However, they would still need a lot of help from various other sources and tools. In this blog, we list a few websites that can come in real handy for .NET developers and make their job easier.

1. CodeProject

CodeProject is reliable for thousands of .NET developers because it features helpful tutorial articles and downloadable code that can make things less challenging for developers – both experts and amateurs. The articles in CodeProject are all written by veteran developers to help other developers with a to-the-point solution to their coding problems.

The fact that the developers that post such articles aren’t paid and genuinely want to contribute to the community makes CodeProject a friend-in-need for .NET developers.

2. DevSource

One of the most important things a .NET developer should possess is the mindset to stay updated on everything that revolves around the Microsoft platform. DevSource can help with that.

DevSource is a digital magazine sponsored by Microsoft that can keep the devs up to date on all things Microsoft technologies related. Devs can subscribe to the magazine’s free weekly newsletters to pick up new things on the go.

3. DotNetNuke

DotNetNuke is not just a website, but an open source framework that .NET devs can download and use to build web applications with Microsoft’s ASP.NET. Because it has a strong open source community working on making it better with each iterations, the framework now demonstrates efficient coding practices that would prove useful to even experienced developers.

However, the professional edition of DotNetNuke comes with a price tag. The community edition on the other hand is free to use and is totally worth registering to.

4. ScottGu’s Blog

Who better to look up to for some Microsoft knowledge than the Corporate Vice President for Microsoft’s Developer Division…

Scott Guthrie’s regularly updated blog is where devs can find announcements before they show up anywhere else. The blogs cover a wide range of Microsoft technologies from .NET base class libraries to SilverLight.

5. MSDN Magazine

When it comes to understanding current .NET standards that devs should be following, there’s no source better than the MSDN Magazine. This website can be very resourceful for developers who want to understand Microsoft technologies in depth. The articles available are comparatively longer than the articles in various other sources.

What makes MSDN Magazine unique is the fact that they are very strict when it comes to accepting content for their magazine. They scour through many articles from contributors and post those that they deem worthy. The articles in the journal certainly won’t disappoint.

Conclusion

Resources of all digital sizes and shapes are available for .NET developers provided they are willing to look at the right places. At some point in their career, one of the sites listed above can prove invaluable. The many articles and standards recommended by the community through blogs in various websites can help .NET developers refine their skillsets and passion in the technology.

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Normally, Microsoft delivers their SharePoint online innovations first before releasing server products. The impending release of SharePoint Server 2019 was announced by Jeff Teper, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for SharePoint. The new server for the popular Microsoft technology solution was formally introduced at Microsoft’s Ignite event.

Jared Spataro, the General Manager of Microsoft Office, later stated the preview of SharePoint Server 2019 can be expected to arrive by mid-2018.

That said, here are a few highlights for what’s coming to SharePoint.

1. SharePoint Admin Center Revamp

Microsoft announced that they created a revamped SharePoint Admin Center. The new Admin Center would be released for SharePoint online testers in early 2018 according to an official announcement from the tech giant.

The home page of the new Admin Center will show SharePoint and OneDrive notifications, activity patterns, service health information etc. They have also reportedly included sharing controls and device policy controls for compliance, access, and data leakage.

2. New SharePoint Migration Tool

Microsoft will also be releasing a new Migration Tool to handle small and large migrations. The tool would enable users to move documents and library files from SharePoint Server sites located at datacenters to the cloud-based SharePoint online service or the OneDrive Office 365 service.

3. Security

The company has also added new capabilities, referred to as Multi-Geo Capabilities in Office 365, for both SharePoint and OneDrive including data residency and compliance. Organizations will now be able to choose regional locations for storing data and search index.

Microsoft also mentioned enhanced protection for OneDrive and SharePoint Online. Organizations can provide keys to customers for service-level encryptions, and can revoke them to deny access. The company is also working on a compliance policy for Office 365 shared device scenarios. The system automatically signs out from a session if it detects no activity for a specific period of time.

4. Personalized search for SharePoint Online

This feature would be available by the end of 2017, and will grant a faster search experience. Microsoft also explained that the feature will include all content in a SharePoint, and can be accessed via the Windows Taskbar.

