June UG Meeting Summary

On 8th June 2010, we organized another User Group meeting on “Workflow Foundation v4”. We would like to thank Mr. Muhammad Ali Sakhi, Microsoft Certified Trainer, for taking out time and delivering a session at the meeting on Workflow Foundation v4 with Visual Studio 2010. We would also like to thank attendees for making this event very successful. The majority of the participants were from Industry.

The speaker started with the introduction to new features and improvements in Workflow Foundation 4 followed by several demos including our favorite “Hello World”

Following was the agenda of the session:

• Introduction to Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0
• Building your first Workflow
• Data-flow in workflows
• Hosting windows workflow
• Using the Flowchart in WF 4
• Introducing Workflow Services

We organized the event in Conference room as per accommodation provided by Microsoft Innovation Center and due to limited space we confirmed registration of limited people based on first come first serve, but we promise to entertain your request in future for sure!

Thank you once gain. If you have attended the event, please fill the feedback form here to help us improve in the future.

June User Group Meeting on Workflow Foundation v4

We are pleased to announce the June user group meeting on Workflow Foundation 4. This is one of our first series on .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010, we have invited M. Ali Sakhi to deliver a session on Workflow Foundation v4.

Topic Details:

Windows Workflow Foundation provides a programming model, in-process workflow engine and rehostable designer to implement long-running processes as workflows within .NET applications

Date, Time and Location:

Tuesday, 8th June 2010, 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Microsoft Innovation Center, Karachi – Pakistan.

Sponsors:

   

Following are the tentative event details:
Agenda:

• Introduction to Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0
• Building your first Workflow
• Data-flow in workflows
• Hosting windows workflow
• Using the Flowchart activity in WF 4
• Different Workflow usage and scenarios
• Introduction to Advanced workflow concepts
• Introducing Workflow Services and other related technologies

Registration, Fees and Audience:

To participate in the event, all you have to do is to register yourself HERE. The event is free and seats are limited, so hurry up. The targeted audience of the event are industry professionals, professional partners and student partners with some experience of C# and .NET framework. Please note that you should only register if you really intend to participate otherwise we may not entertain you next time.

About Speakers:

Muhammad Ali Sakhi is Microsoft Certified Trainer on .NET, SQL Server and SharePoint technologies. He is associated with the IT industry for 4 years and has worked on various projects including project management system, recruitment portals, human resource management and enterprise resource planning. He is currently working in New Horizon as Product Manager for Microsoft IW Solutions. He is also a Certified Secure Application Developer.

About Emerging .NET Devs

Emerging .NET Devs is a registered user group under International .NET Association (INETA).  The group is committed to it’s vision of disseminating information through lectures in events, sessions and to enable the developer community to collaborate with each other.

Are you a developer? Are you passionate about technology? Do you want to grasp the Ins-and-Outs of the .Net Platform? Then this is right place for you. Join us on Facebook and/or Yahoo Group to participate further!

Step in to gear up with .Net Platform!

Second Shot Voucher for Microsoft Certifications

Hey Folks, 
Summer is here and we have a good news for you! Yes “Second Shot Vouchers” for Microsoft certifications. Take any IT Professional, Developer, or Business Management (Dynamics) Certification exam and get a FREE retake if you fail. Customers must take their first exam and (if necessary) their retake exam before June 30, 2010.

Emerging .NET Devs will not only provide you second shot vouchers but also

• 40% Discount on MeasureUp for Practice exams
• 25% Discount on Microsoft eLearning
• Up to 45% off on Microsoft Press Books

So, What are you waiting for? This summer get certified and stand out. We have limited number of vouchers! All you have to do is request for voucher on Facebook Page! [Under Discussion- Free Second Shot Vouchers for Microsoft Exams]

Good Luck for your Exams!

Event Summary: Windows 7 for Geeks

20th March 2010, we organized first user group event of 2010 “Windows 7 for Geeks” at Microsoft Innovation Center, Karachi, Pakistan. We were please to see house full. Thank you all for taking out time to attend the event “Windows 7 for Geeks”.

Overall agenda:

• Windows 7 Intro and The New Efficiency
• Windows 7 Features
  • Taskbar
  • Jump List
  • Aero Peak and Tab preview
  • Power Management
• Windows 7 Touch Demo
• Programming Windows 7
  • API Code Pack
    • Custom Jump Programming
    • Overlay Icon
    • Progress

The event started with the talk on Windows 7 overview, importance of User Experience and the concept of “The New Efficiency” by Adil Mughal. The speaker discussed that in recent years one thing is primarily focused i.e. user experience and why it is important for your application to utilize capabilities of Windows 7 using API. The speaker also talked about “The New Efficiency” and what does it mean by optimized desktop, optimized server, unified communication and business security.

