Public Sector Developer Weblog

Bing Maps roadshow in Reston

NOTE: This was cross posted from here.

Want to get up to speed on the latest release of Bing Maps including both the Ajax and Silverlight controls as well as the SOAP web services?  Don’t miss the upcoming roadshow in Reston, Va.  Details:

http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/govmaps/archive/2009/11/24/bing-maps-roadshow-coming-to-reston-virgina.aspx

“At this event, experts will provide an overview of Bing Maps as a powerful visualization tool for geographic and location-based information. With highlights of scenarios such as locators, fleet/asset tracking, data visualization portals, and location intelligence, we’ll present a deep dive into the Bing Maps Platform, including details on specific features, AJAX, Web Services, and new Silverlight APIs.

We’ll also review exciting recent enhancements, exploring ways to integrate with GIS systems and leverage SQL 2008 spatial features, as well as other related tools and technologies.  When you meet the experts, you’ll learn solution implementation and best practices―and you’ll leave with the tools and resources to tap the power of location using Bing Maps.

Event Summary:
1:00 - 2:15  Introduction to Bing Maps, Solution Overview, and Demos
2:30 - 3:30 Deep Dive on Architecture and APIs
3:45 - 5:00 Best Practices, Data Integration, and Future of Bing Maps”

Microsoft Public Sector Technology Conference - Sacramento, CA

Microsoft Public Sector Technology Conference - Sacramento, CA

REGISTER TODAY!           

Click the link above OR call 1-877-673-8368 and reference Event ID: 1032431198

Event Date:  December 10, 2009

Registration:  08:30

Event Time:  09:00 – 16:00

Event Location:
California Secretary of State Auditorium
1500 11th Street 
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 653-6814

About the Conference

We invite you to join us for a day of developer-oriented technical sessions, featuring the Microsoft Windows 7, Windows Azure and SQL Azure, .NET and Internet Explorer 8. These exciting technologies enable entirely new types of applications to be built in record time. Windows 7 enables developers to create distinctive and intuitive applications that significantly enhance discoverability, usability, and sheer enjoyment. New methods of desktop integration put application functionality right at the user's fingertips, and Windows Explorer and Libraries provide easy access to high-value information. The session on Windows 7 will provide a high level overview of how .NET developers can take advantage of new features in Windows 7 using the Windows® API Code Pack for Microsoft® .NET Framework. The next presentation will focus on understanding the importance of the “parallel computing shift” and also the technologies introduced in .NET 4 that are easing this transition.

The afternoon session begins with a presentation on Microsoft Windows Azure and SQL Azure.  Windows® Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Windows Azure Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft® data centers. Microsoft® SQL Azure Database is a cloud-based relational database platform built on SQL Server® technologies. With SQL Azure Database, you can easily provision and deploy relational database solutions to the cloud, and take advantage of a globally distributed data center that provides enterprise-class availability, scalability, and security with the benefits of built-in data protection, self-healing and disaster recovery.

The final session of the day features Windows Internet Explorer 8 - ushering in a new wave of browser innovation from Microsoft, including Web Slices and Accelerators, while maintaining compatibility with today's Web standards. This presentation will cover several new aspects of Internet Explorer 8 from a developer's perspective. The session will provide an overview of Internet Explorer 8 application compatibility features, and will include practical examples of using Web Slices and Accelerators to increase the stickiness and usefulness of an existing site.

The day’s sessions will target Developers, Architects and Web designers, be very much demonstration oriented, and will be delivered by seasoned developers with experience in Government and Public Sector. Seize this opportunity to immerse yourself amidst these exciting new technologies!

Who Should Attend

Developers, Architects, Web Designers and technical managers who wish to get an early look at the next advancement in Software Development. 

The Agenda

EventToCommand + DataStateBehavior eases MVVM pain

NOTE: This was cross posted from here.