Another Office 365 service, Bing for Business, has been announced to be at the private preview stage. It can surface content by using the Microsoft Graph search service, and won’t be serving ads in the results. The company is also planning to add natural language processing capabilities to the service next year which might lead to big changes in the SharePoint development services sector.

5. New WebParts for Communication Sites and Team Sites

Other improvements announced by Microsoft includes new Web Parts for both Communication Sites and Team Sites. The Web Parts for Communication Sites include Microsoft Forms, Planner, File Viewer, Spacer and Divider, Twitter etc., which will be made available by the end of this year.

With the new improvements, it’d be possible to connect Team Sites with an Office 365 Group and SharePoint Hub Site. The feature will be added in the first half of 2018.

Conclusion

Not just SharePoint, but the other popular Microsoft technologies will be getting a bunch of updates next year as well. Many new capabilities will be added by December. And more improvements can be expected next year. Though this doesn’t make a huge difference in the software development sector, all the improvements can still make things easier for developers next year.

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With the advent of the cloud technology, growth prospects for organizations significantly increased. Organizations have started seeing the potential of cloud-based models, hybrid or others, and cloud services that can give them a great edge in their markets. This also led to the rise of cloud IaaS service providers. And among those cloud service providers is Azure – a Microsoft technology solution that provides many practical solutions that promote business growth while enhancing operational performance and stability.

Azure’s Market Penetration

Though it competes with Amazon Web Services and Google Computer Engine, Azure still stands out as the most preferred cloud service provider. There are many reasons for this, including but not limited to the potential it gives organizations to expand globally with more regions compared to other cloud providers, its hybrid consistency, and its openness to open source technologies.

Its stats can vouch for this.

Azure adoption grew from 20% to 34% last year, reaching 60% of AWS’ market penetration.

Though AWS dominates the market, Azure has been catching up at a rapid pace and is speculated to surpass AWS in the near future.

Benefits of Azure

Azure provides many services including computing, analytics, database, networking, web, and storage. Many such services can even streamline software development. They all come with various benefits businesses can leverage to outpace their competitors. Here are a few top benefits of Azure your business can take advantage of.

1. Azure’s very fast: Azure’s speed is one of its greatest benefits. With Azure, deployment, operation, and scalability are considerably faster. Evidently, Azure offers unmatched functionality compared to other 0n-premises or other cloud providers. The popular cloud platform seamlessly integrates with Microsoft products.
2. Azure enhances business agility: Azure allows business to not just develop applications but also test and deploy them. They can garner feedback to improve the application further. This aspect of letting businesses explore new avenues without having to set up complex infrastructure is one of Azure’s key features. Essentially, Azure enhances business agility while allowing businesses to innovate without investing more money.
3. Expand globally with Azure: To catch up with its growth rate, a business must take into account the dynamic changes in performance and resource utilization. This is essential. With data centers operating on several parts of the globe, this can be easy. Azure offers just that with its global reach; its biggest benefit. Azure users, on the other hand, get a plethora of services and a fine experience regardless of their location.
4. Azure’s business focus with Visual Studio: Azure also brings Visual Studio with it, allowing developers to build Azure solutions in the leading development environment without hassle. This also allows businesses to integrate other disruptive technologies including IoT and machine learning with Azure to obtain more functionalities that tie back to their business goals.
5. Azure automation: Azure allows businesses to automate tasks in their Azure environments. This means businesses won’t have to spend time on monitoring and resource maintenance, subsequently reducing overhead costs and enabling them to focus more on business critical operations. All they need to do is to create workflows termed ‘runbooks’.
6. Azure’s analytics support: Azure comes with built-in data analytics capabilities allowing business to uncover and utilize valuable insights to improve critical processes, and for better decision-making. Businesses can use Azure’s Apache Hadoop-based cloud service named HDInsight to analyze data in detail by building Hadoop clusters.
7. Azure’s disaster recovery capabilities: When cloud technologies are involved, it’s better to have efficient built-in disaster recovery capabilities. Azure has it covered with global and regional fail-over measures and rolling reboot capabilities. While this may only come of use rarely for a business, it’s still good to know that ‘disasters’ won’t affect an Azure-driven business much.
8. Azure’s compliance is Microsoft’s responsibility: When one of the biggest corporations in the world is responsible for one of its products’ compliance, businesses won’t have to worry much. Organizations using Azure can trust Microsoft itself to do the heavy lifting when it comes to compliance. Reducing compliance-related complexities enable greater resource allocation for Azure-driven enterprises.

