Satheesh Babu

Microsoft is releasing a built-in version of MVC architecture framework in future.

 Some details about MVC framework from Scott,

MVC is a framework methodology that divides an application's implementation into three component roles: models, views, and controllers.

• "Models" in a MVC based application are the components of the application that are responsible for maintaining state.  Often this state is persisted inside a database (for example: we might have a Product class that is used to represent order data from the Products table inside SQL).

• "Views" in a MVC based application are the components responsible for displaying the application's user interface.  Typically this UI is created off of the model data (for example: we might create an Product "Edit" view that surfaces textboxes, dropdowns and checkboxes based on the current state of a Product object).

• "Controllers" in a MVC based application are the components responsible for handling end user interaction, manipulating the model, and ultimately choosing a view to render to display UI.  In a MVC application the view is only about displaying information - it is the controller that handles and responds to user input and interaction.

Some highlight about MVC framework from Scott,

• It enables clean separation of concerns, testability, and TDD by default.  All core contracts within the MVC framework are interface based and easily mockable (it includes interface based IHttpRequest/IHttpResponse intrinsics).  You can unit test the application without having to run the Controllers within an ASP.NET process (making unit testing fast).  You can use any unit testing framework you want to-do this testing (including NUnit, MBUnit, MS Test, etc).

• It is highly extensible and pluggable.  Everything in the MVC framework is designed so that it can be easily replaced/customized (for example: you can optionally plug-in your own view engine, routing policy, parameter serialization, etc).  It also supports using existing dependency injection and IOC container models (Windsor, Spring.Net, NHibernate, etc).

• It includes a very powerful URL mapping component that enables you to build applications with clean URLs.  URLs do not need to have extensions within them, and are designed to easily support SEO and REST-friendly naming patterns.  For example, I could easily map the /products/edit/4 URL to the "Edit" action of the ProductsController class in my project above, or map the /Blogs/scottgu/10-10-2007/SomeTopic/ URL to a "DisplayPost" action of a BlogEngineController class.

• The MVC framework supports using the existing ASP.NET .ASPX, .ASCX, and .Master markup files as "view templates" (meaning you can easily use existing ASP.NET features like nested master pages, <%= %> snippets, declarative server controls, templates, data-binding, localization, etc).  It does not, however, use the existing post-back model for interactions back to the server.  Instead, you'll route all end-user interactions to a Controller class instead - which helps ensure clean separation of concerns and testability (it also means no viewstate or page lifecycle with MVC based views).

• The ASP.NET MVC framework fully supports existing ASP.NET features like forms/windows authentication, URL authorization, membership/roles, output and data caching, session/profile state management, health monitoring, configuration system, the provider architecture, etc.

Read the post here,

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/10/14/asp-net-mvc-framework.aspx

Popfly beta Release - Open to all 

All we need is a live id to get started.

The new features include,

• Gadgets. Popfly can create both Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets and Windows Live gadgets.
• Tweaking and Properties. Last iteration, we added “tweaking,” but many blocks didn’t have a lot of properties to tweak, so we added properties to a host of our output blocks including Photoshow, Virtual Earth, PhotoSphere, Gauge, and Page Turner.
• Tweaking and the color picker. When you tweak a mashup you now have a color picker so you don’t have to remember the alphanumeric codes for colors.
• New and updated blocks. Popfly has a category for new and updated blocks.
• New screencasts. Updated videos explaining how to use Popfly.
• New blocks. Notably one we did for the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Summit.
• Updated block documentation. Courtesy Andy, our resident block program manager.
• Privacy statement. We’ve also slightly modified our Privacy Statement, so check it out.

Visual Studio 2008 (code-named Orcas)

Visual Studio 2008 (code-named Orcas) is scheduled to be officially launched on February 27, 2008 . It is focused on development of Windows Vista, 2007 Office system, and Web applications.

The new features that is gping to be packed with this is,

• LINQ (Language Integrated Query) new versions of C# and VB languages ,
• WPF(Windows Presentation Foundation) visual designer ,
• A new HTML/CSS editor influenced by Microsoft Expression Web
• Default configures compiled assemblies to run on .NET Framework 3.5
• XAML based designer (codenamed Cider)
• Workflow designer
• LINQ to SQL designer
• XSLT debugger
• XSD designer
• JavaScript Intellisense support
• JavaScript Debugging support
• support for UAC manifests
• An enhanced set of UI widgets, both for WinForms and WPF
• J# will not be included

 Hope this list is really exciting.

Word Viewer 2007 is released
if you don't have Office 2007 and have started to receive docx files from individuals, you can now read the same using the newly released Word Viewer 2007..

The word viewer replaces all earlier releases... true to its name, the viewer let's you view the Word documents but don't let you edit the same... the Word Viewer enables free viewing of .docx and .docm with the same visual fidelity as the full version of Word 2003.

Download here,

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3657CE88-7CFA-457A-9AEC-F4F827F20CAC&displaylang=en

Cool Hotmail!!!

Microsoft has launched (27-9-2007) a unique service in India, where users can get unique customized Live Hotmail id's numbering over 141 ! The options range from xyz@delhirocks.in to xyz@iamcrazy.in , and are divided and listed under the following categories:

Where I Live

Who I Like

who i am

what i like

i dont fit

http://www.coolhotmail.com/

Get your unique ID soon!!!

Hands on lab

Visit the following link for hands on lab

Visit,

https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/courseDetail.aspx?courseId=78337

Microsoft SharedView Beta is a fast, easy way to share documents and screen views with small groups of friends or coworkers; anytime, anywhere. Use SharedView to put your heads together and collaborate.

Free download is available here,
http://www.connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=94

 Features:

• It works across firewalls.
• Integrates into office 2007
• Integrates with Windows Live Messenger
• It has an option to Track changes in Word
• Can share the desktop
• Each participant can have his own mouse pointer

Download the beta available at the above link..