*I can literally hear the applauses and whistles in my head*

Time and again web developers have to update their customer’s website to make them compliant with the latest standards. Which is only fair because the Gods of web world introduces new standards. With the choices of browsers that people are using today, it’s a nightmare for web developers to make a site fully compatible with all the existing browsers every now and then! :O  

I would say if a developer indeed is contemplating updating his website or if it is that time of the year when they are opening old site-codes to maintain them after long – you are a genius!

“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, he became a butterfly”

Because right now is the time to work on websites and make the code more robust for the future. Tell you why – on July 29^th tens and thousands and millions of users are expected to upgrade their operating systems to Windows 10. With Windows 10 comes the default browser Edge – which is mashahallah a beautiful browser, which has implemented over focused on giving the users the BEST experience on web and empowering people to do what they want to do. Edge comes with new Engine that is built for modern web and prioritizes interoperability between browsers. When users will experience a new operating system and browser on the 29^th why don’t we too delight them by giving them a Great user experience on web by making our sites more compatible with Edge and thus making them better in general. After all, for developers, what more matters than bringing smile to consumer’s face with the art of coding?

“A stitch in time saves nine”

Another reason - get code updated to take advantage of interoperable web. Once the code is updated to take advantage of this interoperability feature, developers can then build over this code to add new features and web standards in future. With Microsoft EdgeHTML engine which breathes interoperability you can accept an interoperable web that works across all browsers and devices very conveniently.

“Eat the soup while it is still hot”

As developers you too know that at this time or another time you will have to update your customer’s site to make it standard complaint, I happen to be of the opinion that Now is the right time. Ton of Microsoft folks all around the world (including myself) are passionate about this and will be doing a lot of content online on website compatibility, interoperability, Edge etc. and we are looking forward to taking this journey with you.

Will you join us? :)

If you are curious about Edge, here are some links that will quench your thirst:-

1. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-microsoft-edge-pc

2. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/microsoft-edge

3. http://dev.modern.ie/

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Edge

5. https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2015/04/29/introducing-microsoft-edge-the-browser-built-for-windows-10/

6. http://devchannel.modern.ie/websummit2015  

7. http://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2015/06/17/building-a-more-interoperable-web-with-microsoft-edge/

There are four ways by which you can get started with O365 app dev:-

1. Office Add-ins = content apps/ task pane apps for Access, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Project and  mail apps Outlook. Consumers can avail themselves of these apps from inside the Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc. If you open any word document, and then go to "Insert" at the top menu ribbon and there click on "Store" (store appears in Red color), that's where you application will be visible if you write Office Add-ins.  

2. SharePoint Add-ins = these are of two types: SharePoint hosted and Provider hosted. The difference between these two is that provider hosted apps need to have at-least one component which is hosted externally to the SharePoint subscription or SharePoint farm. SharePoint add-in apps are visible as tiles in the Site Contents page at the SharePoint website.

3. Your app = the apps that you create and connect to office 365 APIs to access your customer's O365 data such as their mail, calendars, contacts, users and groups, files, and folders - right from within your app itself.

4. Mobile apps = use Office 365 APIs in Windows Phone, Android, IOS or Cordova.

Check out the entire list of developer documentation here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office

To access the Office 365 APIs you will need to create an office developer account. You can get started with a free trial here : http://bit.ly/1uv0f6l  Once the account is created, you can see a page like this. This is the Office 365 admin center.

By now we know what kind of app we want to create and we have our account in place for the REST APIs. Back with the next post with app dev very soon. Ciao!

Or better still.. remember the first time you heard yourself saying "Saal ka target khatam ho gaya hai!!!"

..The butterflies in your stomach, the glitter in your eyes, the smile on your face and sudden rush of something that makes you feel alive and invincible.. Those were my exact feeling when I first got hired in Microsoft in 2012.

After I got hired I spent some time thinking about how my workplace is going to be like.. How will be my teammates, what will be the nature of my work..

As excited as I was I was a tad intimidated. And why not, I was going to be working with the brightest and smartest people in India.

Questions like will I fit in? will I be adequate? will I survive? did cross my minds at times..

