Cesar de la Torre
Principal Program Manager at the Azure team.
Latest posts
Using ML.NET in Jupyter notebooks
I do believe this is great news for the ML.NET community and .NET in general. You can now run .NET code (C# / F#) in Jupyter notebooks and therefore run ML.NET code in it as well! - Under the covers, this is enabled by 'dotnet-try' and its related .NET kernel for Jupyter (as early previews). The Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations and narrative text. In terms of ML.NET this is awesome for many scenarios like data exploration, data cleaning, plotting data charts, documenting model experiments, l...
Training Image Classification/Recognition models based on Deep Learning & Transfer Learning with ML.NET
Blog Post updated targeting ML.NET 1.4 GA (Nov. 2019) Note that this blog post was updated on Nov. 6th 2019 so it covers the updates provided in ML.NET 1.4 GA, such as Image classifier training and inference using GPU and a simplified API. Context and background for 'Image Classification', 'training vs. scoring' and ML.NET Image Classification, Object Detection and Text Analysis are probably the most common tasks in Deep Learning which is a subset of Machine Learning. However, for this blog post I am only focusing on Image Classification/Recognition and the multiple approaches you can take ...
Run with ML.NET C# code a TensorFlow model exported from Azure Cognitive Services Custom Vision
With ML.NET and related NuGet packages for TensorFlow you can currently do the following: However, in the scenario where you want to train with your own images, the Transfer Learning approach can be a bit complex because even without taking into account the code implementation for transfer learning you'll need to find a base TensorFlow model to train on top of it which was originally trained with similar image types to your new images. Here's some specific examples to understand that statement: In any case, it can get tricky and you need to understand some complexity. For some custom scenarios...
ML.NET Model Lifecycle with Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines
As a developer or software architect, you are focused on the application lifecycle – building, maintaining, and continuously updating the end-user business application, as illustrated in the simplified image below: When you infuse AI (such as an ML.NET model) into your application, then your application lifecycle needs to be extended so it additionally embraces the 'Machine Learning Model Lifecycle'. Extending Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines with the ML Model lifecycle When deploying ML models to production, you need to automate the process to track, version, audit, certify and re-use every asset in your ML...
What is ML.NET 1.0 – Machine Learning for .NET
Today, coinciding with //BUILD 2019/ conference, we’re thrilled by launching ML.NET 1.0 release! You can read the official ML.NET 1.0 release announcement Blog Post here and get started at the ML.NET site here. In this blog post I'm providing quite a few additional technical details along with my personal vision that you might find interesting, though. This is the first main milestone of a great journey in the open that started on May 2018 when we released ML.NET 0.1 as open source. Since then we've been releasing monthly, 12 preview releases plus this final 1.0 release, as shown in the roadmap below: ...
How to optimize and run ML.NET models on scalable ASP.NET Core WebAPIs or web apps
Context ------ UPDATE on May 13th 2019: The recommended way to deploy/run an ML.NET model into ASP.NET Core web apps or WebAPI services is by using the 'Microsoft.Extensions.ML' Integration package. Read about it in this tutorial: - Deploy an ML.NET model in an ASP.NET Core Web API The tutorial above uses optimized code based on an .NET Core Integration Package comparable to integration packages targeting Entity Framework, SignalR, etc. so it's transparent and a lot easier for you than the explained blog post below. This article below was written before that mentioned integration package was creat...
Designing and implementing API Gateways with Ocelot in .NET Core containers and microservices architectures
We're currently evolving the .NET microservices guidance and eShopOnContainers reference application. One of the most important topics is about the API Gateway pattern, why it is interesting for many microservice-based applications but also, how you can implement it in a .NET Core based microservice application with a deployment based on Docker containers. Why should you use API Gateways instead of direct communication? In a microservices architecture, the client apps usually need to consume functionality from more than one microservice. If that consumption is performed directly, the client will need to handle ...
Microsoft eBook gratuito en Español: “Microservicios .NET – Arquitectura para aplicaciones .NET contenerizadas” – Docker, .NET Core, Kubernetes, Service Fabric, Azure.
Las arquitecturas basadas en Microservicios están emergiendo actualmente como opciones apropiadas para aplicaciones distribuidas de misión crítica. En una arquitectura basada en microservicios, la aplicación se construye basada en una colección de servicios que deben ser desarrollados, probados, versionados y desplegados en producción, de forma independiente. En paralelo, las empresas actualmente están descubriendo como con contenedores Docker pueden reducir costes, resolver problemáticas de despliegues y en definitiva mejorar DevOps y operaciones de despliegues a producción. Docker se esta convirtiendo...
Implementing background tasks in .NET Core 2.x webapps or microservices with IHostedService and the BackgroundService class
Background tasks and scheduled jobs are something you might need to implement, eventually, in a microservice based application or in any kind of application. The difference when using a microservices architecture is that you can implement a single microservice process/container for hosting these background tasks so you can scale it down/up as you need or you can even make sure that it runs a single instance of that microservice process/container. From a generic point of view, in .NET Core we called these type of tasks as Hosted Services, because they are services/logic that you host within your host/application/...
Modernize, lift and shift, existing .NET apps with Windows Containers and Azure
************************** NOTE ************************ This blog post is a replica of the same blog post I just published at the official Microsoft .NET Blog, here: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2017/11/01/modernize-existing-net-apps-with-windows-containers-and-azure/ ******************************************************** As part of the series of posts announced at this initial blog post (.NET Application Architecture Guidance) that explores each of the architecture areas currently covered by our team, this current blog post focuses on introducing the new "Modernize existing .NET applications w...
Best-in-class Microservices and Domain-Driven Design conference and workshops in the U.S.!! Explore DDD 2017 (Denver, September 19-22, 2017)
Explore DDD 2017 is a brand-new Domain-Driven Design (DDD)-centric conference, September 19-22 2017 at the Grand Hyatt hotel, in downtown Denver, Colorado, USA. I'm not directly related to this conference, but I wanted to provide some support/awareness because this type of quality events is fundamental for the development and software architecture community. They will have keynotes from Eric Evans, Ward Cunningham, and Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, plus an awesome speaker lineup for talks and hands-on sessions. Also, the following five amazing 2-day pre-conference workshops: Other great speakers and practitioners...
Free eBook/Guide on ‘.NET Microservices – Architecture for Containerized .NET Applications’
The microservices architecture is emerging as an important approach for distributed mission-critical applications. In a microservice-based architecture, the application is built on a collection of services that can be developed, tested, deployed, and versioned independently. In addition, enterprises are increasingly realizing cost savings, solving deployment problems, and improving DevOps and production operations by using containers. Microsoft has been releasing container innovations for Windows and Linux by creating products like Azure Container Service and Azure Service Fabric, and by partnering with industry ...
Using Resilient Entity Framework Core Sql Connections and Transactions: Retries with Exponential Backoff
There are many possible approaches to implement retries logic with exponential backoff also depending on the context/protocol, etc. (Database connections, HTTP requests, etc.) Retries with exponential backoff is a technique that assumes failure by nature and attempts to retry the operation, with an exponentially increasing wait time, until a maximum retry count has been reached. This technique embraces the fact that intermittently, cloud resources may be unavailable more than a few seconds, for any reason out of your control. An important case is about SQL Azure Databases that may be moved to another se...
Using Domain Events within a .NET Core Microservice
This blog post is related to the previous blog post named “Domain Events vs. Integration Events in Domain-Driven Design and microservices architectures” : https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cesardelatorre/domain-events-vs-integration-events-in-domain-driven-design-and-microservices-architectures/ Since I’m writing content related to “Microservices architecture, Docker containers and .NET Core” (draft available here, at GitHub), I thought it would be good to publish blog posts with partial content so I get feedback to take into account for the final Guide/eBook version. The code snippets shown below are also ava...
Domain Events vs. Integration Events in Domain-Driven Design and microservices architectures
This blog post is about comparing several approaches of Domain Events vs. Integration Events patterns already published by the community. I might evolve this post depending on feedback and some implementations we’ll be doing in the short/medium term. So, feel free to discuss about it with comments at the end of this post. I’m open to variations. :) When discussing about “Domain Events” there’s certain lack of clarity because sometimes you can be talking about Domain Events that happened but within the same transaction scope of the operation that is still in memory objects (so I fact, it still didn’t happen fro...
Comparing ASP.NET Core IoC container service lifetimes with Autofac IoC container instance scopes
In ASP.NET Core you can use the simple built-in IoC container or you can also plug any other more advanced IoC container like Autofac. When plugin an external container like Autofac, you can still use ASP.NET Core methods like services.AddTransient<> or services.AddSingleton<> or you can also use the more granular methods in Autofac based on its instance scopes, which offer a larger set of possibilities. Anyways, because I’m working “from both sides”, I wanted to have clear a comparison of each type and how are they exactly called from each API.. So here it is a convenient table that I just created: ...
Booting Windows 10 natively from a .VHDX drive file
This post is an update (using Windows 10 and a newer version of Convert-WindowsImage.ps1) of a similar post I had in my blog about booting natively from a .VHDX file: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cesardelatorre/booting-windows-8-1-update-natively-from-a-vhdx-image/ I’m also publishing this for my own records and folks asking me about it, as it is not a super straight forward procedure.. This procedure is very useful when you need to boot Windows natively, but you need to have multiple different environments like when using BETA/RC versions of Visual Studio, dev tools or simply dual/multiple boots with differ...
Generating Swagger description metadata from your ASP.NET Core Web APIs with Swashbuckle
What is Swagger Swagger is a very much used open source framework backed by a large ecosystem of tools that helps you design, build, document, and consume your RESTful APIs. It is probably becoming as the main standard for this domain (APIs description metadata). The heart of Swagger is the Swagger Specification (API description metadata which is a JSON or YAML file). The specification creates the RESTful contract for your API, detailing all of its resources and operations in a human and machine readable format for easy development, discovery, and integration. The specification is the basis of the OpenAPI Spec...
Summary of Microsoft Docker Images for .NET Core and .NET Framework
Even when these official images are still evolving, I think that a summary about the multiple Microsoft Docker images for .NET available at Docker Hub would be a “nice to have” thing. This blog post is related to my previous blog post on “Docker containers – Should I use .NET Core or .NET Framework?”, however I’m drilling down here into the specific images available today (November 18th 2016). .NET Core images - microsoft/dotnet (https://hub.docker.com/r/microsoft/dotnet/) This repository is named as microsoft/dotnet and contains multiple images supporting several Operating Systems and versions (Linux and Window...
Docker containers – Should I use .NET Core or .NET Framework?
The short answer is: “For Docker containers, use .NET Core whenever is possible”. But, below is a summary decision table depending on your architecture or application type and the server operating system you are targeting for your Docker containers. Take into account that if you are targeting Linux containers you will need Linux based Docker hosts (VMs or Servers) and in a similar way, if you are targeting Windows containers you will need Windows Server based Docker hosts (VMs or Servers). And here’s a written summary about it: You should use .NET Core for your containerized Docker server application whe...
Free eBook on “Containerized Docker Application Lifecycle with Microsoft Tools and Platform”
Coinciding with today’s release of Visual Studio 2017 RC1 at CONNECT 2016 in NYC (Nov. 16th 2016), I wanted to announce the availability of this new and free eBook on “Containerized Docker Application Lifecycle with Microsoft Tools and Platform” which covers and end-to-end vision of Docker container based application development plus CI/CD (DevOps) workflows that you can have in Azure with new assets like Azure Container Registry and updates in Azure Container Service (Offering Mesos DC/OS, Kubernetes and Docker Swarm) and Azure Service Fabric with Docker support plus the new tooling created by Microsoft in Visua...
.NET, Cloud and Mobile Events in Argentina and Chile – Content
Last week (Sept. 19-22 2016) I delivered a similar event in Buenos Aires and in Santiago the Chile, afterwards. Here I post the agenda I delivered, a few pictures about it plus the decks I used about it. Morning Event – Developing microservices in the Cloud with .NET, Docker and Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Related technologies: - Microsoft .NET Core and .NET Framework o Cross-platform & open source in .NET o Present, future and .NET roadmap - Docker development - Azure Container Service (Docker Swarm and Mesosphere DC/OS) - Azure App Service - Azure Service Fabric Afternoon Event – Developing Cro...
Docker and Containers: Basic elements and taxonomy
I’m currently working on a Docker and Containerized applications related document and it happens that I just created the following explanatory figure. Since I got a few people asking about several related topics in Docker, it might be useful to publish this short blog post helping out folks starting with Docker. This diagram is just about the basics in Docker. There are many other aspects related to more complex applications, like in a microservices oriented application where you usually will need orchestrators and schedulers for your microservices and tasks. I’m not covering those in this simple post. The follo...
Running .NET Core apps on multiple frameworks and What the Target Framework Monikers (TFMs) are about
In .NET Core 1.0 apps (either ASP.NET Core apps or Console apps, as of today) there are new possibilities like being able to run your app (like an ASP.NET Core app) on top of the .NET Core Platform or on top of the traditional .NET Framework 4.5.x which is critical for many enterprise apps that still might not have all the libraries/components compiled for .NET Core available (custom or third party). In any case, when working with the project.json and the supported frameworks for your app can be a bit unclear because of the multiple possibilities available through project.json. The bottom line is summarized in t...
