ASP.NET (English)

I just finished my Microsoft TechDays presentation (WEB309: Fixing Ajax Applications). Thanks to everybody who attended! This session will be repeated during the day, so if you missed it you still can tune in.

There was a question at the very end on the history hash ASP.NET writes, but I was too slow to answer it before the session room was closed. The EnableSecureHistoryState property may help in the specific situation and lets you at least toggle between a secure and a human-readable format.

Well, kinda. It's true that you can download the first public beta of Windows 7, but even if you passed the very slow "Server too busy" profile.microsoft.com server, there are still chances that you do not get the desired download afterwards, but this message instead ("next business day" is awesome):


A glimpse at the source code reveals interesting insights:


Debugoutput:

System.Data.Odbc.OdbcException: ERROR [08001] [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBNETLIB]General network error. Check your network documentation.
ERROR [01000] [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBNETLIB]ConnectionOpen (PreLoginHandshake()).
at System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection.HandleError(OdbcHandle hrHandle, RetCode retcode)
at System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnectionHandle..ctor(OdbcConnection connection, OdbcConnectionString constr, OdbcEnvironmentHandle environmentHandle)
at System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnectionOpen..ctor(OdbcConnection outerConnection, OdbcConnectionString connectionOptions)
at System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnectionFactory.CreateConnection(DbConnectionOptions options, Object poolGroupProviderInfo, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnection owningObject)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.CreateNonPooledConnection(DbConnection owningConnection, DbConnectionPoolGroup poolGroup)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.GetConnection(DbConnection owningConnection)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionClosed.OpenConnection(DbConnection outerConnection, DbConnectionFactory connectionFactory)
at System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection.Open()
at Futurecom.Microsoft.ProductKeys.Framework.DataAccess.GetProductKeys(String userSid, Int32 editionId, Int32 maxKeys, Boolean getAnotherKey, String fullEditionName, String& debugOutput)
at Futurecom.Microsoft.ProductKeys.Framework.Controls.Win7Distribution.refreshProductKeyList(Boolean getAnotherKey)


Hmmm ... Are they really using SQL Server or maybe rather Access?

Just a quick note that Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2008 (and for TFS, too) has been released for MSDN subscribers. Enjoy!

Update: The Service Pack is now also available on Microsoft downloads:

• Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (Web Installer)
• Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (ISO)
• Team Foundation Server SP1

Another important note for Silverlight 2 Beta 2 users: In order to be able to use the Silverlicht 2 Beta 2 Tools for Visual Studio 2008, you need to upgrade them after the SP1 installation if a previous Silverlight tools version is already installed. Microsoft released a new version yesterday.

It's been a few week since Silverlight 2 beta 2 has been released. Yesterday, Microsoft released a critical update for Silverlight 2 beta 2 which is also distributed via Microsoft Update. The update promises to improve Firefox 3 compatibility, and also mentions streaming and stability. However the most interesting aspect is that the auto-update component has been worked on. The release notes do not state exactly what that means, but I think I know what it is: After installing the update, AutoUpdate can actually be enabled; the original version of Silverlight 2 beta 2 had this option greyed out. This suggests that new versions should be expected in the forseeable future

Just a quick note that Silverlight 2 Beta 2 has been released. It includes a commercial go-live license, if you are brave enough and forget what happened to Atlas' go-live license Microsoft published the Beta 2 runtime and VS 2008 tools downloads, including a new Blend 2 preview release. There is also a list of breaking changes between beta 1 and beta 2. As you would expect, news on Essential Silverlight 2 Up-to-Date will follow shortly.

Just a quick note that the Mono project has unveiled their first (source code only) release of Moonlight, their Silverlight clone. More in the announcement.

Two things I recently found out. They may be old news, but hopefully they are useful for some people anyway:

1. Silverlight 2 Beta 1 for OS X only works if you have an Intel processor. The system requirements do mention that (if you click on the correct link — no direct link thanks to JavaScript), but who reads them anyways?!
   Personal opinion: No PowerPC support? WTF?!
   


2. Uninstalling Silverlight (always a good idea before installing new bits) requires these steps performed in a terminal window:

   rm -rf /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/Silverlight.plugin
   
   rm -rf /Library/Receipts/Silverlight*.pkg
   
   rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft/Silverlight

   Thanks to "Bridgette [MSFT]".

[Note: Repost of this entry on InsideRIA.com]

At MIX08 in Las Vegas, Microsoft announced and released a couple of new products, including Beta 1 of Silverlight (and O'Reilly announced and released Essential Silverlight 2 Up-to-Date). Silverlight, however, comes in several downloads, and it is a bit difficult to keep track of all of them, so we'll have a look at what you can and what you should download.

From a developer's point of view, you will want to use Visual Studio 2008 to create Silverlight content. Visual Studio 2008 is not free (the free Express Editions do not suffice here), so there is no download link, however if you have an MSDN subscription you have access to the IDE at http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/. Then, the best option is to install the Microsoft Silverlight Tools Beta 1 for Visual Studio 2008 package. It integrates into Visual Studio 2008 and installes the following software, most of which would also be available in a separate package:

• Silverlight 2 Beta 1 (the browser plugin)
• Silverlight 2 SDK Beta 1 (documentation, tools)
• KB949325 for Visual Studio 2008 (an update/hotfix for Visual Studio 2008)
• Silverlight Tools Beta 1 for Visual Studio 2008 (project templates and add-ins for Visual Studio 2008)

After installation, you will have a new Start menu entry for the SDK, Visual Studio 2008 will provide project and web site templates for Silverlights, and your installed web browsers (currently Internet Explorer and Firefox are supported) will be able to display Silverlight content.

