Get started with Silverlight

A nice article on getting started with silverlight.

Get started with WCF (.Net 3.5)

Your best bet to get started with WCF (.Net 3.5) is through code samples avaialble on msdn (beta version and previews). So if you want to stay ahead of the curve and ger your hands on to the technology, you can download these samples here.

PDC 2007 Code Snippets

You can download the code snippets for PDC 2007 from here

Web 2.0 Architecture

During PDC atleast 2 of my talkes revolved alot around Web 2.0 architecture, REST, POX, AJAX, Mash-ups, Composite apps etc. Web 2.0 is already out there and we are not really planning for the future on this node. As with any other paradigm or technological advancement, the most important thing to consider is Architecture. Its Architecture that dictates how the paradigm or technology will affect the system. Its true that most of the people are worried about impact of Web 2.0 on their enterprises. Keeping the same context in mind I would say that ther couldnt have been a better time for the release of 12th MS Architect Journal that focuses of Web Architecture. I would say its a must read for any one interested in Architectural side of Web 2.0. You can download your free copy here

PDC 2007 Presentation downloads

Following is a link to download all three (solo) presentations that I made during Pakistan Developer Conference last week.

Download here.

I will soon be writing a commentary on the presentations. I would love to hear from you all. Just drop me a post for your comments and queries and i will reply back.

Rocking @ PDC 2007

Yesterday I had a rocking time @ Pakistan Developer Conference 2007, here at PC Hotel in Karachi. I had 3 sessions back to back,yes it was tiring but I enjoyed it. I started with a presentation on Office Programmable, basically talking about VSTO + VS Orcas(Ribbon Designer, Custom Task Panes, Excel Designer etc.). My next presentation was on Composite Architecture where I talked about merits of composition,its business case, how to architect composite applications, and other relevant challenges etc. Third session was on WCF Service Programming. I started off with REST architecture, then I talked about support for programming POX (Plain Old XML), Syndication, JSON, AJAX etc with WCF (VS Orcas - .net 3.5). I believe audience loved it specially the ease with which things could be done in Orcas. I will upload the slides shortly.

BizTalk Connectivity Services and SDK Update

I just came across the following update on BizTalk service labs web site

I will try to include a sneak peak on BizTalk services in my "Composite Architecture" & "WCF Services" presentation at Pakistan Developer Conference.

June 8th, 2007: BizTalk Connectivity Services and SDK Update

BizTalk Connectivity Services now supports:
UserName/Password based authentication
Access to application services through any web browser

The SDK has also been updated with:
Samples showing how to use username/password authentication
Samples showing how to expose a service so it can be accessed through a web browser
Compatibility with .NET Framework 3.5 Code Name "Orcas"

Acropolis

Microsoft Code Name “Acropolis” is a set of components and tools intended to make it easier for developers to build and manage modular, business focused, client applications for Microsoft Windows on the .NET Framework

“Acropolis” builds on the rich capabilities of Microsoft Windows and the .NET Framework, including Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), by providing tools and pre-built components that help developers quickly assemble applications from loosely-coupled parts and services.

download here

Free Silverlight Streaming service!!!

Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live offers a free streaming and application hosting solution for delivering high-quality, cross-platform, cross-browser, media-enabled rich interactive applications (RIAs). With the ability to author content in Microsoft Expression Media Encoder and other third-party editing environments, Web designers maintain complete control of the user experience.



Get it free here.

Deploying Silverlight applications on IIS

I spent many hours today fixing a Silverlight deployment. So I thought i should blog about my experience. So here it goes, the most important thing about deploying your Silverlight application on IIS is configuring IIS for MIME types. So if you havent done that yet your should probably read this.
Second important thing that I figured out was about multimedia content. If you have hosted your content on your IIS then you should make sure that the paths are correct. I read a few posts about people not being able to access their applications from other than the hosting machine itself. Just make sure that all the URI requests will come from the client itself so URIs will have to be constructed in a propper way. That means if your application is available on public internet/extranet then ensure that URIs have the IPs that are consistent with internaet/extranet address schemes. e.g. for an internet application you will have to make sure that URIs have public IPs instead of local IP addresses.

Playing with Silverlight

I have been working on Silverlight beta 1 for past couple of weeks to prepare a functional prototype (POC: Proof of concept). I just got done with it, I worked with lots of XAML and Javascript and a bit of design related stuff using ExpressionBlend 2 (May preview). It was a good experience to say the least.But one thing that bothered me most was the lack of documentation on Silverlight (WPF/E). Though I understand that the technology is rather new. But i believe when a release is in beta it should be supported by complete API documentation. On the other hand I must say demos have been useful for me to undestand things as they work.
I hope to do more work with Silverlight!

Smart Client Software Factory - May 2007

WOW! How about developing composite applications based on .Net 3.0 smart client using WPF?
Can't wait to get your hands on to it?

Following are release details.

The release provides:

1- Windows Presentation Foundation interoperability CAB extensions and View with presenter recipe
2- Offline application blocks and recipes; the application blocks support asynchronous calls to WCF web services.
3- Richer ClickOnce Deployment capabilities
4- Enhanced guidance packages which includes code generation Visual Basic .NET 2005
5- Improved installation with a new dependency checker

Download it here