Guru Stop : News

jQuery for Absolute Beginners: The Complete Video Series

Mohamed Meligy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:38:25 GMT

A great VIDEO series on all the nice effects (and functionality) you can achieve with jQuery JavaScript library for those who know NOTHING about it.

jQuery is a very powerful library. One of the first things I do when creating new project is to include the library in it. Microsoft is going to include it by default in ASP.NET web projects (All ASP.Net projects, not just MVC) starting Visual Studio 2010.

Here are some few examples of what you can do with it (VIDEO):

http://net.tutsplus.com/articles/web-roundups/jquery-for-absolute-beginners-video-series/?awesm=fbshare.me_EIez#

Have fun jQuerying…

Technorati Tags: jQuery,Videos,Screencasts,Tutorial

Microsoft’s Oxite Successor, Orchard, A CMS “Platform”

Mohamed Meligy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:22:46 GMT

If you heard about Microsoft Oxite CMS, this is the new one, created as a different project to avoid previous developer comments.:

From Press:

Microsoft's open-source CMS platform is (re)born | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=4506

Project Homepage:

http://orchard.codeplex.com

Quote From Press:

The guesses (by me and others) look like they were on target. The “Orchard Project,” which is getting its debut on November 11 at Tech Ed Europe is, indeed, the successor to the Microsoft Oxite content-management system (CMS).

Microsoft made available the first the open-source Oxite CMS bits at the end of 2008. Like Oxite, Orchard will be a free, open-source CMS platform — plus a set of shared components for building ASP.Net applications and extensions. The Orchard code is licensed under an OSI-approved New BSD license.

From the Orchard page on the Microsoft CodePlex code-repository site:

“(T)his core (Orchard) team will use their experience working with ASP.NET and Oxite to deliver a fundamentally new architecture that is the Orchard CMS. We have deliberately chosen to start development, with the guidance and contribution from the community. Over time we expect this project to become a viable successor to Oxite v1 and we know that providing a migration path for users of that existing application will be a high priority.”

The Orchard team includes various ASP.Net developers; two of the principal developers of Oxite, Erik Porter and Nathan Heskew; and Louis DeJardin, the creator of the SparkViewEngine for Model View Controller (MVC).

Despite its origins and team, Microsoft officials are claiming that Orchard is “not a Microsoft project,” according to the Orchard Web page. From the CodePlex page:

“Some of the initial (Orchard) source code and specs are available for review and comment but there is no downloadable release at this time. We encourage interested developers to check out the source code on this site and get involved with the project in these early stages.”

There is no public timetable (so far) for when a test build of Orchard will be out or when a final version will be released.

(Thanks to @kellabyte for the Orchard pointer, via Twitter.)

Update: As one reader (thanks, @karlseguin) noted, Oxite was anything but a big hit with developers, including many of those in Microsoft’s own .Net community. There have been many complaints about Oxite, from the development process, to the scope of the project, to the quality of the code and the way Microsoft explained the concept/product. Perhaps that’s one reason why Microsoft is starting over with a new codename and claiming this is not a Microsoft project…

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Quote From CodePlex Project Page:

About The Orchard Project

Orchard is a free, open source, community-focused project aimed at delivering applications and reusable components on the ASP.NET platform. It will create shared components for building ASP.NET applications and extensions, and specific applications that leverage these components to meet the needs of end-users, scripters, and developers. Additionally, we seek to create partnerships with existing application authors to help them achieve their goals. Orchard is licensed under a New BSD license, which is approved by the OSI.
The intended output of the Orchard project is three-fold:

· Individual .NET-based applications that appeal to end-users , scripters, and developers

· A set of re-usable components that makes it easy to build such applications

· A vibrant community to help define these applications and extensions

In the near term, the Orchard project is focused on delivering a .NET-based CMS application that will allow users to rapidly create content-driven Websites, and an extensibility framework that will allow developers and customizers to provide additional functionality through extensions and themes.

Project Status

Orchard is currently in the initial stage of development. We have chosen to launch the project at this stage in order to invite early participation by the developer community in shaping the project’s direction, and so that we can publicly validate our designs and development approach. Some of the initial source code and specs are available for review and comment but there is no downloadable release at this time. We encourage interested developers to check out the source code on this site and get involved with the project in these early stages.

