I am excited to announce the arrival of the new SharePoint 2010 exam, joining our Microsoft Office Specialist 2010 line up. If you're like me, SharePoint has become a key, integrated platform to connect with coworkers on key projects, as well as store and share valuable information. And I love how well SharePoint 2010 seamlessly connects with Office 2010, including the same ribbon interface. Brilliant!

Interested in taking the exam? Check out the exam objectives here. Need training first? Check out the Learning Plan, which links to a number of helpful articles. Microsoft Learning also has an e-learning collection that might be useful as well as a number of instructor-led courses. Ready to take the exam? Click here to find a test center via our MOS exam provider, Certiport.

Questions? Please let me know. Happy testing!

I wanted to remind everyone that both students and Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs) are eligible to earn college credit with a Microsoft Certification. In short, approved certifications can be applied for up to six semester hours of college credit in either a bachelor’s-degree or associate-degree of computer applications, information technology, or computer information systems.  There are no caveats to this. In order for you to qualify for the credit(s), you must have passed a select Microsoft Certification within the last three years.

The American Council on Education (ACE) is the governing body that has made this possible. One exciting thing about this is that they maintain a network of more than 1,500 cooperating, accredited colleges and universities! This list consists of all accredited colleges and universities that have agreed to consider ACE college-credit.  

The following are Microsoft Certifications and exams that ACE recommends for college credit:

Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certifications

IT professional and developer certifications

Frequently asked questions are obtainable here:

Q.  Will my school recognize the ACE credit recommendation?

Q.  Is an ACE transcript different from an MCP digital transcript?

Q.  Where can I find more information about the ACE College Credit Recommendation Service?

Q.  Is my Microsoft Certified Application Specialist (MCAS) certification eligible for college credit?

Q.  Are my MCSE and MCSA certifications eligible for college credit?

So students – whether you’re entering into your freshman year or finishing up next year as a senior, we welcome you to check out this program to start earning credit now!

Next week I join 150 fellow trainers at the MCT Summit 2011 in Sweden and then I head directly to the Caribbean, but not for a holiday...

I play down the description "Caribbean", especially since the destination is Haiti.  We all should remember those terrible news reports following the earthquake disaster, a little over 18 months ago which literally knocked this already impoverished country onto its knees.  The earthquake took the lives of over 200,000 people leaving huge skills shortages and destruction.

Microsoft and the international charity NetHope were quick to offer help to the Haitians and successfully organised a Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) boot camp last year.  Following the BTL post in March 2011, from Lutz Ziob, General Manager of MSL, discussing the graduation of 39 Haitian students from the NetHope Academy ICT Internship Program hosted by Ecole Supérieure d’Infotronique d’Haiti (ESIH), (see post), I suggested that it would be an idea to take some of these graduates and encourage them to become MCTs who could then help train other Haitians.  Little did I know that 3 months later this "idea" would come to fruition!

Over the last month, we have agreed the date (4-8 July), a location (ESIH), recruited the participants and drawn up a program which will comprise of a mixture of the following areas:   

So, armed with a suitcase full of courseware books, MCT T-shirts and USB sticks and no sunscreen, I fly into Port-au-Prince on Sunday, start class at 8am Monday morning.  If all goes to plan I will finish training at 6pm on the Friday having helped the class graduate as trainers, ready to face the exciting world of being an Microsoft Certified Trainer!

A number of Web seminars are being developed for the coming release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. These Web seminars are 60-90 minutes long and will help get your readiness on for this important release. Here are links to the Microsoft Partner Learning Center:

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Development

• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Development New Features -Part 1 
  In this on demand course, you will learn about the two Development Environments: Developer Workspace, and MorphX and Visual Studio. You will also learn about Table Relationships and Table Inheritance. Topics include: Changes to the AOT, Debugging, and Abstract Tables.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Development New Features -Part 2
  In this on demand course, you will learn about Valid Time State Tables, Unit of Work, Security and Attributes. Topics include: Manipulating data with X++, using the Query Class, Permissions, Privileges, and Policies.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Development New Features - Part 3
  In this on demand course, you will learn about: Eventing, Interop and Proxies, and X++ Compiled to .NET CIL. Topics include: Event handler nodes in the AOT, adding event handlers programmatically, and working with proxies.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Development New Features -Part 4
• In this on demand course, you will learn about Client Changes. Topics include: Form types, list pages, table of contents, details form, simple list and detail page elements, dialogs, fact boxes, action panes and action pane strips, fast tabs, segmented entry control, .Net hosted controls, MSChart, Enhanced Preview, Export to Excel, and datasource changes.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Development New Features -Part 5
  In this on demand course, you will learn about Hosting .Net Controls, Services, Dimension Framework and Version Control. Topics include: Ports, the AIF Adapter Types, Custom Services, consuming Services using the BizTalk 2009/2010 WCF-NetTcp Adapter, Transformations, and Office Add-in.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Supply Chain Management

• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Supply Chain Management New Features – Inventory
• In this on demand course, you will learn about Inventory Items and Inventory Reconciliation. Topics include: Products, Dimensions, Global Unit of Measure, Non-Stocked Inventory, Item Groups, and Reports.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Supply Chain Management New Features – Agreements and Sales Orders
  In this on demand course, you will learn about Sales, Purchase and Trade Agreements, Delivery Schedules and Sales Orders. Topics include: Packing slip corrections, and capable to promise.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Supply Chain Management New Features – Purchasing
  In this on demand course, you will learn about Purchase Order Line Numbers, Subledger Distributions, Vendor lines not related to a PO, Two voucher strategy for Purchase Distributions, Invoice totals matching, Extended price totals matching, Miscellaneous charges, Prepayments and Change management.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Supply Chain Management New Features – Intercompany and Quality Management
  In this on demand course, you will learn about Intercompany and Quality Management,. Topics include: Setup, Agreements, Planning, Goods in transit, Inspection areas, Inventory blocking

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Global Address Book

• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Global Address Book New Features
  In this on demand course, you will learn about the History GAB, Setup of the Global Address Book, Address Reference Data, Master Records, Transactions, Non-Party Entities, and Upgrade Considerations.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Financials Management

• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Financials Management New Features - General Ledger
  In this on demand course, you will learn about the new features in the General Ledger. Topics include: Financial Dimensions, Account Structures, Main Account Templates, Segmented Entry Control, Upgrade considerations, Distributions and Sub-ledger Journal Entries.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Financials Management New Features – Budgeting In this on demand course, you will learn about the new features in Budgeting. Topics include: Setup, Budget Control, Reports, and Upgrade from Ledger Budgets to Budget Transactions.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Financials Management New Features – Collections Management Partner Technical Services:
  In this on demand course, you will learn about the new features in Collections Management. Topics include: Accounts Receivable parameters, Setup and Collection Letters.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Financials Management New Features – Bank Management
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Financials Management New Features – Financials Part 1
  In this on demand course, you will learn about Shared Setup, Cost Accounting, and Financial Statements. Topics include: Fiscal Calendars, Chart of Accounts, Currency, Updating, Output type Excel and Troubleshooting.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Financials Management New Features - Financials Part 2
• In this on demand course, you will learn about Credit Card Processing, Taxes, Fixed Assets, Intercompany and Security. Topics include: Refunds, Address Verification, Settlements, PreAuthorization, Extended Decimal Places, VAT, Calendars, Property Groups, Activity Codes, Asset Transfer, and Reports
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Financials Management New Features – Accounts Receivable
  In this on demand course, you will learn about Interest calculations, notes, Centralized payments, Multiple invoices for print management, Giro footer, Recurring invoices, List pages, Multiple remit to, and Settlements.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Financials Management New Features – Accounts Payable

 Coming soon -- Tech Domain

Back in May, we ran our first quarterly Born to Learn poll and I promised to share the results and here they are!

First, we asked how you’d characterize yourself:

 We also asked what roles you have:

And where you’re located:

But most interestingly, we asked what super power you would like to have.

