Microsoft 70-487: Share assemblies between multiple applications and servers

Exam Objectives

Prepare the environment for use of assemblies across multiple servers (interning); sign assemblies by using a strong name; deploy assemblies to the global assembly cache; implement assembly versioning; create an assembly manifest; configure assembly binding redirects (for example, from MVC4 to MVC5)

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 5.6
[MSDN] Programming with Assemblies:
     - How to: Sign an Assembly with a Strong Name
     - How to: Install an Assembly into the Global Assembly Cache
[MSDN] Assemblies in the CLR:
     - Global Assembly Cache
     - Assembly Versioning
     - Assembly Manifest
     - Strong-Named Assemblies
[MSDN] Configuring Assembly Binding Redirection
[MSDN] Redirecting Assembly Versions
[MSDN] Look at Sharing Common Assemblies in ASP.NET 4.5
[MSDN] How the Runtime Locates Assemblies
[StackOverflow] What is the GAC in .NET?

[Blog] Sharing common assemblies with aspnet_intern.exe
[Blog] ASP.NET Assembly Interning
[Blog] Back to Basics: When does a .NET Assembly Dependency get loaded
[YouTube] .NET Assembly Versioning

Microsoft 70-487: Manage packages by using NuGet

Exam Objectives

Create and configure a NuGet package; install and update an existing NuGet package; connect to a local repository cache for NuGet, set up your own package repository

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 5.4
[Software] Nuget Package Explorer, Source
[MSDN] NuGet Documentation:
     -PowerShell Reference
     -Package Creation Workflow
     -Hosting your own NuGet feeds
[Wikipedia] Nuget
[PluralSight] Introduction to NuGet

Microsoft 70-487: Create and configure a WCF service on Azure

Exam Objectives

Create and configure bindings for WCF services (Azure SDK—extensions to WCF); relay bindings to Azure using service bus endpoints; integrate with the Azure service bus relay; host services in Azure (from 3.9);

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 3.7
[MSDN] How to use Azure Relay WCF relays with .NET
[MSDN] Azure WCF Relay tutorial
[MSDN] What is Azure Relay?
[Blog] Azure WCF Web role over http with wshttpbinding

[PluralSight] WCF Power Topics - Working with the Azure Service Bus
[Blog] Deploying A WCF Service On Windows Azure
[Blog] Deploying an Existing WCF Service to Azure

My post on Messaging Patterns

Microsoft 70-487: Host and manage services

Exam Objectives

Manage services concurrency (single, multiple, reentrant); create service hosts; choose a hosting mechanism; choose an instancing mode (per call, per session, singleton); activate and manage a service by using AppFabric; implement transactional services; host services in an Azure worker role

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 3.9
[MSDN] Sessions, Instancing, and Concurrency
[MSDN] How to: Create a Transactional Service
[CodeProject] WCF Concurrency
[MSDN] Hosting
[MSDN] Deploying an Internet Information Services-Hosted WCF Service
[MSDN] How to: Host a WCF Service in a Managed Windows Service
[DotNetCurry] Hosting WCF Service in Windows Server AppFabric
[Blog] Deploying A WCF Service On Windows Azure
[Blog] Deploying an Existing WCF Service to Azure

[PluralSight] WCF End-to-End -

    Hosting and Service Configuration     
    Instancing and Concurrency
    Transaction Handling
[PluralSight] WCF Advanced Topics

Microsoft 70-487: Secure a WCF service

Exam Objectives

Implement message level security, implement transport level security; implement certificates; design and implement multiple authentication modes

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 3.4
[Book] Programming WCF Services - Ch. 10: Security
[MSDN] Programming WCF Security
[MSDN] Message Security in WCF
[MSDN] Transport Security
[MSDN] Working with Certificates
[MSDN] Improving Web Service Security - Chapter 7, Chapter 5 (Auth)
[MSDN] How to: Use Certificate Authentication and Transport Security in WCF
[CodeProject] Nine simple steps to enable X.509 certificates on WCF