· Feature roadmap

· Developer information

· Docs and designs/specs

About The Team

The Orchard team is a small group of developers at Microsoft who are passionate about delivering open source solutions on .NET technology. This team is releasing the project on its own; Orchard is not a Microsoft project. The team is primarily composed of ASP.NET developers and has recently grown with the addition of two of the principal developers on Oxite, Erik Porter and Nathan Heskew, as well as Louis DeJardin, a long-time ASP.NET developer, community software advocate, and creator of the SparkViewEngine for MVC.
Together this core team will use their experience working with ASP.NET and Oxite to deliver a fundamentally new architecture that is the Orchard CMS. We have deliberately chosen to start development, with the guidance and contribution from the community. Over time we expect this project to become a viable successor to Oxite v1 and we know that providing a migration path for users of that existing application will be a high priority.
We are working to define our contribution model, so stay tuned for information about how you can contribute and join the project team.

· About us

· Contact us

How To Get Involved

We hope that by engaging with the community in the very early stages of the project that we will be able to shape Orchard into a valuable set of tools and applications for the community. The Orchard team is committed to open community participation and is in the process of working through the details to be able to accept code contributions. We encourage community participation at all levels from general project feedback to bug fixes and patches.

· Check out the code

· Check out the docs

· Find and file a bug

· Propose a feature idea

· Send us feedback

Consider the opportunities…

Technorati Tags: Microsoft News,Microsoft,CMS,ASP.NET,News,Open Source,OSS

Microsoft Releases New Facebook SDK Version (v 3.0)

Mohamed Meligy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:59:47 GMT

Microsoft has released a new Facebook SDK Version 3.0 (other than their old not-so-great one) and it looks to have not just updated APIs but also wide range of features supported in many application types.

Quoting a related blog post from c|net “The web services report” blog:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13515_3-10393823-26.html

Microsoft on Monday released a software development kit for Facebook that allows developers to create Facebook applications for Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation. This should expand the reach of Facebook in third-party applications as well as make Silverlight and WPF more viable platforms for developers looking to build social applications.

A screenshot showing off the NewsFeed control for WPF.

(Credit: The Silverlight Team Blog)

The SDK comes complete with samples and tools to develop Facebook applications in ASP.NET, Silverlight, WPF, and WinForms. It also features the source code for the API, components, controls, and samples.

There are currently other libraries available that allow Facebook developers to develop with other technologies, such as JavaScript, PHP, ActionScript, and the iPhone. There are a variety of others as well, which can be seen here, but these are the ones that Facebook officially provides support for.

Microsoft, as you may remember, invested $240 million in Facebook back in October 2007. Many called this move more of a strategic play to keep Google and Yahoo from getting a stake in the company. The release of this SDK is a part of Facebook and Microsoft's ongoing partnership.

If you're interested in taking a look, you can download the SDK here.

Check out the SDK Overview at:

www.microsoft.com/facebooksdk

Quoting from homepage:

The toolkit is comprised of the following core assemblies:

Facebook.dll: This is the main assembly that will be used by all applications. This has all the logic to handle communication with the Facebook application. This assembly also has specific support of XAML applications (Silverlight and WPF) to enhance the Facebook platform to make databinding and data caching easier.

Facebook.Silverlight.dll: This is the Silverlight version of the main assembly that will be used by all Silverlight applications. This has all the logic to handle communication with the Facebook application. This assembly also has specific support of XAML applications to enhance the Facebook platform to make databinding and data caching easier. The REST API in this assembly is Asynchronous only.

Facebook.Web.dll: This assembly should be used by Canvas applications. The main functionality supported in this assembly is to encapsulate the handshake between the Facebook application and a canvas application (both FBML and IFrame)

Facebook.Web.Mvc.dll: Provide a support building canvas applications using ASP.NET MVC. Separated from Facebook.Web.dll to avoid all developers from needing to install the MVC bits.

Facebook.Winforms.dll: This assembly provides support for writing Facebook applications using Winform technology. This provides a Component that wraps the API to make it easier to use from Winforms. This also contains some user controls to help display Facebook data easily.

To get started we recommend you download the SDK and refer to the "How to" guides and the Facebook Developer Wiki to get familiar with these new resources.

Download the SDK.

Refer to the detailed instructions on the Facebook Developer Wiki. Here are some important links to use as a starting point.

