Thursday, December 29, 2005

Take MCTS/MCPD in Managed C++


Yes you can take some of the new .Net 2.0 and related technologies exams in Managed C++ too... Although it is important to note that not all the exams will be available in Managed C++...

Check our the tentative plan on code language options for MCTS and MCPD exams in the adjoining figure...

Q Now why are certain exams not available in C++.Net?
A.Due to technical limitations with specific web technologies not all the exams can be made available in C++.Net

Q.Will all the above exam's Beta version also have Managed C++ as an option?
A.We will try to enable Managed C++ for Beta Exams whereever possible... More concrete details will be provided within Beta invites of the individual exams...

Q.Will we see more C++.Net in MS exams in the future
A.Well it depends upon the feedback from the C++.Net community. If C++.Net community loves it MS will have it...


NOTE: The above information is provided as is with no warranties... It is also subject to change at any point of time without any prior notices...

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Product Manager Position in MS

If you understand developers, are one among them, want to represent them within MS then you should check out this interesting position in "Developer Audience" team here at Redmond, USA...

http://members.microsoft.com/careers/search/details.aspx?JobID=ff04f31b-8820-48a5-96e7-959dfcc90f73

Sunday, December 11, 2005

TS: and PRO: Prefixs for Exams

VS 05 and SQL 05 Exams will have TS: and PRO: as official pre-fixs...

As there are going to be two major category of exams in next Gen of Certs, it is important to clearly seperate them... Cert Team wanted to make sure that candidates are able to differentiate between "Technology Series" Exams and "Professional Series" Exams by reading the names itself... To make this true for all the audiences i.e. Developers, IT Professionals etc the simplest common way was to add prefixes...

That is when it was decided that all "Technology Series" Exams Names (MCTS exam names) will be prefixed with "TS:" and all "Professional Series" Exams Names (MCITP and MCPD exam names) will be prefixed with "PRO:"...

Hope this new convention will help...

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

SQL 05 & VS 05 Upgrade Paths

Microsoft Recognizes the folks who are already certified...

I believe MS recognizes the folks who are already certified with MCAD, MCSD .Net or MCDBA credentials. It is definitely true that a lot of effort and money goes into getting certified and MS recognizes those who have gone through that rigor; that is one of the primary reasons for providing Upgrade Exams to folks already in the program...
Upgrade Exams are intended to test only the skills that people already in the program have not been tested on earlier. This also helps reduce the number of exams that a certified person will have to take to upgrade themselves. The next generation of certifications will be a step above the existing credentials and so it is important to ensure that people in the program climb up that step and get at level of new certifications... This makes having Upgrade Exams extremly important... Lets talk about the upgrade options available for SQL Server 2005 and VS 2005 credentials...

MCDBA Upgrade to MCITP Database Administrator
In the new family to become MCITP Database Administrator it is required to achieve MCTS SQL Server 2005 Credential by taking Exam 70-431 and then by passing two PRO exams 70-443 and 70-444.
For folks who are already MCDBA this three exam path becomes two exam path...
An MCDBA will have to achieve MCTS SQL Server 2005 credential by passing Exam 70-431 and then can take & pass an upgrade exam 70-447... So basically instead of passing the two exam 70-443 and 70-444, MCDBAs will have to pass just one exam.

This was a quick snapshot of SQL Server 2005 credential upgrade... Now lets talk about Visual Studio 2005 credential upgrades...

MCAD to MCPD Web Developer
In regular path to become MCPD Web Developer it is required to achieve MCTS .Net Framework 2.0 Web Applications by taking two exams (70-536 & 70-528) and then by taking the PRO Exam 70-547
A person already certified as MCAD will have to take just Exam 70-551 and will automatically get MCTS .Net Framework 2.0 Web Applications as well as MCPD Web Developer credentials...

MCAD to MCPD Windows Developer
In regular path to become MCPD Windows Developer it is required to achieve MCTS .Net Framework 2.0 Windows Applications by taking two exams (70-536 & 70-526) and then by taking the PRO Exam 70-548
A person already certified as MCAD will have to take just Exam 70-552 and will automatically get MCTS .Net Framework 2.0 Windows Applications as well as MCPD Windows Developer credentials...

