New ASP.NET Web Site Open to Community Review

Microsoft is has released a preview of the next version of the main ASP.NET web site.

Check it out here: http://publicbeta.asp.net/

First impressions are good.  It's clearly more elegant and aesthetically appealing. 

The layout has been improved.  More panels of information can now be seen in one screen.

Kudos to the Microsoft team!

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DasBlog 1.9.7 Released

Open source blogging platform DasBlog (which incidentally powers this blog) is now available as version 1.9.7.  This release is to be the final release on ASP.NET 1.1 (though it works on ASP.NET 2.0 too).

The next release (DasBlog 2.0) will be compiled under .NET 2.0 and will support Medium Trust environments.  This is great news as many web hosters operate in Medium Trust mode or a variant of it.

Scott Hanselman has indicated that there'll be a plan to move towards .NET 3.5 as well as 60-day release cycles.

For a full list of features in this release, head over to Scott Hanselman's blog for details.

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Hotfix Patch for Debugging ASP.NET on IIS7

If you're running IIS7 on Vista and attempt to debug an ASP.NET application by pressing F5 on VS 2005 (or VWD Express), you've probably encountered one of the following error messages:

"An authentication error occurred while communicating with the web server."

"Debugging failed because integrated Windows authentication is not enabled."

"Authentication error occurred while communicating with the web server.  Try disabling 'Digest authentication'"

Well, now there's a fix to this issue.

• The fix should work with both VS2005 and Visual Web Developer Express.
• The fix will be built into VS2008 starting Beta 2.
• If you're using Vista Home Premium, it won't bug you to have Windows Authentication module installed when doing local debugging.
• The fix works on Vista x64 as well.

Links:

• Hotfix download
• KB937523 Article - Details on the hotfix patch.
• Omar Khan (Group PM VS Web Tools)
• Mike Volodarsky
• Scott Guthrie

Technorati tags: visual studio 2005, vs2005, visual web developer, vwd

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AJAX Control Toolkit Refresh (Release 10618)

There's a refresh release for the Microsoft AJAX Control Toolkit.  This release fixed some of the issues found in the 1.0.10606.0 release.

Changes include:

• Tabs naming container fix
• Visual Studio design time dependency fix
• FilteredTextBox navigation and control key issues and
• New languages support

For details about this refresh, check out the following blogs:

• Delay - Tweaks and improvements by popular demand [AJAX Control Toolkit update!]
• Delay - Script combining made better [Overview of improvements to the AJAX Control Toolkit's ToolkitScriptManager]
• Kirti - Lather, rinse and release

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Apple Safari for Windows (Public Beta) Released

Apple has announced the availability of Safari 3 Public Beta for Windows.

Browser testing should be a whole lot easier, at least thoretically.

Here are some interesting posts on Safari for Windows:

Safari for Windows and Silverlight

• Scott Hanselman: Microsoft Silverlight in Safari for Windows - Blogs about the issues he discovered when trying out the Silverlight Airline sample on the browser.
• Michael Schwarz: Apple Safari for Windows and Microsoft Silverlight - Describes the quirks he discovered while experimenting with a Silverlight app on the browser. 
• Tim Heuer: Silverlight and Safari on Windows - Describes a workaround to make Silverlight work on Safari for Windows.

Safari for Windows and Microsoft AJAX

• Bertrand Le Roy: Is Safari on Windows a good thing or a bad thing? - Testing history management in Microsoft AJAX and the browser.

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New ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit Released (Release 10606)

An updated version of the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit has been released. 

Key improvements in this release include:

• About 125 bug fixes
• Designer support for the TabContainer
• Support for ASP.NET Validators
• Extended event support for better interaction with client-side Toolkit components
• Automated Page Method callback generation
• Script combining - for faster load times
• Dynamic context support for components doing callbacks
• Accessibility fixes
• Built-in animation support for toolkit controls built on top of PopupBehavior

There are no new controls in this release.

Blog references on this release:

• Scott Guthrie
• Shawn Burke - includes screenshots of new features
• Delay - describes in greater detail the fixes and improvements in this release.
• Kirti
• Garbin - describes the new TooltipText property and accessibility fix in Slider extender

Books on ASP.NET AJAX:

 

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Microsoft ASP.NET Futures (May 2007) Release Available

The Microsoft ASP.NET Futures May 2007 Futures release is  available for download.  Here's the description from Microsoft:

The Microsoft ASP.NET Futures May 2007 (“Futures”) release contains an early developer preview of features providing a wide range of new functionality for both ASP.NET and Silverlight. The Futures release includes early experimental versions of features currently being considered for future versions of ASP.NET and the .NET Framework. The Futures releases assume prior knowledge of the core features of ASP.NET including the previous ASP.NET AJAX Futures January CTP.

Features in this release include ASP.NET Silverlight server controls, new functionality for ASP.NET AJAX Extensions, dynamic data controls, enhancements to dynamic languages, and more.

• Download the ASP.NET Futures (May 2007) Release
• ASP.NET Futures (May 2007) Quickstarts

Blogs describing this release:

• Brad Adams - ASP.NET "Futures" Release
• Fredik Normén - Microsoft ASP.NET Futures

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MIX07 Announcements: Silverlight and Expression Studio

MIX07 (Microsoft's flagship conference for web designers and developers) got off with a slew of announcements which included the following:

Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 Beta

Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 CTP

Expression Studio

Expression Blend 2 May Preview

Microsoft Silverlight Streaming

Windows Live Platform Terms of Use

Microsoft Silverlight

Check out Mike Harsh's blog post on Silverlight and .NET support:

http://blogs.msdn.com/mharsh/archive/2007/04/30/silverlight-including-net-support-download-it-today.aspx

To coincide with Silverlight 1.0 Beta launch, Tim Sneath's team has come up with a nice range of five-minute how-to screencasts to get developers up to speed with Silverlight.

Check it out here: Silverlight Screencasts

Microsoft Expression Studio

Get your copy of Microsoft Expression Studio here.

You may also get the individual tools  which make up Expression Studio here:

• Microsoft Expression Web
• Microsoft Expression Blend
• Microsoft Expression Design
• Microsoft Expression Media

On a related note, Microsoft Expression Blend 2 May Preview is now available for download.  This preview-release allows developers to create Silverlight-based applications in either in Javascript or .NET.

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IIS 7.0 Beta 3 Released - Go-Live License Available

IIS 7.0 Beta 3 has been shipped and Microsoft is offering a special Go-Live License for IIS7 and Windows Server "Longhorn" Beta 3.

Some of the new IIS 7.0 Beta 3 features include:

• Web Farm Shared Configuration
• Delegated Remote Administration
• Automatic Application Pool Isolation
• Built-in Fast CGI Support for PHP and other extensions
• New FTP Server

For more information, visit Bill Staples' blog:

http://blogs.iis.net/bills/archive/2007/04/25/what-s-new-in-iis7-beta-3.aspx

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