Hammad Rajjoub's Musings On Technology

Understanding Windows Server AppFabric - 5 Important Questions ...Answered

2010-03-08T09:09:00.005+04:00

I am super excited about the public beta 2 release of Windows Server AppFabric. I am also hoping that you are also (if not more, than almost as) excited about this extremely useful and game changing offering from Microsoft.

However if you are one of those people who are still wondering what's this 'Windows Server AppFabric' and why is it important for you then you have come to the right place. In the last few weeks I have been asked few recurring questions on Windows AppFabric Fabric and it made a perfect sense for me to write a blog post (or perhaps a couple of them) on this topic.

At the moment I am thinking about making this a 3 part series which we will cover following areas:-

1- Try to answer some of the common questions around Windows Server AppFabric

2- Discuss business use cases that require use of Windows Server AppFabric

3- Discuss Windows Server AppFabric Architecture and its extensibility points

In this first post I will solely try to outline the technology side of the story and try to answer following common set of questions:-

Q: What is Windows Server AppFabric:

Let’s see what MSDN has to say:

Windows Server AppFabric is a set of integrated technologies that make it easier to build, scale and manage Web and composite applications that run on IIS.

In a nut shell, AppFabric

- is an ApplicationServer that allows you to build composite (WCF and WF) services that can horizontally scale out.
- offers enterprise scale distributed in-memory caching (that can, again, scale out horizontally)
- makes managing and monitoring services extremely easy through streamlined dashboards (via IIS) and Windows Power Shell Cmdlets

So, the key words are Services, Composite, Scalability, Distributed, In-Memory Caching, and ease of Management.

Q: Why/When should I use AppFabric?

We are not going to talk about business use-case in this post but surely we can discuss AppFabric's technical features that are extremely useful for developing composite service oriented applications.

You should definitely consider using AppFabric, when among other things, you... :-

- need your services to be scalable i.e the ability to expand from one node to hundreds and thousands nodes

- want to use application level in-memory caching that is highly available, performant and distributed across number of nodes

- want to be able to monitor your hosted services

- want the ability to manage your services using IIS as well as Windows Power Shell Cmdlets

Q: But... hold on...what happened with Oslo, Dublin and Velocity?

As a matter of fact, simply put mathematically, Windows Server AppFabric = Dublin + Velocity.
These days Oslo is more focused on data modelling and you find more details on Oslo here

Q: What are the key features of AppFabric:

Some key features of AppFabric include:-

- Hosting with message based activation i.e. Auto-magic lifecycle management based on incoming messages (more on hosting here)

- Streamlined configuration and monitoring via a centralized IIS Management console and Windows Power Shell Cmdlets (more on management tools here)

- Distributed, high performing, highly available, in-memory application caching (more on caching here)

- Seamless integration with IIS, WCF and WF (more on development here)

Q: How can I develop applications that can leverage AppFabric functionality?
Very simple! Fortunately, one of the good things about AppFabric is that any WCF/WF application/service built using following Visual Studio template leverage AppFabric feature-set.

- WCF Service Application

- WCF Workflow Service Application

- WCF Service

In fact, AppFabric (goes an extra mile and) looks for services created using these templates and applies default configurations for persistence and monitoring.

I believe that's it for now and in the next post, we will try to cover common use cases where we can run our services on AppFabric add utilize its feature-set to build scalable, composite and robust services and platforms.

Combating Software Entrop with Design Patters and Pricnicples at Tech-Ed Middle East

2010-03-02T23:07:00.003+04:00

Here is the slide deck from my yesterday's presentationat TechEd.

C:\Fakepath\Combating Software Entropy 2

View more presentations from Hammad Rajjoub.

3 Important Questions on Software Complexity

2010-02-28T12:55:00.003+04:00

3 Questions that I am going to cover tomorrow in my talk:

- Why is software complex?
- What is bad design?
- How to fix it?

See you tomorrow at TechEd

Why is it important to attend my 'Combating Software Entropy Session' at Tech-Ed Middle East 2010

2010-02-23T23:57:00.004+04:00

I just quickly wanted to write down a brief introduction to my 'Combating Software Entropy' at Tech-Ed Middle East 2010

Session Outline:

In this session we are going to talk about

- How to tackle inherently complex nature of a software

- Gaining an insight in to the heart of the software design

- Heuristics associated with the software design and architecural patterns and practices

- What is bad design and how to fix it?

Audience:

Intended audience of this session in-general includes all the stake holders in software development process i.e. from Developer to Architect to Project and Program Manager and even CTOs and CIOs. However I have focused specially on targeting Software and Solutions Architects, i.e. individuals or teams responsible for the overall design and architecture of the solution. So, if you consider yourself as a stake holder in Software development process then you should be attending this session.

DotNetME Podcasts are live!

2010-02-18T22:25:00.004+04:00

I am pleased to announce that DotNetME Podcasts are live now !!!
To start with we have published our first episode that talks about SOLID principles. In this episode my good friend Ron is asking me about the desing principles around

- OCP : Open Close Principle
- SRP: Single Responsiblity Principle
- DI: Dependency Inversion
- LSP: Liskov Substitution Principle

The show was recorded way back in October 2009. Its a bit late but I'd say its all worth it. So download it, listen to it and let us know yor feedback.

Attending MVP Summit 2010

2010-02-18T21:56:00.002+04:00

A quick update, I am in Seattle, attending MVP Summit 2010 these days.

Its a wonderful experience to sit with all the CSD folks here at Microsoft Campus. A lot of discussion has been around with the v next of the platform, which is absolutely exciting.

I will definitely try and build some content around some key technologies that we are discussing here (obviously only covering the public information). So stay tuned for bunch of posts around Windows Server AppFabric, Microsoft Dublin , Microsoft Velocity, WCF4 and Windows Azure

My Top 11 Programming Books

2010-02-12T18:44:00.004+04:00

Following is my top 11 programming books (in no particular order):-

1 - Code Complete 2

2 - CLR via C# 3rd Edition

3 - Agile Software Development, Principles, Patterns, and Practices

4 - The Pragmatic Programmer

5 - Rapid Development

6- Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries, 2nd Edition

7-Thinking in C++

8- SOA Design Patterns

9- Becoming a Technical Leader

10- Beyond Chaos - Managing Software Development

11- Enterprise Integration Patterns

Take a look at Jeff Atwood's list here.

Also, worth looking at is the list by Joel (of 'Joel on Software' fame) here.

I will share the complete list of books that i own some other day :)

Let me know which ones do you like and which ones you dont...

Agile Best Practices : Refactoring

2010-02-11T11:16:00.003+04:00

Yesterday, 10th Feb 2010, i was invited to speak at a Techies UG event, here in Dubai, UAE.

I started off the discussion with defining the practice of refactoring and i quoted Martin Fowler's blog as following

•Refactoring is a disciplined technique for restructuring an existing body of code, altering its internal structure without changing its external behavior.

•Its heart is a series of small behavior preserving transformations.

•Each transformation (called a 'refactoring') does little, but a sequence of transformations can produce a significant restructuring.

After this we moved on to the best practices for refactoring classes. Following is a list that we discussed:-

Comments
Long Method
Long Parameter List
Duplicate Code
Large Class
Type Embedded In Name
Un Communicative Names
Inconsistent Names
Speculative Generality

The session was very intense with everyone chipping in with their comments and i thoroughly enjoyed hosting it. Towards the end Anton and I wrote couple of code snippets to check the Andrew idea of using Interfaces (more on it later on). Rolf also chipped in with his comments and critiques. Notable absentees were Ron and Zubair and it would have been much more fun had they attended the event.

ps: watch out this post for snaps from the event.

Edit#1: Rolf's blog post on the event is live http://techiesleaders.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!50531D3D6442376A!214.entry

Tech-Ed Field Kit : time to show your love :)

2010-02-10T13:59:00.005+04:00

Are you speaking at Tech-Ed Middle East?

Are you attending Tech-Ed Middle East?

Would you like to come to Tech-Ed Middle East?

Are you considering coming to Tech-Ed Middle East?

Doesn't matter, use this kit and show your love!

