SOA

10 Years of CODE + New Features in WCF 4 that Will Instantly Make You More Productive

Rick G. Garibay — Fri, 07 May 2010 22:47:05 GMT

My new article on WCF 4 has just been published and should be available to subscribers and at newsstands today.

This issue marks the 6th article I’ve contributed to EPS Publishing/CODE Magazine and I am especially proud to be a part of the 10 year anniversary issue of CODE Magazine, writing on a technology that I love.

This is an amazing organization that has survived the ups and downs of technology publishing, and while many of their competitors over the last decade are no longer in business, CODE Magazine has continued to both innovate while keeping the quality bar highly raised as a technology-focused publication by the developer community and for the developer community.

Believe it or not, maintaining a bi-monthly publishing schedule to an in-print subscriber base of over 10,000 worldwide while providing digital editions both on the web at www.code-magazine.com and via Xiine (a WPF content distribution reader that supports multiple formats of the magazine) as well as Amazon’s Kindle editions takes a lot of work.

The success of this publication is only equaled by the fantastic group of people behind it that make my job so easy. It has been an absolute privilege to share and collaborate with Rod Paddock, Erik Ruthruff, Markus Egger and Cleo Gaither, to name just a few and I look forward to the next 10 years of CODE Magazine!

You can find my new article here: http://www.code-magazine.com/Article.aspx?quickid=1006061

I look forward to your thoughts and feedback.

SOA Security in 244 Slides

Rick G. Garibay — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:04:02 GMT

This is a really good comprehensive review of SOA security.

Summer School - Security in SOA

View more documents from WSO2.

Thanks to Lars Wilhelmsen for sharing and credit goes to Prabath Siriwardena for putting this great tutorial together.

M Model for Desert Code Camp

Rick G. Garibay — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:57:46 GMT

I thought I’d post the model I created for my Desert Code Camp session “Building a Service-Oriented Application from the Bottom Up”.

The model is created with “M”, a new declarative language for building models in Microsoft Oslo.

As you can see, the domain is built around golf, or more specifically, managing bookings and tee times for a sample application called “Green Fee Broker”.

In this session, I will demonstrate how to compile the M model into Transact-SQL, and deploy it to the database. Next, with the logical schema out of the way, we’ll get started with the GreenFeeBroker service, a WCF 3.5 service that accepts booking requests from golfers on the internet looking for the best possible deal. Moving down the stack, we’ll use Entity Framework to model our conceptual entities and deliver at least one end-to-end slice of functionality using TDD.

Bite-Sized SOA: Think Big, Start Small, Rinse and Repeat

Rick G. Garibay — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:00:06 GMT

Please join my colleague, Todd Sussman and I on Wednesday, June 3rd as we share thoughts and best practices for delivering SOA to the enterprise.

In this 1 hour free webcast we will:

Discuss the organizational, technical and political challenges inherent to distributing business processes across geographical business assets, vendors and business units of varying maturity.

Provide insight and guidance directly from the field on how to bring business, technical and vendor teams together to achieve the shared vision and promise of SOA using state-of-the-art technology from Microsoft and the .NET partner ecosystem including specific discussions around WCF, Microsoft Business Rules Engine (BRE) and Neuron ESB.

Provide real-world metrics from this success story that can be used to plan and measure success in your SOA initiatives.

SSWUG Ultimate Virtual Conference April 22-24th

Rick G. Garibay — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:44:53 GMT

I will be delivering two sessions at the SQL Server World Wide User Group Ultimate Virtual Conference being held worldwide online on April 22nd through April 24th, 2009.

Building, Configuring, Hosting and Deploying a Service-Oriented Application with Windows Communication Foundation 3.5

Services are the next evolution in software engineering for building distributed systems. Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is the premier framework for building service-oriented applications in .NET 3.5.

WCF is a programming model that unifies messaging and communication concerns typical in building service-oriented applications into a single programming model that makes service-orientation tenable. In this session, we will explore the case for building service-oriented applications and demonstrate how to build, configure, host and deploy a WCF service leaving you with a fundamental foundation of the core concepts and techniques of WCF that you can put to work right away.

Building Reliable Distributed Services with Windows Communication Foundation 3.5

Services coordinate work. Often, this work may be distributed across any number of services which work together to fulfill a business process.

Transactional capabilities such as atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability have long been a mainstay of database development, and delivering the same level of reliability in service-oriented applications is not optional. Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) supports both local and distributed transactions in intranet and internet scenarios. In this session, we will explore why understanding transactional support in WCF is critical to providing reliability in your service-oriented applications and how you can leverage WCF’s support for local and distributed transactions with an emphasis on delivering distributed services that are reliable and transacted.

