While the service is in beta, storage is free up to 10 GB and streaming is free up to 5 TB of aggregated bandwidth per user account per month. Videos should not exceed 10 minutes and have a maximum bit rate of 1.4 Mbps.

To get started all one needs is a Windows Live ID. Once signed in to the Silverlight Streaming using the Live ID a developer can upload a video to the Silverlight Streaming site by clicking on Manage Videos.

Next step is to upload a video to the site. Once the upload is complete, the URL to embed the video in a webpage is provided.

If there are multiple videos and one wishes to create a playlist, the easiest way to do so is to use Expression Encoder. Import all the videos in Expression Encoder. Choose the format (and bit rate) in which the videos should be encoded (Encode tab) and the Silverlight player template that should be used (Output tab – Job Output section) and click on Encode. (There are lot of other options that one can play with like the title, the image appears as the thumbnail for the video and also divide the video in clips).

The application can be published directly to Silverlight Streaming website. However to do this one requires to download the Silverlight Streaming plugin for Expression Encoder.

If the video is uploaded from Expression Encoder, the project is uploaded as an application to the Silverlight Streaming website and can be viewed in the Manage Applications page on the Silverlight Streaming website.

• Most browsers can’t have multiple versions installed side-by-side. The newest version replaces older versions. So, you can’t have IE6 and IE7 on the same machine (unless you’re using virtual machines or unstable registry hacks).
• Many browsers support both Mac and Windows. Devs want to test in (at least) Mac Safari, which doesn’t render the same as Safari on Windows.
• The ergonomics of browser testing is awkward. Many devs load their site on a staging server and have a battery of machines running different browsers. They have to manually load a page in each machine and then walk to each individual machine to compare the different monitors.

Microsoft Expression SuperPreview simplifies the process of testing and debugging layout issues across different web browsers and platforms. Developers can view web pages in multiple browsers simultaneously or view how a page renders in a browser and compare it to a comp or mock-up image of a page.

Most of the times, developers start with a single “baseline browser” as they initially design their pages. Once the page is working correctly in this browser, they begin tweaking the page to work in other browsers. So, in SuperPreview, one can load up any number of different browsers, but one of them will be defined as a baseline browser. When one works in SuperPreview, a developer is typically comparing a browser against this baseline rendering.

There are a few big differences between SuperPreview and other browser comparison tools. All of the other tools we’re familiar with are strictly “service-based,” meaning that you need to point these services at a public URL, they render the pages in specified browsers on a set of remote servers, and then send you the results. This makes them slow, and it also makes it more difficult for them to work with pages under development (on a local file system). SuperPreview works directly with the installed browsers - meaning, one doesn’t need to package or publish the web pages before using it. SuperPreview also includes the IE6 rendering engine, built-in. This can be used side-by-side with other versions of IE.

Other browser comparison tools show only images of different browser renderings, allowing a developer to visually compare them. This only helps to identify problems, but doesn’t help to find the element that’s causing the problem. SuperPreview couples image renderings with DOM data (refer the snapshot below), highlighting specific DOM elements within the image, and showing differences across browsers. It also provides element information such as position, dimensions and ID. This helps pinpoint the element that’s causing the compatibility issue.

SuperPreview was designed to integrate well with Expression Web. One can easily test pages at any stage in the design process, and launch SuperPreview from directly within the app.

SuperPreview for Internet Explorer is available for free (Note: this does not have support for Firefox. To debug pages in both Internet Explorer and Firefox, download the free 60-day trial of Microsoft Expression Web).

With the announcement of Microsoft WebsiteSpark, Microsoft also launched a number of Web Application Toolkits to the Web. Web Application Toolkits are designed to enable Web Developers to simply extend their web application capabilities by providing them with a packaged set of running samples, templates and documentation.

The goal for the Web Application Toolkits is to provide Web Developers with resources such as project templates, controls, and code samples along with simplified documentation all in a consistent packaged format that is easy to download and run in a very short period of time. With the correct prerequisites installed using the Web Platform Installer, a Web Developer can have a Web Application Toolkit sample application installed and running in 5mins.

