ClevelandDotNet

Earlier today Microsoft released the 2nd version of the Application Architecture Guide. This is part of Microsoft's Patterns & Practices series. The guide is currently a beta and is available for free download. It focuses on the most common types of applications, partitioning application functionality into layers, components, and services, and walks through their key design characteristics. This guide is a collaborative effort between patterns & practices, product teams, and industry experts. This guide is related to the Application Architecture Guide v2.0 Knowledge Base Project . Download the Application Architecture Guide - v2.0 Listed below is a brief outline of the guide, with hyperlinks to all chapters Chapters Introduction Architecture Best Practices At a Glance Fast Track - A Guide for Getting Started and Applying the Guidance Part I, Fundamentals of Application Architecture Chapter 1 - Fundamentals of Application Architecture Chapter 2 - .NET Platform Overview Chapt

What : Cleveland Silverlight Firestarter When : Saturday, November 1st, 2008, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, registration opens at 8:00 AM. Where : Microsoft Office (Independence, OH) Description : The Cleveland Silverlight Firestarter is a free one day event designed to educate developers on Silverlight. Consisting of 5 sessions, the event will start with introductory level topics at the beginning and accelerate into deep dive sessions later in the day. The content will be delivered by Silverlight experts and authors, known locally and nationwide. Agenda : 8:00 AM: Registration 9:00 AM: Keynote/Intro to Silverlight 2 (Jeff Blankenburg) 10:30 AM: XAML Basics (Sarah Dutkiewicz) Noon: Lunch break 1:00 PM: The Tools (Jeff Blankenburg) 2:30 PM: Controls & Data Binding (Matt Casto) 4:00 PM: Server Communication (John Stockton) Registration : To register for this event, please go to http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032392883&Culture=en-US

Complete your MCAD, MCSD, or MCDBA certifications before the exams retire on March 31, 2009 and take advantage of price reductions to complete your credential; then save again on your upgrade path to Visual Studio 2005 or SQL Server 2005 certifications Our records indicate that you have completed one or more exams related to Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2003 or Microsoft® SQL Server® 2000. These exams, which are required to earn the Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD), Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD), or Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA) certifications, will retire on March 31, 2009. This is your last chance to complete the certifications. View a list of exams scheduled to retire If you no longer work with Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 or Microsoft SQL Server 2000, we recommend that you pursue certification related to the technology you work with today or will work with in the near future. Whatever the certification you hold today, upgrade paths

Microsoft recently announced the ship of both the online MSDN Library and the downloadable SDK. Download the MOSS SDK 1.4 Download the WSS SDK 1.4 The August 2008 update is version 1.4 and reflects feature enhancements that were part of the recent Infrastructure Update. For more information on SharePoint Products and Technologies updates, you can start here on TechNet . Which SDK do I need to download? If you are only writing code that utilizes the Windows SharePoint Services platform, you can download the WSS SDK. However, if you want the superset of all documentation and samples, you should install the MOSS SDK, and then you’ll get all the platform and technology information as well. You don’t need to download both, but you will need to uninstall all previous versions. Note The SDK 1.4 downloads are full releases that include all previous tools and documentation. What’s New in this release? The SDK updates in 1.4 include: Custom Federated Search Web Part with a Credentials UI (also a

Cleveland SharePoint User Group June Meeting Wednesday, June 25th from 4pm – 6:30pm Cleveland Microsoft Office 6050 Oak Tree Blvd. Independence, OH 44131 If you plan on attending the June meeting and have not yet registered, please do so, as we are working with our sponsors to make the event a success! Be sure to Join the Group (so we can keep you updated on SharePoint User Group meetings and other SharePoint events in the community) and to register for the June meeting (so we are able to ensure appropriate accommodations are made for all June meeting participants). Topic: Workflow Foundation + SharePoint This talk covers the basics of Microsoft’s workflow technology (Workflow Foundation) and how it can be applied to typical .NET programming scenarios. SharePoint offers a way for humans to interact with workflows built with this technology. We’ll take a look at what SharePoint workflows offer and how they can be used to complement your business processes. Presenter : Jeremy Sublett,

The Lansing Day of .Net is scheduled for Saturday, June 21, 2008. A few developers from the Cleveland area are organizing a car pool/convoy to the event. If you're interested in joining, please reply to this post or e-mail sam@clevelanddotnet.info .

CodeStock 2008 is now open for registration! The event is scheduled for Saturday, August 9th in Knoxville, TN. There are 30 sessions available, a keynote address by respected author and Microsoft MVP Jeff Prosise, and a place to hang out with speakers and other attendees in open spaces style. CodeStock 2008 will be held at: Pellissippi State Technical Community College Lamar Alexander Bldg 10915 Hardin Valley Rd Knoxville, TN 37933. Register at: http://codestock.org/Pages/Register.aspx If you are looking for hotel accomodations, go to http://codestock.org/Pages/Directions.aspx Pass this on to your friends and coworkers. You can also follow the event on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CodeStock . For more info, go to http://codestock.org/ If you're interested in attending this event, please reply to this post or e-mail sam@clevelanddotnet.info . If we get enough people we might be able to hop on the Microsoft bus for the trip down south!

