Microsoft 70-568 exam study guide

Several years ago (maybe 5 now) when I was studying for my MCSD.NET, I stumbled upon a site for MS 70-316, which contains lots of links to help study for the Microsoft 70-316 exam. Back then you had a lot of excellent books for these exams, like Amit Kalani’s study guides, which I thought were the best around at the time.

Roll on several years later I find myself studying for Microsoft 70-568. Currently there are no specific books for this exam. I’m not a fan of doing courses- I prefer reading and experimenting. So this post is my own lists of links and recommended books that a test candidate may find useful.

It turns out that the upgrade exams are a combination of 3 separate MCTS/MCPD exams (Scroll down to Gerry's comment on the prep guides).

Background Reading

Before starting your study for the upgrade exam, I recommend you do some background reading on what is new in .NET 3.5 for ADO.NET, Windows Forms and ASP.NET. Here are some links to get you started:

• What’s new in .NET Framework Version 3.5.
• What’s new in ASP.NET 3.5.
• What’s new in ASP.NET 3.5 (includes SP 1).
• What’s new in Data (LINQ etc).
• What’s new in Windows Forms for .NET framework 3.5.

Skills measured

This roughly ties up with the skills measured page (as of 17th May 2009) on the MS site (the tabs don’t seem to work in the version of Firefox I use, so it is probably best to use IE to visit this page). The majority of the links point to MSDN, with a few linking to some excellent articles that I found. Of course this information is not 100% complete and subject to my own interpretation of the requirements. You should supplement the missing sections with your own Google search/book reading.

