Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Released

Microsoft has finally released Visual Studio 2005 SP1.Microsoft has provided around 70 improvemt in this release.

You can download it from following path

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/support/vs2005sp1/default.aspx

First CTP of "WPF/E" Released

WPF/E is a code name for a new Web presentation technology that is created to run on a variety of platforms. It enables the creation of rich, visually stunning and interactive experiences that can run everywhere: within browsers and on multiple devices and desktop operating systems (such as the Apple Macintosh). In consistency with WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), the presentation technology in Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 (the Windows programming infrastructure), XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language) is the foundation of the "WPF/E" presentation capability.

To know more about WPF/E visit follwing site.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/bb188568.aspx

Microsoft AJAX Library : New Name for ASP 2.0 ATLAS

Microsoft has renamed the Asp.net 2.0 Atlas library as Microsoft AJAX Library and planning to release by end of this year. To read more about this exciting news visit the following blog by ScottGu.

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/09/11/_2200_Atlas_2200_-1.0-Naming-and-Roadmap.aspx

Microsoft filled case in Seattle court against "TestKing"

Microsoft filled case in Seattle court against "TestKing" , the most famous vendor who provides braindumps to candidates to pass Microsoft exam's.This is really an good news. No more cheat sheet's all pure knowledge will be tested during MCP exam's. Microsoft exam's will become more hard than Cisco exam's. I am personally thankful to Microsoft for taking this action. IT certifications are in demand, and ban to such illegal vendor will eliminate fake candidates who suppose themselves as MCP's . For complete story watch out http://www.tcpmag.com/news/article.asp?editorialsid=1085

SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Technical Reference Guide

Are you planning to migrate your database to SQL Server 2005? This 350-page document contains guidance for SQL Server administrators, developers, and IT decision makers who would like to move their SQL Server 2000 or 7.0 databases to SQL Server 2005. Get the fabulous whitepaper from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3d5e96d9-0074-46c4-bd4f-c3eb2abf4b66&DisplayLang=en

Learn A-Z of Microsoft Active Directory (ADSI)

Do you want to learn Active directory ? Microsoft Active Directory experts are providing an oppertunity to learn A-Z of Active directory through the webcasts.Visit the following link to learn more about this .

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

What is Project Glidepath ?

Project Glidepath is an Evangelism program to help the ISVs to develop application using .NET Framework 3.0.

To know more about Project Glidepath visit
http://projectglidepath.net/glidepath/default.aspx

Asp.Net 2.0 Data Access Articles

Are you looking for a good article to learn about data access in Asp.net 2.0?
There is a place to get it.First 10 of 50 articles are now available in
http://www.asp.net/learn/dataaccess

It covers following topics:

1. Creating a Data Access Layer
2. Creating a Business Logic Layer
3. Master Pages and Site Navigation
4. Displaying Data With the ObjectDataSource
5. Declarative Parameters Programmatically
6. Setting the ObjectDataSource's Parameter Values
7. Master/Detail Filtering With a DropDownList
8. Master/Detail Filtering With Two DropDownLists
9. Master/Detail Filtering Across Two Pages
10. Master/Detail Using a Selectable Master GridView with a Details DetailView

.NET Framework 3.0 and WinFx

In TechEd 2006 Microsoft officially announced the new name for WinFx platform as .Net Framwork 3.0 which includes Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and the newly christened Windows CardSpace (WCS) formerly known under the codename “InfoCard.” The .NET Framework 3.0 will still ship with Windows Vista, and will be available down-level for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 as planned. This change doesn’t affect in any way the ship schedules of either Windows Vista or the .NET Framework 3.0 itself.

To know more visit 1 Stop WebSite for .NET 3.0

http://www.netfx3.com/default.aspx

Code Snippets : A new feature in Visual studio 2005

Code Snippets are reusable, task-oriented blocks of code.Code Snippets provide simple code generation for repetitive tasks within the Visual Studio 2005 IDE. For example, rather than typing a complete property declaration or case statement, just type a brief shortcut, TAB, and fill in a couple of values. The construct is built for you. Visual Studio 2005 includes code snippets covering tasks ranging from creating a custom exception, to sending an e-mail message, to drawing a circle. A set of Visual Basic and Visual C# Code Snippets are included in the Visual Studio 2005 box.

