For more than a decade developers have flocked to VBITS to learn how to write code faster, with fewer errors, and for a wider range of users. Through the decade, VBITS’ mission has remained true: to help you do your jobs better and faster so that you ship sophisticated, bug-free products on time. Join us in San Francisco for 30+ hours of all-time favorites and brand new sessions on Visual Basic .NET.

Create Rich Clients with Windows Forms
Brian Randell
March 25, 10:30 a.m.
Rich Windows applications remain critical to the success of today’s businesses. Come learn how you can build client applications that are both smart looking and behave intelligently. Discover how to build nice looking UI's with GDI+ and how to configure them using XML configuration files. Find out how to work in a low-trust enviroments, to take advantage of new features like Isolated Storage, and how to create a front-end to multipe back-end services. Plus, look to future and see what's in store for rich clients in Visual Studio .NET "Whidbey" and Longhorn.

Application Walkthrough of "Shadowfax"
Ron Jacobs
March 25, 10:30 a.m.
Shadowfax is Microsoft’s approach to the hot topic of SOA or service-oriented architecture. A service-oriented architecture is not new, since it is just an approach to using a collection of services that communicate with each other. But SOA has become a hot topic because of the interest in Web services. For SOA in general, communication can involve either simple data passing or it could involve two or more services coordinating some activity. Some means of connecting services to each other is needed. Service-oriented architectures are not a new thing. The first service-oriented architecture for many people in the past was with the use DCOM or Object Request Brokers (ORBs) based on the CORBA specification. Look at how Shadowfax, a reference architecture for building service oriented applications using .NET. can help you to implement SOA using .NET today.

Handling Exceptions in Visual Basic. NET
Ken Getz
March 25, 10:30 a.m.
It's time to put "On Error Goto" out of its/our misery. Rather than requiring you to work with cryptic error codes and embarrassing Goto's, .NET's exception handling allows you to completely control the behavior of your code when exceptions occur. This session introduces the basics of exception handling in .NET, demonstrates best practices for working with exception handling, and shows how you can extend the basic exception handling provided by the .NET Framework. If you haven't mastered structured exception handling in .NET, you owe it to yourself and your applications to dig in now.

Dyanmic UI Generation
Billy Hollis
March 25, 11:45 a.m.
The .NET Framework’s advanced object capabilities make on-the-fly generation of smart client user interfaces much more feasible than it was with earlier systems such as Visual Basic 6. In this session we’ll discuss adding controls to forms on the fly, and creating forms and controls that generate their own parameter-driven UI at runtime. You’ll learn how to use dynamic loading of forms and assemblies to create entire user interfaces based on database UI definitions, simplifying the development, maintenance, and deployment of complex smart client applications.

Application Design Patterns
Ron Jacobs
March 25, 11:45 a.m.
Design patterns can be used to provide consistent, reusable results and enable applications to be built more quickly, and be made more reliable and more easily maintained. This session shows developers how to build better applications by applying proven design patterns. It explains the Microsoft Patterns Framework and also gives a roadmap to future published patterns.

Building Asynchronous Applications
Jon Rauschenberger
March 25, 11:45 a.m.
Deep dive session focused on building asynchronous applications by leveraging multi-threading and the built-in support for making asynch calls on Framework classes. Session will cover both how to's and best practices.

Security and Deployment of Office Solutions Built with Visual Studio .NET
Eric Lippert
March 25, 12:45 p.m. (Lunchtime Session)
In this session you learn how to deploy and secure your solutions built with Visual Studio Tools for Office. Learn how to deploy code you have written in Visual Basic .NET and Visual C# .NET to client machines or intranet locations and have that code run behind Word 2003 documents and Excel 2003 spreadsheets. Downloading arbitrary code can be dangerous, so the CLR by default restricts what code is allowed to run. This session introduces the underlying details of .NET security policy and how you can leverage managed code safely and securely in an Office 2003 solution. If you are planning on deploying applications using Visual Studio Tools for Office, you can't afford to miss this important session.

