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 Monday, April 02, 2007

Once again a fantastic conference in Orlando. Dev Connections just keeps getting better and I always enjoy being part of it. Not to mention the weather in Orlando isn't bad!

Here are links to my code samples for each talk I delivered. Enjoy!

.NET Technology Roadmap Tutorial

ASP.NET and WCF

ASP.NET and CardSpace

WCF Federated Security

 WCF Contracts and Versioning

ASP.NET Performance (Updated 06/07/2007)

Ok people, I had this in my Windows Live Writer to send a long time ago, and somehow it did not post...but since I haven't posted in a while I didn't notice. Many apologies for the delay. Does the "better late than never" statement apply here? I hope so...

 

4/2/2007 3:32 PM ASP.NET | CardSpace | Speaking/Events | WCF  | Comments [12]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback
 Friday, March 23, 2007

I created a presentation in November of last year with the goal of helping folks make sense of the vast number of Microsoft technologies from development tools, language, data, windows, web and SOA development. This blog post holds the latest links to resources and code for each section.

System Requirements

The links below use the following technology platforms:

Development Tools

In this section I reviewed the stack of development tools and explained how to choose between them.

Language Enhancements

In this section I talked about moving from .NET 1.1 to 2.0, and discussed the key features of 2.0 that folks should be leveraging. Then, I focused on the language enhancements forthcoming with C# 3.0 and VB 9.0.

Demos:

Data Access

In this section I focused on data access technologies, designing the data access tier, and key features of ADO.NET 2.0, vNext and LINQ to give you some idea how to prepare for the next set of innovations.

Demos:

  • When you install ADO.NET vNext and LINQ there are literally 100s of samples that will really help you get up to speed here. I show a selection of these in this presentation.

Windows Development

In this section I review Windows Forms 2.0 innovations, primarily ClickOnce, and then talk about how to prepare for WPF, explaining the various deployment models. I also talk about practical approaches to choosing the right platform for your development efforts.

Demos:


Web Development

In this section I showed an ASP.NET sample application that illustrates key features of ASP.NET 2.0 and practical application of those features. Then we looked at AJAX and discussed trends on the Web compared to Windows development.

Popular AJAX Frameworks:

Demos:

Distributed System Programming

In this section I reviewed the typical use for earlier distributed computing technologies like remoting, enterprise services and ASMX web services with WSE, and compared them with WCF.

BPM and Workflow

In this section I discussed BPM, BizTalk and workflow and trends for BizTalk vNext.

DinnerNow

To pull it all together, there is a sample you can download here: www.dinnernow.com that illustrates all of the technologies in a practical example. It includes WCF, WF, WPF, AJAX, Vista gadgets and mobile apps.

3/23/2007 7:41 PM .NET | ADO.NET | ASP.NET | ClickOnce | Speaking/Events | WCF  | Comments [9]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback
 Sunday, November 12, 2006

A big thanks to all the participated in this monstrous tutorial at Dev Connections. Whew, I can fully admit it was a lot of work to put all the information together in one place, but I hope that you got a lot out of it. For those that didn't attend, the goal of the tutorial was to provide an overview of the current state of the various technologies and tools for Microsoft developers, with an emphasis on the reasons for moving forward with each technology stack, and hopefully some enlightenment on when you might choose each technology. I'll be keeping this one day session current for future conferences, and for on-site sessions with clients. If you are interested in such a thing, contact me at IDesign: www.idesign.net.

Here are the resources I promised from the tutorial.

Development Tools

In this section I reviewed the stack of development tools and explained how to choose between them.

Language Enhancements

In this section I talked about moving from .NET 1.1 to 2.0, and discussed the key features of 2.0 that folks should be leveraging. Then, I focused on the language enhancements forthcoming with C# 3.0 and VB 9.0.

Demos:

Data Access

In this section I focused on data access technologies, designing the data access tier, and key features of ADO.NET 2.0, vNext and LINQ to give you some idea how to prepare for the next set of innovations.

Demos:

  • When you install ADO.NET vNext and LINQ there are numerous overview documents, tutorials, and samples that will really help you get up to speed here. These are the demos that I showed in the tutorial.

