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• Speaking At The Chicago Code Camp

  - by Tim Murphy

  I just got news that my talk on Office Open XML has been accepted for the Chicago Code Camp.  I hear that they will be announcing the full schedule of sessions soon.  Be sure to register and join us.  As a bonus the guys from .NET Rocks will be there. http://www.chicagocodecamp.com del.icio.us Tags: .NET Rocks,Chicago Code Camp,Speaking,OOXML SDK 2.0,OOXML,Office Open XML,PSC Group

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• Craftsmanship Tour Day 0: New York

  - by Liam McLennan

  Arriving at JFK, at dawn, is beautiful. From above 1,000ft I can see no crime, poverty or ugliness – just the dark orange sunrise-through-smog. The Atlantic appears calm, and I take that as a good sign. Today is the first day of my software craftsmanship tour. I will be visiting three of the shining lights of the software industry over five days, exchanging ideas and learning. Arriving on the red eye from Seattle I feel like hell. My lips, not used to the dry air, are cracked and bleeding. I get changed in the JFK restroom and make my way from the airport. Following Rik’s directions I take the airtrain to Jamaica. Rik is an engineering manager at Didit in Long Island, the first stop on my tour. From Jamaica I take the Long Island Rail Road train to Rockville Centre, home of Didit.

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• Multitenant Design for SQL Azure: White Paper Available

  - by Herve Roggero

  Cloud computing is about scaling out all your application tiers, from web application to the database layer. In fact, the whole promise of Azure is to pay for just what you need. You need more IIS servers? No problemo... just spin another web server. You expect to double your storage needs for Azure Tables? No problemo; you are covered there too... just pay for your storage needs. But what about the database tier, SQL Azure? How do you add new databases easily, and transparently, so that your application simply uses more of SQL Azure if its needs to? Without changing a single line of code? And what if you need to scale back down? Welcome to the world of database scalability. There are many terms that describe database scalability, including data federation, multitenant designs, and even NoSQL depending on the technical solution you are implementing.  Because SQL Azure is a transactional database system, NoSQL is not really an option. However data federation and multitenant designs offer some very interesting scalability options that are worth considering. Data federation, a feature of SQL Azure that will be offered in the future, offers very interesting capabilities available natively on the SQL Azure platform. More to come in a few weeks... Multitenant designs on the other hand are design practices and technologies designed to help you reach flexible scalability options not available otherwise. The first incarnation of such a method was made available on CodePlex as an open source project (http://enzosqlshard.codeplex.com).  This project was an attempt to provide a sharding library for educational purposes.  All that sounds really cool... and really esoteric... almost a form of database "voodoo"... However after being on multiple Azure projects I am starting to see a real need. Customers want to be able to free themselves from the database tier, so that if they have 10 new customers tomorrow, all they need to do is add 2 more SQL Azure instances. It's that simple. How you achieve this, and suggested application design guidelines, are available in a white paper I just published.  The white paper offers two primary sections. The first section describes the business and technical problem at hand, and how to classify it according to specific design patterns. For example, I discuss compressed shards through schema separation. The second section offers a method for addressing the needs of a multitenant design using a new library, the big bother of the codeplex project mentioned previously (that I created earlier this year), complete with management interface and such. A Beta of this platform will be made available within weeks; as soon as the documentation will be ready.   I would like to ask you to drop me a quick email at [email protected] if you are going to download the white paper. It's not required, but it would help me get in touch with you for feedback.  You can download this white paper here:   http://www.bluesyntax.net/files/EnzoFramework.pdf . Thank you, and I am looking for feedback, thoughts and implementation opportunities.

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• EF4 Code First Control Unicode and Decimal Precision, Scale with Attributes

  - by Dane Morgridge

  There are several attributes available when using code first with the Entity Framework 4 CTP5 Code First option.  When working with strings you can use [MaxLength(length)] to control the length and [Required] will work on all properties.  But there are a few things missing. By default all string will be created using unicode so you will get nvarchar instead of varchar.  You can change this using the fluent API or you can create an attribute to make the change.  If you have a lot of properties, the attribute will be much easier and require less code. You will need to add two classes to your project to create the attribute itself: 1: public class UnicodeAttribute : Attribute 2: { 3: bool _isUnicode; 4:  5: public UnicodeAttribute(bool isUnicode) 6: { 7: _isUnicode = isUnicode; 8: } 9:  10: public bool IsUnicode { get { return _isUnicode; } } 11: } 12:  13: public class UnicodeAttributeConvention : AttributeConfigurationConvention<PropertyInfo, StringPropertyConfiguration, UnicodeAttribute> 14: { 15: public override void Apply(PropertyInfo memberInfo, StringPropertyConfiguration configuration, UnicodeAttribute attribute) 16: { 17: configuration.IsUnicode = attribute.IsUnicode; 18: } 19: } The UnicodeAttribue class gives you a [Unicode] attribute that you can use on your properties and the UnicodeAttributeConvention will tell EF how to handle the attribute. You will need to add a line to the OnModelCreating method inside your context for EF to recognize the attribute: 1: protected override void OnModelCreating(System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration.ModelBuilder modelBuilder) 2: { 3: modelBuilder.Conventions.Add(new UnicodeAttributeConvention()); 4: base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder); 5: } Once you have this done, you can use the attribute in your classes to make sure that you get database types of varchar instead of nvarchar: 1: [Unicode(false)] 2: public string Name { get; set; }   Another option that is missing is the ability to set the precision and scale on a decimal.  By default decimals get created as (18,0).  If you need decimals to be something like (9,2) then you can once again use the fluent API or create a custom attribute.  As with the unicode attribute, you will need to add two classes to your project: 1: public class DecimalPrecisionAttribute : Attribute 2: { 3: int _precision; 4: private int _scale; 5:  6: public DecimalPrecisionAttribute(int precision, int scale) 7: { 8: _precision = precision; 9: _scale = scale; 10: } 11:  12: public int Precision { get { return _precision; } } 13: public int Scale { get { return _scale; } } 14: } 15:  16: public class DecimalPrecisionAttributeConvention : AttributeConfigurationConvention<PropertyInfo, DecimalPropertyConfiguration, DecimalPrecisionAttribute> 17: { 18: public override void Apply(PropertyInfo memberInfo, DecimalPropertyConfiguration configuration, DecimalPrecisionAttribute attribute) 19: { 20: configuration.Precision = Convert.ToByte(attribute.Precision); 21: configuration.Scale = Convert.ToByte(attribute.Scale); 22:  23: } 24: } Add your line to the OnModelCreating: 1: protected override void OnModelCreating(System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration.ModelBuilder modelBuilder) 2: { 3: modelBuilder.Conventions.Add(new UnicodeAttributeConvention()); 4: modelBuilder.Conventions.Add(new DecimalPrecisionAttributeConvention()); 5: base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder); 6: } Now you can use the following on your properties: 1: [DecimalPrecision(9,2)] 2: public decimal Cost { get; set; } Both these options use the same concepts so if there are other attributes that you want to use, you can create them quite simply.  The key to it all is the PropertyConfiguration classes.   If there is a class for the datatype, then you should be able to write an attribute to set almost everything you need.  You could also create a single attribute to encapsulate all of the possible string combinations instead of having multiple attributes on each property. All in all, I am loving code first and having attributes to control database generation instead of using the fluent API is huge and saves me a great deal of time.

