Microsoft .NET Support

ASP.NET Tutorial for Traditional ASP Developers

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:02:00 +0000

All too often, developers spend considerable time working with a single technology. They become deeply immersed in the nuances of building solutions with it, but unable to find time to keep up with other technologies. When they have a chance to look into an alternate technology, it may be well past the 1.0 release. This can make it very difficult to find relevant learning content that is both current and inclusive of previous versions. This course is designed to help ASP developers learn the nuances of building web applications with ASP.NET, without presuming existing knowledge of earlier versions of the technology. Syntax in ASP.NET is compared to its usage in ASP, to guide the developer through similar concepts in ASP.NET. Labs offer the developer a chance to work in hands-on scenarios with ASP.NET. This track should enable ASP developers to quickly learn the relevant core skills of ASP.NET, and provide foundational knowledge to get started down the path of building web applications with Visual Studio.

Level 1: Developing Web Applications – Tooling
In this module, we will discuss the development tools that will help you quickly get started building ASP.NET applications.

Level 2: ASP.NET Syntax for ASP Developers
In this module, we will compare ASP.NET syntax with ASP syntax, so that ASP developers can easily see how to do things in ASP.NET that they are familiar with from an ASP perspective.

Level 3: Programming WebForms
In this module, we’ll introduce the concept of Web Forms, and how you can use them to group controls as you build your web site.

Level 4: Web Configuration
Many web sites benefit from settings that span multiple pages within the site. This module will introduce web configuration files, which are a great way to store this type of information.

Level 5: Programming Web Events
Web events are a way to notify your application when some specific item of interest occurs in your web application. This topic will introduce how you can use web events to make your ASP.NET applications more responsive.

Level 6: State Management
As visitors move through your web application, it often makes sense to track data on the server, so the application can quickly access information to give the user a better experience. This module will discuss various aspects of state management, and optimal times to choose each technique. more

MSDN Flash India - Virtual TechDays is Back!

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:55:00 +0000

As we begin a new fiscal year in Microsoft, I wanted to share with you the key activities that will provide us with an opportunity to interact with you. Every quarter, we will bring to you the 2-day Virtual TechDays readiness-focused event – the first one being planned for the second half of August. Tell us what you would like the Microsoft technology experts to talk about during this event by visiting; www.virtualtechdays.com TODAY.

We will also be launching the next version of Windows very soon – along with a host of other products like Silverlight 3 (July 10, 2009), Expression 3 and Visual Studio 2010, among others. While you can interact with us during the series of product launch focused events, I would urge you to START TRYING the beta versions of the software today and tell us what you think about these next generation of Microsoft technologies.
If you are in an organization which develops software products in the mobile, database and/or web domain, you may find that InnovateOn-India is the one place that offers you everything to help you bring your solution(s) to the market fast. For a free, online, community-based learning opportunity, we are pleased to offer to you the Ramp Up online training platform, where you can avail of extensive training courses across 11 technology tracks.

In addition, we will continue to share with you the latest product updates and technical articles through this fortnightly Newsletter. To ensure that this communiqué provides you with the right set of information, please do write to us on what you think is beneficial to you. We will continue to work with you on an ongoing basis to ensure that the MSDN Flash Newsletter is the single source that you can refer to for any of your Microsoft technology related development needs.

Code Coverage is not enabled for this test run

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:58:00 +0000

Here are the steps to follow if you have problem in checking the "Code Coverage" Results.

Go to the test project in your application.

Open Test-> Edit Test Run Configuration

Go to Code Coverage, and select the dll that have to run for code coverage

This settings should solve the problem.

Code Coverage results are not displayed in “Debug” mode.

Change it to “Release” mode and run the test project. The Code Coverage results should be displayed.

Culture Information in Sting.Compare for Globalisation

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:37:00 +0000

We all know that String.Compare can be used to compare two strings. One of the parameter for this Compare method allows us to compare two string in different culture. String.Compare("eg1", "eg1", true, new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("tr-TR"));

Difference between Build Solution and Rebuild Solution option in VS.Net

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:16:00 +0000

VisualStudio.Net provides us with two options for compiling and creating builds for our application. They are Build Solution and Rebuild Solution options which can be accessed from the Build menu. The differences between these two options are

1. The Build Solution option compiles only those project files and components that have changed since the last build. For example consider that you have two projects Proj1 and Proj2 in your solution MySolution. When you compile the solution using Build Solution option after making some changes to Proj1 only Proj1 will be compiled and built but Proj2 will not be compiled since there are no changes to it.

2. On the other hand the Rebuild Solution option builds all project files and components irrespective of the changes made to them. For example consider that you have two projects Proj1 and Proj2 in your solution MySolution. When you compile the solution using Rebuild Solution option after making some changes to Proj1, both Proj1 and Proj2 will be compiled and built even though there are no changes made to Proj2.

Clean Solution option in Visual Studio to handle unexpected errors in C#.NET applications

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:14:00 +0000

When we encounter unexpected build errors for Post Build and Prebuild commands.

