Nuno Filipe Godinho

Microsoft Web Platform

2008-10-17T14:57:48Z

With the purpose of helping the Web developers Microsoft launched a new site called, Microsoft Web Platform that contains several elements with the goal of simplifying the life of those developers, with some of the contents being:

This is not yet completed, but it’s a good idea and I’m certain that it will grow a lot in the near future.

On this site we find 2 installer packages, that are:

Microsoft Web Platform Installer
- This package is completely free and serves as a “Launcher” for the development of Web Solutions using Microsoft platform, because it installs IIS7, Visual Studio Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Express Edition and also .NET Framework
Microsoft Web Application Installer
- This package will allow us to create easy installers for Web Applications in PHP or ASP.NET that will be installed on IIS.

Without any doubt this is a good way to centralize contents for whoever develops or wants to develop solutions for the Web.

ASP.NET MVC Beta version Released

2008-10-17T14:29:58Z

Following the ASP.NET development this new MVC Framework is important because in some cases will be the right choice for the development process. The first releases had problems regarding AJAX integration and also poor set of controls, when compared to the ASP.NET Web Forms version, but with this version a lot has changed, and things like:

Better Visual Studio Support

Works with VS 2008 with and without SP1
Provides a new “Add View” option in the context Menu when developing the controller class

Supports jQuery

This has been a great progress for ASP.NET and it’s not only possible with ASP.NET MVC Framework

Strong Types

Changes in order to use Strong Types like:

UpdateModel
TryUpdateModel

Improved Unit Testing
Validation Errors

Adds support to IDataErrorInfo
Adds support for Dynamic Data Attributes

Integration between Silverlight and ASP.NET MVC Projects

This are some of the new stuff in this new Beta release, and you can see more about it on Scott Guthrie’s Blog post that presents this subject.

To start using it just download this version here.

Silverlight 2.0 RTM

2008-10-16T20:16:38Z

Finally the RTM version of Silverlight 2.0 is already available, as Scott Guthrie wrote on his subject related post. This is a very interesting news and that will allow all that are using and believe in this Microsoft technology can now improve their productivity in developing rich solutions.

To get started you need the following:

To Learn:

Don’t forget to check also my blog and if you want to know more you can get in-touch with me.

First Code Parts of Prism 2.0

2008-09-26T18:07:53Z

As I previously posted, Prism 2.0 is shaping up and some of the new Code Parts are already available on CodePlex. Of course this is only a small part but it brings good news like:

Multi-targeting quick starts, that explains the structure that a Prism 2.0 project will have in order to be Multi-target for WPF and Silverlight, and in this case is a real state solution.
Multi-targeting Visual Studio Templates, in order to be possible to create the Prism 2.0 projects.
Project Linker Tool, that provides a guidance on how to structure an application in a way that is possible to link it to other applications in order to make it Multi-targeted.

Read more about it in the Readme file that defines this first drop, and also David Hill’s blog post about this subject.

Silverlight 2.0 Release Candidate made Available

2008-09-26T14:27:12Z

One more step towards the RTM version of Silverlight 2.0 was made today with the announcement of the Release Candidate by Scott Guthrie. With this version we can expect several changes, where the major part are not critical since there was already a Go-Live licence for the Beta 2 version, but some of them will impact in important points of the technology. In order to check what has to be changed from one version to another, you can check this blog post by Mike Snow and this document that explains the changes. This will be important in order to start updating the solutions and preparing it for the final version.

Some of the enhancements are:

New Controls
- PasswordBox – Like a textbox but only with the capabilities and security elements that are needed to work as passwordbox.
- ProgressBar – Allow us to give feedback to the customer about the status of the work that’s being done
- ComboBox
Security
- Some Constructors are now made internal
Animations
- Solve some issues with changing properties in active animations

We are on the road for the new RTM version and so this is great to check if all issues that were present on previous releases are solved.

Don’t forget to read the elements provided in this post for more informations.

