Web project package and deployment targets files are written with extensibility in mind.  User can easily extend a property to include more functionalities in their package by using msbuild targets and properties.  If we check the Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets file under “%Program Files%\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web\”, we can see the following, which means if file $(WebPublishPipelineProjectName).wpp.targets exists in the project directory, we’ll import it automatically when build package or publish. <!-- *************************************************************** --> <!-- To allow the Team build to have custom setting for the Web Application project without change the project file --> <!-- by default...

As you probably heard the Visual Studio 2010 RC is currently available for MSDN subscribers! You can download it from here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx . General public release is slated for Wed. The Web Development Tools Team has setup a DL that we would like you to use to send us direct feedback on anything web development related for this RC. The DL is: vsweb@microsoft.com Once you have had a chance to use the product please send us feedback on your overall experience with our product. The more details you can provide the better. Also, feel free to shoot us a mail if: You encounter a bug or issue. You have general feedback, suggestions or ideas on our web tools product. If you do encounter a bug please send us a clear...

My team has been doing a little thinking recently about the “services” space.  Basically I have been trying to figure out how folks think about accessing data and business logic across tiers.  What are the ty pes of development projects are services the core thing they are building and for what types of development projects are services simply pluming for getting the job done? I’d love to have you folks chime into this conversation.   For starters, I have posted a very simple\quick survey.    Please take 30 secs and fill it out . What statement best describes the type of work you typically do? (check all that apply) 1 - I write applications that happen to span across multiple tiers. My code runs on the web...

[In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu ] This afternoon we made available the VS 2010 and .NET 4 release candidates.  You can find download links here . Right now the downloads are available only to MSDN subscribers.  Starting Wednesday (Feb 10th) everyone will be able to download them (regardless of whether you are a MSDN subscriber or not). Background on the Release Candidate I blogged about us deciding to ship a public VS 2010 release candidate last December.  The primary motivation behind releasing a public RC was to ensure that we could get broad testing and feedback on the performance and stability work we’ve been doing since the last...

[In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu ] A few people have emailed me recently asking about the availability of a Visual Studio –vsdoc intellisense hint file for jQuery 1.4.1.  I blogged about –vsdoc files in the past – they provide additional intellisense help information for Visual Studio, and enable you to get a richer intellisense experience with dynamic Javascript libraries.  If you are using VS 2008 SP1 you’ll want to download and install this patch in order to have VS 2008 automatically use –vsdoc files with intellisense.  VS 2010 has support for –vsdoc files built-in. jQuery 1.4.1 –vsdoc download The good news is that you can download...

A few years back I wrote a post on the size of the .NET Framework . There's historically been a lot of confusion on the site of the .NET Framework. If you search around on the web for ".NET Framework" or ".NET Framework Redistributable" you'll often get a link to a 200 meg download. That download is the complete offline thing that developers redistribute when they want to install the .NET Framework on any kind of machine without an internet connection. The .NET 3.5 Client Profile is more like 28 megs and the .NET 4 Client Profile is a looking smaller that than, in fact. Back then I made this website, SmallestDotNet.com to help out. It'll sniff your browser's UserAgent and tell you want version of .NET you...

I get many (MANY) email from customers who are struggle to answer specific technical problems. As time permits I’m going to start answering them here, I recently received an email from a developer building an application using the Ajax Control Toolkit and he needed his page to contain an Accordion Control in which all Panes were CLOSED when the page was initially loaded. Like this …… The Accordion Control in the earliest versions of the Ajax Control Toolkit lacked this ability but now it’s pretty easy. By default, the Accordion Control requires one of it’s contained Panes must be open at all times. So, there are two things we need to do in our Accordion Control configuration. Configure the control so that it does NOT require at least one open...

We finished generating a new VSDoc for the latest update of jQuery. You can download it from the jQuery Downloads page . A refresher on how to use the file can be found here or here . Happy coding! Jeff King Program Manager Visual Studio Web Tools Read More...

[ In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu ] This is the fifteenth in a series of blog posts I’m doing on the upcoming VS 2010 and .NET 4 release.  Today’s post covers a nice addition to ASP.NET and Windows Forms with .NET 4 - built-in charting control support. ASP.NET and Windows Forms Charting Controls A little over 14 months ago I blogged about how Microsoft was making available a free download of charting controls for both ASP.NET 3.5 and Windows Forms 3.5.  You can download and use these runtime controls for free within your web and client applications today.  You can also download VS 2008 tooling support for them.  They provide a rich...

The stars at night, are big and bright – clap clap clap clap – deep in the heart of Texas ! Hold onto your ten gallon hats, I’m visiting Texas for the first time! I’m very excited to visit the second largest state in the union. ;) The purpose of my trip is to meet with some developers at Dell doing interesting things and to give a talk there as well. But since I’ve heard such good things about the vibrant tech community in Austin, I am trying to make the most of my short trip. On Thursday, February 25, I’ll be speaking at Austin .NET User Group meeting at 5:30 PM CST ( Location TBD, I’ll post it here when I find out or follow @ehexter on Twitter ) . So be sure to come by and say hello. I’m also going to visit my good friends at Headspring as...