Steve Maine has done a beautiful thing, and put together a list of links for learning about the new web programming model features in WCF 3.5

Check it out here : http://hyperthink.net/blog/2008/01/18/WCF+Web+Programming+Model+Documentation.aspx

In case you missed it, Microsoft just released some great new downloads, specifically new versions of VS 2008, Silverlight, and Expression Blend.

As someone who started writing what are now called AJAX apps since 2000, I *really* appreciate how Silverlight and Blend make RIAs much easier to develop.

Links to all the bits-

• Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2
• Visual Studio Extensions for Silverlight
• Silverlight 1.0 SDK / Silverlight 1.1 SDK
• ASP.NET Futures CTP
• Silverlight 1.0 RC1 / Windows (direct link)
• Silverlight 1.0 RC1 / Mac (direct link)
• Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Refresh / Windows (direct link)
• Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Refresh / Mac (direct link)
• Expression Blend August Preview
• Expression Media Encoder Template Updater

Going through my email this morning, I received my official Mix07 confirmation.  Last year, I had a number of customer commitments so was really not in the loop on Mix, this year, though, I've had some overlap with some of the things I've been working on and have had a chance to get involved in various aspects of the event.

Earlier this year I went to another web conference(which shall remain nameless), and was so dissapointed I left the conference (and Vegas) a day early. (Me, leaving Vegas early? unheard of, I know). 

Mix, though, is a different story. From what I've seen of the sessions, this is actually an event I'd pay out of pocket to go to. It's got a good mix of folks from MS, as well as from third parties.  I may or may not be delivering a session, that's something that'll get decided in the next month or so, but will be onsite either working in certain areas of the event, or attending sessions.

One of the great things about conferences is that I get a chance to meet up with former colleagues and people I've chatted with via email and blogs. If you're going to be in Vegas the 29th - 2nd and want to chat about WCF, CardSpace, Mashups, or whatever - shoot me an email and we'll make some plans to sync up.

I was just on Amazon and it looks like the follow up to Windows Communication Foundation: Hands On! is now available for pre-order.

This book contains all of the content updated for RTM, plus 200+ more pages than the original. You'll also see that we've got a new co-author, Matt Winkler.

For those unfamiliar with Matt, he's the technical evangelist for Windows Workflow Foundation here in Redmond, and he's added some great WF content to the book.

If you want to get more details, you can find it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Communication-Foundation-Unleashed-WCF/dp/0672329484/sr=1-3/qid=1170008872/ref=sr_1_3/002-4228351-3336016?ie=UTF8&s=books

Mercuri's "Services SLA Paradox"

Paid services haven't taken off because there aren't SLAs from Service Providers.
There aren't SLAs from Service Providers because people aren't paying for services.

-----------------------

When someone gives you something for free, they have no obligation to you and you have no recourse if something goes wrong. When I was a student, if I was moving to a new apartment, my friends would would help me pack up my old place, load the truck, and unload it at my new apartment.  Sometimes people would show up late, sometimes things would get broken, but hey, they were doing me a favor, so I had no room to complain.

When I move now, I hire a moving company. Why? Because my time is more valuable to me than it was 15 years ago, and I also have much more expensive stuff.  If I was scheduled to move out of a house on the 31st, and the mover's truck broke down, I'd want to make sure the company could swap in another truck from their lot. If my $4,000 television is dropped, I want someone who's insured and who's going to make it right.

Today, we have a number of people giving away services - Google, Yahoo, Flickr, Amazon, StrikeIron, etc.  While there are exceptions like Amazon and StrikeIron that are doing some good work in the utility services space, where they're doing metered usage, I've had a hard time finding SLAs anywhere else. People are doing interesting mash-ups with 'free stuff', but is anyone willing to put free stuff in their application for any key piece of functionality? If you do, and you don't have SLAs, you're a gambler, and for your sake, I hope you're very lucky.

At the Web Builder 2.0 conference held earlier in the month, Day 1's keynote had a speaker who talked about Ajax and mashups, using his company's product as an example.  At the end of the presentation, he opened up the floor for Q&A, at which point I asked him two questions - "what about SLAs" and "what about federated identity".  The answers? 

SLAs: These services are free, so there are no SLAs.

Identity: These services (Yahoo) are free, so that's not an issue.

I find it amazing that people don't pro-actively address the SLA and Identity issues, and I find it borderline irresponsible that 'experts' ignore or wave off these questions when raised. The need for SLAs should not be such a surprise, people who've spent time looking at the space at this have written about it, myself having done so back in 2001  ("14 Best Practices for Selecting a Web Service Provider", 2001, .NET Magazine, Fawcette) Yes, it's cool to include maps, search, and images in my application but if the service code go down - or disappear entirely - at any time, for many scenarios they're a non-option.

