Twin Cities Code Camp - Fall 2006 Sessions
The Mobile Client Software Factory
Session details coming...
Speaker
Kenny Goers
Improving your Forms with WPF
Content
We'll briefly introduce the components of .Net 3.0 and then we will dig into WPF,
Xaml and the tools available to build a new generation of user interfaces.
Speaker
Chris Sutton is a consultant and technical instructor in Eastern Iowa. He enjoys
speaking for user groups and developing the .Net community. He has been developing
web and smart client applications for the last 6 years with the last four being
in .Net and works for New Horizons of Cedar Rapids.
Links
SharePoint as a Development Platform
Content
Looking at whether you should use SharePoint? Already decided to but now you have
to code for it? This presentation will help you get off to a great start. SharePoint
is a lot bigger than documents and lists and this presentation will be an introduction
to developing against it. We'll cover the object model by creating a web part, using
the web services from a Windows form app and how to use RPC to perform actions that
the web services don.t support. We'll also discuss how to take advantage of the
relationship between SharePoint and ASP.net.
Speaker
Neil is a developer for Inetium and frequent speaker at the Minnesota SharePoint
User Group.
Links
Managing Memory in a Managed World
Content
Managed memory is a wonderful thing. No longer having to worry about deleting pointers,
leaking memory, having enough space available, it is all taken care of for you by
the Garbage Collector. But what happens when a large amount of your data is large
enough that it needs to go into the large object heap. How do you make sure that
you are not fragmenting it so much that the next request to get data has space?
How do you make sure that these large pieces of data are not mapped into the address
space all the time, taking up valuable space in the 2GB limit?
This presentation will focus on some specific functionality that Thomson-West implemented
to handle large legal documents (MB of XML), that can be slow to retrieve via soap
in a manner that kept them out of the large object heap. Discussion will center
on implementing a soap extension that generically parses a soap response to pull
out the large strings, pushing them to the Virtual Heap, instead of placing them
on the large object heap.
Speaker
Chad Yost has been developing in the windows environment since 1989. Initially in
C/C++, he now spends most of his time designing and developing code in .NET. He
currently is part of a team that is developing standards and class libraries that
will be used across products within Thomson-West.
Links
Foundations of Ajax
Seemingly overnight, Ajax has gone from an obscure acronym to, well, having conferences
devoted to it. People are often surprised when they learn that Ajax isn't really
anything new - so if it's yesterday's technology, why all the hype? This talk will
examine the course of events that led up to the current love affair with richer
client applications. We'll talk examine the technologies that power an Ajax application
and discuss how to work with them - and then we'll examine a number of frameworks
that will do much of the heavy lifting for us!
Once we understand the techniques of Ajax, we'll touch on where (and where not)
it's appropriate for your application finishing off with some common gotchas.
Speaker
Nathaniel T. Schutta is a senior software engineer in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota
with extensive experience developing Java Enterprise Edition–based Web applications.
He graduated from St. John’s University (MN) with a degree in Computer Science and
has a master’s of science degree in software engineering from the University of
Minnesota. For the last several years, he has focused on user interface design.
A long-time member of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Computer-Human Interaction
Special Interest Group, Nathaniel believes that if the user can’t figure out your
application, then you’ve done something wrong. Along with his user interface work,
Nathaniel is the cocreator of the open-source Taconite framework, has contributed
to two corporate Java frameworks, has developed training material, and has led several
study groups. During the brief moments of warm weather found in his home state of
Minnesota, he spends as much time on the golf course as his wife will tolerate.
He’s currently exploring Ruby, Rails, and (after recently making the switch) Mac
OS X. Nathaniel is the coauthor of the bestselling book, Foundations of Ajax.
Links
REST and its Discontents
Representational State Transfer or REST has gained a lot of mind share as an alternative
to SOAP-based web services. REST describes a resource-based architecture that mirrors
the web. "It's just XML over HTTP" is a common refrain. But as you did deeper, REST
becomes more complicated. Debates about the "right" and "wrong" ways to do REST
get hot and heavy fast. What are the advantages and disadvantages of REST? Who's
doing REST right and who's doing it wrong? We'll cut through the chaff, and show
you how you can use REST in your web services.