7 application toolkits were released yesterday -

	Web Application Toolkit for Internet Explorer 8 Extensibility Today users can access rich information and services while they are browsing a site; it's not a trivial task to expose this content to the same users when they are not on that site. The goal of this Web Application Toolkit is to leverage the new features in Internet Explorer 8 (Web Slices, Accelerators and Visual Search Providers) to extend the reach of a web site and services also to those users that are not on the site. The Web Application Toolkit includes a set of ASP.NET Web Controls that can be used to take advantage of these IE new features in a Web application.
	Web Application Toolkit for Bing Search Bing is a powerful new Decision Engine designed to help consumers accomplish tasks and make faster, more informed decisions. The Bing Application Programming Interface (API) provides developers programmatic access to Bing, offering flexible options for building or enhancing a site or application. This Web Application Toolkit shows how to take advantage of the Bing API to add search capabilities to a Web site by leveraging the various search results that the Bing API provides, including Web content, images, news and videos, among others. Discover how to use ASP.NET AJAX and jQuery to provide an enhanced and more interactive end user experience when using the Bing API through this toolkit.
	Web Application Toolkit for REST Service Many Web applications today are starting to expose data as REST service interfaces, so it can be accessed through APIs by other tiers of the application or even by other applications. A RESTful web service is a simple Web service implemented using HTTP and the principles of REST. REST Services focus on resources; each one is represented by a unique URI, and users interact with them via their URI using the HTTP uniform interface. This Web Application Toolkit shows how to easily add REST service interfaces for an existing Web application. The Web Application Toolkit includes a sample REST service, two sample client applications that access the REST services, one using simple ASP.NET Web Forms and a second Web application using AJAX to asynchronously invoke the REST service and finally a custom project template for Visual Studio to make it very easy to build new REST Services.
	Web Application Toolkit for Mobile Web Applications This Web Application Toolkit is designed to demonstrate how to extend an existing ASP.NET MVC Web application to provide access from mobile devices. To enable mobile access, the Web application should have views targeting each of the mobile devices to be supported. The MVC pattern helps you create applications that separate the different aspects of the application (input logic, business logic, and UI logic), while providing a loose coupling between these elements. This Web Application Toolkit provides a component called MobileCapableViewEngine that enables the Web application to show the appropriate view depending on the device's browser that is performing the request. It also includes a sample site that provides different views for Windows Mobile, IPhone, and Blackberry devices.
	Web Application Toolkit for Template Driven Email This Web Application Toolkit is designed to demonstrate how to generate and send dynamic, template-based emails from a web application. There are many common scenarios where notification emails need to be sent to end users. Examples of these common scenarios may involve notifying a user of their newly created account, sending a new password in respond to a forgotten password request, or emailing an alert under specific business circumstances, such as the creation of a order. Typically the e-mails sent from a Web application scenario are formatted as HTML, include CSS stylesheets, and images and need to be generated dynamically with custom or user-specific data. This Web Application Toolkit includes samples that show how to use templates to generate these dynamic email bodies.
	Web Application Toolkit for making a Web Site Social Adding social capabilities to your Web site can attract new users, keep them on a Web site for longer and get them to come back more often. This Web Application Toolkit shows how, using a few lines of code with the Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit, it is possible to add social capabilities to a Web site with instant messaging from a website to various client endpoints like Windows, Windows Mobile, Xbox 360 and Mac.  Behind the scenes is a powerful set of UI Controls and a JavaScript library that connect your website to the Messenger Service which is used by 330 million users around the world.
	Web Application Toolkit for FAQs The majority of web sites have the need to display a list of frequently asked questions to their users. Although it's not difficult to create a simple set of FAQ pages, creating a great user experience that supports searching for FAQs, filtering, and paging, can become more difficult. Furthermore, this is often common functionality that has to be implemented repeatedly in multiple Web sites. This Web Application Toolkit is designed to provide a starting set of code including ASP.NET pages, data access logic, and database schemas, for integrating Frequently Asked Questions into a ASP.NET MVC Web application.

You can watch the intro screencast on Channel9 to understand what Web Application Toolkits are all about.