If you want to use services for anything real - and by real I mean something you'd use in a key area of an Enterprise or Commercial Software/WebSite - you need to have a Service Level Agreement. Using a service effectively moves a third party from being a vendor to being a business partner. The service provider controls the hardware, the bandwidth, the support, etc. but the service interactions are exposed through your application, with your brand, and your reputation attached to it.

With today's lack of SLAs, if the service goes down for an hour on Thursday, it goes down for an hour on Thursday. Moreover, there's no guarantee that the service is going to be around for a week, a month, a year, etc.  Google just announced (http://news.com.com/2061-10812_3-6145053.html) that they're no longer taking on new customers for the SOAP API they'd been offering. They're moving new customers to an AJAX API. If you were evaluating this and building this functionality into a spec for a smart client application you were developing, and now it's gone, sorry charlie. What were you expecting? You're not paying for it, so you can't complain. Without an SLA, no promises are ever made  made by the provider, so there are no promises to break.

My argument is that SLAs are late to the game, because people aren't paying for services and people aren't paying for services because there are no SLA's. Something I've shamelessly named 'Mercuri's Services SLA Paradox'.  There are some positive movements in the right direction - Amazon and StrikeIron come to mind - but they are definately the exception and not the rule.

If you're like me, you'd like to be able to leverage and mashup services that you can depend on. If we collectively don't stand up and insist on these, we're stifling innovation. I challenge you to ask the providers - at conferences, in forums, online and in person - "What is your SLA for your services and what will it take/cost for you to offer me this service in a dependable fashion?"

As you're likely aware, we've had a new RC1 release of Vista, and along with it a RC1 release of .NET Framework 3.0. 

I've gone ahead an updated the code for several chapters from the book WCF: Hands On to be compatibile with RC1 changes

You can find the code for Chapter 9 on Custom Behaviors here:

The WCF Hands On book started off as WCF Labs for last years PDC. We started writing it last year, when the docs were pretty sparse in places (as one would expect).

I haven't spent alot of time in the help file until this morning. I'm updating the chapter of the book that deals with COM Interop and needed to double-check something. I shouldn't have been surprised as we're much closer to RTM, but it was *much* more complete and has lots of good info and downloadable samples. There If you haven't look at the doc (or the samples) lately, I'd definately recommend revisiting them - there's also a good POX sample in the RC1 drop as well.

If you want the absolute latest public drop of docs, there was one made on September 15th. It's posted over on netfx3, check it out here:

http://wcf.netfx3.com/files/folders/product_team/entry5854.aspx

As you're likely aware, we've had a new RC1 release of Vista, and along with it a RC1 release of .NET Framework 3.0. 

I've gone ahead an updated the code for several chapters from the book WCF: Hands On to be compatibile with RC1 changes

You can find the code for Chapter 5 on Reliable Sessions, Transactions, and Queues here:

As you're likely aware, we've had a new RC1 release of Vista, and along with it a RC1 release of .NET Framework 3.0. 

I've gone ahead an updated the code for several chapters from the book WCF: Hands On to be compatibile with RC1 changes

You can find the code for Chapter 5 on Reliable Sessions, Transactions, and Queues here:

As you're likely aware, we've had a new RC1 release of Vista, and along with it a RC1 release of .NET Framework 3.0. 

I've gone ahead an updated the code for several chapters from the book WCF: Hands On to be compatibile with RC1 changes

You can find the code for Chapter 7 on interoperability here:

Code.zip (295.39 KB)

If you've read the blog for awhile, you'll know that I moved over to the incubation team in Microsoft's Platform Strategy Group back in August.

My old team is still looking for my replacement, and they're now expanding their search. if you're passionate about CardSpace, Windows Communication Foundation, and Workflow Foundation and working with large Enterprise customers you might be interested in this.

In addition to working with some great technologies, you'll be surrounded by a great group of folks on the Longhorn Server evangelism team, many of whom are authors (or authoring) books on .NETFX 3 or other topics.

James has the full scoop on his blog, check out the link below for details:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jamescon/archive/2006/09/19/761696.aspx

I'm updating the samples from the WCF Hands On book, and realized I hadn't posted the link to breaking changes from June CTP to RC1.

You can find these here - http://wcf.netfx3.com/content/BreakingChangesbetweenJuneCTPandVistaRC1.aspx

I've gone ahead and updated the sample for Chapter 9 - Custom Behaviors.

Rather than just do a straight port, I looked at the sample and recognized there were some opportunities to make it more interesting for the reader. I've made some changes and additions, which I think you will find beneficial -

Changed this to an EndpointBehavior. This is a more common scenario, and I think you'll find it more valuable.

Added code that shows how to add support for behaviors in the Config file. Note that this is accomplished through a combination of the code in AuditBehavior.AuditBehaviorSection.cs, by adding the behaviorExtensions section in the Service app.config, by specifying a behaviorConfiguration attribute on the endpoint element, and by defining that endpoint in the endpointBehaviors sections.

