Ruud de Jonge : TechEd

The 72 Hour Conversation on the Future of the Web Starts with Dean, Joe, and Scott

Ruud de Jonge — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 08:20:31 GMT

At last year's MIX10 event, Windows Internet Explorer Corporate Vice President, Dean Hachamovitch, announced the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 1 with hardware accelerated HTML5. This year, Dean will be back on the MIX stage as he returns as the day 1 keynoter at MIX11. Eight platform previews, one beta, one release candidate, and one final version of Internet Explorer 9 later - it’s a keynote you won’t want to miss.

But that’s not all! For the second year in a row, Joe Belfiore, who oversees Windows Phone Program Management, and is responsible for the design and software product definition of forthcoming generations of Windows phones and Zune devices will keynote MIX. By his side will be Scott Guthrie, who heads Microsoft's .NET Developer Platform, where he runs the development teams responsible for delivering Silverlight, Visual Studio and the .NET Framework technologies for building client and Web applications.

MIX is the entrée to the most thought-provoking experts and pioneering technologists discussing and debating the Internet nation today. More than 150 top thinkers in the web community will give sessions and panels all designed to prepare you for the innovations of the next web now. Topics at MIX run the gamut from RIA to web standards, media, video, cloud services, tooling, devices, games, plus the breakthroughs coming out of research. There’s no better place for a UX expert or a web architect to hear about the future of technologies like HTML5 and CSS3, Silverlight, Internet Explorer, Windows Phone, and ASP.NET.

Dean, Joe and Scott will set the stage for this exciting content and discussion that will be had at MIX this year, and YOU need to be part of that conversation.

Future of Silverlight - Special Event Invite

Ruud de Jonge — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:00:41 GMT

You’re invited to a very special event on December 2^nd, 2010

Learn about the future of Silverlight from Corporate Vice President, Scott Guthrie and other experts, direct from Microsoft’s HQ.

Hear about our plans for the next version of Silverlight, the latest developments as well as in-depth sessions on building applications with Silverlight.

Registration is free – take part in-person or online.

Find out more and Register online

DevDays 2010 sessies online te bekijken op Channel 9

Ruud de Jonge — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:26:56 GMT

Mega veel content is nu online op Channel 9 in een hoge kwaliteit. Klik op het plaatje of op de volgende link :

http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/DevDays-2010-NL/#Page=1

Alert for Users of Internet Explorer 6 and 7 : ADVANCE NOTIFICATION - March 30, 2010 (OOB) Microsoft Security Bulletin Release

Ruud de Jonge — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:22:02 GMT

What is the purpose of this alert?

This is an advance notification of an out-of-band security bulletin that Microsoft is intending to release on March 30, 2010. The bulletin is being released to address attacks against customers of Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7. Users of Internet Explorer 8 and Windows 7 are not vulnerable to these attacks.

The vulnerability used in these attacks, along with workarounds, is described in Microsoft Security Advisory 981374.

The out-of-band security bulletin is a cumulative security update for Internet Explorer and will also contain fixes for privately reported vulnerabilities rated Critical on all versions of Internet Explorer that are not related to this attack.

Microsoft continues to encourage customers to follow the “Protect Your Computer” guidance of enabling a firewall, applying all software updates and installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Additional information can be found at www.microsoft.com/protect.

New Bulletin Summary

Bulletin Identifier	Internet Explorer
Maximum Severity Rating	Critical
Impact of Vulnerability	Remote Code Execution
Restart Requirement	The update will require a restart.
Affected Software	All supported versions of Internet Explorer on supported versions of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2.
Note: information on affected software listed above is an abstract. Please see the Advance Notification Web page at the link below for complete details.

Bulletin Identifier

Internet Explorer

Maximum Severity Rating

Critical

Impact of Vulnerability

Remote Code Execution

Restart Requirement

The update will require a restart.

Affected Software

All supported versions of Internet Explorer on supported versions of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Note: information on affected software listed above is an abstract. Please see the Advance Notification Web page at the link below for complete details.

Although we do not anticipate any changes, the information provided in this summary is subject to change until the release.

The full version of the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for this (OOB) release can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-mar.mspx.

Public Bulletin Webcast

Microsoft will host a public webcast to address customer questions on these bulletins:

Title: Information about Microsoft March (OOB) Security Bulletin (Level 200)

Date: Tuesday, March 30, 2010, at 1:00 PM Pacific Time (U.S. & Canada).

URL: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/summary.mspx

At this time no additional information on this bulletin, such as details regarding severity or details regarding the vulnerability will be made available until the bulletin is published.

