Brian H. Prince

Nikhil and the Atlas team have pushed some new bits at http://atlas.asp.net. They have made an amazing jump forward with their platform. Some of the big changes: - Partial updates with the update panel control. This lets a trigger action on the client do a virtual post back using callbacks. On the server side you have the rich event and stateful object model you are used to. The server then renders only the part of the page that maps to the update panel in question. This could potentially lead to a postback-less web app. That wouldn't necessarily be my goal, but I would like to get rid of past backs that are on the same page. - ScriptManager upgrade: The SM has had a major upgrade. You can run it in a new 'runtime' mode that provides the OOP features, without all of the atlas controls and other stuff. That is awesome, because one of my favorite features of Atlas is how they turn JavaScript into a real OO language. The SM can also be used to create references to services, so...

The Thursday night presentation to CONDG went really well. The only slow part was where we (Michael and myself) relied on too much typing during the code demos. We are presenting the same talk at CINNUG this Tuesay, and plan to modify how much code we write on the fly. I have found this great Atlas resource on the net. Wilco Bauwer has posted a tool that uses to reflection to help document the framework. This has been a great help to me in trying to learn Atlas, and get it to do what I want. It also helps in findig the holes in the current bits. For example, there isn't a server side service manager component yet. You still have to use the client side control. Wilco also some great Atlas postings on his blog as well. I will soon publish the slide deck, code, and resource URLs on the related user group sites soon. When I send them out to the UG owners, I will post them here as well. I have found some conflicts when you put a hyphen in the ID attribute of the atlas:panel server con...

I will be speaking at CONDG (Central Ohio .NET Developers Group) on 12/8/2005, from 6-8p. We will be going over Atlas, and looking at some code. I will be bringing along Michael from my team, who is an amazing young developer, to be my code monkey. Drop by if you have time. -bhp

TDD is the hot new topic. Actually, it has been around in one form or another for several years. With the release of Visual Studio 2005, I expect to become even more of a hot topic. When I introduce TDD to professional developers in my shop, they tend to think of it as a drag at first. This is when I usually ask them how they developed their last personal project. They always talk about how they wrote on feature, and made sure that worked, and then moved onto the next piece in a very organic way. They grew the architecture as needed, and refactored to streamline the code. They didn't sit down and write 50 pages of technical documentation (although they may have drawn some big boxes and arrows.) TDD is merely writing tests to validate the features you want to implement, before you write the code. The green light of TDD is what tells you when you are done. Which is hard for some developers to know. We call them 'gold-platers' around these parts. Test Driven Design is a great ...

Brian is a great guy I met through the VTS program. The funny thing is, I have been reading his blog for a while, and then didn't put two and two together until several days after I first met him in LA. Since I don't like other people who blog about blogs, I will summarize his article a little. Brian puts forth a pattern that loosely couples related orchestrations together using a state machine driven message subscription process. The state machine is driven from a status field of the state of the message that is promoted so you can route on it. His article is written very well, with a good example.

Here is a list of resources the VTS team tries to keep up to date. Let me know if you have any other needs, and I will dig out what I can find. White Papers · Enterprise Integration Vision for BizTalk Server 2004 Discover how XML and Web services are implemented within BizTalk Server 2004, Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, and Microsoft Office 2003 and how they interact with each other to create a process-centric computing infrastructure. · Choose a Business Process Automation Solution Read this in-depth analysis of how BizTalk Server 2004 delivers a more integrated business process automation (BPA) solution than the WebSphere Business Integration system from IBM. · Developing a BizTalk Server Solution for BizTalk Server 2004 See how BizTalk Server 2004 enables developers and system architects to use the same development methodology and components to create workflow processes, application integration interfaces, and trading partner interactions. · Architecture for BizTalk Server 2004 Learn...

The launch has finally come and gone on Nov 8th. A bunch of my coworks, clients, and friends rented a big van-bus-like thing. We had laptops, xbox, dvd players, internet access, and wifi onboard. And WAY too much redbull! We left at three in the morning, and didn't get back until 10:30p. The launch itself was fun. The sessions weren't groundbreaking if you had been working with the betas in any way. I was surprised at the depth of the new features in SQL Server 2005. I just wasn't really excited about the few features I knew about. I was asked to shoot some footage of our geek oddysea. I got about 30 minutes of it. The best of it was interviewing people in a sub shop on the way home. If I can find a place to post it, I will and then link to it here. I have been asked to show a bit of it at the next usergroup session. Best of all, all of the new tools are finally available, and we can move forward with the projects we have been using the beta's on. Now if we can get RTM...