Anatomy_of_a_Facebook_App

Platform_Core_Components

How-to_Guides

Creating_a_Platform_Application

Facebook SDK Version 3.0 Notes

ASP.NET Development

Canvas Development

Facebook Connect

FBML Canvas

IFrame Canvas

Overview of ASP.NET Development

ToolKit Content Folder

Facebook Connect

FBML Canvas

IFrame Canvas

Facebook Platform

Facebook Platform

REST API

Other Platforms

Silverlight

WinForm

WPF

Have fun,

Technorati Tags: Facebook,Microsoft,Microsoft News,Developers,Applications,SDK

Arabic SharePoint Resources and Screencasts

Mohamed Meligy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:29:00 GMT

Some cool guys (all working in ITWorx I guess, one of the biggest Egyptian Software houses) have created a new website:

http://www.sharepoint4arabs.com

The website, as the name implies, is dedicated for ARABIC resources related to SharePoint.

It originally contained the technical blogs of the site founders (Founders' Blogs) which are very useful for posts about SharePoint, then very recently they have also lunched Screencasts (Also in Arabic) that start from the very beginning until further advanced stuff.

I think you’ll enjoy them!

I hope you like them,

Technorati Tags: Arabic,MOSS,SharePoint,Video,Videos,Screencasts,SharePoint4Arabs,Microsoft,News,Microsoft News

[Link List]Microsoft Application Architecture Guide, 2nd Edition is now complete (Ebook, Print)

Mohamed Meligy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:03:55 GMT

Microsoft has released a final version of its book “Microsoft Application Architecture Guide, 2nd Edition”.

The book is described as:

This guide is available online here in the MSDN Library and will be available in the Fall of 2009 as a Microsoft Press book, ISBN# 9780735627109, that you can purchase through local and online booksellers.

The guide is intended to help developers and solution architects design and build effective, high quality applications using the Microsoft platform and the .NET Framework more quickly and with less risk; it provides guidance for using architecture principles, design principles, and patterns that are tried and trusted. The guidance is presented in sections that correspond to major architecture and design focus points. It is designed to be used as a reference resource or to be read from beginning to end.

The guide helps you to:

Understand the underlying architecture and design principles and patterns for developing successful solutions on the Microsoft platform and the .NET Framework.

Identify appropriate strategies and design patterns that will help you design your solution's layers, components, and services.

Identify and address the key engineering decision points for your solution.

Identify and address the key quality attributes and crosscutting concerns for your solution.

Create a candidate baseline architecture for your solution.

Choose the right technologies for your solution.

Identify patterns & practices solution assets and further guidance that will help you to implement your solution.

More information about the book in this blog post:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jmeier/archive/2009/11/05/now-available-patterns-practices-application-architecture-book.aspx

The book is:

Available for online reading at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd673617.aspx

Available for free download (PDF Format) at:

http://www.codeplex.com/AppArchGuide/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=20586

Available in print (to buy hard copy) from Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft%C2%AE-Application-Architecture-Patterns-Practices/dp/073562710X

Have fun reading,

Technorati Tags: book,ebook,Microsoft,Architecture,P&P,Patterns,Best Practices,codeplex,news

On the Arrival of Mr. Adam Mohamed Meligy…

Mohamed Meligy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:29:28 GMT

Today (technically yesterday, since it’s 3:26 AM already while I’m starting this), Mr. Adam Mohamed Meligy finally arrived home, after staying 9.5 days in nursery. This –dear audience- given Mr. Adam arrived to our world only in October 5, 2009, a date that the entire world will (sooner or later) always remember!

Mr. Adam is now taking a personal cover, pretending to be a normal baby, while he is pretty professional, he cannot sometimes hide his special natures, being relatively quiet compared to normal babies, and highly responsive to touches and (believe it or not) spoken notes/requests.

These are things that the world will remember once Mr. Adam finishes his first big achievement in the field he will take up for living (God Willing). Some other small details matter more to the family, both his grandparents –for example- note him as their first grandchild. I –personally- recognize him as my extra chance in life! If I fail to manage to be another Anders Hejlsberg/Martin Fowler, Scott Guthrie/Brad Abrams, or Scott Hanselman/Rob Conery/Phil Haack (still trying), Mr. Adam has a bigger chance; else wise, he’ll be digging his road as a notable figure in some different field (God Willing).

I feel that I was blessed with not just two more legs and hands, one more tongue and a couple of stronger eyes, extra more years to live, but also with an extra brain and superpowers. You can always upgrade your thinking methodologies, even reinvent the way you think completely, but you are always limited to your physical brain constraints that -although can be always stretched more and more- have their limits. Now I have an extra brain that can do pair thinking with me and reinvent the way things happen by the experiences he will be having on his own (God Willing).

