Technical Digest

What is Silverlight??

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:18:00 +0000

Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. By using Silverlight's support for .NET, High Definition video, cost-effective advanced streaming, unparalleled high-resolution interactivity with Deep Zoom technology, and controls, businesses can reach out to new markets across the Web, desktop, and devices.

Silverlight enables you to create a state-of-the-art application that has the following features:

· It is a cross-browser, cross-platform technology. It runs in all popular Web browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari, and on Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X.

· It provides a consistent experience no matter where it runs.

· It is supported by a very small download that installs in seconds.

· It streams video and audio. It scales video quality to everything from mobile devices to desktop browsers to 720p HDTV video modes.

· It includes compelling graphics that users can manipulate—drag, turn, zoom—directly in the browser.

· It reads data and updates the display, but it doesn't interrupt the user by refreshing the whole page.

Watch Out My Presentation

View more presentations from abhinav4133.

Advantage:

• Lightweight at 4-6 MB, quick download

• .NET based

• Write in C# or VB.NET

• Use familiar class libraries

• Rich state-of-the-art GUI

• Vector based

• All types of content handled uniformly

• Secure – sandboxed

Disadvantage:

• Sandboxing limits functionality

• Conflicting products within Microsoft?

Introducing Silverlight

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:18:00 +0000

The .NET Framework has been released in version 3.5 and includes features that encompass all facets of Windows, Web, and network development. The .NET Framework 3.5 includes classes, methods, and properties numbering just under 10,000 and complies with the latest Web development standards and has introduced revolutionary technologies used in Windows Vista development, rich media and user experiences, workflow management, security and authorization, and complete distributed communication protocols. The .NET Framework can also be fully extended by developers to create custom classes and types. The functionality of the .NET Framework spans the server, the local workstation, and across the Web. The four primary additions to the .NET Framework as of version 3.0 are Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), and CardSpace.

WPF is used to develop elaborate user interfaces like those that adorn Windows Vista and managed advanced media streaming and integration. WCF encompasses the ASP .NET Web Services and .NET remoting functionality that was contained in the .NET Framework 2.0 as well as new communication technologies. WF is used to model complex workflow processes and CardSpace is the embodiment of new security and user authorization functionality.

A frontier that the .NET Framework had not fully extended to is the Web user's browser space (browser). ASP .NET AJAX was developed to improve performance in the browser space by making postbacks and calls between the Web client and server asynchronously and has been a great success. ASP .NET AJAX utilizes JavaScript and new types and controls developed specifically for use with ASP .NET AJAX.

Although ASP .NET and ASP .NET AJAX offer impressive capabilities in the browser, both are heavily dependent upon the ASP .NET page event life cycle, are tightly coupled to the server, and have a tough time competing with advanced, media-rich plugin solutions such as Adobe Flash. Additionally, it is incredibly difficult to create Web applications that offer a consistent experience across all supported browsers and platforms by using ASP .NET and AJAX. In 2006, Microsoft began developing a solution to extend into the browser and offer media experiences more robust than competing plugin solutions.

In order to further extend the .NET Framework and associated functionality into the browser and do so in an extremely competitive manner, Microsoft introduced Silverlight (originally referred to as WPF/E). Silverlight is a free plugin that the user downloads and it encompasses a subset version of the .NET Framework and WPF. In a manner similar to the JVM, Silverlight functions in the browser within the boundaries of the "sandbox". The sandbox is a secure zone installed into the browser that accommodates Silverlight functionality while completely protecting the host platform from any possibly adverse actions performed by Silverlight.

What Features Are in Silverlight?

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:18:00 +0000

Silverlight combines multiple technologies into a single development platform that enables you to select the right tools and the right programming language for your needs. Silverlight offers you the following features:

WPF and XAML: Silverlight includes Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) technology, which greatly extends the elements in the browser for creating UI. WPF lets you create immersive graphics, animation, media, and other rich client features, extending browser-based UI beyond what is available with HTML alone. Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) provides a declarative markup syntax for creating WPF elements. See Creating User Interfaces with Silverlight for more information.

Extensions to JavaScript: Silverlight provides extensions to the universal browser scripting language that provide powerful control over the browser UI, including the ability to work with WPF elements. See Silverlight 1.0 - Development with JavaScript for more information.

Cross-browser, cross-platform support: Silverlight runs the same on all popular browsers (on any platform). You can design and develop your application without having to worry about which browser or platform your users have. See Creating and Deploying Silverlight Applications for more information.

Integration with existing applications: Silverlight integrates seamlessly with your existing JavaScript and ASP.NET AJAX code to complement functionality you have already created. See Integrating Silverlight with ASP.NET Web Pages for more information.

Access to the .NET Framework programming model and to associated tools: You can create Silverlight-based applications using dynamic languages such as managed JScript and IronPython as well as languages such as C# and Visual Basic. You can use development tools such as Visual Studio to create Silverlight-based applications. See Common Language Runtime and Base Class Library in Silverlight and Dynamic Languages in Silverlight 2 for more information.

LINQ: Silverlight includes language-integrated query (LINQ), which enables you to program data access using intuitive native syntax and strongly typed objects in .NET Framework languages. See Parsing XML Data in Silverlight for more information.

Silverlight Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:08:00 +0000

With Silverlight being so popular, there are already many editors and design tools being planned by vendors. The two most common Silverlight design and development tools are:

Visual Studio 2008 :

Visual Studio is Microsoft's premiere integrate software development environment. Visual Studio now hosts management utilities as well as development tools. The figure below shows Visual Studio 2008.

At this time, Visual Studio 2008 offers the ability to build Silverlight applications by using XAML but does not offer a visual designer.

Expression Blend 2 :

Microsoft has introduced a whole new line of cutting edge tools for use by designers, Microsoft Expression Suite. Microsoft Expression Suite includes a tool, Microsoft Expression Blend, that is a Silverlight development tool targeting designers. In a brilliant move, Microsoft designed the Expression suite of tools to integrate nicely with Visual Studio. This comes close to completing the cycle of tools needed to work with the .NET Framework technologies and architectures. ASP.NET, for instance, was redesigned with code behind files containing compilable code so that developers could work on programming language code and components while designers could work on the markup and user interface.

Lunar Eclipse :

In the first module, we mentioned that just as there is a version of the .NET Framework that runs locally on the Linux operating system, the Mono Project, there is a version of the Silverlight plugin that also runs locally on the Linux operating system, Moonlight. Lunar Eclipse is a new design tool created by open source developers that was created to run locally on Linux and design Moonlight applications.

Versions of Silverlight :

Version 1.0 was released to market in September 2007. Silverlight version 1.0 includes the ability to:

Create and manage 2D graphics and animation.
Handle mouse, keyboard, and ink input.
Deliver WMV, WMA, and MP3 media.
Work with JPEG and PNG imaging.
Format and manipulate text.
Communicate with services and download server resources by using the HTTP downloader.
Parse Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) content and markup.
Navigate Web content by utilizing the JavaScript Document Object Model (DOM).

Version 2.0 was released to market in March 2008. Silverlight version 2.0 will include:

All of the functionality included in Silverlight version 1.0 .
Support for managed code C#, VB, Python, Ruby.
XAML extensibility.
Control class and sample controls.

Deployment and Packaging

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:04:00 +0000

Content for a Web page that contains Silverlight elements can be created by using the following tactics:

· Inline XAML and JavaScript.

· External XAML files and JavaScript files.

· Compressed content package (available after the December 2006 CTP) that contains XAML, managed code, images, fonts, and media. Streaming media sources can be referenced from the XAML media elements.

We believe that the flexibility of application packaging and the consistency of the application architecture with Web standards and operations will create many opportunities for improving the impact and effectiveness of Web applications, making applications more scalable, fault-tolerant, and dynamic (they can change their markup on the fly), and making content more discoverable.

Web pages that require Silverlight can detect if the Silverlight plug-in is installed, and can direct users to download it and install it (either through a redirect or through an object tag). The Silverlight SDK has documentation on that.

Silverlight Architecture

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:01:00 +0000

The Silverlight runtime enables users to integrate media, vector graphics, text, and images into an interactive application. This section discusses some of the key components provided in Silverlight 1.0. The Silverlight 1.0 architecture

Browser Plug-in :

At the top of the stack, a browser plug-in enables hosting in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, or Apple Safari. The recommended hosting and deployment of the plug-in is provided in the SDK.

Primarily, the plug-in provides mechanisms for the following:

Setting and changing the XAML content to be executed by the runtime.
Retrieving objects from the runtime, for manipulation through JavaScript.
Downloading content incrementally.

The rendering performance of the plug-in varies with the hosting parameters specified and the complexity of the content. We recommend that you set the settings.EnableFrameRateCounter property to true during development to display the frame rate in the browser's status bar and identify performance bottlenecks.

