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.

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

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:

 

Another MSDN-flash newsletter was send out covering various topics such as Windows Phone 7, PDC10, MVVM Light Toolkit for Silverlight and WPF and much more. If you want to subscribe to the MSDN-Flash newsletter (and all other available Microsoft newsletters), you can do so at the Profile Center.

 

 

Now, about the e-book:

 

The book is called “Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010”, written by Ken Haines, Pascal Paré and Patrice Pelland. For more information about the authors, please check the original post on the Microsoft Press Blog. The book is divided in three parts: part I for developers moving from VS2003, Part II is for developers moving from VS2005 and part III is for developers moving from VS2008. You can provide feedback by filling out the survey on the Microsoft Learning site.

 

 

 

Download the book: PDF (18.2MB) / XPS (30.5MB)
Download the sample code

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