MCSD .Net to MCPD Enterprise Application Developer
In regular path to become MCPD Enterprise Application Developer it is required to achieve MCTS .Net Framework 2.0 Web Applications, MCTS .Net Framework 2.0 Windows Applications and MCTS .Net Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications credentials by passing four exams (70-536, 70-528, 70-526 & 70-529) and then by taking the PRO Exam 70-549
A person already certified as MCSD .Net will have to pass just two Exams 70-553 and 70-554 and inturn will automatically get MCTS .Net Framework 2.0 Web Applications, MCTS .Net Framework 2.0 Windows Applications and MCTS .Net Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications as well as MCPD Enterprise Application Developer credentials...

NOTE: Some of the exam links might not work as the Exams are not yet released...

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Are Next Gen Certs launched to make Money?

Did Microsoft Launch Next Generation of Certifications to earn more money?

Think about it...!! Are MCAD, MCSD, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, all these credentials going down, getting less popular, not earning enough money??... Not true, they are still getting more and more popular; MCP numbers are only growing, definitely not going down...

Trust me; it takes a lot of money and effort to make just one exam let alone making all together new generation of certification with numerous new exams… It takes around 6-7 months and more than 20 people contributing to make one quality exam… Contributions to the exam content comes more from expert industry professionals and less from internal MS employees, this ensures to keep the content more relevant to the current industry… I can go on and on but instead it would be better to Click Here to know more on how exams are developed…

So when everything is going well and good then why make new credentials and certifications… Well, the primary reason for making all together new credentials is not money driven but much deeper than that…In my simple words, new generation of certifications are here to:

1. Raise the bar for technical certifications in the industry…
2. So that the right people, qualified in specific job/technical areas get identified by the world…
3. Provide certifications that hiring managers can easily identify, understand, respect and appreciate so that certified professionals really get what they deserve…
4. Provide certifications that professionals can relate to and adopt…
5. Separate job roles and technology so that professionals can not only demonstrate that they are strong in technology but also have the professional skills which come only by professionally working on projects in the industry…

Again I can go on and on but Clicking Here will present already officially documented reasons…

I hope this helps throw new light on New Generation of Certifications…

Note: This post is provided “AS IS” with no warranties and just expresses my personal views on subject…

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Position in MSDN Team

My friend is looking for a C# Content Strategist for his team @ MSDN... This person needs to be a developer at the same time needs to understand what content developers need in this space... The selected candidate will have to relocate to Redmond, WA, USA...

For more information about the job Click Here

If interested email me with the subject "Position in MSDN Team"

Monday, November 28, 2005

Why MCITP for DB & BI Developer??

Why is "Database Developer" and "Business Intelligence Developer" Tracks PRO credential called "Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) and not Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD)?
I have been asked this question n number of times... Let me try to present the rationale:

With the New Generation of Certifications job roles are separated from technical skills... The technology specialization is accredited generically Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS), but same cannot be done with the job role skills as professionals in different IT space relate themselves in different ways...

There were lots of surveys, interviews and focus groups conducted around this... Professionals working in the job roles of database developer and BI developer were interviewed to find out the credential that they could relate to... Survey results indicated that MCITP resonated more with SQL Server professionals... After further supporting research, discussions and approvals MCITP was chosen for Database Developer and Business Intelligence Developer...

MCITP and MCPD are both Professional job role focused credentials...
Both the credentials need MCTS credential as pre-requisite...
For IT Pro audience the PRO credential is MCITP and for Developer audience the PRO credential is MCPD...

SQL Server professionals liked MCITP more and so MCITP is the new PRO series credential for the SQL space...

SQL 2005 Certification Track


SQL Server 2005 Certification Track - Quick Look

This is the quick and dirty visual representation of SQL Server 2005 Certification Tracks... The three major tracks here will be Database Developer, Database Administrator and Business Intelligence Developer...

