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Microsoft WCF Webcasts on the way

A 15 part Webcast series is in the pipeline from the nice people as MS Events. Most of the basic stuff you need to know about the latest MS communication framework is going to be covered, so it’s one for the diary if you have not spent much time exploring this new technology. I’m a big fan of WCF ( even though some of the configuration can be a little cryptic ) and I’ll be sure to watch this series in order to pick up any tips and best practices.

Overview Monday July 02
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344312&Culture=en-US

Contracts Monday July 09
 http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344314&Culture=en-US

Contract Versioning Wednesday July 11
 http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344318&Culture=en-US

Exceptions and Faults Friday July 13
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344322&Culture=en-US

Bindings Monday July 23
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344330&Culture=en-US

Hosting Wednesday July 25
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344338&Culture=en-US

Messaging Patterns Friday August 10
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344342&Culture=en-US

Instancing Modes Monday August 13
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344344&Culture=en-US

Concurrency, Throughput, and Throttling Wednesday August 15
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344346&Culture=en-US

Security Fundamentals Friday August 24
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344348&Culture=en-US

Federated Security Monday August 27
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344351&Culture=en-US

Reliable Messaging Wednesday August 29
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344353&Culture=en-US

Transactions Monday September 03
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344355&Culture=en-US

Message Queuing Wednesday September 05
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344357&Culture=en-US

Extensibility Friday September 07
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032344359&Culture=en-US

I heart System.Activator!

If I had to pick a single class from the wide range that the .Net framework makes available, it would have to be System.Activator. This bit of code has served me well over the years to pull off all kinds of flashy stunts that never fails to impress co-workers and clients.

Well what is it? Briefly, System.Activator can take a couple of strings as input ( along with a whole host of other invaluable overloads ) that specify an assembly name and a class, and re-constitute a fully working instantiated object from them. Impressive huh?! I’ve used it to create extendible plug-in frameworks and super configurable class libraries. Just drop a new DLL in your bin folder, and existing code that has no reference to it can instantiate and use the objects within it.

If you want a crash course on using Activator to create a plug-in architecture for your application, check out Roy Osherove’s article on the subject here.

Here’s a link to the MSDN docs. So why not make today the day that you make acquaintance of System.Activator too?  

New day, new blog

Hi, my name is Jon Paul Davies. My writing will focus on .Net obviously, but more on a personal experience with the framework.

I work for Qire based in Liverpool, building ASP.NET voice applications, and I’m enjoying it very much indeed. We try to run an agile shop here, and are working day by day to make it more so.

So I will try to describe all the positive (and also painful) experiences I have with .Net, and try and grow as a developer in the process.