I've gone ahead and updated the sample for Chapter 9 - Custom Behaviors.

Rather than just do a straight port, I looked at the sample and recognized there were some opportunities to make it more interesting for the reader. I've made some changes and additions, which I think you will find beneficial -

Changed this to an EndpointBehavior. This is a more common scenario, and I think you'll find it more valuable.

Added code that shows how to add support for behaviors in the Config file. Note that this is accomplished through a combination of the code in AuditBehavior.AuditBehaviorSection.cs, by adding the behaviorExtensions section in the Service app.config, by specifying a behaviorConfiguration attribute on the endpoint element, and by defining that endpoint in the endpointBehaviors sections.

Use the behavior via configuration (service) and via code (client)

Added significant Console.Write comments so you can see exactly what is happening in which part of the code (i.e. the behavior, message inspector, etc.)

Consolidated all behavior related classes (including message inspectors) to a single project for greater clarity.

I've renamed the projects so there is no question which project is the service, which is the audit recording service, and which is the audit behavior class.

For querying the meta-data of a service, you must now explicitly do several things - add an endpoint for mex, add a behavior, and reference the behavior on the service via an attribute in the configuration file. These changes are also reflected in this sample.

If you're working with the latest CTP, you may have noticed that InstanceContextMode.Shareable was removed from the InstanceContextMode enumeration.

You can still achieve this same functionality through extensibility. While the sample is being updated, I wanted to point out Maheshwar Jayaraman's blog. Maheshware is in the product group, and provides more information here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/mahjayar/archive/2006/07/08/660176.aspx

There were changes in the later CTPs that affected the code for Chapter 5.

InstanceContextMode.Shareable has been cut. As two of the three excercises here leverage shareable instancing, I am currently talking with the product team about a workaround they have using extensibility.

In the interim, I have updated the first exercise which deals with MSMQ. One thing that is different here is that binding on the sample was changed in the config files as based on Active Directory configurations, people were having challenges with the default binding. The sample in it's current state is should work regardless of configuration.

Also, for the service definition in the configuration file, the type attribute is now changed to name.

For querying the meta-data of a service, you must now explicitly do several things - add an endpoint for mex, add a behavior, and reference the behavior on the service via an attribute

05-PartI.zip (55.21 KB)

This is the updated code for Chapter 7. I will post a doc that covers the specific changes that were made.

The key changes here were very straightforward, and primarily were focused on the following  -

For the service definition in the configuration file, the type attribute is now changed to name.

For querying the meta-data of a service, you must now explicitly do several things - add an endpoint for mex, add a behavior, and reference the behavior on the service via an attribute.

I've had a couple of people ask me recently 'Why is the book using the January CTP bits and not the Feb/May/June/July CTP?"

If you're on one of the latest builds, I can imagine waiting for a new code update could be a bit annoying. I wanted to share that I've actually taken a couple days off of work to update and test the the code for the samples I wrote, and I've almost got everything moved over such that they're running fine on the June and July CTP bits. Expect them to be posted here tomorrow. 

 I also feel it's important to provide some insight into how that decision was made to go with the January CTP.

One of the great things about Microsoft is that they’re providing broad access to bits much earlier in the lifecycle, with regular refreshes via Community Technology Previews.  For WCF, Microsoft is releasing drops in CTP form roughly every 1 – 1.5 months. As the product is still in development, the object model has changes each month based on customer feedback (moreso back in November, less so now). Now, of those monthly drops, only a small subset of them are actually allowable for use in production using a ‘go live’ license (per the end user license agreement).  

 There are distinct differences between a CTP that is licensed to ‘go live’ and one that is not. Testing for a ‘Go Live’ release is at a much higher quality bar than a non-Go Live release. The benefit for developers is that they can continue to develop and take advantage of the interim changes much more quickly than in years past (whereas historically, you may have hit a stopping point that of 6 months between a release of a Beta1 and a Beta2) The January CTP ,on which the released code was tested, was the last version that was approved to go into production with a ‘Go Live’ license. The interim drop that followed (February) was not available for Go Live. Based on the information we had, we went with the January CTP, with a commitment to update it – which we’re doing now.

I think you'll find of the authors who've written Beta books, Craig, Nigel, and I are probably the most eager to get updates for the new CTPs out there.

The good folks over at netfx3.com have been good enough to post the breaking changes for WCF going from Vista Beta 2 to June CTP.

