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Slide decks are available from the Architect Insight Conference 2008 held in the UK at the end of April. These talks are fluffier than ones that I normally point to and since you only have the slides and not the audio, I recommend picking a few based on their titles and trying them out quickly to see if you find something interesting. Here are two that I thought looked interesting. Building an Enterprise Service Bus with BizTalk Server 2006 & WCF Standardising SOA You can access all of the content from the post event resources . Read More...
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The PDC website is doing a monthly countdown to the event by publishing session abstracts as they lock down. The July update is the second in this series and adds 16 new sessions to the list, including two on workflow. Workflow Foundation: Futures The next version of Workflow Foundation provides a rich platform for declarative programming. Learn about the new data flow model, rich composition model, and control flow styles, including: parallel execution, state machine, and flowchart. See how easy it is to build workflows with the new Visual Studio workflow designer and the new activities library, including activities for SharePoint and PowerShell. Hear how Workflow Foundation integrates with other declarative frameworks like Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation. Workflow Services This session covers significant enhancements in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) to deal with the ever increasing complexity of communication patterns. Learn how to use WCF to correlate messages to service instances using transport, context, and application payloads. Learn to use the new WF messaging activities to model rich protocols and how to use WCF as a rich default host for your workflows and expand the reach of WF with features like distributed compensation. See how service definition in XAML completes the union of WF and WCF with a unified authoring experience that dramatically simplifies configuration and is fully integrated with Microsoft Internet Information Services activation and deployment. You can get the full list of sessions published so far here . Read More...
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Four more webcasts are coming this month to talk about some of the new web service features in Orcas. Each webcast is aimed at developers and lasts 60-90 minutes. Transactional Windows Communication Foundation Services with Juval Lowy (Level 200) Monday, July 07, 2008 10:00 AM Pacific Time Transactions are the key to building robust, high quality service-oriented applications. Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) provides a simple, declarative transaction support for service developers, enabling you to configure parameters such as enlistment and voting, all outside the scope of your service. In addition, WCF allows client applications to create transactions and to propagate transactions across service boundaries over a variety of transports. In this webcast, we explain how to configure transaction flow at the binding, contract, and service level, local versus distributed transactions, setting of service transactions, declarative voting, and the available configurations that best fit various application scenarios. Using Windows Workflow Foundation to Build Services with Jon Flanders (Level 300) Wednesday, July 09, 2008 10:00 AM Pacific Time Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is a programming model, set of tools, and runtime environment which allows you to write declarative and reactive programs for Windows operating systems. WF is part of the Microsoft .NET Runtime, and it first appeared in Microsoft .NET 3.0. Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is also a programming model, set of tools, and a runtime that first appeared in .NET 3.0. WCF is a framework for building applications that can communicate with each other over varied network protocols. In .NET 3.5, these programming models came closer together to allow easy integration, including allowing WF instances to use WCF to communicate to remote endpoints and allowing WF instances to become the service implementation for WCF endpoints. This is accomplished by two new Activities: ReceiveActivity and SendActivity as well as a new hosting infrastructure for service endpoints. In this webcast, we look at both sides of this integration to give you an overview of how to build WF/WCF applications. WCF Extensibility Deep Dive with Jesus Rodriguez (Level 400) Friday, July 11, 2008 10:00 AM Pacific Time Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) provides a rich messaging framework that extends beyond its capabilities for modeling and implementing services. One of the aspects where WCF really shines when compared with competitive Read More...
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New working drafts have been published for XSD 1.1, which starts a last call period for comments lasting from now until September 12th. The previous last calls in 2006 and 2007 resulted in a substantial number of comments and revisions. You can get the XSD 1.1 drafts from the W3C web site. W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD) 1.1 Part 1: Structures W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD) 1.1 Part 2: Datatypes Read More...