.NET Core, .NET Framework, Xamarin – The “WHAT and WHEN to use it”
I’m writing this blog post about “.NET end-to-end” now that we just released the .NET Core Platform 1.0 RTM, so it’s clear “who is who” and “when to use what”. It’s a long post but I think it’s good to have available a single post about .NET end-to-end. .NET is nowadays a development-platform running across many OS-platforms such as Windows, Linux, Mac and even iOS and Android through Xamarin which is also .NET. In this blog post I’ll explain from a high level point of view WHAT are each of the frameworks in the .NET ecosystem, and what is probably more important for customers, WHEN to use each of the frame...
Using Azure Functions from Xamarin Mobile Apps
I was testing Azure Functions by creating a simple proof of concept with a Xamarin.Forms client and since there’s not much info about “using Azure Functions from Xamarin” I thought it was a good idea to publish this Getting Started or Walkthrough in my MSDN blog. Make no mistake about it, you consume an Azure Function from a Xamarin app in the same way you’d consume a regular web service or ASP.NET Web API deployed in Azure in any other environment (Azure App Service or even Azure Service Fabric). But I think this E2E walkthrough is interesting in any case if you are not aware of Azure Functions and/or Xamarin...
Solving issue with VS Android Emulator, Xamarin apps and Intel Skylake processor (i.e. when using a Microsoft Surface Book i7, Surface Pro 4, etc.)
I got a Surface Book (comes with the new Intel i7 Skylake) a few days ago and I was experiencing a very weird issue when running and/or debugging Xamarin apps on the Visual Studio Android Emulator.. Basically, VS couldn’t debug/attach but I was not getting any application error, neither.. You can see the experience in the following recorded videos that I made with two different Apps, the HealthClinic Xamarin.Android sample app and the MyWeather Xamarin.Forms for Android app: 1. When trying to debug from VS, VS cannot attach and the app exits right away: HealthClinic Xamarin.Android app Xamarin.Android HealthC...
Publishing an existing Azure Mobile App service as PowerApps ‘IT Managed API’ (Using the HealthClinic.biz sample apps)
Intro to “PowerApps Enterprise” You may have heard of Microsoft PowerApps and ‘PowerApps Enterprise’. Its code-name was “Project Kratos” and part of it is deriving from the original “Project Siena”. But in PowerApps, the client PowerApps are cross-platform (iOS, Android and Windows) as they are internally based on Apache Cordova. However, “PowerApps Enterprise” is a lot more than the client apps you can create. There's a lot of stuff in Azure as well, and the Azure area from PowerApps is precisely the right space to work on for developers. The following is a high level diagram that I made trying to show t...
Azure Service Fabric and the Microservices Architecture – My new MSDN Magazine Article
In the last weeks I wrote (with some great collaboration from Kunal Deep Singh and Vaclav Turecek) an MSDN magazine article that was published a few days ago, called Azure Service Fabric and the Microservices Architecture, in the December 2015 MSDNMag issue. Here's a brief abstract: Microservices is a hot buzzword at the moment. While there are many presentations and conference talks about the subject, a lot of developers remain confused. A common question we’ve heard: “Isn’t this just another service-oriented architecture (SOA) or domain-driven design (DDD) approach?” Certainly, many of the techniq...
Automating Windows environments’ setup with Boxstarter and Chocolatey packages
Talking last week with Scott Hanselman he showed me in his laptop some cool stuff which is very useful for me as I usually need to re-install my machines pretty often due to the release of new betas and the fact that I prefer to start with clean machines whenever I can. And you know, every time you have a new machine or .VHD, you need to re-install a lot of different tools and apps. It is not just about Visual Studio and Office, and sometimes you forget the list of all the apps you need. So, in a different page, I usually use .VHDX to boot Windows natively (Check this blog post “Booting Windows 8.1 Update nat...
MyShuttle.biz Azure backend services and LOB integration to O365 and Salesforce powered by Microsoft Azure and Visual Studio 2015
[**NEW!! - Updated on March 2015 - Compatible with VS 2015 CTP 6 **] This blog post (focusing on the Azure backend services for MyShuttle.biz mobile apps) is the fifth post of a blog posts series covering the different scenarios implemented by the MyShuttle.biz apps. 1. Blog Post: Global Intro of the MyShuttle.biz demo apps from Connect(); Visual Studio and Azure event 2. Blog post: MyShuttle.biz ASP.NET 5 Web Apps and Services 3. Blog Post: MyShuttle.biz and Cross-platform Mobile Development of native apps for iOS, Android and Windows with .NET and Xamarin 4. Blog Post: MyShuttle.biz and multi device development...
MyShuttle.biz ASP.NET 5 Web Apps and Services
[*** March 2015 – UPDATED to Visual Studio 2015 CTP 6 version ***] If you want to have a detailed overview about ASP.NET 5 and .NET Core 5, check this blog post out that I wrote a few days ago. This actual blog post (focusing on ASP.NET 5 web apps development) is the second post of a blog posts series covering the different scenarios implemented by the MyShuttle.biz apps. Here’s the list of blog posts: 1. Blog Post: Global Intro of the MyShuttle.biz demo apps from Connect(); Visual Studio and Azure event 2. (Current blog post) MyShuttle.biz ASP.NET...
MyShuttle.biz and Cross-platform Mobile Development of native apps for iOS, Android and Windows with .NET and Xamarin
[**NEW!! - Updated on March 2015 - Compatible with VS 2015 CTP 6 **] This blog post (focusing on native apps development) is the third post of a blog posts serie covering the different scenarios implemented by the MyShuttle.biz apps. 1. Blog Post: Global Intro of the MyShuttle.biz demo apps from Connect(); Visual Studio and Azure event 2. Blog post: MyShuttle.biz ASP.NET 5 Web Apps and Services 3. (Current post) MyShuttle.biz and Cross-platform Mobile Development of native apps for iOS, Android and Windows with .NET and Xamarin 4. Blog Post: MyShuttle.biz and multi device development of hybr...
MyShuttle.biz and multi device development of hybrid apps for iOS, Android and Windows with Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova
[**NEW!! - Updated on March 2015 - Compatible with VS 2015 CTP 6 **] This blog post (focusing on hybrid mobile apps development based on HTML, JavaScript and TypeScript within Apache Cordova container) is the forth post of a blog posts series covering the different scenarios implemented by the MyShuttle.biz apps. 1. Blog Post: Global Intro of the MyShuttle.biz demo apps from Connect(); Visual Studio and Azure event 2. Blog post: MyShuttle.biz ASP.NET 5 Web Apps and Services 3. Blog Post: MyShuttle.biz and Cross-platform Mobile Development of native apps for iOS, Android and Windows with .NET and Xamarin...
MyShuttle.biz demo apps from Connect(); Visual Studio and Azure event
[**NEW!! - Updated on March 2015 - Compatible with VS 2015 CTP 6 **] This is the first blog post of a series of posts regarding the MYSHUTTLE.biz sample applications implemented with the new Visual Studio 2015 Preview and .NET 2015 Preview. Here’s the list of blog posts: 1. (Current blog post) Global Intro of the MyShuttle.biz demo apps from Connect(); Visual Studio and Azure event 2. Blog Post: MyShuttle.biz ASP.NET 5 Web Apps and Services 3. Blog Post: MyShuttle.biz and Cross-platform Mobile Development of native apps for iOS, Android and Windows with .NET and Xamarin 4...
What is .NET Core 5 and ASP.NET 5 within .NET 2015 Preview
(UPDATE - Nov.2016) - Note that .NET 5 and ASP.NET Core 5 were temporal brandings while .NET Core was in beta. Its final branding was .NET Core 1.0 and ASP.NET Core 1.0 when released in June 2016, due to the big shift or "reset/modernization" in .NET Core compared to .NET 4.x. --- Last week, on Nov. 12th at the Visual Studio Connect(); event, it was an epic day where we showed our end to end vision about .NET 2015 and VS 2015. You can watch the recorded event here. For this post, I wanted to show my specific point of view about two areas within .NET 2015: .NET Core 5 ASP.NET 5 Positioning .NET 2015 First o...
Booting Windows 8.1 Update natively from a .VHDX image
This is very useful when you need to boot Windows natively, but you need to have different environments, like working with BETAS/CTPs, etc., like it is my case. ;) In many cases HyperV might not suitable for you, for instance, if I want to deploy mobile apps from Visual Studio (Windows Phone apps or Xamarin apps to Android devices), I’d need to connect the mobile devices to USB ports. But, HyperV VMs don’t support USB connections to devices, etc… Here's some additional info if you want to know more about "Virtual Hard Disks (.VHD/.VHDX) with Native Boot": http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh8...
.NET Conf June 2014 – Recorded sessions available for free!
As part of the .NET Conf team, I want to highlight in my blog these .NET sessions we just delivered this week. During this week (June 25th and 26th 2014) we shared innovation and news about the present and future of .NET, all in a single place focusing on .NET technologies. If you missed any session during the streaming delivered on June 25th and 26th, or you were not even aware of the conference, for your convenience, all the sessions at the .NET Conf were recorded and are available here: https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/dotnetConf/2014 .NET Conf summary and recorded content The .NET Conf 2014 was a two-d...
The Future of .NET in the Server: ASP.NET vNext optimized for Cloud and Server workloads
Before getting into “The future of .NET in the server”, I want to highlight how the ASP.NET and Web Tools teams just released great RTM ASP.NET stuff (final version). Specifically, Improvements to ASP.NET Web Forms and many other new features for ASP.NET in general, all of that final/RTM as part of Visual Studio 2013 UPDATE 2 RTM, released during this week in TechEd NA 2014. But, in this blog post I want to focus on the “Future of .NET and ASP.NET”. A sneak peak or preview of ASP.NET vNext and .NET vNext in the Server. The ASP.NET and .NET teams joined forces for this effort, and are taking advantage of the gr...
.NET innovation at //BUILD 2014
Today, April 3rd 2014 we showed a lot of new innovation and investment, for the future, on every single area of .NET, starting from the core of .NET, the basis for business applications on top of the web or the Windows desktop, going to scalable cloud services in Microsoft Azure, and reaching the end users in Windows Store devices and even through cross-device development strategies. Here’s the global picture that I created for //BUILD. Let's drill down to get a brief summary of the different areas while providing the most important links to the details, so you can research where you are more inte...
.NET Compiler Platform (“Roslyn”) Preview heading to .NET and Visual Studio vNext
On April 3rd 2014 (second day of //BUILD 2014) Microsoft released a new preview version of “Roslyn”, with an official name: .NET Compiler Platform. which will be part of the next version of .NET and Visual Studio, but you can try it right now on top of VS 2013. What is the .NET Compiler Platform (“Roslyn”) The .NET Compiler Platform Preview (“Roslyn”) is a major update of the C# and VB compilers. But, “Roslyn” is not just about compilers but an open platform providing an API that provides an object model on top of the C# and VB compilers and language services s...
New Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2013 – March 2014 Update – News in SharePoint development
Today (March 3rd 2014), at the SharePoint Conference (VEGAS, U.S.), along with the Office team, we are a releasing a number of significant updates for developers building apps for SharePoint and Office 365. Here’s an updated summary that I just created: What are Apps for Office and SharePoint? (Office 365 apps) Apps for Office and SharePoint are based on a unique application model which shares a common approach for extending Office and SharePoint. It brings the value of web apps we know on devices to the productivity applications you use on a daily basis. This apps model is built on web technologies like HT...
Announcing The New Roslyn powered .NET Framework Reference Source
We just announced http://referencesource-beta.microsoft.com You now can:• Debug into .NET framework source in Visual Studio (better than before)• Download the source with .sln and project files, so you can open and browse in Visual Studio• Browse the source online For a tutorial, checkout our Channel 9 video: [View:http://media.ch9.ms/ch9/4c8f/8faf5ad6-3482-49a2-b6ee-6a61f0544c8f/HowToUseTheNetSourceBrowser_high.mp4] For further info, see:http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dotnet/archive/2014/02/24/a-new-look-for-net-reference-source.aspxhttp://www.hanselman.com/blog/AnnouncingTheNewRoslynpoweredNETFra...
MyCompany Demo Apps – Extended info and related sessions (DemoScripts and PPT/decks)
---- [UPDATE January 2014]: Added two more client apps to 'MyCompany Demo Apps', the iPad and Android client applications developed in C# with Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android thanks to a partnership we made between Microsoft and Xamarin]. Get it from: https://github.com/xamarin/MyCompany/ ---- At the Visual Studio 2013 Launch Event (Nov. 13th 2013), Microsoft used a set of demo applications to explain the new features in .NET 4.5.1 and Visual Studio 2013. MyCompany (demo applications) is a sample/demo simplified enterprise application suite, single tenant, SaaS solution deployed on Windows Azure and som...
