If you’ve downloaded and installed the latest ASP.NET MVC 4 RC bits, you might have noticed one of the recently added MVC4 project templates is not longer there. The Single Page Application (SPA) project template that shipped with the ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta as an early preview, will not ship with the final MVC 4 release. It will however continue to evolve outside of the MVC 4 release.

More information is available on the ASP.NET SPA Home Page:

“An official release of ASP.NET SPA won’t be ready in time to ship with the final ASP.NET MVC 4 release. You can find the source code for ASP.NET SPA and follow the development effort on the ASP.NET CodePlex site.”

If you look closely you will also notice another change. While it appears that a new “Basic” template has been added, the previous “Empty” template has been renamed to “Basic” and a new, much more empty “Empty” template has been added to give a bare bones empty starting point for an MVC4 project.

Posted in Software | Web  | Comments [0] 

Have you been to the MSDN site lately? I ask because I know that personally when I need to lookup something information related to my development efforts I’ll just search for it, often getting a mix of hits, instead of heading right the “the source” for much of this info. Admittedly, in the past some information had been hard to find on site, but if you haven’t checked it our recently, the MSDN website has undergone some changes.

A quick glance at the site shows a much cleaner looking design, with what seems to be much better organized information. For a fun comparison, here’s what the site looked like a few years ago.

Below the main menu, the site is dividing into three “portals” separating content by Platforms, Tasks, and News.

The Platforms page provides some overview information and easy access to dive further into Desktop, Web, Cloud, and Phone development areas.

For other areas, a quick click on the “All Developer Centers and Hubs” link takes you to a nice site map for all of the major areas. As you continue to drill into topic areas, the trend of better organized information continues, pulling together a variety of documents, videos, links to articles, and other great sources of information.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Recently at the D9 conference Microsoft demonstrated then next version of Windows.

“Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the chip to the interface. A Windows 8-based PC is really a new kind of device, one that scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse. ”

In the demos, Microsoft showed off a some of the new interface and features. This video shows off some of it.

Microsoft also officialy announced a new conference this September called Build Windows where they will be sharing much more information with developers regarding Windows 8. In fact, most requests for additional details about Win 8 generates a “learn more a Build” response.

Since these announcements there has been a lot of speculation by individuals on what this means for current technologies and future development.  While I’ve heard some very interesting interpretations by people, I’ve also heard some things that I feel are completely inaccurate.  However not knowing all of the details myself, I’m not in a position to say what is accurate or not, but would encourage everybody be cautious about what they hear and read based on this early information, and of course…. “Learn more from Build”`

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

As everybody scrambles to educate clients and site administrators on the recently announced ASP.NET Security Vulnerability, it’s great to see organizations like those behind Umbraco being proactive to protect their install base.

Logging into an Umbraco site, administrators are immediately greeted with a warning about the security issue:

Clicking on the alert provides the administrator simple instructions to install a patch to address the issue. 

It’s great to see this level of support! Yet another reason to check out Umbraco if you haven’t already.

PS – Please take the steps necessary to protect any sites you may have.

Posted in Software  | Comments [1] 

This weekend information regarding a security vulnerability with ASP.NET was released. If you have a website based on ASP.NET, it’s extremely important that you read this information and take the appropriate steps to secure your website. ScottGu has posted details on his blog.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

If you’re in the Raleigh/Durham area and are interesting in developing applications for Windows Phone 7 be sure to check out the upcoming “Firestarter” training event on Wednesday September 8th.

Event Registration link: https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032456599&Culture=en-US

Event Overview

Wednesday, September 08, 2010 9:00 AM - Wednesday, September 08, 2010 5:00 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Welcome Time: 8:30 AM

North Carolina State University - Jane S. McKimmon Conference & Training Center 1101 Gorman St
Raleigh North Carolina 27606
United States

Dream It. Build It.

The power to build smart, visually stunning games and applications is right in your hands with Windows Phone 7. Want to see what’s under the hood? This full-day series of learning events for developers will take you behind the scenes with an inside look at the philosophy, design language, and the fundamentals of Silverlight and XNA coding for Windows Phone 7. You’ll also see how the Windows Marketplace provides exciting new distribution and monetization opportunities for developers and application publishers.

Join your local MSDN Events team and get ready to amplify your creativity, productivity and market opportunities.

Morning Sessions:

Introduction to Windows Phone Development and the WP7 platform

Meet Windows Phone 7! We’re proud to introduce the innovative Windows Phone 7 platform and explain the philosophy behind its all-new user experience design. We’ll also outline the Metro design principles and cover the basics of building applications for Windows Phone 7. Finally, you’ll tour the Windows Phone Marketplace and get an overview on its exciting revenue opportunities for developers and application publishers.

Building Windows Phone 7 Applications with Silverlight

You’ve heard the fundamentals; now it’s time to dig a little deeper. This session will focus on building Windows Phone 7 applications with Microsoft Silverlight. You’ll see first-hand how to use Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Blend to develop and debug projects. You’ll also learn about the built-in templates and the many available controls and styles for WP7. We’ll wrap by covering how to consume services in the cloud.

Building Windows Phone 7 Applications using XNA

Microsoft XNA has been a favorite with game developers for many years. Now game developers will be able to harness the power of the XNA framework to create highly immersive and responsive games for Windows Phone 7.. We’ll charge full-speed into XNA to outline the basic Windows Phone model, explore its core device characteristics, and review the highlights of the XNA phone framework. Finally, we’ll show you some of the cool and impressive games that have been developed specifically for Windows Phone 7.

