June 2010

June 2010 issue  

Cloud Diagnostics: Take Control of Logging and Tracing in Microsoft Azure
It’s difficult to troubleshoot any application without a trail of clues to follow, and cloud apps are no different. We look at how logging and tracing are enabled for Azure, and how you can use Windows PowerShell to manage diagnostics for a running service.
Mike Kelly

Input Validation: Enforcing Complex Business Data Rules with WPF
Windows Presentation Foundation has a rich data binding system that includes flexible support for business data validation. We take a look at implementing some complex data input validation scenarios that include customized data errors for users.
Brian Noyes

Express Yourself: Encoding Videos Using Microsoft Expression Encoder 3 SDK
Video on the Web involves huge amounts of data. Learn the best way to manage and move that data with the help of Microsoft Expression Encoder 3.
Adam Miller

Silverlight Online: Silverlight in an Occasionally Connected World
We discuss the latest incarnation of occasionally connected Silverlight applications, which come with a highly interactive user experience and can run either inside or outside of a browser.
Mark Bloodworth

SOA Tips: Address Scalability Bottlenecks with Distributed Caching
SOA makes application scalability easier, but getting the best performance out of your SOA means paying close attention to the details. We’ll give you some tips for coding your app more effectively and using distributed caching to remove data access bottlenecks.
Iqbal Khan

Microsoft Azure Cache: Real-world Usage and Integration
Windows Server AppFabric provides a distributed cache for both web and desktop applications. Well show you how to integrate Azure caching into your apps, along with some hints for taking advantage of new cache features in the .NET Framework 4.
Andrea Colaci

Thread Performance: Resource Contention Concurrency Profiling in Visual Studio 2010
Visual Studio 2010 includes new resource contention profiling features that help detect concurrency contention among threads. We walk through a profiling investigation to demonstrate how you can pinpoint and fix resource contention problems in your code.
Maxim Goldin

Practical OData: Building Rich Internet Apps with the Open Data Protocol
See how you can build Rich Internet Applications that take advantage of the OData protocol to creatively interact with Silverlight, PowerPivot, SQL Server, SharePoint, Azure, “Dallas” and more.
Shayne Burgess

Columns

Editor's Note:
We're All Ears
Help us help you, by sending your feedback on various topics.
Keith Ward

Don't Get Me Started:
Chainsaw Development
It’s time to standardize the UI for Windows Presentation Foundation.
David Platt

The Working Programmer:
Going NoSQL with MongoDB, Part 2
Ted Neward continues his dissection of the alternative MongoDB database system, using exploration testing to investigate the underlying technology.
Ted Neward

UI Frontiers:
The Ins and Outs of ItemsControl
Charles Petzold performs more UI magic by implementing a variation of the drag-and-drop that presents users with a natural, fluid look and feel.
Charles Petzold

Cutting Edge:
C# 4.0, the Dynamic Keyword and COM
Are you a Microsoft .NET Framework programmer who struggles with critical legacy applications using COM objects that are beyond your control? Dino Esposito shows how to lessen the burden by going dynamic.
Dino Esposito

CLR Inside Out:
F# Fundamentals
F# is a new, functional and object-oriented programming language for the Microsoft .NET Framework. To help you get started using it, we take a look at some of the core concepts in the F# language and its implementation on top of the CLR.
Luke Hoban

Test Run:
Generating Graphs with WPF
A common software-development task is generating a graph from a set of test-related data. But if you're doing it by hand and the underlying data changes frequently, this particular task can become quite tedious. James McCaffrey shows you how to automate the process using Windows Presentation Foundation technology.
James McCaffrey

Basic Instincts:
Multi-Targeting Visual Basic Applications in Visual Studio 2010
Visual Studio 2010 lets you create applications that target versions of the Microsoft .NET Framework from 2.0 to 4, and each step in between. We take a look at how multi-targeting works in Visual Studio today, and explain how you should approach multi-targeting in your projects.
Spotty Bowles