Virtual Earth version 6.2 Release

2008-09-26T10:09:23Z

There’s already online the new 6.2 release of the Virtual Earth that has some awesome new features that will be briefly described here:

First release of the Virtual Earth Web Services, that will allow developers to use Virtual Earth features by using only the Web Services. Can be thought as an alternative to the Map Point Web Service. The features made available by the Web Service are:

Imagery Metadata – Information about the map tiles that are served.
Geocoding and Reverse Geocoding – Allows developers to request the Geocode based on an address
Static Map Generation – Provides the capability of developing our own map because it provides access to all the tiles and data used by Virtual Earth.
Search – Allows developers to provide access to search option about where and what on Virtual Earth.
Routing – Provides access to calculate routes by using the Service
One-click Directions – Provides one-click directions without having to provide the start point.

International Reverse Geocoding – this was an important because it improved the geocoding not only in the US but also in other countries.
- Rooftop geocoding for something like 85 million locations
- Improved the near matched – The interest point search in the nearby areas were improved.
Maps for Mobile Devices – by using the Virtual Earth Web Services will be easy to develop high performance maps applications for mobile devices.
Localized Maps – A major improvement because now we can see the Map information in several languages.
Localized Directions - A major improvement because now we can see the directions in several languages. Something like 15 languages.
Imagery Metadata – Important because now we can have information about when the information was updated.
3D Import capabilities – Improvements in the process of custom 3D elements import.
3D Imagery – Higher quality in 3D views.
Pushpin clustering – Allows to change the pushpin clustering to custom ones.
Weather Integration – The 3D view now has the weather information, by having clouds in case of a cloudy weather, and without clouds in case of sunny sky. Doesn’t support for now: Rain, Snow.

For more information check the official announcement from Mark Brown and Chris Pendleton, and also a Technical WebCast by Mark Brown.

Live WebCast: Discovering Silverlight 2.0 – Developing RIA Solutions – Advanced Topics (Part 2 of 5)

2008-09-25T18:30:37Z

As I wrote in the previous post this post will be part of a Portuguese WebCasts Cycle and in this case the topic is:

“Developing RIA Solutions – Advanced Topics”

This session had the goal to provide a deep dive on the Silverlight Controls, Browser Integration, Isolated Storage and Adaptive Streaming

1. Controls

This is one of the most talked issued about Silverlight version 1.0 since in this version there were lacking several important controls and that in this version 2.0 are placed by default also with the source code made available. They allow 2 ways to change their looks and they are:

Styling
- Changing the looks by using only the available properties
Skinning
- Changing all the elements that represent the control appearance giving a complete creative freedom by change also the elements that are part of the internal of the control.

These controls are made by two parts, that are:

Logic
- User Controls: public partial class MyUserControl : User Control
- Custom Controls: public class MyCustomControl : Control
Visual
- User Controls: <User Control> (Ficheiro XAML)
- Custom Controls: <ControlTemplate> (Don’t have any associated XAML and for that reason the layout will be place whenever the control is used by specifying the ControlTemplate.

The controls are also composed by Parts, States and Transitions and their purposes are:

Create the structure of the control
Make a clear separation between the Logic and Visual parts of the control

Parts
- Elements that are part of the Template
States
- Different ways the controls can look
- Uses VisualState and VisualStateGroup classes from VisualStateManager
Transitions
- The way that this change is made is by changing from one State to another
- Uses the VisualTransition class from VisualStateManager

2. Browser Integration

The purpose is to allow a perfect interaction between the Silverlight application and the Browser, by considering it as being a first class citizen, with the capabilities to:

Provide .NET code to be accessed by the Browser by using JavaScript.
Provide the necessary access, in order that call can be made to the HTML or JavaScript code from Silverlight.