Lunch (included)

Afternoon Sessions:

Monetizing Your Apps with Marketplace

Windows Phone 7 will launch with a fully loaded Marketplace and the opportunity for developers to sell or distribute their applications. . In this session, you’ll get the details about how to navigate the certification process and publish your application including updates. Learn how to increase discoverability as well as deepen your connection with your customers through the powerful business intelligence capabilities of the marketplace.

Windows Phone 7 Services

Get ready to build more engaging user experiences with Windows Phone 7 and several powerful cloud- and phone-based components. First up is the Microsoft Location Service, which allows you to obtain location information based on GPS, cell and Wi-Fi signals. Next, we’ll cover the Microsoft Push Notification Service, which provides “live” updates for apps running on the device.

Light Up Windows Phone 7!

Device integration is how an application becomes an experience. In this session, you’ll learn how to create the compelling and interactive mobile experiences which users have come to have expect by tying into device hardware such as the keyboard, touch input and accelerometer. You’ll also learn how to incorporate audio and video into your rich media solutions.

Posted in Silverlight | Software | WP7  | Comments [0] 

If you haven’t already registered, be sure to check out the upcoming Windows Azure Boot Camp that’s taking place Wednesday June 23rd in Durham, NC. This free training event is a great opportunity to get your feet wet with Windows Azure. Microsoft DE Brian Hitney and Jim Duffy from TakeNote Technologies will be presenting the content.

This is a hands on workshop, so show up laptop in hand and ready to learn. More information and registration information is available. Once again, it’s a free event but you must register to attend.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

With the recent public announcement that the Release Candidate (RC) of Win7 was just days away, we’re starting to hear a lot more buzz around some details that had been kept secret.

Have ever wondered why Microsoft makes certain decisions for the Windows OS and what’s behind those decisions? For a behind the scenes explanation from some of the key engineers behind Windows 7 and IT Pro’s about their own experiences, check out the introduction to “Talking about Windows” by Stephen Rose.

But wait! There’s more! This isn’t just a video site, it’s a community hub that allows discussions around the content, as well as links to the Springboard Series of technical guidance.

“Communication is key...We look forward to continuing the conversation.”

Well worth checking out.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

 

In early December Montreal is hosting an exciting developer conference covering a wide range of topics from some of our industry's leading presenters. The 3 day conference is packed with information in 136 sessions. Pre and Post conference sessions are also available to increase your learning potential at the event. Attendees will also receive over $1000 in free software!

The fun starts Tuesday December 2nd with a key by Ted Neward. See you there!!!

http://www.devteach.com

Posted in Rant | Silverlight | Software  | Comments [1] 

Today ScottGu announced on his blog the release of a public beta of the upcoming .NET 3.5 SP1 and VS 2008 SP1 releases planned for "this summer as free updates"

There are a few important installation notes, and a reminder that this is a beta, but there are also a bunch of very cool improvements. Scott's blog post goes into many of the details for web developers and VS2008 in general and Tim has a post going into specifics relating to WPF.

Download links of goodness:

• Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (Beta)
• .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (Beta)
• Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 (Beta)
• Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server 2008 SP1 (Beta)

Posted in Software | wpf  | Comments [1] 

Jeffery Palermo has announced an open-source project to create solution that can serve as a user group CodeCamp web site. The even cooler part is that it is being built on top ASP.NET MVC Framework that was recently released.

This is a great way to get involved in doing something for the community, while sharpening your skills at the same time. Count me in!

Posted in Software  | Comments [2] 

One of the biggest complaints of heard the the past from developers when new versions of Visual Studio comes out is that the can not take advantage of the new IDE because their company/project is still using the previous version of the .NET Framework.

A major step that was taken in Visual Studio was to separate the IDE from the framework. This means you can use the goodness of VS2008 on existing 2.0 projects. Brad Abrams links to the ASP.NET Ajax 2.0 templates that you can install in VS2008 or create new web projects targeting 2.0.

Don't let framework adoption rates prevent you from using the great new features in VS2008!

Posted in Software  | Comments [1] 

So Dwayne tells me that my Timeline Panel is in desperate need of a graphics artist. Ouch. While it didn't actually hurt my feelings, it was good motivation to get Part 2 online here which shows that the screenshot I left you all with of the basic timeline was really just showing the functionality of organizing textblock elements based on their event date.

In order to do the layout I override the ArrangeOverride method and introduce my own code to adjust the horizontal positioning. I utilize a ConvertDateToPosition function in which I calculate the _eventDate's position relative to the start and end dates provided to the panel. This could be inferred from the child dates but I decided to allow this to be set independently.

        protected override System.Windows.Size ArrangeOverride(System.Windows.Size finalSize)
        {
            foreach (UIElement child in base.InternalChildren)
            {
                Size sizeChild = new Size(child.DesiredSize.Width, child.DesiredSize.Height);
                
                DateTime _eventDate = (DateTime)child.GetValue(EventDateProperty);
                double NewSize = ConvertDateToPosition(_eventDate, _startDate, _endDate);
                NewSize = NewSize*finalSize.Width;

           child.Arrange(new Rect(ptChild, sizeChild));
       }
       return finalSize;

Now the cool thing about the way that XAML and WPF handle child elements is that they can be of any type. Initially I used boring text boxes, but they could be Ellipses....

Or buttons...

Really any element could be used. The next step to follow my original Kayakalon example was to have the width of the elements determined as well by the end date provided. This would allow a more visual indication of the time spans.

To do this, I used the same ConvertDateToPosition function mentioned above to to calculate a new width for the child element which is inserted in the Child.Arrange call that executes for each child element during the ArrangeOveride method.

Before I forget, I wanted to mention that I also added some code in the arrange method to vertically stack the elements if their dates overlapped. This was done by tracking the potion and width of the last child element to see if the next one overlapped and if so increase it's vertical position. I also added the tick marks along the top by overriding the OnRender event.