The conference price is $125 per track, and there are 36 sessions across 4 tracks including SQL, .NET, MOSS and BI.

Check out the registration page here, and use VIP code SPRGARN09 for a discount: https://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring09/sql/register/multireg.asp?newmem=1&show=sql

The .NET track schedule is available here: http://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring09/dotnet/sessions.asp

Lessons from the Trenches: A Real World SOA Success Story - Session Posted on SoapBox

Rick G. Garibay — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 13:26:29 GMT

The video of the talk I delivered at the Microsoft SOA and Business Process Conference has been posted by Microsoft on MSN SoapBox.

You can click below to view the video now, or click this link to view the video and session abstract.

Deciphering the Microsoft offerings for Real World SOA, Brian Loesgen.

Clearing the Minefield with Next Generation SOA Technologies, Alan Smith.

SOA Patterns from the Field, Jason Hogg.

You can view videos for all of the sessions by visiting the MSN Live Space here: http://soaconference2009.spaces.live.com/default.aspx

WF 4.0: Big Changes Ahead

Rick G. Garibay — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:42:38 GMT

If attendees in Kenny W's session on WF 4.0 yesterday at PDC 08 are like me, they are both elated, shocked and awed in the lead architect's discussion on major, major changes heading our way in Windows Workflow 4.

When I attended the WCF and WF SDRs in Redmond back in April, Kenny, Ed Pinto and his team talked to us about new workflow types and activities and sought our feedback. It was evident that these improvements that were afoot were positive, and building on a foundation that I had only recently grown to love having been primarily focused on WCF for the last 2 years. In fact, I have pretty much shifted my focus completely from BizTalk Server to WF, WCF and service bus technologies.

Anyway, among the improvements/features discussed were changes to existing workflow types and new workflow styles including sequential, flowchart, state machine and a unification of activities and rules. Also reviewed were improvements to XAML support for modeling and deployment. So, I was very interested to see how far these committed improvements had gone since April, but I was not prepared for such a big surprise.

A framework for writing workflow applications, now in its second release (WF 3.5) is being completely overhauled, from the ground up. Kenny asserted that these drastic changes were necessary to deliver on the changes the team had already been discussing for months, but had expertly kept the details of just what that meant safe within the walls of building 43.

So what does this mean?! This is a question anyone working today with WF is asking. How drastic is the impact to my applications? What should I know about what's coming so that my existing and future investment in WF can be leveraged. Is this another ".NET Remoting has been deprecated" situation?

I couldn't wait for public messaging to address this burning concern, so I talked to Kenny after his session and asked a number of questions, which he was, as usual, very open and willing to answering.

My first question was around the impetus for such a major overhaul. Kenny shared that they focused very, very deeply on key customer requests and opportunities based on earlier versions of the framework. There were 3 feature types that resonated most. First, is delivering a truly model-based framework that allows every aspect of the WF to be represented declaratively. Second, was being able to truly participate in the repository ecosystem, which is key for deployment, management and operations scenarios. And last, but not least was performance.

Earlier in his talk, Kenny cited intriguing improvements, including 10x to 100x performance improvements and persisted workflows becoming essentially "free" with WF 4.0. In our more one-on-one discussion after his talk, he used the analogy of swinging at a baseball with a wooden baseball bat. While the wooden baseball bat is effective, it feels a bit heavy, if not clunky at times. When you pick up an aluminum baseball bat, it is markedly lighter, and feels significantly more aerodynamic. WF 3.0 and 3.5 work, but WF 4 is a new and improved aluminum baseball bat.

While the metaphor was effective, of course, I wanted to know what, specifically I should stop/start doing immediately and ensure my clients receive this guidance. Kenny had partially addressed this earlier in his public talk by pretty much prescribing that WF developers should stop using custom code activities and opt for custom activities instead. In fact, he demo'd a new "Interop" activity that allows your WF 3.0/3.5 custom activities to talk to WF 4.0 activities and workflows. I must admit that this does feel a bit like a P-Invoke for WF, and I don't mean that to be critical, it is just an observation.

Obviously, there are many more questions to be answered, but the first takeaway is to stop using custom code activities and focus existing efforts on developing custom activities, which are really the way we should be developing for WF anyway. To help answer some of the other burning questions we all undoubtedly have, Kenny committed to do his best to provide some prescriptive guidance by the end of the week to fill in the rest of the gaps, or at least provide some early guidance to get begin to prepare.