Hosting parameters that affect the consistency and performance of your application include the following:

isWindowless Setting this parameter to false will ensure the highest frame rate and will result in better visual display quality across various platforms. Windowed display is the best mode of operation for the plug-in.
Background If windowless mode is required, use an opaque background instead of a translucent or fully transparent background for better performance. In particular, you should set the background to '#FF000000', where the first component is FF. A transparent background affects performance because the browser has to re-render the area under the control with each frame. This additional rendering, combined with the cost of blending images, can result in significantly slower performance on some operating systems and browsers.

If your application requires the use of a windowless display and a transparent background, its performance will vary, depending on the operating system and browser. We recommend that you test any application that uses a transparent background across all target operating systems and browsers. For additional suggestions for improving performance, see Performance Tips.

Element Tree :

At the heart of a Silverlight-based application is a tree of objects, such as Path objects, Image objects, and MediaElement objects, that you compose to build an application. This tree, which is called the element tree, is conceptually similar to an HTML tree. However, it has a richer set of graphical elements than HTML, and the programming model is similar to the HTML Document Object Model (DOM). The traversal order of the tree controls the order in which the objects in the application are drawn. To build an element tree, you can use the XAML parser that is provided with Silverlight (by setting the source on the plug-in) or use the CreateFromXAML method.

You can make changes to the element tree as follows:

You can use the JavaScript API to change child relationships and to set properties on the content.
You can use the animation system to change the value of properties over time.

If your application relies on per-frame manipulation of the element tree, we recommend that you test its performance by using the various JavaScript engines that are available on different operating systems and browsers. The recommended method for manipulating the element tree over time is through the animation system. This approach is platform- and browser-independent and is the most efficient method.

For more information about the element tree, see Silverlight Object Models.

JavaScript Programming Model :

All objects in Silverlight 1.0 can be manipulated through a JavaScript object model. The hosting Web page can call the content.FindName method to retrieve a named element and can subsequently set properties or call methods that are exposed by that element. In addition, you can attach keyboard and mouse event handlers to the elements or to the control. These event handlers enable the user to receive JavaScript callbacks and respond to user input.

Rendering Engine :

The Silverlight rendering engine is optimized for rasterizing the contents of the element tree at the desired frame rate indicated on the plug-in. In particular, the optimizations include the following:

Incremental redraw between frames, which reduces the number of pixels drawn based on the content that is changing.
Not rasterizing content that is completely or partially occluded.
Only rendering content that is visible. (That is, not rendering clipped content, Opacity (UIElement)=0 content, and so on.)
Taking advantage of more CPU cores on the machine for significantly improved rendering performance.

The rendering engine feature set includes the following:

Per-primitive anti-aliasing support.
Support for basic shapes such as Rectangle (with optional rounded corners), Ellipse, and Image.
Path drawing support (see Shapes and Drawing Overview and Path Markup Syntax):

Path data: A set of segments, including arc segments, Bezier segments, line segments, poly-Bezier segments, polyline segments, poly-quadratic Bezier segments, quadratic Bezier segments.

Fill rules: Non-zero and odd/even.

Strokes: Variable-width pens.

Dashing: Custom dash arrays.

End caps: Round, flat, and miter.

Support for brushes (see Brushes Overview):

Solid color.

Image brush support with bilinear filtering.

Linear gradients.

Radial gradients.

Video brush with bilinear filtering.

Text rendering support (see Text and Fonts):

Subpixel positioning.

Custom anti-aliasing for sharper text.

Transforms (see Transforms Overview):

Path transforms.

Brush transforms.

Text and graphics remain sharp when scaled. Image data will be resampled, and quality will vary based on the resolution of the source images.

Clipping:

Applied to a group of arbitrary drawing primitives, which could also include other nested clips, opacity effects, or opacity masks.

Opacity and opacity mask support:

Applied to a group of arbitrary drawing primitives, including other nested opacities or clips.

Although the rendering engine tries to do its best with the content it gets, you should reduce the number of primitives it processes by marking subtrees that are not visible. You can do this by setting the Visibility property to Collapsed or by removing these subtrees from the tree. This optimization is particularly important when transitioning to full-screen mode. The windowed version of the content should be marked Visibility=Collapsed before the full-screen content is added to the tree. This practice will reduce both the content processed by the graphics engine and the number of elements walked per frame.

Input and Events :

Silverlight provides a set of events that enable you to respond to actions such as changes in Silverlight state and user input (for example, mouse actions). For more information, see Events Overview.

Animation System :

Animation can enhance your graphical creation by adding movement and interactivity. By animating a background color or applying an animated Transform, you can create dramatic screen transitions or provide helpful visual cues. You can create basic animations as well as more complex and powerful animations that use key frames. In addition, you can make these animations interactive by hooking them up to events. For more information, see Animation Overview.

Image Cache :

When an image references a URL, the image is downloaded and cached in its decoded form for the duration of the application based on the URL that is specified. If you reference the image multiple times within your application, it will be retrieved from the image cache, and that usage pattern will run quickly. Referencing the same image from separate plug-ins takes advantage of the browser cache but requires the image to be decoded once for each Silverlight-based application.

For best results, the resolution of the image being downloaded should be close to the display size of the image. If the image resolution is significantly larger than the display size, bilinear filtering aliasing display artifacts can occur. If the image resolution is significantly smaller than the display size, the image will appear blurry.

In addition, picking an image resolution that is close to the display size will ensure minimum download times. If zoom effects are required where this is simply not possible, store multiple resolutions on the server and dynamically switch image sources during your animation.

Text Engine :

The text engine will flow text strings within a TextBlock by applying simple formatting and explicitly positioning glyphs for precise fixed-format display. It will either use a specified font from the system (which is limited to a set that is available on all platforms) or use a specified Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), which can refer to a TrueType font.

Glyph Cache :

The glyph cache is used by the text engine to produce glyphs for rendering from font files. The glyph is optimized for readability at a particular target resolution, so an initial cost is incurred on the first frame on which text is drawn or when the scale of text changes. After this initial cost, scrolling or translation of text is significantly cheaper.

If your application requires dynamic scale changes of large text, it may be better to pick a vector representation of that effect.

Media Pipeline :

The video pipeline retrieves content either through progressive HTTP download or HTTP streaming (for WMS servers), calls the decoders to decode the video, and displays with the rendering system and audio engine.

Video can have arbitrary content shown on top, scaled to full-screen sizes, used in multiple locations with VideoBrush on arbitrarily shaped paths, rotated, and so on.

If your application transitions from windowed to full-screen display, we recommend the use of a video brush that references the currently playing media element in the new full-screen content to ensure that the transition is seamless and does not require rebuffering.

If the content in your application has to react to events in the video, you can insert markers in the video stream that will be fired to the application.

For more information on using media in your application, see Audio and Video Overview.

Decoders :

Silverlight 1.0 supports PNG and JPG files for imaging, Windows Media Video (WMV) files for video, and Windows Media Audio (WMA) and MP3 files for audio.

Downloader and Packaging :

XAML, images, fonts, or other data can be packaged into a compressed (.zip) package and downloaded on demand with the Downloader object. We recommend that you test your application with the browser cache cleared over low-bandwidth connections to ensure efficient loading performance. If the initial load time of your application is large, you can provide a loading screen, similar to the code used in "How to: Use a Splash Screen to Load a Silverlight-based Application" in the QuickStart documentation for Silverlight 2.

Ink Support :

Ink support refers to handwriting or drawing content that has been input by using a pen, a touch screen, or a mouse. Silverlight provides an InkPresenter object that accepts ink-based input in your application. To recognize the text, send the data back to the server. Samples can be found at the Silverlight Gallery. For more information about this feature, see Ink Support for Annotations, Blogging, and Games.

Silverlight DETAIL Architecture

Silverlight END-TO-END Architecture

Cloud Computing - Jens Nimis

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 15:09:00 +0000

Cloud Computing - Eine Einführung

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 15:09:00 +0000

Free cloud computing applications

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:36:00 +0000

There are a large number of interesting cloud computing applications that are completely free. In these Software as a Service (SaaS) applications processing happens on the data centers hosted by these organizations. Unlike standard desktop applications, no processing happens on the desktops. Here we take a look at the cloud computing applications that are available for free. The sites have been categorized into the following types

Photo editing software
Online file storage
Twitter related applications
Digital Video
Creating your image album
Photo editing software
Anti-virus applications on the web
Editing documents, spreadsheets and powerpoints
Finding your way on a map
e-commerce software
Miscellaneous applications

Photo editing software

Picnik is a popular free online photo editing software. It has features like cropping, resizing and rotation of images, addition of special effects. A premium version of Picnik with advanced features is available for $24.95 a year.

