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

Fun with Coordinates: A story about using JavaScript to do things the hard way.

Went to a training class this morning on using Google's MyMaps.  Interesting enough, though I don't see myself ever really using it.  For the uninitiated, this application lets you upload a spreadsheet of locations with a bunch of metadata, and you can manipulate the visualization.  Well, the map pointers are placed based on either an address or a lat and long.  The presenter noted that she wasn't sure if you could use UTM or State Planar Coordinate System coordinates.  Because I had pretty much exhausted my interest in playing with the MyMaps interface in about 10 minutes, I took it as a challenge to obtain and test a UTM data set.  I did a search for an available dataset but didn't find anything useful, however I had at my disposal a Google Sheets spreadsheet that had the Wyoming zip codes with latitudes and longitudes (basically a truncated version of this file). "So I'll just convert the ones I have, easy..." BWAHAHAHA ok, we'll get to what that was about.

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

Microsoft 70-486: Apply the user interface design for a web application

Exam Objectives

Create and apply styles by using CSS, structure and lay out the user interface by using HTML, implement dynamic page content based on a design

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 2.1
Static vs. Dynamic Content
MSDN - HtmlHelper, HtmlHelperExtensions

Previous blogs relevant to objective:
HTML: Basic HTML, HTML Forms
CSS: Style Layout, Style Text, Selectors, Animation, Cascading

Microsoft 70-486: Implement a secure site with ASP.NET

Exam Objectives

Secure communication by applying SSL certificates; salt and hash passwords for storage; use HTML encoding to prevent cross-site scripting attacks (ANTI-XSS Library); implement deferred validation and handle unvalidated requests, for example, form, querystring, and URL; prevent SQL injection attacks by parameterizing queries; prevent cross-site request forgeries (XSRF)

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 5.5
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapter 9
How does HTTPS actually work?
MSDN - TLS Handshake Protocol
DigiCert - SSL Certificate Installation in Microsoft IIS 8 and IIS 8.5
Microsoft - Enable HTTPS for an Azure website
Asp.net Identity password hashing - MSDN PasswordHasher Class

Hashing Passwords using ASP.NET's Crypto Class - MSDN Crypto Class 
Password management made easy in ASP.NET with the Crypto API

XSS Cross Site Scripting Demonstration - Short Video
Introduction to XSS Cross Site Scripting Injection Vulnerabilities - Short Video

MSDN - Differences Between AntiXss.HtmlEncode and HttpUtility.HtmlEncode
owasp.org - ASP.NET Request Validation

SQL Injection And Parameterized Queries

Prevent CSRF and Deferred Validation
owasp.org - Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) Prevention Cheat Sheet
Asp.net - XSRF/CSRF Prevention in ASP.NET MVC and Web Pages

BoxBlaster: Real time gaming demo with Signalr and Azure

I wanted to do something more interesting than a chat room using Signalr, so in the long standing tradition of going way over the top and biting off more than I can chew, I decided I would build a multiplayer shooter game using Signalr.  Over the long Thanksgiving holiday, much to my wife's chagrin, I stole every free moment to build this demo.  I gotta say I'm pretty happy with the results.
You can check out the latest version of the code on GitHub: github.com/sabotuer99/BoxBlaster.

Microsoft 70-486: Design and implement a WebSocket strategy

Exam Objectives

Read and write string and binary data asynchronously (long-running data transfers), choose a connection loss strategy, decide a strategy for when to use WebSockets, implement SignalR

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 1.6
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapter 11
OReilly - Websockets

Start Using HTML5 WebSockets Today
The HTML5 WebSocket API (Slideshare)

Channel 9 - Building real-time web apps with HTML5 WebSockets - 1 hour video, Client side
MSDN - WebSockets: Stable and Ready for Developers
Channel 9 - Building apps with WebSockets using IIS, ASP.NET and WCF - 1 hour video, Server side
Channel 9 - Web Dev Futures Day Session 5: Building real-time apps with WebSockets
Channel 9 - Building Real-Time Applications with ASP.NET SignalR
Channel 9 - Damian Edwards and David Fowler Demonstrate SignalR
Microsoft Virtual Academy - Lighting Up Real-Time Web Communications with SignalR
Simple server implemtation in C# EchoHandler.ashx.cs

Tutorial: Getting Started with SignalR 2
Introduction to Scaleout in SignalR

My Post - Microsoft 70-480: Implement a callback (WebSockets)