Use the behavior via configuration (service) and via code (client)

Added significant Console.Write comments so you can see exactly what is happening in which part of the code (i.e. the behavior, message inspector, etc.)

Consolidated all behavior related classes (including message inspectors) to a single project for greater clarity.

I've renamed the projects so there is no question which project is the service, which is the audit recording service, and which is the audit behavior class.

For querying the meta-data of a service, you must now explicitly do several things - add an endpoint for mex, add a behavior, and reference the behavior on the service via an attribute in the configuration file. These changes are also reflected in this sample.

If you're working with the latest CTP, you may have noticed that InstanceContextMode.Shareable was removed from the InstanceContextMode enumeration.

You can still achieve this same functionality through extensibility. While the sample is being updated, I wanted to point out Maheshwar Jayaraman's blog. Maheshware is in the product group, and provides more information here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/mahjayar/archive/2006/07/08/660176.aspx

There were changes in the later CTPs that affected the code for Chapter 5.

InstanceContextMode.Shareable has been cut. As two of the three excercises here leverage shareable instancing, I am currently talking with the product team about a workaround they have using extensibility.

In the interim, I have updated the first exercise which deals with MSMQ. One thing that is different here is that binding on the sample was changed in the config files as based on Active Directory configurations, people were having challenges with the default binding. The sample in it's current state is should work regardless of configuration.

Also, for the service definition in the configuration file, the type attribute is now changed to name.

For querying the meta-data of a service, you must now explicitly do several things - add an endpoint for mex, add a behavior, and reference the behavior on the service via an attribute

05-PartI.zip (55.21 KB)

The good folks over at netfx3.com have been good enough to post the breaking changes for WCF going from Vista Beta 2 to June CTP.

Links can be found below:

» Breaking Changes from Vista Beta 2 to June CTP

» Detailed Change Report Vista Beta 2 to June CTP

Previous Change Reports

» Breaking Changes from Feb CTP to Beta 2

» Detailed Change Report Feb CTP to Beta 2

» Breaking Changes from Jan CTP to Feb CTP

» Detailed Change Report Jan CTP to Feb CTP

Looking for another one stop shop for your WCF, WF, WPF, and CardSpace (formerly InfoCard) needs?

http://netfx3.com/ was launched with the rebranding of winfx to netfx3, and now you can find info, demos, and forums on CardSpace and all your favorite foundation technologies there.  This site consolidates what was windowsworkflow.net and windowscommunication.net.

Definately worth checking out, particularly as there were a number of new samples and demos uploaded that weren't on the old sites.

.NET Framework 3.0 - June CTP has been released and can be found here.

If you saw Craig McMurtry's demo for the Xbox 360 finder earlier this year, you saw an interesting phenomenon.

In that example, he built out an app that queried for the availability of Xbox 360s at certain electronics resellers.  In theory, once the Xbox360 was acquired, the app would have served its purpose and be deleted. There would be no v2 (until perhaps the release of the Xbox 720). This poor app's existence was to be short-lived by design, and to be honest there's something cool about the state of software and services that this could be done. 

Today, I saw another one of these cool apps with an intentionally short lifespan.  Checking my email this afternoon, I saw that a colleague had forwarded me a link to download “Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard” (hopefully the internationalization team called it “Microsoft Football Scoreboard” for folks installing outside the US)

World Cup is upon us, and for those of us who left the 62 inch HD screen back home to go to TechEd were wondering where we would get our World Cup scores and reviews. For those who want up to date information, scores, tables, RSS feeds, etc.  You should check this out - the link is here:

-----------------------

Follow your favorite teams and players during the FIFA World Cup tournament with Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard. This fun program allows you to access all the latest tournament news and information with the click of a button! Live game data allow you to monitor your favorite teams progress in real-time. Want more? Check out your team’s fixture (schedule), standing, and news as they advance through the tournament. If you are a soccer fan, don’t miss a minute of the action.

Note: You can share this with everyone!!!

Download Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard today!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=df6a6e6e-21af-4786-ad1d-a38e8bfda82f&DisplayLang=en

----------------------------

For those who also want to check out the matches on someone elses big screens, you can try the Thirsty Scholar. I haven't lived in Boston for a few years, but when I was there for the last World Cup and they - and their taps - were open early, and the place was filled with fans from every country, who knew every song, and came in the type of gear you're used to seeing in Europe.  I checked their web site and it looks like they're doing the same this year. http://www.thirstyscholarpub.com/

If you saw Craig McMurtry's demo for the Xbox 360 finder earlier this year, you saw an interesting phenomenon.

In that example, he built out an app that queried for the availability of Xbox 360s at certain electronics resellers.  In theory, once the Xbox360 was acquired, the app would have served its purpose and be deleted. There would be no v2 (until perhaps the release of the Xbox 720). This poor app's existence was to be short-lived by design, and to be honest there's something cool about the state of software and services that this could be done. 

