Ajaxus place on the net

Last week Scott Gu posted about several new things coming up onto the ASP.NET scene. They are:

IIS Developer Express: A lightweight web-server that is simple to setup, free, works with all versions of Windows, and is compatible with the full IIS 7.5.

SQL Server Compact Edition: A lightweight file-based database that is simple to setup, free, can be embedded within your ASP.NET applications, supports low-cost hosting environments, and enables databases to be optionally migrated to SQL Server.

ASP.NET “Razor”: A new view-engine option for ASP.NET that enables a code-focused templating syntax optimized around HTML generation. You can use “Razor” to easily embed VB or C# within HTML. It’s syntax is easy to write, simple to learn, and works with any text editor.

WebMatrix: A new lightweight web development tool that also integrates the above technologies, and makes it even easier for people to get started with web development using ASP.NET. This tool is free, provides core coding and database support, integrates with an open source web application gallery, and includes support to easily publish/deploy sites and applications to web hosting providers.

Here are the latest news from ExtJS, as always they are pushing the limits of client tool programming far. Stay tuned for more news:

Exciting things are happening! Today, we’re combining forces with the jQTouch and Raphaël projects, changing our company name to Sencha, and moving our web address from www.extjs.com to www.sencha.com.

jQTouch and Raphaël are the leading open source projects in their areas, and we’re incredibly excited to have their creators, David Kaneda and Dmitry Baranovskiy, joining with the Ext JS team to form Sencha. We believe these collaborations will lead to some spectacular new things in the weeks and months ahead.

Introduction

Download link “Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2”

Our purpose in Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is to point out both
the new and the improved in the latest version of SQL Server. Because this
version is Release 2 (R2) of SQL Server 2008, you might think the changes are
relatively minor—more than a service pack, but not enough to justify an entirely
new version. However, as you read this book, we think you will find that there are a
lot of exciting enhancements and new capabilities engineered into SQL Server 2008 R2
that will have a positive impact on your applications, ranging from improvements
in operation to those in management. It is definitely not a minor release!

Who Is This Book For?

This book is for anyone who has an interest in SQL Server 2008 R2 and wants to
understand its capabilities. In a book of this size, we cannot cover every feature
that distinguishes SQL Server from other databases, and consequently we assume
that you have some familiarity with SQL Server already. You might be a database
administrator (DBA), an application developer, a power user, or a technical
decision maker. Regardless of your role, we hope that you can use this book to
discover the features in SQL Server 2008 R2 that are most beneficial to you.

How Is This Book Organized?

SQL Server 2008 R2, like its predecessors, is more than a database engine. It is a
collection of components that you can implement either separately or as a group
to form a scalable data platform. In broad terms, this data platform consists of
two types of components—those that help you manage data and those that help
you deliver business intelligence (BI). Accordingly, we have divided this book into
two parts to focus on the new capabilities for each of these areas.

Part I, “Database Administration,” is written with the DBA in mind and introduces
readers to the numerous innovations in SQL Server 2008 R2. Chapter 1, “SQL
Server 2008 R2 Editions and Enhancements,” discusses the key enhancements,
what’s new in the different editions of SQL Server 2008 R2, and the benefits of
running SQL Server 2008 R2 on Windows Server 2008 R2. In Chapter 2, “Multi-
Server Administration,” readers learn how centralized management capabilities
are improved with the introduction of the SQL Server Utility Control Point. Step-by-
step instructions show DBAs how to quickly designate a SQL Server instance as
a Utility Control Point and enroll instances for centralized multi-server management.
Chapter 3, “Data-Tier Applications,” focuses on how to streamline deployment
and manage and upgrade database applications with the new data-tier application
feature. Chapter 4, “High Availability and Virtualization Enhancements,”
covers high availability enhancements and includes step-by-step implementations
for ensuring business continuity with SQL Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008
R2, and Hyper-V Live Migration. Finally, in Chapter 5, “Consolidation and Monitoring,”
a discussion on consolidation strategies teaches readers how to improve
resource optimization. This chapter also explains how to use the new dashboard
and viewpoints to gain insight into application and database utilization, and it also
covers how to use capacity policy violations to help identify consolidation opportunities,
maximize investments, and ultimately maintain healthier systems.

