ASP.NET 4.0 features at your service

There are some new features Microsoft has introduced in ASP.NET 4.0 which consists some enchancements and some of them are real value added for Webforms.

You can  set meta tags by using the Page.MetaKeywords and Page.MetaDescription page properties.

More control over view state by using the Control.ViewStateMode property for a page and for individual controls.

Easier ways to work with browser capabilities.

Support for using ASP.NET routing with Web Forms.

More control over generated IDs by using the Control.ClientIDMode roperty.

The ability to persist selected rows in data controls by using the GridView.EnablePersistedSelection and ListView.EnablePersistedSelection properties.

More control over the HTML that is rendered by the FormView and ListView controls.

Filtering support for data source controls by using the new QueryExtender control.

Charting support by using the new ASP.NET Chart control.(I love this really now I can get rid of OWC )

Some of the .NET 4.0 Features I enjoyed

I liked personally some of the new features in .NET 4.0 and just want to share those.

The new String..IsNullOrWhiteSpace method indicates whether a string is null, empty, or consists only of white-space characters.

New Path.Combine method overloads enable you to combine file paths.

You can now enable lazy initialization for any custom type by wrapping the type inside a System.Lazy<(Of )>) class.

The compression algorithms for the System.IO.Compression.DeflateStream and System.IO.Compression.GZipStream classes have improved so that data that is already compressed is no longer inflated. Also, the 4-gigabyte size restriction for compressing streams has been removed.

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta

You can download the beta version of VS.NET 2010
at the following location.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx

ADO.NET Entity Framework

Basically database development with the .NET framework has not changed a lot since its first release. But many of us usually start by designing our database tables and their relationships and then creating classes in our application to make them as closely as possible in a set of Business Classes , and then working with them in out ADO.NET code. However, this process has always been an approximation and has involved a lot of groundwork.

This is where the ADO.NET Entity Framework comes in; it allows you to deal with the (true) entities represented in the database in your application code by abstracting the groundwork and maintenance code work away from you.

A very crude description of the ADO.NET Entity Framework would be “It allows you to deal with database concepts in your code.” 

There is a very good post available which has some good example projects.

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=540421

Enjoy

SharePoint in Cloud

Basically we have applications running on platforms consisting of an operation system like Windows and a runtime environment like .NET. The application itself is developed with an IDE like Visual Studio. The system with the application is part of an environment consisting of

Mechanisms for persisting data (SQL Server, SharePoint lists)
Communication and processes (BizTalk Server)
Identity management (Active Directory).

Most companies today use on-premise software which means the software is running on an infrastructure inside their own companies buildings.

Another kind of application platform is the Cloud Platform where Cloud Services are running which can be divided into the following categories:

Software as a Service (SaaS): The application runs in the cloud and can be operated by the browser. (like an online CRM system)
Attached Services: The application runs in house and uses additional services from the cloud. (like Windows Update)
Cloud Services: On-premise software or applications from the cloud are enhanced with additional functionalities. 

The combination of on-premise Software and Cloud Services is called Software + Services (S+S) which just means software running on an infrastructure in house plus additional functionalities from the cloud. 

The Azure Services Platform is a combination of different technologies in the cloud:

Windows Azure: A Windows based runtime for applications with the possibility to store data.
.NET Services: The services offer interfaces for access control, communication and workflows.
SQL Services: The services offer an interface for storing data.
Live Services: The services offer a framework where you can access the Microsoft Live applications and their data.
SharePoint Services & Dynamics CRM Services: These services offer functionality for collaboration.
All technologies from the Azure Services Platform can be used independently or together.

Conclusion
If we summarize the things above we have the following SharePoint platforms:

On-premise:

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (and earlier versions)
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (and earlier versions)

Cloud platform:

Microsoft SharePoint Online
Microsoft SharePoint Services

Groove Renamed

Microsoft Groove most likely going to be renamed as “SharePoint 2010 workspace” as already the software has enough potential towards online and offline document collaborations.

Little upset with SharePoint 2010

I am really tired after trying to get a VPC for SharePoint 2010 and finally ended up with ,that the VPC doesn’t supports 64 bit OS. Keep finger crossed until we hear something from Microsoft.

VSTS Scrum Process Template

Codeplex scrum community project has created a Scrum process template that takes advantage the feature of Visual Studio Team System. Scrum is a powerful Agile methodolgy, that places the emphasis on people rather than documentation.

Click here to download

Windows Azure – A cloud services operating system

I am really happy and was in heaven when I heard the release of  Windows Azure which is a cloud services operating system that serve as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Windows Azure Platform.

The platform includes the services like “Live Services”,”.NET Services”,”SQL Azure”,”SharePoint and CRM services”.

Benefits of the Windows Azure Platform

The Windows Azure Platform is designed to help developers easily create applications for the web and connected devices. The services platform offers the greatest flexibility, choice, and control in reaching users and customers while using existing skills.

 Millions of developers worldwide already use the .NET Framework and the Visual Studio development environment. Utilize those same skills to create cloud-enabled applications that can be written, tested, and deployed all from Visual Studio. In the near future developers will be able to deploy applications written on Rubyon Rails and Python as well.

 Applications can be deployed to the Windows Azure Platform with the click of a button. Changes can be made quickly and without downtime, making it an ideal platform for affordably experimenting and trying new ideas.

 The Windows Azure Platform enables to create web, mobile, or hybrid-applications that use the cloud with on-premises applications. Combined with Live Services ability to reach over 400 million Live users, new opportunities exist to interact and reach users in new ways.

The services platform supports industry-standard protocols, including HTTP, REST, SOAP, RSS, and AtomPub, for consuming, exposing, and integrating with third-party services. You can easily integrate applications built on a variety of different technologies and operating systems.

Windows Azure Contest

Microsoft Virtual Tech Days is conducting a contest for “best php application”,”best asp.net application” and “best community selected application” and winner will get grand prizes. Really its a great initative from Microsoft to develope applications using Windows Azure services.

The contest is open from 19-Aug to 16-Oct.

I am going to particpate and the solution is around the corner. If you want to particpate,click here to learn more.