Volume 8, Number 18
September 16, 2004

From the Editors

Oh, Fall must be coming soon. The new TV lineup is out, days are getting shorter, it started raining again (we know, this also happens in the summer in Belgium), and Microsoft is busy releasing software. Due to this change of weather, we've had our first colleagues calling in ill at work. Make sure your computer is protected against many illnesses too - please take the time to install Windows XP SP2. The Service Pack is now available in English, Dutch and French (amongst other languages); just make sure that AutoUpdate is turned on and you'll receive it automatically.

The other really exciting news is that MSDN subscribers now have access to the Visual Studio Beta 1 Refresh with VS Team System. By the way, if you want to be the first to know when things become available as MSDN Subscriber downloads, there is an RSS feed that you might want to subscribe to. (Check out our information on RSS feeds at the MSDN Belux RSS Feed page.)

If you haven't read the latest about our Longhorn plans, we've got some great news. While it is true that WinFS will no longer be part of the initial deployment of Longhorn in 2006, we will be making key elements of the Windows WinFX API developer platform available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Stay tuned...

Finally, we want to mention the following book that is recommended by Shawn L. Morrissey, our MSDN colleague at Microsoft in Redmond. In "Seeing Data", Rebecca Riordan covers all you need to know about UI programming and data presentation, from using GDI+ to entity-relationship diagramming to interface architectures. Shawn says it is a great read. You can get the book at specialized computer book stores.

Till next time,

Tom Mertens MSDN Community Microsoft Belgium & Luxembourg

Gerd De Bruycker Developer & IT Pro Community Manager Microsoft Belgium & Luxembourg

If you have any feedback or questions, please send us a message.

Geek Speak

The links and content below point to postings by the developer community.
The postings are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights.

Belgian .NET Bloggers

• Roy Dictus says: "Exceptions == Errors"
• Gunther Beersaerts informs the community that Microsoft is looking for feedback on Windows Server.
• Jonathan has updated the list of his Reflector add-ins and created some new ones.
• David Boschmans lists common testing frameworks and tools for test-driven development.
• Jonathan de Halleux links to his download for the BENUG Test-Driven Development Workshop.
• Sven Cipido discovers the vast set of available Application Blocks.
• Stijn Guillemyn blogs about caching in the .NET Framework.
• Tom Van de Kerkhof updates his Treeview Navigation Webpart for SharePoint.

Want to have your blog added to the list of Belgian & Luxemburger bloggers? Just drop us a mail with the URL of your blog.

Other bloggers

• Serge van den Oever writes about a tool, designed to enable non-intrusive modifications to the visual and functional design of SharePoint, that was released by his company.
• Renaud Comte blogs about his Granular Backup Manager for SharePoint.
• Duncan Mackenzie refers to an interesting blog for people that like FxCop and a lot of source code.
• Our colleagues of Microsoft France host  (French written) blogs at http://blogs.microsoft.fr/. You can also get a French blog over there...
• Rockford Lothka: "More discussion on service-oriented and procedural programming"
• Brad Abrams says to avoid Protected Static.
• Lisa Wollin explains how you can add sound to a web page.
• The Visual Studio 2005 Team System blog has several Q&A posts.
• Cathi Gero on using the system tray in a Windows Forms Application.
• Christa Carpentiere links to a webcast on the best practices for CLR objects in SQL Server 2005.
• Don Box links to a simplified version of WS-Policy.
• Tosh Meston collected interesting posts on the System.Drawing namespace.
• Brian Scott grabs part of your screen with C#.
• Georgeo Pulikkathara: "Soup to Nuts – A Webcast Series for Windows Forms Development"
• Duncan Mackenzie agrees with his boss that the book "Seeing Data" (see also the editorial of this newsletter) is highly recommended.
• Gilles Zunino writes about .NET Framework 1.1 SP1 and problems that might arise with System.Web.HttpWebRequest due to bad behaving web servers.
• Justin Rodgers takes up the Terrarium "game" project several times.
• Justin Rodgers: "Extended .NET Regular Expression tester is up on RegexLib.com"
• Scott on Writing recently asked his blog readers about the software they can't live without. Be sure to also check out the comments and trackbacks.
• Roy Osherove: "Adding Pre- and Post-build events to Visual Basic .NET projects"
• Robert Green links to an interview with Soma, Microsoft's Corporate VP of the Developer Division.
• Scott Hanselman links to Jeff Key's PixelRuler.
• Peter Provost and his Geek Notes.
• Matt Hawley unleaches a new version of his free WebDeploy tool: Unleach It 2.0.
• The SourceSafe team blogs at the CheckItOut blog (got it?) that the transcript of the "Source Control in Visual Studio 2005" chat is available.
• Geoff Snowman lists webcasts on SQL Server Reporting Services that he recently did.
• Luca Bolognese keeps it simple: "x+=x++;"
• Paul Litwin's article in MSDN Magazine: "Stop SQL Injection Attacks Before They Stop You"
• Use the Microsoft Community Blogs directory to find weblogs about Microsoft technologies written by Microsoft employees.