Now I need to go make my hip shiny, trendy colored version of this for Dwayne.

 

Posted in Software | wpf  | Comments [4] 

Last night a noticed a couple of blog posts on MSDN referencing the new WPF/E Developer Center on MSDN. None of the downloads for the SDK or runtimes for various platforms were up, but there was some core content.

Today when I went back to follow up, the Dev Center content was gone! I sound like it will launch soon, but some of the content appears to have snuck out early. If you missed it, it looked something like this:

Posted in Software | wpf  | Comments [0] 

Really just a bookmark for myself, but if you're trying to remember how to do something with a keyboard shortcut in VS2005, visit here: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/files/Visual%20Studio%20.NET%202005%20Keyboard%20Shortcuts.htm

Thanks Jeff!

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

I've been saying this to a lot of people lately, that Vista (More specifically the Windows Presentation Foundation technology being released at the same time  as part of .Net 3.0 which comes on Vista, but can be installed on WinXP systems as well). There is a great opportunity for developers, designers, and develosigners to create new applications like we have never seen before, creating user interfaces, or more specifically user experiences that make more sense for the application than the structured GUI's we've been accustomed to.

Loren shows a great example of this in a project of his that incorporates WPF and Tablet PC technologies.

"with the release of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), the time is right. The technologies it provides are a great match for what we're trying to accomplish and they provide a wonderful experience for the user/reader."

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

One of my goals in getting back into the swing of things after my trip is to dive deep into the new technologies relating to Vista and .Net 3.0. Just before my return, Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of both Vista and NetFX3 were released. I've finally got things installed, and can dig in. Both the Vista install and NetFX3 upgrades on my XP system went great.

While I was gone, I also noticed that Charles Petzold's new WPF book Applications = Code + Markup was also available so I had the nice folks at Amazon get one on it's way.  Now that I've had a chance to start getting back into the normal routine I've finally had a chance to start digging into it. So far it appears to be a quality read, full of great content. I'm tempted to skip ahead to some key areas, but every page seems to have something new worth reading.

Speaking of new, Kevin Moore has updated his Bag-O-Tricks WPF samples for RC1. Thanks Kevin! He's even included the infamous Kevin Button shown at Tech Ed and more recently on Channel 9. Nice!

 

Posted in Software  | Comments [1] 

Joe, our fearless leader at TRINUG has a NEW BLOG and he's coding up a storm on AutoDal, his reflection/attribute based Data Access Layer.

...I really need to post some code one of these days.....

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

If you've been working with Atlas, you'll want to check out this list of Atlas resources that Rick Strahl has put together here.

If you're not familiar with Atlas (no, not the book with all the maps, but the Microsoft AJAX framework), go visit http://atlas.asp.net

 

 

Posted in Software  | Comments [10] 

This weekend I did some work on an ASP.Net 2.0 project that I've been meaning to devote some time to because it keeps dropping off the list of important things to do. Anyways, as part of it I needed an easy way to allow for user membership with customer profile selections. With the Membership and Profile  providers and associated control this was really easy to do.

Then comes step 2 where based on those profiles, at a point in time behind the scenes I need to do a couple of things. Suddenly the quick and easy profile provider maybe didn't seem quite so cool with it's serialization of information for all of the user profile data into a single text field. Fortunately, the whole purpose of the provider is to allow us developers to extend or replace to fit our needs.

Enter the custom profile provider. By simply deriving a class of our own from ProfileProvider we're off to the races. Matthew MacDonald and Mario Szpuszta provide a great example of creating a FactoredProfileProvder in their Apress book Pro ASP.NET 2.0 in c# 2005. Additionally Hao Kung has an ASP.Net 2.0 Table Profile Provider sample up on the ASP.NET site [HERE]. It was great to so easily create a provider that allow me to store everything in seperate database fields and continue as planned.  

If I come up with anything fancy I'll post it, otherwise check out their code.

Posted in Software  | Comments [2] 

Thanks for the suggestions includiong Ioan's suggestion of just inheriting from the form class with my own class. I ended up going a little further and creating a custom item template for a windows form using the Export Template Wizard. This was good anyways because it allowed me to set some default items of my own. For more info there are some good links:

MSDN - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms185318.aspx

David Hayden - Creating Custom Item Templates in Visual Studio 2005 - Code Generation and Productivity

MSDN Mag - http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/06/01/CodeTemplates/default.aspx

I still would like to find out some way of getting my default from back however, just to know how/where they get defined.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

I've been playing around recently on my tablet with the January WinFX/WPF CTP's and having a great time. Today however I noticed somethign strange. I went to add a new form to an existing windows forms application and I couldn't. A regular windows form not longer seems to be an option. I did some digging and the form template still exists, but I can't seem to add it. I'm hopeing somebody else may have seen this and can offer me a solution? These must get registered somewhere.....

 

Posted in Software  | Comments [2] 

An absolute must see on Loren's blog for tablet PC users, a web based search supporting ink input from a tablet pc.

Great job Loren!

Posted in Software | TabletPC  | Comments [1] 

The November CTP of WinfFX has been released on the MSDN Windows Vista Developer Center. This version support (Requires) the RTM of Visual Studio 2005. This release is for XP/2003 only, but allows those of us that jumped to the RTM versions to get back to workign with WinFX.

---

Downloading and Installing the November CTP

The following must be installed in the order presented.

