Full-Day Workshops

1. Build a .NET App in a Day
2. C# as a Better C++: A Tutorial for C++, COM and VB 6 Developers
3. Focus on the Middle-Tier
4. Best Practices for Enterprise Development
5. ASP.NET 2.0 In Depth
6. Deploying and Securing an End-to-End .NET Application
7. C# 2.0 in a Day
8. .NET Data Access Soup to Nuts
9. Indexing for Speed: Internals, Statistics, Performance, Maintenance
10. Microsoft® Mobile DevCon: Introduction to Windows Mobile Development
11. Microsoft® Mobile DevCon: MapPoint Location Server
12. Microsoft® Mobile DevCon: Post-Conference Tutorial

Build a .NET App in a Day
Ken Getz and Brian Randall
Tuesday, March 23
The .NET platform provides a number of different opportunities for distributed application development. From Web Services, ADO.NET, ASP.NET, to Windows Forms, and COM interoperability, .NET development has lots of facets. In this workshop, you’ll see an application built from the ground up, taking advantage of many of the .NET features with explanations of the features and the application as it’s built. By the end of the day, you’ll have a working application to which you can add your own functionality, and you’ll have a good grasp of much of the excitement surrounding Visual Studio .NET and its associated technologies. Examples will be presented using the Visual Basic .NET language.

C# as a Better C++: A Tutorial for C++, COM and VB 6 Developers
Richard Hale Shaw
Tuesday, March 23
The vast majority of Windows developers using C++, COM and VB 6 remain unaware of the superiority of the .NET Framework over COM and raw Windows, and the productivity gains of C# as development language for implementing N-tiered and desktop applications, and components. In this 1-day tutorial, we'll explore the features of the C# language from the perspective of a seasoned Windows/C++/COM developer. We'll start by examining C#'s program structure and elegant syntax, and investigate the role of rich type information (metadata) in creating more robust programs. Next, we'll delve into C# and .NET support for leveraging existing DLLs and COM servers, and the performance differences between COM and .NET. You'll even learn how to build new COM objects using C#. We'll examine the underlying Intermediate Language code, and appraise the C#-.NET exception-handling model; and even learn why Debugging C# is a Joy — and not a chore.

Focus on the Middle-Tier
Deborah Kurata
Tuesday, March 23
Whether you are doing Internet, intranet, or Windows Smart-Client applications, it is important to design and build great middle-tier components. This workshop will cover how to decide what goes into the middle tier, how to define a powerful and flexible middle-tier architecture, and how to build and test smart middle-tier components. It will then show how to use the middle-tier components in both Web-based and Smart-Client applications. Attend and take your VB development skills to the next level.

Best Practices for Enterprise Development
Chris Kinsman and Rockford Lhotka
Tuesday, March 23
Developing enterprise-level applications requires more upfront planning and more procedures, not only to coordinate the larger team doing the development, but to make sure the application is maintainable and deployable. Simply tossing the app over the wall is no longer acceptable; the server architecture and IT support issues and systems must be considered in the development stage. Learn what the best practices are from our presenters with experience working with numerous enterprise-level projects. Topics covered will range widely, from team-oriented development, to design patterns — their use and abuse — to integration with system management tools. Learn the tradeoffs between different techniques and tools from homegrown to commercial.

ASP.NET 2.0 In Depth
Rockford Lhotka
Saturday, March 27
ASP.NET 2.0 provides substantial improvements over ASP.NET 1.0. In this workshop we'll dive into the key new features, including the new templates rapid development, theming and personalization, new security features, the use of Web parts to build portals, data access and binding and others. Together, these features provide improved developer productivity, administration and better support for mobile devices. You'll also see how the new Visual Studio .NET simplifies development and makes many tasks more intuitive. Along the way, you'll see some of the underlying improvements and changes to the .NET Framework itself so you can be better prepared for .NET 2.0.

Deploying and Securing an End-to-End .NET Application
Brian Randell and Ken Getz
Saturday, March 27
Creating a .NET application is one thing, but securing and deploying it
is something else altogether. In this workshop, we'll take a completed
end-to-end application that uses Windows Forms, ASP.NET Web Forms,
ASP.NET Web services and Windows Services and show you how to create
secure layers and then deploy the application across multiple tiers.
Along the way, you'll learn how to store your secrets, such as
connection strings and passwords, using public/private key cryptography.
You'll learn how your customers and users can securely connect to your
web-based applications and services; and how to create MSI-based
installations that leverage custom actions to manipulate .NET Runtime
Security Policy. On top of all that, you'll learn how to take advantage
of .NET's rich versioning support. By the end of this workshop, you'll
be able to take these best practices and apply them to your own
applications.