MVVM is a pattern.  There are all sorts of MVVM frameworks popping up that help make implementing the pattern easier.  If you select the MVVM tag off of www.codeplex.com, you will find a number of them:

http://www.codeplex.com/site/search?TagName=MVVM&ProjectSearchText=%22MVVM%22

One I have recently grown fond of is http://mvvmlight.codeplex.com/.  The reason I like this one is because they have built an Expression Blend Behavior called EventToCommand.  Details for the behavior:

http://blog.galasoft.ch/archive/2009/11/05/mvvm-light-toolkit-v3-alpha-2-eventtocommand-behavior.aspx

As the post says, ‘EventToCommand is used to bind an event to an ICommand directly in XAML.”

This is WAY COOL!!!  EventToCommand helps overcome commanding challenges in Silverlight.

I love Blend Behaviors.  If you haven’t looked into them, YOU MUST!  Every WPF and Silverlight developer should be using them (where applicable).  “A Behavior is in essence a reusable piece of interactivity that can be applied directly to user interface elements...”

Here are some resources:

Good Overview - http://tinyurl.com/BehaviorsOverview

More reading - http://tinyurl.com/BehaviorsTriggersActions

Expression Blend 3 SDK - http://tinyurl.com/blend3sdk 

Lots of folks creating and uploading them to Expression Gallery - http://tinyurl.com/BehaviorsGallery

Behaviors from the Blend Team - http://expressionblend.codeplex.com/

Behaviors are part of the Blend SDK.  There is a lot of confusion about the Blend SDK because people think you have to buy Blend to use it.  You don’t!  You can download it from http://tinyurl.com/blend3sdk and use it straight from Visual Studio.  Blend definitely makes wiring up Behaviors easier so you should it for that if you are already using Blend!

The samples you can download from http://expressionblend.codeplex.com/ include DataStateBehavior and DataStateSwitchBehavior.  Peter Blois has a good post on these behaviors:

http://blois.us/blog/2009/04/datatrigger-bindings-on-non.html

DataStateBehavior/DataStateSwitchBehavior provide a nice clean way to change values in your ViewModel that result in initiating animations in your View.

I’ve been wanting to whip up a simple sample that shows both EventToCommand and DataStateBehavior/DataStateSwitchBehavior.  Unfortunately, I don’t have the time right now to do so.  Instead of sitting on this, I decided to blog about it first, then share a sample/video when I get around to it.

-Marc

Interview with David Chappell from the 2009 Microsoft Windows Azure Tour in Reston, VA on 9/23/2009

Thank you for attending the 2009 Microsoft Windows Azure Tour in Reston, VA on 9/23/2009. To view an interview with David Chappell, please click on the link below:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=2a9ae93f4d0e8e5bbda4076e811714c8cf65b316e4d3c8b561390143435ec59c

PDC 09 content & learning resources

PDC 09 (premier Professional Developers Conference) was held in Los Angeles, CA from Nov. 15^th-19^th 2009. We covered some exciting technologies (Windows 7, Visual Studio 2010, Windows Azure, Silverlight 4, Office 2010 and Sharepoint Server 2010, etc), so we have listed some resources to make it easier for you to get familiar with them. Folks that weren’t available to travel can watch most/all of the sessions (available online), check out the decks and other resources (training materials).  Feel free to share this blogpost with your colleagues and development staff.

PDC 09 Online Sessions: http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions 

1. Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4: (Beta2 is available and includes Go-Live license)

·         Training on Channel9 http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/VS2010/

·         10-4 Shows on Channel9: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4/

·         Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit - October Preview

2. Windows Server 2008 AppFabric Beta 1 (includes Project Dublin and Velocity Distributed In-Memory Caching): http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/app-main.aspx   (AppFabric will also be available for Windows Azure next year)

3. Windows Azure

·         Learning on Channel9

·         Training - Windows Azure Platform Training Kit – November Update

·         Short Training Videos on Windows Azure

·         Webcasts on Windows Azure

·         Windows Azure SDK

·         Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio (November 2009)