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• Thou shalt not put code on a piedestal - Code is a tool, no more, no less

  - by Ralf Westphal

  “Write great code and everything else becomes easier” is what Paul Pagel believes in. That´s his version of an adage by Brian Marick he cites: “treat code as an end, not just a means.” And he concludes: “My post-Agile world is software craftsmanship.” I wonder, if that´s really the way to go. Will “simply” writing great code lead the software industry into the light? He´s alluding to the philosopher Kant who proposed, a human beings should never be treated as a means, but always as an end. But should we transfer this ethical statement into the world of software? I doubt it.   Reason #1: Human beings are categorially different from code. They are autonomous entities who need to find a way of living happily together. To Kant it seemed this goal could only be reached if nobody (ab)used a human being for his/her purposes. Because using a human being, i.e. treating it as a means, would contradict the fundamental autonomy and freedom of human beings. People should hold up a symmetric view of their relationships: Since nobody wants to be (ab)used, nobody should (ab)use anybody else. If you want to be treated decently, with respect, in accordance with your own free will - which means as an end - then do the same to other people. Code is dead, it´s a product, it´s a tool for people to reach their goals. No company spends any money on code other than to save money or earn money in the long run. Code is not a puppy. Enterprises do not commission software development to just feel good in its company. Code is not a buddy. Code is a slave, if you will. A mechanical slave, a non-tangible robot. Code is a tool, is a tool. And if we start to treat it differently, if we elevate its status unduely… I guess that will contort our relationship in a contraproductive way. Please get me right: Just because something is “just a tool”, “just a product” does not mean we should not be careful while designing, building, using it. Right to the contrary. We should be very careful when writing code – but not for the code´s sake! We should be careful because we respect our customers who are fellow human beings who should be treated as an end. If we are careless, neglectful, ignorant when producing code on their behalf, then we´re using them. Being sloppy means you´re caring more for yourself that for your customer. You´re then treating the customer as a means to fulfill some of your own needs. That´s plain unethical behavior.   Reason #2: The focus should always be on your purpose, not on any tool. But if code is treated as an end, then the focus is on the code. That might sound right, because where else should be your focus as a software developer? But, well, I´d say, your focus should be on delivering value to your customer. Because in the end your customer does not care if you write a single line of code. She just wants her problem to be solved. Solving problems is the purpose of any contractor. Code must be treated just as a means, a tool we know how to handle very well. But if we´re really trying to be craftsmen then we should be conscious about exactly that and act ethically. That means we must never be so focused on our tool as to be unable to suggest better solutions to the problems of our customers than code.   I´m all with Paul when he urges us to “Write great code”. Sure, if you need to write code, then by all means do so. Write the best code you can think of – and then try to improve it. Paul has all the best intentions when he signs Brians “treat code as an end” - but as we all know: “The road to hell is paved with best intentions” ;-) Yes, I can imagine a “hell of code focus”. In fact, I don´t need to imagine it, I´m seeing it quite often. Because code hell is whereever two developers stand together and are so immersed in talking about all sorts of coding tricks, design patterns, code smells, technologies, platforms, tools that they lose sight of the big picture. Talking about TDD or SOLID or refactoring is a sign of consciousness – relative to the “cowboy coders” view of the world. But from yet another point of view TDD, SOLID, and refactoring are just cures for ailments within a system. And I fear, if “Writing great code” is the only focus or the main focus of software development, then we as an industry lose the ability to see that. Focus draws a line around something, it defines a horizon for perceptions and thinking. So if we focus on code our horizon ends where “the land of code” ends. I don´t think that should be our professional attitude.   So what about Software Craftsmanship as the next big thing after Agility? I think Software Craftsmanship has an important message for all software developers and beyond. But to make it the successor of the Agility movement seems to miss a point. Agility never claimed to solve all software development problems, I´d say. So to blame it for having missed out on certain aspects of it is wrong. If I had to summarize Agility in one word I´d say “Value”. Agility put value for the customer back in software development. Focus on delivering value early and often – that´s Agility´s mantra. All else follows from that. And I ask you: Is that obsolete? Is delivering value not hip anymore? No, sure not. That´s our very purpose as software developers. So how can Agility become obsolete and need to be replaced? We need to do away with this “either/or”-thinking. It´s either Agility or Lean or Software Craftsmanship or whatnot. Instead we should start integrating concepts and movements. Think “both/and”. Think Agility plus Software Craftsmanship plus Lean plus whatnot. We don´t neet to tear down anything from a piedestal and replace it with a new idol. Instead we should do away with piedestals and arrange whatever is helpful is a circle. Then we can turn to concepts, movements for whatever they are best. After 10 years of Agility we should be able to identify what it was good at – and keep that. Keep Agility around and add whatever Agility was lacking or never concerned with. Add whatever is at the core of Software Craftsmanship. Add whatever is at the core of Lean etc. But don´t call out the age of Post-Agility. Because it better never will end. Because once we start to lose Agility´s core we´re losing focus of the customer.

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• Ajax Autocomplete Extender

  - by Jason Ulloa

  El objetivo de este post es preparar un ejemplo sobre un tema que es planteado muy frecuentemente en los Foros de MSDN, como realizar un Autocomplete contra una base de datos. Qué requerimos? Antes de poder realizar un Autocomplete debemos tener en cuenta los elementos principales que requerimos para poder hacerlo funcionar, descritos de la siguiente manera: 1. Textbox: Nuestro grandioso amigo Textbox, que será donde el usuario ingresará los datos a buscar. 2. Un Webservice: que contendrá el método que se conectara a la base de datos y devolverá una lista con la información encontrada. 3. Ajax Autocomplete Extender: este es por decirlo así, el elemento más importante. Nos servirá como medio de enlace entre el webservice que expone el método y el textbox recuperando y mostrando los datos en forma de lista desplegable. La implementación Si bien parecierá complicado, crear un autocomplete extender es bastante sencillo. Empezaremos creando un nuevo sitio asp.net, en este sitio agregaremos un textbox y dos controles muy importantes de Ajax el ToolkitScriptManager para controlar el rende rizado de los script de ajax y el AutocompleteExtender que, como mencione anteriormente, será el medio de enlace. Antes de mostrar como quedará el código de lo anterior, explicaré algunas propiedades del AutocompleteExtender para que se entienda de mejor manera: 1. El ServicePath: contiene la ruta relativa al webservice que utilizaremos. 2. MinimumPrefixLength: se refiere al número de caracteres que deben ser digitados antes de iniciar la búsqueda. 3. ServiceMethod: el nombre del metodo de nuestro webservice que se encargará de devolver los datos. 4. EnableCaching: para mantener en cache los datos consultados, obteniendo mayor velocidad. 5. TargetControlID: una de las propiedades más importantes, acá se coloca el nombre del textbox al cual se unirá el Autocomplete 6. CompletionInterval: tiempo que debe transcurrir antes de iniciar con el trabajo de los datos. Una vez, explicadas las propiedades básicas, veamos como queda implementada la primer parte de nuestro autocomplete: <form id="form1" runat="server"> <div> <asp:ToolkitScriptManager ID="manager" runat="server" /> <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox> <asp:AutoCompleteExtender ID="AutoCompleteExtender1" runat="server" ServicePath="WebService.asmx" MinimumPrefixLength="1" ServiceMethod="PersonasInfo " EnableCaching="true" TargetControlID="TextBox1" UseContextKey="True" CompletionSetCount="10" CompletionInterval="0"> </asp:AutoCompleteExtender> </div> </form>   Ahora que nuestro código html está completo, es hora de trabajar directamente con nuestro webservice, este deberá contener un método que devuelva una lista o arreglo de datos, los cuales por supuesto, serán traídos desde la base de datos. Antes de implementar este método, debemos asegurarnos de que nuestra clase del webservice tiene habilitados los espacios para ser utilizada [System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptService()] [WebService(Namespace = "http://tempuri.org/")] [WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)] public class WebService : System.Web.Services.WebService {}   Ahora si, nuestro metodo principal [WebMethod()] [System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptMethod()] public string[] PersonasInfo(string prefixText, int count) { string connstring = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["LocalSqlServer"].ConnectionString;   using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(connstring)) { SqlCommand comando = new SqlCommand("select nombre from personas where nombre LIKE '%' + @param + '%' ", conn); comando.Parameters.AddWithValue("@param", prefixText); SqlDataReader dr = default(SqlDataReader); comando.Connection.Open(); dr = comando.ExecuteReader(); List<string> items = new List<string>();   while (dr.Read()) { items.Add(dr["nombre"].ToString()); } comando.Connection.Close(); return items.ToArray(); } }   Del método anterior no explicaré en profundidad, pues es bastante sencillo. Una consulta a la base de datos utilizando un datareader y devolviendo los datos en una lista como arreglo. Lo más importante serían las 2 primeras líneas [WebMethod()] y el [ScriptMethod()] las cuales habilitan nuestro método para poder ser accedido y utilizado. Por último, el código de ejemplo en C# (VB Autcomplete):

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• Windows Phone 7 Silverlight / XNA development talk

