PivotTables Now Available within OfficeWriter 8.4

SoftArtisans has released the newest version of Officewriter. With OfficeWriter 8.4, users can now create, modify, and remove PivotTables within their Excel Workbooks, gaining more control over their data and Office documents.

SoftArtisans announced the addition of PivotTables to their OfficeWriter product today. OfficeWriter 8.4 is now available for download. Included in this new version, is the ability to create, modify, and remove PivotTables within users’ Excel workbooks. With the new PivotTable functionality customers have the ability to add Report Filters to better filter and sort their data, as well as change the data source of a PivotTable (including PivotTables already copied with CopySheet). This provides users with more fine-grained control over their data and reports.

Also included in this product release are new features to their WordTemplate model. Within WordTemplate DOCX files, users now have the option to programmatically set the document properties of their DOCX files and to remove bookmarked content when delivering reports.

OfficeWriter provides customers the ability to programmatically create, read, and manipulate Word and Excel documents in customer server-based applications without Microsoft Office on the server.

In addition to legacy binary file formats XLS and DOC, OfficeWriter supports OOXML files. As a trusted part of enterprise applications, OfficeWriter is easier to use than the OpenXML SDK, and, unlike automating Office on the server, is scalable and optimized for use in ASP.NET. To see the complete list of new features in the current product version, please visit the change log.

Source: PR Web

What Every Developer Needs To Know Now

As developers we live in interesting times. The advent of Windows 8 has changed the landscape for many developers and the move from the desktop to tablets and mobile presents even more challenges. We turned to Dave Wheeler, the keynote speaker at next month's DevWeek for help and advice.

"...developers need to take on board the fact that the computing ecosystem is changing. Windows 8 is a wake up call to developers that change is coming: the exact pace of that change is up for debate."

What are the new and important technologies being introduced or highlighted at this year's DevWeek?
Windows 8 has to be the most important, but as we had a fair idea of what was coming in 2012 it can't really count as new. Even so it will be in the limelight throughout this year's conference. Similarly, we’ve known about HTML 5 and CSS 3 for a while. As a client developer, these are the obvious areas to focus on.
There are some fun novel areas to take a look at, such as functional programming, Roslyn, Rx and SignalR, which it would be easy to overlook. And there are some interesting talks on technologies such as PhoneGap (AKA Apache Cordova).
My tip to anyone attending DevWeek would be to choose at least one talk that’s outside his or her normal area of work: you never know what it might trigger.

How does Windows 8 change the Microsoft programming ecosystem?
Not at all, for the majority of corporate developers.
Clearly, developers that are targeting home users will consider embracing Windows 8 Store Apps. However, I’m forecasting that the vast majority of usage of Windows will continue to come from traditional applications that work across the range of Windows XP, 7 and Windows 8.
Which means that they will be continue to be developed in classic C++ and .NET.
However, developers need to take on board the fact that the computing ecosystem is changing. Windows 8 is a wake up call to developers that change is coming: the exact pace of that change is up for debate.

What are the most important things that developers need to understand about developing for and in the Windows 8 environment?
It’s different, in every way.
Many developers are simply not used to designing applications that work on low-power devices, which are driven through touch, and which run under such stringent platform constraints.
They’re not used to dealing with the Application Lifecycle Model, monetizing applications through advertising or in-app purchases, and which work on the different form-factors.
So it is not just a new API for writing Windows applications: the shift in thinking that is required is as great as that in moving from desktop Windows to iOS.
Of course, the good news is that developers can work with languages and tools that they are familiar with, thus making the transition as painless as possible.

Given the prediction that users will increasingly move from the desktop to mobile devices, how best should .NET programmers protect themselves from the future?
The best solution is to win the lottery! Or become a plumber.
More seriously, though, .NET is still an excellent platform for developing on mobile devices, with support via Mono on Android and iOS/OSX, and with great support on all flavours of Windows. .NET remains an excellent server-side technology with ASP.NET MVC, and WPF is still the best technology for building robust, complex desktop applications.
So there’s absolutely no need to rush off to another technology just yet.
Whilst it is easy to assume that HTML is the “better” technology for working across the different devices, anyone who has tried to build an app that looks good and works well in HTML will realise that it is non-trivial.

"Clearly, there are fad technologies that might be “hot” right now, but the key to being a good developer is having a breadth of skills, and excellence in a few key areas such as OO principles, testing and knowledge of the entire software development lifecycle."

And what technologies are vital to learn to ensure a successful future?
There is no one technology. Developers are still maintaining systems written in C on Windows, so there is scope for a good career across a range of technologies. Clearly, there are fad technologies that might be “hot” right now, but the key to being a good developer is having a breadth of skills, and excellence in a few key areas such as OO principles, testing and knowledge of the entire software development lifecycle.
As much as anything, developers need to ensure that their other skills are in good order: their ability to contribute to teams; their attitude; their business awareness; their professionalism and their willingness to learn.

Finally, can you give us your impressions of DevWeek for those anybody who hasn't attended it
One of the great things about DevWeek is that it encompasses so many different areas of development, design and architecture. When I used to attend as a delegate, and it was much smaller then, I always used to find it a challenge as I wanted to see nearly all the talks! And now its even larger that must be even more of a problem.
What hasn't changed is that it's still a laid back, informal conference where the speakers don’t disappear from sight and  there’s lots of opportunity for an informal chat, preferably over a drink, as well as the many breakout sessions.

Source: I Programmer

commerceserver.net Releases Commerce Server 10

commerceserver.net, an ISV based in Seattle and Ottawa, today announced the release of the latest version of its enterprise eCommerce software, Commerce Server 10. This marks the first independent release of the software previously sold and marketed as Microsoft Commerce Server.