People like me join Microsoft as empty books. So much so that we don't even know what genre of book we will be at the end of it. But we are ready to write our stories and convert ourselves into well written Novels. The chapters in our book are made up of the experiences that we have, the moments that we share, the people who touch our lives. My own journey has all kinds of stories in it. Its a mix bag of experiences. But the two things that stand out relative to my peers outside of Microsoft are: how nurturing the environment at the workplace is - today I am not afraid to walk up-to any of my office people and ask them a question or seek their council on something,I have that trust in them.. and the second thing that stands out is the kind of exposure that I am getting here. Both local and inter-National. And at the scale at which I am getting it. Who could of thought events like TechReady and MGX even existed! 

I am lucky that I am receiving all this and am writing beautiful stories for myself. Just like I have a book so does Microsoft. And I guess right now Microsoft is writing the part 2 of its book.

Talking about the transformation, to me it means two things:

First, the change in the product suits and

Second, the change in the workforce.

The change in products is more global in nature and the change in the workforce is more near to us, more local in nature.

To me this is not just a transformation. Its a re-inventiontion. Progress towards the next logical step of advancement. Just like children go from school to College which is the next logical progression for them and in college they get all kinds of freedom and opportunities, they may join French classes, they may play in college team, they may participate in college election, same way Microsoft is progressing, its is re-inventing itself for the next logical step of advancement.

Taking about the change in workforce, I would like to believe that it is working in the favor of the company. Just like I was anxious before joining I assume there were people inside the organization who were anxious too. But it is the situation like this when you step out of your comfort zone that the magic happens!

I perhaps belong to a pocket of people who are already transformed because when I joined these decisions were already made. But I hope to stay here long enough to see many such transformation aka progressions!"

1. Take sessions in college

   Whether you are asked to do it as a part of the given tasks or not, taking sessions on what’s-new in tech world like Microsoft Azure overview, Azure app service, Windows 10 technical preview, Windows 10 development, Microsoft band SDK, any tech that students can benefit from such as Xamarin, Cordova, project Siena, app studio, webmatrix, visual studio etc. or game development perhaps session on Unity, Construct 2, Game Salad, Game maker Studio etc. or if requirement be on Office 365, PowerPoint, excel (very under rated as college students and only when one gets in a job that they realize that excel is really important!) can really hone your skills – public speaking, presentation skills and your own technical skills for you will be preparing really well before you present a content in front of 50-100 folks!   

2. Write Blogs

   As MSPs you will be learning and trying your hands on on lot of things. Most of the times these things will be very new to your fellow students and sometimes even to the MSP community. The only way you can share your knowledge is to write a journal about it! If you draft your learnings in a journal you are not only sharing it with wider community but also creating a go-to reference incase you need to get back to it yourself one day. Since the world is online this decade what better way to document it than an online blog!

3. Connect with other MSPs in India

   Needless to say to accelerate technical know-how and to share motivation keeping in touch with the likeminded MSPs across India is a great boon. They not only share your enthusiasm for technology but also make a good ear to listen to any difficulty that you may be facing and offer solutions too in some case. There is a WhatsApp group which has MSPs from India, if you are not a part of it yet, you must join it if you are interested.

4. Adapt to the latest technology

   I know everyone wants to try out Azure and requirement of Credit card had really made it difficult in the past, however, with the announcement of the new offer (https://www.dreamspark.com/Product/Product.aspx?productid=99) I am sure things have become easy now. Staying at the top of latest tech innovation is critical. Whether someone asks you or not you should be reading up on what’s new and try your hands-on if you find something interesting and deliver a session on it later. J

5. Feel free to invite local Technical Evangelist for MSP meet-ups/sessions

   If you would like to hear from Microsofties and request for a session from them, feel free to reach out to any technical evangelist from your region and they might just drop by! The best way to reach out to them is via twitter. Every Microsoft Evangelist is active on twitter and it is mentioned in their twitter bio that they are MS Evangelist. Just create your twitter account and connect with us! We love you guys and would love to hear from you!

6. Start tech-club in college

   I think many MSPs are already doing this. The best to stay connected and share your tech knowledge with other students in your college is to lead a tech club and if you do not have a tech club then start one! Conduct periodic meetings and empower the members to share what new they have learnt, conduct discussion and debate such as “is wearable the next big thing” etc. You can conduct hand-on-labs on any topic, you can find so many HOLs on GitHub.

7. Use college’s mailing list to send tech updates

   Every college has a mailing list and using it creatively and occasionally may help you reach out wider audience. You can take help from someone who has good design sense or products such as ”sway” (https://sway.com/ ) to create newsletter where you can talk about your tech club, MSP meetups and everything that you can think about!

