A full day with Technologist

I attended a Tech Event - DevCon2012 which is organized by BDotNet UG.

On Aug 04, 2012 Saturday I had a pleasant day with BDotNet. Yes, a full day with technologists and it was a wonderful and unforgettable day for me. This is the first Event which I have – attended; to contribute it will take time .

First of all I wish to say something about the BDotNet. BDotNet is a User Group for .Net Developers in Bangalore.

“Bangalore .NET (BDOTNET) user's group is about helping you understand the .NET framework, show how it will make you more productive and transition your development processes to the same, amongst other things. Detailed technical insights are presented by Microsoft RDs, .NET MVPs in the technical sessions conducted periodically” - from BDotNet.

DevCon2012 event held at Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd. , domlur. There were 12 sessions conducted as two group like Group-I and Group-II. I attended the Group-I sessions as I wanted to learn about Window 8, HTML 5 and Metro Style Application. Let me to discuss about the sessions which I have attended obviously should say ENJOYED.

The great Sessions Enjoyed

In the Group-1, there were 6 sessions about Windows 8, HTML 5 and Visual Studio 2012. Let us see the few points about the sessions one by one.

Before the session were going to start the Keynote for the DevCon2012 has been given by Ranjan Bhattacharjee.

Windows 8 - A peek inside

This is the first event in the Group-I sessions about the Windows 8 features by Vic Parmar. It was excellent session and made me to eagerly wait for the Windows 8 release. Vic Parmar gave us some interesting points to know about the Windows 8 RC.

Points in Mind:

• Windows 8 will be released on Oct 26, 2012.
• There are multiple options to login into your Windows 8 like Image Password, Local Password and using PIN.
• The applications which are running and not active at that moment will be push to Suspend mode so that the resource usage will be minimal.
• The Applications which are running in the Windows 8 machine will take the entire space on the screen except a single pixel of line in the right side of the screen
• We can pin the applications on the Start Page of the Windows 8 and can group it.

He explained how we can organize the applications and tiles in Windows 8 Start Page and how we can switch between applications.

Windows 8 for Developers

The second event which had been taken by Rajashekaran Vengalil was Windows 8 for Developers. In this event, Rajashekaran Vengalil has explained about that how we useful the WinRT to create the applications for Windows 8 machine.

Points in Mind:

• There lot of options to develop applications for Windows 8.
• We can create Metro Style applications in two ways i.e. using C#.Net and JavaScript.
• There are two main .JS files which we need to include namely Microsoft.WinJS.1.0.RC/js/base.js and Microsoft.WinJS.1.0.RC/js/ui.js

Rajashekaran Vengalil explained the Metro Style Application which will capture the image from web camera.

Walkthrough of a Metro Application

It was a very informative session taken by Praveen Srivatsa. Praveen Srivatsa explained in the clear way to create the Metro style application and how it can be pushed into Windows App Store.

Points in Mind:

• In Metro Style Desktop Applications, there is no window concept .i.e you cant get window handle in the metro style application.
• The main Key point here is Metro Style Applications will run in the Windows 8 Browser Engine.
• There are limitations in the WinJS which will restrict the user to don't popup the any windows in the Metro Style Application.
• We can't use the all features of the Java Script which is used in the IE to the Metro Style Application.

In this session, there were lot of questions thrown at Praveen Srivatsa but he explained those all the question much clearly. A big thanks to him. he explained the steps how the Metro Style Applications will be deployed and how we can access those.

Kendo UI Community launch

This session was all about Kendo UI & HTML 5 and presented by Abhishek Kant. He explained the way how we can use the HTML 5 and Kendo UI to develop mobile applications.

Points in Mind:

• Kendo UI is a telerik product and it supports iOS, Android, Blackberry and WebOS.
• DataViz is a collection of HTML5-powered, mobile-ready, data visualization widgets available in Kendo UI

He explained more about the Kendo UI and its features as it is Kendo UI Community launch . He showed us a demo on DataViz and AutoComplete text box. To know more about Kendo UI please have a look Here.

SQL Server Tips and Tricks for Web Developers

Ha Ha….. still my face is with smile and mind is full of question… Is Web Developer SPIDER MAN? Yes; as we are doing magic with the code.

The fabulous session about SQL Server has been presented by Pinal Dave. He explained about the performance while using IN, EXISTS and JOIN.

Points in Mind:

• ….. Yes… My mind is full of the moments which we laughed for comments and superb presentations given by Pinal Dave.
• The keywords IN, EXISTS are good and JOIN is bad in some scenarios.
• The keyword JOIN is good and IN, EXISTS are bad in some scenarios.
• Scalar Functions hides the performance factors in it

That was a wonderful session and he gave us books on SQL Server. The way he explained the performance issue's in the SQL queries was the interesting one.

Visual Studio 2012 - Tips & Tricks

Last but not Least… Yes…. The last session of the DevCon2012 is Visual Studio 2012 - Tips & Tricks which ha been presented by Lohith G N . This session was very useful and informative session.

Its all about the short-cuts which can increase our productivity.

Points in Mind:

• Nothing in mind. Seriously I cant remember those shortcuts.
• But still I can remember one point like we can keep open the start page of Visual Studio and close it once the solution/project is loaded by using the option given in the Start Page.

I guess, the complete Visual Studio tips and tricks will be available in the BDotNet FB user group.

The Sessions I missed

As there were two Group of sessions parallel running, I cant switch between them. I missed the sessions mentioned below,

• ASP.NET MVC4 + Web API by Chaitra Nagaraj
• "Battle of Clouds - Windows Azure vs Amazon Web Services by Niraj Bhatt
• Building Applications for Intel Ultrabook Platform and Windows* 8 by Rajagopal A
• Ignite the leader within you by Vinod Kumar
• Introduction to No-SQL & Mongo DB by Manoj G
• HTML5 - what you NEED to know by Amar Nithyananda

But still the presentations given can be available at the BDotNet FB User Group I guess.

Good things about the Event

It was a chance to meet all the technology leaders like Ranjan Bhattacharjee, Lohith, Pinal Dave, Praveen Srivastava, Rajashekaran Vengalil, Abhishek Kant and Vic Parmar.

It was the wonderful day to learn about like HTML 5, Metro Style Applications.

The event given me the new friends

At the end of the event, BDotNet distributed many cool goodies like “Telerik Kendo UI T-Shirts”, “Key Chains from Telerik” and “Plural Sight Subscriptions”.

Summary

This is my first Tech Event attended in my 2 years of IT career. Totally I learnt something about the HTML 5, Metro Style Application and SQL Server.

Thanks for spending your precious time here. Please provide your valuable feedbacks and comments, which make me to give a better blog next time.