Snowball - The Blog

In my busy time (see previous post), some really interesting case studies were released.

• On iis.net, a huge white paper was posted on the Sunday Night Football site. This site, which may not be known to European readers as much, is now built entirely on Silverlight 3 backed by IIS Smooth Streaming. The latter, an ability to dynamically adapt the bit rate of the video stream, is unique in a RIA technology: for example Flash does not have this on board. This way, viewers with lower bandwidth or slower PC processors frequently experience long periods of video buffering, stuttering, and degraded picture quality. Silverlight solves this. The white paper can be read at http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/808/sunday-night-football-live-in-hd-with-microsoft-silverlight-3-and-iis-smooth-streaming/
• The second interesting case study can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000005861%0d . This case describes the use of Windows Azure by Outback Steakhouse. Outback was looking for a social networking presence but did not know what to expect in visitor numbers. Windows Azure offered them exactly what they needed.

2009 has to be the year in which most “Microsoft VIPs” have been in Belgium! We already had Brad Abrams, Juval Löwy, Dino Esposito and many more. You thought that was it for this year? So was I…

Until last week, Katrien De Graeve told me and Pieter (my Visug-colleague) she had some news for us… MSDN and Visug will join forces for a Scott Guthrie event. Yes, "ScottGu” aka “TheGu” is coming to Belgium on December 4th. Erase any other appointments, meetings, vacations you have planned on that day (afternoon only), as Scott will give presentations and probably a Q&A session as well.

Location and exact content will  be posted very soon-ish, we know it’s very near, but I expect to that we will have everything set up this week. The event will be free in any case, thanks to Microsoft.

For now, start thinking of questions you may have, you will soon be able to start sending those in. As the event is only two weeks away, we hope many of you will be blogging, tweeting, Facebook’ing, “whatever”ing a lot!

More news soon, right here!

Not only does the new MSDN site look a lot cleaner, it’s also adaptive to your browsing needs.

Head to any page in the MSDN library and at the bottom, you should see a floating Switch block.

This gives you the option to switch to a lightweight version…

or a script-free version, handy for mobile devices.

MSDN, THE site for Microsoft developers, is changing. A first public preview is now live at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vbpreview/default.aspx .

Looking at the site, it has a clear structure and seems less busy than the old site. The Getting Started section can help aspiring developers to get up to speed quickly. Having this type of content is really important.

Take a look at the site and give feedback to Microsoft, this is your chance to steer the most popular developer site to your likings!

People who know me quite well, may know that since since 1993, I watched the Tonight Show with Jay Leno quite a lot. Over the years, this lessened of course, although recently, I found out that I'm able to watch the new Jay Leno show on the internet, so I picked it up again.

Jay put however a big smile on my face, when last week, a new segment was introduced, Bing image search, as can be seen below on the footage found on YouTube.

 

From a Microsoft standpoint, this is of course great. It will introduce the rather young search engine with a huge audience, which will hopefully be reflected in an increased usage of the search robot.

This week, Microsoft announced WebsiteSpark, a new program designed to jumpstart business development for small Web development/design companies that helps drive new business opportunities by providing tools, solutions, support, training, and increased visibility and connections with partners and customers.

The program offers companies with 10 members Microsoft software and solutions, including training, support and market exposure for their products. This way, Microsoft offers them the help they need in the crucial first years. Certainly in these hard economy, this program can help a starting business a lot.

The program offers an entire ecosystem of customer, partners and professionals to connect with one another. This way, a company can broaden its customer base (available via www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/market, available later this fall). Also, support in provided where needed, including technical support from Microsoft, managed newsgroups and MSDN dev community resources. Last, but certainly not least, the program offers immediate access to all software your company may need: Microsoft dev tools and web server and database production licenses!

All the info you need to sign-up, can be found at www.microsoft.com/web.

I may be talking about old news here, but anyway, you may not have seen this yet.

It seems that SkyDrive (not to be confused with SkyNet from Terminator) from Windows Live has a new and very much improved upload interface. It’s possible to drag and drop files on an area on the page instead of doing the standard “Click on the Browse button” thing.

I think people got bored playing with new beach ball that was showing in the previous version. Also something that was lacking, was showing the upload progress. It could have timed out, you simply didn’t know. Now, there’s a nice upload progress, showing you how far your upload is.

This made me laugh... A lot actually!

The video shown below is a promo for the Microsoft Web Platform, and is like a parody on Magnum PI.

For people who can't see the video, here are some screens:

The birth of the final code of Windows 7 has taken place. Just minutes ago, Windows 7 has officially been Released To Manufacturing, meaning that the final build has been done. No more changes will be made, this is the one you’ll be able to buy from October 22nd in stores everywhere. The official announcement on the Windows Team blog can be read here.

MSDN and TechNet subscribers will have access to the final build as early as August 6th, so don’t start F5’ing the download site just yet, you have a few days left to warm up that download engine!

Not only Windows 7 has been RTM’ed, also Windows Server 2008 R2 arrived at the same point.

And to finish things of, Expression Studio 3 has also been released, it’s out of beta. More can be found here.

Today, the King of Belgium, Albert II visited the Microsoft Innovation Center in Bergen. Interested in the Microsoft Surface, Luc Van De Velde, DPE Director for Microsoft Belgium, explains him the technology behind this excellent piece of innovation.

The video can be seen here.

I've been a Microsoft enthusiast for many years now, as many of you probably know. Honestly, I haven't worked on a Linux-based computer ever, and apart from an IPod, I haven't worked with any Apple products either. Why? I like Microsoft products, I really do. They have served me well and I have never had any feeling that I could be better off using something else. Thanks to their products, I have a great career going on. I have had countless sleepless nights because I want to try that one special thing. I even got to know my girlfriend better through the use of Microsoft's IM solution before we were together.

And still, there's a lot to look forward too. In fact, I think we are at a turning point at this moment. Many great products and technologies are on the verge of being released or are already on the market that will give Microsoft a new and improved image.

Look at Bing, the new search engine launched last week. It is a new way of searching, not a direct competition aimed at what is already out there. But it is innovative, it is fresh, it is cool. Try it, you'll be amazed with what it has to offer!

Also last week, Project Natal was shown at E3. Again a very innovative product. Not that long ago, Microsoft released the Surface, which was perhaps the start of this innovative period.

The advertising campaigns Microsoft is currently doing, sadly not here in Europe, using Seinfeld and Bill Gates were hilarious. "I'm a PC" is now a real brand. It makes people proud of the PC they are using. The more recent campaign, aimed at the lower cost for using a computer against Apple, was the second hit in a row.

Looking a bit more at the professional market, we see many great improvements being done on tools and technologies. The next version of Silverlight that will be released somewhere this year, includes some great improvements, making it a truly business-ready platform. Yes, you can build enterprise applications on Silverlight today.

The next release of Visual Studio promises another great step forward in developer productivity. Using the same tools for all technologies and projects, from BI to enterprise applications to games, it can all be done in VS2010. There are many new features in the new version that will make you do more in less time. In this time of a worldwide recession, that can't be but good news.

Finally, the biggest release that Microsoft is doing this year, is of course Windows 7. With a development cycle not plagued by any issues like Windows Vista's, the product is almost ready. Many customers already tested the new OS in what is probably one of the biggest beta tests ever. And perhaps also one of the most positive ones. Almost all feedback and reviews so far have been nothing but positive about the new OS. A lot of customers are already using it today in RC format for their production needs, which means they fully trust the project.
Although I've been using Windows Vista from day 1, I've never understood the criticism about the product. I think it was "cool to say that Vista wasn't any good". Now, the new cool will be using Windows 7!

As mentioned in the beginning, for a guy like me, the future of Microsoft has never been brighter.

Yesterday, we had the Flemish and European elections took place here in Belgium (in case you aren't familiar with Belgian/Flemish government, take a look here. Note: it's quite complicated!).

I'm not planning on turning my blog into a place for political statements, absolutely not. However, Microsoft technology took a prominent place in these elections. VTM, the Flemish commercial TV station, used Microsoft Surface technology to show the results.

The presenter used several items that were recognized by the Surface's internal camera's to switch between the results of the parties (seen around her left hand in the below screenshot).

 

When placing the tagged item on the surface, the results for the selected party are shown.

Also, a lot of dragging was implemented in the application. By clicking on a header, she could show more details on the results.

With this example, Surface has (as far as I know, I never watch TV...) made its debut on Belgian television. And it made quite an impression on people as well... My girlfriend came asking me if I knew what this "thing was they were using to drag stuff around" on TV :)

Update: here's the MSN Soapbox video:

Dear readers, I’m proud to announce officially Community Day 2009, the third edition of a full day of community driven content on Microsoft technologies. The event will take place on Thursday June 25th 2009.

For the first time, the event will be a full day of free sessions. Also new is the location: we have moved to Mechelen.

In the coming weeks, you’ll be able to subscribe on the Community day website (which is at this point not yet updated, but I’m getting to it…).

Spread the word! Community Day 2009 is coming!

If I'm not mistaking, about a week ago, we stepped into yet another new year. 2009 already... For me personally, a year with some "important" changes, as I'll be 30 years old this year (in fact, in little over a week - January 16th - I won't be 2.9, I'll become 3.0).

Not only for me it's a big year. Worldwide, we are feeling the impact that the financial crisis is bringing. More and more companies are firing employees or aren't investing as much anymore as they used to. In IT, my business of course (and probably yours as well since you're reading this blogpost), up until now, the impact isn't that big - yet. At least, where I'm living (Belgium - Europe). Companies will urge people to be as efficient as possible. Every bit helps in getting more done in less time and thus for less money. I'm anxious to see where we'll be in a year from now - hopefully the situation will be better by that time.

Microsoft also faces a busy year. It's a release year, with big new releases of Visual Studio, C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET... coming up in the developer tools and languages. But also a new version of Windows, Windows 7 is on the horizon (with a first public beta coming out any minute now hopefully). And least we forget Office 14. Note the fact that Microsoft is skipping V13.0.

