On Katrien’s MSDN Blog:

 

During TechDays Belgium 2012 two weeks ago, Scott Guthrie announced the Beta release of ASP.NE MVC 4 slated for that same week. Since February 16th you can now download ASP.NET MVC4 Beta.
Interesting to note is the availability of a Go-Live license with this release. In other words, if you feel like using these bits on production you now can!

 

A few important updates and features are part of the Beta:

 

• - Bundling and Minification, brought to ASP.NET 4.5 and now also integrated into ASP.NET MVC 4. This allows you to build faster applications by minimizing the number of requests to the server (bundling requests).
  
• - Web API integration into ASP.NET: new support for creating HTTP REST services, has built-in support for content negotiation with support for JSON, XML and Form URL-encoded formats
  
• - ASP.NET Mobile support through custom view engines for mobile sit.es and jQuery Mobile integration.
  
• - Async and WebSockets: when using ASP.NET MVC 4 with .NET 4.5 and VS 11 you’ll also be able to take advantage of the new async and WebSocket support built-into .NET 4.5.
  
• - Single Page Applications: new in the beta is support for building better end-to-end experience for building applications with client-side interactions using JavaScript (Upshot, History.js) and the MVVM pattern (knockout.js). On the server side the ASP.NET NET Web API is used, mainly an abstract class DataController. Note this is a new project template type in experimental phase.
  
• For more information on creating Single Page Applications with ASP.NET MVC 4 I recommend you watch the fantastic session Steve Sanderson did during TechDays: Building rich Single Page Applications (SPAs) for desktop, mobile, and tablet with ASP.NET MVC 4. Worth watching until the end where Steve even shows an offline capable implementation using HTML5 application cache and offline storage. These latter ones however are not yet part of the beta.

 

Resources

 

• Download ASP.NET MVC 4
• Watch Scott Guthrie’s session going through ASP.NET MVC 4
• Watch Steven Sanderson’s session on Single Page Applications
• Read Scott Guthrie’s series on ASP.NET Web API
• Learning: new Intro to ASP.NET MV4 tutorial
• Learning: ASP.NET Web API Samples

Release 1.2.11 of log4net has these changes (source):

 

General:

 

log4net 1.2.11 is not only a bug fix release, it also adds support for Microsoft® .NET 4.0 as well as the client profiles of .NET 3.5 and .NET 4.0. … The binary distributions no longer contain assemblies built for the Compact Framework 1.0 or the Shared Source CLI - you can build those yourself using the source distribution.

NOTE: The signature of ILoggerFactory.CreateLogger has changed!

 

Some of the bug fixes:

- Visual Studio 2010 .NET 4.0 Application does not copy log4net lib to bin directory

- RemoteFileAppender Tests fail on Windows 7

- log4net doesn't log when running a .Net 4.0 Windows application built in Release mode

- EventLogAppender's ActivateOptions throws SecurityException on Vista/Win2k3 and later when not run as administrator

 

Some of the improvements:

 

- support .NET 2.0 connectionStrings configuration section

- IPAddressConverter improvement for .NET 2 or .NET 3

- Add Cc and Bcc support to SmtpAppender

 

Some new features:

 

- add the ability to roll files based on universal time (UTC).

- Support ASP.Net related PatternConverters to allow items from the HttpContext.Current.Session, Cache, Request, etc. to be captured.

- Build for Compact Framework 2.0

- Added ExceptionEvaluator

- Add TimeEvaluator

- New property ReplyTo address for the SmtpAppender required

- Buildable with VS 2008 and .NET FW 3.5

• - Support .NET 4.0 including Client Profile

 

 

Previous articles:

 

- Logging: Log4Net Part I

- Logging: Log4Net Part II

- Logging: Log4Net Part III

- Logging: What/When to log?

- Logging: Log4Net Custom AdoNetAdapter and RollingFileAppender with XML

 

Links:

 

- Log4net web site

- Download Log4net

Found the MSDN newsletter in my mailbox this morning. First topic that caught my eye: Visual Studio 11 Dev Preview! Another one? Indeed!!! So here is some more information on the new kid on the block.

 

What's New in Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview

Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview Training Kit

 

.NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview

On Hosam Kamel’s blog there is an interesting post on a tool that helps you finding your way in an SLN-file (Visual Studio Solution file).

 

“Tools for SLN File” is a tool that makes it easier for developers to compare, merge or filter the Solution (.Sln) Files generated by Visual Studio. (source)

Benefits and Features

Using the SLNTools provides the following advantages:

• - Make it easier to compare SLN files versus a 'generic' file comparer. For more information on the compare function see SLNTools Compare.
• - Make it easier to merge SLN files versus a 'generic' file merger. For more information on the merge function see SLNTools Merge.
• - Make it possible to create filters for a SLN file. The way it work is that when the filter file is opened, a temporary solution is created dynamically. The created solution file contain only the projects that are specified in the filter, and all the dependencies of those projects. This make it possible to have a mega-solution that contain all the projects needed to build the complete system but still have the possibility to work efficiently on a subset of the system. As you might know, Visual Studio is a lot faster when you have a solution with 10-20 projects instead of one with 200+ projects (opening the solution, building, etc). For more information on the filter function see SLNTools Filter.