Commerce Server 10 is the first release on the newly published roadmap for the product and lays the foundations for a rapid evolution of the product which will see it grow from a purely on-premise solution, to one which embraces the Cloud and hybrid scenarios over the next few years. It also adds support for the latest Microsoft server platforms Windows Server 2012, SQL Server 2012, Visual Studio 2012 and .NET Framework 4.5.

In addition to the new platform support, this release introduces a new site building framework with a set of open source starter sites for ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC and of course, SharePoint – all released via CodePlex. This new framework vastly simplifies the building of the presentation tier of eCommerce solutions.

“We are incredibly excited by the release of Commerce Server 10. Not only is it the fastest time-to-market of any Commerce Server release in history, we feel it is by far the most customer-focused and best performing iteration in the product's history. It represents a significant next step on our plans to rapidly evolve Commerce Server into the commerce platform of choice for the .NET ecosystem,” said Ryan Donovan, President and CTO of commerceserver.net.

As part of this announcement, commerceserver.net is proud to introduce a roster of worldwide implementation partners, with more being added each month. “We’re excited that many existing Commerce Server partners are supporting this release but encouraged at the approach from many new partners and customers wanting to work with the platform – it validates both our roadmap and our thinking that there is a vibrant market for a .NET based eCommerce Solution,” said Wayne Smith, Vice President of Product Management.

Source: BusinessWire 

GENIUS INFOTECH LAUNCHES ENHANCED WEBSITE TO PROVIDE 3D ANIMATION SERVICES GLOBALLY

Genius Infotech a leading 3D animation and web development company successfully serving in animation and design industry since last 9 years, announces enhanced website experience at www.geniusinfotech.net. The company thrives to offer best animation development services across the globe and attract more business firms and small businesses.

The newly created website features neat and clean UI and easy navigation to give best user experience. It also includes info graphics and up-to-date information about services to guide the user at next level. The website is designed using WordPress integration and development services by in-house team of the company.

The corporate services offered on website are, 3D animation services, which includes 3d modeling, logo animation, 3d character design, 3d product modeling and more. Exclude 3D Animation. Genius Infotech also offers web development and design services including PHP, ASP.NET, Joomla, Magento, WordPress and other technologies for custom software development.

The In-house resources of the company efficiently completed the task of website launch, and now Genius Infotech is waiting for the user's feedback with hopping current clients and other users who are looking for information of services will find the new corporate website much more useful and easier.

Source: MEDOLIKA

Veracode’s eLearning Program Guides Developers in Creating Secure Applications

Veracode, Inc., the leader in cloud-based application security testing, encourages application developers to take a more proactive role in securing applications as part of a larger call to action to protect companies from vulnerabilities. Each year, companies spend billions of dollars on outsourcing software development, yet very little is spent on security verification, resulting in security breaches caused by software vulnerabilities.

“We developed these eLearning courses to provide developers with the guidelines and best practices that they should take to ensure the security of their customers.”
Veracode also aims to limit the amount of security checks companies have to make when purchasing third-party applications by offering to developers a web-based eLearning training program. The online courses provide developers with certification and CPE credits and teach developers secure coding for ASP.NET, J2EE and C/C++. eLearning also aims to help developers measure and track their development progress and comply with ISO regulations and industry standards such as SANS Application Security Procurement Contract Language.

“The simple fact is that if someone wants your intellectual property, they are going to use the software you bought, built or outsourced to get it,” said Chris Eng, vice president of research, Veracode. “We developed these eLearning courses to provide developers with the guidelines and best practices that they should take to ensure the security of their customers.”

Veracode suggests that by following its eLearning development suggestions, developers will be able to:

1. Protect companies from vulnerabilities. With the vast amount of threats that constantly pressure companies and government, it is important to ensure that the software applications these organizations utilize are completely secure. To certify applications are free of vulnerabilities, several processes must be employed within the Secure Development Lifecycle (SDLC), including testing the application’s security controls at each stage of development. Such tests include static analysis, dynamic analysis or penetration testing.

2. Preserve data, IP and brand reputation. Some of the most critical application security flaws, including Cross Site Scripting (XSS) and broken authentication, allow for easy exploitation where attackers can completely take over the software, steal data, or prevent the software from working at all. In order to prevent these flaws, security practices must be integrated within the SDLC, and security of internally developed applications must be verified before they are deployed. Additionally, staying on top of patches and software updates can help bring attention to previously undiscovered flaws.

3. Perform business as usual. During the SDLC, developers must model an application, scan the code, check the quality and ensure that it meets regulations, on top of building a unique and useful application. Automated secure development testing tools help developers adhere to these development steps, while finding and fixing security issues at the same time. Veracode offers these services as well as secure development training so that developers can gain further education and insight into security issues they may have created.

Veracode wants all developers to keep these guidelines in mind when creating applications, as they allow them to detect flaws, test the security features of the applications, and ensure the customer’s data is protected above all else.

Source: BusinessWire

Microsoft releases SkyDrive developer tools including Windows Phone 8, .NET SDKs

Microsoft has a bunch of new developer tools related to its SkyDrive file-sharing and cloud storage service, including new software development kits for .NET and Windows Phone 8.

The new SDKs for the .NET software framework for Windows and the recently released Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system are available for download at Microsoft's own developer portal or via NuGet for Visual Studio projects, the company said in a blog post announcing their availability.
The .NET SDK comes in both a client and server version, providing a .NET library for client desktop apps as well as for ASP.NET applications, Microsoft said, adding that "[w]ith this release you can now create applications that target traditional desktop scenarios and as well as server side scenarios."
Along with the Windows Phone 8 SDK, the devkit for .NET allows developers to build SkyDrive functionality into their apps and programs. For example, with the client version of the .NET SDK, developers can now "create WPF, Windows Form or console applications that let your users use their SkyDrive data," the software giant said.