[PluralSight] WCF End-to-End - Securing Services
[PluralSight] WCF Design Concepts - Security

Microsoft 70-487: Implement messaging patterns

Exam Objectives

Implement one way, request/reply, streaming, and duplex communication; implement Azure Service Bus and Azure Queues

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 3.8

[MSDN] One-Way Service, How to create, One-Way
[MSDN] Request/Reply Service, How to create
[MSDN] Duplex Service, How to create
[MSDN] Streaming Message Transfer
[MSDN] Large Data and Streaming
[MSDN] Using Service Bus Queues with WCF
[MSDN-Blog] My Hello Azure Service Bus WCF Service
[MSDN] Azure Service Bus
[Blog] WCF Best Practices: One way is not always really one way
[PluralSight] WCF End-to-End - Operations

My post on Creating a Service

Microsoft 70-487: Version a WCF service

Exam Objectives

Version different types of contracts (message, service, data); configure address, binding, and routing service versioning

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 3.6
[Book] Programming WCF Services - Ch. 3: Data Contracts
[MSDN] Versioning Strategies
[MSDN] Best Practices: Data Contract Versioning
[MSDN] Using Message Contracts (Versioning section)
[MSDN] How To: Service Versioning (Routing)
[CodeProject] WCF Routing Service - Part IV: Service Versioning

[PluralSight] WCF Power Topics - Versioning Your Services

Microsoft 70-487: Consume WCF services

Exam Objectives

Generate proxies by using SvcUtil; generate proxies by creating a service reference; create and implement channel factories

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 3.5
[Book] Programming WCF Services

[MSDN] Clients

[MSDN] Accessing Services Using a WCF Client
[CSharpCorner] Channel Factory in WCF

PluralSight WCF Library
My github repo for WCF Examples

Microsoft 70-487: Configure WCF services by using the API

Exam Objectives

Configure service behaviors; configure service endpoints; configure binding; specify a service contract; expose service metadata (XSDs, WSDL, and metadata exchange); WCF routing and discovery features

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 3.3
[Book] Programming WCF Services (in particular, Appendix C: Discovery)
[MSDN] Configuring WCF Services in Code (.NET 4.5+)

[MSDN] How to: Publish Metadata for a Service Using Code

[MSDN] How to: Create a Service Endpoint in Code
[MSDN] WCF Discovery
[MSDN] Routing

PluralSight WCF Library - WCF Power Topics in particular (routing and discovery)
My post on file based config

My github repo for WCF Examples

Microsoft 70-487: Configure WCF services by using configuration settings

Exam Objectives

Configure service behaviors; configure service endpoints; configure bindings including WebSocket bindings; specify a service contract; expose service metadata (XSDs, WSDL, and metadata exchange endpoint); configure message compression and encoding

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 3.2
[MSDN] Configuring Services Using Configuration Files
[MSDN] Configuring and Extending the Runtime with Behaviors
[MSDN] Reference Source (.NET Source code search!)
[MSDN] Windows Communication Foundation Bindings
[MSDN] System-Provided Bindings
[MSDN] Choosing a Message Encoder

My Post - PluralSight WCF Library

My GitHub Repo with the WCF Examples.

Microsoft 70-487: Create a WCF service

Exam Objectives

Create contracts (service, data, message, callback, and fault); implement message inspectors; implement asynchronous operations in the service

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 3.1
[Book] Programming WCF Services
[MSDN] Define a Windows Communication Foundation Service Contract

[MSDN] Using Data Contracts
[MSDN] Using Message Contracts
[MSDN] Fault Contract
[MSDN] Create a Duplex Contract
[MSDN] Message Inspectors
[MSDN] How to inspect and modify WCF message via custom MessageInspector
[MSDN] How to modify a WCF message using an IDispatchMessageInspector?
[MSDN] Implement an Asynchronous Service Operation
[MSDN] Synchronous and Asynchronous Operations
[MSDN] Asynchronous Programming Patterns

PluralSight WCF Library

PluralSight has a pretty robust collection of WCF related courses.  I decided it would be useful to index the concepts covered in the courses I watched (as part of putting together to 70-487 study guide).