In Part II, “Business Intelligence Development,” readers discover components
new to the SQL Server data platform, as well as significant enhancements to the
reporting component. Chapter 6, “Scalable Data Warehousing,” introduces the
data warehouse appliance known as SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse
by explaining its architecture, reviewing data layout strategies for optimal query
performance, and describing the integration points with SQL Server BI components.
In Chapter 7, “Master Data Services,” readers learn about master data
management concepts and the new Master Data Services component. Chapter 8,
“Complex Event Processing with StreamInsight,” describes scenarios that benefit
from complex event analysis, and it illustrates how to develop applications that
use the SQL Server StreamInsight engine for complex event processing. Chapter
9, “Reporting Services Enhancements,” reviews all the new features available in
SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services that support self-service reporting and
address common report design problems. Last, Chapter 10, “Self-Service Analysis
with PowerPivot,” continues the theme of self-service by explaining how users can
integrate disparate data for analysis by using SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel, and
how to centralize and share the results of this analysis by using SQL Server Power-
Pivot for SharePoint.

Yesterday was announced that ASP.NET MVC 2 is final! What is new:

- New Strongly Typed HTML Helpers
- Enhanced Model Validation support across both server and client
- Auto-Scaffold UI Helpers with Template Customization
- Support for splitting up large applications into “Areas”
- Asynchronous Controllers support that enables long running tasks in parallel
- Support for rendering sub-sections of a page/site using Html.RenderAction
- Lots of new helper functions, utilities, and API enhancements
- Improved Visual Studio tooling support

Here is a whitepaper with more info.

Here is ASP.NET MVC Code Examples from MSDN, where you can download and view how to:

- MVC AJAX Application
- MVC Areas Application
- MVC Asynchronous Controller
- MVC Basic Walkthrough
- MVC Controller
- MVC Data Views
- Using the Templated Helpers to Display, Edit and Label Data
- Validating Model Data Using DataAnnotations Attributes

Few days ago ExtJS posted about their latest version 3.2 of their library. It was long anticipated because it is one of the coolest javascript libraries on the net. In fact ExtJS is the core to another tool we use on daily bases - Coolite.

Here are some of the new features:
- Multiple sorting and filtering on Stores
- Animated DataView transitions
- Composite Fields
- Slider improvements
- Toolbar plugins
- New Accessibility Theme
- Quality Assurance: Unit Testing

Full description and more information you can find on Ext JS blog at http://www.extjs.com/blog/2010/03/09/announcing-ext-js-3-2-beta-multisort-transitions-and-composite-fields/

Great post by Pinal Dave! He shares some tips how to get most of the stored procedures.

Dont miss it here.

• Illustrates which parts of the ASP.NET MVC Framework get called when a request is made
• Check out the purpose and features of routing, controllers, actions, and views
• Quick-reference diagram – print and display on a wall next to where you sit

Download the poster from here!

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is the latest release of SQL Server. This article will introduce the top 10 features and benefits of SQL Server 2008 R2. The “R2” tag indicates this is an intermediate release of SQL Server and not a major revision. However, there are a number of interesting new features for both DBAs and developers alike. At the time of this article, R2 is available as a CTP (Community Technology Preview). In addition to new features, there are two new editions as well, SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter and SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse.

Report Builder 3.0

Report Builder is a tool set for developing rich reports that can be delivered over the web. Some of the features of Report Builder include the ability to create reports containing graphs, charts, tables, and printing controls. In addition, Report Builder also supports drill downs and sorting. If you are familiar with the third party tool Crystal Reports, then you have good idea of what to expect from Report Builder.

New features in SQL 2008 R2 / Report Builder 3.0 include: Map Layers, which can hold spatial and analytical data and will integrate with Microsoft Virtual Earth. Indicators, these are gauges used to show the state of one value. Report Parts, this object can be reused or shared between multiple reports. Aggregate Calculating, this allows you to calculate the total value of other aggregate calculated totals.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter

The new Datacenter edition of SQL Server 2008 R2 is targeted towards Enterprise Edition users who require a greater performance platform. The new edition will support 256 logical processors, high numbers of instances, and as much memory as the operating system will support.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse

Another new SQL Server edition, Parallel Data Warehouse, formally codenamed “Madison”, specializes in handling extremely large amounts of data. This new version uses massively parallel processing to spread large tables over multiple SQL nodes. The multiple nodes are handled by a propriety Microsoft technology called Ultra Shared Nothing. This new technology is described as a Control Node spreading queries to Computer Nodes, evenly distributed, then collecting the results.

StreamInsight

New in SQL Server 2008 R2 is component called StreamInsight. This interesting component allows streaming data to be analyzed on the fly. Meaning the data is processed directly from the source stream prior to being saved in a SQL Server table. This could be extremely handy if you’re running a real time system and need to analyze data but can’t afford the latency of a committed write to a table first. Examples usually cited for this application include stock trading streams, click stream web analytics, and industrial process controls. Multiple input streams can be simultaneously monitored.