Just released our .NET Business Applications Technology Guide (MS PRESS eBook)
What is this guide / eBook about? UPDATE - Dec.2013 This same Guide has been published now as free MS PRESS eBook, here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2013/11/13/free-ebook-net-technology-guide-for-business-applications.aspx --- A few days ago (late June 2013, at BUILD) we released a new paper showing a global and broad picture of Microsoft development technologies for custom LOB applications. Download: http://www.microsoft.com/net/nettechnologyguidance The Microsoft portfolio of development technologies is pretty large and it's applicable to many software development scenarios across diff...
My TechEd 2013 U.S. breakout-session demos
Related to the session I delivered at TechEd 2013 North America, I’m using a sample application we created called “MY CONFERENCES”. This is the session at TechEd U.S. (New Orleans): https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2013/DEV-B204#fbid=L6pa5lhw3Vn This sample application is really the v2.0 or evolution of the “MY EVENTS” sample application we created a few months ago, but we added the following changes: - 1. Completely new ASP.NET MVC SINGLE-PAGE-APPLICATION (instead of a plain MVC app like we had in 1.0): In this SPA (Single Page Application) we’re using the Durandal JavaScript framew...
Developing Apps for Office and SharePoint 2013: Technology choices
Today, March 4th, 2013, Microsoft is announcing the availability of the final version (RTW) of Microsoft Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2012, and a new roll up of the improvements to “Napa” since Preview 2. You can check that out at S. Somasegar’s blog (corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft), who just announced this release of the tools: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2013/03/04/now-available-office-developer-tools-for-visual-studio-2012.aspx With the SharePoint and Office 2013 release we have quite a few new options when developing applications for SharePoint and O...
Bird’s -eye view of Microsoft ‘Modern-Trend’ Technologies
I found this infographic in Microsoft. It is quite global and is lacking of a few important areas, but still, it is very interesting and up to date. It shows from a high level point of view what Microsoft is related to, whether it's search, cloud, social, NUI, gaming, developer tools, phones, Windows, Kinect - there is something for everyone at Microsoft. A higher res PDF version is also available. The areas that it is missing are about Server Products, like Windows Server, SQL Server, System Center, etc. which are also key for Microsoft. (I guess the guy who did this wanted to focus on the most modern area f...
Developing Apps for Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013
Starting this week, at the ‘SharePoint Conference 2012’, we have released new versions of the Microsoft Tools for developing Apps for SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013. This is a summary that I created about it. What are ‘apps’ for Office and SharePoint? Apps for Office and SharePoint are based on a new application model which shares a common approach for extending Office and SharePoint. It brings the value of apps we know on devices to the productivity applications you use on a daily basis. This new apps model is built on web technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, REST, OData, and OAuth. If you’re a web deve...
Storyboarding “MY EVENTS” Modern App
You can quickly illustrate a new or modified application interface by using PowerPoint Storyboarding, which is available with Microsoft Visual Studio 2012. With this tool you can build a storyboard from a collection of pre-defined storyboard shapes and capture existing user interfaces. Also, you can customize the layouts of your web, client, or phone applications, and link the storyboard to a work item stored in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012. For the “MY EVENTS” Modern App, I created a few storyboards for basic scenarios and screens. It is very simple and easy to do it, using Power Po...
Setting the sample ‘MY EVENTS’ modern application up & running
Setting the ‘MY EVENTS’ demo app up and running This demo app (MY EVENTS) is the one we made and showed in the Visual Studio 2012 Launch keynote (Modern Apps keynote), in September 12th 2012: http://www.visualstudiolaunch.com/vs2012vle/Home The main goal of this sample modern application is to provide a sample app where you can see most of the new technologies related to Visual Studio 2012, in a practical way. Application context: The context is about an events/conferences management system called “My Events”, with many different scenarios and client apps de...
Microsoft Platform Day – Developing LOB apps with Microsoft Platform (Milan June 13th, Madrid June 21st & Mexico city June 28th)
We are delivering the Microsoft Platform Day, “Developing LOB (Line Of Business) apps with the Microsoft Platform”, in Milan (Italy) on June 13th, Madrid (Spain) June 21st & Mexico city (Mexico) June 28th. Here I post a few pictures and also the URL to the presentations: Presentations: http://sdrv.ms/LX5FlN Around 130 attendees in Madrid. View from the Real Madrid stadium while staying at the Coffee break:
Creating several Entity Diagrams within a single Model in EF 5.0 and Visual Studio 2012
This feature is killer and it’s been waited for long time by any developer or company who use EF visual models with a lot of entities. Think about a model where you have hundreds of entities.., opening a single diagram with 200 entities doesn’t make sense and it is too slow and kind of unmanageable. Now, with EF 5.0 and Visual Studio 2012, you can have many diagrams that visually Split the same entity model. This is cool, even more than the coloring feature. For instance, in the model below, I have selected a group of entities (entities related with ‘Customer’), then you right-click on any of those entities ...
Coloring Entities with EF 5.0 RC and VS.2012 RC
In Visual Studio 2012 RC (the Release Candidate was released last week on May 31st 2012) and Entity Framework 5.0 RC, the Entity Designer surface of EF MODEL/DATABASE FIRST, now supports entity shape coloring. This is really nice to differentiate categories, like when you have several AGGREGATES within your MODEL, etc. Here is a sneak peak of what we have in the RC: On the other hand, when dealing with DDD Domain Models (Domain Driven Design approach), I think EF CODE-FIRST fits much better (No anemic-domain-model, entity classes can have their own logic in a straightforward way, just adding methods, etc....
Creating a Windows 8 Release Preview Master VHD
You can install Windows 8 into a .VHD following a similar process (like this post I wrote) than when you install it on a raw hard drive, but if you want to have a clean master .vhd which is not related to any specific installation and machine name, and you want to re-use this master .vhd in many machines over time, then the following procedure is much better. Requirements - Windows AIK for Windows 7 (To get the imagex.exe tool) - AIK supplement for Windows 7 SP1 - Windows 8 .iso file or DVD We need the Windows AIK and complement only to get the imagex.exe. So, if you don’t have it, just install Windows AIK ...
Entity Framework Code First DbContext and SQL Azure Connection Fault Handling
I’ve been working migrating an App to Windows Azure and SQL Azure. This app is using Entity Framework 4.3 Code First and DbContext. One important point is related to the SQL Azure Conection Fault Handling. If you don’t know about this topic, you can read this explanatory info: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1541.sql-azure-connection-management-en-us.aspx Then, regarding a workaround when using Entity Framework 4.0 (based on ObjectContext), I wrote this post a few months ago: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cesardelatorre/archive/2010/12/20/handling-sql-azure-connections-iss...
Domain Driven Design (DDD) & Visual Studio 11 Beta ALM, great fit!
Domain Driven Design (DDD) is especially suitable for creating long-term LOB Apps, but usually, DDD is presented as a very patterns & architecture related subject (topics like Bounded-Contexts, Domain-Models, patterns like Repository, Aggregate, Value-Object, etc.), like we actually did in our ‘DDD Patterns Guidance with .NET’, but those are not, in fact, the most important topics when really applying DDD. Domain Driven Design is much more than Architecture and Design Patterns. It implies a specific way of working for development teams and their relationship with Domain Experts, a good identificat...
Installing Windows 8 Release Preview on a .VHD file from a bootable USB-Pen
** May 31st 2012 – UPDATE TO WINDOWS 8 RELEASE PREVIEW ** There are quite a few steps to do, so I’ll write it down for my records. Specifically, I have installed the Windows 8 Release Preview on a on a Samsung Slate Series 7 Tablet, but on a .VHD with native Boot: For more info about .VHD with Native Boot, see (Updated: May 31, 2012 Applies To: Windows 8): http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh825689.aspx Requirements: - You’ll need a USB keyboard plugged into your tablet. - A USB-Pen with at least 8 Gb. A.- INSTALLING THE OPERATING SYSTEM STEP #1 Backup your data on your Series 7. STEP ...
CQRS BUS and Windows Azure technologies
CQRS has several internal patterns and objects types like Commands, CommandHandlers, Events, EventHandlers, and a few others. In the following diagram I show a basic diagram positioning those topics: I am not going to explain CQRS philosophy here, as you can read about it in many posts from Greg Young, Udi Dahan, Martin Fowler, etc. The only thing I want to highlight before going further is that CQRS is not a top-level architecture. On the other hand, it should be used only for certain scenarios/contexts, certain areas within a complex application: Only for selected BOUNDED-CONTEXTS (in DDD lingo). The point...
Scoping CQRS and Event-Sourcing Guidance Project
I am collaborating with the patterns & practices team. We are considering doing a guidance project on implementing systems using the Command & Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS) approach. This is not going to be a framework or reusable components. We are positioning this project as a learning journey and envision providing an experience report that describes building a sample app (reference implementation) to showcase various CQRS and Event Sourcing (ES) concepts & techniques. We will include explanations of various trade-offs and architectural decisions made along the way. Of course, we will pub...
Panda Security releases a free Beta version of Panda Cloud Office Protection 6.0, in the Cloud, on Windows Azure!!
I publish this information because I’ve been collaborating with them on migrating their backend anti-virus system to the Microsoft PaaS cloud which is Windows Azure. They have got many benefits on doing this, like elasticity, rapid scalability, and one of the most important things, they have reduced their costs and TCO a lot!. It is a great Product for any kind of company (small or large) who would like to manage all their anti-virus in a consistent, monitorized and global way. You can try this BETA version of Panda Cloud Office Protection 6.0 downloading it from here: http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers...
We completed the Microsoft Architects Forum: Enterprise & ISVs Applications on Windows Azure (Barcelona Dec. 13th & Madrid Dec. 15th)
It was a nice event exposing Windows Azure scenarios very oriented to ISVs, subjects like Multi-Tenancy, Security, Java apps on Windows Azure, etc. Additionally we had three companies (Panda-Security, Softeng and Grupo Teldat) talking about their real experience in their projects when migrating their products to Windows Azure, talking about optimizations, performance and scalability best practices. Here I post the PRESENTATIONs we talked about (in Spanish): https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=C537C2AF47F728A0&id=C537C2AF47F728A0%211027 And a few pictures of both occurrences of the event Architects Forum in ...
Architects Forum: Enterprise & ISVs Applications on Windows Azure (Barcelona Dec. 13th & Madrid Dec. 15th)
In December we’re going to deliver this free assistance event focusing on enterprise applications and architectures on Windows Azure, subjects like MULTi-TENANCY on windows Azure, and showing optimizations, scalability and load testing made by real Windows Azure customers like PANDA-SECURITY and SOFTENG. This is the Agenda (SPANISH). You can register to the events in the following pages: 1.- Architects Forum: Enterprise Applications on Windows Azure (Barcelona Dec. 13th 2011) https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032498149&Culture=es-ES 2.- Architects Forum: Enterprise Ap...
Creating an X.509 certificate for Windows Azure
I always forget the command line to do this, so I’m going to post it in my own blog. The way to set a specific certificate name, so you can find it within Windows Azure after it is registered, is using the Certificate Creation Tool (makecert.exe) to create an X.509 certificate: - Open the Visual Studio Command Prompt window as an administrator. - Change the directory to location where you want to save the certificate file. - Type the following command: makecert -sky exchange -r -n "CN=MyCertificateName" -pe -a sha1 -len 2048 -ss My "MyCertificateName.cer" Where MyCertificateName is the name that you want to...
We completed the IASA-DDD Conference! (November 7th 2011)
It was a remarkable DDD (Domain Driven Design) event in Madrid, Spain. We got around 150 attendees!!, and taking into account that this is the inaugural event from the IASA-Spain association, and this association was almost unknown in Spain, until now, it is something I must highlight. Of course, having the keynotes delivered by Eric Evans and Udi Dahan was fundamental for achieving that. Most attendees gave such a good feedback about the sessions and specifically about the IASA-Spain initiative because we were talking about Architecture, Design, DDD, patterns, etc., no matter what technology you work with. In fa...
How to explore a Windows Azure Package (How to create it with no encryption)
As you may know, a Windows Azure package is a .ZIP file, but, it is encrypted, so, even though you can rename the extension, when you take a look into it, you cannot really see the project files. In order to see it, you need to create a package which is not encrypted. You can do so setting a System Variable (in the Properties menu within ‘My Computer’): _CSPACK_FORCE_NOENCRYPT_ with value set to true
Eric Evans and Udi Dahan in Madrid! (DDD Conference and Workshops, Nov.2011)
Eric Evans and Udi Dahan in IASA DDD (Domain Driven Design) Conference and Workshops!!! (Nov.2011). This is a unique opportunity. On November 7th, there will be an initial conference (free registration) introducing DDD & CQRS, and then, during next days (Nov. 8th and Nov.10th), there will be several workshops run by Eric Evans and Udi Dahan, having deeper content during a whole day. - DDD Conference (Nov. 7th 2011) - (Free registration): http://dddiasaconference.eventbrite.com/ IASA-SPAIN-MEMBERS have a 50% off discount on Workshops!!!: - DDD Workshop (Nov. 8th 2011) - A whole day with Eric Evan...