We then moved to the Windows 7 touch demo by Imran Hussain. Imran demonstrated some cool multi-touch capabilities of Windows 7 including letter recognition, zoom in and out etc. The attendees seems to be very excited looking at the touch capabilities and perhaps it was really exciting stuff.

Followed by Imran, Taimur Asad started talking about Windows 7 API Code Pack available for Managed developers and demonstrated how to program your application to utilize windows 7 features such as Progress Bar in Taskbar Icon, Icon overlay and Jump List.

At the end of Taimur’s talk, Adil resumed on Power Management in Windows 7 and why your application should be energy efficient as well.  Finally in the end there was a lucky draw for Windows 7 Ultimate We also distributed two Windows 7 caps and 8 certification discount vouchers (Thanks to Live Tech Pro for vouchers) followed by refreshments.

After refreshment, we had 15 minutes small discussion with volunteers to encourage them in participating and/or organizing user group activities. Once again we would like to thank every single one of you for attending the event. We look forward to meet you in future events. We would also like to thank Microsoft Pakistan and Microsoft Innovation Center [Karachi] Team for providing us accommodation and special treatment on weekends as well.

Evaluation

If you attended the event, please take out few minutes to fill the evaluation form.

Event: Windows 7 for Geeks

Yes we know you miss us a lot and so does we but the good thing is that we are back with the series of events for you in particular related to Windows 7, .NET Framework 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010.

So here we are with the first User Group event of 2010 “Windows 7 for Geeks”. Come and join us on to talk about Windows 7 from a Developers’ perspective.

Event Date: 20th March, 2010 [Rescheduled and Confirmed]

The registered attendees will be informed accordingly. Rest can still fill the form and we will confirm their registration as per accommodation and space.

Event Timings: 3 PM – 6 PM

Location: Microsoft Innovation Center, Karachi

We will not only explore some of the new features of Windows 7 but we will also see some cool ways to program and integrate your application with Windows 7 using Microsoft Windows 7 API for Managed Developers. Using API, developers can take full advantage of the technology, while making it even easier to develop compelling applications.

Give Away(s):

(1) Genuine Copy of Windows 7 Ultimate

(2) Windows 7 Caps

(2) discount voucher on Windows 7 and Server 2008 exams

 

Speakers:

Adil Mughal is working as Development Executive at Telenor Pakistan. He is Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) and also Microsoft Certified Professional. He is leading International .NET Association (INETA) user groups, “Emerging .NET Devs” and “DevNext”. He is also author of articles at CodeProject.com. Being active community contributor, he often participates as speaker in different events. He frequently does blogging at http://www.AdilMughal.com

Taimur Asad is the owner of RedmondPie.com and Microsoft Student Partner of Bahria University. He is Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist for Distributed Systems. He is also leading SQL PASS, Karachi Chapter.

RedmondPie.com is a site focused on technology news & views about products/services from Microsoft and its competitors like Apple and Google.

Registration:

Hurry up seats are limited, If you are interested to attend the event, please fill the form here. You will receive a confirmation email within few days, based on the accommodation and space.

If you have any query, please feel free to ping us at edotnetdevs@live.com. Till then have a great day!

SharePoint Saturday Arabia

 

Join SharePoint architects, developers, administrators, branders, and other professionals that work with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for a "SharePoint Saturday" event.

Registration is now open for participation in Live Online SharePoint Saturday Arabia. By registering for this event, you are confirming you would like to view the live presentations, presented from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM (GMT+0), on March 27, 2010.

In order to hear the presenters, you will need headphones or computer speakers. There will be no conference call dial-in phone numbers.

To register, please visit : http://spsarabia.eventbrite.com/

Preferred for User Group Meetings/Events

Dear Group Members,

For you convenience, we would like to adjust timings for our future events. Please provide your input, so that it matches your feasibility to attend the event.

Please take out few moments to vote on poll here

45% off e-book Purchases from O’Reilly‏

 

Hi,

Special offer for O’Reilly User Group program members: Along with your 35% discount off print books, you can now get 45% off all ebooks you purchase direct from oreilly.com for a limited time.

When you buy an O’Reilly ebook you get lifetime access to the book, and whenever possible we make it available to you in four, DRM-free file formats–PDF, .epub, Kindle-compatible .mobi, and Android ebook–that you can use on the devices of your choice. Our ebook files are fully searchable, and you can cut-and-paste and print them. We also alert you when we’ve updated the files with corrections and additions.

Just use code DSUG when ordering online at www.oreilly.com/store

Read more about our ebook formats and the ways to use them here: http://oreilly.com/ebooks

Book Review: Professional ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 – Wrox

I received a review copy of Professional ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 by Wrox, through Emerging .NET Devs User Group. So thank you Wrox and Emerging .NET Devs.