With the server version of the SDK, .NET developers are now able to build ASP.NET websites and Web server components "that talk to SkyDrive," Microsoft said, while also making it "easier for you to incorporate Microsoft account into your identity system or even just use Microsoft account as your primary identity system."
Microsoft noted that there are already "a ton of Windows Phone applications that ... leverage SkyDrive in their applications." The new SDK basically adds support for the latest version of the OS to the mix but also builds on several new features in Windows Phone 8, the first such release by Microsoft to share the kernel of the flagship Windows operating system for desktops, laptops, and tablets.
One advantage of that shared foundation is that developers can now "easily move [their] code between [their] Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 application" via the new Task async pattern and dynamic keyword protocols.
Microsoft also drew attention to several representative SkyDrive tie-ins developed by its ecosystem, including IFTTT ("if this, then that"), the cross-platform "Recipe" tool that allows users to connect their channels across different social media services; the electronic signature service DocuSign; and SoundGecko, a text-to-audio transcribing service that uses SkyDrive to offer users anywhere access to files.

Source: ITProPortal

WURFL Cloud Client Available on Windows Azure

ScientiaMobile, Inc., a US company offering the popular WURFL framework commercially, has today announced the availability of the WURFL Cloud Service on the Windows Azure Marketplace for ASP.NET developers. Companies that need to tailor their content to mobile devices can rely on state-of-the-art Device Detection from a company with 12 years experience in this field.

“A conspicuous amount of our infrastructure is running on the Microsoft Azure Cloud. It is fast and reliable. Organizations loyal to the Microsoft platform will be pleased to know that the WURFL cloud latency will be even lower for Azure-hosted applications.” - said Steve Kamerman, COO at ScientiaMobile.

“For us, the Azure Cloud is just one side of the Azure story. The other side is the Windows Azure Marketplace. It is a great place to publish, advertise and sell software components for the benefit of the community of ASP.NET developers,” said Krishna Guda, ScientiaMobile’s CEO. - “Being part of Azure obviously represents an opportunity for ScientiaMobile to extend the reach of our technology and having a clear path to developers in the Microsoft galaxy. For this reason, I asked my team to double down on the Azure integration in order to establish our well-deserved position on the portal as the first framework for mobile device detection. That objective is accomplished and we are very satisfied.”

“Microsoft has been aware of WURFL for a long time. Microsoft developers have adopted WURFL for many years simply because of word of mouth. Seeing WURFL being powered by the Azure Cloud and offered as part of the Azure Marketplace is the natural evolution of a developer library that has conquered its credibility the hard way throughout the years. ScientiaMobile’s choice of adopting both the Azure Marketplace and the Azure Cloud leaves us very pleased” - said Luca Venturelli, Server & Tools Business Group Lead at Microsoft.

Developers can sign up to the WURFL Cloud Service on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.

Source: equities

Mono 3.0 Brings C# Up-To-Date

Mono 3.0 has been released with a complete C# 5.0 compiler with asynchronous programming support, improved garbage collection and the incorporation of Microsoft's open-source framework for Web development.

Announcing Mono 3.0 on his blog, Miguel de Icaza writes:
After a year and a half, we have finally released Mono 3.0.

He also says the project is:
"moving to a more nimble release process with Mono 3.0. We are trying to reduce our inventory of pending work and get new features to everyone faster. This means that our "master" branch will remain stable from now on, and that large projects will instead be developed in branches that are regularly landed into our master branch"

This third major revision of Mono, the open source, cross-platform, implementation of the .NET framework, adds support for features added in .NET 5, in particular asynchronous programming which improves an applications ability to respond to input during long-running tasks. The .NET 4.5 Async API profile is now the default for the compiler, but it can support all .NET API profiles for compilation.

It also incorporates the assemblies from Microsoft's open-sourced ASP.NET framework for Web development with Mono's implementation of JSON now being replaced by Microsoft's. ASP.NET's Web Pages, MVC 4, Entity Framework object-relational mapping, and the "Razor" view engine are now all included. Obviously using the same assemblies as the "real thing" reduces the possiblity of any differences.
There are also performance and scalability improvements to garbage collection  and runtime optimizations and enhancements to the capabilities of Mono on Mac OS X and iOS, including the prospect of having F# 3.0 bundled with them. See the Release Notes for more details.

There is the wider issue of the place of Mono in the new landscape being created by Microsoft. There is a very real sense in which Mono carries the enthusiasm for .NET which Microsoft seems to have lost. However Mono isn't the real thing and many programmers are unsure of it. Certainly there is little point in switching to Mono under Windows unless you really need the open source or cross platform aspects.

However what about Mono 4?
Even with limited resources the Mono team might well run out of Microsoft sourced innovations to incorporate into the new framework. Will Mono then become the front runner in .NET development?

Source: I Programmer

Sitecore Gives Marketers and Developers Advanced Tools to Target Campaigns and Segment Audiences Across Digital and Mobile Channels

Sitecore, a leading web content management and customer experience management software company, today announced availability of a new version of its Content Management System software (CMS).

Sitecore CMS 6.6 offers enhanced mobile support to build engaging mobile web interactions and applications, advanced targeting and segmentation of customers, and a premier development environment with native Model View Controller (MVC) support. These new features provide greater flexibility to quickly create personalised customer experiences.

“The latest version of our software provides the tools that developers and marketers require to consistently and continuously engage with customers through any interaction channel,” said Darren Guarnaccia, senior vice president, product marketing, Sitecore. “We have enabled our developer community to work with the latest development technologies while offering marketers enhanced ways to use customer behavior data to better segment and target marketing campaigns. The result for businesses is a consistent, engaging customer experience that helps create customers for life.”