So, this is to log that Mr. Adam (temporarily until he decides to replace that with “Eng.”, “Dr.”, and/or “Prof.”) has just finished implementing phase zero, coming to existence!

Few More Facts About Mr. Adam’s Arrival

The exact time of arrival to world is October 5, 2009, 10:30 AM Abu Dhabi Time, that’s 8:30 AM Cairo Local Time (CLT), 6:30 GMT.
Although born in Kornesh Hospital, Abu Dhabi, UAE, Mr. Adam holds the Egyptian nationality, just like his parents. He also inherits the Islam religion, which he will be (God Willing) discussed about as soon as starts making conversations, so that he practices it for the sake of belief, not inheritance!
Mr. Adam reached our world after hiding in a secret cafe for slightly less than 35 weeks, reaching our world at the weight of 2.25 Kg.
Mr. Adam has his email, Facebook and twitter accounts created on the day of arrival and moderated by parents. Soon (God Willing) he will be running those himself, and creating his own LinkedIn account on his own once he finishes his first school and starts a professional expert career simultaneously.
Mr. Adam has come with the message to make the world a a better place to live for humans, not to dominate the entire world ;-).
Since arrival, the protocol requires using the prefix “Mr.” when mentioning Mr. Adam’s name in conversations. Only tweets/categories, etc… are allowed exceptions due to technical/official nature. This prefix is temporary as per the relevant note above.

On behalf of the family, I congratulate the world on having Mr. Adam with us. I’ll be following up with his significant news until he starts blogging (hopefully soon, God Willing).

Technorati Tags: Adam Mohamed Meligy,Adam Meligy,Meligy,Egypt,Abu dhabi,AbuDhabi,UAE,World News,World,birth,World Peace,Science,IT,Family,Achievements

I changed my twitter username to @Meligy

Mohamed Meligy — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 05:47:53 GMT

Yesterday I changed my twitter username from @Mohamed_Meligy to just @Meligy.

Why?

I have been thinking about this step for a long time, as my tweets are relatively long, and when I want to to allow people to re-tweet. With my old username, I used to have to write at max 120 characters per tweet to allow re-tweet (leaving 20 characters out of the real 140 characters limit to “RT @Mohamed_Meligy: ”). With my new twitter username I can use up to 128 characters (leaving 12 for “RT @Meligy: ”). I know I ‘m a person who can make nice use of those 8 extra characters, but is this worth doing? For sometime I thought: No.

My old username has some nice features. First, it includes my full name, so, that’s nice for people who don’t know me very well. Second, it has been around for over a year and over ~2390 tweets! That’s something!! People got used to using this twitter username when replying to me (mentioning me) and I did my best to put it everywhere in my Google and Facebook profile and blog and everywhere, and also used it with many twitter applications that require entering username/password.

Few days ago, one of my friends brought up the topic and encouraged me to do the change. I tweeted asking my friends whether they would promote the change, and encouraged me even more, so, I switched twitter username to @Meligy.

How

Some friends may wonder, how did I change my twitter username and still kept all my previous followers and reserved the old username also still on twitter. What part of it is a feature of twitter, and what part is something I did?

So, here is the story:

I created a new twitter account with username @Meligy, and same password.
I changed the @Meligy username to @Mohamed_Meligy2.
In another browser I went to my old @Mohamed_Meligy account, changed username to @Meligy. Now I have @Meligy and @Mohamed_Meligy2.
I noticed When I go to twitter replies in twitter website, it shows all replies that came to me, even those including @Mohamed_Meligy. This is good.
The bad part is that when I click on @Mohamed_Meligy link in those replies/mentions, it goes to @Mohamed_Meligy not @Meligy.
I changed the new account @Mohamed_Meligy2 back to @Mohamed_Meligy.
I deleted the old @Mohamed_Meligy account from tweetdeck, and added both @Mohamed_Meligy and @Meligy (as default).
I couldn’t just add the @Meligy account even with same password in both – I had to delete the old one.
I used tweetdeck to tweet from both accounts “Changed twitter username from @Mohamed_Meligy to @Meligy. Followers needn't change anything except using @Meligy in future replies/mentions”.
I started trying to remember all the websites and applications I logged with the old twitter username and change it to @Meligy.
Having the same password on the other @Mohamed_Meligy account, I’ll be monitoring it for a while in case I forget some application or so.

