.NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit Available

Microsoft has recently made available the .NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit. The kit contains only the hands-on labs, while the presentations, demos and screencasts are promised to be added in a following release.

The hands-on labs cover the following topics:

• ADO.NET Data Services
• ASP.NET MVC
• ASP.NET Dynamic Data
• ADO.NET Entity Framework
• ASP.NET Ajax History
• ASP.NET Silverlight Controls

Following is a short description of each lab and the exercises it contains.

Introduction to ADO.NET Data Services

This lab highlights the creation of a data service using the Entity Framework as its data source, and shows how to consume the service using both the .NET client APIs and the ASP.NET AJAX APIs. Additionally, you will use Service Interceptors to add validation support and Service Operations to perform custom queries.

Exercises:

1. Creating and consuming ADO.NET data services
2. Consuming ADO.NET data services using ASP.NET AJAX API
3. Extending data services with service operations and interceptors

Developing ASP.NET MVC Applications

This lab shows the fundamentals of creating and ASP.NET MVC applications, their core concepts, how they work and how to use them. You will also learn what is needed and how to perform unit testing while creating the application and how to extend the ASP.NET framework to use an IoC container.

Exercises:

1. Creating ASP.NET MVC Applications
2. Developing ASP.NET MVC applications with TDD
3. Using ASP.NET MVC along with an IoC container

Introduction to ASP.NET Dynamic Data

In this lab, you will learn how to quickly create and customize a data-driven Web application without the need to write a great amount of code. The application created uses the ASP.NET Dynamic Data features to offers viewing, editing, filtering and sorting operations over the data model of the underlying database

Exercises:

1. Creating a data-driven web application
2. Customizing an ASP.NET Dynamic Data application

Introduction to ADO.NET Entity Framework

In this lab, you will learn how to create an Entity Data Model using the ADO.NET Entity Framework Tools and how to consume it using the Entity Framework APIs.

Exercises:

1. Creating and Consuming an Entity Data Model

Introduction to ASP.NET AJAX History

One problem faced by a typical AJAX application is that the browser’s Back button does not move back one AJAX step, but moves back one entire document, which is unlikely to be what the user expects. In this lab, you will learn how to use the ASP.NET AJAX History features to insert history points using server controls or client-side code, so that the user may click the browser’s Back and Forward buttons to move between AJAX states.

Exercises:

1. Adding History Points to an ASP.NET AJAX Web Application Using Server Controls
2. Adding History Points to an ASP.NET AJAX Web Application Using the AJAX API

Introduction to ASP.NET Silverlight Controls

In this lab, you will learn how to use the ASP.NET controls for Silverlight to add rich media capabilities to your Web application. From one side, you will learn about the ASP.NET MediaPlayer control which lets you integrate audio and video into a Web site. On the other side, you will learn about the ASP.NET Silverlight generic control to integrate XAML into your Web site.

Exercises:

1. Adding Rich Media to Web Applications
2. Hosting Silverlight Content within an ASP.NET Application

The supported operating systems are Windows Vista and Windows XP. The following software is needed to run the application: Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Express recommended), Microsoft Office Powerpoint 2007 or the PowerPoint Viewer 2007 (required to view the presentations), and Windows PowerShell 1.0 RTM.