June, 2011

I love Task<T>.  It has to be one of the finest innovations in the framework in the past few years.  Recently I was reviewing some old WCF documentation How to: Implement an Asynchronous Service Operation which was probably written in 2006 and I have to say that we can do a much better job of it with Task<T> so here goes my rewrite. Download Sample Code How to: Implement and Consume a WCF Asynchronous Service Operation with Task<T> Implement a service operation asynchronously...

In my previous posts I’ve been arguing that you can implement Task Parallelism with Windows Workflow Foundation (WF4).  Windows Workflow Foundation (WF4) Activities and Threads The Workflow Parallel Activity and Task Parallelism Windows Workflow (WF4) Task Parallelism with Sequences One of the most common scenarios for Task Parallelism is when you have a Task that you must perform for each element of a collection. Suppose you have a collection of names, and you want to write each name to the...

In my last post The Workflow Parallel Activity and Task Parallelism I said that you can implement Task Parallelism with Windows Workflow Foundation.  In this post I want to explore some of the differences between the Parallel Activity in System.Workflow.Activities (WF3) and the Parallel Activity in System.Activities.Statements (WF4). Windows Workflow Foundation 3 (WF3) Parallel Activity One of the big changes between System.Workflow (WF3) and System.Activities (WF4) involves how a Parallel with...

“ Task parallelism (also known as function parallelism and control parallelism ) is a form of parallelization of computer code across multiple processors in parallel computing environments. Task parallelism focuses on distributing execution processes (threads) across different parallel computing nodes. It contrasts to data parallelism as another form of parallelism.” – Wikipedia – Task Parallelism Can you achieve Task Parallelism with Windows Workflow Foundation? Yes… yes you can.  I know, in...

The term REST originated with Roy Thomas Fielding in his paper on Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures . In this paper he described a way to leverage the basic principles behind the web and apply those to business applications. He argues that the World Wide Web is in fact one of the largest applications used by millions of people every day and one that, despite frequent predictions to the opposite, has managed to scale very well. If the web as we know it is...

Support for DAC will make import export very easy for our customers. Every conversation I have with customers topic of import/export, backup and disaster recovery always comes up. This is great next step in our feature set in the space. Database Import and Export for SQL Azure SQL Azure database users have a simpler way to archive SQL Azure and SQL Server databases, or to migrate on-premises SQL Server databases to SQL Azure. Import and export services through the Data-tier Application (DAC) framework...

One of my resolutions for this year was to run a marathon. Yesterday I finished my half marathon below are stats and Photos.  Please Donate : http://pages.teamintraining.org/wa/rnrseatl11/shasbe Photos : http://flic.kr/s/aHsjv6iaAg   Seattle RnR Marathon , a set on Flickr. Photos from my Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon Run. It was amazing experience to go through. Blog Post by: Sudhirh

Most of the time in software when we say “Parallel” we mean that multiple threads are being used to do work concurrently.  Because of this, many customers ask if the Parallel activity works this way in Windows Workflow Foundation.  I know there is a great deal of confusion about activities and threads and in the next few posts I hope to bring some clarity. Activity Lifecycle Phase 1: Scheduling Activities are scheduled by a parent activity (or the Workflow Runtime if they are the root activity...

With Windows Workflow Foundation (WF4) you can author activities in Code or XAML.  Each has advantages and disadvantages Visibility Advantage – XAML You can author them in the Workflow Designer.  Here is a activity I’ve been working with today.  You can easily see what this activity does by looking at it in the designer. Code Activities It’s not as though code is inscrutable.  You can look at it and read this but it isn’t quite as easy.  Not to mention that you have to learn...

Recently I was contacted by a customer who had read my posts on Versioning and was investigating some interesting behavior of activity designers (more on this in a future post).  But this discussion got me to thinking.  As I pointed out in my WF4 Activity Versioning Solution , with compiled workflows the XamlStaticHelper class loads assemblies into the app domain for you but what happens when you are using loose XAML with ActivityXamlServices.Load instead? Download Windows Workflow Foundation...

