, wish lists, discounts, coupons, flexible tax support, multi-lingual support, and hundreds of other features. Support for most popular gateways: Authorize.net, PayPal, Google Checkout, 2Checkout, and more. nopCommerce also runs in Medium Trust.

 

Check it out.

SQL Server 2008 Developer Training Kit Available

SQL Server 2008 offers an impressive array of capabilities for developers that build upon key innovations introduced in SQL Server 2005.  The SQL Server 2008 Developer Training Kit will help you understand how to build web applications which deeply exploit the rich data types, programming models and new development paradigms in SQL Server 2008.  The training kit is brought to you by Microsoft Developer and Platform Evangelism.

Overview and Benefits

The training kit offers the following benefits:

• Learn how to build web applications that exploit the unique features and capabilities of SQL Server 2008.
• Provides a comprehensive set of presentations, demos and hands-on labs
• Designed for web developers who are already familiar with SQL Server application development.
• Easy to download and install and works on free editions of SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008.

Software Requirements

The following software is not included with the training kit and must be downloaded and installed separately.  I’ve included the links for you here.

• SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services (or higher-level SKU)
• Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express (or higher-level SKU)  - via the Windows Platform Installer
• AdventureWorks 2008 Sample Databases

Contents

The training kit includes the following content:

• Presentations (6)
  • Filestream
  • Spatial
  • T-SQL
  • Date and Time Types
  • SQLCLR
  • Reporting Services
• Demos (13)
  • AdventureWorks Racing All-Up SQL Server 2008 Demo
  • SQL Server 2008 All-Up Spatial Demo
  • Spatial Types Demo
  • Intro to Filestream Demo
  • SQL CLR Nullable Types Demo
  • Programming with Filestream Demo
  • Reporting Services Web Application Integration Demo
  • Date and Time Support in SQL Server 2008 Demo
  • T-SQL Table-Valued Parameters Demo
  • T-SQL Row Constructors Demo
  • T-SQL Grouping Sets Demo
  • T-SQL Merge Demo
  • Trasact-SQL
• Hands-on Labs   (3)
  • Using Spatial Data in TSQL
  • Using Spatial Data in Managed Code
  • Using SQL CLR in SQL Server 2008

Get the kit here, http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9665942

New to Windows App Gallery – ResourceBlender.NET

 

We have a new application in our Windows Web Application Gallery, ResourceBlender.NET

ResourceBlender.NET enables you to quickly translate an application into multiple languages. An AJAX interface lets translators work over the internet or download an XML Spreadsheet and re-import later. Translations can be re-used and included in different applications for export as .resx, .properties or .po files or XUL/JavaScript bundles used by Firefox extensions. Existing resource files can be imported quickly using a wizard. Automatic machine translation is available with one click to speed up a translator’s job.

 

Check it out here at, http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/ResourceBlender.NET.aspx

 

 

 

Announcing PHP SDK for Windows Azure!

Hey busy day blogging today about the Microsoft Web Platform today!!!

 

Check this out, a new SDK for PHP developers to build applications using PHP on Azure. They have 4 sample projects that you can download from CodePlex for you to peruse.

• http://silverlightphp.codeplex.com/,
• http://webslicesandaccelphp.codeplex.com/,
• http://sqlcrudphpwizard.codeplex.com/,
• http://virtualearthphpkit.codeplex.com/

Of course I’m a bit partial to the Virtual Earth PHP Kit but these others with Silverlight and SQL Server are great as well.

Interoperability @ Microsoft : Announcing PHP SDK for Windows Azure… and much more!

 

And don’t forget, the easiest way to get set up doing PHP on Windows and IIS is to use our Web Platform Installer :)

 

PHP Driver for SQL Server Now in Web PI

 

Great news for web developers who are building PHP applications that integrate with SQL Server. We have just released an update to the Web Platform Installer that now includes the Microsoft SQL Server Driver for PHP 1.0.

 

 

 

 

Go check it out. www.microsoft.com/web

Microsoft Web PI Delivers 1.5M Product Downloads

On May 12, 2009 we announced that the Microsoft Web Platform Installer has downloaded over 1.5 million products since January 2009.

 

The Microsoft Web Platform Installer 1.0 and 2.0, and the Windows Web Application Gallery, which has received more than 100,000 application downloads, are all part of our broader Microsoft Web Platform, which includes core free Web products that help developers, designers, and end-users achieve success in developing for the Web. The Web Platform Installer is a download manager offering packaged Open Source applications to maximize productivity, making it easier for Web developers to install, and offers essential Web products and tools for building next-generation Web applications.

 

The Windows Web Application Gallery enables you to install the most popular community Web applications with just a few clicks,such as: WordPress, Drupal, DotNetNuke, Gallery and SilverStripe, which integrate with the Microsoft Web Platform.  The Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta and Windows Web Application Gallery were all recently released in Las Vegas during the MIX ’09 event and explained in Scott Guthrie’s keynote.

 

If you haven’t yet checked out the Web PI and the Application Gallery you can check them out here, www.microsoft.com/web

 

Cannon P.I. - Episode #1 is Now Available

There comes a time only maybe once in our lives where a true hero for the web developer emerges. They are caring problem solvers but are rough around the edges, they drive fast cars from the 80’s, they drink a bit too much and sometimes get into a little bit of trouble themselves.

