Hello again and welcome to my blog!

Why welcome again? Because I’ve decided to write again my toughts and ideas, instead of writing about some new technologies which would, in result, bring me some hit points. Evenwhatsoever…..

Probably I will continue someday to lamment about the dead project society, but today I won’t. I will say for now that we should try to keep ourselves alive in this turbulent IT world today. And not to become a dead project. If possible …

Why? A programmer’s era is nearly gone. As Galadriel would say:
The world is changing… I can feel it in the water …

And so I lamment you.

Hello! I’ve just passed two more exams to get MCPD 3.5 D&D Windows Apps certificate!
The venture constisted of two exams needed to achive this, listed above:

• 70-505 : TS : Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, Windows Forms Application Development – scored 978/1000, and
• 79-563: Pro: Designing and Developing Windows Applications Using the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – scored 971/1000.

And here are some of the topics and questions you might encounter on them:

70-505: Windows Forms on 3.5

You can expect several groups of questions:

- about multithreading (BackgroundWorker, DoWork method, picking up the results from thread execution),
- about controls and forms (MDI, inheritance chain, composite controls),
- printing (paging, printing controls),
- security (SafePrinting, lots of Vista-related questions!)
- installation (ClickOnce mostly is the answer, also MSI, versioning)…

70-563: D&D Windows Apps on 3.5

You can expect rather short questions (not typical for MCSD/MCPD certificates) describing a business case. You should, in most cases, propose one or more suitable strategies on how to solve the problem using one or more ‘trendy’ technologies provided by Microsoft. My suggestions follow:

- choose Microsoft Sync Framework when you have to deal with occasionally connected solutions (“have to work also on a local computer when offline..”),
- choose Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition in case you have small portable scenario,
- choose the most ‘tough’ encryption algorythm in case you should protect data locally (Rijndael, TripleDES, etc.),
- learn how to migrate from Windows Forms to WPF and vice versa (ElementHost, WindowsFormsHost) -> hey, that’s the topic of my lecture!!,
- choose ClickOnce technology in most of the cases for installation scenario (if it does not include any GAC component or custom code),
- choose MicrosoftReportViewer in cases of reporting solution in most of cases (if not simple one),
- learn LINQ,  because you gonna need it for the exam.

Kind regards,
Ratko.

DevArena 2009

My new session is coming with a title:
Migration path towards Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) platform – the client inteface of the future 

The lecture will be a part of the one-day developer conference organized by Ekobit in Zagreb (Croatia) on October 22 this year.

I will give a lecture with my colleage Dejan Martincevic, who is a professional web developer (MCPD) and also experienced in WPF. Together we will talk about how easy is to migrate to WPF taking several methodologies. Here is the summary of the session, so if you are interested and nearby Zagreb (Croatia), apply for it and join the session!

WPF technology offers us lots of revolutionary features, especially the important role plays XAML language which abstracts visualisation of user interface and experience (UX). As such, XAML becomes a building block not just for desktop apps, but also for web solutions by using Silverlight and other technologies (XPS documents, WF, etc.). It would be perfect if would be possible to begin with the new technology (such as WPF) from the scratch, but we know, it is not always possible – we do not live in the perfect world. This lecture will present exactly this tought – by using best practices of building client applications relying on Windows Forms, make our way for Windows Presentation Foundation platform – the client interface of the future!

What is good to know about the migration

• there is not such thing as a ‘magic wand’ for doing the migration – of course, you can start to write your app from the ground up once again, but this is not an intention of the migration.
• you can host the existing WinForms elements (windows, user controls, third-party and even ActiveX controls) inside a WPF application, as well as to host your WPF elements inside a Windows Forms application.
• there are known issues regarding integration of WinForms via WindowsFormsHost into the WPF layout, such as: sizing, rotating, skewing, proportional scaling, layering (Z-Order), etc., that you should be aware of.
• there is a helper class which you can use for reporting conditions of the browser environment for a WPF application that is hosted by a browser (BrowserInteropHelper).
• there are controls which are not (yet) supported by WPF – MaskedTextBox, ImageList, LinkLabel; dialogs (ColorDialog, FolderBrowserDialog, FontDialog), date controls (DateTimePicker, MonthCalendar), printing controls (PageSetupDialog, PrintDocument, PrintPreviewDialog), and more others…
• some of the controls are drammaticaly or just slightly changed, so you should be aware of all of these…
• there are lots of documentation available on the internet about how to do it.