·         Microsoft .NET Services SDK (Nov 2009 CTP)

4. Identity Developer (Windows Identity Foundation has gone RTW)

·         Identity Management homepage (has links to the bits, documentation, webcasts, kit, etc) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/aa570351.aspx

·         Identity Developer Training Kit

·         Training on Channel9

5. Sharepoint Server 2010

·         PDC Session: http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/P09-18

·         Sharepoint Live (Virtual Conference) sessions

·         Channel 9 Sessions on developing with Sharepoint Server 2010

6. Silverlight 4 beta announced

·         Information on Silverlight 4 at Silverlight community site: http://silverlight.net/getstarted/silverlight-4-beta/

·         PDC Session: http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/KEY02

·         Channel 9 sessions on Silverlight 4: http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Silverlight4/

7. Windows 7

·         Training Kit for Developers:

·         Training on Channel9: http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Windows7

Enjoy.

Microsoft PDC 2009 – The Videos

I know it isn't the norm for Public Sector developers to travel to conferences and such, so let the conference comes to YOU!

Here is a link to all the PDC09 Videos

http://microsoftpdc.com/Videos

Surface Toolkit for Windows Touch

NOTE: This was cross posted from here.

Robert Levy from the Surface team and Anson Tsao from the WPF team gave a great session on:

Multi-Touch on Microsoft Surface and Windows 7 for .NET Developers

The session is definitely worth watching if you are interested in building multi-touch apps on Windows 7.  In the session, they announced the Surface Toolkit for Windows Touch which is a set of “Controls, samples, templates, and docs Coming shortly after the WPF4 launch.”  Don’t let the Surface name fool you, the toolkit will work on any Windows 7 touch PC with the .NET Framework 4.0 installed.

This is exciting news that I have been keeping under wraps for quite some time.  The toolkit will take Windows 7 multi-touch developer productivity for WPF4 developers to the next level.  During the session, they shared that the toolkit will include:

Common controls optimized for Multi-Touch

Controls design primarily for Multi-Touch

Essential Multi-Touch UX Functionality

Hearing all of this is, of course, a bit of a tease since the controls won’t be available for a while, but exciting news nonetheless.  The good news is that the Surface team also announced that the Surface SDK is no longer “by invitation only.”  You can download it from http://surface.com/developer.  Since the toolkit is a subset of existing Surface 1.0 SDK assets ported to WPF4, you can get a head start by evaluating the Surface 1.0 SDK.  If your development cycle is far enough out, you might even want to consider building your app on the Surface 1.0 SDK and porting it to WPF4 / Windows 7 when the toolkit is available.  Of course, you will have to stick to the subset that is being ported to WPF4, but your code will only need minimal changes (if any) to run on a Windows 7 PC once the toolkit is released.

Great PDC session on SharePoint 2010 sandbox solutions

NOTE: This was cross posted from here.

http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/PR10

I missed this session at PDC.  There were so many good sessions, it was hard to choose.  The good news is that the sessions are now showing up at http://microsoftpdc.com/Videos. 

I didn’t get to elaborate on sandbox solutions in any great detail during my recent developer dinner presentation on SharePoint 2010 due to time constraints.  However, this is a very important feature of SharePoint that you will want to dig into as you go explore SharePoint 2010.  Chances are the environment you will be deploying solutions to will only allow sandboxed solutions.

-Marc

Silverlight touch just got easier

NOTE: This was cross posted from here.

I’ve been waiting for this to happen!  The Surface team ported their Manipulation and Inertia APIs to Silverlight 3+.  They’ve made them available for download at:

http://tinyurl.com/SurfaceManipSilverlight

This is a must have set of APIs if you are interested in building multi-touch solutions on Windows 7 with Silverlight 3+.

-Marc

SharePoint as-a Platform Event : Content

Thanks to everyone who attended the SharePoint as-a Platform events in DC/Reston and Online.  Below are links to the recordings and decks from the Event.  Enjoy!

