Microsoft Exam 70-486 Study Guide

General Resources

Other study guides:

Barbarian Meets Coding - 70-486 Notes
BloggedByChris


PluralSight learning paths:

Microsoft Exam 70-486
Asp.net MVC5


Books:

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly)
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX)

Microsoft 70-486: Configure and apply authorization

Exam Objectives

Create roles, authorize roles by using configuration, authorize roles programmatically, create custom role providers, implement WCF service authorization

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 5.2
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapters 9 (§ "Securing an Application")
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 7
Creating and Managing Roles (C#)

Assigning Roles to Users (C#)

Role-Based Authorization (C#)
Setting authorization rules for a particular page or folder in web.config

MSDN - Implementing a Role Provider
MSDN - Authentication and Authorization in WCF Services Part 1, Part 2
MSDN - Authentication, Authorization, and Identities in WCF
PluralSight - Introduction to Identity and Access Control in .NET 4.5 (Paid)
PluralSight - Identity and Access Control in ASP.NET 4.5 (Paid)

Microsoft 70-486: Configure authentication

Exam Objectives

Authenticate users; enforce authentication settings; choose between Windows, Forms, and custom authentication; manage user session by using cookies; configure membership providers; create custom membership providers; configure ASP.NET Identity

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 5.1
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapters 9 (§ "Securing an Application")
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 7

How to configure IIS client certificate mapping authentication for IIS7

Configuring Authentication in IIS 7

How To Implement Forms-Based Authentication
Forms Authentication Configuration and Advanced Topics

Understanding the Forms Auth Ticket and Cookie
Understanding OWIN Forms Authentication in MVC 5
Don't be That Guy when it comes to Forms Authentication

MSDN - Implementing a Membership Provider

MSDN - How to: Implement a Custom Membership User

Custom Membership Providers
SimpleMembership, Membership Providers, Universal Providers

ASP.NET Identity
MSDN - Cutting Edge: A First Look at ASP.NET Identity

Adding ASP.NET Identity to an Empty or Existing Web Forms Project
Overview of Custom Storage Providers for ASP.NET Identity

PluralSight - ASP.NET MVC 5 Fundamentals: Identity and Security (Free)
PluralSight - Introduction to Identity and Access Control in .NET 4.5 (Paid)
PluralSight - Identity and Access Control in ASP.NET 4.5 (Paid)

Microsoft 70-486: Design and implement claims-based authentication across federated identity stores

Exam Objectives

Implement federated authentication by using Azure Access Control Service; create a custom security token by using Windows Identity Foundation; handle token formats (for example, oAuth, OpenID, Microsoft Account, Google, Twitter, and Facebook) for SAML and SWT tokens

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 5.3
MSDN - A Guide to Claims-Based Identity and Access Control (2e)
MSDN - Windows Identity Foundation
MSDN - How to Authenticate with Azure Active Directory Access Control
MSDN - ACS How To's
MSDN - WIF Code Sample Index
Google Identity Platform - OpenID Connect
Federate with Windows Live using OAuth and SAML
Facebook Developer Console
Google Developer Console
Using Windows Azure ACS in MVC 5 Application Using VS 2013
Write a custom security token and handler in WIF
PluralSight - Windows Azure Access Control Service (a bit dated, but not bad)
PluralSight - Claims-based Identity for Windows: The Big Picture (Paid)
PluralSight - Identity and Access Control in ASP.NET 4.5 (Paid)
PluralSight - Introduction to Identity and Access Control in .NET 4.5 (Paid)
Dominik Baier - Claims and Tokens become the standard Model (Video)

Consolidated Code Samples on GitHub

Microsoft 70-486: Prevent and troubleshoot runtime issues

Exam Objectives

Troubleshoot performance, security, and errors; implement tracing, logging (including using attributes for logging), and debugging (including IntelliTrace); enforce conditions by using code contracts; enable and configure health monitoring (including Performance Monitor)

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 4.1
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapter 16 (Logging, tracing)
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 17 (ELMAH, Profiling)
Debugging, Tracing and Instrumentation in .NET and ASP.NET
MSDN - Debugging, Tracing, and Profiling
MSDN - Code Contracts
MSDN - ASP.NET Health Monitoring Overview
MSDN - MVC Music Store Application logging feature
MSDN - ASP.NET Performance Monitoring, and When to Alert Administrators
MSDN - Beginners Guild to Performance Profiling
MSDN - Tracing and Instrumenting Applications
MSDN - Using IntelliTrace
Code Contracts in C#

My post on Debug an Azure Application overlaps with this one somewhat.
My demo code for this objective on Github.