Links can be found below:

» Breaking Changes from Vista Beta 2 to June CTP

» Detailed Change Report Vista Beta 2 to June CTP

Previous Change Reports

» Breaking Changes from Feb CTP to Beta 2

» Detailed Change Report Feb CTP to Beta 2

» Breaking Changes from Jan CTP to Feb CTP

» Detailed Change Report Jan CTP to Feb CTP

Over the weekend, I made some changes to the blog.

The underlying software has been updated to the latest dasBlog which has some nice enhancements.

I've built a new UI on top of DasBlog as well that looks a bit better than the oh-so-stylish, white on gray on darker gray style I have right now.  The new graphics will go live on July 18th.  The new 'blog' is much more of a site, and has links to the blog, whitepapers, demos, webcasts, and my history/resume. The timing of that launch will coincide with the CTP release of InfoCenter (my pet project).  For those who can't wait until next week, here's a sample screenshot from the version running locally:

While you won't see that live until next week, what you can see today are two big changes tied to categorization.  You will now be able to easily filter on just those posts from a particular month, as well as by a particular category. I actually went back and categorized every one of the posts going back to last October, and will categorize each post going forward. 

I found that as the blog was evolving, there were now enough posts that some items that people were interested in were getting lost in all the posts. While there's a big chunk of people that read the blog for WCF/WF/CardSpace info, there is also a sizable number that liked the blog to read about my entries about Technology Futures (context, trust, identity).

To make the blog more accessible, the following categories have been added -

Announcements

Atlas

Cardspace

Context

CRM

Demos

Ideas

Identity

Interop

Legacy

Live

Meet

Other

Presentations

Search

SQL

Technology Futures

Trust

Virtualization

Visual Studio

WCF

Webcasts

WF

WPF

Looking for another one stop shop for your WCF, WF, WPF, and CardSpace (formerly InfoCard) needs?

http://netfx3.com/ was launched with the rebranding of winfx to netfx3, and now you can find info, demos, and forums on CardSpace and all your favorite foundation technologies there.  This site consolidates what was windowsworkflow.net and windowscommunication.net.

Definately worth checking out, particularly as there were a number of new samples and demos uploaded that weren't on the old sites.

.NET Framework 3.0 - June CTP has been released and can be found here.

For those of you wondering where the heck I've been for the past couple of weeks, I think this helps describe the why...

World Cup - U2 - Sick Days Video:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1zRcIJPrg8&search=u2%20world%20cup)

I've not just been a total World Cup slacker, however, I've been recording a new video series I'm looking to publish on Channel 9, been to TechEd, incubating a new project (to be unveiled on July 11th), closing out the end of year (Microsoft's fiscal year), some demos, a technical whitepaper or two and a blog software upgrade.

Lots of stuff will hit this week and next, so stay tuned..

Awhile back, I wrote about how Wikis and community sites would be our new memorials (Wiki as memorial? http://www.marcmercuri.com/PermaLink.aspx?guid=0f22d71f-8eed-4f32-a1da-7ced952bc97f).  In that piece I commented on how Wikis and community sites like MySpace and space.msn.com would become the memorials of the digital age

“If you look at spaces.msn.com and myspace.com, you're starting to see the dawn of things happening.  What is 'cool' for todays teens will become institutionalized, and we'll start to see people taking technology in interesting places to build these interactive histories and memorials.”

I ran across an interesting article this morning on the Associated Press wire “MySpace generation preserves memories online“(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13526522/).

It looks like it's starting...

InfoCard has officially been renamed this week.  It is now Microsoft CardSpace (WCS).  As with the rebranding of Indigo to Windows Communication Foundation or for old schoolers like Thunder to Visual Basic, this is nothing to be concerned about.

This is just a natural transition from an internal, pre-release codename to a the official product name.

One of the things that was announced at TechEd was that was has been known as WinFX is being re-branded as .NET Framework 3.0.

Some folks have some questions about what this means, so I wanted to provide some clarifying info on this.

The .NET Framework 3.0 will still be comprised of the existing .NET Framework 2.0 components, including ASP.NET, WinForms, ADO.NET, base class libraries, and the CLR, as well as new technologies Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and Windows Workflow (WF).  In addition, we have made a decision to name the technology formerly codenamed “InfoCard” as Windows CardSpace (WCS).  Windows CardSpace will also be a component of the .NET Framework 3.0:

We announced this over the weekend through Soma's blog, and the two questions that I'm hearing are -

If you saw Craig McMurtry's demo for the Xbox 360 finder earlier this year, you saw an interesting phenomenon.

