SharePoint 2007 and .NET Development

WCF vs. ASMX web services

Click on the link below to an article titled "A Performance Comparison of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) with Existing Distributed Communication Technologies" by Microsoft. It depicts why WCF is better than ASMX web services. It is a great read for all developers looking to build web services for internal systems.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb310550.aspx

NHibernate for .NET versus Microsoft Enterprise Library 3.1

I have been working on a project that integrates existing line of business systems together to provide customers with a single point of entry into the organization through the default website. Providing customers with targeted information is obviously a benefit to the customer. Each customer that is able to access a corporate site and easily retrieve pertinent information to them not only makes them a happy customer, but a customer that will sell your services to potential customers. Therefore, making the customer happy at first point of entry is obviously critical to an organizations success.

As the Senior Solutions Developer at my firm, I have to think about performance, interoperability, scalability, integration, and business requirements. It is an exciting position and requires quick thinking with lots of research. Currently, I am working on building Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) based services to integrate with our internal line of business systems and web controls in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007). It would allow the customer to access the targeted information expressed above. Whenever one thinks about integration, database access is never that far behind. Most usually requires it and it certainly is the case with me, thus the reason for my current blog post.

While creating the data access layer in WCF I was forced to think about how to develop the layer that would subscribe to best practices and provide for both Agile Software Development and Rapid Application Development without compromising quality of code. A fellow Senior Solutions Developer told me about the open-source NHibernate, which provides an ORM solution to building the data access layer. He told me that many J2EE developers integrated with this solution offering. I became very interested and so I started researching why NHibernate is better than the Microsoft Enterprise Library 3.1 Data Access Block published by Microsoft in May 2007. The result was quite stunning.

The Enterprise Library Data Access Block is great for quick access to the underlying data source and provides the required levels of abstraction; however, it fails in building stored procedures that models a normalized relational database that is something the developer would need to create. The typical Select, Insert, Update, Delete stored procedures are usually required for this type of model. I have found it shocking. NHibernate not only provides the appropriate levels of abstraction that conforms to best practices, but it also handles what the Enterprise Library lacks, the capability to dynamically build SQL that performs the required actions to normalized databases. NHibernate is a data access layer that can truly build high quality code that accesses the data access layer. It provides us with what we need and best of all…it is free and available from the open-source community. Visit NHibernate at www.hibernate.org or access the NHibernate Best Practices page on the code project website (http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/NHibernateBestPractices.asp).

WPF/E branded as Microsoft Silverlight

I remember when I was at Bentley College, working at the Academic Technology Center with a number of smart Computer Information System majors, when I thought that the web experience should be richer than it is today. We built academic course sites for professors and some built sites of their own. We used traditional HTML and JavaScript in notepad and ran these websites on the UNIX platform. Some of us used more elaborate IDE's like ColdFusion to develop on the Windows platform. Over the years, I have moved on to building dynamic web pages using the Microsoft ASP page model then using ASP.NET on the Windows platform. This allowed me to focus my efforts on developing software on a platform that I knew everyone was eventually going to use. With the advent of the .NET Framework 2.0, web developers were looking at how to build even richer content for companies and the upcoming web 2.0 users. Microsoft released the .NET Framework 3.0 and with it, a powerful framework called the Windows Presentation Foundation. This foundation uses XAML, windows controls, and partial class technology to build rich windows applications.

The Windows Presentation Foundation now has a following of developers. These developers were waiting for the release of the foundation for the web. Microsoft released several Community Technology Previews (CTPs) of the codenamed WPF/E for these developers. Microsoft launched WPF/E earlier this month in Las Vegas. The foundation is now branded as Microsoft Silverlight. Microsoft Silverlight promises cross-browser, cross-platform user experiences. It also separates designers from developers with the release of Microsoft Expression studio for designers and the well-known Visual Studio for developers. The cross-browser/platform promise comes by the install of a downloadable plug-in that you can be sure to see in your upcoming Windows updates.

Now it is up to web developers to take full advantage of the foundation and its capabilities. Building rich web experiences will no longer be limited to the .NET Frameworks availability on a web server or on an Apple Computer. Rich web experiences will only be limited to the current version of a browser and its capability to run the Silverlight plug-in. I can see that the next version of SharePoint will take full advantage of Microsoft Silverlight. It will give advertising companies the edge they need to deliver messages to potential customers that is appealing and interactive.

To find out more about Microsoft Silverlight visit http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight. For more FAQs, visit http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/asp/faq.aspx. For resources on how to get started now, click on any of the links below.

 

Developers

Silverlight Software Development Kit (SDK) CTP (Feb. 2007)

Silverlight CTP Sample Pack (Feb. 2007)

http://www.telerik.com/products/silverlight/overview.aspx

Designers

Expression Studio (Free evaluation is available for download)

WCF Patterns & Practices

I wholeheartedly believe in building Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) based web services that follows industry patterns & practices. That is why I believe if you are looking to build WCF based service interfaces, it is with strong consideration that you visit the Web Service Software Factory web page located within the Microsoft Patterns and Practices Development web site.  In addition, I recommend that you download the following pieces of software where Visual Studio.NET 2005 is installed.

