The Microsoft journal for developers	December 2013 VOL 28 NO 12

Entity Framework 6: The Ninja Edition
Entity Framework 6 is no longer part of the .NET Framework—and it’s open source, Find out what else is new as Julie Lerman takes you for a tour. Julie Lerman explores Entity Framework 6.0, which introduces key new features of Microsoft object relational mapping solution.

Julie Lerman

Windows Azure Insider: Meet the Demands of Modern Gaming with Windows Azure
Learn how Windows Azure can help with the common tasks related to building a gaming backend—leaving you to concentrate on developing your game.
Bruno Terkaly
Ricardo Villalobos

Features

ASP.NET Web API:   CORS Support in ASP.NET Web API 2
The long-requested support for cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) is now built into ASP.NET Web API 2. Brock Allen, the original developer of the CORS framework, shows how to configure policy to allow JavaScript clients to access APIs from a different origin.
Brock Allen

Visual Studio 2013:   Cross-Browser, Coded UI Testing with Visual Studio 2013
Learn how new testing features in Visual Studio 2013 let you not only test your UI against all modern browsers, but also search for specific UI elements. In the past few years web based applications become most wanted solutions in the IT market. New approach for modern web based solutions required modern techniques for testing it in fully automated way. Visual Studio 2013 meets market needs by offering end-to-end framework to make UI test automations in kind and understandable way.
Damian Zapart

Model Based Testing:   An Introduction to Model-Based Testing and Spec Explorer
Learn the advantages of model-based testing when formal, systematic testing is warranted, and how Spec Explorer, together with Visual Studio, eases the process.
Sergio Mera
Yiming Cao

Windows Store Apps:   Freedom of Information Act Data at Your Fingertips
Vishwas Lele walks through the building of a custom Windows Store app to help citizens work with data requested through the Freedom of Information Act.
Vishwas Lele

Windows 8.1:   Rendering PDF Content in Windows Store Apps
Learn the new ways Windows 8.1 provides to render PDF documents in Windows Store apps, with options for using Windows Runtime or native APIs.
Sridhar Poduri

Columns

Test Run
Radial Basis Function Network Training
Following on his previous column in which he explained the details of RBF networks, James McCaffrey now provides practical guidance on implementing RBF network training.
James McCaffrey

The Working Programmer
Getting Started with Oak: A Different Approach
Ted Neward explores developing an application in the Oak Web framework, which provides a dynamic environment similar to Ruby on Rails that’s well-suited for rapid application development.
Ted Neward

Modern Apps
Everything You Need to Know About the WinJS ListView Control
Get up to speed with the primary data display control in Windows Store apps built with JavaScript, including some new features in Windows 8.1.
Rachel Appel

DirectX Factor
Character Outline Geometries Gone Wild
Manipulating character outlines lets you create weird and wonderful text effects. Charles Petzold shows you how to obtain character outline geometries in a Windows 8 application.
Charles Petzold

Don't Get Me Started
Original Sin?
Computer pioneer Grace Hopper worked on the legendary Harvard Mk 1 computer to help design the first atom bomb. It was an epic achievement, and perhaps our industries first and greatest sin.
David Platt

Editor's Note
In Praise of Entity Framework 6
Julie Lerman's feature on Entity Framework 6 reveals that developers have a lot to be excited about with the latest version of Microsoft's object-relational mapping framework.
Michael Desmond