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I noticed a new tool on CodePlex the other day called the PInvoke Interop Assistant that automatically converts between managed and unmanaged type signatures. In addition to converting API functions, it also pulls together all of the structures and types used by the API. Here's a sample showing how it handles CoCreateInstance. [System.Runtime.InteropServices.StructLayoutAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.LayoutKind.Sequential)] public struct IUnknown { /// IUnknownVtbl* public System.IntPtr lpVtbl; } [System.Runtime.InteropServices.StructLayoutAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet=System.Runtime.InteropServices.CharSet.Ansi)] public struct GUID { /// unsigned int public uint Data1; /// unsigned short public ushort Data2; /// unsigned short public ushort Data3; /// unsigned char[8] [System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalAsAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst=8)] public string Data4; } [System.Runtime.InteropServices.StructLayoutAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.LayoutKind.Sequential)] public struct IUnknownVtbl { /// IUnknownVtbl_QueryInterface public IUnknownVtbl_QueryInterface AnonymousMember1; /// IUnknownVtbl_AddRef public IUnknownVtbl_AddRef AnonymousMember2; /// IUnknownVtbl_Release public IUnknownVtbl_Release AnonymousMember3; } /// Return Type: HRESULT->LONG->int ///This: IUnknown* ///riid: IID* ///ppvObject: void** [System.Runtime.InteropServices.UnmanagedFunctionPointerAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.CallingConvention.StdCall)] public delegate int IUnknownVtbl_QueryInterface( ref IUnknown This, ref GUID riid, ref System.IntPtr ppvObject); /// Return Type: ULONG->unsigned int ///This: IUnknown* [System.Runtime.InteropServices.UnmanagedFunctionPointerAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.CallingConvention.StdCall)] public delegate uint IUnknownVtbl_AddRef( ref IUnknown This); /// Return Type: ULONG->unsigned int ///This: IUnknown* [System.Runtime.InteropServices.UnmanagedFunctionPointerAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.CallingConvention.StdCall)] public delegate uint IUnknownVtbl_Release( ref IUnknown This); public partial class NativeMethods { /// Return Type: HRESULT->LONG->int ///rclsid: IID* ///pUnkOuter: LPUNKNOWN->IUnknown* ///dwClsContext: DWORD->unsigned int ///riid: IID* ///ppv: LPVOID* [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImportAttribute( "ole32.dll" , EntryPoint= "CoCreateInstance" , CallingConvention=System.Runtime.InteropServices.CallingConvention.StdCall)] Read More...
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There were two CTP releases recently of technology that don't directly focus on web services but you might find that they make developing services easier. The first technology is called Velocity. Velocity is a platform for building distributed caches to make it easier to develop highly-scalable applications. There are some included samples for using Velocity with ASP.NET applications but you can reuse the platform in a variety of ways. Microsoft Project Code Named "Velocity" Community Technology Preview 1 (CTP1) The second technology is called Task Parallel Library and PLINQ. There are a set of parallel extensions for writing query and iteration expressions that automatically take advantage of the data and task parallelism present in high-level programming constructs. Microsoft Parallel Extensions to .NET Framework 3.5, June 2008 Community Technology Preview You can get several videos about these parallel extensions on Channel 9 as well. Joe Duffy and Igor Ostrovsky: Parallel LINQ under the hood Joe Duffy, Huseyin Yildiz, Daan Leijen, Stephen Toub - Parallel Extensions: Inside the Task Parallel Inside Parallel Extensions for .NET 2008 CTP Part 1 Inside Parallel Extensions for .NET 2008 CTP Part 2 Read More...
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Earlier this week a new beta release came out for Network Monitor. Although the beta has a variety of new features, the one I'm most interested in is the change to the capture engine to reduce the number of dropped frames. I've had problems in the past with missing frames in Network Monitor captures, especially for fast networks when there is a substantial CPU load. You can get the release from the Network Monitor Connect site . Read More...
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Five webcasts are coming this month to talk about some of the new web service features in Orcas. Each webcast is aimed at developers and lasts 60-90 minutes. Beyond the Endpoints with Windows Communication Foundation with Juval Lowy (Level 100) Wednesday, June 18, 2008 10:00 A.M.-11:30 A.M. Pacific Time Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is more than just the next-generation platform for building connected systems. In many respects, WCF is the next development platform for Windows-based applications, providing system features that are presently crafted by hand on top of the Microsoft .NET Framework and the Windows operating system. In this webcast, we describe the power and productivity of WCF and demonstrate how it is a "better .NET Framework." We focus on the key system features of WCF so you can make educated decisions on aligning your product road map with WCF and assess the advantages of using WCF. We begin the webcast with a brief overview of WCF and the WCF architecture, and then we demonstrate data contract tolerance, instance management, transaction propagation, automatic synchronization, queued calls, and automatic security. geekSpeak: Workflow Services in .NET 3.5 with Jon Flanders (Level 200) Wednesday, June 18, 2008 12:00 P.M.-1:00 P.M. Pacific Time Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) are powerful technologies that were first introduced in the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0. In release 3.5 of the .NET Framework, these two technologies work even better together. In this installment of geekSpeak, Jon Flanders from Pluralsight introduces you to workflow services , and he describes how workflow services unites WCF and WF and provides great new features for building solutions. Your hosts for this geekSpeak are Lynn Langit and Glen Gordon. Calling Services from Silverlight 2.0 with Jon Flanders (Level 300) Monday, June 23, 2008 9:00 A.M.-10:00 A.M. Pacific Time Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 browser plug-in provides an environment for building rich Internet applications (RIAs). Traditionally, these types of applications relied heavily on services such as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) for their functionality. In this webcast, we look at the facilities built into Silverlight 2.0 for calling services, and we discuss the options for implementing these services. Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation Integration in Depth with Jesus Rodriguez (Level 400) Wednesday, June 25, 2008 10:00 Read More...