But they are there, ready and willing to help when we need them.

Well the time has come and a new hero joins us and brings new life to Web Developers everywhere. I’d like to introduce you to the, fast driving, hard drinking, moustache wearing, Hawaiian shirt loving, and problem solving, Cannon P.I.

 

Here is the title sequence for the show. Enjoy :)

In our first episode, “To Catch and Eagle – The Secret Platform” Cannon goes to incredible lengths to help a couple of developers get the latest web platform tools, frameworks and applications using the Web Platform Installer.

 

Tons of new PHP stuff from Microsoft

Hey everybody. Apologies for not blogging lately. With the arrival of our baby I took a month off from work to spend time with the new baby (here’s a picture of him doing his Derek Zoolander look) and to give my wife a much needed break (well I tried to give her a break anyway). It’s been a great month and the weather has been really nice here in Seattle which allowed me to go take a long weekend on an Olympic Peninsula Golf Junket (more about that in a later post). It also allowed me to get outside and get the property and gardens cleaned up after a really harsh winter here. I lost a ton of plants, including my much beloved Yuccas. I had some that were up to 20 feet tall. I like them because they remind me of Arizona where I grew up. Well now my month of leave is almost up I wanted to share some of the recent announcements that may be of interest to web developers, especially those who are using PHP in some of their applications.

 

4 New PHP on Windows Virtual Labs

A collection of 4 Virtual Labs are now up on the TechNet site and will allow end users to fire up a lab and get a deep dive into PHP on Windows. Virtual Labs are great because you can go test drive without any heavy lifting at all.

 

Title	URL
IIS 7.0 Access Control Features for PHP Applications	http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9661016
Migrating PHP Applications	http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9661017
Troubleshooting PHP	http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9661018
Using IIS 7.0 Media Features in a PHP Application	http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9661019

 

Cumulative Update of the SQL Server Driver for PHP, version 1.0 is live!

The second cumulative update to version 1.0 of the SQL Server Driver for PHP is now available for download on the MSDN download site.  We have also published the updates to the source on the CodePlex site.  We've modified the source code specifically so that the extension can be compiled and used with the current builds of PHP 5.3.

 

Announcing the PHP on Windows Training Kit

This thing is really cool. I tested early versions of this thing and there is a TON of killer content in here to check out. I especially loved the SQL Spatial with PHP content but I’m partial because I was on the Virtual Earth team for a while. It also includes the Virtual Labs I mentioned above. This 40MB download is available on the Download Center and includes the following content. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9656081

 

PHP & SQL Server Demos · Integrating SQL Server Geo-Spatial with PHP · SQL Server Reporting Services and PHP PHP & SQL Server Hands On Labs · Introduction to Using SQL Server with PHP · Using Full Text Search over Office Documents in PHP PHP on Windows Hands On Labs · IIS Access Control Features for PHP · Using IIS 7.0 Media Features in a PHP Application · Troubleshooting PHP · Migrating PHP Applications to IIS 7.0

How Do I Video: Accessing Windows Live Contacts & Profiles from PHP

The guys on the Azure Services Platform Team have created another in a series of videos for the Azure Services Platform. The Azure Services Platform is continuously expanding its interoperability in a standards based approach.  Here’s another great example: Live framework is the uniform way of programming Live Services from any platform, programming language, application or device.  As a concrete example, check out a very useful “how do I” screencast  - - Access Windows Live Profiles and Contacts from PHP apps - -  by Program Manager Nishant Gupta.  He also provides a code snippet you can use to step along with the video. You can check out the video here,  Access Windows Live Profiles and Contacts from  PHP Apps. And if you’re interested you can check out this and some of the other How Do I videos they’ve created here below.

 

EDIT: Added the other Azure videos I mention above…

Extend the Live Framework Resource Model	In this screencast, find out how you can store and automatically sync many kinds of data in the Live Framework to all your devices in the mesh
Using Logging in a Windows Azure Application	Windows Azure provides a built-in framework for writing log messages from your applications. In this screencast, you’ll learn how to use the Windows Azure logging API and how to read log messages whether your application is running in the development fabric or in the cloud.
Use the .NET Workflow Service	Windows Workflow Foundation provides a platform for using managed code to defined work as composable, reusable parts. With .NET Services, you can host your workflow in the cloud and access it from anywhere. In this screencast, you’ll see the basics of taking a simple workflow and deploying it to the cloud.
Multicast with the .NET Service Bus	The Microsoft .NET Service Bus supports a range of connectivity options. In this screencast, see how multicast is supported through via code examples and sample applications.

 

So that’s it. People around here have been pretty busy creating some great content while I’ve been living a life of leisure. Take some time to check it out and ENJOY!