Catering to the Small Screen Businesses need a way to understand how website and marketing campaign content and offers will appear on the multitude of devices in use including iPhone, Android and Windows smartphones. Sitecore’s device simulator shows marketers how content will appear on mobile devices and in different browsers. It provides an accurate view, via screenshots, on how the website will display using the browsers and devices selected.

In addition, Sitecore mobile software developer’s kit (SDK) facilitates the development of native mobile applications and supports Apple’s iOS platform. The embedded browser allows marketers to leverage their Sitecore powered content, while tapping the powerful user experience of native mobile applications.

Premier Development Approach Sitecore now offers native support for ASP.NET MVC to complement its existing support for web forms based architectures. By natively supporting both in its platform and allowing use interchangeably, customers have the flexibility to use the right approach for any task while achieving all the modern development benefits of using MVC design patterns.

ASP.NET MVC includes many features that enable fast development for creating sophisticated applications that use the latest web standards and Sitecore customers can start to incorporate these new capabilities without extensive site redevelopment or migration.

Advanced Targeting for Multichannel Campaigns Marketers are often challenged with targeting campaigns to segments of their audience for better engagement. With CMS 6.6 marketers can create a list of visitors that match certain criteria by defining one or more conditions to define a segment. Segments allow for dynamic evaluation rather than having a static list of visitors, and can be built from both demographic and behavioral data. Segments can also be built from both demographic information as well as behavioral data. Marketers do not need to be CRM experts to target campaigns to specific audiences and segments can be built on any of the web, email or CRM details that have taken place.

Source: cfoworld

Active Web Group, Inc. Now Offers Free Responsive Web Design Analysis

Active Web Group, Inc. (AWG), an award-winning online marketing company headquartered in Hauppauge, New York, today announced a Free Responsive Website Analysis, for business owners who may be considering a new website or redesign of their existing online business. Responsive web design (RWD) is a web development strategy in which a site is planned to provide an optimal user experience in terms of navigation and be accessible across a wide range of devices –from desktops to mobile phones. Interested business owners may expect a thorough site review and design suggestions for tailoring the new site to be flexible and highly efficient for visitors to use.

“Responsive web design is more than an industry buzzword,” states Pat Norton, Vice President and Director of Business Development, Active Web Group, Inc. “It is a sound business practice to give the customer what they want and the online tool that they will need to maintain their competitive edge,” he states. A responsive website is designed to ‘respond’ to the device that accesses it and delivers appropriate output. “According to Google, 67% of mobile users state that they are more likely to buy from a mobile-friendly site,” Norton adds. “And 74% say they will return to mobile-friendly sites to make repeat purchases. Therefore responding to consumers’ needs by creating mobile-friendly sites is an imperative,” he concludes.
Why Consider a Responsive Design Website?

Web designers everywhere listen to the latest search engine optimization mandates and adjust their practices accordingly to ensure high search engine rankings and ultimately a higher ROI. In fact, Google has recently stated that their ‘preferred format’ is now responsive web design.

A hallmark of flexible and responsive web design will provide scalable functionality into the future. If a mobile site is under consideration by a prospective client, for example, Active Web can customize the primary site so that a mobile site may easily be ‘spun off’ concurrently or in the near future. Business owners who may be ready to take that next step are advised to contact Active Web Group as soon as possible for their customized, no-cost responsive web design analysis.

A full-service agency, Active Web Group also has extensive experience in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), mobile websites, Digital Media, Programming (all proficiencies including php, asp and asp.net), Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Graphic Design, E-Commerce, Magento Ecommerce, WordPress Ecommerce, custom solutions and Pay-Per-Click Marketing.

Source: prweb

NetAdvantage Ultimate 2012 Volume 2 released by Infragistics

Comprehensive Tool sets Empower Customers to Deploy Better Performing, Modern Applications Across Multiple Platforms

Infragistics, the design and user experience (UX) software company and a world leader in user interface (UI) development tools and business productivity apps, announced today the availability of NetAdvantage® Ultimate 2012 Volume 2. Packed with high-performance controls, Touch support enhancements and business intelligence capabilities, Infragistics delivers limitless solutions for every business application scenario.

Whether customers are engaged in mobile or web app development or standardizing on mature platforms, Infragistics UI bundles produce powerful end user experiences that affect a business's bottom line.

"Companies such as Infragistics extend the value of Microsoft solutions and platforms, helping organizations create meaningful experiences that solve problems, drive inspiration and maximize results," said Tom Lindeman, director of the Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program at Microsoft. "NetAdvantage provides development teams the tools they need to more easily capitalize on enterprise data sources, yielding consistent, high-quality user experiences in applications across modern platforms and devices."

This release marks the inclusion of beta toolset NUCLiOS, the first commercial class and enterprise-supported UI toolkit for iPad development and an Android Community Pack, named Iguana, for the Android developer community.

"This is an exciting time for the developer market and Infragistics," said Dean Guida, CEO of Infragistics. "For two decades customers have turned to Infragistics to build the best in state of the art UIs for Windows platforms and the web. For the first time in our history, we bring Apple iOS developers into the Infragistics ecosystem with our native NUCLiOS UI controls. Now, every developer can create exceptional applications that deliver modern functionality, substance and style, across any platform."

