JrzyShr Dev Guy - Found: Windows Azure Document Treasure Trove!

"Often when I talk to developers, they tell me they can never find anything on Microsoft’s websites. “It’s too big” or “it’s too complicated.” “Stuff gets buried”. And on and on, and so forth…

Having been here a while, I can testify to the truth of that. Luckily, the advent of search engines like Google & Bing make this a little less of an issue (if you know what you’re looking for).

But, it would be nice to have an easy to navigate guide to the Microsoft Universe handy. With over 90K employees, a gazillion products, and product websites, keep dreaming! It’s just not going to happen.

Although, in December, the new WindowsAzure.com website took a pretty good stab at the problem. The new site re-organized all of the Azure documentation into one place that makes it easier to navigate and surface various content. This includes the new Developer Centers I wrote about recently. Kudos to the Azure team on that!

But, as good as the site overhaul is, there is still good stuff that gets buried. Every now and then, you find a gem via Google or Bing and then the next thing you know, you’re hot on the trail of good information like Fred and Velma connecting all the dots at the end of a Scooby Doo episode! You bookmark the gem, and then look for similar content from the author or the location it is published.

...

Zoinks Scoob!!! Real World Azure Guidance?! That sounds cool. I thought, “What else is around here?” and navigated up a level. That tipped me off to a whole treasure trove of ‘top secret’ Windows Azure documents. Really impressive stuff in there, like:

As I navigated through each of these topic areas, I felt like Julian Assange stumbling upon something I wasn’t meant to see, and now it’s my job to tell the world about it! Except, I think I was meant to see it?

You see, there’s nothing “secret” about these documents at all! They’re all publicly available documents buried within the bowels of MSDN. Not sure why they’ve been hidden away like top secret sensitive information, but hopefully this post can shine a little light on them!

..."

Real World Windows Azure Guidance

"Updated: December 9, 2011

Welcome to Real World Windows Azure Guidance.

In this section, find valuable and interesting articles based on the real world experience of Microsoft customers developing applications for Windows Azure. These articles are written by members of the community, who have developed subject matter expertise working with Windows Azure.

..."

Another place to look for Azure information if you're wondering about it and the "real world" (i.e. beyond demo-ware)

Public Sector Developer Weblog

• FAQ: Microsoft Open Government + Open Data (Part I)
• FAQ: Microsoft Open Government + Open Data (Part II)
• FAQ: Microsoft Open Government + Open Data (Part III)

FAQ: Microsoft Open Government + Open Data (Part I)

1. What is Open Government?
2. What Countries Have Open Government Initiatives?
3. Is Open Government the Same as Gov 2.0?
4. What is Open Data?
5. Does Open Government or Open Data Require Open Source?
6. What Can Open Data Be Used For?
7. Does Open Data Contain Personal or Private Information?
8. Why Have So Many Cities Launched Open Data Initiatives?
9. What Cities Have Launched Open Data Catalogs?
10. What Terms of Use are Required for Open Data?

FAQ: Microsoft Open Government + Open Data (Part II)

1. What Licensing is Required for Open Government Projects?
2. What Applications Have Been Developed Using Open Data?
3. Why Do Governments Hold Competitions for Open Data Projects?
4. How Does the Cloud Benefit Open Data Projects?
5. What Tools Does Microsoft Provide to Help Start an Open Data Project?
6. Where Can I Find More Information on Microsoft’s Open Government Data Initiative (OGDI)?
7. Are there any OGDI Projects in French language?
8. What Open Data Projects Have Been Developed Using Microsoft Technologies?
9. Are any National Governments Using Microsoft Technologies for their Open Data Portals?
10. Are There Any Microsoft Open Data Applications Available for iPhone?

FAQ: Microsoft Open Government + Open Data (Part III)

1. Are There Any Open Data Applications Available for Windows Phone 7?
2. Do Open Government or Open Data Technology Projects Require Open Source Software (OSS)?
3. What Costs/Resources Does a Typical Startup Open Data Catalog Require?
4. What Alternative Technologies Exist in the Open Data Arena?
5. Can Microsoft and Alternative Solutions be Combined?
6. What Tools and Frameworks Are Available to Enable Development of Customized Solutions?
7. Are there Any Partner Solutions for Open Government and Open Data Projects?
8. What Are the Partner Opportunities for Open Government and Open Data Projects?

I like the idea of "open government data" giving us a chance to get at some raw government data to turn it into information. The hard part is that there's so much data and in so many different places that it's not easy to mash it all up. But initiatives like this look to help make that just a bit easier...

 

Here's some other links you might find interesting

• Open Government Data Initiative, http://ogdisdk.cloudapp.net
• OGDI Source Code, http://ogdi.codeplex.com

Infragistics  - Infragistics Undo/Redo Framework CTP

"Did you know we CTP'd a new Undo/Redo framework with our last release? Well, we did!