Where to get the Code snippets?

A set of code snippets for VB.Net is available in Visual Studio 2005 box. The C# version of the code snippet can be downloaded from following URL.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/downloads/codesnippets/default.aspx

You can get code snippet from various thirdparty vendors also.Here is a website where you can get free code Snippets.

http://gotcodesnippets.com/

How to create your own code snippet?

It is very easy to create your own code snippet using VS.NET Editor.To learn more about creating a code snippet visit following URL.
http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/122105-1.aspx

A code snippet editor also available for free download using which code snippet can be created easily.You can download it from following URL
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/downloads/tools/snippeteditor/

JSON : JavaScript Object Notation

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language. JSON is a text format that is completely language independent but uses conventions that are familiar to programmers of the C-family of languages, including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and many others. These properties make JSON an ideal data-interchange language.
JSON is built on two structures:
1.A collection of name/value pairs. In various languages, this is realized as an object, record, struct, dictionary, hash table, keyed list, or associative array.
2.An ordered list of values. In most languages, this is realized as an array, vector, list, or sequence.These are universal data structures. Virtually all modern programming languages support them in one form or another. It makes sense that a data format that is interchangable with programming languages also be based on these structures.

JSON's simplicity has resulted in its widespread use, especially as an alternative to XML in Ajax. One of the claimed advantages of JSON over XML as a data interchange format in this context is that it is much easier to write a JSON parser. In JavaScript itself, JSON can be parsed trivially using the eval() procedure. This was important for the acceptance of JSON within the Ajax programming community because of JavaScript's ubiquity among web browsers.

DotNet Ajax Frameworks

AJAX Asynchronous JavaScript And XML is a widely used buzz word now in web development world.There are some many libraries available to develop ajax enabled web application in asp.net with less effort and less code. i am listing few of them here.

ASP.NET 2.0 Atlas

Atlas is Microsoft's in-progress AJAX project.ASP.NET Atlas is a package of new Web development technologies that integrates an extensive set of client script libraries with the rich, server-based development platform of ASP.NET 2.0.With Atlas, you can take advantage of the best of ASP.NET and server-side code while doing much of the work in the browser, enabling a richer user experience.It provides rich set of client side and server side controls.It is still in Beta.

Ajax.NET for ASP.NET 1.x/2.0

It is a basic AJAX library for ASP.NET which provides the very basic AJAX capability to make xmlhttp callbacks. Does not have any 'Ajax-enabled' controls or support for Viewstate, etc.

Anthem.Net for ASP.NET 1.x/2.0

Anthem.NET provides a set of ajax-enabled controls inherited from ASP.NET server controls, with most AJAX behaviours pre-built, avoiding lots of client Javascript. It supports Viewstate so that you can actually modify server controls (either Anthem controls, or ASP.NET controls inside an Anthem control, e.g. panel) in your serverside code, in C# or VB without having to mess about in JavaScript. Unlike some other Ajax implementations the system supports callbacks for Anthem controls that are inside user controls, and even for wizards and master pages.

AjaxAspects

AjaxAspects is an engine that uses JavaScript proxies to call server-side WebService methods. It is built upon JavaScript client proxy methods for standard web services. (Just call a regular JavaScript method to call a method on the server). it uses standard SOAP and WSDL for the communication between client and server. it supports Multiple types, Arrays and XML objects as parameters and return values.It has soem other features like Caching on the client and server ,Queuing actions,Delaying actions.Many AJAX Controls also available that integrate in standard ASP.NET Web Forms.

Bitkraft for ASP.NET

Bitkraft Bitkraft is a CLR based (.NET) web framework that allows distributed web content to be created and served in a unique fashion. It is written in C# and compiles for operation under the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1+ or the .Mono Framework, making it portable to almost any platform.At it's core, the Bitkraft framework extends the ASP .NET Architecture to fully support Javascript-based Server callbacks using the XmlHttpRequest object as a transport layer in a fashion referred commonly today as AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript Over XmlHttpRequest). It uses Uses JSON instead of XML .

Visual WebGUI: WinForms over Web creating rich AJAX applications

With Visual WebGUI you program outlook web access like applications by programming with WinForms like server side objects.It works both ASP.NET 2.0 & 1.1 .It provides all most all of WinForms controls and can be extendable.It doesnot require any usage of JavaScripts,HTML or any other web language (Full WinForms abstraction).

