Unit Testing Databases Using VSTS DB Edition

 

As Part of MSDN Webcast series today i hosted my third webcast on “ Unit Testing Databases Using VSTS DB Edition”.

you can download my presentation from following link…

http://www.cognitioninfotech.com/downloads/Unit%20Testing%20Databases%20Using%20VSTS%20DB%20Edition.pdf

VSTS 2008 SP1 and TFS SP1 New VPC Relesed

I am using a Visual Studio Team System 2008 / Team Foundation Server 2008 VPC (Trial) published by Microsoft from last December 2008 and now i was little worried as it suppose to expire on tomorrow 31st December, 2009. Even I planned to make my own VPC on this weekend so that i can continue my work on VSTS 2008.  But today morning my friend Aviraj Ajagekar gave me a good news via his blog, Microsoft Released New VPC of VSTS 2008 SP1 and TFS 2008 SP1 with all new updates and tools for another 1 year Trial period,
here are details about this New VPC…

you can download this VPC file from Microsoft Download Center… this time they released VPC image in 2 format. as one classical Microsoft Virtual PC compatible and other one is Hyper-V compatible. check following links to download it.
DOWNLOAD HYPER-V IMAGES
DOWNLOAD VIRTUAL PC IMAGES (Required Software: Virtual PC 2007 SP1 or Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1)

Code Metrics for Manageable Source Code

Today i hosted a webcast at Microsoft on "Code Metrics for Manageable Source Code" .
you can download ppt from following link
http://www.cognitioninfotech.com/downloads/Code%20Metrics%20for%20Manageable%20Source%20Code.pdf
In today's webcast we covered

Unit Testing and Test Driven Development Using VSTS

 

Last Thursday (17th December, 2009) I hosted a webcast on Unit Testing and Test Driven Development Using VSTS at Microsoft.

I am sharing my Presentation here… I will be posting an article with all details very soon… (once am done with all webcast :) )  till that time you can download ppt from following link…

http://www.cognitioninfotech.com/downloads/Unit%20Testing%20and%20Test%20Driven%20Development%20Using%20VSTS.pdf

Now this Thursday (24th December) I will be hosting webcast on “Code Metrics for Manageable Source Code”, will share demo and ppt very soon..

Installing TFS 2010 on Windows 7

Team Foundation Server or TFS is now well know tool for Application Lifecycle management. It almost support everything which you need during your application development process. starting from requirement gathering documentation to deployment. Bug tracking, source control, testing, build management etc.  during my couple of assignments and client meets many people asked a question Why TFS and why not Visual SourceSafe or any other open source tool? this question is really difficult to answer as everyone carry there own features and drawback.  But many time i also thought what about small organizations, or small teams , do they really need all TFS features and if not then why they should invest so much money to deploy TFS ? as TFS deployment was not at all easy job. and it required huge investment also. if this is case then  what about a person who want to use Source control on his personal machine ? he can not install TFS on his machine as TFS only support Server OS and not any client OS. But now we have a good news for all those people who want to use TFS just for source control and on their own machine, and for small Teams or small organizations too…

Techstart grand finale

Welcome to the Techstart grand finale. The Techstart program was conceived to address the unique situation that the Computer Science class of 2009 found itself in. When several students who graduated in 2009 and had campus offers found their offers indefinitely delayed or revoked because of the economic situation, the Techstart initiative helped them learn bleeding-edge technology and provided a practical channel to their creative talent. Conceived by Anand Deshpande, inspired by a similar highly successful experiment at Stanford, sponsored by Microsoft and supported by multiple organizations and individuals, Techstart was designed to provide these students with training on Windows Azure development, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, through a community effort. About 200 students brushed up on the basics of .NET development followed by over 8 weeks of intense training on the Windows Azure development platform from industry experts. The training culminated in a competition that showcased this newly acquired knowledge in the form of group projects hosted on Microsoft Azure.

- Event Highlights -
Keynote address by Mr Moorthy Uppaluri, General Manager DPE, Microsoft India
Techstart Competition Showcase – Live demos of the prize-winning applications on the Azure Cloud and prize distribution
Demo Extravaganza – a highly interesting introduction to some of the latest technologies from Microsoft
Please join us in applauding the students and volunteers that made this event a huge success and for a technology-filled evening in the company of:

Mr. Moorthy Uppaluri, Keynote Speaker
General Manager DPE, Microsoft India

Dr. Anand Deshpande
Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, Persistent Systems Ltd.

&

Dr. Deepak Shikarpur, Chief Guest
IT Evangelist

To know more about the event log on to:
http://techstart.cloudapp.net/home.aspx

Source: http://www.puneusergroup.org/events/techstart/edm/techstart-edm1.html

Outlook Hotmail Connector for Outlook 2010

Microsoft announced the Beta release of Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0 beta for Outlook 2010 beta. yes now it will be called as “Outlook Hotmail connector” and not just “Outlook Connector”.

this new Outlook Hotmail connector 14.0 Beta not only released for Outlook 2010 beta but it is also  compatible with Outlook 2003 and 2007, and will replace Outlook Connector 12.1 upon release and provides an improved authentication and synchronization experience.

With Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0 and Outlook 2010, you gain these additional benefits:

• Junk filter settings Your Safe Sender List/Blocked sender list/Safe Recipient lists are synchronized between Outlook and Hotmail.
• Integrated Send/Receive Send/receive works like your other Outlook accounts.
• Integrated connection status Your Hotmail account status appears in the Outlook status bar.
• Rule support for secondary accounts Rules work with the Hotmail account in Outlook even if it’s not your primary account.

you can download the Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0 Beta from Microsoft Download Center.

Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0 for Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 32-bit

Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0 for Outlook 2010 64-bit

 

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/

25% Discount on Microsoft Certification

Pune user group came up with an Exclusive offer for PUG members, 15% discount on selected Microsoft Exams. Complete following small survey to register yourself to receive your discount voucher.

and 5 lucky people will get 25% discount voucher.

for more details check http://www.puneusergroup.org/exam-discount.aspx

Windows Azure workshop in Pune

 

for more details visit http://www.puneusergroup.org/windows-azure-workshop.aspx

TFS Migration Guidance Document Released

Team Foundation Server (TFS) product group and the Team System Rangers started a project on CodePlex called TFS Integration Platform, to facilitate the development of tools that integrate TFS with other systems. Currently, this tool allow to enable TFS to integrate with other version control and work-item/bug tracking systems, but the eventual goal of this project is to enable integration with a broader range of tools/systems (i.e. build). This platform enables the development of two major classifications of tools: tools that move data unidirectional into TFS, and tools that synchronize data bidirectional.

TFS Integration Platform recently released Migration Guidance Document at codePlex. This document introduces some of the migration technologies, takes you through a number of common migration scenarios and associated guidance and covers a number of common questions and answers we have encountered to date.

you can download it from http://tfsintegration.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=35476

If you’re thinking about migrating to TFS, but don’t know where to start, then check out the Migration Guidance Document. This document outlines many of the common scenarios for migrating data into TFS.

TFS Integration Platform (installer)

If you want to start building adapters, you will also need the installable TFS Integration Platform (installer). This release contains the binaries for the platform as well as the TFS adapters. This is the Alpha release of the installer for the TFS Integration Platform, including the TFS Adapters.

you can download installer from http://tfsintegration.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=35478

What's new in Windows Azure SDK and Tools Nov 2009

 

New things in the November 2009 Windows Azure SDK:

Windows Azure Service Runtime managed library: The latest version of the Service Hosting Runtime API includes support for enhanced communication between roles and for runtime notification of service configuration changes. Direct communication between role instances enables new application development scenarios, including applications that distribute state across role instances. Service configuration changes include an increase or decrease in the number of request role instances and changes to the values of configuration settings.

Windows Azure Diagnostics managed library: The new Diagnostics API enables logging using standard .NET APIs. The Diagnostics API provides built-in support for collecting standard logs and diagnostic information, including the Windows Azure logs, IIS 7.0 logs, Failed Request logs, crash dumps, Windows Event logs, performance counters, and custom logs.

Certificate Management: Enhanced support for SSL certificates in Windows Azure and in the Windows Azure SDK enables the secure automated deployment of certificates to services hosted on Windows Azure.

Variable-size Virtual Machines : Developers may now specify the size of the virtual machine to which they wish to deploy a role instance, based on the role's resource requirements. The size of the VM determines the number of CPU cores, the memory capacity, and the local file system size allocated to a running instance.

External endpoints for worker roles. A worker role may now define any number of external endpoints for HTTP, HTTPS, and TCP, and specify the desired port number for any external endpoint.

Persistent local resource storage: Developers can now choose to persist data written to a local storage resource at runtime when the role is recycled.

Windows Azure Storage Client managed library: The Storage Client library provides a .NET API for accessing the Windows Azure storage services.

Improved Development Storage: Development storage provides a high-fidelity simulation of the Windows Azure storage services in the cloud. Tables can now be created dynamically in the development storage Table service and are no longer required to be generated in advance.

Updated samples: The samples included with the Windows Azure SDK have been updated to demonstrate new features. The samples now include both C# and Visual Basic versions.

Additional role templates: Support for ASP.NET MVC 2 (2010 only), F# worker roles (2010 only), and WCF Service Application web roles.

VS2010 Beta2 Support: Support for Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 and VWD Express 2010 Beta 2.

Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio includes:

• C# and VB Project creation support for creating a Windows Azure Cloud Service solution with multiple roles.
• Tools to add and remove roles from the Cloud Service.
• Tools to configure each Role.
• Integrated local development via the Development Fabric and Development Storage services.
• Running and Debugging a Cloud Service in the Development Fabric.
• Building and packaging of Cloud Service Packages.
• Browsing to the Windows Azure Developer Portal.

Download Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio (November 2009) at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6967ff37-813e-47c7-b987-889124b43abd&displaylang=en

How to access SQL Azure from SQL Management Studio

It now more than a month Microsoft announced CTP of SQL Azure… SQL Azure a service to host full RDBMS database on Cloud. currently this service is available as CTP, so have very limited access and less features, but still it is a SQL server running there at cloud and very soon we can expect all SQL server features on SQL Azure.

Today when i started working on it, the best thing i found in it is, “you can access SQL Azure from your machine using your favorite SQL IDE tool, i.e.  “SQL Server Management Studio 2008”.

But very first time when i tried to access it, i got a nice error but thanks to my friend Jacob, he redirected to me to a site where that author mentioned a small but funny trick to use it.

so what i did -

I simply open SQL Server management studio 2008 from start menu, I entered full server name as “servername.ctp.database.windows.net”, my login name and password. and said connect. a simple and standard process which we follow every time to access SQL Server database.

this Error saying “Invalid Object name sys.configurations. (Microsoft SQL Server Error: 208)”

now how to connect to SQL Azure, i asked one of my friend Jacob who is a SQL MVP, and thanks to him he redirected me to a nice site where athlete gave one funny trick to make it work.

basically what you have to do is when you start SQL Server Management studio it prompt you a Connect to Server Windows (like this)

 

Now don’t Enter SQL Azure server name and login details here… simply say cancel

and now say “New Query” it will again open a similar windows like previous one. now click on option button.

Now at login tab enter full server name, then select authentication type as SQL Authentication as SQL Azure only support SQL authentication and the Enter you login and password.

 

after this move to connection Properties Tab and Enter Database name which you created at SLQ Azure portal http://sql.azure.com

Please note this is important to enter this name as, SQL Azure don't allow you to connect  Server, it allow you to connect to Database.

after your enter database name them simply click “connect”

if everything goes right then you will prompted with following error message

“Unable to apply connection settings, The detailed error message is “ANSI_NULLS” is not a recognized SET option.

don't worry about this error, simply click “OK” .

