May 2009

.NET RIA Services:Building A Data-Driven Expense App with Silverlight 3

.NET RIA Services provides a set of server components and ASP.NET extensions such as authentication, roles, and profile management. We’ll show you how they work. Jonathan Carter

Cloud Computing:Patterns For High Availability, Scalability, And Computing Power With Windows Azure

Here we examine the typical cloud platform architecture and some common architectural patterns, along with their implementation on the Windows Azure offering from Microsoft. Joshy Joseph

Data Services:Access Your Data On Premise Or In The Cloud With ADO.NET Data Services

In this article the author looks at two versions of the same application--one consuming an on-premise Data Service, and one consuming an Azure Table Data Service to illustrate data access in the cloud. Elisa Flasko

SOA Simplified:Service Virtualization With The Managed Services Engine

By using Managed Services Engine service virtualization technology, you can begin participating in the cloud by simply configuring virtual service endpoints and operations that integrate with the .NET Service Bus. Aaron Skonnard

Columns

Editor's Note:Head in the Clouds

This month Editor-in-Chief Howard Dierking comes down from Cloud 9 when he realizes that employing cloud services is less about magic and more about planning. Take a few tips from his recent experiences.Howard Dierking

Toolbox:Easy File Backup, Exploring Files And Folders Inside Visual Studio, Multiple Monitor Software, And More

If the responsibility for creating, managing, and executing routine backups is yours, these tools will make it easier. Also see how you can browse folders and files from inside Visual Studio.Scott Mitchell

Basic Instincts:Documenting Your Code With XML Comments

XML comments provide an easy and effective way to document your code. We’ll show you how to use and customize XML comments in your Visual Basic projects.Lisa Feigenbaum

CLR Inside Out:Understanding The CLR Binder

In this article, we cover some of the best practices for assembly binding and loading using the CLR.Aarthi Ramamurthy and Mark Miller

Cutting Edge:Build Rich User Interfaces with jQuery

In this month's installment we build modal and modeless dialog boxes in jQuery and explain how to post data from them to the Web server.Dino Esposito

Extreme ASP.NET:The Life And Times of an ASP.NET MVC Controller

Here the author dissects the ASP.NET MVC framework and looks at how controllers work. He then explains how the framework interacts with your controllers and how you can influence those interactions.Scott Allen

Foundations:Versioning Workflows

Developers often struggle with versioning workflows and their related classes. Matt Milner discusses the core issues related to workflow versioning and provides recommendations for making changes to workflow definitions, activities, and workflow services.Matthew Milner

Going Places:Gaming In The Key Of Zune

Mike Calligaro shows you the basics of using XNA Game Studio 3.0 to write games for Zune.Mike Calligaro

Office Space:Custom Field Types for SharePoint 2007

Custom field types provide a powerful way to define a reusable SharePoint column definitions.Ted Pattison

Security Briefs:A Conversation About Threat Modeling

Listen in on a chat between a developer and security pro that delves into some of the major Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) requirements we impose on product teams here at MicrosoftMichael Howard

Under the Table:Programming with FileStreams in SQL Server 2008

There's always been disagreement about whether large blobs, such as document and multimedia items, should be stored in the database or file system. In SQL Server 2008 you don't have to choose; filestream storage provides the best of both approaches.Bob Beauchemin

Patterns and Practices:Simplifying Patterns and Practices

This month we in introduce a new column that takes you inside the Microsoft patterns & practices group. This first installment focuses on ways groups inside Microsoft have implemented the Dependency Injection pattern in Microsoft products and tools.Alex Homer

Usability in Practice:Useful, Usable and Desirable: Usability as a Core Development Competence

In this month's installment, learn how to achieve the most important outcome of all UI design: ensuring that your software is useful, useable, and desirable.Dr. Charles B. Kreitzberg and Ambrose Little

{End Bracket}:The Unconference: Where Geeks JIT Together

This month the author takes us on a tour of the unconference and other unconventional get-togethers. Learn how these unique approaches to conferences are being widely adopted.Steven M List