Speaker
Luke Francl is a senior software developer at Ancept, where he works on the Ancept
Media Server (AMS) enterprise digital asset management system. He recently led the
implementation of a REST API for AMS. Luke is also involved in the Ruby Users of
Minnesota and is an avid Ruby on Rails programmer, and developed the Central Standard
Tech blog aggregator/events calendar.
Links
SQL Server Integration Services - Performance Tips and Tricks
High Performance SSIS data transformations are within your reach if you have the
right know-how to do the job. In this presentation we will discuss how to best use
SSIS to create high performance ETL processes. Documentation on SSIS performance
considerations is not easy to come by, so in this presentation we will go through
the major issues that you need to be aware of and plan for when high performance
is a must. We will look at the actual performance differences using varying SSIS
data transformations and other SSIS settings. You will come away with numerous techniques
which will allow you to implement fast high volume data transformations.
Speaker
David Baldauff is a consultant with Digineer, a Microsoft Gold Certified and Managed
Partner consulting firm in the Twin Cities. David specializes in data architecture,
data-driven application development and database design and deployment. Since the
release of SQL Server 2005 David has worked on several SQL Server 2005 deployments
- in each case utilizing SSIS as the key tool for ETLs. David has over 13 years
experience in the industry.
Links
Introduction to Programming with the VSTS SDK
This session will cover the Visual Studio SDK as it relates to Visual Studio Team
System. The API model and it’s use for Version Control, Work Items, and Security
structures will be of special focus. In addition, developing a custom control for
use in work item forms will be demonstrated.
Speaker
Michael Ruminer
Links
Web Parts Design for SharePoint: The Difference Between 2003 and 2007 HOL
Have you been tasked with SharePoint Web Part Development and don't know where to
start? Come to this session and explore the basics of web parts and of developing
a web part in SharePoint 2003. We will then take a brief look at the 2007 development
process. You will then have an opportunity to work through a hands on lab to create
various 2003 or 2007 web parts.
Speaker
Jim Ferguson's knowledge spans the gap between End-user, IT Professional and Developer.
The list of certifications after his name definitely says something: MOUS Master,
Master CIW, A+, Network+, i-Net+, Server+, MCP, MCAD, MCSD, MCSE, MCDBA, MCT, CIW
CI and E-Trainer. Jim's been a technology instructor since 1998 but also continues
to get real-world experience working on design, migration and implementation projects.
Links
SQL Server 2005 and Async Calls
Content
We will take a look at four asynchronous execution models using the ADO.Net SqlCommand's
Begin_ and End_ ExecuteReader methods available in .Net 2005. The samples will cover
Polling, WaitAll, WaitAny, and Callback methods. Attendees will also have an opportunity
to write a simple web application using one of the Wait methods.
Speaker
As the senior developer instructor at New Horizons of Minnesota, Ron Hovland is
the go-to person for our staff as well as other instructors. In essence, he teaches
the teachers. And, if he doesn't know the answer, he always knows exactly where
to find it. Ron's BA and graduate work in education, as well as extensive experience
with development work, make him an excellent resource for our staff and for our
students. Ron also develops custom courseware for us and helps clients and colleagues
troubleshoot a variety of software applications. In 2005, he obtained his ITIL Managers
certification and now teaches ITIL courses.
Links
Model View Presenter Design and Implementation Within the .NET Framework 2.0
This presentation will discuss several facets of the Model View Presenter architecture
including the following.
- Where it came from
- What is it?
- Why use it? What's the value of this approach?
- "Blind Databinding" how to use databinding when the view knows nothing about the
model
- Implementation
I will demonstrate how to implement a Model View Presenter based application using
the Microsoft.NET 2.0 framework. In this demonstration I will show the value of
separating the user interface code into what is known within the MVP as a Presenter.
I will also demonstrate how you can utilize this approach to automate user interface
testing with NUnit. Finally I will provide a short discussion on where this architecture
is heading with the new "Supervising Controller" and "Passive View".
