Continue reading »]]> I had some trouble today with Blend 4 which was continuously crashing on launch, even after an uninstall and re-install of the program.

Thankfully, I found a very helpful forum post on MSDN which helped me fix the issue.

I have recently installed the Developer Preview of Visual Studio 11 and it turns out that there are some compatibility issues with version 4.5 of the .Net Framework with this preview release.

In order to fix the issue you can run the following commands in your command prompt (don’t forget to run as an administrator);

The workaround is to run:
%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen uninstall “%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Expression\Blend 4\Microsoft.Expression.Framework.dll”
%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen uninstall “%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Expression\Blend 4\Microsoft.Expression.Blend.dll”
%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen uninstall “%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Expression\Blend 4\Microsoft.Expression.Project.dll”

If “%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Expression\Blend 4\Microsoft.Expression.WindowsPhone.dll” is present (for scenarios like Blend V4 SP1 or future releases), please also run:
%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen uninstall “%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Expression\Blend 4\Microsoft.Expression.WindowsPhone.dll”

You can find the original post here….. http://connect.microsoft.com/Expression/feedback/details/690246/blend-4-crashes-on-startup

Hope this helps some of you out if you are having the same problem.

Technorati Tags: .Net, blend, crash

Continue reading »]]> Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4.0 Beta 2 has now been released to members of MSDN, with a public download available from Wednesday.

Beta 2 brings many improvements to the table, including improvements in Sharepoint, WPF, ASP.NET, WinForms, as well as improvements to the core IDE and testing tools. I saw some of these IDE improvements at an event with Scott Gu in Manchester a couple of weeks ago and they look pretty cool.

Visual Studio now comes in several flavours, namely Premium, Professional and Ultimate and the good news is that TFS 2010 comes out of the box with all three.  Apparently it only takes 20 minutes to setup source control, bug and issue tracking and automated build with it.

Finally, another great piece of news is that this release also ships with a Go-live license, so this can be used for production projects if you wish

If you are a member of MSDN and want to download the beta now, you can get it from here.

For more information on the release visit Scott Gu’s blog where you he has started a series of posts on the new features in 2010 Beta 2.

Have any of you been using Beta 1? Will you be using Beta 2? What do you think of the way 2010 and .Net 4.0 are shaping up?

Technorati Tags: .NET 4.0, beta 2, visual studio 2010, vs2010

Continue reading »]]> There has been a lot of information being passed around recently about the changes being introduced in the second major release of Microsoft’s Entity Framework, so I thought it might be a good idea to get a list of articles together on the subject that I have found useful.

If you know of any more good articles you have found yourself, let me know!

Enjoy!

The ADO.Net Entity Framework (2010) (MSDN) – If you don’t know or are unsure of what the Entity Framework is, then this might be a good place to start.  It provides a good overview with links to more articles going into details in specific areas.

Visit Site

What’s New In Entity Framework 4 (Slides) – For those of you who are familiar with the first version of the Entity Framework in .Net 3.5 SP1, but have not yet delved into the next release, these slides give an overview of what has changed and what has been introduced.

Visit Site

TUTORIAL: Model First using Entity Framework 4 and Visual Studio 2010 – This is a tutorial I wrote a while back for those with the Visual Studio 2010 beta who wanted to see the new model first functionality introduced in EF v2.

Visit Site

Entity Framework v2 and Data Access Architecture Best Practices – Some design patterns and development style discussion for when using the EF v2 and Visual Studio 2010.

Visit Site

N-Tier Application Patterns with Entity Framework v2 – A good article regarding designing N-Tier applications with EF v2, using .Net Framework 4, Visual Studio 2010 and WCF.

Visit Site

Multiple Database Support in Entity Framework 4 – Interesting article discussing the database independence being introduced with the Entity Framework.

Visit Site
BOOK: Professional ADO.Net 3.5 With LINQ and the Entity Framework - I am currently reading this book which tackles ADO.Net 3.5 with the Entity Framework.  Whilst this is not specifically for version 2, this seems to be a good into the the EF and worth a look if you are new to the subject.