Windows 7 will be the successor of the much troubled Vista. While the beta isn't really here yet, a version was leaked on torrent networks, which was for once perhaps a good thing. The first reports of this unsupported version were really positive: it proves, even already in this version, to be a stable product that is faster than Vista. While I personally never had much troubles with Vista, it has never been a public favorite. Microsoft is really planning on not making the same mistakes with 7 and it looks like a promising product. µ

Office 14 didn't really get all that much attention yet. At PDC, Microsoft showed the first version of the web-based (Silverlight) versions of the products. While this will prove helpful for everyone working with Office, it's particularly interesting to see whether this will help people in under-developed countries in accessing more technology.

For developers, 2009 will be one of the most exciting years. First, as mentioned, Visual Studio 2010 is coming up. This new version of the IDE will be the biggest overhaul the product has ever known. Making developers love Visual Studio again is the driving goal for 2010. Multi-monitor support, a WPF interface, a faster environment...All of these make it hard to wait for the new release to arrive.

A new version of C#, version 4.0 as well as VB.NET, VB10, will see the daylight. I have been playing and writing on C# 4.0 already and it has some interesting developments, mainly around dynamic programming. The changes however aren't as big as the introduction of version 3. ASP.NET will also be upped a version number, also towards 4.0. If you followed the PDC, you might have seen that the amount of sessions on ASP.NET was really small. ASP.NET has matured, and the changes in this version are mainly focused on integration with other technologies, for example JQuery.

Silverlight however, will keep on growing. While the adoption isn't where it should be yet (at 100% ), it's getting there. Customers are getting to know it, more and more developers build interest into it. At Mix, some exciting new stuff should be announced related to Silverlight to keep us all busy! If you need investing in a learning a new technology, take a look at Silverlight for sure.

WPF, another still recent technology, will keep on rising hopefully. The adoption of this platform is still too low, mainly because it's higher learning curve. Microsoft has done good things with it since it's release like improving its performance, but more is needed I reckon.

Finally, another thing that will really take off this year is the whole Cloud-thing. Windows Azure, announced at PDC also, is the platform for hosting applications in the cloud.
Azure will have many advantages. Take for example a small startup, who need investing in infrastructure - up until now that is. The requirements are often unknown up front and making wrong decisions can be costly. Azure is the solution here since it scales perfectly to match the needs of the startup.
On the other side, there's still a change of mindset needed in this space. While you stay in control of your apps, you aren't really in control, you're handing over your applications to Microsoft (and not only apps, but also storage...). It will be interesting to see how fast people will be migrating to the new platform.

I hope this piece gave you some insights in the upcoming stuff in the new year. Please comment if you don't agree with my opinions! 

According to Steve Ballmer, Windows Cloud will be released within a month. This OS is aimed at cloud computing and is possibly based on Midori. This OS is rumored to have a modular structure and is not based on Windows.

According to Ballmer, cloud-computing as Microsoft sees it, will not render client software as we know it today, completely useless. It will be more of an addition to it, and allow for simple tasks such as simple editing of Office documents. Ballmer also thinks that browser applications will never be powerfull enough for the needs of most users.

Currently, Microsoft has already some "cloudy" applications, such as Office Live Workspace and Live Mesh. However, these still need client software (like Office) to be installed on the end users PC.

In a related news story, Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation, warned that cloud computing is nothing more than a hype. You can read the story here.

I live in Europe and I don't have (a lot) American television channels available here. However, I read over at Engadget that MSNBC is using a Microsoft Surface for their coverage on the US elections.

For those who have never seen Surface, here's a short intro (from Wikipedia):
Microsoft Surface (Codename: Milan), is a Multi-touch product from Microsoft which is developed as a software and hardware combination technology that allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of natural motions, hand gestures, or physical objects.

I have seen something similar in action last year, and it is really, really cool to work with!

I just noticed that IE 8 (Internet Explorer 8 that is :) ) beta 2 is ready for download on the Microsoft servers. You can get it here.

From the site:
We’re excited to release IE8 Beta 2 today for public download. You can find it at http://www.microsoft.com/ie8. Please try it out!

You’ll find versions for 32- and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008. In addition to English, IE8 Beta 2 is available in Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), and German. Additional languages will be available soon.

While Beta 1 was for developers, we think that anyone who browses or works on the web will enjoy IE8 Beta 2. Before the team blogs about our Beta 2 in detail, here’s an overview of what you’ll find in IE8.

We focused our work around three themes: everyday browsing (the things that real people do all the time), safety (the term most people use for what we’ve called ‘trustworthy’ in previous posts), and the platform (the focus of Beta 1, how developers around the world will build the next billion web pages and the next waves of great services).

 

Some time ago, Microsoft acquired Caligari, creators of Caligari trueSpace, an 3D modelling tool. Perhaps not as known as 3D Studio Max or Maya, it's a very rich tool to create 3D spaces and models with.

I remember playing with trueSpace for the first time, many years ago (I think it was version 2 or 3) that I got free with a PCPlus magazine. Since then of course, the tool has matured and expanded quite a lot (quite logical).

And now, the really good news (and the reason I'm blogging about this...): a few days back, Microsoft made trueSpace 7.6 available for free AND it offers connection into Live Search Maps. Using this feature, you can create SUPER high resolution 3D models using trueSpace, then right from the environment upload the model into Live Search Maps as a collection item (source).

 

Here you can find a first tutorial on getting started with trueSpace and Virtual Earth. Enjoy!

 

Exactly 1 year after the release at Mix 07, Microsoft releases Expression Studio 2. The suite of tools for professional designers includes Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Design, Expression Media and Expression Encoder.
It also works seamlessly with Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008, solving the age-old designer and developer workflow challenge.

Here are the most important changes that made it into this release of the Expression Suite:

• Expression Web 2 adds support for PHP and Adobe Photoshop import based on customer feedback.
 
• Expression Blend 2, in addition to Silverlight support, adds vertex animation and an improved user interface with a new split design/XAML view.
 
• Expression Design 2 adds improved exporting functionality including the ability to export slices.
 
• Expression Media 2 is a robust digital asset management solution for photographers and other creative professionals. It adds support for the latest file formats including RAW, provides geotagging functionality, and is supported by Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Office for Mac 2008.
 
• Expression Encoder 2 is now a core offering of the suite. It allows creative and Web professionals to optimize almost any type of video content quickly for publishing on the Web, either in streaming video, rich-media advertising or other Web 2.0 projects.
 

For more info and trials, go to http://www.microsoft.com/expression/.

According to Redmond Developer News, Microsoft is working hard to tune up MSDN. Appearantly, Microsoft has composed a team of people that will do research on how the user experience of the MSDN site can be improved.

"There's great content there. It's very thorough, but from a practical standpoint, it doesn't really meet people's needs," said Brian Hsi, a product manager involved in the effort, who made his pitch at the meeting. "It's kind of static. It's really a library at the end of the day."

He also added that Microsoft is only in the very early stages, so it's not someting we'll be seeing any time soon. It will also be more community-involved, whereas MSDN is now largely a static website (which can't of course be said of sites like CodePlex and Channel9).

Again from RedDevNews:
The biggest criticism of MSDN is the difficulty of finding content spread across the various Microsoft services, including CodePlex, CodeGallery, Channel 9 and the various forums, libraries and blogs. It's a situation that motivated several developers at the meeting to express frustration with the challenge of finding information on MSDN.

We'll keep an eye on this, and hopefully this is an effort in which Microsoft will engage the community also. There might be a lot of valuable input there of the people that use the site a lot. Microsoft...?

The entire article can be found here.

Mix, the popular Microsoft event that took place for the third year in Las Vegas, is getting a "Re-mix" in Belgium: "Mix Essentials - Pure information". Mix is the event on which Silverlight 1.0 was announced last year, and this year, the event was used to introduce Silverlight 2.

The event will have 2 tracks: one more technical, aimed at web-developers, the second one aimed at web designers and business strategists. One of, if not the biggest highlights of the event will of course be the closing keynote, given by Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

Currently, the list of speakers is not yet complete, but can be seen here.

The event is free but registration is required. Location of the event is Louvain-La-Neuve and the event will take place on April 24th 2008.

Microsoft Corp. is offering $44.6 billion in cash and stock for search engine operator Yahoo Inc. in a move to boost its competitive position in the online services market.

The unexpected announcement Friday comes as Microsoft, the world's biggest software company, seeks new ways to compete more effectively against the search and online advertising powerhouse Google Inc.

More here.

After Visual Studio 2008 went RTM last November and Windows Server is expected to this month, SQL Server 2008, the third big products Microsoft is launching this year, is delayed until Q3 2008.

In a blog post on January 25, SQL Server Director of Product Management Francois Ajenstat said that the new date for SQL Server 2008’s RTM is some time in the third quarter of this year.

“Microsoft is excited to deliver a feature complete CTP (Community Technology Preview test release) during the Heroes Happen Here launch wave and a release candidate (RC) in Q2 calendar year 2008, with final Release to manufacturing (RTM) of SQL Server 2008 expected in Q3. Our goal is to deliver the highest quality product possible and we simply want to use the time to meet the high bar that you, our customers, expect. “

 

As you may or may not know by now, in the last few months, I have been busy with the organisation of TechDays 2008 as content owner for the developer track (formerly known as Dev-ItPro days) at Microsoft. So far, it has been a wonderful experience, being in contact with some of the most renowned speakers of the world.

Today, Microsoft sent out the reminder for the early-bird registration, and meanwhile on the site, a partial list of speakers and sessions has been published. I've had great help from Tom Mertens, Arlindo Alves and since the second half of December, Katrien De Graeve. Thanks guys (and girl)!

Looking at the list of announced speakers and sessions, I'm proud to say that we have succeeded and that we are able to present you with a great line-up. Ingo Rammer, Nikhil Kothari, Dave Webster, Chad Hower, Roy Osherove, Alex Turner and more, together with some great Belgian speakers as Bart De Smet, Peter Himschoot, Joris Poelmans, Patrick Tisseghem and more... all agreed on making this the best TechDays ever!