As soon as I get my hands on it, I will post it, along with any other gems of wisdom here.

On a final note, lest my prose present me as stoic, of course these changes make me nervous. I have yet to appreciate the full impact of these changes, and am eager to learn more. This said, I have to applaud Microsoft CSD for doing what is right, even when it is painful. We've seen this happen before (.NET Remoting) and will likely see it again. It is both the cost and benefit of forward progress in our great field of software engineering.

Building Service-Oriented Applications with Windows Communication Foundation

Rick G. Garibay — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:50:15 GMT

Thanks to everyone who came out to my talk at the Phoenix Connected Systems User Group meeting last week.

As promised, here are the links to the presentation materials and solution download.

Be sure to join us on November 13th for a foundational discussion on Windows Workflow Foundation (WF). Abstract to follow soon.

Comprehensive Series on WCF & REST

Rick G. Garibay — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:35:23 GMT

My friend Rob Bagby has done an excellent job putting together a series of primers on REST with WCF.

REST is gaining more and more attention recently as a great way to expose services over HTTP that do not require WS-* features. I think if you spend some time with REST, you will not only learn an alternate way of working with services, but you will also learn or re-learn the fundamentals of the HTTP protocol, which will be helpful regardless of what approach you take to building Web Services.

Rob's blog series can be found below:

Rob has also put together a series of screen casts on the subject which can be viewed here:

endpoint.tv - Controlling the URI in RESTful WCF with Rob Bagby

deCast - Creating a HI-REST GET Service with WCF 3.5

deCast - Consuming a HI-REST GET Service From Silverlight 2 (Beta 2)

endpoint.tv - Caching and Conditional Get with Rob Bagby

To catch up with Rob, be sure to check out his upcoming live events here: http://blogs.msdn.com/bags

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 Announcement

Rick G. Garibay — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:17:42 GMT

On April 24th, I blogged about Microsoft's announcement of BizTalk Server 2006 R3. Today, Microsoft is announcing plans for BizTalk Server 2009, which will replace original plans for the R3 release. You can read Steven Martin's official announcement here: http://blogs.msdn.com/stevemar

As with BizTalk Server 2006 R3's original list of new features and enhancements, the focus on BizTalk Server 2009 is enhanced platform support, SOA and Web Services, including:

New web service registry capabilities with support for UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration) version 3.0
Low-latency messaging enhancements and ESB Guidance
Enhanced service enablement of applications (through new and enhanced adapters for LOB applications, databases, and legacy/host systems)
Enhanced service enablement of "edge" devices through BizTalk RFID Mobile
SOA patterns and best practices guidance to assist our customer's implementations

This announcement, and corresponding (non-comprehensive) feature set is significant in my opinion for two reasons. First, it reflects a continued commitment on behalf of Microsoft Connected Systems Division (CSD) to the BizTalk Server platform. This is important for businesses and developers who have made significant investments in BizTalk Server and are looking beyond the next 3 to 5 year horizon in making strategic architectural decisions that will have a lasting effect.

Second, it reflects an emergent approach to simplifying application integration, SOA enablement and adoption which ensures that by staying up the date and following platform patterns and best practices, a gradual yet consistent readiness for upcoming technologies and platform enhancements is provided.

I believe that BTS 2009 will be a step forward in lubricating the adoption of more model-driven technologies through a stronger, more connected alignment with the .NET Framework, Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow.I have talked a bit about the Connected Systems Technology curve here.

To summarize, The .NET Framework cross cuts the entire Microsoft stack, from the user interface to the database, and this is certainly true within Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation and BizTalk Server. However, moving from pure .NET to WCF is non-trivial because it requires an evolution in thinking beyond traditional development and into contract-first development and SOA. In my career, I recall the struggle I had in moving from writing procedural code to thinking in terms of object orientation, and I don’t have to look too far back to remember the shift in thinking in moving from white-box-reuse-based objects to black-box component programming. While the WCF developer likely has a system/middle-tier background, the evolution to workflow and modeling will prove just as challenging because strong .NET system developers tend to be much more comfortable working imperatively. BizTalk developers, on the other hand, have been benefiting from the maturity in tools, modeling of workflow and message-based communication for several years. For the BizTalk developer and architect, the transition to WCF, and especially WF is nearly seamless because with the fundamentals in place, the declarative and model-based design experience that WCF and WF introduce respectively become second nature and so does the rate of adoption.

While there has been no official change to release plans, a CTP update is planned for Q4 of CY08. Microsoft will use this broad feedback from customers and partners to help us validate the features and readiness of the product.