Are you ready to put your .NET knowledge to the test and go head-to-head with other developers from the local area and beyond?  If so, join us for C# Jeopardy, a .NET twist on the popular television game show.  Prepare to compete for some fantastic prizes while we test your expertise with “answers” at varying levels of difficulty, covering everything from common (and not so common) C# keywords to the inner depths of multi-threaded development.  As part of our session, we are presenting our new and improved game board, built on the WPF platform featuring some tasty FluidKit transitions.  Are you prepared to step up to the plate and show off the depth of your knowledge?  Do you have what it takes to best the other contestants and claim your prize?  Join us at the Dallas Tech Fest and let’s see what you’ve got!

Engage early in learning how to develop applications that blend custom code with online data-centric services.
Learn how to leverage recent advancements in Microsoft technology that enable seamless interaction with data services both locally and in the Cloud.
In this session, we’ll…

• Gain a clear understanding of a data service and how the REST protocol plays a key role
• Explore local, or “on-premises,” data services implemented with the ADO.NET Data Services Framework
• Explore Cloud-based data services implemented with SQL Data Services
• Walk through examples with Silverlight and ASP.NET Ajax
• Show how the ADO.NET Entity Framework provides an underlying foundation for data services
• Contrast the difference between SQL Data Services in the cloud and cloud data storage

You’ll walk-away with a clear understanding of how this technology works as well as what is available now and in the near future.

Business applications no longer exist as isolated systems. In order to provide integrated solutions that add business value, applications must be connected. Modern approaches for enterprise application integration (EAI) such as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) separate applications into services that can be accessed via a standard interface such as a web service. This collection of services provides a platform on which new applications can be created that leverage the existing functionality.

However, as application complexity increases, the coupling of services becomes an impediment in adapting applications to meet the ever-changing goals of the business. Event Driven Architecture (EDA) is a method of designing and implementing systems where events are exchanged between highly decoupled components and services. EDA does not replace SOA, instead it compliments the request/response nature of SOA with a highly scalable event model for building and coordinating asynchronous transactions.

In this presentation, I will explain event driven architecture, describe the different types of events, demonstrate how events can be related and orchestrated, and provide a basic understanding of how this method can drive the architecture of enterprise systems. In addition to understanding the concepts of event driven architecture, we will explore a working sample built using an open-source .NET messaging framework called MassTransit.

This session will be a deep dive into the caves of the ASP.NET runtime. We’ll watch a request go all the way through the ASP.NET pipeline from IIS back to IIS again through the bowels of the runtime – talk about your coffee bar conversation piece … you can’t Google this! This is essential knowledge for the aspiring ASP.NET expert. We’ll travel across processes and threads through queues, runtime events and HttpModules into the happy object and HttpHandlerFactories and HttpHandlers and request filters and out again to the other side. It will be a ride to remember!

ASP.NET Dynamic Data is a framework that lets you create data-driven ASP.NET Web applications easily. It does this by automatically discovering data-model metadata at run time and deriving UI behavior from it. A scaffolding framework provides a functional Web site for viewing and editing data. You can easily customize the scaffolding framework by changing elements or creating new ones to override the default behavior. Existing applications can easily integrate scaffolding elements with ASP.NET pages. We will discuss how to 1) Create a data-driven web application using ASP.NET Dynamic Data 2) Add validation to the data model of your application 3) Customize ASP.NET Dynamic Data rendering 4) Customize ASP.NET Dynamic Data pages and 5) Customize ASP.NET Dynamic Data fields.

Occasionally a software product comes along that fundamentally changes the way we do things... jQuery does that to the world of client-side JavaScript! In this introductory presentation, learn how to use jQuery in your web pages for styling, user interaction, animations and more. You'll be surprised at how easy it is!

You'll really wow! those execs when you can give them unconventional benefits and information by adding stellar instrumentation to your application. We're not talking about the traditional performance or operational instrumentation (boring). We building hacker wackers and revolutionizing the user experience and reporting on user behavior and trends and serving up stuff the sales team can even use to close deals. We're living way outside of the box!

It's inevitable...the coming model-driven platform (Oslo) from Purdy Village in Microsoft will take over the runtime-building world! In this session, we'll build an Oslo application from scratch. As part of a short intro, we'll create a model with the new 'M' language. Once we have a model, we'll persist some instances of that model in the Oslo repository (SQL Server) with the Oslo toolset. Alas, we'll build a tiny runtime framework that consumes the instances of those models and allows them to declare in unison that developers rule!

Mono is an open-source, cross-platform implementation of the .NET framework based on the ECMA standards for C# and the Common Language Infrastructure. With Mono, users can run C# and Visual Basic applications written and compiled in Visual Studio on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. This talk will demonstrate how to take advantage of some of the newest features of Mono, including improved support for developing for Mono with Visual Studio, and support for ASP.NET MVC. We’ll also explore new deployment opportunities Mono brings to .NET developers, including support for building hardware and software appliances on Linux.