Pixlr is a free online photo editing software. Pixlr combines image design and paint tools with photo editing and adjustment features. It lets users edit brightness/contrast, and has the ability to crop and layer photos. Even though Pixlr has many complex features, the software is relatively simple to use.

Online file storage

MediaFire is a leading online file storage site. MediaFire may be used to host, share any files including documents, images, presentations, videos. The interface is easy to use. The free version of MediaFire includes unlimited disk space and unlimited uploads/downloads. The only limit in the free version is on the file size - the maximum file size allowed is 200 MB. The files may be organized into folders.

Megaupload is another popular file storage site. The feature set is similar to mediafire. There is a limit of 200 GB disk space and 2 GB limit on file size in the free account. There is also a waiting time of 25 secs before each download begins in the free version. The premium version has none of the above limitations in addition to better download speed and unlimited disk speed. The charges for premium version is $9.99 per month.

hotfile offers a free version of online file sharing application with a maximum file size of 400Mb. Monthly charges for premium version are $9 per month. The premium version includes higher speed on downloads, unlimited parallel downloads and downloading without waiting time and advertising.

4Shared is yet another popular online file sharing software. The free version provides a maximum file download size of 200MB and over all disk space of 10 GB. Premium version provides 100GB of disk space, and a maximum file size of 5GB.

Other popular online file sharing applications are Rapidshare, depositfiles,Yourfilehost, zshare, NowDownloadAll, easy-share, Imgur and Uploading.

Twitter related applications

bit.ly converts any URL into a unique short URL. When a user visits the newURL, bit.ly redirects the browser to the real web site. Bit.ly has parternered with Twitter, to allow twitter users to use shortened URLs. This has led to exponential growth of bit.ly URLs. As an example the URL for thecloudtutorial is http://bit.ly/4siQfX .

Twitpic is an application that allows user to upload pictures to be linked from twitter. It uses twitters login, creates shorterened URLs, that can be invoked from twitters microblogging.

Digital Video

Hulu offers videos online for free. Users can download popular movies, TV shows and documentaries and view them on the browser. Hulu allows websites to embed content on their web sites also. Hulu is a joint venture of NBC Universal, Fox Entertainment Group and ABC Inc. At present Hulu's contents can only be viewed in the USA. Other popular online video sites are youtube, WatchMoviesOnline,break.com and Google Video.

Creating your image album

A large number of wonderful sites are available for hosting images on the web. The best ones are flickr, Fotolog, photobucket, webshots, imagebam and ziddu. . These sites allow users to organize images into albums, tag them and create slideshows.

Anti-virus applications on the web

Cloud Antivirus is an anti virus application on the cloud by a Spanish company Panda Security. It provides functionality to keep virus away from a clean system and also detect and fix a system infested with malware. PC World rates it as the best free anti-virus software. The antivirus can be downloaded onto the machine. The locally installed Cloud Anitvirus sends information about files to the data center on the cloud which checks for malware in the files.

Editing documents, spreadsheets and powerpoints

SlideRocket is an online application that allows users to create presentation. The free version has a disk space storage of 250 MB. It allows importing of PowerPoint presentations. Since it is a web based application, the presentations can be accessed from any location.The free version does not allow users to edit presentations offline.

writeboard is an online free document editor from 37signals. Multiple users can edit the same document, and versions of documents are saved. Writeboard allows users to compare different versions of documents. One limitation of WriteBoard is that it does not support importing Word files.

Slideshare allows users to upload presentations. The site has a huge repository of presentations and is a leading source of free presentations on the web. Documents are available on virtally any topic that one may be able to think off.

Finding your way on a map

Another area where web applications became popular in Web 1.0 was finding directions on the web. The leading sites are mapquest, Google Maps and Yahoo Maps. These have provided million of people maps and directions and helped people get to their destinations over the last decade.

Miscellaneous free Software as a Service applications

XE provides foreign exchange tools and services online. Functionality provided includes trading currency and checking exchange rates.

One of the first usages of free software as service applications is checking the status of letters and packages. United States Postal Service, UPS and Fedex all provide free online tracking of packages.

The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:33:00 +0000

Authors: Peter Mell and Tim Grance
Version 15, 10-7-09

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Information Technology Laboratory

Note 1: Cloud computing is still an evolving paradigm. Its definitions, use cases, underlying technologies, issues, risks, and benefits will be refined in a spirited debate by the public and private sectors. These definitions, attributes, and characteristics will evolve and change over time.

Note 2: The cloud computing industry represents a large ecosystem of many models, vendors, and market niches. This definition attempts to encompass all of the various cloud approaches.

Definition of Cloud Computing:

Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.

Essential Characteristics:

On-demand self-service. A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each service’s provider.
Broad network access. Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs).
Resource pooling. The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. There is a sense of location independence in that the customer generally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of the provided resources but may be able to specify location at a higher level of abstraction (e.g., country, state, or datacenter). Examples of resources include storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth, and virtual machines.
Rapid elasticity. Capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned, in some cases automatically, to quickly scale out and rapidly released to quickly scale in. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be purchased in any quantity at any time.
Measured Service. Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.

Service Models:

Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email). The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.
Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations.
Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls).

Deployment Models:

Private cloud. The cloud infrastructure is operated solely for an organization. It may be managed by the organization or a third party and may exist on premise or off premise.
Community cloud. The cloud infrastructure is shared by several organizations and supports a specific community that has shared concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and compliance considerations). It may be managed by the organizations or a third party and may exist on premise or off premise.
Public cloud. The cloud infrastructure is made available to the general public or a large industry group and is owned by an organization selling cloud services.
Hybrid cloud. The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more clouds (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load-balancing between clouds).

Types of cloud computing

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:32:00 +0000

Cloud computing is typically classified in two ways:

Location of the cloud computing
Type of services offered

Location of the cloud

Cloud computing is typically classified in the following three ways:

Public cloud: In Public cloud the computing infrastructure is hosted by the cloud vendor at the vendor’s premises. The customer has no visibility and control over where the computing infrastructure is hosted. The computing infrastructure is shared between any organizations.

Private cloud: The computing infrastructure is dedicated to a particular organization and not shared with other organizations. Some experts consider that private clouds are not real examples of cloud computing. Private clouds are more expensive and more secure when compared to public clouds.
Private clouds are of two types: On-premise private clouds and externally hosted private clouds. Externally hosted private clouds are also exclusively used by one organization, but are hosted by a third party specializing in cloud infrastructure. Externally hosted private clouds are cheaper than On-premise private clouds.

Hybrid cloud Organizations may host critical applications on private clouds and applications with relatively less security concerns on the public cloud. The usage of both private and public clouds together is called hybrid cloud. A related term is Cloud Bursting. In Cloud bursting organization use their own computing infrastructure for normal usage, but access the cloud for high/peak load requirements. This ensures that a sudden increase in computing requirement is handled gracefully.

Community cloud involves sharing of computing infrastructure in between organizations of the same community. For example all Government organizations within the state of California may share computing infrastructure on the cloud to manage data related to citizens residing in California.

Classification based upon service provided

Based upon the services offered, clouds are classified in the following ways:

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) involves offering hardware related services using the principles of cloud computing. These could include some kind of storage services (database or disk storage) or virtual servers. Leading vendors that provide Infrastructure as a service are Amazon EC2, Amazon S3,Rackspace Cloud Servers and Flexiscale.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) involves offering a development platform on the cloud. Platforms provided by different vendors are typically not compatible. Typical players in PaaS are Google’s Application Engine, Microsofts Azure, Salesforce.com’s force.com .

Software as a service (SaaS) includes a complete software offering on the cloud. Users can access a software application hosted by the cloud vendor on pay-per-use basis. This is a well-established sector. The pioneer in this field has been Salesforce.coms offering in the online Customer Relationship Management (CRM) space. Other examples are online email providers like Googles gmail and Microsofts hotmail, Google docs and Microsofts online version of office called BPOS (Business Productivity Online Standard Suite).

The above classification is well accepted in the industry. David Linthicum describes a more granular classification on the basis of service provided. These are listed below:

Storage-as-a-service
Database-as-a-service
Information-as-a-service
Process-as-a-service
Application-as-a-service
Platform-as-a-service
Integration-as-a-service
Security-as-a-service
Management/Governance-as-a-service
Testing-as-a-service
Infrastructure-as-a-service

What is Cloud Computing????

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:29:00 +0000

Cloud Computing makes computer infrastructure and services available "on-need" basis. The computing infrastructure could include hard disk, development platform, database, computing power or complete software applications. To access these resources from the cloud vendors, organizations do not need to make any large scale capital expenditures. Organization need to "pay per use" i.e. organization need to pay only as much for the computing infrastructure as they use. The billing model of cloud computing is similar to the electricity payment that we do on the basis of usage. In the description below vendor is used for cloud computing service provide and organization is used for user of cloud computing services.