Windows Development

In this section I reviewed Windows Forms 2.0 innovations, primarily ClickOnce, and then talked about how to prepare for WPF and who should use it today.

Demos:


Web Development

In this section I showed an ASP.NET sample application that illustrates key features of ASP.NET 2.0 and practical application of those features. Then we looked at AJAX and discussed trends on the Web compared to Windows development.

Popular AJAX Frameworks:

Demos:

Distributed System Programming

In this section I reviewed the typical use for earlier distributed computing technologies like remoting, enterprise services and ASMX web services with WSE, and compared them with WCF.

BPM and Workflow

In this section I discussed BPM, BizTalk and workflow.

11/12/2006 6:37 AM ADO.NET | ASP.NET | ClickOnce | DevConnections | Speaking/Events | WCF | Web Services  | Comments [0]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback
 Thursday, October 26, 2006

As some of you may now, localization architcture is one of the subject areas that I have always enjoyed. THough I am in the midst of my WCF book, a few months ago I did wrap up a whitepaper for MSDN on the subject of custom resource providers and custom localization expressions. I also learned a lot in the process, with some great feedback from the product team, specifically Simon Calvert and Eilon Lipton, who pointed me in the right direction for how things work under the covers. In this article you'll learn about custom resource managers, storing resources in the database, accessing resources from external assemblies instead of using the App_GlobalResources directory, and creating custom localization expressions to tie it all together. I hope you enjoy this!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/ExASPNET20RPM.asp

I'll be writing two follow up whitepapers in this series, a little later this year when I wrap up my book. The subject will be hooking the IDE to help you with your localization dev process and creating complex culture hierarchies that are customizable for personalization. Stay tuned!

10/26/2006 6:32 PM ASP.NET | Globalization  | Comments [29]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback
 Tuesday, June 27, 2006

For my webcast today, I illustrated several layers of security features for ASP.NET with the following samples (some samples are extra beyond what we had time for in 1 hour):

Also see my Publications page for articles on this subject for The Server Side .NET

6/27/2006 9:27 PM ASP.NET | Security | Speaking/Events  | Comments [2]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback

For my webcast today, I illustrated custom HTTP modules and handlers with the following samples:

Also, look at my RSS for ASP.NET for other posts on similar subjects!

 

6/27/2006 4:44 PM ASP.NET | Speaking/Events  | Comments [7]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback
 Monday, June 26, 2006

I have 3 webcasts for MSDN coming up this week.

This Tuesday (tomorrow), two ASP.NET web casts:

MSDN Webcast: How ASP.NET 2.0 Processes Requests: Handlers, Modules and Other Objects Involved in the Round Trip (Level 200)

Tuesday, June 27, 2006
9:00 A.M.–10:00 A.M. Pacific Time

MSDN Architecture Webcast: ASP.NET Security Is More Than Just Credentials (Level 200)
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
12:00 P.M.–1:00 P.M. Pacific Time

This Wednesday morning bright and early:

MSDN Architecture Webcast: Understanding Windows Communication Foundation Contracts (Level 200)
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
8:00 A.M.–9:00 A.M. Pacific Time

These are FREE, so you don't want to miss out!

 

 

6/26/2006 6:02 PM ASP.NET | Speaking/Events | WCF  | Comments [2]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback
 Monday, June 19, 2006

In this session at Tech Ed in Boston last week, I discussed how you can apply Enterprise Services (COM+) and MSMQ to build scalable applications pre-WCF. The sample code that I demonstrated is listed below. Don't forget also to look at my Publications page to get more background, specifically the articles I wrote for The Server Side on security and sandboxing which discuss many of the EnterpriseServices features used.

Enjoy!

 

6/19/2006 7:33 PM ASP.NET | Security | Speaking/Events | TechEd  | Comments [3]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback
 Saturday, June 17, 2006

Yes, at last, I am posting my code for my SDC conference sessions. I am quite sorry about this delay, but I have been travelling non-stop since the conference, and I had at least one million other deadlines upon me and Internet issues during the week following when I had promised to post. So, hopefully apology accepted...here is the code references for all 4 of my sessions!!!!

