The Year of the Developer
February 17, 2012 at 11:39 am | Posted in Technical Tips, Vendor news | Leave a commentTags: 2012 skills, Android, Blackberry, Canvas 3D, Developer skills, HTML5, iPhone, jQuery, jQuery mobile, Kinect, linux+, mobile, NoSQL, OData, phonegap, phonegapbuild, porting, python, Red Foundry, RESTful, Sencha, TechRepublic, Typeface.js, unit testing, Windows 8
Did I get your attention? I hope so, but let’s be honest: it’s been the Year of the Developer since 1954. As wonderful as it is to have the latest gadget goodness in your hand, without developers, that gadget does a whole lot of nothing. Arguably, the adoption of shiny devices and powerful operating systems is directly proportional to the software that runs on it.
But I do have a more salient point beyond giving the developer community a pat on the back.
Development in 2012
What does the future look like? Better yet, which skills should you focus on in the upcoming year? Justin at TechRepublic actually beat me to the punch on this one, so rather than rehash the whole article, I’ll just throw in my two cents.
Mobile Development
This one should be fairly obvious. What isn’t so obvious is how fragmented the mobile field really is. An iPhone, Android, and Blackberry device all do very similar things and contain very similar components and UIs, but the back-end development for these platforms is entirely different. Let’s not even discuss the form factor differences between these smartphones and their tablet cousins.
I predict the ascendance of uniform development kits like Red Foundry and PhoneGap/PhoneGapBuild to level the playing field. PhoneGap, in particular, leverages Web development skills such as jQuery and HTML5.
NoSQL Continue Reading The Year of the Developer…
ASP.NET development and open standards: jQuerylicious!
July 7, 2010 at 3:31 pm | Posted in Microsoft | Leave a commentTags: .NET 4, AJAX, ASP, ASP.NET, jQuery, scripting, Visual Studio 2010
Since the introduction of Ajax in ASP.NET, the Redmond shop has become more welcoming of open-source Web standards. The addition of jQuery in ASP.NET 4 continues that tradition. jQuery is more than just quick syntax for DOM manipulation; it is the basis for a wealth of robust plugins that save valuable development time and energy. And it’s almost as much fun to say as “vuvuzela.”
Let’s start with a basic HTML form:
<form id="jQueryForm">
<select id="lstContacts" >
<option value="jhester">Joshua</option>
<option value="tmcmillan">Troy</option>
<option value="rabernathy">Robin</option>
<option value="gmonsalvatge">George</option>
<option value="alang">Ann</option>
<option value="arotella">Aima</option>
</select>
<input id="txtUsername" type="text" />
<input id="jButton" value="test" type="button" />
</form>
Let’s say that we want to access the selected option and retrieve the associated username. In vanilla JavasScript, we’d probably use code similar to the following:
var username = document.getElementById("lstContacts").value;
Of course, this script alone is testament to how far browser equality has come. Using the Ajax library, we could abbreviate our script even further:
var username = $get("lstContacts").value;
But what about if the list allowed multiple selections? In that case, we would need to iterate through the elements and format the selections. jQuery supports a CSS-style selector, so we can overcome this issue fairly easy, as shown in this example:
var usernames = "";
$("select option:selected").each(function () {
usernames += $(this).val() + " ";
});
But, as I said before, jQuery for DOM manipulation is only the tip of the iceberg. Using the Microsoft Ajax CDN, you have a multitude of awesome plugins available, including the jQuery validate plugin. So, let’s take an existing AJAX Web Form (with the requisite jQuery script references):
<form runat="server" ID="numberForm">
<asp:Label runat="server" AssociatedControlID="txtNumber">Type a number from 1 to 10.</asp:Label>
<asp:TextBox runat="server" ID="txtNumber" />
<asp:Button runat="server" Text="Guess" />
</form>
Sure, you could use the ASP.NET validators to solve this scenario; nothing wrong with that at all. But the jQuery validate plugin through the Validation library provides a simple, and robust validation mechanism. The validate plugin uses rules to specify requirements and messages for customized error messages. In this scenario, you would use the following jQuery script:
$("#numberForm").validate ({
rules: {
txtNumber: {
required: true,
min: 1,
max: 10
}
},
messages: {
txtNumber: {
required: "Please do not leave blank.",
min: "Must be greater than or equal to 1.",
max: "Must be less than or equal to 10."
