December 2007 - Posts

posted Monday, December 24, 2007 3:49 AM by mtaulty :: 4 Comments

ADO.NET Data Services - LINQ to SQL and Associations

One of the things that I didn't mention (because I didn't know and I'm still not 100% sure :-)) in this post was what happens with associations when you're using ADO.NET Data Services and non-Entity Framework providers. If you've got an Entity Framework Read More
posted Monday, December 24, 2007 3:36 AM by mtaulty :: 1 Comments

ADO.NET Data Services and CLR Namespaces

If you're seeing this error when using the webdatagen.exe tool with the Data Services CTP; error 7001: Schema specified is not valid. Errors: (0,0) : error 0005: The 'Namespace' attribute is invalid - The value '' is invalid according to its datatype Read More
posted Monday, December 24, 2007 2:14 AM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

MacOS Leopard and VMWare

I bought a shiny new iMac just after Leopard shipped (actually as soon as Apple had finished Leopard and were offering it as a £5 addition to an iMac). I've been really pleased with it although it's had some teething troubles such as; Not reliably connecting Read More
posted Friday, December 21, 2007 9:27 AM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

ADO.NET Data Services - Filtering Across Assocations

It took me a little while to figure out the URI syntax for querying across associations. Based on Northwind I can do something like; WebDataService.svc/Orders?$filter=(Customers/Country)%20eq%20('UK') to navigate from an Order (named Orders here) to Read More
posted Friday, December 21, 2007 7:53 AM by mtaulty :: 2 Comments

"Advanced Windows Debugging"

I keep seeing this book; attracting a lot of attention on blog-sites. It sounds pretty good so I think I'll be looking for a copy post-Xmas. I think the ability to debug quickly is a huge big part of being a software developer and there's always room Read More
posted Thursday, December 20, 2007 9:50 AM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

ADO.NET Data Services Training Series

Today I found Jonathan Carter's growing series of posts over here on ADO.NET Data Services; ADO.NET Data Services Training Series They are fantastic and well worth a read if you're interested in this kind of framework. I particularly like the way that Read More
posted Thursday, December 20, 2007 9:26 AM by mtaulty :: 3 Comments

LINQ to SQL - Tailoring the Mapping at Runtime

Mats has a post over here about concurrency in LINQ to SQL with a long write-up about issues that he sees in using the framework. I've not read all of it yet because the very first point that he raises sent me off on a bit of a tangent (which does not Read More

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posted Wednesday, December 19, 2007 10:05 AM by mtaulty :: 8 Comments

ADO.NET Data Services - Using LINQ to SQL rather than LINQ to Entities

Something that's been foxing me is that I've read about ADO.NET Data Services now supporting a "provider" model such that it's no longer tied to the Entity Framework. I hadn't done this myself until today but was reading this great post and was wondering Read More

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posted Wednesday, December 19, 2007 9:30 AM by mtaulty :: 6 Comments

ADO.NET Data Services - Experimenting with .NET Client Access Whilst Sniffing the HTTP Traffic.

What flows backwards and forwards between a .NET "Data Services" client and its service? I've exposed Northwind. Querying Let's do a query from a .NET client (with generated code from the webdatagen tool); NorthwindEntities en = new NorthwindEntities( Read More

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posted Wednesday, December 19, 2007 5:19 AM by mtaulty :: 8 Comments

ADO.NET Data Services - Getting Started (2)

The bits for ADO.NET Data Services ("Astoria") primarily seem to live in an assembly Microsoft.Web.Data.dll (which I'm referencing from c:\program files\reference assemblies). I'd say that the key class in there is WebDataService<T> which implements Read More

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posted Wednesday, December 19, 2007 5:18 AM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

ADO.NET Data Services - Getting Started

If you want to get started with ADO.NET Data Services then I recommend the docs up here - short and sweet but they get you up and running. Read More

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posted Thursday, December 13, 2007 11:43 AM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

Downloaded ADO.NET Data Services

...and followed Christian's great advice over here to get myself hosted inside of a console application; Self-Hosting Your ADO.NET Data Services ( Astoria ) Services took about 3 minutes. Now need to figure out what the heck I can do with this framework Read More
posted Thursday, December 13, 2007 11:32 AM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

Video: SQL 2008 and FileStream (writing data)

Short video on working with the new varbinary (max) filestream data type in SQL Server 2008. Hover near the bottom of the player for controls. Double-Click the player for full-screen. I don't have a downloadable version at the time of writing so will Read More

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posted Thursday, December 13, 2007 5:18 AM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

Video: SQL 2008 and FileStream (reading data)

Short video on working with the new varbinary (max) filestream data type in SQL Server 2008. Hover near the bottom of the player for controls. Double-Click the player for full-screen. I don't have a downloadable version at the time of writing so will Read More

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posted Monday, December 10, 2007 1:55 AM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

ASP.NET V3.5 Extensions Preview Available

Including the MVC bits, dynamic data bits, Silverlight Controls (those look to come with the same/similar templates that Expression Encoder has) and also ADO.NET Entity Framework and Data Services. I hadn't quite picked up on this but perhaps ASP.NET Read More
posted Friday, December 07, 2007 7:41 AM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

