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] 

Tonight Microsoft took the covers off of the new ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview and the ASP.NET MVC Toolkit

While I'm extremely excited by the new ASP.NET MVC (Model View Controller) I could not overlook the Silverlight Controls for ASP.NET that make it easy to integrate the rich behavior of Silverlight into a web application. It provides an updated MediaPlayer Server Control  and Silverlight Server control.

The MediaPlayer Server Control allows you to integrate media sources into your web project without any knowledge of XAML or Javascript using pre-built skins, or by referencing custom XAML skins.

<asp:MediaPlayer runat="server" 
  AutoPlay="true|false" 
  ScaleMode="None|Zoom|Stretch" 
  EnableCaptions="true|false" 
  Height="height" 
  MediaSkin="skinName" 
  MediaSource="URL" 
  Muted="true|false" 
  PlaceholderImageSource="URL" 
  PluginBackColor="color" 
  Volume="volume" 
  Width="width" 

  OnClientChapterStarted="functionName" 
  OnClientCurrentStateChanged="functionName" 
  OnClientMarkerReached ="functionName" 
  OnClientMediaEnded ="functionName" 
  OnClientMediaFailed ="functionName" 
  OnClientMediaOpened ="functionName" 
  OnClientVolumeChanged="functionName" 

  <Chapters> 
    <asp:MediaChapter Position="index" Title="title" 
      ThumbnailImageSource="URL" /> 
  </Chapters> 
</asp:media>

The Silverllight Server Control allows you to reference your own XAML. The control also references client JavaScript files associated with the XAML.

<asp:Silverlight runat="server" 
     ClientType="ClientType"
     EnableHtmlAccess="true|false"
     EnableFrameRateCounter="true|false"
     EnableRedrawRegios="true|false"
     InitParamsters="parameters"
     InstallationMode="None|Inline|Linked"
     MaxFrameRate="rate"
     PluginBackColor="color"
     Source="XamlSource"
     Version="version"
     Windowless="true|false"
     ScaleMode="None|Zoom|Stretch"
     OnClientPluginError="functionName"
     OnClientPluginResized="functionName"
     OnClientPluginLoaded="functionName"
     OnClientPluginFullScreenChanged ="functionName"
</asp:Silverlight>

More on this later... now onto the MVC...

Posted in Silverlight  | Comments [0] 

Karl sent me a note a little while ago and I've been meaning to blog about this, but in the mean time I think Karl has gone without sleep since then and along with Josh Smith has already rolled out Mole version 2! You can get it HERE

Mole 2 is

"a high performance, full featured, multifunction visualizer that allows in-depth inspection of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) visual and logical trees. For each element in the visual or logical tree the developer can view all properties, visual image, run-time XAML or IEnumerable collection data."

If you work with WPF this, Mole is a thing of beauty! ( I wonder it would take to do this for Silverlight? )

Great work guys! For more info please see http://karlshifflett.wordpress.com/mole-visual-studio-visualizer-for-wpf/

Posted in wpf  | Comments [3] 

According to the Chinese Zodiac calendar 2008 is the year of the rat, but if you ask me it should be called the year of the Microsoft conference.

Starting in March, just after the official launch of VS2008, Windows Server 2008, and SQL Server 2008, MIX08 is scheduled to take place in Las Vegas March 5-7 at the snazzy Venetian Resort Hotel Casino.

According to recent announcements by Scott Guthrie, MIX08 will likely be the the big event for Silverlight 2.0 hitting the streets in a Beta with GO-Live licensing. This is definitely the "What's Next on the Web" conference. This will be the third year in a row for MIX.

In June, down in Orlando Tech·Ed 2008 will take on a new look, extending into a two week event featuring separate back to back developer and IT professional conferences. (Developers June 3-6 and IT Pro's June 10-13). Tech-Ed is the most "Here and Now" event, focusing on doing real work released products and technologies, covering the complete spectrum. It's going to be interesting how the splitting of the two crowds changes the event, and how this will impact some of the technologies that sort of fall in the middle. Many in the Sharepoint community are not too happy with the decision, but we'll see how it goes.

2008 will also feature PDC, the Microsoft Professional Developers conference in Los Angeles. PDC only happens every few years, usually providing developers with an early look in new technologies that will take shape over the follow years. PDC05 and PDC07 previewed gave developers early looks at VS2005, Windows Vista, and .Net 3.0 (WPF, WCF, WF).

I like to compare PDC and Tech-Ed by saying that Tech-Ed is where you go to learn about technologies and PDC is where you go to see the things that you're going to have to learn in the times ahead to stay on top of things.

I if I had to choose only to attend PDC would be my first choice, followed my MIX and then Tech-Ed. (That's assuming that I was only allowed to choose from Microsoft host events and not things like Dev Connections and VS Live, then it would depend...)

Bottom line is that 2008 is going to be a very exciting year in dev land!

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If you're planning on participating in the TRINUG VS2008 InstallFest later this month, please be certain to have completely UN-installed any VS2008/.Net 3.5 prerelease software that you may have installed on your computer. Scott Guthrie has a blog post with a good list and order to go through to uninstall.

Microsoft DE (And all around nice guy) Joe Healy also has a list, which includes a few notes on what do do if things don't go smoothly.

I personally had no issues following Scott's list and am now happily running VS2008 and .Net 3.5.

** Just a note that we've pretty much reached our capacity for the TRINUG event. We are using a waiting list so please feel free to sign up and we'll let you know if a spot opens up. (If you are not going to be able to attend please let us know as well. You must be present to participate in the offer)

Posted in TRINUG  | Comments [0]