August Meeting: DevOps with VSO and TFS/Git

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us and TEKsystems on Tuesday, August 25, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. We’ll take a look at the build automation and release management capabilities of Visual Studio Online and Team Foundation Server/Git. You’ll learn how you can use those in your DevOps workflows.

The meeting presenters are Chris Patterson and Donovan Brown.

Chris has been in the software industry for more than 15 years. In that time he has worked on a variety of projects at companies ranging from startups to telecom. For the past 10 years he has worked as a Program Manager on Team Foundation Server at Microsoft. During that time he has focused on developer tools and ALM working on Visual Studio Load Test and Microsoft Test Manager. Most recently he worked on the rewrite of Team Build for Visual Studio Online and TFS 2015. In his spare time he volunteers as the Cubmaster for his son’s cub scout pack focusing on building character and leadership in the boys through outdoor skills and activities. You can follow him on Twitter at @chrisrpatterson.

Donovan Brown is a Senior Program Manager for DevOps on the US Developer Division team in Microsoft, focusing on developer tools including Visual Studio Online and Team Foundation Server. Before joining Microsoft, Donovan spent seven years as a Process Consultant and a Certified Scrum Master. Donovan has traveled the globe helping companies in the U.S., Canada, India, Germany, and the UK develop solutions using agile practices, Visual Studio, and Team Foundation Server in industries including Communications, Health Care, Energy, and Financial Services. He is also an avid programmer, often finding ways to integrate software into his other hobbies and activities. You can follow him on Twitter at @DonovanBrown.

The meeting is sponsored by TEKsystems.

By working for TEKsystems you become part of our dedicated Microsoft Technologies Practice. Since its inception our Microsoft Technologies Practice has helped hundreds of Microsoft Specialists to find the most ideal job opportunities in the marketplace. Our program at TEKsystems specializes in the cornerstone technologies of the Microsoft stack – .NET, SQL Server and SharePoint. Our team consists of Delivery Experts, in key market geographies, with ties to the most cutting edge work opportunities.

As a member of the TEKsystems Microsoft Technologies Practice you will have access to a Market Delivery Expert that focuses on Microsoft Technology jobs around the clock in your local region as well as across the US. In some cases you will be afforded the opportunity to become a full time employee of TEKsystems and work as a Microsoft expert on our staff or at our key clients. Be sure to speak with your local TEKsystems contact Lindsey Thomka about our Microsoft Technologies Practice and how it can benefit your career.

People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At TEKsystems, we understand people. Every year we deploy over 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 client sites across North America, Europe and Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to help our clients achieve their business goals – while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise and IT services to help our clients plan, build and run their critical business initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are, and take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there. Learn more at www.teksystems.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

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July Meeting: A Database Driven Elegant Solution for Replication

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us and Logical Advantage on Tuesday, July 28, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Replication is a tool in the relational database realm to keep two databases in sync. It is used to set up a child server to use a report server or to allow individual users to maintain subsets of data for their use without impacting other user’s data. Replication may take the form of transaction replication which moves data on an individual command basis in one direction, merge replication which moves the data in both directions and snapshot replication which takes a point in time snapshot of the data and moves it in one direction. In this talk, you will learn the ins and outs of SQL Server replication and how to more effectively set up replication using database driven methodologies. You will also receive information on some of the gotchas they may face in using replication.

The meeting presenter is Eric Notheisen.

Eric Notheisen sees himself as a businessman who solves business problems using automation. He is a Dot NET application developer with over 35 years experience in hardware and software technologies and 20 years experience in Windows and Web application development. He has held positions as a consultant, application developer, and system/application architect. Eric is currently an application development consultant with TEKsystems on contract with the Compass Group in Charlotte, NC.

Eric has been on the faculty as an Adjunct Instructor at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC and the Community College of Aurora in Aurora, CO teaching software development and e-commerce topics. He holds four academic degrees from both the Community College of the Air Force and the University of Northern Colorado. He is certified as an MCP in Visual Basic, CLS in Lotus Notes. He received an Excellence in Innovation award from CGI for his development of a database driven rules engine.

