Attending MVP Summit 2010

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

WCF Rest Starter Kit

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

VS 2008 sp1 & .Net 3.5 sp1 is out

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.

Speaking @ Heroes community launch

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.

WCF Interoperability with Sun Metro

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).

HTTP Programming with WCF and the .NET Framework 3.5

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

WCF Web Programming Model Documentation

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

Conceptual Overviews:

• Web Programming Model
  
• AJAX and JSON
  
• WCF Syndication (Atom and RSS)
  
• Partial Trust

Class Library Reference (not exhaustive):

• System.ServiceModel.Web Namespace
  
• System.ServiceModel.Syndication Namespace
  
• System.Runtime.Serialization.Json Namespace
  
• SyndicationFeed Class
  
• SyndicationItem Class
  
• WebOperationContext Class
  
• WebServiceHost Class
  
• WebGetAttribute Class
  
• WebInvokeAttribute Class
  
• WebHttpBehavior Class
  
• WebScriptEnablingBehavior Class
  
• DataContractJsonSerializer Class

Configuration Schema:

• enableWebScript
  
• webHttp 
  
• webHttpBinding 

Samples:

• Web Programming Model
  
  
  
  • Basic Web Programming Model
    
  • Advanced Web Programming
    
  • UriTemplate
    
  • UriTemplate Table
    
  • UriTemplate Table Dispatcher
    
  • WebContentTypeMapper
    
  • HTML Form Handler
    
  • Push-Style Streaming
  
  
• AJAX and JSON
  
  
  
  • Basic AJAX Service
    
  • AJAX Service Without Configuration
    
  • AJAX Service Using Complex Types
    
  • AJAX Service with JSON and XML
    
  • JSON Serialization
    
  • Weakly-typed JSON Serialization (AJAX)
  
  
• Syndication
  
  
  
  • Intro to Syndication
    
  • Loosely-Typed Extensions
    
  • Strongly Typed Extensions
    
  • Streaming Feeds
    
  • Feed Formatter (JSON)
  
  
• Partial Trust
  
  
  
  • Partial Trust client and server
  
  
• Everything and (a picture of) the Kitchen Sink (Thanks, Justin!)
  
  
  
  • http://samples.netfx3.com/PictureServices/

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 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"

Pakistan Developer Conference 2007

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

BizTalk Services SDK : Internet Service Bus!

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

WCF LOB Adapter SDK

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!

MVP Summit Update

It has been really great attending Microsoft MVP Summit 2007 here @ Seattle, USA. Hearing Bill Gates deliver a key note was a real exciting experience. Over all community experience as well as interaction with product teams has been awesome. Today all the connected system/Biz Talk MVPs spent a day on campus with the product team it self. It was really great to hear on technologies ranging from WCF & BizTalk to RFID.