Cloud Computing has the following characteristics:

Availability of large computing infrastructure on need basis: Cloud vendors provide appearance of infinite computing infrastructure availability. This is available to organizations on need basis. This ensures that organizations do not need to set up servers for their peak requirements. As an example consider the official Wimbledon site. The site gets extremely high traffic in the two weeks when the championship happens. For this two weeks period this site will have high server usage. For rest of the year the site will need to only pay for the reduced usage. In general organizations do not need to bear the cost of computing infrastructure for their peak loads. The usage of computing resources can be increased or reduced on need basis, is called elastic computing.
Cloud computing uses a "pay-per-use" billing model. Cloud billing model are very different when compared to traditional IT billing techniques. Typical billing models include per user billing, per GB billing or per-use billing (i.e. an organization is billed on each usage of the computing service).
Cloud computing typically does not involve long-term commitment to use the computing infrastructure. The vendor does not enforce long-term usage of services.
Cloud computing does not involve any significant capital expenditure for the organization. Unlike traditional IT infrastructure, in cloud computing organizations just use the computing services without procuring it. In some sense cloud computing involves renting the computing resources instead of buying them. As the figure below displays, unlike traditional computing model, Cloud computing requires no capital expenditure to acquire initial computing resources. The figure below is from cloud computing wiki.
Since the cloud computing vendor provides services over the web, these are available from any location.
Cloud computing can be ordered online without detailed formal contracts.

Cloud computing provides a level-playing field for smaller organizations. It allows smaller organization access to computing infrastructure without making any significant initial investment.

Many experts believe that cloud computing will lead to increased commoditization of computing resources.

Origin of term

Cloud traditionally depicts the internet. Since cloud computing is built using internet, hence the name.

Examples of Cloud Computing applications

Hotmail.com was launched in 1996, It is widely considered as the first cloud computing application. The data is stored at the vendor servers, and users could pay incrementally to increase disk space usage. Many other services have emerged in the last decade that allows users to store information (or perform processing) without paying any upfront charges. These are typically consumer oriented services. Twitter, myspace, Wikipedia, youtube, facebook, linkedin, Google docs and blogger all have the characteristics explained above and are examples of cloud computing. Companies that provide Hosting services for diskspace storage, images, emails are all examples of cloud computing

Salesforce.com, founded in 1999, was the first successful example of providing software as a service in the business to business domain. Salesforce is a CRM tool for sales executives providing features like managing customer details, running promotions etc.

Google and Microsoft provide development platforms that can be accessed with "pay-per-use" billing model. All these services are examples of Cloud computing.

Amazon.com was one of the first vendors to provide storage space and computing resources following the cloud computing model.

Best Adobe Tutorials and Resources for Dreamweaver

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 09:10:00 +0000

Best Adobe Tutorials and Resources for Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver CS5 Tryout: Like all of Adobe's software, you can download and use a full working copy of Dreamweaver for 30 days. The clock doesn't actually start ticking until you install the file you downloaded, so go ahead and get it, then fire it up when you've got time to kick the tires, take it out for a spin, and generally put it through its paces.

Migrating from Adobe GoLive to Adobe Dreamweaver GL2DW extension guide (PDF 3.1M): If your an Adobe GoLive user like me, you've fretted a bit about the demise of GoLive and what your going to do with all of the pages you've built in that venerable program. We should've known Adobe wouldn't forsake us! That's one reason why we liked GoLive in the first place. Here's the answer, the GoLive to Dreamweaver extension. it comes with Dreamweaver, and this PDF explains how it functions. Pheew!
What's New in Dreamweaver CS5: Adobe engineers! What have you done to Dreamweaver? We've uncovered an upgrade worthy basket full of enhancements that address the top issues in web design: The Widgets Browser, CSS Inspect and CSS enable/disable, improved CMS integration, a new HTML5 extension for CSS3 media queries (extensions for Dreamweaver CS3 and CS4 is available for download on Dreamweaver Exchange), and so much more. Read all about the upgrade on Adobe's Dreamweaver CS5 page.

Adobe Video Training Workshop: Adobe has put together a pretty decent video training center on the web in the form of its Video Training Workshop. New users and seasoned veterans alike can find training and tips in the 2 to 12 minutes long videos posted here. I like that the videos are short and concise, as they can easily fit into your workday.
Adobe TV: Dreamweaver: If you like the video training workshop, check out Adobe TV. Everything here is set up more like a talk-show about your favorite program than straight up training so the feel is more personal and friendly. Imagine if Regis or Oprah or Ellen were into Dreamweaver...
Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 Professional User Guide (PDF): Here's the manual you thought you don't get anymore. You do, it's a PDF on the install disc and on Adobe's website. If you're like me you can't find the install disc when you need it so here is the link to PDF file online.
Dreamweaver Developer Center: This is the stuff that dreams are made of... If you dream about ASP, PHP, ColdFusion, and Spry and CSS and the like. These pages hold resources for getting started, sample files to pull apart and reverse engineer, video presentations, tutorials, articles, scripting info, and more.

Dreamweaver Developer Toolbox: This add-on gives you access to dynamic web applications, membership-based websites, portals, blogs, image galleries, content management systems, CRM back ends, and other web-based solutions without advanced programming knowledge. The CS4 version is due out in January 2009.

Dreamweaver InContext Editing: Wouldn't it be great if after you designed and built your website you could get help with the constant editing and updating that's needed? Just hand off the edits to any Joe Schmoe and not worry that the code will get screwed up? Well, now you can.

Dreamweaver FAQ: Got questions about the latest release, pricing, availability, compatibility, etc? Check out the Frequently Asked Questions page for answers.

Best Ways to Get Help from Other Dreamweaver Users

Adobe Dreamweaver Forum: The Adobe Forums are usually my first stop when trouble strikes and I need help. Chances are somebody has had the same problem and a solution is already posted. If not, there are lots of knowledgeable people here who are happy to offer advice. There is a lot of problem-solving going on in here. Reading is painless (click "login as guest" button), posting/replying requires free registration.

Adobe Dreamweaver Developer Toolkit Forum: If you've got this add-on or just want to know more about it, you'll need to check out this separate forum.

Adobe Dreamweaver Exchange: Dreamweaver is great but maybe it doesn't have everything that you need. Check out the Plug-ins, add-ons, extensions, code, and more that are made easily accessible to you via Exchange. There are a couple dozen offerings here that for a small fee could save you a lot of time and trouble. Why reinvent the wheel? (You'll have to register with the Studio site and/or log in before you'll be brought to this link.)
CreativeCow Dreamweaver Forum: CreativeCow.net is an online community for media production folks. Their forum offerings are huge and their daily traffic is pretty high. Their Dreamweaver forum is well populated so there is a better than average chance of getting help here. While you're visiting, check out their other offerings, including articles, tutorials, and a magazine deliverable in print or PDF.

Best Dreamweaver Online/Video Training

Lynda.com's Adobe Dreamweaver Lessons: Dreamweaver CS5| Dreamweaver CS4 | Dreamweaver CS3: You've got to check out Lynda.com. In addition to the Essentials training series, they've rolled out some timely Dreamweaver CS5 tutorials including Dreamweaver with PHP and MYSQL, CSS and WordPress. Their collection for Dreamweaver CS4 and CS3 is impressive and covers a wide range of topics: Dreamweaver essentials, Spry Widgets, web accessibility, Migrating from GoLive... You can buy individual DVD collections of their training and watch it on your TV at home or subscribe for online viewing and get access to every title they produce.

Virtual Training Company's Dreamweaver Lessons:
Dreamweaver CS5 |Dreamweaver CS4 | Dreamweaver CS3: VTC is one of my favorite on-line Quicktime Tutorial sources. Through their site you can learn Dreamweaver online in the privacy of your web browser as short, optimized-for-the-web online Quicktime movies (over 150 lessons), or order all of them on a CD for $99 to get the highest quality Quicktime files. Either way, all sample files used in the lessons are included. They have a terrific video training library with all of the other titles including Creating CSS layouts,InDesign CS3, Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3 and they keep the older training materials on-line as well so if you're still working on earlier versions, there is something here for you too. You can 'try before you buy' as the first 3 chapters of every title are free.
Total Training Dreamweaver Lessons:Dreamweaver CS4 | Dreamweaver CS3: Dreamweaver training is available via online subscription and on DVD discs as well. Either way you'll get a couple day's worth of training that is top-flight and fun to watch. These pages take you through both the new CS4 introductory videos and CS3 essentials. Other topics are also available, like advanced CS3, and migrating from GoLive. Each of Total Training's products comes with a CD containing project files so you can follow along with the instructor.

Other Dreamweaver-centric Web Sites with Good Stuff

WebDevelopersNotes.com: If you are new to web design and html, this is a "must" stop for you. On this site you'll find free resources for learning basic html, web graphics, scripting and more.

