Author Archives: Tony Sneed

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About Tony Sneed

Sr. Software Solutions Architect, Hilti Global Application Software

Life Just Got Easier: Simple MVVM Toolkit for Silverlight

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Tony Sneed

If you’ve made a decision to start using the Model-View-ViewModel pattern (abbreviated as MVVM) for Silverlight development, you’re faced with a rather steep learning curve and a scarcity of of accepted standards and best practices.  I’ve read no less than … Continue reading →

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Texas Sneeds 2010

Posted on December 28, 2010 by Tony Sneed

This free scrapbook design personalized with Smilebox

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Automatically Upgrading to Visual Studio 2010

Posted on November 28, 2010 by Tony Sneed

I’ve had the need recently to convert a large number of projects from Visual Studio 2008 to Visual Studio 2010.  I was not able to find a tool out there that does this automatically, so I wrote one.  The key … Continue reading →

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Understanding WCF RIA Services

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Tony Sneed

When I first looked at WCF RIA Services, I have to admit I was a bit mystified at what I was seeing.  Compared to a traditional n-tier application, where there is a clean separation and only contract and schema are … Continue reading →

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Webinar: MEF Explained

Posted on November 19, 2010 by Tony Sneed

In the process of updating my Exploring .NET course for DevelopMentor, I’ve authored a module on the Managed Extensibility Framework, or MEF for short. I also presented a webinar on the topic.  Here is the recorded video, plus the slides … Continue reading →

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Setting up SQL Server 2008 Express with Profiler

Posted on August 5, 2010 by Tony Sneed

When I teach my DevelopMentor course on Entity Framework 4.0 and WCF Data Services, I use the Express Edition of SQL Server 2008 R2, but I have need for the SQL Profiler tool, which comes only with the full version … Continue reading →

Posted in Technical | 64 Comments

Webinar: N-Tier Entity Framework with DTOs

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Tony Sneed

I recently delivered a free webinar for DevelopMentor on n-tier application development using Entity Framework 4.0.  In it I explained how to use what I call “Trackable Data Transfer Objects” to achieve the same result as “Self-Tracking Entities” but using … Continue reading →

Posted in Technical | Tagged | 21 Comments

Unearthing Some Diamonds in the Rough

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Tony Sneed

O’Reilly has a program that provides online access to books that have yet to be published.  It’s called “Rough Cuts” and allows you to read chapters as they are written but before they are cleaned up for final publication, and … Continue reading →

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WCF Data Services versus WCF Soap Services

Posted on April 13, 2010 by Tony Sneed

Someone recently asked me this question:  When a company that has been using 2 tiers wants to move to n-tier, what are the considerations for choosing WCF and STEs [or Trackable DTOs] vs. WCF Data Services? This is a great … Continue reading →

Posted in Technical | 8 Comments

T4 Supplement to Add Service Reference

Posted on April 12, 2010 by Tony Sneed

I’m a self-admitted control-freak.  And when I add a service reference to a project pointing to a WCF service that exposes metadata, I would like more control over the code-generation process.  Not long ago I had a specific need to … Continue reading →

Posted in Technical | 2 Comments