Tech-Talks recorded today. One on an Open Source and very much enhanced Windows Azure Project Template and another one that turned out to be a lot more “what is MEF” than I initially anticipated? And at the event at large people are looking focused on learning just as we do at the beginning of a week. I am anticipating less and less strength for focus as the week progresses. So this week I am at Tech-Ed Europe attending as a speaker on the Architecture track. Here is a brief account of the first day so far.
Today anyway, apart from getting a blister walking the HUGE venue, I have had the opportunity to record two Tech-Talks here at Tech-Ed. (A Tech-Talk is a 10-20 long interview video recording that will be published at the Tech-Ed web site.)
My first recording was on the work we have been at Dotway on Azure Contrib to enhance the File->New template in Visual Studio for those who are looking forward to creating new Windows Azure applications. I talked about the fact that we have enhanced the template in three steps:
1) Making the Windows Azure SDK a lot more testable. (Read more here on my original post on how we put some love between Windows Azure and the Managed Extensibility Framework)
NB: Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) is a new library in .NET Framework 4 that is developed under an open source license on CodePlex: http://mef.codeplex.com
2) We created a Cloud Storage API that we published as open source at http://cloudstorageapi.codeplex.com. This API is an OO API that closely mirrors the Windows Azure Storage REST API. Then we implemented part of it using the Sample Storage Client code shipped with the Windows Azure CTP. The implementation is published, in fact all parts of this work is published as open source, on CodePlex at http://azurecontrib.codeplex.com.
3) Finally we took advantage of MEF in Windows Azure to enable worker roles to be more extensible, intelligent and able to work on many different tasks as easy as implementing one method on a small interface. Using this Template the Azure Worker Role does not become a tangled mess of code or is not just a dumb close loop executing just one type of batch job. Also we have a thing we call the “One Time Work” service which is used to run changes for instance to your Windows Azure Storage environment and ensures your one time actions are run just once and not every time you request a page on your Azure Web Role or run through the loop in your Azure Worker Role.
All in all this enhanced Windows Azure Template is a LOT more powerful and useful as a starter for Your Applications.
My second Tech-Talk Session was just a brief intro to what MEF is and when and where it can, or should, be used. If you know nothing about this take six minutes of your time (as soon as the recording is on line) and get to know the Managed Extensibility Framework better)
(If you happen to read this AT Tech-Ed 2009 please don’t hesitate to contact med in the Technical Learning Center if you have any questions about Extensible software design and architecture, MEF, Azure or anything else you want to hear about. My break out is on Thursday on the topic of Flexible Design and my Interactive Session is scheduled as a repeat session on Wednesday morning and afternoon and it is on the topic of The Role of the Software Architect Caring and Communicating.)
I will post a note when my recordings are on line.
The evening is not over yet. Berlin will have a HUGE party in the city today due to the “20 jahre mauerfall” – which means 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell.
Cheers,
M.
posted @ Tuesday, November 10, 2009 1:37 AM