Conclusion

Choosing between AWS and Azure can be a bit tricky. But it depends on the organization’s goals most of all. Azure simply didn’t become the most preferred cloud service option for startups and other SMBs. Over the years, it proved its worth. This blog can help organizations, contemplating the impact of Azure on their businesses, make a choice worthy of their investments. They can learn more about Azure and its benefits from a reputed cloud service provider.

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Here are a few common mistakes mobile testers generally tend to make.

1) Focusing too much on the looks

Mobile apps should certainly provide a great user experience. So there should be focus on the UI/UX. However, testers tend to focus more on this aspect while not giving much thought to the actual purpose of the app. If the app fails in performing the actions it was designed for, even if it’s good looking, it will deter users. This applies to standard software testing as well.

2) Networking issues

The app’s offline and online functionalities are normally tested. However, testers may overlook a critical issue. The app should be able to function properly across various bandwidths. Testing this may uncover networking issues as well. Not all users will have good network capabilities.

3) Opting not to prepare a complete report

Inadequate knowledge, miscommunication, impending launch deadlines etc. may force a tester to prepare an incomplete report on bugs. Consequently, the developers won’t be able to rectify all the bugs in time resulting in an app with glitches that may even impede its performance. Though this issue is not a big concern in an Agile ecosystem, it’s still something testers need to work around.

4) A single tester may not be enough

Employing just one tester to test the mobile application is something even a development company with sufficient resources may do, though it’s commonly practiced by companies with limited resources. The mobile application development company should make it a policy to hire experienced testers on different environments on the team. Their varying capabilities essentially help detect more potential flaws in the app, and at a shorter time.

5) Wrong notion that web and mobile testing are similar

A tester familiar with both will know that website testing and mobile app testing are fundamentally different. First off, a mobile application requires more frequent updates than a web application. The mobile tester should be able to figure out an approach where the app functionality can be validated in sync along with scheduled updates.

6) Not utilizing crash logs

Of the various factors that contributes to a poor rating of an application, frequent crashes is at the top. The tester should maintain a report of every occurrence of an app crash, which will subsequently make it easier for them to prioritize major bugs across the various sections of the app. This reduces the likelihood of crashes post launch.

7) Taking customer feedback into account

The mobile tester’s job isn’t over once the app is launched. In many cases, despite great effort from the testers, the app may still have some bugs that they may have missed. Regular users may come across that particular issue more often. Most of those users report the bugs through reviews or other feedback options. So the tester must be going through user reviews post launch to see if any bugs they missed have been spotted by users, and report them to get them rectified with the next update.

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But before using such tools or digital solutions, businesses will have to decide where to deploy them. On-premises infrastructure is the generally opted deployment platform. However, such facilities demand considerable investment from the business as they will need to buy and configure servers, keep them running in datacenters, and secure and maintain the datacenter itself. It’ll all work out if the business has time and enough budget for a capital investment to protect their data.

This used to be the case till the advent of the cloud.

The Cloud – Business Connection

The cloud came with a pay-as-you-go pricing model providing businesses with a way to cut infrastructure costs while giving them access to computing hardware, storage, and network. They need pay only for what they use. However, even the cloud’s attractive features failed to gain many business’ attention mostly due to security and privacy concerns. This led to the development of the hybrid cloud approach where the cloud considers the on-premises and cloud infrastructures to be connected, and being used at the same time.

Enter Microsoft Azure

Businesses have been relying on enterprise solutions powered by Microsoft technologies for a long time. Azure is one of those solutions that uplifted quite a lot of businesses. The cloud-based Microsoft technology solution offers a broad range of services that cater to multiple scenarios.

For instance, consider the requirements of an organization with sufficient on-premises resources and wants to deploy their business app. They want the users to have a single sign-on experience, for which they use Active Directory for access management. The organization wants the data in the application to be private, and not expose it to the internet.

