* What’s new in ‘Dublin’ – The Windows Application Server

With the introduction of .NET to Windows Application Development, the need for end to end Application Server functionality starting coming out.

Before .NET, COM/COM+ hosting services provided much of the app server functionality for business components and IIS was there for website provisioning.

But COM/COM+ was not opened for hosting managed components and instead IIS was promoted to start acting as App Server also with Windows 2003.

In Windows 2008 it improved further with the introduction of Windows Activation Service (WAS) which together with IIS provided end to end support.

The new Application server codenamed ‘Dublin’ is trying to simplify it further by making deployment, management and scaling the applications easier.

Check out my quick article on the information which has been made public.

What’s new in ‘Dublin’. I will be updating this article as and when information becomes available.

* What’s new in .NET 4.0 ?

Now that features of .NET 4.0 have started becoming officially public… I am also happy to start blogging about them.

Based on the available info.. here is the link containing the new features coming out in .NET framework 4.0.

What’s new in .net framework 4.0

I will be updating this link on regular basis .. so bookmark it.

* Rosario, Visual Studio 2010 and Microsoft.NET 4.0

Last year in August when I blogged about the new features coming up in Rosario, little was known about the time frame of its release.

The latest press release from Microsoft gives lots of information about it ..

Rosario is Visual Studio 2010 and will target Microsoft.NET 4.0. This also marks the beginning of first wave for OSLO platform.

The main objective of VS 2010 will be to fill some of the gaps in the Application Lifecycle Management like:

• Comprehensive support for Modeling tools and will support both UML and DSL including OSLO repository.
• Better testing and collaboration capabilities.

Read more of it here Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0

* SOA Development : Specifications supported by WCF

If you are into developing and consuming services in SOA environment , Interoperability is something which is assumed. Interoperability is best achieved by following standards.

WCF provides a system binding called ‘BasicHttpBinding’ which conforms to the minimum requirement for having a standard compliant web service as specified by WS-I organization.

'BasicHttpBinding’ of WCF 3.5 is compliant to Basic Profile 1.1 standard of Web Service.

Basic Profile 1.1 in turn is the umbrella term which list down versions/editions of various underlying standards/specifications that need to be supported.

Following is the list of standards which Basic Profile 1.1 contains :

• Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fourth Edition)
• Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition)
• Namespaces in XML
• RFC2246: The TLS Protocol Version 1.0
• RFC2965: HTTP State Management Mechanism
• Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) 1.1
• UDDI Version 2 XML Schema
• UDDI Version 2.03 Data Structure Reference, Dated 19 July 2002
• UDDI Version 2.03 Data Structure Reference, Section 7
• WSDL 1.1
• WSDL 1.1 Binding Extension for SOAP 1.2
• XML Schema Part 1: Structures

Basic Profile 1.2 is under progress.

Understanding the content specifications of Basic Profile is more important because each of them evolve independently.

Current Versions of some them are :

• XML 1.1 Second Edition
• WSDL 2.0
• SOAP 1.2

WCF Tutorials

* What PDC 2008 session list reveals about future ?

Microsoft PDC 2008 has been announced and is scheduled on October 27 – 30 / 2008.

One of the biggest reason I am waiting for it is that first CTP of ‘OSLO’ will be released during PDC 2008.

PDC 2008 session list is already on display and they definitely reveal few interesting things coming up …

Developing with .Net and ASP.NET for Server Core

In the next release of Windows Server, the Server Core installation option will support a subset of .Net and ASP.NET allowing your managed applications and web servers to take advantage of the reduced management and maintenance that Server Core provides. In this session you will learn what about writing new code for and how to ensure existing code works within the subset of .Net and ASP.NET that are in Server Core. In addition, this session will cover how to use the existing toolset a command line environment to troubleshoot and debug on Server Core.

<This was required. Only Web Server without ASP.NET support is not sufficient>

Office Business Applications: Enhanced Deployment

This session will explore how Visual Studio 10 supports development for OBAs. We will focus on the new enhancements to deployment and security, including ClickOnce multi-project and custom action support, configurable updates, background updating, and delay-loading add-ins.

<delay-loading add-ins will be a great feature to have for any user>

Silverlight: Developing for Mobile Devices

Silverlight provides the same great capabilities on mobile devices as you are familiar with on the desktop. But there are some differences you should know when targeting mobile devices. This session will show you how to make your Silverlight applications device agnostic as well as how to optimize your designs for multiple targets.

<Silverlight for Mobile devices coming up .. getting developed @ India Campus >

Unified Communications: Futures

In this session, we will unveil the future of Microsoft's Unified Communications (UC). Be among the first to see the UC roadmap, watch the new features in action, and walk though the code that makes it all possible. Come to see how you can deliver breakthrough applications by embedding rich presence, building click-to-call features including voice and video, create communication workflows using speech and IM, and integrate Exchange 2007 features and data.

<I am already developing some apps using existing UC 2007 apis. It’s great platform. Unified Client Communications APIs provide an easy way of integrating real time communication & collaboration features into LOB applications>

Windows 7: Web Services in Native Code

Windows 7 introduces a new networking API with support for building SOAP based web services in native code. This session will discuss the programming model, interoperability aspects with other implementations of WS-* protocols and demonstrate various services and applications built using this API.

<This will be an excellent stuff and will align with OSLO vision>

http://microsoftpdc.com/

* OSLO will bring UML back to Microsoft Camp

Till last year when I blogged about  'Microsoft', 'Visual Studio Class Designer' and 'UML' Microsoft was not very keen on incorporating UML in its design tools.

But it seems considering the wide acceptance of UML in most of the non-Microsoft design tools, Microsoft has decided to bring it back into its tools with the release of OSLO designers. Great Move !!

Bill Gates disclosed this at TechEd 2008.