This figure does not include upgrade exam details...

VS 2005 Certification Track


Visual Studio 2005 Certification Track - Quick Look

Just a quick and dirty visual representation of VS 2005 certification tracks... The three major tracks are Web Appps, Windows Apps and Distributed Apps...

This diagram gives you a quick understanding on which exams you need take and pass to complete a particular track... Upgrade exams are not included in this diagram...

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

MS Developer Exams Branching

Code Language Branching in Developer Exams

With Visual Studio 2005 Microsoft has taken a step ahead in Developer Certifications... Remember the days when similar topic exams had different numbers based on code language... for e.g. 70-305 and 70-315...
That is going to change now... With new Code Language Branching Technology for Exam Deliveries we will have just one exam with an option to choose the code language at the time of exam delivery...

With Branching in place, developers will be asked to choose the code language of their choice (ofcourse from select set of options) before they begin the exam and all the code snippets within the exam will appear the code language selected. It will not be possible to change the language in the middle of the exam though!!

The advantage of this is that there will be only one exam number to remember... With .Net which code language you use should not matter right (ofcourse with some ifs and buts :-)) so it will not matter which code language you choose while you take the exam too...

Currently most of the new generation exams (MCTS & MCPD) will be available in VB.Net, C# as well as Managed C++ (Yes!! Managed C++ too)... Although Managed C++ might not be an option for exams where there are technology limitations... But overall pretty cool huh!!

Well all this doesn't sound pretty huge to developers right!!... Putting a few radio buttons in the beginning and showing some code based on the choice made, how big deal can it be... Believe me, I have been developer all my life appearance can be deceptive, it was definitely a big deal doing it technically...

Consider changing source code of 3rd party Windows based applications and then deploying it to more than one centers of all the cities, of all the countries in the world (which use IT enough)... Now consider that if you did not have the source code and you had to ask someone else to change it...And then on and on... Well that was not what we actually faced but I was kind of showing you the magnitude of affect such small things can have... Don't ask me what we did, but our team did a great job and you guys will now have branching available in developer exams...

Hurray!!

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Microsoft BETA Exams

MCROSOFT BETA EXAMS FAQs in my own words
With launch of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 we will be having a lot of BETA exams rolling out from November 7th 2005 to May-June 2006... I receive a lot of emails asking below questions about BETA Exams... I thought it would be easier to emphasize the significance of BETA Exam to everyone via a single blog post...

BETA Exams provide valuable feedback to MS
BETA Exam are a very good way of providing feedback to Microsoft on the Exam questions, topics, content area etc... We look at every feedback seriously and try to make sure that it is incorporated within the final version of the exam (if the feedback is relevant and applicable)... If you spend time writing all the good things in the exam feedback, be rest assured that someone will read it...

BETA Exam As Good As Released Exam
BETA Exams are free to a candidate and they are Free because Microsoft Values the time a candidate puts in providing feedback about the exams... It is not because they are trial launch and they really mean nothing to MS... BETA EXAMS SHOULD BE TAKEN AS SERIOUSLY AS RELEASED EXAMS... They are not meant to try anyone's passing luck, they are meant to give benefits to early adopters of product and help raise the quality bar of the exam... Passing a BETA exam gives a person equal credit as regular exam... From my personal perspective I would appreciate a person passing BETA exam quite a bit as he/she is probably working on the BETA verion of the product...

Learning Material for Beta Exams
Many a times we do not have a lot of learning material available to support certain Beta exams... Again it is because we believe that people who are taking beta are self motivated folks... They have been making their hands dirty with Beta Product usage... They are ahead of the crowd and have been reading beta documentation... We do try that our learning material is available as early as possible...
We do have some early e-Learning, ILTs and Books available for Whidbey and Yukon... Click here

BETA Exam Invites are not public
BETA Exam invites are not public... BETA Exams are meant for qualified candidates only and qualified candidates should receive Beta invites via direct or proper forwarding channels... Selling of BETA codes is also strictly prohibited...