Belgium & Luxembourg Events

There are no in-person events for developers planned at this moment. You can find events for IT professionals on the TechNet Belux Events page.

Other Community Headlines

Enjoy the Special Edition of Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional
For a limited time, developers can upgrade to the new Special Edition for a special low price! The addition of Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2000 make this an ideal Web application development platform.

Video Interview: Developing Rich User Interfaces with Windows Forms 2.0
Joe Stegman, lead program manager on the Windows Forms team, takes you through a bunch of demo applications that were built with Visual Studio 2005 and the next Windows Forms technology.

Download the New .NET Framework 1.0 and 1.1 Service Packs
Addressing customer issues found after the release of the .NET Framework 1.0 and 1.1, the SPs provide better support for consuming WSDL documents, Data Execution prevention and a strong focus on security issues.

Join the Experts at Microsoft IT Forum 2004
IT Forum 2004 is Microsoft's European training conference for planning, deploying and managing the secure connected enterprise. With this year's theme of "Security", choose from 200+ unique technical sessions, hands-on labs, chalk-&-talks and Q&A panels.

Microsoft Solutions Framework v4.0 Beta
Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) offers guidance in how to organize people and projects to plan, build, and deploy technology solutions successfully and effectively. The contents of this GotDotNet workspace represent pre-release versions of MSF v4.0.

Top Suggestions For Visual Studio 2005
By submitting suggestions for Visual Studio 2005 and other technologies, you're talking directly to Microsoft development teams. Find out what others have already suggested and provide your feedback to these existing suggestions.

New MCP Exams For Developers On Implementing Security for Applications
New MCP Exams For Developers On Implementing Security for Applications Two new elective exams are added for the MCAD and MCSD certification: "Implementing Security for Applications". Exam 70-330 is for Visual Basic .NET Developers, while exam 70-340 is for C# developers.

Search the Microsoft Newsgroups And Find an Answer Quickly
Would you like to get answers to your questions directly from the world's leading technology experts? Interested in tips from power developers? Do you have tips you'd like to share with others? Then the Microsoft Newsgroups are the right place for you.

.NET Rocks! With SQL Server Guru Kimberly Tripp
In two and a half hour long show, Kimberly Tripp offers critical insights into SQL Server 2000 addressing Indexing, optimizing procedural code, the nightmare of row-based operations, and more. Kimberly is a SQL Server MVP and a Microsoft Regional Director and has worked with SQL Server since 1990.

MSDN Business Process and Integration Developer Center
Visit the MSDN Business Process and Integration Developer Center for up-to-date information and resources about coordinating the activities of business applications, people, and partners.

Web Resources

Visit Microsoft's New Trial Software Center
It's the comprehensive source for free trial versions of many of Microsoft's best products including Visual Studio .NET and the Windows Server System.

