Agenda

.NET Track

• Data Access Hacks and Shortcuts

  Stephen Forte
  Level: 400

  Struggling with Data Access? Who isn’t? Come and see some Data Access hacks and shortcuts that will make your life easier! In a high energy demo-only session, Stephen shows: how a mere mortal can pass a custom .Net collection to a stored procedure, improve your LINQ (to SQL, Entities, and 3rd party ORM) queries by eavesdropping on the server and understanding deferred execution, making complex data models easier to manage in the Entity Framework, easier and generic Sliverlight databinding, and transforming your database back end to get enormous performance and productivity enhancements no matter what data access methodology you use. This is data access for the 21st century! Stephen will also provide guidance along the way about ORMs, LINQ to SQL, and the Entity Framework and will encourage Q&A.

  
  

  Demos:

  • ADO.NET: Passing a Custom Collection to a Stored Proc
  • LINQ: Using SQL Server Profiler for eavesdropping on the conversation between your data access components and SQL Server
  • Easier asynchronous Sliverlight databinding using generic lists (IList)
  • Database Architecture: Transform Data for Faster Performance

   

• SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence

  Remi Caron
  Level: 300

  SQL server is next to being a great database an excellent choice for implementing BI solutions in an organization. We will cover the following topics in the session Why do I BI, how to look at data in a BI scenario this is different than data in a transactional system. What tools does SQL server has available to setup a BI environment which tools can we use to use the data in our BI cubes. And throughout this session we will build a small BI sample using adventure works database.

• The Daily Scrum

  Stephen Forte, Remi Caron, Joel Semeniuk
  Level: 100

  One of the most popular Agile project management and development methods, Scrum is starting to be adopted at major corporations and on very large projects. After an introduction to the basics of Scrum like: project planning and estimation, the Scrum Master, team, product owner and burn down, and of course the daily Scrum, Joel, Remi, and Stephen (a certified Scrum Master) show many real world applications of the methodology drawn from their own experience as a Scrum Masters. This is an interactive session and the session will then move to a large Q&A on best practices with the audience. Bring your questions (and a sense of humor).

• Will It Blend?

  Shawn Wildermuth

  It’s easy to assume that the Expression toolset is just for designers. It’s even got that cool dark background with a completely non-Windows looking skin. But is that the reality? In this session I will show developers how Blend can be used to make their jobs quite a bit easier, even without a single ounce of artistic talent.

• Silverlight + MVVM = Easy

  Shawn Wildermuth

  Building a simple gadget or proof-of-concept in Silverlight is a pleasurable experience. But for larger applications, we should be able to leverage some of the tried and true software development patterns to help us build reliable and robust solutions. One of the most power of these techniques is the model-view-view-model (MVVM) pattern. In this session, I will present a example of building your applications using the MVC pattern to enable testability and separation of concerns.

• Advanced F# Programming

  Oliver Sturm
  Level: 300

  This session requires some basic knowledge of F#, and it goes on to describe advanced language elements and advanced aspects of basic elements, including the topics of match expressions, types, list comprehensions and .NET subjects such as handling exceptions and working with IDisposable types. If you want to go beyond a very basic understanding of the language F#, this is the advanced overview you need.

• Functional Programming in F#

  Oliver Sturm
  Level: 400

  F# is a multi-paradigm language, but its syntax heritage comes from a functional world. Functional Programming is one of the main benefits that F# brings to the .NET platform. It encompasses many distinctive approaches and techniques, and this session provides an introduction to some of them, including the use of higher order functions, recursions and continuations, functional precomputation and memoization. The session requires a good understanding of F# foundations and syntax.

• Data for Developers: Today and Tomorrow

  Chris Sells
  Level: 300

  As an industry, we've been doing application development with data for a long time. However, the tools for end-to-end data-based application development has been lacking. In this talk, Chris will discuss the various ways we think about data, what we need from an environment to support building applications using data and how Visual Studio, SQL Server and “Oslo” can help.

• The “M” Language

  Chris Sells
  Level: 300

  “M” is a new language for writing schemas, values and queries for SQL Server. “M” also allows you to take advantage of a new trend in the software industry: building domain-specific languages (DSLs). DSLs are “tiny languages” that even further simplify getting data into SQL Server. In this session, we'll get you started writing DSLs using “M”, using the “M” tools, and getting your DSL’s data into SQL Server.

• Death of a Web Server: Crisis in Caching

  Richard Campbell

  Our web servers don't tell us what's wrong, they just fail and it's up to us to figure it out. In this session you'll watch the diagnosis of a failing web site under load. The load test will be live and the servers will fail as you watch. You'll learn how to instrument a web site to understand the failure. Then you'll learn how to diagnose the failure and evaluate the solutions - whether to change code, alter configuration, add hardware or more. If you've ever had to answer the question "Why is the web site so slow?" this session is for you!

• From One Web Server to Two: Making the Leap

  Richard Campbell

  Every web application starts out on a single web server. And while we've been told over and over again that you can always move to multiple web servers, it's not as simple as that! This session digs into the details of what it takes to make that leap - all the changes needed to let your application function properly with more than one server. You'll learn about replicating your web application between two servers and how to keep the content in sync. The techniques and challenges of load balancing are explored. And you'll explore the critical challenge of moving to multiple servers - getting rid of affinity. There's more affinity than just the session object, but that is a key starting point. Moving to multiple servers isn't easy, but this session will give you the check list of what to do to be successful.