C# 2.0 in a Day
Juval Lowy
Saturday, March 27
C# 2.0 introduces a wealth of exiting new features, such as generics, iterators, partial classes and anonymous methods. These exiting features are an important addition to your development arsenal, both adding power and improving overall productivity. We’ll start by discussing generics — the problems they address, how they are implemented, benefits and unique C# innovations. We’ll move to iterators and include many code samples illustrating combinations of them with generics. You’ll learn about partial classes and anonymous methods, and their place in the development of .NET 2.0 applications, including never-discussed-before features such as delegate inference, static classes, type aliasing and property visibility modifiers. We’ll sum it all up with a look at the new features in VS .NET Whidbey such as C# code refactoring, C# code formating, environment settings, partial trust debugging and project publishing.

.NET Data Access Soup to Nuts
Andrew Brust and Stephen Forte
Saturday, March 27
In this workshop, we'll cover the basics and fine points of ADO .NET, seen from both Windows Forms and ASP.NET vantage points. After a brief introduction, we'll cover connected and disconnected data access, ADO .NET data binding, strongly-typed DataSets, and the XML features of ADO.NET. We'll then take a close look at using ADO .NET and SQL Server together, including development of stored procedures, triggers, and functions; advanced T-SQL techniques; and working with SQL Server and COM+ transactions. Attendees of this workshop will also get a high-level look at the forthcoming features of "Yukon," the watershed next release of SQL Server.

Indexing for Speed: Internals, Statistics, Performance, Maintenance
Kim Tripp
Saturday, March 27
There is no other area in the product where you can get better performance gains than with indexes. Yet almost ironically, this is also the most misunderstood and improperly maintained area as well. In this full day workshop devoted entirely to indexes we will look at the internal structures of indexes, how the optimizer chooses indexes (i.e. optimization and statistics) and what types of queries benefit from which types of indexes. Focus will be placed on how indexes are used for seeks and scans as well as how to best index for SARGs, joins, and aggregations. Indexes are created with the intention of improving performance but if left unmanaged and unmaintained they will lose their effectiveness over time. To close this session we will cover how to see fragmentation — manually and programmatically — as well as how to appropriately rebuild and automate index maintenance.

Microsoft Mobile DevCon Tutorials

Introduction to Windows Mobile Development
Jim Wilson
March 23, 2004
Are you new to mobile application development? Would you like to brush up on your mobile development knowledge before the Mobile DevCon begins? If so, then this pre-conference tutorial is for you! This full day workshop will introduce you to all of the key Microsoft technologies for developing mobile applications. It will cover an introduction to developing for Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs and Smartphones, along with an introduction to the .NET Compact Framework, SQL Server CE and ASP.NET Mobile Controls. The workshop is made up of lecture and lots of code. Attendees are encouraged to bring along their laptops and follow along.

MapPoint Location Server
March 23, 2004
In this hands-on workshop you will be among the first to get an in-depth
look at Microsoft MapPoint Location Server. This is a new component of
MapPoint Web Service that you can use to integrate real-time location based
services into a wide variety of business and consumer mobile applications.
The day will consist of lectures and step-by step tutorials that will
prepare you to begin building real-time location into your applications
immediately. Attendees are encouraged to bring their laptops to follow along
with the tutorials.

MapPoint Workshop Agenda:
- MapPoint technology strategy overview and roadmap.
- What is MapPoint Location Server?
- Step-by-step tutorial: building an application powered by MapPoint Location
Server.
- Partner Application Showcase (demonstrations)
- Benefits of becoming a MapPoint Solution Provider & Reseller

Post-Conference Tutorial
Doug Boling
March 27, 2004
You’ve been to all the talks at the Mobile DevCon, now see them applied in the construction of a real world application right in front of your eyes. This all day session follows the application development process from planning through to development, deployment, and all the way to field updates. The specific areas that will be focused on will be language selection, user interface considerations on the Pocket PC and Smartphone, wireless communication, and deployment and field updates.