  - by subodhnpushpak

  Hi, I presented on Windows Phone 7 app development using Silverlight. Here are few pics from the event Windows Phone 7 development VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL     I demonstrated the Visual studio, emulator capabilities/ features. An demo on Wp7 app communication with an OData Service, along with a demo on XNA app. There was lot of curious questions; I am listing them here because these keep on popping up again and again: 1. What tools does it takes to develop Wp7 app? Are they free? A typical WP7 app can be developed either using Silverlight or XNA. For developers, Visual Studio 2010 is a good choice as it provides an integrated development environment with lots of useful project templates; which makes the task really easy. For designers, Blend may be used to develop the UI in XAML. Both the tools are FREE (express version) to download and very intuitive to use. 2. What about the learning curve? If you know C#, (or any other programming language), learning curve is really flat. XAML (used for UI) may be new for you, but trust me; its very intuitive. Also you can use Microsoft Blend to generate the UI (XAML) for you. 3. How can I develop /test app without using actual device? How can I be sure my app runs as expected on actual device? The WP7 SDK comes along with an excellent emulator; which you can use for development/ testing on a computer. Later you can just change a setting and deploy the application on WP7. You will require Zune software for deploying the application on phone along with Developers key from WP7 marketplace. You can obtain key from marketplace by filling a form. The whole process for registering  is easy; just follow the steps on the site. 4. Which one should I use? Silverlight or XNA? Use Silverlight for enterprise/ business / utility apps. Use XNA for Games app. While each platform is capable / strong and may be used in conjunction as well; The methodologies used for development in these platforms are very different. XNA works on typical Do..While loop where as Silverlight works on event based methodology. 5. Where are the learning resources? Are they free? There is lots of stuff on WP7. Most of them are free. There is a excellent free book by Charles Petzold to download and http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone is full of demos /todos / vidoes. All the exciting stuff was captured live and you can view it here; in case you were not able to catch it live!! @ http://livestre.am/AUfx. My talk starts from 3:19:00 timeline in the video!! Is there an app you miss on WP7? Do let me know about it and I may work on it for free !!! Keep discovering. Keep is Simple. WP7. Subodh

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• Update the model on HttpPost and render the changes in the View

  - by Etienne Giust

  With MVC3, I came over that problem where I was rendering a view with an updated model at the end of an HttpPost and the changes to the model were never applied to the rendered view :   NOT working as expected ! [HttpPost]         public ActionResult Edit(JobModel editedJobModel)         {             // Update some model property             editedJobModel.IsActive = true;                          // The view will NOT be updated as expected             return View(editedJobModel);         }   This is the standard behavior. In MVC3, POSTing the model does not render the Html helpers again. In my example, a HiddenFor bound to the IsActive value will not have its value set to true after the view is rendered.   Are you stuck, then ?   Well, for one, you’re not supposed to do that: in an ideal world you are supposed to apply the Post/Redirect/Get pattern. You would redirect to a new GET after your POST performed its actions. That’s what I usually do, but sometimes, when maintaining code and implementing slight changes to a pre-existing and tested logic, one prefers to keep structural changes to a minimum.   If you really have to (but my advice is to try to implement the PRG pattern whenever possible), here is a solution to alter values of the model on a POST and have the MVC engine render it correctly :   Solution [HttpPost] public ActionResult Edit(JobModel editedJobModel) {     // NOT WORKING : Update some model property     //editedJobModel.IsActive = true;     //Force ModelState value for IsActive property     ModelState["IsActive"].Value = new ValueProviderResult(true, "True", null);          // The view will be updated as expected     return View(editedJobModel); }   As you can see, it is a “dirty” solution, as the name (as a  string) of the updated property is used as a key of the ModelState dictionary. Also, the use of ValueProviderResult is not that straightforward.   But hey, it works.

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• Convert MP3 to AAC,FLAC to AAC (.NET/C#) FREE :)

  - by PearlFactory

  So I was tasked with looking at converting 10 million tracks from mp3 320k to AAC and also Converting from mp3 320k to mp3 128k After a bit of hunting around the tool you need to use is FFMPEG Download x64 WindowsAlso for the best results get the Nero AACEncoder Download Now the command line STEP 1(From Flac)ffmpeg -i input.flac -f wav - | neroAacEnc -ignorelength -q 0.5 -if - -of output.m4aor (From mp3)ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -f wav - | neroAacEnc -ignorelength -q 0.5 -if - -of output.m4aNow the output.m4a is a intermediate state that we now put a ACC wrapper on via FFMpeg STEP 2ffmpeg -i output.m4a -vn -acodec copy final.aacDone :) There are a couple of options with the FFMPEG library as in we can look at importing the librarys and manipulation the API for the direct result FFMPEG has this support. You can get the relevant librarys from HereThey even have the source if you are that keen :-)In this case I am going to wrap the command lines into c# external process threads.( For the app that i am building to convert the 10 million tracks there is a complex multithreaded app to support this novel code )//Arrange Metadata about Call Process myProcess = new Process();ProcessStartInfo p = new ProcessStartInfo();string sArgs = string.format(" -i {0} -f wav - | neroAacEnc -ignorelength -q 0.5 -if - -of {1}",inputfile,outputfil) ; p.FileName = "ffmpeg.exe" ; p.CreateNoWindow = true; p.RedirectStandardOutput = true; //p.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal p.UseShellExecute = false;//Execute p.Arguments = sArgs; myProcess.StartInfo = p; myProcess.Start(); myProcess.WaitForExit();//Write details about call  myProcess.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();Now in this case we would execute a 2nd call using the same code but with different sArgs to put the AAC wrapper on the m4a file. Thats it. So if you need to do some conversions of any kind for you ASP.net sites/apps this is a great start and super fast.. With conversion times of around 2-3 seconds all of this can be done on the fly:-)Justin Oehlmannref : StackOverflow.com

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• Slides and Files from Day of .Net Ann Arbor &lsquo;10

  - by Brian Jackett

  This past Saturday I presented “Real World Deployment of SharePoint 2007 Solutions” at the Ann Arbor Day of .Net conference in Ann Arbor, MI.  Below are my slides and PowerShell demo scripts I used during the presentation.  Thanks to everyone who attended my session, as well as the sponsors, speakers, organizers and all attendees who made this event happen.   Slides and demo scripts

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• OData Mix10 &ndash; Part Dos

  - by Jon Dalberg

  The other day I had a snazzy post on fetching all the video (WMV) files from Mix ‘10. A simple, console application that grabbed the urls from the OData feed and downloaded the videos. I wanted to change that app to fire the OData query asynchronously so here’s what resulted: 1: static void Main(string[] args) 2: { 3: var mix = new Mix.EventEntities(new Uri("http://api.visitmix.com/OData.svc")); 4:   5: var temp = mix.Files.Where(f => f.TypeName == "WMV"); 6: var query = temp as DataServiceQuery<Mix.File>; 7:   8: query.BeginExecute(OnFileQueryComplete, query); 9:   10: // waiting... 11: Console.ReadLine(); 12: } 13:   14: static void OnFileQueryComplete(IAsyncResult result) 15: { 16: var query = result.AsyncState as DataServiceQuery<Mix.File>; 17: var response = query.EndExecute(result); 18:   19: var web = new WebClient(); 20:   21: var myVideos = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyVideos), "Mix10"); 22:   23: Directory.CreateDirectory(myVideos); 24:   25: foreach (Mix.File f in response) 26: { 27: var fileName = new Uri(f.Url).Segments.Last(); 28: Console.WriteLine(f.Url); 29: web.DownloadFile(f.Url, Path.Combine(myVideos, fileName)); 30: } 31: } There are two important things here that are not explained well in the MSDN docs: See lines 5 and 6? That’s where I query for the WMV files and it returns an IQueryable<T>. You *have* to cast that to a DataServiceQuery<T> and then call BeginExecute. The documented example does not filter so it didn’t show that step. Line 16 shows the correct way to get the previously executed DataServiceQuery<T> from the async result. If you looked at the MSDN example docs it shows (incorrectly) just casting the result, like this: // wrong var query = result as DataServiceQuery<Mix.File>; Other than those items it is relatively straight forward and we’re all async-ified. Enjoy!