What is new in IIS 7.0 for Web Developers

Flexible Extensibility Model for Powerful Customization:
IIS 7 enables developers to extend IIS to provide custom functionality in new, more powerful ways. IIS7 extensibility begins with an all-new core server API-set, which supports both native (C/C++) and managed (C#, VB.NET) feature module development. IIS7 also enables extensibility of configuration, scripting, event logging, and administration tool feature-sets, providing software developers a complete server platform on which to build Web server extensions.

Rich Troubleshooting Tools and Diagnostic Information:
IIS 7 enables developers and IT Professionals to more easily troubleshoot errand Web sites and applications. IIS7 provides a clear view of internal diagnostic information about IIS, and collects and surfaces detailed diagnostic events to aid troubleshooting problematic servers.

All New Delegated Administration:
IIS7 enables Web Hosters and IT Professionals to safely and securely delegate fine-grained administrative control to developers and content owners, reducing cost of ownership and administrative burden for the Administrator. IIS7 enables Administrators to delegated configuration tasks to developers, and supports delegated administration of sites and applications through an all-new administration tool.

Enhanced Security through Workload Customization:
IIS 7 is designed to enable the Developer to customize in a fine-grained manner exactly which features should be installed and running on their Web server. IIS is now factored into 40+ feature modules that can be independently installed on the server, dramatically reducing the security attack surface of the server, and providing Developers and Administrators more confidence and control over their servers.

Improved Support for Server Farms:
IIS 7 makes deployment and management of content and configuration data in server farm scenarios easier than ever before. IIS 7 provides an easy way for Web site and application configuration to be copied between servers. Configuration information can now be shared across multiple front-end servers, avoiding costly and error-prone replication and manual synchronization issues that plague today’s Administrators.

Application and Health Management for Web Services:
IIS 7 enables development and hosting of Web services, over any protocol, in a secure and robust environment. The Windows Activation Service (WAS) is a Windows Vista / Longhorn Server system service that provides process activation and health management services for all types of message-activated applications. WAS is an evolution of the robust and secure IIS 6.0 request processing model, which was extended in this release to support pluggable activation for arbitrary protocol listeners. WAS provides applications with intelligent resource management, on-demand activation, health-monitoring, and automatic failure detection and recycling.WAS includes a worker process environment that hosts applications independent from message protocol. For example: an application hosted by WAS may live in a single application domain within a given process and still communicate over multiple protocols.

Microsoft Office Open XML Format

Microsoft “Office 12” the new version office will introduce new default XML file formats for Microsoft Office Word word processing, Excel spreadsheet, and PowerPoint presentation graphics programs, and will change the way developers can approach solutions based on Office documents.The new Microsoft Office Open XML Formats introduce a number of benefits like interoperable , robust , efficient ,secured that will accrue not only to developers and the solutions they build, but also to individual users and organizations of all sizes.

Here is a nice place to find resources about open xml format document
http://openxmldeveloper.org/

Asp.Net 2.0 Tips&Tricks

1. App_offline.htm

It Enables you to gracefully take a server application “offline” for maintenance.It is very much useful when making big changes/upgrades.This feature can be enabled by adding a “app_offline.htm” file at the root of an applicationwhich causes ASP.NET app to shutdown and causes all dynamic requests to return app_offline.htm file contents

Tip: Make sure the app_offline.htm file is large enough (512 bytes) to disable the IE “friendly http errors” feature

2.Cross Page Post-backs

In asp.net 2.0 you can directly postback to another page from a server contro.You can do it by using “PostBackUrl” property .It can be declaratively or programmatically set.Another advantage is that Postback “target page” has full access to server controls for “originating page”.You can access controls via “Page.PreviousPage” property

3.Validation Groups

It Enable validation controls to only apply in response to a specific button/action by the use of “ValidationGroup” property

4.MaintainScrollBackPosition

It enable pages to automatically maintain the current scroll position across postbacks by using the following page directive attribute

5.Default Button

It Enable developers to identify default button behavior when the “enter” key is hit .It Can be set on control to identify default for the form.it Can also be set on control to override form behavior when an input control has focus in the browser

6.Default Focus.