It is always advisable to do the following:

1. Remove..%temp% files

2. Use “Clean Solution”

3. Building the solution starting from the most independent project..to the most dependant project

4. Rebuild the entire solution

Publish articles to Blog using Microsoft Word 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:52:00 +0000

Yes this is true!!! Wondering how? I will walk you through this.

Open word –> File –> New –> Other Documents –> Select “New Blog Post” –> Select “Template”

Select the blog provider

Give the account details.

Here you go...Happy Blogging!

More details at

Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:31:00 +0000

This is a free tool available for download here

The Microsoft Web PI makes facilitates the Web platform for development and application hosting on Windows. It works with Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. The Web Platform Installer provides an easy way to quickly install and customize all the software you need to develop or deploy web sites and applications on a Windows machine. The tool automatically analyses what your system currently has installed, allows you to easily mark additional components to be added, and then automates installing them all at once when you click the install button.

Translate text or webpage using YAHOO or GOOGLE

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:02:00 +0000

Here are two links that provide the facility to translate text or a given webpage to YAHOO or GOOGLE

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/

http://translate.google.com/#

Scroll to a row in Component One Flexgrid

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:14:00 +0000

Following code snippet scrolls to a row in flexgrid progamattically

Grid.ShowCell(Grid.RowSel,0) ;

Command to delete files

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:13:00 +0000

Type the following to delete a file named “a.txt”

DELETE a.txt

To delete all files with extension “.txt”

DELETE *.txt /q

/q make sures that the files are silently deleted

To check if the file exists and delete

if exists *.txt delete *.txt /q

Dot A 6.60 is released!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:44:00 +0000

DotA 6.60 has been released and it is now available for free download.

27 New Features of .NET Framework 4.0

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:12:00 +0000

Also Read
1. 22 New Features of Visual Studio 2008 for .NET Professionals
2. IIS 7.0 New features
3. Dead-end for Microsoft ?
4. Visual studio Team System vs Professional and All Versions Comparison

This post contains information about key features and improvements in the .NET Framework version 4 Beta 1. This topic does not provide comprehensive information about all new features and is subject to change.

The new features and improvements are described in the following sections:

Programming Languages
Common Language Runtime (CLR)
Base Class Libraries
Networking
Web
Client
Data
Communications
Workflow

Common Language Runtime (CLR)

The following sections describe new features in security, parallel computing, performance and diagnostics, dynamic language runtime, and other CLR-related technologies.

Security

The .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 provides simplifications, improvements, and expanded capabilities in the security model. For more information, see Security Changes in the .NET Framework 4.

Parallel Computing

The .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 introduces a new programming model for writing multithreaded and asynchronous code that greatly simplifies the work of application and library developers. The new model enables developers to write efficient, fine-grained, and scalable parallel code in a natural idiom without having to work directly with threads or the thread pool. The new Parallel and Task classes, and other related types, support this new model. Parallel LINQ (PLINQ), which is a parallel implementation of LINQ to Objects, enables similar functionality through declarative syntax. For more information, see Parallel Programming in the .NET Framework.

Performance and Diagnostics

In addition to the following features, the .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 provides improvements in startup time, working set sizes, and faster performance for multithreaded applications.

ETW Events

You can now access the Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) events for diagnostic purposes to improve performance. For more information, see the following topics:

Performance Monitor (Perfmon.exe) now enables you to disambiguate multiple applications that use the same name and multiple versions of the common language runtime loaded by a single process. This requires a simple registry modification. For more information, see Performance Counters and In-Process Side-By-Side Applications.

Code Contracts

Code contracts let you specify contractual information that is not represented by a method's or type's signature alone. The new System.Diagnostics.Contracts namespace contains classes that provide a language-neutral way to express coding assumptions in the form of pre-conditions, post-conditions, and object invariants. The contracts improve testing with run-time checking, enable static contract verification, and documentation generation.

The applicable scenarios include the following:

Perform static bug finding, which enables some bugs to be found without executing the code.
Create guidance for automated testing tools to enhance test coverage.
Create a standard notation for code behavior, which provides more information for documentation.

Lazy Initialiation

With lazy initialization, the memory for an object is not allocated until it is needed. Lazy initialization can improve performance by spreading object allocations evenly across the lifetime of a program. You can enable lazy initialization for any custom type by wrapping the type inside a System..::.Lazy<(Of <(T>)>) class.

Dynamic Language Runtime

The dynamic language runtime (DLR) is a new runtime environment that adds a set of services for dynamic languages to the CLR. The DLR makes it easier to develop dynamic languages to run on the .NET Framework and to add dynamic features to statically typed languages. To support the DLR, the new System.Dynamic namespace is added to the .NET Framework. In addition, several new classes that support the .NET Framework infrastructure are added to the System.Runtime.CompilerServices namespace. For more information, see Dynamic Language Runtime Overview.