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• My First Iteration Zero

  - by onefloridacoder

  I recently watched a web cast that covered the idea of planning from the concept stage to the product backlog.  It was the first content I had seen related to Iteration Zero and it made a lot of sense from a planning and engagement perspective where the customer is concerned.  It illuminated some of the problems I’ve experienced with getting a large project of the ground.  The idea behind this is to just figure out get everyone to understand what needs to be constructed and to build the initial feature set from a *very* high level.  Once that happens other parts of the high level construction start to take place.  You end up with a feature list that describes what the business wants the system to do, and what it potentially may (or may not) interact with.  Low tech tools are used to create UI mockups that can be used as a starting point for some of the key UI pieces. Toward the end of the webcast they speaker introduced something that was new to me.  He referred to it as an executable skeleton or the steel thread.  The idea with this part of the webcast was to describe walking through the different mocked layers of the application.  Not all layers and collaborators are involved at this stage since it’s Iteration Zero, and each layer is either hard-coded or completely mocked to provide a 35K foot view of how the different layers layers work together.  So imagine two actors on each side of a layer diagram and the flow goes down from the upper left side down through a a consumer, thorough a service layer and then back up the service layer to the destination/actor. I would imagine much could be discussed moving through new/planned or existing/legacy layers, or a little of both to see what’s implied by the current high-level design. One part of the web cast has the business and design team creating the product box (think of your favorite cereal or toy box) with all of the features and even pictures laid out on the outside of the box.  The notion here is that if you handed this box to someone and told them your system was inside they would have an understanding of what the system would be able to do, or the features it could provide.    One of the interesting parts of the webcast was where the speaker described that he worked with a couple of groups in the same room and each group came up with a different product box – the point is that each group had a different idea of what the system was supposed to do.  At this point of the project I thought that to be valuable considering my experience has been that historically this has taken longer than a week to realize that the business unit and design teams see the high level solution differently.  Once my box is finished I plan on moving to the next stage of solution definition which is to plan the UI for this small application using Excel, to map out the UI elements.  I’m my own customer so it feels like cheating, but taking these slow deliberate steps have already provided a few learning opportunities.    So I resist the urge to load all of my user stories into my newly installed VS2010  TFS project and try to reduce or add to, the number of user stories and/or refine the high level estimates I’ve come up with so far.

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• The Dispose Pattern (and FxCop warnings)

  - by Scott Dorman

  [This is actually a response to Bill’s blog post, but since it isn’t possible to leave this as a comment on his blog it’s a post here.] There are many different ways to implement the Dispose pattern correctly. Some are (in my opinion) better than others. In Bill’s blog post he presents a particular pattern, which is an excerpt from his book (Effective C#). The issue centers around the fact that a reader took the code sample presented in the book and ran FxCop (Code Analysis) on it, which generated a warning: “Ensure that base.Dispose() is always called.” The “lesson learned” that Bill presents is that “tools are there to help us, not control us.” While I completely agree with the belief that tools are there to help us, I think it’s important to understand why FxCop is raising this particular warning. The code presented in Bill’s book looks like: // Have its own disposed flag.private bool disposed = false;protected override void Dispose(bool isDisposing){ // Don't dispose more than once. if (disposed) return; if (isDisposing) { // TODO: free managed resources here. } // TODO: free unmanaged resources here. // Let the base class free its resources. // Base class is responsible for calling // GC.SuppressFinalize( ) base.Dispose(isDisposing); // Set derived class disposed flag: disposed = true;} This code does follow all of the guidelines for implementing the Dispose pattern. In this case, it’s presumably part of a larger example showing how to implement the pattern as part of a base class. The reason FxCop is warning you about this code is the first if statement in the Dispose method, which will cause the method to exit if disposed is true. The problem here is that there is the possibility that if the disposed flag is true, the call to base.Dispose() will never be executed. As Bill points out, it is possible for some other code elsewhere in the class to set this flag. He states that this is an “unlikely occurrence.” While that is probably true, it can be a potentially dangerous assumption to make and is one that can be easily corrected. By changing the code slightly you can remove this assumption and correct the FxCop violation. private bool disposed = false;protected override void Dispose(bool disposing){ if (!disposed) { if (disposing) { // Dispose managed resources. } // Dispose unmanaged resources. disposed = true; } base.Dispose(disposing);} Using this implementation allows the call to base.Dispose() to always occur, which ensures that the the disposal chain is always properly followed. Technorati Tags: .NET,C#,Dispose Pattern

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• The Case of the Invisible Training Resource

  - by GGBlogger

  I’ve been at this programming business longer than I would like to admit. For that reason I am always looking for new training resources as anyone in this business knows all too well. I’ve looked at AppDev (way too expensive for my meager budget), LearnVisualStudio (I have a lifetime subscription), and several others. What appears to be a new version of AppDev called LearnDevNow has some good material and so it goes. So what does all this have to do with the title? I’ve been using Adobe’s Flex Builder 3 and now their latest Flash Builder 4 (a renaming of the Adobe Flex development environment). One of the offered perks on registering was a month’s subscription to Lynda.com. My first reaction was “What the heck is Lynda.com?” but I chose it and signed up. What a surprise I was in for. I’d never heard of them before but discovered one of the most comprehensive training resources I’ve ever seen – and all for $ 34.95 a month in the version that offers Exercise files. They do have a heavy focus on Adobe products but also cover a lot of Microsoft material. What bothered me is that in the time I’ve been in this business I’d never heard of them! ; Thus the allusion to “The Invisible Training Resource.” Not only do they offer beginner and in depth training but the syllabus and the instructors are some of the best I’ve seen in the industry. So I just feel that more folks need to know about this organization. If you need training in the venues they offer I can attest to the fact that they offer some of the best training available in this industry in my humble opinion. You really owe it to yourself to check out Lynda.com.

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• Thoughts on Build 2013

  - by D'Arcy Lussier

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/dlussier/archive/2013/06/30/153294.aspxAnd so another Build conference has come to an end. Below are my thoughts/perspectives on various aspects of the event. I’ll do a separate blog post on my thoughts of the Build message for developers. The Good Moscone center was a great venue for Build! Easy to get around, easy to get to, and well maintained, it was a very comfortable conference venue. Yeah, the free swag was nice. Build has built up an expectation that attendees will always get something; it’ll be interesting to see how Microsoft maintains this expectation over the next few Build events. I still maintain that free swag should never be the main reason one attends an event, and for me this was definitely just an added bonus. I’m planning on trying to use the Surface as a dedicated 2nd device at work for meetings, I’ll share my experiences over the next few months. The hackathon event was a great idea, although personally I couldn’t justify spending the money on a conference registration just to spend the entire conference coding. Still, the apps that were created were really great and there was a lot of passion and excitement around the hackathon. I wonder if they couldn’t have had the hackathon on the Monday/Tuesday for those that wanted to participate so they didn’t miss any of the actual conference over Wed/Thurs. San Francisco was a great city to host Build. Getting from hotels to the conference center was very easy (well especially for me, I was only 3 blocks away) and the city itself felt very safe. However, if I never have to fly into SFO again I’ll be alright with that! Delays going into and out of SFO and both apparently were due to the airport itself. The Bad Build is one of those oddities on the conference landscape where people will pay to commit to attending an event without knowing anything about the sessions. We got our list of conference sessions when we registered on Tuesday, not before. And even then, we only got titles and not descriptions (those were eventually made available via the conference’s mobile application). I get it…they’re going to make announcements and they don’t want to give anything away through the session titles. But honestly, there wasn’t anything in the session titles that I would have considered a surprise. Breakfasts were brutal. High-carb pastries, donuts, and muffins with fruit and hard boiled eggs does not a conference breakfast make. I can’t believe that the difference between a continental breakfast per person and a hot breakfast buffet would have been a huge impact to a conference fee that was already around $2000. The vendor area was anemic. I don’t know why Microsoft forces the vendors into cookie-cutter booth areas (this year they were all made of plywood material). WPC, TechEd – booth areas there allow the vendors to be creative with their displays. Not so much for Build. Really odd was the lack of Microsoft’s own representation around Bing. In the day 1 keynote Microsoft made a big deal about Bing as an API. Yet there was nobody in the vendor area set up to provide more information or have discussions with about the Bing API. The Ugly Our name badges were NFC enabled. The purpose of this, beyond the vendors being able to scan your info, wasn’t really made clear. An attendee I talked to showed how you could get a reader app on your phone so you can scan other members cards and collect their contact info – which is a kewl idea; business cards are so 1990’s. But I was *shocked* at the amount of information that was on our name badges! Here’s what’s displayed on our name badge: - Name - Company - Twitter Handle I’m ok with that. But here’s what actually gets read: - Name - Company - Address Used for Registration - Phone Number Used for Registration So sharing that info with another attendee, they get way more of my info than just how to find me on Twitter! Microsoft, you need to fix this for the future. If vendors want to collect information on attendees, they should be able to collect an ID from the badge, then get a report with corresponding records afterwards. My personal information should not be so readily available, and without my knowledge! Final Verdict Maybe its my older age, maybe its where I’m at in life with family, maybe its where I’m at in my career, but when I consider whether a conference experience was valuable I get to the core reason I attend: opportunities to learn, opportunities to network, opportunities to engage with Microsoft. Opportunities to Learn:  Sessions I attended were generally OK, with some really stand out ones on Day 2. I would love to see Microsoft adopt the Dojo format for a portion of their sessions. Hands On Labs are dull, lecture style sessions are great for information sharing. But a guided hands-on coding session (Read: Dojo) provides the best of both worlds. Being that all content is publically available online to everyone (Build attendee or not), the value of attending the conference sessions is decreased. The value though is in the discussions that take part in person afterwards, which leads to… Opportunities to Network: I enjoyed getting together with old friends and connecting with Twitter friends in person for the first time. I also had an opportunity to meet total strangers. So from a networking perspective, Build was fantastic! I still think it would have been great to have an area for ad-hoc discussions – where speakers could announce they’d be available for more questions after their sessions, or attendees who wanted to discuss more in depth on a topic with other attendees could arrange space. Some people have no problems being outgoing and making these things happen, but others are not and a structured model is more attractive. Opportunities to Engage with Microsoft: Hit and miss on this one. Outside of the vendor area, unless you cornered or reached out to a speaker, there wasn’t any defined way to connect with blue badges. And as I mentioned above, Microsoft didn’t have full representation in the vendor area (no Bing). All in all, Build was a fun party where I was informed about some new stuff and got some free swag. Was it worth the time away from home and the hit to my PD budget? I’d say Somewhat. Build is a great informational conference, but I wouldn’t call it a learning conference. Considering that TechEd seems to be moving to more of an IT Pro focus, independent developer conferences seem to be the best value for those looking to learn and not just be informed. With the rapid development cycle Microsoft is embracing, we’re already seeing Build happening twice within a 12 month period. If that continues, the value of attending Build in person starts to diminish – especially with so much content available online. If Microsoft wants Build to be a must-attend event in the future, they need to start incorporating aspects of Tech Ed, past PDCs, and other conferences so those that want to leave with more than free swag have something to attract them.

