In the first article of this series, I taught you how to install and configure the Git version control system (VCS) to help you manage your Windows PowerShell scripts. Today, you'll learn how to sync your PowerShell scripts between your computers.
Well today's news gives WLW a fresh lease on life as open source software. That means the opportunity is once again available to build a robust community around the software and see it thrive.
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is quickly becoming the most used data-interchange format. XML enjoyed the top spot for a long time but slowly people have been moving towards JSON. JSON is a first-class citizen in Windows PowerShell. With many automation frameworks and software products adopting JSON, it is important for system administrators to understand what is JSON and how to use it. This article is a JSON primer to give you an overview of this data-interchange format and how to use it.
Source : PowerShell Magazine » A JSON primer for administrators
NEW YORK — Nov. 12, 2014 — On Wednesday, Microsoft Corp. reinforced its commitment to cross-platform developer experiences by open sourcing the full server-side .NET stack and expanding .NET to run on the Linux and Mac OS platforms. Microsoft also released Visual Studio Community 2013, a new free edition of Visual Studio that provides easy access to the Visual Studio core toolset. The announcements kicked off Microsoft’s Connect (); event, where the company released Visual Studio 2015 Preview and .NET 2015 Preview.
Today we’re excited to announce the release of the Internet Explorer Developer Channel, a fully functioning browser designed to give Web developers and early adopters a sneak peek at the Web platform features we’re working on. The Developer Channel is available for download today for both Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 SP1 customers running Internet Explorer 11.
IE Developer Channel can run alongside and independently of IE11, and has all of the browser features that you love in IE11, as well as the latest platform features we’re working on. As you test drive these features, make sure to give us feedback through @IEDevChat or Connect.
If you haven’t seen the news, PowerShell Tools for Visual Studio is now available on the Visual Studio Gallery! The first beta brings with it many enhancements from alphas past and supports VS2013 RC. Here’s a quick overview of the current state of the extension.
Source : Adam Driscoll's Blog
It is a great pleasure to be able let you know that v1 of the Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL) for .NET has reached General Availability! You can add the library to your projects directly from Visual Studio (search for ADAL) or you can download the NuGet package directly from here
source : Active Directory Blog
There is a ‘must read’ chapter in ASP.NET documentation on MSDN about security :
Adobe has released a free font set for coding environments called Source Code Pro. The set include 6 fonts :
You can download it at sourceforge.net/projects/sourcecodepro.adobe
Here’s some samples to compare it with other fonts good for coding.
Source : www.powertheshell.com
Even though Cassini is the default development web server in Visual Studio, Microsoft has provided a stand-alone option that also integrates with Visual Studio. IIS Express is almost exactly like the full IIS, only it is self-contained, it isn’t a service, and it doesn’t need admin rights for most tasks. We are going to walk through how to get it, how to configure it, and how to make the most of it without spending a lot of time on it.
The latest language from the company once identified for its programming
languages seeks to bring a higher class of developer into the Web apps
space, without changing the foundation of the Web... even if such a
change wouldn’t be such a bad idea
Last week, a hacker group claimed that it breached computer systems at
100 major universities. Team GhostShell gained access to servers at
Stanford, Harvard, and the University of Michigan, among others. The
technique used, SQL injection, is not new or complex, but reportedly
it's becoming increasingly common. Here's a quick guide to defending your servers.
One-third of mobile users say they've told others when they had a bad experience with a mobile app. But more than half say they've recommended an app based on a positive experience. Put yourself on the right side of that conversation with these seven best practices.
Article : drdobbs.com
Compat Inspector is a JavaScript-based testing tool that analyzes your site while it runs. Compat Inspector reports patterns of interaction which cause issues in standards mode. This allows you to identify problems quickly without memorizing a bunch of documentation or searching through the entirety of your site's code. We developed Compat Inspector during the course of IE9 to speed up the process of recognizing common issues across different sites. Along the way many members of the IE team contributed to the set of test cases that make up the rules in Compat Inspector. Now we're making it all available to you. Check out the Compat Inspector Test Drive to try it out before using it on your own site.