Resources related to this alert

· Security Advisory 981374 – Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/981374.mspx

· Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/

· Microsoft Security Research & Defense (SRD) Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/srd/

· Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc/

· Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/sdl/

.Net Magazine site nu live

Ruud de Jonge — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:53:50 GMT

Vandaag live gegaan. Alle content uit het .Net Magazine nu live en nog veel meer ! Communities, communities en communities !!!

http://www.dotnetmag.nl/Home

Ik ga naar de DevDays :-)

Ruud de Jonge — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:11:56 GMT

Ook dit jaar ben ik weer bij de DevDays en als ik zo om mij heen kijk is Arie druk bezig met het organiseren van de laatste sessies. Qua programma wordt het meer, meer en oh ja … meer. En natuurlijk zullen wij als eerste in NL aandacht besteden aan development voor Windows Phone 7 gebaseerd op S… en X… (Is nog geheim tot as maandag :-)). En de Geek Night wil je als technologie stuiterbal al helemaal niet missen !

Zie ik je ook in Den Haag op 30 en 31 Maart ?

http://www.devdays.nl/

Windows Phone at MIX10!

Ruud de Jonge — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:05:19 GMT

Yes, at MIX10 you’ll learn about developing applications and games for the next generation of Windows Phone. Yes, we’ll have Phone sessions, and we can’t say more…yet. Stay tuned and check back often or join the MIX mailing list.

http://live.visitmix.com/

Microsoft DevDays site live. Anders Hejlsberg doet de keynote !!!

Ruud de Jonge — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:56:16 GMT

De site www.devdays.nl is net live gegaan en meteen met nieuws. Anders Hejlsberg doet de keynote !! Registreer je nu voor de early-bird korting.

Anders Hejlsberg is a Technical Fellow in the Developer Division. He is an influential creator of development tools and programming languages. He is the chief designer of the C# programming language and a key participant in the development of the Microsoft .NET framework. Since its initial release in 2000, the C# programming language has been widely adopted and is now standardized by ECMA and ISO. Before his work on C# and the .NET framework, Hejlsberg was an architect for Visual J++ development and the Windows Foundation classes.

Before joining Microsoft in 1996, Hejlsberg was one of the first employees of Borland International Inc. As principal engineer, he was the original author of Turbo Pascal, a revolutionary integrated development environment, and chief architect of its successor, Delphi.

Hejlsberg co-authored "The C# Programming Language", published by Addison Wesley, and has received numerous software patents. In 2001, he was the recipient of the prestigious Dr. Dobbs Excellence in Programming Award.

He studied engineering at the Technical University of Denmark

SDL Expands to Encompass Agile and Cloud

Ruud de Jonge — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:43:52 GMT

With more and more business customers deciding between client, cloud, or both for their computing environments, security guidance must be dynamic and evolve along with the community. Because security and privacy are key concerns affecting adoption of cloud computing, the industry has an opportunity to assure customers that web applications running on cloud platforms can operate in a safe and trusted environment.

Microsoft has made a series of moves to take its secure development best practices beyond its borders to the broader developer community. This has included a body of guidance, an SDL Optimization Model, the creation of a network of certified service providers through the SDL Pro Network and a no-cost SDL Threat Modeling tool. All of these, plus subsequent releases of SDL programs, tools, guidance and technologies have better enabled software developers and industry partners to build security and privacy directly into software applications and provide their users with a more trusted computing experience.

Yesterday at the Tech·Ed Conference in Berlin, Germany, Microsoft announced two new SDL offerings

Security Considerations for Client and Cloud. Download a whitepaper from the SDL team that discusses security issues associated with “client and cloud” applications, and the steps Microsoft has taken to evolve SDL to address those security issues in Microsoft services.

SDL 4.1a, expanded to include Agile Development processes. Download the latest SDL process guidance that includes SDL for Agile Development, a streamlined approach that melds Agile methods and security. Comprehensive yet flexible, the SDL for Agile guidance includes all SDL requirements, but provides guidance on how to apply them even for very short release cycles.

Let me briefly expand on each of these.

Security Considerations for Client and Cloud

As the computing industry considers Cloud Computing, customer are concerned with how data will be protected. In a September 2009 online survey of IT Pros, about 51% cited security and data privacy concerns as the biggest impediment to adopting cloud services.

In Security Considerations for Client and Cloud, Microsoft takes a look at security from the point of view of development organizations that may be considering hosting their application with a 3rd-party infrastructure (ie. “cloud”) provider.

If you are to host your well-coded application on a 3rd-party infrastructure, at a high level, you should be asking questions (of potential cloud providers) concerning two general areas of security:

Operational Security and Compliance. If you have regulations governing your industry (e.g. healthcare), what does the provider do to make sure you are in compliance? What have they done to demonstrate their operational security?
Security Features and Service Level. Additionally, different providers may offer different cloud security features (e.g. supporting certain types of authentication) and different security service levels in their SLA. Ask for details to ensure that you know exactly what they will provide you (from a security perspective) as your partner in delivering services to your customers.