Highlights in this release of Infragistics NetAdvantage platform include:

Investment in mobile UI development with the introduction of NUCLiOS, the iOS UI beta toolset, and Iguana, the Android Community Pack.
Introduction of data visualization data chart and geospacial mapping controls in NetAdvantage for jQuery (renamed Ignite UI) to produce the best apps for any browser, platform or device.
Windows UI theming and Touch gesture support across Infragistics HTML5/jQuery, XAML, ASP.NET, and Windows Forms toolsets.
Native and cross-platform mobile feature enhancements to empower on-the-go decision makers anywhere, anytime on any device with highly performant, cutting-edge, native apps.
Visual Studio 2012 cross-platform compatibility that takes advantage of the latest features in Visual Studio 2012 to enrich the developer productivity experience.
Enhancements to the jQuery, XAML and ASP.NET grids and charts to ensure market leading performance and reliability.
"Infragistics leaves no one behind with this release of NetAdvantage," added Guida. "Our commitment to deliver great end user experiences propels the company to develop the most comprehensive UI toolsets available today -- for every device and platform."

Visual Studio 2012 met Visual COBOL integreet by MicroFocus

Integration achieves quality platform for modernizing business-critical COBOL applications

 Micro Focus , a specialist in the field of modernization, testing and management of enterprise applications, today announced that Micro Focus Visual COBOL integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio 2012. Developers can now use Visual COBOL within the development environment Visual Studio 2012. This allows existing COBOL applications are used, improved and deployed alongside other Microsoft platforms and programming languages ​​such as C #, Visual Basic and ASP.NET.

Organizations around the world depend on which enterprise COBOL applications run. These form the basis of many IT systems and business-critical processes. By integrating Visual COBOL and Visual Studio 2012, developers of both the current generation and those of tomorrow, use of leading development tools. Moreover, the productivity of the developer, in providing new and updated software, increased. Different development teams, which were previously spread across multiple technical disciplines, are now united and can therefore effectively together. Furthermore, organizations that make the transition to new platforms do not suffer from the lack of COBOL professionals.

"We are honored to partner with Micro Focus to work on the optimization of Visual Studio 2012," said Tom Lindeman, Director Visual Studio Industry Partner Program at Microsoft. "Visual Studio 2012 improves the development process and helps teams of any size needing to collaborate more efficiently. By adding Visual COBOL development teams have all the means to quickly provide quality and modern applications to build. "

Kevin Brearley, senior director of product management at Micro Focus: "Both Microsoft and Micro Focus walk at the forefront of technical innovation in the development and modernization market. We are constantly innovating and are proud that we are the new generation of COBOL development products can make to the current Visual Studio user. The integration is an important step that ensures that Visual COBOL not only now but in the future will continue to achieve business innovation. "

The main advantages of Micro Focus Visual COBOL are:

The ability to critical business applications ready for the future. The applications can be migrated to Windows platforms and retain as their value.
The productivity and performance of the developers improved. This causes the expanded resources and the software can be quickly developed and delivered.
The ability to modernize COBOL systems and access to mobile and web channels.
More information about Visual COBOL is available at www.microfocus.com/vs2012 .

Borland DevPartner Studio 11
In addition to the integration with Visual COBOL, Micro Focus has also Borland DevPartner 11 with Microsoft Visual Studio integrated. This integration improves application development, reduces costs and speeds delivery of applications. Application developers can now solve problems from within Visual Studio 2012, locate instability and potential defects detection.

Complete ASP.NET 4.5 Support Offered by OrcsWeb

OrcsWeb is one of the leading providers of Microsoft Windows-based cloud and dedicated server hosting solutions. To remain at the top, the company must remain up-to-date on all the latest technologies. Their quick adoption of the latest version of ASP.NET only cements their dedication.

OrcsWeb announced that ASP.NET 4.5 is now available across all platforms – cloud and dedicated. They worked closely with Microsoft throughout the beta stage to make sure their .NET 4.5 support was perfect. Users can expect new features, increased performance and control, and other benefits with the latest release of .NET.

“ASP.NET 4.5 is the most exciting release of the .NET framework yet. Microsoft has made significant performance improvements in both application startup and memory utilization that customers will recognize immediately,” according to Jeff Graves, Director of Technology. “Security improvements help web developers easily protect their application from malicious users with unobtrusive validation and the baked-in AntiXSS library. Asynchronous HTTP calls are much easier to manage with the new await command. The best part is that OrcsWeb clients can take full advantage of these features today, across all of our platforms.”

Here are the key improvements that users will find built into .NET 4.5:

ASP.NET 4.5 uses bundling (which combines separate JavaScript files for faster loading) and minification (which reduces the size of JavaScript and CSS files by removing unneeded characters).
ASP.NET 4.5 can read, write, and flush a stream asynchronously. This asynchronicity lets you send data to a client incrementally without tying up operating system threads.
The new async and await keywords make it easier to write asynchronous HTTP modules and asynchronous HTTP handlers.
ASP.NET 4.5 provides ways to read un-validated request data so that you can allow users to pass markup for selected fields or pages.

As the Microsoft developer world turns: Guidance for the perplexed

Microsoft is in the midst of launching a host of new operating systems and tools this summer/fall. So what's a developer to choose to build apps and services for Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Windows Server 2012 and/or Windows Azure?

There are familiar, legacy .NET tools and frameworks available, like Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation. There are newer and less familiar (to many Microsoft developers) options including XAML and HTML5/JavaScript. And on the server side, there's ASP.Net for building server-based Web applications.

Microsoft tools vendor Telerik has delivered a new version of its Platform Guidance document that aims to help developers sort through the myriad choices, based on the type of application they are developing. The eight-page Platform Guidance PDF is a free download, available as of September 18.

The document doesn't advocate abandonning tried but true platforms like Silverlight, even though Microsoft seems to be trying to wean developers from that platform by downplaying it and declining to comment on its future, beyond committing to support Silverlight 5 through 2021. (Ditto with WinForms, which Telerik notes isn't the best choice for "greenfield" development, but which still has its place.)

