Category: PGH.NET

RESTful Hands-On-Lab using WCF and jQuery

The first of several hands-on talks, this one looks to be awesome.  This is two days before the G20, and the location is on the North side, not too far from the stadiums, so we should be clear of traffic issues.

Join us on September 22nd for a Hands On Lab using jQuery and WCF to build RESTful applications.  This will be the first of several upcoming hands on labs.

This hands-on-lab will explore how to use Microsoft’s Windows Communcation Foundation (WCF) 3.5 along with client-side technologies, such as jQuery, to create RESTful applications that will improve the performance of your .NET applications.

This session will start with building several simple WCF services; then we’ll build a client-side application using some jQuery functions; then we’ll hook the jQuery browser app up with the WCF services.

This hands-on-lab will be the first of several hands-on-labs covering using WCF and jQuery to build high-performing RESTful applications.

Full story at http://codecamppgh.com/jquery_hol1.aspx

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September PGHDOTNET Meeting – Theming ASP.NET Sites with CSS3

Couple of great talks at PGH.NET this month.  Here’s the first:

The session begins with some CSS3 basics and moves onto how to create the ultimate presentation. Chris will demonstrate how to build rich themes without graphics, graceful degradation, and how to use simple graphics to enhance style. You’ll become familiar with support for legacy browsers, Web 2.0, and walk away with an overview of ASP.NET framework themes.

Chris’ bio has one of the best statements EVER.  Emphasis mine:

Chris Bannon is familiar with many acronyms: UX, ASP.NET, AJAX, C#, SQL & jQuery.  As the lead Web Developer at ComponentOne, he has mastered techniques such as CSS Layout, Unobtrusive JavaScript, Semantic Markup, and Progressive Enhancement.  Chris manages the product line for many ComponentOne’s Microsoft Visual Studio products and is trained in Notepad, SQL Management Studio and Expression Blend.

Full story and registration at http://codecamppgh.com/200909.aspx.

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Free Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange 2010 Training

I've been wondering how all the new product launches were going to happen, and it looks like MS is going to split them up.  First up, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange 2010.

There are two tracks of training–Developer and IT Pro.  Tracks are AM and PM, so you can attend both.

Full details at http://www.microsoft.com/business/thenewefficiency/

And oh yeah, there's this:

Attend the free event, take home Windows 7

These are the new innovations that can help you be part of the new efficiency. And at our free live events, you can learn, network, and get your copy of Windows 7!

Unfortunatelty, this is on the same day as the MSDN Mid-Atlantic Road Show here in Pittsburgh.  We'll see if that date gets changed.
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June 15, 2009 – MSDN Freedom Roadshow in Pittsburgh

Session 1: Developing on Microsoft Windows 7

Building applications that are easy to use, visually appealing, and offer high performance is a challenge that developers face every day. Innovative applications can greatly improve the user experience, empowering companies to differentiate their services and solutions. However, developers are increasingly asked to do more in less time, while also optimizing the power and performance requirements of their applications. 

The Windows 7 platform makes it easy for developers to create engaging, user-friendly applications by providing familiar tools and rich development features that allow them to take advantage of the latest PC capabilities.  In this session we will explore the new Taskbar and Jump Lists, the Scenic Ribbon, file management with Libraries, and Windows Web Services among many other enhancements to the new operating system.


Session 2: What’s New in Internet Explorer 8 for Developers

With any new browser release, there are two questions of interest to most web developers –
     1.Will this release break my site, and if so, how do I fix it?
     2. What shiny new features does it offer to add value for my visitors?

In this session, we’ll address both of these questions, first showing how developers and users both benefit from improved standards-based rendering in Internet Explorer 8, and how developers can ensure that their sites will render properly for users using IE8. Additionally, we’ll take a look at some of the new features of Internet Explorer 8 that open up new possibilities for web developers, including Accelerators, Web Slices, and Search Providers, as well as AJAX and DOM improvements. Accelerators are helpers added to the browser that allow users to access your web-based services from anywhere, via a simple right-click on any page. Web Slices allow you to designate parts of your application for the user to consume and keep up-to-date in the browser without having to visit the full site. You can leverage these features to add value to your site and make it easier than ever for users to take advantage of the services and content you have to offer. 
 
We'll also look at the new Internet Explorer 8 Developer Tools, which provides you with killer tools for examining and debugging your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, all without ever leaving the page, plus profiling for finding and fixing the performance bottlenecks in your client-side code. The IE 8 Developer Tools also aid in compatibility testing, by allowing you to change the layout and compatibility modes on the fly. Lastly we’ll look at some best practices.