In that example, he built out an app that queried for the availability of Xbox 360s at certain electronics resellers.  In theory, once the Xbox360 was acquired, the app would have served its purpose and be deleted. There would be no v2 (until perhaps the release of the Xbox 720). This poor app's existence was to be short-lived by design, and to be honest there's something cool about the state of software and services that this could be done. 

Today, I saw another one of these cool apps with an intentionally short lifespan.  Checking my email this afternoon, I saw that a colleague had forwarded me a link to download “Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard” (hopefully the internationalization team called it “Microsoft Football Scoreboard” for folks installing outside the US)

World Cup is upon us, and for those of us who left the 62 inch HD screen back home to go to TechEd were wondering where we would get our World Cup scores and reviews. For those who want up to date information, scores, tables, RSS feeds, etc.  You should check this out - the link is here:

-----------------------

Follow your favorite teams and players during the FIFA World Cup tournament with Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard. This fun program allows you to access all the latest tournament news and information with the click of a button! Live game data allow you to monitor your favorite teams progress in real-time. Want more? Check out your team’s fixture (schedule), standing, and news as they advance through the tournament. If you are a soccer fan, don’t miss a minute of the action.

Note: You can share this with everyone!!!

Download Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard today!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=df6a6e6e-21af-4786-ad1d-a38e8bfda82f&DisplayLang=en

----------------------------

For those who also want to check out the matches on someone elses big screens, you can try the Thirsty Scholar. I haven't lived in Boston for a few years, but when I was there for the last World Cup and they - and their taps - were open early, and the place was filled with fans from every country, who knew every song, and came in the type of gear you're used to seeing in Europe.  I checked their web site and it looks like they're doing the same this year. http://www.thirstyscholarpub.com/

WCF and WF in Public Sector.PPT (2.16 MB)

I did a webcast today on WCF, WF, and Infocard in Public Sector today.  For the Retail and Fin Serv webcasts I'd done previously, I'd had great scores (>8/9 in some cases), but there were always requests for additional vertical content after the fact.

I tried switching it up today for the pub sector session (more vertical, less core wcf/wf/identity), but the presentation just didn't click. I think I'll re-record and post a link to it when it's available, I'm pleased with the InfoCard demo, though, as I think it provides additional value. 

I've attached my deck to the start of this post, as I wanted people to see the legacy empowerment section that we didn't get to review.

If you're new to the blog, I wanted to point you to some of the demos I've got online, including:

http://www.marcmercuri.com/ct.ashx?id=d0cffe95-b683-4f7c-b883-44feeb0afd43&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.marcmercuri.com%2fDownloads%2fFinServDevCon.zip

As well as a syllabus for learning InfoCard:

http://www.marcmercuri.com/PermaLink.aspx?guid=eae5a6ef-a12e-4cfd-bd65-56fdf0b103f4

Cheers,

Marc

This is not WinFX related (atleast directly), but is something that's of value to MSDN subscribers, so I wanted to forward on.

The much-anticipated Team System VPC (a single-server, evaluation install of Team Foundation Server + Team Suite) has been posted for download from MSDN Subscriber Downloads.

Look under “Developer Tools” – “Visual Studio 2005”:

Much thanks to Rob Caron for the info on this.

Just a reminder - I've got a webcast tomorrow on WCF, WF, and Infocard in Public Sector.

This will also include some new, never before seen demos, so wanted to make sure it was reposted.  As a side note, I think I'll tweak with the blog while I'm at TechEd to provide more direct links to samples and webcast information.

I just realized that while I blogged about the excellent chalk talk session at TechEd being done by Leslie Muller, I didn't mention that I'd be there as well.

If you're going to be in town and would like to chat about WCF, WF, and/or Infocard and how you might include it in your solutions, let me know!

I'm going as an attendee and not as a speaker to this one, so will have more time to do some 1:1 or 1:few sessions with interested parties.

If you'd like to get together while I'm in town (10th-18th), send me an email (mmercuri@microsoft.com).

With the talk about Web2.0, you'll hear people telling you about mash-ups and these cool new AJAX applications.

I always chuckle a little bit when I hear “AJAX“ and new.  Saying AJAX is “new“ is like saying “Screencasting“ is new  (anyone else use Lotus Screen Cam back in the 90s?)

AJAX isn't new, it's been around for close to a decade. Heck, O'Reilly published the first edition copy of “Dynamic HTML - The Definitive Reference” back in 1998.

