#.net-development

[blueangus]

Build Servers

When I started working at my last job, I was introduced to the world of build servers. Sure, I had heard about them in the past but my employer before that was a bit lacklustre when it came to implementing anything that might have improved their development process.

My first experience was with CruiseControl.NET and, I have to say, I rather liked it.  We have used it on practically every project and we haven't encountered anything that it can't do.  It doesn't need much attention, either.  When a new project is needed, we add the new settings to ccnetconfig.config and we are good to go.  I think I can count the number of times I've had to do anything to it on one hand.

I like taking a look round for alternatives and while an afternoon procrastinating on Balsamiq's Tech blog I came across the steps they take to do a Balsamiq Mockups release.

One thing that caught my eye was their build server, Jenkins, which I'd never heard of before, so, when I had a bit of time a couple of evenings ago, did the inevitable Google search to see if I could use for building .NET projects.  Sure enough, I could!  In fact, I can't believe how easy it is to set Jenkins up to build .NET projects.  I'm going to look into it a little further and report at a later date.

P.S For all you .NET developers out there, to help you along your way, it's worth taking a look at this blog.

[blueangus]

Useful resources for the .NET Developer

I've started putting together a list of useful blogs, articles, books and sample projects that I have used recently to build some side projects as well as a point of reference for day to day work:

Books Some books I recommend on building big apps, also known as enterprise apps.  These books give an insight to the design patterns that can be used to build such apps.  Definitely worthwhole reading.

Professional ASP.NET Design Patterns - some design patterns applicable to the web http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0470292784/ref=s9_qpp_gw_p14_g14_ir01?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=1SKZRPBQTDNR94S0XFVM&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128293&pf_rd_i=468294

Professional Enterprise .NET - thoroughly good reading, discusses the SOLID principles in software engineering, along with dependency injection, unit testings, MVC, MVP and you build a sample application. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-Enterprise-NET-Wrox-Programmer/dp/0470447613/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320070325&sr=1-1

Microsoft.NET: Architecting for the Enterprise - I bought this book  at the same time as Professional Enterprise .NET.  It has some good ideas on using Generic-based helper libraries for Data Repositories.  I've played with these in the past and love them: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-NET-Architecting-Applications-PRO-Developer/dp/073562609X/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320070437&sr=1-5

Head First Design Patterns - It's a graphic heavy book that explains in very simple ways what design patterns are.  I use it as a reference book in filling the gaps in my knowledge: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Head-First-Design-Patterns-Freeman/dp/0596007124/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320070514&sr=1-1

Pro ASP.NET MVC3 Framework - As good as NerdDinner is, this book will help newcomers to ASP.NET MVC build on their knowledge: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pro-ASP-NET-MVC-Framework-3rd/dp/1430234040/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320071378&sr=1-2

Videos As well as the good videos at channel9 and asp.net, here are some sites that help explain a lot of things through examples.

http://dimecasts.net/ - This is beyond brilliant.  Great guides on everything from Inversion of Control/Dependency Injection, Web Services, Mocking, Entity Framework and SOLID design principles.

http://peepcode.com/ - Another great resource of screencasts from the latest goings on in the world of javascript (like node and backbone) to iPhone and Rails.  This site isnt free :-(

http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/ - Again, not free, but has a wealth of screencasts, tutorials and guidance.

http://tekpub.com/ - From the genius who is Rob Conery.

Blogs Scott Hanselman is brilliant.  The Gu is awesome, but here's a list of guys who you should also be following:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/AyendeRahien - a blog from a .NET developer who has written the document-based NoSQL database, RavenDB

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Blankenthoughts - Windows Mobile developer blog

http://weblogs.asp.net/jdanforth/rss.aspx - Johan is a big fan of CQRS (the latest and greatest enterprise design pattern) - worth a look

http://www.aaron-powell.com/feed - Aaron Powell is an Umbraco Core Developer as well as a smart guy.  Good pointers.

http://samsaffron.com/posts.rss - Sam Saffron is a developer for StackOverflow.  He wrote Dapper and is incredibly insightful into such things as customising the YSOD.

http://feeds.codeville.net/SteveCodeville - Steve Sanderson is english and is the author of the Professional ASP.NET MVC 3 book I mentioned earlier.  He's incredibly talented and has written knockout.js - a really cool observable based javascript library.

Open Source Projects A lot of open source projects are a great insight into the world of professional ASP.NET development, you can see the SOLID principles jumping out at you as well as seeing how others code.  These are some of my favouries right now:

https://github.com/PureKrome/RavenOverflow - RavenOverflow. (git)  A clone of StackOverflow developed using a document based database, called RavenDB.  Have a look at how its designed.  Its superb.

http://erpstore.codeplex.com/ - (svn) An e-commerce store written in C#, ASP.NET MVC and uses a ton of dependency injection techniques. The site is in french but the code is top notch