MSDN Virtual Lab: Office Business Application Reference Application Pack for Manufacturing Plant Floor Analytics

At the end of this lab, you will understand how an Analytics OBA (Office Business Application) can be implemented to materialize the Analytics Value Chain of enabling operational monitoring, tactical analysis & decision making, and strategic insight. You can find this lab here

Sample BizTalk 2006 R2 HIPAA Solution Published on Codeplex

First release of the BizTalk 2006 R2 HIPAA Claims Processing sample application demonstrates how healthcare companies can submit claims through BizTalk 2006 in real-time over HTTPS to a 3rd party claims processor called Availity. This solution demonstrates the following technologies:
· Business Rules Engine
· SQL 2005 Analysis Services
· MOSS and InfoPath
· New R2 EDI Features for healthcare

BizTalk Server 2006 extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation Sample

Microsoft released BizTalk Server 2006 extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation (June CTP) SDK Sample. To try it out head to the Connect Site for this project, complete the survey, download the sample code and do the walk through.
Prerequisites for the walkthrough:
1- To complete the walkthrough you should first have Visual Studio 2005 professional or greater installed.
2 - You also need BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Beta 2 which is available on it's own connect site here. 3 - SQL Server 2005 SP1 express or greater is also required and you can get that here.
4 - Lastly you'll need the BizTalk extensions for WF from Connect.
The walkthrough will take about an hour and it starts with a WF workflow model and steps you through how to run this workflow inside the BizTalk Server managed server environment. No BizTalk experience is required for the walkthrough.

Life at Google - The Microsoftie Perspective

A great read , infact a must read
http://no2google.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/life-at-google-the-microsoftie-perspective/

3 new OBA (Office business Applications) RAP (Reference Architecture Pack) Released

One of the many great technologies to come out of Microsoft recently is OBA (Office business Applications). In the last week Microsoft release 3 Reference Architecture Pack (RAP). You should see them.

OBA RAP for Plant Floor Manufacturing Analytics:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/bb643797.aspx

OBA RAP for E-Forms Processing in the Public Sector:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/bb643796.aspx

OBA RAP for Health Plans
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/bb530326.aspx

Beta of two new web-based applications

Microsoft released a beta of two new web-based applications for storing and sharing photos and files -- Live Photo Gallery and Live Photo Folder.
1)Live Photo Gallery allows people to easily sharing, editing, organizing and printing of photos and digital home videos stored on their computers.
2) Windows Live Folders provides 500MB free Microsoft's online storage service, aiming to make it easier to share and control access to files stored online.
Both products are in 'managed beta', which means that the general public will not yet be offered access. Microsoft dominant position in the software market is an advantage over web-only service providers, such as Google and Yahoo

Calling a .NET class from a Gadget

We can call a .Net Assembly from a Vista gadget in following ways
1. We can interact with COM component by using the ActiveX Object constructor.
2. They are also different ways to interoperate with an application or a web service using WCF
3. A reference to Windows Forms UserControl is another option.
4. Last way is to dynamically execute a command line application, pass it arguments and get back output.

Enterprise Library 3.1 is here :)

Microsoft has released Enterprise Library 3.1. The patterns & practices Enterprise Library is a library of application blocks designed to assist developers with common enterprise development challenges. Application blocks are a type of guidance, provided as source code that can be used "as is," extended, or modified by developers to use on enterprise development projects. This release of Enterprise Library includes application blocks for Caching, Cryptography, Data Access, Exception Handling, Logging, Policy Injection, Security and Validation. download it from here

Article on Choosing the Right Technology for Integrating Systems

I wrote an article on Choosing the Right Technology for Integrating Systems few months back and after the feedback i got from people in PDC i thought i should publish the link. you can find this article here. I 'll be publishing an article on Microsoft office 2007 and its integration with application soon.

Pakistan Developer Conference 2007

PDC rocks!!!!
I had 2 sessions today and 2nd was great , i had to play in a fast forward mode in the first one so sorry for that guys. The presentations as per promised are as follows


Integrating Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 Forms into Workflow Solutions and Business Processes (in .ppt format)

Choosing the Right Technology for Integrating Systems ( in .ppt format)

I'll upload the Code soon :). Cu tomo at PDC

Windows Vista: Beta 2, RC1, and RC2 Set to Expire

After Today i.e. May 31, 2007, pre-release versions of Windows Vista will expire. To avoid work disruption and the loss of data, PC users running any of these pre-release versions of Windows Vista migrate their PCs to the final version of Windows Vista .
After May 31, 2007, users that continue to use pre-release versions of Windows Vista will be able to log in for 2-hour sessions to retrieve data. After 2 hours of use, the PC will automatically reboot without providing the opportunity to save data. The opportunity to log in normally for these 2 hour sessions will only be available for a limited time.
Find answers to frequently asked questions on the Windows Vista blog.