Today, I saw another one of these cool apps with an intentionally short lifespan.  Checking my email this afternoon, I saw that a colleague had forwarded me a link to download “Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard” (hopefully the internationalization team called it “Microsoft Football Scoreboard” for folks installing outside the US)

World Cup is upon us, and for those of us who left the 62 inch HD screen back home to go to TechEd were wondering where we would get our World Cup scores and reviews. For those who want up to date information, scores, tables, RSS feeds, etc.  You should check this out - the link is here:

-----------------------

Follow your favorite teams and players during the FIFA World Cup tournament with Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard. This fun program allows you to access all the latest tournament news and information with the click of a button! Live game data allow you to monitor your favorite teams progress in real-time. Want more? Check out your team’s fixture (schedule), standing, and news as they advance through the tournament. If you are a soccer fan, don’t miss a minute of the action.

Note: You can share this with everyone!!!

Download Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard today!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=df6a6e6e-21af-4786-ad1d-a38e8bfda82f&DisplayLang=en

----------------------------

For those who also want to check out the matches on someone elses big screens, you can try the Thirsty Scholar. I haven't lived in Boston for a few years, but when I was there for the last World Cup and they - and their taps - were open early, and the place was filled with fans from every country, who knew every song, and came in the type of gear you're used to seeing in Europe.  I checked their web site and it looks like they're doing the same this year. http://www.thirstyscholarpub.com/

WCF and WF in Public Sector.PPT (2.16 MB)

I did a webcast today on WCF, WF, and Infocard in Public Sector today.  For the Retail and Fin Serv webcasts I'd done previously, I'd had great scores (>8/9 in some cases), but there were always requests for additional vertical content after the fact.

I tried switching it up today for the pub sector session (more vertical, less core wcf/wf/identity), but the presentation just didn't click. I think I'll re-record and post a link to it when it's available, I'm pleased with the InfoCard demo, though, as I think it provides additional value. 

I've attached my deck to the start of this post, as I wanted people to see the legacy empowerment section that we didn't get to review.

If you're new to the blog, I wanted to point you to some of the demos I've got online, including:

http://www.marcmercuri.com/ct.ashx?id=d0cffe95-b683-4f7c-b883-44feeb0afd43&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.marcmercuri.com%2fDownloads%2fFinServDevCon.zip

As well as a syllabus for learning InfoCard:

http://www.marcmercuri.com/PermaLink.aspx?guid=eae5a6ef-a12e-4cfd-bd65-56fdf0b103f4

Cheers,

Marc

Nigel Watling, one of the co-authors of “Windows Communication Foundation: Hands On!” has just published a video on Infocard over at Channel 9.

In the video, Nigel leads an in depth discussion of how InfoCard works, how it's designed (and why) and how it will evolve in the future with InfoCard chief Architect Arun Nanda and Software Developer Ruchi Bhargava

Check it out here.

So now that you've got the new bits, the next question is - “What's changed?”

The list of breaking changes for WCF and Infocard have been posted here.

You can now get Windows Vista Beta 2 and a new drop of WinFx (Beta 2/RC0).

This version of WinFX has a new Go Live license attached (the first since January). There's enough new since January that you'll want to make the jump to the May bits.

If you want to use Infocard, this is also the drop for you. This is the first broadly available build that has Infocard bits that work with IE7.

Find both Vista and WinFX  here.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/downloads/products/getthebeta/default.aspx#developWinFXApps

I was in London earlier this week, and ended up having to come back the US a bit earlier than planned. As a consequence, I didn't have a chance to work with one of my customers on tracing, and committed to following up when I got back to the US.

If you know me, you know I hate re-creating the wheel, so I did a quick search to see if this information was already documented. As fate would have it, Madhu Ponduru literally just put together a good post on the subject.

If you haven't tried tracing yet, you definately should.

Check it out here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/madhuponduru/archive/2006/05/18/601458.aspx

If you're not familair with Juval Lowy, he's one of our Regional Directors and writes some great content that you can find in a number of areas (including MSDN online and in print).

He's just released an article on WCF instance management techniques - check it out here.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/winfx/default.aspx?pull=http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/06/06/WCFEssentials/default.aspx

Podcasts. I'd been interested in them before, but because my old mp3 player was a bit dodgy, I'd really only listened in on my desktop. As a result I'd stuck mostly to screencasts, and largely bypassed podcasts altogether.

Knowing I had alot of traveling coming up, I recently upgraded to a new portable music device. I loaded it up before I left, downloaded some technology content, some news podcasts(Meet the Press, and Wall St Journal Tech Week), as well as some comedy (Ricky Gervais - the guy who created The Office - is hiliarious) 

Loaded up, I listened to podcasts as I went from Seattle->Denmark->London and back again.  Annoying lines at customs that were 4 rows deep didn't seem so bad. The 2 block line to get through security in Denmark, no worries - I was being entertained and educated with an interview of a tech legend. Podcasts are a beautiful thing.