How ASP.NET 2.0 Processes Requests - Handlers, Modules, Caching, Session and other fun objects involved in the round-trip

  • HttpHandlers.zip
  • HttpHandlersVB.zip
  • If you get ASP.NET Pro magazine, I also wrote an article on this subject, which was reprinted with permission in the SDC magazine for this conference

ASP.NET Security - It's About More than Just Credentials

Applied ASP.NET 2.0 - Essentials for Building Professional Web Sites

Performance Tuning and Monitoring your ASP.NET Applications

6/17/2006 11:40 PM ASP.NET | Globalization | Security | Speaking/Events  | Comments [7]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback
 Saturday, May 06, 2006

I presented a few new talks in Nice, France a week ago, some of which were repeats of my talks at Dev Connections Orlando which you can find here:

http://www.dasblonde.net/PermaLink,guid,2a996943-5bd3-48c4-94e9-97368c00222d.aspx

But, there were two new talks, one on HTTP handlers, which I just wrote an article for my ASP.NET Pro column. The column isn't available online but was provided with conference materials. The code can be found here:

http://www.dasblonde.net/downloads/Articles/HttpHandlers.zip

http://www.dasblonde.net/downloads/Articles/HttpHandlersVB.zip

5/6/2006 7:58 PM ASP.NET | DevConnections | Speaking/Events  | Comments [1]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback
 Friday, April 28, 2006

I recently updated my PhotoGallery sample code that illustrates many techniques including:

  • The use of profiles that store preferred theme and culture
  • Dynamic theme selection at runtime based on profile settings
  • The use of ASP.NET 2.0 localization features
  • Setting the request thread's culture dynamically based on profile settings
  • Database localization (table selection by culture)
  • Caching by culture and theme
  • Workaround for retrieving profile information for custom caching (GetVaryByCustomString())

The sample update is at this link: http://www.dasblonde.net/downloads/VS2005/Globalization/GalleryDemo20.zip

These features were always in the sample, but I came up with some improvements for caching and profiles, and I updated the sample so that all pages cache appropriately. I also created a full SQL script that would create the database and insert records, so that you no longer have to restore a full databas to create those records. Otherwise the sample is much the same. Enjoy!

4/28/2006 7:04 PM ASP.NET | Globalization  | Comments [2]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback
 Tuesday, January 24, 2006

I just started a new column for ASP.NET Pro: ASP.NET Under the Hood

In the first edition, I answered a reader's question about dynamically applying themes based on user profile settings at runtime. You can check out the column here: http://www.aspnetpro.com/features/2006/02/asp200602mb_f/asp200602mb_f.asp

If you have other questions, don't forget to send them my way and if I write about it in the column, of course I will also answer you personally in the process.

Cheers!

1/24/2006 3:22 PM ASP.NET  | Comments [9]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback
 Wednesday, December 07, 2005

I just presented the ASP.NET session for the launch yesterday in Anaheim...lots of people indicated how excited they are about the improvements to ASP.NET...and I agree. I promised some tips on “getting started” with all the new features, to guide you on your way. If you look at these sections in the MSDN library, including articles written by myself and others...that should help!

This article link will take you to the ASP.NET\Infrastructure articles (look at the treeview on the left!): http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/asp2local.asp

If you scroll down in the MSDN on the left side, you'll see a number of other categories, all based on ASP.NET 2.0...this is a good start for reviewing a collection of articles on ASP.NET 2.0.

12/7/2005 7:25 PM ASP.NET | Speaking/Events  | Comments [10]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback
 Wednesday, November 30, 2005

In a recent exchange on this forum: http://forums.asp.net/1126817/ShowPost.aspx a few people are looking for tools to help them with the localization process. WARNING, the thread is really long, it will take you two hours to get through it!!! I have already made a lot of remarks in the forum, but it is pretty clear that although ASP.NET 2.0 has taken some of the pain away with the new tools they provided including:

  • Generation of local page resources
  • Declarative expressions that generate code to link control properties to local or shared global resources
  • ResourceManager lifetime management
  • Automatic culture selection from browser settings

...people (of course) still want and need more. I have a perspective on this that is based on my experiences, but you all may have other challenges that differ, so this blog entry is an attempt to collect feedback from you on the tools you'd like to see improved for localization of Web sites. Here's my synopsis of what is needed, and the roles that use the tool:

Improvements to developer tools (VS IDE):

  1. Help me associate control properties to local or shared resources and manage my shared resources as well if I have made those links. Currently this can be done with IDE extensibility, no tools on the market.
  2. Don't let me compile without notification that resource should be regenerated due to changes in the page. In other words, developers are concerned that the page changes might be out of sink with resources associated to the page...and not resolved because the developer forgets to generate resources again.
  3. Provide a tool to automatically (programmatically) generate resources for all pages. 
  4. Help me link a resource entry to a database field. THis would be like data binding, with a custom localization expression linking a $Resource entry to a database field, which implies I need a way to configure the connection string for design time as well. This would still look like an explicit localization expression for a shared resource, but connect to the database instead. THis can be done with extensibility but no robust solutions currently exist.
  5. Perform change management to reconcile changes to invariant resx (local or global) and make sure keys are reconciled with variant (NOTE: I don't agree that this is necessary in the IDE, I think it belongs in change management, but let's keep it here and see what people think).

Change management tools:

  1. Create a difference report for resources on check-in (VSS or VSTS or external tool that can be run against selected source files).
  2. Allow the difference reports to be reconciled from last translator shipment to the latest build (what resources were added, changed, deleted in the invariant version? reconcile this against variant resources)
  3. Pull all resx into a single file, allow translators to edit that single file, the push all translated values into appropriate individual resources again (easy, with XML, and clients have done custom work on this, no tool on the market that I know of)
  4. Pull database content and file content for translators into a localization package for editing by translators offline, then reconcile after changes are made (lots of variations here, what tools do people use today for database access besides running reports and pushing in translated values with script?)
  5. A way to manage this process and keep track of all relevant files/changes

I know this is not an exhaustive list, but it is relevant to the discussions on the thread I mention above.

Please comment or add requests in this blog entry. I speak with this team at Microsoft with some regularity, and have told them about this blog entry...and they are just a great group so they are really interested in hearing this feedback!!!

 

11/30/2005 9:02 PM ASP.NET | Globalization  | Comments [8]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback

Thanks again for participating in this webcast today. Here are a list of resource for globalization as I mentioned in the webcast:

http://www.dasblonde.net/PermaLink.aspx?guid=8d2a4b2c-c2f4-4dab-9bb6-b3218bf17c71

Remember to review the webcast slides for reminder of what we went through, covered a lot of ground!

Also, there is a rather long discussion re: localization tools happening on this thread: http://forums.asp.net/1126817/ShowPost.aspx

I will post a separate entry to collect feedback from you all on tools that you would like to see available for your localization efforts.

 

 

 

 

11/30/2005 8:44 PM ASP.NET | Globalization | Speaking/Events  | Comments [5]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback
 Thursday, November 17, 2005

I for one had a great time yesterday at the launch. Bernard Wong invited Tim Huckaby and myself to help out presenting smart client and ASP.NET, respectively, while he demonstrated code from the Visual Studio 2005 launch event.

For all of you who attended, I offered some content that you might find relevant to ASP.NET and ClickOnce. All of my content references are in my most recent blog entries from DevConnections (see below) but the most relevant are these two:

I also wanted to make sure you all know about the .NET course curriculum at UCSD Extension. You can get links to all the courses from our new community blog here: www.ucsdxcommunity.com We'll post special advanced classes here, and also link you to our new course blogs (this is new, not a lot of content yet). I am the advisor to the program (since 1993!) so if you have any special requests, ask away!

<blatant_sales_pitch>

At IDesign we do architecture consulting, but we also do training. I teach the official IDesign Master Class at UCSD 2x per year (www.ucsdxcommunity.com/masterclass) and also do on site training, someone asked about this as well. See www.idesign.net for more information about those courses.

</blatant_sales_pitch>

I hope you enjoyed the day, please keep in touch!

 

11/17/2005 3:17 AM ASP.NET | ClickOnce | Speaking/Events  | Comments [7]  |  View reactions  |  Trackback

I have a myriad of resources for this talk, once again a jammed talk with lots of vertical topics you want to dive into.