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Tech-Ed Middle East 2010 (Part 2 of X)

2010-02-04T18:08:00.006+04:00

So here's the second part of the Tech-Ed Middle East Series. I have some really exciting updates for all of you.

Great Speakers:-
In my last post i shared an exciting speaker lineup with you. Guess what, the best just got better. Now we have added Eric Rudder, Somasegar and Scott Hanselman's to make this a stellar lineup for first ever Tech Ed Middle East event.

Eric, Soma and Scott all are big names and I expect their sessions to be jam packed. If you are coming to the event (and why shouldn't you) then you should be looking at the agenda and organizing your sessions as soon as possible.
You can also take a look at running order of the event here.

Great Content:-
There are 96 sessions distributed under 18 tracks. Mix this with partner sessions and instructor led labs and you have a wealth of great technical content to choose from.Look out for some great keynotes and break out sessions.

Great Fun:-
Geeks want to have fun!

Here are couple of pointers that I would like to share with you all:-

Day 1: 1st March 2010
A day full of technical sessions will lead towards fun filled evening. In the evening, welcome reception will make way for some local cultural entertainment. This I am sure will dazzle visiting delegates.

To learn more visit these links:-
http://www.dubaiculture.ae/en/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kn3k0_tWjw

Day 2: 2nd March 2010
On the eve of Day 2, all the delegates will be invited to attend a party on the beach. Party will be divided in to two different areas:
- Chill out Zone
- Arabic Zone

There will be some fun filled entertainment to go along and i am not going to spoil the surprise right now. However i will be tweeting some factoids on official Tech Ed Twitter account.

That's its for now, look out for couple of more exciting posts on Tech-Ed. Feel free to ask if you have any specific questions I would love to answer them.

Edit 1: Fixed the event dates.

Speaking at Tech-Ed Middle East

2010-02-03T17:54:00.002+04:00

I am glad to share this with you all that I will be speaking at this year's edition of Tech-Ed Middle East in Dubai, UAE. More details on the event itself are available at http://www.teched.ae/

My first session is confirmed I will be talking about 'Combating Software Entropy with Design Patterns and Principals '.

My second session is still in the pipe-line and hopefully its going to be a panel discussion on 'Agile Architecture', more along the lines of my current discussion listed in this blog post

Agile Discussion - Part 2 of X [Role of An Architect in an Agile World]

2010-01-27T00:45:00.012+04:00

So here i am writing this second blog post in series on Agile Posts (read the first one here).

As promised in my last post, and after reading my friend Ron's post I am going to try and answer the following important question. :-

Whats the role of an Architect in an Agile team?

Contrary to the common believe that Agile doesn't need architecture (or an Architect role for that matter), Agile (or specifically XP) doesn't imply Design Is Dead (as Martin Fowler puts it).

Since Agile doesn't believe in BDUF (Big Design Up Front Paradigm), its opponents tend to claim that Agile doesn't require architects which i should say is not the case in reality. (Note: Agilists may say that they don't need Architects sitting in silos segregated from the developers (aka Ivory Tower Architect). Which IMHO is a right thing to say)

So, Agile does indeed emphasize on importance of Architecture, the only difference is, instead of planned design (BDUF) it focuses on evolutionary design. In practice evolutionary design doesn't mean Zero design in the beginning, but rather 'just enough design that is easy to evolve/change/maintain' with passage of time. Obviously, purists on both side of the camp would argue that, BDUF= planned design and Evolutionary Design = Zero Up front design. Since no one can foresee the future and requirements are always changing, reality perhaps lies somewhere in between. What I am suggesting is that from my experience i have seen evolutionary design tend to work better in general (yes, there are no silver bullets here). I can go on talking about this, but I'd rather focus on the role of an Architect in an Agile world and for that i believe following are some key activities (in addition to vanilla responsibilities) an Architect needs to own and be responsible for:

Agile Architect is hands-on and participates in day-to-day development

Agile Architect is very keen on maintaining the code-quality ( through Code Analysis , Reviews etc.)

Agile Architect understands all the stake holders and works towards maximising their value

Agile Architect works towards understanding the business domain

Agile Architect can not predict the unseen future but can anticipate volatile areas and provide design guide lines accordingly ( a la: Design for Change)

Agile Architect makes sure that everyone follows Agile Principles, specially the ones outlined by Uncle Bob)

I think the most important take-away is that Agile Architect is hands-on and participates in the team through out the development life cycle rather than a big bang contribution in the beginning.

IMHO only special agile developers can become Agile Architects and not all software architects are Agile by default.

I think i will leave this discussion at it at the moment and would take it further depending upon your comments/feedback....

Its 3 AM in the morning and i should get some ZZZZ...

ps: also check out the following links:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/177764/does-a-software-architect-have-a-role-in-agile-esp-scrum

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000018.html

http://www.agilearchitect.org/agile/role.htm

Agile Discussion - Part 1 of X

2010-01-25T22:48:00.015+04:00

Last week I was invited by @RolfEleveld to participate in an Agile development discussion for his user group (TechiesUG) event. It was fun sitting with a bunch of geeks and having an open discussion on what is Agile development and how to convince stake holders (including customers/senior managers) to adapt to it. During the discussion following questions were raised (specially by ZubairDotNet)...

- Which one is the best Agile APPROACH?
- How often should we do Code Reviews, Does it slow you down?
- How does Agile work for Consultancy scenarios?
- What if the client is not part of the team, who acts as a proxy in Agile team?
- Whats the role of an Architect in an Agile team?
- How does estimation work in an Agile practice?

Before I move on to answering these questions, to set the context right, i would like to bring your attention to "The Agile Manifesto", it says:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

Now let me try and answer these questions, one by one:-

1- Which one is the best Agile APPROACH?
There are a bunch of available methodologies:-
Scrum
Extreme Programming (XP)
Agile Unified Process (AUP)
DSDM
Essential Unified Process (EssUP)
Feature Driven Development (FDD)
Open Unified Process (OpenUP)
Lean software development
etc.

IMHO, generally, the combination of SCRUM and XP works the best. In this combination, SCRUM dictates management aspects whereas XP rules software development practices like, Pair Programming, Refactoring, Continous Integration, TDD etc.

2 - How often should we do Code Reviews, Does it slow you down?
There are two common types of code reviews. One is formal code review which comes with all the bells and whistles (i.e. all the formality of setting up schedules, e.g. weekly code review by so and so to check this and that etc). Purists/Agilists tend to steer clear of this type of approach. The second approach, which is inline with heart of agile, is lean and mean.
If you are following XP then you are, by virtue of pair programming; pretty much getting code reviews all the time.
IMHO, in practice, its good to have atleast daily code-reviews (i.e. if you are not doing pair-programming 24X7). It also makes sense to run automated constraints at check-ins/builds (and validate some coding/design principles with the help of tools e.g. TFS's code analysis check in policies)
This is one of the classical scenarios where Architects come in handy (more on it later).
In a nut shell, code reviews dont slow you down, if anything, they help you with the quality of the software which makes it easy to maintain and undestand as well as less pain to change later on.

3- How does Agile work for Consultancy scenarios?
This is a bit tricky question. In a nut shell, it depends on the client. If we cast aside some misconceptions (like agile means no documentation, no planning, no up front design etc) about Agile then we can certainly benifit from it for most of the software development scenarios. As consultants we should definately try and sell our side of the story.
However in practice, we will win some and we will loose some.

4- What if the client is not part of the team, who acts as a proxy in Agile team?
It's generally accepted that If you dont have customer then you have to invent one. I would say it makes sense to invent more than one, infact ideally, each developer should understand the domain of the business problem. Practically some one senior (read 'Architect', more on it later) from the team should/could act as a so called proxy.

5- Whats the role of an Architect in an Agile team?
6- How does estimation work in an Agile practice?
to be covered in separate dedicated posts.

I will need to sign off now and hope to answer the remaining questions sometimes tomorrow.

Untill then happy reading and feel free to post your comments/questions and i will make sure that i will get back to you ASAP.

you can also follow me on twitter @ http://twitter.com/hammadrajjoub

Edit 1: fixed the links.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Tech-Ed Middle East 2010 (Part 1 of X)

2010-01-16T17:09:00.020+04:00

So those of you who follow me on twitter already know the updates that i have been pushing through on the biggest IT event in the Middle East, yes, you guessed it right, I am talking about Microsoft's TechEd Middle East 2010.

