OakLeaf Systems: Visual Studio Magazine Article Retrospective

Friday, July 17, 2009

Visual Studio Magazine Article Retrospective

Following are images of Visual Studio Magazine issues from late 2003 to the present for which I've written cover stories. Each entry includes the article name and deck. Click the image to open the article from the Visual Studio Magazine Web site.

Updated 6/28/2008: As of early 2008, archives of articles earlier than October 2006 are no longer available from Redmond Media Group, so they are delivered as archived Web pages from the Wayback Machine.

All but one of the Wayback Machine archives are the single-page print version and have working links to Additional Resources, tables, and listings. All figures have captions and most have the original diagram or screen capture. Sample code is not accessible from Wayback Machine archives.

Targeting Azure Storage (July 2009)

Learn how to store and retrieve binary large objects in the cloud with Azure's RESTful Storage API and sample C# StorageClient library.

Retire Your Data Center (February 2009)

Visual Studio 2008, ASP.NET, and the Azure Services Platform combine to simplify local development of data-intensive Web apps and automate their deployment in Microsoft data centers. The result: You get maximized availability and reliability with almost limitless on-demand scalability, while you pay only for resources consumed.

Speed O/R Mapping with LINQ to SQL (December 2008)

LINQ to SQL continues to be a top contender in the .NET object/relational mapping tool market despite Microsoft's promotion of the Entity Framework as one of the "Pillars of SQL Server 2008: Dynamic Development.”

Generate Web Sites Automatically (August 2008)

Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1's new ASP.NET Dynamic Data templates automatically generate code for DataGrid, ListView, DetailsView, and FormView display and editing controls on dynamic pages derived from a master page and CSS stylesheet. Dynamic Data leverages AJAX to smooth page transitions and delivers scaffolding for codeless, key-based page routing with Entity Framework or LINQ to SQL object/relational mapping tools.

Test-Drive SQL Server Data Services (July 2008)

Microsoft readies its new "cloud database" by hosting beta versions of REST and SOAP protocols for performing CRUD operations on clustered, customized SQL Server 2008 instances. These instances are organized as massively scalable, super-reliable, highly available Web services.

Manipulate Data in the Cloud with ADO.NET (May 2008)

ADO.NET Data Services (formerly code-named "Project Astoria") delivers data from relational tables and Windows Live services to Web mashups and Visual Studio 2008 projects, including ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight 2.0 rich Internet applications, as Representational State Transfer (REST) resources over HTTP in response to URI-based requests or LINQ to REST queries.

Model Domain Objects with the Entity Framework (March 2008)

Microsoft's ADO.NET Team readies Entity Framework and Tools 1.0 for release as a VS 2008 add-in with enterprise-level features that LINQ to SQL doesn't offer -- domain object modeling, flexible inheritance techniques, multiple database vendors, and do-it-yourself n-tier deployment.

"Do-it yourself n-tier deployment" refers to Daniel Simmons' Entity Bag (Perseus) project, which is covered by a sidebar.

Visual Studio 2008 Kicks Off (January 2008)

Find out how VS 2008's greatly expanded feature set and new .NET Fx 3.5 namespaces can boost your career as a professional developer and add to your programming enjoyment.

Additional VS 2008 articles in the January 2008 issue:

Optimize LINQ to SQL Performance (November 2007)

Persisting business objects to sQL Server 2005 or later with object/relational mapping by LINQ to SQL can extract a performance Penalty. Learn how to take maximum advantage of LINQ's strongly typed query capabilities without overtaxing the database server or losing front-end agility.

Update Local Data Caches with Sync Services (May 2007)

The Microsoft Synchronization Services 1.0 API for SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition and the new Sync Designer in the Orcas March 2007 CTP team up to generate a local data cache that synchronizes incrementally and bidirectionally with SQL Server [Express].

Lighten Up Your Local Databases (March 2007)

Put local data storage on a resource diet and improve performance with the newly upgraded (and free) SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition.

Objectify Data with ADO.NET vNext (October 2006)

The ADO.NET vNext August 2006 Community Technical Preview reincarnates ObjectSpaces’ object/relational mapping technology and OPath query language as the Entity Framework, Entity Data Model, Entity SQL, and LINQ to Entities for the Visual Studio “Orcas” release.

Program SQL Server 2005’s Service Broker (June 2006)

SQL Server 2005’s versatile Service Broker infrastructure enables asynchronous messaging between databases and server instances, handles database server event notifications, responds to database change notifications, and sends Database Mail.

Test Drive VB9 and DLinq (April 2006)

The January 2006 Language Integrated Query (LINQ) preview for the next ("Orcas") version of Visual Basic enables automating SQL Server object-relational mapping for DLinq and enhances XLinq syntax for literal XML and late binding.

Add Reports and Charts to Web Pages (March 2006)

The ASP.NET 2.0 version of Visual Studio 2005's ReportViewer control and its Report Designer let Web page developers quickly embed, format, and export interactive reports and charts without running a SQL Server Report Server.

Build Client-Side Reports Easily (November 2005)

VS 2005's new ReportViewer control and its built-in Report Designer enable smart-client and Web page designers to lay out, format, embed, export, and print interactive reports without running a SQL Server Report Server.

Create Interoperable Native Web Services (October 2005)

Yukon lets you take advantage of the new kernel-mode Http.sys listener and eliminates the need for IIS to process ASMX files or SQLXML 3.0 templates that implement Web services.

Exploit Yukon's XML Data Type (June 2005)

Take advantage of SQL Server 2005’s new native XML data type to add XML columns to a table, populate and index the columns, and understand basic XQuery syntax.

Build Real-Time Web Images (August 2004)

Use Microsoft's TerraService and MapPoint Web Services to start your own VS.NET-based Windows form mapping projects.

Store Large Lookup Tables in DataSets (July 2004)

Persist DataSets of lookup information as local XML files so disconnected laptop and Pocket PC users can search and update DataSets quickly.

Use InfoPath with VS.NET 2003 (May 2004)

InfoPath SP1 and the new .NET 2003 Toolkit let you implement business logic behind InfoPath forms with managed VB.NET or C# code instead of JScript or VBScript event handlers.