}
}
});
Look, no hands! Completely customizable and no server-side postback required!
Once upon a time, choosing ASP as your Web technology locked you into using proprietary VB scripting. Now, with the advent of ASP.NET 4, open standards are finally supported and fully embraced by team Microsoft. ASP coding has evolved from integrating these standards to simply learning how to use them.
–Josh Hester aka codeguru
The April 2010 .NET 4.0 Beta Blitz
May 19, 2010 at 4:43 pm | Posted in Certification Paths, Microsoft | Leave a commentTags: .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, 70-502, 70-503, 70-505, 70-561, 70-562, 70-563, 70-564, 70-565, 71-511, 71-513, 71-515, 71-516, 71-518, 71-519, ASP.NET MVC 2, Beta Exams, Entity Framework, jQuery, JSON, LINQ, Visual Studio 2010
April was a tumultuous month, thanks to Microsoft’s release of .NET 4.0 Beta Exams. That’s right, Microsoft rolled out all six .NET 4.0/Visual Studio 2010 exams in one month. What that meant to me, your intrepid content developer, was two exams per week and reams of notes, whitepapers, and documentation.
Without violating the NDA, here are my first impressions of the new exams:
- 71-511 (TS: Windows Applications Development with .NET Framework 4): Sorry, Windows Forms developers, but there’s not a whole lot for you here. You had better bone up on WPF and focus on binding syntax. This exam is a lot more like the .NET 4.0 version of the 70-502 (TS: 3.5, Windows Presentation Foundation Application Development), rather than the 70-505 (TS: 3.5, Windows Forms Application Development).
- 71-513 (TS: Windows Communication Foundation Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4): If you have taken the 70-503 (TS: 3.5, Windows Communication Foundation), then you have seen most of this exam before. The main additions are coverage of jQuery and JSON serialization support topics.
- 71-515 (TS: Web Applications Development with .NET Framework 4): A warning for old-school Web developers — this is not your father’s ASP anymore, so forget what you learned from the 70-562 (TS: 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development). The 4.0 exam focuses heavily on ASP.NET MVC 2, JSON, LINQ, and jQuery. You might find some comfort in configuration settings and debugging options, but many of these aspects have changed in the .NET 4.0 as well, so you’ll need to review the changes thoroughly.
- 71-516 (TS: Accessing Data with .NET Framework 4): Whereas Synchronization Services was found in the 70-561 (TS: 3.5, ADO.NET Application Development), this beta exam gives thorough coverage to the Entity Framework. Also, expect lots of LINQ.
- 71-518 (Pro: Designing and Developing Windows Applications Using .NET Framework 4): We don’t have an enterprise application exam anymore, so what to do? Why not create a mashup of the 70-563 (Pro: Designing and Developing Windows Applications Using the .NET Framework 3.5) and 70-565 (Pro: Designing and Developing Enterprise Applications Using the .NET Framework 3.5) and call it a new exam? There weren’t any surprises with this one.
- 71-519 (Pro: Designing and Developing Web Applications Using .NET Framework 4): The return of the case study? Really? I don’t know if this is an experiment that will make it past the beta version, but just in case, be prepared to see some new question types when this exam goes live. The content, however, is really just an updated version of the 70-564 (Pro: Designing and Developing ASP.NET Applications Using the .NET Framework 3.5).
So with the 4.0 track there are fewer exams, but more questions and content. Overall, I find myself missing the basic mechanics tested in the good old 70-536 (TS: Microsoft .NET Framework – Application Development Foundation), but Microsoft is definitely highlighting the new features of .NET 4.0 in these exams.
Phew … now onto practice test development!
(For earlier coverage of the .NET 4.0 exams see my post at The Times: They Are A’Changing for .NET Certification — keeping in mind that some of the info has changed in the interim.)
–Joshua Hester