Now, the party is not just the TechDays. The day before, on March 11th, it's the Belgian launchday for Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008. This event, should you not already know, is free to attend for everyone!

Convinced that you HAVE to be on THE .NET event of 2008? Of course you are. Head over to www.heroeshappenhere.be to register.

One thing I really should add: just like we did last year, Visug is organizing their Geek Bowling! I'll open the registrations for that this week. The bowling evening (also in Gent of course) will take place on the 12th!

So, I hope to see you there on March 11, 12 and 13!!

To finish, here's a list of sessions we already announced:

Deep Reflection (Roy Osherove)
In this 400 level session Roy Osherove digs deep into the heart of some of the new features in Reflection 2.0 such as runtime code generation using DynamicMethod (Lightweight Code Generation - LCG), parsing IL at runtime, generics in reflection, debugging runtime generated code, understanding Reflection.Emit, ReflectionOnly Context's for security and using Code gen to improve performance. Put your thinking cap on.

The ABC of building services with WCF (Peter Himschoot)
In today’s highly connected world being able to communicate is very important, especially for your applications. But how? Web Services? Remoting? Enterprise Services? WCF is Microsoft’s unified framework for building communication into your application, ready for the future. In this session we will look at building services with WCF, getting our hands dirty through building a service live, in front of your eyes. After this session you should have a clear understanding of the development life-cycle for WCF, the advantages of using WCF and how to proceed with it yourself.

Architecture and Databinding in WPF (Dave Webster)
Now that we have had some time to get used to XAML and WPF and seen the shiny new UIs we can build, it’s time to get serious about architecture and understand the power of databinding.  In this talk we will discuss advanced topics in databinding, the use of MVC architecture patterns and we will stretch Expression Blend version 2.0 to its limits.

We’ve been hacked!  Web security for developers (Dave Webster)
This is a demo driven session showing the actual hack of a web site.  You will learn how to write your web sites securely, and what your IT department will need from you. Bring your laptop and join in!

Introduction to the new ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC) Framework (Matt Gibbs)
A benefit of the MVC architectural pattern is that it promotes a clean separation between the models, views and controllers within an application. In the near future, ASP.NET will include support for developing web applications using an MVC based architecture.
The ASP.NET MVC Framework is designed to support building applications that exhibit the following traits:
- Testability – Red/Green test driven development.
- Maintainability –clear separation of concerns
- Extensibility – interfaces allowing custom implementation at all levels.
- Web Standards and clean URLs – with routing and giving developers tight control over the resulting HTML.
Join us for a dive into the new MVC Framework and learn how to leverage this new alterative in your own applications.

AJAX Patterns (Nikhil Kothari)
This session takes a deep look at the Ajax paradigm by discussing useful development patterns, common problems and associated solutions. Patterns covered range from development approaches such as unobtrusive script attachment, to fundamentals such as search optimization to user interface and usability patterns such as intuitive navigation and visual notifications. While the demonstrations are illustrated through basic scenarios, like any pattern, the concepts can be applied to your own applications. In the course of demonstrating the patterns, this talk will also cover various aspects of ASP.NET AJAX including the latest features.

Unit testing tips and tricks (Roy Osherove)
In this talk we'll explore techniques for dealing with various unit testing scenarios. From testing events, to testing databases to testing LINQ queries and anonymous types, we'll see many small scenarios and discuss the unit testing patterns that can help test them.

The .NET Language Integrated Query (LINQ) Framework (Alex Turner)
Modern applications operate on data in several different forms: Relational tables, XML documents, and in-memory objects. Each of these domains can have profound differences in semantics, data types, and capabilities, and much of the complexity in today's applications is the result of these mismatches. Alex Turner, C# Compiler Program Manager, explains how Visual Studio 2008 aims to unify the programming models through LINQ capabilities in Microsoft Visual C# and Visual Basic, a strongly typed data access framework, and an innovative Application Programming Interface (API) for manipulating and querying XML.

LINQ Under the Covers: An In-Depth Look at LINQ (Alex Turner)
Want to know what really happens when you execute your favorite LINQ queries? Join us as we peek behind the curtain in Reflector to see how the C# compiler translates LINQ query expressions into standard query operators, while digging into the iterators that make LINQ to Objects tick. Learn exactly when query evaluation is deferred, and see how lambda expressions and closures work together to enable LINQ's elegant syntax. Then we'll explore how nearly identical LINQ to Objects and LINQ to SQL queries will result in radically different translations as we dig into the details of IQueryable and expression trees. Finally, we follow our IQueryable objects across the language barrier to investigate the unique features VB brings to LINQ, including XML literals. It is suggested that you attend the session "The .NET Language Integrated Query (LINQ) Framework" before attending this session.

Creating Custom LINQ Providers – LINQ to Anything (Bart De Smet)
LINQ is all about unifying data access in a natural language integrated way. But there’s more than just LINQ to Objects, LINQ to SQL and LINQ to XML. In this session, we put ourselves on the other side of the curtain and explore the wonderful world of LINQ providers. You’ll learn how to create a fully functional LINQ query provider allowing users to target your favorite query language using familiar LINQ syntax in C# 3.0 and VB 9.0: LINQ to AD, LINQ to SharePoint, LINQ to AD, LINQ to Outlook, you name it! This is your chance to get to know the inner workings of LINQ.

Building internet web sites using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Joris Poelmans)
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides the necessary framework components to build an Internet web sites using master pages, page layouts and WCM specific functionality. In this session we will take an in-depth look at how to use these components and which are the best practices  for developing an internet web site while leveraging the MOSS platform. This session will conclude with a look at the Accessibility Kit for SharePoint as well as at the migration story for MCMS customers.

Building RIAs for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 (Patrick Tisseghem)
In this session you’ll learn how to leverage Web 2.0 technologies to deliver a rich and interactive end-user experience for SharePoint sites and content. Topics that will be covered are: building ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 enabled Web Parts; creating and consuming SharePoint Web Services that are AJAX-enabled; Web Parts hosting Silverlight 1.0 and 2.0 applications; techniques to have the Silverlight applications communicated back and forth with SharePoint content such as items in lists and libraries, user profile information and search results; samples of how publishing portals can be enriched with Silverlight navigation controls and enhanced page layouts; demos on how to build Vista Gadgets that display SharePoint content using traditional UI techniques as well as using Silverlight.

Building Rich Web Experience with Silverlight using Expression Blend and Visual Studio (Wim Verhaegen)
Silverlight is a cross-platform technology that brings new user interface capabilities such as vector graphics, media, animations and XAML to the browser.
Learn about building Silverlight applications using JavaScript, and see how Silverlight fits naturally into the AJAX development model.
This session provides developers the in-depth knowledge they need to start building Silverlight 1.0 applications today using Visual Studio and Microsoft Expression Blend.

IIS7 End-to-End Extensibility for Developers (Brian Delahunty)
In IIS7 the server exposes a brand new, powerful extensibility model for building server features that can be used to extend its functionality, or replace any of the default features.  With the Integrated Pipeline architecture, managed modules become virtually as powerful as native modules. In part I of this two part session, we will illustrate extending the server in an end to end scenario, building a managed module to extend the runtime and replace existing functionality.  We will then extend IIS7 diagnostics to instrument our module with custom trace events.

WCF and WF: Integrating two key technologies of .NET 3.5 (Ingo Rammer)
Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation are two cornerstones of .NET 3.5. In this session, you will learn about different ways to combine them to workflow-enable your WCF applications.

Advanced Debugging with Visual Studio (Ingo Rammer)
Basically every .NET developer knows the Visual Studio debugger, but only few know its little secrets. In this session, Ingo shows you what you can achieve with this tool beyond the setting of simple breakpoints. You will learn how advanced breakpoints, debugger macros and visualizers, interactive breakpoints, tracepoints and interactive object instantiation at development time can support your hunt for bugs in your applications.

Using Visual Studio 2008 as a RAD tool to build a distributed application (Jay Schmelzer)
In this demo intensive session we’ll take a look at improved support in Visual Studio 2008 for building distributed business applications.  We will focus on Visual Studio’s support for building and consuming WCF services, sharing business validation rules between client and server, implementing local caching of read-only data on the client, sharing common application services like authentication and authorization between Windows and Web client applications and much more.  Next we will turn our attention to web and see how Visual Studio 2008 allows us to easily incorporate rich experiences into our existing ASP.NET web sites using ASP.NET AJAX, the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit and take advantage of improved HTML designer, CSS editor and JavaScript intellisense and debugging.  Visual Studio 2005 raised the productivity bar for business application developers.  Visual Studio 2008 builds on that foundation bringing unmatched productivity gains to distributed business application developers.

Visual Studio 2008: Building applications with Office 2007 (Jay Schmelzer)
This session provides an overview of the tools and technologies that enable developers to leverage the new Visual Studio 2008 and Office platform tools and technologies to build new and exciting Office Business Applications. You’ll learn a number of key technologies in this session, including the creation of Office smart clients, development of custom SharePoint workflow, and extension of Outlook to integrate key business data into one of our most popular productivity tools.

Visual Basic: Tips and Tricks for the Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (Jay Schmelzer)
In this session, we combine some tips for existing Visual Studio features, and tricks for leveraging new Visual Studio 2008 features. We look at a variety of existing features including operator overloading, refactoring, creating your own snippets, some tips for using frameworks classes (and generics), and leveraging application settings. Then we look at new features including some LINQ Do’s and Don’ts, My Extensibility, and taking control of unit testing in Visual Studio. All of these tips are aimed at giving you a more productive, fun programming experience.

Office: Office Open XML Formats (Chad Hower)
Office 2007 now stores its documents in XML. This makes manipulation and creation of documents easy to do, even without Office installed. The Office Open XML format is also an ECMA standard and has backwards compatibility with older versions of Office as well as some capabilities on Linux and Macintosh, as well as Java. Surprised? Learn about these features and more in this session.

Architecture: Dude, where's my business logic? (Chad Hower)
Over the years we have moved from desktop, to client server, to 3-tier, to n-tier, to service orientation. In the process though many things have changed, but many habits have remained. This session discusses what we are doing wrong, and solutions.

