During MIX11 this week, Pablo Castro, Software Architect in the Data and Modeling Group at Microsoft, gave a talk named "OData Roadmap: Services Powering Next Generation Experiences".
Pablo gave demos of what's cooking for OData and what to expect over the coming months.
One thing that he demonstrated was extensibility with Shared Vocabularies. This allows tools and applications to offer a richer experience through annotations on OData feeds.
Pablo used Sesame Data Browser
as an example of how Shared Vocabularies can be used. With annotations
on the MIX11 Speakers and Sessions feeds, Sesame is able to display visit cards (VCards) for speakers and a calendar view containing sessions.
I invite you to watch the video recording on the session's page. The demo starts at 0:52:34.
- Annotations
- Calendar view
- VCard view
Vocabularies for OData were introduced on the OData blog. The current stage is exploratory and implementation is open for discussion in the OData mailing list.
Note: this feature is not available in the currently public version of Sesame Data Browser (1.0.7).
Cross-posted from http://sesamedatabrowser.wordpress.com
Some time ago I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Microsoft and Telerik about Sesame. The results are two case studies.
I was impressed by the job done by the interviewers and the editors.
The first case study covers Sesame Data Browser's support for OData and Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket - No doubt... that's a Microsoft product name. It was called Dallas previously. I just call it Azure DataMarket.
The second case study is about how the Telerik RadControls for Silverlight product was useful for creating Sesame Data Browser.
Sesame Data Browser has just been improved with new features.
Here is what you get this time:
- Most recently used connections remembered
- Support for videos
- Complex types are not displayed by default any longer
- Ability to use with no Internet connection
- UserVoice forum for feedback
- Additional sample services suggested
- Improvements for Azure DataMarket, née Dallas
- Bug fixes and small improvements, as usual
Let's focus on the main improvements:
Most recently used connections remembered
You no longer have to enter the same addresses again and again.
Sesame Data Browser will now remember the addresses you used and suggest
them to you the next time you want to open a connection.
The authentication settings are restored for each address you reopen.
Hint: pressing the Enter key will make re-opening a connection even faster.
Support for videos
Until now, Sesame offered support for pictures, but not for videos.
I'm pleased to announce that videos can now be displayed right inside
Sesame.
You can give this a try with the INETA Live service
(http://live.ineta.org/InetaLiveService.svc/), for example. If you open
the LiveVideos feed and click on the "View Video" button for a video,
that video will start playing.
Changes for complex types
Complex types are not displayed by default any longer. A click on a button is now required.
Displaying all complex types immediately consumed to many resources.
If you want to see this change in action, open the Netflix service
and select the Titles feed. You will see a View button for the BoxArt,
Instant, Dvd and BluRay columns. Clicking on this button reveals the
content of the cells.
Ability to use with no Internet connection
Previously, Sesame Data Browser wouldn't work with no Internet
connection because it loaded the OData support from a dedicated package
from metaSapiens.com each time. This package is now embedded in the main
package, so no additional loading is required when Sesame Data Browser
is installed on the desktop.
Of course, this is useful only when you browse local services with no dependencies on remote services or data.
UserVoice forum for feedback
Finally, because your feedback is important for the future of Sesame, you can now use a UserVoice forum to suggest improvements and to report issues.
This feedback forum is also available from the Sesame Data Browser preview page via the orange Feedback button.
Please try the new version now and let us all know what you think.
Cross-posted from http://sesamedatabrowser.wordpress.com
My new project reached the beta stage a few weeks ago. The first version of Tuneo Events is a Facebook application that allows you to easily schedule events with friends.
Tuneo Events is already used in more than 20 countries. I invite you to use the application and to leave us your feedback.
You can find all about Tuneo and Tuneo Events using the following links:
Tuneo Events is built with ASP.NET and the Facebook C# SDK. Feel free to contact me if you need help to create your own Facebook application.
The slides and the source code for the session I gave at the Scandinavian Developer Conference today are available:
This presentation is based on my article How to detect and avoid memory and resources leaks in .NET applications. You'll find more information and resources in this article.
The French version of this presentation with Yann Schwartz is still available.
I'll take this opportunity to thank the Iptor team for organizing this event, for inviting me as a speaker, and for the warm welcome we received here in Gothemburg/Göteborg!
I just received an email from Microsoft telling me that my MVP status has been renewed :-)
I'm an MVP since 2004!
I'm still very busy this year and I don't see this change soon. I already have a lot of things on my roadmap.
It will start with a session at SDC 2011 next week and a new release of Sesame Data Browser soon.