Eric served in the US Air Force for almost 22 years and retired in 1987.

Eric and his wife Diane live in Fort Mill, SC.

The meeting is sponsored by Logical Advantage.

Our mission is to partner with our clients to provide strategies and solutions that maximize the ROI of Enterprise Asset Intelligence and Human Capital Development. Learn more at www.logicaladvantage.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

Downloads: Slides and Code

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June Meeting: Metadata Code Generation

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us and Signature Consultants on Tuesday, June 23, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Code generation is a big part of almost all software development these days as Visual Studio and most tools generate a lot code for us. When working with database applications, the metadata from the database and the repetitive nature of the code lends itself to great productivity gains by generating much of the code. Collecting, storing and manipulating this metadata leads to many more opportunities to generate code at every level of the architecture, including the UI. This presentation will demonstrate how easy it is to build your own code generation system using basic .NET tools. We will discuss several off-the-shelf code generations systems and compare them to building your own.

The meeting presenter is David Catherman.

David Catherman has been participating on the leadership team of the Enterprise Developers Guild for over 12 years and has presented at Guild meetings and code camps many times. He is a consultant for Bank of America and has 20+ years designing and developing database applications with specific concentration on Microsoft .NET and SQL Server. He is currently working as an Application Architect and Senior Developer using Visual Studio 2013 and SQL Server 2012. He has several MCPs in .NET and is pursuing MCSD.

The meeting is sponsored by Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants was established in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

Downloads: Slides

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May Meeting: The Universal Windows Platform – A Developer’s Guide for Windows 10

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us and TEKsystems on Tuesday, May 26, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. In this meeting we are going to take a look at all the new bells and whistles that make up Windows 10 development. We will focus primarily on building universal Windows apps using XAML and C#. We will take a look at the single platform running one Windows on multiple devices concept. We will take a look at the developer experience with Windows 10 and review the Windows tooling as well as discuss .NET Native. Finally, we will take a look at Template 10 and discus how we can get started.

Come out and get ready for an awesome talk on Microsoft’s latest version of Windows 10!

The meeting presenter is Matt Duffield.

Matt Duffield has over 15 years working in IT. He enjoys building rich user centric applications. Matt is very active in the community speaking at user groups and code camps. He is the leader of the Charlotte ALT.NET user group. He is an INETA speaker member and has been a Microsoft MVP in Client Application Development. He started working in .NET as soon as it was available to the development community and was also an early adopter of both WPF and Silverlight. He believes good business intelligence (BI) architecture is the formula for a successful software package that looks beyond just data and provides insightful information. He is the co-author of the book: Silverlight 5: Building Rich Enterprise Dashboards. You can read his blog at mattduffield.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter at @mattduffield.

The meeting is sponsored by TEKsystems.

By working for TEKsystems you become part of our dedicated Microsoft Technologies Practice. Since its inception our Microsoft Technologies Practice has helped hundreds of Microsoft Specialists to find the most ideal job opportunities in the marketplace. Our program at TEKsystems specializes in the cornerstone technologies of the Microsoft stack – .NET, SQL Server and SharePoint. Our team consists of Delivery Experts, in key market geographies, with ties to the most cutting edge work opportunities.

As a member of the TEKsystems Microsoft Technologies Practice you will have access to a Market Delivery Expert that focuses on Microsoft Technology jobs around the clock in your local region as well as across the US. In some cases you will be afforded the opportunity to become a full time employee of TEKsystems and work as a Microsoft expert on our staff or at our key clients. Be sure to speak with your local TEKsystems contact Lindsey Thomka about our Microsoft Technologies Practice and how it can benefit your career.