I thought i should write a series of posts that would highlight the exciting developments and the build up right up to the event it self, scheduled for 1-3 of March 2010 in Dubai, UAE.

In the first post i am going to highlight the most important aspects of the event i.e. the content and the speakers.

Content:
Sessions at Tech-Ed ME is divied into following tracks:

Architecture - ARC
Business Intelligence - BIN
Cloud Computing and Online Services - CCS
Database Platform - DAT
Developer Tools, Languages and Frameworks - DEV (11)
IT Strategy and Business Alignment - ISB
Management and Virtualization - MGV
Windows Mobile - MOB
Office and SharePoint - OFS
Security, Identity and Access - SIA
SOA and Business Processes - SOA
Windows Server - SVR
Unified Communications - UNC
Windows Client - WCL
Web and User Experience - WEB

This definately is a wide-range of categories, which means that there is something in it for all of us techies out there i.e. from Architecture enthsiast to the Sharepoint Junkie to the Security Geek, to the IT Guy, everyone seems to be covered. More importantly these tracks seem to cover the whole spectrum of IT landscape, and thats exactly how IT companies/Enterprises should look at this event i.e. they should see the value of sending their staff to this event.

I will drill down on some of the interesting tracks(obviously from my perspective) in the follow up posts, but for now, you can stay up-to-date visiting official track listing at Tech-Ed ME site @ http://www.teched.ae/technical-tracks.aspx

Speakers:

Rafal Lukawiecki: In his role as Strategic Consultant at Project Botticelli Ltd Rafal is responsible for analysing and forecasting trends in the field of Information Technology.
Aron Skonnard: Aaron Skonnard is a Microsoft MVP and 10-year columnist for MSDN Magazine as well as co-founder of Pluralsight, an industry think-tank focused on instructor-led training for Microsoft developers.
Joel Oleson: Joel is a senior product manager and SharePoint evangelist at Quest where he is responsible for product direction and strategy. He is well known in the SharePoint community as an enthusiastic trainer, evangelist and architect and he maintains a popular blog.
Jason Olson: Jason Olson is a Senior Technical Evangelist in the Developer & Platform Evangelism division at Microsoft, currently evangelizing Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.
Andy Malone: Andy Malone is the CEO of Quality Training Ltd and founder of both the Dive Deeper Technology and Cybercrime Security events. Based in Scotland, Andy is a popular international event speaker and technology evangelist with over 15 years experience.
John Craddock: John has designed and implemented computing systems ranging from high-speed industrial controllers through to distributed IT systems with a focus on security and high-availability. A key player in many IT projects for industry leaders including Microsoft, the UK Government and multi-nationals that require optimised IT systems.
Amish Lukka: Amish is a Premier Field Engineer based in the UK. He has extensive experience working with large enterprise customers around the world providing reactive and proactive services. This includes resolving critical issues on Active Directory which on many occasions has included disaster recovery scenarios for large environments.

These are some of the best speakers of our industry, but if you ask me, my favourtie is Rafal. Having attended his key notes on couple of occassions i can guarantee you that you are going to love his insights on technology!

Obviously, this is not an extensive list and i will try to maintain this speaker list as and when new speakers are confirmed. In the meantime you can also check the line up @ http://www.teched.ae/speakers.aspx

Summary:

So far the content + speaker matrix is looking very interesting. If nothing else, i can promise you that this is going to get better from here on. So, look out for more interesting topics and big names in the industry to present them to you. Also, dont forget that Tech-Ed offers hands-on labs, and i am sure all of you geek-heads know that nothing beats the feeling of learning new things in hands-on lab. For more updates keep checking this page http://www.teched.ae/sessions-and-labs.aspx

Follow Tech-Ed ME's official tweets @ http://twitter.com/TechEd_ME

DotNetMe Podcast ++

2009-12-09T12:37:00.003+04:00

Hi folks, its been a while since my last post. I guess i have been a bit too busy, but no complains thats the way it goes.

Coming to the point, althought i havent been blogging but i have been busy sorting out podcasts for the DotNetMe (Microsoft.Net Middle East) show. Just to give you a head's up, so far, we have recorded following sesssions:

- Agile Development with Hammad Rajjoub (shameless plug, i know :> )
- Localizing Microsoft Technology Stack for Arabic with Dina Lasheen
- Understanding Micrsoft EPM - Enterprise Project Management with Bilal Okour

We are going to record two more sessions tonight

- Understanding Sharepoint for Developers using C# with Mostafa Arafa
- Inside Sharepoint for Arabs with Ayman el Hattab

We are aiming to go live on MSDN Channel9 15th December with these shows with lots of more shows to follow.

Yes, in the meantime for more 'real-time' updates, do follow us on
- twitter.com/dotnetmepodcast
- twitter.com/hammadrajjoub
- twitter.com/ronaldwidha

MEA DotNet Podcast # 01

2009-09-15T00:12:00.004+04:00

Just completed the slide deck for my first Agile Developer series talk and sent it across for a review. Looking forward to the dry run in next couple of weeks. All the podcasts should be available for download on MSDN's Channel 9 (http://channel9.msdn.com) . I will also be publishing the date + dial in details as soon as things are finalized.

Working on the first talk right now

2009-09-06T23:31:00.003+04:00

I am working on the content for the first podcast series that i promised last week. The talk is going to revolve around Agile Development and SOLID principles.

I am going to break down the content into 4 X 15 min sections so that we can spread them easily depending on the timeline and audience.

Met Tareq, Pooya and Anton

2009-09-06T22:46:00.002+04:00

Yesterday we (myself, Pooya and Anton) went to Abu Dhabi to meet Tareq for a quick iftar as well as a discussion on how to run local communities. We also discussed the roadmap (which includes my podcast series) of community activities that are going to take place in near future (Q4-2009 - Q1 2010).

Gulf Developer Podcast Series - updated

2009-08-31T20:41:00.004+04:00

I am extremely pleased to announce the very first 'Microsoft.Net focused podcast series in the Gulf'. Let me give you a little bit of background first and then we can drill down into the details of who, what, how and when.

History
Having been in Dubai, on and off, for past 4-5 years and being Microsoft MVP all the while has given me an oppurtunity to work with local developer communities here in the Gulf. In terms of dev communities, Kwait (with dotnetboom http://www.dotnetboom.net) and Qatar (with oryx dev http://oryxdev.com/en/default.aspx) have been successful with setting up their user groups. Unfortunately we dont have similar success story for the UAE in particular and the rest of Gulf in general.

The Motivation
This lack of dev community itself is a biggest motivation for trying to bring all the developers on a common platform. Objectives include empowering regional Microsoft developers with relevant technical content on Microsoft Platform, presenting topics in English/Arabic, sharing ideas, learning from each others experiences/mistakes and above all finding an oppurtunity to get in touch with like minded professionals across the region.

The Idea
From years of experience we have learned that its difficult to get developers to come and attend user group events in the emirates. Generally this is attributed to problems related to 'commuting' to and from the event venues as well as lack of well designed event calendar(schedule).
To mitigate these potential issues, initially, myself and Anton (from Microsoft Dubai) agreed on hosting a developer podcast series. The idea was discussed when Somasegar was visiting Microsoft Dubai and hosted local dev community for an informal talk/lunch at Microsoft Dubai office in DIC - Dubai Internet City last month.
Later on Anton introduced me to Ron and we became partner-in-crime and started co-hosting the podcast series.

The Plan
The plan, as i said, is to host a series of sessions targetting regional developer community. Come up with a clear agenda and share the detailed schedule with the developers so that they can mark their calendars and look forward to the events that they think are most relevant for them. Ideally, try and host these podcasts to MSDN Channel 9 so that the content can be downloaded easily and reaches the broadest possible audience (and yes, be listened to while driving on Sheikh Zayed Road ;)).

