4/2/2006

VPR201: Building Better User Interfaces for Your Applications--Today and Tomorrow... FUNDAMENTALS TRACK (9:00AM - 4:00PM)
Add'l Fee $399
Markus Egger
Perhaps the greatest innovations in software development over the past two decades have been the advent of the graphical user interface and the rapid proliferation of such applications crafted with high-productivity tools. This full-day workshop will provide a  comprehensive look at what it takes from a design and technological perspective to build better, more functional, easier-to-use user interfaces for your applications. The day will begin with a technology-agnostic look at what makes a properly designed user interface work and also, what makes them not work. We’ll then apply these principles to the two major development paradigms in user interfaces today—Windows Forms and ASP.NET Web applications—and show you how to go beyond the basics to add some eye-popping capabilities that you just might not know about. But it doesn’t stop here! We’ll explore the vastly different user interface requirements necessitated by the smaller screen displays installed on a broad range of personal companion devices available today. We’ll finish off the day with a look at some near future technologies on the horizon like Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) which introduces a whole new application user interface model but allows developers to create substantially richer and more highly polished user experiences.

APR201: Data Access Techniques in ADO.NET 1.1 and 2.0 (9:00AM - 12:00PM)
Add'l Fee $199.00
Alex Homer
With ADO.NET 1.0, Microsoft completely redesigned their pre-.NET data access strategy to cope with the way the Internet works both today and into the future. ADO.NET is definitely not just a new version of ADO, but has been written from the ground up to handle distributed applications and the emergence of XML as a data transfer and persistence standard. In version 1.1 there are a few extra useful features, plus several bug fixes. In version 2.0, more extensive changes to the core objects provide new opportunities, but don’t change the fundamental principles. In this workshop, we’ll look at the basic techniques for working with ADO.NET in all the versions. You’ll learn how you use it to get data into your applications, and see how data can be updated by propagating the changes back to the database server.

APR203: Hands-on ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005: Bring Your Own Laptop (9:00AM - 4:00PM)
Add'l Fee $399
Paul Litwin

This workshop provides a jumpstart to using Visual Studio 2005 to create ASP.NET 2.0 Web sites. Using Visual Studio 2005, you’ll learn how to get started creating Web sites that take advantage of the new productivity-saving features of the product. Covered topics will include Master Pages, Sitemaps and the navigation controls, data enhancements including the DataSource, GridView, FormView, and DetailsView controls; security enhancements, including the multitude of new security controls; user profiles, and themes.

Note: You must come to this workshop carrying a laptop (with power cord and CD-ROM drive) that has the shipping version of Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Web Developer 2005 installed along with SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server Express 2005. We will not have time to debug installation issues so please have the above up and running.

SPR301: Query Tuning in SQL Server 2000 and 2005 (9:00AM - 4:00PM)
Add'l Fee $399
Itzik Ben-Gan
This full-day workshop covers tuning in SQL Server 2000 and 2005. It presents a methodology for database tuning in general, and then focuses on T-SQL and query tuning specifically. Among the topics that will be covered in this workshop: Factors Affecting Query Performance, Tuning Methodology, Indexes, Affect on Performance, Index Optimization Scale, Fragmentation, Index Enhancements, Indexed Views, Partitioned Tables and Indexes, Temporary Tables, Analyzing Query Performance, Tools to Analyze Query Performance, Query Writing, Optimizer Enhancements, New Optimization Techniques, Compilations and Plan Caching, Performance Aspects of Programmable Objects, Stored Procedures, Triggers, Views, User-Defined Functions, Concurrency, New Isolations, Row Versioning, Troubleshooting, Querying System Catalog, Profiler, and Lock Hints. As time permits, the workshop will also cover key querying techniques and their applications in solving common problems. You will be introduced with polished techniques to solve complex querying problems, and learn how to optimize and tune your solutions. Focus will be given to the new T-SQL features in SQL Server 2005, but the seminar will cover solutions in SQL Server 2000 as well.

APR202: Using AJAX and ASP.NET 2.0 to Build Rich Web Applications (1:00PM - 4:00PM)
Add'l Fee $199.00
Rick Strahl
There’s lots of talk about AJAX and rich browser applications these days. But what is AJAX and how does it apply to the applications you need to build today? In this half-day workshop, I’ll walk through the technology behind AJAX and explore where it fits in current Web development scenarios and, more importantly, where it doesn’t. Although the hot topic at the moment, AJAX use should be carefully considered in light of browser requirements, accessibility, and application design considerations as it has a significant impact on all of them. We’ll look at technologies available to let you utilize AJAX technology in ASP.NET 2.0. In the process, we’ll learn how to use Jason Diamond’s MyAjax.NET library to create AJAX sites in ASP.NET 2.0 applications. We’ll also take a look at using ASP.NET 2.0 Client Script Callbacks as well as a preview of the Atlas framework forthcoming from Microsoft. We’ll discuss issues such as balancing complexity vs. cool factor, understanding load characteristics, and choosing the right tools to build applications using AJAX technology.

VPR302: Windows Communication Framework (9:00AM - 12:00PM)
Add'l Fee $199.00
Michele Leroux Bustamante
The Windows Communication Framework (WCF, formerly code name “Indigo”) is the next generation messaging platform for .NET that unifies the programming model for how components communicate: be they distributed or not, accessible beyond firewalls, or available through interoperable interfaces. This tutorial will introduce to this new technology stack and show you how it will simplify system programming model significantly by providing a compos-able and decoupled architecture. You’ll learn the configurability of protocols and messaging formats; how the application of enterprise system features such as security, transactions, asynchronous and reliable messaging are handled; how it encapsulates cross-platform interoperability; how it enables peer-to-peer messaging applications; and how all of this is handled with productive tooling for designing service-oriented architectures.