Now you are ready to run your queries. try and Enjoy SQL Azure.

SQL Azure Explorer Add-in for VS2010

New version (0.1.1) of SQL Azure Explorer, an Add-in for VS2010 has been released with better UI performance

you can download new build at http://sqlazureexplorer.codeplex.com/

some of features mentioned on CodePlex site about SQL Azure Explore

• SQL Azure Explorer which contains:
  • Databases
  • Tables with columns
  • Views with columns
  • Stored procs with parameters
  • Functions with parameters
• Context menues for:
  • Open Sql Editor Window
  • Select Top 100 Rows
  • Script as CREATE for all tables, views, stored procs and functions
• SQL Editor Window with built in:
  • SQL Execute
  • Off line parser
  • Script formatter

New Sysinternals Tool - Disk2VHD

Today a new Sysinternals tool is announced, called as Disk2vhd, that simplifies the migration of physical systems into virtual machines (p2v).

Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft’s Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online.

Download Disk2vsd V1.0

to know more about this tool visit SysInternals site at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx

How to send Email on Windows Azure Application

Today during “TechStart Windows Azure Training Program” session I got a question about sending Emails from Windows Azure Application.
I was expecting that Windows Azure itself provide a SMTP relay and i could easily send email using SmtpClient Class but after checking Azure documentation, I found that unfortunately it does not support it, now what, how to send email from Azure application… ?
As almost all outbound ports are open on windows azure (including 25), so this can be a good news for us.. we can use external SMTP to send email.
also another good news is after March CTP Windows Azure offers the option of running the code in your Web and worker roles under full trust. (To enable full trust, simply add the enableNativeCodeExecution attribute to your role in the Service Definition file and set the attribute value to true)
e.g.
<WebRole name="WebRole" enableNativeCodeExecution="true">
so i guess now we are ready to send an Email from our Azure application…
Standard code which we use to send email in our ASP.NET using SmtpClient class applications works fine with Windows Azure Application.
so Open Visual Studio, create a Cloude Service Applications and add a WebRole to it. now on design a Page which will accept a TO address and a body of your message, and a send button :), now copy paste following code to Button click event, replace the credential details with actual credentials and Test it.

SmtpClient myClient;
MailMessage myMessage;

myClient = new SmtpClient("mysmtp.cognitioninfotech.com", 25);
myClient.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("myAlert@cognitioninfotech.com", "mypassword");
myMessage = new MailMessage(new MailAddress("myAlert@cognitioninfotech.com"), new MailAddress(txtTo.Text));
myMessage.Body = txtMessage.Text;
myMessage.Subject = "Test Email";

try
{
    myClient.Send(myMessage);
    lblstatus.Text = "Sent";
}

catch (Exception ex)
{
    lblstatus.Text = ex.ToString();
}

you can download this sample code at http://cid-809c8f1c43effd14.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/SendEmailDemo.zip

Configuring Windows Azure development machine

(TechStart: Microsoft Windows Azure Training Program )

This article explain you about installing and configuring your machine for Windows Azure development. I was preparing a help file for TechStart-windows Azure Program students so that they can prepare their PCs/Laptops for windows Azure development on their own, same article am sharing with you all. please note this document was written for students.

I will be publishing this in 3 separate posts, first for beginners where we will start from installing windows vista, VS, SP1, SQL Server , KB patches , Azure SDK etc. later on second post for Windows 7 with VS 2008 and third one for all OS and VS versions.

now lets start with first one - fresh installation on vista machine. I assume that you have a good configuration machine / laptop with at least 1 GB of RAM.

so lets make a list of all required software

1. Windows Vista (Ultimate, Enterprise, business etc.).
2. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 - Download here
3. Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition - Download Trial OR Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with SP1
4. Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 - Download here
5. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - Download Express edition here OR Download Trial Editions
6. Hot fix patches for windows vista and visual studio (download from following links)
   1. Hotfix: Native Debugging Improvements
   2. Hotfix: Improve Visual Studio Stability
   3. Hotfix: Support for FastCGI on the Development Fabric
7. Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio July 2009 CTP - Download here

that's all what you need to keep ready before you start preparing your machine.

so very Important thing is we are going to do a fresh installation of Windows Vista,  either on your default C drive or on another drive of your hard disk. so before we start take a backup of your data on external device or another drive of your disk.

Installing Windows Vista

Now Put Windows vista DVD in your DVD ROM and reboot your machine from DVD. it will automatically start the Windows vista setup from DVD. Ref following screen. if you don't know about operating system installation then you can read more detail steps about how to Install windows vista at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918884

follow the instructions in setup wizard carefully and complete the installation. It may take around 30 minutes (depend of your machine configuration) and  on completion it will display login screen. ( Ref. following ) which means you can done with Vista installation.

now provide the password and enter into the system.

after that Next step is install Windows Vista Service pack 1.

after installing Service Pack 1 it may ask you for reboot the system. reboot the system to complete the installation.

ones you are done with Service Pack installation then next step is

Enable IIS7 with ASP.NET and WCF HTTP Activation

start -> Control Panel -> Programs -> Click on Turn windows feature on or Off. it will show a security confirmation window , say Continue to that. it will open another windows just like this.

 

Under Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, select Windows Communication Foundation HTTP Activation.

Under Internet Information Services, expand World Wide Web Services, then Application Development Features, then select ASP.NET and CGI.

then click ok to Install the selected features.

Next step is Installing Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server

Put Visual Studio 2008 DVD (Professional edition Trial DVD) in DVD Rom and start the setup. follow the wizard to complete the setup.

(Note: as I am using Team System edition it shows Team system, following screens may differ depend on your Visual studio 2008 edition.)

