In addition to my WinFX blog I'm also going to be working on this new dynamics blog, called Dynamic Bliss. This blog will cover client-side topics such as XML based, out-of-band procedure calling ("Ajax" though I don't approve of that name), ECMAScript dynamics, dynamic graphics, widget creation, other topics from my book and a few other browser-related topics.

This blog is the replacement of a book I was working on regarding the same topic. I'm a strong believer that blogging is the new book (for technology at the moment). Parts of the blog will include video chapters from the my video book as well as my Firefox Web Development Suite videos.

You can get to the blog here, Dynamic Bliss.

The last 32 days rocked! The release of .NET 2.0 and now Firefox 1.5. Both are absolutely revolutionary in their technology.

So, go get it! Woohoo!!! The link is in the list below.

Also, I remind everybody about my "What's new in Firefox 1.5" video, which is also in the list of links below.

...and yes, Chris Pederick's Web Developer Toolbar works great with Firefox 1.5. His page link is also below...

• Firefox 1.5 Final
• Web Developer Toolbar
• What's new in Firefox 1.5?

OK so I got SICK of the horrible midunderstandings written about .NET on Wikipedia...so much so that I rewrote much of it.

As of right now, 95% .NET 2.0 material written at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_.NET was written by me. The only parts I didn't write were the top two 'changes in 2.0' bullets. I added all other .NET 2.0 content.

Here are some snippets I added regarding .NET 2.0

".NET 2.0 is a severe redesign of not only the technology, but also the model of Microsoft's .NET agenda. While .NET v1.x was considered more of a Rapid Application Development (RAD) model and was often compared with Sun's Java. C# 2.0, part of the .NET 2.0 model, is now compared more closely with C++, so much so infact, that large portions of Microsoft's Windows Vista are written in C# and the .NET framework."

I also added information about how .NET was NOT the competition for Java, but was infact originally intended to be COM+ 2.5 by one team and "Next-Generation Web Services" by another. In addition, I removed anything about .NET 2.0 betas and updated the information about the express editions to be more proper.

I'm starting to realize that not everyone knows everything or watches every blog in the cosmos, so I'll start including blog entires which will help people very efficiently master .NET 2.0 and WinFX.

One thing that will help people who currently fight with .NET 1.x is the following video I saw earlier this month. It's an explanation of some of the life simplifiers in .NET 2.0.

One of my favorites they talk about is is the addition of a Contains( ) method for things. Now instead of typeing "string".IndexOf("str") > -1, we can use Contains( ). My next favorite thing...well, about a tie, would be the additions of the String.IsNullOrEmpty(string) method to replace if(myString == null || myString.Length < 1). Nice...

Ok so here's the video...

"Favorite v2.0 Features in the Base Class Libraries"

In my mind, one of the coolest things tht modern web browsers can do is deal with base64 PNG images. PNG images are the "new standard" in web images. They can be very small in size or they can be larger as true color images depending on your needs. They don't replace everything, but they do replace a lot.

A base64 PNG image is a PNG image encoded as base64. Base64 encoding is a way to encode non-printable characters (stuff you can't see, but the computer can read) into printable characters (things like letters and numbers).

Base64 PNG images (which are text) can actually be read by modern web browsers as real images. In fact, it's one of my qualification requirements for being a modern web browser (actually there are MANY requirements in my mind). You can actually use base64 PNG images directly in CSS. Here's an example...

background: url(data:image/png;base64,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);

Well, it's not SUPPOSED to be small! It's supposed to be embeddable. And it is. But think for a moment. You can take an image (not just PNG mind you, GIF can do this as well) and turn it into Base64. Now, can't you dynamically load images on the client? Well, yes you can... All you have to do is do a remote call to somewhere which will send the Base64 stream back.

One you get the stream back all you have to do is prefix the base64 stream with "data:image/png;base64," and assign the entire value to the src property (attribute) of an img object.

Here's an example I put together a few months ago of how you can do all this... Firefox users only please! IE6 won't get NEAR base64 images.

PNG Client/Service Example

Actually, this is also a great example of how to work with web remoting (I just CAN'T call it Ajax, that's too weird) and how to dynamically work with XML files.

