Few months back I had blogged about this real amazing news from .NET Framework's team, plans to release Source Code of .NET Framework Libraries and enable debugging support of them in Visual Studio 2008. Well... the special day has arrived, Recently Scott announced Source Code of .Net Framework Libraries is now available for everyone.

Isn't this great news?! I'm pretty much excited to check it out.

Currently source code for the following .NET Framework libraries are available.

• .NET Base Class Libraries including System, System.CodeDom, System.Collections, System.ComponentModel, System.Diagnostics, System.Drawing, System.Globalization, System.IO, System.Net, System.Reflection, System.Runtime, System.Security, System.Text, System.Threading, etc).
• ASP.NET (System.Web, System.Web.Extensions)
• Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms)
• Windows Presentation Foundation (System.Windows)
• ADO.NET and XML (System.Data and System.Xml)

Scott has also mentioned that they'll be adding up more libraries in near future.

And now How do you configure Visual Studio to avail this feature?

Well.. Shawn Burke has blogged a brief post explaining "How to Configure Visual Studio to Debug .NET Framework Source Code".

I'd recommend checking the following links for more details:

.Net framework library source code now available - ScottGu
Configuring Visual Studio to Debug .NET Framework Source Code - Shawn Burke
.NET Framework Library Source Code available for viewing - Scott Hanselman 

Cheers!
Chirag

Recently Scott announced some really exciting news for .NET developers that his team has been working to enable the ability for .NET developers to browse and download source code of .NET Framework Libraries and also with debugging support.

This feature will be available with .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008, which is expected later this year.

Microsoft will begin with offering the source code for .NET Framework Libraries including:

• System
• System.IO
• System.Collections
• System.Configuration
• System.Threading
• System.Net
• System.Security
• System.Runtime
• System.Text
• ASP.NET (System.Web)
• Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms)
• ADO.NET (System.Data)
• XML (System.Xml)
• WPF (System.Windows)

How it Works?

In Scott's blog you'll find all the details and screens on "How it works", but it's  as easy and simple like you were debugging and browsing the source code locally - step through, set breakpoints, inspect variables, etc.

Here are few links to know more about this feature.

• Making .NET Framework source available to developers
• Channel 9 Video, more details on Reference Source
• Releasing the Source Code for the .NET Framework Libraries
• Hanselminutes Podcast 83 - Microsoft to release .NET Framework Libraries Source

I'm really excited and just can't wait to get my hand on it. (:-P)

A day back Microsoft announced Silverlight 1.0 final release for Mac and Windows. A cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the web.

Some of its features include:

• Built-in codec support for playing VC-1 and WMV video, and MP3 and WMA audio within a browser.  The VC-1 codec is a big step forward for incorporating media within a web experience - since it supports very efficiently playing high-quality, high definition video in the browser.  It is a standards-based media format that is implemented in all HD-DVD and Blueray DVD players, and is supported by hundreds of millions of mobile devices, XBOX 360s, PlayStation 3s, and Windows Media Centers (enabling you to encode content once and run it on all of these devices + Silverlight unmodified).  It enables you to use a huge library of existing video content and provides access to the broad ecosystem of existing Windows Media tools, components, vendors and hardware. 

• Silverlight supports the ability to progressively download and play media content from any web-server.  You can point Silverlight at any URL containing video/audio media content, and it will download it and enable you to play it within the browser.  No special server software is required, and Silverlight can work with any web-server (including Apache on Linux).  Microsoft will also be releasing an IIS 7.0 media pack that enables rich bandwidth throttling features that you can enable on your web-server for free.

• Silverlight also optionally supports built-in media streaming.  This enables you to use a streaming server like Windows Media Server on the backend to efficiently stream video/audio (note: Windows Media Server is a free product that runs on Windows Server).  Streaming brings some significant benefits in that: 1) it can improve the end-user's experience when they seek around in a large video stream, and 2) it can dramatically lower your bandwidth costs. 

• Silverlight enables you to create rich UI and animations, and blend vector graphics with HTML to create compelling content experiences.  It supports a Javascript programming model to develop these.  One benefit of this is that it makes it really easy to integrate these experiences within AJAX web-pages (since you can write Javascript code to update both the HTML and XAML elements together). 

• Silverlight makes it easy to build rich video player interactive experiences.  You can blend together its media capabilities with the vector graphic support to create any type of media playing experience you want.  Silverlight includes the ability to "go full screen" to create a completely immersive experience, as well as to overlay menus/content/controls/text directly on top of running video content (allowing you to enable DVD like experiences).  Silverlight also provides the ability to resize running video on the fly without requiring the video stream to be stopped or restarted.

Silverlight for Linux

Microsoft also announced Silverlight support on Linux and its partnership with Novell to provide a great Silverlight implementation for Linux.  Microsoft will be delivering Silverlight Media Codecs for Linux, and Novell will be building a 100% compatible Silverlight runtime implementation called "Moonlight".