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• Top 10 Browser Productivity Tips

  - by Renso

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/renso/archive/2013/10/14/top-10-browser-productivity-tips.aspxYou don’t have to be a geek to be a productive browser user. The tips below have been selected by actions users take most of the time to navigate a web-site but use long-standing keyboard or mouse actions to get them done, when there are keyboard short-cuts you can use instead. Since you hands are already on the keyboard it is almost always faster to sue a keyboard shortcut to get something done that you usually used the mouse for. For example right-clicking on something to copy it and then doing to same for pasting something is very time consuming, keyboard shortcuts have been created that simplify the task. All it takes are a few memory brain cells to remember them. Here are the tips, in no particular order:   Tip 1 Hold down the spacebar on your keyboard to page to the end of your web page rather than using your mouse. This is really a slow way of doing it. If you want to page one page at a time, hit the spacebar once, and again to page again. But if you want to page all the way to the end of the web page simply hit Ctrl+End (that is hold down the Ctrl key and hit the End button on your keyboard). To get to the top of your web page, simply hit Ctrl + Home to go all the way to the top of your web page. Tip 2 Where are my downloads? Some folks run downloads again-and-again because they do not know where the last one went and they do not see the popup, or browser note on their web page in the footer, etc. Simply hit Ctrl+J. Works in most browsers. Tip 3 Selecting a US state from a drop down box. Don’t use the mouse, takes just way too long to scroll. When you tab to the drop down box or click on it with your mouse, simply hit the first character of the state and it will be selected. For Texas for example hit the letter “T” twice on your keyboard to get to it. The same concept can be applied to any drop down box that is alphabetical or numerically sorted. Tip 4 Fixing spelling errors. All modern-day browsers support this now. You see the red wavy lines underscoring a word, yes it is a spelling error. How do you fix it? Don’t overtype it or try and fix it manually, fist right-click on it and a list of suggestions comes up. If it does not show up, like my name “Renso” and you know how to spell your name as in this example, look further down the list of options (the little window popup that appears when you right click) and you should see an option to “Add to Dictionary”. Be warned, when you add it, it only adds it to the browser you’re using’s dictionary. If you use Google Chrome, Firefox and IE, each one will have their own list. Tip 5 So you have trouble seeing the text on the screen. Or you are looking at a photo, for example in Facebook. You want to zoom in to read better or zoom into a photo a bit more. Hit Ctrl++ (hold down Ctrl key and hit the plus key – actually it’s the equal key but it is easier to remember that it is plus for bigger). Hit the minus to zoom out. Now you can’t remember what the original size was since you were so excited to hit it 20 times, or was that 21… Simply hit Ctrl+0 (that is zero) and it will reset it to the default. Tip 6 So you closed a couple of tabs in your browser. Suddenly you remember something you wanted to double-check something on one of the tabs, you cannot remember the URL ad the tab is gone forever, or is it? Simply hit Ctrl+Shift+t and it will bring back your tabs one by one each time you click the T. This has also been a great way for me to quickly close some tabs because I don’t want my boss to see I’m shopping and then hitting Ctrl+Shift+t to quickly get it back and complete my check-put and purchase. Or, for parents, when you walk into your daughter’s room and you see she quickly clicks and closes a window/tab in here browser. Not to worry my little darling, daddy will Ctrl+Shift+t and see what boys on Facebook you were talking too… Tip 7 The web browser is frozen on your PC/Laptop/Whatever, in this example it may be your Internet Explorer browser. I don’t mention Firefox or Chrome here because it probably never happens in their world. You cannot close it, it won’t respond to anything you have done s far except for the next step you are about to take, which is throw your two-day old coffee on your keyboard. This happens especially on sites that want to force you to complete a purchase order. Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del on your keyboard on any version of windows, select TASK MANAGER. In the  First Tab, which is the Process Tab, look for the item in question. In this example you should see Internet Explorer. Right-click it and select “End Task”. It will force the thread out of memory and terminate that process. You can of course do this with any program running under your account. Tip 8 This is a personal favorite of mine. To select words in the paragraph without using the mouse. You don’t want to select one character at a time like when you use the Ctrl+arrows as it can be very slow if you want to select a lot of text. You also want to select whole words. Simply use the Ctrl+Shift_arrow (right or left depending which direction you want to go. Tip 9 I was a bit reluctant to add this one, but being in the professional services industry still come across many-a-folk that simply can’t copy-and-paste them-all text or images that reside on them screens, y’all. Ctrl+c to copy and Ctrl+v to paste it. Works a lot faster than using the mouse. You may be asking: “Well why in the devil did they not use Ctrl+p for paste…. because that is for printing. This is of course not limited to the browser world, it applies to almost any piece of software running on PC or Mac. Go try it on an image on your browser, right-click it and select copy. Open a word document and Ctrl+v to paste the image in there. Please consider copyright laws. Tip 10 Getting rid of annoying ads. Now this only works when you load a web page, meaning when you get back to the same page later you will have to do this again and you will need to learn a tool to do it, WELL WORTH IT. For example, I use GrooveShark to listen to music but I don’t like the ads they show. Install a tool like Firebug for Firefox or use the Ctrl+Shift+I on Chrome to bring up the developer toolbar. Shows at the bottom of the page. With Firefox, once you have installed Firebug as an add-on, a yellow bug should appear on the top right-hand-side of your browser, click on it to display the developer toolbar. You will need to learn how to use it, but once you know how to select an item/section on the window (usually just right-click the add you don’t want to see and select “Inspect Element”, the developer toolbar will appear (if not already there)) and then simply hit delete and it will remove the add from the screen. If you don’t know HTML you may need to play with it a bit, but once you understand how it works can open up a whole new world for you on how web pages actually work. If you can think of any others that have saved you a ton of time please let me know so I can add them to a top 99 list.