Note that any link to previous tweets (in the format: twitter.com/{username}/status/{tweetID}) before changing username will still be broken.

Follow Me!

If you already followed me back with the old username, you should still be able to receive my updates.

If not, follow me on twitter via @Meligy.

Technorati Tags: twitter,Meligy,Mohamed Meligy,Mohamed_Meligy,MohamedMeligy,Mohamed.Meligy,Facebook,Google,FriendFeed,Personal

Google Chrome Frame: Use Chrome Inside IE

Mohamed Meligy — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:38:56 GMT

Some of you who use Firefox (FF) might know about a Firefox plug-in called “IE Tab” which allows you to view a page/tab using the Internet Explorer (IE) rendering engine INSIDE Firefox (so, if some page displays better in IE, you don’t have to leave FF and go open an IE window).

Now, Google is doing something similar, but the other way around!

Google has recently released “Google Chrome Frame”, a plug-in for IE that allows you to view a page/tab using the Google Browser “Google Chrome” rendering engine INSIDE Internet Explorer.

This is interesting in two ways, first, it may decrease IE problems with crashes and such, and second, that Google maybe later will drop support for IE rendering engine in its products (like Google Mail, Reader, Video, Youtube, etc..), so that you have to use Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome (or Google chrome Frame) to use these applications.

Interesting enough, this is the case already with one of Google’s new products, called Google Wave!

They say the reason is supporting IE6!! They did much effort to get it to work with it but it didn’t. Of course the Chrome Frame plug-in is supported under IE 6, so, is supposedly solves their problem!

Google Chrome Frame Homepage:

http://www.google.com/chromeframe

Listen to me talking about ORM in Arabic - DotNetArabi Podcast

Mohamed Meligy — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:28:00 GMT

Emad Ashi (@splashup on twitter) interviewed me in the 5th episode of his first Arabic podcast series DotNetArabi to talk about Object Relational Mapping in .NET in Arabic.

Podcast Page: Mohamed Meligy Talking about ORMs (MP3 Direct Download)

السلام عليكم

أصدقائي العرب ممن يتابعون هذه المدونة.. يسعدني أن أعلن عن أول حديث لي على الانترنت - و كذلك أول حديث لي على الانترنت بالعربية، عن الـ Object Relational Mappers – ORMs

شكرا جزيلا لـ “عماد العشي” (splashup@ على تويتر) على استضافته لي في موقع “دوت نت عربي DotNetArabi”، و هو موقع عربي يتضمن لقاءات صوتية مع العديد من المطورين في مجال الدوت نت، تماما على غرار DotNetRocks ، HanselMinutes و سواها، و هو في حد ذاته فخر لي أن أكون ضيفا للحلقة الخامسة في برنامج كهذا، خاصة عندما يكون ضيف أولى الحلقات هو عمر قعدان (omarq@ على تويتر).

الحلقة 5: محمد مليجي يتكلم عن الـ ORM (Object Relational Mapping)

وصف الحلقة من دوت نت عربي:

محمد مليجي تكلم عن الـ ORM (Object Relational Mapping) و هي برامج مساعدة تستطيع من خلالها نقل المعلومات و تحويلها من طبيعة قاعدة البيانات إلى طبيعة البرامج المبنية بأسلوب الـ Object Oriented. حلقة غنية بالتفاصيل و المعلومات القيمة جدا.

يمكنكم الاستماع للحلقة و متابعة تقاصيلها كاملة على صفحتها بالموقع
أو تحميل الحلقة برابط مباشر بصيغة MP3.
أو الاستماع إليها من خلال هذه الصفحة بالأسفل:

Listen to the episode now (in Arabic):

الشكر خاص جدا لعماد الذي أتى لي في وقت قل فيه اتصالي بمجتمع المطورين في مصر، و اقتصر نشاطي في مجتمع المطورين بصفة عامة على بعض المحاضرات خارج نطاق الالتزامات الرسمية في شركتي الحالية، و مشاركات قليلة في المنتديات و المجموعات البريدية خاصة ALT.NET و مدونتي هذه، (و هو ما يقل مع الوقت) و متابعة أخبار المجتمعات العربية على تويتر كـ Mohamed_Meligy@ و على Google Reader.

