Tom's MSDN Belux Corner : training

MSDN Ramp Up launched 3 new free web development tracks

tommer — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:19:00 GMT

MSDN Ramp Up is a free online learning program for developers. They’ve just launched three new ASP.NET tracks: “Web Development with ASP.NET”, “Move from ASP to ASP.NET”, and “Move from PHP to ASP.NET”. These tracks, along with the other currently offered ones (eg, Windows Mobile 6, SharePoint for Developers, Visual Studio 2008), teaches the important skills in a guided path, making the learning process easier and more efficient. The easy-to-access content (provided by subject-matter gurus) is specifically tailored for the Ramp Up program, and offered in a variety of forms (article, v-lab, codecast and slidecast). Check them out now at www.MyRampUp.com, and see how Ramp Up can help you become more employable by learning important and marketable skills.

SharePoint: new free learning track on MSDN Ramp Up

tommer — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:32:00 GMT

MSDN Ramp Up has a new free learning track on SharePoint. This information comes from the website:

As a developer, would you like to learn more about Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS)? MOSS is based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, which gives developers the opportunity to get more problems solved with less effort. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 takes full advantage of Microsoft ASP.NET and the Microsoft .NET runtime. The new features and added programmability support in MOSS provide a wealth of development opportunities. This course will immerse you in many of the developer-centric capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.

Level 1: Web Parts
Did you know that in SharePoint you can build pages as easy as in ASP.NET – and allow end users to create dashboards? Web parts allow for creating components of Web user interface that can be reused on multiple Web pages. These are introduced in ASP.NET and built on in SharePoint where they can be added to pages by end users and managed by IT Professionals. In this topic you will learn about building simple Web parts for SharePoint and how to connect them back to SharePoint site data.

Level 2: Data Lists
Did you know that SharePoint developers can work with data from lists that users get access to too? Data lists provide data storage for end users in SharePoint. End users can create lists with schema all through the SharePoint user interface and they can create, edit, and view the data. All of this data can be programmatically accessed by developers and this topic is all about that.

Level 3: Event Handlers
Did you know that SharePoint developers can automatically process data that your users upload via a spreadsheet? Event handlers (or event receivers) are custom code that runs on the SharePoint server in response to something that happens on the server. Event handlers can be useful for running business logic in response to data being added to the site. This topic shows how to create simple event handlers and investigates ways that event handlers can be used in SharePoint.

Level 4: Workflow
Did you know that you can write WF workflows in SharePoint without having to worry about storage, persistence, or how to interact with the user? Workflow in SharePoint allows for implementation of processes that require interaction such as email approvals or form completion by people in your organization. This topic shows you how to create simple workflows in SharePoint using Visual Studio that involve approvals from people by email and for meeting room resource bookings with an administrator.

Level 5: Silverlight Web Parts
Did you know that you can build rich Internet applications with SharePoint? Silverlight is a new Web user interface technology from Microsoft that allows for each implementation of animations and videos. This topic shows how a SharePoint user interface can be enhanced by using Silverlight in Web parts as part of a SharePoint site.

Technorati Tags: Ramp Up,SharePoint,free,elearning,course,training,moss,ASP.NET

Free eLearning on Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 & Visual Studio 2008

tommer — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:01:31 GMT

Microsoft Learning provides a collection of 3 eLearning clinics on different components of .NET Framework 3.5. Each clinic takes about 2 hours to complete. The collection is available for free for a limited time only.

Online learning: Developing Rich Experiences using Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 & Visual Studio 2008−free for a limited time!
This collection of 3 2-hour premium clinics teaches about the new capabilities provided by the .NET Framework 3.5. These clinics are for experienced Developers and Software Architects who are looking to adopt Microsoft's next generation technology within their solutions.

Technorati Tags: MSDN Belux,elearning,free,Visual Studio,training,.NET Framework,WCF,WF,WPF

Free eLearning on ASP.NET AJAX Extensions

tommer — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:11:02 GMT

For a limited time, Microsoft Learning offers a free subscription to the eLearning clinic "Developing Enhanced Web Experiences with Microsoft® ASP.NET AJAX Extensions". From the website:

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.

Technorati Tags: MSDN Belux,elearning,ASP.NET,AJAX,free,Visual Studio,training,web development

Free MSPress e-Book on SQL Server 2008

tommer — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:13:45 GMT

After the free e-books on LINQ, ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight 1.0, Microsoft Press is giving away another free e-Book. This time the topic of the newest free e-Book is SQL Server 2008 and it contains excerpts from the upcoming publication "Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008" by Peter DeBetta. From the website:

In this initial installment of the e-book, learn about some of the major new features in SQL Server 2008, including security, administration, and performance.
After the book is published, the entire e-book will be available from this site, so come back and read more from expert Peter DeBetta.