Speaker
Chase Thomas is a Consultant with Digineer, a software consulting firm based in
the Twin Cities. Chase specializes in enterprise application architecture design
and implementation. Chase has worked in all areas of Software Development ranging
from Chief Architect to Test Engineer. He has worked with the Microsoft Technology
Adoption Program for Commerce Server 2006, Cargill, Meteorlogix, Department 56,
Andersen Corporation, C.H. Robinson Worldwide, and others.
Links
Building Reusable Business Processes with BizTalk Server
Learn how BizTalk Server can be used to build reusable business processes. This
presentation will cover reuse techniques using the Messaging Engine, Maps, Orchestration
capabilities and the BizTalk Rules Engine.
Speaker
Andy Morrison is an Enterprise Consultant with Digineer, a technology and management
consulting firm. Andy specializes in BizTalk Server, co-founded the Twin Cities
BizTalk User Group and is a member of the Microsoft BizTalk Virtual Technical Specialist
Team.
Links
Quick and Dirty Functional Testing with Selenium
Unit tests are passing but testers complain that the latest build is "completely
broken?" Tried implementing functional tests but you've gotten bitten by complicated,
difficult to maintain test sets? Can't convince developers to implement smoke tests?
Selenium might be for you. Selenium is a client side testing tool for web applications
that is distinguished by its approachability and ease-of-use. It supports major
browses on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Setting up and running tests is easy, and
you can see in the browser where the test is failing.
Speaker
Steve Peterson is a senior software engineer with Acorn Bay Software. He has been
developing large scale Java enterprise applications since 1999. Steve works as an
architect, team lead, and agile methodology coach. He has worked with GE, Express
Scripts, Lifetouch, Adobe/Macromedia, SoftBrands, among others.
Links
Building Applications with CSLA .NET
CSLA .NET is one of the world's most widely used .NET development frameworks. The
focus of CSLA .NET is to enable the creation of a feature-rich, reusable, object-oriented
business layer. See how having such a business layer improves productivity, allowing
the rapid development of an n-tier application with Windows, Web and Web Service
interfaces.
Speaker
Rockford Lhotka is the author of several books, including the Expert VB 2005 Business
Objects and Expert C# 2005 Business Objects books and related CSLA .NET framework.
He is a Microsoft Regional Director, MVP and INETA speaker. Rockford is the Principal
Technology Evangelist for Magenic Technologies, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
Links
ASP.NET 2.0 Configuration Files
Content
Review the changes to configuration files in ASP.NET 2.0, including new settings
that allow a website to be taken offline and automatically disable features that
are not intended for production servers. Apply new protection techniques to secure
connection strings, keys, and other values in the configuration files. See how to
use external configuration files which can be edited without restarting the web
site. View new options for editing configuration files for administrators and via
code.
Utilizing .NET Cryptography
Content
Learn how to leverage the .NET framework's cryptography classes. Discover practical
uses for hashing, digital signatures, and symmetric/asymmetric encryption. Review
an application of hashing to secure querystring parameters and using asymmetric
encryption to protect information collected on public web servers. With increasing
emphasis on security compliance it is critical to understand the basics of cryptography
and know how it can be applied.
Speaker
Robert Boedigheimer works for The Schwan Food Company providing business solutions
with web technologies. Robert has been designing and developing web sites for the
past 10 years including the early days of ASP and ASP.NET. He was the lead architect,
designer, and developer for the schwans.com rewrite with ASP.NET, and recently implemented
a large ASP.NET 2.0 project. He is a columnist for aspalliance.com, an "Early Achiever"
MCSD for .NET with C#, an MCPD: Web with C#, and a 2nd degree black belt in Tae
Kwon Do. Robert has spoken at industry conferences including the Heartland Developers
Conference, Microsoft's Visual DevCon 2005, and several other national and international
events.
Links
Creating High Performance/High Impact Windows Forms Using Custom Controls In .NET
2.0
Learn how to develop feature rich and visually stunning custom user controls that
can really make your Windows Forms applications shine. Utilize System.Drawing, new
features with Windows Forms in .NET 2.0 and Generics to create these controls.