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• Register the &quot;OneCode &amp; OneScript&quot; session at MVP Global Summit November 2013

  - by Jialiang

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/Jialiang/archive/2013/11/04/register-the-quotonecode-amp-onescriptquot-session-at-mvp-global-summit.aspxThe yearly Microsoft MVP Global Summit will lift its curtain on Nov 17th in Bellevue, WA.  This year, we have prepared three new apps and many new samples in response to MVPs’ feedbacks last year.  If you are attending this year’s Microsoft MVP Global Summit, you will have the privilege to kiss or bite their development team   Sample Browser Windows Phone app – with 6000+ MSDN code samples which will be at your fingertips anytime and anywhere. Script Explorer for PowerShell ISE – with 8000+ script sample which will be at your fingertips when you are writing scripts in PowerShell ISE. PowerShell checkin policy for TFS – automatically checks your PowerShell script code against best practices of PowerShell. Interested?  Please open your Schedule Builder for the MVP Summit 2013, and register for the event called “OneCode & OneScript” on Nov 17th.  We look forward to seeing you and learning your feedback.

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• App Fabric Service Bus and Access Control Pricing

  - by kaleidoscope

  The Service Bus costs $3.99 per Connection-month on a consumption basis for individually provisioned connections. Data transfers charges would also apply. Or, if you are able to forecast your needs ahead of time, you can purchase “Packs” of Connections. For example: $9.95 for a pack of 5 Connections, $49.75 for a pack of 25, $199.00 for a pack of 100, or $995 for a pack of 500, plus data transfer charges. Connection Packs represent an effective rate of $1.99 per Connection-month. Access Control will be priced at $1.99 per 100,000 Transactions, which includes token requests and management operations, plus associated data transfer. Typically, Service Bus developers depend on Access Control to secure their Connections. More Information: http://azurefeeds.com/post/865/Announcing_Windows_Azure_platform_commercial_offer_availability_and_updated_AppFabric_pricing.aspx   Amit, S

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• What I&rsquo;m Reading &ndash; Microsoft Silverlight 4 Business Application Development: Beginner&rs

  - by Dave Campbell

  I don’t have a lot of time for reading lately, so James Patterson and all those guys are *way* ahead of me … but I do try to make time to read technical material. A couple books have come across just recently and I thought I’d mention them one at a time. The book I want to mention tonight is Microsoft Silverlight 4 Business Application Development: Beginner’s Guide : by Cameron Albert and Frank LaVigne. Cameron and Frank are both great guys and you’ve seen their blog posts come across my SilverlightCream posts many times. I like the writing and format of the book. It leads you quite well from one concept to the next and for a technical book, it holds your interest. You can check out a free chapter here. I have the eBook because for technical material, at least lately, I’ve gravitated toward that. I can have it with me on a USB stick at work, or at home. Read the free chapter then check out their blogs. Even if you think you know a lot of this material, I think you’ll find yourself learning something, and besides, it’s a great one-place reference. Good work guys! Technorati Tags: Silverlight 4

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• TFS API Change WorkItem CreatedDate And ChangedDate To Historic Dates