The namespace were all the integration related elements can be found is System.Windows.Browser that contains elements like:

HtmlPage – allows access to the page in where the Silverlight solution is placed
- System.Windows.Browser.HtmlPage.RegisterScriptableObject(identifier, baseVisualElement)
ScriptableMemberAttribute – This attribute allow you to mark the methods that can be accessed from the Browser
- [ScriptableMember]

3. Isolated Storage

O Isolated Storage, as it occurs in other types of .NET solutions, it’s a sage place where there can be made IO several changes, like the following:

Files
- Open, Create, Delete, Exists
Directory
- Create, Delete, Exists, List contents
Site
- Remove, Verify existing directories
Quota
- Check actual, Raise, Check available space

The Isolated Store exists in two levels:

Site
- there will be only one unique store for all the applications that are part of that site. ex: www.microsoft.com
Application
- Each application has it’s own unique store. ex: www.microsoft.com/architecture – www.microsoft.com/partners
- Access is restricted to only the application that the store is related

4. Adaptive Streaming

Adaptive Streaming allows developers to encode all media elements in several bit rates, allowing it to depend on the network and CPU capabilities of the client machine.

One of the big advantages is the possibility of using any other Adaptive Streaming mechanisms other them the provided by Silverlight.

To finalize I would only place the resources presented:

Links
- Hard Rock Memorabilia: http://memorabilia.hardrock.com
- Health Care Solution: http://www.mscui.net/PatientJourneyDemonstrator/
- Community Site: http://Silverlight.net
- Main Product Site: http://www.microsoft.com/Silverlight
- MSDN Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/Silverlight
- Online Forums: http://Silverlight.net/forums
- Online SDK: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/bb188266.aspx
Top Silverlight Blogs
- Tim Sneath: http://blogs.msdn.com/tims
- Mike Harsh: http://blogs.msdn.com/mharsh
- Joe Stegman: http://blogs.msdn.com/jstegman
- Laurence Moroney: http://blogs.msdn.com/webnext

Here is also available my presentation and the samples made.

Live WebCast: Discovering Silverlight 2.0 – Developing RIA Solutions (Part 1 of 5)

2008-09-12T16:22:42Z

As I wrote in the previous post this post will be part of a Portuguese WebCasts Cycle and in this case the topic is:

“Developing RIA Solutions”

This session had the purpose of presenting an overview of the capabilities and functionalities of Silverlight 2.0, and the talked topics were:

1. Introduction

Silverlight 2.0 in the same way that his predecessor, version 1.0, is still a Cross-Browser (IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera) and Cross-Platform (Windows, MAC OS, Linux), allowing rich experiences in terms of Media, and now this versions allows also the needed functionalities and possibilities to develop Line-of-Business solutions in a connected environment, and so there’s no support for “Occasionally Offline” or even “Occasionally Online”, as I wrote in this previous post.

Basically with this new version we have all the previously known elements and also the following:

CLR – Common Language Runtime – This is the .NET Framework embedded on the Silverlight solutions that will allow that you can use .Net languages on the Code-Behind.
DLR – Dynamic Language Runtime – This enables a runtime for the usage of Dynamic Languages like IronPython and IronRuby.
Controls, in this version by default its made available a complete set of controls in order to help on the LOB solution development, controls such as DataGrid, ComboBox, RadioButton, Calendar, etc.
Layout – A set of controls that allow you to define how the controls will be arranged on the solution, and so more than a Canvas (basically a surface for placing object) we now have also a Grid (that allows us to define rows and columns in a way to organize how the controls used will be arranged on the application), StackPanel (Panel that will automatically arrange the contents) and the Border (this allow us to customize the boundaries of the surface area).
Editing – Availability of Controls that allow the edition of data like the TextBox.
SOAP, WCF, REST, Sockets – Allow us to consume all kinds of services.
XMLReader/XMLWriter – Allows us to process XML files on Silverlight.
LINQ – Allows the usage of Linq to XML on Silverlight.
DRM – Digital Rights Management – This is a mechanism to manage the rights digitally and that is very important in Media solutions.

2. Application Model

Silverlight works on a statefull model, and that means that unlike the usual Internet based solutions, it maintains the state. This happens because when the first request is made the solution is served to the client machine, working in a similar way as the Forms solutions.