People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At TEKsystems, we understand people. Every year we deploy over 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 client sites across North America, Europe and Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to help our clients achieve their business goals – while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise and IT services to help our clients plan, build and run their critical business initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are, and take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there. Learn more at www.teksystems.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

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April Meeting: JavaScript of Tomorrow Is Already Here

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us and TekPartners on Tuesday, April 28, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. We will take a look at the landscape for creating rich single page applications and how ECMAScript 6 is becoming popular now. We will evaluate what it means to write an application in ES6 and also look at some features of ES7 that are being targeted now as well. We will also look at automation tools like GulpJS and, the new kid on the block, JSPM. This will be an introduction to all that is coming at Mach speed. You can decide to jump in and learn now or wait until your are forced to. We hope you will see some advantages of taking a look now and how some tooling, like Microsoft’s TypeScript, is trying to help in the transition.

The meeting presenter is Matt Duffield.

Matt Duffield has over 15 years working in IT. He enjoys building rich user centric applications. Matt is very active in the community speaking at user groups and code camps. He is the leader of the Charlotte ALT.NET user group. He is an INETA speaker member and has been a Microsoft MVP in Client Application Development. He started working in .NET as soon as it was available to the development community and was also an early adopter of both WPF and Silverlight. He believes good business intelligence (BI) architecture is the formula for a successful software package that looks beyond just data and provides insightful information. He is the co-author of the book: Silverlight 5: Building Rich Enterprise Dashboards. You can read his blog at mattduffield.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter at @mattduffield.

The meeting is sponsored by TekPartners.

TekPartners is a leading provider of professional services for the Information Technology and Communications community. TekPartners has been ranked by numerous publications as one of the FASTEST GROWING Technology Service firms in the country.

TekPartners excels in the areas of Application Development, Data Warehousing, Database Administration, Web Development, Network Infrastructure, ERP, Business Analysis, Project Management and Technical Support.

TekPartners is a full-service organization with the ability to offer consulting, staff augmentation, recruitment, human capital management and business intelligence solutions to our clients. We provide our clients with the ability to identify, screen, select and hire the best and most qualified talent available within today’s marketplace. TekPartners focuses in the areas of contract, staff augmentation, direct hire and contract-to-hire service offerings which allows our team to provide world-class service to our clients and candidates. Learn more at www.tekpartners.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

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March Meeting: Kendo <3 Angular: Two Great Libraries, Together At Last!

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us and Signature Consultants on Tuesday, March 24, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Telerik’s Kendo UI framework provides everything you need to create great JavaScript applications. It includes a world-class widget library. But in recent years, AngularJS has exploded onto the scene. It has become a popular and elegant framework for creating web applications. Yet, Angular lacks its own built-in widget library. This could have created a nearly perfect match, but when Angular first came along, using it with Kendo UI wasn’t easy. That all changed recently when Telerik added support for AngularJS into Kendo UI, and now the two can finally be together! Jonathan “J” Tower will walk us through an introduction to both frameworks. He will show us how you too can make amazing web applications with AngularJS + Kendo UI.

The meeting presenter is Jonathan “J.” Tower

Jonathan “J.” Tower is a Microsoft MVP, Telerik Developer Expert, and Senior Software Architect with over fifteen years of software development experience in many different industries. He loves the creative and problem-solving aspects of his work, sharing what he’s learned, and building community.

J’s current technology interests include web technologies–ASP.NET MVC, various JavaScript frameworks like Kendo and Angular– as well as cross-platform mobile development technologies like Xamarin or hybrid mobile apps.

Normally you would find J. near his home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he organizes a user group, four annual developer conferences, and a GiveCamp. This year, however, he and his family are on a one-year-long road trip around the country visiting the 48 contiguous states.

The meeting is sponsored by Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants was established in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

Downloads: Slides and Code

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February Meeting: What’s up with Ruby on Rails? A .NET perspective.

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us on Tuesday, February 24, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. The Rails framework was first released nine years ago. Over the years, it has gotten traction with web developers and enjoys a large and active community. Just earlier this month, Microsoft announced that you can run Ruby on Rails (or anything else, really) on IIS8 with the new HttpPlatformHandler. If you are an ASP.NET developer, or just someone who has wondered, “What’s the deal with Rails?”, please join us for a look at Ruby on Rails from a .NET perspective.

The meeting presenter is Paula Paul.