 

 

it will complete installation of Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2005 Express edition.

if you noticed in above screen that Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express edition is selected by default, so Now you don't need to to install it separately on your machine, only if you are installing Visual Studio Web developer Express edition then only you need to install SQL Server Express edition separately.

ones you are done with Visual Studio 2008 Professional edition Trial or Visual studio visual web developer express edition then start installing Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2008.

many times this take more than 30 minutes,  so sit back and have some snacks :)

after installation of SP1 for VS2008, time to install some important Hot fix for Vista and VS2008

Install the Hotfix: Native Debugging Improvements (KB967631 - update for VS2008 SP1 debugger)

Install the Hotfix: Support for FastCGI on the Development Fabric (KB967131 - Update for Windows Vista)

Install the Hotfix: Improve Visual Studio Stability (KB963676)

after installing Hotfix for windows vista it will ask you for reboot, reboot the system.

Now system is Ready to install Azure SDK and its tools for VS. since we downloaded Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio July 2009 CTP, we DO NOT NEED to download and install Azure SDK July CTP separately. SDK is part of same installer.

installing Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio July 2009 CTP

ones setup complete open Visual studio 2008 from start menu, go to new project and check if Cloud service template is available or not, if its available then you are done with your installation and ready for Azure development. now how to write hello word program that we are going to see in our first lecture. till that you can go through http://www.azure.com and read about azure development.

Windows Azure Platform Training Kit - August Update Released

After releasing Windows Azure SDK July CTP, now Microsoft announced a new update for there Training kit also. Windows Azure platform training kit August update is not available for download.

click here to Download Windows Azure Platform Training Kit - August Update

includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Windows Azure platform including: Windows Azure, SQL Azure and .NET Services.

Presentations

• Azure Platform Overview
• What is Windows Azure?
• Windows Azure Storage Overview
• Introduction to Windows Azure
• Building Services using Windows Azure
• Introduction to SQL Azure
• Building Applications using SQL Azure
• Scaling Out with SQL Azure
• Introduction to .NET Services
• Building Applications Using the .NET Service Bus

Demos

• Deploying Windows Azure Services
• Hello Windows Azure
• Windows Azure Guestbook Demo
• Windows Azure Logging and Configuration Demo
• Windows Azure using Blobs Demo
• Windows Azure Worker Role Demo
• Windows Azure Using Queues Demo
• Windows Azure Using Tables Demo
• Preparing your SQL Azure Account
• Connecting to SQL Azure
• Managing Logins and Security in SQL Azure
• Creating Objects in SQL Azure
• Migrating a Database Schema to SQL Azure
• Moving Data Into and Out Of SQL Azure using SSIS
• Building a Simple SQL Azure App
• Scaling Out SQL Azure with Database Sharding
• .NET Services Service Bus Direct Connection Demo
• .NET Services Service Bus webHttpRelayBinding
• .NET Services Service Bus Publish and Subscribe
• .NET Services Service Registry
• .NET Services Service Bus NetOneWayRelayBinding

Hands On Labs

• Building Windows Azure Services
• Windows Azure Native Code
• Windows Azure and PHP
• Getting Started with Windows Azure Storage
• Using Windows Azure Tables
• Building ASP.NET MVC Applications with Windows Azure
• Building ASP.NET Web Form Applications with Windows Azure
• Migrating Applications to Windows Azure
• Introduction to SQL Azure
• Migrating Databases to SQL Azure
• Building Your First SQL Azure App
• Introduction to the .NET Service Bus
• Building Hybrid Applications

Samples and Tools

• Windows Azure MMC
• PhluffyFotos
• Bid Now
• Contoso Cycles

Windows Azure SDK - July CTP Released

Microsoft announced release of the July CTP of the Windows Azure SDK and Tools.

Download them here. 

What’s new in the Windows Azure SDK?

• The Windows Azure SDK supports developing and deploying services containing multiple web and worker roles. A service must include at least one role, of either type, and may include zero or more web roles, and zero or more worker roles.
• The new PowershellRole sample hosts the Powershell runtime within a Windows Azure role. It demonstrates a simple remote console web role as well as a worker role whose implementation is a Powershell script. The host also includes the CloudDrive sample snap-in to provide access to Windows Azure Storage from script.

What’s new in Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio

• New project creation dialog
• Support for developing and deploying services containing multiple web and worker roles. A service may contain zero or more web roles and zero or more worker roles with a minimum of one role of either type.
• Ability to associate any ASP.NET Web Application project in a Cloud Service solution as a Web Role
• Support for building Cloud Services from TFS Build
• Enhanced robustness and stability

Source: Windows Azure Official Blog.

PUG DevCon 2009 Final Session list

Finally we are done with list of all  sessions in PUG DevCon 2009 which is planned on 8th and 9th August, 2009

you can check event website at http://devcon.puneusergroup.org  for event details

so here is the final list of topics decided for PUG DevCon 2009

• Inside the guts of .NET 4.0 – Part I
• Inside the guts of .NET 4.0 – Part II
• Introduction to the Azure Services Platform
• Silverlight internals & Expression Blend 3
• Office for developers
• Using ADO.NET Data Services
• Silverlight for Developers
• Parallel Computing APIs with the Microsoft .NET Framework 4
• Developing MVC based web apps using ASP.NET MVC 1.0
• Using Data Mining for Analyzing Data, Predictions and Forecasting
• Overview of Windows Azure
• Visual Studio 2010: Making your day easier
• Living on Live Services – Introduction to Microsoft Live Framework
• What’s New in C# 4.0 and VB 10
• Developing AJAX application for Windows mobile
• Team Development with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010 and Team Foundation Server
• Rapid application development using Windows Mobile Line of Business Solution Accelerator 2008 [Level 200]
• PowerShell - Use it, Extend It, Embed It

Now Expression Blend 3 also got TFS integration!