Microsoft 70-487: Implement transactions

Exam Objectives

Manage transactions by using the API from System.Transactions namespace; implement distributed transactions; specify transaction isolation level 

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 1.3
[MSDN] System.Transactions Namespace
[MSDN] Distributed Transactions
[MSDN] Distributed Transactions Overview
[MSDN] Introducing System.Transactions in the .NET Framework 2.0
[MSDN] Transactions in WCF Services
[MSDN] Transaction Processing
[MSDN] Long Running Transactions
[MSDN] Transaction Isolation Levels

[PluralSight] Understanding .NET and WCF Transactions
[Wikipedia] Transaction Processing
[StackOverflow] Why is TransactionScope default Isolation level Serializable
[Book] Database Management Systems (2nd Ed.) - Ch. 18
[YouTube] Database Management Systems Lecture 24 and Lecture 25

My post: Query data using ADO.NET
My code samples on GitHub

Microsoft 70-487: Implement data storage in Azure

Exam Objectives

Access data storage in Azure; choose data storage mechanism in Azure (blobs, tables, queues, SQL Database); distribute data by using the Content delivery network (CDN); handle exceptions by using retries (SQL Database); manage Azure Caching

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 1.4
[PluralSight] Windows Azure Storage In-Depth
[MSDN] Introduction to Microsoft Azure Storage (complete docs)
[MSDN] Storage Queues vs Service Bus Queues
[MSDN] Azure SQL Database Documentation
[MSDN] Azure Redis Cache FAQ
[MSDN] Azure Redis Videos
[MSDN] Azure Storage Client Library Retry Policy Recommendations
[MSDN] Transient fault handling
[MSDN] Retry Guidance for Specific Services
[MSDN] Overview of Azure CDN
[MSDN] What is the Azure SQL Database service?
[MSDN] Microsoft Azure Table Storage - Not Your Father's Database
[MSDN] Azure Storage Table Design Guide
[MSDN] Using Azure PowerShell with Azure Storage
[Channel9] Windows Azure Tables and Queues Deep Dive

Microsoft 70-487: Implement caching

Exam Objectives

Cache static data, apply cache policy (including expirations); use CacheDependency to refresh cache data; query notifications

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 1.2
[MSDN] System.Runtime.Caching
[MSDN] Detecting Changes with SqlDependency
[CodeProject] .NET 4.0 MemoryCache with SqlChangeMonitor
[CodeProject] Query Notification using SqlDependency and SqlCacheDependency

My GitHub Sample Code
70-486: Design a caching strategy

Microsoft 70-487: Manipulate XML data structures

Exam Objectives

Read, filter, create, modify XML data structures; Manipulate XML data by using XMLReader, XMLWriter, XMLDocument, XPath, LINQ to XML; transform XML by using XSLT transformations

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 1.6

[MSDN] XML Documents and Data
[MSDN] XML
[MSDN] Understanding XML
[MSDN] XPath Reference
[MSDN] What is XSLT?
[MSDN] XSLT Reference
[Hanselminutes] XML Tools and Technologies
[Hanselminutes] LINQ to XML
A Really, Really, Really Good Introduction to XML
[PluralSight] XML Fundamentals
[PluralSight] XML Processing in .NET Applications
[W3C] XML 1.1 Recommendation (Spec)
[W3C] Namespaces in XML 1.0 3rd Ed. (Spec)
[W3C] XSLT Recommendation (Spec)
[StackOverflow] JSON and XML comparison
[YouTube] XML and XSLT Transformation Explained
[YouTube] Using XSLT to Transform Your XML

My code samples on GitHub

Microsoft 70-487: Create and implement a WCF Data Services service

Exam Objectives

Address resources; implement filtering; create a query expression; access payload formats (including JSON); use data service interceptors and service operators