VPR301: Windows Presentation Foundation (1:00PM - 4:00PM)
Add'l Fee $199.00
Billy Hollis
Display technology in Windows has not had significant advancement since its inception. That’s about to change with the Windows Presentation Foundation (abbreviated WPF, and formerly codenamed “Avalon”). Vector-based for scalability, WPF uses underlying DirectX technologies to take full advantage of modern video display technology. This introductory tutorial will introduce the programming model for WPF, and explore ways it can enhance user experience. The emphasis will be on techniques in WPF that allow user interfaces to be more dynamic, adapting to different sizes and scales, and offering dynamic visual cues that change as the user changes tasks. The basics of XAML, the markup language for WPF, will be covered, along with basic techniques for using WPF classes in code.

Post-Conference

4/6/2006

APS301: Advanced ASP.NET (9:00AM - 4:00PM)
Add'l Fee $399
Dino Esposito
If you’re going to build any reasonably complex ASP.NET application that has to be extensible, easy to maintain and deploy, and with code that also humans (i.e., new hired consultants) can read, then it is essential that, in addition to learning about all the rest of ASP.NET programming, you get the hang of a bunch of special helper components that populate the ASP.NET runtime environment. These include build providers, expression builders, custom providers, and page filters. This workshop devotes a module to each and offers a learning path that makes understanding easy and real with full code, implementation details, and a bit of reverse engineering. At the end of this workshop, you’ll be ready to customize and extend the compilation model, have ASP.NET build pages the way you want, interact with the built-in ASPX parser, and much more. Come and see!

VPS302: Building Mobile Smart Clients for the Enterprise (9:00AM - 4:00PM)
Add'l Fee $399
Nickolas Landry
Did you know that today’s Pocket PCs are more powerful than a 1998 desktop? Did you know that the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 offers over 30% of the full framework functionality in about 8% of the size? Or that you can call standard Web services using a Windows Mobile device and a $25/month wireless Internet connection? Mobile devices, applications, and wireless networks have come a long way to become key components of the agile enterprise. This workshop explores mobile enterprise application  development for the .NET developer like you. Come learn how to leverage your .NET knowledge to develop powerful smart clients that work with elaborate architectures to fulfill the promise of a truly connected world. Topics discussed include: Visual Studio  2005, .NET Compact Framework 2.0, Windows CE, Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK, SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, MSMQ CE, Pocket PCs, Smartphones, wireless networks (GSM/GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, CDMA/1X, EV-DO, WI-FI, Bluetooth, etc.) and more. Combined with great demonstrations, advanced coding techniques, enterprise mobility scenarios and actual live devices, all mixed up in true “ActiveNick” style. If mobile development interests you and you’ve got some .NET Framework programming experience, this is the one workshop you cannot afford to miss!

VPS201: Digital Blackbelt Crash Course--Building Hacker-Resistant Applications (FUNDAMENTALS TRACK) (9:00AM - 4:00PM)
Add'l Fee $399
Joe Stagner
This workshop is intended to provide a one-day crash course on software development security for developers of all levels. It begins with an examination of the scope of the problem—who are the bad guys and what do they want? We’ll then continue by performing LIVE HACKING examples to enumerate attack categories and show some of the software development solutions to shut out the hackers. This workshop will investigate buffer overflows, SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting attacks, numeric foolery and stupid browser tricks. You’ll also learn how to protect the intellectual property in your executables, how to safely store configuration data, how to test for security, and how to minimize the risk of social engineering factors.

VPS301: Master C# 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 (9:00AM - 4:00PM)
Add'l Fee $399
Juval Lowy
C# 2.0 introduces a wealth of exciting new features such as generics, iterators, partial classes, and anonymous methods. These features are an important addition to your development arsenal, both adding power and improving overall productivity. The workshop starts by examining the new power features of Visual Studio 2005 and presents hidden nuggets, options, tips and tricks, C# code formatting, environment settings, and debugging features. Next is a tour de force of C# 2.0, starting with generics, the problem space generics address, how they are implemented, the benefit of the programming model, and unique C# innovations such as constraints, generic methods and delegates, and generic and inheritance. Iterators are presented next in a similar manner, including many code samples illustrating combinations of generics and iterators. The workshop then discusses partial classes and anonymous methods, and their place in the development of .NET 2.0 applications, including never before discussed features such as delegate inference, static classes, and property visibility modifiers. The workshop ends by demonstrating the new C# code refactoring engine. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to learn C# 2.0 best practices, guidelines, tips, tricks and pitfalls from Juval Löwy, who has been part of the strategic design effort for C# and who offers a profound insight on the technology and its applications.

SPS301: SQL Server Availability Strategies: Building a Reliable VLDB In Depth (9:00AM - 4:00PM)
Add'l Fee $399
Kimberly L. Tripp
SQL Server 2005 offers many new options for improving availability—now that you know the right uses, what are the best practices and implementation details that you should learn now to save you time and headaches later? Come to this post-conference workshop to really immerse yourself into an amazing feature set that—through a layered approach to implementation—can really help your overall system availability. Topics discussed, demoed and focused on are: Partial Database Availability, Online Piecemeal Restore, Instant File Initialization, Database Mirroring, Failover Clustering, Fast Restart, Peer-to-Peer Replication, Database Snapshots, Online Index Operations and Snapshot Isolation. After this session, you’ll know the many options available to you, when each one is appropriate, key implementation details, best practices, and as many tips and tricks as possible! Staying true to a typical Kimberly L. Tripp workshop—this will be an information-packed and fast-paced day. Do not plan to leave early!