Posts
All the articles I've posted.
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Just released: MvcSiteMapProvider 3.1.0 RC
It looks like I’m really cr… ehm… releasing way too much over the past few days, but yes, here’s another one: I just posted MvcSiteMapProvider 3.1.0 RC both on CodePlex and NuGet. The easiest way to get the current bits is this one: As usual, here are the release notes:
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Windows Azure SDK for PHP v3.0 released
Microsoft and RealDolmen are very proud to announce the availability of the Windows Azure SDK for PHP v3.0 on CodePlex! (here's the official Microsoft post) This open source SDK gives PHP developers a speed dial library to fully take advantage of Windows Azure’s cool features. Version 3.0 of this SDK marks an important milestone because we’re not only starting to witness real world deployment, but also we’re seeing more people joining the project and contributing.
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Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Platform Update 1 KB2478063 Service Pack 5 Feature Set 3.1 R2 November Edition RTW
As you can see, a new .NET Framework version just came out. Read about it at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/endpoint/archive/2011/04/18/microsoft-net-framework-4-platform-update-1.aspx. Now why does my title not match with the title from the blog post I referenced? Well… How is this going to help people? For those who don’t see the problem, let me explain… If we get new people on board that are not yet proficient enough in .NET, they all struggle with some concepts. Concepts like: service packs for a development framework. Or better: client profile stuff! Stuff that breaks their code because stuff is missing in there! I feel like this is going the Java road where every version has a billion updates associated with it. That’s not where we want to go, right? The Java side?
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A Glimpse at Windows Identity Foundation claims
For a current project, I’m using Glimpse to inspect what’s going on behind the ASP.NET covers. I really hope that you have heard about the greatest ASP.NET module of 2011: Glimpse. If not, shame on you! Install-Package Glimpse immediately! And if you don’t know what I mean by that, NuGet it now! (the greatest .NET addition since sliced bread). This project is also using Windows Identity Foundation. It’s really a PITA to get a look at the claims being passed around. Usually, I do this by putting a breakpoint somewhere and inspecting the current IPrincipal’s internals. But with Glimpse, using a small plugin to just show me the claims and their values is a no-brainer. Check the right bottom of this '(partial) screenshot:
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Using dynamic WCF service routes
For a demo I am working on, I’m creating an OData feed. This OData feed is in essence a WCF service which is activated using System.ServiceModel.Activation.ServiceRoute. The idea of using that technique is simple: map an incoming URL route, e.g. “http://example.com/MyService” to a WCF service. But there’s a catch in ServiceRoute: unlike ASP.NET routing, it does not support the usage of route data. This means that if I want to create a service which can exist multiple times but in different contexts, like, for example, a “private” instance of that service for a customer, the ServiceRoute will not be enough. No support for having http://example.com/MyService/Contoso/ and http://example.com/MyService/AdventureWorks to map to the same “MyService”. Unless you create multiple ServiceRoutes which require recompilation. Or… unless you sprinkle some route magic on top!
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Wordpress auto sign-on with IIS7 and a plugin
For our RealDolmen blog platform, where we use Wordpress as the engine running multiple external and internal blogs (yes, that’s an internal SaaS we have there!), we wanted to have an easy solution for our employees to sign-on to the platform. We had a look at the Wordpress plugin repository and found the excellent Simple LDAP Login plugin for providing sign-on through Active Directory. This allowed for sign-on using Active Directory credentials. However, when browsing the blogs from the corporate network, the login page is one extra step in the way of users: they are already logged on to the network, so why sign-on again using the same credentials?
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Geographically distributing Windows Azure applications using Traffic Manager
With the downtime of Amazon EC2 this week, it seems a lot of websites “in the cloud” are down at the moment. Most comments I read on Twitter (and that I also made, jokingly :-)) are in the lines of “outrageous!” and “don’t go cloud!”. While I understand these comments, I think they are wrong. These “clouds” can fail. They are even designed to fail, and often provide components and services that allow you to cope with these failures. You just have to expect failure at some point in time and build it into your application.
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Windows Azure SDK for PHP v3.0.0 BETA released
Microsoft and RealDolmen are very proud to announce the availability of the Windows Azure SDK for PHP v3.0.0 BETA on CodePlex. This releases is something we’ve been working on in the past few weeks, implementing a lot of new features that enable you to fully leverage the Windows Azure platform from PHP. This release is BETA software, which means it is feature complete. However, since we have one breaking change, we’re releasing a BETA first to ensure every edge case is covered. Of you are using the current version of the Windows Azure SDK for PHP, feel free to upgrade and let us know your comments.
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Slides for my talk at MIX11: Fun with ASP.NET MVC 3, MEF and NuGet
As promised, here are the slides and demo code for my talk "Fun with ASP.NET MVC 3, MEF and NuGet" I presented at MIX in Las Vegas. Abstract: "So you have a team of developers… And a nice architecture to build on… How about making that architecture easy for everyone and getting developers up to speed quickly? Learn all about integrating the managed extensibility framework (MEF) and ASP.NET MVC with some NuGet sauce for creating loosely coupled, easy to use architectures that anyone can grasp." The recorded session: (on Channel 9) The slide deck: The demo code: 2011-04-14 Fun with ASP.NET MVC 3 MEF.zip (6.76 mb) Enjoy! And thanks for joining!
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Official Belgium TechDays 2011 Windows Phone 7 app released
I’m proud to announce that we (RealDolmen) have released the official Belgium TechDays 2011 Windows Phone 7 app! The official Belgium TechDays 2011 gives you the ability to browse current & upcoming sessions, as well as provide LIVE feedback to the event organizers. Is the current session awesome? Let us know! Is the food too spicy? Let us know!