 

For downloading the tools or viewing the full article, please visit the original blog post.

Visual Studio 2010

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 ( Web Installer)

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 (ISO – 1.5GB!)

 

SQL Server 2008

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 (for x86, x64 and IA64)

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (for x86, x64 and IA64)

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 (for x86, x64 and IA64)

 

Microsoft Office 2007

The 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 – SP1 Language Pack

The 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 – SP2 Language Pack
The 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 3 – SP3 Language Pack

There are a bunch of new SDL resources available on the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle page. For every step in the software development process (Requirements, Design, Implementation, Verification, Release) there are tools and/or training videos available. For a video giving an overview of the SDL tools, click here.

 

Source

 

Requirements

Templates:

- SDL Process Template for Visual Studio Team System 2008

- MSF-Agile + SDL Process Template for Visual Studio Team System 2010

- MSF-Agile + SDL Process Template for Visual Studio Team System 2008

 

Videos:

 

• Introduction to the SDL Process Template for VSTS
• How to set up the SDL Process Template
• How to improve your check-in process
• How to change default work items
• How to use the SDL Process Template documentation and reporting

 

Design

 

SDL Threat Modeling Tool

 

For more information on the treat modeling tool, click here.

 

Implementation

 

FxCop 

 

FxCop analyzes managed code assemblies (code that targets the .NET Framework common language runtime) and reports information about the assemblies, such as possible design, localization, performance, and security improvements. For more information, click here. Watch the video here.

 

Anti-Cross Site Scripting Library

 

This is specifically designed to help mitigate the potential of Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks in web-based applications. Watch the video here.

 

Microsoft Code Analysis Tool .NET

 

CAT.NET is a binary code analysis tool that helps identify common variants of certain prevailing vulnerabilities that can give rise to common attack vectors such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), SQL Injection, and XPath Injection. Watch the video here.

 

 

Verification

BinScope Binary Analyzer

 

BinScope Binary Analyzer is a verification tool that analyzes binaries to ensure that they have been built in compliance with the SDL requirements and recommendations. Watch the video here.

 

SDL MiniFuzz File Fuzzer

 

MiniFuzz is a basic testing tool designed to help detect code flaws that may expose security vulnerabilities in file-handling code. Watch the video here.

 

AppVerifier

 

Application Verifier is a runtime verification tool for native code that assists in finding subtle programming errors that can be difficult to identify with normal application testing. For more information, click here.

 

SDL Regex Fuzzer

 

SDL Regex Fuzzer is a verification tool to help test regular expressions for potential denial of service vulnerabilities. Watch the video here.

 

Attack Surface Analyzer Beta

 

Attack Surface Analyzer is a tool that highlights the changes in system state, runtime parameters and securable objects on the Windows operating system.

 

 

Release

The release resources are the same templates and videos as the ones in the Requirements section.

The first post I did about this was the announcement of it's beta release. The final version has been available for a while now, so here we go :)

 

What is Visual Studio LightSwitch?

Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch is a simplified self-service development tool that enables you to build business applications quickly and easily for the desktop and cloud. What can your business do with LightSwitch? Watch this brief introduction to find out.

 

Links & resources:

Visual Studio LightSwitch page
MSDN LightSwitch Development Center
Visual Studio LightSwitch Technical White Paper Series

 

LightSwitch videos:

 

Overview with Jason Zander
Build Custom Business Apps. Coding Optional.

Introductory videos

Creating Your First Business Application
Data, Queries and Code in LightSwitch 2011
Controlling Access to Your Business Application
Publishing Your LightSwitch Application

Advanced videos

Understanding the LightSwitch Architecture
Deploying Your Application to the Cloud
Advanced LightSwitch Customization
Advanced LightSwitch Extensions

Extension videos

DevExpress LightSwitch Extensions
Infragistics LightSwitch Extensions
RSSBus LightSwitch Extensions

Here are some resources that might be useful when working with (or learning) Team Foundation Server 2010.

 

Team Foundation Installation Guide for Visual Studio 2010

Description:
Team Foundation Installation Guide 2010 includes instruction for installing Team Foundation Server, Team Foundation Server Proxy and Team Foundation Build Services.

Note: After you download the installation guide, you cannot view its contents unless you right-click the .chm file, click Properties, and then click Unblock.

 

Download

 

Administration Guide for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server

Description: Effective administration of Team Foundation Server is important to the success of your team projects. You can use this downloadable version of the administration content available on MSDN for local review of critical administration concepts, procedures, and walkthroughs.

