Guidance Automation Extensions (GAX) and Guidance Automation Toolkit (GAT) for VSTS 2008

Guidance Automation Extensions and Guidance Automation Toolkit Download - February 2008 (Overview from download page)
The Guidance Automation Extensions (GAX) expands the capabilities of Visual Studio by allowing architects and developers to run guidance packages, such as those included in Software Factories, which automate key development tasks from within the Visual Studio environment.

The Guidance Automation Toolkit (GAT) is a guidance package which allows architects to author rich, integrated user experiences for reusable assets including Software Factories, frameworks, and patterns. The resulting guidance packages, composed of templates, wizards and recipes, help developers build solutions in a way consistent with the architecture guidance. In order to use GAT, you must first install the GAX. For more information about the GAT, see Introduction to the Guidance Automation Toolkit.

Downloads
GAX and GAT must be downloaded and installed separately. GAT requires that GAX is installed first.
If you have a previous version of GAX installed on Visual Studio 2005, it will be updated to the February 2008 release of GAX. You are no longer required to uninstall GAX and the corresponding guidance packages (with an exception of GAT, which must be re-installed).
Guidance Automation Extensions (February 2008) Release for Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008
Guidance Automation Toolkit (February 2008) Release for Visual Studio 2005
Guidance Automation Toolkit (February 2008) Release for Visual Studio 2008

Web Client Software Factory - February 2008 for Visual Studio 2008

Microsoft has released the Web Client Software Factory for Visual Studio 2008.

Overview (from download page)
The Web Client Software Factory provides an integrated set of guidance that assists architects and developers in creating composite Web client applications. The factory includes a reference implementation, QuickStarts, How-to topics, patterns, and Visual Studio .NET extensions.

Get it here.

Check out some great videos on the Web Client Software Factory here.

Sparx EA 7.1 beta 2 and MDG Link 3.5 beta 1 for VSTS 2008 Available

Sparx has released Enterprise Architect 7.1 beta 2 and MDG Link 3.5 beta 1 for Visual Studio 2008.

Overview from Sparx web site:
MDG Integration and Enterprise Architect bring the best of UML 2.1 to your favorite IDE Sparx Systems is proud to announce the release of version 3.5 [Beta 1] of MDG Integration for Visual Studio. This latest version extends Enterprise Architect's UML integration into Microsoft® Visual Studio 2008, includes direct import of Team Explorer Work Items (TFS) to model elements and more...

Registered users can download and read about the new features in Enterprise Architect 7.1 beta 2 here, and MDG Link 3.5 beta 1 for Visual Studio 2008 here.

Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map made with WPF Installed via ClickOnce

Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map is made with Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and is installable via ClickOnce.

Overview (from MSDN install page)
The Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map is a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application that helps developers visualize the different programs, servers, services, and tools that will help them build solutions. It allows them to drill down to each product and technology and learn about new features, objects, Web services, namespaces, and schemas required to extend Microsoft Office and build custom Office Business Applications (OBAs).

Read about it and get it here.

Visual Development Case UML Profile for SPARX Enterprise Architect (EA)

This Visual Development Case UML Profile for SPARX Enterprise Architect is intended to make creating a development case easier and more of a visual process.


Click here for larger image.

History of the Profile
This profile was originally created for use with the RUP. It has as artifact elements those that are available with the RUP.

It was created on a project that had plotters and large printing formats available, so size may hinder its usability. The project never used it because it ended abruptly when $$$’s ran out.

I had forgotten about it and ran across it a few weeks ago. My current project is running a proof-of-concept to determine whether or not we want to modify it for the process repository we are building. The one we are building will cause major changes to have to happen to the profile because we are not using the RUP.

As you will see this can also be used for OpenUP and UP as well as any other industry standard SDLC.

The download includes the following files:

• DevCaseProfileDocumentation.zip- This is the profile documentation generated by SPARX EA.
  
• Visual Development Case Readme.doc- How to get started and an overview of the available features.
  
• HelloVisualDevCase.eap- A start up project used to show some of the features in the Visual Development Case Readme.doc
  
• 4 Pattern Files- The 4 patterns contain the swim lane structure for each phase of the RUP
  --Inception (InceptionPhasesPattern.xml)
  --Elaboration (ElaborationPhasesPattern.xml)
  --Construction (ConstructionPhasesPattern.xml)
  --Transition (TransitionPhasesPattern.xml).
  