Microsoft 70-486: Plan and implement globalization and localization

Exam Objectives

Plan a localization strategy; create and apply resources to UI, including JavaScript resources; set cultures; create satellite resource assemblies

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 3.2
MSDN - Creating Satellite Assemblies for Desktop Apps
Globalization, I18n and L10n in ASP.NET MVC 3, JavaScript and jQuery

Beginner's Tutorial on Globalization and Localization in ASP.NET MVC

Resource Files and ASP.NET MVC Projects

ASP.NET MVC 5 Internationalization
MSDN - Globalization Step-by-Step

Wikipedia - Internationalization and localization
Simple ASP.Net MVC Globalization with Graceful Fallback

My example project on Github

Microsoft 70-486: Design an exception handling strategy

Exam Objectives

Handle exceptions across multiple layers, display custom error pages using global.asax or creating your own HTTPHandler or set web.config attributes, handle first chance exceptions

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 4.2
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapters 16 (Logging)
StackOverflow - Exception handling in n-tier applications?
MSDN - How to: Receive First-Chance Exception Notifications
MSDN - AppDomain.FirstChanceException Event
MSDN Social - Handling Errors in Multi-Tier Application - Advice
Exceptions in the rainforest

Microsoft 70-486: Reduce network bandwidth

Exam Objectives

Bundle and minify scripts (CSS and JavaScript), compress and decompress data (using gzip/deflate; storage), plan a content delivery network (CDN) strategy (for example, Azure CDN)

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 3.6
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapter 13
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 8 (§ on Improving Ajax Performance).
(MSDN) How to: Compress and Extract Files
Using CDN for Azure
How to Enable Content Delivery Network (CDN) for Azure

Microsoft 70-486: Debug an Azure application

Exam Objectives

Collect diagnostic information by using Azure Diagnostics API and appropriately implement on demand versus scheduled; choose log types (for example, event logs, performance counters, and crash dumps); debug an Azure application by using IntelliTrace, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), and remote debugging; interact directly with remote Azure websites using Server Explorer.

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 4.4
Enabling Diagnostics in Azure Cloud Services and Virtual Machines
Microsoft Azure Diagnostics: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Create and use performance counters in an Azure application
Initialize or Change Azure Diagnostics Configuration
Store and view diagnostic data in Azure Storage

Cloud Diagnostics - Take Control of Logging and Tracing in Windows Azure

Enable diagnostics logging for web apps in Azure App Service

Azure SDK 2.6 Diagnostics Improvements for Cloud Services
MSDN - Using Dump Files
Debugging an Azure cloud service or virtual machine in Visual Studio

This post has about 4 billion screenshots, so I apologize in advance...

Microsoft 70-486: Test a web application

Exam Objectives

Create and run unit tests (for example, use the Assert class), create mocks; create and run web tests, including using Browser Link; debug a web application in multiple browsers and mobile emulators

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 4.3
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapters 17 (Automated Testing)
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 14 (Unit Testing)
The Art of Unit Testing
Using Browser Link in Visual Studio 2013

Isolating Code Under Test with Microsoft Fakes
MSDN - Understanding Web Tests
YouTube - Creating Web Test and Load Test using Microsoft Visual Studio

YouTube - Load Testing SharePoint 2013 using Visual Studio 2013

My four part post on unit testing: Setup, Fake Database, Fake Context, Writing Tests

PluralSight - Automated ASP.NET MVC Testing: End to End

Microsoft 70-486: Design and implement routes

Exam Objectives

Define a route to handle a URL pattern, apply route constraints, ignore URL patterns, add custom route parameters, define areas

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 3.4
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapters 1 (§ on Routing), 14 (Advanced Routing)
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 9 (Routing)
MSDN - ASP.NET Routing
MSDN - RouteCollection Class
My Github repo with example code

Microsoft 70-486: Control application behavior by using MVC extensibility points

Exam Objectives

Implement MVC filters and controller factories; control application behavior by using action results, view engines, model binders, and route handlers

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 3.5
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapter 14 (Advanced Routing)
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 15 (Extending MVC)

Custom Controller Factory in ASP.NET MVC

An Introduction to ASP.NET MVC Extensibility

ASP.NET MVC Routing Extensibility

ASP.NET Application Lifecycle

Creating a custom route handler in ASP.NET MVC

DefaultControllerFactory in ASP.NET MVC
Custom ASP.NET MVC ActionResults
A Custom View Engine with Dynamic View Location
Custom View Engine in ASP.NET 5 (vNext) and MVC 6 

Creating your own MVC View Engine For MVC Application
ASP.NET MVC Custom Model Binder

My example code on GitHub

I beat filters and action results to death in a previous post for Objective 3.3

Microsoft 70-486: Manage data integrity

Exam Objectives

Apply encryption to application data, apply encryption to the configuration sections of an application, sign application data to prevent tampering

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 5.4
Cryptography the .NET Way
My Post on Objective 5.5 - Implementing a secure site in ASP.NET
MSDN - System.Security.Cryptography Namespace

MSDN - Encrypting and Decrypting Configuration Sections

MSDN - Walkthrough: Encrypting Configuration Information Using Protected Configuration
MSDN - Encrypting Data, Decrypting Data
Simple two-way encryption for C#
Reading from a cryptostream to the end of the stream