Of course, fundamentally, application software, whether traditional or for the cloud, still needs a structured security development process such as SDL. So, make sure you are using a structured security development process like SDL for your application.

What? You say you have a 2 week release process and use an Agile development process? No problem, read on…

SDL for Agile Development

If you are using an Agile development process, you are not alone. Agile development methods are being adopted more and more frequently in enterprises around the world. According to an independent report by Forrester, 85 percent of technology industry professionals have either just adopted, are midway through the process, or have a mature implementation of Agile development methods.

Note: if you are not familiar with Agile development and would like to know more, you may want to read a bit more on http://www.agilemanifesto.org. Wikipedia defines it as:

Agile software development refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. The term was coined in the year 2001 when the Agile Manifesto was formulated.

(also)

Notable early Agile methods include Scrum (1995), Crystal Clear, Extreme Programming (1996), Adaptive Software Development, Feature Driven Development, and Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) (1995). These are now typically referred to as Agile Methodologies, after the Agile Manifesto published in 2001.

If you take a look at Bryan Sullivan’s SDL Blog post concerning SDL for Agile, he gives a great description of how the team approached the task of taking the comprehensive SDL requirements and processes and organizing the guidance into an Agile-friendly structure that can be flexibly applied to long or short agile development projects. I’ll give a quick summary of his post.

If you look at the Security Development Lifecycle and how it is described by phases, you can see that it was originally developed to integrate with the spiral-based product development process used by Microsoft to develop Windows and other business products. Though there are many differences between spiral and Agile methodologies, two key differences stand out to me:

Agile development methodologies don’t have defined phases, and
Agile releases tend to be much shorter, in some cases only a week or two

To address these differences, SDL for Agile breaks the SDL into three categories of requirements: every-sprint requirements, the requirements so important that they must be completed every iteration; one-time requirements, the requirements that only have to be completed once per project no matter how long it runs; and bucket requirements, the requirements that still need to be completed regularly but are not so important that they need to be completed every sprint.

SDL for Agile also provides guidance for adapting many of the core SDL activities to Agile. Threat modeling is a perfect example: a team could easily spend an entire week-long sprint performing threat modeling, but this may not be the best use of their time. SDL-Agile describes how a team can spend an appropriate amount of time modeling new features as well as how to build up a baseline of threat models for existing functionality.

To get the full SDL for Agile guidance, download SDL 4.1a, expanded to include Agile Development processes, and read through the new sections on Agile.

Final Thoughts

As the computing industry evolves, Microsoft continues to invest in security and privacy fundamentals and ensures its software development processes, best practices and technologies extend from Client to Cloud environments. The release of SDL for Agile and the cloud security white paper highlights Microsoft’s continued efforts to meet the changing needs of the development community and ultimately will help create a more trusted online computing experience.

Best regards, Jeff Jones

Nieuwste technologie fun voor ontwikkelaars Achmea

Ruud de Jonge — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:56:00 GMT

Binnenkort in Elsevier:

Games ontwikkelen, meedoen aan de DevDays, brainstormen tijdens de TechNights, werken op een Microsoft-platform dat in de markt nog niet beschikbaar is. En gewoon contact kunnen opnemen met Redmond om te zeggen hoe je het wilt hebben. Dagelijkse kost voor de ontwikkelaars die bij Achmea Information Technology (IT) werken. Dankzij een strategische samenwerking met Microsoft is niets meer te gek. De ontwikkelaars van Achmea IT likken hun vingers erbij af. En het mooiste is: ze zijn op zoek naar collega’s.

Het afgelopen jaar is de belofte van de samenwerking uitgekomen: ondernemen met Microsoft is inleven, vernieuwen en waarmaken. Daarom verlengde Achmea IT recent de samenwerking met Microsoft in een strategische alliantie. Microsoft levert de technologie die Achmea IT vervolgens op innovatieve wijze toepast, een unieke win-win-situatie als filosofie achter deze strategische samenwerking.

Verrassend

‘Achmea IT verrast ons regelmatig,’ vertelt Ruud de Jonge, Director Developer & Partner Experience (DPE) en lid van het managementteam van Microsoft Nederland. ‘Afgelopen voorjaar stond Achmea IT op de DevDays met een Surface (zie: www.microsoft.com/surface/)

waarop ze een spel ontwikkeld hadden waar je met opblaashamers een mol op z’n kop moest slaan. Binnen tien seconden had iedereen lol. Een daverend succes waarmee Achmea IT liet zien dat technologie leuk is. Die toepassing hadden we zelf nooit kunnen bedenken.’

