Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Webcast Series

Microsoft has launched a 15 webcasts series on WCF from July 2007 to September 2007. It touching on fundamentals and practical approaches for WCF development.

Details for the same are as follow.

MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 01 of 15):
Overview
Monday, July 02, 2007 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time
Register

MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 02 of 15):
Contracts
Monday, July 09, 2007 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time
Register

MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 03 of 15):
Contract Versioning
Wednesday, July 11, 2007 10:30 PM Indian Standard Time
Register

MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 04 of 15):
Exceptions and Faults
Friday, July 13, 2007 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time
Register

MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 05 of 15):
Bindings
Monday, July 23, 2007 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time
Register

MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 06 of 15):
Hosting
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time
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MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 07 of 15):
Messaging Patterns
Friday, August 10, 2007 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time
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MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 08 of 15):
Instancing Modes
Monday, August 13, 2007 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time
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MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 09 of 15):
Concurrency, Throughput, and Throttling
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 10:30 PM Indian Standard Time
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MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 10 of 15):
Security Fundamentals
Friday, August 24, 2007 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time
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MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 11 of 15):
Federated Security
Monday, August 27, 2007 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time
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MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 12 of 15):
Reliable Messaging
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time
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MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 13 of 15):
Transactions
Monday, September 03, 2007 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time
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MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 14 of 15):
Message Queuing
Wednesday, September 05, 2007 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time
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MSDN Webcast: Windows Communication Foundation Top to Bottom (Part 15 of 15):
Extensibility
Friday, September 07, 2007 9:30 PM Indian Standard Time
Register

You can also check the above given google calender for regular updates.

TableAdapter Overview

TableAdapters provide communication between your application and a database. More specifically, a TableAdapter connects to a database, executes queries or stored procedures, and either returns a new data table populated with the returned data or fills an existing DataTable with the returned data. TableAdapters are also used to send updated data from your application back to the database.

TableAdapters are designer-generated components that improve upon the functionality of DataAdapters. TableAdapters are created with the Dataset Designer inside of strongly typed datasets.

Click here to find the complete information about Table Adapter on MSDN website.

Yesterday I have also attended a Microsoft MSDN Webcast on "ADO.NET Step by Step (Part 8 of 16) using Table Adapters".

Following are the topics covers in this webcast

1. Understanding and Creating TableAdapters
2. TableAdapter classes versus TableAdapter Objects
3. Class and Object Configuration
4. TableAdapter Methods

Click here to download the presnetation file for this webcast.

MSDN Webcast in July and August 2007

New MSDN Webcasts details added for the month of July and August 2007. For more information please regulary check the above Google calender.

The Web Service Software Factory Using ASMX

I have attended a MSDN Webcast (Russ and Joe Developer Show with Stan Schultes: The Web Service Software Factory Using ASMX) on using the Web Service Software factory using ASMX.

Following are the topics covered in this webcast

1. What is web service software facotry
2. Why use the web service software factory
3. Understanding the web service software factory Architecture, Layers and Relationships
4. Using Guidance packages
5. Application Development Process
6. Benfits of using web service software factory
7. Tips and Tricks

Click here to download the presentation file for the same. This presentation file contains very good links which helps us to explore different software factory in details.

Processing Interchanges in BizTalk Server 2006

In BizTalk terms, an interchange refers to a message being processed by BizTalk Server. When an interchange contains two or more documents—which is typical when receiving a batch—BizTalk parses the interchange, which results in multiple messages. How these messages are handled depends on the type of interchange processing selected on the pipeline. With BizTalk Server 2006, a developer can select to use standard interchange processing or recoverable interchange processing when developing a custom pipeline.

Standard Interchange

When an interchange arrives at a receive location the configured pipeline will decompose the interchange into one or more messages. Messages are then individually validated by the pipeline but then collected within the EPM (End-point Manager) inside BizTalk. If at any time any message within the collection fails, the entire interchange will be suspended. The suspended message will appear as the complete interchange, not the separate parts.

Recoverable Interchange

When a new interchange arrives, and this option is selected on the active pipeline, it is broken down into individual messages and passed through the pipeline for disassembly and validation. When an interchange with bad documents is processed in recoverable mode, the bad documents will not cause a pipeline failure. Instead, they are marked as “messages to be suspended”. After the individual messages have been processed by the pipeline, the end point manager submits all the messages to the Message Box in a single transaction: good messages go to the work queue and bad messages go to the suspended queue.

Failed Message Routing

When a new receive port is created, a property can be set called "Generate error report for failed message". When this property is checked, failed messages will not be suspended. Instead, they will be sent to the message box, and the following additional properties will be set:
1. ErrorReport.ErrorType
2. ErrorReport.FailureCode
3. ErrorReport.MessageType
4. ReceivePortName
5. SendPortName
6. InboundTransportLocation
7. OutboundTransportLocation

By taking advantage of these additional context properties you can now create end-point filters, on an orchestration or sent port, that subscribe to these failed messages.

Microsoft has written a very good document, explaining processing interchanges in detail with example. Click here to download

BizTalk Server 2006 Developer Guide

I find a developer guide on one of the BizTalk community. This is a 133 page troubleshooting and development guide which covers BizTalk from end to end.