• DevelopmentCaseProfile.xml- The Visual Development Case UML Profile.
  
• DevCasePhasesSetup.xml- This project import contains all 4 phases (Inception, Elaboration, Construction, and Transition) setup in a project to use as a starting point.
  

We have this available as one of the downloads on this site.

GAX/GAT February 2008 Final Release for VSTS 2005 and 2008 Available

The February 2008 Release of the GAX / GAT for Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 are available for download.

Overview of the GAX / GAT (from Grigori's blog)
The Guidance Automation Extensions (GAX) expands the capabilities of Visual Studio by allowing architects and developers to run guidance packages, such as those included in Software Factories, which automate key development tasks from within the Visual Studio environment.

The Guidance Automation Toolkit (GAT) is a guidance package which allows architects to author rich, integrated user experiences for reusable assets including Software Factories, frameworks, and patterns. The resulting Guidance Packages, composed of templates, wizards and recipes, help developers build solutions in a way consistent with the architecture guidance. In order to use the Guidance Automation Toolkit, you must first install the Guidance Automation Extensions.

Read the details of the features in this release and download them from this page.

Get Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System FREE from Microsoft

In order to get people up to speed on Microsoft's Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) strategy, Microsoft is offering a free copy of the book Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System.

Get it from this page.

Microsoft patterns and practices Unity Application Block (Unity)

Microsoft patterns and practices has released the February CTP of the Unity Application Block (Unity). The download comes with a nice help document and 2 QuickStarts.

Project Description (from CodePlex site)
The Unity Application Block (Unity) is a lightweight extensible dependency injection container with support for constructor, property, and method call injection.

Unity addresses the issues faced by developers engaged in component-based software engineering. Modern business applications consist of custom business objects and components that that perform specific or generic tasks within the application, in addition to components that individually address cross cutting concerns such as logging, authentication, authorization, caching, and exception handling.

The key to successfully building such applications is to achieve a decoupled or very loosely coupled design. Loosely coupled applications are more flexible and easier to maintain. They are also easier to test during development. You can mock up shims (lightweight mock implementations) of objects that have strong concrete dependencies; such as database connections, network connections, ERP connections, and rich user interface components.

Dependency injection is a prime technique for building loosely coupled applications. It provides ways to handle the dependencies between objects. For example, an object that processes customer information may depend on other objects that access the data store, validate the information, and check that the user is authorized to perform updates. Dependency injection techniques can ensure that the customer class correctly instantiates and populates all of these objects, especially where the dependencies may be abstract.

Get it here.

Cool Links IV- .NET 3.5, Architecture, AJAX, UML, EPF, Patterns, GOF, VSTS 2008, WPF, Silverlight, SQL 2008, XAML

This is the fourth installment of cool links. Previous sets of links can be found here:
Cool .NET 3.0, 3.5, TFS, AJAX, ORCAS, CAB, WWF, Expression Tools and Links
More Cool Links- .NET 3.0, 3.5, Acropolis, TFS, AJAX, Visual Studio 2008, CAB, WPF, Silverlight and SQL Server 2008
Cool Links III- .NET 3.0, 3.5, Acropolis, TFS, AJAX, Visual Studio 2008, CAB, WPF, Silverlight, WCF, SQL Server 2008

5 New Additions to list:
Moving Mainframe Applications to Windows
First Look at Silverlight 2 - ScottGu's Blog
Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map made with WPF Installed via ClickOnce
Visual Development Case UML Profile for SPARX Enterprise Architect (EA)
.NET 3.5 Client Product Roadmap - ScottGu's Blog

Get Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System FREE from Microsoft
C# 3.0 Design Patterns Book Review
LINQ in Action Book Review
Software Process Dynamics Book Review
Brad Abrams : Framework Design Guidelines 2nd Edition In the works!
Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008 Book Review
Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform Book Review
Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008 Book Review
Free Microsoft Press LINQ E-Book and ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight 1.0 Sample Chapters
List of LINQ Books out now and coming later

.NET Architecture and Development Book Recommendations

Over 4 hours of FREE Silverlight Essential Training
Silverlight 1.0 Fire Starter MIX University