Here's the Cliff Notes version of what the Telerik principals are recommending for development of each type of app:

Desktop Applications – WPF
Dashboard/Reporting Applications – ASP.NET MVC (Model View Controller) with HTML5
Data-Driven Websites – ASP.NET MVC and Web API
Interactive Web Applications (Forms over Data) – ASP.NET WebForms
Mobile Website – ASP.NET MVC HTML5
Tablet Applications – XAML and .NET

The Platform Guidance document includes a chart to help developers evaluate whether XAML or HTML is a better choice for building a Metro-Style -- now know officially as "Windows Store" -- application:

At only eight pages, the Guidance document isn't meant to be a be-all/end-all work. But it's a starting point, which offers some much-needed suggestions for those attempting to navigate the rapidly changing Microsoft development waters.

Web Matrix 2 is Reborn the Matrix

Microsoft's general web development tool, Web Matrix, has been released in version 2. It not only supports ASP.NET, but PHP and Node.js. It might not be open source, but it is free to download and use. What is in it for us? What is in it for Microsoft?

Web Matrix 2 is a strange web development tool to be coming from Microsoft. It allows you to work with a range of open source, and more importantly non-Microsoft, web technologies. This is something that many potential users would find both puzzling and worrying - but in this case the Trojan horse is all too plain to see if you just look at what it is suggested you do with the website you have created.

The idea seems to be that Web Matrix 2 will funnel users into the arms of Azure, Microsoft's cloud hosting service. However, this said, you can use Web Matrix for general web development and deploy on a LAMP server if that's what you want to do.

Web Matrix is a lightweight web development system that installs and sets things up correctly for you. If you download it then you can basically get started on your web site by selecting the appropriate template, waiting a few minutes while the site is generated, and then you can start coding. A development web server, IIS 7.5 Express, is set up for you and you can generally launch web pages as soon as you have created them.


The main supported technologies are ASP.NET, PHP, Node.js and of  course HTML5/JavaScript. The code editor supports highlighting and code completion and makes it easy for you to work.  Support for Node.js and mobile web sites are the two major new features. You can also use CoffeeScript if you want to. Mobile web sites are supported by the use of jQuery Mobile.
As well as the basic technologies, Web Matrix also supports websites based on many different frameworks - WordPress, Joomla, Ubraco, Kentico and more. Again the huge advantage is that the templates install a configured starter site complete with all dependencies. You simply select the sort of website you want to work with and it is ready to go in a few minutes. Amazingly you can opt to use either SQL Express or MySQL as the database for the sites.
You can see an overview video below:



The main new features in Web Matrix 2 include:
Extensibility model lets you write your own plug-ins or use community-built ones
Faster install of open source apps such as Joomla!, WordPress, Drupal, DotNetNuke and Umbraco
New templates for PHP, Node.js and HTML5, and mobile support for all templates
Intellisense (code completion) for major languages, including Razor, C#, VB, PHP, Node.js, HTML5,
CSS3 and Jquery
Application-specific code completion for top apps like Umbraco, WordPress and Joomla!
Simple UI to install NuGet packages
Ability to preview your site using mobile emulators
Remote view to make quick edits to files on live sites

At the end of your development process Web Matrix will offer to publish your site to Azure, but it also offers other options so you are in no way trapped by it. Of course, it is better integrated with Azure but you would expect this from a Microsoft product.

Overall Web Matrix makes it worth trying to overcome any anti-Microsoft bias you might have. It is a free web development tool that works with open source technologies to create a general, standards-based website. It is free to use and works with non-Microsoft technologies in a very even handled way. It is certainly worth trying out.

Umbraco Web CMS 4.9 Focuses on the Editor Experience, Rich Media

The open source content management system Umbraco may have dropped version 5, but the refocus on version 4 has brought some nice improvements and a number of bug fixes.

The free, ASP.Net-based Umbraco is designed for building websites — from small campaign or brochure sites to large media-based sites — and complex Web applications.

Umbraco, which bills itself as a  “priceless CMS at the cost of virtually nothing,” was first released in version 2.0 in 2005, which was also when the first developers conference, called CodeGarden, was held. Unfortunately a turn in the wrong direction resulted in dropping the next major version of the Web CMS to go "back to the basics".

“The early days of Umbraco was the result of a wonderful collaboration between three guys in Copenhagen,” wrote one of those guys, Niels Hartvig, on the Umbraco blog. He added that, “almost eight years later — I’m smiling again” because of the new release.

Focus on the Editor Not the Developer
Umbraco 4.9 features a revised editor, easier integration of third-party videos and images, and a new media library. In addition, the new version includes more than 50 “big” bug fixes, incorporated from submissions by over 20 contributors.

The application now supports HTML5 uploads to the media section, and there’s a new folder content overview that can be filtered and from which common actions can be applied to media items.

The Media button in the Rich Text Editor now supports the oEmbed standard in its embedder, and the code editor for templates, scripting and XSLT templates has been upgraded. Creating and inspecting relation types can now be conducted from the backoffice.

Virtual Server with IIS 8 released by myhosting.com

Microsoft officially released the highly anticipated Windows Server 2012. The newly released server operating system offers a number of features that can be utilized to benefit developers, resellers and businesses. On the heels of this release, myhosting.com has announced the launch of its VPS Hosting product line of Windows Server 2012, deployed on its existing Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2-based platform.

“Our customers are always looking for the latest and greatest solutions for their Virtual Dedicated Server,” said Celal Ulgen, CMO at SoftCom Inc. “By offering Windows Server 2012-based solutions so soon after the release date, we hope to give our customers a head start against their competition, so they can take advantage of all the improvements available in the platform.”

