Over the past year, I've been doing lots of work using WPF and Silverlight to plot data on maps, and of late, I've had the good fortune to tap into the power of SQL 2008's geospatial capabilities to enhance my applications. As I think these experiences are of general interest to ISVs, I'm going to blog about them. As I'll be going into technical detail, I'll provide digest summaries here with pointers off to detailed entries + code on my personal blog. Let me begin by providing the general premise of what I'm trying to achieve...
Smart clients provide a great opportunity to bulid dynamic mapping applications without pounding on the server every time the data changes. Don't get me wrong - having the server render maps+data is quite powerful and useful.
However, adding WPF and/or Silverlight provides freedom of design for how those data are presented, provided that you can properly locate data points on the image generated by the server (I'll show you how..) Adding SQL Server 2008 allows you to get answers to complex geographic questions about your data (I'll show you how to do this too..) Putting all this together makes for some nice application possibilities.
As there are already many good sources of info about WPF, Silverlight, and SQL 2008 Geospatial functionality, I'm not going to repeat that info here. Instead, I'm going to presume that you know WPF, Silverlight, XAML, and the basics of SQL 2008 spatial data. In my next posting, I'll begin by showing you how to use a piece of client side code to plot points accurately on a map in both WPF and SL. In the meantime, I hope I've piqued your interest in this topic.
The new version of .NET Framework Service Pack 1 includes an update to Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) that includes a slimmed down version called Client Profile. Instead of more than 50 megs that had been required on Windows XP, now you'll have a 25 meg runtime to make it easier to deply.
You can create WPF applications without needing to install the entier .NET Framework, which makes deployment easier to download and run for your customers.
In addition, there some new graphics enhancements for you to use any Direct3D surface as a brush for WPF content. A shader class that enables effects like blurs, drop shadows, and flares is hardware accelerated.
Other benefits include tweaking to browser-based WPF applications (XBAPs), new controls include the Office Ribbon Control, and ClickOnce support for Firefox.
For more information and links to downloads, see the MSDN site Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 Beta Downloads. For more information about what you'll see in the new releases, see Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 Beta. You can download Client Profile from Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Client Profile (BETA).
Microsoft Research has unveiled a new user experience by looking up. WorldWide Telescope is Web 2.0 visualization software for your computer to act as a virtual telescope.You can now experience WorldWide Telescope to see the same images that scientists at NASA use in their research. You can see Earth from the same perspective that astronauts see as they descend to Earth.
WorldWide Telescope draws on more than 12 terabytes of imagery — bigger than the print collection of the Library of Congress. The desktop application downloads the images on demand and stitches them together to form an interactive, browsable universe supplemented with information from top astronomical databases and guided tours that put it all into context.
You can choose from a growing number of guided tours of the sky by astronomers and educators. You can pause the tour or explore on your own. It uses Visual Experience Engine that allows seamless panning and zooming around the night sky, planets, and image environments. You can see the sky in multiple wavelengths: x-rays or visible light.
WorldWide Telescope blends terabytes of images, information, and stories into a seamless, immersive, rich media experience. For download instructions and link for the download, see Experience WWT.
Greg Oliver, one of my peers, recently sent out an e-mail about valuable free resources our partners frequently miss and I thought it'd be great idea to pass these resources on to our broader audience. Researching our portfolios we found that over 80% of partners make no use of these benefits, even though they’re included at no extra charge.
| Feature | Benefits | How to Access |
| ISV Advisory Hours | Technical Trainings, Code walk-throughs, architecture reviews, etc. 40 hours per year for Gold, 15 hours per year for Certified partners (with the ISV Competency) | Gold: isvgold@microsoft.com Certified: isvcert@microsoft.com |
| 5 support incidents per year Certified and Gold Certified | Individualized How-to, won’t compile, etc. | 800-765-7768 option 5 |
| Managed Newsgroups | Community how-to, won’t compile, etc. (24 hr turnaround) | Click Here |
| ISV Concierge | Everything that we bring to you monthly in the Communique. Notifications of events, trainings, special offers, etc. | Click Here |
| Metro Support | Technical support for your platform adoption projects (e.g. UC, WS2008, VS2008, SQL2008, Vista Certification, etc) | http://www.discovermetro.net Profile your platform adoption project, then click the “Support” link in the listing. |
Again, the vast majority of Gold partners have 40 hours in their bank and all 5 incidents go unused. These benefits reset each year on your partner program anniversary. In other words, use them or lose them.