Some of the main topics includes in this guide are:

• Custom codings
• Working and Troubleshooting different Adapters
• BAM
• Common Errors through out BizTalk
• Troubleshooting Web Services
• Much much more.

Click here to download the guide.

Another code name from Microsoft 'Acropolis'

The Microsoft code name “Acropolis” Community Technology Preview 1 is a set of components and tools that make it easier for developers to build and manage modular, business focused, client .NET applications. Acropolis is part of the “.NET Client Futures” wave of releases, our preview of upcoming technologies for Windows client development.

For more information visit the links given below.

Acropolis Overview

Acropolis CTP 1

Introduction to Acropolis Layouts

Download the CTP and documentation file

Want to run your .NET or Java enabled Applications on Linux... See how

Grasshopper 2.0 (a.k.a Mainsoft for Java EE, Developer Edition) introduces support for Microsoft’s Visual Studio® 2005 IDE and the .NET Framework 2.0. You can use Grasshopper 2.0 to test cross-platform development, including debugging, using the latest version of Visual Studio software, C# and Visual Basic 2.0 features, and ASP.NET 2.0 controls. You can also rehost existing ASP.NET applications that use the new 2.0 features on Java-enabled platforms with the Tomcat application server, and run the applications under Linux.

Grasshopper 2.0 fully integrates with Visual Studio 2005 and offers an implementation of new ASP.NET 2.0 features. In this article, we'll see how you can use the Grasshopper 2.0 and ASP.NET 2.0 controls to develop a Web-based accounting application with membership and role-based security and to deploy it on Linux. We will use Master Pages and new controls, including: Login, which is an out-of-the-box authentication feature; Wizard, which is used to split large forms and maintain state consistency; and the powerful GridView, a data control offering GUI-manageable support for paging and sorting.

For more information visit the links given below

Code in .NET 2.0, Build for Java, Run on Linux!

Create your first pure Java ASP.NET application

Port the Personal Web Site Starter Kit to Tomcat

A to Z of Business Rule Engine in BizTalk Server

Business rule engine can be used to dynamically add, edit, and delete business rules that are being applied to the business processes. Most of the time the business process remain the same but business logic changes, for example in a typical Loan processing example interest rate will change every day, discount will change, promotions may be given etc.

Business rules give business users (information workers) to control of business logic with any knowledge of coding and rebuilding the existing process.

I have found one presentation along with a wmv file on Microsoft website which describes a Business Rule Engine in detail. It covers each topic and fact related to Business Rule Engine deeply. This presentation is related to BizTalk Server 2004 but we can relate the same in BizTalk Server 2006.

Following are the topics covered in this presentation

• Introduction to Business Rule Engine
• Developing a business rule
• Invoking rules from orchestration
• Advance Concepts (describing different execution models, design pattern, architecture and scalability)
• Rules and orchestrations

You can view/download both the WMV/PPT files by visiting the given link below.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/838412

Note: If you are trying to view the WMV file online, make sure that you have disabled pop up blocker for this site.

Understanding Application deployment & Up gradation in BizTalk Server 2006

This section will call attention to specific features which have been added or improved in the Application Deployment space which should be especially helpful to those working often with BizTalk Server. It also describes if any BizTalk application need to updated. Perhaps a partner’s schema will change so your schema and map will have to be changed accordingly. Or maybe the business will require a new auditing API to be called during one part of the business process’s execution. And for as good as our BizTalk Server developers are, there are always code defects in application code that will need to be fixed.

Application Concept

In BizTalk application is a logical container for application artifacts, allowing you to bucket related components. By being able to deploy, manage, start/stop, and troubleshoot all at the application level. The application container contains BizTalk Server assemblies which are deployed to it by Visual Studio or users can manually add BizTalk Server assemblies to the application, or move BizTalk Server assemblies from other applications. Likewise, they can also add non-BizTalk Server assemblies to the application. The application may also contain receive ports, receive locations, send ports, property tracking settings, and role links, to name a few. Implicitly, the application also contains all of the bindings that are represented by their current settings. And other BizTalk Server artifacts can also be added to applications, such as BRE (rules) policies and BAM definition files.

For example, a developer can specify an application to deploy to by editing the “Application Name” property of a Microsoft Visual Studio project. By doing so, their artifacts will be deployed to the said application.

For the IT Pro, they can use the Administrative MMC Console to configure and start an entire application.the application concept allows the IT Pro to manage and troubleshoot selectively at the application level.

Deployment and Staging

Deployment is the logistical distribution of application artifacts to ensure all necessary components are available to the systems that require them. Staging, more specifically, refers to the moving of application artifacts from environment to environment, say from development to a test environment, or from staging to production to undergo different levels of testing at each stage.

Up gradation

There are couple of different ways BizTalk server accommodate application upgrades. Following are the details for the same.

1. Simple Upgrade: - This scenario requires no downtime, requires no code changes, and can be performed by an IT Pro or Business Analyst (BA) single-handedly.
2. Patching Scenario: - In this existing application binaries in production must be edited and swapped with updated ones.
3. Side by Side Versioning: - This allows two versions of the same application artifacts to be running side-by-side. The .NET runtime inherently allows for same-named but different versioned assemblies to be deployed and running.


Microsoft has written a very good document describing all the above facts in detail. Click here to download the document.