Windows Vista Advancements for Developers   27 Jul 2005 05:35 GMT
Windows Vista™ (formerly code name Windows "Longhorn") is a substantial advance in Windows, with significant innovations in the developer platform. Windows Vista makes it easier to build applications that are more secure, reliable, and manageable.
Source: MSDN

Use Excel 2003 to Create and Manage Windows SharePoint Services Web Sites   27 Jul 2005 01:06 GMT
Discover how various aspects of Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office, Excel, and Windows SharePoint Services work harmoniously in a hypothetical business scenario.
Source: MSDN

Maintaining Database Consistency with Transactions   27 Jul 2005 00:00 GMT

While databases can efficiently hold large amounts of information that can be queried, all that data and all that querying power is useless if the data is incorrect or nonsensical. Databases provide a plethora of techniques for ensuring the integrity and consistency: primary key and unique constraints can be employed to ensure entity integrity; foreign key constraints aid in ensuring relational integrity, and transactions help ensure that the database's data remains consistent.

While INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements are the most granular operations for modifying a database's underlying data, at times we want to treat multiple INSERT, UPDATE, and/or DELETE statements as one atomic operation. That is, in certain situations, rather than having each INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statement stand on its own, we want the set of statements to be, together, an indivisible unit. When issuing this set of statements we want either the entire set of statements to succeed, or all to fail - there should be no 'in-between' state.

The canonical transactional example is transferring money from one account to another. A money transfer account at a bank requires two steps; if we want to transfer $500 from our checking account to our savings account, the following steps must be processed:

• First, $500 must be deducted from our checking account,
• Next, $500 must be added to the savings account

In terms of SQL syntax, this would involve two UPDATE statements - one subtracting $500 from the balance of the checking account and the other incrementing the savings account balance by $500. It is vital, however, that these two steps are treated as one atomic unit. What we want to avoid is to have step 1 complete, subtracting $500 from our checking account, but before step 2 can run, crediting our savings account, imagine that the database server crashes. (Well, this scenario is something the bank might not get too upset over!) It is important that either both of these steps complete in total or neither complete.

Database transactions are what ensure atomicity, one of the key features of any database system. Microsoft SQL Server, as well as any professional grade database product, has support for transactions. In this article we'll examine how to wrap multiple SQL statements within an atomic database transaction using the SqlTransaction class in the System.Data.SqlClient namespace. Read on to learn more!
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Source: 4GuysFromRolla

Common ASP.NET 2.0 Conversion Issues and Solutions   26 Jul 2005 21:39 GMT
Looks at some of the common conversion issues developers may face when upgrading from ASP.NET 1.x to 2.0 and how to avoid and/or fix those issues.
Source: MSDN

Assign a Default Value to a Password Control in ASP.NET   26 Jul 2005 00:44 GMT
Use this code to assign a default value to a password control in ASP.NET.
Source: DevX

Understanding the BackgroundWorker Component   25 Jul 2005 04:00 GMT
Multithreading is one of the most powerful concepts in programming. Using multithreading, you can break a complex task into multiple threads that execute independently of one another. By default, your Windows application uses a single thread of execution. Wei-Meng Lee shows you how multithreading has been simplified in VB2005 using the BackgroundWorker component.
Source: O'Reilly

Get Started with the Enterprise Library Data Access Application Block   25 Jul 2005 00:00 GMT
If you have downloaded Microsoft's Enterprise Library Data Access Application Block, you may have found it hard to get started with. To help you, Bilal Haidar provides a number of simple examples that walk you through the most common uses of this new Application Block.
Source: AspAlliance

Be an Avalon Test Pilot and Build the Windows UIs of Tomorrow   23 Jul 2005 00:29 GMT
Avalon, the nascent framework for building next-generation user interfaces in Windows Vista, is available now in beta, but you don't have to wait for Vista (a.k.a. Longhorn) to get started. We unpacked it early in order to give you a jump start on building the UIs of tomorrow.
Source: DevX

POS for .NET Software Development Kit Now Available   22 Jul 2005 22:04 GMT
Developing on the Windows Embedded for Point of Service platform? The Microsoft POS for .NET Software Development Kit version 1.0 includes everything you need to write, build, and test Service Object or Applications that use POS for .NET — documentation,
Source: MSDN

C++ Connections: November 7–10, 2005 at the Mandalay Bay Resort, Las Vegas   20 Jul 2005 20:44 GMT
Celebrate the 20 year anniversary of C++ with the top C++ speakers in the world. Bjarne Stroustrup, the designer of C++, Scott Meyers, Herb Sutter, Andrei Alexandrescu, and Stan Lippman are among the stellar line-up of expert speakers.
Source: MSDN