At the end of this post is an abbreviated listing of training courses available through your Advisory Hours. Note that these are instructor-led courses, not webcasts. You can ask questions and get answers! ISV Advisory also runs monthly group courses that you can join at a reduced rate (meaning less than actual time deducted from your 40 hours).
If you have any questions about how to access these benefits, please don't hesitate to reach out to your Microsoft advisor.
Training available from ISV Advisory Hours service (abbreviated)
- ASP.NET AJAX
- Base class library enhancements in .Net Framework 3.5
- BizTalk Server 2006
- Build Windows Presentation Foundation applications with VS 2008
- Introduction to Windows Presentation Foundation
- Introduction to Windows Workflow Foundation
- LINQ to SQL for Relational Data Access
- LINQ to XML
- Microsoft CRM 3.0 / 4.0
- Microsoft Office SharePoint Server2007
- Silverlight
- SQL Server 2005
- SQL Server 2005 - Business Intelligence
- SQL Server 2008
- Team Foundation Server
- VB.NET 9.0
- Visual Studio 2005
- Visual Studio Team System
- What's new in C# 3.0
- WSS 3.0
So, you’ve downloaded and installed the .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta bits but you have no clue what’s new, right? Have no fear, the team that brought you the extremely popular Visual Studio 2008 Training Kit has released a new kit to teach you all about the new stuff. You can get that kit here, and you can read more about it in Jonathan Carter’s blog post.
Brian Harry, of the Visual Studio team, posted a link to a new whitepaper the team has published on Visual Studio Team System 2008 licensing. So, if you’ve been trying to figure out just what you need to be properly licensed for Visual Studio, here’s your the information you need.
Brian’s blog post
Download the whitepaper
The first beta release of Service Pack 1 for both Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 are available.
With Service Pack 1, Visual Studio 2008 introduces a large assortment of new features for targeting Windows, Office, and the Web.
Developers building .NET-basedapplications will enjoy improved performance in the WPF designer, new components for Visual Basic and Visual C++, as well as an MFC-based Office 2007 Ribbon. Web developers will see continued improvement in the client-side script tooling including JavaScript IntelliSense. Additionally, full support for SQL Server 2008, the ADO.NET Entity Framework and performance improvements for the IDE make Service Pack 1 a great release across the board.
Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 includes:
- Improved designers for building WPF applications
- Full support for SQL Server 2008
- The introduction of the ADO.NET Entity Designer
- Visual Basic and Visual C++ components and tools (including an MFC-based Office 2007 style 'Ribbon')
- Improvements to Team Foundation Server to respond to customer feedback on version control usability and performance, improved e-mail integration with work item tracking and full support for hosting on SQL Server 2008
- Improvements for Web development including richer JavaScript support, enhanced AJAX and data tools, and Web site deployment
The .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 includes:
- Performance increases between 20-45% for WPF-based applications - without having to change any code
- WCF improvements that give developers more control over the way they access data and services
- Streamlined installation experience for client applications
- Improvements in the area of data platform, such as the ADO.NET Entity Framework, ADO.NET Data Services and support for SQL Server 2008's new features.
In addition, Service Pack 1 for the .NET Framework and Visual Studio 2008 includes a number of new features:
- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Visual Designer Changes
- .NET Framework 3.5 Client Profile
- New ADO.NET Data Features
- Team Foundation Server Improvements
For more information and links to downloads, see the MSDN site Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 Beta Downloads. You’ll also find details about known compatibility issues in certain releases of Expression and Silverlight. For more information about what you'll see in the new releases, see Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 Beta.
User guides, samples, and walkthroughs have been released for Visual Studio extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 v1.1 (VSeWSS). This extensions are currently available for Visual Studio 2005 and will be available for Visual Studio 2008 in June.
VSeWSS includes tools for developing custom SharePoint applications, such as Visual Studio project templates for Web Parts, site definitions, and list definitions; and a stand-alone utility program, the SharePoint Solution Generator.
The 200-page user guide applies to both versions of Visual Studio 2005 extensions for Windows SharePoint and Visual Studio 2005 extensions for Windows SharePoint when it's released. The user guide includes an introductions and a walkthrough for each project template. The guide includes a description of WSP View that you can use to build the deployment package for SharePoint projects.