I was looking forward to this before, but even more so now - I'm sitting don with Ron Jacobs next week to record a few ARCast sessions. Ron is part of our Architecture Strategy Team and does some great podcast work that's posted up on Channel 9. 

If you've not come across the ARCasts yet, I'd definately recommend checking them out.  You can find them here: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/ARCast_with_Ron_Jacobs

Ingo Rammer just posted an article on migrating Remoting to WCF. It's good stuff - if you're doing remoting today, you should read this.

Find it here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/NETremoteWCF.asp

Ingo Rammer just posted an article on migrating Remoting to WCF. It's good stuff - if you're doing remoting today, you should read this.

Find it here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/NETremoteWCF.asp

Ingo Rammer just posted an article on migrating Remoting to WCF. It's good stuff - if you're doing remoting today, you should read this.

Find it here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/NETremoteWCF.asp

I'm happy to report that the Windows Communication Foundation: Hands On book will be out in just a couple of weeks, and that I've just signed on to do another one.  This next book is tentatively titled “Understanding Infocard“ and will be written for APress. This will hit bookstores in Q1 of next year, most likely in January.

If you want more info on Windows Communication Foundation: Hands On, it is now available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes&Nobles, and others.

I'm happy to report that the Windows Communication Foundation: Hands On book will be out in just a couple of weeks, and that I've just signed on to do another one.  This next book is tentatively titled “Understanding Infocard“ and will be written for APress. This will hit bookstores in Q1 of next year, most likely in January.

If you want more info on Windows Communication Foundation: Hands On, it is now available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes&Nobles, and others.

If you're like me and wanted to go but missed it - good news.  The sessions have just been posted online for free view/download.

Sessions here: http://sessions.mix06.com/

NGW034 - From "Username and Password" to InfoCard

DIS003 - Today's Identity Crisis, and the Identity Metasystem

For those unfamiliar with MIX, here's the pitch -

“If you do business on the Web today, it's likely that more than 90% of your customers reach you via Microsoft® Internet Explorer and/or Microsoft Windows®. Come to MIX and learn how the next versions of these products, due later this year, are going to dramatically improve your customers' experience. Explore a wide range of new Web technologies that Microsoft is delivering to help you unlock new revenue opportunities and lower development costs. Learn about the future of Internet Explorer and join us in a discussion about how we can build the ideal Web surfing platform to meet your needs and those of your customers.

“

Working with Enterprise customers, I know alot of you had scenarios where you wanted to use Plain Old Xml (POX). I'm happy to report that it's official - support for POX messages to TexEncoder is in and will ship in v1.0 of WCF.

Steve Maine posted the good word here:

http://hyperthink.net/blog/2006/04/12/Checkin+1383521.aspx

Anyone going to the Advisor Media conference at the JW Marriot in Vegas (April 9 - 13th)?

My teammate and Notes guy extroardinaire, Gary Devendorf, has invited me to participate in a number of sessions in the Notes2.NET track. I'll be bringing with me some interesting demos and presentations on how to utilize two of the great technologies inside of WinFX - WCF and WF - with Lotus Notes and Domino.

I'll be involed in the following sessions -

Schedule: 04/10/2006 11:15 AM
What is .NET?
Marc Mercuri & Gary Devendorf
Explore the parallels and similarities between .NET technology and Lotus Notes/Domino -- you may be surprised. In this session, you'll learn the fundamentals of .NET, presented in Notes/Domino terms. You'll look at .NET's vocabulary and workings. Finally, a .NET session aimed at the Notes/Domino developer. You don't want to miss this one.

Schedule: 04/10/2006 04:45 PM
Integrating Lotus Domino and Visual Studio .NET Web Services
Gary Devendorf & Marc Mercuri
You can host Web services on a Domino 7 server. But did you know you can also host them on Domino 6 or 5? Also, hosting Web services is only half the story. You must have a Web service client to make a Web service useful. In this session, you'll see how to create and host a Domino Web service. And you'll learn how to create a VS.NET Web service client to use your Web service. You won't believe how easy this is!

Schedule: 04/11/2006 11:15 AM
Integrate Domino Objects and Managed .NET Code Using COM
Gary Devendorf & Marc Mercuri
The Domino objects expose functionality of Lotus Notes/Domino applications to LotusScript, Java, COM, and more. In this session you'll see how you can call the Domino objects from .NET applications using Visual Studio.NET. Also, you'll see examples of LotusScript calling Managed code

Schedule: 04/12/2006 08:00 AM
Microsoft Workflow Linked to Lotus Notes
Marc Mercuri
You know about Lotus Notes workflow, but did you know that Microsoft has a new technology for workflow called Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)? See how WF works and how you can use it from Lotus Notes. You'll even see how to link a Notes workflow to a Windows workflow -- this is all new! You'll see VB.NET and LotusScript in the examples.