Smashing Magazine Dreamweaver Tutorial Links: There's plenty to keep you busy at this site.The link takes you to a clearinghouse page of Dreamweaver tutorial sites.

CSS Zen Garden: If you're curious about CSS (and you should be) check out this "demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design."

A List Apart: Code, Culture, Content, Design, Process, User Science make up the topic list of this website "for people who make websites." Under those topics are hundreds of articles meant to make good web design ubiquitous.

Web Design Library: You'll have to do a search for Dreamweaver stuff on this site since there is no specific category for it. but it's there, along with other good general web info.

Dreamweaver Cafe: Colin Smith of Photoshop Cafe fame has another cafe serving up piping hot Dreamweaver tips.
TenTonBooks.com: Geoff Blake, writer, designer, training presenter and founder of Ten Ton Books has some great articles and videos on Dreamweaver and CSS and other web stuff. He presents the material in a fun and irreverent way, making the job of learning new software much easier. I especially like the article Print Designers: You've dodged this long enough, it's time to learn web design

ASP.net 3.5 - Microsoft visual web developer 2008 - videos

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 19:52:00 +0000

"How Do I?" with ASP.NET

This video series consists of over two hours of content focused on solving the common questions developers are facing every day with ASP.NET 2.0.

#1 | [How Do I:] Learn the Tips and Tricks of Experts?

#2 | [How Do I:] Create a Multi-Lingual Site with Localization?

#3 | [How Do I:] Make use of Caching?

#4 | [How Do I:] Make Greater use of Caching?

#5 | [How Do I:] Utilize Web Parts and Personalization?

#6 | [How Do I:] Customize my Site with Profiles and Themes?

#7 | [How Do I:] Secure my Site using Membership and Roles?

#8 | [How Do I:] Create a "Contact Us" Page?

#9 | [How Do I:] Create a Full-Featured Customer Login Portal?

#10 | [How Do I:] Use Master Pages and Site Navigation?

#11 | [How Do I:] Create Data-Driven Web Sites?

#12 | [How Do I:] Implement an HttpModule?

#13 | [How Do I:] Set Up the SQL Membership Provider

#14 | [How Do I:] Implement URL Rewriting?

#15 | [How Do I:] Utilize the CSS Friendly Control Adapters?

#16 | [How Do I:] Handle Application Events using an HttpModule?

#17 | [How Do I:] Use Cascading Style Sheets for Web Page Layout?

#18 | [How Do I:] Create a Custom Membership Provider?

#19 | [How Do I:] Create a Custom Profile Provider?

#20 | [How Do I:] Implement Site Navigation in ASP.NET?

#21 | [How Do I:] Use Validation Controls in ASP.NET?

#22 | [How Do I:] Create a Custom User Control in ASP.NET?

#23 | [How Do I:] Implement Health Monitoring for an ASP.NET Application?

#24 | [How Do I:] Implement Tracing in an ASP.NET Web Site?

#25 | [How Do I:] Event Handlers in ASP.NET Web Pages and Controls

#26 | [How Do I:] Implement a Custom Health Monitoring Event

#27 | [How Do I:] Use Control State to Persist Information for a Custom Web Server Control

#28 | Read, Write, and Delete Cookies in ASP.NET

#29 | [How Do I:] Save and Load View State Information for a Custom Web Server Control

#30 | [How Do I:] Create and Use Application Level Events in ASP.NET

#31 | [How Do I:] Simple File Uploads in ASP.NET

#32 | [How Do I:] Multiple File Uploads in ASP.NET 2

#33 | [How Do I:] Multiple File Uploads in ASP.NET 1

#34 | [How Do I:] File Uploads with an AJAX Style Interface

#35 | [How Do I:] Work with Master Pages Declaratively and Programmatically

#36 | [How Do I:] Handle Events in Master and Content Pages

#37 | [How Do I:] Use the ObjectDataSource with a Data Access Class and Business Object

#38 | [How Do I:] Create User Selectable Themes for a Web Site

#39 | [How Do I:] Share Data Between Client JavaScript and Server Code Using a Hidden Field

#40 | [How Do I:] Add JavaScript to An ASP.NET Page

#41 | [How Do I:] Add JavaScript Event Handlers to ASP.NET Server Controls

#42 | [How Do I:] Create and Call a Simple Web Service in ASP.NET

#43 | [How Do I:] Deploy a Web Site Using the Copy Web Site Tool

#44 | [How Do I:] Create and Use a Custom Configuration Section in an ASP.NET Configuration File

#45 | [How Do I:] Configure an ASP.NET Web Site for a .NET Framework Version

#46 | How Do I Use the ASP.NET IIS Registration Tool to Configure ASP.NET

#47 | [How Do I:] Extend and Customize an ASP.NET Server Control for a Specific Purpose

#48 | [How Do I:] Use the Ability to Create Groups with the ListView Control for Different Data

#49 | [How Do I:] Make HTML elements accessible from server side code

#50 | [How Do I:] Use Roles to Segment Functionality in an ASP.NET Web Site

#51 | [How Do I:] Work with Nested Master Pages to Create Standard Content Layouts

#52 | [How Do I:] Detect Browser Capabilities in ASP.NET Web Pages

#53 | [How Do I:] Map an ASP.NET Server Control to the Adaptor Used to Render It

#54 | [How Do I:] Pass Information From One Page to Another Using a Query String

#55 | [How Do I:] Use the aspnet_merge.exe Utility to Merge Assemblies

#56 | [How Do I:] Implement a Cross Page PostBack in ASP.NET

#57 | [How Do I:] Add Controls to an ASP.NET Web Page Programmatically

#58 | [How Do I:] Use a Hidden Field to Store and Manipulate Client-Side Information

#59 | [How Do I:] Use the Fixednames Option with the Compiler Utility for Maximum Flexibility

#60 | [How Do I:] Implement Command Buttons for Individual Items

#61 | [How Do I:] Use Skins with CSS for a Flexible and Maintainable ASP.NET Web Site

#62 | [How Do I:] Determine Whether to Use a Web Site or a Web Application Project

#63 | [How Do I:] Write Web Events to a SQL Server Database Using the SqlWebEventProvider

#64 | [How Do I:] Use ASP.NET to Send Email from a Web Site

#65 | [How Do I:] Configure Email Notification for Health Monitoring on an ASP.NET Web Site

#66 | [How Do I:] Use a Visual Studio 2008 Web Deployment Project

#67 | [How Do I:] Send Templated Emails for Health Monitoring Events in ASP.NET

#68 | [How Do I:] Send Email Asynchronously with ASP.NET

#69 | [How Do I:] Embed an Image in an Email with ASP.NET

#70 | [How Do I:] Implement Error Handling when Sending Email with ASP.NET

#71 | [How Do I:] Create a Custom Provider for Logging Health Monitoring Events

#72 | [How Do I:] Create a Reusable Component for Sending Email to a Distribution List

#73 | [How Do I:] Precompile an ASP.NET Website

#74 | [How Do I:] Use the FtpWebRequest Class to Create an FTP Connection to a FTP Server

#75 | [How Do I:] Export Data to a Comma Delimited (CSV) File for an Application Like Excel

#76 | [How Do I:] Use the Reponse.Filter Property to Replace HTML in an ASP.NET Page

#77 | [How Do I:] Use OutputCache to Cache an ASP.NET Page

#78 | [How Do I:] Cache Portions of an ASP.NET Page

#79 | [How Do I:] Control the Caching of an ASP.NET Page Based Upon Custom Information

#80 | [How Do I:] Cache an ASP.NET Page Based Upon Information in the HTTP Header

#81 | [How Do I]: Synchronize Data in Secondary User Control(s) Based Upon User Selections

#82 | [How Do I]: Use the ASP.NET Cache Object to Cache Application Information

#83 | [How Do I]: Persist the State of a User Control During a Postback

#84 | [How Do I]: Add Client Script Event Handlers Controls on an ASP.NET Page?

#85 | How Do I Understand and Defend Against Script Injection Attacks in ASP.NET

#86 | ASP.NET Data Access Technologies, an Introduction to LINQ

#87 | How Do I: Create and Use Classes in JavaScript?

#88 | How Do I: Create an Efficient and Standardized Approach for Implementing CSS Styles?

#89 | How to Best Learn ASP.NET Web Forms

#90 | How to Install ASP.NET and Tools

#91 | What is ASP.NET?

#92 | Choosing the Right Programming Model

#93 | Build Your First ASP.NET Application with ASP.NET Web Forms

#94 | Build Your First ASP.NET Application with ASP.NET MVC

Building Web Applications with ASP.NET 3.5 and Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008

This video series will help you develop a functional understanding of using Microsoft’s free IDE for web application developer (Visual Web Developer) to build ASP.NET 2.0 & 3.5 web applications. Microsoft’s Joe Stagner demonstrates not only how to use the “VWD” IDE but explains what’s happening behind the scenes and offers guidance on best practices.