I recently did a few blog posts showing the basics of how to get started with the WCF Web API but before I continue I think it is best to start with the why instead of how . A lot of people will be familiar with writing SOAP style services but not everyone is quite as familiar with the REST approach so I guess that takes a bit of explanation.   This subject is a bit long for a single blog post so I am going to do a number explaining what REST is, the difference with SOAP and how to build these...

WCF might use the WS-* SOAP standard for communications but the WS-* specs leave vendors with a lot op maneuvering room when it comes to how to exactly implement things. As a result doing interoperable work between WCF and, for example, an IBM WebSphere server can be quite tricky to setup. Something I have experienced all to often   Fortunately Microsoft has now released the WCF Express Interop Bindings that should make live quite a bit easier. These binding are preconfigured for a number of...

Link: https://datamarket.azure.com/dataset/bfa417be-be79-4915-82c7-efae9ced5cb7 Type: Paid Sanborn Building Model Products are an essential ingredient to virtual city implementations . Combining a strong visual appearance with a standards-compliant relational objects database, Sanborn Building Model offers building and geospatial feature accuracy for the most demanding of users . Data contains the information necessary to construct a digital city with hyper-local central business district building...

Link: https://datamarket.azure.com/dataset/101eb297-c17f-4f22-a844-16ca2e52252d Type: Free The LexisNexis Legal Communities provide access to the largest collection of Legal Blogs written by leading legal professionals, more than 1,600 Legal Podcasts featuring legal luminaries, information about Top Cases and Emerging Issues. The communities enable you to keep current with the latest Legal News, Issues and Trends. Practice areas covered include: Bankruptcy, Copyright & Trademark Law, Emerging...

Link : https://datamarket.azure.com/dataset/6bd3a6b3-2fe0-4609-ba11-959190000047 Type : Free There are over 40 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in China. This business segment plays a crucial role in the unprecedented development and growth of the Chinese economy. SME represents 99% of businesses in China, 60% of the economy and accounts for 75% of the employment. Chanjet provides SME operation and management KPI data based on its nationwide survey conducted among SMEs from multiple...

AppFabric Service Bus is one of the most important services in Windows Azure. Saravana Kumar, MVP has written 2 blog posts explaining how to use Service bus in Silverlight applications. These post are really detailed. Part 1: http://blogs.digitaldeposit.net/saravana/post/2011/06/17/Azure-AppFabric-Service-bus-Silverlight-Integration-End-to-End-(walkthrough)-Part-1.aspx Part 2: http://blogs.digitaldeposit.net/saravana/post/2011/06/17/Azure-AppFabric-Service-bus-Silverlight-Integration-End-to-End-...

For a while I have wanted to try out Data Sync Service. Today I finally got to it. Sql Azure Data Sync service enables you to sync data between SQL Azure and SQL Azure databases or SQL Azure and SQL Server databases. The video by Liam Cavanagh was super helpful. Blog Post by: Sudhirh

This morning I saw a message post on the .NET 4 Windows Workflow Foundation Forum titled Load XAMLX from database .  I’ve been asked this question many times. How can I store my Workflow Service definitions (xamlx files) in a database with IIS and AppFabric? Today I decided to create a sample to answer this question.  Lately I’ve been picking up ASP.NET MVC 3 so my sample code is written with it and EntityFramework 4.1 using a code first approach with SQL Server Compact Edition 4. Download...

In deze podcast spreek ik met Alex Thissen over het beveiligen van applicaties. Ze bespreken veel voorkomende kwetsbaarheden en wat je kan doen om je hier tegen te verdedigen. Ook hebben ze het over federated security en Windows Identity Foundation en wat dit voor de toekomst gaat betekenen.   http://www.dotned.nl/PodCasts.aspx?id=10   PS: Dutch language only   www.TheProblemSolver.nl www.dotnetevents.nl Blog Post by: Maurice

Since Azure requires a heighten level of security, certificates became a key concept. As I was looking into it, I found the management a bit confusing and have seen similar questions popping up in the forums. Hence, the content below … More » Blog Post by: Jaime Alva Bravo