For those that know me, I come from an Enterprise background, and know there's a big need out there for info on how to do interop.  With Notes and Domino in particular there are some great opportunities to leverage .NET, Windows Communication Foundation, and Windows Workflow Foundation to provide great functionality and new opportunities to your existing applications.

I'll be in town the whole week, if you want to talk about how to leverage WCF, WF, or InfoCard in your projects, I'm happy to chat with folks 1:1 - just contact me via email to set something up (mmercuri@microsoft.com)

One of the things I've been working on is a WCF book, called Windows Communication Foundation: Hands On Programming.  The book was developed by Craig McMurtry and myself, with Nigel Watling contributing a great chapter on using WCF w/ Infocard.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0672328771/103-1535986-0211043?v=glance&n=283155

One of the things I've been working on is a WCF book, called Windows Communication Foundation: Hands On Programming.  The book was developed by Craig McMurtry and myself, with Nigel Watling contributing a great chapter on using WCF w/ Infocard.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0672328771/103-1535986-0211043?v=glance&n=283155

I know there are a number of readers from both Germany and Japan, so wanted to make sure to publish links to the Feb CTP for those languages as well:

German

Page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A2151993-991D-4F58-A707-5883FF4C1DC2&displaylang=de

Install Guide: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/8/8/188168e6-4881-4c9d-94a7-34742390f9a0/WFBeta2_Install_Instructions.htm

ReadMe: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/1/b/51b24af7-8d77-47c0-8947-5768f728237e/VS2005Extensions_for_WF_Beta2_Readme.htm

Download: http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/0/9/30929765-ad9c-4494-b9a4-072b5d553b7c/Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation Beta 2(DE).exe 

Japanese

Page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A2151993-991D-4F58-A707-5883FF4C1DC2&displaylang=ja

Install Guide: http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/6/f/66ff81ee-e089-4db5-9da8-ae1d67badf86/WFBeta2_Install_Instructions.htm

ReadMe: http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/4/9/84975e78-5f80-4552-ac18-6463a7a3af38/VS2005Extensions_for_WF_Beta2_Readme.htm

Download:  http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/3/d/e3d477c5-8ca6-47fc-8fe6-d98a10ba651e/Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation Beta 2(JA).exe

We had a training last week in Redmond, and with the release of Feb CTP bits this week my inbox is being flooded with the question “Should I use the Jan bits or the Feb bits?”

You can tell I used to be a consultant when I say 'Depends'.

Omri Gazitt puts it best when he discusses the trade-off. If you want something closer to the object model that will be released, go Feb CTP. If you want bits that have gone through more quality testing, go with Jan CTP.

Ed Pinto put together a collection of the changes and posted them on WindowsCommication.Net, I'd recommend checking it out and making the right choice based on your specific instance. As the OM is different, existing labs or materials you might be using for training would also need to be updated to work.

Find the list of WCF changes here:
http://windowscommunication.net/collateral/pages/BreakingChangesJanCTPToFebCTP.htm

On the workflow side, Mark Schmidt has a link to the Hands on Labs released with the JanCTP listed with the links to the Feb CTP bits, this meshes with what I'd been told that the Feb CTP would not see big OM changes for WF. 

 If you're looking for the WF labs, find them here

The WinFX Runtime Components February CTP has been published.

For February, Vista will also be releasing a CTP which is sync’d with WinFX Runtime Components.  The build of Vista (5308.17) will be available only to MSDN Subscribers, while WinFX RC, the SDK, and tools will be available to everyone via the MSDN Download Center.

WinFX Runtime Components:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F51C4D96-9AEA-474F-86D3-172BFA3B828B&displaylang=en

Windows SDK: 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9BE1FC7F-0542-47F1-88DD-61E3EF88C402&displaylang=en

Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” Community Technology Preview - Development Tools for WinFX® (aka Fidalgo):  

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD0CE56E-D7B6-44BC-910D-E91F3E370477&displaylang=en

VS Extensions for WorkFlow:  

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A2151993-991D-4F58-A707-5883FF4C1DC2&displaylang=en

WinFX RC February CTP “Readme”: 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/support/relnotes/winfxfebctp/default.aspx

The WinFX Runtime Components February CTP has been published.

For February, Vista will also be releasing a CTP which is sync’d with WinFX Runtime Components.  The build of Vista (5308.17) will be available only to MSDN Subscribers, while WinFX RC, the SDK, and tools will be available to everyone via the MSDN Download Center.

WinFX Runtime Components:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F51C4D96-9AEA-474F-86D3-172BFA3B828B&displaylang=en

Windows SDK: 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9BE1FC7F-0542-47F1-88DD-61E3EF88C402&displaylang=en

Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” Community Technology Preview - Development Tools for WinFX® (aka Fidalgo):  

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD0CE56E-D7B6-44BC-910D-E91F3E370477&displaylang=en

VS Extensions for WorkFlow:  

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A2151993-991D-4F58-A707-5883FF4C1DC2&displaylang=en

WinFX RC February CTP “Readme”: 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/support/relnotes/winfxfebctp/default.aspx

The WinFX Runtime Components February CTP has been published.