Many of you might be thinking, what's this Nokia N95 Ad catch line doing up here. Now, all that I can say is, the new Visual Studio 2008 is not just yet another release, its pretty much more than that.

There has been huge number of improvements in the latest Visual Studio and covering up each and everyone is beyond the scope of this post. So I'll be pointing out key objects.

• Multi-Targeting Support.
• Better AJAX and Javascript Support.
• Rich HTML/CSS WYSIWYG Designer. 
• Significantly Improved Data Support

Multi-Targeting Support - Few weeks back Scott Guthrie blogged about this amazing new feature. One of the big changes that you are going to experience starting from VS 2008 release is to support what is call "Multi-Targeting" - which means that Visual Studio will now support targeting multiple versions of the .NET Framework, and developers will be able to start taking advantage of the new features Visual Studio provides without having to always upgrade their existing projects and deployed applications to use a new version of the .NET Framework library.

Better AJAX and JavaScript Support - As all might know how frustrating it was by manually typing Javascript before, you are going to be in for a pleasant treat with "Orcas".  Visual Studio now provides full Javascript Intellisense completion in .ASPX files, .HTM files, as well as in external .JS files.  It delivers Intellisense for vanilla Javascript code, as well as provides rich support for the new ASP.NET AJAX client Javascript framework and Javascript code built with it.

Rich HTML/CSS WYSIWYG Designer

• Split View Support (the ability to have both HTML Source and WYSIWYG design open simultaneously)
• Extremely rich CSS support (CSS property window, CSS inheritance viewer, CSS preview, and CSS manager)
• Dramatically improved view switching performance (moving from source->html design mode is now nearly instantaneous)
• Support for control designers within source view (property builders, event wire-up and wizards now work in source view)
• Richer ruler and layout support (better yet, values can be automatically stored in external CSS files)
• Designer support for nested master pages

Significantly Improved Data Support - VS2008 will include support for LINQ - which makes data access with .NET radically better by making the concept of querying a first class programming concept.

Wish to try Visual Studio 2008 Beta1?

Scott announced some great news...

A few points to note about this release.

• This is the final release on an ASP.NET 1.1 codebase. No bugs will be fixed unless this release kills a kitten.
  • NOTE: To be clear, even though this is compiled under ASP.NET 1.1, it runs GREAT under .NET 2.0 as is. Just follow the comments in the web.config to change a few settings.
• The next release will literally be in a week or so, it will be called DasBlog 2.0 and will be compiled under .NET 2.0 and have changes to support Medium Trust environments.
  • This will allow folks downloading the source to compile DasBlog happily with VS 2005 or Orcas, or just MSBuild.
• We'll announce a one year roadmap with our plan to move towards .NET 3.5 as well as a new release every 60 days.
• We will very likely move to a location that is not SourceForge.
• We'll have a visual refresh of the main project page as well as some consolidation, but for now:
  • DasBlog.Info - For DasBlog information.
  • DasBlog.us - For "us," the DasBlog forums
  • DasBlog Mailing Lists - Subscribe to either the Developer's list, or the Checkin's List to see what's going on.

UPDATE: Alexander Groß has the definitive guide on How To Secure Your dasBlog Installation.

In this release we've fixed some and added some:

• Fixed a metric buttload of bugs
• Taken in more patches from the public than any other release (Thanks public!)
• Category and Home Page Paging Macros
• LiveComment Preview (thanks SubText!)
• Emailed Daily Activity Reports
• Windows Live Writer Custom Integration
• Support for Akismet Comment Spam Support
  • Go get a WordPress account, without a blog, and use the API key they'll send you.
• Optionally show comments on the Permalink Page
• Even more performance gains (4x+) in the Macro engine
• New Internationalized Languages, including Swedish (Thanks Per Salmi!)
  • This brings our total supported language count up to 15! Although we can ALWAYS use more, and we really need double-checkers and updaters to put in localized strings for some of the new features!
• Support for Blogging directly from Word 2007
• Many fixes in our Blogger API and MetaWebLog API support
• Better detection of referrals from Search Engines
• CSS fixes and additions like highlighting of the Blog Author's comments
  • Make the comment email address match the email address in sitesecurity.config for this feature.
• DHTML Timeline of Posts from the MIT Simile project
• Support for SMTP Servers like Gmail for notifications
• New themes
• Support for THREE Rich Editors - FreeTextBox, FCKEditor and TinyMCE (in DasBlog Contrib, see the source)

Thanks to the DasBlog team and the active folks on the Developer List (in no particular order)....