BETA Exam Registrations
BETA Exams are delivered via our standard Exam Delivery Partners (Thompson Prometric and Pearson VUE)... Candidates will have to schedule the Exam with either Prometric or VUE... BETA Exam invites usually go out approx one month before the Beta Date of the exam... There are fixed slots for a particular BETA Exam and they get filled up within 3-4 days of invites going out... Be prompt in registering for BETA Exams, we usually are not able to help much in case the slots run out...

BETA Exam Results
We go via a very comprehensive process of evaluating Beta Exams, this is the reason why Beta Exam Results do not come out at the same time when you appear the exam... You will not immediately know whether you passed or failed a Beta exam but will most likely know it before the final version of the Beta Exam is released (usually 6-8 weeks after the Beta Exam)...

BETA Exam can be taken once during Beta period
A person can appear a particular Beta exam only once during its Beta period... Although, do note that it is possible for the same person to appear Beta version of more than one unique exams... Also note that there are limited seats in Beta Exams, it is important that as many different people get a chance to take the exam and provide their feedback to us... Please take Beta Exams as seriously as you would take a live exam after paying for it... Do not use them for hit and trial purposes...

BETA Exam Test Taker Issues
If you faced problem at the test center; for e.g. you could not appear an exam due to exam download problems, exam availability at the test center etc you should let us know... We want to make sure that a candidates exam appearance experience is as smooth as it possibly can... Reach your Microsoft regional service center and let them know of the issue... Click here If you see no resolution to your problem you can definitely mail me... (But please do contact the regional service center first... :-))

Where is Vishal Joshi??

It has been a long long time huh!!...

Well I have been busy doing a lot of stuff... Finally "Have been there, did that..."
I joined Microsoft on June 6th 2005...
It made my life gears change so much that I could not find any time to write about anything...

I have joined MS as Technical Product Planner for Developer and Database Certifications... The obvious next question "What do you do there...??" well folks don't ask... I do whatever I feel needs to be done... Jokes apart I take care of planning & designing the next generation of certifications in Developer and Database Space... Just found some time to breathe after Whidbey and Yukon new certification family launch..

Wanna check out some stuff that we did???...go to... Next Generation of Certifications

What am I gonna do next with my blog... I am going to give it a work spin... I am going to start writing about certifications, how to prepare for certifications... Answer questions that people have about Microsoft Certifications... Give news that is worth sharing and so on...

I do not know whether I will be able to come back with VJs Tip of The Day yet (I guess time will not permit)... But still I bet there will be more interesting things on my blog then before...

Revitalizing myself...

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Controlling Serailzation of Arrays

Just a quick note on controlling serialization of Arrays... Arrays' serialization is done in a little different way than any other standard datatypes.. There are special attributes available in System.Xml.Serialization which can be used for Arrays.

Generally we are used to using <XmlElement("tagName")> {VB} or [XmlElement("tagName")]{C#} on properties/members of our class... If these properties/members are arrays then the XmlElement attribute will remove the tree structure and convert it into a flat list...

eg.
<tagName>Value1</tagName>
<tagName>Value2</tagName>

instead of
<tagName>
<itemTag>Value1</itemTag>
<itemTag>Value2</itemTag>
</tagName>

If you would want to get the above structure for your Xml serialization, you would have to use following Attributes

<XmlArray("tagName"), XmlArrayItem("itemTag")> {VB} or [XmlArray("tagName"), XmlArrayItem("itemTag")] {C#}

There are many other small details related to attributes etc which you can find at MSDN... Click Here

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Link Shortcuts for IE address bar

There is a cool discovery (not by me :-)) which I would like to share with you all...

If you modify the registry settings of Internet Explorer then you can achieve the following results...

eg. If you want to search for "Vishal Joshi" on google then simply in the IE address bar you can type

g "Vishal Joshi"

or if you want to search the meaning of smother in dictionary you can do some setting like

d smother

Now have a quick look at the settings that you will have to do in the registry... For ease I am pasing my exported registry... Copy paste the below text in a notepad and save it as "IEQuickLaunch.reg"... After saving it double click on the file which will import the settings to the registry... Do note that you will have to be the admin of your machine to change the registry settings...



Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\d]
@="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=%s"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\g]
@="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%s"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\msdn]
@="http://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?qu=%s"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\vishal]
@="http://www.google.com/search?q=%s&ie=UTF-8&sitesearch=vishaljoshi.blogspot.com&x=27&y=9"


The above settings will get you the following shortcuts, you can then add your own...

1.) g searchword [will search google with search word]
2.) d searchword [will search dictionary with search word]
3.) msdn searchword [will search msdn with search word]
4.) vishal searchword [will search my blog with search word]

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

AJAX

In our project one of my collegue (Jason Reis) suggested to implement "Google Suggest" kind of feature for our ASP.Net website... It was indeed a very beautiful idea and I am sure this will really add a lot of value to our web site...
I wonder many would like this kind of feature in their sites and below three links should help a lot of people in achieving the same...

Dino Esposito's Article on MSDN mag....

Anders NorĂ¥s's blog article on DotNet Junkies...

MSDN Webservice Behavior article...

PS: Thanks Jason for bringing this up...

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Say "NO" To Dumps

Below is the message which I just sent to our Chennai .Net User Group (CNUG) to stop dumps... Please let us say "NO" to dumps, if we do not do so now, eventually being MCP, MCAD or MCSD will mean nothing to IT industry...

Dear All,
We have been getting a lots of requests from the group to make the group un-moderated... There are delays sometimes from our side to approve the messages and I know how desperately we want our messages to appear on the board as soon as they are sent... We had been observing the message pattern since some days and found that leaving the group un-moderated for a while should not harm... So since last one week we kept the CNUG message boards un-moderated...
We do go through the messages most of the time for their contents even when the moderation is not there and just yesterday we again got a mail asking for dumps for MCP paper... This is not to highlight someone for asking dumps but to spread a general message... You do not steal a VCR or Music system from the shops then why steal MCP papers... Definitely such easy option seems tempting but these are the options which destroy the whole system... Do know that if you are aware about the dumps then so are the people in front of whom you are going to flaunt your MCP certificates... Eventually, the dumps will take away all the glory of being a MCP and it is us who can consciously prevent this from happening...
Friends, I have myself been on this wonderful MS Learning team which creates these MCP papers and it takes more than 6 months for more than 20 people to create a single paper... All the questions are verified by writing code... Each question earns it place into the paper after being reviewed by so many experts... Everyone tries to do their best so that a professional certified by Microsoft really means "an expert" to the IT world... You too should be one of them but rightfully, proudly, in a way that someone can rely on you when it comes to that subject... Please do realize, that it hurts when efforts of those individuals, who have struggled to bring the paper in front of you are compromised... Mark my words - "A person clearing one MCP paper without dumps would probably be much more confident, proud and infact happier than a person being MCAD or MCSD with dumps"...
Do remember that your post goes to approx 3500 other members of our CNUG family, who feel bad about such improper demands... Many in the groups are preparing for MCP papers; such posts bring their morale down... Our group is formed for benevolent cause... We are here to help each other learn, solve each other's queries, train each other, learn from each other's experiences and create a vibrant technical community that we can be proud of and others can take example from...
We do not want to ban our own members from the group so please do not force us do that.... Together let's Say "No" to Dumps...
Thanks for understanding...
warm wishes,
Vishal R Joshi
Vice-President CNUG | Microsoft MVP .Net | MCP ASP.Net
If You Think YOU CAN... You Can...
http://VishalJoshi.Blogspot.com

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Changing Column Width in Win Forms DG

Programmatically Changing Column Width in Windows Forms Datagrid
I actually spent sometime in getting all the pieces right and so thought I would mention it on the blog so that many will not have to spend the same time...