Metropolis: Trends in Information Technology
Pat Helland
March 25, 2 p.m.
This talk will examine the changes that occurred in independent and largely disconnected cities as they were rapidly connected by railroads causing dramatic shifts in standardization, manufacturing, and retail. Parallels are drawn to the current changes in information technology as independent and largely disconnected IT shops have been rapidly connected by the internet causing dramatic shifts in standardization, structured data, and business process. This analogy offers some interesting insight into where we are going in information technology and a framework to understand the current trend towards service oriented architectures and Web services in our enterprise customers.

Create Windows Forms Controls
Brian Randell
March 25, 3:15 p.m.
Every developer working with Windows Forms will sooner or later need to create their own controls. Even if you're not a control vendor, the techniques involved in creating your own controls are vital in most Windows applications. The .NET Windows Forms package allows you to create your own controls in several different ways. Depending on the class you inherit from, you get different behaviors, and different features. In this session we’ll introduce you to three different ways in which to create your own controls for Windows Forms and demonstrates why you might want to take on this important task.

Advanced Distributed Application Design, Parts I & ll
Rockford Lhotka
March 25, 3:15 p.m. & 4:30 p.m.
Creating distributed applications is not trivial — especially if you want high developer productivity and long-term maintainability. In this two-part session you will learn how to apply object-oriented design and programming in distributed environments to achieve this goal. We’ll discuss issues around object persistence, interaction between the UI and objects, management of object and UI state and business rule management. The focus will be on the hard problems we face, and on possible solutions to those problems that you can take back and apply in your environment.

Remoting Strategies
Juval Lowy
March 25, 3:15 p.m.
Distributed application gives you scalability, fault tolerance, security, throughput and better performance if proximity to resources is crucial. .NET remoting is the general term refers to when making cross context, app domain (process) or machine calls. .NET has native support for invoking calls on remote objects, but it has much more to it than just remote calls. This talk describes the .NET remoting architecture, remote objects types, programmatic and administrative configuration of remote objects, and the steps required to build and deploy a distributed .NET application.

Optimizing Windows Application Performance
Billy Hollis
March 25, 4:30 p.m.
Windows Forms applications will typically be more distributed than VB 6 forms apps. This introduces new challenges for making Windows Forms applications fast and scalable. Attend this session for to learn techniques for making Windows Forms have crisp performance, both locally and as part of a distributed application environment.

Leverage COM from .NET
Brian Randell
March 25, 4:30 p.m.
Managed code is great. Sometimes you don't have a choice and you still need to use existing COM-based code from your .NET applications. Come learn how to properly use COM Servers, both in-process and out-of-process, and ActiveX controls from your .NET applications. Learn how to create your own interop assemblies and how this affects deployment. Get tips and tricks on how to create shim-components to increase programability and performance.

Zero-Touch Deployment
Andrew Brust
March 25, 5:45 p.m.
The trend toward browser-based applications has been, in large part, driven by their ease of deployment. But now, .NET's Zero-Touch Deployment (ZTD) model allows Windows Forms applications to deploy gracefully over the Internet/intranet and Code Access Security (CAS) makes it safe. We'll cover the nooks and crannies of ZTD and CAS so you can make these technologies work for you.

Rearchitecting from DNA to .NET
Keith Pleas
March 25, 5:45 p.m.
How do you get the most out of your investment in "legacy" applications? The mechanical process of porting code is well documented, yet is often an ineffective approach. This session gives you the guidance to understand when and how to apply such techniques as wrapping, interoperation, refactoring, and ultimately redesiggning to provide the greatest success when moving to a service-oriented architecture using .NET.

Applied .NET Security
Juval Lowy
March 25, 5:45 p.m.
The classic Windows NT security model is based on what a given user is allowed to do. This model has evolved in a time when COM was in its infancy, and applications were usually stand-alone and monolithic. In today's highly distributed, component-oriented environment, there is a need for a security model based on what a given piece of code, a component, is allowed to do. .NET allows you to configure permissions for components, and provide an evidence to prove that it has the right credentials to access a resource or perform some sensitive work. Find out how to manage application security using the .NET configuration tool and how to do so programmatically. Learn the .NET way of dealing with what users are allowed to do using .NET role-based security.

