The Sikh Geek

At the recent Remix UK Conference, Scott Guthrie talked about ASP.NET MVC which is a framework that has been developed based on the Model-View-Controller Paradigm/Pattern. This is a web framework which separates out an online application into a number distinct roles which are as follows :

• Model - provides access to the data which is typically stored in a database
• View - provides the presentation layer which is the web pages that you will see and will provide the styling etc
• Controller - provides the handling of web requests and scheduling the access to the model and view parts

This pattern is not new but what is new is Microsoft’s implementation of this as the ASP.NET MVC. There are a number of advantages of using this approach which are :

• more control over the html generated
• separation into these roles allows a test driven approach i.e. you can test each aspect without having the other parts available
• basic plumbing such as authentication is built in

Whilst this might not be the right approach in all scenarios it gives a great new option which is free and for us gives us a framework where something like Sharepoint is not required. ASP.NET MVC is also supported by Microsoft in a production environment.

I’m back now from the Microsoft RemixUK 08 Conference in Brighton and what a great experience it was. It is focused on Microsoft’s web technologies. It described itself as a "48 hour conversation about the Next Web". The sessions were split into the following tracks :-

• More developer
• More designer
• User interaction/business
• Beyond work

There were a range of people including developers, designers, advertising agencies, so an interesting mix of people who probably would otherwise not come together. In fact Arturo Toledo of Microsoft in his Expression Session said that Designers should team up with Developers and that is something which I believe is a great opportunity.

Check out the site Web Harmony for tools, resources and training.

It was good to be at a Microsoft Conference where people were coming out of sessions visibly impressed. Could Microsoft actually be this cool?

The technologies on display were

• Silverlight
• Photosynth
• ASP.NET MVC
• WPF (check out the new WindowsClient site)
• ADO.NET Data Services (Project Astoria Team Blog)
• Virtual Earth
• Visual Studio
• XNA Games Studio

As part of attending the conference delegates will received a copy of the Expression Subscription.

One insight I got was Microsoft’s focus towards Advertising in David Pugh-Jones session entitled "Digital Advertising: Now and the Future". It’s clear that Microsoft is keen to use these new technologies to drive digital campaigns and to be a key player in this market.

The other highlight was seeing Scott Guthrie code on the fly!

As they say, the only constant thing in life is change! As of today, iQubed no longer exists as a separate entity in the Microsoft Partner Programme and has been merged with Ardent iSys. This means that Ardent iSys takes on all the assets and qualifications of iQubed and the Small Business Specialist designation. I’ve also asked some of my customers for the required references for the Networking Infrastructure Competency, actually we only need one more (as it had expired). Once the references are in place we’ll pay the fee and take Ardent iSys to Certified Partner status.

We’re busy putting in plans to support our developers in India to become Microsoft Certified Professional Developers (MCPD) and then complete the Custom Development Solutions Competency. I will then be visiting the team later on this year which I’m really looking forward to.

So, iQubed is still a limited company in its own right but the growth is happening around our outsourced software development business Ardent iSys Ltd. The feedback from clients has been very positive because of the emphasis we place on building relationships and being customer focused. The fact Ashish and I are here in the UK where are clients are based puts us in a great position over other Outsourcing Companies from India. But our plans are not to remain just that because if that was all that we did the business would not survive long term.

There will be further changes as I register a new domain name for the blog and start to talk more about Ardent iSys.

Well, the Sharepoint Product Group might be "very excited" and "super jazzed" about the new version of Visual Studio Extenstions for WSS for Visual Studio 2008, but it still won’t install on VS 2008 running on 64 bit Vista. Loads of questions on the Sharepoint Team Blog about this point but no answers. Question to Microsoft is, are we moving to a 64 bit world or not??

Google has opened its App Engine to everyone which allows developers to build applications on the same infrastructure as it uses for its applications. The service is free for up to 500MB of storage and 5 million page views per month after which you’ll have to start paying. You’ll also have to write your applications in Python as well but if you’re a developer of any worth you should be able to adapt to any programming language. Things just got a whole lot more interesting and it seems Google is saying to the likes of Microsoft, “bring it on”! Choice is good and healthy for customers and in truth for the competing companies as well but I’m sure they wouldn’t admit that!

Here are some articles from O’Reillynet to get you started on Cloud Development

Getting Started with the Google App Engine

Creating Applications with Amazon EC2 and S3

I’m off to install Python on Ubuntu!!!

Yep, it’s FREE and no need to register for this 3-day Virtual WPF Bootcamp. Everything you need to learn about developing in Windows Presentation Foundation. Dust off the Visual Studio 2005 Standard Ed discs you got in the Action Pack and put it to some good use. Great idea by Microsoft and I’m looking forward to other sessions on Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Blend 2.0. Now if only I had any designs skills

I was at the MSDN Event in Birmingham this afternoon entitled “Overview of Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5″ presented by Daniel Moth and Mike Taulty of the Microsoft Developer Group. I was really glad I went because it convinced me that I should start using Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2. Daniel did a good job of convincing me that VS 2008 was a true superset of VS 2005 and as the CLR has stayed the same from Framework 2.0 -> 3.0 -> 3.5 then there’s no great problem. Framework 3.5 is a superset of the preceeding Frameworks. The headline feature in .NET 3.5 is the new language construct called LINQ (Language Integrated Query). Think of it as a SQL like syntax for working with all sorts different data types, be they objects, datasets or databases. This really shows the power of the .NET runtime, that such new language constructs can be developed without any changes in the underlying CLR. So, you’re just getting the compiler to do some clever stuff for you and produce the appropriate IL.

What you get in VS 2008 is a really productive environment with intellisense and they’ve added the Expression Web editors for CSS support. Having been using Expression Web and Sharepoint Designer 2007 recently, these are really great tools. Also, VS 2008 has extensions for doing things like Sharepoint Workflow, Office Business Applications, etc all built in. Also, it’s got new Visual designer for WPF, so it you’re wanting to do Vista based development then this is the tool of choice.

Right, I’m off to download VS 2008 Beta 2 and Framework 3.5 from my MSDN Subscription…

MSDN Event - Overview of Visual Sudio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5

The event is on 26th September 2007 at 14.15 at the Lakeside Centre, Suite 1, Aston University, University Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET

Presented by Daniel Moth and Mike Taulty

Register Here

This ONLamp Article gives a great overview of Mono which is an implementation of .NET on Linux and the Mono guys have also been working hard on getting Silverlight working for Linux as well with some good progress.

Andy Parkes just reminded me about MIX UK 07 event down in London on 11/12th September. Maybe not quite as cool as the Las Vegas event where they had the Pussy Cat Dolls! But you still get to see Scott Guthrie, Microsoft’s GM within the Developer Division. Unfortunately, I can’t make it but at £199 seems a bargain to me.