And we'd love to get feedback from you--do you think it's useful? How would you use it? How would you change it? That sort of thing.

Here's a quick rundown of the key features:

• Undo/Redo History Stacks –...
• Built-In UndoUnits – ...
• Delegate UndoUnit – ...
• ObservableCollectionWithUndo – ...
• Transactions – ...
• Custom UndoUnits – ...
• Commands – ...

..."

I dig seeing ISV's providing something new, something also that keeps me from having to built it myself, when they look beyond their now space...

Fire and Ice: David Pallmann's Web and Cloud Blog - Taking a Fresh Look at the Windows Azure Development Experience

Windows Azure has grown up over the years since it first debuted in late 2008. In this article we're going to take an updated look at what the cloud developer experience is with Windows Azure today. Here's what we'll cover, which will include a walk-through of developing a cloud application:

• Key Online Resources
• What You Need for Cloud Development
• The Cloud Development Lifecycle
• Application Development Walk-through

...

Well, there you have it. The Windows Azure development experience has come a long way since its debut a few years back and it is constantly being improved. I encourage you to get the 90-day Windows Azure Free Trial and take it for a spin!

..."

Looks like allot of content doesn't it? Well, funny that because it IS allot of content, about 19 pages worth! Now that's a blog post!

If you've yet to jump on the Azure bandwagon, not knowing where to start, start with this article...

3D Buzz - Some awesome pavement art

Woondu - Amazing 3D Street Art Paintings

"Most famous artists are Julian Beever, Edgar Müller and Manfred Stader, men who are famous for their art on the pavement of England , France , Germany , USA , Australia, Argentina and Belgium they give to drawings an amazing 3D illusion. Using a projection called anamorphosis to create the illusion of three dimensions when viewed from the correct angle, these artists create some of the finest 3D pavement illusions. Remember, paintings in reality are flat on the pavement

...

..."

In a word... Wow.

People with this kind of skill and vision just amaze me.

During my Software Craftsmanship Precompiler session, I heard one of the students say, “all you need is an IEnumerable to use a foreach loop”. This sparked a bit of fun when I asked Steve Smith, my co-presenter, if that was correct. He confirmed that it was, and I disagreed. Being the scientists that we are, we decided to try it and see what happened. I of course knew that duck typing in C# should allow the Foreach loop to compile without anything having the method required by the IEnumerable interface. This means that we just need a GetEnumerator method.

We wrote the code that did this and it compiled!

Duck typing is awesome, because it allows the language to treat my type the way I want it to because it has the right tools to do the job. The term duck typing comes from the idea that if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

In the foreach loop example, duck typing assumes that what you have here is able to be enumerated, because it has a method to get the enumerator. If we look at the IEnumerable interface, we can see that this is what we are required to implement.

public class MyCollection : IEnumerable
{
    public IEnumerator GetEnumerator()
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

Now that we have our collection written and implementing IEnumerable, we can write a foreach loop that uses our collection.

var myCollection = new MyCollection();
foreach (var thing in myCollection)
{
    // Do something with the thing
}

Finally, because of the duck typing in C#, we can remove the interface from the code, but keep the method.

public class MyCollection
{
    public IEnumerator GetEnumerator()
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

It still compiles!

One of the many cool things about C# that I love. It’s a fun language, so go experimenting!

Quick Tip – JavaScript Namespaces

Namespaces (or named scopes) are widely used in many programming languages. Namespaces help to group a set of identifiers into a logical group. An identifier can be a named class, named interface or any other language element that is contained inside the namespace. Since the same identifier can be used in more than one namespace but with a different meaning, using namespaces can help reduce name collisions.

Creating a JavaScript Namespace

JavaScript doesn’t include namespaces. On the other hand, JavaScript includes function scopes which means that every function which is created in the JavaScript global scope holds its own scope. With this information in mind, we can mimic namespace scope by creating a function scope. Doing so will help to reduce the number of objects associated with the global scope and help to avoid collisions between identifiers created for an application when using external libraries for example. Here is an example of creating a JavaScript namespace using a function scope:

var ns = ns || {};

The code uses a simple check whether the namespace was declared previously. If the namespace was declared the left side of the statement is evaluated and the ns variable will include the previously defined namespace. If the namespace wasn’t declared previously a new object literal (which is another way to create a function in JavaScript) will be created and be set to the ns variable.

Using a JavaScript Namespace

In the previous example a namespace was declared. In order to use the namespace you will use its name and create objects/functions inside of it. Here is an example of setting a simple object inside of the previously created namespace:

ns.Game = function (id, name, description) {

    this.id = id;

    this.name = name;

    this.description = description;

};

Now if you want to use the Game object you will create it using its namespace and it name. Here is an example for that:

var game = new ns.Game(1, 'Kinectimals', 'Raise your own cub inside this popular Kinect game');

Summary

Namespaces in JavaScript can help to organize your code into more logical groups/modules. One aspect of using this method is the reducing of objects inside the JavaScript global scope.

