TechEd 2007 F.A.Q.

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Hola!

I just returned from TechEd 2007 held in Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona is a beautiful city with incredible new and old architecture. The people are very friendly and even I was able to navigate the clean public transportation systems. Yes, I am one of those people that get lost easily and never stop to ask for directions. I was surprisingly given a beautiful suite overlooking the Mediterranean at the Hilton Diagonal Mar hotel right next to the convention center. I would highly recommend the hotel! Ask for a suite above the 15th floor in order to take advantage of the 15th floor amenities!

I could go on and on about Barcelona, but I wanted to provide some links answering some of the F.A.Q.'s I received.

1.    Does the Add-In model support UI extensibility via WPF? Yes, check out my Channel 9 video, as well as the sample code.

2.    What is the state of Acropolis? Answer.

3.    What about the PAG CAB (WPF and Acropolis)? Answer

4.    Does the Add-In model support *in* domain activation, Click-once, custom meta-data, simple sandboxing, WPF isolation, and AddIn to AddIn communication? Yes, these features were added in the final Beta. Check out the “By popular demand link”.

5.    Can you tell me more about the WPF Add-In support (e.g., XBAP)? Here is the WPF blog site link.

6.    Where do I post WPF control specific Add-In questions? Here is a link.

7.    Do you support Out of process activation and isolation of Add-Ins? Do you support Partial Trust Add-Ins in an external process? Can I have some control over the process? Yes, Yes, and Yes. Here is a link to some sample code showing how easy it is.

8.    Can you tell me more about VSTA and the differences and/or reconciliation with the CLR Add-In model? Check out these links.

9.    What are the rules/constraints of the types that may flow over the boundary? Here is a link to the contract constraints.

10.  Where are the Add-In MSDN articles? Here are the links.

11.  What about WinForms support? Who do I contact about this support? What about Crossbow? Check out these links and comments; WinForms and MAF link, Crossbow link.

12.  Can you do Async programming in MAF? Yes, check out this link.

13.  What about ill behaved Add-Ins and unhandled exceptions? Here is a link.

14.  Do you have sample code showing Host automation and Events? Yes, check out this link.

15.  Where do I get Add-In support? Here is a link.

16.  Can you show me more pictures and less text? Can you tell more about the “Pipeline”? Can you show me some sample code for version tolerance, i.e., backward compatibility that supports something stronger than the use of a standard Interface or Abstract base class implementation. Here is a link for all the above questions.

17.  Can the Add-In model be used as a dynamic component composition model? Yes! In some respects it was tragic that we used such a contextual naming convention of Host and Add-In, as opposed to component, composition, or automation. I will be posting a sample application that shows the new Beta2 features we added and you will see the basis for a component model within the sample, as well as some code answering another F.A.Q. about the management of components/Add-Ins. Stay tuned to this same bat channel.

If I missed one of your questions please let me know. For those that I met at the conference, thank you for your support and thoughtful questions as well as the positive feedback and strong session scores (the checks in the mail ;-)

And for those that know me, I did make it to the WPT Barcelona casino for poker. The stakes were a little high for my taste and the players were quite good, but I managed to do well. Playing with people from Israel, Spain, and Holland, to name a few, was a cultural experience I will never forget.

Gràcies, Gracias, Merci

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 12, 2007
    Hi Jack, additional question: What happens, if host and add-in are based on different .NET-Runtimes or even on different CLR versions? Thanks in advance, -Chris

  • Anonymous
    November 13, 2007
    Hi Chris, There are two versions of the runtime 1.1 and 2.0. v3.5 of the BCL is the ship vehicle for MAF (2.0 runtime). Therefor, the Host and Add-In must run on 2.0 (i.e., 3.5).   There is only one CLR per process as of v3.5. This may change going forward (http://blogs.msdn.com/jackg/archive/2007/05/15/side-by-side-clr-s-in-process.aspx). Note that 1.1 code should run on 2.0 due to backward compat (barring breaking changes). -JackG