In-Process Side-by-Side Execution

In-process side-by-side hosting enables an application to load and activate multiple versions of the common language runtime (CLR) in the same process. For example, you can run applications that are based on the .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 and applications that are based on .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 in the same process. Older components continue to use the same CLR version, and new components use the new CLR version. For more information, see Hosting Changes in the .NET Framework 4.

Interoperability

New interoperability features and improvements include the following:

You no longer have to use primary interop assemblies (PIAs). Compilers embed the parts of the interop assemblies that the add-ins actually use, and type safety is ensured by the common language runtime.
You can use the System.Runtime.InteropServices..::.ICustomQueryInterface interface to create a customized, managed code implementation of the IUnknown::QueryInterface method. Applications can use the customized implementation to return a specific interface (except IUnknown) for a particular interface ID.

Profiling

In the .NET Framework 4 Beta 1, you can attach profilers to a running process at any point, perform the requested profiling tasks, and then detach. For more information, see the [IClrProfiling::AttachProfiler]IClrProfiling Interface::AttachProfiler Method method.

Garbage Collection

The .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 provides background garbage collection; for more information, see the entry So, what’s new in the CLR 4.0 GC? in the CLR Garbage Collector blog.

Covariance and Contravariance

Several generic interfaces and delegates now support covariance and contravariance. For more information, see Covariance and Contravariance in the Common Language Runtime.

Base Class Libraries

The following sections describe new features in collections and data structures, exception handling, I/O, reflection, threading, and Windows registry.

Collections and Data Structures

Enhancements in this area include the new System.Numerics..::.BigInteger structure, the System.Collections.Generic..::.SortedSet<(Of <(T>)>) generic class, and tuples.

BigInteger

The new System.Numerics..::.BigInteger structure is an arbitrary-precision integer data type that supports all the standard integer operations, including bit manipulation. It can be used from any .NET Framework language. In addition, some of the new .NET Framework languages (such as F# and IronPython) have built-in support for this structure.

SortedSet Generic Class

The new System.Collections.Generic..::.SortedSet<(Of <(T>)>) class provides a self-balancing tree that maintains data in sorted order after insertions, deletions, and searches. This class implements the new System.Collections.Generic..::.ISet<(Of <(T>)>) interface.

The System.Collections.Generic..::.HashSet<(Of <(T>)>) class also implements the ISet<(Of <(T>)>) interface.

Tuples

A tuple is a simple generic data structure that holds an ordered set of items of heterogeneous types. Tuples are supported natively in languages such as F# and IronPython, but are also easy to use from any .NET Framework language such as C# and Visual Basic. The ..NET Framework 4 Beta 1 adds eight new generic tuple classes, and also a Tuple class that contains static factory methods for creating tuples.

Exceptions Handling

The .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 class library contains the new System.Runtime.ExceptionServices namespace, and adds the ability to handle corrupted state exceptions.

Corrupted State Exceptions

The CLR no longer delivers corrupted state exceptions that occur in the operating system to be handled by managed code, unless you apply the HandleProcessCorruptedStateExceptionsAttribute attribute to the method that handles the corrupted state exception.

Alternatively, you can add the following setting to an application's configuration file:

legacyCorruptedStateExceptionsPolicy=true

I/O

The key new features in I/O are efficient file enumerations, memory-mapped files, and improvements in isolated storage and compression.

File System Enumeration Improvements

New enumeration methods in the Directory and DirectoryInfo classes return IEnumerable<(Of <(T>)>) collections instead of arrays. These methods are more efficient than the array-based methods, because they do not have to allocate a (potentially large) array and you can access the first results immediately instead of waiting for the complete enumeration to occur.

There are also new methods in the static File class that read and write lines from files by using IEnumerable<(Of <(T>)>) collections. These methods are useful in LINQ scenarios where you may want to quickly and efficiently query the contents of a text file and write out the results to a log file without allocating any arrays.

Memory-Mapped Files

The new System.IO.MemoryMappedFiles namespace provides memory mapping functionality, which is available in Windows. You can use memory-mapped files to edit very large files and to create shared memory for inter-process communication. The new System.IO..::.UnmanagedMemoryAccessor class enables random access to unmanaged memory, similar to how System.IO..::.UnmanagedMemoryStream enables sequential access to unmanaged memory.

Isolated Storage Improvements

Partial-trust applications, such as Windows Presentation Framework (WPF) browser applications (XBAPs) and ClickOnce partial-trust applications, now have the same capabilities in the .NET Framework as they do in Silverlight. The default quota size is doubled, and applications can prompt the user to approve or reject a request to increase the quota. The System.IO.IsolatedStorage..::.IsolatedStorageFile class contains new members to manage the quota and to make working with files and directories easier.

Compression Improvements

The compression algorithms for the System.IO.Compression..::.DeflateStream and System.IO.Compression..::.GZipStream classes have improved so that data that is already compressed is no longer inflated. This results in much better compression ratios. Also, the 4-gigabyte size restriction for compressing streams has been removed.

Reflection

The .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 provides the capability to monitor the performance of your application domains.

