Simplify Your Data Access

One of the very first things developers must decide when building a new application is how to get data in and out of some kind of data store. Typically, this data store comes in the form of a relational database where the data model looks and feels much different than the object model used to implement the application logic. To complicate things even further, many enterprises place constraints on how the database can be accessed which are commonly referred to as “best practices”. In response to this, numerous data access frameworks have been developed that attempt to place a layer of abstraction over the database so that developers can focus on the application object model instead of the database and SQL. This has been both a blessing a curse as object-relational mappers (ORMs), while being very powerful, add a tremendous amount of complexity and overhead that in many cases, simply is not needed for the applications we are developing. This presentation will attempt to explain some of the pitfalls of ORMs and demonstrate a new class of data access solutions referred to as micro-ORMs.

Speaker
Nate King – Speedway

Pizza/Geek Dinner
Pizza will be provided as a snack during the meeting. For anyone interested in continuing the discussion a Geek Dinner will be held immediately after the meeting (Location – TBD).

When
5:30pm – 7:30pm
Tuesday April 24, 2012

Where
Marathon Petroleum Company – Findlay, OH

PowerShell Scripting for .NET Developers

In this talk, Jeremy will introduce PowerShell as a key developer tool. We’ll discuss how to start using PowerShell as well as how you create your own CMDLETs to make scripting available to users of your applications.

We’ll cover these topics and more:
- Basics of PowerShell
- Script Editors: PowerShell ISE and PowerGUI
- Interacting with various CMDLETs
- Creating your own CMDLETs with Visual Studio
- Tips and tricks

Speaker
Jeremy Sublett – Composable Systems, LLC

Jeremy Sublett has been a two-time SharePoint Server MVP and is a principal with Composable Systems, LLC in Louisville, KY where he focuses on designing and building solutions based on the SharePoint platform as well as other .NET technologies. Jeremy has been developing software with Microsoft technology since 1992. As a trainer, he has taught developer and end-user courses for many groups, including Microsoft, all across the country.

Pizza/Geek Dinner
Pizza will be provided as a snack during the meeting. For anyone interested in continuing the discussion a Geek Dinner will be held immediately after the meeting (Location – TBD).

When
5:30pm – 7:30pm
Tuesday March 27, 2012

Where
Marathon Petroleum Company – Findlay, OH

An Introduction to the PhoneGap mobile platform – from Pluralsight

PhoneGap is an exciting mobile platform that allows mobile developer to build a mobile application using HTML and JavaScript. This course is designed to get you started with PhoneGap by teaching you the basics of creating a PhoneGap application. In this course we will develop a PhoneGap application using the Windows Phone 7 tools and JQuery Mobile. We will also learn how to use some of the PhoneGap native APIs to access the native libraries of various mobile platforms. Finally, we will learn how to use PhoneGap Build to build our application for iOS, Android and more!

Speaker
John Sonmez – *NOTE* This will not be a live presentation. We will be viewing a training video for this meeting provided by

John Sonmez is a software developer for TrackAbout. He has a passion for technology and strongly believes that simple is best when it comes to programming. He maintains a blog dedicated to that theme at http://simpleprogrammer.com.

Pizza/Geek Dinner
Pizza will be provided as a snack during the meeting. For anyone interested in continuing the discussion a Geek Dinner will be held immediately after the meeting (Location – TBD).

When
5:30pm – 7:30pm
Tuesday February 28, 2012

Where
Marathon Petroleum Company – Findlay, OH

The Windows 8 Developer Preview Safari

Microsoft’s Windows 8 is looking to completely shake up the computing industry, from handheld devices all the way up to the desktop. It includes a bevy of new features, including many security enhancements, and a completely new way for the end user to experience Windows. With the public release of a developer preview at Build last September, everyone’s been able to see firsthand what Microsoft has been working on. This presentation will take you on a trek through the new operating system, starting with significant high-level changes, continuing on into the internals of the OS, and finishing with examples of Metro-style applications.

Speaker
Paul Burns – Marathon Petroleum Company

Paul Burns is an IT Systems Integrator with Marathon Petroleum. He has been coding since 1993, as a hobby, and has experience with a wide range of programming languages, operating systems, networking technologies, and computer hardware. He has worked various tech jobs while attending college. He graduated from Ohio University in November 2009 with a BS in Computer Science and a minor in Mathematics.

Pizza/Geek Dinner
Pizza will be provided as a snack during the meeting. For anyone interested in continuing the discussion a Geek Dinner will be held immediately after the meeting (Location – Waldo Peppers).