Last week Microsoft announced Expression Blend 3 along with Silverlight 3. I was just going through the list of features available in Expression Blend 3 and found something different and interesting feature.

Integrate with Team Foundation Server (TFS)

Stay in sync with your team by taking advantage of Team Foundation Server integration in Expression Blend. Team Foundation Server ensures the designers work is safe, versioned, up to date and available to the whole team.

really cool feature.

you need to install a Patch to your TFS 2008 to make TFS work with Expression Blend. checking an article how to patch your TFS at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/KB967483

some links for your Ref:

http://blogs.msdn.com/edhintz/archive/2009/07/13/tfs-integration-a-top-10-new-feature-of-expression-blend-3.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Blend_Overview.aspx#tabs-2

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/KB967483

Announcing PUG DevCon 2009.

I am pleased to announce Pune User Group’s most important event of the year,

PUG DevCon 2009

This year we are hosting PUG DevCon 2009 on

8th & 9th August, 2009

2 days, 2 parallel Tracks and total 16 sessions on various Microsoft Technologies by industry experts…

I will be posting more details about agenda very soon…

keep your eyes open…

you can also follow Pune User Group on Twitter / Face book / LinkedIn  here are the URLs

http://twitter.com/puneusergroup

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pune-India/Pune-User-Group/

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2023294

and

PUG’s official website http://www.puneusergroup.org

Acceptance Test Engineering Guide Beta 2 Now Available on codePlex

patterns & practices Acceptance Test Engineering Guide, Volume 1 (Beta 2) is now available on CodePlex. 
The Acceptance Test Engineering Guide will provide guidance for technology stakeholders (developers, development leads, testers, test leads, architects, etc.) and business stakeholders (managers, customers, end users, etc) on the discipline of acceptance testing.
Common Scenarios
Here are the key scenarios the guide addresses:

• How to Plan for Acceptance Testing
• What Kinds of Acceptance Tests to Run
• How to Create and Run Acceptance Tests
• Defining What “Done” Means
• How to Justify Your Approach
• How to Streamline Your Acceptance Process

Parts

• Part I - Thinking About Acceptance
• Part II - Perspectives on Acceptance
• Part III - Acceptance Software

Part I - Thinking About Acceptance
Chapter 1            The Acceptance Process
Chapter 2            Decision-Making Model
Chapter 3            Project Context Model
Chapter 4            System Requirements Model
Chapter 5            Risk Model
Chapter 6            Doneness Model
Part II - Perspectives on Acceptance
Chapter 7            Business Lead’s Perspective
Chapter 8            Product Manager’s Perspective
Chapter 9            Test Manager’s Perspective
Chapter 10          Development Manager’s Perspective
Chapter 11          User Experience Specialist’s Perspective
Chapter 12          Operations Manager’s Perspective
Chapter 13          Solution Architect’s Perspective
Chapter 14          Enterprise Architect’s Perspective
Chapter 15          Legal Perspective
Part III - Acceptance Software
Chapter 16          Planning for Acceptance
Chapter 17          Assessing Software
Chapter 18          Managing the Acceptance Process
Chapter 19          Streamlining the Acceptance Process
More at Codeplex site: http://codeplex.com/TestingGuidance

Download the guide

• http://testingguidance.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=29464

Microsoft Community Tech.Ed on the Road – 20th June, 2009 in Pune

GET SET FOR THE TECH.ED ROAD SHOW SERIES - Tech.Ed on the Road 2009. Pune User Group is now conducting  TECH-ED on the Road on 20th June 2009 to let you experience the same enthusiasm of Microsoft Tech.Ed India 2009 and connect with technology experts right in your city. session for IT Pros - Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Virtualization 360– Technical Overview, Windows Client Windows Server 2008 NAP– Better Together  Sessions for Developers - What’s New in Silverlight 3, Windows 7 for Developers, Welcome to ASP.NET 4.0 with VS2010 2 TRACKS, 6 SESSIONS BACK2BACK !!!

Attend Tech.Ed on the Road 2009 and Win exciting prizes like Windows Vista Ultimate 4 GB USB drives Microsoft Press Books, T-shirts, Caps, Pens and lots more...

Calling all IT pros, project managers, IT managers and developers for the next wave of Tech.Ed 2009. Entry FREE !! Registration Required. For more information and Registration, Please visit : http://www.puneusergroup.org/teched-on-the-road.aspx Hurry up and Register Today !! For any queries/suggestions, Please contact us at: techedindia2009@puneusergroup.org Venue: International Convention Centre, Senapati Bapat Road, Pune - 411016

Download ASP.NET MVC For Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1

I am happy today, i was not expecting MVC for VS 2010 installer so early, As i posted earlier MVC was not included in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1, and Microsoft promised that time that they will release a separate installer.

an installer for ASP.NET MVC for Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 is now available on Codeplex.

you can download ASP.NET MVC for Visual Studio (VS) 2010 Beta 1 here

please note this release is only for Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1, installer says this is ASP.NET MVC 1.1, but as the readme notes point out, this is really ASP.NET MVC 1.0 retargeted for Visual Studio 2010. The 1.1 is just a placeholder version number.

also see the full release notes included with this release for more details. There are some known issues with the release

Phil Haack mentioned on his blog that When VS10 Beta 2 comes out, you won’t need to download a separate standalone installer to get ASP.NET MVC (though a standalone installer will be made available for VS2008 users that will run on ASP.NET 3.5 SP1). A pre-release version of ASP.NET MVC 2 will be included as part of the Beta 2 installer as described in the …

Snippets

One cool new feature of VS10 is that snippets now work in the HTML editor. snippets are also included in this release . To install the snippets:

1. Unzip "ASP.NET MVC Snippets.zip" into "C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Visual Studio 10\Code Snippets\Visual Web Developer\My HTML Snippets", where "C:\" is your OS drive.
2. Visual Studio will automatically detect these new files.