‘Dit ‘mep-je-fit’-spel kan jonge kinderen helpen zich bewust te worden van hun voedingspatroon,’ legt Maarten van Duuren uit. Hij is directeur Information Technology bij Achmea. ‘We konden dit alleen maar bedenken omdat Microsoft en Achmea IT bij elkaar in de keuken konden kijken. Daardoor zijn we de eerste op de markt met deze toepassing.’

Innovatiekracht

Achmea beschikt als grootste verzekeraar van Nederland over een serieuze IT-afdeling die succesvol is in het ondersteunen van de polis- en claimadministratie. Een van de onderdelen van Achmea IT is het Microsoft Ontwikkelcentrum waar veel aandacht uitgaat naar vernieuwing.

Door creatief om te gaan met technologie loopt Achmea IT voor de troepen uit. Niet alleen in de markt door direct producten te kunnen implementeren die samen met Microsoft ontwikkeld zijn. Ook werken de ontwikkelaars van Achmea IT met het nieuwste van het nieuwste. De ontwikkelaars staat de volledige Microsoft suite tot hun beschikking. Dankzij de strategische samenwerking met Microsoft werken ze vooraan in de technologiecyclus.

‘Neem Rosario, de codenaam voor het nieuwste Microsoft ontwikkelplatform dat nog niet op de markt is, Visual Studio Team System 2010,’ roept Maarten van Duuren enthousiast. ‘Onze ontwikkelaars zijn betrokken bij het ontwikkeltraject van deze software en hebben daartoe rechtstreeks contact met de ontwikkelaars in Redmond. Zo worden ze uitgenodigd om daar te vertellen hoe ze het willen hebben. Voor deze toegang en daarmee feedback komen maar een paar bedrijven in de hele wereld in aanmerking, en Achmea IT is er daar één van. Dat is voor onze ontwikkelaars helemaal geweldig.’

Thought Leadership

Achmea IT is niet alleen boeiend als innovatief servicebedrijf met ongekende IT-mogelijkheden. Ook als werkgever doet Achmea IT bepaald niet onder. Hulpmiddelen als SharePoint Server ondersteunen het flexibele gebruik van werkplekken. Het Nieuwe Werken van Microsoft sluit goed aan op de filosofie van Achmea. Verder biedt Achmea IT prachtige ontwikkeltrajecten, zoals het samen met Microsoft ontwikkelde Excellence Programma. Binnen dit programma worden leiders op het gebied van ondernemerschap en visie ondersteund in hun verdere ontwikkeling om daarmee Achmea IT nog meer dynamiek te geven dan het al heeft.

Een ander aantrekkelijk aspect van Achmea IT als werkgever vormen de Achmea IT TechNights. Tijdens deze pizza-avonden - het zijn er zes per jaar en ze zitten altijd bomvol - brainstormen medewerkers op vrijwillige basis met de Microsoft community over producten die Achmea IT in de samenleving kan neerzetten. Kortom, een snoepwinkel voor iedereen met een passie voor toegepaste IT.

Kijk voor meer informatie op: www.achmea.nl.

Be Among Your Tribe at PDC09, Save $300

Ruud de Jonge — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:49:13 GMT

I’m writing to remind you about registration for this year’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC), November 17 – 19^th in Los Angeles. The PDC is the definitive developer event focused on the technical strategy of the Microsoft developer platform. At the PDC, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from and connect with the people behind the technology. If you’re a developer, architect or technology leader involved in making strategic technology decisions, this is the conference you need to attend.

Register by October 13 and save $300. Your discounted conference pass gives you access to all the keynotes, sessions, special events and ‘goodies’ that full-price attendees will receive.

I’ve included more information about PDC below. We hope that you will have the opportunity to join other leading-edge developers and technology leaders at PDC09 this Fall.

Regards,

Ruud de Jonge

ABOUT THE PDC

The Professional Developers Conference (PDC) is the definitive developer event focused on the technical strategy of the Microsoft developer platform. Attendees come from around the world to learn about the future of Microsoft developer technology directly from the people who make it happen. If you’re a developer, architect or technology leader involved in making strategic technology decisions for your company or organization, the PDC is for you.

Since 1991, the PDC has been the epicenter of Microsoft’s biggest platform announcements, including Microsoft .NET, Windows® XP, Windows Vista® and Windows 7®. This year, you’ll hear more details about our services platform, Windows®, the Web, devices, and our next generation of developer tools.

