Microsoft Web Expression

Microsoft Web Expressions is a free IDE for building sophisticated dot net front end sites in 2.0 framework

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=44FA7F93-7D57-4523-B0C9-2CE54397B732&mg_id=10053&displaylang=en

The tool can be downloaded from the above link.

More more more code samples :)

I remember the pepsi ad, "Yeh Dil Maange more!!" meaning, "this heart demands more" in Hindi (National language of India).

Similarly more code samples from .Net Framework 3.0

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=22B58B6C-8F98-40D0-880D-C3339C5DA01E&displaylang=en&mg_id=10049

Overview
The Windows SDK samples for .NET Framework 3.0 include samples for .NET Framework 2.0, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, and Cross Technology samples. These samples can be downloaded from here or are available when the Windows SDK is installed locally.

101 code samples for VS Dot net IDE 2005

One great thing about being and working in microsoft technologies is all that pampering you get via code samples, the videos, the code samples, if not there are usergroups and forums.

There is no need to break our heads for doing anything as some other person has already done something for you.

In that list, here is a list of 101 code samples for VS Dot net IDE 2005
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718334.aspx

Base Class Libraries - Group 1 Samples
The Base Class Library Group 1 samples show how to use the classes in the namespaces System.Net, System.RegEx, System.Transaction, System.Console and more. Samples include:

• Changing ACL (Access Control Lists) on files
• Console Enhancements including buffer control, simple animations and colors
• Downloading files using FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
• Network Programming including PING, UDP, and TCP network statistics
• Using the new Stopwatch class to measure time
• Compressing and decompressing files in the GZip format
• Retrieving Drive Information
• Using Generic Collections
• Creating Regular Expressions to parse text
  

Base Class Libraries - Group 2 Samples
The Base Class Library Group 2 samples show how to use the new classes and methods in the namespaces System.Net.Cache, System.Runtime.InteropServices, System.Net.Sockets.Socket and more. Samples include:

• Building a tracing infrastructure to track errors and application performance
• Controlling cache policies with the new System.Net.Cache namespace
• Creating a process viewer
• Creating a Windows service manager
• Using the data protection API
• Encrypting and decrypting data
• Using platform invoke to access legacy or unmanaged code from within managed code
• Building in support for localization
• Using the NGEN utility
• Using the new SecureString class
• Using new socket class methods
• Using serial ports with the new Port class
• Working with the file system
• Working with threads to manage multiple tasks simultaneously
• Building a simple web server with HTTPListener

Web Development Samples
The Web Development samples show how to use some of the new features of ASP.NET 2.0.

Windows Forms Samples
The Windows Forms samples show how to use some of the new functionality available to developers building desktop applications.

Visual Studio Tools for Office Samples
The Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) samples show how to add functionality to Office applications like Word, Excel, InfoPath, and Outlook using the .NET framework and C# or Visual Basic.

Tablet PC Samples
The Tablet PC samples show how to create ink-enabled applications that utilize the power handwritten input with Tablet and Ultra Mobile Personal Computers.

.NET Compact Framework Samples
The .NET Compact Framework samples show how to use the new functionality found in Windows Mobile 5.0.

Sharepoint & MOSS 2007 Books

I found lot of useful books some FREE pdf & some by popular publications.

Here is a list, (will try to update it periodically keep checking my blog).

FREE STUFF:

1) Microsoft PDF - 7 Development projects with sharepoint
This one is free but you can only view it, you cannot print it.

Right click and save target as to save to your hard disk,

http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/f/02f0f661-88e1-43c2-b523-88d2e9e6802f/7%20Development%20Projects%20with%20the%202007%20Microsoft%20Office%20System%20and%20Windows%20SharePoint%20Services%202007.pdf


Publications:

2) Microsoft SharePoint 2007 For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) (Paperback)
by Vanessa L. Williams

Hey dont laugh by looking at for dummies, they do have some great information.



Click here to Buy


3) Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Administrator's Companion (Pro Resource Kit) (Paperback)
by Bill English, Microsoft Sharepoint Community Experts



Click here to buy

4) Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Development Unleashed (Paperback)
by Kevin Hoffman, Robert Foster



Click here to buy


BOOKS from Microsoft Press (wait for few more months to release) Still in the press :)

5) Inside Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services Version 3
Author Ted Pattison; Daniel Larson
Pages 560
Disk 1 null
Level Int/Adv
Published 04/04/2007
ISBN 0-7356-2320-1



Click here to see details (still in Press)

6)Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services Version 3.0 Inside Out
Author Jim Buyens
Pages 800
Disk 1 Companion CD(s)
Level Int/Adv
Published 03/14/2007
ISBN 0-7356-2323-6



Click here to see details (still in Press will be out by Feb 28 2007)

7) The great step by step book
Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services Version 3.0 Step by Step
Author Olga M. Londer, Todd Bleeker, Penelope Coventry and Bill English
Pages 368
Disk 1 Companion CD(s)
Level Beg/Int
Published 02/28/2007
ISBN 0-7356-2363-5



Still in press (will be released by Feb 28 2007)

Sharepoint Developer Videos

One great thing about microsoft is the amount of resources they spend on developing videos to learn their stuff.

