The Morning Brew

Software

• Code First Migrations: August 2011 CTP Released – The ADO.NET Entity Framework Team announce the release of the August 2011 CTP (first CTP) of Entity Framework Code First Migrations. This library adds support for migrating the database schema from one model setup to a later version of the same model. This early CTP requires the Entity Framework 4.1 Update 1, As is usual with CTP release, the team are very interested in your feedback.
• Announcing the Windows Azure AppFabric July release – The Windows Azure AppFabric Team announced the release of their July update and enhancements to the Windows Azure AppFabric Management Portal and the Access Control service, including improved localisation for the Management Portal, support for Access Control rules with 2 input claims, UTF-8 support for O-Auth and the removal of ACS quotas on configuration data.

Information

• Entity Framework Code First Migrations: Alpha – NuGet Package of the Week #10 – Scott Hanselman explores the newly released Entity Framework Code First Migrations CTP release as a part of his NuGet Package of the Week series, sharing some information about the package and looking at it in use.
• Code First Migrations: Walkthrough of August 2011 CTP – Reco of the ADO.NET team also gives a walkthrough of the functionality provided by the Code First Migrations CTP discussing the different types of migration it supports and how it scripts these changes.
• C#/.NET Little Pitfalls: Default Parameters are Compile-Time Substitutions – James Michael Hare continues his C#/.NET Little Pitfalls series with a look at the use of Default Parameters in C# 4 and how they are implemented using a compiler trick which bakes the default values at compile time
• Simple way of null parameter validation – Ishtiyaq Sheikh shares a simple helper extension method to make writing some of the common parameter validation code that appears in lots of methods shorter and simpler.
• Preprocessor? .NET don’t need no stinkin’ preprocessor! – David Anson also is looking at parameter and other variable validation using Debug.Assert, showing its default use, discussing how the message often duplicates the expression being asserted upon and shares an custom extension of the Debug.Assert which takes away this duplication using expression trees.
• Entity Framework v4.1 update 1, the Kill-The-Tool-Eco-system version & Entity Framework June 2011 CTP (v4.2) is now supported in Entity Framework Profiler – Frans Bouma and the Hibernating Rhinos team discuss a breaking change in Entity Framework 4.1 Update 1 which breaks the integration of their respective data access profilers in this version of Entity Framework, discussing how their integtration works, and what in this update caused them problems, and both look at work around solutions.
• MEF Features – with Examples – Mahadesh Mahalingappa digs into a number of the key features of the Managed Extensibility Framework, looking at the background to the feature and illustrating with examples of each.
• My eBook and articles series on OData for Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 is complete. – Michael Crump has updated his OData for Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 article series, and has also compiled it into e-book format, available for $2.99 via SilverlightShow.Net, All the article content is also available free of charge on the SilverlightShow site.
• Windows Phone Mango Feature Videos – Mike Ormond highlights a series of videos from the Windows Phone team where the people responsible for each of the new features discusses their feature and its use.

Community

• NxtGenUG – Event: .Net Minimalist Web Dev – The Manchester / Warrington chapter of the NxtGenUG welcome Mark Rendle on Wednesday 17th August for a session looking at two lightweight alternative frameworks on the .NET platform, Simple.Data for data access and Nancy for a Sinatra like web framework
• Coding for PowerShell – DevEvening – The DevEvening User Group in Woking welcome Jimmy Skowronski for a session exploring PowerShell development, from the basics upwards on Wednesday 31st August

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