The Schedule
Following shows have been recorded so far:-

1- Agile Development 101 (myself and Ron)
2- Localization in .Net with Dina Lasheen
3- Understanding Microsoft Enterprise Project Management with Bilal Okour
4- Understanding Sharepoint 2010 with Mostafa Arafa.
5- Inside Sharepoint for Arabs Part 1 with Aymen El Hattab
6- Inside Sharepoint for Arabs Part 2 with Marwan Tarek

Whats Next
- Look out for preview release in about week's time (we will be releasing at least 2 episodes for free public access)
+ Watch out for special Tech-Ed focused episodes
- Hosting key speakers and asking them what to expect in their Tech-Ed talks
- Talking to people who are working behind the scenes and making this event happen.
- A dedicated episode on .Net Community in Jordan
- Follow us on Twitter for instant updates. http://twitter.com/DotNetMEPodcast
- Provide us with your feedback on twitter or this blog post

Code7: win a trip to LA for PDC09 and up to $17,777 in cash!

2009-08-30T20:29:00.004+04:00

Got Windows 7? got some cool ideas for nifty apps? Then 'now' is the time to register yourself @ https://www.code7contest.com/ and participate for a developer contest that will see winner raking up to 17,777$ cash!

Take three minutes to video yourself describing and demonstrating your application idea for Windows 7 and you could win big. We'll choose one uber talented finalist from each of the following seven geographic regions:
•China
•Europe and United Kingdom
•India and Southeast Asia
•Japan, Korea, Australia, Antarctica, and New Zealand
•Middle East and Africa
•North America
•South and Central America

The path is already mapped in workspace

2009-07-05T14:26:00.002+04:00

i was getting the following error:

The path is already mapped in workspace

Here's how i solved it.

Theres another way to do it through command line

WCF Rest Starter Kit

2009-03-03T03:23:00.001+04:00

You can download WCF Rest Starter kit from codeplex.

The WCF REST Starter Kit is a set of features, Visual Studio templates, samples and guidance that enable users to create REST style services using WCF. The CodePlex Preview 1 release provides new features that enable or simplify various aspects of using the http capabilities in WCF, such as caching, security, error handling, help page support, conditional PUT, push style streaming, type based dispatch and semi-structured XML support. The WCF REST Starter Kit also provides Visual Studio templates for creating REST style services such as an Atom feed service, a REST-RPC hybrid service, Resource singleton and collection services and an Atom Publishing Protocol service. In addition, there are samples, documentation and other guidance that help to use these new capabilities.

http://www.codeplex.com/aspnet/Wiki/View.aspx?title=WCF%20REST

Microsoft Web Platform 1.0

2009-01-27T12:06:00.000+04:00

The Web Platform Installer (Web PI) is a simple tool that installs Microsoft's entire Web Platform, including IIS, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Express Edition and the .NET Framework. Using the Web Platform Installer’s user interface, you can choose to install either specific products or the entire Microsoft Web Platform onto your computer. The Web PI also helps keep your products up to date by always offering the latest additions to the Web Platform.

get iot here

Office Development with VS 2010

2009-01-27T12:04:00.000+04:00

Get up to date with office development on .net platform with Somasegar's post here

My personal favourite is simplification of .net's integration with COM's OM.

As per the example posted in Somasegar's blog.

Instead of doing the following

object fileName = "Test.docx";

object missing = System.Reflection.Missing.Value;

doc.SaveAs(ref fileName,

ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,

ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,

ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,

ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,

ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);

You can do with VS 2010

object fileName = "Test.docx";

doc.SaveAs(fileName);

VS 2008 sp1 & .Net 3.5 sp1 is out

2008-08-12T09:19:00.002+04:00

You can download VS 2008 sp1 and .Net 3.5 sp1 @

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ab99342f-5d1a-413d-8319-81da479ab0d7&DisplayLang=en

This release offers major improvements in WCF and WF.

Brief overview avaialble @ download page says:

.NET Framework version 3.5 Service Pack 1 provides the following new features and improvements:

ASP.NET Dynamic Data, which provides a rich scaffolding framework that enables rapid data driven development without writing code, and a new addition to ASP.NET AJAX that provides support for managing browser history (back button support). For more information, see What’s New in ASP.NET and Web Development.

Core improvements to the CLR (common language runtime) that include better layout of .NET Framework native images, opting out of strong-name verification for fully trusted assemblies, improved application startup performance, better generated code that improves end-to-end application execution time, and opting managed code to run in ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) mode if supported by the operating system. Additionally, managed applications that are opened from network shares have the same behavior as native applications by running with full trust.

Performance improvements to WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), including a faster startup time and improved performance for Bitmap effects. Additional functionality for WPF includes better support for line of business applications, native splash screen support, DirectX pixel shader support, and the new WebBrowser control.

ClickOnce application publishers can decide to opt out of signing and hashing as appropriate for their scenarios, developers can programmatically install ClickOnce applications that display a customized branding, and ClickOnce error dialog boxes support links to application-specific support sites on the Web.

The Entity Framework is an evolution of the existing suite of ADO.NET data access technologies. The Entity Framework enables developers to program against relational databases in according to application-specific domain models instead of the underlying database models. For more information, see Getting Started with the Entity Framework. The Entity Framework introduces some additional features, including support for new SQL Server 2008 types, default graph serialization of Entities, and the Entity Data Source. This release of the Entity Framework supports the new date and file stream capabilities in SQL Server 2008. The graph serialization work helps developers who want to build Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services that model full graphs as data contracts. The Entity Data Source provides a traditional data source experience for ASP.NET Web application builders who want to work with the Entity Framework.

LINQ to SQL includes new support for the new date and file stream capabilities in SQL Server 2008.

The ADO.NET Data Services Framework consists of a combination of patterns and libraries, which enable data to be exposed as a flexible REST (Representational State Transfer)-based data service that can be consumed by Web clients in a corporate network or across the Internet. The ADO.NET Data Services Framework makes data service creation over any data source. A conceptual view model of the underlying storage schema can easily be exposed through rich integration with the ADO.NET Entity Framework. Services created by using the ADO.NET Data Services Framework, and also compatible Windows Live (dev.live.com) services, can be easily accessed from any platform. For client applications that are running on Microsoft platforms, a set of client libraries are provided to make interaction with data services simple. For example, .NET Framework-based clients can use LINQ to query data services and a simple .NET Framework object layer to update data in the service.

Windows Communication Foundation now makes the DataContract Serializer easier to use by providing improved interoperability support, enhancing the debugging experience in partial trust scenarios, and extending syndication protocol support for wider usage in Web 2.0 applications.

The .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server (SqlClient) adds new support for file stream and sparse column capabilities in SQL Server 2008.

Web Service enumeration components are not available

2008-07-26T21:24:00.001+04:00

when you are getting subject titled error in Visual Studio (this happens when you try to add a web reference), try using following command on vs command prompt:

devenv /resetskippkgs

More on Composite Architecture

2008-07-26T21:22:00.000+04:00

As i posted earlier that i will be presenting @ IASA Singapore's chapter evening. It turned out to be an interesting session and i got the chance to interact with the audience and hear their pain points on composite architecture and enterprise mashups.

Enteprisewise initiatives, sharing data across services/apps and need for top quality tools came out as the most crucial elements to the success of composite architecture. I also heard some interesting remarks from the audience. One of the gentlement mentioned that there is nothing that composite arch/enterprise mashup offers that couldnt be done with traditional apps/services. I'd say lets look at this analogy:

"if you are travel from point x to y, you could either walk, run, ride a horse, drive, commute through train, or fly in a plane. Ofcourse it will depend on the distance b/w x and y. Among other things it will also depend on your mind set and approach. if you want to cover the distance in excess of hundreds of kilometers by riding a horse then God speed. Surely you will get there but the question is how much will it cost you in terms of time and effort"

I strongly believe in composite arhictecture and enterprise mashups. This truly leads to realization of potential promised by SOA.

The invoked member is not supported in a dynamic assembly

2008-07-26T21:21:00.000+04:00

When i tried running an ibattis related unit test fixtures in my exsiting test assembly I started getting this wierd error that's a known bug documented at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327131.

Interesting thing is that when i run that fixture in a separate assembly it works fine but as soon as i add it to existing test fixtures it crashes with this error :"The invoked member is not supported in a dynamic assembly".