Visit Site

Technorati Tags: .NET 4.0, ef 4, ef v2, Entity Framework

Continue reading »]]> Expression Web 3, part of Expression Studio from Microsoft has now been released and is available for purchase / download.

MSDN license holders should find Expression Studio including Expression Web 3 available for download now from the MSDN web site, whilst everyone else can take advantage of free trials (the Expression Web 3 trail can be downloaded here and is around 122mb) and upgrade offers, where appropriate.

Expression Web 3 brings some exciting stuff to the table to improve on the already popular Expression Web 2.

Amongst the most notable features are;

• Brand new look and feel to match the darker style seen in Expression Blend 2.

Image used taken from Expression Web site from Microsoft. Coptright Microsoft.

• SuperPreview – allowing you to view your pages / sites in multiples browsers and examine and resolve any cross browser compatibility issues with your designs.
• SnapShot Preview – A browser preview that automatically updates side by side with your design / code, meaning that you do not have to load the browser everytime you make a change to see what it will render like.
  

  Image used taken from Expression Studio Web Site from Microsoft. Copyright Microsoft.

• Silverlight and DeepZoom support – You can now embed Silverlight movies as well as DeepZoom movies into your pages using Expression Web 3.
• Improved FTP Publishing and Site Management – Expression Web 3 now claims to upload and sync your sites with your remote server faster than before, uploading multiple files at once.  It now also boasts improved site management which should make switching between sites and saving associated settings a breeze.
• Internet Explorer 8 Support – Support for IE8 now comes with EW3 allowing you to target web sites for this browser.
• Expression Design 3 Included – The graphical editor from Microsoft, Expression Design is now included with Expression Web.

Also released as part of Expression Studio 3 are the new versions of Expression Blend, Expression Encoder and,  as already mentioned, Expression Design.

I have only just installed the new version of the studio, but will post some follow ups of anything interesting I think would be worth sharing.

Below are some links to pages for Expression Web 3 and Expression Studio 3;

Expression 3 Web Site

Expression Web 3 Trial Download

Expression Web 3 Product Information

Let me know your thoughts on the new versions….

Technorati Tags: expression studio, Expression Web, expression web 3

Continue reading »]]> UPDATE: The public version of the Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 can be found here.

Today sees the waiting over for many people, myself included, for the release of Beta 1 of Visual Studio 2010.

According to Mike Ormond the beta will be available to MSDN Subscribers today, with a public download following hot on its heels on Wednesday.

Apparently, the beta will run fine on Windows 7 RC1.

If you are an MSDN Subscriber, visit MSDN subscriber downloads here.

Technorati Tags: beta, Microsoft, MSDN, visual studio 2010, vs2010

Continue reading »]]> UPDATE: This also occurs with the RTM / Final version of Windows 7

Just thought I would post a quick note about the Windows 7 RC install that I have just carried out.

It appears that several people are noticing an issue where the install appears to hang for a long time at 21% during the expanding windows files stage and gives a message that it is gathering extra information before continuing.

I have just ran the RC upgrade and indeed the install did hang at 21%, but WAIT because it does carry on eventually!!

I have seen reports that the install can hang here for an hour or more, but for me it was around 12 minutes.

So don’t give up on that install yet!

Also, if you have finished your install….what do you think of Windows 7?  I have been using the beta as my main OS since its release and I must say I love it.  Not one crash and the performance is smokin’.

Technorati Tags: install, rc1, Windows 7

Continue reading »]]> UPDATE: Apparently, the Expression Studio is available, but you need to go to the Top MSDN Downloads page. Here is the link to the top downloads page. Plus it turns out that I clearly was not awake this morning when I made this post originally as the blog post I link to below is talking about Expression Web 1 and is from over a year ago! Doh!

I was very pleased to see that Expression Web 2 / Expression Studio was available on MSDN Downloads when I read this blog post this morning.

However, my mood was short lived as it appears that the newly Expression Studio, featuring Expression Web 2, is not available to MSDN Subscribers, with no clear date set as to if or when it will be.

I contacted MSDN Support via online chat and I was told that they had received other requests along the same lines and they simply said that a decision would be made and then the classic line of “Thank you for contacting MSDN today, is there anything else I can help you with?”.