Design Patterns

Brad Abrams : Great ASP.NET AJAX Web Portal Starter Kit: dropthings.com
New 4 part series of videos on DOWNLOADING with ASP.NET
ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview Links, Videos, and Downloads
ADO.NET Data Services Training at Lost In Tangent
Feb 6th Links: ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, Visual Studio, .NET, WPF - ScottGu's Blog
ASP.NET MVC Example Application over Northwind with the Entity Framework
Ajax Data Controls v1.0 Released
Page Flow Application Block With Page Modules
Brad Abrams : Web Hosters offering ASP.NET 3.5
MVP Bundle Screencast - WCSF v2.0 Model View Presenter Design Pattern
Brad Abrams : Building a Great Media Driven Web Site (with Silverlight and ASP.NET)
ASP.NET AJAX AutoComplete Example Using AutoCompleteExtender Control

WCF, WF and .NET 3.5 Whitepapers by David Chappell
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) Application Quality Guide
WPF 3.5 Demo Posted: Add-ins and Interactive 3D
If broken it is, fix it you should : Learning .NET debugging
Framework Engineering Video: Architecting, Designing, and Developing Reusable Libraries
C# Delegates
New Web Client Software Factory Modularity Bundle from patterns & practices
BlogEngine.NET 1.3 Released - ASP.NET Blog Engine
Service Factory - Modeling Edition CTP (VS2008) Available
Visual Studio 2008 Linq Samples and the Query Visualizer
WWF Web Workflow Approvals Starter Kit V2 Available for VS 2008
MSDN Blog Postings ? Tim Rayburn on C# 3.0

Visual Studio 2008 Product Comparison Data Sheet
.NET Framework 3.5 Common Namespaces and Types Poster
SQL Server 2008 Whitepapers

FxCop: Writing Your Own Custom Rules

Microsoft Line Of Code Counter Version 2.3 is Available
TestDisk a Free Data Recovering Tool
Free Professional Diff Tool from SourceGear - WebLog of Ken Cox
SEAMonster: A .NET-Based Seam Carving Implementation

Web Application Extension (WAE) ASPX Patterns for SPARX Enterprise Architect (EA)
SPARX Enterprise Architecture (EA) 7.1 - Beta 1 and UPDM Available
Eclipse Process Framework Process Mapping UML Profile for SPARX EA
Visio Stencils for Sharepoint 2007 Site Structures documentation

Software Architecture Links: ABC, QAWs, ADD, ATAM, CBAM, ARID, and Books
Documenting Software Architectures: 4 1, Views and Beyond, Viewpoints and Perspectives, and Book Links
Software Architecture Documentation in the Real World
Synthesis-Based Software Architecture Design
The New Iteration: XAML transforms the collaboration between Designers and Developers

Brad Abrams : Software Development Predictions for 2008
The delusions of an unreal deadline and its deliverables.
The Customer is not Always Right and Death to the YES Man (Workaholic)
Proof of Concept your Developers
O'Reilly -- The History of Programming Languages
The Economics of Programming Languages
What do Project Managers, Software Architects, and Software Process Engineers have in common? Some say? Unnecessary Overhead
Mandamagement and Division of Labor

C# 3.0 Design Patterns Book Review

I found this book to be a very good treatment of the GOF patterns. The content is well organized and has a very clean feel to it. I think there would be 2 primary audiences. One would be those that have study the GOF patterns, but want to see them implemented with the latest C# functionality available. The other would be those that have never before studied the GOF patterns and want to learn about them. I think both audiences should know the C# 3.0 language and syntax before reading this book, or at least be willing to learn C# 3.0 while reading this book. Although the author claims this is a the book will guide you through the new C# 3.0 language features, they are only really listed. The side bars are enough to send you off looking for the right thing to learn, but you won't learn it with the content in the sidebar. As long as you are willing to go outside the book to learn the new C# 3.0 features, this book will serve to point them out. Each pattern is broken down into 7 parts- Role, Illustration, Design, Implementation, Example, Use, and Exercises. I think the author does a great job at communicating the intention of the patterns. She makes good use of graphics and UML diagrams. She also makes you put some thought into the patterns by offering mini quizzes. The author also has a nice support site which has the code available and a lot of good information about patterns including the UML diagrams from the book. The code is very well organized and is very usable. All in all I think this is a great C# GOF Patterns book and would recommend it to anyone that wants to learn to implement the GOF patterns with the latest C# language features available.