OK, so this week I found out that that there currently is no support the the Jet database provider on the x64 platform. That didn't change the fact that I was determined to do it (or create the illusion of it). I had to create a user-approachable report generator which exported the data into Excel and sent it on to the user all via a web interface. I also didn't want to use the XML version of Excel spreadsheets (it surprises me how many times people think I'm talking about Excel 12 when I say that. You can do XML-based sheets in old Excel versions too!) So I wanted this done via ADO.NET and the Jet provider creating a "real" xls file. Obviously what I wanted to do isn't even work with the framework, but...doing it on x64 is.

The solution? Simple, WSE3 provides you with the ability to use SOAP Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) very seamlessly. MTOM is a new W3C recommendation used to optimize messaging scenarios that involve transmitting binary data. Technical gibberish aside, MTOM is just AWESOME. Using WSE3/MTOM, all I had to do was create a WSE3 service on a different server which created the XLS binary data and returned to back to the caller which then sent it on to the client.

Want specifics? MSDN has a document which provides you with the hands-on training you sufficient to propel you into WSE3 services: WSE3 Hands-on Lab: Messaging. MTOM is the third lab, but basically all you do is enable WSE3 (and MTOM) on the client and server, set the server up to return a byte array to the caller, call the server, and stream that byte array into a file. In my case I then sent it out to the user...

Here's my code for sending the Excel worksheet out to the user...

Response.Buffer = true;
Response.Clear( );
Response.ClearContent( );
Response.ClearHeaders( );

Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" +
 "AutoGeneratedReport.xls");
Response.AddHeader("Content-Length", file.Length.ToString( ));
Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel";
Response.WriteFile(fullpath);
Response.Flush( );

I'll have to beef up on WSE3 a bit for a future SOA lecture in my WinFX/.NET course.

Today I discovered a very wierd feature regarding SQL Management Studio 2005 ("SMS") and Visual Studio 2005 (of course I'm using the FREE standards editions from the MSDN/Technet seminars)

OK so here it is...

• Open SMS
• Navigate to a table and modify it.
• Copy the text of one of the columns
• Go to an ASPX page in Visual Studio 2005 and paste.

If you did it right you will see the weirdest thing in the world: it pastes a GridView linked to a SqlDataSource, which it also pastes.

<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server"
     DataSourceID="SqlDataSource2"
     EmptyDataText="There are no data records to display."
     AutoGenerateColumns="False">
    <Columns>
        <asp:BoundField DataField="ContactID"
            SortExpression="ContactID"
            HeaderText="ContactID">
        </asp:BoundField>
    </Columns>
</asp:GridView>
<asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource1" runat="server"
    SelectCommand="SELECT [ContactID] FROM [Employee]"
    ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:AdventureWorksConnectionString1 %>"
    ProviderName="<%$ConnectionStrings:AdventureWorksConnectionString1.ProviderName %>">
</asp:SqlDataSource>

You will also find that it pastes the appropriate connection string directly into your web.config.

<add
 name="AdventureWorksConnectionString1"
 connectionString="[string omitted;  it was LONG"
/>

Cool, huh?

p.s. If you want to paste that particular name, as I wanted to do, you can always do the old school paste-into-notepad-copy-out-of-notepad trick that is a tried and true way to strip off Web Browser formatting.

If you are anything like me, you consider a technology is new as long as it's marked as experimental. Atlas still qualifies for being new...or even, pre-new. In any case, the October 2005 version of Atlas has been released and can be downloaded at the link below.

Note that unlike WCF and WPF, which in my mind are stable for production, Atlas is still experimental and is only in the technical preview stages. Not that it will explode into pieces, but there is little to no documentation on almost all of Atlas and given the early nature of the product, things are almost guaranteed to change.

Want to learn WCF (a.k.a. Indigo)? If so, you should head on over to MSDN UK to see Mike Taulty's latest MSDN Nuggets.

Currently there are three videos:

• Hello World
• Type Serialization
• Bindings

You will find that WCF looks much like old-school COM, but has the power of MSMQ, COM+, remoting, Web Services and the simplicity of .NET. Awesome!

For more information on WCF check out this great MSDN article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnlong/html/introtowcf.asp.