The way that the solution is compiled is the following:

When the compolation is made by using the csc.exe (C# Compiler) or the vbc.exe (VB.NET compiler) all the source code, XAML files and also the Media files described as Embedded Resources will be packed in an Assembly that will be the result of the compilation process.
It’s also generated a file with the XAP extension (basically a compressed Zip file with all the needed files) that will be the package of all the elements needed for the solution, and those elements are:
- Assembly generated on the first point
- Assemblies that are used as references on the solution
- Media Eklements placed as content on the solution
- Manifest.xml file that will contain all the information about the solution and there contents.

The needs in terms of the Server are that we need to register the following extensions:

.XAP with the Mime Type of Application/x-silverlight-app – this will notify the Web Server that whenever he receives a request to serve this type of file he should serve the file that is the Silverlight Application.
.XAML with the Mime Type of application/xaml+xml – this will notify that this is a Silverlight page. This is only needed when the Silverlight 1.0 version is used or whenever there is a Spash Screen for a Silverlight version 2.0 solution.

As for the install and instantiation process what happens is the following:

Install
- This is made only once
- It will be on Windows Update after the RTM release, and this will allow the increase of the adoption.
- The updates are made automatically
- The Install Experience is 100% customizable (http://silverlight.net/Quickstarts/BuildUi/SplashScreen.aspx)
- There’s no need for a Browser restart in order to start working

Instantiation
- Using the HTML Object Tag
- Silverlight.js – Javascript file used to instantiate the Silverlight solution

3. Features

Some of the features are:

Full Screen Mode
- Possibility of viewing the solution on Full Screen, and in this way it will be free of the Browser chrome, but there will be a limit on the input as only the following keys will be available:Left, Right, Up, Down, Page Up, Page Down, Tab, Home, End.

Security
- In the same way that in version 1.0, this version works inside a Security SandBox that will avoid malicious code from affecting the critical resources of the customer system.
- Elements that allow this kind of security:
  - Cross Domain – Allows the definition of the permissions whenever calls that need to cross boundaries are made, and they could be cross domain boundaries or even Browser Zone Boundaries.
  - Isolated Storage – Makes possible the usage of a safe place that will allow IO operations without decreasing the security of the customer.
  - Sockets – The need of specifying the cross domain policy file in order to make the call will make the solutions a lot more secure.
  - OpenFileDialog – Allows us to visualize the contents of the customer machine without needing to give dangerous permission to the solution.
- It doesn’t need Administration privileges because it works in least privileges needed mode.
- Is possible to have several instances of Silverlight in the same page, as each one will have it’s own AppDomain maintaining the independence between them.

HTML DOM Integration
- Allow the integration between Silverlight and DOM, and what it means is that we can access Silverlight contents from the browser and vise-versa.

Deep Zoom
- Allows the possibility of viewing high resolution images with a high performance even when making zoom on them.
- Reads only the needed parts of the image that is being viewed.

4. Tools

The suggested tools for the development are Visual Studio (Developers) and Microsoft Expression Studio (Designers).

5. Controls

This was one of the big issues associated with Silverlight 1.0 and for that reason this version have several controls by default that are made available even with the source code and can be extended. There are 2 ways to change the looks, and they are:

Styling
- Changing the appearance using only the available properties
Skinning
- Changing all the components that make the control appearance with a full and complete creative freedom.

6. Data Binding

Allows us to make connection between properties and other elements on the solution, and can be done in 2 ways:

Declaratively

Programmatically

Binding binding = new Binding("Nasdaq.Points");

binding.Mode = BindingMode.OneWay;

TextBlock tb = new TextBlock();

tb.SetBinding(TextBlock.TextProperty, binding);

To finalize I would only place the resources presented:

Links
- Hard Rock Memorabilia: http://memorabilia.hardrock.com
- Health Care Solution: http://www.mscui.net/PatientJourneyDemonstrator/
- Community Site: http://Silverlight.net
- Main Product Site: http://www.microsoft.com/Silverlight
- MSDN Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/Silverlight
- Online Forums: http://Silverlight.net/forums
- Online SDK: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/bb188266.aspx
Top Silverlight Blogs
- Tim Sneath: http://blogs.msdn.com/tims
- Mike Harsh: http://blogs.msdn.com/mharsh
- Joe Stegman: http://blogs.msdn.com/jstegman
- Laurence Moroney: http://blogs.msdn.com/webnext

Here is also available my presentation and the samples made.