Download

 

Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server Monitoring Management Pack

Description: The Team Foundation Server 2010 Monitoring Management Pack provides both proactive and reactive monitoring of Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010. It monitors TFS components such as application tier server instances, team project collections, build servers, and proxy servers.

Download

 

Team Foundation Server Integration Tools (March 2011 Release)

Description: The TFS Integration Tools is a project developed by the Team Foundation Server (TFS) product group and the Visual Studio ALM Rangers to integrate Team Foundation Server with third party systems for migration and synchronization of data.  Although the tools can be used for many purposes, planning, thorough testing and honest evaluation of extra resources and cost that will be required should precede any decision to use the Integration Tools.  The Integration Tools are not intended to replace a server upgrade as a path to TFS2010 and this scenario should be avoided if possible.

The March 2011 release includes the following features:

• Out of the box adapter to Team Foundation Server 2010
• Out of the box adapter to Team Foundation Server 2008
• Out of the box adapter to Rational ClearCase
• Out of the box adapter to Rational ClearQuest
• Out of the box adapter for File system based version control migrations
• Updated documentation, guidance and case studies (readiness package)
• Updated User Interface to configure and run integrations
• Synchronization monitoring tools and reports

Download

 

Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Branching guide

Description: The purpose of this project is to build some insightful and practical guidance around branching and merging with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010. The new release focuses on Hands on Labs and includes lots of lessons learnt from the community Q&A.

Download

 

Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server Requirements Management

Description: This Ranger solution addresses the People, Process, and Technology guidance for Requirements Engineering (RE) using Team Foundation Server. The goal of this guidance is to provide formalized Microsoft field experience in the form of recommended procedures and processes, Visual Studio Team System and Team Foundation Server configurations, and skill development references for the Requirements Engineering discipline of your application lifecycle.

Download

 

Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer Everywhere 2010

Description: Eclipse plug-in and cross-platform command-line client for Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server.

Download

 

Team Foundation Server Power Tools (March 2011)

Description: A plug-in to Visual Studio, Alerts Explorer provides a graphical user interface that supports flexible subscription of alerts based on check-in, work item change, or build completion.

Download

The Visual Studio 2010 SP1 is available for download here (Web Installer). The service pack is also available as ISO image (1.49GB)

 

From the download site:

 

This download installs Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1). This service pack release addresses issues that were found through a combination of customer and partner feedback, as well as internal testing. These service packs offer Visual Studio users improvements in responsiveness and stability, as well as completes some high-impact scenarios requested by customers. The full list of updates included in this service pack can be found here.

In both Visual Studio 2008 and 2010 there is a bug when you try to use the WCF Service Configuration Editor. The editor should be reachable through the Tools-menu or by right clicking a configuration file (web.config / app.config). This appears to be a known bug. It’s not blocking, but it’s easier to access the editor directly from the configuration file (then the file is immediately loaded in the editor). 

When you just started Visual Studio, and right-click a configuration file, the editor is not visible as an option:

 

 

 

Now open the editor from the tools menu (Tools –> WCF Service Configuration Editor):

 

 

Now the editor will open. You can close it immediately and go back to the configuration file. When you right-click it now, you will see that the option to open the editor is available:

 

From Scott Guthrie’s blog:

 

Last month we released a beta of the Microsoft Web Farm Framework. The Microsoft Web Farm Framework is a free product we are shipping that enables you to easily provision and mange a farm of web servers.  It enables you to automate the installation and configuration of platform components across the server farm, and enables you to automatically synchronize and deploy ASP.NET applications across them.  It also supports integration with load balancers - and enables you to automate updates across your servers so that your site/application is never down or unavailable to customers (it can automatically pull servers one-at-a-time out of the load balancer rotation, update them, and then inject them back into rotation).

 

Downloads: X86 / X64

 

 

Features:

- One step provisioning of servers added to a farm
- Platform Provisioning using Web PI
- Application Provisioning using Web Deploy
- Policy-based Provisioning
- Installation of additional platform components and content
- Reduced down time with load balancing integration using ARR
- Up-to-date status and trace logs of server farm servers
- Extensible model that allows you to write additional providers

 

 

Resources:

- Microsoft Web Farm Framework web site

- Official post on Scott Guthrie’s blog (includes tutorial)

Introducing the newest member of the Visual Studio family:

 

Visual Studio LightSwitch is a new tool aimed at building data-driven applications, like an inventory system or a basic customer relationship management system incredibly easy.
LightSwitch automatically generates the user interface in Silverlight for a data source and, with no code, you can create, read, update and delete data.

 

Resources:

- Visual Studio LightSwitch Development Center

- Visual Studio LightSwitch Forums

- Jay Schmelzer: Introducing Visual Studio LightSwitch (Channel 9 video)

- Jason Zanders blog

- Beth Massi “How do I” videos

- Download Visual Studio LightSwitch