  - by Tarun Arora

  There may be times when you need to modify the value of the fields “System.CreatedDate” and “System.ChangedDate” on a work item. Richard Hundhausen has a great blog with ample of reason why or why not you should need to set the values of these fields to historic dates. In this blog post I’ll show you, Create a PBI WorkItem linked to a Task work item by pre-setting the value of the field ‘System.ChangedDate’ to a historic date Change the value of the field ‘System.Created’ to a historic date Simulate the historic burn down of a task type work item in a sprint Explain the impact of updating values of the fields CreatedDate and ChangedDate on the Sprint burn down chart Rules of Play      1. You need to be a member of the Project Collection Service Accounts              2. You need to use ‘WorkItemStoreFlags.BypassRules’ when you instantiate the WorkItemStore service // Instanciate Work Item Store with the ByPassRules flag _wis = new WorkItemStore(_tfs, WorkItemStoreFlags.BypassRules);      3. You cannot set the ChangedDate         - Less than the changed date of previous revision         - Greater than current date Walkthrough The walkthrough contains 5 parts 00 – Required References 01 – Connect to TFS Programmatically 02 – Create a Work Item Programmatically 03 – Set the values of fields ‘System.ChangedDate’ and ‘System.CreatedDate’ to historic dates 04 – Results of our experiment Lets get started………………………………………………… 00 – Required References Microsoft.TeamFoundation.dll Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.dll Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Common.dll Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client.dll 01 – Connect to TFS Programmatically I have a in depth blog post on how to connect to TFS programmatically in case you are interested. However, the code snippet below will enable you to connect to TFS using the Team Project Picker. // Services I need access to globally private static TfsTeamProjectCollection _tfs; private static ProjectInfo _selectedTeamProject; private static WorkItemStore _wis; // Connect to TFS Using Team Project Picker public static bool ConnectToTfs() { var isSelected = false; // The user is allowed to select only one project var tfsPp = new TeamProjectPicker(TeamProjectPickerMode.SingleProject, false); tfsPp.ShowDialog(); // The TFS project collection _tfs = tfsPp.SelectedTeamProjectCollection; if (tfsPp.SelectedProjects.Any()) { // The selected Team Project _selectedTeamProject = tfsPp.SelectedProjects[0]; isSelected = true; } return isSelected; } 02 – Create a Work Item Programmatically In the below code snippet I have create a Product Backlog Item and a Task type work item and then link them together as parent and child. Note – You will have to set the ChangedDate to a historic date when you created the work item. Remember, If you try and set the ChangedDate to a value earlier than last assigned you will receive the following exception… TF26212: Team Foundation Server could not save your changes. There may be problems with the work item type definition. Try again or contact your Team Foundation Server administrator. If you notice below I have added a few seconds each time I have modified the ‘ChangedDate’ just to avoid running into the exception listed above. // Create Linked Work Items and return Ids private static List<int> CreateWorkItemsProgrammatically() { // Instantiate Work Item Store with the ByPassRules flag _wis = new WorkItemStore(_tfs, WorkItemStoreFlags.BypassRules); // List of work items to return var listOfWorkItems = new List<int>(); // Create a new Product Backlog Item var p = new WorkItem(_wis.Projects[_selectedTeamProject.Name].WorkItemTypes["Product Backlog Item"]); p.Title = "This is a new PBI"; p.Description = "Description"; p.IterationPath = string.Format("{0}\\Release 1\\Sprint 1", _selectedTeamProject.Name); p.AreaPath = _selectedTeamProject.Name; p["Effort"] = 10; // Just double checking that ByPassRules is set to true if (_wis.BypassRules) { p.Fields["System.ChangedDate"].Value = Convert.ToDateTime("2012-01-01"); } if (p.Validate().Count == 0) { p.Save(); listOfWorkItems.Add(p.Id); } else { Console.WriteLine(">> Following exception(s) encountered during work item save: "); foreach (var e in p.Validate()) { Console.WriteLine(" - '{0}' ", e); } } var t = new WorkItem(_wis.Projects[_selectedTeamProject.Name].WorkItemTypes["Task"]); t.Title = "This is a task"; t.Description = "Task Description"; t.IterationPath = string.Format("{0}\\Release 1\\Sprint 1", _selectedTeamProject.Name); t.AreaPath = _selectedTeamProject.Name; t["Remaining Work"] = 10; if (_wis.BypassRules) { t.Fields["System.ChangedDate"].Value = Convert.ToDateTime("2012-01-01"); } if (t.Validate().Count == 0) { t.Save(); listOfWorkItems.Add(t.Id); } else { Console.WriteLine(">> Following exception(s) encountered during work item save: "); foreach (var e in t.Validate()) { Console.WriteLine(" - '{0}' ", e); } } var linkTypEnd = _wis.WorkItemLinkTypes.LinkTypeEnds["Child"]; p.Links.Add(new WorkItemLink(linkTypEnd, t.Id) {ChangedDate = Convert.ToDateTime("2012-01-01").AddSeconds(20)}); if (_wis.BypassRules) { p.Fields["System.ChangedDate"].Value = Convert.ToDateTime("2012-01-01").AddSeconds(20); } if (p.Validate().Count == 0) { p.Save(); } else { Console.WriteLine(">> Following exception(s) encountered during work item save: "); foreach (var e in p.Validate()) { Console.WriteLine(" - '{0}' ", e); } } return listOfWorkItems; } 03 – Set the value of “Created Date” and Change the value of “Changed Date” to Historic Dates The CreatedDate can only be changed after a work item has been created. If you try and set the CreatedDate to a historic date at the time of creation of a work item, it will not work. // Lets do a work item effort burn down simulation by updating the ChangedDate & CreatedDate to historic Values private static void WorkItemChangeSimulation(IEnumerable<int> listOfWorkItems) { foreach (var id in listOfWorkItems) { var wi = _wis.GetWorkItem(id); switch (wi.Type.Name) { case "ProductBacklogItem": if (wi.State.ToLower() == "new") wi.State = "Approved"; // Advance the changed date by few seconds wi.Fields["System.ChangedDate"].Value = Convert.ToDateTime(wi.Fields["System.ChangedDate"].Value).AddSeconds(10); // Set the CreatedDate to Changed Date wi.Fields["System.CreatedDate"].Value = Convert.ToDateTime(wi.Fields["System.ChangedDate"].Value).AddSeconds(10); wi.Save(); break; case "Task": // Advance the changed date by few seconds wi.Fields["System.ChangedDate"].Value = Convert.ToDateTime(wi.Fields["System.ChangedDate"].Value).AddSeconds(10); // Set the CreatedDate to Changed date wi.Fields["System.CreatedDate"].Value = Convert.ToDateTime(wi.Fields["System.ChangedDate"].Value).AddSeconds(10); wi.Save(); break; } } // A mock sprint start date var sprintStart = DateTime.Today.AddDays(-5); // A mock sprint end date var sprintEnd = DateTime.Today.AddDays(5); // What is the total Sprint duration var totalSprintDuration = (sprintEnd - sprintStart).Days; // How much of the sprint have we already covered var noOfDaysIntoSprint = (DateTime.Today - sprintStart).Days; // Get the effort assigned to our tasks var totalEffortRemaining = QueryTaskTotalEfforRemaining(listOfWorkItems); // Defining how much effort to burn every day decimal dailyBurnRate = totalEffortRemaining / totalSprintDuration < 1 ? 1 : totalEffortRemaining / totalSprintDuration; // we have just created one task var totalNoOfTasks = 1; var simulation = sprintStart; var currentDate = DateTime.Today.Date; // Carry on till effort has been burned down from sprint start to today while (simulation.Date != currentDate.Date) { var dailyBurnRate1 = dailyBurnRate; // A fixed amount needs to be burned down each day while (dailyBurnRate1 > 0) { // burn down bit by bit from all unfinished task type work items foreach (var id in listOfWorkItems) { var wi = _wis.GetWorkItem(id); var isDirty = false; // Set the status to in progress if (wi.State.ToLower() == "to do") { wi.State = "In Progress"; isDirty = true; } // Ensure that there is enough effort remaining in tasks to burn down the daily burn rate if (QueryTaskTotalEfforRemaining(listOfWorkItems) > dailyBurnRate1) { // If there is less than 1 unit of effort left in the task, burn it all if (Convert.ToDecimal(wi["Remaining Work"]) <= 1) { wi["Remaining Work"] = 0; dailyBurnRate1 = dailyBurnRate1 - Convert.ToDecimal(wi["Remaining Work"]); isDirty = true; } else { // How much to burn from each task? var toBurn = (dailyBurnRate / totalNoOfTasks) < 1 ? 1 : (dailyBurnRate / totalNoOfTasks); // Check that the task has enough effort to allow burnForTask effort if (Convert.ToDecimal(wi["Remaining Work"]) >= toBurn) { wi["Remaining Work"] = Convert.ToDecimal(wi["Remaining Work"]) - toBurn; dailyBurnRate1 = dailyBurnRate1 - toBurn; isDirty = true; } else { wi["Remaining Work"] = 0; dailyBurnRate1 = dailyBurnRate1 - Convert.ToDecimal(wi["Remaining Work"]); isDirty = true; } } } else { dailyBurnRate1 = 0; } if (isDirty) { if (Convert.ToDateTime(wi.Fields["System.ChangedDate"].Value).Date == simulation.Date) { wi.Fields["System.ChangedDate"].Value = Convert.ToDateTime(wi.Fields["System.ChangedDate"].Value).AddSeconds(20); } else { wi.Fields["System.ChangedDate"].Value = simulation.AddSeconds(20); } wi.Save(); } } } // Increase date by 1 to perform daily burn down by day simulation = Convert.ToDateTime(simulation).AddDays(1); } } // Get the Total effort remaining in the current sprint private static decimal QueryTaskTotalEfforRemaining(List<int> listOfWorkItems) { var unfinishedWorkInCurrentSprint = _wis.GetQueryDefinition( new Guid(QueryAndGuid.FirstOrDefault(c => c.Key == "Unfinished Work").Value)); var parameters = new Dictionary<string, object> { { "project", _selectedTeamProject.Name } }; var q = new Query(_wis, unfinishedWorkInCurrentSprint.QueryText, parameters); var results = q.RunLinkQuery(); var wis = new List<WorkItem>(); foreach (var result in results) { var _wi = _wis.GetWorkItem(result.TargetId); if (_wi.Type.Name == "Task" && listOfWorkItems.Contains(_wi.Id)) wis.Add(_wi); } return wis.Sum(r => Convert.ToDecimal(r["Remaining Work"])); }   04 – The Results If you are still reading, the results are beautiful! Image 1 – Create work item with Changed Date pre-set to historic date Image 2 – Set the CreatedDate to historic date (Same as the ChangedDate) Image 3 – Simulate of effort burn down on a task via the TFS API   Image 4 – The history of changes on the Task. So, essentially this task has burned 1 hour per day Sprint Burn Down Chart – What’s not possible? The Sprint burn down chart is calculated from the System.AuthorizedDate and not the System.ChangedDate/System.CreatedDate. So, though you can change the System.ChangedDate and System.CreatedDate to historic dates you will not be able to synthesize the sprint burn down chart. Image 1 – By changing the Created Date and Changed Date to ‘18/Oct/2012’ you would have expected the burn down to have been impacted, but it won’t be, because the sprint burn down chart uses the value of field ‘System.AuthorizedDate’ to calculate the unfinished work points. The AsOf queries that are used to calculate the unfinished work points use the value of the field ‘System.AuthorizedDate’. Image 2 – Using the above code I burned down 1 hour effort per day over 5 days from the task work item, I would have expected the sprint burn down to show a constant burn down, instead the burn down shows the effort exhausted on the 24th itself. Simply because the burn down is calculated using the ‘System.AuthorizedDate’. Now you would ask… “Can I change the value of the field System.AuthorizedDate to a historic date” Unfortunately that’s not possible! You will run into the exception ValidationException –  “TF26194: The value for field ‘Authorized Date’ cannot be changed.” Conclusion - You need to be a member of the Project Collection Service account group in order to set the fields ‘System.ChangedDate’ and ‘System.CreatedDate’ to historic dates - You need to instantiate the WorkItemStore using the flag ByPassValidation - The System.ChangedDate needs to be set to a historic date at the time of work item creation. You cannot reset the ChangedDate to a date earlier than the existing ChangedDate and you cannot reset the ChangedDate to a date greater than the current date time. - The System.CreatedDate can only be reset after a work item has been created. You cannot set the CreatedDate at the time of work item creation. The CreatedDate cannot be greater than the current date. You can however reset the CreatedDate to a date earlier than the existing value. - You will not be able to synthesize the Sprint burn down chart by changing the value of System.ChangedDate and System.CreatedDate to historic dates, since the burn down chart uses AsOf queries to calculate the unfinished work points which internally uses the System.AuthorizedDate and NOT the System.ChangedDate & System.CreatedDate - System.AuthorizedDate cannot be set to a historic date using the TFS API Read other posts on using the TFS API here… Enjoy!

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• Web Sites All Start When Debugging a Web Site - Visual Studio 2010

  - by Daniel Lackey

  I wanted to blog about this because it was an annoyance to me and I couldn't figure out why for quite some time. Have you ever tried debugging one web application in your solution but when you do, all other web sites in your solution build and then start up their respective Visual Studio Development Server? It's not a major problem, but it adds time to waiting for what you are actually trying to debug to start up. After digging through Visual Studio 2010 settings, I finally found the option to turn it off. It is called Always Start When Debugging and is located in the Properties pane for the web project (click on the project .proj file in Visual Studio IDE). This is set to True by default each time you create a new Web Application project. Setting this to false will solve your problems. You will need to set this to false for all web applications in your solution as shown below: In addition, you can set properties on which port the development server uses each time it debugs. This is helpful if you want the port to stay the same for testing purposes. In contrast, you can set it to use a dynamic port each time so if you have a co-worker that is debugging it on a different session on the same server, you won't run into any problems with using the same port. The machine won't allow you to debug two sessions on the same port. Pretty basic stuff but it seemed like a really quirky setting to me.