Omar Shahine, Clemens Vasters, Tom Watts, Ken Hughes, Paul Van Brenk, John Forsythe, Nick Schweitzer, Kenneth Lefebvre, Ben Scheirman, Tim Sherrill, Alexander Gross, James Snape, Raymond Llewellyn, Tony Bunce, Josh Flanagan, Aaron Fischer, Anthony Bouch, Ayende Rahien, Ben Taylor, George V. Reilly, Greg Hughes, Mike Schinkel, Marc Mercuri, Rajiv Popat, Tim Sherrill

...and the many patch contributors!

If in case you have missed the news or didn't get it as yet then WPF/E is now called Silverlight. Yeah! Its kinda a kewl name.

Few weeks back Microsoft at MIX07 made a number of announcements and showed off Silverlight. Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform run-time that enables media and interactive content and application scenarios or say its a browser independent version of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Silverlight currently supports IE6, IE7, Firefox and Safari browsers on both Windows and the Mac and is installed by a single click installation that takes only couple of seconds.

Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 Beta is now available for download including a Go Live license which means Microsoft customers can deploy their Silverlight applications.

Here couple of links that I'd recommend to check...

• ScottGu's Keynotes & Article about Silverlight
• MIX 2007 Silverlight Sessions
• "How Do I?" with Silverlight 1.0
• "How Do I?" with Silverlight 1.1
• Using Blend with Silverlight 1.0

Lately, I've been busy at my work and it’s been impossible to update my blog.

Now as you know this week has been a week full of new surprises, Microsoft shipped Visual Studio Codename "Orcus" Beta 1 and early this week Telligent Systems announced availability of Community Server 2007 with huge number of features and advancements. I'm really excited to get started with Community Server 2007.

Here are some links to know more about Community Server:
Download Community Server 2007
Community Server Documentation

Earlier this week Microsoft said that they planned to ship Visual Studio "Orcas" Beta 1 for download some time in April. On April 19, they made good on their word.

Microsoft posted Visual Studio Codename "Orcus" Beta 1 Professional Edition for download and accompanying Team System lifecycle-development system tools; the 3.5 release of the .Net Framework; and a first Community Technology Preview (CTP) pre-beta build of the Express version of Orcas for non-professional programmers and hobbyists.

Microsoft said earlier this week to expect a Beta 2 of Orcas later this year. The final version of Orcas may be released to manufacturing by the end of calendar 2007, but could slip into 2008, they said.

Here are some links to know more about the new Visual Studio Codename "Orcus":
Feature Specifications for Visual Studio and .NET Framework "Orcas"
Microsoft Pre-release Software Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Beta 1
Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Express Editions
My "First Look at Orcas" Presentation
Visual Studio "Orcas" Web Designer Integrated into Main
Conversation with Somasegar: Orcas Beta 1 and Beyond on Channel9

Few days back Scott Hanselman blogged and about  this amazing AJAX Timeline Widget developed by some guys at MIT.

Timeline is a DHTML-based AJAX widget for visualizing time-based events. Timeline can be used with zero software installation, server-side or client-side. And like Google Maps, you can populate Timeline with data by pointing it to an XML file.

How to create Timelines
Timeline Examples

         Anand has contributed a very clear and straightforward guide to bring Community Server, a powerful solution for online communities to audience having no prior experience or knowledge about system administration or ASP.NET. Community Server is a powerful and an award-winning solution for online communities built on Microsoft’s .NET Platform and is the most trusted solution for many companies including Microsoft, Dell, Conde Nast and Match.com.

        This book is a perfect guide for people who want to get started with their own online community website and manage it without having any prior experience. This book covers most of the fundamentals about Community Server, brief and detailed information about its features and a step-by-step guide to installation, administration, customization, and deployment of Community Server. So if you are looking for quick start guide to start off with your very own community website then this book is for you.

The ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Documentation is available for download and can now be easily downloaded for offline usage and Nikhil has updated his cool UpdateHistory Control for the final version of ASP.NET AJAX. This allows developers to add history entries to the browser's navigation stack selectively for some post-backs.

The package contains the following controls, which includes the initial release of a couple of new controls.

UpdateHistory

This is a non-visual control that allows you to add history entries to the browser's navigation stack selectively for some post-backs, and not for some others. This helps fix the back button to make it work, and allows you to implement Ajax patterns such as "logical navigation" and unique URLs.

StyledUpdatePanel

A simple derived UpdatePanel that adds CSS class semantics. A simple addition, but a useful feature, nevertheless, that didn't make the feature cut.

AnimatedUpdatePanel

Another derived UpdatePanel that displays new content using a variety of animations or effects: slides, wipes, cross-fades as well as a visual highlight. This allows you to implement the "visual notification" Ajax patterns such as the one second spotlight and one second mutation.

Downloads: Binaries, samples and source code | Video on Channel9

Finally the wait is over and ASP.NET AJAX final version is out. You can download it here.

