Developer Connections, Fall 2008 
- By
Sheila Molnar
[11/13/2008]
Posted by:
Sheila Molnar
The DevConnections conference has a little-ballyhooed track called DotNetNuke. I sat down with Joe Brinkman, the VP of Core Technology and co-founder of DotNetNuke to find out more about it. Folks at Penton Media, the parent company of SQL Server and Windows IT Pro magazines and windevpro.com are especially interested in DotNetNuke because they're the developing the next generation website for our publications.
I wanted to know more about how DotNetNuke blends its open source platform with the Microsoft .NET stack and how developers can take advantage of hooks in the platform to customize their websites. Check out what Brinkman has to say in this podcast.
For a little history of SQL Mag's website development check out Kevin Kline's article, Something old, something new.
[11/12/2008]
Posted by:
Sheila Molnar
Hello from DevConnections in Las Vegas. I ran into Kathy Malone, a Green Technology expert, at a Green Carpet Social out at the Beach Casino at Mandalay Bay. Kathy graciously agreed to be interviewed for a podcast on the shores of this artificial waterscape as choppers buzzed around overhead. It's not the greenest place to consider sustainable IT practices, but, on the other hand, what better place to begin!
Kathy discusses a multitude of green practices, from using fewer keystrokes in development to running SQL boxes more efficiently. She explains how the reduction of bits and bytes in large data centers actually makes these large energy users green.
One person Kathy talked with observed that thinking green is really just "adding another dimension to optimization."
Enjoy the podcast.
For more podcasts and videos (some really funny ones) from the Connections conference check out ittv.net.
For more on green computing and SQL Server, read Is Green Computing Possible, by Kalen Delany in October 2008 SQL Server Magazine.
[11/11/2008]
Posted by:
Editors
There's not a whole lot of product news coming out of the fall DevConnections conference, with its focus on nuts and bolts problem-solving sessions. But today has been an exception. During his keynote this morning, Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president .NET Developer Platform at Microsoft, casually announced the out-of-band release of ASP.NET Chart Control for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.
According to the press release, ASP.NET Chart Control, acquired from Dundas Software, is a free, full-featured chart control package allowing developers to quickly setup interactive charts and graphs for applications without having to write code. Similar functionality resulting from the technology acquisition from Dundas was released in SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Report Builder 2.0.
Check out a sample environment for ASP.NET Chart Control geared towards getting started fast. The sample environment includes more than 200 samples for both ASP.NET and Windows Forms.
More information about the news can be found on the Data Platform Insider blog.
[11/11/2008]
Posted by:
Sheila Molnar
At the fall Dev Connections conference I roamed the halls looking for someone from the Microsoft Developer Platform group to talk to our developer readers about the new release of Silverlight and how developers can use Silverlight as they create SQL Server front ends and reports. I found Brian Goldfarb and we grabbed some time to talk, just before he ran off to catch a plane. This podcast comes to you from the hallway outside of the developer speakers lounge. Check it out.
For more podcasts and videos, including a few funny ones, check out ittv.net.
For more on Silverlight and SQL Server see Efficient Data Binding with WPF and VS 2008.
[11/11/2008]
Posted by:
Editors
Developers don't come to the Dev Connections conference for big announcements about major new products from Microsoft. They come for intense hands on sessions with experts in various Microsoft technologies. Some of the expert speakers are from Microsoft and many are not. Their candor about the products gives the conference its unique appeal.
Even the keynote speakers don't waste much time getting down to the code. In his keynote outlining how SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR (General Distribution Release) RC 1 together give developers a comprehensive platform for building applications that manage data, Britt Johnston, a Microsoft product unit manager in the data programmability tools group, often pulled up the code to walk the audience through the new features and enhancements he covered.
The talk didn't break new ground, rather it drilled into the proposition that the SQL Server 2008/Visual Studio 2008 combo can help developers write deeper, data-driven business applications highlighting what Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR RC brings to the table, including support for all of new SQL Server data types, the intrinsic types as well as the built-in SQL CLR types (geography, geometry, and hierarchyid) and support for the new DML (data manipulation language).For more on building database projects with Team System and SQL Server, see Gert Draper's blog. Drapers is Principal Development Manager for the Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals; he announced the RC of the product at the PDC a couple of weeks ago.
Johnston covered SQL Server 2008's support for business intelligence (BI). For an in-depth look at this coverage see Derek Comingore's article, SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Enhancements.
Johnston reviewed the new Tablix feature, which combines tables and matrices without additional coding.
Other topics included a look at how SQL Server delivers cloud data storage with SQL Data Services and how to extend SQL Server data to the Web with ADO.NET Data Services (project Astoria).
For background on SQL Server 2008, go to the Microsoft site.
To download Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR (General Distribution Release) RC 1 go here.
[11/6/2008]
Posted by:
Editors
SQL Server Magazine editors Jeff James, Amy Eisenberg, and Sheila Molnar will post news, videos, and interviews from the show floor and sessions at the SQL Server, Microsoft ASP.NET, and Visual Studio Connections conferences, November 10-13 in Las Vegas. Check this blog often for the latest reports from Fall 2008 Connections! And for news from the Windows, Exchange Server & SharePoint Connections conferences, check out the Windows, Exchange Server, & SharePoint Connections, Fall 2008 blog.
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