Windows Server 2008 Certifications

I was looking for upgrading my machine to new operating system and one the option was Windows Server 2008. Some of deployment features, like WAS are supported here.

I found that Microsoft offers a certification program and more information can be found here.

An application based on the features its offer and the market it targets can participate in one of these programs meet the technical bars for the Certified for Windows Server 2008 logo or the Works with Windows Server 2008

Microsoft is providing additional tools this time in addition to the test case document. I am going to download the tools and let me write of them later.

One also sees that there are two test vendors now, VeriTest or Wipro

What is ODP.Net?

I had a chance to learn about ODP.Net.

There are several ways to connect to Oracle database from within .NET. Let us see which one to choose. Each of those methods having its own advantages and disadvantages.

1.Using .NET Data Provider for OLEDB

This method is used to develop database-independent applications based on ADO.NET 1.1

2.Using .NET Data Provider for ODBC

These seems to be the slowest  to connect oracle. This method can help in developing multi-platform database independent applications using ADO.NET or if you want to connect to legacy systems or database systems existing on other platforms.

3.Microsoft’s .NET Data Provider for Oracle

Microsoft claims that this method helps you to make use of advanced and extensive features available in Oracle which were not supported by oledb and Odbc

4. Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET)

This provider is developed by Oracle to facilitate developers connecting to Oracle databases with tight integration (along with best performance) and advanced features. This method seems to be more apt to connect to Oracle,as ODP.NET has tight integration with Oracle database.

Which method wins?

1. The last two (.NET Framework data provider for Oracle and ODP.NET) are the preferred methods for working with Oracle databases.  These two directly talk with Oracle databases without any mediation layer (like OLEDB or ODBC), thus improving performance.

2.ODP.NET supports all native Oracle data types in the Oracle.DataAccess.Types namespace.he ODP.NET OracleDataAdapter allows you to safely map Oracle data types to .NET data types where there is a potential for data loss.

3. ODP.net supports callback callback method to handle the notification when the cache item gets invalidated(based on a trigger in oracle).

Let us consider a scenario where data is stored in the Oracle database and accessed by an ASP.NET application using ADO.NET. Let us think that we want to cache the data that gets filled up in to combo boxes of country, states, language and related fields are generally static in nature most of times. Here we can use data caching of ASP.Net. But unfortunately, ASP.NET does not allow a dependency to be specified whereby a cache item is dependent on data stored in a database table. The cache validation becomes more challenging when the web server and data base server are on different machines and web applications are deployed using web farms with instances of the same application running on multiple Web servers for load balancing. one way to do this is regular polling of the data to look for invalidate state and update the cache.

4. Look and make sure that you do not run in to connection leak issues with .Net Framework data provider for Oracle 

ODP.NET is freely available from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) at http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/windows/odpnet/index.html. ODP.NET requires Oracle client version 9.2 or later.In most cases, Oracle does not charge any fees for distributing the Oracle client nor ODP.NET with a third-party application

I also looked at the following links to learn more

Improve ODP.NET Performance

Build a .NET Application on the Oracle Database

Optimize Result Set Retrieval Using ODP.NET and Ref Cursors

MVC framework for ASP.Net

The MVC framework is quite a different way of building Web interfaces than Web Forms.It’s much more modular and now we can easily test the individual components of the Web application using our own unit test framework.

The feature I am trying to understand the following 

1. How does MVC support in unit testing? Want to try an example to see this working

2. How extensible and customizable MVC really is?

3. Should do I abort Web Form development way and move to MVC? When to move and when not?

4. What is the real use of URL mapping capability? What is wrong having extensions?

5. How to make use of MVC framework and continue using things like forms/windows authentication, URL authorization, output and data caching, session/profile state management, health monitoring, configuration system.

I am looking at the web cast from this site.

What I have started reading

These are the books I have started reading from last 15 days. I also decided that i am going to blog my learning to check where I stand in the future.

Recommended by Prakash

1. Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life (Hardcover)
by Spencer Johnson

2. Jonathan Livingston Seagull

3. Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results

Found myself

Beyond Code: Learn to Distinguish Yourself in 9 Simple Steps! by Rajesh Setty

When and How did I start reading?

I think I used to read a lot of technical and non-technical books in my past. I read a lot of story books in English and Tamil. By late with a family, I have stopped reading and I have stopped learning

I am having a fun time with the role of Project Manager. You know what this is fun is. I was discussing with my friend Prakash how I was doing and he asked me some wonderful question.

the first question was "How did you learn C++?" My answer was by learning The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup. The next question was " How did you learn C#?". My answer was by learning Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming by Jeffrey Richter. Then he asked me " How do you learn Project Management?"

This where it struck me that I am not really trying to learn for my current role and that is also a reason why I am having a lot of fun times. So I asked Prakash to suggest me some books to read and I have started reading.

Thanks a lot to you Prakash and I am debted to you.