• Configuring and Deploying Web Applications
  • Providers (I love the provider model, hence why there are so many links):
    1. Provider Model Design Pattern and Specification, Part 1 (old but detailed).
    2. The ASP.NET 2.0 Provider Model. 136 pages- a tomb of Provider Model information.
    3. ProviderBase- the base class for all provider implementations.
    4. Don’t forget to add <clear/> when adding providers.
    5. Configuring Providers.
    6. Using the ASP.NET provider functionality in Windows based apps.
    7. Implementing a Membership Provider.
    8. Implementing a Role Provider.
    9. Examining Membership, Roles and Profile.
    10. SiteMap- can use the Site-Map Provider.
    11. Creating a custom site map provider.
    12. Profiles in ASP.NET.
    13. Implementing a Profile Provider.
    14. Creating a custom DB profile provider.
    15. Session State Providers.
    16. Implementing a Session-State Store Provider.
  • Authentication etc
    • I just read books for this section
  • Session State and Session-State modes.
• Consuming and Creating Server Controls
  • A great general comparison of controls.
  • QuickStarts- data (.NET 2.0 but still handy as a refresher).
  • QuickStarts- standard. (.NET 2.0 but still handy as a refresher).
  • ListView- my personal favourite ASP.NET control.
    • http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/122607-1.aspx
    • http://wiki.asp.net/page.aspx/475/comparing-listview-with-gridviewdatalist-and-repeater/
    • http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/010208-1.aspx
  • DataList- https://aspalliance.com/1007_Building_and_Using_a_LINQ_for_SQL_Class_Library_with_ASPNET_20.6
  • TreeView- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e8z5184w.aspx
  • @Register- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c76dd5k1.aspx
  • Templated ASP.NET user control
    • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/36574bf6.aspx
    • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.itemplate.aspx
    • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.itemplate.aspx
  • RequiredFieldValidator
  • CompareValidator and here.
  • RegularExpressionValidator.
  • CustomValidator.
  • Button.
  • Textbox.
  • DropdownList.
  • Radio Button.
  • CheckBox.
  • HyperLink.
  • Wizard.
  • MultiView and here.
• Working with data and services.
  • No links for ADO.NET- I suggest you read a good book on the subject.
  • Add Web Reference vs. Add Service Reference.
  • Data Binding Syntax
    • Expressions overview.
    • Quick overview- the old way of doing things.
• Troubleshooting and debugging Web Applications.
  • customErrors element.
  • CustomErrorsSection.RedirectMode.
  • <compilation debug=”true”>.
  • Compilation Element.
  • JavaScript debugging in VS.NET 2008 (Video).
  • ASP.NET AJAX debugging- scroll to section 2.4.6.
  • Debugging and Tracing AJAX Applications overview.
  • Health monitoring overview.
  • How to send email for health monitoring notifications.
  • Health monitoring in ASP.NET 2.0.
  • Implementing health monitoring (Video).
  • Simple health monitoring email example.
  • Web events.
  • How to use health monitoring in ASP.NET 2.0.
  • Performance counters.
  • Using perfmon.
• Working with ASP.NET AJAX and Client-Side Scripting
  • The ScriptManager control.
    • ScriptManager.EnablePartialRendering
    • Services- referencing.
  • ScriptManagerProxy.
  • Triggers
    • Async.
    • Postback.
    • ChildAsTriggers.
    • Wiring them up them programmatically.
    • Excluding a control from async programmatically.
  • Web Services in ASP.NET AJAX.
  • Client side Web service calls with AJAX extensions.
  • Consuming Web Services from Client Script.
  • Page methods and here.
  • UpdateProgress and here.
  • Timer Control.
  • AJAX Client lifecycle events.
  • JSON.
  • Sys.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.
• Targeting mobile devices (odd choice considering VS.NET 2008 doesn’t have templates installed for it).
  • http://www.asp.net/mobile/
  • http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2007/09/17/tip-trick-asp-net-mobile-development-with-visual-studio-2008.aspx
  • http://geekswithblogs.net/ranganh/archive/2008/04/01/mobile-web-forms-in-visual-studio-2008.aspx
  • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.mobilecontrols.devicespecific.aspx
• Programming Web Applications
  • Request- HttpRequest class
  • HttpRequest Members
  • Server- HttpServerUtility
  • Application- HttpApplicationState
  • Session- HttpSessionState
  • Response- HttpResponse
  • HttpContext
  • RegionInfo
  • Accessibility improvements in ASP.NET 2.0
    • http://www.15seconds.com/Issue/040727.htm
    • http://www.15seconds.com/issue/040804.htm
  • TabIndex
  • AlternateText
  • AccessKey
  • GenerateEmptyAlternateText
  • Label.AssociatedControlID
  • Session State
  • ViewState
  • Cookies
  • Caching
  • Application State
  • Page Events
  • Control Events
  • Application Events:
    • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178473.aspx
    • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb470252.aspx
  • Session Events
  • Cross Page Posting
  • Response.Redirect
  • Server.Transfer
  • Page.IsPostBack
  • AutoEventWireup
• Creating a UI for a Windows Forms Application by Using Standard Controls
  • MenuStrip
  • ContextMenuStrip
  • Mouse events in Windows Forms
• Integrating Data in a Windows Forms Application
  • DataGridView- replaces the functionality of the DataGrid in .NET 2.0+
  • Databinding and Windows Forms
  • Navigating data (binding source)
  • BindingNavigator
  • DataConnector- assumes they mean BindingSource
  • Transaction Class
  • DataSet
  • Relationships in Datasets
  • DataSet.Relations
  • DataTable
  • Merging DataSet Contents
  • DataSet.Copy
  • Typed DataSets
  • Using XML in a DataSet
  • Loading a DataSet from XML
  • Writing DataSet contents as XML data
  • CommandBuilder- also see Weaning developers from the CommandBuilder
  • DataAdapter
  • DataAdapter Events
  • Performing batch operations using DataAdapters
• Implementing Printing and Reporting Functionality in a Windows Forms Application
  • PrintDialog
  • PrintDocument
  • PrintPreviewDialog
  • PageSetupDialog
  • PrintDocument.EndPrint
• Enhancing Usability
  • Localization
  • Globalization
  • Globalizing Windows Forms
  • CultureInfo class
  • CultureInfo.GetCultures
  • CultureTypes
  • MDI applications and menu merging for MDI applications
  • Help systems in Windows Forms applications
  • HelpProvider Class
  • Tooltip component
  • Popup Help
  • PropertyGrid Class
  • ProgressBar
  • StatusStrip
  • ErrorProvider
  • Which timer class to use
  • Threading Timer
  • System.Timers.Timer
  • Windows Forms Timer- single threaded, accuracy of 55ms
• Implementing Asynchronous Programming Techniques
  • Background Worker
  • Request Status
• Deploying Windows Forms Controls
  • Developing a Composite Windows Forms Control
  • How to author Composite Controls
  • Display Control in Customize Toolbox Dialog Box
  • Provide a Toolbox Bitmap for a control
  • ToolboxBitmapAttribute
  • Control.OnPaint
  • Expose Properties of Constituent Controls
  • Control.Visible
• Configuring and Deploying Applications
  • ClickOnce Deployment for Windows Forms Applications
  • System.Deployment.Application namespace
  • Trusted Application Deployment Overview- using certificates instead of prompting users for elevation
  • How to check for updates programmatically
  • ClickOnce deployments on Vista
  • Add icons during setup
  • Set Conditional Installation Based on Operating System Versions
  • Codes for the various OS versions
  • Launch conditions
  • Custom Action walkthrough
  • Error Handling in Custom Actions
  • Using caspol to modify the security policy
  • System.Security.AccessControl
• Selecting and Querying Data
  • Managed Data Access Inside SQL Server with ADO.NET and SQLCLR
  • Extension Methods
  • IQueryable<T> and IEnumerable<T>
  • IQueryable vs IEnumerable
  • Snapshot Isolation in SQL Server
  • Hierarchical updates
  • The.NET standard query operators
  • LINQ Operators
    • Inner Join
    • Left Outer Join
    • Like
    • Group Join
    • SelectMany