#1 | Intro to Visual Web Developer

#2 | IntelliSense

#3 | Intro to Web Forms

#4 | Page Layout

#5 | Page Lifecycle Events

#6 | Intro to ASP.NET Controls

#7 | Submit and Postback

#8 | Application Level Objects

#9 | Session Level Objects

#10 | Debugging

#11 | CSS

#12 | MasterPages

#13 | An Introduction to SOAP Based Web Services with Visual Web Developer 2008

#14 | AJAX Style Services with Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008

#15 | Validation

#16 | Login Controls

Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:18:00 +0000

Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial..

Dreamweaver is a great tool to help you build websites. It is a WYSIWYG HTML editor that helps you to create html pages visually (without knowing HTML coding).

I have posted 10 easy steps and 2 small projects for Dreamweaver CS3. Please Click Here to read.

Later i will post for Latest Version that is Dreamweaver CS5...Check back soon.

Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial: CSS Layout Based Website

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:13:00 +0000

Before you Begin Project 2:
If you are a beginner make sure you go through steps 1- 10 of the Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial before attempting this project.

Download the project files. (DWCS3_CSS Template.rar (276 KB)-- If you are unable to download this means you need to follow me first and after that you have to send me a request mail after that i will approve you.)( Template Preview )

Make a copy of the ‘images’ folder in a folder entitled “DWCS3_CSS Template”.

Define site, create template and external css file:
Define a site “DWCS3_CSS Template” specifying the new folder you made as the root directory.

File > New

In the window that opens: Select Blank template > HTML Template > None

Save the template. Name it template_css. It will get saved as a .dwt file in a new ‘Templates’ folder.

In the CSS Panel > click the ‘New css Rule’ icon

Selector type = tag, Tag = body, define in = New style sheet file, file name = styles, click “save” button.

In the CSS rule definition window:

Select “Box”, For margin and padding enter “0”

Select “Block”, For Text Align enter = center

Click the styles.css tab at the top of the document window and save the styles.css file

Click the ‘template_css.dwt’ tab at the top of the document window to get back into the template file. You will have to save the stylesheet and template files everytime you make a change (when the * symbol appears)

The header:
Insert > Layout Object > Div Tag

In the “Insert Div Tag” window that opens:

ID = header

Click “New css style”

In the “New CSS Rule” window that opens Selector = #header will already be inserted and define in = styles.css will already be selected. Click the Ok button.

In the “CSS rule definition” window that opens

Click “Box”. Click “Box”. Enter Width = 780 pixels.

Padding = 0, Margin = Auto.

Click ok button. Click ok button.

You will see ‘Content for id "header" Goes Here’ in a dotted box appearing in the document window. This is the header div. You can check how it will look in the browser by clicking File > preview in Browser > select browser name. You should do this regularly throughout the process of building the layout so that you know as soon as something is not looking ok. You should also check in both IE and Firefox to ensure it is working fine in both the browsers.

In the css panel you will see 2 styles – body and #header.

Let’s specify the default font in the body tag. Right click “body” in the css panel. Select the “Edit” option. The css rule definition window will open.

Select “Type”.

Specify Font = ‘Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif’.

Size = 12 pixels

Click “OK”.

Logo and Search Div:
Delete ‘Content for id "header" Goes Here’, keep your cursor inside the div.

Insert > Layout objects > div tag.

ID = logo

Click “New style sheet” button, selector=#logo, click ok.

Block > Text Align = left

Box > Width = 50%

Box > Float = Left

Box > Padding/ Margin = 0

Click OK . Click Ok.

“Content for id "logo" Goes Here” will appear in the document window. And a new style #logo will appear in the css panel.

Go into the code view (click the “Code” button at the top of the document window or select View > Code)

Place your cursor after the div id="logo" closing tag i.e. After “
Content for id "logo" Goes Here
”

Go back to design view (click the “Design” button or View > Design)

Insert > Layout objects > div tag.

ID = search

Click “New style sheet” button, selector= #search, click ok.

Block > Text Align = right

Box > Width = 50%

Box > Float = right

Box > Padding/ Margin = 0

Click OK . Click Ok.

Delete “Content for id "logo" Goes Here” and insert the logo image. Insert > Image > browse and select logo.gif from the images folder.

Delete “Content for id "search" Goes Here” and insert the search code here. For now you can simple enter a form tag, a text field and a button. Please note that the search will not actually work until it is programmed to do so. You can use one of the free search options.

Insert > Form> Form

Click inside the red dashed outline that appears

Insert Form > Text Field

Insert Form > Button

Click on the button that appears and rename it in the Properties panel. Value = Search.

Menu Bar Div:
Go into the code view. Click the after the closing header div tag. To do so you can click anywhere within the header div tag (eg. select the logo image in the design view before going into the code view) and then click the that appears at the bottom of the code view window. The entire header div code will be highlighted. Then you can easily click after the closing tag.

Now let's add the yellow menu bar.

Insert > layout objects > div tag. Name the div ID= menu.

Create the #menu css style with the following properties:

Box > Width = 780 pixels, Clear = both, Padding = 5 pixels, Margin = Top = 0, Left = auto, Right = auto, Bottom = 1

Background > Background color > Click the triangle on the gray box to get the color palette and the ink dropper. Move the cursor to the flower in the logo and pick the yellow color.

Block > Text align = left

Click Ok

Delete the default text that appears in the menu and type in the menu text “Home | Services | About Us | Contact Us”

Content Div:
Similarly create another div and css style entitled “content” below this div

Insert > layout objects > div tag. Name the div ID= menu.

Create the #content css style with the following properties:

Box > Width = 780 pixels, Height = 300 pixels, Clear = both, Padding = 5 pixels, Margin > Top = 0, Left = auto, Right = auto, Bottom = 0

Block > Text align = left

Border > top/ bottom> solid> 1 pixel > pick green color from the leaf in the logo.

Footer Div:
Similarly create a “footer” div tag and css style with:

Type > Size= 10 pixels

Click OK

Replace the default text that appears with “Copyright 2011 | Abhinav Pathak"

H1 and Menu Link Styles:
Click the “New css rule” icon in the css panel. Redefine the H1 tag. Select ‘Tag’, Type Tag = H1, give the font size = 20 pixels and pick the green color from the leaf for the font color.

Similarly let’s create a style for the menu links. Create a new css style called “#menu a”.
Type >

Font color = black (pick from the color picker)

Decoration = none

Weight = bold

Editable Region:
Delete ‘Content for id "content" Goes Here’ and Insert > Template objects > editable Region (See Step 7 in Dreamweaver Tutorial CS3). Name the editable region “content”

Your template is almost ready. We will use it to make the pages and then come back to link the menu items.

Create the web pages:
File > New > Page from Template > DWCS3_CSS Template > template_css> click create > Save as “index.html”

Change the title of the page to “Welcome”.

Insert the image of the mother and child. Type the heading text and the remaining content. Right align the picture. Apply the Heading 1 tag (format dropdown in Properties panel) to the heading.

Make 3 copies of the index.html file in the ‘Files’ Panel. Change the page title, heading and content to reflect ‘services’, ‘about us’ and ‘contact us’. Save them with similar names.

Link the menu items:
Go into the template file and link the menu items (See Step 9 in Dreamweaver tutorial CS3) to the appropriate pages.

Check your pages in the browser to make sure everything looks ok and that the links are working fine.

Now your site is ready Congratulations!

Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial: Table Format Layout Website

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 10:24:00 +0000

Before you begin Project 1:

If you are a beginner make sure you go through steps 1- 10 of the Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial (Find out in previous posts) before attempting this project.
Download Tutorial Files ( DWCS3_TABLE Template.rar (293 KB)-- If you are unable to download this means you need to follow me first and after that you have to send me a request mail after that i will approve you.)( Template Preview )
After downloading the files make a copy of the 'images' folder in another folder entitled 'project'.
Define a new Dreamweaver site for the 'project' folder. You can also define another for the original downloaded folder. You can use this to compare and analyze in case something goes wrong or you are confused about how to do something.

Begin Tutorial:

Dreamweaver Template

Create a New HTML Template. Save it as template.dwt. It will get saved in a new "Templates" folder.
Modify > Page Properties (Set Left/ Right/ Top/ Bottom margins = 0)

Table #1

Insert > Table (with 2 columns > 1 row > 780 pixels > cell padding = 0 > cell spacing = 0)
Select Table (right click in the table > Table > Select Table). In the Properties Panel set Align = Center.
Click in the 1st cell > Insert Image > browse to images folder > selct logo.gif > type alt tag = logo.
You can adjust the width of the 2 cells. Click inside the 2nd cell. In the properties panel set Align = right. You can add the code for a here if you like. For now you can add a form tag, form field and button [ Insert > Form. Then click inside the form outline that will display and Insert > / text field / button].