WHAT YOU’LL GET AT THE PDC

Microsoft’s vision and roadmap for the future of developer technology. PDC is where our biggest names make the biggest announcements. Keynoters Ray Ozzie and Bob Muglia will share their vision for developer technology at PDC09. More keynoters still to be announced!
Deep, technical content delivered by Microsoft’s technology leaders. At the PDC, you’ll have the unique opportunity to learn directly from the people who conceived and built the latest Microsoft developer platform technologies and tools. Much of what’s featured at the PDC has yet to be released, and as a result, session content comes in ‘hot’ and is published all the way up to the event date. Subscribe to the New Sessions RSS to stay on top of published sessions.

Hands-on access to the latest developer technologies and over 1,000 Microsoft product and technology experts available to answer your questions. The PDC isn’t just about keynotes and sessions – it’s an opportunity for you to get hands-on access to the latest technologies, have your questions answered by Microsoft program managers and developers and plan the features and architecture to support your product and business goals.

Unique networking opportunities with leading-edge developers and technology leaders just like you. You’ll be among your tribe at PDC09, and we’ve planned a number of special events and places for you to take advantage of the opportunity to connect with and learn from attendees that share your technology interests and business challenges.

New to the PDC? Learn more about the big announcements from last year and experience the PDC08 online via Channel 9.

WebsiteSpark Launches!

Ruud de Jonge — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:56:31 GMT

This morning, @scottgu announced (to interesting speculation) the launch of WebsiteSpark - the latest in the portfolio of *Spark programs. All of these programs are aimed at providing access to platform and tools depending on your context.

In this case it's about small professional web dev and design companies. If that's you then you can go to the WebsiteSpark site to sign up but before you do that you might want to know what you get. Essentially, that is (from the FAQ):

Design Tools/Development Tools/Testing Tools. Each Web Pro firm will be entitled to :
- Visual Studio® 2008 Professional Edition 3 user licenses
- Expression® Studio 2 (or 3) 1 user license, available only to the Primary Contact for the Web Pro
- Expression® Web 2 (or 3) 2 user licenses
- Windows Web Server® 2008 (or Windows Web Server 2008 R2 when available) 3 user licenses
- SQL Server® 2008 Web 3 user license
Production and Deployment. If self-hosting, each Web Pro firm will be entitled to four processor production licenses each (requires enrolment in SPLA Essentials):
- Windows Web Server® 2008 (or Windows Web Server 2008 R2, when available)
- SQL Server® 2008 Web
The eligibility criteria are also in the FAQ and are:
- Professional firms whose primary business is providing Web development and design services for their customers.
- Web Pro firms must have 10 or less members (including owners, employees, and contractors).
In addition, Web Pros must be willing to:
- Develop and deploy at least one new Web site using Microsoft tools and servers within six months after enrollment, and report it and other new sites to Microsoft.
- If not already a member, enroll in the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN, formerly known as the Microsoft Partner Program) as part of program participation.
Go go go!

Published Thursday, September

http://blogs.msdn.com/maholmes/archive/2009/09/24/websitespark-launches.aspx

Preparing Web Sites for Internet Explorer 8

Ruud de Jonge — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:24:42 GMT

Summary

The latest version of Internet Explorer (IE8) will be released over the next few months. IE8 Beta 2 was released in August 2008 and is available for public download at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/worldwide-sites.aspx. We are extremely excited with this release of the world’s most popular browser, and believe that IE8 is packed with many enhancements that will improve and enrich the web experience[1].

Internet Explorer 8 also improves interoperability and support for open Web standards, including HTML 4.01, CSS 2.1 and improved Document Object Model Interoperability by including a new layout engine which renders Web pages in the most standards complaint manner by default. This enables developers to create Web sites that work as intended across all standards-compliant browsers.

As a consequence of this change, however, some Web sites that have been built for previous browser versions may not display correctly with the new layout engine in Internet Explorer 8.

From an end-user perspective, Internet Explorer 8 has a Compatibility View button which, when pressed, displays the Web content with the Internet Explorer 7 rendering engine. This document also describes approaches available to Web Site Developers and Administrators to ensure proper display of their existing sites in Internet Explorer 8.

Objectives

This document aims to help Web Site Developers and Administrators with prescriptive guidance on preparing their existing Web sites if the sites do not display as intended in Internet Explorer 8. The following sections include specific steps for the following scenarios:

1. Targeting a specific Web page for older Internet Explorer compatibility (See Page 6)

2. For Web Sites running Internet Information Service 7 (IIS7) for older Internet Explorer compatibility (See Page 7)

3. For Web Sites running Internet Information Service 6 (IIS6) for older Internet Explorer compatibility (See Page)

4. For Web Sites running Apache Web Server 2.2 for older Internet Explorer compatibility (See Page)

More Information

Additional information and resources for Internet Explorer 8:

1. Internet Explorer 8 web site: http://www.microsoft.com/ie8

2. The official Windows Internet Explorer Weblog: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie. This blog site is a great source of insider information on IE8 features, and compatibility considerations

3. The Internet Explorer 8 Evaluators Guide can be downloaded at http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/7/f/97f5e019-20b9-47b4-bf0c-e7ad38ef2faf/IE8%20Evaluators'%20Guide%20-%20August%2008.pdf

4. The Internet Explorer 8 Demo Site lets you test some of IE8’s new features: http://www.ie8demos.com/tryit/

5. Read Aaron Gustafson’s Web article for details on the thinking process behind IE8’s support for web standards, as well as backward compatibility. The article can be found at http://alistapart.com/articles/beyonddoctype. Aaron is one of the members of the WaSP-Microsoft Task Force.

Overview

With Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft’s commitment to improve interoperability and support for open Web standards (see http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/03/03/microsoft-s-interoperability-principles-and-ie8.aspx) means that IE8 interprets Web content in the most standards-compliant[2] way possible. Therefore, IE8 will render web pages using standards mode by default unless explicitly specified otherwise. This enables web sites to be created more efficiently and to operate more predictably – If developers code to standards, then they can be ensured that all browsers interpret and display Web page in the same way, alleviating the practise by web developers to include code unique for each browser.

As a consequence to adhering to Web Standards support by default, some existing sites that relied on older browsers’ “legacy” behaviours may not display correctly in Internet Explorer 8. Examples of display problems are out-of-place menus, images and text.

For the End User: IE8 Compatibility View

Some Web sites that are designed for older browsers may not display correctly in Internet Explorer 8 which, by default, renders content in the most standards-compliant way possible. IE8 has a Compatibility View button that displays those pages as they were designed to be viewed. This provides end-users with an easy way to fix display problems that may occur.

When Internet Explorer 8 detects a Web site that is designed for an older version of the browser, the Compatibility View button appears next to the Refresh button on the Address Bar. Pressing the button causes Internet Explorer 8 to switch to the Internet Explorer 7 rendering engine. Additionally, a balloon tip shows that the site is running in Compatibility View.

The state of the button is saved for that Web domain on a client-side list, eliminating the need to press it again when the user returns to the same page at a later time.

Compatibility View and the Enterprise

A large number of line-of-business websites are Internet Explorer 7 capable today. In order to preserve compatibility, Internet Explorer 8 ships with smart defaults based on zone evaluation. In the default state, all sites on the public internet display in Internet Explorer 8 Standards mode (Compatibility View off) and all intranet websites display in Internet Explorer 7 Standards mode (Compatibility View on).

For more information, see the blog post: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/08/27/introducing-compatibility-view.aspx

Web Developers & Administrators: Testing Existing Web Sites

Web Developers and Administrators can download IE8 Beta 2, and check that the sites display correctly. Due to the changes in IE8’s layout engine, Web sites that are coded to support “legacy” behaviours may exhibit the following issues:

· Potential layout issues: out-of-place graphics, Web page elements (e.g., text box, Flash objects, etc.)

· Potential JavaScript code issues: These may arise due to changes in the IE8 Document Object Model (DOM) to improve interoperable with those of other browsers. Changes include setting and retrieval of page element attributes.

Application Compatibility Toolkit for IE8

The latest Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) release, ACT 5.0.5428.1080, can help Web Developers & Administrators to understand application compatibility situation with IE8 – especially with internal line-of-business web applications.

ACT includes the following IE-specific components:

· Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool (IECTT). The IECTT helps identify Web-based issues, shows results in real time, and allows the uploading and viewing of the data in the Application Compatibility Manager (ACM), a part of the ACT toolkit. As the application or site is tested, the IECTT records events in real time when compatibility issues occur. For instance, if one of the tested sites injects JavaScript to another site and the IE8 Cross-site scripting (XSS) filter detects this as a reflection attack, a Cross-Site Scripting Filter event would be logged in the IECTT UI.

· Internet Explorer Compatibility Evaluators (IECE). The IECE can be deployed within an enterprise and will help identify Web-based issues in the background. As application or site is tested, the IECE records events in the background as they occur. The logged events can then be viewed in the ACM.

The ACT can be downloaded in http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=24DA89E9-B581-47B0-B45E-492DD6DA2971&displaylang=en.

For more information, see the blog post: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/09/23/application-compatibility-logging-in-ie8.aspx

Targeting Specific Web Pages for Previous Internet Explorer Versions

Web developers who are maintaining existing Web sites may encounter specific pages that are incompatible with IE8. In such cases, the developer can explicitly opt-out of displaying the page standards mode, and “force” IE8 to render it with the built-in IE7 layout engine instead. This is done by adding the IE7 mode meta-tag to the HEAD of the Web page.