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A promised Beta 2 was released later last week. In this case, later meant Friday after everyone went home so I updated the original article with a link to the download over the weekend. That means this doesn't count as the post for today. Scott Guthrie has a more detailed release announcement for the beta if you're interested. Read More...
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The WCF Security Guide content that I've mentioned a few times before is now done with early drafts and has been rolled up into a beta release of the full book. There's a ton of content in the real thing on top of what you've been seeing in the drafts. You can download the beta of the full security guide from CodePlex now. If you want to know what I think about the guide, here's the foreword I wrote for them: The computer industry has come to a realization – based on many years of slowly learning from painful experiences – that computer networks are hostile environments. Nevertheless, computer users demand as part of their basic expectations that applications take advantage of the ubiquitous and continuously available connectivity at their disposal to deliver a rich connected experience. It is now your task to design and assemble the loosely coupled service components that you have available in a way that blunts threats and thwarts attacks on the user’s precious assets. Your applications must withstand the hazards of living in a hostile networked environment. To make that possible, you must understand the risks that your applications face and you must be certain that the remedies you put in place properly mitigate the dangers of those risks. As someone who has been through several rounds of security and threat modeling for Windows Communication Foundation, I can say without hesitation that knowledge and experience are your greatest assets for designing secure Web service applications. The trick is to gain as much of that knowledge as possible from the painful experiences of other people rather than painful experiences of your own. J.D. Meier and team have done a fantastic job of assembling and digesting countless practical experiences into a convenient and centralized resource. Practitioners of service-oriented development with WCF will want to use this guide as both a means of learning about the fundamentals of Web service security and a reference for getting specific, step-by-step instructions for dozens of the most common security problems. I enjoy that this guide collects together several different approaches for learning about and implementing security solutions. By combining a variety of formats – scenarios, how-to articles, and guidelines are only a sample of the offered modes – solutions are both reinforced and made more easily discoverable through different entry points. The reason that I’m so excited to see Improving Web Services Security: Scenarios Read More...
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At TechEd yesterday the next beta release of Silverlight 2 was announced to come out later this week. In Beta 2 you'll be much closer to seeing the complete subset of WCF that has been ported to the Silverlight platform. In particular, the work we've done around JSON, configuration, extensibility, and adherence to the general WCF client programming model will be ready for you to play with. All of this functionality has been packed down into an extremely small download size to meet the goals of Silverlight. You'll also be getting a better WCF experience thanks to improvements to the underlying network stack that we've been able to take advantage of. Check back later for an update when the downloads are actually available. Read More...
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I'm a big fan of using service virtualization to solve a variety of problems with developing and managing web services. The Managed Services Engine is a solution built on top of WCF to supply a repository-based runtime and management tool for service virtualization. I hope to someday put the solutions team out of business by making service virtualization easier to do in the product. For now though, the Managed Services Engine is one of the better web service virtualization systems that I've seen. You can get their new June CTP on CodePlex , which replaces the previous beta release from last October. Read More...
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Earlier this week a new preview for the ASP.NET Model-View-Controller framework showed up on the web. For those of you that haven't heard of MVC before, it's a framework on top of the existing ASP.NET runtime that modernizes the ASP.NET development experience a bit in terms of separating display and application logic as well as making test-driven development of ASP.NET applications easier. You can get the preview now as well as a variety of other resources. ASP.NET MVC Preview 3 ASP.NET MVC Preview 3 Source Read More...
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The PDC 2008 conference registration site is now up and running. PDC is running this year from October 27th to 30th in Los Angeles, putting the countdown clock right now at a little over 152 days. There's already a preliminary session list available although at this point they'd probably have to be pulling the sessions out of thin air. I'd expect a real session list to come out in a few months that you can use to plan what you want to see. Read More...
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I noticed the other day that O'Reilly has a new book format for prerelease software that relies on planning for and making incremental updates as the software is developed. After the software is released, the prerelease book and all of its updates are cleaned up and turned back into a book with standard formatting. It looks like a Silverlight 2 book is being used as the test subject. I think this approach is interesting as a response to how quickly software is developed and then obsoleted these days. Additionally, software is being developed with increasing amounts of transparency. Customers get early builds and trickles of information long before the official release date, and often while the software is still very malleable. By the time software is stable enough to write a real book about it, you've already missed the best window for publication for that release. Read More...
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