Shortly after TechEd 2008, Microsoft announced the availability of Release Candidate 0 (RC0) to TechNet and MSDN subscribers at the following links: Download SQL Server 2008 RC0 (MSDN subscribers) Download SQL Server 2008 RC0 (TechNet Plus subscribers) SQL Server 2008 Release Candidate 0 (RC0) will automatically expire after 180 days. To read more about the new features offered with the new release of SQL Server go to http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/default.aspx . For some of the highlight articles, check out the following links: Record Performance Benchmarks Virtual Launch Experience SQL Server Data Services Brochure Overview Demo Product Overview Virtual Labs

Register today online at http://www.brulant.com/Pages/Events.aspx

Today marks the initial launch of the Cleveland Sharepoint User Group. The event is scheduled from 4:30-6:30 at the Microsoft office in Independence, OH. Tonight's speaker is Paul Stork, a Sharepoint instructor at Mindsharp. Future meetings will occur every 4th Wednesday at the same location. For more information, go to http://www.sharepointcleveland.com/default.aspx .

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Many of you may have heard of the Day of .Net events that have occured in the region ( http://www.dayofdotnet.org/ ). On Saturday, April 19th, The Cincinnati .Net Users Group, Central Ohio .NET Developers Group and the Dayton .Net Developers Group will be hosting this year's "Central Ohio Day of .NET". This is a day long conference of various .Net topics, held by developers for developers and is free of charge. The event will be held at the Roberts Centre in Wilmington, OH (off exit 50 on I-71). You can sign up online via the MSDN Events site. For more information, go to http://cinnug.org/cododn/ . In addition, I recently got involved with a dedicated team of .Net developers in the Cleveland area and we are planning a Cleveland Day of .Net in mid May. The details are still being finalized, but it should be a great event. The web site is http://www.clevelanddodn.org/ . More details will be posted as they become available. In the meantime, if there's something you w

Microsoft recently announced the 2007 Second Shot promotion deadline has been extended from January 31st to June 30th, 2008. Register for this offer before your next exam and receive a free exam retake if you don't pass on your first try. • Sign up now . • Read frequently asked questions about this offer . Customers who have already registered for the offer will receive a separate e-mail with more information about the extension.If you don't already have a certification strategy, consider one of the new Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) certifications--many requiring just one exam each--to demonstrate your skills on the newest technologies from Microsoft. • Learn more about MCTS certifications . In addition, certification exams for Visual Studio 2008 will soon be released as well. There will be six MCTS certifications providing options on the key .NET Framework 3.5 technologies from Microsoft: ADO.NET ASP.NET Windows Forms Windows Communication Foundation Windows

On January 16th, Scott Guthrie, General Manager within the Microsoft Developer Division, announced the release of the source code for .Net Framework 3.5 for the following libraries: Base Class Libraries System System.CodeDom System.Collections System.ComponentModel System.Diagnostics System.Drawing System.Globalization System.IO System.Net System.Reflection System.Runtime System.Security System.Text System.Threading ASP.Net System.Web System.Web.Extensions Windows Forms System.Windows.Forms Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) System.Windows ADO.NET System.Data XML System.Xml Developers can now step through the code in Debug mode. However the code is for viewing purposes only and cannot be changed. This feature is relatively simple to setup in Visual Studio 2008 and only takes a few minutes to setup. Shawn Burke has a detailed blog post that covers the exact steps here . To read more about this, go to http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/01/16/net-framework-library-source-code

Microsoft has long been a partner with Pearson Vue and Prometric , certifying them both as Microsoft Exam Centers. However, this has changed and Pearson Vue is no longer a test provider. Recently I logged on to Microsoft's MCP site to check the status of my account. I realized that my test transcripts did not show 2 exams that I have previously taken and passed. These exams were taken through Pearson Vue . After some additional digging, I discovered that Microsoft has dropped Pearson Vue as a testing provider. Effective January 1st, 2008, Vue patrons could no longer access their Microsoft exam records through vue.com. To resolve the problem, I contacted Microsoft Support and e-mailed them the results of the exams in question. After this experience, I strongly urge all MCPs to log on to the MCP site to ensure all information is recent and accurate. If you have any questions about exams, please use the following info to contact customer service. Vue Customer Service Office Hours: M

Listed below is a summary of the .Net events scheduled for January 2008 in the Clevetland area. Attend a few and increase your .Net knowledge! Jan 8th: .Net User Group Meeting - Silverlight (6:30-8:30 PM). To register, please click here . Jan 10th: ONSQL User Group Meeting - Automating SQL Server Administrative tasks with PowerShell (5:00-7:30 PM). Please reserve your seat but walk-ins are always welcome. Jan 12th: Greater Cleveland PC Users Group - PC Security Software (9:30 AM - Noon). For more info, please visit http://www.gcpcug.org/ Jan 17th: Berbee/CDW - Enabling Information Workers with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (8:30 AM - Noon). For questions or to register, contact Laura Benisek at 440.746.7208 or laura.benisek@berbee.com . Jan 22nd: C#/VB.Net User Group Meeting - "Visual Basic 2008" (6:30-8:30 PM) by Mark Harr, MCSD. For more info, please visit http://www.clevelanddotnet.info/