Paula was one of the first 1000 people to earn an MCSD certification in C# during her early consulting days in Boston. She’s been kicking around Charlotte for a few years since joining Microsoft Consulting Services as an ‘App Dev’ consultant in 2001 to work with enterprise customers on .NET adoption. Paula has donned many hats and toolchains since then. When she’s not home with programmer and husband Bob and their two boys, Paula consults and teaches a Ruby on Rails immersion course for Tech Talent South.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

Downloads: Slides and Code

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January Meeting: MongoDB

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us on Tuesday, January 27, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Joe Feser, Senior Developer from Logical Advantage, will discuss MongoDB with us. In this talk Joe will go over what is involved in setting up MongoDB on Windows and what is involved in working with it in C#. He will discuss: how to serialize / deserialize objects, how to query the data, and how to configure databases and containers (“tables”). Joe will show what an e-commerce ordering system would look like in MS SQL Server and compare how it would look in MongoDB, including sample code. Joe will show how to create object structures for quick get and set operations. He will wrap up by discussing a few best practices and the challenges of migrating to MongoDB from SQL Server including searching and indexing.

The meeting presenter is Joe Feser.

With over 16 years of experience with Microsoft technologies, Joe Feser has worked on a vast array of challenging projects. He works at Logical Advantage on a wide variety of technologies including HTM5, Knockout.js, Silverlight, and SQL Server. In 2008, he moved to Greenville, SC from Cleveland, OH to work for NCover. Since then, Joe has worked on a free timing profiler and many open source projects. He also spend a lot of time working with Windows Azure using the Service Bus, SQL and Compute technologies. You can follow him on Twitter at @joefeser.

The meeting is sponsored by TEKsystems.

By working for TEKsystems you become part of our dedicated Microsoft Technologies Practice. Since its inception our Microsoft Technologies Practice has helped hundreds of Microsoft Specialists to find the most ideal job opportunities in the marketplace. Our program at TEKsystems specializes in the cornerstone technologies of the Microsoft stack – .NET, SQL Server and SharePoint. Our team consists of Delivery Experts, in key market geographies, with ties to the most cutting edge work opportunities.

As a member of the TEKsystems Microsoft Technologies Practice you will have access to a Market Delivery Expert that focuses on Microsoft Technology jobs around the clock in your local region as well as across the US. In some cases you will be afforded the opportunity to become a full time employee of TEKsystems and work as a Microsoft expert on our staff or at our key clients. Be sure to speak with your local TEKsystems contact Lindsey Thomka about our Microsoft Technologies Practice and how it can benefit your career.

People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At TEKsystems, we understand people. Every year we deploy over 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 client sites across North America, Europe and Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to help our clients achieve their business goals – while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise and IT services to help our clients plan, build and run their critical business initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are, and take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there. Learn more at www.teksystems.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

Downloads: Slides and Code

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What do you want?

Posted on by Enterprise Developers Guild

We have all been there. A customer meeting where, at some point, you stop listening. And likely so has your customer. Ironically, you’re both probably thinking the same thing: “Are they listening to me?” To borrow a quote from Cool Hand Luke, “What we have here, is a failure to communicate.”

We don’t want to do that to our members. We want to listen to you. What do you want to see presented at an upcoming Guild meeting? Do you want us to dive deeper into AngularJS? Would you like to learn more about Entity Framework, NHibernate, or WebAPI? Perhaps you would like to see something about Mobile First or Responsive Design? What about the Cloud, Big Data, Machine Learning, or IoT? Or maybe you would like something entirely different? Leave a reply below to let us know what you want to see. We are listening!

December: No Meeting

Posted on by Enterprise Developers Guild

As you know, the Enterprise Developers Guild does not meet in December. (Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 27, 2015.) However, we do want to extend season greetings to one and all. We also want to thank all our sponsors and volunteers who work all year long to help make the Guild a success.

From all of us on the Board to all of you and your families, we send you best wishes for a beautiful Winter Solstice, an enlightening Chanukah, a merry Christmas, an uplifting Kwanzaa, a delightful Boxing Day, a happy New Year…and we’ll see you in January!