There is some hope though, Expression Studio is now an option within the downloads menu, but alas this group is currently empty.  Lets hope the downloads are simply delayed and the listing is not a mistake altogether.

I for one hope gets this resolved soon and we can all download the goodness that is Expression Studio!

Technorati Tags: expression studio, Expression Web, MSDN

Continue reading »]]> Ok, so a few weeks ago I posted about my plans to attend the MSDN Roadshow 2008 in Manchester and I said that I would post about the event once I had attended.  So as promised here is that very post along with some useful links;

Firstly, the venue for this years event was excellent.  The Odeon in Manchester City Centre in the Printworks is quite simply huge.  Luckily there were escalators for those of use who were to lazy to climb all of the stairs.

Once you reached the third floor, we were greeted by poster boxes with MSDN posters inside with some nice quotes, such as "There’s No Place Like 127.0.0.1" and "I’ll make him a program he can’t refuse", which was a nice touch I thought. Made the whole thing feel like more of an event rather than just a meeting.

In the corridor outside of the actual conference room were the usual stands familiar to those who have attended a Roadshow before, such as the registration table, a stand with discount books from the guys over at Computer Manuals selling discounted books on a variety of subjects from Expression to LINQ and of course, every developers favourite stand, the SWAG stand, with free goodies like the updated Developers Highway Code (which is available for download and I have included a link in the useful links later in this post).  We did all get a free software pack when we left, but more on that shortly.

In addition to the usual stands this year though, we were treated to a couple of really interesting tables showing off the XNA Framework on a dev Xbox 360 and the new Microsoft Robotics studio.  I have to say, some of the games produced with the XNA framework for the 360 were pretty impressive and most of them are available as starter kits from Microsoft if you’re interested.  I will include some links for both of these areas at the end of this post.

The conference room itself was actually a cinema room (surprisingly being at the Odeon ), which was fantastic.  This meant most people got comfortable seats to enjoy the show and those all important cup holders! I arrived slightly late, and so didn’t manage to get a seat, however, the nice Roadshow staff got me a seat and put me right at the side of the stage and I got a ringside seat which was great.  As you can see from the picture to the right (apologies for the quality, somehow I managed to set my camera phones’ resolution unusually low by mistake) of MSDNs Mike Ormond presenting, the slide being on a cinema screen really helped, as they were always clear and nobody was struggling to see anything.

The presentations themselves were, as always, of an excellent quality, with the speakers conveying their expert knowledge in their respective topics clearly and concisely.  I particularly enjoyed Mike Ormonds’ talk on the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions, especially the new Dynamic Data capabilities (which I am hopefully going to be posting a small tutorial series about shortly. If you’re interested, add this blog to you’re favourites or subscribe to my RSS Feed).

The refreshments this year were good, a choice between ham, cheese and chicken sandwiches, along with crisps and soft drinks for lunch.  Very nice Coffee during the breaks and even popcorn or Ben and Jerrys ice cream in the afternoon!

As I have already mentioned, if you handed in your feedback form and your pass before you left you were treated to a nice software pack, which didn’t disappoint.  Contained within the set were promotional copies of Windows Server 2008 32bit and 64bit editions, SQL Server 2008 Preview along with a voucher to get a development copy when it is released, and my personal favourite, a full copy of Visual Studio 2008.

All in all, an excellent day, well put together and very well received!

One last note, the MSDN Roadshow’s are an invaluable free event from Microsoft giving excellent technical and hands-on insight into the latest techniques and strategies for developers.  Every year they seem to sell out really fast, so my one message to you for next year is….REGISTER EARLY!

Now as promised, some useful links regarding the days speakers, events and topics;

Presentation Slides

Definitely worth a look through…..

Xbox 360 XNA Game Framework and Microsoft Robotics Studio and the Developer Highway Code

As promised, a couple of links to the areas that were the subject of two impressive stands this years event.

Technorati Tags: .net 3.5, ADO.NET, ASP.NET MVC, Dynamic Data, Microsoft Robotics, MSDN, Silverlight, XNA Framework

Continue reading »]]> UPDATE: This post was originally written for the Beta version of Expression Web 2. However, the content still applies to the full version that has now been released.