Related Links:

DotNetArabi Arabic Podcasts Website - Homepage (Arabic)
DotNetArabi Arabic Podcasts Website – Episodes Archive (Arabic)
DotNetArabi Episode 5: Mohamed Meligy Talking about ORMs – Homepage (Arabic)
DotNetArabi Episode 5: Mohamed Meligy Talking about ORMs – Direct Download (Arabic - MP3)
Emad Ashi – Host of DotNetArabi (Weblog – Twitter: @splashup)
Mohamed Meligy – Me! (Google Reader – Twitter: @Mohamed_Meligy)

Technorati Tags: DotNetArabi,ORM,ORMs,Net,.NET,DotNET,LinqToSQL,Linq-To-SQL,Linq2SQL,L2S,EntityFramework,Entity-Framework,Entity+Framework,EF,LLBLGen,NHibernate

Reading Arabic & Unicode Tweets in TweetDeck

Mohamed Meligy — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:53:18 GMT

The reason I’m writing this is because every other day I see someone twitter statuses like: “TweetDeck does not support Arabic”, “Cannot view Arabic tweets in TweetDeck” or similar notes, so that I can just guide people to this post rather than write the same tweet reply!

TweetDeck supports Arabic and other complex script languages. I guess any Unicode language. It’s just not enabled by default.

A picture is worth 2¹⁰ words. Here is what you need to enable it:

Yet, one thing I don’t understand is: why it’s not the default in TweetDeck ???

N.B.

If you wonder why I care so much; this is because I believe TweetDeck is the best twitter client ever.

Technorati Tags: Twitter,Unicode,TweetDeck,Arabic,Font

How to Change Your Firefox Search Provider to Microsoft Bing

Mohamed Meligy — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:09:00 GMT

Go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10434 ( Update: This is the only official provider made by Microsoft itself)
This is the URL I originally posted (from which the below screenshots come): ~~https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12205~~ - Of course you are recommended to go to the official URL above.
Check “Let me install this experimental add-on” and click “Add to FireFox”

Now the add-in is there.
In the search bar, click the little triangle at the left and choose Bing.
In your browser it may not the first item nor bold as in the pic here. Click “Manage Search Engines…”.
Click “Move Up” to have it the first item
If you have Google Toolbar, you need to check more settings:

Go to Google Settings. In the “Layout” tab, make sure to choose “Classic Toolbar Layout”. Save that.
In Firefox address bar, type:
about:config
without “http://” or anything, and click the button that appears then.
In the “Filter” field type: “browser.search.defaultenginename”
Double click the only result that will show, you get a message box where you should enter text. Replace the existing text “Google” with “Bing” instead, and click OK.
Close the window. Your default provider is set.

Have fun :-)

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Firefox,Bing,Live Search,Live,Google,Google Toolbar,Firefox Extensions

Quick Hint: www.bing.com is Live (Microsoft New Search/Decision Engine)

Mohamed Meligy — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:00:54 GMT

If you are not on Twitter, let me spread this by @bing:

Ladies and Gentlemen, www.bing.com is live. :) (rollouts will continue however to partners and other mkts, more to come) ^betsy

Bing, if you don’t know, is Microsoft’s new search engine, also known as “Decision Engine” since it has features that help answer what you are wondering about rather than just display links.

For those wondering about Live Search. I think I read somewhere that both search engines will remain there for a while, then Live will be brought out to Bing. Nothing to confirm yet though. In Bing homepage you read “Live Search is Evolving. Welcome to Bing”.

For quick video of what Bing can give to you, check this.

For an official introduction about what Bing is, check this.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Live,Live Search,Google,Search Engine,Bing,Twitter

See you all in dotNETwork May 09 Gathering in Egypt, Lesser known .NET Enterprise Patterns & Practices

Mohamed Meligy — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:19:00 GMT

IMPORTANT UPDATE

There was a sudden last-minutes issue with the transportation / flights configuration that prevented me from making it to Cairo. I’ll be unfortunately missing out this event. M. Smay my friend will be a great backup with all the additional details he has to provide about his session content as well as an open session for the convenience of all of you.

Sorry for missing out. I had to. I’m working with dotNETwork to re-organize my session as part of June 2009 gathering, but this is gonna be another story!