When
5:30pm – 7:30pm
Tuesday January 31, 2012

Where
Marathon Petroleum Company – Findlay, OH

Test Driven Development: What You need to know but may be afraid to ask

Test Driven Development (TDD) has been one of the biggest and most compelling paradigm changes to software development of the past few years. The ability to bake quality into your application as you develop it can change the way you think about software; it effects the way we approach, design and write applications. Test Driven Development is powerful. Yet many developers allow themselves to be intimidated by what they perceive as added complexity. Managers worry that the practice of “test first” will delay development. This presentation will explain the concepts behind TDD, outline the benefits, give you some concrete examples and some advice on how to sell it to your managers.

Speaker
James Bender – Improving Enterprises

James is the Vice President of Technology at Improving Enterprises in Columbus, OH. James has been involved in software development and architecture for 16 years. He has worked as a developer and architect on everything from small, single-user applications to Enterprise-scale, multi-user systems. His specialties are .NET development and architecture, TDD, SOA, WCF, WF, cloud computing, and agile development methodologies. He is an experienced mentor and author. James is a Microsoft MVP. James book “Professional Test Driven Development with C#: Developing Real World Applications with TDD” was released in May of 2011.

Pizza/Geek Dinner
Pizza will be provided as a snack during the meeting. A Geek Dinner will be held immediately after the meeting (Location – Waldo Peppers).

When
5:30pm – 7:30pm
Tuesday November 29, 2011

Where
Marathon Petroleum Company – Findlay, OH

Improving Software Quality with Continuous Integration,
and An Introduction to FluentMigrator

Continuous Integration is a set of processes that aim to improve the quality of software by applying quality control during development instead of the traditional model of testing after code is complete. In this presentation we will cover the various processes involved in implementing continuous integration, common obstacles developers face when implementing continuous integration and how to overcome them.

FluentMigrator is a database migration framework for .NET that allows you to write database migrations in C# using a Fluent Interface. FluentMigrator can update existing databases, create a specific version of the database as it was in some previous release or create a new database for automated testing.

Speaker
Chris Farrell – Quick Solutions

Chris Farrell is a Consultant and Mentor with the Solutions Project Group of Quick Solutions in Columbus, OH and has been developing with ASP.Net since 2002. In addition to on the job experience, Chris was also a key contributor for several years on the popular .Net open source RainbowPortal CMS. He is an avid supporter of ASP.Net MVC, Continuous Integration and Agile software development.

Pizza/Geek Dinner
Pizza will be provided as a snack during the meeting. A Geek Dinner will be held immediately after the meeting (Location – Waldo Peppers).

When
5:30pm – 7:30pm
Tuesday September 27, 2011

Where
Marathon Petroleum Company – Findlay, OH

Resources
Slides and the Fluent Migrator code demo. http://www.chrispfarrell.com/Blog/fanugSept2011

The Pragmatic Windows Phone Developer!

Excited with all the buzz about Windows Phone Mango? Have an app idea; but tentative to start? Well, come on out and we shall talk everything that a practical Windows Phone Developer needs to know! We will start by looking at a couple of Windows Phone apps from start to finish, including discussions on best practices & Marketplace pitfalls. We also take a brief look at some of the upcoming features of Windows Phone Mango, and what they mean for the consumer & developer. We then mention some toolkits that could come handy & end the talk with discussions on data strategies. What is OData & why is it important for mobility. How can you leverage the cloud? All this & anything else that comes up in 2 hrs of Windows Phone love.

Speaker
Samidip Basu – Sogeti

Samidip Basu (@samidip) is a technologist & gadget-lover working as a Manager & Solutions Lead for Sogeti out of the Columbus Unit. Having worked on WP7 since CTP days, he now spends much of his time in spreading the word to discover the full potential of the Windows Phone platform & cloud-based mobile solutions in general. He passionately runs the Central Ohio Windows Phone User Group (http://cowpug.org) and can be found with at least a couple of hobbyist projects at any time. His spare times call for world travel and culinary adventures with the wife. Find out more at http://samidipbasu.com.

Pizza/Geek Dinner
Pizza will be provided as a snack during the meeting. A Geek Dinner will be held immediately after the meeting (Location TBD).

When
5:30pm – 7:30pm
Tuesday August 30, 2011

Where
Marathon Petroleum Company – Findlay, OH

Resources
Recap on “Pragmatic Windows Phone Developer” talk @ FANUG with list of Resources

Going NoSQL with Raven DB

“Raven is an Open Source (with a commercial option) document database for the .NET/Windows platform. Raven offers a flexible data model design to fit the needs of real world systems. Raven stores schema-less JSON documents, allow you to define indexes using Linq queries and focus on low latency and high performance.”
- http://ravendb.net

Speaker
Nate King – Speedway

Pizza/Geek Dinner
Pizza will be provided as a snack during the meeting. A Geek Dinner will be held immediately after the meeting (Location TBD).

When
Tuesday July 26, 2011

Where
Marathon Petroleum Company – Findlay, OH