On the SQL Server 2008 Learning portal, you'll also find other time limited offers and general information for Microsoft Learning on SQL Server 2008, including this one:

Collection 6187: What’s New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (includes three free clinics)

Clinic 6188: What's New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 for Enterprise Data Platform
Clinic 6189: What's New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 for Business Intelligence
Clinic 6190: What's New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 for Database Development

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: e-book,ebook,microsoft,mspress,sql server,sql server 2008,learning,peter debetta,database

Visual Studio 2008 Training for Belgian Microsoft Certified Partners

tommer — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:34:53 GMT

We are organizing training sessions exclusively for Microsoft Partners in Belgium on the new features of Visual Studio 2008. This is on the agenda:

IDE and language enhancements

What’s new in the IDE of Visual Studio 2008

What’s new in Visual Basic 9.0 and Visual C# 3.0

Using .NET Framework 3.0 and .NET Framework 3.5 in applications

New features for data

LINQ to ADO.NET/SQL

New features in ADO.NET

New for web development

Improvements in the IDE for web developers

Support for ASP.NET AJAX

Improved JavaScript debugging support

LINQ and ASP.NET

Short overview of Silverlight

New for Windows and Office development

Client level application services

Overview of improvements for Office development (including Office Ribbon)

Overview of WPF applications

Windows Vista-specific features and API’s

Deployment with Click-Once

New for ALM

Overview of improvements in VSTS 2008

Overall benefits of TFS

Registration (only possible for Microsoft Partners):

Delivery 1 - Dec 13-14: https://training.Partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=237349
Delivery 2 - Jan 30-31: https://training.Partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=237350

Just for your info: there is also another exclusive partner training on Windows Server 2008 for Developers (Dec 17-19) covering Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows CardSpace, Windows eventing, Windows PowerShell and MMC, MSMQ 4, IIS 7, transactional file system, virtualization and high performance computing.

Not working for a Microsoft Partner? Or want to learn on your own?

For classroom training, check out the list of Microsoft Certified Partners for Learning Solutions to find a training on Visual Studio 2008.

For self-paced learning, check out the MSDN Virtual Labs specifically for Visual Studio and Visual Studio Team System. Also the MSDN On-Demand Webcasts from the US might be worth a look. And to conclude my list (although there are many more possibilities), there is the Visual Studio 2008 Training Kit.

MSDN Ramp Up Group on Facebook

tommer — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:55:02 GMT

Recently we launched a pilot of MSDN Ramp Up, the online learning program to gain and evaluate your .NET development skills with Visual Studio 2005. Jenny, my colleague from Sweden, has created a Facebook group for MSDN Ramp Up that you can join if you are in any way interested in the program.

If you don't know MSDN Ramp Up yet: the program offers different learning paths towards .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005. Each learning path is specifically created for different people with different starting skills, such as:

beginning or aspiring developers
Visual Basic 6.0 developers
Java developers
Visual Studio .NET 2002/2003 developers

The learning experience consists of texts, virtual online labs, webcasts, excerpts from Microsoft Press books, ... At the end of each stage, you can test your knowledge with an online assessment.

Technorati tags: Microsoft, MSDN Belux, MSDN Ramp Up, learning, Visual Studio, webcast, training

Microsoft Certification Exams: Free Second Shot

tommer — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:13:00 GMT

If you're taking Microsoft Certification exams, you might be interested in the Second Shot offer that Microsoft and Prometric are running. If you take your exam between ~~15 September 2007 and 31 January 2008~~ 30 June 2008, you can get a free retake on Microsoft IT professional, developer and Dynamics exams if you fail the first time.

In order to take advantage of this offer, you must register on the Microsoft website and follow specific instructions while scheduling your exam.

Info at Prometric: http://www.prometric.com/microsoft/2ndchance

Update: the Microsoft webpage for this promotion is http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/secondshot/default.mspx.

Update: the offer is extended till 30 June 2008!

Technorati tags: Microsoft, exams, MCP, certification, second shot, Prometric

Promotional Video for TechEd Europe 2007

tommer — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 11:22:36 GMT

September 28 is the last day that you can get the Early Bird discount when registering for TechEd Europe. Just a previous years, the organizers created a promotional video for the conference:

If you're interested to get a hi resolution WMV file of this video (for whatever reason, like for example playing it at a user group event), feel free to drop me an e-mail at tom.mertens@microsoft.com.