While in Redmond several weeks ago, Eddie (Sr something or other for developer tools) showed us the bleeding edge research they are doing to really improve the management and development tools for BizTalk tools beyond 2006. Eddie, I must say. is a very entertaining speaker. Some of the stuff I saw I can't talk about (I have to say it is cool to say that). Some of the new features they did show at the PDC, and on videos on channel 9. [links below] Here is a summary: 1. They actually use real world samples when working on the new tools. For example, schema maps with 15,000 fields in them. This forced them to really focus on the scale of work that us users really focus on, instead of trivial amounts of sample work. 2. To fix the 'black map' problem they seriously upgraded the mapping tool. What is the 'black map' problem? When you have a map with a lot of fields, and lines, you eventually only have a large mass of lines, and no whitespace. With auto-mapping using chara...

'THE' launch is finally upon us. Which launch? The launch of Visual Studio 2005 (which includes alot!), BizTalk 2006 (really a paper launch), and SQL Server 2005. This is BIG stuff! These products have already completely reformed how we do .NET development. I think this is a bigger jump than the one from Studio 2000 to Studio 2003, from a tools perspective. What they alone have done to the traditionally opaque and obtuse BizTalk tools is fabulous. The closest launch event to us is in Detroit, MI on Nov 8th. Since so many of us are going, we have arranged for a bus from Columbus. We are leaving around 4:30am, and will be getting back around 9:00pm. There are some seats left, so drop me an email if you would like one. I am not sure if we will have to split costs, or if this will be 'complimentary' from my company. We shall see. What is happening at the launch? Check this out , and don't forget to register. To me, it seems like a mini-TechEd. And the best part (there...

Just spent a week at Microsoft [I will go into why later]. I have noticed that all MS speak follows this expression: "So.... [insert stuff here]...., right?" At first I noticed this months ago with speakers at the local and regional level. But after the PDC and a week in Redmond, I have decided it is pervasive. Now, this is not a negative/beatdown post. This isn't even a grammarian rant. Just an observation. While at Mistral having dinner, Javier Mariscal and I discussed this weird thing. At first I thought it was a result of MS trying to fix it's perceived arrogance, by asking for confirmation in every statement, and by starting with SO, in an attempt to appear passive (or at least not aggressive). I am guessing that it merely spread, as a meme so to speak, to everyone in the MS space. I have found though, that it seems to permeate every said now, to the point that it is obstructing the message. In a 1 hour meeting, I could 27 'rights' from one person. Ju...

Sorry I haven't posted, not that anyone is reading, anyway. I have spent my time: * digging into atlas * writing five proposals in one week * playing as much dungeon seige 2 before age of empires 3 and civilization 4 comes out * finding someplace to pre-order a 360 Biggest news? I have been accepted into the Virtual Technical Specialist program with Microsoft. Big thanks to Keith for the opportunity, and Drew for the support. I am at guerilla training for BizTalk 2006 this week, at Microsoft. This is my first visit to MS, and I am very excited. It is like going to the mother ship for me. This is also my fist guerilla style training, so I think it will be fun, and exhausting. -bhp

FANUG (Findlay Area .NET Users Group) has asked me to speak at their next session. I love getting the chance to speak to groups about technology. This session will start off with a brief slide about what was announced at the PDC, and then dive into some details and code for Atlas. I got to see a lot of Atlas at the PDC, and have played with it since. I am very impressed with it so far. It is still early in development, but I expect it will make huge strides before it is released. If you are going to be in Findlay on Sept 29, 2005, you should drop by. -bhp

Just got back from the PDC05. This was a wonderful experience. It was total geekdom immersion. Almost like going to Disney for the first time. I was afraid to miss something. Of course, with all of the sessions, there was not possible way to see and do everything. There was a lot of walking as well. Never got to the hands on labs, but most of the HOL docs and code are downloadable, and I am working through a few of those. Never got to the Birds of a Feather sessions either, although I really wanted to. There were just other things to do in the evenings besides BOF. My biggest piece of feedback, which I did on their survey, was that there were too many sessions I wanted to go see, and not enough slots. I think they should add a day or two, and repeat some sessions. Right now, my staff that couldn't go to the PDC05 are trying to go to the local global launch event. Based on the current agenda, it looks like a mini-PDC. You can sign up here for the Detroit session. I have been playin...

Just trying out blogger. I read a ton of blogs a day, and have always wanted to do it. Two things always stopped me. 1> Do I have enough time? I run an app dev consulting practice, and that takes a lot of time. Also, I spend a lot of time with other important things, such as my family. Would I have the time to write often enough to provide value? 2> Would I have something different to say besides all those millions of other bloggers. Differentiation. I didn't think I really did, until I went to the PDC05. Something in me clicked, not sure what. Well, we will see how often I write, and if it get's a response. I guess if no one notices, I can't get too embarassed. -bhp