If you want to execute WinFX applications:

• WinFX Runtime Components

If you want to develop and execute WinFX applications:

• WinFX Runtime Components
• [Optional] Visual Studio - You can use either a full version (available in the MSDN Subscribers Download section) or the free Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition.
• Windows SDK
• [Optional] Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for WinFX
• [Optional] Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation

 

---

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

At last night's Triangle .Net User Group (TRINUG) meeting we were discussing issues when installing the RTM version on systems that previous versions were installed in. It is very important that you completely uninstall any previous beta or CTP versions before installing the release software. The tool that we spoke of is available here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/support/uninstall/default.aspx

 

Posted in Software | TRINUG  | Comments [1] 

Afer much anticipation I'm very happy to be installing the final, release to market (RTM) version of Visual Studio 2005 and the Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework. It's been a long journey since I was first introduced to the product at PDC03. Congratulations to all of those that invested time and effort in getting this product to market!

Now to complete all of those projects I've started in beta2 and have been holding back on...... (So much for sleep)

For those without access to MSDN, be sure to attend a Visual Studio 2005 launch event near you!

 

Posted in Rant | Software  | Comments [0] 

You know you're a geek when you use your wireless cell phone, which just happens to have a built in GPS, to update a web site via a web service, that allows your loved ones to keep an eye on your where abouts. Yup, I'm a geek and you too can take a look to see where I'm at, or at least where I've been. http://www.robzelt.com/where

[This was last weekend in Charlotte watching the Carolina
  Panthers win over Green Bay]

This site is maps are created using Microsoft Virtual Earth. I'm working on created a history of memorable locations that I can update through the device and list on the web site for viewing later. For privacy, I don't actually display the exact time of the update in the public version.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Really interesting stuff in the latest MSDN magazine. So far I'm learning more from the advertising than I am the articles.

Listed in a one page MSN branded add is the following:

MSN Developer Center

Think you know Web search? Think again. Visit the MSN(r) Developer Center and kearn the tricks of the trade, including how to create .NET applications that communicate with the MSN Search engine; return local results, Instant Answers, spelling corrections, and other resultsl and enable service access through our Provisioning System. You can also download sample applications, join our news-groups and more!

Sounds very interesting, it's followed by a similar paragraph about http://www.viavirtualearth.com the Virtual Earth developer site. The only problem is that the link provided (http://msdn.microsoft.com/msn ) for the MSN Developer Center does not work. It's almost as if the add beat the launch date. Hopefully it's soon, as this sounds worth checking out. Anybody know when? PDC?

 

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Julie Lerman shows off the result of combining MSN Virtual Earth and web based Tablet PC Ink.

http://www.thedatafarm.com/virtualearth/

[Images are from MSN Virtual Earth]

Posted in Software | TabletPC  | Comments [1] 

Cool - http://virtualearth.msn.com/ 

+

Very Cool - http://www.viavirtualearth.com/

=

Extremely Cool http://www.cremaps.com/

(As found on http://blog.davidyack.com/default.aspx thanks to link from Scoble )

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

This morning as hinted at by Scoble, Microsoft unveiled the official product name for the "Longhorn" , to be known now as Windows Vista™ not to be confused with the Vista Window Company of Warren, Ohio. The official announcement included a a video which included Tablet Pc's, Smart Phones, and multi-display devices.

The Windows Vista site also announces that beta1 targeted at developers and IT professionals will be available by August 3rd, 2005.

 

Posted in Software  | Comments [1] 

Amanda Murphy shares some excellent points on SharePoint and features that would make a difference in future version, and hints at a new SharePoint related site for the community. Interested!

Amanda is one of the great people I met at TechEd. Smart cookie!

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Finally.... I've been able to spend some much anticipated time with Indigo this weekend, although much of it came in place of sleep. As previously mentioned, one of my summer goals was to spend some quality time getting to know WSE (2&3) and Indigo. So far I'm digging it. It makes sense.

I noticed David Pallman's "Programming Indigo : Code Name for the Unified Framework for Building Service-Oriented Applications on the Microsoft Windows Platform Beta Edition" book on the shelf at the book store the other day and decided it was as good as place as any to get the ball rolling. This seems like an excellent book. Accurate, thorough, without any of the pre-release crap you often find in early books. The sample code even compiles!

I also spent some time on some blogs that are new and old to my reading list which I'll include here to remember (In no specific order):

Loosely Coupled Thinking http://blogs.msdn.com/jevdemon/default.aspx

Martin Gudgin http://pluralsight.com/blogs/mgudgin/

Christian Weyer http://weblogs.asp.net/cweyer/

Jelle Druyts http://jelle.druyts.net/default.aspx

Clemens Vasters http://staff.newtelligence.net/clemensv/default.aspx

Matevz Gacnik http://www.request-response.com/blog/default.aspx

Mike Taulty http://mtaulty.com/blog/

K. Scott Allen http://odetocode.com/Blogs/scott/default.aspx

 

And now, with the time reaching 1:10 pm and the temperature at a lovely 88°F it's time for me to head down to the pool for Kris and Ernie's pre-wedding pool party. Congrats to them both!  

Posted in Software  | Comments [1] 

Starting July 25th, you can spend 5 days in a row learning from our favorite Developer Community Champion Glen Gordon as he hosts a series of webcasts on creating mobile web applications with ASP.NET. If you've ever heard Glen talk about mobile devices, you know that it's a passion of his and that the dude knows his stuff. I can't wait. Check Glen's blog for details and get your mobile ass signed up!

Posted in Software  | Comments [1] 

For a limited time only, Microsoft Learning is offering Developing Microsoft ASP.NET Web Applications with Visual Studio.NET, a 17-hour self-paced online training course, for free ($349.00 value). More Info Here!

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

[Info as posted on ipattern.com]

FREE Portal Development mini-Code Camp covering SharePoint, DotNetNuke and Portal Framework ASP.NET 2.0

When: August 20th, 2005

Where: Microsoft Office in Charlotte, NC

Overview of the event

Theme: Web Portal Application development with Microsoft technologies.  Sponsorship by Microsoft and my company, Faith Interactive.