Out of the ones listed, the preference seems to be flying or teleportation, but I love ones other people entered for other:

1. Know everything
2. Ability to type up an email and have the reader take it exactly as I meant it.
3. Understand all programming codes
4. The Ability To Remember Everything In Order Of How It Happened and Retain my knowledge forever!!!!
5. Sniff out bugs in code without missing one, without adding them and in record time
6. A fix everything finger

I love to have a fix everything finger too. Finally we asked for comments or jokes. I won’t post the comments (but we’re taking them seriously internally), but I wanted to post a couple of the jokes (at least the safe for work ones – but the other ones are very funny, just not appropriate):

1. To learn to fly: throw yourself at the floor and miss. In order to miss: get distracted halfway. Getting distracted will almost guaranteed make you miss your goal. - after the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
2. How do you spot an extrovert developer? He stares at *your* shoes when he talks to you!

You're a funny group. Thanks you guys! :)

The updated Virtual Business Card site has now launched.  A few of the changes you can expect to see are updated colors, features, and functions.   In preparation of Wallet Cards launching in July, you now have the ability to create and select the virtual business card that you would like to connect to the Microsoft Tag that will be located on your wallet card.  Not interested in purchasing a wallet card? You will still have the opportunity to create a VBC that mirrors the wallet card look and feel as well as use the VCF download feature, etc.  As always, we would love your feedback and thoughts.

Query suggestions come in two varieties: pre-query and post-query. A pre-query suggestion is a type-ahead feature that appears under the search box on the search page.  A post-query suggestion is similar, only it appears after you have executed a query.  Clicking on a post-query suggestion will execute that query for you.

Query suggestions are based on previous queries so when you start you will not see any suggestions.  Using Windows PowerShell you can seed the suggestions manually to get things going.  Adding query suggestions manually is useful for getting started or determining how the feature works.

To add a query suggestion manually, follow the steps outlined here:

1. Store the FASTQuery SSA object by entering in the following command:
   $searchapp = get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication –Identity “FASTQuery”
   where Identity is the name of the FAST Query SSA, for example FASTQuery.
   
2. Add your query suggestion using SPEnterpriseSearchLanguageResourcePhrase, using for example:
   New-SPEnterpriseSearchLanguageResourcePhrase –SearchApplication $searchapp –Language EN-US –Type QuerySuggestionAlwaysSuggest –Name “SharePoint”
   
3. Run the timer to immediately activate your query suggestion using the following two commands:
   $timer=Get-SPTimerJob|? {$_.Name -eq "Prepare Query Suggestions"}
   $timer.RunNow()
   
4. Now go to your FAST Search page and perform a search using the phrase you suggested. The name SharePoint will be listed as a suggestion.

If you would like to learn more about this and other troubleshooting tips, register for the Enterprise Search for IT Professionals instructor-led course through FAST University. For more information on this and other classes, contact a FAST University Education Consultant by emailing fastuniv@microsoft.com or visit the FAST University Learning Portal at www.fastuniversity.com.

By David Codrington

Students, if you’ve been struggling this past year taking notes on that sluggish laptop with no battery life, now’s the time to buy that new PC you need! For a limited time only (through 9/3/2011) Microsoft is offering a free Xbox 360 with the purchase of a qualifying laptop. To be eligible you only need to purchase a qualifying Windows 7 PC priced $699 or higher from the Microsoft store while showing a current student ID.

As you know, there is a lot of hype surrounding the Xbox 360 and Kinect - the motion sensing input device that enable users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without a controller. However, ever since it was unveiled last year, Kinect has been used for much more than just gaming. KinectEDucation recently launched as a community-driven resource for developers, teachers, students, enthusiasts, and any other education stakeholder to promote the use of Kinect applications in the classroom. While the website is not directly affiliated with Microsoft, we have invited the founder of the website Johnny Kissko to come to our Redmond, Washington campus in July and present KinectEDucation in person.

Here’s a short video on KinectEDucation:

What are your thoughts on bringing the Kinect into the classroom? Is it the future? 

When teaching 10264, a lot of web architecture questions arise about the differences between how to structure an application when using web forms or MVC. My intention of this post is to answer some of these questions.

