think!

Windows Azure learning links

2011-07-19T00:35:00.001-07:00

1) http://learning.microsoft.com/manager/LearningPlanV2.aspx?resourceId=30f78dea-f126-4b01-82eb-52cbc908e4ec&clang=en-US&cats=d4e8e42c-3d5a-4a6e-915d-d99556a49bd7

2) http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/31/certification-notes-70-583-designing-and-developing-windows-azure-applications.aspx

3) • Moving Applications to the Cloud:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff728592.aspx
• Developing Applications for the Cloud:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff966499.aspx

4) Windows Azure Platform Training Kit has presentations, labs and other material for learning: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=413E88F8-5966-4A83-B309-53B7B77EDF78&displaylang=en

5) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ff380142

6) the exam preparation guide (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-583#tab2) gives you good information about what exam is asking.

Win32/Linux Headers for C/C++

2009-11-10T23:01:00.000-08:00

While interoperating between the Win32 and Linux, you will need equivalent headers.
Useful Lookup and resource: http://fearthecow.net/guest/rosetta/

Encrypted Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMPE) and

2009-11-09T21:15:00.000-08:00

RTMPE, is an encrypted version of RTMP. There are technical diffrences between Recording and Downloading! <>

REST with WCF 3.5

2009-11-06T05:33:00.000-08:00

Let’s walk through Step by Step

Step 1: Create a contract, and mark the contract with WebGet Attribute

//Import the required Namespace/s
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Web;

namespace RestWithWCF
{
[ServiceContract]
public interface IGreeterService
{
[OperationContract]
[WebGet(UriTemplate = "greet/{name}")]
string DoGreet(string name);
}
}

Step 2: Implement the contract for the Service

namespace RestWithWCF
{
public class GreetService : IGreeterService
{
public string DoGreet (string name)
{
return string.Format("Hello, {0} , Welcome to the world of REST.", name);
}
}
}

Step 3: Create “Host” for the service

using System;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Web;
namespace RestWithWCF
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
using (WebServiceHost serviceHost =
new WebServiceHost(typeof(GreetService)))
{
serviceHost.Open();
Console.WriteLine("Host Started...");
Console.ReadLine();
serviceHost.Close();
}
}
}
}

Step 4: Create a Configuration file to expose a webHttpBinding endpoint for the service.

Step 5: Compile and Execute the HOST

Step 6: Open browser and hit the REST Endpoint

Step 7: Check the XML response

That’s it.

WCF 3.5, REST vs Soap

2009-10-29T22:52:00.000-07:00

Starting with WCF 3.5 services can be rest enabled. MEaning you can either create services with SOAP or REST Extensions.
Few key constraints for this descision,
(1) SOAP requires knowledge of XML standards on the other hand Any client or Server application with HTTP support can make call to REST Services with HTTP Get verb.
(2) SOAP Requires XML packet across every Request/Response, where as REST Services does not have this constraint. this can make the SOAP services 10-15 times more heavy on Wire. this is one reason for utilizing the REST Services on low or limited profile mobile.
(3) SOAP operates on Heavy metada, this makes them very useful while designing Services which requires the formal contract to be established for describing the interface that the web service offers. REST on the other hand does not publish any Metadata.

NHibernate and Linq

2009-07-06T06:13:00.000-07:00

If the objective is RAD [rapid Application Development], Linq comes in handy.NHibernate, has very interesting support for the inhertance and the object can be stored as Table per Calss, Sub-Class or "Hierarchy", this evaluates to the ability to write flexible code and "Polymorphic Queries". It is possible to either write mapping in xml document or as strongly typed objects, this should be design descision based on what you would like to acheive w.r.t ability to Refactor, configure etc...