Best Practices for Client Design
Keith Pleas
March 26, 10:30 a.m.
Analysts estimate that the majority of enterprise applications will continue to incorporate a rich client interface for many years to come. So how do you design your applications today to support multiple user interface technologies, or even to support user interface features that are not yet released? How do you do this without requiring duplicated effort or major re-writes? This session shows developers how to design the front end to isolate key functionality from presentation technologies while still supporting the unique capabilities of each client platform.

Morphing From ADO Classic to ADO.NET
Bill Vaughn
March 26, 10:30 a.m.
Updated with the latest tricks, this session includes the best tips and techniques to help ADO “classic” developers morph their data access code and designs to use ADO .NET. It discusses several methodologies including using the conversion wizard and focuses on what works and what won’t — and what to do about it. Find out how to create server-side cursors, pessimistic locks and ADO classic Recordset from a managed ADO .NET application.

Production Debugging for .NET
Chris Kinsman
March 26, 10:30 a.m.
With .NET ’s advent the rules for debugging have completely changed. We ’ll help you get up to speed on the core concepts you need to understand in order to debug effectively with Visual Basic .NET, taking you through the transitioning to .NET debugging, and taking advantage of the new debuggers and debugging techniques, including the new diagnostic code.

Validating Data on the Client
Billy Hollis
March 26, 11:45 a.m.
Reducing data transfer by doing client-side data validation makes your application’s perceived performance crisper, and reducing the load on the server. It also saves time and coding effort and improves encapsulation. Learn some smart techniques for how to do client-side validation, and their trade-offs to help you judge when to do it. This session will detail a set of Windows Forms validation controls that replicate and extend the capabilities of the popular ASP.NET validator controls.

Advanced ADO.NET Techniques
Jackie Goldstein
March 26, 11:45 a.m.
This session starts off where "Moving from ADO 2.X to ADO .NET" leaves off. We will take an in-depth look and demo more advanced features and programming techniques in ADO .NET, including strongly-typed Datasets, multi-table operations, concurrency conflict resolution, and mapping relational views to XML schemas.

Defensive Coding in .NET
Deborah Kurata
March 26, 11:45 a.m.
When your application absolutely, positively needs to run correctly every day, you need to use development techniques that defend against unanticipated system crashes, third-party control bugs, developer errors, and (of course) user errors. Learn how to build robust applications by following best practices, implementing exceptions, logging errors, and performing unit testing.

Developing Word and Excel Solutions with Visual Studio Tools for Office – Tips & Tricks
Paul Cornell
March 26, 12:45 p.m. (Lunchtime Session)
Go beyond the basics of Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System, Version 2003 by learning tips and tricks to enable you to quickly build more robust business solutions in Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003 targeting Microsoft Office Word 2003 and Microsoft Office Excel 2003. In this session, you'll learn how to debug Visual Studio Tools for Office solutions, use built-in and user-defined helper functions to make your coding tasks easier, understand how to modify .NET Framework security policy using the .NET Framework 1.1 security tools, and deploy a code-signed solution using a Setup project in Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003.

Zen and the Art of Web Services: Part 1: The Philosophy
Scott Hanselman
March 26, 2 p.m.
What exactly is a Service Oriented Architecture and how can you achieve it? But right now you can prepare yourself and your company for SOA by leveraging Web Services and ASMX Microsoft .NET. We'll answer the burning question "Web Services: So what?" and dig into the REAL reasons that Web Services exist. We’ll learn everything about Web Services starting with the WHY and work up through XSD, SOAP and Microsoft’s implementation. We’ll sniff SOAP traffic on the wire and explore XML Serialization. You’ll also come away with a huge list of tools to examine and test Web Services for WS-I Compilance.

