JetBrains have made a 4.5.1 maintenance release of ReSharper available for download. It is a free upgrade from any 4.x version, and the Release Notes indicate that a large number of bugs have been addressed. Despite some issues I had with the Beta version I happily found the 4.5 release to be stable. I have been regularly testing the nightly builds and think that 4.5.1 will be a stable and reliable release.

A couple of highlights for me are that the default Naming Style rules have certainly been improved, with more options available for both private and non-private accessible members. Also, method names with an underscore are no longer considered erroneous, which was a problem for auto-generated event handlers in Visual Studio. It was also a problem if your unit test naming convention involves the use of underscores as a separator, like this one recommended by Roy Osherove.

I have been reading up on the new features in Silverlight 3 over the last couple of days, and have often been confused because what I was reading didn’t line up with what I was seeing. It appears many of the articles and videos that are currently available have been created against the Silverlight 3 Beta version, and a number of changes have been made between the Beta and final release. For example, the DataForm control is often mentioned as being in the System.Windows.Controls.Data.DataForm.dll assembly, but has actually been moved from the Silverlight SDK into the Silverlight Toolkit.

I found this page on MSDN that lists all the breaking changes in Silverlight 3 has clarified many of the issues for me. It details the breaking changes from both the Silverlight 2 and Silverlight 3 Beta versions. I’m sure that as time goes by more articles will be referring to the release version and things will become less confusing. In the meantime, if what you are reading doesn’t seem to add up, I would start by checking out the list of breaking changes.

I stumbled across an interesting response to an issue on Microsoft Connect and couldn’t help but to laugh:

As a workaround, your add-in might want to store these settings on a per-project basis, or alternatively, you could keep a small turd configuration file next to the .sln that has your settings.

Maybe I need to get some more sleep, but it certainly seems funny at the moment. ;p

WSCF.blue is a Visual Studio Add-in designed to bring the benefits of contract-first web service development to those working with WCF (Windows Communication Foundation). I recently joined the WSCF.blue project and have enjoyed working with a team of very talented developers. Please be sure to read their blogs and benefit from the experience they offer:

• Christian Weyer
• Buddhike de Silva
• Edward Bakker
• Santosh Benjamin

My first foray into the world of contract-first web service development was made all the more pleasurable thanks to the WSCF (Web Service Contract First) tool. This early version of WSCF was targeted at web services developed using ASMX, and was first released by thinktecture, where it was maintained by team members Christian Weyer and Buddhike de Silva. The project later moved to CodePlex where it remains available today; although it has been renamed to WSCF.classic to differentiate it from the new WSCF.blue version designed for use with WCF. I highly recommend taking a look at WSCF.classic if you are developing web services using ASMX and are interesting in the contract-first approach.

For those currently working with WCF, or looking to migrate from ASMX, you will no doubt find WSCF.blue to be a must have tool. It fills a gap in the tooling available to .NET developers that want to embrace the contract-first approach in its true form. If you aren’t familiar with contract-first web service design I recommend reading the articles below. You will notice that the first of these articles was written by team member Christian Weyer (web services guru, co-founder of thinktecture and creator of WSCF):

• Introducing Contract First
• Service Station: Contract-First Service Development

The contract-first approach guides the developer of a web service into creating an interface (contract) that is interoperable and standards compliant. It requires a shift in focus, moving away from a code oriented perspective to one that is oriented towards data and messages. This type of thinking will greatly benefit those building SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) based systems. The XML Schema and WSDL (Web Services Description Language) specifications are key to achieving the goals of contract-first. These specifications may appear strange at first sight, but better understanding them will allow you to make your web services easier to consume, and more interoperable in the heterogeneous environments we frequently find ourselves forced to work within.

Below are posts from the other WSCF.blue team members regarding the Beta release:

• Next generation of a success story: WSCF.blue for WCF goes Beta 1
• WSCF.blue Beta 1 is out!
• WSCF blue: Beta-1

Please download the Beta version, smack it around and put it through its paces. It is the development community that is best positioned to shape the future direction of WSCF.blue; so please provide your feedback, report bugs and help spread the word of contract-first.