Live WebCast: Discovering Silverlight 2.0

2008-09-11T15:59:54Z

During this week it’s taking place a WebCast Cycle in Portuguese that is part of the WebCasts4Share initiative delivered by Microsoft Portugal and that’s related with the topic “Silverlight 2.0”, and across this cycle we will talk about the following topics:

All the sessions will be also available on-demand but don’t forget that they are in Portuguese, but all the presentations, samples and summaries will be placed here in English also in order to make it available for all of you.

I would also like to know your thoughts about interesting topics for WebCasts and also if you need some help I’ll be delighted to help you.

Photosynth and Virtual Earth

2008-09-10T15:46:42Z

The PhotoSynth project is getting a lot more interesting and a consumer versions is already available and this will allow us to place our own images in a way that see can “travel to places as if we were there” and get a 360º view that is generated with the photos submitted by the users. This seems to me a very good idea and I thought that I would like to see this integrated with Virtual Earth and that’s what I did and made available here (The pins mark the places where photosynth information exists, and by placing the mouse on top of them will allow you to see the photosynth elements) in order to get to know what we can expect in a while. Of course this is a mashup now, but a huge power will came with the integration of both, don’t you agree?

Prism 2.0 – What can we expect?

2008-09-04T15:51:13Z

So known Prism project is making some changes on the spectrum of WPF Applications, with the first version being named “Composite Application Guidance for WPF”, and now is preparing to make is entrance on the Silverlight Applications spectrum.

The importance of having this kind of Guidance for Silverlight is very high because this will help developers take care of some more Business oriented issues that presently, because now much as to be made that is not Business oriented because of the early days of this technology, but this will be solved by Prism 2.0.

And so here are some of the features we can expect in the next version of Prism:

Multi-targeting for WPF and Silverlight Applications
Component Reusability
Guidance for Silverlight Applications
Guidance for building Silverlight LOB applications
Modular development in Silverlight Applications

These are some of those features, but you can check the complete scope of this version in this Blaine Wastell blog post.

Silverlight Applications Offline

2008-09-01T18:45:53Z

This has always been an issue when we talk about Silverlight and so much as been said about it, and so let’s look at the options.

First of all we need to think that Silverlight was not built to be a technology to deliver Occasionally Online applications, it was built to deliver RIA, and so it was made to use Online and not Offline. Is this a problem?

Secondly, Silverlight is a subset of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and so my question is: Do we really need the Occasionally Online approach in Silverlight or do we need to be able to run everything we do in Silverlight in WPF also?

And so my thoughts about my own questions are:

There’s no problem with Silverlight not having been thought in terms of needing the Occasionally Online approach because this is the purpose of WPF, but it must be enhanced with something like the Occasionally Offline approach, because sometimes our Internet connections go down, for several different reasons, and we don’t want to lose all our work done in the Silverlight apps. And if we think that Silverlight 2.0 was built to bring the ability not only for the islands of richness, that was brought by the version 1.0, but also to provide a platform to build Line-Of-Business Applications this will take a lot more importance.

Still about Silverlight having the need to support the Occasionally Online approach I would say that this isn’t really a must have because this is really an Architectural choice to be made during the product planing, and so if we need a Occasionally Online approach we use WPF, and if we need an Online approach we’ll use Silverlight.

OK this is nice but there’s one important aspect that we are forgetting and that is that a product will evolve and suddenly it can turn to need an Occasionally Online approach and so, what will we do? Will we need to build the application again? Of course not, this is where the interaction between WPF and Silverlight needs to appear, because it’s needed that all the features and even controls that work in Silverlight work well in WPF, because this is how real subset frameworks work, and is this now true in Silvelight and WPF? The answer is not everything works, but it’s being worked on.

So a lot still needs to be done in this two awesome technologies that bring great User Experience for applications, but we need to think also that they are relatively new because WPF with the release of .NET 3.5 SP1 just had it’s Third Major Release, and Silvelight is only going for it’s Second. This being said a lot should be expected in both this areas.