Validating Data in the Middle Tier
Deborah Kurata
March 26, 2 p.m.
Make your application more robust by defining the validation in the middle tier. Yes, client-side validation improves perceived performance of your application, but it also makes your application harder to maintain. Learn how to get the best of both worlds by setting up the validation criteria in the middle tier and then using those criteria to generically performing client-side validation. This session will detail how to build validation into the middle tier and develop a generic client-side validation function.

Enterprise Development in the Real World
Rockford Lhotka
March 26, 2 p.m.
Enterprise development is more than just application design and coding. We need to deal with issues such as configuration management, unit testing, run-time logging, exception handling, security integration and many other issues. In this session we’ll see how we can use various Microsoft Application Blocks, open-source software and other tools and processes to help address many of these key issues.

Zen and the Art of Web Services: Part 2: The Implementation
Scott Hanselman
March 26, 3:15 p.m.
Should I pass XmlDocuments around? Perhaps DataSets? No, TYPED DataSets? Wait, what about Collections? No, a strong object model...No, just strings, yeah, that's it, strings for all! Are you confused about how to move data from Service to Service? What's a Service you ask? Well, this is just the talk for you. We'll look at how to effectively leverage .NET to move data from Service to Service in the context of ASP.NET. We'll see how to use Schema to describe objects and messages, talk about Service Oriented Architecture, and find out what the Zen Koan "Share Schema, not Type" means. We'll explore CodeSmith, a free code generator with an ASP.NET-like syntax, dig into XSD.EXE and an alternate implementation. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced Web Services wonk, this talk will equip you with the knowledge you need to be successful.

Strategies for Passing and Caching Data
Jackie Goldstein
March 26, 3:15 p.m.
This session presents alternatives and considerations for developing the data access portions of your applications, including numerous techniques for passing data through the tiers of you application. The pros and cons of such common approaches such as Datasets, XML, custom classes, and scalar values will be demoed and evaluated. The techniques described in this session are based on the best practices defined by Microsoft. How the next version of Visual Studio and the .NET framework (Whidbey) address some of these issues will also be mentioned.

Building in Performance and Scalability
Ron Jacobs & Chris Mullins
March 26, 3:15 p.m.
Learn how to build performance and scalability into your application architecture and design. Discover the top 10 misconceptions that developers have about performance and scalability and the inside secrets that performance experts use to achieve world-class performance and scalability.

Zen and the Art of Web Services: Part 3: The Power and the Flexibility
Bill Evjen
March 26, 4:30 p.m.
This session will take an even more in-depth look at the XML Web services model and what it means for connecting disparate systems with the new WS-* specifications. This session will go beyond the "Hello World" introduction and will also show you how to construct your own SOAP headers, apply caching and test your XML Web services before they go into production. We'll dig into WS-Security, and Attachments and other Custom SOAP Headers to make your Web Services more powerful!

ADO .NET Best Practices
Shawn Wildemuth
March 26, 4:30 p.m.
As the newness of .NET wears off, application developers must move past the “how to” of data access development and start considering the best ways to get things done. In this session, we’ll do just that, starting with an intelligent approach to the DataSet vs. DataReader question followed by discussion of more specialized issues like connection pooling, transactions, handling multiple result sets, and the finer points of typed datasets.

Build Mobile Apps Quickly with the .NET Framework
Andy Wigley
March 26, 4:30 p.m.
Visual Studio .NET 2003 includes what was formerly known as Smart Device Extensions, which allows you to build applications for Mobile Devices using the .NET Compact Framework. You can build applications for Pocket PCs and Windows CE .NET devices using the same programming model and the same developer tools you use to develop desktop applications! The release of the Smartphone 2003 SDK in fall 2003 extended support to the Microsoft Smartphone as well. In this session, we use Visual Studio .NET 2003 to build a mobile application using the .NET Compact Framework implementations of Windows Forms, XML Web Services and ADO.NET. We’ll also show you how to program the relational database for handheld devices.