Video: SQL 2008 and Change Tracking

Short video on working with change tracking in SQL Server 2008. Hover near the bottom of the player for controls. Double-Click the player for full-screen. I don't have a downloadable version at the time of writing so will update the post later when I Read More

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posted Friday, December 07, 2007 2:19 AM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

LINQ to [SQL/Entities] and Query Hints

You can't use Query Hints directly from LINQ to [SQL/Entities]. I guess if they'd wanted to include query hints then you'd have to have a bunch of custom functions added to the particular API that performed the hinting and that'd probably start to look Read More
posted Friday, December 07, 2007 2:16 AM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

LINQ to [SQL/Entities]

I've encountered this strange piece of logic a few times now; Feedback: I really like LINQ to [SQL/Entities] but it generates dynamic SQL and I don't like dynamic SQL. Response: Ok, why not use stored procedures from LINQ to [SQL/Entities] and then you Read More

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posted Friday, December 07, 2007 1:08 AM by mtaulty :: 1 Comments

Entity Framework Providers Update

I hadn't noticed the press release which accompanied the release of ADO.NET Entity Framework Beta 3 yesterday. There's an update in there around which (other database) providers will be available within 3 months of RTM and also within 2008. Most databases Read More

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posted Thursday, December 06, 2007 5:10 PM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

Reported Operating System Statistics for my Domain

I found Craig's post over here interesting so here are the stats for this website for November 2007 broken down by operating system. I'd never looked at these broken down this way before so a few quick "hellos"; "Hello to all the folks visiting with Read More
posted Thursday, December 06, 2007 4:50 PM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

New Entity Framework Bits

Entity Framework Beta 3 is available along with a new Entity Designer (CTP 2) is out as well. These are for Visual Studio 2008 RTM and .NET Framework V3.5 RTM. Find blog posts up here; ADO.NET Entity Framework Beta 3 Released! Entity Designer CTP2 with Read More

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posted Thursday, December 06, 2007 9:52 AM by mtaulty :: 1 Comments

October 2008: PDC. Los Angeles.

I'm perhaps a little bit late on this one but PDC 2008 has been announced. Go here. I've not missed a PDC whilst I've been working at Microsoft but it's been getting progressively more difficult to get there (it's a customer event but so much happens Read More
posted Thursday, December 06, 2007 6:07 AM by mtaulty :: 2 Comments

LINQ to SQL: Asynchronously Executing Queries

I saw a question recently about how to asynchronously execute a LINQ to SQL query. Unless you want to go down the "fake async" route of pushing a query out onto the ThreadPool, you can (AFAIK) do real async work by using the GetCommand() method of the Read More

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posted Thursday, December 06, 2007 3:55 AM by mtaulty :: 1 Comments

LINQ to SQL: DataContext.Translate and Anonymous Types

I was thinking about DataContext.Translate today and what it means for anonymous types. Let's say you've got something like; using (NorthwindDataContext ctx = new NorthwindDataContext()) { ctx.Connection.Open(); using (DbCommand Read More

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posted Thursday, December 06, 2007 1:26 AM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

Volta & FeedSync up at Live

Couple of interesting things up at Windows Live Dev. FeedSync Volta Read More
posted Wednesday, December 05, 2007 10:10 AM by mtaulty :: 2 Comments

Build Silverlight App & Win A Ticket for MIX

See the "European Silverlight Challenge" page up here. Read More
posted Monday, December 03, 2007 4:03 PM by mtaulty :: 2 Comments

Video - LINQ to XML Events and Annotations

Short video on annotations and events in the LINQ to XML API. Hover near the bottom of the player for controls. Double-Click the player for full-screen. I don't have a downloadable version at the time of writing so will update the post later when I have Read More
posted Monday, December 03, 2007 6:33 AM by mtaulty :: 2 Comments

Video - LINQ to XML and Streaming Out Large Documents

Short video on streaming large documents "out" in LINQ to XML. Hover near the bottom of the player for controls. Double-Click the player for full-screen. I don't have a downloadable version at the time of writing so will update the post later when I Read More
posted Monday, December 03, 2007 4:38 AM by mtaulty :: 2 Comments

Video - SQL2008 and Table Valued Parameters

Short video on working with table valued parameters in SQL Server 2008. Hover near the bottom of the player for controls. Double-Click the player for full-screen. I don't have a downloadable version at the time of writing so will update the post later Read More
posted Monday, December 03, 2007 2:53 AM by mtaulty :: 3 Comments

Video - LINQ to XML and Streaming In Large Documents

Short video on working with XPath queries in LINQ to XML. Hover near the bottom of the player for controls. Double-Click the player for full-screen. Go here (and click the strangely named "Full Screen" button) to get a downloadable version. More Read More
posted Monday, December 03, 2007 2:52 AM by mtaulty :: 0 Comments

Video - LINQ to XML and XPath

Short video on working with XPath queries in LINQ to XML. Hover near the bottom of the player for controls. Double-Click the player for full-screen. Go here (and click the strangely named "Full Screen" button) to get a downloadable version. More Read More
posted Monday, December 03, 2007 2:44 AM by mtaulty :: 2 Comments

Video - LINQ to XML and Schema

Short video on working with Schema validation and LINQ to XML. Hover near the bottom of the player for controls. Double-Click the player for full-screen. Go here (and click the strangely named "Full Screen" button) to get a downloadable version. Read More