It enable developers to identify default focus behavior when page is loaded .It can an be set on control to identify default for the form .it an also be programmatically set:
Page.SetFocus(control)TextBox.Focus()

7.SetFocusOnError

It enable developers to force focus on a control when a validation error occurs by setting as a property on the validation control

8.Client Script Handlers

In Asp.net 2.0 new features called client side script handler is introduce to wtite events on both clien and server site.

9.Web.Config Registration of Controls

Server controls can now be registered within web.config files instead of on every page

10.CSS Control Adapters

ASP.NET 2.0 supports a “control adapter” architecture that allows developers to customize and override rendering semanticsEg: use CSS instead of tables/inline-styles.It can be enabled by adding a .browser file within /app_browsers directory that maps a control to a control-adapter class

Analyze your .NET code using NDepend

NDepend is a free tool taht analyses .NET assemblies of an application and generates reports containing design quality metrics, warnings and diagrams.This tool also provides a graphical view of the analysis report.It supports code query language(CQL) to write the code quality constraint,code naming constraint,design constraint etc.It provides Application Metric,Assembly Metric,Assembly Abstracness vs. Instability,Assembly Dependency Diagram,Assembly build order and much more informations about the assembly.

You can download it from following URL.

http://www.ndepend.com

Threat Analysis & Modeling

Application Security is very important for all the Applications .So it is a good idea to analyze the threats to the application at the design phase of the application.Recently Microsft has released a Threat Analysis & Modeling tool which can be used to analyze and model the threats in various phase of your software development life cycle.

Creating a threat model using the Microsoft Application Security Threat Analysis & Modeling tool is a three-phase process. First, you define your application context. Second, you model your threats on top of your application context. Third, you measure the risk that is associated with each threat. Once you have completed these phases, you can assimilate your threat models through analytics, visualizations, and reports.

The Threat Analysis & Modeling tool automatically generates potential threats to your software application, based solely on known information that you provide. The Threat Analysis & Modeling tool also has the capability to assimilate the information you provide to build security artifacts such as access control matrices, data flow and trust flow diagrams, and focused, customizable reports.

You can download it from Microsoft MSDN security center and try it .

Highway Code: The drive for safer coding!

Do you want to write safer code ? Do you want to build a secured Application using .NET platform ? Here is the book that gives you the checklists to check while developing a secured Application and also lot more about security.

Download it from following URL.
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/msdn/security/dev_highway.mspx

What is the difference between Asp.Net 1.1 and 2.0 Paging Model ?

There is a mojor difference between asp.net 2.0 and 1.1 paging model. In 2.0 the aspx markup file and code beside class compiles at same time due to the nice feature partial class.The compilation model produces a comfortable coupling between the declarative markup and the class in the code-beside file. This is ‘vertical coupling’.

In 1.1 there is unwanted coupling between types in the code-behind files. This is ‘horizontal coupling’. Instead of using a layer of indirection, like an interface, base class, delegate, or event, types in the code-behind files can reference each other directly and produce brittle code.

So definitely 2.0 compilation model is better thean 1.1 compilation model.

Microsoft has released Web application project Add-ons same like that in ASp.NET 1.1.Please check y previous post.

HTML spell checker add-on to Visual Studio

Do you want to check spell in your Asp.Net HTML editor .Visit following url and and download the Add on.Spell checker works in Source view.It is able to extract text from markup elements and use Office 2003 spell checker to check the text.You can also configure it check for specific elements .

http://blogs.msdn.com/mikhailarkhipov/archive/2006/04/17/577471.aspx

Are you missing Asp.Net Web Application in 2.0 ?

In Asp.Net 2.0 the ASP.Net web application has been replaced by asp.net website.But still we are missing the web project that was available in VS.Net 1.1 .But good news is that microsoft has released the Web Application project add-in for 2.0 with new features.

Download it from following URL and try it today.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/WAP.asp

Membership Provider source code released

The source code for the built-in providers for ASP.NET 2.0 has now been released. Learn how they were built, and how to create your own providers

Please visit following link to see more details.
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/04/13/442772.aspx

why we need to switch into VS.NET 2005?

Have a look at 400 difference..A nice animated site...

http://www.400plusdifferences.com/

Microsoft Application Verifier

The Microsoft® Application Verifier (AppVerifier) is a runtime verification tool for unmanaged code that assists in finding subtle programming errors, security issues and limited user account privilege problems that can be difficult to identify with normal application testing techniques.