.NET 3.0: WinForms and WPF (Chad Hower)
With two options for building forms, which is better to use? For the near future the answer often is both. In this session we will cover the strengths and weaknesses of each, and how to use them effectively together.

Microsoft is in their funny days. It was Monday when we got the "Last day of Bill Gates" video, today, we get "The Lone Server".

The video depicts Windows 2003 as being abandoned because of Windows 2008 coming on the scene.

And Windows ME? He's washing dishes in the back...

Yes, you HAVE to see this video, it is hilarious!

 

Video: The Lone Server

Oh yeah, before I forget, "call me when you upgrade"...

While CES is in full swing in Las Vegas, Bill Gates gave his last keynote there. You can see his entire keynote by clicking here.

However, there's a very funny piece in there, namely Bill Gates' last day at Microsoft and I found it on SoapBox.

Video: Bill Gates Last Day CES Clip

Bink.nu released their annual list of products that are expected according to them in 2008. The list is probably not 100% complete as new things will of course be announced during the course of the year, or might get delayed.

Here's the list:

Windows 

"Windows Server 2008 Standard" Edition (x64, with Hyper-V)
"Windows Server 2008 Enterprise" Edition (x64, with Hyper-V)
"Windows Server 2008 Datacenter" Edition (x64, with Hyper-V)
"Windows Web Server 2008" Edition (x86 and x64)
"Windows Storage Server 2008" Standard Edition (x86 and x64)
"Windows Storage Server 2008" Express Edition (x86 and x64)
"Windows Unfified Data Storage Server 2008" Edition (x86 and x64)
"Windows Small Business Server 2008" (Codenamed "Cougar") (x64) for small businesses
"Windows Essential Business Server 2008" (Codenamed "Centro") (x86-64) for medium-sized businesses [17]
"Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems" (IA-64) (same features as Datacenter Edition)
"Windows Server 2008 Standard without Hyper-V" Edition (x86 and x64)
"Windows Server 2008 Enterprise without Hyper-V" Edition (x86 and x64)
"Windows Server 2008 Datacenter without Hyper-V" Edition (x64)
"Windows HPC Server 2008" (High Performance Computing, previously Compute Cluster Server)
 Most editions support "core" installations

Windows 2008 Hyper-V stand alone SKU

"Windows Home Server R2" (based on 2008? Dont think so)

Windows Server 2008 R2/Update Release (beta)

"Windows mobile 6.1" Q1 2008
"Windows mobile 6.1 Professional" q1 2008
"Windows mobile 7" RTM Q4 2008 (First phones in 2009, just 1 edition!)
"Windows CE" 7 ?
"Windows Mobile for Automotive" 6.0? -> "Microsoft Auto" 2.0?

Windows Vista Service Pack 1
Windows Vista for Embedded Systems
Windows Vista Media Center Update (Fiji) I expect at least a beta
Windows Vista Ultimate Extra's ....
Windows Steady State 2.5

Windows XP Service Pack 3

Windows 7 Beta (Codename Vienna)
MinWin beta (Windows 7 kernel based mini OS)

Internet Explorer 8! (Beta 1st half 2008)

Servers 

SQL Server 2008 standard Edition
SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition
SQL Server 2008 Express Edition
SQL Server 2008 Workgroup Edition
SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition
SQL Server 2008 Compact Edition?

ISA Server 2008 standard Edition x64
ISA Server 2008 Enterprise Edition x64

Biztalk Server 2008 Enterprise Edition
Biztalk Server 2008 Standard Edition
Biztalk Server 2008 Branch Edition
Biztalk Server 2008 Developer Edition

Search Server 2008 (standard Edition)
Search Server 2008 Express Edition

WSUS 3.0 SP1

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 beta, maybe but expect the regular roll-up packs

Finaly a new Microsoft Identity and Integration Server?

Host Integration Server 2008 ?

Commerce Server 2007 R2 ?

Forefront
Intelligent Application Gateway 2007 R2?
Microsoft Forefront codename “Stirling” Beta
ForeFront for Exchange "14" Beta
ForeFront for SharePoint "14" Beta
Security Management Console
Security for Office Communicator
Office Communicator Web

System Center

Service Manager 2008 (beta, RTM Q1 2009)
Mobile Device Manager 2008
Capacity Planner 2007 with sharepoint 2007 support
Application Virtualization 4.5 (softgrid)
Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance
Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset 6.0 (DaRT)
Operations Manager 2007 SP1 (Q1)
Operations Manager 2007 R2 (beta)
Configuration Manager SP1 (H2)
Configuration Manager 2007 R2
Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2
Identity LifeCycle Manager
System Center Essentials v2



System Center Online Services

"Microsoft Deployment" Solution Accelorator update for WS08 RTM

Office

Office 14 Beta ?
Office Live Workspace launch

Dynamics

CRM 4.0 general availability (it just RTM'd)
Point of Sale 2.0 sp1

Consumer

Encarta 2009
Money 2009
Streets and Trips 2009

Hardware

Probably new mice
Zune firmware 2.x
Zune Phone?

Xbox

HD Video for Europe
IPTV Service

Windows Live

Windows Live Messenger 9.0 
Windows Live SkyDrive
Windows Lice Calendar
Web Windows Live Messenger

Visual FoxPro
Visual FoxPro version 9 service pack 2 is last that was released for this product (oct 2007), no Foxpro 10, version 9 is end of life in 2015

Visual Studio

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 ?
Silverlight 2.0
Tafiti
PopFly

Expression

Expression Blend 2

MAC

Office 2008
Messenger

Other Stuff

Media Room
Tellme

This is a first for me: I'm blogging live from the MSDN Belux evening in Utopolis Mechelen on Visual Studio 2008 Team System and ALM (Application Lifecycle Management). This session is presented by Yves Goeleven of Compuware.

I've been working with Team System for almost 2 years now, but I must confess that I had not spent any time with the new 2008 version. So before this session started, I hope Yves will show me something new. I'll be covering the things I'm learning here.

• Annotation: In Visual Studio 2008 Team System, you can now annotate changes you make in code with some comment.
• Comparing folders: you can now perform comparisons between folders in the source control to see differences between 2 versions of folders.
• Code coverage: included in VSTS2008 is now code coverage. By using color coding, you can see where code that's not covered by your unit tests is located
• Code metrics: can show you the complexity of your code to show where refactoring should be done
• Performance wizard: the new performance explorer and wizard can help you inspect where bad performing code is to be found
• "Enable get latest on check-out": this feature was a  SourceSafe feature that wasn't available in 2005. But because of the fact that a lot of people really missed it, it was added again

For the developer part of VSTS, all these new things will help you improving your code quality and thus support ALM.

Now, we're on to the part for Database Developers. I don't think that I'll profit a lot of this part, since I'm not really a DBA far from it actually. Again here the integration with version control is handy to see changes made to database scripts (whereas otherwise these changes would have been lost because they would be made on standard files). Yves also shows a unit test specifically for database code.
Also integrated is the database comparison. This will inspect the 2 schema's and show the differences. Not only can you compare schema, you can also compare the data between 2 tables. If there are differences, you can see the records that are not equal. One last handy thing is data generation tool that will generate sample data in a database from your choice.

In the final demo, we are shown the tester edition. Yves shows the load testing features included in Visual Studio TS with the embedded performance monitoring.

In the final part, we are going to see the new build automation and continuous integration, which are like the flagship features. A nice addition to Team System is the possibility to schedule builds. You can now specify when a build should be done.

On top of that, you can now queue manually started builds instead of risking an overload on the build agent. You can also set the build process so that every check-in triggers a build: this is the new continuous integration in VSTS 2008. This ensure that at every point, the code that is in the central store is of reasonable quality. No longer do we need all kinds of external tools and plugins in Visual Studio to get continuous integration, it's reduced to checking a checkbox.

Probably tomorrow I'll be doing some coverage of the Architect Forum day in Elewijt, Belgium.

Earlier this month, Microsoft posted the first "blueprint" of a series that will help developers more easily build Software plus Services (S+S) applications. The project was released as a project on CodePlex, the open-source community from Microsoft.

This first blueprint is intended for developing S+S applications with Outlook 2007. Microsoft plans to offer blueprints for other office business applications, e-commerce, media/community and mobility.

The Outlook + Services Blueprint download -- available as a single file or two files -- includes the S+S framework, source code, Outlook Plus Services add-in library, workflow and other guidance. The blueprint is designed to help developers expose data and integrate services into Outlook 2007. It requires Outlook 2007, SQL Server Express 2005 and Visual Studio 2005.

Within the S+S framework, developers open up an Outlook + Services Visual Studio project and learn how to extend the e-mail app based on the guidance provided in Overview, Workflow and Detail tabs (a step-by-step walk-through). Microsoft expects to distribute a "more sophisticated" developer example, dubbed "My eBay," which features eBay Web services, a custom ribbon interface and HTML from an eBay page, in short order.

Source: reddevnews.

TechNet Belgium have just lauched Chopsticks, the new platform for on-demand webcasts. With this new platform, you'll be sitting in the front row to view all kinds of (deep) technical content on every aspect of the IT Pro world.

The player, created entirely in Silverlight, allows for embedding in your own blog, like the sample I have included below, which is the Tech-Ed 2007 Opening Keynote .

I'm proud to say I helped a bit during the development, though most of the credit should go to the Microsoft team and especially Wim Verhaeghen! Congrats to the entire team!

If you want to view the other videos, here's the link: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/technet/nl/chopsticks . Much more video's are in the pipeline, so you better check back regularly!

One of my favorite tools of SysInternals is ProcessExplorer. It's a nice replacement for Task Manager in Windows XP/2003/Vista, as it shows much more detailed info on the running processes.

It even allows you to check which processes are hosted by which svchost process, and that in turn can help you determine what process it using more memory than allowed (handy when trying to find memory leaks in your programs).

Version 11 was released earlier this week, bundled with even more features and a crisper looking UI. You can get it, as always for free, here.