Microsoft 70-486: Design a caching strategy

Exam Objectives

Implement page output caching (performance oriented), implement data caching, implement HTTP caching, implement Azure caching

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 1.5
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapter 12
Understanding Caching in Asp.Net MVC with example
Using VaryByCustom With OutputCache in ASP.NET MVC
MSDN - Caching Multiple Versions of a Page (How tos)
Output Caching in MVC 4 Explained
MSDN - OutputCacheAttribute Class, OutputCacheParameter Class
Output Caching Actions Gotcha in ASP.NET MVC 3
Donut Output Caching in ASP.NET MVC 3
Asp.net MVC4 – Donut Caching & Donut Hole Caching
Donut Hole Caching In ASP.NET MVC
Cache Exploration in ASP.NET MVC 3

MSDN - Walkthrough: Using ASP.NET Output Caching with SQL Server
A Beginner's Tutorial for Understanding and Implementing Caching in ASP.NET MVC
MSDN - Walkthrough: Caching Application Data in ASP.NET
Buffering Exploration in ASP.NET MVC 3 - Data Caching

Asp.net - Data caching in ASP.Net applications

Tutorial - ASP.NET Data Caching (Object Caching)
How to use the System.Web.Caching.Cache Object – ASP.NET Data Caching

MSDN - MemoryCache Class
Caching Data in an ASP.NET Web Pages (Razor) Site for Better Performance

How do I add site-wide no-cache headers to an MVC 3 app
A Beginner's Guide to HTTP Cache Headers, W3 Header Spec
Google Developers - HTTP caching

MSDN - Introducing the Microsoft Azure Caching Service
MSDN - Azure Managed Cache Service
Lap around Azure Redis Cache (video) (MSDN Azure Redis Cache)
MSDN - Which Azure Cache offering is right for me?
How to Use Azure Managed Cache ServiceAzure Documentation - Cache

Build an HTML5 Offline Application with Application Cache, Web Storage and ASP.NET MVC

MVC and the HTML5 Application Cache
MSDN - Application Cache API ("AppCache")
Html5 Offline Cache Integration with ASP.NET MVC Bundle
Application Cache is a douchebag

Microsoft 70-486: Configure state management

Exam Objectives

Choose a state management mechanism (in-process and out of process state management), plan for scalability, use cookies or local storage to maintain state, apply configuration settings in web.config file, implement sessionless state (for example, QueryString)

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 1.4
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapters 2, 12
Pro C# 5.0 and the .NET 4.5 Framework - Chapter 34
MSDN - <sessionState> Element
Session-less Controllers in ASP.NET MVC 3 RC
MSDN - How to: Add Items to the Cache
MSDN - Caching in .NET Framework Applications

MSDN - ASP.NET Caching: Techniques and Best Practices
MSDN - Cache Class
MSDN - ASP.NET Application State Overview

MSDN - ASP.NET State Management Overview and Recommendations

StackOverflow - I just discovered why all ASP.NET websites are slow...

MSDN - Underpinnings of the Session State Implementation in ASP.NET

MSDN - ASP.NET Cookies Overview

MSDN - HttpRequest.QueryString Property
State Management and Scalability

Fast, Scalable, and Secure Session State Management for Your Web Applications
Web Development Best Practices (Building Real-World Cloud Apps with Azure)

Two Ways of Passing HTML5 Web Storage Data to ASP.NET

Writing a data-centric oriented web application using HTML5 local storage???MAYBE
MSDN - ASP.NET Cookies Overview
Dive Into HTML5: Local Storage
MSDN - sessionState Element and profile Element
Developing stateless (session-less) web apps

avoid hitting DB to authenticate a user on EVERY request in stateless web app architecture?

ASP.NET MVC Unit Testing Part 4: The Tests and What Was Learned

So, now that the project is refactored with interfaces, I have fake data, and a fake environment, it's time to run some unit tests! Whoohoo!  I'll go over some of the basic tests and also cover what I learned over all throughout the unit testing process.

ASP.NET MVC Unit Testing Part 3: Faking the Environment (HttpContext)

So I have my fake data, but I also need to address additional dependencies that are not as obvious.  These dependencies arise from the use of User and Request, which are properties of the HttpContext.  Because you apparently can't assign HttpContext directily, you have to create a fake ControllerContext.