To Know more about Microsoft Application verifier visit following URL..

http://msdn.microsoft.com/security/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnsecure/html/appverifier_sdl.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows/appcompatibility/appverifier.mspx

You can download this tool from following URL.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bd02c19c-1250-433c-8c1b-2619bd93b3a2&DisplayLang=en

Cross Site Scripting

Cross-site scripting is a potentially dangerous security exposure that should be considered when designing a secure Web-based application

Coss-site scripting poses server application risks that include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Users can unknowingly execute malicious scripts when viewing dynamically generated pages based on content provided by an attacker.
• An attacker can take over the user session before the user's session cookie expires.
• An attacker can connect users to a malicious server of the attacker's choice.
• An attacker who can convince a user to access a URL supplied by the attacker could cause script or HTML of the attacker's choice to be executed in the user's browser.
• Using this technique, an attacker can take actions with the privileges of the user who accessed the URL, such as issuing queries on the underlying SQL databases and viewing the results and to exploit the known faulty implementations on the target system.

To know more about Cross site scripting visit following URL

http://www.cgisecurity.com/articles/xss-faq.shtml

Microsoft has realeased a anti-cross site scripting Library which can be used to provide comprehensive protection to Web-based applications against Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks.

It can be downloaded from following link

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9A2B9C92-7AD9-496C-9A89-AF08DE2E5982&displaylang=en

New Events in ASP.NET 2.0

ASP.NET 2.0 adds quite a few new events to allow you to follow the request-processing more closely and precisely. These new events are discussed below

PreInit :This occurs before the page begins initialization. This is the first event in the life of an ASP.NET 2.0 page.
InitComplete :This occurs when the page initialization is completed.
PreLoad:This occurs immediately after initialization and before the page begins loading the state information.
LoadComplete:This occurs at the end of the load stage of the page's life cycle.
PreRenderComplete:This occurs when the pre-rendering phase is complete and all child controls have been created. After this event, the personalization data and the view state are saved and the page HTML is rendered

C# Code Snippets in Visual studio 2005

Code Snippets are reusable, task-oriented blocks of code. Visual Studio 2005 includes code snippets covering tasks ranging from creating a custom exception, to sending an e-mail message, to drawing a circle. A set of Visual Basic and Visual C# Code Snippets are included in the Visual Studio 2005 box. Microsoft released a new set of Code snippets for Visual C# .VB.NET version of these snippets is already available in Visual Studio 2005 box.

You can download these snippet from following Location..

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/downloads/codesnippets/default.aspx

WSCF - Schema-Based Contract-First Web Services

It is a free Visual Studio Add-In and Command Line Tool for ImprovedSchema-Based Contract-First Web Services Design and Programming .It offers a simple yet powerful WSDL Wizard that abstracts away all the nitty-gritty details of WSDL and therefore does not give room for making errors and wrong assumptions just by trying to use and applying everything that can be done stated by the original WSDL specification. Plus there are number of new items that primarily made it into the tool based on customer feedback.

For more details visit following URL.
http://www.thinktecture.com/WSCF

My Namespace:New feature in VB.NET 2005

The My namespace in Visual Basic 2005 provides a quick and easy method for accessing some of the deeper areas of functionality in the .NET Framework without preventing you from using the Framework directly in any way you choose.My exposes several distinct classes which organize a variety of functions into one of seven general areas: My.Application, My.Computer, My.Forms, My.Resources, My.Settings, My.User, and My.WebServices.In general, the classes within My provide easy access to information in one of two categories, either the underlying .NET Framework or elements of the current project. My.Application, My.Computer, and My.User are all focused on Framework functionality, while My.Forms, My.Resources, My.Settings, and My.WebServices all deal with the contents of your current project. As I walk through each of these classes, starting with those that are focused on the underlying Framework.