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• Caveat utilitor - Can I run two versions of Microsoft Project side-by-side?

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  A number of out customers have asked if there are any problems in installing and running multiple versions of Microsoft Project on a single client. Although this is a case of Caveat utilitor (Let the user beware), as long as the user understands and accepts the issues that can occur then they can do this. Although Microsoft provide the ability to leave old versions of Office products (except Outlook) on your client when you are installing a new version of the product they certainly do not endorse doing so. Figure: For Project you can choose to keep the old stuff   That being the case I would have preferred that they put a “(NOT RECOMMENDED)” after the options to impart that knowledge to the rest of us, but they did not. The default and recommended behaviour is for the newer version installer to remove the older versions. Of course this does not apply in the revers. There are no forward compatibility packs for Office. There are a number of negative behaviours (or bugs) that can occur in this configuration: There is only one MS Project In Windows a file extension can only be associated with a single program.  In this case, MPP files can be associated with only one version of winproj.exe.  The executables are in different folders so if a user double-clicks a Project file on the desktop, file explorer, or Outlook email, Windows will launch the winproj.exe associated with MPP and then load the MPP file.  There are problems associated with this situation and in some cases workarounds. The user double-clicks on a Project 2010 file, Project 2007 launches but is unable to open the file because it is a newer version.  The workaround is for the user to launch Project 2010 from the Start menu then open the file.  If the file is attached to an email they will need to first drag the file to the desktop. All your linked MS Project files need to be of the same version There are a number of problems that occur when people use on Microsoft’s Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology.  The three common uses of OLE are: for inserted projects where a Master project contains sub-projects and each sub-project resides in its own MPP file shared resource pools where multiple MPP files share a common resource pool kept in a single MPP file cross-project links where a task or milestone in one MPP file has a  predecessor/successor relationship with a task or milestone in a different MPP file What I’ve seen happen before is that if you are running in a version of Project that is not associated with the MPP extension and then try and activate an OLE link then Project tries to launch the other version of Project.  Things start getting very confused since different MPP files are being controlled by different versions of Project running at the same time.  I haven’t tried this in awhile so I can’t give you exact symptoms but I suspect that if Project 2010 is involved the symptoms will be different then in a Project 2003/2007 scenario.  I’ve noticed that Project 2010 gives different error messages for the exact same problem when it occurs in Project 2003 or 2007.  -Anonymous The recommendation would be either not to use this feature if you have to have multiple versions of Project installed or to use only a single version of Project. You may get unexpected negative behaviours if you are using shared resource pools or resource pools even when you are not running multiple versions as I have found that they can get broken very easily. If you need these thing then it is probably best to use Project Server as it was created to solve many of these specific issues. Note: I would not even allow multiple people to access a network copy of a Project file because of the way Windows locks files in write mode. This can cause write-locks that get so bad a server restart is required I’ve seen user’s files get write-locked to the point where the only resolution is to reboot the server. Changing the default version to run for an extension So what if you want to change the default association from Project 2007 to Project 2010?   Figure: “Control Panel | Folder Options | Change the file associated with a file extension” Windows normally only lists the last version installed for a particular extension. You can select a specific version by selecting the program you want to change and clicking “Change program… | Browse…” and then selecting the .exe you want to use on the file system. Figure: You will need to select the exact version of “winproj.exe” that you want to run Conclusion Although it is possible to run multiple versions of Project on one system in the main it does not really make sense.

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• Access Services in SharePoint Server 2010

  - by Wayne

  Another SharePoint Server 2010 feature which cannot go unnoticed is the Access Services. Access Services is a service in SharePoint Server 2010 that allows administrators to view, edit, and configure a Microsoft access application within a Web Browser. Access Services settings support backup and recovery, regardless of whether there is a UI setting in Central Administration. However, backup and recovery only apply to service-level and administrative-level settings; end-user content from the Access application is not backed up as part of this process. Access Services has Windows PowerShell functionality that can be used to provide the service that uses settings from a previous backup; configure and manage macro and query setting; manage and configure session management; and configure all the global settings of the service. Key Benefits of SharePoint Server Access Services Easier Access to right tools: The enhanced, customizable Ribbon in Access 2010 makes it easy to uncover more commands so you can focus on the end product. The new Microsoft Office BackstageTM view is yet another feature that can help you easily analyze and document your database, share, publish, and customize your Access 2010 experience, all from one convenient location. Helps build database effortlessly and quickly: Out-of-the box templates and reusable components make Access Services the fastest, simplest database solution available. It helps find new pre-built templates which you can start using without customization or select templates created by your peers in the Access online community and customize them to meet your needs. It builds your databases with new modular components. New Application Parts enable you to add a set of common Access components, such as a table and form for task management, to your database in a few simple clicks. Database navigation is now simplified. It creates Navigation Forms and makes your frequently used forms and reports more accessible without writing any code or logic. Create Impactful forms and reports: Whether it's an inventory of your assets or customer sales database, Access 2010 brings the innovative tools you'd expect from Microsoft Office. Access Services easily spot trends and add emphasis to your data. It quickly create coordinating database forms and reports and bring the Web into your database. Obtain a centralized landing pad for your data: Access 2010 offers easy ways to bring your data together and help increase work quality. New technologies help break down barriers so you can share and work together on your databases, making you or your team more efficient and productive. Add automation and complex expressions: If you need a more robust database design, such as preventing record deletion if a specific condition is met or if you need to create calculations to forecast your budget, Access 2010 empowers you to be your own developer. The enhanced Expression Builder greatly simplifies your expression building experience with IntelliSense®. With the revamped Macro Designer, it's now even easier for you to add basic logic to your database. New Data Macros allow you to attach logic to your data, centralizing the logic on the table, not the objects that update your data. Key features of Access Services 2010 - Access database content through a Web browser: Newly added Access Services on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 enables you to make your databases available on the Web with new Web databases. Users without an Access client can open Web forms and reports via a browser and changes are automatically synchronized. - Simplify how you access the features you need: The Ribbon, improved in Access 2010, helps you access commands even more quickly by enabling you to customize or create your own tabs. The new Microsoft Office Backstage view replaces the traditional File menu to provide one central, organized location for all of your document management tasks. - Codeless navigation: Use professional looking web-like navigation forms to make frequently used forms and reports more accessible without writing any code or logic. - Easily reuse Access items in other databases: Use Application Parts to add pre-built Access components for common tasks to your database in a few simple clicks. You can also package common database components, such as data entry forms and reports for task management, and reuse them across your organization or other databases. - Simplified formatting: By using Office themes you can create coordinating professional forms and reports across your database. Simply select a familiar and great looking Office theme, or design your own, and apply it to your database. Newly created Access objects will automatically match your chosen theme.

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• Secretara si seful

  - by interesante

  Un bancher discuta cu prietenul sau:- Iti inchipui, m-am indragostit de secretara mea!Ea are 20 de ani, eu 65! Ce crezi, sansele mele vor creste daca ii voi spune ca am 50?- Sansele tale vor creste daca ii vei spune ca ai 80!Vezi si alte chestii haioase pe profilul meu de pe acest siteProprietarul unu hotel era nelamurit la calcularea unei facturi. Se decide sa-si intrebe secretara.- Asa-i ca ai terminat Politehnica?- Da, ii raspunde secretara.- Bun, atunci spune-mi, daca ai avea 20.000 de dolari din care ai scadea 14%, cu ce ai mai ramane?- Cu nimic in afara de cercei!

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• C-Sharpen Up at Philly.NET

  - by Steve Michelotti

  On October 6th, I’ll be presenting at C-Sharpen Up at Philly.NET at the Microsoft Malvern, PA location. I’ll be presenting along with Stephen Bohlen, Andy Schwam, and Danilo Diaz. This is a great one-day event that covers real-world usage of all major C# language features from C# 1.0 to C# 5.0. It also includes a great presentation on the SOLID principles by Stephen Bohlen. Registration won’t be open much longer. You can register here. Hope to see you there!

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