Table #2

Click outside the table. Insert a table (1 row/ 1 column/ 780 pixels/ cell padding = 5/ spacing = 0 / border = 0)
To set the background color of the table, in the properties panel, click on the box with the little triangle next to "Bg" and use the eyedropper to pick the yellow color from the flower.
Click inside the table. Enter Menu text [Home | Service | About | Contact ]

Table #3

Create another table. Select the table and align center. insert a transparent spacer image (1x1 pixel). The table will collapse to 1 pixel height. Since we want it to be white we won't put a background color. This will be a white line.

Table #4

Create another table. Select the table and align center. Use th eyedropper to pick a green background color from the leaf in the logo image. Insert the spacer image. The table will collapse to 1 pixel height. It will be a green line.

Table #5

Insert another table (cell padding = 5). Select table and align = center in properties panel.

Editable Region

Insert > Template Objects > Editable Region > name it ‘content’

Table #6

Insert another table. Give it a green background and insert the spacer image.
Insert another table (cell space = 5 px)
Click inside the table. Align = center in properties panel.
Type in footer text (coyright 2011 Abhinav Pathak) and format it (size and color)

CSS Styles

New CSS Rule> Tag = H1 > Select the green from the leaf and size = 20, and font = Arial, Helvetica, Sans-Serif and weight= bold
New CSS Rule > Tag = body > Size = 12 and font = Arial, Helvetica, Sans-Serif
Save template

Page #1

Create new html page [File > New > Page from Template > Project > template > Create]and name it "index.html".
Insert the 2nd image and give it the alt tag 'mother and child'.
Type in the textual content. Select the heading text and select 'Heading 1' from the 'Format' dropdown in the Properties Panel. This will style the heading as per the H1 css style create earlier.
Click image. Set align = right in the properties panel.
Type 'Home page' in the document title (at the top of the document window).
Type in the keywords for the page [Insert > HTML > Head Tags > Keywords]
Type in the description for the page [Insert > HTML > Head Tags > Description]

Pages #2, 3 and 4

Make copies of the index.html file (from within the 'Files' panel - if not visible on the left go to Window > Files) and rename them to service.html, about.html and contact.html.
Put the appropriate headings, content text, title, keyword and description tags, and images into these 3 new pages.

Link the Menu

Now we must go into template.dwt and link the pages from the menu.
Select the text "Home"
Click on the folder icon next to the Link field in the properties panel.
Browse to index.html and select it.
You will see an underline appear below “Home” and it changes to a blue color.
Click anywhere within “Home” and click the tag that is visible at the bottom of the document window.
Give the color and font properties, notice the style name that is created as you will need to apply the same style to the other 3 menu items.
Link and apply the same style to the other menu items.
Save the template and the pages will be updated automatically.
Right click on index.htm > Click preview in Browser > Select Internet Explorer or Firefox > View your site in the browser > check to see if all the links are working ok

Now your site is ready Congratulations!

Dreamweaver CS3: Preview in Browser & File Upload/ FTP

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:26:00 +0000

Step 10: Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial - Test & Upload to Hosting Server

Once the site is complete in Dreamweaver you are ready to upload/ FTP the files to your server and go live. Before that however, you should preview the site in various browsers (at least FireFox and Internet Explorer) to make sure it is working all right.

Preview in Browser

File > Preview in Browser > select the browser of choice
View each page
Click on all the links

Note: If you use Site Relative paths (as you must in server side includes), the "Preview in Browser" feature will not work. You will need to test on a web server locally or upload to your remote hosting server and test.

Other tools that Dreamweaver provides :

Site > Check Links Sitewide
Text > Check Spelling

Going Live

After you have developed and tested your site it is ready to go live. You will need to sign up with a hosting server. I recommend Hostgator

Once you sign up with a hosting server you they will provide you with your server details:

IP address or www.yoursitename.com
username
password

You can use Dreamweaver or any FTP software e.g. Filezilla to upload your files to the remote hosting server.

File Upload/ FTP in Dreamweaver

To enter your hosting details into Dreamweaver:

Fill in these details in the Remote Info Panel of the Site Definition [Files Panel > Last in the site name drop down - Manage Sites > Select the Site > Click Edit > In the Advanced Tab > Click the category "Remote Info"
Access = FTP (from drop down menu)
FTP host = enter your site url e.g. www.yoursitename.com
Enter your login and password
Click "Test" to check the connection

To upload your files into the remote hosting Server:

Click the "Expand to show local and remote sites" icon in the Files Panel
In the expanded files panel click the 'connects to remote host' icon.
Once you connect you should see the remote folder and files on the left window.
To upload your files click the 'Put Files' Arrow icon in the site manager.
After uploading all the files test the site online using your site url e.g. www.yoursitename.com.

Your site is live now! Congratulations!

Linking Pages in Dreamweaver CS3

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:17:00 +0000

Step 9: Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial - Link Pages

Once you have created all the pages of your site it is time to link them up using Dreamweaver. You may link them from the menus and from appropriate textual or image content on other pages.

To create a link:

Select the text/ image you want to link from
Click on the yellow folder icon next to the 'Link' field on the 'Properties' panel.
In the dialog box that opens, browse for the web page you want to link to and select it.
If you are linking to a page from a Server Side Include, ensure that the link is relative to site.
Click OK and your link is ready.

If you have added links into the Dreamweaver Template or Library item, Dreamweaver will ask you if you want to update all the pages. Do so.

Create HTML Pages in Dreamweaver CS3 and Insert Content/ Forms

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:15:00 +0000

Step 8: Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial - Create HTML Pages, Insert Content & Forms

Now it is time to use Dreamweaver to create the HTML pages and insert content and forms if any.

Once you have your template, css stylesheet and server site includes/ library items ready, you can begin creating the actual pages of your site as per your site plan.

for example:

Keep in mind that if you are using server side includes you will need to create .shtml or .shtm pages.

Create HTML/ SHTML Pages in Dreamweaver

To create the HTML/ SHTML pages:

File > New > Page from Template > Project Name > Template Name > Create]
Name and save the file into the project folder. Name the homepage index.shtml if using SSI and if your remote hosting server is a UNIX server. If it is a NT server most likely the homepage will need to be named 'default.shtml'. If you are not using SSI, leave the file extensions as .htm.
Change the HTML page title to something more appropriate [ Modify > Page Properties >Title/ Encoding > Title]
Put in appropriate meta data for the page i.e. keywords and description of the page
- Insert > HTML > Head Tags > Keywords
- Insert > HTML > Head Tags > Description
Type or paste the Heading and content of the page into the appropriate edible region. Apply the styled formatting (e.g. H1 tag or custom style) from the Properties Panel
Insert any images/ flash assets etc. into the editable region and and align them

Insert > Image
Insert > Media > Flash

Replace any library items/ SSI e.g. sub menus
Similarly create all the other HTML/ SHTML pages you need.

Forms in Dreamweaver

Some pages might require form elements such as the "contact us" form:

Insert > Form > select the form element of choice. A form must be within a form tag so select "Form" first, then insert the other form fields like Text field etc. within the form tag that appears.

To make a form work you will need a php, asp or cgi script. You can also make use any one of following:

Form Service Providers

If you don't know how to program a form, these are good options. Simply sign up with these form service providers and copy the code into your site.

PHP Form Scripts

FormToEmail

Dreamweaver CS3 Template Editable Regions

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:04:00 +0000

Step 7: Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial - Specify Template Editable Regions

Dreamweaver templates allow you to specify editable regions. These will be the areas of the template where you will insert content that will differ from page to page. To do this:

Put the cursor in the region that you wish to make editable
Insert > Template Objects > Editable Region
Give the editable region a name e.g. content.
The editable region will appear on the template with a colored outline and the specified name.

If you have a library item (e.g. submenu) or banner etc. which will appear in most of the pages but will change in some you can keep the library item in the template, select it and create an editable region around it. So in a new page created with this template the library item will appear by default, however it can be replaced with another one where necessary.

Server Side Includes (SSI)/ Libraries in Dreamweaver CS3

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:51:00 +0000

Step 6: Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial - Server Side Includes/ Libraries

Server Side Includes (SSI) and Libraries in Dreamweaver help you to centralize areas of your site that are common to many pages. This helps you to easily make site-wide changes to these common areas and thus helps in maintenance and consistency. When you design a website it is better to design it for easy maintenance. As you add pages your menus will change to incorporate that. You might want to change the mast, footer etc.

Server Side Includes

The advantage with server side includes (SSI) is that when you make a change to an include you don't have to update all the pages that access it. The changes will automatically get reflected in them. You will not have to upload all the pages that use the include every time you make a change, just the include itself.