Here are some other different TechEd Developers facts:

You can become a rock star at TechEd Developers: submit your Speaker Idol video presentation before 5 October 2007.
The UK-based NxtGenUG user group has several interesting podcasts online. In their latest one, you'll hear an interview with Juval Löwy but they are also explaining their Great TechEd Ticket Treasure Hunt (a competition where you can win a free TechEd Developers ticket).
If you're attending the conference, don't forget to register your blog on the conference website.
Hans Verbeeck blogged about a Facebook group for TechEd Developers. You can find that group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2713709966.
Belgians and Luxemburgers are invited to the Belux Country Drink on 6 November in Barcelona. More information on that will be sent prior to the conference.

Technorati tags: Microsoft, MSDN Belux, TechEd, TechEd-Developers, Speaker Idol, commercial, video

"Analysis Services" Event By Belgian SQL Server User Group

tommer — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 11:12:14 GMT

The Belgian SQL Server User Group is having an event on "Analysis Services" on Thursday 27 September. Presenter will be Nico Verbaenen. Here is the information they sent me on the event:

Analysis Services is Microsoft's OLAP solution that is also a part of the SQL Server product pack. With this first introduction session we want to give you an overview of what you can do with Analysis services. We'll show you the complete new look and feel of Analysis Services 2005. And also show you some of the nice features. If you are curious in what Analysis services is, and want to have beginners information on how to use it, then this session is a perfect fit for you.

Date: Thursday, 27 September 2007
Doors open at 18:00
Start of presentation at 18:30

The event will take place in the offices of Kohera in Kontich. Driving directions can be found here.
Registration is required and open now.

Absolutely recommended!

Technorati tags: Microsoft, MSDN Belux, community, SQL Server, Analysis Services, SQLUG

Gain .NET Development Skills with MSDN Ramp Up; Program Pilots in Belgium

tommer — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:00:00 GMT

MSDN Ramp Up is a new online program where people can gain new Microsoft .NET development skills with .NET Framework 2.0. The program offers different guided learning paths for non-Visual Studio 2005 developers, such as:

aspiring developers,
Java developers,
Visual Basic 6.0 developers and
Visual Studio .NET 2002/2003

Each learning path is composed of premium technical content that aids the participant in developing strong fundamental skills in developing Windows and Web applications on the Microsoft application platform. The content comprises of select chapters of Microsoft Press books, world class e-Learning content and Virtual Labs, giving the participant the opportunity to apply their learning in a development environment as they proceed through the path.

Participants completing the learning paths receive access to a Graduation Award which comprises of attractive discounted advance learning and certification opportunities. The entire learning experience is offered to the participant at no cost, thereby presenting them a convenient opportunity to acquire new development skills at their own pace and enhance their career opportunities.

This program has now started as a pilot in Belgium. The special Ramp Up offerings are only available to participants in Ramp Up pilot countries (currently: Belgium, Sweden, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Philippines).

If you're interested in classroom training on Visual Studio 2005 and .NET Framework 2.0, check out the list of the Belgian Certified Partners for Learning Solutions.

Technorati tags: MSDN Belux, Ramp Up, skills development, development, Belgium, MSPress, free, elearning, training

Free Online Self-Paced Course: "Microsoft Security Guidance Training for Developers"

tommer — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 18:23:55 GMT

As a lot of developers still need to learn about application security, I'm very delighted to see that Microsoft Learning still makes available 2 clincs (each take approx. 6 hours to complete) with Microsoft Security Guidance Training for Developers at no cost. If you're a responsible developer, you should make sure you and your colleagues know the basics around application security. So please forward these 2 links to all people that you think might benefit from this free offer.

Clinic 2806: Microsoft Security Guidance Training for Developers (part 1)
This online clinic provides students with knowledge and skills essential for the creation of applications with enhanced security. Students will learn about the need for implementing security at every stage of the development process and best practices for applying security principles. Students will also learn how to use established threat modeling methodologies and tools with other best practices to minimize vulnerabilities and limit damage from attacks. Finally, students will learn how to implement security features to enhance security for Web applications and Web services that are built by using Microsoft ASP.NET.
Clinic 2807: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training for Developers (part 2)
This clinic discusses best practices for building security into the design, development, testing, and deployment phases of the software development life cycle. It is targeted towards individuals with at least one to two years of programming experience. The course will provide developers with the skills and knowledge to design and develop more secure Microsoft solutions.