Title: Professional ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 in C# and VB

Authors: Bill Evjen, Scott Hanselman and Devin Rader

ISBN: 978-0-470-47826-4

Publisher: Wrox

“I would say this book, written by ASP.NET experts, is one of the most comprehensive book for professionals not only for ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 but it also covers detail overview of all the new features which .NET 3.5 SP1 offers such as LINQ, Entity Framework, IIS7, WCF, ADO.NET Data Services, ASP.NET AJAX and ASP.NET AJAX control toolkit as well.

The initial 6 chapters cover some of the basic topics for developing ASP.NET Websites:

• Chapter 1: Application and Page Framework
  • Describing fundamentals like Page directives, page events, application folders and working with classes using VS 2008
• Chapter 2: ASP.NET Server Controls and Client-Side Scripts
  • The first part of the chapter covers what and how will you use ASP.NET server controls and HTML Server controls. The second part focuses on Client Side scripting discussing about using JavaScript to manipulate server controls and callback mechanism
• Chapter 3: ASP.NET Web Server Controls
  • This chapters introduces server controls in detail, both their functionality and usage
• Chapter 4: Validation Sever Controls
  • Describing validation and server controls, provided out of the box with ASP.NET, to easily incorporate validation in your website
• Chapter 5: Working with Master Pages
• Chapter 6: Themes and Skins

After covering fundamentals and core concepts, the authors moved towards the area of working with Data such as Data Binding, ADO.NET, LINQ etc. This book is well organized and let reader to have knowledge from fundamentals to advance concepts.

The book comes with a CD containing a PDF version of this book along with 7 free eBooks that normally worth USD 7 each. Another good point of this book are appendixes.

• Appendix A: Migrating Older ASP.NET Projects
• Appendix B: ASP.NET Ultimate Tools
• Appendix C: Silverlight 2 and ASP.NET
• Appendix D: ASP.NET is Greater than ASP.NET MVC
• Appendix E: ASP.NET online resources

Overall, The book is a great package for the ASP.NET developers. However, if you are new to the ASP.NET world or web development then I would not recommend this book for you. Check out some Beginners’ series by Wrox or other publishers.”

About Reviewer:

Adil Mughal is working as Development Executive at Telenor Pakistan. He is Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) and also Microsoft Certified Professional. He is leading International .NET Association (INETA) user groups, “Emerging .NET Devs” and “DevNext”. He is also author of few articles at CodeProject.com. Being active community contributor, he often participates as speaker in different events. He frequently does blogging at http://www.AdilMughal.com

October UG Meeting Summary

We had a fantastic show today, 17th October ‘09, on LINQ  organized by Emerging .NET Devs at Microsoft Innovation Center. We would like to thank every single one of you who participated in the event and make the event successful specially to our speakers Adil Mughal (MVP) and Munir Usman (MVP).

The thought behind arranging an event on LINQ was the realization that LINQ is still under utilized in the Software Development Industry specially in the Pakistan.

Following was the agenda of the discussion:

• Challenges before LINQ
• Introduction to LINQ
• Pre-requisite to LINQ (C# 3.0 Features)
• LINQ to Objects
• Refreshment
• LINQ to SQL
• LINQ to XML

The discussion was started by Munir with the challenges and problems faced by programmers without LINQ. Three major examples were discussed with the audience and they were encouraged to give response on them.

First example was related to issues in accessing data from Database using ADO.NET and the transforming of relational data to objects. Second example was related to the issues in accessing XML followed by issues in sorting, filtering and ordering objects/collections in memory.

The discussion was then continued by Adil, introducing LINQ and C# 3.0 Features such as Automatic properties, Implicitly defined local variables, Object Initializers, anonymous types, lambda expressions, extension methods etc.

The speakers introduced the LINQ syntax, demonstrating LINQ to Objects,initially from simple queries and moving towards complex queries along with the comparison of performing similar task with and without LINQ in order to get through understanding of how LINQ enhances productivity and provides an ease to programmers.

The audience were very keen to ask questions related to LINQ queries and we must say that this was the most interactive audience of our User Group Meetings. Moving forward, Munir continued the discussion on LINQ to SQL and talked about Data Context class, which is automatically generated by Visual Studio. Munir demonstrated the use of LINQ to SQL using famous NorthWind Database.

Finally, we moved towards LINQ to XML and speakers demonstrated how easy it’s to generate XML from data and retrieve data from XML.

The sample code and presentation will be soon uploaded on the Speakers’ blog/website. Once again, thank you all for taking out time. In the last we would like to thank people at Microsoft Innovation Center for helping us out in organizing such event, specially Noman Sohail. We look forward to see you all in the upcoming events. Our next event is on Windows 7, so stay tuned!

Those who attended the show, please take out few minutes to provide us feedback here.