 

Update to Application Packaging Guide for Windows Web Application Gallery

The IIS Team has just released an updated guidance on how to package web applications when building them into our Windows Web Application Gallery. If you are actively working on creating a web application to submit to the Application Gallery you should definitely check out this update to our guidance. Check it out here, http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/578/application-packaging-guide-for-the-windows-web-application-gallery/

 

Web PI is a MUST HAVE for paving a dev box or server

Over my forth cup of coffee this morning I was doing my normal routine and reading some blogs when I came across Scott Hanselman’s post yesterday about his “MUST HAVES” for paving his machines.

Scott had tweeted on the Web Platform Installer during MIX09 the other week and liked it. Not surprisingly, this thing is pretty handy for installing web applications and pulling in all the necessary dependencies including IIS and IIS Extensions, .NET framework, tools, etc. making the process a snap.

However, this tool is also pretty handy if you find yourself with a dev box that needs to be repaved or a web server that you’re trying to get up and running quickly. That’s the beauty of the Web PI. It makes all of that so easy that it literally can take hours of the entire process.

Gotta love it when smart people find new things to do with the tools you create.

Feeling the love from our Web Application Gallery Launch Partners

It’s Barry White time around here baby. Ah Yeah!

We’ve just announced our new Windows Web Application Gallery and the love is just flowing from our partners that helped us launch this great new experience. Check out the screen shots from a few of our partners with their Web Platform Installer buttons on their home pages.

 

Announcing: Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta and Windows Web Application Gallery!

Today at MIX09 Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Developer Division provided more details about our strategy for the Microsoft Web Platform and as part of that announced the release of the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta and the Windows Web Application Gallery. So exactly what did we announce?

• The Microsoft Web Platform is our vision to deliver the best platform to developers for building their Web applications. Microsoft is committed to delivering the platform, tools, and applications that development organizations, communities, and developers need and value; with the long-term idea of supporting a lucrative market to benefit developers and end-users. The Microsoft Platform is designed to interoperate with both ASP.NET and PHP, and integrate easily with community applications and products in the market today.
• The release of the Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta . The WebPI provides a simplified download/install experience for Microsoft’s free web products. It includes everything that you need to get up and running to build your web solutions – from servers, tools, and technologies, including the most recently updated products. This means you don’t have to go to a different website and download to set up your dev machines or servers! With the WebPI, you can install the entire stack all from one website – www.microsoft.com/web and one installer. Additionally, the WebPI installs the community version of PHP 5.2.9-1 so you have easy integration with popular web applications. All you need is a Windows machine or hosted version of Windows.
• The release of the Windows Web Application Gallery. The Windows Web Application Gallery is a community hub of free and popular .NET and PHP applications for you to use for creating dynamic web solutions. Additionally, if you have a free web application you’d like to add to the Windows Web App Gallery – you can do so – and we’ll put into the Windows Web Application Gallery and get your application exposure to millions of developers worldwide.

Details on the Windows Web Application Gallery:

• The application developer owns the distribution point.
• The Windows Web Application Gallery provides links to your application ZIP packages with Web Development Tool integration on the application developer’s web site. We are not storing it on Microsoft servers.
• We point to community servers for the packages with Web Deployment integration, which is maintained and supported as part of the community app package by the community or maintainers of your web application.
• Integration with the Web Deployment Tool is designed to work with existing application packages. You need to add a couple of manifest files to the root of your existing ZIP package using the Application Packaging Guide, test to make sure that you work on the platforms supported by Web Platform Installer, and follow the other Web Application Gallery Principles.
• The Web App Gallery is open to ASP.NET and PHP applications that follow our Web Application Gallery Principles and best practices for hosting ASP.NET and PHP applications on IIS.
• All applications in the Web Application Gallery live in an XML feed that is consumed by Web Platform Installer, participating control panel vendors, and any site that also wants to integrate with the feed.
• To get started begin with the application submission process here, http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/submit.aspx

Details on the Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta:

• What’s in the Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta?
  • IIS 5.1, 6.0 or 7.0 depending on your version of Windows
  • SQL Server 2008 Express
  • .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
  • Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition
  • IIS Extensions including: Media Services 3.0, Admin Pack, DB Manager, WebDav 7.5, FTP 7.5, FastCGI for PHP support, URL Rewriter, Application Routing, Web Deployment Tool
  • ASP.NET and features such as ASP.NET MVC
  • Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio
  • The Community Version of PHP v5.2.9-1
• Supported on Windows Vista RTM, Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008.
• V2 beta is integrated with the Web Application Gallery and discovers and installs applications you select from the Web Application Gallery
• Installation of applications pulls through the required dependencies from the Web stack, including community PHP 5.2.9-1
• MySQL is not installed by WebPI but can be installed manually through guidance offered on www.microsoft.com/web

 

So check it out and explore. Also be sure to keep tabs on what the Microsoft Web Platform Team are up to over on Twitter, @mswebplatform and to see Scott Guthrie’s announcement about the Microsoft Web Platform go to www.visitmix.com and watch his announcement.

 

Finally, our relational DB in the Cloud

Check it out. We just released an updated our SQL Data Services with true relational DB support and also works with our tools with easy provisioning, fault tolerance, high availability, everything you’d need for a DB in the Cloud. The SQL Server Data Services Team has the details here, http://blogs.msdn.com/ssds/archive/2009/03/10/9469228.aspx.

Cool stuff.