The ASP.NET Live! event focuses on the web centric technologies found in the .NET Framework used for building web applications. This includes the core ASP.NET functionality as well as the newer ASP.NET AJAX and WPF/e technology used for building Web 2.0 applications. With ASP.NET AJAX and WPF/e around the corner the .NET Framework is bringing to the table cutting edge technologies for building dynamic and exciting applications today.
ASP.NETLive!—Wednesday, May 14, 2008
VA1What's New in Visual Studio 2008 for ASP.NET Developers? Introductory
Ken Getz
9:45 a.m.
Visual Studio 2008 adds many new capabilities and features for Web developers. Although it's not possible to dig deep into all these features in one hour, this session provides an overview of the new capabilities, including new designers, support for AJAX and JavaScript, strong CSS support, and more. If you're a Web developer moving from Visual Studio 2005 to Visual Studio 2008, you won't want to miss these exciting new enhancements.
VA6Working with Silverlight, Intermediate
Walt Ritscher
11:15 a.m.
You say you still haven't learned Silverlight. You've seen a few demos but not sure where to start? This session starts from scratch, showing you how to write a basic Silverlight page and show it in the browser. Once you're comfortable with the basics we turn our attention to the rest of Silverlight. You'll take a brief tour of XAML and then learn how to tap into the rich UI classes available to every Silverlight application. Soon you'll be writing managed code to manipulate the XAML elements. Finally, you'll learn the simple techniques for exposing your managed functions to JavaScript on the browser and see how to work with the DOM in your Silverlight code.
VA11Securing User Identity Using Windows CardSpace, Introductory
Bill Wolf
2:30 p.m.
Windows CardSpace, formerly named “InfoCard,” is a piece of client software that enables users to provide their digital identity to online services in a simple, secure and trusted way. This session will look at how CardSpace works and will demonstrate how CardSpace can be implemented in your Web sites and applications by leveraging the .NET 3.0/3.5 stack.
VA16Data-Driven ASP.NET AJAX, Intermediate
Jeffrey McManus
4:00 p.m.
Performing asynchronous postbacks using ASP.NET AJAX Update Panels is simple, but how do you go beyond the basics to provide sophisticated data visualization and user experience idioms? In this session, we'll take a look at some common data-driven user experiences and demonstrate how to implement them using ASP.NET AJAX.
ASP.NETLive!—Thursday, May 15, 2008
VA21Introducing the ASP.NET MVC Framework, Intermediate
Jonathan Goodyear
8:30 a.m.
Are you sick of dealing with the headaches introduced by WebForms? Learn how to implement cleaner, more architecturally sound ASP.NET applications by leveraging Microsoft's ASP.NET MVC Framework. In this session, Jonathan will cover the core principles of the Model-View-Controller design pattern and then apply those principles using Microsoft's new ASP.NET MVC Framework.
Demonstrations will include Test Driven Development (TDD) with NUnit/MSTest, REST interfaces, view templates, integrating with the built-in ASP.NET providers and showing how existing ASP.NET pages with WebForms can coexist with MVC Framework pages.
VA26Exploring the AJAX Control Toolkit, Intermediate
Robert Boedigheimer
10:00 a.m.
Discover how to add great new functionality to ASP.NET Web sites using the AJAX Control Toolkit. Review the masked-edit extender, which allows the developer to specify a specific pattern that the input must match. This extends the TextBox control to display the mask to the user for better feedback on what is required for entry. See how the AlwaysVisibleControl extender can keep a control pinned to a specific area of the browser so that—even when the user scrolls—the content will be visible. Learn how the Accordian control can allow multiple areas of content but only display one at a particular time. These are just a handful of the controls available from the toolkit. Why live with dated user experiences in your ASP.NET Web sites, when these can enhance the site experience so easily?
VA31Win & Web App Installers with WiX, Intermediate
Benjamin Day
11:30 a.m.
You’re working on the killer app. It’s going to make enough money so you can retire by the end of next year. Only thing is it’s not practical for you to go “xcopy” it onto each of your customer’s machines. You need an installer. The “Setup And Deploy” projects in Visual Studio are—well, let’s face it—kind of lame. But then there’s WiX—Windows Installer XML. WiX allows you to build real, actual, robust installers (a.k.a., MSIs) for your applications. (And you can make them a part of your regular TFS Team Builds, too!)
In this session, Ben will show you the basics of creating WiX installers using Votive for your Windows and Web apps including creating uninstall shortcuts, writing registry settings as part of your setup, using custom icons, version upgrade logic, and more. He’ll also show you how you can manage your application’s installation pre-requisites using the Bootstrap Manifest Generator (By the way, he’ll even show you how to make it work on Vista!).
VA36Customizing the Microsoft ASP.NET MVC Framework, Advanced 
Jonathan Goodyear
2:45 p.m.
Do you like the idea of using the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern for your Web applications, but wish you could take more control over the process? Well, you can! This session explores how you can customize the Microsoft
ASP.NET MVC Framework by building custom providers as well as plugging in existing alternatives. Demonstrations will include building a customized view engine, utilizing an alternative Inversion of Control container (Windsor) and using an alternative data provider (NHibernate or SubSonic). By the end of this session, you will feel empowered to take the Microsoft ASP.NET MVC Framework to new levels.
VA41Silverlight, SOA and Objects, Intermediate 
Rockford Lhotka
4:15 p.m.
Silverlight is a powerful UI development tool, but it is useful for far more than just building pretty Web displays. By combining object-oriented design concepts and SOA with Silverlight, you can create incredibly powerful applications that provide high levels of interactivity with the user in the browser, but also tap into server-side processing as needed. Building such an application in a maintainable manner requires a solid architectural backing, along with clear design principals. Learn how to architect, design and build maintainable, powerful Silverlight applications for business.