XboxFriends... Under The Covers
What do you get when you mix Windows Forms, Web Services, ASP.NET, SQL, XML, Obfuscation,
Email, Blogging, a Nabaztag and an Xbox Live account together? Let's have a candid
discussion regarding these technologies, how they fit together, the frustrations
encountered and the solutions discovered while developing XboxFriends.
Speaker
Cory Smith is the founder of XboxFriends.com, maintains a .NET related blog at AddressOf.com
and is very active in the .NET community. His community involvement includes: Vice
President of the Fort Worth .NET Users Group, VBInsider Member, Microsoft MVP, and
member of the South Central District Developer Guidance Council. A veteran developer
(professionally writing software for over 15 years) working on projects ranging
anywhere from major e-commerce sites such as RadioShack.com and InterstateBatteries.com
to applications that are at the heart and soul of over 4600 radio stations around
the world. His work history includes working for Tandy/RadioShack, Rare Medium,
Inc., Electric Works Corp., Scott Studios Corp. and Shiny Stone Digital.
Links
Object/Relational Mapping with Hibernate
Content
Hibernate has become one of the most popular Java persistence frameworks due to
its ease of use, performance, and ability to transparently bridge the object/relational
gap. It allows you to develop rich, fine-grained domain models that leverage the
standard object-oriented idioms of inheritance, polymorphism, association, and composition
without the challenges associated with handling the low-level persistence details.
This session will explore the framework's core features by providing examples of
how to effectively implement Hibernate in your applications.
Speaker
Bob McCune is a Java architect, mentor, and trainer with a particular interest in
open source tools and lightweight architectures and methodologies.
Links
Implementing an Automated Build and Continuous Integration Process for .NET Development
Projects
Adopting a "continuous integration" process which automates builds, unit testing,
code documentation generation, and source code analysis can dramatically improve
your .NET project team’s efficiency at delivering high quality software solutions.
This session will explain what continuous integration is and will demonstrate one
approach for implementing the process. Several software utilities will be discussed
including MSBuild, NAnt, NUnit, FxCop, and CruiseControl.NET.
Speaker
Mike Jones is a Principal Consultant at RBA Consulting in Wayzata. Mike is responsible
for providing technical leadership and architectural guidance for custom .NET business
applications within RBA's Microsoft Practice. He is an accomplished Technical Architect
specializing in Microsoft technologies who has gained his experience through hands-on
software development consulting. Mike specializes in building custom .NET applications
and mobile solutions. He currently holds his MCSD.NET certification.
Developing Speech Enabled Applications with .NET
The topic will cover the basics of creating and understanding speech-enabled applications
in .NET, including explanations, demo and code review of each technology. We will
cover development of telephony and multimodal applications using SASDK (Speech Application
Software Development Kit) and how it works with Microsoft Speech Server 2004. We
will also cover the development of window applications using the .NET Framework
3.0 - WPF - System.Speech namespace.
Speaker
Michael Dunn is a Consultant for Magenic Technologies; a Minneapolis based consulting
firm specializing in Microsoft Technologies. He currently holds his MCSD and MCITP.
Links
JRuby: Ruby on the JVM
Content
The Ruby language has turned the corner and started to explode into mainstream development.
There are now over seven implementations of Ruby for all the major VMs and several
other platforms. JRuby is a 100% Java implementation of Ruby targetting the JVM,
designed to enable Java developers to use Ruby as a first-class language and also
to enable Ruby developers a powerful drop-in replacement for the standard C-based
interpreter. JRuby has made great progress toward matching Ruby in compatibility
and performance, and already can run popular applications like Rails. This session
will give an introduction to JRuby, JRuby on Rails, and what the future holds for
Ruby on the JVM.
Speakers
Charles Nutter has been a Java developer for the past decade and has also developed
using C/C++, Win32, and .NET. Most recently, however, Ruby has stolen his heart,
and he has spent the past two years helping the JRuby project achieve its performance
and compatibility goals. He joined Sun Microsystems in September 2006 and has since
worked fulltime on JRuby and other alternative language initiatives at the company.
Charles believes that all true developers will always want and need multiple languages,
and that language diversity is now a requirement for all VMs.