As the latest initiative in the ‘Spark’ family of programs, including BizSpark and DreamSpark, Microsoft is building upon a legacy of working with key communities and providing the additional support, tools and resources needed in order to help them thrive. The WebsiteSpark Program provides Web professionals with Microsoft software and solutions, together with related tools, training and support, to help their businesses succeed. The WebsiteSpark Program also helps drive new business opportunities by connecting Web professionals and hosters with an ecosystem of customers, partners and other professionals with complementary technologies.

Web development and design companies with up to 10 employees and owners can participate in the WebsiteSpark Program for three years with no up-front cost. There is only a $100 program offering fee, payable at exit, with no other costs or obligations. Once approved, these companies can have access to:

• Microsoft Web design and development tools
• 3 licenses of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
• 1 license of Microsoft Expression Studio 3 (which includes Expression Blend, Sketchflow, and Web)
• 2 licenses of Microsoft Expression Web 3
• Microsoft Servers
• 4 processor licenses for production usage of Microsoft Windows Web Server 2008 or R2 (when available)
• 4 processor licenses for production usage of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Web Edition.
• A third-party premium Website control panel (DotNetPanel).
  

Participating companies will also receive the following professional support and training:

• Two technical support incidents per company.
• Access to community support through connections with Network Partners, Hosting Partners and peers with complementary services and technologies.
• Unlimited access to technical managed newsgroups on MSDN.
• Unlimited program support for non-technical issues.

In addition to software, solutions, training and support, the program will extend the reach of participating companies by featuring their offerings in a WebsiteSpark marketplace, supported by Microsoft marketing vehicles. This marketplace will help participating companies connect with new prospective customers worldwide via the WebsiteSpark Marketplace, coming later this fall.

How to Sign Up?

If you meet the requirements (build web sites and web applications and have less than 10 employees) you can visit the WebsiteSpark website and sign-up today. 

As part of the enrollment process you can pick either a network referral partner (for example: a hoster or an existing Microsoft partner), or enter a referral code that you have received at an event or from a Microsoft employee.  If you send mail to webspark@microsoft.com you can get a referral code quickly.  You can then use that code to enroll in the program on the WebsiteSpark website.  Once enrolled you can immediately download and use the software, as well as begin to participate in the network/partner opportunities.

PHP & SQL Server Demos

• Integrating SQL Server Geo-Spatial with PHP
• SQL Server Reporting Services and PHP

PHP & SQL Server Hands On Labs

• Introduction to Using SQL Server with PHP
• Using Full Text Search over Office Documents in PHP

PHP on Windows Hands On Labs

• IIS Access Control Features for PHP
• Using IIS 7.0 Media Features in a PHP Application
• Troubleshooting PHP

In addition to the links that I posted in my last post on PHP on Windows this is kit is a must read for all PHP developers adopting Windows platform.

You can download the kit from MSDN.

Microsoft collaborated on the PHP SDK with RealDolmen.

On Microsoft’s Port 25 blog, Open Source Community Program Manager Peter Galli said Microsoft is also announcing “the launch of a series of projects that offer samples and a toolkit that enable PHP developers to include Silverlight controls, Microsoft Virtual Earth maps and IE Webslices and Accelerators in PHP web applications; as well as automatically generated a simple “Create, Read, Update, Delete (CRUD)” PHP application from a table in SQL Server.”

The current build of the PHP SDK is considered a Community Technology Preview. Milestone 2 is due out in late July, and the final in late August of this year.

1. Web Development with ASP.NET
2. Move from ASP to ASP.NET
3. Move from PHP to ASP.NET

These tracks, along with the other currently offered ones (eg, Windows Mobile 6, SharePoint for Developers, Visual Studio 2008), teach the important skills in a guided path, making the learning process easier and more efficient. The easy-to-access content (provided by subject-matter gurus) is specifically tailored for the Ramp Up program, and offered in a variety of forms (article, v-lab, codecast and slidecast). Check them out now at www.MyRampUp.com, and see how Ramp Up can help you become more employable by learning important and marketable skills.

The Web Platform Installer (WebPI) is a simplified download/install experience for all of Microsoft’s free web products. It includes everything that a developer needs to get up and running to build your web solutions – from servers, tools, and technologies, including the most recently updated products. One does not have to go to 10 different websites to get the products – with the WebPI, one can do this all through one integrated experience. Additionally, the WebPI installs the community version of PHP so that one can have easy integration with popular web applications.