Session 3: Making JavaScript Fun Again

Let’s face it; most web developers avoid JavaScript at all cost. We do everything we can do avoid it and if we can’t, we typically try to keep things as simple as possible just to write the least amount of JavaScript code possible. This hinders us from creating the best user experience possible which translates to unhappy/unsatisfied users.

Well, you don’t have to avoid it any more. Thanks to jQuery, writing JavaScript code is fun again. In the session we are going to go over the basics of jQuery. I will show you how easy it is to traverse the document object model (DOM), add animation to your UI, handle events and add AJAX functionality to your web applications. Finally, we will discuss the support Visual Studio provides for working with jQuery as well as its integration with ASP.Net

Full info at http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032415478&Culture=en-US

Pgh.NET: Programming Silverlight in the Cloud

Join the Pgh.NET User Group on June 9 as Vijay Koneru gives an overview of programming Silverlight applications using the Azure Cloud Services API. Also, Craig Oaks will provide an introduction to using Silverlight with ArcGIS.

Date:     Tuesday, June 9
Time:     5:30 – 8 p.m.    
Venue:    Microsoft Offices, 30 Isabella Street, 15212

Register: http://webportal.pghtech.org/Events/CalendarEventsListView.aspx

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Pgh.NET: Silverlight 3 Double Dose

Join the Pittsburgh .NET User Group on May 19th for two presentations by INETA speaker Pete Brown on what to expect from Silverlight 3.

1. What’s New In Silverlight 3
A tour of all of the new features in Silverlight 3. Topics covered include features geared towards RIA/Business Application development, Media, Graphics, etc.

2. Silverlight 3 Adores My Commodore 64
In this entertaining talk, Pete discusses building a Commodore 64 emulator and a software-based music synthesizer in Silverlight 3. This is more of a coding for fun session. Definitely a lot of fun!

Date: Tuesday, May 19

Time: 5:30 – 8 p.m.

Venue: Microsoft Offices, 30 Isabella Street, 15212

Cost: No Charge, please register

Register: Online

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Silverlight Firestarter in Pittsburgh

I wish I wasn’t going to be out of town this weekend!  Ugh–looks awesome!

Full details and registration at http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032402422

Saturday, February 28, 2009 8:00 AM – Saturday, February 28, 2009 5:00 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Welcome Time: 8:00 AM

Pittsburgh MPR

MPR
30 Isabella Street
2nd Floor Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 15212
United States

  Title Description
Session 1 Keynote Intro and overview of the Silverlight 2 platform.
Session 2 XAML Basics What is this funny mark-up language?
Session 3 The Tools Get the skinny on what you need to start your work.  A look at designer & developer tools that work together.  Coverage of Expression Blend 2.5 & Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008
Session 4 Controls, Data Binding Silverlight 1 was just a tease. Now see what you can do with real controls, styles, and rich data binding.
Session 5 Server Communication Silverlight 2 is a rich Internet application platform. So how do you talk back to the cloud?  Coverage of all the communication options.  WCF/Astoria/REST/POX/AJAX/etc.
Session 6 Silverlight and SharePoint
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Pittsburgh MSDN Event: Azure, Debugging and Mobility

Full details and registration at https://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&eventid=1032402405&flag=1

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 1:00 PM – Tuesday, March 24, 2009 5:00 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Welcome Time: 12:30 PM

Theater – Loews Waterfront 22

300 Waterfront Drive W.
WEST HOMESTEAD Pennsylvania 15120
United States

Language(s):
English.

Product(s):
Microsoft Visual Studio, Mobility and Web Development.

Audience(s):
Academic/Student Developer, Developer, Developer Generalists, Hobbyist Dev and Professional Developer/Coder.

Event Overview

Enhance your coding capabilities with new tools, tips, and inside secrets from MSDN Events. We’ll start with an overview of the Azure Services Platform, which can help you build cloud-based applications and solutions that offer the best of online and on-premises functionality. Next, you’ll learn how to take full advantage of the Visual Studio debugger. We’ll offer some great tips and tricks to help you debug faster and more efficiently, while applying fresh techniques to ramp up your problem solving abilities. Finally, you’ll see how developing for a Windows Mobile phone leverages your current coding skills and can make it simple to build, deploy and debug cool new devices.