Source : IEBlog
Earlier this summer I blogged about IIS Express. IIS Express is a free version of IIS 7.5 that is optimized for developer scenarios. We think it combines the ease of use of the ASP.NET Web Server (aka Cassini) currently built-into VS today with the full power of IIS. Specifically:
- It’s lightweight and easy to install (less than 5Mb download and a quick install)
- It does not require an administrator account to run/debug applications from Visual Studio
- It enables a full web-server feature set – including SSL, URL Rewrite, and other IIS 7.x modules
- It supports and enables the same extensibility model and web.config file settings that IIS 7.x support
- It can be installed side-by-side with the full IIS web server as well as the ASP.NET Development Server (they do not conflict at all)
- It works on Windows XP and higher operating systems – giving you a full IIS 7.x developer feature-set on all Windows OS platforms
Source : weblogs.asp.net/scottgu
IIS 7.5 Express is a simple and self-contained version of IIS 7.5 that is optimized for developers.
IIS 7.5 Express enhances your ability to develop and test web applications on Windows by combining the power of IIS 7.5 with the convenience of a lightweight web server like the ASP.NET Development Server (also known as Cassini). The benefits of using IIS 7.5 Express include:
- The same web server that runs on your production server is now available on your development computer.
- Most tasks can be done without the need for administrative privileges.
- IIS 7.5 Express runs on Windows XP and all later versions of Windows.
- Many users can work independently on the same computer.
Download details Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5 Express
Source : Bink.nu
Microsoft also is releasing the 1.0 version of its free, open-source “Orchard” content-management system (CMS). Like WebMatrix, Orchard’s goal is to require users to do less coding, making the product appealing for a less techie audience, Microsoft is hoping.
Source : www.zdnet.com
Ref : orchardproject.net
Starting today, you can embed a PowerPoint presentation or Excel spreadsheet in a blog or website. With PowerPoint presentations, viewers can page through a mini version of the slides or view in full screen. For example, you might embed a PowerPoint presentation of photos from your last vacation, share slides from a lecture or talk that you enjoyed, or broadcast your knowledge of a special subject.
Source : meraTechPort
Powershell has become a defacto scripting environment for a lot of companies and rightly so considering its capabilities.
However, not every place do we find all modules loaded into powershell as one would like for the ease of scripting. I faced a similiar situation wherein I wanted to perform few admin tasks on an IIS box and din't have the IIS powershell snap-in installed. Wish the server was Windows Server 2008 R2 (IIS module is out-of-the-box loaded). There are more than a couple ways which could handle the script I was aiming for. Nevertheless, I thought it was a great opportunity to check out this functionality.
Source : The Official Microsoft IIS Site
Sometimes you want to check if the network is up in your application, there is a built-in function for that : NetworkInterface.GetIsNetworkAvailable()
the problem with GetIsNetworkAvailable is that it incorrectly always report TRUE if a loopback adapter is present. It also report TRUE if a “VirtualBox Host-Only Network” adapter is present.
So I have written the following function in Visual Basic (vb) to replace GetIsNetworkAvailable :
Function IsNetworkAvailable() As Boolean
IsNetworkAvailable = False
Dim AllAdapters As NetworkInterface() = NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces()
Dim Adapter As NetworkInterface
For Each Adapter In AllAdapters
If Adapter.OperationalStatus = OperationalStatus.Up And
Adapter.NetworkInterfaceType <> NetworkInterfaceType.Loopback And _
Adapter.NetworkInterfaceType <> NetworkInterfaceType.Tunnel And _
Not Adapter.Name.Contains("LoopBack") And _
Not Adapter.Name.Contains("VirtualBox Host-Only Network") Then
IsNetworkAvailable = True
End If
Next
End Function