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) Application Quality Guide

The WPF Team has posted a WPF Application Quality Guide.

Introduction (from Guide's web site)
In light of the rapid adoption of the WPF and the continuous requests from partners and customers, the WPF team at Microsoft is happy to present the first release of the "WPF Application Quality Guide". We plan to release the Guide in stages, updating and fine-tuning the content, based on feedback provided by you. This first release of the Guide contains the proposed table of contents, several articles on making UIs available, locating UI elements, custom control authoring and extensibility testing using UI Automation, and a list of performance profiling tools.

Read it online and download a word version here

ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview Links, Videos, and Downloads

Introduction (from ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview site)
The ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview provides a glimpse of new, powerful functionality being added to ASP.NET 3.5 and ADO.NET next year. This release delivers features that enable high-productivity data scenarios and creates the best server for rich clients. The release includes an ASP.NET model-view-controller (MVC) framework, ASP.NET Dynamic Data, Silverlight controls for ASP.NET, ADO.NET Data Services, an Entity Framework runtime, and new features for ASP.NET AJAX.

Reading
Check out the online getting started documentation here.

Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview Getting Started here.

ADO.NET Data Services Overview here.

Using ADO.NET Data Services here.

Videos
ADO.NET Data Services - Surfacing Data ADO.NET Data Services let us make data widely available through RESTful web services. In this video we take a look at how we can offer data from the ADO.NET Entity Framework, LINQ to SQL and any arbitrary data.

ADO.NET Data Services - Querying with URI's ADO.NET Data Services offers data over RESTful web services - in this video we look at how we can build URI's to represent the different server-side resources that we want to access.

ADO.NET Data Services - A Basic AJAX Client In this video we'll take a quick look at building a basic, read-only AJAX client for an ADO.NET Data Service.

ADO.NET Data Services - A Basic Silverlight Client In this video we'll use the "ASP.NET Data Services Silverlight Add-On" in order to build a simple read-only Silverlight client for an ADO.NET Data Service.

ADO.NET Data Services - A Basic .NET Client In this video we'll take a quick look at how we can build a simple, read-only .NET client against an ADO.NET data service and how we can continue to use the URI-based query mechanism to get data from that service.

ADO.NET Data Services - Querying with LINQ For a .NET client that interacts with an ADO.NET Data Service, we can use LINQ in order to construct the query on the client side. We construct a query using LINQ and the client-side framework translates that into a URI for us. In this video, we take a quick look

ADO.NET Data Services - Query Interceptors ADO.NET Data Services has a facility whereby we can plug-in code to run whenever a query for a particular entity set is executed. In this video, we take a look at how we can write these Query Interceptors.

ADO.NET Data Services - Service Operations ADO.NET Data Services has a service-side facility for adding pre-built operations ("Service Operations") which can run arbitrary logic which can additionally be parameterised using simple serialised types from the URI. In this video, we take a look at building such Service Operations.

You can find multiple videos on MVC, Dynamic Data, AJAX, and the Entity Designer on the bottom of this page, and more on this page.

Scott Guthrie giving the first public showing of the ASP.NET MVC Framework here.

David Hayden has multiple videos posted here on the MVC Framework and Dynamic Data.

Downloads
Download the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview here.