The official books

You might want to get the official MS Press books to help you study for this exam. I didn’t, as I choose to read non MS books instead- for that reason I don’t have an opinion of them. For completeness, these are what I believe to be the official MS Press books for the components that make up the exam:

• MCTS Self Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-562 – ASP.NET).
• MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit(Exam 70-505 - Windows Forms).
• MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit(Exam 70-561 - ADO.NET).

Unfortunately I can’t find any sample chapters for these books- from the reviews it looks like they may be useful for exam, particularly for candidates with little experience.

The books I used/think are useful

I read a lot of tech books in order to try and stay up-to-date with technology, so I didn’t read all of these books just to pass the exam. Also if like me you have access to O’Reilly Safari, then you can read some of these books on there.

ASP.NET books

• ASP.NET AJAX in action (this is a .NET 2.0 book but still mostly relevant). A very good book, but unfortunately out of date. I still found it very useful both for the exam and using ASP.NET AJAX. You also might want to consider Professional ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX, as this targets ASP.NET 3.5- I didn’t buy it, but if I was looking for a book now I would probably favour this one over the “in action” range, simple because it is out of date.
• Professional ASP.NET 3.5. This is a nice easy to read book on ASP.NET 3.5. It would probably be most useful for people who haven’t done much ASP.NET, but have some .NET experience.
• Essential ASP.NET 2.0. Brilliant chapter on Health Monitoring and Web events- the chapter is called Diagnostics. This book looks like it aimed at more experienced ASP.NET developers. I only read the chapter on diagnostics, but the rest of it looks interesting.
• Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5. Good coverage of authorization and authentication.
• Programming ASP.NET 3.5, 4th edition. Another book with good coverage of authentication and impersonation.

LINQ

• Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008. This book got me up-to-speed with LINQ and was very useful for both the exam and my daily development tasks.

Windows Forms

I didn’t use a Windows forms book to study for the exam, but I can recommend this one:

• Windows Forms 2.0 Programming (2nd Edition). There doesn’t seem to be any alternative to the MS-Press study books for Windows Forms 3.5- maybe authors are targeting WPF instead.