Web Portals are not new to the scene, but enterprise adoptions to our technologies on a larger scale are just now beginning to take place. Microsoft has a number of products and technologies on the market to empower users to build web portals. SharePoint (SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services) technologies are one of these products. The SharePoint community has grown and embraced the open-source nature of developing these products. One product that will be demonstrated was developed by Jan Tielen. His product is called SmartPart Web Part. Microsoft doesn’t provide official support but thousands of developers have embraced the development of SharePoint portals through the use of it.

In areas where SharePoint products fall short, for example ease of UI customization through skins and custom login mechanize, open-source DotNetNuke portal is a great solution. I will be sharing from my production experience (1) why I choose this product for large portal implementation in big corporations and (2) the lessons learned from my experiences. 

Technology will never become stagnant and we can predict that the next version of ASP.NET 2.0 is just around the corner. It will include Portal Framework out-of-the box. The ability to code today in such a way that allows a smooth migration path is very important, so we will be examining the newer features of Web Parts framework and the best choices of technologies available today in order to escape the headache of a complete rewrite of portals.

Yes, the cost of the event is completely free and the quality can be likened to that of TechEd or VSLive.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Josh has put together an excellent read on XSLT Code Generation and even includes sample code! I personally think that while code generation may not be the silver bullet for every project, it's a area the every developer must have a good understanding of. [CODE GENERATION PART II (XSLT)]

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

If you're updating ASP.NET Beta 1 sites to the new Beta 2 bets check out this helpful link before you try and figure out what some of those cryptic new error messages mean.

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/UpdatingFromEarlyASPNETBetaBuildsToBeta2.aspx

Thanks again Scott for some great time saving info!

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

At last! MSDN has a link for details on the Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 Go-Live License here.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Scott Guthrie has a great post with details of some of the final work and joy in getting the Whidbey Beta 2 out the door. There definately has been a lot of work put into this, and as much as we all want things as oon as possible, deep down I'm glad they're taking the time to do it right.

At the end of his post, Scott says "Along with the bits we’ll be releasing the “Go-Live” license which means that you’ll be able to go live with production applications on top of the beta" which means we can finally start doing some cool things on real servers!  I'm trying to track down some real details on the Go-Live license as well as deoployment timeframes.

Again, a big pat on the back to everbody involved in Whidbey!

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

After arriving home from some fun on Franklin St last night I was please to see that the VS2005 Beta 2 bits had recently appeared on the MSDN download site. For somebody that used to watch the bytes count while transfering files on my 2400 baud modem, the though of downloading a 2900 MB file still makes me chuckle. Now I have 8 hours to get some good rest, make a quick trip to the market and then the install fun begins! Thanks VS team!

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Well I certainly hope that this means VS 2005 Beta 2 is getting one step closer! As seen first on Sean Gephardy's blog, the MSDN online for VS2005 is now online at the MSDN Library. According to the post "Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 is just about to hit the streets!"

Please let us go live, please!

 

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Last week at our Chapel Hill Bloggers Meetup, Roy Kim gave us a demonstration of his tabulas.com online service and community. This is a project Roy starting two years ago as a way to share online journals with a few of his friends. He still refers to it as a little network of bloggers. Ya, little, he currently has almost 57,000 registered users. Roy has built a great site with many features that large, heavily funded sites do not have. What does Roy say has contributed most to his success? Adding features users want. I think sites like Microsoft Spaces could learn a lot from his approach! Great job Roy!

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Check out these online tutoriales about the new Enterprise Library here...

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

The Patterns and Practices group at Microsoft has just started Pattern Share wiki based site for sharing patterns.

"The PatternShare community site brings together software patterns from different authors in one place to show relationships between existing patterns and to encourage you to contribute new ones. By combining our efforts, the patterns community can increase pattern usage and better meet the needs of developers and architects who use patterns. "

Check it out here!

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

This is a great event worth checking out if you're looking at improving your skills to get hired.

 

The training you need... when you need it the most.

Registration for TechEngage's Training Bootcamp IV is now open!

The economy and job market may be changing, but TechEngage’s mission remains the same. We realize that even though the economy may be improving, there are still many people that need the high quality training that TechEngage provides to jumpstart their careers. That is why we are excited to be able to offer the following courses at “Training Boot Camp IV”, which will be held March 7th - 11th at North Carolina State University.

SAS Base Programming I & II sponsored by SAS 

Eclipse training sponsored by IBM

VB and ASP.NET sponsored by TakeNote Technologies

J2EE sponsored by JBoss

SQL Fundamentals sponsored by TechEngage

Posted in Software  | Comments [1] 

One of the unanswered questions from David MacNamee's presentation at the Florida Code Camp as how to set a default port on the Visual Web Developer Web Server, currently know as webdev.webserver. I took a look at the executable itself and discovered the following:

Visual Web Developer Web Server Usage:
WebDec.WebServer /port:<port number> /path:<physical path>[/vpath<virtual path>]

   port number:
      [Optional] An unsed port number between 1 and 65535.

   physical path:
      A valid directory name where the Web application is rooted

   virtual path:
      [Optional] The virtual path or application root in the form of '/<app name>'.
      The default is simply '/'.

Example:
WebDev.WebServer /port:8080 /path:""c:\inetpub\wwwroot\myapp"" /vpath:""MyApp""

You can then access the Wb applications using a URL of the form:
      http://localhost:8080/MyApp

No this is all fine and dandy if I wanted to maunally start it, but I don't. So I kept on digging and while I didn't see anything in Visual Stuido itself, I did disvoer an entry in the solution file that allows me to set the port.