In such a scenario, the ideal way is to set up a network and have the on-premise infrastructure connected to a cloud infrastructure. So basically, an isolated network with a defined IP addresses range in the cloud is needed. A virtual network service can achieve just that, thus making it easier to integrate the cloud network with the on-premises network.

Once the virtual network is created, the organization’s datacenter should be connected with the cloud using a VPN Gateway service.

And once the network is configured and ready, the organization can integrate their Active Directory with the cloud. This is where Azure comes in. Its Active Directory services provide a managed Active Directory that can be integrated and synced with the organization’s Active Directory.

OR

The organization can deploy their own Active Directory configuration on the Virtual Machine.

The business app can then be deployed on servers, and configured to make use of the Active Directory the organization deployed earlier.

Perks of Using Azure for Businesses

• Move from capital expenditures (Capex) to operational expenses (Opex) with its pay-as-you-go pricing model
• Easy access to resources means reduced time to market
• Choose from a wide range of virtual server configurations to meet the business requirements
• Easier to set up a network connection using services like Virtual Private Network (VPN), VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute etc.
• Enhanced security and streamlined access management thanks to managed services like Azure Active Directory
• Flexibility in making infrastructure-related decisions
• This flexibility also gives them a way to respond faster to business challenges

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There’s a downside though. Using multiple devices required users to perform atypical actions like USB drives due to context switching. This affects developers as well, as they will have to figure out a way to sustain user engagement while the user switches between devices and applications.

Each device behaves differently. So switching devices to perform a particular task can be quite complicated. This is where Microsoft’s Project Rome comes in.

Mobility of Experiences

Microsoft’s idea is to solve this complexity and replace it with fluidity i.e. the user gets to move wherever they want while the ecosystem enhances the experience. This mobility of experiences spans areas like form factors, intelligent assistance etc.

According to the tech giant, Project Rome helps deliver fundamental advances, in a way that adds value across these areas, thus delivering a more personal operating system for next-gen computing.

Project Rome

The Microsoft technology solution consists of:

• A Programming Model – The model is delivered as APIs for various popular platforms including Windows, Android, and iOS. The APIs enable cloud and client apps to build experiences using the capabilities of Project Rome.
• Infrastructure Services – A set of services in the Microsoft Cloud for cross-platform and Windows-based devices.
• A Device Runtime – The runtime connects Windows-based and cross-platform devices and integrates them to the Project Rome infrastructure services.

The result?

The type of device, the form factor, and the platform wouldn’t matter. Users can perform tasks or projects without being concerned about the form factor.

Context-switching without losing the context.

Connecting Windows to Microsoft Graph

A favorite of developers, Microsoft Graph allows them to use a single endpoint to access Microsoft data without calling different endpoints and dealing with multiple data and auth formats.

In addition, users can:

• Navigate between entities and relationships
• Access data and intelligence from multiple Microsoft cloud services

Through Project Rome, Windows can now connect to Microsoft Graph by adding new entities to the Microsoft Graph API set.

Using REST endpoints in Microsoft Graph, developers will be able to access devices used by users, including Android and iOS devices essentially breaking down barriers between devices.

Driving User Engagement

Developers can use two APIs from Project Rome to drive user engagement between two or more devices.

They are RemoteSystems and RemoteSessions.

RemoteSystems

The API enables developers to:

• Discover active devices in proximity or through the cloud, and connect to them
• Launch apps on these devices remotely
• Send messages to the apps on connected devices

Leveraging these capabilities, developers will be able to build apps that provide rich single-user experiences across multiple platforms.

RemoteSessions

While RemoteSystems can be used to create single-user experiences, the RemoteSessions APIs enable developers to create multi-user experiences. For instance, multiple users in proximity will be able to start a collaborative session together like for playing games, editing videos etc.

The APIs arrived with the Windows Fall Creators update. The Android and iOS implementations will be released soon.

Conclusion

Barriers between devices will not be a problem anymore with Project Rome. User experiences will not be constrained to a single device. Unlike other Microsoft technologies, Project Rome holds immense potential and can lead to a future where switching between multiple devices will be seamless, productive, and hassle-free regardless of the platform and the form factor. So basically, the technology delivers a personal operating system enabling context switching between devices without losing context.