ASP.NET MVC Unit Testing Part 2: Faking the Database

Now that the production code is all set up, it's time to create the fakes that I'll inject for my unit tests.  Rather than connecting to the production database, I want my unit tests to use an in memory dataset so they will run lightning fast.  There are limitations to using in memory data (in effect substituting LINQ to Object for LINQ to Entities) which I will address in another post.

ASP.NET MVC Unit Testing Part 1: Set up

So, a little background here first.  I'm pretty new to .NET programming, having only started my first developer job just this past March.  My one and only performance management goal was to implement some unit testing.  Simple right? Well my first feeble attempts involved trying to add unit tests to a traditional ASP.NET program... come to find out unit testing code behind files is a fools errand.  Did manage to test come CRUD on a service class, but all in all it wasn't that useful.  I was also attached to a new development project called Education Assistance (EA around the water cooler) that was using MVC.  I'd read that MVC was much easier to unit test so I figured that would be a possibility at some point.  Of course, first I had to learn a little about MVC.  I worked through a few tutorials, a couple of which actually covered unit testing.  So now I knew just enough to get myself in trouble.

Microsoft 70-486: Design and implement the Azure role life cycle

Exam Objectives

Identify and implement Start, Run, and Stop events; identify startup tasks (IIS configuration [app pool], registry configuration, third-party tools)

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 1.3
MSDN - Channel 9 Cloud Services Tutorial
MSDN - Channel 9 Windows Azure Jump Start (03): Windows Azure Lifecycle, Part 1, Part 2

MSDN - Use AppCmd.exe to Configure IIS at Startup
MSDN - Windows Azure Start-up Tasks Part 1, Part 2
MSDN - Run Startup Tasks in Azure, Best Practices
MSDN - RoleEntryPoint Methods
MSDN - The Right Way to Handle Azure OnStop Events
MSDN - Azure Cloud Service Tutorial

Microsoft 70-486: Design a distributed application

Exam Objectives

Design a hybrid application (on-premises versus off-premises, including Azure), plan for session management in a distributed environment, plan web farms, **integrate web services

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 1.2
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapters 7 (Web API), 2 (State mgmt)
How to add Web API to existing MVC 4 project
MSDN - WCF Services and ASP.NET

Web API Study: The Benefits of APIs in the App Economy
Web API Design : Crafting Interfaces that Developers Love 
MSDN - .NET On-Premises/Cloud Hybrid Application Using Service Bus Relay

MSDN - Getting Started with the Azure Tools for Visual Studio

MSDN - ASP.NET State Management Overview

MSDN - ASP.NET Session State Overview, Session-State Modes
MSDN - Technet - About Server Farms, Server Affinity Page
Make an ASP.NET MVC application Web Farm Ready
Out-of-Process Caching in ASP.NET

MSDN - Azure Cache

MSDN - Differences between On-Premises AppFabric 1.1 Caching and Azure Managed Cache Service

Comparing ASP.NET MVC tutorials: OdeToFood, Nerddinner, and MVC Music Store

I worked through three ASP.NET MVC tutorials: NerdDinner, OdeToFood, and MVC Music Store.  All had their pro's and con's, and I definitely learned much from them.  The pluralsight tutorial OdeToFood was, far and away, the best put together tutorial of the bunch, and if you had to pick one, that would be the one to do.  NerdDinner wasn't bad but is showing it's age as it was developed using MVC2 (though I thought I saw something about updates...). The MVC Music Store tutorial also had a lot of interesting stuff but I would have to consider it the weakest of these three tutorials.

Microsoft 70-486: Plan the application layers

Exam Objectives

Plan data access; plan for separation of concerns; appropriate use of models, views, and controllers; choose between client-side and server side processing; design for scalability

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 1.1
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapters 5, 8

MSDN - ASP.NET Data Access Options

ASP.NET MVC 4 Models and Data Access

MSDN - Demystifying Entity Framework Strategies: Model Creation Workflow

MSDN - Entity Framework (EF) Documentation
MSDN - Guiding Principles For Your ASP.NET MVC Applications
Implementing the Repository and Unit of Work Patterns in an ASP.NET MVC Application
MSDN - The Unit of Work Pattern and Persistance Ignorance
What is ASP.NET MVC? 80 minute technical video for developers, building NerdDinner
MSDN - Action Filters in ASP.NET MVC
Pros/cons between emphasizing client-side or server-side processing
Performance and scalability techniques 101
Looking back: How I'd build a large-scale web app today versus how I did it 10 years ago