Application Domain Resource Monitoring

Until now, there has been no way to determine whether a particular application domain is affecting other application domains, because the operating system APIs and tools, such as the Windows Task Manager, were precise only to the process level. Starting with the .NET Framework 4 Beta 1, you can get processor usage and memory usage estimates per application domain.

Application domain resource monitoring is available through the managed AppDomain class, native hosting APIs, and event tracing for Windows (ETW). When this feature has been enabled, it collects statistics on all application domains in the process for the life of the process.

For more information, see the <appDomainResourceMonitoring> Element, and the following properties in the AppDomain class:

64-bit View and Other Registry Improvements

Windows registry improvements include the following:

Ability to specify a 32-bit or 64-bit view of the registry with the Microsoft.Win32..::.RegistryView enumeration when you open base keys.
the new Microsoft.Win32..::.RegistryOptions enumeration, which lets you specify a volatile registry key that does not persist after the computer restarts.

Threading

General threading improvements include the following:

The new Monitor..::.Enter(Object, Boolean%) method overload takes a Boolean reference and atomically sets it to true only if the monitor is successfully entered.
You can use the Thread..::.Yield method to have the calling thread yield execution to another thread that is ready to run on the current processor.

The following sections describe new threading features.

Unified Model for Cancellation

The .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 provides a new unified model for cancellation of asynchronous operations. The new System.Threading..::.CancellationTokenSource class is used to create a CancellationToken that may be passed to any number of operations on multiple threads. By calling Cancel()()() on the token source object, the IsCancellationRequested property on the token is set to true and the token’s wait handle is signaled, at which time any registered actions with the token are invoked. Any object that has a reference to that token can monitor the value of that property and respond as appropriate.

Thread-Safe Collection Classes

The new System.Collections.Concurrent namespace introduces several new thread-safe collection classes that provide lock-free access to items whenever useful, and fine-grained locking when locks are appropriate. The use of these classes in multi-threaded scenarios should improve performance over collection types such as ArrayList, and List<(Of <(T>)>).

Synchronization Primitives

New synchronization primitives in the System.Threading namespace enable fine-grained concurrency and faster performance by avoiding expensive locking mechanisms. The Barrier class enables multiple threads to work on an algorithm cooperatively by providing a point at which each task can signal its arrival and then block until the other participants in the barrier have arrived. The CountdownEvent class simplifies fork and join scenarios by providing an easy rendezvous mechanism. The ManualResetEventSlim class is a lock-free synchronization primitive similar to the ManualResetEvent class. ManualResetEventSlim is lighter weight but can only be used for intra-process communication. The SemaphoreSlim class is a lightweight synchronization primitive that limits the number of threads that can access a resource or a pool of resources at the same time; it can be used only for intra-process communication. The SpinLock class is a mutual exclusion lock primitive that causes the thread that is trying to acquire the lock to wait in a loop, or spin, until the lock becomes available. The SpinWait class is a small, lightweight type that will spin for a time and eventually put the thread into a wait state if the spin count is exceeded.

Networking

Enhancements have been made that affect how integrated Windows authentication is handled by the HttpWebRequest, HttpListener, SmtpClient, SslStream, NegotiateStream, and related classes in the System.Net and related namespaces. Support was added for extended protection to enhance security. The changes to support extended protection are available only for applications on Windows 7. The extended protection features are not available on earlier versions of Windows. For more information, seeIntegrated Windows Authentication with Extended Protection.

Web

The following sections describe new features in ASP.NET core services, Web Forms, Dynamic Data, and Visual Web Developer.

ASP.NET Core Services

ASP.NET introduces several features that improve core ASP.NET services, Web Forms, Dynamic Data, and Visual Web Developer. For more information, see What’s New in ASP.NET and Web Development.

ASP.NET Web Forms

Web Forms has been a core feature in ASP.NET since the release of ASP.NET 1.0. Many enhancements have been made in this area for ASP.NET 4, including the following:

The ability to set meta tags.
More control over view state.
Easier ways to work with browser capabilities.
Support for using ASP.NET routing with Web Forms.
More control over generated IDs.
The ability to persist selected rows in data controls.
More control over rendered HTML in the FormView and ListView controls.
Filtering support for data source controls.

Dynamic Data

For ASP.NET 4, Dynamic Data has been enhanced to give developers even more power for quickly building data-driven Web sites. This includes the following:

Automatic validation that is based on constraints defined in the data model.
The ability to easily change the markup that is generated for fields in the GridView and DetailsView controls by using field templates that are part of your Dynamic Data project.

Visual Web Developer Enhancements

The Web page designer in Visual Studio 2010 has been enhanced for better CSS compatibility, includes additional support for HTML and ASP.NET markup code examples, and features a redesigned version of IntelliSense for JScript. In addition, two new deployment features called Web packaging and One-Click Publish make deploying Web applications easier.

Client

The following sections describe new features in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF).

Windows Presentation Foundation

In the .NET Framework 4 Beta 1, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) contains changes and improvements in many areas. This includes controls, graphics, and XAML.