But writing these apps was never for the timid.  I developed a few in 2000, and the development experience was far from ideal.  That development experience has gotten better recently with Atlas. 

“Atlas” is a codename for an extensible, object-oriented framework to facilitate AJAX-style web development, namely exploiting DHTML and asynchronous server communication to provide more interactive browser applications. It is implemented in JavaScript and helps abstract the variances across browsers and versions of browsers.

Since we have alot of cool new stuff coming out (WCF, WF, WPF, Infocard, Atlas, Expression tools, etc., etc.), Atlas might not be on your radar screen.

We actually released a CTP of Atlas back in March, and it actually came with a Go Live license so you both develop with it and put it into production.

I wanted to make sure you were aware of the WCF/Atlas sample code that was out there.  If you're used to WCF, it's a great first step on the road to building some really interesting AJAX-style apps. 

You can find the sample here. If you don't have Atlas installed yet, this site will be helpful.

As you know, I work with a number of companies who are adopting WCF, WF, and Infocard.  Up until this past week, the names of the customers has been a well guarded secret.

With WinHec just passed, TechEd coming up in a few weeks, and launch not too far off on the horizon, the names of these customers and their projects are now starting to be revealed.

Last week at WinHEC, Ami Vora spoke to PressPass about a project at one of my customers, Tyco.

Yesterday, I blogged that one of my other customers, Leslie Muller from Credit Suisse will be doing a must-see chalk talk at TechEd 06 in Boston.

Today, we launch a new site, http://www.seewindowsvista.com, to highlight some companies that are using WCF, WF, and WPF on the client. Check it out to hear about one of my other customers, Dollar Thrifty Auto Group.  They're listed under “Managing the Big Picture.”  They're using both WCF and WF in a number of areas, and we'll be following up soon with a whitepaper on the use of WF in the UI, with specific references to their project.

If you only go to one Chalk Talk at TechEd this year, check out this one. 

Anyone who's worked in a large Enterprise is familiar with the challenges of getting new machines provisioned and available in a reasonable amount of time. Typically the wait is days/weeks/months. Credit Suisse has solved this problem, and Leslie Muller will be discussing the Virtual Machine Provisioning System that was built and deployed  earlier this year using WF, WCF, Virtual Server, ASP.NET, and AzMan.

I've had the privilege of being involved in this project, and I think this session will be great in a couple of respects. It's an opportunity to go beyond the samples and the case studies and listen to an Architect at a Fortune 50 customer who's developed and deployed WinFX successfully. It's also a great opportunity to connect with Leslie, who is a thought leader and is doing some very interesting, very impactful work that transcends verticals.

Full abstract and location details below: 

Abstract: Credit Suisse Group is a leading global financial services company, providing clients with investment banking, private banking and asset management services worldwide. Like in most enterprises, Credit Suisse provided their developers with physical machines for development. Issues such as combination of authorization, physical delivery times and compliance-related workflows led to slow development timeframes. Their R&D group built an extremely extensible self-service virtual-machine provisioning system that enables software developers in a fraction of the time to easily, securely and rapidly provision on-demand disposable workstations, servers, and multi-tier environments. Credit Suisse will exponentially increase software developer productivity, drastically lower IT costs and ensure compliancy with continuously stringent regulatory requirements. The solution uses Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, and Virtual Server.

Speaker: Leslie Muller (Architect - Credit Suisse Global R&D)

Location: TechEd Boston, Thursday 6/15/2006 from 10:15-11:30 in Theatre 2.

The title of this blog is “Living in a World of Connected Systems“. It does not say “Living in a World of Connected Systems Written Exclusively on the Microsoft Platform“.  Why?

First, the title would go from long to annoyingly long. More importantly, if you're in the Enterprise space you know it's a heterogenous environment.  If you've seen me speak, I talk more about how to interop with what you've got and explicitly don't preach 'rip and replace' your existing stacks.

Several of the companies I work with have ,at one point or another, made some investments in Java. When we chat about architecture, number one on their list of topics to discuss is interop.

If you're doing work in both .NET and Java today, and you want to do more interop - there's a video clip I want you to check out.

 Watch this video from the JavaOne 2006 keynote here.  (Annoyingly, you'll need RealPlayer, find that here).

