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Introduction to Microsoft Workflow Foundation

David Giard

Many applications require workflows to manage scenarios such as approval processes and complex business logic. Often these tasks can last for weeks and require status tracking, waiting for input from external persons and systems, and execution of parallel work. Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) assists developers in creating a workflow for an application by providing a library of common tasks, a framework to coordinate those tasks, and a graphical development environment. WF is built on top of the .Net framework and integrates seamlessly with SQL Server and with WCF. In this presentation, I will demonstrate the basics of WF, demonstrate how to create and call a workflow and the options for hosting a workflow. I will show how to use the task library and extend WF by creating your own tasks.

A Field Guide to Moving to the Cloud

Mike Wood

Last year the Windows Azure Platform, Microsoft's Platform as Service offering in the cloud, went live. You might find this platform of interest for one or more of the following reasons: the ability to scale to handle unpredictable loads, a robust global deployment or reducing your overall solution costs. No matter what your reason for going to the cloud is, you should find this presentation valuable as we cover topics such as: · What do I need to do get my application running in the cloud? · How do I maintain an application in an environment I don't own? · How do I maximize my costs savings? The presentation will provide a brief overview of the Azure platform and a checklist of things to think about as you plan to move your solutions to the cloud.

Web Application Migration to Windows Azure From the Ground Up

Dennis Burton

There you are looking up at all of these cloud applications wondering "Just how am I going to get there". In this session we will look at the key considerations around the process of migrating your production web application with a SQL Server back end to the Windows Azure platform. We will then walk through a series of identified steps that will allow you to migrate a piece of the application at a time all while continuing to serve up pages. You will walk away from this session with the real world tools necessary to start migrating your own applications.

Greenfield Development with CQRS and Windows Azure

David Hoerster

It's rare that you get a chance to build an applicaton the way you want to, from the ground up. If you did, what architectural choices would you make and why? Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS) is a hot topic and has been described as crack for architecture addicts. This talk will look at why CQRS may be a good architectural choice for your project, how to use the NCQRS framework, and how this framework can be incorporated with ASP.NET MVC on the front-end and Azure on the back-end. This talk will also focus on the learning curve experienced when implementing an architectural style that bends the curve and is out of the mainstream of traditional application development.

Developing Apps for Windows 8

Susan Anspaugh-Yount

Join us for our session on taking a design from images to Windows 8, the game changer business has been waiting for.

We will import images and learn how to turn them into a working app, with the focus on XAML. If you are already familiar with Silverlight, you'll learn how to port that knowledge into Windows 8 apps; if you are a XAML beginner, this session will help you jump right in!

Stone Soup or Creating a Culture of Change

James Bender

As highly engaged developers, we sometimes are dismayed by the apparent inertia exhibited by others around us. We wish we could somehow transplant our passion into our co-workers and managers and get them as excited as we are about all the new developments in application development. Often times our enthusiasm is misinterpreted as "Shiny Object Syndrome" and our pleas for change denied. Is there a way to bring change to teams and organizations that have been "stuck" in what seems like the dark ages for years! Yes! And it's so simple that a child can do it.

How I Learned to Love Dependency Injection

James Bender

Tightly coupled applications lead to heartache. They are difficult to manage. They are difficult to maintain. The create applications that are inflexible. They make TDD, or even TAD (Test After Development) all but impossible. It doesn't have to be this way. This session will demonstrate how the concept and practice of Dependency Injection (also known as Inversion of Control) and some easy to use frameworks can help make your application more loosely coupled, more flexible, more maintainable and more testable.

Top 10 Tips for Moving from Winforms to WPF

Michael Eaton

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is an extremely powerful and flexible framework. But, nearly everything you already know about how to develop Windows applications has changed. Even experienced developers find that moving from Winforms to WPF is a daunting task. However, despite a steep learning curve, you will discover that the paradigm changes are absolutely worth the effort. This session aims to help ease your own transition to WPF by exploring the top ten pain points that traditional Winforms developers have when first starting out in WPF.

An Introduction to the .NET Micro Framework (NETMF) and the Internet of Things

Charles Stacy Harris III

The .NET Micro Framework is an implementation of .NET for devices. In this session, we'll explore some of the technical details behind the .NET Micro Framework, take a look at some .NET Micro Framework devices, and get some hands on with some affordable devices that you can use right away. We'll show you how any .NET developer can learn to program embedded devices. We'll also talk about “The Internet of Things” and how you can get started experimenting with connected devices.

Webparts, workflows, jQuery, oh my! Real world custom development with SharePoint

Steve Mushkat

Heard about SharePoint & want to see what opportunities it offers? I’ll answer that & more in a session focusing on SharePoint development. We’ll take a look at just what SharePoint is, then review different ways of adding in customizations. We’ll start off with a basic web part in Visual Studio just to see all the pieces in action, layer that up with interaction with data using the SharePoint object model, then expand out to a real world example of a jQuery based notification system to be able to push out messages to your users.

Be a Better Developer

Mike Wood

As a developer, you end up wearing a lot of different hats: researcher, designer, janitor, mediator, teacher, student… the list can go on. Likely, you juggle these hats almost every day... and we haven't even mentioned writing a line of code yet. If you want to become a better developer you'll have to learn how to switch these hats easily and what it means to wear each one well. Most talks focus on a given technology or tool: some resource that you can use. This talks focuses on how to improve the best resource you have: YOU. Come hear how you can improve yourself by learning, teaching - and yes - even being lazy.

