VS2008 for web developers

Mon, October 29, 2007, 02:52 AM under Orcas | VisualStudio
The top 3 Visual Studio 2008 IDE features for web developers, in my opinion, are:
1. New split view designer with new CSS support.
2. JavaScript intellisense and debugging enhancements.
3. Nested Master Page support.

Note that due to the multitargeting feature, the tool/IDE enhancements are also applicable to developers targeting ASP.NET 2.0 ;)

If you are looking at what is new from a platform perspective, then the top 3 IMO are:
A. ASP.NET AJAX support out of the box - 'nough said.
B. Three new ASP.NET 3.5 controls.
C. ASP.NET MVC Framework. Technically not part of ASP.NET 3.5, but it will be released later as an addition and it is too cool not to mention ;-)

BTW, back in March I listed some other blogs that you should be following for web-specific Visual Studio resources.
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Support for Nested Master Pages in VS2008

Fri, October 26, 2007, 08:34 AM under Orcas | VisualStudio
As cool as master pages were when introduced with VS2005/ ASP.NET 2.0, the designer was not capable of rendering nested master pages and I imagine that for some that hindered their ability to make the most of this cool feature. In VS2008, the new HTML designer that is shared with Expression Web supports nested master pages. Read all about this on ScottGu's blog post.

The key is that when you bring up the Add a New Item dialog and select a master page template, it will allow you to check the box that offers the option to base it on an existing master page. See this screenshot.

With earlier drops of Visual Studio, the above only applies when you create a new Web Site. It doesn't apply when you create a new ASP.NET Web Application project, i.e. there is no check box there. See this screenshot.

I strongly suspect that when VS2008 is released, we will have also added a new item template for the latter case... maybe something called Nested Master Page ;-)
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Orcas Beta 2 VPC expiration in a week

Thu, October 25, 2007, 03:05 PM under Links
I don't like "me too" posts but this is important, especially since I am responsible for some of you downloading it: If you are running VS2008 Beta 2 in a VPC, it will expire November 1st. Full details on JeffBe's blog.
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My November Events

Thu, October 25, 2007, 02:20 AM under Events
Same intro/outro as my post on Sept and Oct events. Hope to see you at one of these:

+ 1st, Coventry, VBUG, Details and registration.

+ 3-10, Barcelona, TechEd, Details and registration.

+ 13th, Brighton, VBUG, Details and registration.

+ 15th, Southampton, NxtGenUG, Details and registration.

+ 20th, Cambridge, NxtGenUG, Details and registration.

+ 24th, Reading/TVP, DDD6, Details and registration.

+ 27th, London, LDNUG, Details and registration.

+ 29th, Bristol, MSDN, Details and registration.
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PIP in screencasts?

Wed, October 24, 2007, 04:30 AM under Random
ScottHa asks for your opinion on the usage of Picture-In-Picture (PIP) for screencasts. If you haven't seen that before, it is where not only you see the presenter's screen but you also see the presenter's "talking head" in the corner of the video. As someone who believes very strongly in the power of screencasts, I'd also be interested in what you think about PIP so head over and scroll down to the Screencast survey and then drop a comment.

Personally I don't like PIP, but if you do then I may consider including a PIP in my screencasts. I find the head distracting plus it makes the file grow larger and I try to keep the wmv as small as possible. The last reason I don't like the PIP, is because when I record these I am at home in a far from presentable appearance ;-).
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Five VSTO v3.0 (in VS2008) videos

Sun, October 21, 2007, 05:30 PM under Orcas | VisualStudio
Having looked at the Office extensibility stuff in Visual Studio 2008 I can honestly say: if you are a windows forms developer and you choose NOT to explore the Office customisation story, then you are genuinely doing yourself a disservice and seriously missing out. I first showed some enthusiasm on this topic through my post: Office development through pictures.

To help you go further, I have recorded 5 short screencasts:
1. Ribbon customisation.
2. Custom Task Panes and Actions Pane.
3. Outlook Form Regions.
4. Word Content Controls.
5. VBA interop with VSTO.

In addition to these videos, there are many online resources to read. There are 6 great dedicated blogs (see links from the bottom of this post) and then there is the online documentation and the Office dev centre. If you have specific questions, please visit the very active free online VSTO Forums.
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WPF from WinForms in VS2008

Fri, October 19, 2007, 08:49 AM under Orcas | VisualStudio
Following on from my post about interop between WPF and WinForms, I produced a screencast demonstrating the mechanics. In the process you also get to see the WPF designer in VS2008 if you haven't seen it already. Check out the 17' video here.
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MSDN Flash 17 Oct

Wed, October 17, 2007, 09:10 AM under Links
The MSDN Flash was just delivered to its subscribers. There were 15 Fresh discoveries and an opportunity to win an Xbox Elite 360 – you can view this issue online now.
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Going to Tech Ed Europe 2007? Come to my sessions and win

Mon, October 15, 2007, 02:33 PM under Events
UPDATE: Fixed room info.

In 3 weeks in Barcelona the largest Microsoft conference of the year takes place. If you haven't chosen sessions to attend yet, go do it now that the agenda is live with all the info (assuming you have registered).

This year Tech Ed is 5 days long, so I am delivering a session per day. At each session I will be handing out a copy of my book as a prize signed by all 3 authors! That is a total of 5 opportunities for you to win it. Below are the times and rooms where you can attend (all sessions 75' long):
  • Monday 5th, 16:00, Auditorium, TLA201
    A Tour of Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5

  • Tuesday 6th, 10:45, Room 113, MED202
    Building Mobile Windows Forms Applications: Tips, Tricks and Guidelines

  • Wednesday 7th, 09:00, Room 130, MED304
    Sharing Assets Between the .NET Compact Framework and the .NET Framework

  • Thursday 8th, 13:30, Room 113, WIN312
    Windows Vista for Managed Developers: Besides .NET Framework 3.x

  • Friday 9th, 13:30, Room 121, MED01-PAN
    Windows Mobile Application Development Panel Discussion
Note that TLA201 is in the keynote room so plenty of space for all that wish to attend ;)
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MS Speak RC Build 21004.01

Fri, October 12, 2007, 07:00 AM under Random
Mike, I find it very British of you to question the Microsoft speak!

SO, my ASK to you is to GO AHEAD and get SUPER excited about how much more PERFORMANT your developer STORY becomes with these UM.. UM... enhancements that we are BAKING into the language. See it as your CALL TO ACTION. :-)
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