Matthew M. Osborn's Blog

MVC 2 RTM Is Out!

2010-03-12T05:39:07Z

My involvement in MVC 2 started almost a year ago, and it has been one crazy year! For me this is a rather important release because it was really the first major project I have ever worked on and my first Microsoft project to RTM. I have grown leaps and bounds over this last year and learned more than I ever thought I could. I had the privilege of working with some of the smartest people I know and to be quite frank it was rather humbling. My hat goes off to each and everyone of them for having...(read more)

SEO Improvements in ASP.NET 4

2010-03-10T00:39:54Z

In ASP.NET 4 there are a few improvements that have been made to make it easier to make tweaks to improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on your pages. I’ll be the first to say it and defiantly not the last but these improvements are not ground breaking or “sexy” but it does make your life a little easier. There are three main improvements that have been made. First is that webforms now has a better story for routing your pages to friendly URLs, however I am going to skip that one for now because...(read more)

Managing Hyper-V from Windows 7

2010-03-01T18:00:54Z

Recently everyone on my team has switched to using Hyper-V as our primary means of virtualization. The combination of Hyper-V and differencing disks works great for our team as we install all kinds of bit that more than likely will explode our computers. We are testers after all. There was one thing that really took me awhile to figure out and quite frankly most people on my team don’t know you can do (hence the blog post), mange my Hyper-V install from another machine in this case a windows 7 machine...(read more)

Heading to Mix10

2010-02-24T22:33:22Z

So I decided that I am going to make the trip out to Las Vegas for MIX10. The cool thing about going to MIX this year is that I am going completely on my own as an attendee not a Microsoft Employee. So that means I Actually get to have fun the whole time not work during the whole thing. There are a lot of great speaker and to be honest I’m super excited to get to go learn about that that doesn’t really have to do with my daily job, like Windows Phone 7 Series development. I really haven’t had a chance...(read more)

We Want You, The SQL-RS Edition

2010-02-04T22:48:41Z

The SQL Server Reporting Services (SQL-RS) Team is looking for the brightest and best testers out there. The SQL-RS team is responsible for the Microsoft Chart Control (Included in .NET 4), the Report Viewer, the Map Control, and the Gauge Control. I personally worked with the SQL-RS test team when they were shipping the Microsoft Chart Control for ASP.NET and they have a lot of bright and fun people over there. The next big thing for this team is to create Silverlight versions of these controls...(read more)

Updated MVC Script Helpers

2009-12-18T23:15:34Z

Okay so if you read this title and said “wait… MVC has Script helpers?!” you should first go read my original post on MVC Script & Css Helpers . Okay now for those of you who know what they are or just finished reading about them, I was able to add a small feature from Beta to RC to the script helper that I just didn’t have time to code the first time. If you download the new RC futures assembly and add it to your project or update the existing one you will notice that the script helper now has...(read more)

We want you (again)! If you’re a test ninja

2009-12-01T20:57:36Z

That’s right you read the title right the ASP.NET QA team is once again hosting ninja try outs. We are looking for someone who is able to help evolve the team processes, improve our tooling, and join us in the trenches as we test one of the best technologies out there. Overall the team is responsible for ASP.NET WebForms, ASP.NET MVC, Microsoft AJAX, and a whole slew of other technologies . Our technologies can be found in numerous large scale web sites such as MySpace.com , Dell.com and Deals.Woot...(read more)

Overriding the HTTP Verb in ASP.NET MVC 2

2009-11-25T07:09:00Z

The Problem Okay so lets start with a little bit of background on what a HTTP verb is. Raise your hand if you know what they are… Okay put it down people in your office are starting to stare at you. So without dragging out the explanation the HTTP verb is basically the way in which a request tells the server what it is trying to do. Most developers are familiar with the concept of a POST and GET request, however those are not the only types of HTTP verbs. There is also PUT , DELETE , and HEAD requests...(read more)

MVC Script & Css Helpers

2009-10-13T06:46:26Z

During development of MVC 2 Preview 2 I was lucky enough (I’m on the QA team after all) to get to code and check in a feature that I wanted to MVC Futures. In all actuality it is two separate “features” that basically do the same thing. Okay, I think I might be blowing it out of proportion they are basically two new HTML helpers “ Script ” and “ Css ” The Problem: When you add links to to files (aka Scripts and CSS) the URLs are normally relative to the current page’s URL. This means that if you...(read more)

ASP.NET MVC 2 Preview 2 Released

2009-10-01T07:28:00Z

I am proud to announce that ASP.NET MVC 2 Preview 2 has been released! So what are you waiting for? Go download it , its okay I’ll wait here… If you are running MVC 1.0 the good news is that just like Preview 1, Preview 2 can live side by side with it. However, as with previous preview releases, it is recommended that you uninstall Preview 1 prior to installing Preview 2. Currently there is no glamorous way of converting and MVC 1.0 project to a MVC 2 project but it is a pretty simple process and...(read more)

We want you! If you’re a test ninja

2009-09-01T07:34:49Z

Okay everyone, here is the deal, the ASP.NET QA Team has a position open and we are looking for the stealthiest ninja we can find! We are looking for someone who is able to help evolve the team processes, improve our tooling, and join us in the trenches as we test one of the best technologies out there. Overall the team is responsible for ASP.NET WebForms, ASP.NET MVC, Microsoft AJAX, and a whole slew of other technologies We would like to find someone that shares our passion for our technology and...(read more)

1 year, 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days

2009-06-07T10:02:15Z

Somewhere around a year and half ago I decided that I need a change of pace in my life. I applied to Microsoft thinking that there was no harm in trying and got an interview. A little over a year ago I packed up two suite cases with some clothes, packed up my house, and got on a plane to Seattle . It honestly doesn’t seem that long ago that it all happened, but the following Monday morning there I was in NEO (new employee orientation). Through my year at Microsoft I have grown leaps and bounds both...(read more)

Coding QA Podcast Launched!

2009-05-06T07:20:35Z

It is my pleasure to announce to you the official launch of the Coding QA Podcast . Federico and I have been working on this for several months and have already released four shows with a fifth waiting to be edited. Coding QA is a weekly show about testing from the trenches. Federico and I are members of the ASP.NET QA team, and in this podcast we share our views about everything that has to do with testing and our experience of being the front line testers of a web platform. This is just one of...(read more)

ASP.NET QA Podcast – Episode 4

2009-04-13T21:56:29Z

Download : Episode 4 In the fourth installment of the ASP.NET QA Podcast Federico and Matthew discuss “ The Good ,” “ The Bad ,” and “ The Ugly ” of the history of the ASP.NET QA Team. Discussion ranges from the dark ages, to the renaissance, to the industrial revolution, to the “21st and half century”. Join them as they discuss the lessons learned and how the team has improved over time. The team released the April update to the Lightweight Test Automation Framework. “ The Dark Ages ” ASP.NET 1...(read more)

Lightweight Test Automation Framework April Release

2009-04-09T19:10:50Z

The April release of the Lightweight Test Automation Framework for ASP.NET has just been posted and you can download it here . For this release, the team has worked hard to include the following bug fixes and new features. Please continue to give us your feedback as many of the fixes and features are based what we have heard from the community. Improvements to the user interface A new look has been given to the test name when it passes or fails. There is both color and visual queues that indicate...(read more)