November Meeting: Data Entry Forms in AngularJS

Posted on by Enterprise Developers Guild

Join us and Signature Consultants on Tuesday, November 25, at 6:00 PM in the Mt. Kilimanjaro/Mt. Everest rooms of the Charlotte Microsoft Campus. AngularJS, it’s all the rage these days and it’s the biggest thing in the JavaScript world since JQuery. Have you heard of it? If you’re a web developer, odds are you’ve heard of it. If you haven’t, you will the next time you go looking for a job. In this presentation you will learn about something at the heart of most line-of-business applications: creating data entry forms. Come join us and learn about working with data entry form controls, data validation attributes, determining if the user has interacted with a control, determining if an entry is valid or invalid, determining which specific data validation error has occurred, creating client-side business rules, and applying CSS styles to provide a visual indicator of a control’s data entry status. You will also learn where to find more information and additional guidance on taking your next steps on the road to building AngularJS applications.

The meeting presenter is Jim Duffy.

Jim Duffy is founder and CEO of a TakeNote Technologies. He has a BS degree in Computer and Information Systems and 30 years of programming and training experience. He is an exceptional trainer, skilled developer, and has been published in a number of leading publications including CoDe Magazine. Jim’s passion for teaching and presenting, combined with his humorous and quick-witted approach, have made him a popular speaker at international developer conferences, regional conferences, and local user groups. Drop us a line on our contact page if you would like Jim to speak at your event. Microsoft has recognized his contributions and expertise by naming him as a Microsoft Regional Director in 2008 and as a Microsoft Valued Professional (MVP) from 2002 – 2013. You can read his blog at www.geekswithblogs.net/TakeNote and follow him on Twitter at @JMDuffy.

The meeting is sponsored by Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants was established in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

Downloads: Slides and Code

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October Meeting: Typescript+Angular-beyond basics

Posted on by Enterprise Developers Guild

Join us and TEKsystems Tuesday, October 28, at 6:00 PM in the Mt. Kilimanjaro/Mt. Everest rooms of the Charlotte Microsoft Campus. As we start move ever closer to the mobile/enterprise horizon, SPAs (single page applications) present an attractive platform for creating new applications in the enterprise environment. How can we leverage architecture proven to work in .NET to create simple, modular functionality client side? This talk will discuss in depth the possibilities with a focus on Typescript+Angular for client side language and framework.

The meeting presenter is Todd Richardson.

I’m an old systems administrator and a current .Net developer. I stay in touch with both sides, and I’m always looking to the future with Microsoft technologies. My current client projects focus on WPF and CSLA with a modular architecture, which I hope to bring to my burgeoning interest in web development. I did get my start in development in PHP, so the web isn’t new, but it’s a different world than it was several years ago. You can follow him on Twitter at @todddotnet.

The meeting is sponsored by TEKsystems.

By working for TEKsystems you become part of our dedicated Microsoft Technologies Practice. Since its inception our Microsoft Technologies Practice has helped hundreds of Microsoft Specialists to find the most ideal job opportunities in the marketplace. Our program at TEKsystems specializes in the cornerstone technologies of the Microsoft stack – .NET, SQL Server and SharePoint. Our team consists of Delivery Experts, in key market geographies, with ties to the most cutting edge work opportunities.

As a member of the TEKsystems Microsoft Technologies Practice you will have access to a Market Delivery Expert that focuses on Microsoft Technology jobs around the clock in your local region as well as across the US. In some cases you will be afforded the opportunity to become a full time employee of TEKsystems and work as a Microsoft expert on our staff or at our key clients. Be sure to speak with your local TEKsystems contact Lindsey Thomka about our Microsoft Technologies Practice and how it can benefit your career.

People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At TEKsystems, we understand people. Every year we deploy over 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 client sites across North America, Europe and Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to help our clients achieve their business goals – while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise and IT services to help our clients plan, build and run their critical business initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are, and take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there. Learn more at www.teksystems.com.

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