For February, Vista will also be releasing a CTP which is sync’d with WinFX Runtime Components.  The build of Vista (5308.17) will be available only to MSDN Subscribers, while WinFX RC, the SDK, and tools will be available to everyone via the MSDN Download Center.

WinFX Runtime Components:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F51C4D96-9AEA-474F-86D3-172BFA3B828B&displaylang=en

Windows SDK: 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9BE1FC7F-0542-47F1-88DD-61E3EF88C402&displaylang=en

Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” Community Technology Preview - Development Tools for WinFX® (aka Fidalgo):  

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD0CE56E-D7B6-44BC-910D-E91F3E370477&displaylang=en

VS Extensions for WorkFlow:  

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A2151993-991D-4F58-A707-5883FF4C1DC2&displaylang=en

WinFX RC February CTP “Readme”: 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/support/relnotes/winfxfebctp/default.aspx

The WinFX Runtime Components February CTP has been published.

For February, Vista will also be releasing a CTP which is sync’d with WinFX Runtime Components.  The build of Vista (5308.17) will be available only to MSDN Subscribers, while WinFX RC, the SDK, and tools will be available to everyone via the MSDN Download Center.

WinFX Runtime Components:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F51C4D96-9AEA-474F-86D3-172BFA3B828B&displaylang=en

Windows SDK: 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9BE1FC7F-0542-47F1-88DD-61E3EF88C402&displaylang=en

Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” Community Technology Preview - Development Tools for WinFX® (aka Fidalgo):  

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD0CE56E-D7B6-44BC-910D-E91F3E370477&displaylang=en

VS Extensions for WorkFlow:  

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A2151993-991D-4F58-A707-5883FF4C1DC2&displaylang=en

WinFX RC February CTP “Readme”: 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/support/relnotes/winfxfebctp/default.aspx

Demos from my WCF/WF session on MSDN are posted.

You can find them here:

www.marcmercuri.com/downloads/netunwrappedwfwcf.zip

Please respect the copyrights on the demos, as some of these were MS samples.

If you're looking for more samples, please check out our community sites at:

http://www.windowsworkflow.net

http://www.windowscommunication.net

Demos from my WCF/WF session on MSDN are posted.

You can find them here:

www.marcmercuri.com/downloads/netunwrappedwfwcf.zip

Please respect the copyrights on the demos, as some of these were MS samples.

If you're looking for more samples, please check out our community sites at:

http://www.windowsworkflow.net

http://www.windowscommunication.net

Demos from my WCF/WF session on MSDN are posted.

You can find them here:

www.marcmercuri.com/downloads/netunwrappedwfwcf.zip

Please respect the copyrights on the demos, as some of these were MS samples.

If you're looking for more samples, please check out our community sites at:

http://www.windowsworkflow.net

http://www.windowscommunication.net

Demos from my WCF/WF session on MSDN are posted.

You can find them here:

www.marcmercuri.com/downloads/netunwrappedwfwcf.zip

Please respect the copyrights on the demos, as some of these were MS samples.

If you're looking for more samples, please check out our community sites at:

http://www.windowsworkflow.net

http://www.windowscommunication.net

I recently did a session with my colleague Gary Devendorf on using Lotus Notes and WCF.

Check out the video for this here:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032285633&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

I'll also be presenting with Gary at the Notes 2.NET conference in Las Vegas (April). Details on specific sessions will be posted shortly. If you're a Notes person looking to develop in .NET - definately check out Gary's blog as well. (See blog roll to right)

I recently did a session with my colleague Gary Devendorf on using Lotus Notes and WCF.

Check out the video for this here:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032285633&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

I'll also be presenting with Gary at the Notes 2.NET conference in Las Vegas (April). Details on specific sessions will be posted shortly. If you're a Notes person looking to develop in .NET - definately check out Gary's blog as well. (See blog roll to right)

I recently did a session with my colleague Gary Devendorf on using Lotus Notes and WCF.

Check out the video for this here:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032285633&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

I'll also be presenting with Gary at the Notes 2.NET conference in Las Vegas (April). Details on specific sessions will be posted shortly. If you're a Notes person looking to develop in .NET - definately check out Gary's blog as well. (See blog roll to right)

I was recently talking to a colleague, and he mentioned he had an Enterprise customer with clients running Windows 2000 Professional, knew WCF wasn't supported on that platform, and asked what he could recommend they use until they upgrade their clients to XP or Windows Vista. Variations of this question came up a couple of times while on the road these past couple of weeks, and I wanted to share my response in hopes it could help others with the same query.

WCF and WF do require .NET framework 2.0 be installed on the machine, and the official systems supported for *installation* are Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003  and eventually Longhorn Server. That being said, it is totally reasonable for you to install/use WF and WCF on a server using Windows Server 2003 and then expose services (either through WCF or a Workflow exposed as a WCF Service), which can be consumed by non-WCF clients on downlevel OS'.