I think it has to do with how nUnit created dynamic assemblies for test fixtures internally. Unfortunately i cant change that behavior. So for now the work around is to use a separate assembly.

Embedded sqlMap.config

2008-07-26T21:18:00.002+04:00

If you are like me you would like to embed sqlMap.config file for your ibatis project. Although its not provided out of the box but its very simple to implement.

All you have to do is to write your own sqlMapper implementation.The core logic revolves around building DomSqlMapBuilder.

protected static void InitMapper()
{
DomSqlMapBuilder builder = new DomSqlMapBuilder();
XmlDocument sqlMapConfig = Resources.GetEmbeddedResourceAsXmlDocument("YourNamepspace.YourConfigFile.config");
mapper = builder.Configure(sqlMapConfig) as SqlMapper;
}

for more details do check out http://opensource.atlassian.com/confluence/oss/display/IBATIS/How+do+I+use+an+embedded

Interesting

2008-07-23T19:04:00.000+04:00

If you think
- you take our tea/coffee seriously
- you have lots of sugar (its indeed our fuel)
- you like to have it on your desk

Then you are not much different from earlier species of computer programmers who used to work with John Von Nuemann. Check out this interesting read

http://skysigal.xact-solutions.com/Blog/tabid/427/EntryID/387/Default.aspx

ASP.NET MVC CodePlex Preview 4

2008-07-23T19:03:00.002+04:00

This CodePlex Preview 4 release introduces new features as well as changes to the default project template. The changes to the default project template are intended to help jumpstart the most common application-building scenarios. Many of the new features focus around simple AJAX scenarios.

http://www.codeplex.com/aspnet/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=15389

Web Service enumeration components are not available

2008-07-23T19:03:00.001+04:00

when you are getting subject titled error in Visual Studio (this happens when you try to add a web reference), try using following command on vs command prompt:

devenv /resetskippkgs

More on Composite Architecture

2008-07-23T19:01:00.000+04:00

Composite Architecture

2008-07-17T07:53:00.002+04:00

I will be doing a presentation on Composite Architecture later today @ IASA Singapore's chapter evening.

This presentation will talk about how the
software architecture paradigm is shifting in response to agile enterprises. This talk will intend to de-mystify composite architecture and then in the end present available tools and technologies that can be used to build applications and services that are based on composite architecture.

If you are in or around Singapore on 17th of July 2008 then feel free to join us.

Venue is :9 Temasek Boulevard | #35-03 Suntec Tower Two | Singapore 038989

IASA Singapore's Networking Night

2008-05-15T19:04:00.002+04:00

Don't miss your chance to meet who you want to meet!
This network session allows you to relax in a cosy ambience for conversation with the right people. Co-organised by Hudson and the International Association of Software Architects (IASA), we welcome you to come meet and mingle with fellow industry peers, IASA members and Hudson consultants.

Date: Thursday, 29 May 2008
Time: 18:30 onwards
Venue: Oosters, Suntec City

Dress code: Business Attire.

Training on .Net

2008-05-15T16:35:00.002+04:00

Last week i concluded 3 part series of sessions on .NET and C#. I started off with basics and moved to advanced topics. These were all inhouse sessions for . We got good feedback on all sessions and we will continue holding such events in the future.

Speaking @ Heroes community launch

2008-05-15T16:28:00.002+04:00

I will be presenting a dev track @ Heroes Community Launch by Singapore .Net User Group (www.sgdotnet.org). I will be talking about web programming using WCF and .net 3.5. I will be doing demoes highlighting REST, JSON and Syndication part of the API.

Sitting next to greatest talent...

2008-04-20T15:41:00.002+04:00

During OSLO SDRs i got to know, meet and share thoughts with greatest minds in CSD today. Its a big list but i will like to share a few names and they go like, Don Box, Juval Lowy, Sam Gentile, Brian Loesgen, Michele Leroux Bustamante, Roman Kiss and Chris Sells. A noted omission from the attendee was Clemens Vesters.

SDR @ Connected Systems (MVP Summit 2008)

2008-04-20T14:54:00.000+04:00

During the course of a week @ Seattle/Redmond I, along with other Connected Systems/BizTalk MVPs, got the chance to attend a number of OSLO SDR meetings. It was a great experience to discover what OSLO is going to bring to the table when it comes design, development and lifcycle management of highly scalable service oriented systems and services. I would have loved to talk more about OSLO and its differentiating aspects but I can't go into the details since i am bound by my NDA (non-discolosure-agreement). But all i can say for now is that "I saw OSLO, I experienced OSLO and OSLO is going to be one of the greatest innovations in todays/tomorrows Service Oriented IT world".

MVP Summit - 08

2008-04-20T11:55:00.000+04:00

I am back from MVP Summit 2008 that took place in Seattle last week. It was an absolutely amazing experience and I was overwhelmed by
the sheer amount of information that was offered during the summit. From the Toby's welcome note to speech by "http://communitygrouptherapy.com/">Sean O Driscoll to the break out sessions that took place in Building # 44 @ Redmond Campus to
the key notes by Ray Ozzie and "http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/steve/default.mspx">Steve Balmer, it was an enlightening experience.

I would like to point out to a news article posted by Seattle times "http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoft/2004357297_microsoft18.html">here. I will be looking forward to attend next years
summit that is scheduled for March 1-4th, 2009.

I will blog shortly about Connected System SDRs.

MVP Summit 2008 - 01

2008-04-14T21:50:00.003+04:00

Hey all.. I am at the WSTC and waiting for the Welcome note and hence the official start of this years summit here @ Seattle, Washington. I reached Seattle yesterday morning and will be heading back to Singapore on Friday 18th of April. I will be blogging about this event for next few days and keep you all posted on the most exciting and the best of things experienced @ this years summit.
Now, a little bit of update on weather in Seattle. It was rather cold and wet in Seattle yesterday but today is one of those bright sunny days (well, so far atleast) you wish you would have every day.

User group event: Web 2.0 in Enterprise

2008-04-06T11:28:00.001+04:00

<dotNetBulls/> hosted their first technical event on 11th of March, 2008. Topic for this event was "Web 2.0 in Enterprise" and it was hosted by Linda Chong, from Microsoft. Linda Chong works for Microsoft in the capacity of Architect Evangelist and she has 12 years of extensive experience on management, consulting, evangelism, architecture design/review, pre-sales engagement and systems integration in the areas of SOA, Web 2.0, e-business/e-commerce and enterprise application integration (EAI). Event started with Hammad Rajjoub introducing <dotNetBulls/> and speaker.

Linda started off with talking about Software + Services and Web 2.0 and where it stands today and then moved towards Microsoft's Silverlight and its applications in local/international market. It was a successful event that saw a conference room filled with geeks, snacks (thanks to SDC) and guest speaker engaged in technical dialogue for more than an hour.

User Group Event on VSTS

2008-04-06T11:25:00.000+04:00

<dotNetBulls/> hosted their second technical event on 27th of March, 2008. This was a special event that saw two top speakers from Microsoft Corporation hosting a tech-talk on Application Life Cycle Management, Agile Tools and Visual Studio Team System. Both the speakers were visiting Singapore for "Heroes Happen Here" event that marks the launch of Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Exchange 2008.

Norman Guadagno, Director of Product Marketing for Visual Studio Team System talked about application development life cycle management and how VSTS allows integrated, extensible and end-to-end ALM (Application Lifecycle Management).

Stephanie Saad, Group Manager in Visual Studio Team System at Microsoft, talked about how agile development tools in VSTS can be used to deliver Agile Solutions.

Event was a success amongst its participants who were delighted and enlightened to hear from top experts on the topic that's very important and extremely relevant to their professional work. Stephanie showed some cool demoes on VSTS and audience absolutely liked it. After the demoes there was an open QnA session where audience asked various questions on the use of code metrics, automated builds, annotations etc.

Speaking at ITARC - KL

2008-04-06T11:20:00.002+04:00

I will be presenting at ITARC conference organized by IASA in KL. I will be presenting a break out session on "Composite Architecture". I will share the slides with all of you shortly.