Session 1:  Demystifying Azure – An Overview of the Azure Services Platform for Developers

The Azure™ Services Platform (Azure) is an Internet-scale cloud services platform with an operating system and developer services set that can be used individually or together. Hosted in Microsoft data centers, Azure’s flexible and interoperable platform can help you build new applications to run from the cloud or to enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities. With open architecture, Azure gives developers the ability to build Web applications, and applications running on connected devices, PCs, servers, and hybrid solutions that offer the best of online and on-premises functionality. Confused about the Azure hype? Come discover and demystify the Azure concepts, and see demos of Azure in action with a variety of services

Session 2: Deepen your Debugging – Tips and Tricks for the Visual Studio 2008 Debugger
The Visual Studio debugger is a highly underutilized tool for many developers. In this session, you’ll learn how to use it like a pro, while picking up new techniques to fast-forward your problem solving and debugging abilities. We’ll show you how to use advanced breakpoints, advanced watch window / Expression evaluator tricks, modifiers, assertions on the fly, remote debugging, and more. Whether you’re writing C#, VB, WPF, ASP.NET, Windows Forms, or services, we’ll provide tips and tricks that will have you debugging faster and much more efficiently. The debugger is your primary tool for finding bugs, so join us and learn how to make the most of it.

Session 3: Developing for Windows Mobile Devices
Mobile development is growing fast, and Windows Mobile is at the forefront with over 18 million phones shipped last year and many more cutting-edge devices on the way. Visual Studio developers have tremendous opportunities in this space. Why? Developing for a Windows Mobile phone leverages your existing coding experience and takes it to new heights. In this session, we’ll look at some of the coolest new devices, you’ll learn how to set up Visual Studio with the latest SDK and device emulators, and you’ll see how to build, deploy and debug Windows Mobile applications. We’ll also explore how Internet Explorer Mobile 6 provides new AJAX capabilities that offer the richness of the desktop with pan and zoom features tuned for mobile devices.
For more details, please visit www.msdnevents.com.

Registration Options

Event ID:
1032402405

Register by Phone
1-877-673-8638

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ASP.NET MVC Firestarter in Pittsburgh

Coming soon to Pittsburgh:

When it comes to design patterns, the MVC is the granddaddy of them all.  First described in the late 70s, the MVC pattern remains very popular in the world of web applications today. ASP.NET MVC provides a framework that enables you to easily implement the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern for Web applications. This pattern lets you separate applications into loosely coupled, pluggable components for application design, processing logic, and display.

Throughout the day we will be demonstrating the ASP.NET MVC Framework in a cookbook-style approach with recipes on how to solve common challenges when developing MVC web applications. No previous knowledge or experience is necessary. We will walk you through the basics on creating views and controllers and by the end of the day show you how to develop end-to-end MVC applications complete with ajax, authentication, authorization, caching, databinding, logging, persistence, validation, and other common challenges we experience in day-to-day development.

Sample code will leverage and integrate popular frameworks and libraries like ADO.NET Data Services, ASP.NET AJAX, ASP.NET Dynamic Data, Enterprise Library, Entity Framework, and LINQ To SQL to show you how to write less code and be more productive during your development.

Polish it all off with examples showing the extensibility of the MVC Framework using custom controller factories, alternative view engines, and custom action filter attributes just to name a few.

Topics covered will include “How Do I…”

– Create Views Easily? ( HTML and Url Helpers )
– Handle Get and Post Requests? ( simple databinding of action method arguments, ActionResults, etc.. )
– Pass Data Between Views and Controllers? ( ViewData and TempData )
– Bind Views and Forms to complex data types? ( ModelBinders )
– Handle Errors Gracefully? ( ActionFilter Attributes )
– Provide Input Error Validation? ( ValidationMessage, ValidationSummary, ViewData.ModelState )
– Handle Authentication and Authorization? ( ActionFilter Attributes and Membership Provider )
– Persist to a database ( LINQ To SQL, Entity Framework )
– Log Messages to Database, File, EventLog ( ActionFilter Attributes, etc. )
– Leverage AJAX and JSON? ( ASP.NET AJAX and jQuery )

Some of the more complex and non-beginner topics can be discussed if time is allowed and/or maybe discussed afterwards in a social environs…

– Alternate View Engines
– IoC and Custom Controller Factories
– Unit Testing

Bring your USB Flash Drive to grab the sample code and begin developing ASP.NET MVC Web Applications today!

Register online at http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032392363&culture=en-US.