Using CryptoStream in C#

Signing and verifying signatures with RSA C#
RSA Encryption of large data in C#

MSDN - Generating Keys for Encryption and Decryption

Microsoft 70-486: Design and implement MVC controllers and actions

Exam Objectives

Apply authorization attributes, global filters, and authentication filters; specify an override filter; implement action behaviors; implement action results; implement model binding

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 3.3
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapter 1 (§ on Controllers)
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 2 (Controllers)

ASP.NET MVC 4 Custom Action Filters

New Filter Overrides feature in ASP.NET MVC 5 and ASP.NET Web API 2
MSDN Controllers and Action Methods in ASP.NET MVC Applications
MSDN Filtering in ASP.NET MVC

Microsoft 70-486: Plan for search engine optimization and accessibility

Exam Objectives

Use analytical tools to parse HTML, view and evaluate conceptual structure by using plugs-in for browsers, write semantic markup (HTML5 and ARIA) for accessibility (for example, screen readers)

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 3.1
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Page 297 (blurb about short URLs...)
MSDN - Search Engine Optimization
MSDN - Designing Accessibility with HTML5
Google - Review your page titles and snippets
WC3 - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
WC3 - WAI-ARIA Overview
WC3 - WAI-ARIA 1.0 Primer

Microsoft 70-486: Compose the UI layout of an application

Exam Objectives

Implement partials for reuse in different areas of the application, design and implement pages by using Razor templates (Razor view engine), design layouts to provide visual structure, implement master/application pages

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 2.3
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapter 1 (§ on Views), 6 (§ on partial rendering)
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 3 (Views)
Pluralsight Building Applications with ASP.NET MVC 4 (Module 3)
What is difference between @Html.Partial and @Html.RenderPartial ?

Text templating using Razor the easy way

Creating and Using a Helper in an ASP.NET Web Pages (Razor) Site

Writing Custom HTML Helpers for ASP.NET MVC
Custom HTML Helper for MVC Application

How to import a namespace in Razor View Page?

How to create custom HTML Helpers for ASP.NET MVC 3

C# Razor Syntax Quick Reference

Microsoft 70-486: Design HTTP modules and handlers

Exam Objectives

Implement synchronous and asynchronous modules and handlers, choose between modules and handlers in IIS

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 1.7
ASP.NET HTTP Modules and HTTP Handlers Overview

How To Create an ASP.NET HTTP Handler by Using Visual C# .NET

How To Create an ASP.NET HTTP Module Using Visual C# .NET

MSDN - Walkthrough: Creating and Registering a Custom HTTP Module

MSDN - Walkthrough: Creating a Synchronous HTTP Handler

HTTP Handlers and HTTP Modules in ASP.NET

MSDN - IHttpModule, HttpApplication Class, IHttpHandler
Implementing async HTTP modules in ASP.NET using TPL’s Task API

Writing asynchronous HTTP Module in ASP.NET 4.5

My post on WebSockets

Microsoft 70-486: Plan an adaptive UI layout

Exam Objectives

Plan for running applications in browsers on multiple devices (screen resolution, CSS, HTML), plan for mobile web applications

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 2.5
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapter 10 (Mobile Web Development)
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 16 (Advanced Topics - Mobile Support)
MSDN - Creating Mobile-Optimized Views in ASP.NET MVC 4
jQuery Mobile Official Site
YouTube: jQuery Mobile 101, Intro to jQuery Mobile
ASP.NET MVC 4 Mobile Features

Microsoft 70-486: Enhance application based on browser feature detection

Exam Objectives

Detect browser features and capabilities; create a web application that runs across multiple browsers and mobile devices; enhance application behavior and style by using vendor-specific extensions, for example, CSS

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 2.4
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapter 10 (Mobile Web Development)
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 16 (Advanced Topics - Mobile Support)
MSDN - Detecting devices and their features
MozDN - Browser detection using the user agent
Browser detection versus feature detection

Browser Detection (and What to Do Instead)
MVC - Adaptive Rendering Device Views

Adaptive Rendering in ASP.NET 4.5ASP.NET MVC 4 Mobile Features
Vendor-specific Properties

Microsoft 70-486: Design and implement UI behavior

Exam Objectives

Implement client validation, use JavaScript and the DOM to control application behavior, extend objects by using prototypal inheritance, use AJAX to make partial page updates, implement the UI by using JQuery

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 2.2
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapters 3 (Data Annotation, 4 (Client Programming) and 6 (AJAX)
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapters 6 (Data Annotation) and 8 (AJAX)

MSDN - Models and Validation in ASP.NET MVC
JQuery UI documentation
Model binding, Data Annotation, and Custom HTML Helpers

Previous blogs relevant to objective:

JavaScript: client side validation, handle events, interact with DOM, apply styling programmatically,
objects and methods, scope, AJAX and JQuery