The user guide sections include the following:
- Starting out in SharePoint development
- Walkthrough of VSeWSS user interface including WSP View
- The Team Site Project
- The Blank Project
- The List Definition Project
- The Web Part Project
- The Workflow Porjects
- Project Item Templates
- Best Practices with VSeWSS
Paul Andrew describes what is included in the release on his blog entry, Announcing: Visual Studio extensions for SharePoint – Developer User Guide. You can get the user guide at Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2005 Extensions User Guide, Version 1.1 at the Microsoft download center. The tools for Visual Studio 2005 are available at Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2005 Extensions, Version 1.1.
In this Microsoft Dynamics Platform Adoption Stories series, I will continue to share success stories of my managed ISVs, highlighting their platform adoption experience, their Aha moments and advice to newer ISVs to be successful. Enjoy the next one…
Click here for my conversation with William Barrow, CTO of Axonom, a successful ISV, in the High-Tech, Government and Associations, and Financial Services industries with their flagship application Powertrak CRM.
Prior Stories:
· 422 Group
· Client Profiles>
· Campus Management Corp>
Sanjay Jain
Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Blogs: Team’s Blog + Sanjay’s Blog
In this Microsoft Dynamics Platform Adoption Stories series, I will continue to share success stories of my managed ISVs, highlighting their platform adoption experience, their Aha moments and advice to newer ISVs to be successful. Enjoy the next one…
Click here for my conversation with Doug Wofford, President & CEO, and Keith Beindorf, VP Product Development of 422 Group, a successful ISV, in the Higher-Education industry with their flagship application Continuum 422 CRM.
Prior Stories:
· Client Profiles
· Campus Management Corp
Sanjay Jain
Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Blogs: Team’s Blog + Sanjay’s Blog
In this Microsoft Dynamics Platform Adoption Stories series, I will continue to share success stories of my managed ISVs, highlighting their platform adoption experience, their Aha moments and advice to newer ISVs to be successful. Enjoy the next one…
here for my conversation with Kevin Wydra, VP & Director R&D with Client Profiles , a successful ISV, in the legal industry with their flagship application CRM4Legal.
Prior Stories:
· Campus Management Corp
Sanjay Jain
Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Blogs: Team’s Blog + Sanjay’s Blog
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is designed to meet the performance and scalability requirements of large enterprises. The benchmark test results detailed in these white papers can help customers and partners understand various aspects of performance and scalability in version 4.0. See here for more details.
Sanjay Jain
Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Blogs: Team’s Blog + Sanjay’s Blog
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is built on a sophisticated line-of-business application platform that provides the basic services required by ISVs and developers to build upon. While this ability is clearly applicable in CRM-type scenarios, Microsoft Dynamics CRM also supports a wide range of other business applications (xRM-type scenarios, helping people manage all kinds of connections and relationships of all forms: government to citizen, politician to constituent) with the essentials required for building, delivering and maintaining them in a multi-tenant Software+Services environment. In this white paper we explore how, with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, an ISV can quickly build, deploy and manage line-of-business applications. See here for more details including several white-papers.
Sanjay Jain
Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Blogs: Team’s Blog + Sanjay’s Blog
XNA Community Games Platform team has delivered the first community technology preview (CTP) of XNA Game Studio 3.0, enabling developers to build games for Zune. XNA Game Studio 3.0 allows all game developers to create unique and imaginative games for the entire family of Zune media devices. This feature gives game developers access to the majority of the XNA framework APIs while retaining a seamless sense of integration with the Zune media experience.
Using these tools, developers will have the capability to develop once for all three platforms: the Xbox 360, Windows, and Zune in the final release of XNA Game Studio 3.0. Developers can write one game and target any platform, however, cross-platform networking between all three platforms is not supported. In the CTP version, only Windows and Zune platforms are supported.
This preview release of XNA Game Studio 3.0 is now available through the XNA Creators Club Online site, with a final release scheduled for the holiday 2008 season. In addition, there's a discussion group: Zune game development with XNA Game Studio 3.0 Discussion Thread.
LitwareHR has been updated to support SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) as the online storage provider. LitwareHR is the Software as a Service (SaaS) reference application that demonstrates how to create multi-tenant applications on the Microsoft platform. The application includes source code to show you how it was done.
The latest update includes a new data model that works with SSDS flexible entities, new infrastructure for data access to SSDS including hi-latency scenarios, cross container search, and support for offline development. The kit also includes unit tests and new improved user experience. A dependency checker verifies that you've installed all the prerequisites. And more.
You can get the Litware HR May release on Codeplex. To use SSDS as your storage provider, you’ll need to register for a SSDS beta account. You'll also need Visual Studio 2008 to compile the source code.
Or you can check out LitwareHR in a screencast walkthrough. You can also see the SSDS presentation shown at MIX08.