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• Open source design
• Cross-platform compatibility
• Flexible deployment
• Command-Line tools

This and many other features made the new .NET framework accelerate the evolution of software development. Here are 6 facts on one of the most beneficial Microsoft technologies to grace the software development sector.

The Platform is Open Source

The .NET Foundation promotes innovation within the .NET development framework. .NET Core prioritizes this objective as the whole project is dedicated to open source principles. This means:

• More control over the code
• Code transparency
• Easier to pinpoint and rectify security risks
• Stability

Its Main Composition Includes 4 Key Parts

• .NET Runtime – Provides the framework with services like garbage collector, type system, assembly loading etc.
• CoreFX – Essentially a set of framework libraries that provide app composition types, primitive data types, and other basic utilities.
• SDK tools and compilers – Creates the .NET Core developer experience.
• dotnet app host – Hosts the runtime to facilitate the launch of applications.

The .NET Core Software Development Kit (SDK) includes Command-Line tools, the dotnet driver, and the .NET Core itself.

Cross-platform Design

The developers of the framework prioritized cross-platform compatibility. .NET Core runs on multiple versions of Linux operating systems, Mac OS X, and Windows. Though it was an unusual move from Microsoft, it proved to be a significant advancement in today’s technological world which demands flexibility when it comes to operating systems. The cross-platform design made it a favorite of a wider community of developers including Windows, Mac, and Linux developers indicating a move toward software-defined applications.

It’s Basically an Agile Development Tool

.NET Core includes a modular infrastructure released through NuGet. This means developers will be able to access it as feature-based packages, and build lightweight applications with only the necessary packages rather than as one large assembly. This also ensures better performance of the applications in addition to enhanced security. The modular infrastructure also means that modules can be individually updated. This makes it easier to update the .NET Core platform. This level of agility and development ease are the more common DevOps traits of the platform.

It’s the Result of a Collaborative Effort

Around 10000 developers worked collaboratively to design and develop the platform using open source design principles. The development team succeeded in implementing the best suggestions into the development, finally creating a community-driven, open source product that’s still being refined. The developers at Microsoft and GitHub’s communities in charge of the platform’s maintenance still take suggestions and requests into account to make .NET Core more capable than it already is.

Command-Line Tools

According to Microsoft, the .NET Core is capable of exercising all product scenarios at the command-line. Its Command Line Interface (CLI) includes tools like Integrated Development Environments to develop applications that excel in performance. The CLI is also cross-platform which means developers can use it on any platform that’s supported by the framework once they have figured out the toolchain.

Conclusion

.NET Core has changed so much since its initial release and is still expecting more significant changes in the near future. The platform now grants more freedom and flexibility to developers in developing, deploying, and updating applications. Having already transformed the software development realm, the platform is still expected to bring about major changes in the sector by 2018.

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This is a welcome change in today’s time with more businesses realizing how cloud can boost their growth, adopting the technology and leveraging it for its innovative benefits. However, it should also be mentioned that the vast majority of businesses in the world are still reluctant to fully move to public cloud citing latency concerns, customization, and even data sovereignty as reasons. Microsoft seems to be on the path to changing that.

The New Tools and Resources

They mentioned a tool called Cloud Migration Assessment, designed to help organizations discover and analyze servers across their IT environment. The tool also provides a detailed report that includes an estimate of the cost benefits of moving to Microsoft Azure.

Microsoft’s also announced that it will be possible to activate Azure Hybrid Use Benefit directly in the Azure Management Portal. In addition to the cost-effectiveness of this feature, the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit also saves up to 40% with Windows Server licenses.

Another tool that is worth noticing is the Azure Site Recovery tool. Also pro-cloud, this tool eases the transition to the cloud. The tool allows organizations to efficiently migrate virtual machines to Azure. It also makes moving applications running on physical servers, AWS, Hyper-V, or VMware hassle-free.

It wouldn’t be wrong to theorize that the tech giant will be announcing changes in other popular Microsoft technologies as well this year. It’s safe to expect some intriguing cloud features that can optimize businesses in unique ways.

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