By now you have probably heard that the beta of version 2 of Microsoft’s web design tool Expression Web has just been released.  I am a big fan of Expression Web, having used it from the beta of version 1, and like many people I have been eagerly awaiting the release of version 2.  So, was it worth the wait?

Lets break down some of the new and updated features in Expression Web 2;

 PHP Support

If you develop using PHP (which I don’t), then the new version of Expression Web certainly delivers alot for you!  The app now supports PHP intellisense and syntax highlighting, which will likely bring all the PHP developers who liked the look of Expression Web 1, but not the lack of PHP support, into the community. 

But thats not all.  Expression Web 2 now supports the previewing of PHP sites locally, without the need for a seperately installed web server.  I know how much that features helps me all the time when I’m using Expression for creating ASP.Net sites and no doubt this will be the same for PHP developers.

ASP.Net & AJAX Controls

One of the biggest gripes I had (and I wasn’t alone) with Expression Web 1 was the lack of AJAX support.  When Expression Web was originally released, I automatically assumed that the standard AJAX controls (update panel, update progress, script manager etc.) would be available. Not so. This meant that I along with countless other developers and designers had to partially create our pages in Expression and then switch to Visual Studio or Visual Web Developer to work with AJAX.  Then, once you had these controls in your page, you recieved errors in design view in Expression becuase it didnt support the controls.

Luckily, the Expression Web team listened to the feedback and they have fixed this one too, and there is now full support for the standard ASP.Net Ajax controls to simply drag and drop them into your page.

Also, with regards to ASP.Net controls, you can now include custom controls in your web site, as well as a couple of new ASP.Net data controls, namely the ListView and DataPager control for when you are working with .Net 3.5.

Silverlight 1.0, Windows Media & Flash

You can now drop your Silverlight 1.0 applications straight into your site using Expression Web 2. Further to this, there is now support to also embed Windows Media and Flash into your site as well as Flash preview in design view!

Photoshop Support

Another new feature, which I know I am going to end up using all the time, is the newly added support for importing from photoshop.  Expression Web 2 will import any PSD (Photoshop) file and convert it to an optimised image file format for your site.  Not only that, but it has in-built support for photoshop layers, allowing you to decide to show or hide particular layers from the psd file.  Finally, once you have your optimised image, you can go back and edit it in photoshop from with Expression and it will update your picture in your site accordingly.

In Summary

Good job Microsoft!

Above are just four of the main new features that are part of the new Expression Web 2 Beta, a couple of the others which I won’t go into now are;

• Improved FTP Publishing
• Enhanced CSS styling and validation
• Byte Order Mark Options (one of the little niggles with the first Expression Web was the lack of support for BOM, leading to encoding errors, especially with applications like WordPress).

If you want to try Expression Web 2 Beta (I would definantely recommend it), go and download the beta here.

I would also suggest checking out the Expression Web Team Blog for news and updates regarding the app.

Technorati Tags: AJAX, ASP.Net, Expression Web, Web Design

Continue reading »]]> Just registered for the 2008 MSDN Roadshow in Manchester on 1st May

At last years event, I particularly enjoyed a demo around WPF/E, which ofcourse has now been released as Silverlight.

Well, this years event looks to be even better.  Below is the event summary from the Microsoft web site;

Microsoft is pleased to present the 2008 Technical Roadshow where MSDN will be visiting 5 cities across the UK to share with you the latest technologies and developments in our platform.  It you are a developer who is interested in Microsoft technologies, then come along to one of these free all day events where you will learn how to apply the technologies in your everyday life.  We will be covering Silverlight – Microsoft’s browser plug-in that allows rich web applications to be developed quickly and easily, ASP.Net as well as the ADO.NET entity framework.  We have our own expert presenters who will be available for questions throughout the day.  We will also have representation from  the community to provide additional support and some fun activities.  If you have attended a Roadshow event before, you will know the value of this day out of the office and if it is your first time, you will be amazed at how much you will learn – all this without a sales pitch!

Really looking forward to this year, especially the demos around Silverlight 2.0.

I will post an update about how the event was once I have attented and I will try and get some photos as well.

Technorati Tags: .Net, MSDN, msdn roadshow 2008, Silverlight