8. Attend local tech events, seminars, user group meetups

   If you have a local user group, joining it and attending it’s event is a very good practice. You will get a lot of exposure and meet a lot of new people who share your enthusiasm of technology and learning. They might even help you solve your queries (if you have any)!

9. Organize local MSP meet ups

   Organizing local MSP meetups is more rewarding than you can think. Just meeting fellow MSPs over coffee or a meal can give you insights about what other colleges are doing, what other MSPs are working on and give opportunities for collaboration.

10. Encourage a feeling of community and support each other

    At the end of the day what will truly sick to you are the friends that you will make in each other. Helping each other, supporting each other, doing the same tasks. When I was a MSP I made some friends who are there for many years to come. Hope you meet interesting people and make such binds.

     

    Comment below to share your best practice! :)

Feature wise :

Thin Client (example: Web apps) - no installation, auto udpates

Fat Client (example: Desktop apps) - high performance, high productivity

Smart Client (example: Windows Form apps) - using internet to access data, desktop like look-and-feel

This blog is about how to create a smart client, publish it using ClickOnce and  publish it in Azure Websites.

PART 1: Create a smart Client Application

Windows forms are part of .NET framework. They are like a blank page and you can make a GUI out of it by using various controls. There are many controls such as: buttons, combo box, DataGrid, FileDialog, Picture Box, Flow Layout Panel etc. To create a Windows Forms smart client I have followed a very simple tutorial. This tutorial enables you to create a forms app - you can upload a picture from your file system, change the background color and clear the picture.

Follow the tutorial here : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd492135.aspx

PART 2: Deploy your app on your PC using ClickOnce (optional, do it just for fun!)

ClickOnce is a deployment technique which you can find as a part of VS 2005 and above. IMO, it is very simple wizard that lets us publish smart client and make it accessible by website, network resource using UNC  or CD ROM/DVD ROM. Following are the step to publish using ClickOnce.

Step 1: To publish using ClickOnce, right click on the project name (in solution explorer) and click on "publish" which is 6th option from the top.

STEP 2: You will see an option to specify the location where you want publish the smart client. You can choose between file system and FTP server. I am choosing File system for now. so I will choose desktop as my location and CD ROM/DVD Rom as the source. Once you click finish your smart client will be published at the specified location.

PART 3: Publish the Smart Client on Microsoft Azure Website.

We will use FTP to publish the smart client. Following is the step by step tutorial.

STEP 1: Goto https://manage.windowsazure.com/ and sign in with your subscription id. Once done, "quick create" a new website.

STEP 2: Navigate to the dashboard of the website and on the right side under the heading "quick glance" click on "download the publish profile". Open or Save as per your choice. Open this publish profile, it is essentially a text file. press cltr+F and type "ftp". Find the publish url and leave it here. Now navigate to Visual Studio where you have created your smart client project.

STEP 3: in Visual Studio, right click the project name in the solution explorer and click "publish". Here click on "browse" and choose FTP server. Now open the publish profile text file that you have downloaded from the Azure portal and copy the publish url from there and paste it in the wizard. Click on next. Here copy the url of your Azure website. click on next.

STEP 4: Keep clicking next and click finish. Visual Studio will prompt you to fill username and password. For this, open the publish profile and copy paste the username and password.

 STEP 5: Click ok. Internet Explorer will pop open the website.

STEP 6: Run the application. :)

Hope this helps.

This is a simple PHP site which has a function called phpinfo() which display information like php version etc.

I will open FileZilla now, and locate my index.php file.

Now I will goto Azure portal and to the website  I have already created and navigate to it's dashboard. On the right side I will see an option - Download the Publish profile. It is nothing but a txt file. From this file search for FTP keyword and copy paste in FileZilla the publish URL in Host, Username and Password into Username and Password respectively.

Once you have filled the data in FileZilla click on Quickconnect. You can now see a folder and hostingstart.html in the remote site panel. Right click on index.php from the panel where you have earlier located this file and click on upload. As soon as you do that you will see index.php right below hostingstart.html.

Now all that remains is to goto Azure portal and hit browse.

you can see that the PHP version is displayed amongst other information. Now if you goto Configure tab in the portal and change the version of PHP, save the changes and browse again you will see the updated version.

That's all I have for you today! :)

If you open Visual Studio you will Node.js templates, you can take your pick and write your Node.js website.

I will be deploying a very simple Node.js website from Visual Studio 2013. (Download the Azure SDK!)