We all know that piracy and illegal use of software is a risk for the further development of quality software. Microsoft started a new campaign to make the public aware of the dangers that lure when downloading pirated software from the internet.
Lots of these site try to install malware on the PC's, which can lead to numerous other problems.

The campaign consists of several short (and nicely) created clips, which can be seen here. 

This is just an hilarious video on MS Paint. Just watch it, you'll see!

The Windows Mobile Device Center enables you to set up new partnerships, synchronize content and manage music, pictures and video with Windows Mobile powered devices (Windows Mobile 2003 or later). The Windows Mobile Device Center combines an efficient business-data synchronization platform with a compelling user experience. The Windows Mobile Device Center helps you to quickly set up new partnerships, synchronize business-critical information such as e-mail, contacts and calendar appointments, easily manage your synchronization settings, and transfer business documents between your device and PC. 
 
 This new version of the Windows Mobile Device Center contains key improvements and new features to support Windows Mobile 6 devices. The Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 is only supported on Windows Vista.  
 
Go here for the download!

On 6th June, Microsoft Belgium organises an event on Ajax security.

Event outline:
AJAX is changing the way Web applications look and how they are developed, but Web developers are not aware of the security risks they are introducing into their applications with these emerging technologies. While most developers are aware of the importance of designing and testing for security in their applications, few of them are aware of the unique security implications of AJAX technologies. AJAX fundamentally changes the user experience and server interactions in Web applications, so developers may be taking otherwise secure applications and opening up new angles of attack for hackers by hastily adopting these new approaches without understanding their vulnerabilities.

 

This talk will discuss and demonstrate the security pitfalls common in ASP.NET AJAX development and is based on experiences while analyzing real world ASP.NET AJAX applications.

 

Speaker: Erwin Geirnaert, ZION Security (http://www.zionsecurity.com/)

 

Level: 300 (advanced)

 

Prerequisites: knowledge about ASP.NET development and ASP.NET AJAX concepts

Register here.

Introduced way back in 2005, the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar is not in beta anymore. A final version for Windows XP, 2003 and Vista is available!
For those of you who don't know what this plug-in is, it's a handy tool that let's you explore everything on a webpage: see table borders, change size of the browser window, explore the DOM...
In short, it has become an unmissable tool for developing ASP.net webapplications.

The most important features are the following:

• Explore and modify the document object model (DOM) of a Web page.
• Locate and select specific elements on a Web page through a variety of techniques.
• Selectively disable Internet Explorer settings.
• View HTML object class names, ID's, and details such as link paths, tab index values, and access keys.
• Outline tables, table cells, images, or selected tags.
• Validate HTML, CSS, WAI, and RSS web feed links.
• Display image dimensions, file sizes, path information, and alternate (ALT) text.
• Immediately resize the browser window to a new resolution.
• Selectively clear the browser cache and saved cookies. Choose from all objects or those associated with a given domain.
• Display a fully featured design ruler to help accurately align and measure objects on your pages.
• Find the style rules used to set specific style values on an element.
• View the formatted and syntax colored source of HTML and CSS

You can download the tool here.

Appearantly, there is going no big surprise in the naming game for Windows Longhorn. Like its predecessor, it's likely to become a simple name, as simple as Windows Server 2008. Microsoft will probably make this name official next week at WinHEC in Los Angeles.

It was actually Microsoft who slipped the name early on the Technet site.

Microsoft's official response on the new name: "Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation."

Microsoft Corp. and SanDisk® Corp. today announced they have signed an agreement to deliver a next-generation software and hardware solution to place application programs and personal customization on USB flash drives and flash memory cards, expanding on and replacing SanDisk’s existing U3™ Smart Technology.

Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will develop a new software experience and SanDisk will develop new hardware capabilities, including the addition of TrustedFlash™ security technology. SanDisk will incorporate the combined software and hardware solution on removable flash memory cards and Cruzer® USB flash drives. The new offering is expected to be commercially available starting in the second half of 2008.

Effective immediately, Microsoft will engage in discussions with third-party hardware vendors interested in licensing the new software offering. A new entity will be created to license compatible hardware designs, TrustedFlash and other intellectual property from both Microsoft and SanDisk, with revenues to be shared by the two companies.

“SanDisk and U3 forged the category of smart USB devices, elevating simple flash storage to a whole new level of customer benefit,” said Will Poole, corporate vice president of the Market Expansion Group at Microsoft. “We are excited to work with SanDisk on this next-generation experience, which will allow hardware manufacturers to better differentiate their products and provide an even richer software and services experience for customers.”

“The U3 platform was established with the vision of giving customers a consistent and portable computing experience. The existing 20,000 U3 software developers that joined us show the potential for smart flash memory devices,” said Yoram Cedar, executive vice president of the Mobile Business Unit and Corporate Engineering at SanDisk. “We expect this relationship with Microsoft will raise the overall experience for consumers given Microsoft’s unique software expertise, and grow the momentum given the large community of third-party companies capable of utilizing Microsoft’s technologies.”

Yesterday, at the Microsoft DevDays 2007 in Gent, Belgium, I talked with Jeff Prosise on the future of WPF/E. He was not able to give away much details of the platform, since a lot will be announced at the Mix 07 convention in Las Vegas next month.
What he did say, was that Microsoft will almost certainly announce a new name for the platform!

Why don't we help Microsoft a little?! Have a good idea on the name of this possible Flash killer? Post them here, and maybe somebody at Microsoft will pick it up...

I just got home of DevDays 2007 (and now already I'm typing a report...), and man, it was a fun ride! If you weren't there, you did miss out on  great sessions and great fun (and great little pies... still don't know what was in them, but they tasted great). In my DevDays report, I want to highlight some of my personal 'fav-moments', some nice little tools I learned about and show some of my pics I took (maybe you're on them somewhere...).

(I wasn't at the pre-conference, so no report on March 27th...)

 

Day 1
6.00 am. Very early... Must get up to avoid traffic jams.
7.30 am. Breakfast at ICC Gent, avoided all traffic jams (jeej).

The day began like usual with an opening keynote, given this year by David Chappell. He went over what he thought would be the most important Microsoft-related innovations for 2007. These included the .net 3.0 framework, Forefront, Security Center and Longhorn Server.
 
After that, I went to the Blend demo, given by Carrie Longson. She showed some XAML effects created easily using Expression Blend. After that, she showed some impressive applications created with WPF. One of these was an application created by Microsoft UK for the Londen Underground (the tube). It was able to give an overview of the trains, where they were, all rendered in real time. It was even possible to rotate the viewport, completely in 3D. The application, while very impressive, took only 3 weeks to create with WPF.

Jeff Prosise is the speaker I saw the most sessions of (you'll find him again later in this article). The first one on Asynchronous ASP.net was impressive. He showed how to (and how not to) program threaded ASP.net. Doing this correctly can create a vast scalability for your web application. I hope to find some time to blog on some of his thoughts on this subject (hold your breath).

Up next was the first of 2 sessions of Raj Pai. This first one on Linq (.net Language Intergrated Query framework) explained in depth the possibilities of this extension of C# that will be included in C# 3.0. While the syntax on some moments still feels weird (it's odd to see Select and From in your C# code sometimes, even if you've been playing with it for some time), the session was very clear.

Like I said, Jeff Prosise would come back in this article. The next session I attended, Optimizing and Extending ASP.net Ajax, was very helpful for me. I've doing quite a lot of Ajax in the last months, but 1 thing I didn't use a lot yet, is the Ajax Client Script Library (the javascript). This library is not documented very well at this moment, so it's sometimes hard to figure out what you can do with it, and even harder how to do it. Luckily, this session cleared some clouds in my brain, so I think I'm on my way with it now!

The last session of the day, Hardcore debugging of .net applications given by "Mr Type Fast" Ingo Rammer was easily the one where I learned the most. I didn't know what to expect from it, but the demo's of this session literally blew me away.
He started by showing how to use WinDbg (WinDebug). While this is not a .net debugger, it can be used (loading in some DLLs) to debug running (production) .net applications. I actually never knew this was possible. This program is not the most user friendly, but it can be a real time saver. It does however use a lot of commands, and so I hope this session will certainly be included with the DVD.
He went on showing some other interesting tools. ADPlus is another tool (command line) that can be used to create a memory dump on any PC, that can afterwards be analyzed using WinDbg. Using these 2 can give you insight on why an application crashes or hangs.
The last shown tool was HawkEye. The free version can be used to inspect any .net forms application: you can see all properties of any control (name, color...) on a forms application.

After that, Visug, the Belgian Visug Studio User Group (of which I'm the webmaster), organised a bowling in Gent. We started playing at 9 pm, but due to a blackout in a large part of Gent, we were forced to stop playing around 10 pm.

1 am: in bed

       

Day 2

6.00 am... you know the story...

The day started with the second session of Raj Pai, that closely intergrated with the session of day 1. In this session, he explained the new features of C# 3.0 (of which I'll be blogging in the coming weeks): extension methods, automatic properties, how LINQ works internally...

I was lucky enough to be able to attend 2 "sidemeetings" with 2 speakers, namely Raj Pai and Jeff Prosise.
At 11am, I met in person with Raj on the top floor, and together with some collegues of Ordina, we got to ask him questions on LINQ and C# 3.0 .
He explained in detail what went on behind the scenes when you run a LINQ statement. Seeing this more or less eased me! On my question on how you could debug a LINQ statement, he advised me to break the statement into pieces, and add a ToList() to each part. That way, you can easily see what each part of the statement actually returns.

Another question we asked was the following: how do you see LINQ in a DAL? Sadly, on this topic, they're actually still working themselves, and he promised that some white papers will be available soon.

I also asked his vision on the "over-use" of extension methods in C# 3.0. Using these methods, you can for example write your own System.String.In() method. Personally, I think this will make code review very hard. Raj agreed with me, and said there will be some patterns and practices available later on when to use these methods.

Due to this private session, I was unable to attend the session given by my collegue Kurt Claeys. I did hear nothing but positive comments afterwards, so Kurt: congrats!