Example :

The My.Computer.FileSystem classes provide a very simple API for working with and inquiring about files; this should banish any lingering yearning for the FileSystemObject library. The following code uses the FileSystem class to copy all of the pictures from the current user's My Pictures folder to a new folder (C:\Desktop Wallpaper), displaying a progress bar if the file copy takes more than a few moments to complete:

Dim myPics As String = My.Computer.FileSystem.SpecialDirectories.MyPictures
My.Computer.FileSystem .CopyDirectory( _
myPics, "C:\Desktop Wallpaper", _
FileIO.UIOption.AllDialogs, _
FileIO.UICancelOption.DoNothing)

Windows OneCare

This is a PC health service software released by Microsoft. It helps give you round-the-clock protection and maintenance—virus scanning, firewalls, tune ups, file backups, the whole nine yards. Delivered to you in a smooth, hassle-free package

Windows OneCare is being designed to address core safety concerns such as worms, viruses and spyware, but also to span broader PC health issues: helping protect electronic assets such as digital photos, music, financial data and software; and guarding against performance degradation and system clutter that can result from heavy use. Key capabilities and features of Windows OneCare will include the following:

• Defense against evolving threats. Windows OneCare will provide automatically updated anti-virus, anti-spyware and two-way firewall protection.

• Performance and reliability tools. PC owners will be able to choose to have Windows OneCare automatically carry out periodic maintenance tasks such as disk cleanup, hard-drive defragmentation and file repair. The service also will offer boot-time information and proactive support tools to help improve the customer experience.

• Backup and restore capabilities. Windows OneCare will enable automated backup of files by category on CD and DVD, along with the option to back up all files on the system or only those that have changed since the last time the action was performed. If files are accidentally deleted or corrupted on the PC hard drive, the service is designed to restore saved versions or map them on a new PC.

• Simple, integrated service experience. PC users will have one simple point of reference for checking the overall health of their system. Windows OneCare will automatically notify users of available updates or other recommended actions and enable users to easily act as needed. Otherwise, the service stays quiet and in the background.

Microsoft released Windows OneCare Beta which can be download from following URL
http://www.windowsonecare.com/Default.aspx

ASP.NET 2.0 New Feature: Use app_offline.htm file to make your ASP.NET Application offline

If you place a file with the name app_offline.htm in the root of a web application directory, ASP.NET 2.0 will shut-down the application, unload the application domain from the server, and stop processing any new incoming requests for that application. ASP.NET will also then respond to all requests for dynamic pages in the application by sending back the content of the app_offline.htm file (for example: you might want to have a “site under construction” or “down for maintenance” message).This provides a convenient way to take down your application while you are making big changes or copying in lots of new page functionality (and you want to avoid the annoying problem of people hitting and activating your site in the middle of a content update). It can also be a useful way to immediately unlock and unload a SQL Express or Access database whose .mdf or .mdb data files are residing in the /app_data directory. Once you remove the app_offline.htm file, the next request into the application will cause ASP.NET to load the application and app-domain again, and life will continue along as normal. Also

There are also some other ways to make you Application offline like setting httpruntime to false in web.config

ASP.NET Atlas: An Alternative to AJAX

ASP.NET “Atlas” is a package of new Web development technologies that integrates an extensive set of client script libraries with the rich, server-based development platform of ASP.NET 2.0. “Atlas” enables you to develop Web applications that can update data on a Web page by making direct calls to a Web server — without needing to round trip the page. With “Atlas”, you can take advantage of the best of ASP.NET and server-side code while doing much of the work in the browser, enabling a richer user experience. These "Atlas" applications are written in JavaScript "Atlas" adds a number of type system extensions to JavaScript to enable the usage of namespaces, inheritance, interfaces, enums and helpers for Strings and Arrays amongst others. These extensions enable "Atlas" applications to be written in a structured way that improve maintainability, easier to add features and layering of functionality.

ASP.NET 'Atlas' is Microsoft's answer for how you can harness the power of AJAX applications. ASP.NET 'Atlas' provides all the capabilities of AJAX, but extends the concept and significantly reduces the complexity of AJAX development.

To know about more details about Atlas please visit following URL

http://www.asp.net/default.aspx?tabindex=7&tabid=47

Internet Explorer 7: What is new?

Microsoft has recently released Beta 2 of Internet Explorer 7 for public which has a number of new features.