Let's start out with some basics, a classical three-layered approach, where each layer has different responsibilities:
User interface:
display data/information and handle all interaction with user
Business service:
Business logic - responsible for enforcing business rules and provide methods used by user interface. A business rule for an B2B e-commerce site could be that if there are outstanding payments for a certain customers, that customer cannot place new orders. Or when registering a new user, a valid email adress must be entered so that we can send order confirmations later.
Data Access Layer:
Does CRUD (Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete) operations to the database (or perhaps several databases, web services, file system) to store or retrieve data.  Can also do some Object/Relational mapping.

Besides these three layers, a domain model is designed for all objects that are important in the application domain containing their properties and relationships. This could be the Order class, Customer class etc.
These domain classes are used by all layers, for instance if the UI wants to get all orders for a customer, the UI code creates an instance of the BSCustomer class, calls a method BSCustomer.GetAllOrders(customerId). The BSCustomer class creates an instance of the DALCustomer class, calls a method DALCustomer.GetAllOrders(customerId) and calls the database somehow (by stored procedure, T-SQL string, or OR-mapping framework) and returns a list of Order domain objects, which the UI shows to the user.

Figure: Three layered architecture and some code. Not included in this picture: settings passed to layers (conn strings etc), security checks, error handling and other *details*...

At it's simplest, a BS method just calls a DAL method directly, but it often contains validation (is this user allowed to do this, are all parameters OK, etc) or calls several DAL classes and methods. So the BS layer provides an abstraction for the DAL layer, that contains more details. BS contains methods (and support methods) for doing things that provide actual business value to the application  (driven by the UI, such as PlaceOrder) and hides the actual DAL details, making it easy for all that use the BS layer.

By doing this, we have a clear separation of concerns between our layers. The DAL can be rebuilt to use another database, or OR-mapping tool and as long as the interface used by BS does not change and each layer can be developed, refactored and tested separately. By using custom domain objects, the UI does not have to know details about the database (for instance, if the order status is stored using a string, number, relations to other table, etc).

The need for BS methods and domain objects is driven by the needs of the consumers - the UI, and if many applications use the same BS layer, all needs have to be considered.

How about using more layers?
There is no upper limit to the numbers of layers that can be used. We could build a three layered app for a mobile device, which then calls a web service, that has it's own layers. That's 6. Don't do this just for fun. Start easy. Put classes in different folders to start with. Put them into separate visual studio projects when there is an actual need to separate the assemblies, for instance if they will be used by other applications.

Do you write unit tests?
Instead of having hard coded dependencies between layers (UI must know how to create a BSCustomer class with certain methods), we can create an interface (like IBSCustomer) that the UI uses. This way we can change the BS-layer to any other implementation as long as if implements the same interface. By using a Factory pattern (link), we can let some other component be responsible for creating our BSCustomer class. Dependency Injection could also to the same. Hence, we get classes more loosely coupled to each other and according to the SOLID principles, a better object oriented design, which will be easy to write tests for.

Done with the basics!

How does this map to ASP.NET web forms?
A typical approach would be to let the code behind use the business layer to retrieve data, which is bound to to asp.net server controls. The communication with business layer is done by using our domain model. If UI developers like to use datasources and UI wizards, set up BS classes and methods to use a ObjectDataSource.

ASP.NET MVC uses a model to handle database access, will this ruin our 3-layered approach?
The MVC approach is in the ASP.NET context, a way to build the UI layer in a structured and testable manner. It does not interfere with other parts of the architecture.

Yes, it is possible to use an OR-mapping tool to build a domain model as well and also handle all database actions, but it does not have to be done like this. The Model in ASP.NET MVC is practically a View-model - a model used to serve data to the view, and to simplify development of views for the front end coder.  Often two different models are used - one domain model used by all layers, and one model used by the UI. They might be very similar, but do not have to be, since they have different responsibilities. Another approach is using several UI models, one for displaying data and one for fetching data. Keep in mind, MVC is primarily used to structure the UI.