There is a chinese proverb which says a picture can express thousand words, like that all these "How to........" series videos and lots of other how to code how to use sharepoint videos helps the developers.

There are more developer videos which a developer can download and see and learn, they are found at,

1) Videos on KPI, Web Parts,
Microsoft Office System Developers Conference 2006
Download this series of developer-oriented videos to view conference breakout sessions about building smart client and browser-based BI solutions leveraging a wide array of extensible capabilities, including key performance indicators, PivotTables, Web parts, and spreadsheet-based Web services.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=621566FD-A3D8-4628-A2CB-538CC173509F&displaylang=en


2) Videos on How to serieshttp://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=AAFBC288-9F1E-4398-AE06-617CEFEC5823&displaylang=en

3) Videos on Collaboration Tools:
Microsoft Office System Developers Conference 2006
Download this series of developer-oriented videos to view conference breakout sessions about how developers can use the 2007 Microsoft Office system to create powerful collaboration tools.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=029706C1-F20E-4BD1-99BB-78810E16F3D8&displaylang=en

4) Videos on Enterprise Content ManagementMicrosoft Office System Developers Conference 2006
Download this series of developer-oriented videos to view conference breakout sessions about the new, extensible content management
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=562B9B75-55B7-4F5D-AFE4-1F78C8B7FC6D&displaylang=en

5) Videos on Portal Customization
Microsoft Office System Developers Conference 2006
Download this series of developer-oriented videos to view conference breakout sessions about customizing search capabilities, building custom portal interfaces, providing personalized views, and aggregating connections to line-of-business data.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5EC4193A-8061-4FD8-8CA4-574540049FE9&displaylang=en

6) Videos on Business Intelligence

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=AAFBC288-9F1E-4398-AE06-617CEFEC5823&displaylang=en

Blog of Eric Legault - sharepoint / outlook MVP

Eric is an outlook MVP and also is a specialist using Sharepoint 2007 collaborative workspaces and meeting workspaces.

His MVP profile - http://aspnet2.com/mvp.ashx?EricLegault
His personal website - http://www.collaborativeinnovations.ca/
His Sharepoint blog - http://blogs.officezealot.com/legault/

Dot Net 3.0 Officially released today

Dot Net Framework 3.0 was official released Nov 7 2006 today.

http://www.netfx3.com/blogs/news_and_announcements/archive/2006/11/06/.NET-Framework-3.0-has-been-released_2100_.aspx

Lots of webcasts

The VSTS has lots of webcasts, register for the ones in the future and you can watch the already recorded sessions.

http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdnvsts2005.mspx

MSDN Webcast: Unit Testing with Visual Studio Team System (Level 200)
Monday, November 13, 2006
1:00 P.M.–2:00 P.M. Pacific Time

Join us as we examine some of the advanced unit-testing capabilities in Visual Studio Team System such as data binding, host adapters, and integration with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server./>

MSDN Webcast: Overview of Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers (Level 200)
Friday, December 1, 2006

11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time


Learn about the major feature sets of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers and how they integrate into the development life cycle.

These guys have a webcast every day, check out their interactive calendar

http://www.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/calendar/monthview.aspx

SOA >> EXPOSE / COMPOSE / CONSUME

Service Oriented Architecture , Web 2.0 are the latest buzz words in the industry today.

There is an excellent PPT on Thom Robbins blog which explains the same and relates it to the Dot Net Framework.

Expose: Make use of Dot net framework code webservices or make use of Biz talk to expose services.

Compose: Use Share point server 2007 & Biz talk server 2006 & MS Office Visio 2007 to compose the services.

Consume: Use Share point server 2007 / MS office / Office performance point server to consume the webservices.

I was recently playing with share point and was amazed to see that the infopath forms collect the data and the desitnation can be an outlook folder or an email.

Please download the SOA ppt from this link,

http://www.thomscontent.com/posts/soa/realworldsoa.zip

Also look at the future roadmap for Microsoft.

Info Path 2007 - cool features and video

Infopath helps a developer to easily build forms applications within minutes and collect all the information and either link it to an outlook folder or in to Excel services or to xml destination. Infopath forms also work easily to integrate in to share point server.

The Infopath team blog is http://blogs.msdn.com/infopath/

There is an excellent video about Eric Richards and the info path team from microsoft.