ASP.NET AJAX 1.0

ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 delivers a rich client-side AJAX library that provides cross platform, cross browser support for a core JavaScript type-system, JSON-based network serialization stack, JavaScript component/control model, as well as common client JavaScript helper classes.  ASP.NET AJAX also delivers a rich server-side library that integrates AJAX functionality within ASP.NET, and enables developers to easily AJAX-enable existing ASP.NET 2.0 sites with minimal effort.

ASP.NET AJAX is available for free, and can be used with ASP.NET 2.0 and VS 2005.  It is a fully supported Microsoft product, and is backed by a standard 10 year Microsoft support license (with Microsoft Product Support available via phone 24 hours a day x 7 days a week).

ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit

In addition to the fully-supported ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 release, you can use the more than 30 free ASP.NET AJAX enabled controls available within the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit.  The control toolkit is a shared-source collaborative project built together by a team containing both Microsoft and non-Microsoft developers (visit the CodePlex Project to learn more, or volunteer to contribute).  All source for the controls is provided completely for free (with full re-use and modification rights).

The majority of controls within the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit leverage the "Control Extender" pattern that the core ASP.NET AJAX library introduces, and which delivers a super powerful way to easily enable specific AJAX scenarios on a site with minimal effort.

Check ScottGu's Blog for more details...

Visual Studio shipped the final release of VS 2005 SP1 yesterday.  It is available for immediate download in all 10 languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and both traditional and simplified Chinese).  You can download and install it here.

Yes, that right recently DiscountASP launched free IIS7 Beta hosting for all customers who are interested. This is a great way to try the new IIS7 features. You can get all the details at http://www.discountasp.net/sp_iis7hosting.aspx

[UPDATED] 04/03/07

Few weeks back I came up with another hosting company offering IIS7 beta.

I found this great article focusing on free utility Visual Studio Add-Ins.

TestDriven.NET
GhostDoc
Paster
CodeKeep
PInvoke.NET
VSWindowManager PowerToy
WSContractFirst
VSMouseBindings
CopySourceAsHTML
Cache Visualizer

Lately I've been having a lot of trouble with getting a large amount of spam on my blog via trackbacks and deleting them manually is really one big job. Finally I got my solution to the problem of trackback spam HttpModule based Generic Trackback Spam Blocker for ASP.NET.

HttpModule based Generic Trackback Spam Blocker for ASP.NET can be plugged into any ASP.NET web application, for example, into ASP.NET blogging engines such as .Text and dasBlog, and that you do not need to make any changes to the application itself. The solution itself is simple and uncomplicated and you can download the HttpModule and it's source too.

Check it out..

Few days back Scott announced launch of Chinese and German content section on the asp.net web-site. You can switch your language preference in the top-right of the site to filter the content of the www.asp.net site, or link to them directly here:

• Chinese
• French
• Spanish
• German
• English

Scott just announced the naming and roadmap for Atlas going forward. Read more...

This is real good news. MSDN library which used to be subscriber only downloads are now free.

You can download MSDN Library May 2006 Edition @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=373930CB-A3D7-4EA5-B421-DD6818DC7C41&displaylang=en

Updated content sets in the May 2006 Edition include:

• Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server
• SQL Server 2005
• Microsoft Knowledge Base
• Internet Information Server SDK
• Internet Security and Acceleration Server SDK
• And More...

Scott has posted few real good ASP.NET 2.0 localization resources in his blog. They give you a good walks-through about the features that has made localization in ASP.NET 2.0 much easier and how to build and localize an ASP.NET application from scratch.

Check it here

I came across an awesome XHTML validation module for ASP.NET 2.0. It will basically check all page output for XHTML compliance. You can try the live demo here.

I'm really happy to know from a recent post in ScottGu's blog about the upcoming ASP.NET updates and releases this month (april) it includes.

VS 2005 Web Application Project:
Atlas Refresh
Atlas Control Pack
CSS Control Adapters
RSS Tool-Kit Update
“How Do I” Videos

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/03/30/441465.aspx

Few days back I came across another cool AJAX Engine called AjaxMagic.Net. The cool & best thing about AjaxMagic.NET is you don't need to write any JavaScript code or any client side script just integrate it and program the regular ASP.NET way code behind or code inline. It’s very easy to integrate just three steps and it’s done. AjaxMagic.Net is free & open-source Ajax engine available for both the .NET frameworks 1.1 as well as 2.0. You can download it here http://www.magicajax.net/Default.aspx/tabindex/1/tabid/29

AjaxMagic.Net article on codeproject.com
http://www.codeproject.com/ajax/magicajax.asp

I came across a real good post on ASP.NET 2.0 in this post you will find list of articles & resources on asp.net 2.0 mainly on membership, role, form authentication, security, etc all under one post.

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/02/24/438953.aspx

Attend 3 webcasts and get a bunch of great free stuff including VS2005, a book, hosting and more.

http://www.learn2asp.net