.NET Development
.NET Development
Since I joined Microsoft Belux last year I've been thinking about moving my blog to MSDN. But ever since I didn't really saw the added value of moving my blog as both sites are using the same platform:
CommunityServer. But since a couple of weeks I've heard a lot of very positive feedback on the recently deployed 2.0 version of
CommunityServer that powers the
MSDN and
TechNet blogger sites. So far the experience is far better than on DonNetJunkies. Today I finally decided to move my blog to
http://blogs.msdn.com/davbosch/. I want to thank
Donny for hosting my blog since August 2004.
So please subscribe to my new blog on the MSDN blogs:
Thanks for reading my blog and I hope you will continue to do so at http://blogs.msdn.com/davbosch/default.aspx!
The latest version of Windows Desktop Search (WDS) is optimized with features that help the enterprise IT manager easily customize, deploy and manage the installation of desktop search across all users and computers in their organization. Information on using WDS in the enterprise can be found on http://www.microsoft.com/windows/desktopsearch/enterprise/default.mspx.
Since the release of Windows Desktop Search some ISVs have asked questions about the extensibility of WDS. These extensions of WDS are mainly on the UI level and enabling new contents and data sources for search. An example is using WDS for searching content available in a SharePoint site. Some good resources on the extensibility of WDS can be found through the Developer Resources link of the desktop search home page:
These are some good resources for ISV looking to integrate desktop search results in their own business application by using the desktop search query API.
Already heard of "Crossbow"? If not then you might want to check out the MSDN TV Episode on "Crossbow" - Windows Forms and Windows Presentation Foundation Interoperability.
Mike Henderlight introduces the "Crossbow" technology and describes how you can use it to build hybrid Windows Forms and Windows Presentation Foundation applications. The interop from a WPF application using Windows Forms controls is actally realized by referencing the System.Windows.Forms and WindowsFormsIntegration assemblies. Next you create a WindowsFormHost control that allows you to host a Windows Forms control as an element of a Windows Presentation Foundation page. Add a windows forms control (eg. a button) to the hostcontrol and add the hostcontrol to the WPF window. Running this shows a simple windows forms button displayed on a WPF window. All of this can also be done through XAML.
And of course hosting Windows Forms controls from a Windows Presentation Foundation is possible too. This is realized by using the ElementHost class. This class can be used to host a Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly code-named "Avalon") element.
The latest version of the WindowsFormsIntegration.dll to use is the one of the Cider drop CTP. From Mike's post you can learn why it's important to pick the right version of the WindowsFormsIntegration.dll.
There's also an article that's worth reading on Windows Presentation Foundation Interoperability in Dr. Dobb's.
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Arlindo Alves recently joined our Belgian DPE team as IT-Pro Evangelist. His first job is definitely a hard one: content owner for the IT-Pro related content on Developer & IT-Pro Days 2006.
To reach out to the Belgian IT-Pro community Arlindo decided to start a blog at http://blogs.technet.com/aralves/default.aspx. Oh, btw it looks he's already enjoying the recent update of CommunityServer, which has quite some fixes I've been told. Even the photo galleries seem to be enabled ...
Anyway, subscribed to the RSS feed!
When talking to developers using Visual Studio 2005 for more than 6 months I got lots of feedback, both positive and negative. When I ask for the negative points - or better, the points that needs improvement - it looks some of them are "just bugs" or open/known issues (TFS related). Now I just came accross this "Servicing" page on MSDN. This page will provide more more information about upcoming and already shipped Visual Studio and .NET Framework software updates. On top of that it will also provide additional background, guidance, and transparency around the servicing process and how it affects you. Check their blog at DDCPX Team Blog and watch this space for availability of the SP1 of Visual Studio 2005 in Q3 of CY2006.
The Servicing page also layouts the roadmap:
The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 will focus on addressing product issues reported during the first few months the product is in the market. The types of fixes you can expect to find in this service pack follow the same general guidelines we have used previously, with the notable addition of feedback received from customers via the Product Feedback Center, which was introduced first in the Visual Studio 2005 product cycle. Thus, the types of fixes you can expect to find in this service pack are:
- The Hotfixes and General Distribution Release Updates (GDRs) released between RTM and the end of the Service Pack customer beta period.
- Any fixes addressing security issues categorized as MSRC "Critical", "Important" or "Moderate".
- Fixes for product reliability and stability issues, including those reported by customers via the Product Feedback Center, and the crashes most frequently reported via Watson.
- Fixes for common "eligible" functional issues reported by customers via the Product Feedback Center. "Eligible" functional issues are those that do not require breaking changes, architectural changes, or Design Change Request (DCR) level feature work, and that do not create unacceptable product quality risk and/or cost of implementation.
- Fixes for the top customer and supportability issues as reported by PSS.
The goal of all of our Service Packs is to increase the overall quality of the existing product features while maintaining a high level of compatibility.
This service pack is currently targeted for final release in Q3 of 2006. A more detailed schedule of external interim milestones (e.g. customer beta period) will be posted when it has been finalized.
When I was still a consultant I was a strong advocate of using unit tests and code coverage to make sure the code, and the application afterwards, reached the appropriate quality level to be deployed. As Team System and Team Foundation Server weren't available - not even in CTP or beta - at that time, I used a number of well-known community-driven tools like NUnit, MBUnit, NCover, NAnt, NDoc, etc.
One of the great add-in's in Visual Studio at that time was NUnitaddin. Jamie Cansdale developed the TestDriven.NET addin. Today Jamie announced the availability of code coverage together with unit testing for all versions of Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite. He bundled NCoverExplorer with TestDriven.NET to view the code coverage results.
So far I haven't tried these tools out, but I assume they play well together and offer you the same kind of unit test/code coverage functionality as you can get with Visual Studio 2005 but for all versions of Visual Studio 2005. So no excuses anymore to not unit test and test the code coverage of your classes!
Soma announced on his blog today that Team Foundation Server will ship in March. Team Foundation Server is the cornerstone of the Visual Studio 2005 Team System. More info on TFS can be found on http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/products/newfeatures/default.aspx. Check the impressive list of the new features!
I know a couple of ISVs who will be very happy with this news. They have been using TFS and Team System since a couple of months and are well prepared to move to the RTM version. This blog post "Preparing to upgrade to RTM", dating from the Team System launch timeframe, can be put in practice now.
AlfaPrint, one of the ISV’s I’ve b