Interface Blogs

I'll be speaking at the ASP.NET Connections conference next week in Las Vegas and always like to post the slides and content for those that come (and those who can't come).  If you've never been it's a great conference that has a ton of in-depth content.  It's definitely my favorite conference.

I'll be giving a pre-conference workshop on Silverlight and two other regular talks:

• Learn How to Create Rich Silverlight Applications (3-hour workshop)
• Creating N-Layer ASP.NET 2.0 Applications
• Building Custom ASP.NET AJAX Controls

I'll post the slides and demos here after I give each talk so check back.

I'm going to be speaking on behalf of Interface Technical Training and INETA this week at two Los Angeles area user groups.  The first talk is at Manhattan Beach, CA on October 2nd and will cover calling Web Services asynchronously in .NET 2.0.  The next talk is at Buena Park, CA on October 3rd and will cover building Silverlight applications. More details about the talks are shown next. 

Synchronous and Asynchronous Web Services in .NET 2.0

The advent of Web services has started a revolution that allows applications to communicate regardless of language or platform. This talk will discuss how synchronous and asynchronous calls can be made to Web services using features in .NET 2.0. The discussion will explain synchronous and asynchronous pros and cons and show the code necessary to use each technique in .NET applications.

Slides and Code

Integrating Silverlight with ASP.NET AJAX and Web Services

This talk will discuss Microsoft’s new Silverlight 1.0 technology and explore how you can use it to build rich Web-based applications.  Throughout the talk you’ll see the role that XAML plays, different XAML animation and transformation techniques, how JavaScript can be used to communicate with Silverlight objects, and how you can display data from different data sources including Amazon.com's Web Service using  ASP.NET AJAX integration techniques.

If you're new to Silverlight and are looking to get a jump-start on the technology I'll start out by covering fundamental concepts and provide a step-by-step approach to building Silverlight applications.  I'll then dive into a Silverlight application and discuss how it was created so that you can learn about several different Silverlight concepts by example.

Slides and Code

 

I had the opportunity to talk on Silverlight and ASP.NET AJAX integration yesterday at Desert Code Camp which was a lot of fun.  For those that attended (or those that are interested) you can find the slides and code at the links that follow:

Code Download

PowerPoint Slides Download

Thanks to Lorin Thwaits (code camp director) for organizing yet another great event!

I'll be giving a talk on September 15th at Desert Code Camp in Phoenix, AZ that discusses how Silverlight 1.0 can be integrated with ASP.NET AJAX and Web Services to enhance how data is displayed to end users.  Desert code camp is a free event and there are a lot of great sessions planned.  You can sign-up here to attend the session (space is limited at this point).  Here are a few more details about the session.

Integrating Silverlight with ASP.NET AJAX and Web Services

This session will discuss the fundamentals of building Silverlight 1.0 applications and show how it can be used to display data from different data sources including Amazon.com's Web Service. ASP.NET AJAX integration techniques will be shown along with animation features.

 In addition to my session, several co-workers and good friends from Interface Technical Training will also be presenting.  Here's a list of their sessions:

Writing Code to Avoid Code in ASP.NET 2.0 (Michael Palermo)

Master Page Layout with CSS in ASP.NET 2.0 (Spike Xavier)

SQL Server 2005 CLR - Dev vs DBA - The Showdown (Jennifer Campion and Jeff Jones)

More information about the event can be found at http://www.desertcodecamp.com.

 

I just found out about an online game written with Silverlight and C# that's available to try out.  It really shows the power of what Silverlight can do as far as animations, dynamic resource loading, audio, user interactivity, etc.  Looks like it has 20 levels of game play.  Check it out at the following URL:

http://zerogravity.terralever.com/

If you're available Wednesday, June 27th I highly recommend taking the time to attend Scott Guthrie's presentation.  If you've never heard Scott speak before he's extremely knowledgable and fun to listen to so I can guarantee you'll enjoy it.  Here's more information about the event (which is free) as well as a link to the registration site:

AZGroups, a professional association for computer programmers in the Southwest, has one big meeting annually that brings the very best talent in the industry to Arizona.  This year it will be held on Wednesday, June 27th from 8am to 4:30pm at Symphony Hall in downtown Phoenix.  It's a free event open to the public.
 
The main speaker this year will be Scott Guthrie, the original creator of Microsoft's ASP.NET architecture.  He is a general manager at Microsoft over many areas of developer technology including ASP.NET, IIS, ASP.NET Ajax, and Silverlight.  His presentation will center on the newest video and web technology that has been anounced at recent conferences including NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) and MIX.
 
Scott is not your average general manager, being incredibly proficient in these technologies, and will demonstrate a hands-on approach to using them effectively.  It will be time well spent for any IT manager, web designer, or developer that has an interest in the latest technology from Microsoft. 
 
To register for the event, just surf to http://azgroups.com/uber07

 

Over the past month I've been writing articles for a new column in the .NET Insight and Web Design and Development Insight newsletters published by 1105 Media (a parent company for several media groups) that covers ASP.NET AJAX, XML Web Services/WCF, and Silverlight.  The articles are designed to be very focused so that you learn things quickly without having to scroll through pages and pages of text to learn a single concept.  The first 3 articles have been published and are available at the links below.  Four more articles are on the way.

• Introduction to ASP.NET AJAX
• ASP.NET AJAX Configuration
• Working with Custom Scripts in ASP.NET AJAX

Upcoming articles will cover various aspects of the UpdatePanel, Timer and UpdateProgress controls and explore how the client-side PageRequestManager can be used to provide visual feedback to end users.  As the articles progress I'll discuss ASP.NET AJAX and Web Services as well as Silverlight.  If you have specific topics you're interested in seeing related to AJAX, Web Services or Silverlight let me know by adding a comment. 

You can subscribe to these newsletters here if you're interested. 

 

With the release of Microsoft's Silverlight Beta 1 I decided to update the Amazon.com AlbumViewer application that I originally created using WPF/E and ASP.NET AJAX back in December.  It was a fairly simple upgrade overall (I had to change a few scripts here and there) and because Silverlight now supports ZIndex I was able to make the album carousel look much better as it rotates the albums around.  Previously, albums on the left side would be on top of other albums instead of behind them.  That's fixed now and it only took two additional lines of JavaScript code which was nice. 

The updated code can be downloaded here and you can view a live version of the application here.