· Improved Navigation and cleaner Toolbar
· Tabbed Browsing
· RSS Support
· Enhanced Printing
· Built-In Search
· Enhanced Security like anti-phishing technology
· Support for transparent PNG files
· CSS consistency,
· CSS 2 fixed positioning
· International domain name (IDN) support and more

It can be downloaded from following URL

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/ie7betaredirect.mspx

HelpStudio Lite: A Tool to develop Help Files

HelpStudio Lite is a tool to develop Help files using Visual Studio.Net. HelpStudio Lite includes a template based authoring concept that makes it easy for developers to customize and change over time the look and feel of a help system without requiring rework to existing content. HelpStudio Lite ships with two default templates; one that reflects the look and feel of Visual Studio .NET 2003 technical documentation and another implementing the new style introduced with Visual Studio 2005 technical documentation.

Microsoft is distributing HelpStudio Lite with the Visual Studio 2005 SDK. HelpStudio Lite is included free and automatically installed along with the SDK. The full version of HelpStudio has pricing starting at $425.

To view details browse following URL

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/extend/helplite/

Comparing XML Performance Java,.Net and Mono

XML Mark is an XML parsing benchmark originally created by Sun Microsystems to test the performance of Java against .Net Framework 1.1.

Sun's source code for the original benchmark can be downloaded from http://java.sun.com/developer/codesamples/webservices.html#Performance and the white paper which discusses this performance can be found at http://java.sun.com/performance/reference/whitepapers/XML_Test-1_0.pdf.

Using XML Mark XML performance is tested for different technologies like java, .Net and Mono.The result is as follows.

The .Net Framework 2.0 beats every other platform in Xml performance by a huge margin. Such a huge difference cannot be due to better Xml libraries alone, it should also be the result of improvements in the execution efficiency of the Common Language Runtime (CLR), sitting at the core of the .Net Framework. The 32-bit .Net 2.0 scores were nearly double that of the highest Java scores. Microsoft has also done a good job with the 64-bit CLR, which consistently outperformed the Java results by about 60%. The performance gains are even greater, when comparing with .Net Framework 1.1. So from a performance perspective, it does make sense to move to v2.0.

The Java 64-bit runtime is an interesting contender, even though there is still scope of improvement. The Java 32-bit runtime posted really disappointing results; at least running with default settings.

To Visit the result details visit the following url
http://www.process64.com/articles/xmlmark1/

Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer(Sparkle)

Microsoft has relased first CTP of Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer code name Sparkle which runs with WinFx January CPT Release.

Expression Interactive Designer is a design tool used to create user interfaces for desktop, Mobile and web applications using Windows Presentation Foundation and XAML.You can try out its innovative features such as rich 2D & 3D graphics, animation, dynamic layout, data binding, style & template editing, and resource management by downloading it from following URL.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=ed9f5fb2-4cfc-4d2c-9af8-580d644e3d1d&displaylang=en&hash=M8J5SPD

The New Generation of Microsoft Certifications

The new generation of Microsoft certifications is more specific and targeted to reflect the detail of what you do and to prove your expertise to those who need to know.

Consisting of three series and four credentials, the new generation of Microsoft certifications provides a simpler and more targeted framework for IT managers to validate core technical skills, professional skills, and architectural skills. It also provides professionals in the IT industry with a more relevant, flexible, and cost-effective way to showcase their skills.

For more details please visit the following URL

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/newgen/

Microsoft Customer Care Framework (CCF)

Microsoft's Customer Care Framework (CCF) is a modular XML Web Services architecture for rapid development and deployment of contact center solutions. Service Providers can transform and expand their call center operations to reduce costs while improving the quality of their customer service, CCF increases call center agent productivity by prefetching customer information and sharing it in smart ways between different applications, dramatically cutting the time agents must spend searching for and entering data to complete a call.

To know more details please visit following URL.

http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/ccf.mspx

Visual studio 2005 Starter kits

Visual studio 2005 Starter kits a new features available for creating projects template for all type of applications in different .net languages. . Project templates provide all the files necessary to create a new project and can include references, classes, forms, and project settings. So using this lot of rework and defects can be avoided.

Visit the linkbelow to know how to create project templates.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/CreatStrtKt.asp

TryParse

For parsing base type the .NET Framework 2.0 introduces a pattern across all the relevant base types called TryParse, which mimics Parse. The difference in behavior is that Parse will throw an exception when the data check fails, while TryParse simply goes to an else statement

Example:

Dim iVal As Integer
If Int32.TryParse(someString, iVal) Then
' code which deals with the valid integer
Else
' code which deals with an invalid input
End If