A bit hidden, but nevertheless very useful, is a CHM (Compiled HTML Help) file with loads of documentation. It is about 40MB in size, so you will find a wealth of information there. So download the Microsoft Silverlight 2 Software Development Kit Beta 1 Documentation and place the CHM file inside the ZIP archive to a place where it is easily accessibly for you.



Finally, if you are curious how Microsoft implemented the various controls that come with Silverlight, have a look at the source code and unit tests available for them.

If you are designer, you might be interested in the visual tools provided for Silverlight. You may already know Microsoft Expression Blend, the tool to create WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) applications. A beta version of Expression Blend 2 allows to create Silverlight 1 content. An upcoming version of Blend will also support Silverlight 2. If you want to have a sneak peak of that, have a look at the Microsoft Expression Blend 2.5 March 2008 Preview. There, you will find two project templates related to Silverlight: one for version 1, and one for version 2.

Yesterday at MIX '08, Microsoft announced a couple of new products, including Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1, Silverlight 2 Beta 1, Expression Blend 2 Beta, and Expression Blend 2.5 March 2008 Preview.
Shorly before that, O'Reilly hosted a VIP meeting and announced Essential Silverlight 2 Up-to-Date. Here's the official blurb:

Design rich Internet applications (RIAs) for the Web using Silverlight 2, the latest version of Microsoft's hot new runtime application -- without waiting for the official release. With this unique new book, you not only get a concise, easy-to-understand introduction to Silverlight 2, but thorough coverage of the CTPs, betas, and RTM releases as they become available. Once you buy the book, you'll receive printed pages on all the revisions to Silverlight that you can insert right into the book's unique binder format.

In other words: Although Silverlight 2 might drastically change prior to its final release, the book will stay up-to-date. The edition published (and available) at MIX covers the current Beta 1 release and will be updated soon. We plan to release updates whenever a new interim release comes up. Once Silverlight 2 goes final, we update the book one more time. Then, it will also be available as a regular paperback book.
I am very excited to be part of this project. Getting the book done by MIX was an extreme challenge, and would not have been possible without the support of the O'Reilly staff (especially Laurel Ruma and John Osborn), and supportive people inside Microsoft (especially Scott Guthrie, Brian Goldfarb, and Chung Webster). Also thanks to Arrabiata Solutions's beta customers that were brave enough to invest in a pre-release technology.

So if you are at MIX, come by the O'Reilly booth and have a look at the book; if is of course also available via the O'Reilly store and also at traditional booksellers.

Seems that Silverlight got its own category on Microsoft Update. Currently, the Silverlight runtime is listed as an optional update. Interesting ...

Everybody noticed that Scott Guthrie announced the availability of the .NET Framework Library source code, but almost unnoticed went this comment:

Yes - we'll be releasing the source and enabling debugging for the Silverlight libraries as well once they ship.

However I think Scott only means the Silverlight libraries used to build and compile Silverlight 2.0 applications, not the browser plugin.

Sunday night, Microsoft released a first preview version of their ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions. This is a CTP package consisting of these features:

• ASP.NET MVC: The MVC framework for ASP.NET that everybody is longing for.
• ASP.NET Dynamic Data: A framework for creating data-driven websites
• ASP.NET AJAX Futures: Nothing new here
• ADO.NET Entity Framework: New data modelling tools
• ADO.NET Data Services: formerly known as "Astoria data service", also part of the ASP.NET Futures
• Silverlight ASP.NET Controls: formerly also a part of the ASP.NET AJAX Futures

So some new stuff, some old stuff, but obviously some very interesting stuff, almost too much to monitor. Oh well

Just stumbled upon two new Silverlight downloads:

• The Silverlight 1.0 SDK has been updated (at least according to the build date, 11/16/2007). Unfortunately I have no information regarding specific updates in there.
• Much more importantly, the Silverlight 1.1 tools for Visual Studio 2008 now finally support the RTM version that was released last week.

As promised, Visual Studio 2008 and ASP.NET 3.5 and .NET 3.5 have been released. Somehow the Team System Edition does not show up in my MSDN subscription yet, but the Professional Edition is downloading at full speed
Also, the Express Editions (including Visual Web Developer) have been updated; download them while they are fresh.
Note that this only applies to the English editions of Visual Studio 2008. Localized versions are usually following 4-8 after the English release.
In releated news, the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit team was super quick in updating the code for Visual Studio 2008; the build number is 3.5.11119.0. One of the new features I like best is that the new Visual Studio 2008 JavaScript IntelliSense feature (more about that in this blog entry) is now made possible throughout the Toolkit. Download the new Toolkit version here.

I am a little late in posting this, but I recently wrote a batch of articles that demonstrate how to use AOL's WebAIM API with ASP.NET AJAX. The API itself is quite complex and even more importantly is client-side only, so using a server-side framework like ASP.NET AJAX proved to be quite a challenge. The main focus of the article was to both show the WebAIM API and to demonstrate some features of ASP.NET AJAX; the application architecture is debatable, of course.
So here they are:

• WebAIM, Part 1 (Installation and Setup)
• WebAIM, Part 2 (Retrieving a Token)
• WebAIM, Part 3 (Starting a Session and Loading the Buddy List)
• WebAIM, Part 4 (Sending Instant Messages)
• WebAIM, Part 5 (Receiving Instant Messages)