For more information, see What's New in Windows Presentation Foundation Version 4.

Managed Extensibility Framework

The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) is a new library in the .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 that enables you to build extensible and composable applications. MEF enables application developers to specify points where an application can be extended, expose services to offer to other extensible applications, and create parts for consumption by extensible applications. It also enables easy discoverability of available parts based on metadata, without the need to load the assemblies for the parts.

For more information, see Managed Extensibility Framework. For a list of the MEF types, see the System.ComponentModel.Composition namespace.

Data

For more information, see What's New in ADO.NET.

Expression Trees

Expression trees are extended with new types that represent control flow, for example, LoopExpression and TryExpression. These new types are used by the dynamic language runtime (DLR) and not used by LINQ.

Communications

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) provides the new features and enhancements described in the following sections.

Support for WS-Discovery

The Service Discovery feature enables client applications to dynamically discover service addresses at run time in an interoperable way using WS-Discovery. The WS-Discovery specification outlines the message-exchange patterns (MEPs) required for performing lightweight discovery of services, both by multicast (ad hoc) and unicast (using a network resource).

Standard Endpoints

Standard endpoints are pre-defined endpoints that have one or more of their properties (address, binding, contract) fixed. For example, all metadata exchange endpoints specify IMetadataExchange as their contract, so there is no need for a developer to have to specify the contract. Therefore, the standard MEX endpoint has a fixed IMetadataExchange contract.

Workflow Services

With the introduction of a set of messaging activities, it is easier than ever to implement workflows that send and receive data. These messaging activities enable you to model complex message exchange patterns that go outside the traditional send/receive or RPC-style method invocation.

Workflow

Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) in .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 changes several development paradigms from earlier versions. Workflows are now easier to create, execute, and maintain.

Workflow Activity Model

The activity is now the base unit of creating a workflow, instead of using the SequentialWorkflowActivity or StateMachineWorkflowActivity classes. The WorkflowElement class provides the base abstraction of workflow behavior. Activity authors implement WorkflowElement objects imperatively when they have to use the breadth of the runtime. The Activity class is a data-driven WorkflowElement object where activity authors express new behaviors declaratively in terms of other activity objects.

Richer Composite Activity Options

The Flowchart class is a powerful new control flow activity that enables authors to construct process flows more naturally. Procedural workflows benefit from new flow-control activities that model traditional flow-control structures, such as TryCatch and Switch.

Expanded Built-in Activity Library

New features of the activity library include the following:

Data access activities for interacting with ODBC data sources.
New flow control activities such as DoWhile, ForEach, and ParallelForEach.
Activities for interacting with PowerShell and SharePoint.

Enhanced Persistence and Unloading

Workflow state data can be explicitly persisted by using the Persist activity. A host can persist a WorkflowInstance without unloading it. A workflow can specify no-persist zones when working with data that cannot be persisted so that persistence is postponed until the no-persist zone exits.

Improved Ability to Extend WF Designer Experience

The new WF Designer is built on Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and provides an easier model to use when rehosting the WF Designer outside Visual Studio. It also provides easier mechanisms for creating custom activity designers. For more information, see Extending the Workflow Designer.

Visual studio Team System vs Professional and All Versions Comparison

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:54:00 +0000

Also Read
1. 22 New Features of Visual Studio 2008 for .NET Professionals
2. IIS 7.0 New features
3. Dead-end for Microsoft ?

	Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals with MSDN Premium Subscription	Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Architects with MSDN Premium Subscription	Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Developers with MSDN Premium Subscription	Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Testers with MSDN Premium Subscription	Visual Studio Team Suite with MSDN Premium Subscription
MULTI-LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT FOR THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPER
Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals
Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Architects
Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Developers
Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Testers
Database project with source control integration of all database objects and support for offline representation of a database schema
Database Unit Testing, Data Generation, Database Refactoring, Schema Compare, Data Compare, Database Schema Deployment Tools
Advanced Database and T-SQL Tools
Unit Testing, Code Coverage
Dynamic Code Analyzer, Static Code Analyzer, Code Profiler
Application Designer, Logical Infrastructure Designer, Deployment Designer
Visio and UML Modeling (in MSDN Subscription)
Load Testing, Manual Testing, Test Case Management, and Web Testing
Visual Studio Professional (includes Class Designer)
Microsoft Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual C#, Visual J#, Visual Web Developer, and Visual FoxPro
Reusable component creation, Server Development Tools, Advanced debugging tools including cross machine debugging
Smartphone, Pocket PC, and Windows CE Development; Web application precompilation
Visual Basic and Visual C# Stored Procedure Authoring and Deployment
Visual Database Tools; Oracle and DB2 database access; XSD Editor; XSLT Editor and Debugger
Visual Studio Tools for Office
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft InfoPath programmability
Integrated visual design surfaces for Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel
Action Pane and Smart Tag programmability
Microsoft Access 2003 Developer Extensions and Runtime License
Source code and version control for small team collaboration using Microsoft Visual SourceSafe
ENTERPRISE APPLICATION LIFE-CYCLE MANAGEMENT TOOLS and APPLICATIONS
Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition (limited to 5 users)
Team Explorer (includes Team Foundation Server CAL)
Enterprise templates, policies, and guidance for sharing development best practices
Advanced software, database, and business process modeling tools