EF 4.1.1 RTM (Update) and Code First Migrations August 2011 CTP Released
EF 4.1 Update 1 (EF 4.1.1) has been released a few days ago. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adonet/archive/2011/07/25/ef-4-1-update-1-released.aspx The important point is also EF 4.1.1 Code First Migrations August 2011 CTP Released: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adonet/archive/2011/07/27/code-first-migrations-august-2011-ctp-released.aspx This is really important for people working with Code-First because it allows to change your Entity Model and then upgrade your database instead of having to re-create the database from scratch. Even though EF Code-First Migrations is still a CTP, it is something just for your development ti...
Value-Object pattern implementation in .NET
Regarding DDD patterns, here I link two nice Value-Object implementation samples: http://elegantcode.com/2009/06/07/generic-value-object/ http://grabbagoft.blogspot.com/2007/06/generic-value-object-equality.html
About Ayende’s blog posts series reviewing the NLayered Sample-App
Ayende has been publishing a series of blog posts reviewing the V1.0 of the NLayerApp Sample App (Note we made V2.0 public a few weeks ago, so most of the code issues he highlights do not apply now). We’ve been taken into account every of those posts as well as every comment from the community in his blog. Some comments to Ayende’s posts were also good points to think about. First of all, we are thankful to Ayende and anyone who provides feedback in order to improve our initiative (SampleApp & Guidance) for the community and we will always take into account any comment and feedback. Second, this i...
Published first ALPHA version of Domain Oriented N-Layered Architecture V2.0
[UPDATED - April 2017] - IMPORTANT: For up-to-date architecture and development guidance using .NET (i.e. .NET Core, ASP.NET Core, Docker containers, etc.) including Domain-Driven Design patterns, microservices architectures and other .NET related technologies like Xamarin for mobile apps check this landing page pointing to multiple NEW guides and reference applications: https://www.microsoft.com/net/architecture/ Specifically, most of the DDD (Domain-Driven Design) patterns explained in the guidance written in 2010/2011 are still valid nowadays, however all the technologies have evolved significantly. Also, m...
DDD-Exchange 2011
So, it was such a great event with Eric Evans, Udi Dahan and Greg Young. Here I post a few pictures I got. Before starting: Eric Evans presenting the Agenda: Q&A to Eric, Udi and Greg: Saying hello to Udi: Strong discussions below… All in all, I really liked all the sessions, check it out here: http://skillsmatter.com/event/design-architecture/ddd-exchange-2011/js-2046
Working with WCF RIA Services JSON endpoints for HTML5, JavaScript & JQuery
WCF RIA Services and JSON endpoints Interesting posts about the base for many future apps based on HTML5, WCF RIA Services JSON endpoints and JavaScript : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davrous/archive/2010/12/14/how-to-open-a-wcf-ria-services-application-to-other-type-of-clients-the-json-endpoint-4-5.aspx http://www.yumasoft.com/node/108 http://joseph-connolly.com/blog/post/WCF-RIA-Services-jQuery-and-JSON-endpoint-Part-1.aspx Developer & Design Tools will evolve to simplify and give much more productivity, but this is the technical base for many future Internet scenarios. MVVM pat...
Implementing a Value-Object Base class (Supertype pattern–DDD patterns related)
It is usually a recommended practice to have Value-Object base-class so we can have common functionality which can be used by all of our value-object classes. Typically, comparison methods or any other common subject for Value-Objects, should be included here. Below I show a sample Value-Object Base-Class:
Don’t like EF 4.1 ‘Data Annotations’ for DDD Architectures implementation –’Fluent API’ fits better for that!
I write this post in order to get some feedback regarding what I currently think about EF 4.1 Data Annotations and how it fits in DDD Architectural styles. About DDD Architectural styles, here it is our Architecture Guide (Though we are actually writing its second edition, adding EF 4.1 Code-First approach). But most DDD Architectural concepts and patterns are exposed there: http://msdn.microsoft.com/es-es/architecture/en/ The subject I want to toss about is the following: In DDD architecture designs we must isolate our Domain Model Layer and therefore, our Domain Entities from any other layer, especially from i...
Just Published the English version of our ‘DDD N-Layered .NET 4.0 Architecture Guide’ book and Sample-App at CODEPLEX
[UPDATED - April 2017] - IMPORTANT: For up-to-date architecture and development guidance using .NET (i.e. .NET Core, ASP.NET Core, Docker containers, etc.) including Domain-Driven Design patterns, microservices architectures and other .NET related technologies like Xamarin for mobile apps check this landing page pointing to multiple NEW guides and reference applications: https://www.microsoft.com/net/architecture/ Specifically, most of the DDD (Domain-Driven Design) patterns explained in the guidance written in 2010/2011 are still valid nowadays, however all the technologies have evolved significantly. Also,...
Workshop VS.Lightswitch & Windows Azure!
[UPDATED June 7th] Here I add a nice LightSiwtch Sample Application: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bethmassi/archive/2011/05/25/contoso-construction-lightswitch-advanced-development-sample.aspx [UPDATED May 11th 2011] Here I attach the presentation we delivered in this Workshop. --- --- On May 5th, joining forces with Avanade, we’ll deliver the following Workshop in Microsoft Office (Madrid): Maximum productivity and 'Time-To-Market' using the new Microsoft RAD VS.LightSwitch and Windows Azure. This environment is especially made for small & departmental apps. Non complex scenarios for very simp...
New update Windows Azure Platform Training Kit – April Update
Quite a few new interesting updates: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=413E88F8-5966-4A83-B309-53B7B77EDF78&displaylang=en From the site: Some of the specific changes with the April update of the training kit includes: · [New] Authenticating Users in a Windows Phone 7 App via ACS, OData Services and Windows Azure lab · [New] Windows Azure Traffic Manager lab · [New] Introduction to SQL Azure Reporting Services lab · [Updated] Connecting Apps with Windows Azure Connect lab updated for Connect refresh · [Updated] Windows Azure CDN lab updated for CDN ...
Entity Framework 4.1 just Released!
For me, it means fundamentally ‘Code First approach’, which is actually the best approach for DDD (Domain Driven Design) architectural styles (for your Domain Entity Model). So now, it is ready for production developments!!. Release to Web (RTW) of Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.1 (EF 4.1). This is a fully supported, go-live release. What’s in EF 4.1? ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.1 introduces two new features: Getting EF 4.1 ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.1 is available in a couple of places: Getting Started There are a number of resources to help you get started with EF 4...
How to enable Wireless Networking on Windows Server 2008 R2
Just for my reminding, as I always forget these steps: By default, WiFi connection is disabled in Windows Server 2008 R2, kind of "locked down", for security reasons (Windows Server is supposed to be running on a server, not in a PC). But in my case, I run Windows Server 2008 R2 on my laptop (HP Elitebook 8540w), so... To enable support for wireless networking:
Automatically deploying Azure Connect Agents software
In order to set up Windows Azure Connect, you need to install a piece of software called Azure Connect Agent in each server/machine from your datacenter that you want to access. In order to do that, you usually have to access Azure-Portal in order to get a specific agent for each server. You usually click “Install Local Endpoint” in the portal the popup window includes the URL for installing the endpoint, and is says: “You cannot save the installation software and run it later, because it includes an activation token” Ok, in reality you can save the endpoint installation software (A...
‘The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect’ error related to MMC.EXE programs and weird cause & simple solution
I publish this error as its cause was really weird: I was getting an error when trying to start any Management Console related program (mmc.exe based admin tool), like Certificates, Event Viewer, etc. The error was: “The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail” Something like the following Message-box, but showing the specific path file I was trying to execute (and always based on the MMC.EXE). But because of I couldn’t open the Event Viewer, I could...
Windows Azure VMs Comparison
Just wanted to show a simple table comparison regarding CPU, memory, storage, I/O and cost for each Windows Azure VMs (Compute Instances).
Info about SCOM Azure Management Pack
Just for my record, I wanted to post a few interesting posts regarding ‘SCOM Azure Management Pack’: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/walterm/archive/2011/02/01/setting-up-performance-counters-in-your-web-and-worker-roles.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/walterm/archive/2011/02/14/adding-azure-application-monitoring-to-scom-2007-r2.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/walterm/archive/2011/03/18/configuring-azure-diagnostics-performance-counter-monitoring-in-scom-2007-r2.aspx
A few options for Windows Azure Storage Backup & Restore
I just wanted to record a few options I found for Windows Azure Storage backup-restore (I’m not talking about SQL Azure, in this case). If you have any other option for this matter, please tell me and I’ll be happy to update this post. 1) Windows Azure Storage Tables backup and storage: http://tablestoragebackup.codeplex.com/ http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/archive/2010/05/03/protecting-your-tables-against-application-errors.aspx 2) Windows Azure Storage Blobs backup and storage: http://azure.ulitzer.com/node/1431929 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/archive/2010/04/30/protecti...
Typical issue‘One of the request inputs is not valid’ when Working with the Windows Azure Development Storage
One of the typical issues is getting the error "One of the request inputs is not valid" that occurs when testing the application with empty tables in development storage. This is because Development Storage currently requires the schema for an entity stored in a table to have been previously defined before you are allowed to query it. WORKAROUND The workaround is simple, we just need to insert, and then delete, a dummy row into the Windows Azure tables if the application is running in the development fabric. During the initialization of the web role, it is a good idea if the application checks whether it i...
Updated Windows Azure SDK (v.1.4) and Windows Azure Management Portal
New! (March 9th 2011) Updated Windows Azure SDK (v.1.4) and Windows Azure Management Portal. New features we are enabling today include: For more detailed info: http://bit.ly/hIPsW8
Architects Forum XXVI ‘CloudPower’ – Presentations (Spanish)
As many people asked for it, here you can download the presentations (in Spanish) we delivered yesterday, during the Architects Forum XXVI, regarding the following topics: - CQRS in Windows Azure - Claims based Security and Windows Azure Access Control - Windows Azure AppFabric-Cache - Windows Azure Connect - Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus. Download URL: http://bit.ly/gtCZYJ
Great Diagram about our DDD NLayered .NET 4.0 Architecture
Just wanted to share a great Architecture diagram made by Julio César Sanchez, who reviewed our Architecture and Sample app and at the same time elaborated this neat diagram. We really appreciate his time and details expressed in it: Thanks a lot Julio Sanchez!! :-) (To get a high resolution copy, grab it from here http://microsoftnlayerapp.codeplex.com/discussions/248944) Just in case you’re not aware, here you have the links regarding our DDD NLayered .NET 4.0 Architecture & Sample-App, in case you are not aware: Sample App published at CODEPLEX (OSS) http://microsoftnlayerapp.codeplex.com/ Architec...
Architects Forum XXVI –Madrid March 9th– Enterprise-CloudApps in Windows Azure PaaS-Cloud platform (Free attendance)
Next Wednesday we’ll deliver the following event (free attendance) in Madrid (Will be delivered 100% in Spanish): REGISTRATION https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032468807&Culture=es-ES
How to solve “SetConfigurationSettingPublisher needs to be called before FromConfigurationSetting can be used” After Moving to Windows Azure SDK 1.3
A quick reminder: After Windows Azure SDK 1.3, we now use full IIS instead HWC (Hosted Web Core). Using IIS we can have several WebSites per WebRole, so now the internal architecture and processes are different, this is why we have to change the we we use the API regarding Windows Azure configuration settings. Basically, in case you’re using ASP.NET, we need to add the following code to our Global.asax Global.asax in ASP.NET protected void Application_Start() { &...
Web Farm Framework 2.0 for IIS
This is a very interesting stuff for managing scalable web farms based on your own IIS servers, in a better way . The Microsoft Web Farm Framework is a free, fully supported, Microsoft product that enables you to easily provision and mange a farm of web servers. It enables you to automate the installation and configuration of platform components across the server farm, and enables you to automatically synchronize and deploy ASP.NET applications across them. It supports integration with load balancers, and enables you to automate updates across your servers so that your site/application is never down or un...
How to fix: Error when deploying Windows Azure App on WA SDK V1.3 – The communication object, System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel, cannot be used for communication because it is in the Faulted state.
You might get this error (The communication object, System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel, cannot be used for communication because it is in the Faulted state.) if your Solution is working under any Source Control manager, like TFS, etc… Not joking… This is the whole exception: You might also see this error in the OutPut Window in VS.2010: The program '[8880] WaIISHost.exe: Managed (v4.0.30319)' has exited with code -532462766 (0xe0434352). This is a known issue with Windows Azure SDK 1.3 when upgrading from Windows Azure SDK 1.2 to 1.3. (It should be fixed in next WA Emulator versio...
Using Multiple Administrators WLID on a Windows Azure Subscription
Just a useful tip: When managing your Windows Azure subscriptions it is advantageous to have multiple service administrators manage the Hosted Services, Storage Accounts and CDN on a subscription. When a subscription is purchased through the Microsoft Online Services Portal, the service administrator specified during the subscription process is the default, and only, person who can manage the services on the subscription. Then, if you want to add more Administration accounts, the process is the following: To assign service co-administrators to a subscription, the default service administrator must sign in to the ...
Handling SQL Azure Connections issues using Entity Framework 4.0
The underlying platform within SQL Azure consists of many instances of SQL Server, each of which is managed by the SQL Azure fabric. The SQL Azure fabric is a distributed computing system composed of tightly integrated networks, servers, and storage. It enables automatic failover, load balancing, and automatic replication between physical servers. Troubleshooting Connection-loss Errors When you start using SQL Azure, you won't notice anything different when accessing your database, but connection-loss is not uncommon when databases encounter resource shortages. A unique feature of SQL Azure i...