Going Independent

Michael Eaton

Breaking free from the confines of the cubicle farm and going out on your own can be one of the most satisfying things you do for your career. It can also be one of the most terrifying. Along with Mike, several consultants and other professionals will help answer the most common questions people ask such as: "How do I get started?", "Where do I find clients?", "How much do I charge?" and many others. Come find out if the grass really is greener on the other side.

The Technical Debt Trap

Doc Norton

Technical Debt has become a catch-all phrase for any code that needs to be re-worked. Much like Refactoring has become a catch-all phrase for any activity that involves changing code. These fundamental misunderstandings and comfortable yet mis-applied metaphors have resulted in a plethora of poor decisions. What is technical debt? What is not technical debt? Why should we care? What is the cost of misunderstanding? What do we do about it? Doc discusses the origins of the metaphor, what it means today, and how we properly identify and manage technical debt.

Why programmers should care about Math

Brian Korzynski

Want to be a better programmer? Ever wonder why things get really complicated when programming? Many concepts in programming are directly taken from mathematics. For example databases and collections correlate to the mathematical concepts of relational theory and set theory respectfully. Come learn how to leverage math as we examine everyday programming examples. Some concepts we will cover include set theory, combinatorics, linear algebra, calculus, and discrete mathematics.

The Importance of Patterns

Matt Ruma

Patterns can be found in all areas of your life, from creating grocery lists to crafting robust software applications. This session will introduce you to the concept of patterns, their history and benefits. We'll look at some different uses of patterns in crafting software applications, including design patterns, architectural patterns and user interface design patterns. We'll chase a rabbit and look at where patterns fail or might not be used correctly. You'll leave this session able to identify patterns and successfully use them in all facets of your design and construction of software applications.

Develop IT: Intro to PowerShell

Sarah Dutkiewicz

This session is good for both developers and IT pros who want to get started with PowerShell but have not worked with it at all. In this session, we will look at the basics of PowerShell – from installation to grammar, aliases, piping, functions and profiles. We will use examples that are practical from both a developer's point of view and from an IT professional's point of view.

Stealing Toys from the Ruby Sandbox

Dennis Burton

Ruby's primary audience is web developers. One side effect of this is that the Ruby culture and ecosystem is moving at an incredible pace. There are new tools created and abandoned every day. .NET's primary audience has moved into the enterprise. In this environment, the risk of abandoned tools it too high. In this session, we will look at tools that have reached a level of maturity that allow them to be used in a .NET environment to be more productive.

A Beginner's Guide to LINQ

David Hoerster

So what is all this talk about LINQ? What benefit does LINQ give me in my programs? This session will introduce you to the LINQ syntax, how you can use it in your applications, compare LINQ statements to the near counterpart in classic .NET syntax and also introduce you to some tools to help you with your LINQ statements. At the end of this session, you should have a general understanding of what LINQ is, how you can use it in your current applications, and have an understanding how LINQ can be used across a great many different data sources.

Dealing with Data in a Mobile Application

Jeff Fansler

Storing, retrieving, and querying data in a mobile application raises some interesting problems. Most applications don 't just deal with data locally, but also have to interact with a central data store. How do you deal with these issues when your application is running on a device that can often times be disconnected? In this session we will explore these problems and solutions using examples in Windows Phone 7. We will also look at a few open source libraries that you can use in your applications to get up and running quickly.

Do I Really Need a Mobile App, or is a Mobile-Friendly Website Enough

Jeff McWherter

Mobile apps are the hottest trend in tech right now, leaving many companies struggling to create a mobile strategy for their products or services. When defining this strategy, the question of do I really need a mobile app is the first barrier that needs to be crossed. Deciding whether a mobile app is truly necessary is the first, and perhaps the most important decision. In this session, I will discuss why a company might truly need a custom mobile application, and when updating a portion of an existing web site to be mobile device-friendly may be the more appropriate solution.

Let's Go to C# On The iPhone

Jay R. Wren

Let's write C# on the iphone, you won't be sorry // Put your LINQ on // and your cool XML // with C#, easy code is what its all about.

I haven't learned Obj-C yet (That's OK!) // And you know how them Cocoaheads get (Whatever!) // I don't care, 'cause all my friends are gonna be there // Let's write C# on the iphone today.

There is this idea I have // I thought of it after a twitter conversation // Its gonna be so awesome // And it will be beautiful in native iPhone UI // I hope its easy to write // I hope its like what I know // It will be just C# and me // (But don't forget the .NET Base Class Library)

Cocoa guru says I should learn Objective C // But baby, I don't want to wait (Let's do it!) // That's OK, I'm going to rock the code anyway // I'm gonna rock the code 'til iPhone 6 day

Everybody come and code // Throw every last care away // Lets write C# on the iPhone today

Introduction to PhoneGap - Using Phonegap to create a Mobile Application

Adam Ryder

Target multiple mobile platforms with the same code using PhoneGap. Adam will create a mobile application for both iPhone and Android by the end of the demonstration. In this introduction to PhoneGap, learn to leverage your current skill set: integrate HTML, JavaScript, and jQuery with simple OData integration.