Eric Moreau's web site (www.emoreau.com)

SQL Server 2012 – What’s new for the developers?

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

You won’t find any .Net coding this month. Instead, I will introduce you to my favorite new features of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 from developer’s perspective (because this is what I am after all). There are way too many new features and enhancements to list here. I will also limit myself to talk about the new T-SQL features I prefer.

New article: SQL Server 2012 – What’s new for the developers?

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I just published a new article.

You can read it from http://www.emoreau.com/Entries/Articles/2012/05/SQL-Server-2012--Whats-new-for-the-developers.aspx.

Visual Studio Talk Show: I was the guest in April!

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I have been invited once again by Mario and Guy to record another Visual Studio Talk Show. Once again, it was a great chat about data exchange between application.

If you want to listen to it (in French BTW), visit http://www.visualstudiotalkshow.com/Archives/146-16avril2012-EricMorea.html.

Bring back normal caps into VS11 beta

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Everybody who tried the beta of Visual Studio 11 has comments about the new plain/dull/monochrome/all caps/… UI. Apparently, the new theme is giving more focus to the code. Jeremy Iversion was bored of the All Caps of the window titles. He wrote a simple extension (called VSCalm) to change the caps of these titles. You can get if from http://visualstudioaddins.svprogramming.net/2012/03/29/vscalm-extension-for-visual-studio-11-beta/

A more useful auto-complete Textbox control

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I have already written about the AutoComplete feature of the Textbox control in 2006 (see http://www.emoreau.com/Entries/Articles/2006/06/The-TextBox-and-the-MaskedTextbox-controls.aspx). This feature works well when you type the first few letters of a word. The list will then be filtered to show only the values starting with these letters.

But what if your users would like a Contains instead of a StartsWith? Will you tell them you can’t do anything for them? The out-of-the-box control doesn’t support it but that doesn’t mean you cannot do anything yourself!

Another useful feature supported by this extension is that multiple values can be inputted into the same Textbox and still be able to get the suggestions list shown.

New article: A more useful auto-complete Textbox control

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I just published a new article that will add some more useful feature to the Auto-Complete found in .Net Windows Applications.

Very often I found that users would like a Contains instead of a StartsWith.

This is exactly what my article from http://www.emoreau.com/Entries/Articles/2012/04/A-more-useful-auto-complete-Textbox-control.aspx is about!

Using SQL Dependency in a .Net application

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Very often, developers need a way to refresh the UI when something changes in the database. I can safely say that instead of having their application warned that something has changed, developers usually just re-query the database every so often (most of the time based on a timer).

Since Microsoft SQL Server 2005 has been released, a new more appropriate mechanism is available but unknown from most developers I have met. This mechanism is available straight from ADO.Net and is known as SQL Dependency. ADO.Net relies on SQL Service Broker to be warned.

The mechanism is simple. You create a subscription to receive notifications whenever the underlying data of a query changes on the server. The application receives the notification in the form of an event.

New article: Using SQL Dependency in a .Net application

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I just published a new article about the SQL Dependency object of ADO.Net.

You can read the article from http://www.emoreau.com/Entries/Articles/2012/03/Using-SQL-Dependency-in-a-Net-application.aspx

Free Montreal Windows 8 Camp for developers April 10& 11 2012

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

If you are a developer and have any interest in developing for Windows 8, be sure not to miss the Windows 8 Camp. This is a free 2-days event (in Montréal April 10th and 11th 2012).

Find all the information and register from https://win8.msregistration.com/default.aspx?ID=e7d8837a-d69a-490a-96a5-81927db829be

Why attend a Windows 8 Camp?

Be part of the Windows 8 Camp in Montreal, a two day free conference with technical sessions that dive into the platform for building Windows 8 Metro Style apps.

You'll learn from experts in a low-key, interactive way and apply what you've learned with support from Microsoft Canada.

You will learn hands-on how to use the new features in Windows 8 Metro style apps to your advantage.

Also, you will learn how the developer platform supports C#, C++, XAML , HTML and JavaScript and how to monetize and distribute your app.

Other locations (Vancouver and Toronto) are also availble.

Installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview on an external hard drive

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Windows 8 Consumer Preview (another way of saying it is a Beta) has been released February 29.

If you want to start playing with it but don't want to install it as your primary OS yet, you need to find a way around it. Workarounds include running from a VM and dual-booting.

I have personnaly tested another method which is working perfctly for me. I have installed Windows 8 CP on an external hard drive and I now boot from it when I want to put my fingers on the screen (on my Lenovo ThinkPad X220T).

You will find all the steps to do it at http://tweaks.com/windows/52279/how-to-create-a-windows-to-go-usb-drive/ (thanks to Jérôme Laban for the link).