Microsoft “Kumo” or “Bing” Search

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:41:00 +0000

Microsoft is ready to release a new internet search engine named “Kumo”

Visual Studio 2010 New features : Top 5 features

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:34:00 +0000

Microsoft announced the .NET Framework 4.0 on 29 September 2008.
The Public Beta was released on 20 May 2009.[3]

Web Development

    JavaScript IntelliSense® is supported in visual studio editor
    One Click Deployment
    Full fledged support for Silverlight to provider rich internet applications

Cloud Development

Windows Azure™ Tools in Visual Studio 2010 developers can build, debug and deploy services and applications for Microsoft's new cloud platform.

More Databases

In addition to SQL Server developers will be able to work with IBM DB2 and Oracle databases

Support for developers

Contextual support helps developers better understand existing code – and write new code more efficiently
Enable Office tools to make your solutions more flexible and productive for specific needs

    Call Hierarchy enables you to navigate through your code by displaying the following:
        All calls to and from a selected method, property, or constructor
        All implementations of an interface member
        All overrides of a virtual or abstract member
    This enables you to better understand how code flows and to evaluate the effects of changes to code.
    Highlighting References
        This enhancement enables you to highlight all instances of a particular symbol
        in a document by clicking that symbol.
        To navigate between references, you can use CTRL+SHIFT+DOWN ARROW or CTRL+SHIFT+UP ARROW.

Dynamic Support
Visual C# 2010 provides support for late binding to dynamic types by introducing a new type, dynamic.

Better USER Experience
    Clear UI Organization
    Reduced clutter and complexity
    Improved editor
    Better support for floating documents and windows
    Enhanced document targeting
    Focused animations for action feedback

Parallel Programming
Parallel programming is simplified, so both native- and managed-code developers can productively build innovative applications.
IDE support for parallel programming

Full support for IronPython, IronRuby, and F#.[32]

Cloud Computing and sand: Google vs Microsoft

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:36:00 +0000

Robin Harris: An independent study finds that on-site Microsoft apps cost 20x in capital dollars and 5x-6x more on a three-year TCO basis than Google Apps. How can Microsoft compete? Google will, of course, blow their huge cost advantage.

Model assumptions

Daily volume of new email: 100 MB

Local copy of email: None

Archiving: None

Cost per hour of downtime: $500

Cost per GB of data loss: $5,000

Network outage: Lose email access

Office apps assumptions:

Daily volume of new documents: 50 MB

Local copies of documents: None

Cost per hour of downtime: $250

Cost per GB of data loss: $30,000

Network outage: No application access more

MS Dos command to copy files from network location

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Mon, 04 May 2009 09:00:00 +0000

XCOPY Source [Destination] /i

/i says that the destination is a folder.

ROBOCOPY Source [Destination]

Refer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocopy

Setup project for Vista in C#.NET: put "Run as administrator" in the Shortcuts

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:42:00 +0000

“Run as Administrator” option is not provided by default in deployment wizard.

In order to provide this shortcut for user one has to modify the Property table of the MSI file and add case-sensitive DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS with a value of 1.

This can be done manually opening the MSI file.

We can achieve the same by using Orca MSI package editor. This editor helps us to modify the settings of MSI file. Open the msi file you want to modify with Orca package and set the DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS to value 1.

Download Orca from the Windows Installer SDK: http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/sdk/update/win98mexp/en-us/3790.0/msisdk-common.3.0.cab (open the CAB and rename the Orca-file to Orca.MSI to install it.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winformssetup/thread/fc52d8bf-118e-47e2-9d32-08fdf72861d5/

Restore Sql database using sqlcmd and batch file

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:29:00 +0000

RESTORE DATABASE TESTDB FROM DISK = 'C:\TESTDB\TESTDB.BAK' WITH REPLACE

This command restores the database from the local drive to the sqlserver.

Put these lines in “RestoreDB.bat” file

@echo off
sqlcmd -E -S .\DA -i RestoreDB.sql -o RestoreDB.log
@echo off
pause

Place the following code in “RestoreDB.sql”

USE MASTER
RESTORE DATABASE TESTDB FROM DISK = 'C:\TESTDB\TESTDB.BAK' WITH REPLACE

Double click the RestoreDB.bat file to restores the dbs from local drive.

Unable to view the templates while adding new file or projects in Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008. Empty template folders.

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:17:00 +0000

Solution:

1. Close Visual Studio. Open a new ‘Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt’ as an Administrator.

Once there type the following command at the prompt, press enter and wait…devenv /installvstemplates

2. Open the Options window in Visual Studio.
Select Projects and Solutions.
Change the Visual Studio user item template location to the folder where the standard templates are located ( C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates).

Change the Visual Studio user project template location to the folder where the standard templates are located ( C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates).