 ProjectSection(WebsiteProperties) = preProject
  VWDPort = 8080
 EndProjectSection

Using a text editor to change the VWDPort value appears to let me specify my desired starting port which I can then map my web services to for testing.

Posted in Software  | Comments [7] 

The first Florida .Net Code Camp hosted by FLadotnet has been a huge success. The sessions I was able to hit today included:

David MacNamee - Building Mobile Apps in a Service Oriented Environment
Kirk Evans - WSE 2.0
Eddy Recio, Jon Goodyear - Leveraging the Provider Model in ASP.NET 2.0
Tim Walton - Tales from the Server Side
Shervin Shakibi - IIS 6.0 for Developers

This was a great event where the biggest problem was decided which of the great sessions to attend. Other speakers at the event included Jason Beres, David Strommer, Stan Schultes, Doug Turnure, Todd Fine, Shervin Shakibi and many others. I hope to post some code samples and other gems soon, but first off to Russ' Pub Club. I can't wait for our Code Camp event in Raleigh

 

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Speaking of Patterns & Practices, I stumbled accross the Patterns & Practices Digest today. It is a "collection of the latest patterns & practices guidance for MSDN Magazine readers".

Contents include:

• Reuse Best Practices at PatternShare.org
• Give Your Applications Offline Capability With the Smart Client Offline Application Block
• Explore Proven Strategies for Testing .NET Application Blocks
• Create Performance Models for Your Applications
• Introducing Enterprise Library

I really like the format and hope this is something they bring out regularly.

Posted in Software  | Comments [1] 

Beam me down Scotty, the Enterprise Library is here.

This new release includes the following updated application blocks together in one Library:

Caching Application Block
Configuration Application Block
Cryptography Application Block
Data Access Application Block
Exception Handling Application Block
Logging & Instrumentation Application Block
Security Application Block

We'll have a full report at our next TRINUG Patterns & Practices SIG

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Thanks to Scott, Omar, and everybody else what had a hand in getting the new version of DasBlog out. I was a very quick and painless upgrade to the new verious with it's many improvements. I just wanted to say thanks for you hard work. if you're not using DasBlog, check it at it's new home.

 

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

After spending too much time thinking about some ideas I’ve had over the past few months, I’ve finally been able to devote a few weekends and late night into getting my blog aggregation site of the ground. After having some great chats during and after the Blog session back at PDC and more recently the Piedmont Bloggers Conference held in the fall, I’ve been motivated to get these great ideas into code before the upcoming Triangle Bloggers Conference being held in Chapel Hill, NC on February 12th. I tried testing some of the stuff behind closed doors, but I’ve decided that to build a set of tools to help build an online community, I really need to be able to test them out in an online community and have therefore opened the doors on OurWords.net.

This site is my experimental testing grounds for aggregating content form local blog sources in North Carolina and trying to develop ways to promote conversations and promote traffic toward sites. It is a work in progress, but I now have a decent framework in place to poll the local feeds and present the details in a variety of ways. I think the real challenge before is to provide more context and help bring together like conversations. Initially I have a number of ways to display aggregated feed contents, an area that I will be working on much more. I have a list of “most found” links in recent posts as well as a blog roll with recent post status details. I want to work much more on the searching capabilities and developing an engine to recognize hot topics and like conversations.

As I said, it’s a work in progress but I’m looking for feed back so check it out!

Posted in Software  | Comments [5] 

I would lto send out a few notes of thank you to some people for some wonderful code and other contributions that they have shared with the online community. I higly recommend taking a look at their blogs.

Scott Hanselman - Thank you for your IP Blocking HttpModule Code for ASP.NET as it helped me very quickly and painlessly deal with some sudden referal spam issues. I now read that you are including this in the new DasBlog code anyway which is a great idea so I'll thank you for that now as well.

Ed Courtenay - Thanks for post of yours that I stumbed accross sharing the code for your ParseDateTime function that helped me deal with one of the many different date time formats I discovered this weekend being used by various blog syndication formats.

 

Posted in Software  | Comments [2] 

In a move that many feel is long over due, Microsoft has made available a beta version of their new Windows AntiSpyware Software.

 

The software provides an easy to install and friendly interface that both scans the system for any current issues and provides real-time protection to prevent unwanted future installations.

I'm glad to see Microsoft doing what it takes to make the platform more secure by filling in void left by other products. While I'm sure there are some that will point to this as another example of Microsoft stepping on the toes of another industry, I think that this type of security is one the the basic functions we need to be able to rely on an operating system not, not be forced to buy yet another add-on.

Do your part and install this on every friend and family members PC and verify that they are running SP2 while you're at it.

Now to go read the other CES news....

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Thom robbins has announced a contest giving away Compact Framework devices for the best applications submitted.  I definately want to submit something, but I'm looking for a few good ideas. Anybody got any suggestions for Pocket PC or Smartphone applicaitons?

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, I was able to attend the Wintellect Devscovery conference in Atlanta. The three day event included presentations from Wintellect Speakers John Robbins, Jeff Prosise, Jeffrey Richter, Peter DeBetta, and Jason Clark. The content covered a broad range of topics including ASP.Net, Web Services, Custom HTTP Handlers, .Net Security, threading, ADO.Net, TSQL, and one the most informative session I've been in, a double length back to back feature on .Net Debugging by John Robbins.

 

John Robbins, author of "Debugging Applications for Microsoft .Net and Microsoft Windows" led us through a series of examples demonstrating the power of debugging tools and how they can be effectively used. This session alone is worth the price of admission! I highly recommend his book if you do anything with .Net code.

