Succeeding in the Windows Phone Store

On June the 26th, 2014 @ 6:30 PM, come and join us at BCIT Burnaby campus for the “Succeeding in the Windows Phone Store ” session presented by me.

All Windows Phone apps and games are distributed through the Windows Phone Store. With the continued growth of the Windows Phone Store, this represents a challenge to app developers and publishers to get their apps noticed. This presentation provides tips and tricks how you as an app publisher can get your app noticed as well as strategies for getting yourself into the coveted spotlight category, and why not to get even money out of it.

Registration pages are open through Eventbrite or Meetup.

More info about the event on the .NetBC user group site.

SQL – How to find where a table column is used

If you ever get in the situation that you need to find out from which stored procedure/ function is a table column updated, this is a useful script:

SELECT DISTINCT OBJECT_NAME(id)
FROM syscomments
WHERE TEXT LIKE ‘%lookup_field%’
ORDER BY OBJECT_NAME(id)

Run WcfTestClient on a server that doesn’t have Visual Studio installed

It was so easy to test the old fashion .asmx web services from the production servers, since you could just grab the link, put it in a browser and a full fledged test you could run on it.

With the WCF services is not the same. If you just grab the link and open it in a browser, all what you get is a confirmation that the service it’s running properly, and how to use it in the client applications.

Here comes handy the WcfTestClient tool. Create a folder on the server and copy the next files in it from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE (path may wary, depending what OS/Visual Studio you have installed):

If you get an error related to VirtualTreeGrid assembly, just add the assembly to the GAC (Win+R) and add the path:

%windir%\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.VisualStudio.VirtualTreeGrid\

Copy the file Microsoft.VisualStudio.VirtualTreeGrid.dll into the same folder where you copied the files mentioned above.

Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 – Training

Tutorials and videos useful to learn how to develop apps for Windows 8 and Windows Phone:

• channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2012 – Build 2012 event. How to design and build beautiful Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 apps. How to sell your apps in the Windows 8 Store and make money. And much more…
• Windows Phone Dev Center – Connect with other developers who can help you with code samples, resources, helpful tips, and answers to your questions.
• Nokia Developer – resources, code samples for Nokia phone apps development.
• DVLUP.com – Explore challenges and get coding for Nokia phone. Ideas, challenges, rewards.
• Microsoft Virtual Academy – Wind Phone 8 Jump Start – Windows phone app development course tailored for developers looking to leverage C#/XAML to build cool apps and games for Windows Phone 8.
• Microsoft Virtual Academy – Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 Jump Start – Build Apps for Both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 Jump Start.
• Microsoft Virtual Academy – Windows 8 UX Design Jump Start – Enjoy this Jump Start with Microsoft Sr. Technical Evangelist Chris Mayo, and Big Nerd Ranch, Director of Design Brandy Porter where they show you the ins and outs of designing a better UX for Windows 8.
• Microsoft Virtual Academy – Essentials of Developing Windows Store Apps using C# Jump Start – Microsoft Technical Evangelist Jerry Nixon and Daren May share numerous demos and samples on creating the User Interface layout and structure using XAML, how to implement the AppBar and layout controls, how to deploy a Windows Store app to the Windows Store or an enterprise store, and much more.
• Microsoft Virtual Academy – Advanced Windows Store App Development using C# Jump Start – This is a course for intermediate to advanced learners and helps you prepare for Microsoft exam 70-485. Microsoft Technical Evangelist Jerry Nixon and Daren May share numerous demos and samples of simple and complex techniques on how to add animations and transitions in a Windows Store app to improve the user experience, how to optimize various storage mechanisms, choose a suitable caching strategy for their Windows Store app, to name a few topics.
• Microsoft Virtual Academy – Developing Windows Store Apps with HTML5 Jump Start – Introducing HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript and helps students learn HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript programming skills. This course is an entry point into both the Web application and Windows Store apps and helps learners prepare for Microsoft exam 70-481.
• Microsoft Virtual Academy – Advanced Windows Store App Development with HTML5 Jump Start – Fast-paced Jump Start dives deeper into the advanced programming skills and techniques required to optimize Windows Store apps.
• http://www.pluralsight.com – Hardcore online developer training
• Learn Mobile Now – Online learning. Tutorials, videos.

On the way to become a professional developer

I would like to highlight some of the sites that I found useful in my learning process:

• http://channel9.msdn.com/ – videos about the people building Microsoft Products & Services, DevTeach events
• http://www.codeproject.com – one of my favorites, offers tons of articles, samples
• http://www.dotnetcurry.com/ – tutorials, samples and even a free magazine
• http://www.pluralsight.com – hardcore developer training
• http://www.learnnowonline.com – tutorials, videos

.NetBC UG Event: Essential Windows Azure IaaS for developers

On July the 9th, 2013 @ 6:30 PM, come and join us at BCIT Burnaby campus for the “Essential Windows Azure IaaS for developers” session presented by Medhat Elmasry.

Why should developers care about IaaS? Think of your Windows Azure Datacenter as an Object Model(OM). “IaaS OM” can help us build cost effective systems by only turning on the parts of Azure that are needed and when they are needed. In this session we will introduce you to PowerShell and look at using it to manage Virtual Machines on Azure.

More info on the .NetBC user group site.