VS Tools-Options : Check-in items

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:15:00 +0000

If you have “Check out automatically” in “Checked-in items” settings in VS Tools-Options, please switch them to “Prompt for check out”/”Prompt for exclusive checkouts” (see images below). This is to prevent TFS/SCSF behavior of automatic solution file checkout.

Once you make the change, you will get dialog box (twice) asking to check out the solution file whenever you try to open a VS solution. Unless you actually need to change the solution file, click “Cancel” both times.

Outlining Keyboard shortcuts for Visual Studio .NET.

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:04:00 +0000

CTRL+MM (that's two key presses!) - collapse/open the current parent region

CTRL+ML - Collapse/Open all regions in document recursively (meaning you might get only one line in the document - one big namespace region which is collapsed or you'll see the entire page code uncollapsed

CTRL+MO - Collapse all regions not recursively.

Sorting a collection using IComparer

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:03:00 +0000

Place this code in the collection.

public class EmployeeList

{

       public void Sort()
       {
           base.InnerList.Sort(new DateComparer());
       }

}

Create “DateComparer” class which implements IComparer and provides methods to compare to objects. This Compare method compares the joining dates of the employees and sorts the list.

/// <summary>
    /// This is for Joiningdate comparision
    /// </summary>
    public class DateComparer : IComparer
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// This method compares Joiningdate
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>int</returns>
        public int Compare(object LobjEmployeeFirst, object LobjEmployeeSecond)
        {
return -((Employee)LobjEmployeeFirst).JoiningDate.CompareTo(((Employee)LobjEmployeeSecond).JoiningDate);

}
}

CRYSTAL REPORTS 2008 WHAT’S NEW

noreply@blogger.com (Nani) — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:55:00 +0000

# Crystal Report 2008 is for development ,Designing and Embedding of reports into applications Its a Named user License i.e one computer one license INR 26524+ Taxes per License

# Crystal Reports 2008 Developer Advantage is a runtime license for embedding Crystal Reports runtime engine in applications shared outside your organization, or in commercial applications. Give external users access to professional reporting at no incremental cost, and allow developers to gain flexibility with a royalty free license for deployment anywhere. Get comprehensive licensing and a single reporting solution for.NET or Java developments with Crystal Reports, the leader in reporting for developer applications. From access to virtually any data source, to support for major browsers and operating systems, rely on the technology that powers millions of applications around the world. Its available only in License format - No Media - INR 125000 for Unlimited Runtime License

# Crystal Report Server is For Production i.e Publishing & Deployment and management of Reports in Secure manner with scheduling & many other Enterprise features such as Viewing & Publishing of Multiple reports by end users coming from various locations on a singular , secured platform access - It is available in Concurrent Access format + Named user format & combination of both

Crystal Reports® is an intuitive reporting solution that helps you create flexible, feature-rich, and dependable reports – tightly integrating them into both thick and thin client applications.
CRYSTAL REPORTS 2008
Crystal Reports 2008 provides advanced functionality to help reduce report proliferation and maintenance – increasing visualization flexibility and saving time with highly productive design features.
The following is an overview of the new features in Crystal Reports 2008:
• Advanced information visualization capability
• Improved end user viewing experience
• Enhanced report designer productivity
• New flexible deployment options
• Flexible application integration
• A more streamlined and flexible report designer