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 1.5

[Teched] Best Practices: Creating OData Services Using WCF Data Services (High Quality WMV)
[MSDN] Practical OData (2010 Article)
[Channel 9] Practical OData (2015 Conference talk)
[MSDN] WCF Data Services 5.0 Overview (Complete Docs)
[MSDN] How to: Create a Data Service Using the Reflection Provider
OData Version 4.0 URL Conventions Specification
[MSDN] Interceptors (WCF Data Services)

Microsoft 70-487: Choose data access technologies

Exam Objectives

Choose a technology (ADO.NET, Entity Framework, WCF Data Services, Azure storage) based on application requirements

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 1.1
[Teched] Data Development GPS: Choosing the Right Data Access (slides)
[Teched] Building OData Services with ASP.NET Web API
[Teched] Microsoft Azure Storage Overview

[MSDN] Summary of Data Access Guidance
[StackOverflow] Entity Framework VS LINQ to SQL VS ADO.NET
[StackOverflow] Are there good reasons not to use an ORM?
[StackExchange] Is Entity Framework Suitable For High-Traffic Websites?
[StackOverflow] When to use WCF data services and when not?
[StackOverflow] Why would you not use WCF Data Services for querying data?
[StackOverflow] What is the need of OData when I have JSON?
[MSDN] WCF Data Services 4.5
Azure Storage Service landing page
Introduction to Microsoft Azure Storage
Azure Storage 5 Minute Overview (video)
ASP.NET Data Access - Recommended Resources
[Channel9] All Data/All Day Dive into .NET Data Access
[Channel9] OData Overview (2015)
Why Entity Framework Can Be Your Best Friend
[MSDN] Storage queues vs Service Bus queues

Pluralsight Courses:
ADO.NET Fundamentals, Introduction to OData, Anything by Julie Lerman

How To Create an On-Prem Windows Build Agent for Visual Studio Team Services

Motivation

I've been working on migrating our code repositories from CVS into git hosted on Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS)... formerly Visual Studio Online.  While I've reduced the CVS migrations to running a single script, I also wanted to start exploring some of the other CI functionality VSTS offers.  Many of our projects are Maven projects, and while Maven builds are supported, I ran into a snag trying to connect to our on-prem Nexus repository.  Using the VSTS "hosted" build agents would involve one of a couple of bad work arounds:

• expose an endpoint in IIS to talk to the Nexus repo outside our firewall.  While a one-off point to point fix might solve this issue... the scenario is likely to recur, especially when I start looking at deployments
• open a vpn connection from the hosted build agent to the network.  Eww.  This would feel like a clunky solution, assuming I could get it working at all.  I could see authentication being a real obstacle for this route

The obvious solution was a private (i.e. on-prem) build agent running within our network.  I shied away from this approach at first because I didn't want to deal with the server configuration (rightly so, yuck!), but it rapidly became clear that this actually was the simpler solution. The final straw was after I tried to create a Hudson job and ended up fighting with git the whole time (couldn't find the installed binary, installed it again, long file names choked, couldn't get authentication working... quelle nightmare!)

Microsoft 70-487: Query data by using LINQ to Entities

Exam Objectives

Query data by using LINQ operators (for example, project, skip, aggregate, filter, and join); log queries and database commands; implement query boundaries (IQueryable vs. IEnumerable); implement async query

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 2.3
PluralSight - Querying the Entity Framework (Julie Lerman)
PluralSight - LINQ Fundamentals with C# 6.0 (Scott Allen)
PluralSight - Practical LINQ (Deborah Kurata)
PluralSight - More Effective LINQ (Mark Heath)
[MSDN] - LINQ to Entities
[MSDN] - DbExtensions Methods
[MSDN] - Enumerable Class
[MSDN] - Queryable Class
[MSDN] - ObjectQuery Class
StackOverflow - Returning IEnumerable<T> vs IQueryable<T>
Entity Framework: IQueryable vs. IEnumerable

My post on Basic LINQ