Microsoft - MCTS .NET 4 Data Access, Windows and Service Communication Applications

The Microsoft MCTS .NET 4 Data Access, Windows and Service Communication Applications certification is designed to teach you the following:

• Developing Data Access Solutions with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
• Developing Windows Applications with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
• Developing Windows Communication Foundation Solutions with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

You will be tested on the following exams:

• Exam 70-516 - TS: Accessing Data with Microsoft .NET Framework 4
• Exam 70-511 - TS: Windows Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4
• Exam 70-513 - TS: Windows Communication Foundation Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4

Why .Net 4.0?

Microsoft is positioning Visual Studio 2010 as its tool platform to support Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Azure, SQL Server, Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010. The suite includes new drag and drop bindings for Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation; interoperability with the ASP.Net model view controller (MVC), better multicore support and UML support.

.Net 4 adds support for the Microsoft Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR), giving programmers more language choices; and is more suited for parallel-programming, workflow-centric and service-oriented application development.

One of the biggest enhancements of the .Net Framework 4 is the reduction in client footprint by more than 80%.

What are the benefits of .Net 4.0 over .Net 3.5?

.Net 4.0 is completely inclusive of .Net 3.5, and also offers the following new or enhanced functions:

• MVC Applications part of the ASP.NET 4.0 exam
• jQuery and Advanced Client Scripting part of the ASP.NET 4.0 exam
• WPF Applications Development certification part of the Windows Applications 4.0 exam along with Windows Forms
• Entity Framework 4.0 - which represents enhancement to Entity Framework 3.5 - part of the ADO.NET 4.0 exam
• Windows Communications Foundation has been redesigned and thoroughly enhanced and is part of the WCF 4.0 exam

Below is a detailed list of new enhancements:

Visual Studio 2010

• Code Snippets
• New Profiles
• Generate from Usage
• Multi-Trageting
• Multi-Monitor
• Code Navigation in Class Files
• IntelliSense Improvements
• Enable Persisted Selection
• Add Reference Dialog
• Dynamic Lookup

C#

• Optional Parameters in C#
• Named Parameters in C#

ASP.NET 4.0

• Compressing Session Values
• Web.Config Transformation
• URL Routing
• Meta Tags
• Generating Client IDs
• Permanent Redirects
• New Browser Definitions
• New Publishing Project Interface

WCF 4.0

• Simple Configuration

Windows Applications 4.0

• Inclusion of WPF in the Windows Applications Exam

ADO.NET 4.0

• Foreign Keys in the Conceptual Model
• Self-Tracking Entities for N-Tier Application Development
• New Methods for N-Tier Application Development
• EntityDataSource Support for the QueryExtender Control
• Testability with IObjectSet
• Direct Execution of Store Commands
• Persistence-Ignorant Objects
• Lazy Loading of Related Objects
• Functions in LINQ to Entities Queries
• OrderBy Improvements in LINQ to Entities
• Customized Object-Layer Code Generation
• Model-First Support
• Complex Type Support
• Improved Model Browser Functionality

You will get answers to these questions:

• What does dynamic typing in C# 4.0 mean?
• What does PFx give me that I couldn't do in .NET 3.5?
• How is ASP.NET MVC different from building WebForms-based web applications?
• Why did they rewrite workflow and what new features do I get as a result?
• How does Entity Framework 4.0 help me build n-tier applications?

You will learn how to:

• Leverage new features of C# 4.0, including named and optional parameters and dynamic typing.
• Understand the new features of the core .NET runtime services including the garbage collector.
• Use PFx as a unifying library for all your multithreading needs.
• Parallelize computationally intensive processing using multiple cores/processors.
• Build efficient multithreaded processing using new lightweight concurrent data structures.
• Create workflows that can model complex processing using flowchart workflows.
• Create declarative services using workflow that can be deployed as simple text files.
• Decouple your entity model from the data using Plain Old CLR Objects (POCOs).
• Write classes that can track changes to their own state for n-tier development with Entity Framework.
• Build Windows 7 ready applications with WPF 4.0.
• Simplify your service deployment with zero config services with WCF 4.0.
• Write rich web applications that are simpler to unit test.
• Create REST based services based on the ASP.NET infrastructure