In terms of what choices do we have today for making Silvelight a Desktop application / Occasionally Online Applications, they are the following:

Pack it with a lightweight Web Server like Cassini Web Server
Pack it with a custom build Windows Service that will serve the Http Requests needed by the Silverlight App. This seams to me a lot harder because to much as to be done.
Transform it to a WPF like Application. Use this Desklighter tool that will convert your Silverlight App into a Desktop App.

This is a very interesting topic and I would like to ear your thoughts about this subject, so feel free to comment.

.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Changes

2008-08-27T23:38:33Z

With the release of the new Service Pack 1 for the .NET Framework 3.5 several changes were made on several levels of the framework, and previously I talked about the changes that were made on the WPF scope, but much more as been done, and things like the CLR were changed as Kevin Frie wrote on the CLRCodeGeneration blog.

Other person like the C# MVP Patrick Smacchia made a much deeper look and explained graphically where the changes were made and posted it on his blog, and this was a very interesting result to see.

Another change was that now the .Net Framework 3.5 with the Service Pack 1 allows managed code to be launched from a network share, and this will be a big change for all of those that were used to have a executable on a server and then all the client machines were to run that executable. Vance Morison as the full story about this on this post. This didn’t work but now it does. Great. My question is, “Why is this needed in the current work and architecture?” but because it was a huge request, Microsoft eared it and fixed it. It’s Great to be eared .

And so we know great changes are being made and very importantly changes that came from feedback provided from those who use the technology. Excellent.

Training for ASP.NET Virtual Earth Control

2008-08-27T23:24:35Z

For all of those that develop or would like to develop ASP.NET solutions with integration of Virtual Earth using the new ASP.NET control here is the link for a very interesting series of videos and samples about how to use the ASP.NET Virtual Earth control.

Don’t miss this fabulous opportunity to know more about this control that brings a easy way to develop ASP.NET solutions with integration of Virtual Earth.

Windows Presentation Foundation Major Release 3

2008-08-27T21:08:25Z

With the release of the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 the WPF suffered the third major release of it’s short history.

This major areas that were affected were:

Deployment

Now instead of needing the full framework installation it was made a lightweight version in order to run only this technology, and this is called the Client Profile. This lightweight version that consumes 25 MB includes the following:

CLR (bases of the .NET Framework)

Click Once (Used in the installation of the WPF applications)

Windows Forms (Runtime used to run the Windows Forms solutions that can be held also inside WPF applications using WindowsFormsHost class)

Windows Presentation Foundation (Runtime used to run the WPF solutions that can also be held inside Windows Forms Applications using the ElementHost class)

Windows Communication Foundation (Runtime used to run and consume WCF services that are normally used by Windows and WPF applications)

Graphics

     This versions includes powerful enhancements on the WPF graphics primarily on the 3D scope in controls like UIElement3D and Viewport2DVisual3D (that is responsible for making 2D object viewable in 3D).

     Also brings the HLSL shaders with the ShaderEffect class, that are entirely implemented on the GPU level, which makes it a lot faster, in case you have the Pixel Shader 2.0 support on your hardware).

    Another class that was also enhanced was the WritableBitmap class that now enables a very efficient image manipulation, by giving the ability to provide bitmap images mapped in the system memory that will give us the ability to change it on runtime and have the effects immediately on the screen.

Performance

Changes to the cold start on the application that are now improved in 45% depending on the application size.

Virtualization optimizations such as in TreeView, columns that can now be virtualized and that will enable a better and easier creation of DataGrid controls.

New Controls

     The much asked Datagrid control is now part of the WPF controls that are made available, but that will be released after the .net 3.5 SP1 release.

     The Office Ribbon control is also part of the new WPF controls and will also be released after the .net 3.5 SP1 release as the DataGrid Control.

      A Rich functionality WebBrowser Control, that in the previous versions worked via a Frame Element, and now will permit javacript and other funcionalities that exist on the normal browsers, and also will provide the ability for WPF applications to host Silverlight contents.

Other Enhancements

     Support for String formatting on the databinding of text without having to implement the IValueConverter interface.

