January 2010

  • Article
January 2010 issue image  

Cloud Patterns: Designing and Deploying Services for Microsoft Azure
To better understand how SOA patterns can be applied to Azure deployments, we walk you through a scenario in which a bank moves its services to the cloud.
Thomas Erl; Arman Kurtagic; Herbjörn Wilhelmsen

Cloud Storage: Fueling Your Application's Engine with Microsoft Azure Storage
Yes, you can run background processes in the cloud. Kevin Hoffman and Nate Dudek use a shopping cart example to demonstrate how to build an application engine as well as implement asynchronous messaging and processing using Azure Storage.
Kevin Hoffman and Nathan Dudek

Cloud Security: Crypto Services and Data Security in Microsoft Azure
Many early adopters cloud platforms have questions about security. We review some of the cryptography services and providers in Azure along with some security implications for applications in the cloud.
Jonathan Wiggs

Code Cleanup: 9 Useful Tactics for Paying Back Technical Debt
Now that you’ve identified technical debt in your code base, let’s turn our attention to some specific tactics that will help you pay back that debt.
David Laribee

Columns

Editor's Note:
Two Guys in the Cloud
Microsoft made a big Azure splash at its Professional Developer's Conference last fall. An overheard conversation gives insight on how developers see the potential of the cloud.
Keith Ward

Toolbox:
UI Mockups, User Experience Tips, JavaScript Checker and More
Scott Mitchell reviews a user interface mockup tool, a blog for user experience tips, a JavaScript code checker and a book that expertly explains the ins and outs SQL Server Reporting Services.
Scott Mitchell

The Polyglot Programmer:
ACID Transactions with STM.NET
STM.NET allows developers to mark their code with ACID-style transactional semantics, and leaves the grunt work of managing locks to the underlying environment.
Ted Neward

Cutting Edge:
Master-Detail Views with the ASP.NET Ajax Library
When you think of data-driven Web pages, most of the time what you really have in mind is a master-detail view of some cross-related data. Dino builds an example with ASP.NET AJAX 4 and jQuery.
Dino Esposito

Test Run:
Web Application HTTP Request-Response Test Automation with JavaScript
Write a simple browser-based request-response test automation using JavaScript that’s platform independent and useful when you are working in a highly dynamic environment.
James McCaffrey

Extreme ASP.NET:
Text Template Transformation Toolkit and ASP.NET MVC
The Visual Studio T4 code generation engine lets you parse an input file and transform it into an output file. We give you a basic introduction to T4 templates and show you how ASP.NET MVC uses this technology.
Scott Allen

Patterns in Practice :
Internal Domain Specific Languages
Jeremy Miller explains how internal Domain Specific Languages can help you craft code that is easier to read and write. His bag of tricks to improve your programming includes extension methods, fluent interfaces, object extensions and use of the semantic model.
Jeremy Miller

Foundations:
Discover a New WCF with Discovery
Juval Lowy explains how the industry-standard discovery solution enables clients to discover available addresses for WCF calls at runtime, and he provides tools and helper classes to simplify the process.
Juval Lowy

Extreme UI:
Line Charts with Data Templates
Charles Petzold continues his investigation into robust XAML coding made possible by Windows Presentation Foundation, this time tackling the complicated process of creating line charts.
Charles Petzold