Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2

Of course, this is a happening week for all Microsoft .Net lovers. Today Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is available for MSDN subscribers and as Microsoft says it’ll be available for everyone on Wednesday. Visual Studio and MSDN with very unique and beautiful logos. Not to forget the awesome splash screen of Visual Studio.


For more check out Scott Hanselman’s blog.

Happy Programming.. :)

Static Analysis with NDepend - Dependency Graph

Last week I was so lucky to get my hands on one of the most awesome software tools I’ve ever worked with. Even though I have worked with some static analysis tool, there were so many times I imagined if I could get some assembly or project analyzed and get it in to a visual diagram, where I could see the dependencies of each class, assembly and namespace. Thanks to Patrick Smacchia a C# MVP, finally my dream came true with the tool NDepend.

“Static analysis, also called static code analysis, is a method of computer program debugging that is done by examining the code without executing the program. The process provides an understanding of the code structure, and can help to ensure that the code adheres to industry standards. The principal advantage of static analysis is the fact that it can reveal errors that do not manifest themselves until a disaster occurs weeks, months or years after release.”

NDepend is a static analyzer. This is how the tool is introduced in the official site www.ndepend.com. NDepend is a tool that simplifies managing a complex .NET code base. Architects and developers can analyze code structure, specify design rules, plan massive refactoring, do effective code reviews and master evolution by comparing different versions of the code. The result is better communication, improved quality, easier maintenance and faster development.

Do I need say more… Let’s get in to action…

How easy it is to understand the underlying architecture of a particular assembly or a project specially which is compiled or deployed. Actually past few days I was bit busy working and writing about SharePoint Object Model. So I’ll take the assembly Microsoft.SharePoint.dll for the analysis process.

Opening the VisualNDepend.exe will open the Start Page of NDepend where you get easy access to recent projects (with new projects), Getting Started Guide and Visual Studio and Reflector Add-Ins as shown below.

Click File > Select .Net assemblies to Analyze will open a window where you can browse any assembly you need or it’s just a matter of very common drag and drop method from windows explorer.

As I mentioned earlier I’ll browse and select the assembly Microsoft.SharePoint.dll for the analysis process. Magic begins… Give few seconds/minutes and given below is what you will see. Just to my idea this product is super fast as for the information it analyzes. Specially the multi threading :)

Basically I'm trying to get the transitive closure of WorkflowRuntime. Transitive closure is a powerful mean to deconstruct software because it shows how the code is really layered.

Okay.. the result shown below.

I could have chosen the transitive closure made of methods, types or assemblies too. You can see a Query suggested by NDepend (more like a T-SQL Query) which is a Code Query Language (CQL) Query.
Let's see these namespaces mapped to a graph.

Below given is the result... which is the 1st reason that made me fall in love with this awesome product.

Let's say I wanna see the assemblies which are using the System.Workflow.Runtime on a graph. It has never been easier than this. Select the assembly name, right click and select "Who is using me on graph" as in the below screen.

This is only a single feature of NDepend which is the Dependency Graph. Next.. tune-in for the Dependency Matrix. If you want to see the features on one go, here it is.

Patterns & Practices - Developing SharePoint Applications

Microsoft Patterns & Practices group released the updated version of the “Developing SharePoint Applications” basically the final release with tons of articles, code samples and videos helping people to develop LOB applications in/on SharePoint.

Visit HERE.

Code Camp

Code Camp!! A Code Camp is bit of a new word for the Sri Lankan tech community. But as the Sri Lankan .Net Forum we are proud to announce the 1st Code Camp held in Sri Lanka. It was on 6th August 2009 at Excel World.

The event went very well, there were 7 tables hosted by MVPs and techies from the .Net community. Just to name them Joy Pradeep - SharePoint, Jinath Premarathne – ASP.Net, Prabath Fonseka – Patterns and Practices, Dinesh Asanka – MS SQL, Chanaka Gamage – Windows Workflow Foundation, Chandana Athauda - Azure and Uditha Bandara – Windows Presentation Foundation.

5th Anniversary of the .Net Forum Sri Lanka

I know I’m late on the below post and the one to come next. But it’s better to be late than never.

24th July 2009 was a remarkable day for the Sri Lankan .net forum community. It was the fifth anniversary of the .Net forum. It started with a nice “a look back” video from Wellington. First session on “What’s new in Visual Studio 2010” was carried by Joy. “What’s new in .Net Framework 4.0”, the second session was conducted by me. Third session “MVC” was hosted by Fikri.

It was nice to see the auditorium on 3rd floor was filled with the members of the forum. This wasn’t an end of a journey but another promising step towards a long way ahead and a look back of the successful journey we have come.

Thanks Wela for the beautiful pic.

SharePoint Workspace 2010

I wanted to start a blog series about the next version of SharePoint, SharePoint 2010. But with the superb new features of this awesome product, I was quite lost where to start from. So I thought of starting with the new features and the major changes.

SharePoint Workspace 2010

SharePoint Workspace 2010 is the offline, desktop client for SharePoint enabling people to collaborate and contribute to SharePoint sites even with they're not connected. Actually it’s the next version of Microsoft Groove.
As Microsoft claims, Groove to SharePoint is like Outlook to Exchange. So basically it’s an offline client. Users will be able to work offline with the SharePoint contents and when online SharePoint Workspace will reflect any changes made within the client immediately in the SharePoint site. If SharePoint Workspace detects the user is offline and thus disconnected from the SharePoint site, it will cache any changes and automatically synchronize the changes once the user is online and can connect to the SharePoint site again. Even though it’s the next version of Groove, it’s not the same product with a new name.

Is Google really worried about Bing?

This is something I still cannot believe. I believe Microsoft is a great company which has some solid products. I know that because I work with many of those products. But will you ever believe that one of Microsoft’s recent product releases made Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page think twice. Microsoft released their new decision engine which is more than a typical search engine. Sergey Brin is concerned enough losing their market share to Bing. He has put together a team of top engineers [Yes, TOP ENGINEERS… cool…], to begin making vast improvements to the web service starting immediately. Brin is heading the team, and the project they will be working on is trying to determine how Bing's search algorithm is different from Google. Wow what will be the end result?

I know new search engines have come and gone in the past 10 years, but did Sergey or Larry ever concerned about those, I don’t think so. But Bing, Microsoft you really did something to keep Google open their eyes. That begins the competition.

Bing is powered with a 100 million budget just for advertising. Also it is said to be rare that the Google founders join on the daily operations of the company, so having one of them back leading a team there must be quite significant. The real search engine war has started!!

[Image courtesy of the NY Times]