Announcing the next ODNC Web Study Group!
Jan
6
Written by:
Wednesday, January 06, 2010 9:32 PM
This week the ODNC gave an information session about their next MCTS Web 70-562 Study Group starting in February! Read on for more details on the most effective way to get Microsoft certified!
The ODNC is starting their next study group in February and I held an information session this past Tuesday evening. This study group is going to be the fifth study group the ODNC has led over the past two years! Charlie Wiebe is leading the charge on this study group and is a fantastic leader and motivator! If you've been thinking of writing the 70-562 exam, this is the time to get involved! I've been lucky enough to work with Charlie on past study groups and you are certainly in great hands!
Check out the information session presentation I gave, the link is a zip file, save it locally and open it up with PowerPoint 2007. If you don't have PPT 2007, no worries, convert the pptx in the zip file to PPT 2003 using this file format converter (yes, it's from MS).
We think we've come up with some great strategies for preparing and writing the developer MS certification exams! No, we're not guaranteeing anything, BUT by participating in this study group, you GREATLY increase your odds of passing the exam! What do we do that's so different? haha you'll have to check out the information session for a little bit of insite there!
Something new this time around is a change to the "application process." Before, we used to ask people to send an email saying why you wanted in. hhhmm Problem was, a small number (and I stress, only a small number) of people were weak with judging their "readiness" to participate. The new "application process" is meant to HELP YOU evaluate and judge for yourself if you're ready! If are you are, GREAT! If you're not, no worries, you now have new information you didn't know last week and have a bit of idea on what skills to study up on! Both situations are learning opportunities!
So what's this "application process" all about? The idea is, all participants are equal, and as such, everyone has to do the samething to get in. Ok, so what do you have to do? Simple!
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Create a
Codeplex account and email the account name (no passwords necessary) to
StudyGroups@OttawaCommunity.Net. We will link your account to the ODNC Study Group as a developer role so you can do the next step.
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Create a web application and commit it to the Applications directory structure.
All this means, yes, you will have to use source control. Oh come on now, you're probably using it at work right now anyways, so it's not THAT big a deal. HAHA The cool thing is Codeplex supports TFS and SVN. Therefore you can most likely pick what you're already familiar with at work. If you're new, or need a bit of a refresher on source control,
check out this information document.
The easiest way to start (after you create your Codeplex account) is to do what you most likely always do with starting a new asp.net website, CTRL+SHIFT+N to use the new website project template. It's important to notice the Name and Location paths. The Name is your name (I suggest first letter of your first name and last name), then the location is the Application folder. Hopefully this will stop any naming collisions that might happen.
Once you do that, then try commiting your site (yes, I know there's not much there, but the point here is to see if you can commit something). Can you do it? COOL! Check out your directory structure on your computer. You should have something like this on your own local HD (mileage might vary, dpending on number of coffees consumed in the last few hours LOL).
Here are a few other suggestions that might come in handy.
- Create a shell, make small changes, commit them, you’ll learn how to add and commit files/projects/solutions/etc
- Make a title change to the default.aspx and commit again, shows how to commit everything or one file and how to do it from Windows Explorer shell or from VS
- Play with default.aspx, add some text, listboxes and images and get them to show up on your webpage, MAKE SURE those images have “relative paths” (ie no absolute paths), don’t know what I mean, goto work (or go home), download the source and do an F5, do you get get 404s for your images? You’re using absolute references then!
- Add another page and goto it from Default.aspx, now add a link or button and return back
- IF you’re going to add a database, MAKE SURE it works!!!!!!!!! (can anyone do an F5 on your solution)
- If you’re using an XML file, make sure you load it using relative paths (other people will have a different directory structure from you!)
- Show everyone you belong in the study group! Strut your stuff a bit, you have two weeks but make sure what you check in works (again, make sure people can F5 your web app)
- Play with your app, have fun with it, goto town, show your enthusiasm/excitement/passion!
- Limit your additions to what you know/think will be on the exam (ie don’t add Flash animations or PHP, PERL scripts)
One last thing, as a basic source control pattern, there are some files you just don't check in. In SVN, you use the Ignore List. In TFS, you excluded files. Please add these files/extensions to the appropriate option in the tool you're using.
[Bb]in [Oo]bj [Oo]bject [Dd]ebug [Rr]elease *.[Uu]ser *.[Ss]uo [Dd]esktop.ini [Tt]humbs.db *.[Ll]og *.[Cc]ache *.pdb [Bb]in [Oo]bj [Oo]bject [Dd]ebug [Rr]elease *.[Uu]ser *.[Ss]uo [Dd]esktop.ini [Tt]humbs.db *.[Ll]og *.[Cc]ache *.pdb *.vspscc *.vssscc *.vbproj.user *.csproj.user
These files are either files which everyone can compile (Bin, Obj, Debug, Release dirs), personal settings that other's don't need or want (SUO, thumbs.db), logging files, debugging files or someone else's source control files that you may not need. The other BIG reason NOT to check them in, is cause these are sometimes very big files and will needlessly increases update/dowload times. So please help your fellow devs and add these to the ignore list/exclude list.
Good luck to you and I look forward to evaluating your applictions, don't forget the deadline for applications is Jan 19th! Now that you have more information about the ODNC MCTS Web Study Group, it's time to grab a coffee and create your web site!