The video shows WCF/Java interop, with Sun showcasing what was called Project Tango (aka Web Services Interoperability Toolkit), which in their words is described as

“Web Services Interoperability Technology (WSIT) is an open-source implementation of next generation Web services technologies that deliver interoperability between Java EE and .Net to help you build, deploy, and maintain Composite Applications for your Service Oriented Architecture. Built upon JAX-WS (Java API for XML Web Services), this implementation will be made available as the "Web Services Interoperability Technology (WSIT)" and is focused on four main categories: Messaging, Metadata, Security, and Quality-of-Service (QoS). “

Nigel Watling, one of the co-authors of “Windows Communication Foundation: Hands On!” has just published a video on Infocard over at Channel 9.

In the video, Nigel leads an in depth discussion of how InfoCard works, how it's designed (and why) and how it will evolve in the future with InfoCard chief Architect Arun Nanda and Software Developer Ruchi Bhargava

Check it out here.

So now that you've got the new bits, the next question is - “What's changed?”

The list of breaking changes for WCF and Infocard have been posted here.

You can now get Windows Vista Beta 2 and a new drop of WinFx (Beta 2/RC0).

This version of WinFX has a new Go Live license attached (the first since January). There's enough new since January that you'll want to make the jump to the May bits.

If you want to use Infocard, this is also the drop for you. This is the first broadly available build that has Infocard bits that work with IE7.

Find both Vista and WinFX  here.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/downloads/products/getthebeta/default.aspx#developWinFXApps

If you're an architect or an aspiring architect, you'll want to check out skyscrapr.  The site just launched today, and it definately fills a need.

Here's the scoop from the home page.

Skyscrapr is your window on the architectural perspective. Discover the different disciplines of system architecture, as well as perspectives on building successful systems. Check out our architects' blogs, learn about industry trends, download webcasts, watch videos, find training, and more.

	Solution Architecture Solution Architects decide which technologies to use. They work very closely with developers to ensure proper implementation. They are the link between the needs of the organization and the developers.
	Infrastructure Architecture The Infrastructure Architect finds the pragmatic solutions to the requirements of the organization as presented by the Strategic architect. They like to make things work. They know robust and secure systems keep everything running smoothly.
	Strategic Architecture Enterprise Architects create the master blueprint that guides their organization’s business and IT systems. They have the vision and long-term perspective that gives an organization direction.
	Industry Architecture Industry Architects focus on the cutting edge of technology in their industry. Whatever the business imperatives may be, Industry architects develop the vision and the roadmap to get there.

While I'm very good about posting the WF webcasts I'm doing, Paul Andrew keeps his list up to date with everyone's WF presentations.

He's got a good list going, check it out here -

http://blogs.msdn.com/pandrew/articles/460630.aspx

Because of what's possible to do with Infocard in the Feb CTP bits, I know that only a subset of my readers have used InfoCard up to this point, but as the folks who got an interim build of Infocard at the Mix06 conference can tell you, Infocard = goodness.

I expect people will start experimenting with Infocard with the next community release of WinFX.  In anticipation of that release becoming available, I wanted to make sure people had a single place to find the content currently available, such that you can be ready to hit the bits running.

Until my book comes out later in the year, this should help you get going.  Trust me when I tell you that this stuff is going to be the way we handle identity on the web. The Windows guys love it, the Linux guys love it, the Identity guys love it, and most importantly the Business folks love it. 

So, without further ado, this is my recommended syllabus to get prepped for Infocard:

First, get up to speed on the Laws of Identity and the Identity Metasystem.

From there, read David Chappell's whitepaper “Introducing Infocard“ which can be found here

If you want a little more background, you can read this other intro article or this article that goes a bit deeper.

Now if you're a visual person, and would like to see some videos, I'd recommend checking out my colleague Nigel Watling and Andy Harjanto's Channel 9 video here

Now you're ready to kick the tires and actually see this thing in action on your own machine.

You'll need the WinFX bits, which can be found here. Follow the directions in the section for developing WinFX applications.

NOTE: You'll need the post-February CTP bits to use Infocard in scenarios that involve a web browser (vs. services)

Check out Mike Jones article on using Infocard in a Web Browser, which can be found here. You can also check out Kim Camerons simple tutorial which you can find here.

Maybe now that you've used it, you're curious as to how the implementation of Infocard came to be. Check out Kim Cameron and Mike Jones' paper on Design Decisions here.

The folks at Ping Identity have put together a good whitepaper called “Integrating with Infocard“, which you can find here.

What about blogs for ongoing education? The two I read regularly are  Kim Cameron's identity blog which is here and Andy Harjanto's blog which is here.