MSDN Video: SharePoint as a Development Platform (Part 3 of 4): SharePoint Application Development with Visual Studio

MSDN Video: SharePoint as a Development Platform (Part 4 of 4): Building a Successful SharePoint Development Team

ADO.NET Data Services for Java and PHP developers

NOTE: This was cross posted from here.

Every time I talk about ADO.NET Data Services, I mention that they can be consumed by any API that allows you to make http requests.  I usually show how you can use the Add Service Reference feature of Visual Studio to generate proxy classes to make it simple to interact with the data service.  Finally, I mention that Java and PHP toolkits exist to accomplish similar levels of developer productivity.  However, I don’t think I have ever put links to those toolkits in any of my presentations.  Here they are:

http://tinyurl.com/DataServicesJava

http://tinyurl.com/DataServicesPHP

SharePoint 2010 exposes lists as an ADO.NET Data Service.  Therefore, you can use these toolkits to interact with SharePoint!

-Marc

FOLLOW UP: Developer Dinner on SharePoint 2010

NOTE: This was cross posted from here.

Thanks to everyone for coming out.  As I mentioned at the dinner, we will skip December due to the holidays.  We will start up in January again.  Topic and date TBD.  Here’s the deck I used today:

Keep an eye out for the hidden slides.  There are quite a few more slides than I actually went through.

-Marc

SQL Azure and SSMS: happy together

NOTE: This was cross posted from here.

SQL Server Management Studio Support for SQL Azure

http://blogs.msdn.com/ssds/archive/2009/11/10/9920168.aspx

More details:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee621784.aspx

One of the things they don’t mention in the post is that all this works in SQL Server Management Studio Express!  Go get it:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=c772467d-e45b-43e1-9208-2c7b663d7ad1

Happy SSMSing with SQL Azure!!!

-Marc

Public Sector/Healthcare & Life Sciences Dinner and Cloud Computing Showcase

An Invitation for partners in the LA area or those that are attending PDC: if you are a Public Sector partner or HLS customer please see below!

Please join us at the Figueroa hotel for cocktails, dinner, and discussion at the Public Sector/Healthcare & Life Sciences Cloud Computing Showcase on November 17, 2009 in conjunction with the PDC09 conference.  This invite-only event will bring together developers and technologists in the Public Sector and Healthcare & Life Sciences industry for a casual evening of networking with your peers, as well as the opportunity to see some highly compelling Windows Azure solutions that are being developed by some industry leaders.  In addition, we will have a short panel discussion to share best practices and ideas on Cloud Computing.

Agenda:

6:00pm-6:30pm Welcome/Cocktails

6:30pm-7:30pm Dinner

7:30pm-8:30pm Solution showcases

8:30pm-9:00pm Panel discussion

Location: 

Hotel Figueroa

Rabat Room

939 S. Figueroa Street

Los Angeles, CA 90015

213-627-8971

www.figueroahotel.com

RSVP:

To register or for more information, please send an email to PDC PS/HLS Dinner RSVP.  If you know of someone who might also be interested in this event, please send their email address to PDC PS/HLS Dinner RSVP so we can add them to the list and send out an invitation.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Note: Government employees who are prohibited from accepting free meals/gifts must pay for their meals at this event.  Should you be required to purchase your meals, the Cocktail Reception will be offered at the rate of $15 and dinner at $35.  In order to comply with all applicable gift and ethics rules Microsoft cannot provide meals/gifts to government employees (including military and educational institutions) without payment or a signed authorization letter from the agency/institution ethics officer/attorney or designated executive officer. Donations are in no way required or requested by Microsoft. The option to make meal donations is offered at the request of government and educational institutions to ensure adherence to all gifting policies.  All money received will be donated.

Going to PDC?

Our team is looking to connect with customers at PDC.  So if you work or are doing work (as contractor, consultant, etc.) for a US Government organization, then drop us a line here.  We’d love to connect at PDC.

-Marc