Note: All the html page you create and apply this template to must have the extension .shtml or .shtm.

It is useful to create include files for:

header
footer
menus
sub menus

To create an include:

Copy the part of the page that you would like to make into an include.
Create a new html page [File > New > Blank Page > HTML > none]
Go into the HTML code [View > Code] and delete all the default code that Dreamweaver puts in.
Go back to design view [View > Design ] and paste the code that you had copied previously.
Make sure all links in the include file are relative to site root.
Finally save this file in an 'Includes' folder.

To insert an include into the template:

Click where you would like to insert the include
Insert > Server Side Include.

Dreamweaver Library Items

If you do not wish to create files with the shtml extension or your server does not support it you can use Dreamweaver Library items for common areas that might be different in different sections e.g. sub menus. However changes to library items will update the files in which they exist and these files will need to be uploaded again.

To create a library item:

Copy the portion of the template you wish to convert to a library item
File > New > Blank Page > Library Item
Paste
Save with appropriate name

Once created, you will need to insert the library item into the template (or later on into a web page). To do so:

Window > Assets
Click the library icon in the Assets Panel
Select the appropriate library name
Click the 'Insert' button at the bottom of the panel

Inserting Text & Images in Dreamweaver CS3

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:32:00 +0000

Step 5: Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial - Insert Text & Images

Once your template layout (with tables or div tags) and css stylesheet is created, you can insert any images (e.g. logo), common menu items, text (e.g. copyright info) etc. that form part of the general look and feel of the site into the template.
Inserting Text
You can type in text just as you would in any text editing software. You can apply styles to it from the Properties panel.

You can also format it with the existing html tags (which you would have redefined in the css file).

Inserting Images
You can insert images [Insert > Image]. You can also position them :
Click on the image.

Open the Properties Inspector. Select the required alignment from the 'align' drop down menu. You could also set the alignment of the cell/ div tag in which the image will be placed.

Common Menu Items
Menu items could be simple text with a style applied to it or javascript code etc.

Site Search
If you plan to have a site search on all the pages you can paste in the search code where required. Various Services are available for site search.

Services like:

Google

Atomz

Bravenet

Freefind

Website Traffic Analytics
It is a good idea to build in any website traffic analyzing code too so that you can easily track traffic to the website later.

You can use following Stats

Google Analytics (FREE)
Free website statistics tracking tool. Get details about hits and visitors to your website. Track the referring sites and search engines, popular kewords etc. An essential for every website owner.
StatCounter
If you find Google Anaylitics too complicated, try StatCounter. It's Free!

Dreamweaver CS3 Css Style Sheets

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:18:00 +0000

Step 4: Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial - Create CSS Stylesheet

CSS Styles help in consistency and maintenance. It is a good idea to centralize the text styles as much as possible in order to maintain consistency and easy updating.

In the case of layout designed with

tags (instead of tables) or use of one of the prebuilt layouts that come with Dreamweaver CS 3 you would have already created the css stylesheet and assigned positional properties to the div tags.

Some of the styles you can centralize in an external css stylesheet include:

H1 tag redefined
H2 tag redefined
p tag redefined
a tag redefined (specifies the look of link)
menu styles
footer text styles

To create an external stylesheet follow these steps:

File > New
Page Type > CSS
Save the file in the website folder. You can name it 'styles' or any appropriate title. It will get saved as a .css file.

Once you have created the css file you will need to attach it to the dreamweaver template file. You can do this from the CSS Styles panel [Window > CSS Styles]. Click the icon (attach style sheet), select the css file and click OK.

You can create new css rules by clicking on the "New CSS Rule" icon.

In the dialog box that appears,
If you want to create a custom style which can be applied to any tag:

Select the selector type "class"
Name it with a "." at the beginning like .heading
Define in: styles.css (or the name of your css file)

If you want to redefine the look of an existing html tag::

Select the selector type "Tag"
Select the Tag from the drop down menu e.g. "h1"
Define in: styles.css (or the name of your css file)

In the dialog box that appears, specify the properties of the style and click ok.

Dreamweaver CS3 Page Layouts

noreply@blogger.com (Abhinav) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 07:52:00 +0000

Step 3: Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial - Page Layouts

You can use Dreamweaver to create the general page layout (within the template) using either tables or css. The advantages and disadvantages of both these approaches are give below:

Table Layouts: Advantages

Easy to design

Works well on older browsers

Table Layouts:Disadvantages

Loads only once all the elements within the table have loaded - usually slower than css layouts

Changes to the tables will need to be made on each page and all the pages will need to uploaded to the server again

CSS Layouts: Advantages

Loads fast - the css file just needs to be loaded once

Can easily change the layout of the entire site by tweaking the .css file as the design elements are separated from the content

CSS Layouts: Disadvantages

More challenging to design

May not work on some of the older browsers

Creating the Page Layout using Tables

Using the "tables approach" your layout will be structured within tables and cells.

Analyze your using Adobe Fireworks or Photoshop to figure out how many tables with how many rows and columns you would need to recreate it in Dreamweaver.

Now start creating your tables. You can use pixels or percentages to define the width and height. If you have more that 1 column make sure the widths of all the columns add up to the width of the table. [Insert > Table]

The Properties Inspector is extremely useful for editing the properties of any element in your page. To edit the properties of a table simply select the table and open the Properties Inspector. [Window > Properties]

Try and create separate tables as much as possible. This is because a table will load only once all the elements within it have loaded.

Explore creating the layout you designed using tables. You can give background colors, create tables within tables, specify the alignment of the content within the cell etc. So go ahead and try it out.

Creating the Page Layout using DIV Tags and CSS

Using the CSS approach you will be creating the layout webpage using div tags to separate different types of content on the page and positioning these div tags in CSS.

You will need to create a css style sheet and attach it to the template.

For every div that you create in the template you will need to create a corresponding style in the css file. You can specify position the location of the div in the page, background colors, borders and other properties in the style. I will post some CSS coding later on please check back soon.

An easy way to create a css, div based layout is to use one of the pre-built Dreamweaver layouts. [File New > Blank Page > HTML > Select layout best suited to your needs]

Technical Digest

What is Silverlight??

Introducing Silverlight

What Features Are in Silverlight?

Silverlight Tools

Deployment and Packaging

Silverlight Architecture

Cloud Computing - Jens Nimis

Cloud Computing - Eine Einführung

Free cloud computing applications

The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing

Definition of Cloud Computing:

Types of cloud computing

Location of the cloud

Classification based upon service provided

What is Cloud Computing????

Origin of term

Examples of Cloud Computing applications

Best Adobe Tutorials and Resources for Dreamweaver

Best Adobe Tutorials and Resources for Dreamweaver

ASP.net 3.5 - Microsoft visual web developer 2008 - videos

Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial

Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial: CSS Layout Based Website

Before you Begin Project 2:

Define site, create template and external css file:

The header:

Logo and Search Div:

Menu Bar Div:

Content Div:

Footer Div:

H1 and Menu Link Styles:

Editable Region:

Create the web pages:

Link the menu items:

Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial: Table Format Layout Website

Before you begin Project 1:

Begin Tutorial:

Dreamweaver CS3: Preview in Browser & File Upload/ FTP

Step 10: Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial - Test & Upload to Hosting Server

Preview in Browser

Going Live

File Upload/ FTP in Dreamweaver

Linking Pages in Dreamweaver CS3

Create HTML Pages in Dreamweaver CS3 and Insert Content/ Forms

Create HTML/ SHTML Pages in Dreamweaver

Forms in Dreamweaver

Form Service Providers

Dreamweaver CS3 Template Editable Regions

Server Side Includes (SSI)/ Libraries in Dreamweaver CS3

Server Side Includes

Dreamweaver Library Items

Inserting Text & Images in Dreamweaver CS3

Dreamweaver CS3 Css Style Sheets

Dreamweaver CS3 Page Layouts

Table Layouts: Advantages

Easy to design Works well on older browsers

Table Layouts:Disadvantages

Loads only once all the elements within the table have loaded - usually slower than css layouts Changes to the tables will need to be made on each page and all the pages will need to uploaded to the server again

CSS Layouts: Advantages

Loads fast - the css file just needs to be loaded once Can easily change the layout of the entire site by tweaking the .css file as the design elements are separated from the content

CSS Layouts: Disadvantages

More challenging to design May not work on some of the older browsers

Creating the Page Layout using Tables

Creating the Page Layout using DIV Tags and CSS

Easy to design

Works well on older browsers

Loads only once all the elements within the table have loaded - usually slower than css layouts

Changes to the tables will need to be made on each page and all the pages will need to uploaded to the server again

Loads fast - the css file just needs to be loaded once

Can easily change the layout of the entire site by tweaking the .css file as the design elements are separated from the content

More challenging to design

May not work on some of the older browsers