Attending MVP Summit 2008

2008-04-06T11:08:00.001+04:00

I will be attending MVP Summit 2008 in Seattle this year. I am really looking forward to getting back to Redmond and meeting product team.

MVP Award for 4th consecutive year

2008-04-06T11:02:00.001+04:00

I am glad to share this news with all of you that I have been given MVP award for the 4th consecutive year. I will also continue to be part of Microsoft's Connected Systems Advisory Board.

ODP Bug - or so I think

2008-04-06T10:58:00.001+04:00

I found out that ODP.Net for Oracle 10g behaves in strange way for Oracle Parameter that are passed on to oracle command. It always expects parameters to be added in the same order as they are originally available on stored proc in db.

So, if a sp (stored proc) expects two parameters, first being "pId" and second being "pName" and you use the following code:

oraCommand.Parameters.Add(new OracleParameter("pId", OracleDbType.Int64, "10001",

ParameterDirection.Input));

oraCommand.Parameters.Add(new OracleParameter("pName", OracleDbType.Varchar2, "John Doe",

ParameterDirection.Input));

It works fine since the first parameter is of type Int64 (as expected) and the second parameter is of type Varchar2. However if you reverse their orders ODP wouldn't work.

oraCommand.Parameters.Add(new OracleParameter("pName", OracleDbType.Varchar2, "John Doe",

ParameterDirection.Input));

oraCommand.Parameters.Add(new OracleParameter("pId", OracleDbType.Int64, "10001",

ParameterDirection.Input));

This will raise an exception that would say "Invalid number or type of arguments passed ….etc etc". Now this is a strange behavior because we always (at least in terms of ADO.Net ) expect that parameter names will be binded against the stored procs parameters. But this doesn't happen in the world of ODP.Net. And if you pass parameters in right order, parameter names doesn't even matter.

I don't know if its just my bad assumption or bad ODP design or a bug for that matter. It definitely caused me a whole lot of annoyance and wasted my time. I actually ended up adding a unit test and passing each and every parameter manually to sp and then running it against new provider. Since I was adding those parameters manually I added them in the same order as that of sp and hence a successful insert. But as and when I resorted to xml file containing field definitions, it always failed. I even ended up creating excel sheets with formulas to compare parameter types and values because that's what I thought were most likely to go wrong. Bad day I guess!

I really think its a bad design atleast. API should be intuitive and inline with general design of framework (in our case ADO.Net).

WCF Interoperability with Sun Metro

2008-03-29T08:15:00.001+04:00

I read this useful article @ InfoQ (http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/03/wcf-metro-interop). Its really interesting to see how top distributed computing technologies at Sun (Metro) and Microsoft (WCF) are interoperable. On the very basic level all the web services are supposed to be interoperable on WS-I basic profile. But when it comes to more advances WS-* protocols like WS-Security, WS-Atomic Transaction, WS-Reliable Messaging etc. thats when interoperability problems come to the surface. Its a great initiative from Sun and Microsoft. For more details on the interoperability results do check out Harold Carr's blog(http://weblogs.java.net/blog/haroldcarr/archive/2008/03/metro_web_servi_2.html).

Web Client Software Factory - February 2008

2008-03-22T09:36:00.000+04:00

Web Client Software Factory is available for download now.

The Web Client Software Factory provides an integrated set of guidance that assists architects and developers in creating composite Web client applications. The factory includes a reference implementation, QuickStarts, How-to topics, patterns, and Visual Studio .NET extensions.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=47755838-049B-4291-AFEA-A379AE28D7B3&displaylang=en

Silverlight 2.0 Beta 1 is out !

2008-03-15T07:24:00.000+04:00

Silverlight 2 beta 1 is out and available for download. It certainly is an amazing option for developing smart and rich internet applications (RIA). To me the best part is support for .net programming in a corss-browser / cross-platform environment. It truly makes the WPF-everywhere mantra come to live.

For more details please check out Scott Gu's blog here http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/02/22/first-look-at-silverlight-2.aspx

Microsoft Makes Strategic Changes in Technology and Business Practices to Expand Interoperability

2008-03-15T07:22:00.001+04:00

Microsoft today announced a set of broad-reaching changes to its technology and business practices to increase the openness of its products and drive greater interoperability, opportunity and choice. These changes are codified into four new interoperability principles and corresponding actions: 1) ensuring open connections; 2) promoting data portability; 3) enhancing support for industry standards; and 4) fostering more open engagement with customers and the industry, including open source communities.

Audio Recording & Transcript: Press Conference Call with Steve Ballmer, Ray Ozzie, Bob Muglia and Brad Smith

Video Highlights from the Press Conference (1 min 50 sec)

All these 4 points represent a major initiative from Microsoft and i am particularly interested in data interoperability, enhancing support for industry standards and more engagement with open source communitities. It will be interesting to see which direction does data interoperatbility take. Are we going to have some standardization of LINQ related initiatives?

Micorosft has already opened up parts of its code for developers to debug through the .net platform. Its just an amazing stuff from Microsoft!

Web ads continue to dominate

2008-03-15T07:21:00.000+04:00

I just read this at reuters technology web site. Check out

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSWNAS219120080225

Microsoft + Open XML standard

2008-03-15T07:20:00.001+04:00

check out:
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSL2520662920080225
I am really excited about open xml push from Microsoft. It will open a world of possibilities, oppurtunities and innovations for everyone!

My profile update:

2008-03-15T07:16:00.000+04:00

From time to time it happens that i have to present at a conference or host a tech-talk etc. In such scenarios i get, envitably, asked for my shot profile. So i thought it would make sense to blog my profile and consequently pass on the url.

So here it goes:-

Hammad Rajjoub is currently working as an Assistant Vice President with Merrill Lynch Global Services, Singapore.

He is a three times MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) for Connected Systems. His areas of interest include Enterprise Architecture, Distributed Computing, SOA, .NET, Design Patterns and Quantum Computation. He has architected number of successful enterprise scale services/applications using various tools and Technologies. He is a .Net Evangelist and speaks frequently at seminars and knowledge sharing sessions. He is an active member of MSDN groups and shares his experiences with the community. He has hosted number of technical sessions at international IT conferences.

He has written a case study for APress(http://www.apress.com/). He is also a user group leader of .NetWizards and .NetPalm both are INETA (http://www.ineta.org) chartered user groups. He is a member speaker’s bureau for INETA MEA. He has taught at Dept. Of Computer Science, Karachi University and PAF KIET as a visiting faculty member. He is member of IASA (www.iasahome.org International Association of Software Architects), Singapore Chapter. He spends his spare time learning and evangelizing best practices for architecture/design and .net.

For more details visit his blogs at:

http://dotnetwizards.blogspot.com

http://msmvps.com/blogs/hammadrajjoub

HTTP Programming with WCF and the .NET Framework 3.5

2008-02-10T12:20:00.000+04:00

Another good post on WCF HTTP programming http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/08/01/WCFinOrcas/default.aspx

WCF Web Programming Model Documentation

2008-02-10T09:25:00.000+04:00

I just came across this post at Steve Maine's blog. I thought its worth sharing with you all:

Conceptual Overviews:

Class Library Reference (not exhaustive):

Configuration Schema:

Samples:

Web Programming Model
AJAX and JSON
Syndication
Partial Trust
- Partial Trust client and server
Everything and (a picture of) the Kitchen Sink (Thanks, Justin!)
- http://samples.netfx3.com/PictureServices/

MSDN Code Gallery

2008-02-07T17:22:00.000+04:00

Microsoft launched its MSDN Code Gallery yesterday. According to Somasegar

The MSDN Code Gallery is a portal for snippets, samples and other resources. In it you can find pages that describe samples and supporting documents including screenshots and design documents. In addition, you will find hosted conversations about these samples, sample projects or other resources that have been provided to the community. This destination is open to the entire community to contribute content to.

What it means for developers like you and me is that its a place where we can share and download code snippets more in the context of community than that of organized project/work streams. That is, Code Gallery will server purely as content repository minus project management.

If you are interested in managing live projects etc. then you can use Microsoft's another offering called CodePlex http://www.codeplex.com/.

So happy code gallerying!

a NERD God ?

