July 9th Links: ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, jQuery, Silverlight, WPF, VS 2010

Here is the latest in my link-listing series.  Also check out my VS 2010 and .NET 4 series and ASP.NET MVC 2 series for other on-going blog series I’m working on.

[In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu]

ASP.NET

• Extending ASP.NET Output Caching: Scott Mitchell has a nice article that discusses how to take advantage of ASP.NET 4’s extensible cache provider API to implement richer output caching mechanisms.  Also check out my article on ASP.NET 4 output caching improvements here.

• Installing and Configuring Windows Server AppFabric and “Velocity” Memory Cache: Scott Hanselman has a nice blog post that describes how to install and configure Windows Server AppFabric – which is a free application server offering from Microsoft.  In less than 10 minutes you can enable its “Velocity” memory cache, and use it within your ASP.NET applications.

• Preventing Users From Copying Text From and Pasting It Into TextBoxes: Scott Mitchell has a useful article that discusses how to disable copy/paste within ASP.NET forms.  Useful for scenarios where you want to avoid people inadvertently duplicating a bad email registration address.

• Building a Store Locator ASP.NET Application Using Google Maps API: Scott Mitchell has a nice set of articles that discuss how to use the Google Maps API within an ASP.NET application to implement a Store Locator service.  Also check out Part 2 and Part 3 of his series.

• ASP.NET 4 SEO Improvements: Nice article from Scott Mitchell that describes some of the search engine optimization (SEO) improvements provided with ASP.NET 4.  Also check out my previous blog post on this topic.

• More details about SQL Compact Edition 4: Rob blogs more details about the recently released SQL CE 4 beta – which is available both as a standalone install as well as integrated within WebMatrix.  SQL CE 4 enables you to use an embedded database within your ASP.NET applications.  I blogged an overview of it here.

ASP.NET MVC

• Online ASP.NET MVC Conference: Eric Hexter shares details about the free ASP.NET MVC virtual online conference being held on July 22nd.  It is free to attend, and doesn’t require you to travel!

• Rules for ASP.NET MVC Views: Chris has a good blog post that discusses some recommendations on how to create and use View templates within an ASP.NET MVC application.

• ASP.NET MVC 2 Localization Guide: Adam has a great blog post that describes how to build localizable applications using ASP.NET MVC.

• Anti-Forgery Request Recipes for ASP.NET MVC and AJAX: Dixon has a nice blog post that describes some recipes and best practices for protecting yourself from common security issues when using AJAX with ASP.NET MVC.

• jQuery jqGrid Plugin: Elijah has a nice video and article that describes how to enable Add, Edit and Delete scenarios with the jQuery jqGrid Plugin and ASP.NET MVC.

• Error Handling in MVC with ELMAH: Michael has a nice blog post that describes how to setup and configure the popular ELMAH library with ASP.NET MVC.  ELMAH is a great OSS library that enables you to easily capture and review errors on production sites.

• Stepping into ASP.NET MVC Source Code: Gunnar has a nice blog post that describes how to configure Visual Studio 2010 so that you can easily step into the ASP.NET MVC and .NET source code within the debugger. 

jQuery

• jQuery Essentials: Nice online slide-show that does a great job of providing an overview of jQuery and how to use it.

• jQuery Code Snippets for VS 2010: Check out this cool (free) library of 131 jQuery code snippets that you can use within VS 2010.  Pretty sweet!

• 7 jQuery Articles on MSDN: Elijah has links to 7 nice articles he has written for MSDN that cover jQuery.

Silverlight and WPF

• Building a Simple Forms Application using the Silverlight Tool for VS 2010 and WCF RIA Services: Mark has a really nice tutorial that walks through how to build a simple data forms application using Silverlight, VS 2010 and WCF RIA Services.

• Tips and Tricks for Working with the WPF and Silverlight Designers in VS 2010: Karl has a great blog post that describes some useful tips/tricks you can take advantage of with VS 2010 when using the WPF and Silverlight designer.

• How to Enable the Binding Builder in WPF and Silverlight Applications: Another nice post from Karl that discusses how to take maximum advantage of the data sources window in VS 2010.

• Blend 4 and Sketchflow Improvements: Nice blog post from Christian that talks about some of the great improvements provided with Blend 4 and Sketchflow.

• HTTP Duplex Messaging Improvements in Silverlight 4: Nice blog post that describes some of the improvements provided with Silverlight 4 to enable better “server push” scenarios – where servers can push messages to Silverlight clients without requiring the client to explicitly poll.

Visual Studio 2010

• Snippet Designer: A cool extension for Visual Studio 2010 that enables you to quickly create and author reusable code snippets. 

• StyleCop 4.4 Release Candidate: The new release of StyleCop 4.4 is now at the release candidate stage. StyleCop analyzes C# source code to enforce style and consistency guidelines. This new version supports C# 4.0 and VS 2010.

• Comparing SQL Data: Nice blog post by Zubair that demonstrates some of the data features in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate for comparing SQL Data and Schema.

Hope this helps,

Scott