Included in Windows Server 2012 are a number of key features that web hosting customers will find useful, including support for ASP.NET 4.5, the latest .NET Framework, IIS CPU throttling, Application Initialization which can improve time to first byte, Dynamic IP Restrictions to help prevent DoS attacks and FTP Logon attempt restriction to help prevent brute force attacks, as well as WebSocket Protocol for real-time client/server communications. Other key features include enhanced support for open standards, improved Remote Desktop and VDI, and powerful new self-service feature that extend more control to users when accessing from the Cloud.

“We have always had a great appreciation for the products that Microsoft Offers,” said Turker Sokullu, CEO, “As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, we feel it is our duty to keep in touch with new developments at Microsoft and to launch those products and services that will work well for our customers. And by participating in the Rapid Deployment Program for Windows Server 2012, we were able to get our Windows Server 2012-based solution ready and launch a competitive solution right out of the gate.”

“Microsoft is thrilled to be working with companies like SoftCom,” said Peter Doulas, Business Group Lead for the Server and Tools Division within Microsoft Canada. “There has been a lot of enthusiasm for the recent release of Windows Server 2012, largely in part to a myriad of new features that make for a richer user experience, smarter cloud computing capabilities, intuitive automation and more. In collaborating with companies like SoftCom, customers can tap into the resources and technology to help transform their business.”

Aspect-Oriented Programming with PostSharp

Aspect-oriented programming has the potential to help every developer write higher-quality code in less time. Here's how to declaratively apply custom methods implementing common functionality to your code.

In a recent discussion with the applications development manager of a major global company that uses the Microsoft .NET Framework as its development platform, I was asked how his department could increase productivity. We discussed several approaches, including increased code reuse. That discussion led me to take a deeper look at aspect-oriented programming (AOP). What I found is that AOP can increase code reuse within targeted functional areas, while also improving code maintainability and readability. AOP has the potential to help every developer write higher-quality code in less time.

What Is AOP?
At its core, AOP is the practice of encapsulating functionality common among multiple code elements yet independent of the business logic, and applying that common functionality to the target source code elements declaratively.

The common functionality is referred to as a crosscutting concern because it "cuts across" the entire application as a capability that's useful, independent of the business logic. Common examples include error handling, logging, tracing, instrumentation, transaction handling, security, caching, data binding, undo/redo and even multithreading. None of these 10 examples involves business logic, but they're all common and often necessary capabilities in any high-quality application.

Benefits of AOP
The code that implements one of these crosscutting concerns is known as an "aspect," and thus gives rise to the term "aspect-oriented programming." What benefit does it provide the developer if the functionality for these aspects can be removed from the primary source code and declaratively applied as needed to the application?

I'm truly excited by the benefits of AOP:

The business logic source code is much easier to read and understand, without the clutter of the code needed to support crosscutting concerns.
Less repetition in the code of the business logic means shorter developer times, fewer defects and a less-tedious coding experience.
Developers can better focus on implementing the proper business logic.
Less-experienced developers won't have to learn to weave these crosscutting concerns throughout their code, and experienced developers will appreciate more fluid coding by focusing primarily on business logic.
To be clear, the code for these crosscutting concerns is still present in the application; it has simply been moved into aspects. Writing these aspects generally requires a more experienced developer, so they tend to be high-quality code. These aspects are added to the application by the AOP framework at specific execution points known as "join points," such as at the time of object instantiation, method initiation, method exit, property access and so on. A set of join points is known as a pointcut.

History of AOP
AOP isn't something recently created to help .NET developers. Work on AOP started in the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1996, which is the same group credited with giving us laser printing; the Ethernet network protocol; the modern PC GUI using windows, icons and a mouse; object-oriented programming (OOP) via Smalltalk; and very-large-scale integration (VLSI) for semiconductors. PARC research into AOP resulted in the design of what is now AspectJ for the Java language.

Since 1996, AOP extensions have been developed for multiple languages, including C++, Ruby, PHP, SAP ABAP and even COBOL. Visual Studio 2012 and earlier versions do not directly support AOP. The aspect-like capability to declaratively apply custom code to methods can be found in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) declarative filters and ASP.NET MVC dynamic filters.

The Path to AOP
In order to fully implement AOP in a .NET application, you want the ability to move crosscutting concerns into separate aspects, apply them declaratively to one or more source code locations and -- without changing the application architecture -- enable the use of aspects. While the source code modified by the aspects may be aware of the aspects by leaving certain tasks to them, the source code should be ignorant of the internal implementation of the aspects.

One way to add aspects into an application is to wrap each class with a dynamic proxy (outer shell) to provide additional functionality around the class, but the benefits of this approach are limited. Most dependency-injection frameworks in .NET provide some support for proxy-based AOP, which can be useful for logging, instrumentation and caching. This approach is only able to inject behaviors into the communication between a service and its consumer -- not inside the service itself -- so it can have the disadvantage of altering the application architecture to support aspects.

Another way to add aspects to an application is through code generation, but this, too, is limited. This approach allows for more powerful code transformation, but requires recompilation of the application each time any of the aspects change.

A third way to add aspects is through metadata-driven programming, utilizing dynamic languages such as IronPython or IronRuby. This can allow additional functionality to be added at runtime via aspects, but the complexity of implementing your own AOP framework is prohibitive.

To see how to implement AOP in .NET using a full-featured AOP framework, I looked at PostSharp, which claims to be the most comprehensive aspect-oriented software available for .NET.

Active Web Group, Inc. Offers Free Press Release With SEO Agreement

Active Web Group, Inc. (AWG), announced a Free Press Release with SEO, a $500 value, for firms that sign for SEO marketing. AWG has a long and substantial track record utilizing SEO initiatives to promote businesses of every size and across many diverse industries.