The next session I attended was again one given by Jeff Prosise, this time on WPF/E.
This session was closely followed by my second private session, this time with Jeff. During this session, we talked on the future of the 3 web technologies Microsoft is currently using/developing: ASP.net 2.0, WPF/E and ASP.net Ajax. He thinks that all these will intergrate more in the future, certainly WPF/E and ASP.net Ajax.

He said that what we have seen so far of WPF/E is only a fraction of what it will really become. He believes that on some aspects, the final version will be better that it's competitor, Adobe Flash. He seemed very excited on some features that will be announced at Mix '07, including the final name. This session was not only fun, it gave a great insight in what web technology is evolving too.

In the last session of the day, Ingo Rammer explained some more of on profiling .net applications using CLR profiler and SQL profiler.

After this session, I went home, tired, but happy!
Great job guys!

The Ordina booth
My company Ordina was Platinum Sponsor of this event, and so we had a very large booth. On the following pics, you can see more of this.

 

All my DevDays 2007 pics can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gillcleeren/sets/72157600035030532/

What I brought home...
Het Computerwinkeltje, Belgium's largest computer book store, was also here, and they organised some book signing sessions. I just bought the new book on Powershell, Manning's Windows Powershell In Action , writte by Bruce Payette. I got my copy signed!

I also brought home the new book from Apress on LINQ.

Although the time gap between XP and Vista’s release dates was more than five years, Microsoft is claiming it will be different this time around. At the RSA Conference in San Francisco, representatives said the software giant is planning for the next client operating system by the end of 2009. Vista shipped about two-and-a-half years after XP SP2, and Vista's follow-up is expected to take about the same amount of time, according to Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of development with Microsoft's Windows Core Operating System Division: "You can think roughly two, two-and-a-half years is a reasonable time frame that our partners can depend on and can work with. That's a good timeframe for refresh.”

Last year, Microsoft code named Vista’s successor as Vienna, but Fathi said he could not disclose the current name or what would be the major improvements in the release. "We've been told not to use it publicly. We're going to look at a fundamental piece of enabling technology. Maybe its hypervisors, I don't know what it is. Maybe it's a new user interface paradigm for consumers. It's too early for me to talk about it. But over the next few months I think you're going to start hearing more and more."

More here

Snowball.be has a first for you!

As webmaster of Visug.be, I just finished the work on the the registration page for this groundbreaking event: Scott Guthrie is coming to Belgium, and moreover, he's coming to Visug, the Belgian Visual Studio User Group.

Scott Guthrie, co-creator of ASP.NET at Microsoft, will be in Belgium for the first time onFebruary 1st 2007. VISUG is very proud that it can host - in collaboration with MSDN Belux - 2 presentations of this renowned speaker. In the first presentation, Scott will talk about the next version of ASP.NET, code named ASP.NET “Orcas”; during the second presentation Scott will give practical tips and tricks on ASP.NET 2.0 and ASP.NET AJAX. Want to join this unique oppurtunity? Register here!

Update: location is confirmed: Utopolis Mechelen!

Microsoft is definitely going to talk — at long last — about its plans for Windows Home Server (code-named Quattro) at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, according to my sources.

But what will this product be? That's still murky. Will it be based on the Windows Server core? Or be some kind of Windows-Vista-based system? Or more of a package of Vista Ultimate plus some Media Center Extenders, plus a router? Will the Windows Home Server systems be AMD-based? Intel-based?

I've heard from a couple of folks that, contrary to initial belief, Windows Home Server will be a Vista-based system, not a Windows Server-based one.

When Microsoft Server and Tools chief Bob Muglia let it slip in an online chat back in June 2005 that Microsoft was contemplating a "home-server" SKU, he made it seem that it would be Windows-Server-based. Muglia also told chat participants more than a year ago:

"We are always looking for new opportunities where server technology can be leveraged, and the home definitely represents an exciting new area that we are looking at along with many others. Much of the great storage, replication, and management technology would be great in a home," Muglia said. "We have seen many people install Small Business Servers at home, which really works quite well."

Months before Muglia mentioned Microsoft's mullings, blogger Rick "One Man Shouting" Hallihan outlined his suggested feature set for a Windows Home Server product. Such a product "would be a scaled back and customized version of Windows Small Business Server, running on specialized hardware, and it would simplify home networking to the point where everyone could enjoy the benefits of modern network management," Hallihan blogged, back in January, 2005.

Source

It's official! The consumer release of Windows Vista and Office 2007 will be celebrated in New York on January 29 at a launch event the software giant has dubbed "The WOW starts now." The invitation to "The "WOW starts now" event includes a note signed by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, in which he says that, "on January 29th, Microsoft will celebrate the launch of two amazing products that represent the culmination of a tremendous team effort."

Attendees will be treated to a celebratory lunch at Manhattan's famous Cipriani restaurant, followed by the actual launch event at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square later in the day.

Gates goes on to say that millions of people--Microsoft employees, developers, customers, bloggers, families, media, the entire industry--"have come together like never before and added their own individual imprints to help make Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office system the most tested products in Microsoft history."

If you're somewhat a computer freak, you must have heard about Systernals. This site, created by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell  way back in 1996, provided many sometimes unmissable tools.
This year, Microsoft acquired Systernals, but all these valuable tools remain available. They're now downloadable from the Microsoft website here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx 

After only being available for 3 days, over 4 million copies of IE7 where downloaded. In the next few weeks, the new browser will be available via Windows Automatic Update. This will of course push up the number of installed IE7s.

MS also launched a big campaign to promote the new browser that includes radio spots and bill boards.

 

The IE7 team congratulated the Mozilla team with the release of FireFox 2 with a nice cake...

Wonder if they sent one back...

My article on WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) triggers and styles is online on the MSDN website! You can read it here!

From MSDN:
In this article, Gill Cleeren focuses on the aspect of styles and triggers in Windows Presenation Foundation. Styles make it possible to create applications with a uniform look and with a high level of maintainability. Triggers allow WPF styles to change one or more properties in response of a user interaction. In this document, we will use both these technologies to create a richer user experience.

This is my first article on MSDN (more will come, now that I'm into it )

Here's a screenshot of the MSDN Belux site (Click for larger version)



Thanks to the MSDN Belux team, Wim Verhaegen and Tom Mertens.

Funny video for the launch of IE7 Go here.

For the full download of IE7 itself, go here.

Microsoft will release the final build of IE7 today to customers, with the company expected to push the build by automatic updates on 1st November.

At the moment there is no link on Microsoft.com, but Yahoo has the final build bundled with Yahoo Mail. All you need to do is download the Yahoo edition and use WinRAR to extract the files and run IE7-Setup.exe

Download here.

Some time ago, I marked today as the release date of the beta of Virtual PC 2007 beta. MS kept its word, and released the first beta via Connect.

You can get it here.

According to a new Vista-related press release on Microsoft's site, Windows Media Player 11 will be released to the public on October 24th.

"Windows Media Player 11 will be available via free download beginning Oct. 24 and will enable users to take advantage of an elegant and intuitive user interface, a new level of online store integration, especially with MTV’s URGE service, and improved navigation for larger music libraries."

Another post over on the MSDN blogs, states that Microsoft is targeting October 18th as the release date for Internet Explorer 7. Looks as though Microsoft is planning to release IE7 automatically on November 1st:

"The final release of Internet Explorer 7 is targeted for release October 18th …and will be delivered to customers via Automatic Updates starting November 1st, a few weeks after it’s available for download. Are your Web sites, extensions, and applications ready? Microsoft recommends that Web sites and applications be reviewed and made ready for the release of Internet Explorer 7 this month."

Today, MS announced the first beta of the developer kit of the .net Micro Framework.

Microsoft Corp. today released a beta developer kit for the Microsoft^® .NET Micro Framework, a new development platform for use with devices that are typically constrained by cost, memory, processor and/or power consumption. Announced at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston, the .NET Micro Framework broad beta extends the advantages of .NET and the Visual Studio^® toolset into a class of the smallest of devices.

“The .NET Micro Framework is a natural extension of Microsoft’s embedded offerings and provides a compelling, easy-to-use solution for developers,” said Colin Miller, director of the .NET Micro Framework at Microsoft. “We have utilized this platform with several projects at Microsoft and are excited to provide this kit to developers so they can use Microsoft tools to extend their skills to a set of smaller devices.”

More can be found in the press release.

Bruno Segers, general manager of Microsoft Belgium & Luxemburg, has quit his job at Microsoft.

Today, on his blog, he wrote a letter to Nellie Kroes, in which he attacks her concerning the 'Windows XP N'/Vista E editions MS was obliged to create.

I couldn't agree more with his statements... The European union really proves that they don't know anything about software and what people want. All the court cases against MS were pure a case of money... a lot of money. Started by companies with inferior products, that only saw a way of surviving using (or should that be MISusing) the justice system.

The complete article can be read here.

Wonder who is going to succeed him... Where can we apply (joking...)

Early feedback from testers already using Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is that the OS is more stable than expected, which bodes well for Microsoft's plan to have Vista out according to its current schedule.

Microsoft has said since March it will release Windows Vista to business customers in November, and consumers in January 2007. Though many have suspected the release will slip further, testers now say there's a good chance the company will meet its goal if the condition of RC1 is any indication.

"Overall I think Vista is looking very good at this point....I think all the worries of Vista slipping went out the window," said Brandon LeBlanc, a writer for LonghornBlogs, via e-mail on Tuesday.

LeBlanc said that Microsoft has made performance and stabilization tweaks that testers requested after Beta 2, and the latest test version of the OS -- which could be the final one before Vista is released to manufacturing -- is solid enough for regular use. LonghornBlogs can be found here.

"RC1 is quite usable for everyday work, as I am currently doing myself," he said.

Full story

Is today "Release Day" or something? So many new releases...

Let's begin with IronPython, which reached status 1.0:

IronPython 1.0 has been released to the .NET community and is available on CodePlex.  IronPython is an implementation of the Python dynamic programming language.  IronPython is built on top of the .NET Framework and is interoperable with other .NET languages.  Binaries, source code, and tutorials are available at CodePlex.