The first question to ask yourself is this - do you have the ability to deploy .NET Framework 2.0 to the systems where your client will be installed? The next question is - do your services need to be secured at the message level or will security at the transport level suffice?

If you can deploy .NET framework 2.0, look at creating clients using Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET framework.  If transport level security will suffice, encrypt the channel using SSL.  If message level security is required, utilize WSE 3 which will be wire compatible with WCF.

Now, if your target audience will have framework 1.1 installed and you are not empowered to install .NET framework 2.0, you're not left out.

Remember that WCF and WF can be exposed as Basic Profile 1.0 compliant web services, which can be consumed by any software on any platform that can understand Basic Profile 1.0.  On Windows Server 2000 / Windows 2000, there are a number of options here.

We’ve had SOAP/web service support on Win2K for some time, so this is reasonable.  The great thing is, because you can expose multiple endpoints, you build a service today that exposed BP 1.0 services, and add additional endpoints (all external to the application) in the config file. This allows you to simultaneously provide support for older clients, as well as the opportunity to service employees and partners with newer/different clients with WS-* secured services, TCP, etc.

In addition, remember that WCF (and Workflows exposed as a WCF service) can also be utilize MSMQ. This provides another opportunity to utilize an application on a Windows 2000 system. Here you could write messages to MSMQ through System.Messaging (or via other means – even VB6!), again with the service on Windows Server 2003, supporting downlevel (win2k) clients.

Also, if you have existing COM+ applications, you can expose these as well. (again using WCF/WF exposed on Windows Server 2003, with clients consuming them downlevel).

 Finally, remember that you can compile WCF/WF code down to an assembly and make those assemblies visible to COM (via interop).  If you have a legacy app and it’s residing on any of the supported applications, you can consume WCF services using something as simple as com based scripting (works great for customers running things like Lotus Notes, early versions of Offices, even VB6 apps!).

Naturally, these items mentioned for 1.1 framework are also compat on 2.0 version of the framework.

You can start to see the power of this unified model combined with the framework opens a number of possibilities.

I was recently talking to a colleague, and he mentioned he had an Enterprise customer with clients running Windows 2000 Professional, knew WCF wasn't supported on that platform, and asked what he could recommend they use until they upgrade their clients to XP or Windows Vista. Variations of this question came up a couple of times while on the road these past couple of weeks, and I wanted to share my response in hopes it could help others with the same query.

WCF and WF do require .NET framework 2.0 be installed on the machine, and the official systems supported for *installation* are Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003  and eventually Longhorn Server. That being said, it is totally reasonable for you to install/use WF and WCF on a server using Windows Server 2003 and then expose services (either through WCF or a Workflow exposed as a WCF Service), which can be consumed by non-WCF clients on downlevel OS'.

The first question to ask yourself is this - do you have the ability to deploy .NET Framework 2.0 to the systems where your client will be installed? The next question is - do your services need to be secured at the message level or will security at the transport level suffice?

If you can deploy .NET framework 2.0, look at creating clients using Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET framework.  If transport level security will suffice, encrypt the channel using SSL.  If message level security is required, utilize WSE 3 which will be wire compatible with WCF.

Now, if your target audience will have framework 1.1 installed and you are not empowered to install .NET framework 2.0, you're not left out.

Remember that WCF and WF can be exposed as Basic Profile 1.0 compliant web services, which can be consumed by any software on any platform that can understand Basic Profile 1.0.  On Windows Server 2000 / Windows 2000, there are a number of options here.

We’ve had SOAP/web service support on Win2K for some time, so this is reasonable.  The great thing is, because you can expose multiple endpoints, you build a service today that exposed BP 1.0 services, and add additional endpoints (all external to the application) in the config file. This allows you to simultaneously provide support for older clients, as well as the opportunity to service employees and partners with newer/different clients with WS-* secured services, TCP, etc.

In addition, remember that WCF (and Workflows exposed as a WCF service) can also be utilize MSMQ. This provides another opportunity to utilize an application on a Windows 2000 system. Here you could write messages to MSMQ through System.Messaging (or via other means – even VB6!), again with the service on Windows Server 2003, supporting downlevel (win2k) clients.

Also, if you have existing COM+ applications, you can expose these as well. (again using WCF/WF exposed on Windows Server 2003, with clients consuming them downlevel).

 Finally, remember that you can compile WCF/WF code down to an assembly and make those assemblies visible to COM (via interop).  If you have a legacy app and it’s residing on any of the supported applications, you can consume WCF services using something as simple as com based scripting (works great for customers running things like Lotus Notes, early versions of Offices, even VB6 apps!).

Naturally, these items mentioned for 1.1 framework are also compat on 2.0 version of the framework.

You can start to see the power of this unified model combined with the framework opens a number of possibilities.