Alternatively, you can also read the following Microsoft Press books on general application security topics:

Writing Secure Code, Second Edition
This book is a classic. Contrary to what one might think, this book is not boring at all. I remember having it read completely (approx. 800 pages) in about a week, which is very fast for me. Really recommended reading! As indicated on the book: "Discover the best practices for writing secure code and stopping malicious hackers in their tracks - direct from the top security experts at Microsoft!"
Writing Secure Code for Windows Vista
This book complements "Writing Secure Code, Second Edition" and adds specific topics around application security and Windows Vista. Topics include developing applications to run without administrator privileges, best practices for integrity controls, authentication, authorization and cryptographic enhancements.
Security Development Lifecycle
It's important to think about security from the beginning till the end when analyzing and developing an application. That's why a Security Development Lifecycle should be incorporated in the Application Lifecycle. Michael Howard and Steve Lipner from the Microsoft Security Engineering Team share their knowledge and best practices around SDL with their readers. (Some Belgians might remember the VISUG session on this topic of several months ago. The feedback was quite positive.) You might also be interested in reading the Security Development Lifecycle MSDN Blog.

I know that I keep repeating the same message time after time. But that's only because it is still necessary to have people learn about application security. Still too many applications and web sites are vulnerable to the easiest, simplest and most common security attacks. That's why every IT manager, every development team lead, yes, even every developer should make sure that their development team know about application security and how to avoid security breaches and pitfalls.

Technorati tags: Microsoft, elearning, security, application security, MSDN, Visual Studio, training

Want To Become TechEd Europe's Next Great Speaker?

tommer — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:56:04 GMT

Speaker Idol is a contest at TechEd Europe where conference attendees can compete to become a speaker during the next TechEd Europe. Last year this contest was won by Belgian speaker, blogger and MVP Bart De Smet.

If you want to participate in this year's contest at TechEd Developers, be sure:

Record yourself delivering a presentation of maximum 3 minutes;
Submit that video before Friday 5 October, but preferably earlier as only the 30 first submissions are eligible to participate;

See the full list of rules and process at the Speaker Idol 2007 page.

I know that we have some great talent in Belgium, so I hope they'll submit an entry for the contest. It would be great to have a Belgian again as Speaker Idol! If you are a Belgian and want to participate, feel free to contact me at tom.mertens@microsoft.com.

PS. The Super Early Bird offer for the conference will end on 30 July. The Super Early Bird includes:

300 EUR discount on the registration price;
An invitation to an exclusive session with a top Microsoft speaker;
Reserved priority seating during the opening keynote;
Limited edition baseball cap.

Last year we had more than 200 Belgians at TechEd Developers and it looks like we'll exceed that number of Belgian participants again this year.

Technorati tags: TechEd, TechEd Developers, Speaker Idol, Microsoft, conference

Free Event on the IIS7 "Longhorn" Web Server Platform in Belgium

tommer — Tue, 08 May 2007 19:31:02 GMT

Arlindo was the first to write about it (and he allowed me to borrow his post):

What is IIS7?

A secure, easy to manage server platform for developing and for reliable hosting Web applications.

Microsoft Windows Server code name "Longhorn" is the next generation of the Windows server operating system that helps IT maximize control over their infrastructure. Windows Server "Longhorn" delivers Microsoft's most powerful pipeline of Web technology around the latest version of Internet Information Services (IIS). Far from a simple version upgrade, IIS version 7.0 is an extensible platform for more reliably and securely hosting Web applications and services that are easy to manage at scale.

IIS 7.0 is a major enhancement to earlier versions, offering for the first time a componentized architecture with full extensibility, a single integrated pipeline for all IIS and ASP.NET processing, and a comprehensive Administration tool to support powerful diagnostics and delegated management.

This comprehensive one-day seminar will introduce you to many of the key improvements in IIS 7, including administration, security and troubleshooting.

When?

Monday, May 21

Agenda?