8 Tips And Tricks For Better BizTalk Programming

A gr8 article on MSDN
the tips are as follows
1. Always Use Multi-Part Message Types
2. Always Try to Design Orchestrations with Direct-Bound Ports
3. Always Use Separate Internal and External Schemas
4. Never Expose Your Internal Schemas Directly in WSDL
5. Always Optimize the BizTalk Registry for Web Services
6. Always Set the Assembly Key File with a Relative Path
7. Never Overlook Free Sample Code
8. Debug XSLT in Visual Studio

O2 OBA Challenge

"Create an Office Business Application (OBA) using the complementary technologies of the 2007 Microsoft® Office system and Oracle® Applications. The company that builds the best solution wins $25,000 to implement the OBA, and a unique opportunity to protect the air we share."
you can read more details here

Pakistan Developer Conference 2007 is here :)

Guys it’s here again. The event I look forward to attend and present in. it is the best way to gain knowledge and insight from the technology gurus. I think it’s a gr8 opportunity for us Pakistanis (who can’t go to Europe and US every year for tech events). I'll be presenting on 1- Integrating Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 Forms with Workflow Solutions and Business Processes 2- Choosing the Right Technology for Integrating Systems: BizTalk, SQL Server, SOA and WCF So looking forward to meet you guys

Architect Journal -12th edition

MS Architect journal is one of the best journals if you are a Microsoft Architect. Its 12th edition just came out. go get it from here.

Microsoft PopFly

Popfly is the fun, easy way for anyone to build and share mashups, gadgets, Web pages, and applications. Popfly consists of two parts:
1. Popfly Creator is a set of online visual tools for building Web pages and mashups.
2. Popfly Space is an online community of creators where you can host, share, rate, comment and even remix creations from other Popfly users.
See the video here for how to easily use online services like Flickr, Digg, and even World of Warcraft without writing code.

Judging Imagine cup 2007 , pakistan

The Imagine Cup is one way Microsoft is encouraging young people to apply their imagination, their passion and their creativity to technology innovations that can make a difference in the world – today. Now in its fifth year, the Imagine Cup has grown to be a truly global competition focused on finding solutions to real world issues.
The 2007 Theme is Education. This year, Microsoft is calling on young programmers, artists and technologists around the world to "imagine a world where technology enables a better education for all." We’re challenging students to bring their ideas to life in a multifaceted competition that comprises nine categories, each catering to a different technological or artistic affinity. Students’ work will reflect valuable, real world solutions, while giving them the opportunity to compete for cash prizes. When coupled with the power of technology the potential of young people is unlimited and the ideas they develop for the Imagine Cup could significantly improve the lives of millions of people around the world. In this competition, everyone wins.

I was asked to be one of the judges at the project evaluation for the best project from pakistan for the imagine up in the Software Design category. We had some great projects and the competition was very good. the best project came from LUMS lahore it was a class recording software with some very cool features. the project whch can 2nd came from a very remote place of pakistan, nawabshah. It was great to see someone from such remote location to bring up such a good software. the software was a grid computing software.

TechEd US 2007: SOA and Web Services Track Schedule

The complete abstract can be found on the TechEd site.

Visual Studio Orcas Express

Microsoft has just released a Community Tech Preview download of Visual Studio Orcas Express, the next version of Visual Studio Express.
A gr8 Screenshot below :)

Converting Messages to Text in Outlook 2007

I read this great blog spot so wanted to share with you guys
"
In Outlook 2003, you could open an email message and convert it from HTML to text by hitting Ctrl-Shift-O. That was handy, because I generally prefer to bottom-quote, and that's a pain in the ass when the email is HTML. So when I installed Outlook 2007 I was annoyed that Ctrl-Shift-O didn't work any more.
After a bunch of fumbling around, I finally discovered that if you open a message and edit it (Message->Other Actions->Edit), you can then change it to plain text (Options->Plain text). Well, being a keyboard guy, I got pretty tired of doing that, so now I have the following key sequence committed to muscle memory:
Enter (open message)
Alt H X E (edit message)
Alt P L (convert to plain text)
Alt H R P (reply)
Which, honestly, sucks, but is maybe 100 times as fast as doing the same thing with the mouse."