To deploy open VS 2013 and right click on your project name. You will see an option - Publish. Click on that and a small windows will open up which may prompt you to sign in through you Azure account. If you are already signed in you can skip this step, sometime it may ask you to just fill in your password. After signing it, you can see a drop down which lists all your currently available websites and an option next to it "New". So to deploy your website you can either pick a website that you have already created from the dropdown or go ahead and create a new on right from this window. I am going to select an already created website. and hit next, next, next and publish.  

Once Published, you can see the link of your website right in the visual studio. Ctrl +Click and your website open up in VS! That's all. :)

Prerequisites :

1. Azure Account

2. Dropbox Account

3. ASP.NET hello world page

4. Internet Connection

5. Web browser

6. PC with an OS

Here is step by step of what you should do.

STEP 1 : Goto https://manage.windowsazure.com/ and sign in with your Azure account credential. Hit on "+NEW" which you can see at bottom left. A menu will pop up, from this menu choose websites, then choose quick create and write the name of the URL of your choice.

You can also do a custom create or choose from gallery. Gallery has tones to template for example, WordPress, Drupal, Joomla etc. You can browse through these and pick the template that best meets your website idea and functionality.

Once your website is created you can see it running in the portal.

STEP 2 : Navigate to the dashboard page of your website by clicking on the small arrow next to your site's name. Here at the right hand side you will see an option ' set up deployment from source control'. click on that and you will see a list of options. Select dropbox.

Once you do that you will be prompted to enter your dropbox credentials. Azure management portal sends your credentials to dropbox, dropbox authenticates it and returns a token to management portal. if you are syncing a website for the first time dropbox will create a folder called "Apps" in C:\user\xyz\dropbox, there will be another folder created called "Azure" in C:\Users\xyz\dropbox\Apps. Now in Azure folder one folder will be created for each of your website for which you will set dropbox as source control.

If you have connected a website to dropbox once and disconnect it and reconnect it, there will be two folders created in C:\Users\xyz\dropbox\Apps, namely Azure and Azure(1).

STEP 3: once your folder is created, dump you ASP.NET website folder in the corresponding folder in  C:\Users\xyz\dropbox\Apps\Azure. Head back to portal and click on sync under deployment tab.

This WebSite5 is nothing but a visual Studio project with three files - html, Web and Web.config.

So now your website is deployed!

There maybe few cases in which you may need to make some changes, for example, goto Configure tab and make sure

1. In the Virtual application and directories correct folder is mentioned for your website

2. In default documents, landing page of your website is mentioned.

That's all, now hit browse and see your site running! :)

Hope you enjoyed reading this post!

So many people around the world use so many websites on a regular basis. I think every time a person breaths there is someone somewhere opening a new website page in a browser. As a website user it is imperative to know that the site we are requesting is authentic and verified as an original, genuine site. More so when the task at hand is serious, for example movie ticket booking - involving movies and money - two most important things in the world :)

so I guess there should be some indication which I can observe and believe that the website that I am using is indeed genuine. Do you know how you can check it? - by clicking on the same tiny little lock symbol at the address bar when you open any URL. this is how it will look when you click on the lock.

when you click on the tiny lock the pop up will tell you if the website is verified or not, who has verified it and you can click to view the certificate. in this case, Twitter is verified by VeriSign which means VeriSign is telling me that this website twitter is a proper website identified to Twitter, Inc. If I chose to view the certificate, this is how the certificate would look like :

These certificates are used to verify that the website is legitimate and can encrypt files, and as a form of authentication. They must come from certification authorities, the organizations responsible for issuing and revoking certificates. A certificate will contain at least these things Owner's public key, Owner's name or alias, Expiration date of the certificate,Serial number of the certificate, Name of the organization that issued the certificate and Digital signature of the organization that issued the certificate. Let me mention the purpose of a certificate. A certificate does the following things - Verify the identity of clients and servers on the Web, Encrypt channels to provide secure communication between clients and servers, Encrypt messages for secure Internet e-mail communication, Verify the sender's identity for Internet e-mail messages, Put your digital signature on executable code that users can download from the Web and Verify the source and integrity of signed executable code that users can download from the Web. 

Now you must wonder who are these people who has the power to issue the certificates. Certificates are issued, renewed and managed by Certification Authorities (CA).CA does a lot of things such as Issue, renew, and revoke certificates, Authenticate the identities of individuals and organizations, Verify the registrations of individuals and organizations, Publish and maintain a Certificate Revocation List (CRL) of all certificates that the CA has revoked, Handle legal and liability issues related to security etc.

