Although PowerShell Cmdlets are usually written in PowerShell, there are occasions when the level of integration with existing C# or VB libraries is awkward to achieve with PowerShell. Yes, you can write Cmdlets in C# perfectly easily, but until now it has been tiresome to discover how. Now Michael Sorens shows you the simple route to writing effective C# Cmdlets.… Read more
SignalR isn't just for web applications. It can also provide the basic real-time communications for a connected Windows Universal Application or even iOS and Android applications. Christos Matskas demonstrates how to get started with creating applications across a range of platforms that require real-time communication using SignalR… Read more
In application or database development, testing is too often given secondary importance. There are advantages to the whole delivery process if testers can get involved in the initial stages of planning and design. Testers have a role throughout the development lifecycle, as Doris Robinson explains… Read more
Visitors to a website are put off by having to wait for pages to load. Additionally, Google uses the metric to rank your site. Why, when there are tools and techniques around to help reduce web page lethargy, do we still experience slow page-loads? David Berry provides the simple ways of finding and fixing the problems.… Read more
If you are still storing passwords with MD5 hashing you're doing it wrong. The .NET platform provides a Cryptography library that allows you to develop PBKDF2 user authentication to the standards of the Open Web Application Security Project. Tom Fischer explains the background, shows a solution, and discusses the issues.… Read more
Are microservices the cure for the ague of monolithic applications, or do they bring their own problems with them that monolithic architectures have circumvented? Are they capable of delivering applications that are easier to maintain and develop? How can they avoid the failings of service-oriented architectures? Once more, Robert Sheldon gets to the heart of the technical issues.… Read more
SQL-based distributed Cloud Relational databases aren't new, but Amazon's Aurora offers an alternative to SQL Azure, and, being MySQL-compatible, provides the obvious route to the cloud for hosted LAMP web applications. Is this of interest to the rest of us? Rob Sheldon investigates.… Read more
So how easy is it to set up a database-driven application on Azure, using the tools that one is familar with. There are several different ways of doing it, and Bud decides to find out which is the best way… Read more
Under the pseudonym of 'SwePeso', Peter Larsson is famous on SQL forums for the amazing performance he can get from SQL. How does he do it? In the first of a series of articles, Peter explains his secrets. … Read more
We all understand the value of Unit Testing, but how come so few organisations maintain unit tests for their in-house applications? We can no longer pretend that unit testing is a universal panacea for ensuring less-buggy applications. Instead, we should be prepared to actively justify the use of unit tests, and be more savvy about where in the development cycle the unit test resources should be most effectively used.… Read more
If you have more than zero developers in your team, then you need Source Control. In this article Michael starts a series that aims to provide clear and complete recipes for using Subversion, mainly through its simple, elegant, graphical interface: TortoiseSVN.… Read more
As a DBA and hiring manager, Chris Shaw has been on those sides of the recruitement process. As an MVP and active member of the SQL Server community, he knows what resources are available to help DBAs hone their abilities. Who better to guide you through the many paths to developing your DBA skillset?… Read more
One of the greatest pain-points in developing a database-driven application happens when the application is in source control,but the database isn't. When the development database is shared, the pain increases, and it is not alleviated by source control alone. Troy Hunt spells out why each database developer must have their own version of the database.
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Phil has always been mystified by the way that, in Science-Fiction films, the crew of space-ships are able to reprogram their ships' computers in order to respond to emergencies, needing no more than a brief klip...klop...klip on the keyboard to effect a huge software change. A life in IT has seemed so different, and so he wonders if there a more realistic way that one might imagine IT's contribution to Space adventures… Read more
Last month saw the release of the SQL Bundle 5. Here, some key members of the Red Gate development team offer insight into some of the major new features, and the technical challenges they faced in implementing them.… Read more
