SSW Update - June 2001

.NET in the world now

The Access/SQL Server/ASP.Net Users Group
Wednesday, June 20 2001, 5:45 pm

Have you got mid-year doldrums? Get active by telling Adam what you want to hear...

Copy these bullet points and email 696e666f72407373772e636f6d2e6175 to rate the options. 10 is the most preferred and 0 is something you have no interest in. Upcoming User Groups are YOUR CALL!

• SharePoint Portal Server
• SharePoint Team Services (Developing with FrontPage)
• Intro to XML
• 3-tier development with XML and SQL Server
• Access 2002
• ASP
• ASP.NET
• VB
• VB.NET
• Web Services
• SQL Server 2000 Development
• Exchange Server 2000 Development
• Developing for Mobile Devices(Win CE)

At this month's User Group meeting David Reidy will demonstrate OARS, a real-world ASP.Net based solution which is being deployed in a number of schools. After an overview of what OARS does, David will delve into the code and techniques used to provide a high quality end-user experience and an efficient, highly scalable back-end. He will also explain some of the tips and techniques needed to work with the current version of Visual Studio.Net. Building on Joe Hardy's April presentation, David will show an additional technique used with SOAP to handle the transfer of secure data via XML.

David Reidy is the Chief Software Person at his company A Fish In Your Face Pty Ltd - and that's fair dinkum! As you can tell it takes an excentric person to deploy an app on a Beta 1 product :-).

Adam Cogan will speak on developing a calendar application with Exchange Server 2000 using ADO 2.6.

Don't forget that as Microsoft have moved to new premises, so has the User Group. Need a Map?

SSW Tech Breakfast - The ABC of XML
Make the most of your day by starting off with an SSW Tech Breakfast. The SSW Tech Breakfast is a great way to get to know what is good and bad about the latest technologies. You take away real knowledge of what you can do to benefit your business. The next breakfast is on Thursday June 21 on The ABC of XML. Register here

New Product SSW Team Calendar for Exchange 2000
SSW Team Calendar for Exchange 2000 is a great new utility that extracts Outlook calendar information stored on your Microsoft Exchange Server and makes it available on the company intranet. Users can get an overview of the appointments for all mailboxes on the Exchange database by simply using their web browser.

More Information

Two weeks to Register!
Do you have unlicensed software on your network? If you are running illegal software you run the risk of heavy fines. However, there is a solution! The BSAA (Business Software Association of Australia) is currently in the middle of a 60 day truce, recognised by Microsoft, Adobe, Macromedia and other software providers, which will allow you to register your illegal software with no threat of litigation.

In the old days you might have got away with being slack. These days it is a different story. SSW can provide a software audit and related services, if you want assistance contact 696e666f72407373772e636f6d2e6175 at SSW.

Office XP Professional
Looking to upgrade from Office 97 or Office 2000 to Office XP? Office XP Professional can be obtained for an excellent price at the moment. Contact 696e666f72407373772e636f6d2e6175 for details.

There seems to be some division of opinion about Microsoft .NET - not least of all from the Marketing department. I was told at a MS breakfast briefing (7 am) late last year not to expect .NET to make an impact "for the next three to five years." On the face of it, it appears that Microsoft just got every MS Certified Partner in the country out of bed two hours early just to say "You can all go back home to bed for another three to five years. Have a croissant on the way out. Thanks for coming."

During that presentation Microsoft executives outlined their vision for the new .NET. It combines renting software over the Internet, integrating Web documents seamlessly with each other using public, standardized XML schemas, and enabling users to easily manipulate Web content that has been primarily static.

So, the main question that developers have, is VB.NET and ASP.Net ready now or should I keep plugging away at VB6 and ASP?

The first thing to be aware of is that Visual Studio.Net is not stable - it is pretty flakey. However the .NET Framework is stable - this means that once you get the code written it runs fine for the user.

The second thing to know is that code written in Beta 1 will break in Beta 2 (especially ADO.Net database code). However this is not that important now as Beta 2 is just about cooked. Microsoft is expected to release 2 million copies of the second beta version of Visual Basic.Net at its Tech Ed conference in Atlanta starting today!!!

According to MS, Code written in Beta 2 will compile in the final release. That is unless Microsoft need to change an API to fix a bug OR of course they change their mind. So be prepared to rewrite some sections of your code.

So you need to consider deployment - ASP.NET users need only IE installed so no hastles there if you can get the .NET Framework installed on the server. For a lot of developers this means it is a goer.

Thinking about VB.NET you will need client workstations to have the the .NET Framework installed to use your VB.NET executables. There will be no .NET built into Windows until the version after Win XP (Blackcombe). Are you prepared to have beta code on your client machines? Are you prepared to format the client machines because there is no migration path? For me this means VB.NET is a no goer.

So you need to talk with your client on the PROs and CONs. They essentially boil down to:

• Code is easier to maintain - especially comparing ASP to ASP.NET
• It is slower to work in a beta when there are bugs and features missing. You get to know what they are. The main problem is the lack of documentation and a Microsoft Knowledgebase with the Bug and the suggested workaround.
• Pay Now or Pay Later? If you develop now in ASP.NET or VB.NET instead of ASP or VB it lessens the overall cost - as you are probably going to move the app to .NET in the future anyway.

So talk seriously with your client and decide. Basically it's OK to develop in .NET if all parties involved know and accept the risks.

For what it is worth I am not waiting for the 3 to 5 years.....

Cheers until next time,
Adam
Got a comment for Adam? Email Adam

• Is there a simple way to store configuration data in a single entry in the registry using XML? - David Reidy
• How do I make a connection string to SQL Server for ASP? - Daniel Hyles

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