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.