Speaking at VSLive Orlando 2007

I’m going to be speaking at VSLive Orlando 2007 in just a few months — May 6 through May 10.

I’m doing four 1-hour sessions:

• Serious WebPart Customization
  
  
  

  Ever tried to customize how your ASP.NET WebParts look?  Sure, you can change colors and fonts, but what if you want to change the layout?  What if you need to put the WebPartVerb menu in a different place?  That goes beyond simple tweaking; now you need custom WebPartChrome.  In this session, Ben will do a deep-dive on the ASP.NET WebParts architecture and show you how to seriously customize your WebParts by creating your own WebPartChrome and WebPartZone, all without losing the benefits of personalization.
  
  

  
  
• Building ASP.NET Database Applications with NHibernate
  
  
  

  The problem: our applications use objects, but our databases don’t. Why isn’t there an easy way for applications to use objects, but store their contents in a database with a minimum of effort required to transition between them? Enter NHibernate: an open-source, object-relational persistence framework that uses XML to map classes and properties (in your program) to tables and columns (in your database). Once you write the mappings, NHibernate can generate the database code and SQL necessary to save and retrieve your objects.

  
  

   

  
  

  In this session, Ben will discuss the fundamentals of NHibernate and walk you through the process of using NHibernate to create a database-driven ASP.NET web application.
  
  

  
  
• Serious Team Foundation Server Customization
  
  
  

  You’ve learned how to customize work item templates.  It was fun but now you feel empty inside and need new challenges.  How about a custom TFS event handler?  Or a power toy to eliminate some tedious linking operations? 

  
  

   

  
  

  Did you know that Team Foundation Server (TFS) has an API to control, customize, and consume almost any piece of TFS functionality, including version control, the build system, and work items?  You need to learn how to customize TFS. 

  
  

   

  
  

  In this session, Ben will show you how the TFS Event Service works so that you can write your own event handlers.  After that, he’ll dive in to the TFS APIs so that you can start writing your own tools to connect to TFS, manage work items, and link them using the linking service. 
  
  

  
  
• Serious Team Foundation Server Source Control
  
  
  

  Did you know that there’s a command-line interface to the version control system called “TF” with 33 sub-commands?  Also, you can help ensure quality by configuring check-in policies.  You can create your own check-in policies, too.  Have you played around with branching and merging yet?  TFS is source control is seriously powerful. 

  
  

   

  
  

  In this session, Ben will show you how to become a TFS version control power user.  First, he’ll start with an overview of configuring source control, then dive into the TF command, give some advice on setting up your source control tree, and then show you how to create your own TFS check-in policy. 

-Ben