2008-01-19T20:32:00.000+04:00

Setting up IASA Chapter in Singapore

2008-01-12T16:33:00.000+04:00

I am glad that we have successfully registered IASA Singapore.

IASA is an "International Association Of Software Architects". For more details please visit http://www.iasahome.org/

Bill Gate's farewell

2008-01-08T10:02:00.000+04:00

He is a visionary and he will be remembered as one for many generations to come. Its difficult to imagine Microsoft without Bill Gates. But he will be active as a Chariman of Microsoft corporation. Bill has made an ever lasting impact on the face of technology in particular and society in general. The way technology works in our life or the other way around is just amazing and its certainly so because of visionaries like him. I was lucky to attend his key note at MVP 2007 summit last year. I hope to continue seeing and hearing him in the future.

Hats off to you sir!

check out
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1243727405/bclid1369766639/bctid1369766578

CEP : Complex Event Processing

2007-08-02T19:01:00.000+04:00

CEP or Complex Event Processing offers a great value proposition if your domain requires event based processing. And I believe a whole lot of scenarios require that. Do read about Espers offering here.

An excerpt from Esper web site:

Complex Event Processing, or CEP, is technology to process events and discover complex patterns among multiple streams of event data. ESP stands for Event Stream Processing and deals with the task of processing multiple streams of event data with the goal of identifying the meaningful events within those streams, and deriving meaningful information from them.

The Esper engine has been developed to address the requirements of applications that analyze and react to events. Some typical examples of applications are:

Business process management and automation (process monitoring, BAM, reporting exceptions, operational intelligence)
Finance (algorithmic trading, fraud detection, risk management)
Network and application monitoring (intrusion detection, SLA monitoring)
Sensor network applications (RFID reading, scheduling and control of frabrication lines, air traffic)

The best part is that Esper is available .Net and Java libraries both.

Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2, .Net 3.5 Beta 2 & Silverlight 1.0 RC

2007-08-02T18:47:00.000+04:00

The next version of Visual Studio, Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008, will provide an industry-leading developer experience for Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and the Web. In addition, it will continue in the Microsoft tradition of development language innovation. To enable early feedback, this page provides links to prerelease versions of Visual Studio 2008, and for technologies that we plan to include in it. As previews of additional technologies become available, we will make them available from this page.

Sounds good! right? :)

So dont wait for the next christmas and download it now!

Files & Disc Images for Self-installation
If you prefer to install the software yourself, you can download separate disc images for the following products:

Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 Express Editions
Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 Standard Edition
Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 Professional Edition
Visual Studio Team System 2008 Beta 2 Team Suite
Visual Studio Team System 2008 Beta 2 Team Foundation Server
Visual Studio Team System 2008 Beta 2 Test Load Agent
MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2

If you prefer to use VPC (just like I do) then you can download VPC from following links!

Visual Studio Team System 2008 Beta 2 Team Suite VPC
Visual Studio Team System 2008 Beta 2 Team Suite & Team Foundation Server VPC

Get started with Silverlight

2007-06-29T15:19:00.000+04:00

A nice article on getting started with silverlight.

Get started with WCF (.Net 3.5)

2007-06-28T19:25:00.000+04:00

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

2007-06-27T18:28:00.000+04:00

You can download the code snippets for PDC 2007 from here

Web 2.0 Architecture

2007-06-27T16:11:00.000+04:00

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

2007-06-24T19:53:00.000+04:00

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

2007-06-20T11:19:00.000+04:00

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

2007-06-16T02:27:00.000+04:00

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

2007-06-09T17:03:00.000+04:00

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!!!

2007-06-06T13:43:00.000+04:00

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

2007-06-05T23:16:00.000+04:00

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

2007-06-05T12:36:00.000+04:00

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

2007-06-01T02:05:00.000+04:00

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

Microsoft ASP.NET Futures May 2007 (“Futures”) release

2007-05-26T17:04:00.000+04:00

The Microsoft ASP.NET Futures May 2007 (“Futures”) release contains an early developer preview of features providing a wide range of new functionality for both ASP.NET and Silverlight™. The functionality in the Futures release includes early experimental versions of features currently being considered for future versions of ASP.NET and the .NET Framework. The Futures releases assume prior knowledge of the core features of ASP.NET including the previous ASP.NET AJAX Futures January CTP.

Features in this release include ASP.NET Silverlight server controls, new functionality for ASP.NET AJAX Extensions, dynamic data controls, enhancements to dynamic languages, and more.

Download here

New look for MSDN !

2007-05-26T00:23:00.000+04:00

I am really liking the new look of MSDN. Check it out!

Microsoft Pop Fly Alpha

2007-05-26T00:21:00.000+04:00

Popfly is the fun, easy way to build and share mashups, gadgets, Web pages, and applications. Popfly consists of two parts:

1 Popfly Creator is a set of online visual tools for building Web pages and mashups.

2 Popfly Space is an online community of creators where you can host, share, rate, comment and even remix creations from other Popfly users.

For more details check out here.

I have signed up and I am waiting for confirmation. I just cant seem to wait to play with it.

Architect Journal : Read it before everyone else

2007-05-25T23:59:00.000+04:00

MS Architect journal is one of the prized reading that I always look forward to. Its already into its 12th edition and has many many faithful subscribers (and ofcourse I am one of them). So read it before everyone else here.

Windows Server 2008 (Longhorn) Training

2007-05-24T17:08:00.000+04:00

I wanted to blog about it for past few days but wasnt getting any time at all. Yes such is life. Anyways, coming back to the topic. I recently attended a one day traning on Windows Server 2008 (previously code named "Longhorn Server"). It was an informative and useful session. I got to know about number of enhancements that I can not diclose since the presentation content was under NDA. But the but the good thing is that you can download Windows Server 2008 beta 3 from here.

Pakistan Developer Conference 2007

2007-05-15T10:45:00.000+04:00

I will be speaking at Pakistan Developer Conference 2007 which is arguably the largest developer conference of Pakistan. This will be 3rd time in as many years that I have been invited as a guest speaker for this event. Its always great to be there and host technical sessions. I will be presenting following sessions:

1- Programming WCF Services
2- Office 2007 Programmability
3- Architecting Composite Applications

If you happen to attend the event then do pass by and say hello. I would love to meet you guys!

Find out the detailed agende here

Naveedullah's Sharepoint and W'SS blog

2007-05-08T23:17:00.000+04:00

My long time friend and MOSS guru has started his blog at http://naveedullah.wordpress.com.

Do visit if you are interested in Sharepoint products and technologies!

VS Orcas Beta 1

2007-05-07T12:32:00.000+04:00

I was trying to setup my Virtual PC for a sliverlight application demo. But after installing all the runtimes and SDKs and all. I figured out that i cant run it on March CTP release of Orcas .
So i will proceed with downloading Orcas Beta 1.

BizTalk Services SDK : Internet Service Bus!

2007-05-01T12:19:00.000+04:00

This certainly is an awesome development. I heard about it for the first time when I was attening MVP Summit in Mar 2007. This will really take the services layer from an enterprise to the internet thus, internet service bus. Wouldnt it be great to develop services around BizTalk services and access them in a rather golbal, internet manner without having to worry about infrastructure it self? This will certainly lets us build business solutions & services without really putting in time and effort on underlying details.
Download the sdk here

Why Microsoft is Still in the Gaming Business?

2007-04-21T14:05:00.000+04:00

Check out this interesting read about Microsoft and its XNA offering!

Enterprise Library 3.0–April 2007

2007-04-17T11:29:00.000+04:00

The Enterprise Library application blocks help address the common problems that developers face from one project to the next. They are designed to encapsulate the Microsoft recommended best practices for .NET applications. In addition, they can be added to .NET applications quickly and easily. For example, the Data Access Application Block provides access to the most frequently used features of ADO.NET 2.0 in simple-to-use classes, thus boosting developer productivity. It also addresses scenarios not directly supported by the underlying class libraries.

Different applications have different requirements, and you will not find that every application block is useful in every application that you build. Before using an application block, you should have a good understanding of your application requirements and of the scenarios that the application block is designed to address.

