Think First, Code Later

While I was at MIX10 last month, I was interviewed by some various Microsoft folks. In these interviews I discussed building community around Microsoft’s cloud platform, specifically Windows Azure and Project Thor. The first interview with Social Wendy is up. You can view it below or check it out on Vimeo.

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I’m pleased to announce that version 1.0 of Thor was released on February 15th, 2010. The release includes the following downloads:

• thor.deploy
  • Contains the necessary deployment package and service configuration file required for deploying Thor to Windows Azure.
• thor.exchange.interop.exchange2007
  • Contains the assemblies required for enabling Thor to communicate with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 via the Exchange Web Services Managed API.
• thor.exchange.interop.exchange2010
  • Contains the assemblies required for enabling Thor to communicate with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 via the Exchange Web Services Managed API.
• thor.exchange.webservices
  • Contains the assemblies required for enabling Thor to communicate with Microsoft Exchange Server via Exchange’s native web services.
• thor.source
  • Contains the source code (Change Set 43071) for version 1.0 of Thor.

You can download the bits here.

Check out the screencast below (brought to you by Silverlight and the Simple Silverlight Media Player) on how to deploy, configure and run Thor in Azure:

I’ve also stubbed out some documentation here. There’s no content, yet, but I promise it will be coming over the next couple of weeks.

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Last Friday I had the privilege of presenting at hdc09. My talk was about .NET RIA Services. Topics included:

• Professional Look and Feel
• Rich Data Query
• Validating Data Update
• Authentication
• Different Views

You can download the slide deck and demo code here.

The download contains the following:

• hdc09.111.pptx. This is the slide deck from the presentation.
• ReadMe.txt. These are the directions for running the demo code. Read them! Seriously, read them! I’ll wait…
• SimpleEmployee.sql. This script creates the SimpleEmployee table in the AdventureWorks database I used as the data source for the demo.
• EmployeeManager. This is the application I built during the session.
• templates. These are the business application templates I downloaded from gallery.expression.microsoft.com.

To run the demo code you must have the following items installed:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1
• Microsoft Silverlight 3
• SQL Server 2008 Express
• .NET RIA Services July 2009 Preview
• The 2008 AdventureWorks database

Like I said above, before you can run the demo you’ll need to read the ReadMe.txt file included in the archive. Once again, I’ll wait…OK, so if you don’t read it, here’s what you need to know:

• After you install the 2008 AdventureWorks database you’ll need to run the SimpleEmployee.sql script. This will create the SimpleEmployee table and populate it with data.
• You will need to update the connection strings in the web.config file in the EmployeeManager.Web project.

If you were unable to attend the session or would like to see it again, I’ve recorded a screencast for your viewing pleasure. You can view the screencast via the Simple Silverlight Media Player below, or you can download the .wmv file here.

adam .net ria services, hdc09, presentations, silverlight, video .net ria service, hdc09, presentations, silverlight, video

Last Thursday I had the privilege of presenting at hdc09. My talk was about the new navigation framework that shipped as part of Silverlight 3. Topic included:

• How to partition your Silverlight app into multiple views
• How to navigate between views
• How to implement uri mapping
• How to implement deep linking
• How to provide a great user experience

You can download the slide deck and demo code here.

The download contains the following:

• hdc09.103.pptx. This is the slide deck
• HDCNavApp1. This is the navigation application I built from scratch.
• HDCNavApp2. This is the navigation application I built using the Visual Studio template.
• templates. These are the navigation app templates downloaded from gallery.expression.microsoft.com.

To run the dome code you’ll need the following:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP 1 (the express version will work just fine)
• Silverlight 3

If you were unable to attend the session or would like to see it again, I’ve record a screencast for your viewing pleasure. You can view the screencast via the Simple Silverlight Media Player below, or you can download the .wmv file here.

adam hdc09, navigation, presentations, silverlight, video hdc09, navigation, presentations, silverlight, video

In the third video in this series I showed you how to make your T4 code reusable. In this video I’ll show you how to make it robust. We’ll look at how to debug, handle exceptions, and even unit test, yes unit test, our templates.

You can download the code here.

To run the code you’ll need the AdventureWorks databse, which you can download from CodePlex here.

You’ll also need the T4 Toolbox, which you can download from CodePlex here.

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In the second video in this series I showed you how to use T4 to generate sql scripts for delete stored procedures. In this video I’ll show you how to take those templates and make them reusable, so that you can leverage them on multiple projects.

{Once again, my apologies for the audio quality. I’m still working on acquiring a better mic.}

You can download the code here.

To run the code you’ll need the AdventureWorks databse, which you can download from CodePlex here.

You’ll also need the T4 Toolbox, which you can download from CodePlex here.

adam t4, video t4, video

In the first video in this series I went over the basics of generating code with the T4. I discussed the tooling, various directives and components of a template, and how you can use T4 in a continuous integration process. In this video I’ll show you how to use T4 to generate sql scripts for delete stored procedures. Along the way we’ll review some of the concepts covered in the first post.

{My apologies for the audio quality, I’m working on acquiring a better mic for future videos.}

You can download the code here.

To run the code you’ll need the AdventureWorks database, which you can download from  CodePlex here.

adam t4, video t4, video

Recently at a client I was in the midst of a major refactor. The previous developer had left nothing but a heaping pile of  spaghetti code. I wanted to refactor the mess to more of a patterns based approach, but I was hesitant to due to sheer amount of mundane work involved. You know what I’m talking about. How many data access layers, repositories, etc. have you coded up by hand, but are essentially identical. I knew there had to be a better way. A coworker of mine tripped a switch in my brain when he mentioned T4. I knew of T4 from listening to Scott Hanselman’s great inteview with Kathleen Dollard. However, I had never really seen where I could leverage it before. Until now! After spending a day getting familiar with T4, I was able to implement a repository pattern with unit tests via T4. This allowed me to focus on the business problems at hand rather than the stuff we do almost by rote memory.

I became so impressed with T4 that I thought I do several videos on the technology to make others aware of it and help them get up and running quickly. In this first video, I go over the various aspects of T4 including the tooling, various directives and components of a template, and how you can use T4 in a continuous integration process.

{My apologies for the audio quality, I’m working on acquiring a better mic for future videos.}

You can download the code here.

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