Most of you already know I have moved recently from Cairo to Abu Dhabi. What only a selected set of you are aware of, is that I am still having my heart all set for the developer community in Egypt and still communicating with many of them via Twitter; not only that developers in Abu Dhabi are not into spending time in gatherings or anything than doing work and surviving, but also because I have made the only long lasting and fulfilling friends relationships with the key persons that I see in the different communities, especially my old friends from Microsoft MDC and ArabTeam2000, Demo Day attendees (who still talk to me since 2007), and - of course – dotNETwork, admins, speakers, and participants (who are much more than just attendees).

Fridays City Stars 23rd of May 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM

This Saturday isA I’ll be giving a session that relates to one of my beloved topics in development. Here is the information of the session:

Session Title

Lesser known .NET Enterprise Patterns & Practices

Tag Line

Is your mind ready? Booting up journey in enterprise patterns & practices in .NET

Session Summary

Through an illustration and a thoughtful discussion we are going to see how to go with our applications to the next level, leveraging ease of maintenance, integration points, and scalability out of the box; showing sample enterprise patterns and best practices that are very popular in many development platforms but are rarely used or even known for typical .NET developers

The session will be like April’s session in Fridays City Stars, Nasr City. If you want to know what that is, this is because the Canadian University in Egypt has stopped all activities in Saturday temporarily for reducing cost; you know, the crisis!

Agenda, date and location

Lesser known .NET Enterprise Patterns & Practices
by Mohamed Meligy - Information Analyst, .NET Technologies – (Injazat Data Systems, Abu Dhabi)

A lap around Visual Studio 2010
by Mohamed Samy - Technical Architect (iSource Egypt)

Fridays City Stars 23rd of May 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM

Have you noticed something? Yes, my closest friend and one of the most lasting / oldest friend in this life, and in the field of course, Mohamed Samy, will be giving a session the same day. HE is such a true guru, and I fear everything ‘m going to say may look very pale compared to what he has to say about VS 2010.

By the way, the attendance will require you to only pay 19 EGP or so– for a sandwich or meal that YOU eat (they have discounts for attendees). This is the host requirement and dotNETwork has NOTHING to do with it. After all, the only available host is now a commercial place. If you can help dotNETwork host the sessions in a completely free place, please contact anyone from dotNETwork and help get that done. PLEASE.

Anyway, I think 20 EGP for something YOU get within the day is not very little but not much also. I saw guys paying the same to the cafe near the University when it was hosted there.

Please be there. I know everybody was too busy to do right publicity of this event, and I myself am writing this very shortly before the event day, but, I’ll not be able to come back to Egypt even every few months, so, this time is very rare for me. Please let me meet the most of you who can make it. This is a personal request, to my true friends. period

Ajax Control Toolkit New Release, HTML Editor, Combo Box, Color Picker

Mohamed Meligy — Thu, 14 May 2009 07:49:00 GMT

the AjaxControlToolkit has a new release, the release includes bug fixes and new HTMLEditor, ComboBox, ColorPicker controls/extenders.

HTML Editor

I liked the HTMLEditor control so much from first sight. Pretty lightweight and customizable. I still need to check whether it works fine inside UpdatePanel and whether it can be used with RequiredFieldValidator or so.

http://www.asp.net/AJAX/AjaxControlToolkit/Samples/HTMLEditor/HTMLEditor.aspx

Color Picker

The ColorPicjker is just an extender to TextBox control. This means a lot of opportunities and promises less problems with validators, etc... It’s a very nice one too.

http://www.asp.net/AJAX/AjaxControlToolkit/Samples/ColorPicker/ColorPicker.aspx

Combo Box

The ComboBox is a control that is like a DropDownList with auto complete except that the user can enter a new text that is NOT in the existing items. This is good or bad based on your sole use.

I did not like how it’s not well styled in the example page. This means it’s going to be headache to style in my sites as well, which is one of the biggest problems with AJAXToolkit in general.

http://www.asp.net/AJAX/AjaxControlToolkit/Samples/ComboBox/ComboBox.aspx

Technorati Tags: AJAX Toolkit,AJAXToolkit,AJAX Control Toolkit,AJAX Control Tool kit,AJAXControlToolkit,HTML Editor,HTMLEditor,WYSIWYG,WYSIWYG Editor,HTML WYSIWYG,Color Picker,ColorPicker,HTML Color Picker,HTML ColorPicker,ComboBox,Combo Box,HTML ComboBox,HTML Combo Box,Web Combo Box,Web ComboBox,News,Release

YQL – Yahoo Query Language

Mohamed Meligy — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:30:00 GMT

Just in case you missed the news, Yahoo has created it’s own query thingy. No, no LINQ provider, it’s a “query language”. Check it out!

http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/

Quote:

What is YQL?