Click here to download IronPython at CodePlex.

Another release is Expression Web Beta 1:

We are pleased to present the Beta 1 release of Expression Web (formerly Expression Web Designer).

Expression Web is a professional design tool that helps you create and work with:

• Standards-based Web sites
• Sophisticated CSS-based layouts
• Extensive CSS formatting and management
• Rich data presentation
• Powerful ASP.NET 2.0-based technology

To download, go here.

Still going strong Next is WCF, which reached RC1 also.

The release candidate 1 for the .NET Framework 3.0 is now available!  You can download the components for the RC1 here:

• .NET Framework 3.0 Runtime Components RC1
• Windows SDK for Vista RC1 and the .NET Framework 3.0 RC1
• Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation (WF RC5)

More info on RC1.


The Interactive Designer got updated, and now the September CTP is available:
Microsoft® Expression® Interactive Designer September 2006 Community Technology Preview (CTP) is a professional design tool used to create engaging, rich user interfaces for desktop and Web applications.

To download, go here.

To finish, this one isn't actually released as of yet, but it's an interesting project being researched at MS:

Microsoft researchers are experimenting with an automatic code zapper for the company's Internet Explorer Web browser.

Researchers at the Redmond, Wash., company have completed work on a prototype framework called BrowserShield that promises to allow IE to intercept and remove, on the fly, malicious code hidden on Web pages, instead showing users safe equivalents of those pages.

The BrowserShield project—the brainchild of Helen Wang, a project leader in Microsoft Research's Systems & Networking Research Group, and an outgrowth of the company's Shield initiative to block network worms—could one day even become Microsoft's answer to zero-day browser exploits such as the WMF (Windows Metafile) attack that spread like wildfire in December 2005.
More here.

That's all folks

Will Vista cause the web to slow down? Experts disagree whether or not the new operating system will cause the internet traffic to slow down (or come to a complete halt) or not.

Paul Mockapetris, one of the inventors of the DNS system, says it will cause problems. He believes that due to the fact that Vista uses 2 versions of the Internet Protocol, a lot of extra load will be put on the servers.

If you adopt Vista, your DNS traffic is going to double," Mockapetris said . With many DNS servers already running close to capacity, this can have serious consequences, he said. "You're going to see brownouts. All of a sudden, it is going to be mud season on the Internet, where things will just be kind of slow and gooey."

Let's hope he is wrong

Yes folks, it's finally here!! RC1 of the upcoming Windows Vista!

MS just opened the doors to CPP (Customer Preview Program), so everybody can starting to enjoy vista now already.

Microsoft notes on the website: Windows Vista RC1 is available for participants of the Windows Vista Customer Preview Program. Please go to the Customer Preview Program website to register and receive a Product Key, which is required to install and activate the software.

Here are the linkzzz: (I provide you the direct links to the ISO's so you don't have to use the download manager MS suggests)

32 bit: download iso - 2,584.25 MB (Expires June 1st 2007)
64 bit: download iso - 3,677.22 MB (Expires June 1st 2007) (Lots bigger that 32 bit )
Get yer keys here (note that if you have a beta 2 key, that is also works!)
Download page

My experience so far with RC1: I installed it on Saturday in a Virtual PC environment. At first, I had not installed Virtual Machine Additions Beta 2... Oh my, that was a real disaster! After installing them in the Vista VPC, it worked like a dream! Fast and pretty reliable...
Some negative points too... it's not ready, you can see that easily. Annoying things like "the-first-file-is-not-selected-when-I-open-a-folder-in-Explorer" still can't make you enjoy the OS completely. But I'm sure they will pull this off (I'm not sure if they will in 6 weeks, however, but we'll see that...).

Should you also want to install Vista RC1 in a VPC, do install the VMaddtions for Vista Beta 2! You can download the here.

CA's eTrust software wrongly identified Windows' in-built security as malware, and a fix has been made available.

Some Windows 2003 users have been experiencing problems with the operating system recently after antivirus software from CA wrongly detected part of the operating system as malware.

At the heart of the problem is part of Windows' in-built security, a file called Lsass.exe. This was wrongly detected as a virus by CA's eTrust software and was deleted, causing some servers to crash and fail to reboot.

More here.

MS released XNA Game Studio Express (Beta), the first beta for this tool that can help every individual to become a game programmer.

From the site:
XNA Game Studio Express enables individuals and small teams to more easily create video games using new, optimized cross-platform gaming libraries for Windows and Xbox 360. This beta release targets the development of games for Windows. The final version of XNA Game Studio Express will be available this holiday season and will enable development of games which target Windows and upon purchase of a XNA Creators Club subscription, the Xbox 360 as well.

While we’re very proud of this Beta milestone, it does not represent all of the great features we are enabling in XNA Game Studio Express which will be available in final release form by this holiday. Some of the key feature areas that were not able to make it into this beta include:
- The XNA Framework Content Pipeline feature is not present in this release of XNA Game Studio Express (Beta). It will be made available in a future beta release of XNA Game Studio Express
- Support for retail Xbox 360 game development. This feature will be made available upon final release of XNA Game Studio Express later this holiday
- Additional starter kits and tutorials will be made available upon final release of XNA Game Studio Express

It's a free download of 91MB. You can find it here

About time someone said it!
Some companies don't seem to be getting that the world has changed, and that the internet is an everyday-thing, just like a telephone. Over at my company, everybody has full access to the internet, email, IM... I'm certainly not suggesting that one should make abuse of their internet access at the workfloor. But what is more relaxing than reading something on the web while drinking your coffee in the morning... Or eating at the PC, while looking up something.

Companies who don't seem to be getting this, will face serious issues in the time to come. You might think, are there still companies like this? Yes! More than you would think!! Most of these can be found in old, traditional sectors, where time has been standing still. People who work there have not evolved either, and easily follow the old rules that the company issues. Most of the time, these companies are governed by very conservative people. People that don't think out of the box. A race that will extinct, since young people will not be willing to work for them. And that's just good.
It's their opinion still that internet is loss of time. Well, think twice. If people are feeling locked in, they'll be less productive, resulting in higher costs for the company. And in the future, it'll result in these firms not finding any dynamic employees, resulting in even more problems... Down the drain indeed.

I have had this opinion for quite some time, and now Microsoft has expressed that same opinion, as can be read here:

Jobseekers will think twice about employers who lock down work internet access, a senior Microsoft executive said today.“These kids are saying: forget it! I don’t want to work with you. I don’t want to work at a place where I can’t be freely online during the day,” said Anne Kirah, Microsoft Senior Design Anthropologist.
“People that I meet are saying this to me every day, all over the world.”Kirah made the comments during the keynote at the opening of Microsoft’s annual developer love-in, Tech.Ed, in Sydney. “Companies all over the world are saying, oh, you can’t be on the internet while you’re at work. You can’t be on instant messaging at work…” she said. “These are digital immigrant ideas.”

Kirah defines ‘digital immigrants’ as people who were not born into the digital lifestyle and view it as a distraction rather than an integral part of life. The younger generation of workers have been using computers and mobile phones since birth and she calls them ‘digital natives’. Kirah cited a Norwegian psychologist who claimed that young people were now so reliant on digital communication that “taking a mobile phone away from a teenage girl is the same as child abuse.”

“Digital communication is part of people’s lives now. Their friends online are the people they identify with.”

The rest of this very interesting article can be read here.

Just came across a post that marks the completion of the book: Windows Developer Power Tools: Turbocharge Windows Development with More.

From Amazon:
There is a wealth of open and free software available today for Windows developers who want to extend the development environment, reduce development effort and increase productivity. Windows Developer Power Tools is an encyclopedic guide to more than 100 free and open source tools available to programmers who build applications for Windows desktops and servers, including web applications and services. With its unique task-oriented organization, this book will help you find the tools you need to solve common (and uncommon) problems. Each tool in the book includes a capsule summary -- a mini user's guide -- to help readers get up to speed quickly. Also, plenty of links point you to additional detail online if you wish to delve more deeply into features and functionality. This one-stop resource covers a wide range of open source and freeware tools to help you answer questions around planning, developing, testing, and rolling out great software.

Here you can find the list of tools described in the book.

This seems like a book well worth buying if you're a Windows developer like me. Publish date is November 1st in the US, so expect it here about 2 weeks later!

Collegue-blogger PJ Van De Sande made an "interesting" article on his blog concerning the MSDN automatic correction function...

It appears that searching for WM_SETPOSITION is not known by MSDN search, however, it does suggest a new "spelling"... as can be seen in the image below.


Made me laugh on this rainy day here in Belgium

Try it yourself! (while it lasts that is. )

Yep, you read it right! Despite many websites and bloggers calling, dare I say, begging for beta 3, Vista is now moving to the RC1 branch. Microsoft did not change their roadmap, so beta2 will effectively be followed by RC1.

Last Friday, MS made a new branch for the RC1 milestone, known as "vista_rc1" (not very original :-p ), and began with build 5504.16385.vista_rc1.
Rumor has it that by the end of August, RC1 should be upon us, and another CTP can be expected between now and RC1.

Some new icons are also moved into this build, as well as a new weather gadget.

As previously announced here, on September 25th, Microsoft is organizing an event on .net 3.0 in Kinepolis Brussels. David Boschmans announced the complete agenda on his site today.
Today, the line-up and sessions are announced. A new item is that we, the visitors, can now vote which sessions we want to see.

So, everybody, go vote AND PLEASE don't vote for the introductions!!

Vote here.
General information on the event can be found here.

OK, all you Visual Studio 2005 gurus out there!
I was just creating a new class in VS 2005, while calling to my girlfriend over the phone...
My screen looked like this:

Because I was on the phone, I was staring a little at the screen... a bit amazed by the number of items that are available in this version.
Suddenly, my eye fell on something... Look at this screen...



See something "special"? No?

Maybe this will help...



"An empty class definiton"... not a definition, but a definiton.