Just released V1.0 of our DDD NLayered Architecture Guide/Book and Sample-App (Free eBook)
[UPDATED - April 2017] - IMPORTANT: For up-to-date architecture and development guidance using .NET (i.e. .NET Core, ASP.NET Core, Docker containers, etc.) including Domain-Driven Design patterns, microservices architectures and other .NET related technologies like Xamarin for mobile apps check this landing page pointing to multiple NEW guides and reference applications: https://www.microsoft.com/net/architecture/ Specifically, most of the DDD (Domain-Driven Design) patterns explained in the guidance written in 2010/2011 are still valid nowadays, however all the technologies have evolved significantly. Also, m...
The future of Silverlight! See SILVERLIGHT FIRESTARTER on Dec. 2nd!!
There was quite a lot of buzz after PDC talking about HTML5 vs. Silverlight and wondering what will be Silverlight’s future. Well, here we have it. There’s gonna be a single event just for that, to have it clear. I strongly believe that Silverlight is here to stay. It is much more powerful than HTML5 (from UX design and also from a development point of view) and even though HTML5 will be great for ‘reach’, I mean ‘anything in the Internet’ in any device, talking about LOB apps (Line Of Business Apps), RIA apps and even Windows Apps (Silverlight Out of Browser), Silverlight is the best choice. It is not just f...
Summary of New ‘Windows Azure Platform’ features announced at PDC10 Oct. 28th-29th 2010
So, great news at PDC10!. Here I make a summary about new features per Windows Azure Platform pillar (Windows Azure, SQL Azure, AppFabric): Windows Azure SQL Azure Windows Azure App Fabric Other WA related new features A lot of stuff to see!! :-)
Follow PDC10 on-line!!
This is going to be the first time where anybody will be able to follow the whole PDC (all sessions) on-line!. Follow PDC on-line from this URL: http://player.microsoftpdc.com/session?refid=73401 Also, here you can see about this new PDC on-line experience: https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/The+Knowledge+Chamber/PDC10-and-the-new-Online-Experience
Windows Azure Management Pack for SCOM (RC) has just been published!!
The Windows Azure Management Pack enables you to monitor the availability and performance of applications that are running on Windows Azure. Feature Summary After configuration, the Windows Azure Management Pack offers the following functionality: You can download it from here (It is actually a RC –> RELEASE CANDIDATE): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=4f05f282-f23a-49da-8133-7146ee19f249
Recorded PEX & MOLES Workshop
Last summer (July 2010) we delivered in Madrid a nice PEX & MOLES workshop. The speaker was Peli de Halleux, from MICROSOFT RESEARCH. If you are interested in Unit Testing, Mocking, etc., you should take a look at it! It was a great workshop and we recorded it, so now we just published it on Channel9. Here you have the links! :-) 1/3 - https://channel9.msdn.com/posts/channel9spain/Microsoft-PEXMOLES--advanced-Unit-Testing-aspects-13/ 2/3 - https://channel9.msdn.com/posts/channel9spain/Microsoft-PEXMOLES--advanced-Unit-Testing-aspects-23/ 3/3 - https://channel9.msdn.com/posts/channel9...
Houston codename: SQL Azure Web/RIA Management Studio
Microsoft® Project Code-Named “Houston” is a lightweight and easy to use database management tool for SQL Azure databases. It is designed specifically for Web developers and other technology professionals seeking a straightforward solution to quickly develop, deploy, and manage their data-driven applications in the cloud. Project “Houston” provides a web-based database management tool for basic database management tasks like authoring and executing queries, designing and editing a database schema, and editing table data. It is available on SQL Azure Labs. This web/Silverlight SQL Azu...
Developing and Deploying Java-Tomcat apps into Windows Azure
As you may know, Windows Azure is a multi-platform environment, so we can run many other languages/platforms other than .NET, like Java, PHP, Ruby, etc., and even using a whole Web-AppServer like Apache Tomcat, a DBMS like MySQL, and using IDEs like ECLIPSE. You can get more info about this here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/interop/ So, in this case, what I wanna show in this post is how you can develop and deploy a simple JAVA app (.JSP and SERVLET app) into Windows Azure (I’ll show it into the Windows Azure local Dev-Fabric but also into the real Windows Azure cloud in the Internet). There ar...
How to set a default page to a Windows Azure Web Role App (Silverlight, ASP.NET, etc.)
This is a very easy tip, but useful. As you may know, Windows Azure management portal has not a way to set many things you could do using IIS Management console. But, because most of the IIS 7.x configuration can be also set using XML configuration files, in most of the cases we don’t really need the IIS Manager. In this case, we can set a default page to a Windows Azure Web Role App (SIlverlight, ASP.NET, etc.) changing the web.config. We just specify the default page within the System.WebServer section: <defaultDocument> &nb...
Importing/Exporting data to SQL Azure databases using BCP and SQL Scripts
The basic way: SQL Scripts + BCP There are also other methods you can use to export/import or even sync data like SQL Azure Migration Wizard, SQL Azure Data Sync, and even SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services). Also, instead of creating database schema using SQL Scripts, another new option is using the new DACPAC (Data Tier Packages), in SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Azure and Visual Studio 2010. But, in this post I’m going to show the most basic way, but also, a way that you can instrument from execution scripts , etc. First of all, we need a SQL Script to apply to our empty SQL Azure database. SQL Server 20...
Adding a Reference to AppFabric Cache Client-Cache assemblies
[UPDATED May 2011] We have now a much easier way to install and add a reference to AppFabric Client assemblies, using NuGet! :-) See: http://www.nuget.org/List/Packages/ServerAppFabric.Client --- In order to develop against AppFabric Cache, of course, you need to reference its Client-Cache assemblies. You’d think it is a pretty straightforward action, but it is not. At least using current Beta and RC version, it is not like going to Visual Studio-->Add Reference—>Browse GAC assemblies, select it, and done?. Nope!. And this is something I have to do again and again in...
Workshop AppFabric (Madrid May 28th 2010)
Next Friday (Madrid, May 28th 2010) we’ll deliver a Workshop about Windows Server AppFabric. There’s no related cost to attend. You can register yourself using this page: https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032451744&Culture=es-ES This is the Agenda (9:30 – 14:00): - Introduction to AppFabric (Windows Server & Azure) – César de la Torre – Microsoft - Distributed Cache using AppFabric-Cache (aka. codename ‘Velocity’) – César de la Torre – Microsoft -- Coffee time - Hosting & Monitoring WCF...
Visual Studio 2010 resources
Here I post several useful links to VS.2010 resources. Documentation MSDN Product Documentation: · Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management · Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010: · Team Foundation Installation Guide for Visual Studio 2010 · Administration Guide for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server Videos VS2010 Launch: This video series provides an overview of the key features of Visual Studio 2010, including new IDE features for modeling and understanding code, developer and test collaboration, team collaboration with Team Foundation Server, Project Management, and app...
Using Entity Framework Self Tracking Entities with AppFabric CACHE (‘Velocity’) and .NET 4.0 RTM
Currently, when you try to use Entity Framework STE (Self Tracking Entities) and AppFabric-Cache (aka. “Velocity”), you’ll get a runtime error. I mean, what we’re trying to do is trying to serialize STE objects within AppFabric-Cache. For instance, we could try to execute the following code, using AppFabric Cache API: var cacheContainer = this._cacheFactory.GetCache(container); cacheContainer.Put(key, value, timeout, region); Where, in this case, the ‘value’ parameter would be an EF STE object or collection, ok? Then, when trying to execute that Put() command to store it within AppFabric, you’ll get the f...
Repeating in Barcelona (May 13th) the Architects Forum XXV (N-Layer DDD Architecture with .NET 4.0)
REPEATING IT IN BARCELONA!! :-) --> (May 13th 2010) We really had a lot of requests asking for re-delivering this event in Barcelona. It also was a great success in Madrid last March 24th 2010 (almost 200 attendees and people really liked it). So, there we go, we’ll repeat it in Barcelona!! On May 13th 2010 we’ll deliver in Barcelona an special Architects Forum edition where we’ll present a first draft/beta of our ‘N-Layer DDD Architecture and .NET 4.0 Guide’ that we’ve been working on during the last several months!! We’ll give you a book (to all attendees) with a printed draft/beta version of this proposed ...
Silverlight 4 Training Kit and Channel 9 videos
Silverlight 4 Training Kit We’ve just released a new free Silverlight 4 Training Kit that walks you through building business applications with Silverlight 4. You can download the entire offline version of the kit here. You can use the 8 modules, 25 videos, and several hands on labs online or offline from links on the Channel 9 site. I’ve included a breakdown and links to all of the content here in this post. The key to this training material is not the features it covers (though it covers a variety them) but rather that it teaches from the perspective of building a business application. Module 1 – In...
Our brand-new ‘DDD N-Layered .NET 4.0 Architecture Guide’ book and Sample-App in CODEPLEX
[UPDATED - April 2017] - IMPORTANT: For up-to-date architecture and development guidance using .NET (i.e. .NET Core, ASP.NET Core, Docker containers, etc.) including Domain-Driven Design patterns, microservices architectures and other .NET related technologies like Xamarin for mobile apps check this landing page pointing to multiple NEW guides and reference applications: https://www.microsoft.com/net/architecture/ Specifically, most of the DDD (Domain-Driven Design) patterns explained in the guidance written in 2010/2011 are still valid nowadays, however all the technologies have evolved significantly. Also,...
Architects Forum XXV – N-Layer DDD Architecture and .NET 4.0 (March 24th 2010)
[UPDATED - April 2017] - IMPORTANT: For up-to-date architecture and development guidance using .NET (i.e. .NET Core, ASP.NET Core, Docker containers, etc.) including Domain-Driven Design patterns, microservices architectures and other .NET related technologies like Xamarin for mobile apps check this landing page pointing to multiple NEW guides and reference applications: https://www.microsoft.com/net/architecture/ Specifically, most of the DDD (Domain-Driven Design) patterns explained in the guidance written in 2010/2011 are still valid nowadays, however all the technologies have evolved significantly. Also,...
SILVERLIGHT 4.0 RC and Silverlight for Windows Phone 7.0 presented at MIX2010
SILVERLIGHT 4.0 RC and Silverlight for Windows Phone 7.0 · Microsoft delivers the premier mobile application development experience. - Today, with the combination of Windows Phone 7 Series, Silverlight, the XNA Framework, Visual Studio, Expression Blend and Windows Phone Marketplace, developers have the richest, most productive development tools and platform for creating and deploying high performance, compelling mobile applications. - Microsoft offers a familiar and flexible development experience for mobile applications with Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone and Expression Blend for Wi...
Nuestro nuevo Libro-Guia de ‘Arquitectura N-Capas DDD .NET 4.0’ y Aplicacion ejemplo en (Disponibles para download en MSDN y Codeplex)
[UPDATED - April 2017] - IMPORTANT: For up-to-date architecture and development guidance using .NET (i.e. .NET Core, ASP.NET Core, Docker containers, etc.) including Domain-Driven Design patterns, microservices architectures and other .NET related technologies like Xamarin for mobile apps check this landing page pointing to multiple NEW guides and reference applications: https://www.microsoft.com/net/architecture/ Specifically, most of the DDD (Domain-Driven Design) patterns explained in the guidance written in 2010/2011 are still valid nowadays, however all the technologies have evolved significantly. Also,...
Visual Studio 2010 & .NET 4.0 Training Kit available for download
So, it’s been released an updated version of the Visual Studio 2010 & .NET 4.0 Training Kit, compatible with the new VS.2010 BETA2. Here is the URL: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=752CB725-969B-4732-A383-ED5740F02E93&displaylang=en
My new Architecture Journal Article!!: “Model-Driven-SOA with ‘OSLO’”
Cool!. I just got published my article regarding Model-Driven-SOA with ‘OSLO’, in ‘The Architecture Journal’. :-) You can see it here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/aa699436.aspx Or you can download the whole Magazine from this URL: http://cid-c537c2af47f728a0.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/My%20Articles/AJ21%5E_EN.pdf Take into account that OSLO is a beta and it is starting its first steps, so I’m basically talking about the future, in this article. How it could be regarding SOA and MDD using “OSLO”.
Architect Forum XXIV – RIA Architecture, ‘Silverlight 3.0’ & ‘.NET RIA Services’
Architect Forum XXIV – RIA Architecture, ‘Silverlight 3.0’ & ‘.NET RIA Services’ Here I post some info & Presentations about the Architect Forum we delivered last week in Madrid (Sept. 23rd). All presentations are in Spanish: http://cid-c537c2af47f728a0.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Msft%20Dpe%20Spain%20Architects%20Events/2009%20-%20Arch.Forum%20XXIV%20-%20RIA%20Silverlight%203.0%20%5E0%20.NET%20RIA%20Services We had around 100 attendees in our room (Within the huge SIMO 2009 Expo). Here is the agenda we delivered: Agenda Keynote: El futuro de las nuevas aplicaciones de negocio con tecnología Microsoft...