WCF AJAX Page requests

2009-06-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

WCF platform had not built-in support for consuming JSON objects or returning the same.
Starting with .Net framework 3.5 and “Orcas” this can be easily achieved e.g. <>

WCF 3.5, WF State Persistant Sessions [Durable Session]

2009-06-17T23:15:00.000-07:00

You may require WCF services to persist the state information. You can take advantage of the WF persistent model. <>

Debugging SSL traffic

2009-06-16T02:14:00.000-07:00

Debugging SSL web Traffic can be a hassel, Tools you can utilize are,
(1) ProxyTrace : http://www.pocketsoap.com/
(2) TcpTrace: http://www.pocketsoap.com/tcptrace/
Sniffing SSL traffic with a Proxy
(3) Charles: http://www.charlesproxy.com/
-

Bing it!

2009-06-16T00:13:00.000-07:00

Tips
(1) Goto: www.bing.com/worldwide.aspx , Select a country/region: United States - English
Notice the Bing background image turns interactive.
(2) Bing provides RSS feed for the search result simply append &format=rss to the end of the URL and convert the link to the RSS feed.

SQL Dependency - SQL Server 2005 Onwards

2009-06-11T23:50:00.001-07:00

If your problem statement requires you to cache the DB recordset in the MiddleTier and invalidate the cached data on periodic or on certain notifications, you can take advantage of SQLDependency or Query Notifications. Ref Implementation details @:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555893

Managed Extensibility Framework [MEF]

2009-06-11T22:55:00.000-07:00

If you are a Microsoft.NET developer, you can take advantage from the full source from codeplex at:
http://www.codeplex.com/MEF

Read more on MEF at:
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/mef

the basic idea being extensible is being able to dynamically compose stuffs, without being able to recompile the entire application source.
As an example if you have seen or heard of the pouplar game War of the worlds (WoW), the model are being extended by many-2 contributors and the ability of the game application to handle these .
It may be required to restart the application in order to index or utilize the new models, Depending on the implementation it is highly possible to differentiate changes that requires restart and the changes which can be acomodated/invalidated dynamically.

In all MEF unleashes the Framework with capacity in order to build highly Extensible applications which can be maintained by. These can be leveraged in order to build highly customizable applications.

Syndication

2009-06-11T01:11:00.000-07:00

It is possible you may want to be able to “Track” many websites whose contents change on a very unpredictable schedule. You can use RSS or ATOM.

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a “Format” for delivering regularly changing web content. The feeds can be automated and can be channeled into a filtered display and the privacy is ensured as the tracking party need not subscribe to any email based newsletters.

Atom Syndication format is an xml based format used for feeds and AtomPub or APP or Atom Publishing Protocol is used for updating the resources.

Read the Details and differences at:
http://www.intertwingly.net/wiki/pie/Rss20AndAtom10Compared

Microsoft.Net 4.0 Framework, “Linq To SQL [L2S], Dead?”

2009-06-11T00:52:00.000-07:00

Quick update for Development projects using Microsoft.NET and projects which have made investment in Linq,
As of Microsoft.Net 4.0 Framework, “Linq To SQL [L2S]” will not be recommended and “Linq To Entities” [L2E] will be the recommended Data access solution. Entity Framework [EF] will address most of the needs of L2S, some of the features which dev community wants in EF are already part of the L2S and Microsoft will be making investment in making both tools alike.

Ref: http://blogs.msdn.com/adonet/archive/2008/10/31/clarifying-the-message-on-l2s-futures.aspx

Windows Server service management extensions "Dublin"

2009-06-10T01:26:00.000-07:00

Code named “Dublin” is the new set of extensions designed for the hosting environment for WF and WCF based applications. This will be set of “Service Management” extensions which will ship along with the windows server this has been built on top of IIS/Windows Activation Services.
Features and press release can be referenced at:
http://www.microsoft.com/NET/Dublin.aspx

Microsoft.NET Framework 4.0 Beta 1 and VisualStudio 2010

2009-06-08T23:48:00.000-07:00

.NET Framework 4.0 Beta1 been made available to public, it can be downloaded from Microsoft. http://www.microsoft.com/NET/
Few interesting feature list:
<>