• Guidance Automation Extensions for Visual Studio.NET 2005
• Web Service Software Factory–December 2006 (ASP.NET and WCF services in C#)
• Web Service Software Factory Hands-on Lab

I would also recommend reviewing the MSDN Architecture Webcast: Web Services Security Patterns (Level 300) video. The introduction of the video tells you why the Service Factory was built and demonstrates the guidance automation experience in Visual Studio. Toward the end of the webcast, there is a demonstration that applies security to a WCF service using the latest release of the Service Factory.

I also recommend reviewing some community sites related to WCF. I have listed some below.

• Web Service Software Factory Community Workspace
• The Service Factory Blogs
• http://wcf.netfx3.com

Links on Windows Workflow Foundation

There are more posts on the Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) by developers worldwide. This means that the adoption of WWF into existing software will be prevalent over the next two years. Below are some links that can be of interest if you are looking into using the foundation.

• Windows Workflow Foundation and Visual Basic .NET
• MSDN Webcast: Developing SharePoint Workflows Using Visual Studio 2005 (Level 200)
• ARCast.net - WF Team Answers Your Questions
• ARCast – WCF, Workflow and Cardspace in the real world
• Extending the WF publish as Web Service, or get rid of tempuri.org
• Ten Reasons why WF is not a Toy
• Glenn Block digs into workflow properties
• Windows Workflow Foundation Developers Website

Virtual Labs for WCF

Microsoft has a number of virtual labs available on the Windows Communication Foundation. The labs are below. Click on the links to get started learning the foundation.

• Understanding Windows Communication Foundation
• The Fundamentals of Programming the Windows Communication Foundation
• Reliable and Transacted Messaging with the Windows Communication Foundation

Windows Communication Foundation Architectural Overview

I noticed a great article on the Microsoft website that provides an architectural overview of the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). The article demonstrates WCF contracts, endpoints, and behaviors.  I am currently getting up to speed with this foundation. I will share my thoughts about WCF in upcoming blogs. If you are a developer, I would recommend looking into using WCF instead of a typical ASP.NET web service (*.ASMX) when building distributed solutions. That is because WCF lends itself to lesser dependency on IIS and conforms to strict SOAP message standards without the need of Web Service Enhancements (WSE). Read the architectural overview thoroughly as it reinforces some key concepts. Click here to read the article.

Windows Communication Foundation Beginners Guide

Thom Robbins, a .NET development guru, posted some exciting blog entries on how to integrate Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) into an existing ASMX (ASP.NET Web Service) as noted here and how to host WCF inside of an Internet Information Services (IIS) application here.

If you have worked with WCF, you know that you can create a SVC (service interface) file that returns a Web Service Description Language (WSDL) and that can be used by J2EE applications. This is similar to ASMX files in that regard. However, it can easily change to run within a windows service and on the HTTP or TCP transport where the IIS administrative overhead is non-existent. In addition, a WCF service operation returns SOAP compliant messages and provide a means of communicating on both the HTTP and TCP transports inside and outside of IIS.

If you are looking into how WCF can help your future projects then, I would recommend looking at the blog articles and using Orcas, the next version of Visual Studio.NET, or using Visual Studio 2005. When using Visual Studio 2005, it is best to download and install the templates for Windows Communication Foundation and ensuring you have an instance of the .NET Framework 3.0 installed on your computer. To download the templates for Visual Studio 2005, click here.

Three thumbs up for Windows Workflow Foundation

It has been a while since my last posting, but let me tell you, it is not without reason. I have been working on workflow prototypes using Windows Workflow Foundation and Visual Studio 2005. I cannot express my excitement about the capabilities. For all that are unaware, Windows Workflow Foundation is a new set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that allows one to create human or business process workflows. If you are aware of the capabilities around Microsoft BizTalk orchestration, then just think about using its workflow engine in your applications. I have found that Windows Workflow is a rich set of APIs that allows for the below:

• Integration with .NET applications like web applications, web services, windows applications, console applications, and mobile applications through the use of workflow activities
• Integration with the below set of disparate applications
  • Microsoft Dynamics applications {Axapata, Customer Relationship Management, Great Plains, Navision, and Solomon}
  • Oracle applications {Financial Accounting, Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain, Banking, Retail, Higher-Ed, Telecom, Retail, and Banking}
  • SAP applications {Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Product Life-cycle Management, Supplier Relationship Management, and Composite Applications} and
  • IBM applications
• Publication of a windows workflow as a web service

Certainly integration is possible through the programmatic use of the .NET Framework, but think about how challenging it would be to model a business process or human workflow process without it, and in a readable form. Therefore, I give the foundation three thumbs up for a great set of foundation classes that helps developers create even better systems.

Windows Workflow Foundation and the three types

I came across a great blog by Dave Green on MSDN about WWF (Windows Workflow Foundation). From a developers perspective, it discusses which style of workflow should be used and when. When Dave refers to style, he is really talking about type. He alludes that the foundation contains three types. They are “Sequential”, “State Machine”, and “Data-Driven”. The most common of these is “Sequential”. For example, approvals and signatures before publication, operational steps, etc. SharePoint Designer does a great job with creating a more customized approach to the “Sequential” type. However, it does not do a great job with the other two. That is where custom development using Visual Studio.NET 2005 extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation is best used.

To learn more, click here to view Dave Green's weblog on Windows Workflow Foundation and the three types.