The exchange of certificates between clients and servers is performed by using a secure transmission protocol, such as SSL or TLS.

One more thing I want to share with you is about Extended Validation Certificate. It is the latest and we can say a significant advancement in SSL technology. It follows standardized extended validation guidelines. Extended SSL is the right choice for websites who wish to work with highest level of authenticity. Check this out : 

 Let me summarize your takeaways -

1. all websites must acquire digital certificates

2. CA issues, revokes digital certificates

3. There are different types of certificates available, you can goto CA's website and decide which certificate you want

4. you get certificate in .pfx format

5. you just have to install it in your server

Hope this was helpful.  If you want to share your feedback or if you have any question please tweet them to me at @SameekshaKhare and I will answer them as much as I can.

I am going to show you how my one year at Microsoft through some old pictures. Most of these are posted on my Facebook, Instagram (user id -sakhare04) and Twitter (handle - @SameekshaKhare) pages so you might have seen them before, but I am going to share with you the stories behind these pictures, I hope you will enjoy reading it s much as I enjoyed writing it.

Here comes the first photo..

This is the photos of the firsts. My first business card, my first office desk, first office kit, first company meeting, first trip abroad. In the first few months of my job everything was so new and dear to me. I was taking it all slow and trying to grasp and feel every moment of the day as it passed. I still remember how excited I was when I received the carton full of business card! For my first company meeting, we all stayed over in a hotel in Powai, Mumbai, it was a great time for me to connect with my larger team and get to know everybody. The food was delicious and entertainment mind-blowing!

Next picture please...

Most of these photos are from my awesome trip to Atlanta which happens to be my first abroad trip. I think that Atlanta is a very nice city and the people are also very nice and helpful. I made so many new friends and they are all amazing. Many of them are Technical Evangelists like myself. The trip also saw me attending trainings and work with diverse groups. It was a great experience. I have realized that people are not much different from each other around the world.

And the third picture...

A lot of very important people are present in this picture. My friend, my seniors, my whole team, my segment people, office people! All of these people are unique and so helpful. Can you see the grape -crushing picture second column from bottom right? that is a picture from my team-offsite. We went to the Grover's vineyard near Bengaluru. And just next to it on left is the dinner party with whole of my team. Interesting times. Just next to it, on left, the tiny picture with so many people in it, that's the latest one and all these people are from my segment which is Developer Experience previously aka DPE.  

Next up...

Oh this is work-fun-work-fun picture. This pat one year I have had a lot of fun and party. I didn't party much when I was in college, so all this was refreshing for me! On the top left you can see my immediate team members (@s_gandhali, @devgeekraj). This picture is taken in Pune, just after the Pune Dev Camp, we all went to some place in ABC farms and had dinner. Just next to it on right is me with my senior college hires in Pizza hut. It was a post office thing and we were all very hungry! Just diagonally below it is a picture where my manager Aditee Rele (@aditeerele) is feeding me cake. Evidently its a picture from my birthday this year (Its on 4th February, presents are highly appreciated! :)). Its a nice picture I think with contrast of my lemon yellow and her deep red, I like this picture for more than one reason..

And lastly..

You can see a lot of laptop and All-in-one screens here, what happened was after 6 months, a lot of work started happening. When I going through the photos in my cell phone I realized that I do not have any nice clicks at all, all pics are of my computer instead. But I love my computer so that's ok! Look at the picture on top right. Its a back-drop from park Engineering college. They had my name written on it, It was such a great feeling! Just next to it on left is me with my beautiful Lenovo All in one. That night was pretty interesting, I was due some work and I happily stayed in office till late, ordered pizza and disturbed a team-mate Deepthi (@Deanath) for I needed her help in finishing my work. Such a helpful chilled out person she is! Even though it was late and a sunday she was up and helping me out with every single doubt that I had. Can you see the bottom left pic with so man children in it? That was taken at "Bring your child to work day". I was teaching these young adult about app development. Such good grasping power these kids have. I am wondering what I was when I was 13-14 years of age - certainly not making app! The dark picture at the center? That was taken when I had just started blogging. I usually prefer a good ambience when I write.. and the Backlit keyboard of my ASUS ultrabook really helps me out in creating it.

This is how one year of my life has been! This Wednesday I have a review with my manager on how I have performed in this year, its going to be my first review ever, I don't know what to expect or what's the right thing to say. My strategy is to go with the flow! :)