What if Entity framework is used, how will this affect the architecture?
In most examples and quick demos during the course, Entity framework is used. In these examples, EF defines the Domain model (same as the MVC Model in these examples), the DAL and to simplify MVC examples, the business layer is not included. Still, keep the overall picture above in mind!  With code first in EF (nice features in 4.1), this will be clearer. You create your own domain model, and define a data context class to use them in EF. Scott Guthrie has written a post about this: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/07/16/code-first-development-with-entity-framework-4.aspx

Use the course as a way to share your experiences and ideas regarding architecture with your course mates. Real life examples (and problems) are fun!
Does your business slow down during the summer? Use this opportunity to take a course :-)

First and foremost a reminder that exams 271 and 272 will be retiring at the end of the month and these exams award the Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) certification.  If you are in progress to achieve this certification, you must take and pass both exams before June 30, 2011.

The following is a list of exams that will be retired over the next year:

Additionally, you will begin to notice that certifications will begin to retire as well.  What this means is that you will not be able to earn the certification.  If you have already earned the certification, it will remain in the appropriate section on your transcript.

Be sure to take your exams before the retirement dates!

Happy Testing!

I am glad to be able to blog about my experiences prepping and teaching 10264 Developing Web Applications with Visual Studio 2010 in a series of posts.

I have taught the course 3 times; I am currently scheduled to teach it again at least 2 times in the very near future.

My first impression of the course, its contents and labs is positive. My student experiences have also been generally positive.

On a personal note I was very glad to see that the course content includes web development technologies besides Web Forms, including MVC 2.0 and JQuery.

MVC 2.0 and Web Forms are first compared at a high level in module 1. In this module I emphasize that MVC and Web Forms can be used together in the same Web site; they are not mutually exclusive. Many of my students are experienced Web Form developers. They had concerns that their investment in Web Form technology was going to be “obsoleted” by MVC.  

To help illustrate to students that Web Forms and MVC could co-exist within the same project I added a Web Form (.aspx) with some simple server side code (i.e. display the date in a literal control) to the ASP.NET MVC web application created in the demonstration found in Module 1.3. I then display this Web Form (.aspx) in the browser to show that it works. This small demo showing that a project could host MVC and Web Forms helped ease student angst about any perceived fear of Web Form “obsolescence”.

As I moved to slides in Module 1.4 it seemed to work well to put breakpoints in the Web Form (aspx) server side code as well as in the HomeController Index action method. I make sure that the Index action is the current tab in Visual Studio. Then, I run the project in debug mode (F5). When the breakpoint is hit I display the Call Stack Debug window (be sure that the option Show External Code is selected; right click in the Call Stack Window to select this option). Note in the window that before the MVC .dlls there is a dll with a name System.Web.dll!System.Web.HttpApplication. Stop debugging. Then make the Web Form the start page and run the project in debug mode again. When the .aspx code breakpoint is hit, in the Call Stack window note that the System.Web.dll!System.Web.HttpApplication also appears.

This shows that both Web Forms and MVC share some common ASP.NET processing in the pipeline. This demonstration supports the slide materials in Module 1.4. I mention that certain ASP.NET features exist in both Web Forms and MVC as they reside in the common portion of the ASP.NET pipeline; for example output caching.  I reinforce the concept that not only can Web Forms and MVC “live together” but that certain features work the exact same way, again noting that certain Web Form knowledge can be leveraged in the MVC world.

There certainly more for me to share—please stay tuned.

Are you still pursuing a SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005, or BizTalk Server 2006 certification? What about your MCDST? Well, time's a wastin'. The exams that are required to earn these certifications retire on June 30th.* After June 30th, 27 different exams will no longer be available to take at Prometric. (Tick tock!)

Haven't scheduled your test yet? Run, don't walk, to Prometric.com and schedule it right now. Sometimes the seats fill up close to the date when we are retiring a bunch of exams.

For a full list of the exams that will be retiring on June 30th, check out our Discontinued Exams page.

*With the exception of 70-536, which will still be available to support requirements for the Visual Studio 2008 certifications.

Are IT Pros and Developers truly like oil and water? Not according to Scott Hanselman, Principal Program Manager and Matt Hester, Senior IT Evangelist, both from Microsoft. In this Bytes by TechNet interview, they discuss how the line between IT and development can get blurred. Both Matt and Scott share examples of how fellow IT Pros incorporate development into their scope and vice versa. If you've ever debated the relationship between IT Professionals and Developers, this is a great eye-opening interview to catch.