Active Web Group, Inc. (AWG), the award winning online marketing company headquartered in Hauppauge, New York, today announced a Free Press Release with SEO, a $500 value, for firms that sign for Search Engine Optimization marketing. Search Engine Optimization is a customized strategy to enable websites to become more visible to search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. The long-term goal for SEO campaigns and initiatives is most often more leads and conversions. For ecommerce sites, the goal is generally greater revenue and an increased ROI. Well-optimized websites rank well on the major search engines which is a key factor in achieving online business’ success. By offering new clients a Free Press Release with SEO, Active Web believes they will be jump-starting the firm’s efforts to assist online businesses to achieve their goals.
Optimizing a website takes time ranging from several months to as long as a year. So when beginning an SEO strategy for a client’s website, supporting Internet marketing tools such as press releases can help ‘fill in the gaps’ until resilient and long lasting organic search initiatives take hold. This way, online firms can see positive results almost at once while the techniques that bring lasting results continue to develop.
“In support of a company’s SEO marketing a succinct and well-placed press release may also serve as a vehicle for higher search engine rankings and increased profits,” states Pat Norton, Vice President and Director of Business Development, Active Web Group, Inc. “These releases may be optimized as well so that our client’s company may reap SEO benefits indefinitely,” he adds. “By offering our customers a Free Press Release with SEO when they sign with Active Web Group, we can jumpstart their campaign while the long term benefits of organic search are just getting underway,” Norton concludes.
Active Web Group has a long and substantial track record utilizing Search Engine Optimization initiatives to promote businesses of every size and across many diverse industries. Their SEO strategies for their clients are designed to generate high search engine rankings, more relevant site traffic and increased conversions.

Microsoft Release New REST API Framework as Part of .NET 4.5

As part of the recent Visual Studio 2012 and .NET 4.5 launch, Microsoft formally unveiled its new web services framework called the ASP.NET Web API. Included as part of the ASP.NET MVC 4 offering, the open-source ASP.NET Web API is designed to simplify the development and consumption of RESTful services.

In a post called “Where does ASP.NET Web API Fit?”, Rick Strahl of West Wind Technologies explains the purpose and benefits of the ASP.NET Web API.

ASP.NET Web API differentiates itself from the previous Microsoft in-box HTTP service solutions in that it was built from the ground up around the HTTP protocol and its messaging semantics. Unlike WCF REST or ASP.NET AJAX with ASMX, it’s a brand new platform rather than bolted on technology that is supposed to work in the context of an existing framework. The strength of the new ASP.NET Web API is that it combines the best features of the platforms that came before it, to provide a comprehensive and very usable HTTP platform. Because it's based on ASP.NET and borrows a lot of concepts from ASP.NET MVC, Web API should be immediately familiar and comfortable to most ASP.NET developers.

Strahl points out the core capabilities that make the ASP.NET Web API a natural fit for both existing users of the the ASP.NET MVC framework, and developers who need to build HTTP endpoints.

Strong Support for URL Routing to produce clean URLs using familiar MVC style routing semantics
Content Negotiation based on Accept headers for request and response serialization
Support for a host of supported output formats including JSON, XML, ATOM
Strong default support for REST semantics but they are optional
Easily extensible Formatter support to add new input/output types
Deep support for more advanced HTTP features via HttpResponseMessage and HttpRequestMessage
classes and strongly typed Enums to describe many HTTP operations
Convention based design that drives you into doing the right thing for HTTP Services
Very extensible, based on MVC like extensibility model of Formatters and Filters
Self-hostable in non-Web applications
Testable using testing concepts similar to MVC
Microsoft already has an existing a web services framework called Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) which lets developers build contract-first services that leverage transport protocols such as TCP, HTTP and MSMQ. Originally built for SOAP-based services that want WS-* capabilities, WCF eventually added a handful of REST-friendly capabilities. While the ASP.NET Web APIs were initially aligned to the WCF framework, they were eventually shuffled over to the ASP.NET team as described in a Code Project article by Web developer Ido Flatow.

As time passed, the WCF Web APIs had a lot of trouble adapting WCF to the “native” HTTP world. As WCF was primarily designed for SOAP-based XML messages, and the “open-heart” surgery that was required to make the Web API work as part of WCF was a bit too much (or so I understand from people who were involved in creating the Web APIs). On the other hand, the ASP.NET MVC infrastructure with its elegant handling of HTTP requests and responses, and its support of easy-to-create controllers seemed like the proper way to go for creating this new type of services.

WCF remains alive and well in the latest .NET 4.5 release and Flatow identifies some of the decision criteria for choosing between WCF and the ASP.NET Web API.

If your intention is to create services that support special scenarios – one way messaging, message queues, duplex communication etc, then you’re better of picking WCF
If you want to create services that can use fast transport channels when available, such as TCP, Named Pipes, or maybe even UDP (in WCF 4.5), and you also want to support HTTP when all other transports are unavailable, then you’re better off with WCF and using both SOAP-based bindings and the WebHttp binding.
If you want to create resource-oriented services over HTTP that can use the full features of HTTP – define cache control for browsers, versioning and concurrency using ETags, pass various content types such as images, documents, HTML pages etc., use URI templates to include Task URIs in your responses, then the new Web APIs are the best choice for you.
If you want to create a multi-target service that can be used as both resource-oriented service over HTTP and as RPC-style SOAP service over TCP – talk to me first, so I’ll give you some pointers.
The ASP.NET Web API is included in Visual Studio 2012 and is also available as a download for Visual Studio 2010 users. Developers looking to get started with the framework will find many example projects available on the team’s Codeplex site.