The Web Platform Installer Includes:

• Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.1 on Windows XP SP3
• IIS 6.0 on Windows Server 2003 SP2
• IIS 7.0 on Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008
• SQL Server 2008 Express,
• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition
• IIS Extensions including:
  • IIS 7 Media Services 3.0
  • IIS7 Administration Pack
  • Database Manager for IIS7
  • WebDav 7.5
  • FTP 7.5
  • FastCGI for PHP support on IIS6
  • URL Rewriter
  • IIS 7 Application Routing
  • Web Deployment Tool for IIS
• ASP.NET and features such as ASP.NET MVC
• Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio
• The Community Version of PHP v5.2.9

The Windows Web Application Gallery is a community hub of the most popular Open Source and community Web applications that run on Windows. It provides a simple streamlined way for users to explore, discover, and install ASP.NET, PHP, and other types of Web applications and solutions on the Windows Platform. It also provides a simple way for developers to offer their applications to the millions of users worldwide.

To add an app to the Web Application Gallery a developer needs to add a couple of manifest files to the root of your existing ZIP package using the Application Packaging Guide, test to make sure that the apps work on the platforms supported by Web Platform Installer, and follow the other Web Application Gallery Principles.

The Web App Gallery is open to ASP.NET and PHP applications that follow our Web Application Gallery Principles and best practices for hosting ASP.NET and PHP applications on IIS.

Key benefits of running PHP on Windows

• Develop and deploy Web applications using the same Operating System
• Consolidate and run PHP and .NET Web applications side by side
• Leverage powerful media serving with Microsoft’s Streaming Media server and Windows Services 2008
• Give you site more SPEED and reduce management complexity using IIS 7.0
• Host PHP applications on a streamlined, headless Server Core installation, running a modular Web server, optimized at install for just hosting PHP as fast and securely as possible.

Want to get started with PHP on Windows… check out the links below -

• New to IIS? Learn how to configure FastCGI on IIS 6.0 or IIS 7.0 to run your PHP applications.
• Already know the basics and need to get more information about FastCGI features and best practices for running PHP on IIS? Refer to the FastCGI configuration reference and PHP hosting best practices article.
• Your PHP application uses MySQL? Refer to this article to learn how to configure MySQL on Windows Server 2008.
• Your PHP application needs fast and reliable connectivity to Microsoft SQL Server? Check out the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Driver for PHP.
• Want to enable search engine friendly URLs for your PHP application? Use the Microsoft URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0.

I would also recommend downloading these addition resources from Microsoft -

Microsoft Web Platform Installer – The Web Platform Installer provides a single, free package for installing and configuring the Microsoft Web Platform, including IIS 7.0, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Express Edition, and the .NET Framework.

Microsoft Expression Web – Microsoft Expression Web offers powerful design tools for creating standards-based sites.

Microsoft Web Application Installer – The Web Application Installer is designed to quickly get developers started with the most widely used Web applications freely available. The Web Application Installer provides support for popular ASP.NET and PHP Web applications including Graffiti, DotNetNuke, WordPress, Drupal and more.

While there is no way to enable the hibernate or sleep feature while the hyper-v service is running, you can control when the service is started by changing Start parameter of the hvboot service -

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\hvboot]

The Start property of a service can have the following values: 0=Boot, 1=System, 2=Auto, 3=Demand, 4=Disabled.

Set the value to 3, so that you can start the service when you want. 0 is not supported for hvboot.

Reboot the server. Hibernate and sleep should now be enabled for you till the time you start the hvboot service.

However, now if you try to start a virtual server in the hyper-v console you will get an error saying that the hyper-v service is not running and you will have to start it manually using the net start command. To do this, start command prompt under administrator privileges and execute the following command to start the service.

net start hvboot

Now you should be able to start your virtual machines. However, as a side effect hibernate and sleep will be disabled till you restart you machine.

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Tweaking with the registry can be dangerous so for those who want a safe alternative, you can use the following command to set the Start property of the hvboot service as well -

sc config hvboot start= demand

The other values that you can use are system, auto, demand and disabled. Boot is not supported.
Also, note that space between = and demand. The syntax of service config requires this space.
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