CodeProject

Wow! What a turnout for my first webinar! Thank you all for attending, I had a great time presenting it, and will continue to do more webinars in the future. The webinar was recorded, and the video is now online for your viewing:

As promised, here are the answers to the great questions you asked, which I didn’t have the chance to answer during the live webinar. As always, you can always ask your questions on our Support Forums.

Q: Any reason the [aspect] class must be Serializable?

A: At (post) compilation, the aspect is serialized using binary serialization, and added as a resource to the target process. Then at runtime, the aspect is deserialized. PostSharp will emit a compilation error if you forget to mark your aspect as Serializable.

Q: What is the typical use case for creating interfaces using PostSharp?

A: One typical scenario for implementing interfaces with PostSharp is implementing INotifyPropertyChanged in WPF to support Data Binding.

Q: Are the OnExit and OnEnter aspects thread safe? How would one make it thread safe if it is not?

A: While the aspects themselves are thread-safe, shared state (i.e. custom fields) within the aspects is not. To safely pass data around between OnEnter and OnExit events, you can use the MethodExecutionArgs.MethodExecutionTag property.

Q: What about signed DLLs and PostSharp?

A: PostSharp has no problems with signed DLLs – they will be re-signed after the post-compilation process.

Q: What about Silverlight DLL's, is it also available?

A: Of course, PostSharp comes with the Silverlight assemblies included, you need to add a reference to the PostSharp.SL.dll instead of PostSharp.dll. For more information, please refer to the online documentation.

Q: Can you provide a good definition of aspect oriented programming?

A: Aspect Oriented Programming complements traditional OOP by allowing us to encapsulate infrastructure code (such as logging, security, validation, etc.) into small modules called aspects, and then apply those aspects throughout the entire system in such way that the business logic is completely separated from those concerns.

So go ahead, download the free starter edition now!

Happy PostSharping!

-Igal

In this article you will see how to get the field links from the content type in SharePoint 2010 using ECMAScript.

In this article you will see how to get and set the list item value in SharePoint 2010 using ECMAScript.

In this article I would like to demonstrate use of the Interpreter pattern.

In this article we will explore the Composite Design Pattern. It provides a better approach in addressing communication with an individual and a group of objects.

In this article you will learn about the major improvements in workflows made by SharePoint Designer 2010.

A while ago the blog start taking 100% CPU on the client machines. Obviously we were doing something very wrong there, but what exactly was it?

We track down the problem to the following code, can you figure out what the problem?

In about 2 weeks now, I’ll have the chance to be part of the French TechDays in Paris as a speaker. This year, I’ll own a session called “Windows Phone performance analysis & optimisation” with my colleague Charlotte.

The agenda looks like the following:

• why performance analysis ?
• device vs emulator
• leveraging WP7 threads
• using the VS profiler for WP7
• tips and tricks

During the session we will use a “real” app we’re working on for a few months now (I’ll share more details after the session). We have some cool tips that haven’t been shared anywhere before, so if performance is a topic of interest for you, stat tuned !

Click on the following image for a link to the TechDays website:

I’m planning to share the most of the content of this session on my blog soon after the event.

Don’t hesitate to stop by and say hi…

In this article we will see how to access a WCF service and use it in our ASP.Net MVC application.

In this article you will see how to get the major and minor version of the file in SharePoint 2010 using ECMAScript.

The user interface of SharePoint Designer 2010 has been completely redesigned to “put the ‘SharePoint’ in SharePoint Designer.”

This article demonstrate how to use Styles in WPF.

When installing SQL Server 2008 R2 on a Windows XP development machine that has been around for quite some time, I got an error stating an unhandled exception occured in the application (see image). The error showed up directly upon startup and read:

An error occurred creating the configuration section handler for userSettings/Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.LandingPage.Properties.Settings: Could not load file or assembly 'System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies.

Repairing the .NET 4.0 framework didn't solve the issue. Neither did removing all SQL stuff through 'Add or Remove Programs'. Looking into the error a bit further...

 The system cannot find the file specified. (C:\Documents and Settings\_USERNAME_\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft_Corporation\LandingPage.exe_StrongName_ryspccglaxmt4nhllj5z3thycltsvyyx\10.0.0.0\user.config line 5) ---> System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

 So the problem probably wasn't that System.dll couldn't be found, but some user.config file for the landingpage executable. The solution is as simple as it is radical: remove the entire (temporary) folder 'C:\Documents and Settings\_USERNAME_\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft_Corporation' (where USERNAME_ is, of course, the current username). After this the setup should start up without any problems.