Advanced Information Visualization with Flash, Flex and Xcelsius1
• Adobe Flash integration: A wide variety of flexible data presentation options are now available through Flash. Flash (SWF) files can be integrated into your report and report data can be shared with SWF via Flashvars for compelling, interactive, and information-rich reports. The SWF files can be embedded in the report or linked via a website.
1 Flash features are available for viewing in the .NET, Winform and Java DHTML viewers only
• Xcelsius integration: Import Xcelsius-generated SWF files into your report and benefit from improved design-time integration and stunning visualizations. Enhance your reports with what-if analysis models that enable users to make important decisions dynamically, without leaving the report file.
• Adobe Flex integration: Integrate your reports with operational workflows by embedding Adobe Flex (SWF) applications into your reports. Using Adobe Flex Builder you can create any business-user UI to access report data and integrate with external web services. Data in your report can be passed to the Flex application via Flashvars, making it easy to create a flexible UI even when you don’t have access to your data via web services. The Flex applications can do tasks like database write-back – invoking operational workflows directly within Crystal Reports.
Improved End-User Report Viewing Experience
• Interactive report viewing: On-report sorting, filtering, and report reformatting with the .NET Winform, Java DHTML, and .NET Webform viewers allows users to explore information interactively without re-querying the database. New optional parameters provide for complex user-driven filtering scenarios. Users can answer more business questions with fewer, more flexible reports – significantly reducing Developer and IT support dependency.
• Parameter panel: The report designer and the .NET Winform, Java DHTML, and .NET Webform viewers have a parameter panel so that parameter values can be set without refreshing data. Parameters used are displayed on the panel so that report consumers can easily see them, make changes, and have the new values applied directly to the saved data.
• Flexible pagination: Report designers can customize page size and easily control page breaking after N records/groups. A single report can combine portrait and landscape oriented pages and the white space at the end of groups can be removed by compressing the page footers. Online report consumption is improved because reports are easier to read.
Enhanced Report Designer productivity
• Powerful crosstabs: Summary, variance, and any other customer calculations can be inserted into a crosstab row or a column – especially useful for reports that benefit from a table structure such as financial reports. The crosstab table structure makes reports much faster to build and maintain. This feature also provides powerful benefits to crosstab-based charts since custom formulas in the crosstab can be visualized within the charts.
• Built-in barcode support: Generate barcodes with only a few clicks of the mouse by using the new “turn to barcode” function in the context menu. Easily convert fields to Code39 barcodes without any coding or extra steps. Additional barcode fonts are available from third-party vendors.
• Enhanced designer features: Report designer will be more productive with features like global formula search, duplicate formula, duplicate running total, auto complete field names, and the Find in Field Explorer feature.
• Hyperlinking wizard2: Report designers will save time by automatically creating the Crystal Reports formula required to invoke a BusinessObjects Enterprise OpenDocument hyperlink.
New Flexible Deployment Options
• Save reports directly to crystalreports.com: Expand your deployment options with on-demand reporting capabilities when you open and save reports directly to
2 Available only with a BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Release 3 server environment
crystalreports.com. This new integration allows you to manage and share your reports securely without dependency on IT.
• Improved XML exporting: Render reports in almost any format and enjoy faster and easier integration with your industry-specific business processes – without any custom coding. The XSLT transformations are embedded into the report file and will be triggered by users from within the viewer when exporting to XML. This provides a powerful, flexible hook for transforming Crystal Reports data and integrating it into other applications.
• Advanced report publishing2: Also known as report bursting, advanced report publishing is a platform for the mass distribution of personalized content. Multiple reports can be created based on different data sources, combined into one desired file format (such as PDF), loaded with personalized content, and then sent to a dynamic list of recipients – with a single action. The content can be archived, printed, or emailed in separate actions, or simultaneously. This makes scheduling much faster and easier, with the ability to conduct cost effective one-on-one marketing campaigns and other personalized high-volume reporting.
Improved Report Designer
• Single edition: Crystal Reports 2008 comes in a single edition that is the feature equivalent of the old Developer Edition. This single offering provides customers with quick access to the features they need to meet any application and user requirement. Report samples and developer documentation are now a free, optional download.
• Multilingual reporting: Choose the working language you prefer by simply selecting the language packs you wish to use during product installation. Then switch the report designer UI to use any of the installed language packs. The report content locale can also be explicitly set for each report file. This setting controls sorting, grouping and formatting that matches the local language customs and conventions.
• Reduced install footprint: The download size has been reduced to 250MB to provide fast access via the download site. The runtime files included in developer applications are also significantly smaller.
Flexible application integration
• Integrated salesforce.com driver: The salesforce.com driver included with Crystal Reports 2008 allows for easy access to complete customer data – turning it into actionable business information. Reports that use a salesforce.com driver will refresh when deployed to crystalreports.com.
• Enhanced web services data driver: Integration with various web services can be difficult and complex due to a wide variety of implementation types. The new data driver offers additional web access to web services by providing support for RPC encoding of SOAP messages, SSL-secured web servers, as well as a working compatibility with the WS-Security standard. It adapts to custom logon requirements such as email addresses or user/password.
• NET report modification SDK: The Report Application Server SDK is now available for users of CR.NET API without the use of a RAS server. Report modification such as changing / adding / removing database providers, adding / removing / creating report objects, parameters, formulas, and sections can be achieved by accessing the RAS SDK through the CR .NET SDK..
WHAT’S CHANGED
In an effort to improve the Crystal Reports experience, we’ve made some changes to certain components of Crystal Reports 2008:
• Reports samples and sample database: To reduce download time, report samples and the Xtreme sample database are now accessed through separate downloads on the Start Page of Crystal Reports 2008.
• .NET developer SDK documentation, merge modules, and MSI files: .NET developer documentation, merge modules, and MSI files are now accessed through separate downloads on the Start Page of Crystal Reports 2008.
• Report developer component (RDC): The RDC is unsupported in Crystal Reports 2008. Developers wishing to use Crystal Reports in a COM application should use Crystal Reports XI Release 2. The ActiveX viewer remains a fully supported component of Crystal Reports 2008.
• Advanced DHTML viewers: The Advanced DHTML viewers have been removed from Crystal Reports 2008. The improvements to the DHTML viewers make these additional viewers unnecessary.
• Java reporting component (JRC) availability and Java SDK documentation: Java developers now receive the JRC and Java SDK documentation through the free Crystal Reports for Eclipse download. This product will be updated on a separate schedule from Crystal Reports. Visit the start page in Crystal Reports 2008 for more information on updates to Crystal Reports for Eclipse.

For more information visit businessobjects.com