Enterprise Library 3.0–April 2007 contains the following general purpose application blocks:

Caching Application Block. Developers can use this application block to incorporate a local cache in their applications.
Cryptography Application Block. Developers can use this application block to incorporate hashing and symmetric encryption in their applications.
Data Access Application Block. Developers can use this application block to incorporate standard database functionality in their applications.
Exception Handling Application Block. Developers and policy makers can use this application block to create a consistent strategy for processing exceptions that occur throughout the architectural layers of enterprise applications.
Logging Application Block. Developers can use this application block to include standard logging functionality in their applications.
Policy Injection Application Block. Developers can use this application block to implement interception policies that can be used to streamline the implementation of common features, such as logging, caching, exception handling, and validation, across an application.
Security Application Block. Developers can use this application block to incorporate authorization and security caching functionality in their applications.
Validation Application Block. Developers can use this application block to create validation rules for business objects that can be used across different layers of their applications.
Enterprise Library also includes a set of core functions, including configuration, instrumentation, and object builder services. These functions are used by all other application blocks.

Download it here

Silverlight to server right!

2007-04-17T10:44:00.000+04:00

Microsoft is coming up with ServeLight product to target Adobe's Flash which is said to be installed 98% of personal computers. I believe it will be an interesting technology. If Microsoft can combine vector graphics of flash with the powerful .Net framwork then it should be a really valuable offering to the web development community.

Silverlight(formerly known as code name “WPF/E”) is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web. Silverlight integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight media capabilities include fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality audio and video to all major browsers including Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer running on the Mac or on Windows. By using Expression Studio and Visual Studio, designers and developers can collaborate more effectively using the skills they have today to light up the Web of tomorrow.

For more details click here

Connected Services Sandbox

2007-04-11T12:13:00.000+04:00

The goal of the Connected Services Sandbox is to unite developers, partners and service providers to rapidly bring to market great new communications services. In the Sandbox, the Microsoft Connected Services Framework provides the environment for aggregating, provisioning and managing service mashups. Participants in the Sandbox are provided with the components necessary to create innovative services that can be taken to market rapidly.

check it out here

Shortcuts to career suicide

2007-04-10T11:34:00.000+04:00

Interesting read

Top 10 Hidden Gems in SQL Server 2005

2007-04-08T16:01:00.000+04:00

Check out Top 10 Hidden Gems in SQL Server 2005

SQL Server 2005 Table Partitioning

2007-04-08T15:29:00.000+04:00

I just read this interesting article on Technet Magazine for March 2007:

In the past, database administrators managing tables containing millions of rows of data were forced to create multiple tables. Once those tables were partitioned, the administrator had to tie the tables back together during the execution of many of their queries. Tying partitions together involved creating a partitioned view or a wrapper stored procedure that figured out where the data lived and executed another stored procedure to hit only the partitions needed to return the dataset. The Enterprise and Developer editions of SQL Server™ 2005 let you partition large amounts of data contained in a single table into multiple smaller partitions that can be managed and maintained more effectively. The ability to create data segments that are accessed through a single point-of-entry reduces many of the administration issues that came with the old way of doing things. Using a single point of entry (table name or index name) hides the multiple data segments from the application code and allows the administrator or developer to change the partitions as necessary without having to adjust the code base.

Continue reading here

Gulf Geeks Pictures and content published

2007-04-05T22:37:00.000+04:00

Can you spot me?

Downloads:
http://www.gulfgeeks.com/

For new check out!
http://www.aitnews.com/index.php?option=newsDetails&nid=5715
http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20070402064600
http://www.ameinfo.com/115475.html

this.MVP.YearCount++;

2007-04-05T22:35:00.000+04:00

I have been awarded MVP status for the 3rd time in as many years. I am really happy about it.

XML Notepad 2007

2007-04-03T19:13:00.000+04:00

Check out XML Notepad 2007 thats avaialble free for download. Following is a list of cool features!

Tree View synchronized with Node Text View for quick editing of node names and values.
Incremental search (Ctrl+I) in both tree and text views, so as you type it navigates to matching nodes.
Cut/copy/paste with full namespace support.
Drag/drop support for easy manipulation of the tree, even across different instances of XML Notepad and from the file system.
Infinite undo/redo for all edit operations.
In place popup multi-line editing of large text node values.
Configurable fonts and colors via the options dialog.
Full find/replace dialog with support for regex and XPath.
Good performance on large XML documents, loading a 3mb document in about one second.
Instant XML schema validation while you edit with errors and warnings shown in the task list window.
Intellisense based on expected elements and attributes and enumerated simple type values.
Support for custom editors for date, dateTime and time datatypes and other types like color.
Handy nudge tool bar buttons for quick movement of nodes up and down the tree.
Inplace HTML viewer for processing xml-stylesheet processing instructions.
Built-in XML Diff tool.
Support for XInclude
Dynamic help from XSD annotations.
Goto definition to navigate includes and XSD schema information.

WCF LOB Adapter SDK

2007-04-03T18:56:00.000+04:00

One of the best things that I got to know during MVP summit and specially during my stay @ Redmond was WCF LOB Adapter SDK. This was something that I have been looking for long. Its an awesome development from WCF Team. Microsoft was already offering BizTalk adapter sdk for custom adapter implementations for legacy systems. But the fundamental problem was that those were typically for BizTalk and if you wanted to develop some thing similar without really using BizTalk then you would have to do your own custom implementation. I was told that there were more than a couple of different SAP adapter implementations within Microsoft. That is the scenario you would like to get rid of. You would rather want to have consistent means of developing & consuming those typical LOB adapters across different range of technologies, i.e. you would want to have a similar adapter being plugged into MOSS, or BizTalk or custom desktop applications. That's exactly where WCF LOB Adapter SDK comes into the picture. I would like you to read this post written by Sonu, who showed us first bits of WCF LOB SDK. Though she was ruining out of time and Clemens was tight on time keeping but still the message was conveyed pretty well!

VSTO Presentation

2007-04-03T18:42:00.000+04:00

So as i posted earlier that I will be attending Geeks Conference as well doing a presentation on developing office clients using VSTO SE. So I did the presentation and i believe it went well. I was just short of time in the end and had some issues with display unit as well. But overall it was fun being there. Audience was visibly smaller in number as compared to the last time. I am told that presentation will be made available soon on the conference web site. However if you are interested in getting the slide deck or demo code then feel free to leave your comment with your email address and i will get back to you as soon as i can.

Gulfskyscraper is up!

2007-03-27T20:39:00.000+04:00

New look Gulfskyscraper is up and running!
Thanks to Imran Sami for the design and art work. Feel free to provide your feedback, comments and critiques.

Gulf's Architect Community

2007-03-27T20:34:00.000+04:00

Tomorrow we will be launching first Architect Community of the Gulf during gulf geek event. I am waiting to hear on the exact time for the introduction slot. We will be running an introductory video and then a small slide deck during architect track. If you plan to attend Gulf Geeks then do drop by and say hello. Its always great to meet you all!

VSTO and VSTO SE compatability issues

2007-03-27T17:13:00.000+04:00

I was working on few demos based on VSTO so that I can present them during GulfGeeks conference later this week.
I am using VSTO/VSTO SE on top of VS 2005. All the add-in projects are working absolutely fine. The problem comes when i want to use VS 2005 project templates for document level office projects. I am unable to have a design time experience even on the projects that I created before installing VSTO SE. But the interesting thing is that I am able to run old vsto based solutions, that means that run time is behaving fine. I have posted query on a private MVP new group.
I believe all such issues will be taken care of by the time Orcas is released!

The NextGen UG Podcast

2007-03-22T20:39:00.000+04:00

Gosh! I forgot to put this podcast link on my blog. I met Dave & Richard of NextGenUG @ MVP summit and they did a podcast recording on an informal discussion with us four Gulf MVPs (myself, Mustafa, Bashar & Loye). It was nice little technical conversation over the dinner table.
You can download the podcast here

Gulf Geeks Conference

2007-03-21T01:37:00.000+04:00

I will soon be working on slide deck as well code demonstrations for Gulf Geeks Conference. Scheduled for next week in Dubai, UAE. I believe it will be a very exciting experience. I have fond memories of last years event and i am hoping that this time it will be even bigger and better.