 

One of the other highlights was a "Think Ink: Programming on the Tablet PC" session which I unfortunately missed part of due to some "issues" at work. It was great to see the Tablet PC given some exposure at an event like this. John had some great developer information and enthusiasm about the potential of the platform. John mentioned the Infinotes ink control from Agilix which adds journal style note taking capabilities to your application. Very cool and they even have a free download of their current beta. Definitely worth checking out.

 

On the note of Tablet PC's, one of the more entertaining aspects of the conference was watching Jeffrey Richter make use of Ink on his new Tablet PC during power point presentations. Let's just say that Mr. Richter has taking slide markups to a whole new level!

 

All in all, a great event. I could not believe how many times I heard somebody in the audience say, "wow, that info alone pays for this conference". With it being a smaller conference, there was also amazing access to the speakers who made themselves completely available for any questions throughout the entire event. If there's a Devscovery near you, go check it out!

Posted in Software  | Comments [1] 

 

Last week I started this post, but things have been extremely busy. I know, you don't care, but check this out.... Feeliing a little stressed and spending way too much time on work, I did what any respectable technology geek would do, I bought a knew toy. However toy isn't really the right word. No, I purchased a navigational assitant! Visiting the local big box electronic store I found the new Streets & Trips 2005 packaged with a Microsoft branded Pharos GPS 360.

After watching myself drive home using there software, as soon as i got home I decided to try and talk to it myself. With a little code, I was soon receiving all sorts of good gps data with my c# app. Before long, I could extract my current location. Hmm.. what can I do with a such a point? Map Point! I little while ago I singed up for a developer account with Map Point, but haven't had a chance to put it through the motions yet. Before long, I could finally loook and see where I am!

Not quite ready to share the code, but stay tuned.......

UPDATE: Streets&Trips has done an excellent job of guiding me to the Wintellect Devscovery conference in Atlanta. More on that next.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

A few days ago I posted my thoughts on the use of MSN Alerts on Scoble's Blog reduced the effectiveness of being alerted, when everything posted generated an alert. Today I feel I must share this comment left here from the good folks over at Message Cast. It would appear that they now have three kinds of alerts, allowing those of us that want to keep the alerts to a low, but important few. What a great Scoble like example of the power of blog posts and how the companies that listen to them can effectively listen and react to the market. Time to go learn more about what Message Cast can do for me. Great work guys!

Thanks for the comments.  Check out Scobleizer alerts now:      http://www.messagecast.net/alerts/jump.do?PINID=951&edit Three kinds: *  All of 'em when they happen *  A summary one each day (but only if he's updated that day) *  Just the ones Robert thinks are crucial Part of Robert's appeal is his wide range of commentary, which also presents a challenge because everyone likes something different. We hope setting up alerts this way covers the bases.

Posted in Software  | Comments [1] 

Posted in Software  | Comments [1] 

Robert McLaws:

“As tech-savvy users, it is your responsibility to make sure everyone you know has installed this update as soon as you get access to it. It's more important than anything in Longhorn, because it's here today, and it improves the security and stability of your machine TODAY.”

I think this is a great call to action for the entire technology community. Make the world a better place an get this update out there. Make a CD and take it with you. Tell your clients they need it, don't even give your friends and family a choice. And if you're a Tablet PC user, go get it because you'll love the new functionality!

Posted in Rant | Software  | Comments [0] 

What a day.. what a week.. heck, what a month!

Anyways, I couldn't stop myself from sharing this blast from the past the work brought upon me today. Remember when Windows 98 was innovative? Only 46 “Microsoft Minutes“ until I can start using those “cutting edge technologies“. (What is up with Microsoft time anyways? How many seconds are in a MS Minute?)

It is fun to look back though. Thanks for sharing that moment.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Carl says that Bill said (At VSLive) that a new version of the Whidbey bits are on their way. There has been a lot of talk recently about these early releases of code. I think it's a great move to get the tools in the hands of developers as early as possible. As one recent article quotes Prashant Sridharan, lead product manager for Visual Studio, as saying “Developers will install anything, whereas an IT guy in the data center will not,"  While that's probably true, I think the importance is in getting developers comfortable with the tools as early as possible.

This new “community technical previews“ version will apparently be dsitributed Thursday to... I'm not sure to who, but I'll make sure I start checking my mailbox that day.

I hadn't noticed this before, but it also appears that Microsoft is officially referrign to Whidbey as Visual Studio 2005 and the .Net Framework 2.0. They have an excellent roadmap available here

Posted in Longhorn | Software  | Comments [0] 

If you're trying to figure out how to use the Data Access Application Block to fill a typed dataset, look here. Thanks Roy (and other contributors) for some great info!

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

If you went to DevDays make sure you take a look at the IssueVision sample code located on the DevDays 2004 DVD. It has some great example code for all sorts of things ranging from installation and deployment to using web services to update data in a semi-connected environment.

Posted in Software  | Comments [7] 

The New Microsoft Way? Thursday, March 11, 2004 6:00 PM Today in an email response to being forwarded a News.Com Link to a story about Yukon and Whidbey being delayed, I started to think about what that really meant. I sense a new trend in Microsoft's approach to things and in the end, even with delays, I wonder if it will result in a faster adoption rate of their new products. Here's my theory, and I stress MY THEORY, I have nothing official to really it on.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

A big thanks to Doug and all the speakers for putting on a very enjoyable and informative DevDays 2004 in Durham, NC. Some of the key points that made it into my notes are:

Posted in Rant | Software | TRINUG  | Comments [2] 

Devdays is here!