Download the ADO.NET Data Services Silverlight Add-On here

LINQ in Action Book Review

This book is a pure pleasure to read. The presentation of content is awesome. They breakdown code in a new refreshing way that I have not seen before. Maybe it is done in all the Action Books from Manning, but this is the first I have read. They use code annotations to show what the code is doing at all the key points, highlighting important concepts. The beginner will benefit greatly from this, as will the experienced developer getting into the new C# language features. The book presents both VB.NET and C# code examples. This is definitely cool. It is something that has been lost with many publishers. I guess the publishers know they can possibly sell 2 of the same book if they make one for each language. Yeah, yeah, I know… you should be able to easily bounce back and forth between languages with no effort. Well since I don't allow VB.NET on any of my projects, I rarely get to see it since books no longer present both languages. So this is a refreshing change. I still have to deal with inherited projects, so it is nice to have a book that contains my language of choice, but makes available the VB.NET syntax incase I need it. The book has an awesome introduction covering the history of LINQ, which also presents all the problems that LINQ solves and the design goals of linq. The book covers ever new feature in the .NET 3.5 languages (C# and VB.NET) that were needed in order to implement LINQ. They include Implicitly typed local variables, Object initializers, Lambda expressions, Extension methods, and Anonymous types. The book covers LINQ to XML, LINQ to SQL, and LINQ to Objects in great detail. They also offer a bonus chapter from the Manning Site for LINQ to Datasets. One of my favorite sections was Performance Considerations. They do a great job covering tradeoffs. The book winds down with a chapter on extending LINQ and how link fits into an n-tier architecture. The downloadable code is very well organized and is very usable. The authors have a great support site. I highly recommend any developer moving into .NET 3.5 add this book to their library. It will arm you with everything you need to produce production level code.

Windows 2008 Available in MSDN Subscriber Downloads

Windows 2008 is now available in MSDN Subscriber Downloads.

Check it out here

GOF Design Patterns, AntiPatterns, and Refactoring Tutorials, Videos, and Book

This is a nice site for getting up to speed on the GOF Design Patterns, AntiPatterns, and Refactoring. They offer online written tutorials, video tutorials, and they also offer a hard copy of their material in a book.

Definitely worth checking out.

Do so here.

SPARX Enterprise Architecture (EA) 7.1 - Beta 1 and UPDM Available

SPARX has released Enterprise Architecture 7.1.  You must be a registered user to get it. 

They have also posted MDG Technology for UPDM (The UML Profile for DoDAF/MODAF). UPDM integrates tightly with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect and provides a model-based framework for planning, designing and implementing DoDAF and MODAF architectures. Registered user can check out UPDM here.

Some of the cooler features added to EA 7.1 are listed below (from SPARX site):

• Rich Notes support
  • Added formatting such as Bold, Italic, Underline and Lists to Notes.
  • Formatting rendered to diagrams, element list and search view.
  • Formatting included in generated HTML and RTF reports.
  • Formatting is stored as simplified HTML markup for portability and ease of use.
  • Automation interfaces added to retrieve notes as plain text, HTML markup or RTF
• Model Merge based on Baselines
  • Merge changes from saved baselines into current model package.
  • Single item, batch item and full restore supported using merge functions.
  • Many improvements to speed and capability of baseline comparison functionality.
  • Ability to load, compare and merge with baselines stored in other models (.EAP or DBMS repository), for the same package based on GUID.
  • Ability to load, compare and merge with an external file
  • Added functions to automation interface to run comparison or merge with baseline.
  • Expanded differences reported in model comparison.
  • Improved keyboard navigation of Baseline dialogs
  • New options to show and hide relevant results from compare
• Model Views Window
  • New dockable window containing custom sets of model elements and diagrams
  • Use inbuilt or new searches to define new views of your model.
  • Create custom views for specific diagram or element types
  • Create special views based on specific "favorites" within a model
  • Views may be shared with other users of the same model (Model Views), or set as private (My Views)
  • Easily export views from one model and import into other models.
  • MDG Technology defined views may also be loaded when a profile is activated in a model.
• RTF Documentation
  • New Master Document (stereotyped package) element - generate and link multiple
  • Model Documents in one action
  • New Documentation toolbar linked to new "Model Document" diagram type
  • Link different RTF templates to Model Document elements (using tagged value) for complete control of final output
  • New context menu commands for bulk generation of RTF Resource Documents (in the Resource View).
  • New options to split large diagrams across multiple report pages.
  • Model Document elements may now refer directly to a named element search (tagged value) as the source of the elements they will document.
  • Redesigned RTF generation dialog to make various options more visible.
  • Improved context menu in RTF template editor for Package.Element section.
  • Improved handling of hyperlinks from linked documents in RTF report.
  • Improved diagrams only report to handle option for inverted metafile text.
  • Improved handling of missing ole interfaces referenced from linked documents generated in RTF report.

You can check out a complete list of the new features in 7.1 and download it here.