February 2011

Windows Workflow: Securing WF 4 Workflow Services
We explain various security options for different workflow hosts, including a discussion of the Workflow Security Pack project and how its collection of activities can be used to bring end-to-end security to workflow solutions.
Zulfiqar Ahmed

Team Foundation Server: Visual Studio TFS Branching and Merging Guidance
Learn firsthand from members of one of Microsoft’s expert “Ranger” teams how best to handle software development branching with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server.
Willy-Peter Schaub and Bill Heys

 

Dynamic .NET:  Understanding the Dynamic Keyword in C# 4
The dynamic keyword brings exciting new features to C# 4. We'll show you how it works and why it simplifies a lot of your coding tasks, including some handy COM interop possibilities.
Alexandra Rusina

Dynamic Data: Pattern Matching Database Records with F#
When migrating data from other sources into a single database used by your app, you'll probably have to employ some matching and de-duplication processes to end up with a useful data store. We'll show you four different matching algorithms and the F# code to implement them.
Ambar Ray

Parallel Computing: It's All About the SynchronizationContext
SynchronizationContext is a class (and concept) that is central to the correct operation of multithreaded components on .NET, but is often overlooked or misunderstood.
Steve Cleary

Business Connectivity Services: Managing Employee Rewards with Office and SharePoint BCS
How can you use parallel coding techniques to squeeze the utmost performance out of multi-core systems when processing data? There are many different approaches, but we show you the absolute best.
Ying Xiong

Data Contract Inheritance: Known Types and the Generic Resolver
Developers often struggle with the hassles of data contract inheritance in WCF, a problem called known types. We'll explain the origin of the problem, then show you how to eliminate the problem altogether with the generic resolver.
Juval Lowy

Columns

Editor's Note:
Quick Guide to Getting Published
So, you want to write for MSDN Magazine. Here are a few tips on getting started.
Keith Ward

Don't Get Me Started:
Never, Never Land
As in medicine, certain events in software development should never happen. Not ever.
David Platt

Test Run:
Measuring Test Effort Progress with EVM
An important part of software testing -- or coding -- effort is the ability to measure the progress. One technique for doing this is a technique called Earned Value Management, and we'll show you how easy it is to apply EVM to your own projects.
James McCaffrey

UI Frontiers:
Sound Recording in Windows Phone 7
Stripping down the UI to essentials is important when programming for a smartphone. We'll see just how stripped down an app can get while still being useful, and we'll explore the sound recording APIs in Windows Phone 7 along the way.
Charles Petzold

Cutting Edge:
Policy Injection in Unity
Dino Esposito follows up on his discussion of the Unity interception API by explaining how policy injection lets you concentrate on the details of the behavior you want, leaving the library to decide which methods it applies to based on the rules you give it.
Dino Esposito

Forecast: Cloudy:
Branch-Node Synchronization with SQL Azure, Part 2: Service-Based Sync
Learn how using Azure to sync corporate databases lets you scale to many more end nodes than are possible with direct-to-database synchronization.
Joseph Fultz

Toolbox:
Windows Phone 7 Development Tools and Resources
Windows Phone 7 has a large, and continually growing, ecosystem of resources for developers. Here are some of the main ones.
Terrence Dorsey

Data Points:
Slice and Dice OData with the jQuery DataTables Plug-In
OData lets you access data over the Web through simple HTTP commands. We’ll show you how the jQuery DataTables plug-in along with the Microsoft .NET Framework and Silverlight OData client libraries let you retrieve and display this data quickly, easily and with style.
Julie Lerman