This presentation will go over the many different capabilities of ColdFusion as an integrator, focusing not only on providing you the ability to communicate with other technologies such as SOAP / REST Services, Flex, AJAX, PDF Documents / Forms, etc. but making those connections easy. I'll share my own experiences integrating with many different technologies / products and how I've enjoyed worrying less about integration and more about experience. We'll also discuss the newest options for CFML development and discuss how the bar for making technologies work together is being raised even higher.

Object Oriented is a term most programming language's have in their feature set and many languages brag about the power and agility of their objects. In ColdFusion, the Component is the powerhouse that provides you with an arsenal of functionality to tackle even the most complicated object oriented design. This presentation will show you how to utilize the power of Components including mixins, inheritance, interfaces, and dynamic functions.

Steve will be demonstrating the native image manipulation features of ColdFusion 8 as well as some alternative ways to deliver image data to Flex 3 and JavaScript (jQuery).

This session will offer a little sneak peak of some of the new features available in ColdFusion 9, including a demo of the new CF-ORM functionality made possible through integrated Hibernate ORM.

ORMs are a powerful way to abstract your data persistence from your application so you can spend more time focusing on your business logic, and less on how you will save your data. Tom will discuss why you might want to consider using an ORM in your next CF project and then will give an introduction to Transfer - one of the leading CFML ORM frameworks.

With the ever growing market for Flex, it has become more in demand in other areas that just Business Applications. Because of this demand we have started to move Flex into other markets that require a bit of “Creative Thinking” when accomplishing the goals of our Clients. No longer can we just following a “cookie cutter” way of doing things. We will take a look at one such example for creating a Flex Application that uses Live Streaming Data without the use of a Middle Tier or Live Cycle Data Services.

Topics discussed with include:

· XML Sockets
· Custom Components
· Custom Charting
· XML Data Manipulation
· Custom Event Handling
· Custom Data Transfer Objects
· Using States

Flex revolutionized RIA Development.
Ruby on Rails revolutionized RIA Development.
Time for more people to learn how to put them together.
Many people have watched how to make a blog using Ruby on Rails in 10 minutes. With just a few more steps you can have that same blog going in Flex in just another few minutes with Ruby on Rails powering your Flex Application! Forget long development timelines forever!
In this session I will show people not just the code, but also the theory and steps to put these two technologies together for their own revolutionary RIA Development experience.

In this session we will discuss Mashups. What they are and why you, as a deliverer of business solutions, should be aware of them. We will show some common sources that are used in Mashups, and how, with Adobe Flex, you can leverage existing data sources in order to create richer and fuller user experiences.

Session will provide an overview of various techniques and approaches developers can use in day-to-day activities for Flex, Flash and Silverlight application development, testing and runtime optimization. You will learn about ActionScript code generator for remoting and data management use-cases, learn how to create real-time messaging applications, see a demo of remoting invocation debugger and AMF traffic visualizer. Finally, you will see a demonstration of user behavior tracking and analytics in a Flex application. The session provides a lot of coding samples and API reviews. It is targeted at a wide range of developers ranging from beginner level to very advanced. Parts of the presentation will be useful for management folks and they are welcome to attend as well.

This session will explore the possibilities of data visualization within the Flex framework by covering such topics as implementing standard Flex charting components, enhancing user experience through chart interactivity, as well as creating customized charting components within your Flex application.

Closures are programming language constructs that have been around about as long as programming, but the prospect of their inclusion in future versions of the Java language has stirred up all manner of controversy.  This talk aims to demonstrate how closures work in many different programming languages, including modern JVM-based languages such as Groovy, JRuby, and Scala. We will also explore closures in Smalltalk, Scheme, JavaScript, C#, and the BGGA prototype for closures in Java. After the talk, the participant should have a keen sense of how to use closures to eliminate repetitive code and write more natural, concise, expressive code using closures.

One of the barriers to wider adoption of TDD is that it is best taught from within a team, and the technical challenges of writing tests frequently thwart those looking to teach themselves. This is exacerbated by the fact that most tutorials focus on toy examples rather than real-world problems. This session will be a live demonstration of Test Driven Development in Java, aimed at those new to TDD and looking to learn. We will explore some of the hard problems that frequently discourage new TDDers, and demonstrate some techniques for overcoming them in a live coding session. We will use JUnit, Java, and Eclipse to employ tools that most new TDDers are familiar with.

Continuous Testing (CT) is a emerging developer practice that involves automatically running unit tests every time you change so much as a line of code. It gives you instant feedback about the semantic correctness of your code, just as modern IDE’s give you instant feedback about syntax errors. CT has a profound impact on the way we apply Test Driven Development.

In this talk, we'll demonstrate the use of a continuous test runner, and discuss the history, theory, practice, and daily application of CT to real-world projects.

It's been just over 5 years since Spring 1.0 was released. In that time it has gone from a modest open-source project to being a de facto standard Java application framework. Now, as Spring enters its 6th year, it continues its attack on Java complexity with Spring 3.0, packed with many new features such as:

  * First-class REST support
  * A new expression language
  * More options for annotation-driven bean wiring
  * And much more

In this session, I'll lead a guided tour through the latest that Spring has to offer. Whether you're a Spring veteran or a Spring newbie, there'll be something new for nearly everyone.