Modeling data

• Map entities and relationships by using the Entity Data Model
• Map entities and relationships by using LINQ to SQL
• Create and customize entity objects
• Connect a POCO model to the Entity Framework
• Create the database from the Entity Framework model
• Create model-defined functions

Managing Connections and Context

• Configure connection strings and providers
• Create and manage a data connection
• Secure a connection
• Manage the DataContext and ObjectContext
• Implement eager loading
• Caching data
• ADO.NET Data Services

Querying data

• Execute a SQL query
• Create a LINQ query
• Create an Entity SQL (ESQL) query
• Handle special data types
• Query XML data
• Query data using ADO.NET Data Services

Manipulating data

• Create, update, or delete data by using SQL statements
• Create, update, or delete data by using DataContext
• Manage Transactions
• Create disconnected objects

Developing and Deploying Reliable Applications

• Monitor and collect performance data
• Handle exceptions
• Protect data
• Synchronize data
• Deploy ADO.NET components

Building a User Interface by Using Basic Techniques

• Controls and control hierarchies
• Styles and theming
• Reusable resources
• Animation in WPF

Enhancing a User Interface by Using Advanced Techniques

• Routed events in WPF and WPF commanding
• User-defined controls and working with graphics
• Multimedia in WPF
• Control templates in WPF
• Create data, event, and property triggers in WPF

Managing Data at the User Interface layer

• Data Binding
• Value Converters in WPF
• Data validation
• Consuming change notification events
• Collections of data and binding hierarchical data
• Data templates in WPF

Enhancing the Functionality and Usability of a Solution

• Integration of WinForms and WPF
• Asynchronous processing and threading
• Globalization and localization
• Drag and drop operations
• Security
• User and application settings
• Dependency properties

Stabilizing and releasing a solution

• WPF test strategies
• Debug XAML using WPF visualize
• Debug WPF using PresentationTraceSources
• ClickOnce deployment
• Windows Installer project
• Deployment security settings

Creating Services

• Create service and operation contracts
• Create data contracts
• Create message contracts
• Implement generic message handling
• Implement RESTful services
• Create and configure a Routing service
• Create and configure a Discovery service

Hosting and Configuring Services

• Create and configure endpoints
• Configure behaviors
• Implement self hosting
• Implement web server hosting

Consuming Services

• Create a service proxy
• Configure client endpoints
• Invoke a service
• Consume RESTful services
• Implement service discovery

Securing Services

• Secure bindings
• Message security
• Authentication
• Authorization
• Impersonation
• Security auditing

Manage the Service Instance Life Cycle

• Service Instances
• Sessions
• Transactions
• Concurrency
• Manage consistency between instances, sessions, transactions and concurrency

Monitoring and Troubleshooting Distributed Systems

• Configure message logging
• Configure diagnostics
• Debug client-service interactions

You will take the following exams as part of the course:

• Exam 70-516 - TS: Accessing Data with Microsoft .NET Framework 4
• Exam 70-511 - TS: Windows Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4
• Exam 70-513 - TS: Windows Communication Foundation Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4

Microsoft Official Curriculum

• MOC 10265A: Developing Data Access Solutions with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
• MOC 10262A: Developing Windows Applications with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
• MOC 10263A: Developing Windows Communication Foundation Solutions with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

This course is for developers who:

• Want to gain experience of the new features of the .NET platform as soon as possible
• Want to plan how .NET 4.0 will affect their applications and what new features can be used

Students successful on this course have:

• Solid understanding of the .NET Framework
• Six months' experience in Visual Studio
• Minimum one to two years' experience developing application components that interact with a variety of data sources
• Thorough understanding of relational database concepts
• Minimum one to two years' experience using a relational database management system
• Fundamental Knowledge of .NET programming languages (C# or VB.NET)
• One year's experience developing Windows and web applications
• Experience in creating data-driven web applications
• Reasonable understanding of Web technologies (HTTP/HTTPS, HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
• Experience in creating data-driven user interfaces
• Working knowledge of setup and deployment projects