Microsoft Announces New Zune HD Portable Media Player

Microsoft Corp. today announced the evolution of Zune, “Zune HD”.

finally Microsoft came up with something which I can compare with I-pod, I am using Zune almost more than one n half years now, and I am very happy with its experience but still I always feel that there are many things missing in my Zune, and i feel this strongly when 2-3 months back my friend Vikram(VB) came back from US and I saw his i-pod with all these touch features, so many applications installed in it, wi-fi, browser, contacts list etc. I was always thinking that Microsoft should add all these things in Zune and Today my dream came in reality, Microsoft announced its New Zune  called “Zune HD”, along with Premium Zune digital entertainment service via XBox Live.

 

Zune HD is the first portable media player that combines a built-in HD Radio receiver, high-definition (HD) video output capabilities, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) touch screen, Wi-Fi and an Internet browser.

some New Features -

Touch screen :The bright OLED touch screen interface allows users to flip through music, movies and other content with ease, and the 16:9 widescreen format display (480x272 resolution) offers a premium viewing experience on the go.

HD Radio: Zune HD comes with a built-in HD Radio receiver so users can listen to higher-quality sound than traditional radio on the go. Users also will have access to the additional song and artist data broadcast by HD Radio stations as well as additional channels from their favorite stations multicasting in HD. If you don’t like the song playing on your station’s HD channel, switch to its HD2 or HD3 channels for additional programming.

HD Video Out:The HD-compatible output lets Zune HD customers playback supported HD video files from the device through a premium high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) audiovisual docking station (sold separately) direct to an HD TV in 720p

Wireless: Zune HD is Wi-Fi enabled, allowing for instant streaming to the device from the more than 5 million-track Zune music store.

Web-browser: Zune HD will include a full-screen Internet browser optimized for multitouch functionality.

 

these are some key features announced by Microsoft, hope Zune HD will come up with more and more features inside it.

Reference links :

 http://www.zune.net/ZuneHD

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/may09/05-26ZuneHDPR.mspx

ASP.NET MVC is not included in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1

finally i installed VSTS 2010 beta 1 on my machine, i decided to install that on my Windows 7 RC partition and i installed it successfully. my installation experience is pretty good and surly it took very less time for installation compare to earlier versions…

mean while i got a call from one client for some MVC work, so i just thought to check MVC in VSTS 2010 beta 1before i reboot and switch to vista and i was shocked there is no MVC templates included in VSTS 2010 beta 1. after checking on ASP.NET site here i found something that ASP.NET MVC is not included in Beta 1…

as mentioned by Phil Haack on his blog-

ASP.NET MVC is not included in Beta 1. The reason for this is that Beta 1 started locking down before MVC 1.0 shipped. ASP.NET MVC will be included as part of the package in VS10 Beta 2.

Tech.Ed India 2009, Summary of Community activities

  From Sanjay Shetty’s Live Space

Quote

TechEd India 2009, Summary of Community activities

To summarize: In my 10+ years of community engagement, I would say, TechEd India 2009 was the most successful in terms of community involvement. As beautiful as the famous Charminar of Hyderabad. (see picture on left).

Organizations like INETA APAC, Culminis, PASS and Microsoft India, jointly engaged in bringing all user group leaders together, promoting the respective user groups and enabling great networking opportunities between the leaders and attendees of TechEd India.

 

Background:

About 1 month before TechEd volunteers from INETA APAC, Culminis, PASS, Microsoft India team, and Microsoft UGSS, formed the India Community Council(ICC),  an initiative spearheaded by Microsoft User Group Support Services(UGSS). The objective was to align the efforts of the various organizations in a country and to explore areas of synergy. TechEd was the perfect ground to see the power of the ICC. And they definitely proved their mettle. Further invaluable help was provided by Ashwin Kini, the Culminis APAC chair.

 

A plan was made to engage the community along the ideas stated in the left column below:

1. Encourage community participation pre-TechEd	1.With Microsoft India’s help, a discount of 25% was negotiated for all User group members wishing to attend TechEd. 1.1. A template was made available to leaders via which they could announce this benefit to members. 1.2. Members interested in the offer were given a survey url to indicate their interest. A day before TechEd volunteers provided this list to TechEd event agency to ensure at time of payment, members got 25% discount. (Despite the severe recession 65 community members took advantage of this offer). 2. ICC members were given free entry. 3. INETA APAC(facebook, Spaces), Culminis blogs, sites announced benefits for the community, and mailers + phone calls were made to all UG leaders.
2. Promote all User Groups of (INETA APAC, Culminis & PASS), create awareness of these organizations, MVP Program and Microsoft UGSS, ensure all attendees are aware of the above.	1. A Community Booklet was created, containing details of all user groups in India, via efforts of ICC + other volunteers. A professional company was engaged(Printo), their help was invaluable. Community booklet was included in the attendee kits, ensuring all are aware of the various user groups across India. In addition, UG leaders were provided Community booklets, so that they could distribute it to their group members.
3. Engage TechEd Attendees, Promote leaders and groups, create buzz and encourage at least 10% of TechEd audience.	1. Two contests were organized. 1.1 Culminis, INETA APAC, PASS, Leader Hunt Contest for TechEd India 2009. Enabled attendee interaction with all leaders(Culminis, INETA APAC, PASS) who are present at TechEd. Approximately 300 attendees participated. 1.2 INETA APAC True or False Contest. Enabled attendees to be aware of INETA APAC benefits and sign up as volunteers.  Approximately 300 attendees participated. 1.3 There was also a dart game where a lots of goodies(Stress balls, T-shirts, Caps) were given to attendees. The queue at the dart game counter was just amazing. (The Xbox guys helped by providing part of their booth to enable this.)
4. Networking opportunity for speakers, attendees, UG leaders, volunteers.	An exclusive Community Evening was organized, primary sponsor was Microsoft UGSS, Culminis and INETA APAC also partly sponsored the same.  Networking, free beer and munchies. It was an evening attended by close to 100 people (consisting of leaders, members, speakers and Microsoft personnel). The ICC members were formally introduced to the attendees. The entrance to this exclusive event was guarded by our enthusiastic leaders/volunteers Nauzad, Surendra Mishra and Pinalkumar Dave followed by turns by other volunteers.
5. Involve 3rd party speakers, Microsoft Regional Directors, other valuable speakers etc.	Pre-TechEd, behind the scenes I was involved in getting 3rd party speakers, such as Sanjay Vyas, Dr. Nitin Paranjpe, Raj Chaudhuri, Meena K and Ranganathan S. In addition, Microsoft RD’s like Praveen Srivatsa, Venkatarangan TNC, also delivered some fantastic sessions.
6. Leader Summit	One of the things local Microsoft encouraged was to engage leaders much more, and in order to help with that, they offered free entry to TechEd for all leaders of groups in India. The ICC capitalized this wonderful opportunity and informed all leaders, in addition, INETA APAC and Culminis sponsored leader accommodation at TechEd, since quite a few leaders were attending this proved to be hugely beneficial, about 14 leaders attended this special summit, along with leading MVP’s. It was held on day 2 of TechEd for about 2 hours. INTEA APAC, Culminis and PASS shared their plans for FY10 with leaders. Additionally, Culminis, INETA APAC, PASS representatives, respectively met up with their group leaders in separate meetings.
7. Upcoming mini-UG TechEd’s in 8 cities.	Microsoft announced their support to Community, UG led, mini-TechEd’s in 8 cities. These will be targeting both IT Pro’s and Developers. Topics that are being delivered are:  IT Pro: Win Server 2008 R2; Virtualization; Exchange server Developer: WIN 7; IE 8 /SL3 & Visual Studio 2010 Microsoft would enable UG leaders to get content from TechEd on the above + leaders are encouraged to have local speakers for whom virtual training could be provided. INETA APAC, Culminis, and UGSS could support funding of these Community TechEd’s.
8. Special Session for UG leaders	Concept Visuals – presentation by Sanjay Vyas was an exclusive introduction to leaders on how Concept Visuals helps in easy learning + presenting of any information. The best comment after the session which I heard from a leader was “I was doing Windows programming for 6 years and now I finally understand what’s happening”. It was an eye opener for all.
9. New User Groups support	Hyderabad – Soni Somarajan and Srinivas B.N. were two new potential leaders who stepped up to help with Hyderabad UG. Patna – Monika Jha(encouraged by UG leader Surendra Mishra) has decided to start the Patna User Group, focused on UI/Designing Agra – Similarly, INETA APAC volunteer Mahesh Mitkari, is working with a potential new leader in Agra.
10. Goodies for UG leaders and their members	On the last day, UG leaders were given giveaways to take back to their user group communities, which they could utilize at the upcoming mini-TechEd’s. ICC members and volunteers, put their hands together to coordinate these efforts.
11. UG content in localized languages	Microsoft is helping encourage submission of information in localised languages, so far I believe, there are volunteers for Gujarati, Kannada, Hindi and hopefully the upcoming mini-UG TechEd’s will bring many more languages to the fore. These video recordings would be promoted across the country.

Download of VS2010 / .NET Framework 4.0 Beta 1

VS2010 (Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1) and .NET Framework 4.0 Beta 1 are now publicly available, it was released to MSDN subscribers on Monday and now  today Microsoft announced availability to all users.

you can download it  from following links..

this time VSTS packages are available in two different formats to download, either you can download full ISO image or you can go for web installer-

• Visual Studio 2010 Shell (Integrated) Beta 1 Redistributable Package
• Visual Studio 2010 Shell (Isolated) Beta 1 Redistributable Package
• Visual Studio 2010 Professional Beta 1 – Web Installer
• Visual Studio 2010 Professional Beta 1 – ISO
• Visual Studio Team System 2010 Team Suite Beta 1 – Web Installer
• Visual Studio Team System 2010 Team Suite Beta 1 – ISO
• Visual Studio Team System 2010 Test Load Agent Beta 1 – DTEA
• Visual Studio Team System 2010 Test Load Agent Beta 1 – DTEC
• Visual Studio Team System 2010 Team Foundation Server Beta 1
• Microsoft Visual Studio Lab Management 2010 Beta 1
• Visual Studio Team System 2010 Lab Agent Beta 1
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 Beta 1 – x86
•  Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 Beta 1 – IA64
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 Beta 1 – x64
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 Client Profile Beta 1 – x86
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 Client Profile Beta 1 – x64
• Visual Studio 2010 SDK Beta 1
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Remote Debugger (Beta 1) – x86
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Remote Debugger (Beta 1) – x64

you can also visit Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 site.  for all other download details.

Microsoft Tech.Ed India 2009 – Day I

Microsoft Tech.Ed India 2009 started with a keynote speech delivered by Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive, Microsoft Corporation.

around 10:00 am Agni started performing Tech.Ed Song, while they were ending Tech.Ed song SteveB entered on the stage with his super energetic aura.

some key points of his speech

he started he talk with talking about the economy.

he mentioned that every person in IT should tell himself every night that he made right choice by selected IT as his carrier.

Pharma, Energy Science all evolving with innovation in Information Technology.

IT Departments have been under pressure with "Do more, with less". Customers can Save money by deploying new tech, moving to more RAD Platform. Dynamic IT is more about "Do more, with less optimization".

Windows 7  and Win Server 2008 R2 to be available by Christmas Win Vista was most "talked" about OS  :) Win Mobile 6.5 to debut this year.