MSDN TV: Interview with Steve McConnell
Shawn Morrissey from MSDN talks with Steve McConnell, author of Code Complete, about updates in the recently published second version, software process, agile development, and more.

MSDN TV: Using Managed Resources
Ahmed Abou-Taleb and Brian Grunkemeyer show how to work with managed resources using the .NET Framework resources model and describe some of the new resources features in the next version of Visual Studio.

Handling Complex COM Objects with Interop Assemblies
Are you wondering how .NET manages the memory of COM objects you instantiate using the .NET Framework? Peter Vogel explains.

Display Search Data for SharePoint Portal Server
Create an end-to-end solution that performs the collection and viewing of search-related data from SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

Extending FrontPage 2003
See how XML solutions, simple code solutions, and add-ins can extend FrontPage 2003 functionality.

Search Inbox Data Using Word 2003 Smart Tags
Create search queries against the Exchange message store and then import the search result data into a Word document.

Visual Studio .NET Professional 2003 Special Edition is here
The new Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional Special Edition delivers all the productivity of Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional and also includes Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition and SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition.

Product-Related Downloads

Access Thousands of IT Books with Safari for Free
For a limited time, MSDN subscribers can search code, read sections, and download chapters with Safari. Sign up at Subscriber Downloads.

More Developer Downloads...

Security for Developers

WS-Security Drilldown in WSE 2.0
Learn how to use Web Services Enhancements 2.0 to implement security, trust, and secure conversations in Web services architecture. Also covers the security-related changes from Web Services Enhancements 1.0.

Stop SQL Injection Attacks Before They Stop You

Access Secured Web Services from Windows SharePoint Services Applications

Microsoft Security Expert Stephen Toulouse on Channel 9

View the Latest Microsoft Security Bulletins

KB Article: Availability and Description of the Port Reporter Tool

Visit the MSDN Security Developer Center

Case Studies, KB Articles, & How-tos

Microsoft Rocks: Showcasing the Possibilities of Smart Client Applications
Microsoft EMEA builds applications to highlight the promise of smart client using Microsoft Office and the .NET Framework.

JNetDirect Ports to 64-Bit in Under a Month

FIX: Keyboard shortcuts do not select a button control on tab pages in the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1

FIX: When you set the Visible property of the DataGrid control to False, the DataGrid control is still visible in the .NET Framework 1.1

Applications that use Caching Application Block may experience exceptions or may receive incorrect data from the cache

More KB Articles and How-tos...
More Case Studies...

Training

New Security Exams Now Available
Measure your ability to implement code to minimize security risks. Available as electives to MCAD and MCSD certification.

• Exam 70-330: Implementing Security for Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET
• Exam 70-340: Implementing Security for Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET

New: Course 2363 - Microsoft .NET for COBOL Programmers

Pattern-Based Development using the .NET Framework

Receive a free analysis of your current development skills

Visit the Microsoft Belux training & certification website

Let Microsoft certifications transform your current skills into a meaningful career

Partner News

Make Software Development Manageable - Get Your Free DevPartner Demo CD
DevPartner Studio, awarded for "Overall Best of Tech·Ed Europe" (at the 1st Annual Best of Microsoft Tech·Ed Europe 2004 Awards in July 2004), delivers unsurpassed features to accelerate the development of Visual Studio 6 and .Net applications.

Learn more about DevPartner Studio Professional Edition by requesting a demonstration CD which takes you through all the tools of the suite. Register at the Compuware website to receive your free copy.

Wave's Free TCG-Enabled Cryptographic Service Provider (CSP)
Developer's kit enables applications to use hardware-based security found in Trusted Platforms and Trusted Platform Modules (TPM).

SPI Dynamics White Paper: Top 6 Security Mistakes by .NET Developers

International Events

Microsoft IT Forum 2004
16-19 November, Copenhagen, Denmark

Hear Bill Gates at Microsoft's European training conference for IT Managers, Systems and Applications Architects, Specialists and Administrators.

Register now and save 300 EUR.