Links
Generics Support in .NET 2.0
Content
Generics should be an integral part of every programmers toolbox. This presenation
will explain generics in detail. Show concrete examples of how to implement your
own generic classes. These are real world examples that have greatly enhanced programming
productivity.
Speaker
Doug Nelson is a principal consultant with ILM. He provides expert application development
services for several large clients with a primary focus in the forest products industry
and industrial health and safety. These applications developed are based on a SQL
Server backend database with a web based front-end. He has been doing web development
since 1996, transitioning from CGI applications to classic ASP and on to ASP.NET.
In addition to the web development, these applications also support WinForms and
Pocket PCs. He has extensive experience implementing truly distributed applications
involving windows services and message queuing.
Links
Securing Web Services in WCF
Content
You're a developer, you love security, right? No one can read your XML messages
or tamper with their contents, right? Ok, I know many developers hate security because
it's "hard" and it "gets in the way" of getting their already late projects done
on time. Security is here to stay whether you like it or not! The good news for
web service developers is that the WCF team has put a great deal of work baking
security into the framework so you don't have to be a security expert to "get security
right". This talk will demonstrate techniques in WCF that all of us overworked and
underpaid developers can use to spend less time securing and more time building
the web service.
Speaker
Jeff Knutson is a Senior Consultant for Magenic Technologies in Minneapolis, MN.
Jeff's primary job interests include web services and security. He has over 12 years
experience with various Microsoft development technologies and holds numerous certifications
including the MCSD.NET.
Links
The State of Languages on the CLR
It's true that most .NET developers use either C# and/or VB. However, other languages
have been targeted for the CLR, such as Python, Ruby, F#, Eiffel, and others. This
session will cover how these languages work when they're running in the .NET world.
Speaker
Jason Bock is a Senior Consultant for Magenic Technologies. He has worked on a number
of business applications using a diverse set of substrates and languages such as
C#, .NET, and Java. He is the author of "Applied .NET Attributes", "CIL Programming:
Under the Hood of .NET", ".NET Security", and "Visual Basic 6 Win32 API Tutorial".
He has written numerous articles on software development issues and has presented
at a number of conferences and user groups. Jason holds a Master's degree in Electrical
Engineering from Marquette University.
Links
Build Innovative Applications Using Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web services is releasing one great service after another. From Amazon S3
(rent-a-harddisk), Amazon EC2 (rent-a processor) to Amazon Mechanical Turk ("reverse"
webservice) services. See how you can code along and build innovative applications
around this highly reliable web services that are built on massive and robust amazon.com
infrastructure over these years. Lets see how can developers take advantage of it.
Speaker
Jinesh Varia loves his job and anything and everything that sounds geeky. Jinesh
recently joined Amazon web services, prior to that he was working at UBMatrix, XBRL/XML
firm based in Kirkland.
Links
Integrating Ruby on Rails and .NET
Content
The new kid on the block of web platforms is Ruby on Rails. We’ve heard about it,
dabbled in it, and might have considered using it in some our solutions… but one
of the hesitations comes from integration. How will it work with existing data?
How will it work with existing .NET applications and libraries? The answers are
out there ... and this discussion will lead you to examples on how you can do integration
(both ways) between Ruby on Rails and .Net. You’ll see how you can easily invoke
/ publish web services, databases, and libraries between the two. Come check out
what all the hype is about and expand your toolbox to help provide better solutions
to your problems.
Speaker
Jacob Good is a Ruby on Rails developer for Space150 and has been consulting / developing
software in the Twin Cities for nearly 3 years. His development experience has been
primarily focused on smart client development and mobile development. He dabbles
in all kinds of technologies from Ruby on Rails to bioinformatics packages in Perl
and of course .NET.
Links
How Does WCF and 3.0 Impact My Coding Techniques?
We have all begun using 2.0 technologies, but how does the roll out of 3.0 and WCF
effect what we're already working on? How does the coming of WAS server in Longhorn
affect the way we deploy n-tiered applications? Come to this session to find out!
Speaker
Scott Yokiel is a Microsoft consultant at RBA Consulting located in Wayzata, MN.
He has worked in Microsoft .NET technologies for the past 5 years and holds his
MCSD.NET.
Links