Do not get bothered by the length of the code... It is pretty simple... I will explain the same in steps below... The exact problem statement is

" There is a windows form datagrid, which needs to get the data dynamically from "where ever you please". For this I will have to have a DataTable and have that set as the DataSource for the datagrid by dynamically binding it...
To fill this datatable after I get the data (say in form of xml or Web service objects; I need to create corresponding columns and add rows one by one to the same after parsing my data. Now as you make the columns programmatically you also wish to set the column width and other properties programatically... You might also want to format the table to look like you wish programatically... Below code snippet will tell you how to do it..."
NOTE: Do not look at the code from coding standards, maintainability, performance tuning etc perspective... It just merely does the job...

STEPS:
1.) Create a DataTable...
2.) Add necessary columns to it...
3.) Create individual rows for the data gathered... [My data is from Google Web Service]
4.) Bind the data to the datasource of the datagrid
5.) Create new DataGridTableStyle
6.) Set the mapping name of of the tablestyle to be same as your tablename
7.) Create the tablestyle as you wish... This can be kindof skin template you get from somewhere
8.) Add the TableStyle to your DataGrid
9.) Now get back the handle to that TableStyle
10.)Now from the GridColumStyle collection of your just obtained TableStyle, access the particular GridColumnStyle via indexs and modify the values...
11.)Call Refresh method on DataGrid from the just obtained TableStyle...

Below code does the above mentioned steps...
Dim resultTable As New Data.DataTable
resultTable.Columns.Add("Sr.No.")
resultTable.Columns.Add("Title")
resultTable.Columns.Add("Description")
resultTable.Columns.Add("URL")
Dim currentCount As Integer = 0
Dim counter As Integer
For counter = 0 To 9
Dim resultRow As DataRow
resultRow = resultTable.NewRow()
resultRow.Item(0) = (currentCount + 1).ToString()
resultRow.Item(1) = result.resultElements(currentCount).title.ToString()
resultRow.Item(2) =result.resultElements(currentCount).snippet.ToString()
resultRow.Item(3) = result.resultElements(currentCount).URL.ToString()
resultTable.Rows.Add(resultRow)
If currentCount >= result.resultElements.Length - 1 Then
Exit For
Else
currentCount += 1
End If
Next
resultTable.TableName = "myTable"
dgdResults.DataSource = resultTable
Dim myGridTableStyle As New DataGridTableStyle
myGridTableStyle.MappingName = "myTable"
myGridTableStyle.HeaderFont = New System.Drawing.Font _
("Tahoma", 8.25F, FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, CType(0, System.Byte))
myGridTableStyle.HeaderBackColor = Color.Thistle
myGridTableStyle.HeaderForeColor = Color.Crimson
myGridTableStyle.ReadOnly = True
myGridTableStyle.AllowSorting = False
myGridTableStyle.AlternatingBackColor = Color.Thistle
myGridTableStyle.BackColor = Color.LavenderBlush
myGridTableStyle.ForeColor = Color.DarkBlue
myGridTableStyle.PreferredRowHeight = 20
myGridTableStyle.RowHeaderWidth = 16
dgdResults.TableStyles.Add(myGridTableStyle)
Dim tableStyle As DataGridTableStyle = dgdResults.TableStyles("myTable")
tableStyle.GridColumnStyles(0).Width = 20
tableStyle.GridColumnStyles(1).Width = 120
tableStyle.GridColumnStyles(2).Width = 170
tableStyle.GridColumnStyles(3).Width = 250
tableStyle.DataGrid.Refresh()

Monday, January 10, 2005

TechEd 2005 registrations open today

TechEd 2005, USA is going to be organized from June 5th 2005 to June 10th 2005 at Orlando, FL... The registration for the same open today (Jan 10th 2005) and the early bird registration ends on April 15th 2005...

Please visit the TechEd 2005 site to find more... Click Here

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Milwaukee Nerd Dinner

Finally we are able to fix up Milwaukee Nerd Dinner on Jan 12th 2005 at 6:30 pm...

For more details visit http://nerddinner.com/blogs/milwaukee/

Everone is invited, but do RSVP so that planning can be done accordingly...