Using VSTS 2010 Beta1 Team Explorer and TFS in CODEPLEX
I'm actually setting up an environment around that (VSTS 2010 Beta1 Team Explorer and TFS in CODEPLEX), and there is a problem when trying to connect your VSTS.2010 client to the TFS in CODEPLEX. But there's a workaround you can follow here: (Thanks Aaron) http://blogs.msdn.com/ablock/archive/2009/05/20/for-tfs-2010-beta-1-resolving-tf31001-the-servicepointmanager-does-not-support-proxies-with-the-https-scheme.aspx or here, (Thanks Kirill) http://blogs.msdn.com/kirillosenkov/archive/2009/06/22/visual-studio-2010-beta1-tfs-https-tf31001-the-servicepointmanager-does-not-support-proxies-with-the-https-scheme.aspx
How To Install Windows 7 From a bootable USB Drive
I just wanna have this "How to" in my blog, even for myself. :-) What you need: Step 1 - Formatting the Drive Using the command prompt, we'll use the diskpart utility. [BTW: This will erase all data on your USB drive] Step 2: Make the Drive Bootable Next we’ll use the bootsect utility that comes on the Windows 7 disk to make the flash drive bootable. Type the followinf in the same command window that you were using in Step 1: Step 3: Copy the installation DVD files to the USB drive Using Wind...
Workshop “Oslo” introduction: The Future about Model Driven Development (June 30th 2009)
One more event!. Yesterday we delivered a nice workshop regarding Model Driven Development and “OSLO”. I talked most about MDD/MDE (Model Driven Development/Engineering), Model Drive SOA, how can be the future regarding MDD implemented with “OSLO”. Key points, risks, and long term goals and then how could everything be mapped to “OSLO”. Miguel Llopis (Developer in “OSLO” Product Group, in Microsoft corp.) explained “Oslo” design goals and then quite a few demos regarding M language, Quadrant and Repository. Here I post the agenda and the presentations (URL to my SkyDrive): http://cid-c537c2af4...
WCF Load Test tool
It’s been just released a few days ago to Codeplex: WCF Load Test. It looks pretty nice! :-) Project Description This tool takes a WCF trace file and a WCF client proxy, or a WCF interface contract, and generates a unit test that replays the same sequence of calls found in the trace file. The code generated is easily modifiable so that data variation can be introduced for the purpose of doing performance testing. The tool generates code for both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008. It also installs a wizard into both editions of Visual Studio for creating the trace and processing it from inside Visual Stud...
Architect Forum XXIII – VSTS.2010 & Tools for Architects (Madrid & Barcelona)
Architects Forum XXIII - Visual Studio Team System 2010 & Tools for Software Architects Here I post some info & Presentations about the Forums we just delivered in Madrid (May 28th) & Barcelona (June 16th): http://cid-c537c2af47f728a0.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Msft%20Dpe%20Spain%20Architects%20Events/2009%20-%20Arch.Forum%20-%20VSTS.2010 We had around 130 attendees in Madrid and around 90 attendees in Barcelona. And some pictures: This was the agenda: AGENDA (Spanish)
RIA Services (Alexandria) roadmap
Dinesh Kulkarni has written a nice post about RIA Services (Alexandria) roadmap: http://silverlight.net/forums/p/101160/230835.aspx#230835 So, RIA Services milestones are: - July 2009 CTP - PDC 2009 Beta (November) - First part of 2010: RTW (Like .NET 4.0) Another key point is that we might provide support for .NET 3.5 SP1 in the server (where you run RIA Services), not just .NET 4.0. I think it is a good point for many customers who are not so agile to rapidly change to .NET 4.0. I just want to highlight that I say 'we might'. This is just a possibility, it is not a final commitment. :-)
Our event: ‘Biztalk Server 2009 news, ESB 2.0 Guidance & WCF LOB SDK Event’ content
Today, we just run a Workshop regarding Biztalk Server 2009 news, ESB 2.0 Guidance & WCF LOB SDK. I post the presentations here, so any attendee can get it. You can grab it from the following SKYDRIVE: http://cid-c537c2af47f728a0.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Msft%20Dpe%20Spain%20Architects%20Events/2009%20-%20Biztalk%202009%20-%20ESB%202.0%20-%20WCF%20LOB%20SDK BTW, this content is in Spanish, as the event was delivered in Spanish. :-)
We have released a public Visual Studio 2010 Beta1 !!
Cool!, So we have just released a public Visual Studio 2010 Beta1 and, of course, VSTS 2010 and Team Foundation Server (Beta1), as well. MSDN subscribers can actually download it today from MSDN site, but you can also install it from this public URL:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=85520793-68fc-4361-a8b6-dc2cff49c8d2&displaylang=en
“Non Windows users” in AzMan (Authorization Manager)
AzMan background AzMan (Authorization Manager) is the best Microsoft technology to implement role & permissions based security for your applications. It exists as part of Windows Server (and Windows "workstation"), since versions Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. If you want to take a look of its management tool, just run it: "Start azman.msc" (from cmd or search). In Windows Server 2003 old days, your app users had to be Windows users, which in fact, is the most common way. Even today, with current AzMan version, you normally will use Windows users for your apps. But, sometimes, you need non-Windows use...
How to install a Loopback Adapter in Windows 7
It turns out that adding a Loopback adapter in Windows 7 is a little bit tricky, because we have no "Add Hardware" menu icon within Control Panel, anymore. Everything is supposed to be detected by Windows 7. (At least in current Windows 7 RC1). But if we're talking about a "Loopback Netwrok Adapter", it really cannot be detected, as it is a virtual device.. In any case, if you want to run the Wizard where you can manually add hardware, you need to start it from the COMMAND PROMPT: 1.- Run cmd, but do it like: "Run as Administrator" 2.- From the command prompt, write down "hdwwiz.exe" and execute it. Then, the "Ad...
Using “MUrl” – A textual Oslo DSL for RESTful Clients
“MUrl” is a textual DSL and runtime for interacting with REST/HTTP services. It is actually just a great Oslo-DSL sample, as you can download it (all its source code) from MSDN.com: http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/0/B/40B632EC-F201-43EE-8E29-C398A9DA8468/MUrlSample.msi As long as I know, “MUrl” has been mainly developed by Douglas Purdy. I saw his session at MIX09, which was fabulous; so now, I want to explain what “MUrl” is and how to use it. This post is, in fact, explaining most of the content that Doug told in MIX09. So, Just like we already have within Oslo and “M” Language, the following DSLs,...
Creating a simple Textual DSL with Oslo, “M” Language, MGrammar and Intellipad
I wrote a post about Oslo and “M” Language and how you can use it to model data. But in that case, we were not using our own custom Textual DSL, we were using just “M” Language. You can see that post here: Starting using OSLO, “M” Language, Oslo Repository and Intellipad http://blogs.msdn.com/cesardelatorre/archive/2009/04/20/starting-using-oslo-m-language-oslo-repository-and-intellipad.aspx What I’m going to create now, is a Custom Textual DSL sample (DSL == Domain Specific Language), based on Oslo. It is going to be very, very simple. I just want to show the essence of “M” Language and MGrammar and how we can...
Starting using OSLO, “M” Language, Oslo Repository and Intellipad
Microsoft “OSLO” is Microsoft’s next generation of Modeling Platform, Tools and DSLs. OSLO is basically composed by: - “M” Language (For Data Modeling and Textual DSLs ) - QUADRANT (Visual Tool for Visual Modeling) - Oslo Repository (Based on SQL Server. IT is the Oslo’s data store, for meta-data and data itself) You can actually research about Microsoft OSLO using the published “Oslo” SDK January 2009 CTP. This is the version I’m using for this post. Download - Microsoft "Oslo" SDK - January 2009 CTP (Refresh) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f2f4544c-626c-44a3-8866-b2a9fe07895...
Azure Metro Training in Madrid (16th April 2009) Material
Last week, we delivered a nice Azure training (One condensed full day about AZURE platform). Sorry, but everything is in Spanish (Agenda & Presentations), as we delivered it in Spanish. So, down below you can read the agenda and the Presentations are posted in my SKYDRIVE, as well: SKYDRIVE location (Presentations): http://cid-c537c2af47f728a0.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Msft%20Dpe%20Spain%20Architects%20Events/2009%20-%20Azure%20Metro%20Training Marzo de 2009 AZURE - METRO TRAINING ¿Cloud computing?... es uno de los mayores ...
IE8 release version ships during MIX09
We have just released the final version of IE8!. Here you have the address where you can download it: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx
Silverlight 3.0 news disclosed today at MIX09 in Las Vegas!!!
So, I’ve just been attending MIX09 keynote (ScottGu, etc.), and… as you’ll discover, Silverlight 3.0 rocks!!! :-) Here you have some of what we’re disclosing today about SL3.0: SILVERLIGHT 3.0 MEDIA & GRAPHICS GPU hardware acceleration!! Opt-in feature per element Codecs (H.264/AAC/MP4, VC1, etc.) Perspective 3D Bitmap & pixel API Pixel Shader effects!! Deep Zoom improvements App. Development Deep linking, navigation and SEA Improved text quality Multi-touch support 100+ controls available Library caching support (reference to libs & cached so no need to download it again) DEMO: ROLLING STONE C...
How to create a Bootable DVD (Windows 7 or Windows Vista)
Sometimes you'd want to install Windows from a bootable DVD but you just have all the Windows files... I mean, in my case I've got Windows 7 build 7048 (beta drop, but it does not matter), but I currently don't have its related ISO image. So, if I want to install a plain new Windows 7 from scratch (booting & installing from a DVD), guess what you need?, right..., I want to create my own bootable Windows DVD. In order to do that, we can use several Microsoft tools that come in AIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit), for Windows Vista or Windows 7 (the latest in my case). You can download from here, for...
Microsoft Event – ‘Saving Costs with Microsoft development platform’
Next March 11th we’ll deliver in Madrid (NH Eurobuilding Hotel) an event about how to save costs in these uncertain economic time. We’ll see why Microsoft is more productive and has better TCO than competing technologies like Java. Keep in mind that the audience should be ITDMs, I mean, IT Directors, development area directors, or Enterprise Architects who are technology decission makers, etc. This is not a very technical event but a strategic event. Down below you have the invitation and agenda, sorry, but everything is and will be in Spanish: Evento Microsoft ‘Reducción de costes con Platafo...
IE8 RC1 is now available for public download
RIA-Silverlight and Web applications Architecture pocket-guides from Microsoft Patterns & Practices
Microsoft Patterns & Practices have several nice application architecture pocket-guides about RIA & Silverlight and Web applications. RIA-Silverlight pocket guide: http://www.codeplex.com/AppArch/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=19799http://blogs.msdn.com/jmeier/archive/2008/11/24/ria-architecture-pocket-guide.aspx Web pocket guide: http://www.codeplex.com/AppArch/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=19802http://blogs.msdn.com/jmeier/archive/2008/11/24/web-application-architecture-pocket-guide.aspx All P&P Pocket guides: http://www.codeplex.com/AppArch/Wiki/View.aspx?title=Pocket%20...
Windows 7 – Natively Booting from a .VHD file (Virtual PC image)
[Update 15 August 2009 - Tested with Windows 7 RTM final version] The most important thing to keep in mind is that we currently (prior to Windows 7) cannot natively boot from any kind of .VHD. Actually, I have just managed to boot from a Windows 7 installed on a new .VHD, and I installed it right from the Windows 7 DVD. We can do a similar process with "Windows Server 2008 R2 (beta)" installed on a .VHD file, as well. If you'd use Virtual PC 2007 to install the Virtual image, the produced .VHD wouldn't work when trying to boot from the .VHD. A.- Creating the .VHD file and Windows...
Attaching a .VHD (Virtual PC image) using Windows 7 capabilities
Windows 7 has a great and new capability which consists on the ability to attach a VHD (Virtual PC Hard Disk image) as a native drive. This way you could see a VHD from Windows 7 like if it were a regular hard drive. It is very useful, many times I want to get some demos or any file from within a VPC. In XP or Vista you had to start that VPC using Virtual Pc, etc., now we can just attach it a get any file from the .VHD!! :-) The stesp are the following: Attach a VHD From 'Computer management' and Action menu you can attach the VHD: Remember this is just to see the .VHD files. BTW, ...
Unity for Silverlight 2.0!
This is cool! :-) Several links: – MSDN site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd362339.aspx – Community Forum: http://codeplex.com/unity What is Unity? The Unity Application Block (Unity) is a lightweight, extensible dependency injection container. This release of Unity is a port of Unity Application Block 1.2 to Microsoft Silverlight 2.0. What’s New? The following capabilities and packaging of the Unity container have been adjusted in this release: – The single Microsoft.Practices.Unity.dll file in the Silverlight version contains all the classes from the three separate desktop DLLs: Microsoft.P...
Content-Presentations from our Architect Forum XXII: S+S and Microsoft Azure platform
Here I post the presentations of our event: http://cid-c537c2af47f728a0.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Msft%20Dpe%20Spain%20Architects%20Events/Architect%20Forum%20XXII%20-%20Azure%20Platform?uc=2 Some of the PPTs are in Spanish, but some of them are in English (like the sessions delivered by Clemens & Eugenio Pace).
