Oracle Support Announced for Visual Studio Team System 2010 Development

Today it was announced Oracle support will be available for Visual Studio Team System 2010 Development through a Database Schema Provider (DSP).  Quest, a provider of Database Management Solutions, is developing the Oracle DSP for Visual Studio Team System.   For those working in heterogeneous database environments this is BIG news!

The Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR introduced a new product architecture that provides a model representation of a database schema and extensibility points to expand support for other database platforms.  Third parties can develop DSPs which implement models to expand the support for specific database platforms and versions.  Quest's Oracle DSP will add support to Team System Development for Oracle and will provide the following Oracle based database project features :

• Offline Schema Development

• Import Schema

• Schema Compare

• Data Generation and Unit Testing

• Refactoring

• and more...

Teams that have benefited by using Team System Database Edition to manage their Microsoft SQL Server database development will also be able to manage their Oracle database's with the same tool and process integration.

You can read more about Quest's upcoming DSP product here.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,VSTSDB,Quest,Oracle

I'm a PC...on TV

Last week I found out that I was included in a nationally televised commercial for the "I'm a PC" campaign. You can watch the video on SoapBox.

Happy - I'm a PC

Check it out!

VSTS Development Edition + Database Edition

This morning we made the official announcement (general info and press release) of the next release of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework. This includes Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio Team System 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0.

In the next release of Visual Studio Team System we will be merging the feature sets of the Development Edition and the Database Edition into a single product. The new product – part of Visual Studio Team System 2010 – will include all of the features in the Development Edition and the Database Edition as well as new capabilities delivering even more value in a single product. This will provide a more complete set of capabilities for building software in today’s data-driven environments.

Bringing these two feature sets together enables you to take advantage of the core tools for application development as well as the necessary tools for database development, including performance profiling, code analysis, code metrics, code coverage, database refactoring, Schema Compare, Data Compare, and more.

If you have VSTS 2008 Development Edition or Database Edition with MSDN Premium you are eligible to get both products through MSDN Downloads. This is an exclusive offer for MSDN Premium subscribers with these products -- we want you to realize the benefit of this merged feature set now.

Beginning October 1, 2008 eligible MSDN subscribers will have access to both the Development Edition and Database Edition through MSDN Subscriber Downloads. This change also applies to customers who purchased Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers with MSDN Premium Subscription and Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals with MSDN Premium Subscription, who's subscription is still active.

]inbetween[ - Microsoft Community Summit 2008

So what is it?  Basically, the Florida User Group Communities were asked what would they do with the Orlando Convention Center for a weekend?  What they came up with was a FREE weekend with loads with loads of great content.

One of our favorite Visual Studio Team System MVPs, Richard Hundhausen, is taking time to present on a variety of Visual Studio Team System topics during this (almost) full day event on Sunday, June 8th. He's got a five o'clock flight so expect this session to shut down around 2:30p. There's plenty of other stuff you can hop over to on the agenda.

Microsoft Community Summit 2008 ]inbetween[

Orlando Convention Center, June 7 and 8

More info :: http://www.devfish.net/articles/inbetween/default.aspx

New Team System White Papers Focus on Key Benefits

Seven (7) new white papers focused on the key benefits of Visual Studio Team System are now available in both Word and PDF format. The white papers expand on the seven key benefits outlined in the summary paper "Key Benefits of Microsoft Visual Studio Team System." These white papers are intended for Technical Decision Makers (TDM) and the Business Decision Makers (BDM), rather than the traditional developer audience.

The seven white papers are:

1. Communicate and Collaborate with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008
2. Drive Predictability with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008
3. Manage Team Workflow with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008
4. Use Familiar Tools with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008
5. Ensure Quality Early and Often with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008
6. Integrate Frequently with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008
7. Make Real-time Decisions with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008

 

These white papers have been published on MSDN and will be available to TechEd 2008 USA attendees on a USB key that will be given away on the show floor.

You can find the white papers in DOCX and PDF format here.

GeekFest Party at TechEd 2008 Developer Conference

Let’s face it, going to technical conferences is good for your career, but it’s not a whole lot of fun. What you need is an outlet. You need to have fun. That’s where we step in.

Cheap beer and lousy pizza!

We are bringing back GeekFest! Join us at Howl at the Moon for a night of lousy pizza, cheap beer, dueling pianos, socializing and one wild rubber duck competition….yes, a rubber duck competition.

There is limited invitations available, so what are you waiting for. If you are attending the TechEd 2008 Developer Conference you can pre-register here.

Register and pick up your "duck" ticket in the TechEd Technical Learning Center (TLC) at the Developer Tools & Languages (TLA) information desk. You must have a "duck" ticket to get into the party. One "duck" admits up to two people.

When:
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 from 7:00 PM -10:00 PM ET

Where
Howl at the Moon, 8815 International Drive, Orlando, FL 32819

Ticketing
You must have a "duck" ticket to attend the party. One duck admits two.

SnapShots Added

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

Setting Up Shop

The time has come to set-up a new blog. While MSDN has been a fun place to blog, I needed to feel a little more freedom (and some name-recognition). Stay tuned for what is (hopefully) to come.

d7