Doug Turnure and a cast of others have started the day with a keynote. Following a couple video's about the IRL and Match.com using .Net technologies to “do more with less“, they are focusing on a number of new Microsoft products including Biztalk Server, SQL Reporting Serivices, and Whitehorse.  SQL reporting services is one of those great looking tools that I really need to take a closer look at. It looks like a very effective way to provide end users with reports on data. Whitehorse, shown by Ken Spencer is described as an “Integrated model-driven set of design tools to increase productivity and predicatability in design, development, deployment and maintenance of service-oriented distrubted systems“. Translation: Very Cool! It's far from just another code generator.

I'm going to be attending the Smart Client presentations and will post anything of interest.

Greg and I will be at the TRINUG user group table during the breaks meeting and hope to make many new .Net contacts.

Posted in Software | TRINUG  | Comments [0] 

Yesterday I attended an excellent MSDN event on security related topics. Glen Gordon presented two sessions, Writing Secure Code – Threat Defense and Implementing Application Security Using The .Net Frame (Presentations available here). While I'm finding I can always enjoy and take away something useful from Glen’s presentations, I really think Microsoft deserves some credit for getting the word out to the development community on security. Yes, they have had their own problems in the past with their own code, but they’re on a mission to make sure that none of us take security for granted and are getting the word out quite effectively through webcasts, MSDN events, and I’m sure we’ll hear even more great information at DevDays.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Microsoft is presenting an additional event following DevDays March 9th in Raleigh-Durham. Mark Scott will be giving a presentaion on . Microsoft is asking that anybody wishing to attend to register

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

According to Scoble there is a DevDays blogging contest. DevDaysBloggers.Net will be tracking the number of blog posts from each city aggregated throught their site. I need your help!

Posted in Software  | Comments [2] 

In a number of recent conversations people have complained about not being able to find the source code for many of the old red cover Wrox titles that are now apparently out of print.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Tech Engage is a non-profit organization in North Carolina with the goal of providing technology training to those that are unemployed or under-employed in the IT industry including courses on ASP.NET and SQL SERVER.

Posted in Network | Rant | Software  | Comments [0] 

Joe Hummel, PHD is currently offering a highly enjoyable and informative 15 webcast series on software development using .Net.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

After spending the last month getting to know my Tablet PC I've decided that I need to make some time to start writing some code for. Moving to a Tablet has been a great experience and has opened a world of opportunities to me.

Posted in Software | TabletPC  | Comments [0] 

Stevex has posted some extremely handy code to make a service self installable (and un-installable).

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

If you're not signed ip yet, get on it before it's too late! January 19-23, 2004 is MSDN's ASP.net Webcast week.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

UPDATE: It sounds like a number of us from the TRINUG user group are going to be attending. If you're planning on going let me know and we can all try to get together.

Durham, NC - Tuesday, March 9, 2004
Marriott Durham at the Civic Center
201 Foster Street
Durham, NC 27701

Register Now!

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Every so often I notice people talking about having web sites and email messages provide a simple way of adding items to an outlook schedule.

Posted in Software  | Comments [10] 

Here's a great link to information on system.web.mail for .Net developers.

 

Posted in Software  | Comments [1] 

Loren over at Incremental Blogger has posted a screen shot of WebCamNotes, an ink blogging application. I think the concept of ink blogging is extremely cool.

Posted in Software | TabletPC  | Comments [0] 

Microsoft Dev Days 2004 will be making a local stop in Durham, NC on March 9th.

Posted in Software | TRINUG  | Comments [0] 

In follow-up to my November post regarding the availability of a Pocket PC 2003 upgrade for the Viewsonic V37 I have now received and successfully installed the update.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

I have finally been able to pick up his new book “Microsoft Visual Basic .Net 2003 Kick Start” written with contributors Andy Baron, Erik Porter, and Joel Semeniuk. I congratulate all of them on work well done.

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Today at an MSDN event I ended up talking with a number of people about an issue relating to security in ASP.NET. The problem was presented where the authentication would only restrict access top .aspx files and not other files such as Word (.doc) or Excel (.xls) files that might also need to be secured. I recently had a similar problem which I was able to resolve by registering the appropriate extensions in the Application Mappings within the Application Configuration within Internet Services manager. By mapping the .doc and .xls file extensions to the same executable as the .aspx pages (aspnet_isapi.dll) they will have their access restricted as well by the application security. 

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Windows 98 system the OS does not care about the case sensitvity of your password

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Upgrades are now available for Viewsonic V35and V37 Pocket PC devices.

Posted in Network | Software  | Comments [0] 

Version 0.5 of my PDC Session Browser is ready to roll! This started off for me as a way to learn how to do a few specific new things for a current project and to get ramped to attend the (Now sold out!) Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in LA. In order to get the most from the conference, I’ve been working hard to increase what I know going in so that I can build upon it and do even more with what I’ll see. I think that this is an excellent time to be a Windows developer, we great opportunities for lead in.

Posted in PDC | Software  | Comments [0] 

PDC Session List Web Service

Posted in Software | PDC  | Comments [0] 

In order to provide sorting capabilities for me Session List custom control, I needed a way to sort the ArrayList that I am using to store my data.

Posted in Software  | Comments [1] 

 Another day, some more code. I made some good progress on my Pocket PC PDC Session project. Mostly just worked on the custom control to display the info. I've started on the code to sort and I'm trying to decide what I want to do about filtering data views. I'm hoping to find time to put together all of the session info from the conference and get the web service going. I'm jus tnot looking forward to trying to strip all the info off of the PDC web site.(Wouldn't it be great if I could just get my hands on an XML file or something with all the session info!)

Posted in PDC | Software  | Comments [0] 

According to Justin "Explorating Testing (XT) is to other people's code as unit testing is to your own."

Posted in Software  | Comments [0] 

Oh sure, just when you think you have a good idea, you read a PDC blog about somebody else doing the same thing

Posted in PDC | Software  | Comments [1]