Yahoo! makes a lot of structured data available to developers, primarily through its web services. These services require developers to locate the right URLs and documentation to access and query them which can result in a very fragmented experience. The YQL platform provides a single endpoint service that enables developers to query, filter and combine data across Yahoo! and beyond. YQL exposes a SQL-like SELECT syntax that is both familiar to developers and expressive enough for getting the right data. Through the SHOW and DESC commands we enable developers to discover the available data sources and structure without opening another web browser.

How Do I Get Started?

Check out the YQL Console.

Read how to access YQL from your application.

Get your Access Keys to sign your requests if you need them.

Usage limits

YQL has the following API usage restrictions:

Per application limit (identified by your Access Key):

100,000 calls per day.

Per IP limits:

/v1/public/* 1000 calls per hour

/v1/yql/* 10000 calls per hour

All rates are subject to change. In addition, you may also be subject to the underlying rate limits of other Yahoo and 3rd party web services.

Try the console Read Documentation Download PDF Documentation

Update:

You can also check this for more details.

Yes, I’m thinking about a LINQ provider to encapsulate this.

Happy YQLing ;)

Technorati Tags: Yahoo,YQL,LINQ,Web2.0,Web 2.0,Web2,Web 2,Yahoo Query Language,Query,Language,YDN

Guru Stop : News

jQuery for Absolute Beginners: The Complete Video Series

Microsoft’s Oxite Successor, Orchard, A CMS “Platform”

From Press:

Project Homepage:

Quote From Press:

Quote From CodePlex Project Page:

Microsoft Releases New Facebook SDK Version (v 3.0)

Check out the SDK Overview at:

www.microsoft.com/facebooksdk

ASP.NET Development

ToolKit Content Folder

Facebook Platform

Other Platforms

Arabic SharePoint Resources and Screencasts

[Link List]Microsoft Application Architecture Guide, 2nd Edition is now complete (Ebook, Print)

The book is:

On the Arrival of Mr. Adam Mohamed Meligy…

Few More Facts About Mr. Adam’s Arrival

On behalf of the family, I congratulate the world on having Mr. Adam with us. I’ll be following up with his significant news until he starts blogging (hopefully soon, God Willing).

I changed my twitter username to @Meligy

Why?

How

Follow Me!

Google Chrome Frame: Use Chrome Inside IE

Listen to me talking about ORM in Arabic - DotNetArabi Podcast

الحلقة 5: محمد مليجي يتكلم عن الـ ORM (Object Relational Mapping)

Reading Arabic & Unicode Tweets in TweetDeck

A picture is worth 210 words. Here is what you need to enable it:

Yet, one thing I don’t understand is: why it’s not the default in TweetDeck ???

How to Change Your Firefox Search Provider to Microsoft Bing

Quick Hint: www.bing.com is Live (Microsoft New Search/Decision Engine)

See you all in dotNETwork May 09 Gathering in Egypt, Lesser known .NET Enterprise Patterns & Practices

IMPORTANT UPDATE

Fridays City Stars 23rd of May 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM

Session Title

Lesser known .NET Enterprise Patterns & Practices

Tag Line

Session Summary

Agenda, date and location

Lesser known .NET Enterprise Patterns & Practices by Mohamed Meligy - Information Analyst, .NET Technologies – (Injazat Data Systems, Abu Dhabi)

A lap around Visual Studio 2010 by Mohamed Samy - Technical Architect (iSource Egypt)

Fridays City Stars 23rd of May 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM

Related Sites

Ajax Control Toolkit New Release, HTML Editor, Combo Box, Color Picker

Check the release

Try the live demos

HTML Editor

Color Picker

Combo Box

YQL – Yahoo Query Language

http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/

Quote:

What is YQL?

How Do I Get Started?

Usage limits

Per application limit (identified by your Access Key):

Per IP limits:

Update:

A picture is worth 2¹⁰ words. Here is what you need to enable it:

Lesser known .NET Enterprise Patterns & Practices
by Mohamed Meligy - Information Analyst, .NET Technologies – (Injazat Data Systems, Abu Dhabi)

A lap around Visual Studio 2010
by Mohamed Samy - Technical Architect (iSource Egypt)