Status Report – February 28, 2002

Hello again,

YAG has now finally arrived in Israel; I hope his dad’s birthday is great.

Here’s what went on this past week:

1. Jeff Danner and I spoke to approximately two dozen of the writers here in Developer Tools about our experiences in the chat. Everyone seemed psyched about doing them once we explained what went on and how much fun it was to participate in them. These chats should get better and better; as people here on the inside specifically address your questions directly, it will help us shape the contents of the Help system.

2. Newsgroup Blast on Monday of next week- everything is getting set for this. I hope we are as successful as last time in answering questions and addressing user’s concerns.

Lots of exciting whitepapers this week - hope they are helpful!

Thanks for reading ;)
-Seth


Upcoming chats (http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats):

Microsoft Visual Basic: Upgrading Projects from Visual Basic 6.0 to Visual Basic .NET
Thursday, March 14, 2002: 10:00 A.M. Pacific time (Greenwich mean time- 8)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/servicedesks/webcasts/wc031402/wcblurb031402.asp
In this session, we will discuss how to upgrade projects from Visual Basic 6.0 to Visual Basic .NET. We will start with an overview of what has changed in Visual Basic, and then explain why and when you should upgrade. We will then talk about how to use the upgrade wizard, what the common upgrade issues are, and how to fix them.

DataGrid Web Server Control
Tuesday, March 19, 2002, 1:00 – 2:00 P.M. Pacific Time (22:00 – 23:00 GMT)
This chat is a follow up to the white paper located at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vbvcstechart/html/vbtchTopQuestionsAboutASPNETDataGridServerControl.aspand will focus on your questions about the DataGrid Web Server Control.

Working with Single File Web Form Pages
Tuesday, March 26, 2002, 1:00 – 2:00 P.M. Pacific Time (22:00 – 23:00 GMT)
This chat is a follow up to the white paper located at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/vstchWorkingWithSingle-FileWebFormsPagesInVisualStudio.asp and will answer questions about how to work with single-file pages in Visual Studio, and how to convert single-file Web Forms pages to code-behind Web Forms pages.

Becoming a Help Power User
Tuesday, April, 2002, 1:00 – 2:00 P.M. Pacific Time (22:00 – 23:00 GMT)
There is a lot of great material in the Visual Studio help file. This session will cover various tips and tricks for getting the most out of it and will collect your feedback on the help system.

Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect Tools
Tuesday, April 2, 2002, 2:00 – 3:00 P.M. Pacific time (22:00 – 23:00 GMT)
Successfully building complex enterprise applications requires a solid architecture and a common understanding of requirements across the development team. The role of an architect is typically to help their organizations build applications that scale, integrate with existing systems, fulfill business requirements, and be maintainable over multiple versions of the product. In this session, Keith Short, Software Architect for enterprise features within Visual Studio will answer your questions about the tools Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect provides for architects to build enterprise applications in a systematic, repeatable and predictable manner.


White Papers released this week – available from http://msdn.microsoft.com/net/guide/:

(This week, MSDN has a number of links to chapters from books about Visual Basic .NET – rather than provide links to each sample chapter, I merely pass this information on for those who are interested. Follow the link above for links to these sample chapters.)

Debugging Windows Forms Controls Created with Visual Basic .NET or Visual C# .NET
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/vberrDebuggingWindowsFormsControlsCreatedWithVisualBasicNETOrVisualCNET.asp?frame=true
This paper shows the basics of how to debug your user controls, by creating a host application for them to run in. Stepping through code and setting breakpoints will also be discussed.

Navigating Multiple Related Tables in an ADO.NET Dataset
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/vbtchNavigatingMultipleRelatedTablesInADONETDataset.asp?frame=true
A dataset in ADO.NET is an in-memory representation of data that can contain multiple related data tables. This paper describes the methods of navigating these related data tables within a dataset. You will create a Windows® application in Visual Basic® .NET or Visual C#™ .NET that returns related records based on a selected record, as well as compile aggregate information for related records using expression columns.

Overriding Event Handlers with Visual Basic .NET
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/vbtskOverridingEventHandlersWithVisualBasicNET.asp?frame=true
This paper shows how to override event handlers when programming in Visual Basic® .NET. How to use the Handles clause will also be discussed.

Design-Time Data Tools in Visual Studio .NET
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/vbtchDesignTimeDataToolsInVisualStudioNET.asp?frame=true
Visual Studio® .NET provides many tools for working with data. Some tools are available for working directly with data at its source, whereas other tools are for working with data that is integrated into your Visual Basic® or Visual C#™ application. This paper will assist you in discovering what tools are available, as well as where to find specific information about these tools in the Visual Studio documentation.


Building a Scalable Business Process Automation Engine Using BizTalk Server 2002 and Visual Studio .NET
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnbiz2k2/html/BizTalkVSautoeng.asp
Covers design and implementation of a scalable BizTalk automated business process application using BizTalk Server 2002, Visual Studio .NET, and SQL Server 2000.