Master Data Services

Master Data Services (MDS) is both a concept and a product. The concept of a Master Data Service is that there is a central data gate keeper of core business data. Data items such as customer billing addresses, employee/customer names, and product names should be centrally managed so that all consuming applications have the same information. The Microsoft example given is a company that has a customer address record in the customer table but a different address in the mailing table. A Master Data Service application would ensure that all tables would have only one correct address. While an MDS can be a homegrown application, SQL Server 2008 R2 includes an application and an interface to manage the central data.

PowerPivot for SharePoint

PowerPivot is an end-user tool that works in conjunction with SharePoint, SQL Server 2008 R2, and Excel 2010 to process large amounts of data in seconds. PowerPivot works like an Excel Pivot Table, and includes analytical capabilities.

Data-Tier Application

A Data-Tier Application (abbreviated as DAC –no idea what the C stands for, and not to be confused with the Windows Data Access Components also abbreviated as DAC ) is an object that stores all the needed database information for a project, such as login, tables, and procedures into one package that can be consumed by Visual Studio. By creating a Data-Tier Application, a SQL Server package version could be saved with each Visual Studio build of your application. This would allow application code builds to be married to a database build in an easily managed way.

Unicode Compression

SQL Server 2008 R2 uses a new algorithm known as Simple Compression Scheme for Unicode storage. This reduces the amount of disk spaced used by Unicode characters. This new format happens automatically and is managed by the SQL Server engine so no programming changes are required of the DBA.

SQL Server Utility

The new SQL Server Utility is a repository object for centrally controlling multiple SQL Server instances. Performance data and configuration policies can be stored in a single Utility. The Utility also includes an Explorer tool where multi-server dashboards can be created.

Multi Server Dashboards

While the SQL Server Management Studio could always connection to multiple servers, each was managed independently with no central view of all of them. Now with SQL Server 2008 R2, Dashboards showing combined server data can be created.

Good news for all of us who havent upgraded to IE8 yet. Internet Explored 9 is on its way! The web browser would be coming with great performance upgrades.

Browser performance involves many different sub-systems within the browser. Different sites – and different activities within the same site – place different loads and demands on the browser.

Developers want more capabilities in the browser to build great apps and experiences; they want them to work in an interoperable way so they don’t have to re-write and re-test their sites again and again. The standards process offers a good means to that end.

As engineers, when we want to assess progress, we develop a test suite that exercises the breadth and depth of functionality. With IE8, we delivered a highly-interoperable implementation of CSS 2.1 and contributed over 7,200 tests to the W3C. Standards that do not include validation tests are much more difficult to implement consistently, and more difficult for site developers to rely on.

Some standards tests – like Acid3 – have become widely used as shorthand for standards compliance, even with some shortcomings. Acid3 tests about 100 aspects of different technologies (many still in the “working draft” stage of standardization), including many edge cases and error conditions.

Read more here!

.Net Framework 4.0 adds also some new and cool features to file system objects. File class has now ReadLines() methods that returns IEnumerable. WriteAllLines() methods has two overload methods that accept IEnumerable instead of strings array that was also supported in previous versions of .Net Framework. This posting introduces ReadLines() and WriteAllLines() methods and gives you some ideas how to use these methods in your applications.

Also the new .Net Framework 4.0 Beta 2 has new IsNullOrWhiteSpace() method for strings generalizes IsNullOrEmpty() method to incluse also other white space besides empty string. In this posting I will show you simple example that illustrates how to use IsNullOrWhiteSpace() method.

.Net Framework 4.0 Beta 2 introduces new class in System.Numerics namespace: Complex. Complex represents complex numbers and enables different arithmetic operations with complex numbers. In this posting I will show you how to use complex numbers in .Net Framework 4.0 applications.

Complex class has two constructors – one of them has no arguments and the other takes real and complex parts of complex number. Complex numbers have also properties for phase and magnitude. Let’s see the following code.

Here is a more complete list:
* Complex Number
* Location
* IObservable
* Stream.CopyTo
* Guid.TryParse, Version.TryParse, and Enum.TryParse
* Enum.HasFlag
* String.Concat and String.Join overloads that take IEnumerable
* String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace
* Environment.SpecialFolder additions
* Environment.Is64BitProcess and Environment.Is64BitOperatingSystem
* Path.Combine params support
* TimeSpan Globalized Formatting and Parsing
* Stopwatch.Restart
* StringBuilder.Clear
* IntPtr and UIntPtr Addition and Subtraction operators
* ServiceProcessInstaller.DelayedAutoStart
* ObservableCollection moved to System.dll

To read more, follow the links here and here.

To read about “Data Binding in ASP.NET AJAX 4.0” click here.