Our Architect Forum XXII: S+S and Microsoft Azure platform – Madrid, Dec.4th 2008
Next December 4th 2008 we're gonna run in Madrid, Spain, a special event (Architect Forum XXII: S+S and Microsoft Azure services platform). Azure platform and Windows Azure is the new Microsoft S+S platform (for apps. development), a big bet for 'computing in the cloud'. If you are a Software Architect, and you are interested and want to attend to this event we're gonna run in Madrid, just register yourself in the following address: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032395293&Culture=es-ES Here is the whole agenda: AGENDA Our main speaker: Clemens Vasters (Azure Service Bus Techni...
PPTs about our Workshop ‘Fitting the Entity Framework in N-Tier & N-Layer Architectures’
Last October 13th we delivered a Workshop about EF and N-Tier & N-Layer Apps. We had a great feed-back about it. :-) You can get the Presentations from this URL within my SkyDrive: http://cid-c537c2af47f728a0.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Msft%20Dpe%20Spain%20Architects%20Events/2008%20-%20Workshop%20Entity%20Framework%20in%20N-Tier%20%7C0%20N-Layer%20Architectures Take into account that we wrote it in Spanish & English, download the .ZIP file you really want!. ;-)
My Book: SOA Architecture with Microsoft technologies
Just to point out that I have just published a book written 50% with a friend of mine, Roberto Gonzalez, from Renacimiento (he is MVP in Biztalk). César de la Torre (Architect Evangelist - Microsoft) Roberto González (MVP Biztalk) Editorial Krasis Press ISBN: 978-84-935489-7-1 Take into account it is written in Spanish, as there are not so many technical books written in Spanish. You can take a look here: http://shop.campusmvp.com/Product-Arquitectura-SOA-con-tecnolog%C3%ADa-Microsoft_65.aspx
Microsoft Azure Services Platform
I just wanted to sum up what the Microsoft Azure platform is. But before that, just to highlight that the Azure Services Platform is currently a CTP, kind of a very early 'BETA,' available only as a limited Community Technology Preview (CTP) to attendees at the PDC 2008 (Professional Developers Conference). In the near future, it will also be available to more customers & partners. The release date is not fixed yet, but in any case, we are currently in a very early stage. The point today is that it's just been discovered to the public. So, the Azure Services Platform represents a significant advancement for...
Unity Application Block (Unity) just released!!
Unity Application Block October 2008 Release (1.2) What is Unity? The Unity Application Block (Unity) is a lightweight, extensible dependency injection container. It facilitates building loosely coupled applications and provides developers with the following advantages: – Simplified object creation, especially for hierarchical object structures and dependencies – Abstraction of requirements; this allows developers to specify dependencies at run time or in configuration and simplify management of crosscutting concerns – Increased flexibility by deferring component configuration to the container – Service loca...
PDC 2008 disclosures! – The cloud: Windows Azure Services Platform
So!, I'm actually attending PDC 2008!!. It has just started a few hours ago. Its main announcements are around 'the cloud' and the services Microsoft is offering now based on: Windows Azure! Windows Azure is an Operating System in 'the cloud' (massive Microsoft data centers for the Internet), but you can see it more like a platform in the cloud, where we can upload your own applications, based on .NET and SQL Services, specially made for the cloud. Windows Azure and .NET Services are based on the former beta names called RED-DOG & ZURICH. Current Windows Azure state is CTP (Community Technical Preview), so a ...
Silverlight 2.0 has just been released!! RTW version available!!
So!, Silverlight 2.0 has just been released!! Take a look at www.microsoft.com/silverlight. You can download the Silverlight 2 RTW SDK.
Event – RIA Applications Architecture & Development with Silverlight 2.0 – Barcelona, October 8th 2008
Yesterday, in Barcelona, I delivered another event about RIA Applications Architecture & Development with Silverlight 2.0. You can download my Presentation from the following link (within my SKY DRIVE): http://cid-c537c2af47f728a0.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Msft%20Dpe%20Spain%20Architects%20Events/2008%20-%20RIA-Silverlight%20Event%20%7C5Oct.%208th%202008%7C6?view=details
Using Silverlight 2.0 clientaccesspolicy.xml vs. crossdomain.xml for Web-Service cross-domain access
To enable a Silverlight control to access a web service (like a WCF Service) in another domain, the service must explicitly allow cross-domain access. Doing so, a service states that the operations it exposes can safely be invoked by a Silverlight control, without potentially damaging consequences to the data the service stores. Silverlight supports two different mechanisms for services to opt-in to cross-domain access: • Place a clientaccesspolicy.xml file at the root of the domain where the service is hosted to configure the service to allow cross-domain-access. •...
New Application Architecture Guide (v.2.0) from Microsoft Patterns & Practices!!
Cool!, just a few days ago (Thu Sep 25 2008) Microsoft P&P have published a neat 'Application Architecture Guide' (v.2.0). It is great because "it is new", so it covers most of the new Microsoft dev technologies and application/architecture types we're dealing with, nowadays. :-) Even though P&P have published just "the begining", in January 2009 they will have it finished. That's why it is right now in "http://www.codeplex.com", it will be evolving during several weeks.. This is the map about what it covers: Here's a basic diagram representing the Conceptual Framework: Architecture styles covered by ...
Silverlight 2.0 RC now available (Sept. 25th)!!
Great news!, yesterday we launched Silverlight 2.0 Release Candidate! It is quite probable that the final RTW build will be available shortly! I wanted to mention that because of we are still in BETA phases, it is more than likely that we have to check and update our code, because this new version will probably break our currents developments made with SL20 Beta2. So!, Start porting your pre-silverlight 2.0 sites to Silverlight 2.0 RC and be ready for the RTW version!! Info: http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/sl2rc0.aspx Downloads (SL 2.0 RC0 version): Microsoft Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1...
Our RIA Apps Architecture with Silverlight 2.0 Event! (Madrid Sept. 24th)
We're actually today running an event in Madrid about RIA Apps Architecture with Silverlight 2.0. The event content is oriented towards Software Architects. Our main speaker is Josh Holmes (RIA Architect Evangelists, based on U.S.) because he's starting a roadshow around Europe. After his speech, we'll run one hour about Q&A (Chalk & Talk), and during the evening we'll run . :-) You can see our agenda/abstract down below: Agenda 09:30 – 12:30 Developing RIAs with Silverlight 2.0 Target audience: 100+ Solution Architects and Senior Developers Abstract: Rich Internet Applicati...
Optimistic Concurrency Updates using Entity Framework in N-Tier and N-Layer Applications (Part 2)
This is my second post about "Updating data using Entity Framework in N-Tier and N-Layer Applications". If you wanna read the basics, go to my first post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/cesardelatorre/archive/2008/09/04/updating-data-using-entity-framework-in-n-tier-and-n-layer-applications-short-lived-ef-contexts.aspx So!, I finished my first post saying that the code I showed does not cover scenarios where we want to manage “Optimistic Concurrency Updates & Exceptions”, I mean, let’s say any other guy changed some data, regarding that same data customer, during the timeframe after I performed my Customer query ...
Updating data using Entity Framework in N-Tier and N-Layer Applications (short lived EF contexts) – (Part 1)
First of all, we are talking about using Entity Framework and how it fits within N-Tier and N-Layer applications, ok?, that’s our initial scenario. An N-Tier application is an application where you have 3 or more physical tiers. I mean with that things like, “Presentation/Client Tier”, “Application/Business Server Tier” and “Data Tier” (a database server in most of the cases) and nowadays we use web services (or even better, WCF Services) to communicate between presentation tier and the application server tier. Here you see a simple & typical picture about N-Tier architecture: As you can see, all the client ...
SQL SERVER 2008 Sample Databases
This is a useful post because SQL Server 2008 has just been released a few days ago, and we will have tons of labs and samples, most of them based on Microsoft sample databases like the new version of Northwind sample database, so, we’ve got this neat place in CODEPLEX where we can download different sample database versions. http://www.codeplex.com/MSFTDBProdSamples/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=16040 Those sample databases (last version) have been published just a few days ago, in August, as well. For instance, there is a new sample database very useful for development demos (like demoing LINQ o...
New version – Zachman Enterprise Framework 2.0
The Zachman Framework is a grid of artefacts used to describe an enterprise architecture. Zachman does not require the whole grid filled. Nor is it necessary for only one artefact to correspond to each hook. It is therefore a fairly messy key holder. Nevertheless it is pretty handy. It prompts the architects to think about what is needed in a particular grid position. About this new release, I think it has minor changes. The operations angle has changed a bit. If you want to get more info about Zachman Framework, go to: http://zachmaninternational.com/index.php/the-zachman-framework If you know ZIFA, take into a...
I changed my role within Microsoft to Architect Evangelist
So!, so a few days ago I changed my role within Microsoft. I'm no longer "Dynamics ISV Evangelist" but now my role is "Architect Evangelist". I really like this change because Software Architecture is my passion and I do have experience in this area because that's what I was doing "in the field" before joining Microsoft, for more than 10 years, kind of envisioning, designing architectures and developing software projects (N-Tier & SOA architectures, Sharepoint and CMS portals, Biztalk integrations, .NET architectures & development, etc.). . Now I've got the opportunity ...
Internet Service Bus (ISB), “Biztalk Services” & Software+Services
The concept of ISB is quite similar to the ESB but putting it in the cloud, Internet, so is it a way to connect/consume different "enterprise apps" thru Internet and therefore thru firewalls. But starting from the begining..., with platform technologies including Windows Server, the .NET Framework, BizTalk Server, and other technologies, Microsoft has long been dedicated to delivering ever-broader application platform value. Traditionally, though, to use this platform infrastructure, businesses had to deploy software on-premise, on servers physically located on their corporate networks. In contra...
Developer Ramp up Kit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
We've just released a new "Developer Ramp up Kit" for developers who want to get up to speed into Dynamics CRM 4.0!. Over the past 18 months, we‘ve conducted dozens of Instructor-Led trainings for our ISVs worldwide to get them ramped up for CRM 4.0 platform (code named “Titan”). The trainings were conducted as part of DPE Metro Early Adopter initiative and were extremely well received by the ISVs. We ran these trainings world-wide in three different waves. The first on Titan CTP2, with a follow-up on Titan CTP3 and then an additional wave for CRM S+S (CRM Online & Partner Hosted). We have ...
Installing Dynamics AX 2009 AIF (Application Integration Framework) on a Windows Server 2008 DC (Domain Controller)
When installing AIF on a Dynamics AX 2009 server which is also a DC (Domain Controller), you gotta be careful, because, there are several issues regarding that. This scenario shouldn't be common in a production environment, but, it is indeed quite common in a demo Virtual PC machine, where you have "everything in a box"... So!, if you try to install AIF (AX 2009) and you get the following error: "Setup was not completed", AIF Web Services Error: And then you drill down looking for the error in the LOG file: "The input parameters to this method are: 'MicrosoftDynamicsAXAif50' Leaving met...
Dynamics Mobile 2008 in Microsoft INNOVATION DAYS Event – Spain (June 3rd & 5th 2008)
I'll deliver a session about "Developing with Dynamics Mobile 2008" in our Microsoft INNOVATION DAYS event. It will be delivered in Madrid (June 3rd) and Barcelona (June 5th). My session content will cover topics like: - Dynamics Mobile 2008 introduction - Dynamics Mobile Sales (Sample Application) - Developing with the Dynamics Mobile Development Framework (How to create TASKLETS, WIZARDS and ORCHESTRATIONS) - Mobile Server (WCF Services, SQL Sync, Servers Architecture, etc.) - Resources Here you can see my Dynamics Mobile 2008 demo app starting: You can find the whole event's age...
Dynamics AX 2009 has been Released!!
So!, we already have Dynamics AX 2009 RTM version!! (It was released yesterday, May 22nd). It is AVAILABLE NOW for download from Partner Source (you need to authenticate as a Dynamics partner): https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/support/selfsupport/productreleases/DynamicsAX2009release.htm The download is a full installation setup, either for new installations or upgrades from previous versions. You can upgrade it from Microsoft Dynamics AX 3.0 Service Pack 4 (or higher) or Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 Service Pack 1 (or higher). AX 2009 is gonna rock! Enjoy!
xRM Whitepaper – Dynamics CRM as development platform for Business Apps
Jason Hunt and Aaron Elder (from Ascentium, they are not from Microsoft) have published a very nice Whitepaper about "xRM" (Dynamics CRM as RAD dev platform for business Apps). Download it from: http://www.ascentium.com/blog/crm/Gallery/Ascentium%20-%20Microsoft%20Dynamics%20CRM%20as%20a%20Business%20Application%20Platform.pdf
Dynamics CRM 4.0 Vertical Accelerator for Healthcare
Microsoft Dynamics CRM has released its Relationship Management Healthcare vertical accelerator. This accelerator, built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, showcases how Microsoft Dynamics CRM is relevant to customers in the healthcare industry and provides a baseline for partners/customers for further development. These sales enablement tools are released as a part of Microsoft's shared source initiative on Codeplex under the Microsoft Public License. This is the link from where you can download it!: http://www.codeplex.com/crmverticaltemplates/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=13323 The follo...