09:00
Microsoft's Next Generation Web Server: What's New in IIS7 for IT Pros
This overview session will highlight the key points of interests for IT Pros in Internet Information Services version 7. IIS7 modularity increases security by allowing a reduced installation footprint and creation of specialized, streamlined servers. Application Pools are now “sandboxed” by default. You'll see how IIS7 eases administration with a new IIS Manage UI, delegated administration, and new tools for automating administrative tasks. Applications run more reliably as they are easier to troubleshoot with built in tracing and diagnostics. Finally, multiple servers can use a single configuration file with the shared configuration feature for web farms. (75 min)

10:15
Break

10:45
IIS7 Administration: The New IIS Manager
IIS7 Administration centers around the new task-oriented IIS Manager. This redesigned administration tool has many major new capabilities including the ability to delegate features, edit .NET configuration and has significantly improved performance when managing many sites. The IIS Manager itself is an extensible, modular application that administrators can customize and developers can extend. In this presentation we'll explore how use and control the IIS Manager with a special focus on Delegated Administration. In addition, we'll explore how to use Granular Locking to fine tune your delegated settings beyond those available in the UI. (75 min)

12:00
Lunch

13:00
IIS7 Administration: Shared Configuration, Remote Control, and Automated Tools
For web farms, IIS7 has a powerful new feature – Shared Configuration. This allows you to configure multiple servers to share a single configuration file. The benefits are clear - all web servers have identical configuration so there's no need to do configuration replication. In addition, IIS Manager has built in remote administration capabilities. Using https between the IIS Manager and the remote server, this feature includes the ability to define trusted users in IIS Manager and have identities securely stored in the IIS configuration, Windows SAM or AD, or a .NET provider. Of course, many organizations need to automate administration tasks. APPCMD is the new powerful, general purpose command line utility for controlling configuration, state for site and pools, and querying status. WMI has been improved specifically for IIS management, and there's a new managed code API Microsoft.Web.Adminsitration that makes it easy for developers use .NET to write IIS management tools. PowerShell can use the managed API or WMI, giving you a superior command line and scripting environment for managing your servers. (75 min)

14:15
Break

14:45
IIS7 Security: Less Exposure, Greater Control
IIS7 security improvements can be found in many areas. In addition to the ability to control the server footprint, security is improved with the new URLFiltering and URLAuthorization capabilities. Also, you can now use Forms authentication with any content while leveraging .NET role and membership providers. In addition, there are key changes in the user principles and groups used by IIS7 that will make the server both easier to manage and more secure. Finally, application pool sandboxing helps to improve the security boundary between application pools. (75 min)

16:00
Break

16:15
IIS7 Troubleshooting: Failed Request Tracing
One of the most exciting features in IIS7 for administrators is the new built-in failed request tracing capabilities. You can configure IIS7 to automatically create a detailed trace log of events that occurred in the request processing pipeline when specific error codes are seen and/or if a request takes more than N seconds to complete. This is configurable at the server, site, application, or file level, and can be configured in the UI or with a command line tool. The resulting trace log is ideal for identifying bottlenecks. Like everything in IIS7, it is extensible and can be customized with new events. (75 min)

17:30
Q&A and Closing

Where?

Utopolis
Spuibeekstraat, 5
2800 Mechelen / Malines
Belgium
How to get there

Registration (free of charge):

http://www.microsoft.com/belux/technet/nl/events/2007/webadmintour.mspx

Technorati tags: Technet, Longhorn, IIS7, event

Two Day Free Open XML Training for Developers

tommer — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 09:59:50 GMT

A new hands-on training has been announced on MSDN Belgium & Luxembourg:

How To Develop With Open XML – A Technical Deep Dive

Date: 22 and 23 May 2007 from 9:00 till 17:00
Location: Business Faculty, Neder-Over-Heembeek (Belgium)
Price: free of charge

This course will start with a introduction to the particularities about programming with XML. Then the overall structure of the Open XML standard with the specialized packages for word processing, spreadsheet calculations and presentations is presented. All concepts are illustrated with hands-on experience. When you end this course the second day, you will walk away with the total picture and enough practical, hands on experience to immediately start using Open XML programming techniques for the benefit of your own projects.

Open XML is very interesting from a developer’s point of view:
1. It allows you to seamlessly integrate your applications with Office 2007, without having to recur to Office APIs;
2. Novell and Corel have announced Open XML support in their own desktop suites; you are not tied to the Microsoft platform per se;
3. Open XML is programming language neutral and platform neutral; it is an ideal bridge between Microsoft and non-Microsoft platforms;
4. Open XML greatly facilitates the integration of back-end systems, that increasingly communicate using XML dialects, with the user’s desktop world. Document manipulation is not tied anymore to the desktop, but can be done at the business application level whenever appropriate.

Technorati tags: Microsoft, MSDN, Open XML, OpenXML, training