     Extended support for the XBAP for the Firefox by providing the ClickOnce native support inside it.

     Improvements in the WPF Designer of the Visual Studio 2008 solving some problems that existed with the rendering of elements majorly when they were based on other custom controls.

     There’s a change that needs to be made on the Blend 2.5 Preview in order to solve some of this problems and that can be downloaded here.

Integration

Improved DirectX integration by having the D3DImage class that enabled the developer to overlay or blend the Direct3D contents with the WPF contents.

In conclusion, all great stuff for those who develop using this powerful Microsoft Technology called WPF that changed the main community site to the WindowsClient.net/WPF.

For more information’s check the following links:

Jaime Rodriguez blog post on WPF 3.5 SP1 features.
WPF perfomance blog post on What’s New for Performance in WPF in .Net 3.5 SP1.
Tim Sneath blog post on Introducing the Third Major Release of Windows Presentation Foundation.

Silverlight Tools Beta 2 for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 RTM

2008-08-11T22:48:38Z

It’s already available the Silverlight Tools Beta 2 for Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 with SP1 RTM version, as the Beta version of the SP1 of Visual Studio 2008 is no longer supported.

Install it and begin playing with the new VS2008 SP1 and Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2.

Update: In case of problems with the installation, please check this forum entry that explains the problem and how to solve it.

Import 3D Objects into Virtual Earth

2008-08-11T18:38:08Z

With the aquisition of Caligari by Microsoft in February 2008, it was made available a free tool, named TrueSpace that was placed for download completely for free. This will allow the development of solutions using Virtual Earth in his 3D version. This was without any doubt one of the greater drawbacks of developing with Virtual Earth, but now this is all solved as Chris Pendleton the Virtual Earth Team Evangelist announced on his blog and were he explains how to do each of the steps. have fun with this new and very interesting feature made available for Virtual Earth.

RTM of SP1 for .NET 3.5, Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Released

2008-08-11T18:13:47Z

The RTM version of SP1 for .NET Framework 3.5, Visual Studio 2008 and also Team Foundation Server is already available for MSDN Subscribers, so check and download it, and start using it. It’s great.

Composite Application Guidance for WPF (Prism) now goes to Silverlight 2.0

2008-08-07T00:34:02Z

As I said in a previous post Composite Application Guidance for WPF formerly known as "Prism" was made available and this was a great news because now the development of WPF solutions is easier and as a Guidance that will lead us all the way, helping us make the right choices whenever problems emerge. This is great but being Silverlight a subset of WPF, so wouldn't be great to have the same kind of guidance for Silverlight 2.0?

This is precisely what the team thought and then they started working on it and now we have some "spike's" (A ’spike’ is a small and quickly developed sample application in order to mitigate some risks) being released that will do exactly this, as is announced by Ezequiel Jadib on his blog. It's worth to check and I think it will be very interesting in the near future.

Federated Security with Windows Live ID (PT/EN)

2008-07-30T20:20:57Z

Being Windows Live ID one of the existing authentication modes and that has as big advantage the already existing infrastructure provided by Microsoft and with no cost associates, and also making the Single-Sign-On for several solutions that use Windows Live ID as the authentication mechanism, and if we add the fact that there are mode then 420 millions of registered users of Windows Live ID and more then 1 billion of authentications by day we see that this is a well known and with high used form of authentication. Of course we know that this values have to do with the usage of MSN Messenger, but we can capitalize the knowledge and trust from the users in our solutions. But when we look to enterprise solutions there can be situations that need to share authentication to our solutions between Windows Live ID and at the same time the users that exist on our enterprise and that are managed by Active Directory, LDAP or any other (Ex. An Online Store that we want to give customers the possibility of authenticating using Windows Live ID, and the Administrator Users are solutions from our Company, XPTO, that has their users registered on Active Directory.). In this cases what can we do?

The solution for this question is to use Federated Security. For this the Windows Live Platform Team made available a service that provides this and also published this very interesting article on MSDN where you can see how it works and how can we take advantage of it. I strongly suggest this reading.