Nothing worldshocking, but funny anyway... considering that millions of people see this window every day, and it actually got through beta-testing. Nobody's perfect . 

MSDN Event: .NET Framework 3.0 Development

Learn about .NET Framework 3.0, the upcoming managed-code programming model which builds on and extends the .NET Framework.

The new version of the Framework offers you both practical solutions to today's software challenges and new opportunities to create software and services not possible now.

It enables you, as a developer or designer, to quickly create new applications and experiences that are more reliable and secure, visually stunning, smarter about information management, better connected, and more collaborative.

Hurry up, it's free training on the next-generation!! Subscribe here

Fooled you right?!

Vista might not be in store this year, but at the Redmond campus, Vista sodacans are in the refridgerators already!
At Microsoft, the employees can drink their soda's for free. The new Vista-cans, which contain sparkling water with a lemon lime twist appearantly, are stacked between the other cans. The can, as can be seen in the picture below, promotes some internal site on Vista.

For the record, Vista itself will not come in a lemon lime edition

OK, by now everybody knows about the Microsoft demo on speech recognition that went wrong last week. I didn't blog on this earlier, if you want, you can see the video on other sites...

However, I do not want to write on this happening, but I do want to write on what actually happened. This is not another article like many others out there to bash on Microsoft!

Rob Chambers, who works at the speech recognition department at Microsoft, said that audio problems caused the demo to go wrong.
When you look closely in the video, you can see that the microphone "volume" is set very high, it goes in the red when he speaks. This is caused by the fact that the audio sub-system wasn't respecting the audio gain settings it was supposed too.
It was a known bug, and is already solved in private builds made by the audio team internally.

Of course, why did it still go wrong? Why couldn't that be avoided?
According to Chambers, they practiced before... they practiced a lot and the speaker and the setup team had taken great care to avoid any problems. Even just before they started the demo, everything still worked fine.
Thing is that the bug is intermittent: it happens sometimes, but not always. Blame it on Murphy, it happened of course when it shouldn't have.

More demo's are planned, and the team behind WSR is assured that by then, they can really show how amazing WSR really is!

Don't know if this is interesting, but hey, what the heck... Not much news these days anyhow, so one has to keep busy

This download from Microsoft is a very large Excel, with translations in over 40 languages, of some (actually, a lot...) terms related to technology. Could come in handy, isn't it?

Thank you, gill... Well, no thank you?? Pfuh... (Sorry, the heat is getting to me I guess)

Seen the new Microsoft.com site already? The preview, that is!! Here it is: http://preview.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx .

The new site design is much better than the current one. The gradient profiles have been traded in for one clean transition from blue to light blue, and I can't speak highly enough about the new menu system. The new site isn't as busy as Microsoft.com either, but that is sure to change over time.  What do you think of the *new* Microsoft.com beta site?

Yes! MS is offering the complete version of Virtual PC 2004 for free (even no Windows Validation check is needed!). You can get it here.

And if that ain't enough good news for today, MS also announced the 2007 version of Virtual PC, that will, yes siree... be also free!

(Thanks to Gabriel of www.pointerx.net for pointing this one out)

WPF not only stands for new fantastic tools for layout. There are also some very interesting new ways to implement databinding in your applications.
In this article, I’m going to show how you can easily build an RSS reader using the new databinding features in WPF.

How databinding works in WPF
In order not to go too fast, first, let me explain some basic concepts of databinding in WPF.

To keep data used in UI in sync with data in the datasource (for example a database), we can of course use properties. There is nothing wrong if you keep doing this under WPF.
However, WPF provides very handy binding features, that will make your life a lot easier!

We could bind the value of a textbox with the following code:
<TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Age}">
</TextBox>
Databinding under WPF uses a Binding object. The above code declares a textbox in XAML, and assigns the text-property the value of a property named Age of an object that it is bound to. This is done using the Path property. The Path property refers to the property of the object we are binding too.

To know to which object we are binding, we have the DataContext property. In WPF, every FrameworkElement and also every FrameworkContentElement has a DataContext property. It is of type object, so we can bind to whatever we like.
The binding does however have some interesting behaviour: if no DataContext is specified on the object itself (like with our textbox), it goes up the tree in which the controls are nested. So if we add our textbox in a Grid, it will look if this Grid has a DataContext. If not, it goes up higher…
This is of course very useful if we have more than one object (say 5 textboxes) binding to the same object.

Let me show you how to declare an object to which we’ll bind in XAML code (this uses the new syntax, so to run this, you have to upgrade to beta 2 or higher!)

<Window x:Class="Snowball.Window2"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Snowball"
    Title="Snowball" Height="300" Width="300"
    >
  <Window.Resources>
    <local:Person x:Key="Gill" Name="Gill Cleeren" Age="27"/>
  </Window.Resources>
    <Grid DataContext="{StaticResource Gill}">
      
      <TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Name}">
      </TextBox>
    </Grid>
</Window>

And in the code-behind:
namespace Snowball
{
    public class Person
    {
        private string name;

        public string Name
        {
            get { return name; }
            set { name = value; }
        }
        private string age;

        public string Age
        {
            get { return age; }
            set { age = value; }
        }

        public Person()
        { }
    }
}

What I have done here, is creating a Person object in XAML. For this to work, you have to provide a default constructor.
First, we have to wire the CLR namespace to be known in XAML: xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Snowball".
Now, we can use the tag “local” to refer to the namespace in which the Person class resides.
Using the following line, we instantiate a Person using XAML:
<local:Person x:Key="Gill" Name="Gill Cleeren" Age="27"/>

The result is a textbox showing my name:

Note that if you try this in Visual Studio at the time of writing, you get an error viewing the design view. Don’t worry, when running, it all works fine.

Binding XML data to a list
Most of the time, we bind data to a list: a dropdown, a grid… In this part, I’m going to bind an RSS feed from my website www.snowball.be to a list.
To do this, we’ll need an XmlDataProvider.

Data can be accessed by using a Provider. Currently, 2 providers exist: the XmlDataProvider and the ObjectDataProvider.
An XmlDataProvider object must be declared within the resources, for example the resources of the grid:

<Grid.Resources>
        <XmlDataProvider x:Key="SnowballRSS" Source="http://www.snowball.be/SyndicationService.asmx/GetRss" />
</Grid.Resources>

The x:Key assigns a name, which we can use in our code-behind.

We can now use this object as a datasource for a listbox, like this:

<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource SnowballRSS}, XPath=//rss//channel//item }">
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>

We provide a value for the ItemSource, being an instance of Binding. For this Binding instance, we provide the Source property. Since we’re dealing with a resource that is defined in the XAML itself, we again use StaticResource and as value, the name of the dataprovider. A second attribute is the XPath expression, to locate the value we want to show in the listbox.

This is the result:

What happens, is that the entire XML tag is being read into a listitem. This is not desired, so we have to provide some kind of formatting, to tell WPF exactly what we want to show in the items.
This can be accomplished using a datatemplate.

We provide an instance of DataTemplate to be used as value for the ItemTemplate property of the listbox. In this datatemplate, we can specify what to show as listitem.
In the following code, I’m telling to make each listitem consist of a TextBlock. The text to be shown is taken from the surrounding Listbox (remember searching for the data up in the controltree?). In the data it finds, which is an XML tag with subnodes, we can to take the title as the value for the item.

<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
   <DataTemplate>
      <TextBlock Text="{Binding XPath=title}"></TextBlock>
   </DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>

When we now run this, we get the following:

Much better, isn’t it?!

In the next part, we’re going to make the application a little bit more complete, providing a click event for the listbox, and making sure that some fields are filled in, again using databinding.

Adding the detailsform
We’ll now change the program somewhat to make it display the details of the item selected in the listbox.

We’ll add a Grid to make it easy to display 3 rows and 2 columns with textblocks, labels and textboxes.
This can be done with the following code:

<Grid>
   <Grid.RowDefinitions>
      <RowDefinition Height="30"></RowDefinition>
      <RowDefinition Height="30"></RowDefinition>
      <RowDefinition Height="*"></RowDefinition>
   </Grid.RowDefinitions>
   <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
      <ColumnDefinition Width="0.2*"></ColumnDefinition>
      <ColumnDefinition Width="0.8*"></ColumnDefinition>
   </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
   <TextBlock Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0">Title</TextBlock>
   <Label Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1"></Label>
   <TextBlock Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0">Link:</TextBlock>
   <Label Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" ></Label>
   <TextBlock Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="0">Article</TextBlock>
   <TextBox Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="1"></TextBox>
</Grid>

After adding the Grid, we’ll also have to change the rest of the markup a little. Take a look at the sample code provided with this article to see the rest of the layout.

We now want the detail-fields display more info on the selected item in the Listbox.  Therefore, the Grid containing these fields should have its DataContext set to the item selected in the list. We do this with the following code:

<Grid DataContext="{Binding ElementName=RSSList, Path=SelectedItem}" >

The element is the name of the listbox, the path is once again the property within the source to which we’ll be binding the grid (and thus the detail fields).

Now, every time we select an item in the listbox, the grid has its datacontext set to this selected item. The fields can now get details as follows:

…
<Label Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1" Content="{Binding XPath=title}"></Label>
…
<Label Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" Content="{Binding XPath=link}">
            </Label>
…
<TextBox Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding XPath=description}"></TextBox>

The result should resemble the following:

Congratulations, you built your first databound application, using WPF databinding and a simple datatemplate!

In my next (large) article, we’ll be looking at the styling tools provided by WPF to make this application look TONS better!

RSS Reader.zip (45.32 KB)

Microsoft is the featured article of the day over at the English Wikipedia.

Microsoft is an international computer technology corporation with 2005 global sales of US$42.64 billion and more than 63,000 employees in 102 countries and regions that develop, manufacture, license, and support a wide range of software products for computing devices. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its most popular products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software, each of which has achieved near ubiquity in the desktop computer market. Microsoft possesses footholds in other markets, with assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets both computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse, as well as home entertainment products such as the Xbox, the Xbox 360, and MSN TV. (More...)

For the full article, head over to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page