* BizTalk Server 2009 now available – New features

Top New Features

BizTalk Server 2009 introduces enhancements and new featured in four main areas:

Updated Platform Support

• Support for Visual Studio 2008 SP1

• Support for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

• Support for Windows Server 2008

• Virtualization support with Hyper-V

• Support for SQL Server 2008

Developer & Team Productivity

• New Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) experience - with Support for TFS - integrated source control, bug tracking, unit testing, MSBuild automation

• Enhanced Developer Productivity with Visual Studio project system updates & Map Debugging

SOA and Web Services

• ESB Guidance 2.0

• New UDDI v3 Web Services Registry

• New and enhanced LOB adapters (Oracle eBusiness Suite, SQL Server)

• Enhanced host systems integration (WebSphere MQ, CICS, IMS)

• Enhanced BAM support

Business to Business Integration

• New Mobile RFID Platform

• New RFID device management and industry standards support

• Enhanced Support for EDI and AS2 Protocols and Drummond certification

• Updated SWIFT Support and SWIFTReady Financial EAI Gold certification

http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/en/us/default.aspx

* 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/