<head>

</head>

This META tag causes IE8 to utilize IE7's rendering behaviour (i.e., emulate IE7) while still maintaining all IE8 features. This tag has no effect on other browsers.

Targeting the Web Site for Previous Internet Explorer Versions

While the method described in the previous section applies to specific Web pages, Web Developers and Administrators can also apply this tag for Web pages in an entire Web site (i.e., server-wide), or directories.

The approach is to configure the Web server to inject the meta-tag along with HTTP responses, telling IE8 browsers to display page content emulating IE7. This alleviates the need to modify Web pages individually.

The following sections describe the configuration steps for different Web servers.

Web Sites Running Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS 7.0)

Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS 7.0) is the default Web server that comes with Microsoft Windows Server 2008. It provides a security-enhanced, easy-to-manage platform for developing and reliably hosting Web applications and services. More than just a Web server, IIS 7.0 is a major enhancement to the Windows Web platform and plays a central role in unifying Microsoft Web platform technologies—ASP.NET, Windows Communication Foundation Web services, and Windows SharePoint Services[3].

The steps listed below show how to add the IE=EmulateIE7 HTTP Header on a Web server running IIS 7.0 using the IIS Manager. These settings can be changed at the site, virtual directory or any level in the configuration.

The sections following describe configuring these changes with the User Interface, the command line, and with the Application Configuration File.

Configuring the EmulateIE7 HTTP Response Header via the User Interface

The steps listed below show how to add the IE=EmulateIE7 HTTP header site- or server-wide on a Web server running IIS 7.0 using the IIS Manager User Interface.

1. Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

2. In the Connections pane (on the left side of the application window), expand the node for the server, and then expand Sites.

3. Select the Web site for which the custom HTTP Response Header is to be added.

4. In the Web site pane, double-click in the section HTTP Response Headers.

5. Under Actions, click Add.

6. In the Name box, type X-UA-Compatible, and in the Value box, type IE=EmulateIE7.

7. Click OK to save the change.

Configuring the EmulateIE7 HTTP Response Header via the Command Line

The steps listed below show how to add the IE=EmulateIE7 HTTP header server-wide on a Web server running IIS 7.0 using the command line.

Open an elevated command prompt.
Navigate to the “%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv” directory.
Execute the following command:

appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/httpProtocol /+"customHeaders.[name='X-UA-Compatible',value='IE=EmulateIE7']" /commit:apphost

Configuring the EmulateIE7 HTTP Response Header via the application configuration file

The steps listed below show how to add the IE=EmulateIE7 HTTP header server-wide on a Web server running IIS 7.0 using the configuration file (applicationhost.config).

Open a command prompt.
Navigate to the “%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv” directory.
Open the “applicationhost.config” file in a text editor (e.g., Notepad)
Modify the httpProtocol section to include the “X-UA-Compatible” header:

</httpProtocol>

Web Sites Running Internet Information Services 6.0 (IIS 6.0)

Internet Information Services (IIS 6.0) is the default Web server that comes with Windows Server 2003. IIS 6.0 provides Web server capabilities over an intranet, the Internet, or an extranet.

The sections following describe configuring these changes with the User Interface, the command line, and with the Application Configuration File.

Configuring the EmulateIE7 HTTP Response Header via the User Interface

The steps listed below show how to add the IE=EmulateIE7 HTTP header site- or server-wide on a Web server running IIS 6.0 using the IIS Manager User Interface.

1. Run the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. Do this by running inetmgr.exe, or starting this from the Start menu (under Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.)

2. Select and expand the Server node (on the left hand pane) and then expand Web Sites.

3. Right-click the Web site you want and then click Properties.

4. Click the HTTP Headers tab.

5. Under Custom HTTP headers, click Add.

6. In the Custom header name box, type X-UA-Compatible, and for Custom header value box, type IE=EmulateIE7.

7. Confirm the changes.

Web Sites Running Apache Server (Apache 2.2)

Apache 2.2 HTTP Server configuration, the response can be set at the server level, directory level or within the individual HTML page. To include a custom HTTP response header, follow these steps:

Set server level response header

1. Open httpd.conf in a text editor

2. Uncomment (or add) “LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so”

3. Add the following configuration fragment at the end of the httpd.conf file:

<IfModule headers_module>
Header set X-UA-Compatible: IE=EmulateIE7
</IfModule>

4. Save httpd.conf file

5. Restart the Apache server

6. Browse the test web page

The above setting will insert X-UA-Compatible header in all the HTTP response streams.