Great Whitepaper about ‘Developing Business Apps with Dynamics CRM 4.0’
Well, the real name of this whitepaper is "Developing ISV Applications using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0" but I thought it would be clearer with this other title. Many people don't not know what really an ISV is (Independent Software Vendor), and this whitepaper can also be great for any CRM developer/architect. :-) So, this whitepaper has (in a single document) all the technical messages we've been talking about Dynamics CRM during last year (we, as Microsoft DPE), presenting Dynamics CRM 4.0 not only as a CRM product but as a great RAD development platform, for many kind of business apps. In fact, Dynamics CRM ...
Disabling Domain Account Security Policies in Windows Server 2008 DC
Just a tip I always have to do when setting up a Windows Server 2008 VPC (Virtual PC) which is also a DC (Active Directory Domain Controller). As those machines are just for demos or development environment, I do not want to have the Domain account policies which are quite strict, otherwise I'll have to change the password after several days (42 days), using complex passwords, etc. To do so, in your Windows Server 2008 DC (usually a VPC) open the Admin.Tools-->Group Policy Management and go to the Forest-->Domain-->Default Domain Policy. There you can see (within Account policies and password policy) all...
Consuming external WCF Services from Dynamics AX 2009 X++ code (Dynamics AX “5.0”)
I'm gonna talk about a new feature in Dynamics AX 2009 (Dynamics AX "5.0") which is the really powerful possibility we have now about calling/consuming external Web Services or even WCF Services from our X++ code. So, in Dynamics AX 4.0, we could execute external Web Services thanks to the AIF outbound web service adapters, but we couldn't really consume those external Web Services from our X++ code... You can read a pretty good posting about that matter (AX 4.0 AIF and external Web Services) here: http://blogs.msdn.com/dpokluda/archive/2006/10/03/Outbound-web-service-_2800_AIF_2900_.aspx But the good news are th...
CRM 4.0 Plugin Registration Tool V2.0
If you want to develop CRM 4.0 Plugings, there's a tool called "Plugin Registration Tool 2.0" which can help you a lot when you want to register it into CRM Server. So, PluginRegistration tool is an enhanced version of the tool that is published within Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 SDK. You can download "PluginRegistration tool " from: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/crmplugin Also, there are sample plugings you can download from: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/crmpluginsamples So!, when you download it, what you get is the full source-code Visual Studio project for this tool (so you could investigate how i...
Microsoft Dynamics Mobile version 1.1 has been released!!
Microsoft Dynamics™ Mobile, version 1.1 has been released and is available in PartnerSource. With the new release of Microsoft Dynamics™ Mobile, Microsoft Dynamics we now have the opportunity to use the Mobile Development Tools to build end-to-end solutions for Microsoft Dynamics, create vertical applications quickly. It is based on several high level development concepts like Tasklets, Orchestrations and Wizards, therefore it reduces the application development time for mobile implementations (compared with a regular .NET Compact Framework mobile development) Dynamics Mobile 1.1 supports Microsoft Dynamic NAV...
Installing Dynamics CRM 4.0 on a Windows Server 2008 machine
So, I was facing several issues when trying to install CRM 4.0 on a Windows Server 2008 machine. But I have found this article where you can see several typical error messages, and how you can solve it: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950100/en-us For errors about SQL Reporting Services, you can look at this article : How to install and how to configure SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938245 One common error when installing SQL Server Reporting Services on a Windows Server 2008 which is also a Domain Controller, is rega...
Presenting at Microsoft TechReady6!! (Seattle – Feb. 15th)
Last week Steffen and I were presenting a session called "The real cool fit!: Dynamics AX 2009 and the new Microsoft development technologies". Here is the content we were presenting in Seattle!!: MSDY309 The real cool fit! - Microsoft Dynamics AX 5.0 and the new Microsoft development technologies Primary Track: Business Solutions Session Type: Breakout Speaker(s): Cesar De la Torre Llorente, Steffen Niehues Abstract: How Microsoft Dynamics AX fits into the Mainstream Microsoft Stack and why you should care!. We will present how to access and consume Microsoft Dynamics AX 5.0 business logic using several...
Design_Time_Addresses URL in WCF (.NET 3.5)
.NET 3.5 creates an ACL (Access Control List) for the namespace "http://+:8731/Design_Time_Addresses" during the installation of Visual Studio so users without administrator privilege are able to develop WCF services. The ACL is set to (UI), which includes all interactive users logged on to the machine. Administrators can add or remove users from this ACL, or open additional ports. This ACL enables WCF or WF templates to send and receive data in their default configuration. It also enables users to use the WCF Service Auto Host (wcfSvcHost.exe) without granting them administrator privileges. You can modify ...
Error when consuming AX 5.0 AIF Services from an external .NET client application: How to fix it!!
If you create an AIF Service from scratch (like creating an AX query and generating the WCF Service with the AIF wizard) and then you try to consume it from an external .NET client app, you'll get an error (at least with AX 5.0 CTP3 drop2). On the other hand, you are able to consume, with no problems, all the out-of-the-box AX 5.0 AIF services (like Customers, and so on). So, the .NET error you get when consuming your own custom AIF Service is something like the following: "Request Failed. See the Exception Log for details" System.ServiceModel.FaultException was unhandled Message="Request Failed. See the E...
How to find out which Form class and tables are used by a specific Dynamics AX form/functional process.
This is a basic tip for developers who are starting with Dynamics AX. So, to find the form class and tables that are used by a functional process (like when you are executing and seeing an AX form), what we need to do first is to find out the form class name. To find the AOT form class name, open that form that's used in a process and Right-click on the form (over any record, for example) and select Setup. From there we can see the Form class definition and drill down to see all the tables it is using and so on. You can also use SQL Profiler to discover what database objects are being accessed during a ...
Event – Extending and developing with Dynamics AX ‘5.0’ – Microsoft METRO Discovery Event (Madrid – January 30th 2008)
‘Dynamics AX "5.0" - Metro Discover Event’ - Madrid – January 30th 2008 We’re going to deliver a Dynamics AX event specially made for ISVs (companies which creates and sell their own software). So, we’ll be speaking about new AX 5.0 development features and of course, we’ll be speaking about METRO which is our initiative/program for ‘Early Adopters’ ISVs, in this case, specifically for Dynamics AX 5.0 early adopters. METRO is therefore oriented just to ISVs companies which want to develop their products over or integrated with latest versions of Dynamics (currently in beta state). So METRO offers free traini...
We delivered a session in MTC-Summit 2008 (Berlin) about Dynamics AX and new Microsoft development technologies
So yesterday, Steffen Niehues and I (we both are in Western-Europe DPE virtual Team) delivered a session about "Dynamics AX and the new Microsoft development technologies" in the MTC-Summit 2008 event, in Berlin. So, all the attendees were Microsoft Certified Trainers. Before our speech, Wilfried Heermann and Gina Haines both spoke about the opportunity MCTs have about training Dynamics, how can they be enrolled in this and also explaining our work in Microsoft DPE (Development & Platform Evangelism). It was a very nice event, and we delivered our session with success!!. We're getting such a good feed-back...
Accesing the Network from a ‘Smart Device Emulator’ which is within a Virtual PC 2007 virtual machine
If you are developing .NET Compact Framework apps (Pocket PC or Windows Mobile), using, for instance, Visual Studio 2008, but you are using a Virtual PC 2007 virtual machine (where you have all the development environment installed), things get a little bit tricky when you want to access the network from the "Smart Device Emulator"... It turns out that when you want to enable the 'Smart Device Emulator network card' (from Pocket PC emulator window --> Configure --> Network --> Enable NE2000 network adapter), it needs to have the "Virtual Machine Network Services Driver". And that driver comes just with ...
How to enable debugging on Server – Dynamics AX
In most of the cases, our X++ classes have to be executing within the server (AOS). In a default deployment we're not able to debug server code. To have this Dynamics AX feature, we must enable it in ‘Microsoft Dynamics AX Server Configuration Utility’ tool (within 'Administrative Tools' menu). You may need to use the Manage button to Create a new Configuration. Then, on the first tab, Application Object Server, make sure that the check box option "Enable breakpoints to debug X++ code running on this server" is checked. There is a direct registry key to do it, too. (but this way may be not sup...
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (aka. Titan) has just been released!!
Microsoft has just released our Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, which can be installed On-Premise, On-Hosting and as S+S (CRM-Live is is offered only in U.S. and Canada). The new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, formerly code-named “Titan,” has been completed and released to manufacturing, Microsoft Corp. announced today. The new version is offered under two product names: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 for on-premise and partner-hosted deployments and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live for Microsoft-hosted deployment. Designed with a single unified-code base for both on-premise and on-demand deployments. You can see more inf...
ISV Innovation Days Event in Spain!! (December 18th & 20th 2007)
Next week we're going to deliver a special event for ISVs, which is called "ISV Innovation Days" (December-2007). We'll deliver it in Madrid (Dec.18th 2007) and in Barcelona (Dec.20th 2007) I'll deliver the following two sessions: 1.- "Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in .NET 3.5": Windows Communication Foundation, Workflow Foundation and Workflow-Services (SILVER). 2.- "Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (Titan) as a Development platform": Customization, CRM workflow, Plugins, CRM Web-Services, Reports, etc. You can see the event's information and registration here (beware that it's in Spanish): Info: http://...
Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Training Kit
There is a very nice training kit (which I'm using quite a lot) about the new Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5. It covers most of all the new .NET 3.5 features, like WPF, WCF, Workflow, Workflow-Services (SILVER), LINQ, C# 3.0, ASP.NET AJAX, VSTO, CardSpace, SilverLight, etc. I beleive it's been created/delivered by Microsoft DPE. :-) You can download it from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8BDAA836-0BBA-4393-94DB-6C3C4A0C98A1&displaylang=en
How to deploy your own ASP.NET application within the same Dynamics CRM 4.0 IIS WebSite
There is a common issue when trying to deploy your own ASP.NET application within the same CRM 4.0 IIS WebSite. I mean, If you just go to IIS Manager and create a new ASP.NET app (kind of a virtual directory) for your custom application, you’ll see that you cannot access to your custom application from IE because Titan is running a .NET HttpModule (similar to the older ISAPI Filters built with C++ :-)). So that .NET HttpModule is re-writing the URL depending of the organization (default organization normally.). This is a normal execution because of the multi-tenancy capability of Titan and that is why you are not...
Developing high level workflows in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Titan (Web Editor)
In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 'Titan' we can choose to develop workflows among two types of workflows, but both of them are internally based on WF (Windows Workflows Foundation, which is part of .NET 3.x). So, we can choose between the following: - High level workflows with CRM Web client as development environment: o It is suitable for business administrators who want to create basic workflows - Low level workflows with Visual Studio and WF as development environment: o It is su...
How to change the logo image in Dynamics CRM 4.0 Titan
This is an easy one!, but in any case, it is quite useful if you do not know how to find it. :-) So, the default logo image is the following: 1.-The image file is located in the following place:C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM Server\CRMWeb\_imgs\masthead.jpgYou could copy another image with the same name within that folder. 2.-Also, you could change the .CSS definition, which is a TD, within:C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM Server\CRMWeb\_common\styles\global-dynamic-styles.css.aspx The TD name is:TD.ms-crm-MastHead-LogoThen, you could change the name of the image's file within this TD definition. (in case you wa...
Supported platform in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (Titan)
So!, the following is a summary of the supported platform for TITAN, as I've been told by the product group :-) Server platform: - Supported Windows Server 2003 & Windows Server 2008!! :-) - Supported Exchage Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007 - Supported SQL Server 2005 (x32 & x64) and SQL Server 2008!! :-) --> Note that SQL Server 2000 is no longer supported (for Dynamics CRM 4.0) Development Platform: - Supported Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008!! :-) (I hope we wont have any change on this..) Client Platform: - Supported Windows XP ...
VPC of Dynamics CRM 4.0 Titan CTP3 (Virtual PC image) available to all Dynamics partners !!
We have released a Dynamics CRM 4.0 Titan CTP3 VPC (Virtual PC image) for any Dynamics partner to download via PartnerSource (requires login). PartnerSource is a portal available to partners who focus on Microsoft Dynamics and related business products. If you are an ISV partner you should contact me to ask me to invite you to join Metro. Metro is the early access program we run in Developer and Platform Evangelism. It'll get you access to the bits as well as early adopter product free support and even free training. Link for download: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: Virtual...
New Key technologies and functionalities in CRM 4.0 (“Titan”)
Well!, so these are the key new stuff in CRM 4.0 ("Titan")!!: - CRM 4.0 Workflow based on WF (Windows Workflow Foundation). This is a huge improvement and a great new from the development point of view. WF is a base development technology which is part of .NET 3.x (which is basically .NET 2.0 plus WF, WCF, WPF and CardSpace) with a great development visual environment based on Visual Studio. WF is the unification of all Microsoft workflow technologies, so all high level Microsoft workflows are going to be based on WF (Windows Workflow Foundation). Historically, Microsoft had many different types of workflo...