Some cool features:
1) Infopath forms can be filled on the web, no need to have info path clients installed
2) Infopath forms work even on Firefox (not just IE)
3) Infopath forms can work offline, that is your form data is available offline you can save and fill your forms offline and submit it when you connect to internet,
4) You can fill forms in outlook
5) Round trips to database is avoided, client fills form and once data is consolidated is saved to server.
6) Totally based on xml and xpath
7) Infopath design tools are now available inside VS2005 IDE and you can drag and drop and code

Blog of Eric Richards - http://www.ericri.com/et/blog/

Video URL:
Scobleizer the channel 9 Video guy, meets the infopath development team in microsoft and shows the preview features in this 30 minute cool video.
mms://wm.microsoft.com/ms/msnse/0510/25766/new_infopath_team_2005_MBR.wmv

Few good share point links

Share point university - a website which has lots of links to learn about share point
http://www.sharepointu.com/

105 features of share point - a blog link which links to another site
http://markharrison.co.uk/blog/2006/02/sharepoint-show-105-features-in.htm

Online live test lab to learn share point
http://www.gbg.runaware.com/microsoft/en-us/office2007/td/launch?lbredir=1

Components of WF

So what exactly is WF, what are its components?

WF: Stands for Windows Workflow Foundation.

• It is the foundation or framework for allowing all microsoft products and applications to talk / communicate with each other for establishing workflows and rules.

Features of WF:

• It provides us with a graphical representation of business processes. (So now we can show it in a way that even non-technical business users can understand or modify the workflow),
• It allows easy tracking of work flow, it basically removes the overhead involved in tracking the work flow process.
• It provides flexibility for people to skip or override steps. (example - If person A is absent delegate document approval to person B)

What are Workflows:

• Work flows are a set of activities,
• Work flows run within a host process or any application or a server,
• Developers can build their own custom activity libraries.

Components of a Workflow Foundation:

• Base Activity Library (25 such activities are provided out of the shelf in 3.0)
• Runtime Engine
• Runtime Services
• Visual Designer

What is special about WF?

Ok you are a dot net developer or someone who is trying to start learning dot net, so you look at 1.0 framework, 1.1 framework, then 2.0 framework, now comes 3.0

Wait gimme a break what do i learn, why are they so many versions. The answer to all this is here in this blog.

There is a misunderstanding that 3.0 framework is not a replacement for 2.0 framework.

The 3.0 framework runs on the same CLR which 2.0 is placed in, we still use dot net 2005 IDE for running 3.0 applications, so the best place to start would be to download and install dot net 2005 IDE and on top of it install the 3.0 framework.

Again dot net is side by side assembly so you should be able to install and run every framework.

Windows Workflow Foundation:

Today i had been to Microsoft Waltham Office to attend one of the Architect sessions for dot net 3.0 and i learnt a lot of useful information which i am sharing here.

1) Dot net remoting is no longer needed once we go in for Windows Workflow foundation,
2) Biz talk server and WWF are two different approaches to achieve the same solution.
3) Biz talk will still be supported by Microsoft but internally the next release of biz talk and the future biz talk engine will be recoded to run on WF, (so guys a good place to start now would be to start looking at WF).
4) Microsoft is releasing an entire set of products based on WF, they are,

a) MS office 12 or ms office 2007 is entirely based on CLR and also it uses WF,
b) MS Speech Server,
c) Dynamics,
d) Biz talk future release
e) MIIS - Identity solution
f) Service Desk application
g) share point 2007

All the above applications which need workflows, rules are going to use Windows Workflow Foundation, and microsoft is very keen on moving in this direction.

So it is better to use WF or to learn WF right now.

Starting point or official website

http://www.netfx3.com/

Is the starting point for any developer to learn about dot net framework 3.0

Watch Indigo video on MSDN TV

ok ok i know you are lazy like me, so here you go,

Watch an introduction to Indigo on MSDN TV,

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/episode.aspx?xml=episodes/en/20050407indigoss/manifest.xml

Getting Started with 3.0 how?

Ok here you are, you want to learn dot net framework 3.0 so what is the good starting point, yes microsoft has virtual labs where you can play with it.

Dot net 3.0 Framework includes the following,

• Windows Communication foundation (WCF),
• Windows Presentation foundation (WPF),
• Windows Workflow foundation (WWF),
• and Card Spaces. (CS)

A starting point for you would be to try the virtual labs found at,

http://msdn.microsoft.com/virtuallabs/netframe/default.aspx

Coming Soon Dot Net Framework 3.0

Hi all,

Welcome to my new blog on Dot Net Framework 3.0, this blog should help developers to explore the features of Dot Net Framework 3.0

Thanks
Prashant
Software Consultant,
New Hamsphire, USA.