ADO.NET

I didn’t buy any specific books on ADO.NET. However I know this framework exceptionally well, as it use it on virtually every project I work on. A book I found useful when upgrading to .NET 2.0 was:

• Programming Microsoft ADO.NET Core Reference.

A book that looks like it could be very good is “Professional ADO.NET 3.5”, though I’ve not read it myself.

General .NET

• CLR via C#. This is the one book I recommend to any .NET programmer. For the exam it has an excellent chapter on performing asynchronous operations.

Of course you don’t have to use books at all (or you might not have the budget to buy books), in that case the next section is the most useful.

Extra stuff

You don’t need to this stuff for the exam, but I stumbled across it whilst revising.

Completely off topic, but I found it interesting- distributed caching:

• MemCached. See Memcached Session State and Cache Providers for ASP.NET- I haven’t it but it looks interesting.
• Microsoft Velocity and Microsoft Project Code Name “Velocity”.

Other interesting stuff:

• Using health monitoring with log4net.
• Session wrapper- makes it more testable- designed for ASP.NET MVC:
  • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.httpsessionstatewrapper.aspx
  • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.httpsessionstatebase.aspx

Finally there is lots of useful programming information on Stackoverflow.

Break execution on all exceptions

A colleague of mine informed me that she had been working on a hard to track down bug in an application written by another developer. After some investigation she discovered the bug was caused by invalid logic created by an exception that the original developer had decided to swallow.

This scenario is quite common and is documented as a common source of bugs in the excellent book Debugging Microsoft .NET 2.0 Applications by John Robbins. It would probably be better if the debugger breaks on all exceptions by default with Just My Code, that way those hidden bugs would become more apparent during development.

In order to get the debugger to break on all CLR exceptions all you need to do is the following:

• From the Debug Menu choose Exceptions or CTRL-ALT-E (screenshot from VS.NET 2008):

Select Thrown for all CLR exceptions or expand the tree view to only break on specific exceptions. You can then debug your app and hopefully (if it is well written), the debugger shouldn’t normally hit anything that isn’t a breakpoint!

This Visual Studio debugger feature is useful for a number of scenarios, notably:

1. Ensuring that the application is not catching overly general exceptions.
2. Locating difficult to detect bugs (these can also be caused by 1).
3. Optimizing performance.

Of these 3 scenarios optimizing performance is worth discussing. When I first learnt about this feature, I tried it out on a large application that I was assigned the task of maintaining (disclaimer- I wasn’t in the original programming team :-).

The application was a .NET 1.1 application (I was in the process of upgrading to 2.0- as I always strive to upgrade to the latest available framework/toolset where possible/feasible) that conceptually did something along the lines of:

string hopefullyANumber;

// Assign the string from somewhere...

 

int result = 0;

try

{

    result = int.Parse(hopefullyANumber);

}

catch (Exception)

{

    // Swallow   

}

return result;

This code would not of caused any real performance issues, were it not for the fact that it was being called over and over thousands of times!

Admittedly the original developers didn’t have access to Int32.TryParse (but they could of used other techniques such as regular expressions), however after modifying the code so that it used TryParse I managed to reduce the CPU usage of the application by over 20% (I profiled it before and after with dotTRACE)!

It is good practise to see if the TryParse or Tester-Doer pattern can be of benefit to the performance of your application.

In summary having the debugger break on all exceptions in applications is a useful technique to catch bugs early in development, to check for over generalized exception handling or to enhance performance.

Visual Studio 2008 ASP.NET designer bug

Update: This has now been fixed. Please see my new post.

The ASP.NET designer in Visual Studio 2008 has a bug where the aspx code might not get updated when making changes in the design view- this only happens under certain conditions. Currently (14th March 2009), there is no fix for this known issue. When a fix is made available it will be posted to the Visual Web Developer Team Blog.

In the meantime as a workaround, I am performing any designer required work on a new page in the project, and copying the generated aspx code manually.