Set directory level response header

Directory level override can be done by following the instructions given below:

1. Open httpd.conf in a text editor

2. For the directory in question (say ie8test) set the override as below:

<Directory "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs/ie8test">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

(Note: AllowOverride All will make the server read .htaccess file located in the directory)

3. Create .htaccess file in the directory if not already present

4. Open .htaccess file in a text editor

<IfModule headers_module>
Header set X-UA-Compatible: IE=EmulateIE7
</IfModule>

5. Restart the Apache server

6. Browse the web page

For additional syntax on request and response headers for Apache 2.x visit:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_headers.html

[1] Internet Explorer 8 has features such as Web Slices, Accelerators and Visual Search enables faster web browsing. Learn more about these features at http://www.microsoft.com/ie.

[2] Internet Explorer 8 is fully-compliant to, and passed the Web Standards Project’s ACID2 Test. IE8 fully supports HTML 4.01, CSS 2.1, as well as improved DOM interoperability.

[3] Find out more about IIS 7.0 at http://www.microsoft.com/Windowsserver2008/en/us/iis.aspx

PDC voor in de lift

Ruud de Jonge — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:55:24 GMT

Ik loop nu 2 dagen rond in LA en ben bij alle keynotes (tot nu) geweest :-). Wat vertel ik nu mijn schoonmoeder over dit event. Wel .... het is warm (tegen de dertig graden), druk (meer dan 6000 voornamelijk mannen) en interessant. Vooral het laatste is spannend.

Voor mij is de essentie de volgende : met de recente annonceringen is het mogelijk om toepassingen te ontwikkelen die draaien op telefoons, PC's, datacenters binnen een bedrijf en datacenters in een publiek netwerk met 1 set aan tools terwijl je gebruik maakt van dezelfde kennis en ervaring.

Dat klinkt logisch maar is het tot nu toe nog niet. Software ontwikkelaars zijn net loodgieters; elk probleem wordt opgelost met een voor dat probleem specifieke aanpak en gereedschapsbak. En dat is niet logisch. En daar zit de crux; 1 toolset voor al deze platformen en 1 manier van werken. Als je .Net snapt, dan gaat er een wereld voor je open :-).

Ik heb wel eens software ontwikkelaars gepest dat zij moeten worden omgeschoold tot "Lego-klikkers"'. Dat klinkt denigrerend maar is het zeker niet, in tegendeel. Nieuwe kansen door nieuwe technologie en dat noodzaakt tot goed nadenken hoe je een "software-uitdaging" aanpakt. Voor mij is dit interessant EN spannend. Als ik dit iemand in een lift kan uitleggen, is mijn rol als evangelist geslaagd.

We hebben veel te delen op de komende TechEd in Barcelona en de DevDays in Amsterdam ....

PDC in LA iets voor jou ?

Ruud de Jonge — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:23:00 GMT

Is de PDC iets voor jou ? Op dit moment zijn er meer dan 125 Nederlandse deelnemers geregistreerd. Maar dat kan altijd beter :-)

Voor wie is de PDC bedoeld en welke content wordt daar geboden ?

Experience the Future of the Microsoft^® Platform

Since 1991, the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) has been Microsoft’s premier gathering of leading-edge developers and architects. Attend the PDC to understand the future of the Microsoft platform and to exchange ideas with fellow professionals. You’ll learn about upcoming products, meet Microsoft’s leaders and top engineers, write some code, and be inspired! Unplug for a few days and think about the future.

Explore the full breadth of the Microsoft platform in more than 160 technical sessions
Roll up your sleeves, get your hands dirty, and explore the latest technology for yourself in the hands-on labs
Attend a day-long pre-conference seminar to get deep training, best practices, and insightful advice from industry experts (*additional fee required).
Take the opportunity to interact with your peers and Microsoft staff in a variety of community-focused events like Ask the Experts and in the PDC Lounges

In past years, the PDC has unveiled Microsoft .NET, Windows^® XP, Windows Vista^®, and other significant milestones in the evolution of the Microsoft platform. This year, you’ll hear more details about our services platform, the future of Windows, mobility, and our next generation of developer tools. And there are always a few surprises.

Who Should Attend (or… The PDC is for YOU)

The PDC is designed for leading-edge developers and software architects. If you’re interested in the future of the Microsoft platform, you’re responsible for the technical strategy in your organization, or you’re a highly skilled developer who likes to delve deep into the heart of the platform, then the PDC is for you! Follow this link to register !!!

A Family of Conferences

The PDC is part of a whole family of Microsoft technical conferences. Just as the PDC is focused on the future of the Platform and technical strategy, our annual Tech-Ed Developers Conference (November 10-14 in Barcelona) offers in-depth technical training on our current products. Our annual MIX Conference (March 18-20, 2009 in Las Vegas) is aimed at developers, designers and business decision makers who build next generation consumer web sites.