ExtJS is an advanced JavaScript library for building RIAs without plugins. This presentation will show how to add some of ExtJS's rich AJAX widgets to a Spring Framework 2.5 web application and configure JSON handling on the server side.  New features of ExtJS 3.0 will also be discussed.

Broadleaf Commerce (http://www.broadleafcommerce.org/) is an open source E-Commerce framework that originated in Dallas, TX. In this presentation, we'll cover some of the technologies used to develop the Broadleaf Commerce framework and challenges we have faced.

Specifically,
 - Leveraging Spring Security for common web security needs
 - Using JPA to define an extensible domain
 - Creating extensible Spring Services
 - Using MVEL to implement rules

The talk will weave in other findings related to starting or contributing to an open source project

With 50,000 apps and revenue of $1,000,000,000, Apple's AppStore is a huge success. We will look at how you can get started on developing applications for the iPhone platform, complete with integrated analytics and Google maps. We will also cover the App Store approval process and marketing strategies.

Agenda:

• Getting Started with iPhone Development
• What’s New in iPhone SDK 3.0?
• Integrating Maps
• Integrating Analytics
• App Store Approval Process
• Marketing

Even the newest browsers can create a hostile environment for developers. Today's AJAX applications create dynamic HTML you won't see with View Source. CSS is harder than it looks. XmlHttpRequests arehappening in the background. Firebug is currently the developer's choice for debugging web sites and today's more powerful web applications. It goes much deeper than logging your messages and avoiding the use of alert(). In the Firebug Smackdown you have a ring side seat to witness a series of lightning rounds where Mike Wilcox and Bob Byron go head to head. They will take turns battling each other with their large repertoire of debugging and development; covering all sections of Firebug: Console,HTML, CSS, Script, DOM, Net, and more!

With SOA’s rise to prominence in the enterprise scene, most new applications being developed today need to deal with web service-based integrations. Whether your application is a service provider or a consumer, a solid strategy for handling web services is an integral part of its architecture. Fortunately, there are a number of open source frameworks available that can free developers from much of the complexity of implementing SOAP-based web services. In this session, I will introduce several leading frameworks including Apache Axis2, Apache CXF, Sun/Metro Web Services and Spring Web Services. I will compare and contrast each framework and examine their built-in support for Spring. Then we’ll build a real-world example, exposing SOAP web services from an existing Spring application.

• JAX-WS overview
• Contract-first v. code-first web services
• Compare and contrast popular web service frameworks
• How to generate a service and a client
• Spring integration
• Develop some real-world services

Open space: Ruby, functional programming and emerging topics

Open space: Ruby, functional programming and emerging topics

Open space: Ruby, functional programming and emerging topics

Open space: Ruby, functional programming and emerging topics

Open space: Ruby, functional programming and emerging topics

Silverlight 3 is the latest Silverlight installment from Microsoft. Silverlight 3 provides a consistent platform enabling developers and designers to work seamlessly together to create amazing experiences in your applications. Silverlight 3 takes this to the next level for everyone. We’ll talk about the new hardware acceleration, 3D support, offline application support, RIA services, the new routing navigation framework, and the new SketchFlow that has received so much attention in Microsoft Expression Blend 3. Silverlight 3 brings new powerful tools for developers and designers alike. Come learn about the new sexy.. and how it will change the way that you write applications for the web!

Silverlight 2.0 is here and with it a whole new way of developing .NET applications. Silverlight 2.0 is blurring the lines between what it means to develop for the web and the desktop, enabling .NET developers to rethink how they build and distribute applications. In this session, we’ll look at how you can use the Silverlight platform to build line of business (LOB) applications. You’ll learn how to present and shape data, how to move data between a Silverlight application and the server, how to edit data, and talk about the security implications of using Silverlight for LOB apps. If you’re considering Silverlight for business applications, this session is for you.

This talk will start with basic topics such as mouse and keyboard input as well as intermediate topics around collision detection and path finding. If you are looking for a fun way to get your hands dirty with Silverlight and Express Blend, we have just what you need to get started.

So whats the big deal with MVVM?  How does it differ from the MVC and MVP design patterns?  How can I leverage this pattern in Silverlight?  The answers to your questions are here.

Agenda:
- Discuss the MVVM design pattern
- Discuss why Silverlight is a good fit for MVVM
- Walkthrough of a lightweight implementation of MVVM in Silverlight
- Intro to MVVM and commanding concepts in Prism 2 (Silverlight Composite Application Block)

Believe it or not, the next version of Silverlight is here and it rocks! Silverlight 3.0 is finally making it easy to build complex line of business (LOB) applications on Microsoft’s next generation RIA platform. From simplified data binding to increased access to system resources to H.264 support, Silverlight 3.0 is a major step forward and it delivers many of the tools LOB developers need to efficiently build data-driven applications. In this session, we’ll look at many of the new features in the Silverlight 3.0 beta and discover how they can be used to build business applications. Attend this session to jump start your Silverlight 3.0 understanding and prepare for the official release later this year.