From Microsoft: ASP.NET MVC 2 provides a Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework on top of the existing ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 runtime. It’s a framework for developing highly testable and maintainable Web applications by leveraging the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. The framework encourages developers to maintain a clear separation of concerns among the responsibilities of the application — the UI logic using the view, user-input handling using the controller, and the domain logic using the model. ASP.NET MVC applications are easily testable using techniques such as test-driven development (TDD).
The time to provide feedback on this Release Candidate (RC) will be very short as Microsoft is fast approaching the Release-to-Manufacturing (RTM) version.
Download ASP.NET MVC 2 RC 2
Source Code on CodePlex
Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio enable the creation, configuration, building, debugging, running and packaging of scalable web applications and services on the Windows Azure cloud computing platform.
New for version 1.1:
- Windows Azure Drive: Enable a Windows Azure application to use existing NTFS APIs to access a durable drive. This allows the Windows Azure application to mount a page blob as a drive letter, such as X:, and enables easy migration of existing NTFS applications to the cloud.
- OS Version Support: Allows a Windows Azure application to choose the appropriate Guest OS to run on in the cloud.
- Numerous bug fixes
Version 1.1 supports Visual Studio 2008 and the upcoming Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate. Use the November 2009 release with VS 2010 Beta 2.
Windows Azure Tools and SDK 1.1
SharpKit is a free Web Toolkit that enables you to write and maintain code in C#, then convert it to JavaScript during compilation. SharpKit enables web development teams to take advantage of C# and Visual Studio benefits such as compile-time syntax verification, code-completion, XML documentation and refactoring. Many developers prefer this managed code environment versus the expensive and error-prone world of JavaScript programming.
In addition, SharpKit is a nonintrusive, compile-time solution. SharpKit does not change native JavaScript syntax, require server-side changes, nor affect your existing file structure. This non-lock-in model enables you to stop using SharpKit at any time and work directly with the JavaScript source code, if desired.
You can also use SharpKit with VB.NET, and use SharpKit to create iPhone and SmartPhone mobile browser applications.
SharpKit Home Page
jQuery is a free, open source, lightweight cross-browser JavaScript library. jQuery is the most popular JavaScript library in use today. (wiki)
In honor of jQuery’s 4th birthday, another major release of the jQuery JavaScript library is now available. New features and improvements include:
- Performance overhaul of popular methods
- Easy setter functions
- Nested param serialization
- JSON and script types auto-detected by content-type
- Etag support
- Strict JSON parsing, using native JSON.parse
- Serialize HTML5 elements
- Context for Ajax Request
- Quick Element Construction
- .css() method has 2x performance improvement
- Per-property easing
- Event multi-binding
- Better support for applets
Download jQuery 1.4
jQuery 1.4 Overview
jQuery 1.4 Documentation
Do you need help convincing your boss that your company needs to upgrade to Visual Studio 2010? Or perhaps you are looking for additional ammo in your .NET vs. Java religious wars with your programming colleagues?
Microsoft has produced a Silverlight-based “Myth Busting Matrix” for Visual Studio. This nifty web tool details the benefits of upgrading to Visual Studio 2010 and helps dispel some widely-held myths about Visual Studio and the Microsoft .NET Framework. You can browse all three supported versions of Visual Studio (2005, 2008 and 2010) by your areas of interest and click on the myths for more information.
Visual Studio Myth Buster
Zain Naboulsi, a Senior Developer Evangelist at Microsoft, has started the “Tip of the Day” series for Visual Studio 2010, taking the reins from Sara Ford.
Visual Studio 2010 Tip of the Day
The second beta version of Visual Studio 2010 and Microsoft .NET Framework v4.0 are now available. VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 deliver significant new capabilities and improvements. The Beta 2 release was focused on performance, stability, and the integration of the overall feature set. The development team is awaiting our feedback on the product and preparing for the final release candidate (RC). Beta 2 includes a “go-live” license, which means you can start using these tools for your production projects.
VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 are slated to be released on March 22, 2010.
Download VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 Beta 2
More details about Beta 2 from Scott Gu
The Silverlight Toolkit is a collection of Silverlight controls, components and utilities made available outside the normal Silverlight release cycle. A product of the Microsoft Silverlight product team, the Silverlight Toolkit adds new functionality quickly for designers and developers, and provides the community an efficient way to help shape product development by contributing ideas and bug reports. It includes full open source code, unit tests, samples and documentation for over 26 new controls covering charting, styling, layout, and user input.
What’s new in the October 2009 release:
- Visual Studio 2010 integration with the fully interactive designer.
- Drag and drop support for key controls including TreeView, ListBox, and charting.
- Charting API improvements.
Download Silverlight 3 Toolkit
IIS Media Services 3.0 is a set of extensions for Internet Information Services 7 (IIS) that provide an integrated HTTP-based media delivery platform. This includes the new IIS Live Smooth Streaming and the separate IIS Advanced Logging package.
In addition, the beta of the Smooth Streaming Player Development Kit allows developers to easily create Smooth Streaming experiences using Silverlight. Supported features include PlayReady, DVR controls, instant replay, slow motion, multiple camera angles, alternate audio tracks, content protection, ad integration, in-stream data feeds, and more.
IIS Media Services
IIS Media Services’ Advanced Logging extension provides access to both real-time client and server side logs for media experiences delivered over HTTP. Advanced Logging also allows third-party analytics providers to easily access data in real-time as well as extend the set of metrics that are captured from either the client or the server.
Advanced Logging provides rich, flexible data collection and real-time logging capabilities. Log any of the HTTP request/response headers, IIS server variables and client-side fields to track end-user engagement. Generate logs per IIS application, create custom logging for modules, or implement hierarchical logging. Set up a central log farm to collect and log client-side metrics and create multiple logs per request, with each log containing purpose-specific data.
IIS Advanced Logging 1.0 is now available and includes the following features:
- Client-side logging
- Centralized logging
- Multiple Logs per request
- Real-time logging
- Rich/Flexible logging
- Application Logging
- Module Specific Log fields
- Log Filtering
IIS Advanced Logging
