Tech Ed EMEA 2008

I am in sunny Barcelona, giving five sessions this year.

MBL01-IS  Windows Mobile 6 SDK Tools 
November 11 09:00 - 10:15  Room 134 
Visual Studio 2008 brings lot of improvements for mobile developers, and Windows Mobile 6 SDKs tools that allow developers easier and faster solution development. This interactive session will show you what is new in .NET Compact Framework 3.5, as well as WM 6 SDK Tools. Learn how to emulate GPS, how to configure and use emulators, and how to simulate input stress using Hopper. You will also see how to use Cellular Emulator to emulate presence of mobile operator network to make and receive calls, and transfer data and learn about FakeServer. Session will be packed with live demos and you will have the opportunity to ask what you always wanted to ask and discuss your experiences or problems.

MBL304  Accessing RESTful Web Data Services in the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework: The Lightweight Alternative to SOAP 
November 12 10:45 - 12:00  Room 125 
Most Microsoft developers are used to working with SOAP-based Web services and these RPC-like services have been used successfully in many mobile applications that need to access services hosted on remote servers. However, now there's a new kid on the block for remote data access that - its proponents claim - is lightweight, flexible, and works in the way the architects of the Web intended, using many of the built-in features of HTTP. REST stands for Representational State Transfer and is gathering supporters throughout the Web for its flexibility and the ease with which you can perform CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations on remote data. Indeed, REST is used for exposing data in new Microsoft products such as ADO.NET Data Services and SQL Server Data Services. In this session, we compare the strengths and weaknesses of REST and SOAP, take a look at how to serialize data using JSON, and work through some demos to show how to program .NET Compact Framework applications that use REST to access services built with ADO.NET Data Services and those exposed by Web 2.0 APIs such as Facebook. 

MBL402  Building Data Sync Solutions with Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET 
November 13 17:30 - 18:45  Room 115 
In this session we will take a detailed look at Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET to explain solutions for the things that make data synchronization solutions tough, such as how to batch updates so that you can successfully sync large volumes of updates over low bandwidth connections, and how to build a custom server sync provider for when your backend database isn't SQL Server. There will be plenty of demos, as we walk through practical examples of synchronizing data items between a backend Server and 'Edge of the Network' computers such as laptops and mobile devices.

MBL05-IS  Sync This Way: Comparing the Sync Solutions 
November 14 09:00 - 10:15  Room 132 
Are you confused by all the data sync options for Windows Mobile applications? Are you having trouble working out which is the best solution for you? In this Interactive Session, we will look at each of the current choices for synchronising data between your device and back-end servers. Come along with your questions about ActiveSync, SQL Server merge replication, RDA (remote data access), SQLClient, Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET, WCF, SOAP-based Web services, RESTful data services and MSMQ. There will be lots of demos of these technologies so you can see what it takes to configure and program each one. You'll go away with a good understanding of the benefits and shortcomings of each sync technology, so you'll be able to select the right solution for your data synchronization needs. 

MBL01-PAN  Ask the Windows Mobile Panel 
November 14 15:15 - 16:30  Room 119 (DEV) 
In this panel session, you will have an opportunity to ask the team of Microsoft and community experts any burning questions related to Windows Mobile! Share industry experience, express your opinions and make your wishes known to Microsoft about what you want the future of Windows Mobile to look like. This is a great opportunity to drive dialogue among your peers, Microsoft and our community leads, to clarify technical understanding, provide ideas for moving ahead and just have fun networking with our Windows Mobile gurus.

I am here with Appamundi colleague, Andrej Radinger. If you are in Barcelona, come to our sessions, and come and talk to us!