SharePoint is becoming Microsoft’s most revenue generating product.

during QA session SteveB steps down from the stage into the audience to take questions.

there was a question for dates of Windows Azure release dates – no direct answer from SteavB but a big hint towards PDC 2009. while answering another question about Silvelright on mobile phone SteaveB mention that Silverlight Mobile being developed from Microsoft's India Dev Center at Hyderabad .

SteveB mentioned that India is the place where most of people get trained on Computer Science  Technology and after Redmond Hyderabad development Center is words 2nd largest center for Microsoft, while answering one Question “why he choose India Tech.Ed and not US Tech.Ed this time.

that's all from SteavB key note

after that we moved to Community Zone, lots of fun there at Community Zone, all My MVP friends, UG Leads few Ms Employees were there 4 unconferance session in a day, nice sessions by my friends Vikram on sliverlight, Pinal, Amit and Jacob on SQL Server.

we also recorded small session in regional languages where we talked about Microsoft technology in our languages like Telagu, Marathi, Gujrathi etc, this will carry on tomorrow also.

mean while I got chance to attend very nice session on my favorite BizTalk RFID, a session was going on in Technology tent and fortunately I was just going by that way so I come to know about session, as this session was not printed on agenda paper, don't know why ?, but really nice discussion with BizTalk RFID Team from IDC also got some secret info about BizTalk Mobile is working with Web services and MSMQ on Mobile platform. its NDA info so cant post here… but very interesting…  tomorrow there is a session on BizTalk RFID 2009 and SharePoint, am going to attend them for sure…

We got very nice response at Community Zone, where we hosted  a Quiz and Hunt leader contest. we distributed lots of goodies like INETA/Culminis/PASS pens, t-shirts, caps, stress bolls etc.

rush at Community Zone…

there were lots of very nice session at Tech.Ed but unfortunately i was able to attend only one Technical session, but tomorrow for sure i will attend more…

and our day 1 ended with nice bear party “ Mobile Developer night”

Unconferance Sessions at Microsoft Tech.Ed India 2009

Tech.ED India is starting Tomorrow.. the UnConference is already popular place to be at...

Here are some of the sessions that have been decided by popular voting:

Wednesday, May 13

1:00 - 2:00 Groove is the best medicine for difficult times - Ashok Hingorani

3:00 - 4:00 Silverlight 2 & 3 Core CLR - Vikram Pendse

4:00 - 5:00 SQL Server 2008 Management Studio New Features - Pinal Dave

5:00 - 6:00 XML Support in SQL Server 2008 - Jacob Sebastin

6:00 - 7:00 Policy Based Management in SQL Server 2008 - Amit Bansal

Thursday, May 14

1:00 - 2:00 What's New in Silverlight 3 - Vikram Pendse

2:00 - 3:00 Developing using Silverlight3 Controls - Chaitra Nagraj

3:00 - 4:00 Data Services - Chaitra Nagraj

4:00 - 5:00 Improving Application Installation UX in Windows 7 - Vijay Raj

5:00 - 6:00 SQL Server 2008 Beyond Relational - Arun Balachandran

Friday, May 15

12:00 - 1:00 Getting started with Oslo - Mehfuz Hossain

1:00 - 2:00 Using Office 2007 effectively - Top 10 issues - Nitin Paranjpe

3:00 - 4:00 IIS 7 for Devs and Admins - Mohd Abdul Muqeet Khan 4:00 - 5:00 High Availability in SQL Server 2008 – Satya

5:00 - 6:00 Upgrading To SQL Server 2005 & 2008: Notes & Best Practices - Satya

Apart from these sessions, TechEd Attendees will get an opportunity to present as well. If you want to present at UnConference, please enter your name at Community Pavilion in TechEd India.

UnConference @ Microsoft Tech.ED India 2009

UnConference @ TechED India and your chance to vote for your favorite topic.

Tech.Ed India is all about the community. In the true spirit of community we are happy to present the UnConference@TechEd India

UnConference will be hosted in the Community Pavilion @ Tech.Ed India throughout the day and streamed live. It is the event where you are the presenter and you are the ones choosing the sessions. The attendees also get an opportunity to present at UnConference. The sessions are led by third-party experts (MVPs) and intended for attendees to enjoy free-flowing dialogues about products, technologies, and solutions.

Unconference is one of the favorite ways people connect at the conference. You can meet people with similar interests and challenges in an open-forum environment at the Unconference sessions.

UnConference sessions are an eclectic mix of technology and productivity sessions. You can vote for the sessions you would like to hear at UnConference here. Apart from the technology sessions, you will also find some productivity sessions on blogging, presentation skills etc.

The attendees of Tech.Ed India form another important part of the UnConference. They can nominate themselves to be speakers at the beginning of each day and will have the opportunity to present in the post lunch session.

The list of sessions you can vote on are as follows:

Silverlight 2 & 3 Core CLR - Vikram Pendse

What's New in Silverlight 3 - Vikram Pendse

Improving Application Installation UX in Windows 7 - Vijay Raj

SQL Server 2008 Management Studio New Features - Pinal Dave

XML Support in SQL Server 2008 - Jacob Sebastian

SQL Server 2008 Beyond Relational - Arun Balachandran

ADO.NET Data Services - Chaitra Nagaraj

REST - Chaitra Nagaraj

Using Office 2007 effectively - Top 10 issues: Nitin Paranjape

IIS 7 for Devs and Admins - Mohd Abdul Muqeet Khan

XNA Game Studio- Dhaval Faria

Windows 7- Bitlocker Enhancements - Vinod Unny

Groove is the best medicine for difficult times - Ashok Hingorani

Getting started with Oslo - Mehfuz Hossain

Policy Based Management in SQL Server 2008 - Amit Bansal

Please vote by indicating your TOP 3 topics you would like to hear at UnConference on Tech.Ed Group on FaceBook here. The topics you select would be featured on the Live Streaming from UnConference@TechEd India.

click here to Join Microsoft Tech.Ed India 2009 Group on FaceBook