jQuery UI Drag and Drop with FunScript

If you've been keeping up with activity in the F# world, you have no doubt seen great strides in a number of areas such as expansion of support for F# on different platforms and an ever increasing number of libraries and frameworks. One of these libraries that I've been playing with of late is named FunScript.

What is FunScript?

The FunScript website provides a nice definition.

FunScript is a lightweight F# library that lets you rapidly develop single-page applications. You can connect to external data sources and call REST APIs with intellisense, produce dashboards using JavaScript visualization libraries and write asynchronous computations easily without explicit callbacks.

One of the cool features that FunScript provides is a TypeScript type provider that allows any TypeScript definition file to be used to generate strongly typed access to the associated JavaScript lib. Let's look at an example of how to do this.

jQuery UI Drag/Drop Example

In this example, we create a simple TODO type of application using jQuery UI, FunScript, and the TypeScript type provider that FunScript provides. You can find the full example with detailed comments on the FunScript GitHub site.

Presentation - Modern Software Architectures: Building Solutions for Web, Cloud, and Mobile

Thanks to all who attended my talk on Modern Software Architectures: Building Solutions for Web, Cloud, and Mobile. You can find the simple SPA examples here and here. The slide deck for the presentation is provided below and the recording of the presentation is available to IASA members on the IASA site.

Presentation: Building Better Web Apps with F#

Thanks to all who came out to my talk on Building Better Web Apps with F# tonight. The examples created during the talk can be downloaded from here. You can see a recording of this presentation from a previous talk here.

CodeMash CoffeeScript Session - Slides and Examples

Thanks to all who attended my CoffeeScript: Good, Bold, and with Sugar session at CodeMash. As promised at the end of the talk, here are the slides and examples.

To see videos of this presentation from previous conferences go to here or here. CodeProject

How to Become a Software Architect

I often get asked by up-and-coming technologists, "what things should I be doing to work towards becoming an architect"? Of course, as is often the case when asking an architect a question, the answer is "it depends". However, I've found the following list to be a good starting point.

What items would you add or remove? What advice would you give to someone seeking to become an architect?

Here's the list that I've come up with:

• You must continuously seek to improve. If there was one right way to do things, the role of an architect would not be needed. One obvious way to improve in the area of architecture is to read. Here are several books, in no specific order, that I have found useful in improving my skills as an architect: 

• 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know
• Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
• Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#
• Enterprise Integration Patterns
• JavaScript: The Good Parts
• Working Effectively with Legacy Code
• Domain Driven Design
• Enterprise Architecture as Strategy
• Design Patterns (Gang of Four)
• The Goal
• SOA Design Patterns
• SOA Principles of Service Design

• Learn a new programming language every one to two years. F# is a good one to start with! :)

• Pick a focus area, but have a high-level understanding of as many technologies as possible.

• For your focus area, start a blog and continue to expand your knowledge of that focus area with the goal of becoming an expert. 

• Play with different technologies, programming languages, design patterns, architectures, etc. (even if it doesn’t directly help your day to day). You never know when the additional knowledge might come in handy.

• Learn to speak in the "language" of your target audience. You have to speak to a lot of different people as an architect and each audience will have a different level of understanding of the technology. Learn to tailor your explanation in ways that each audience can understand.

• Read blogs, watch/participate in twitter/G+, listen to podcasts, read magazines, go to user group meetings and technology conferences, speak at user group meetings and technology conferences. These things will build your knowledge, help to build your brand, and provide networking opportunities.

• Discipline is key. Always do your best work, even if it doesn't sound like the most fun. Schedule time every day to learn something new, even if it's just 15 minutes, and don't let other priorities take over this time.

• Start a blog (pick a technology and start blogging what you learn about it). I’ve found that the act of writing about something will cause you to have a better understanding than simply reading about it. 

• Take advantage of “wasted time”. Always have a magazine with you to read, listen to podcasts on the way into work, etc.

• Learn about the various tools available to help architects do their job better and more efficiently. 

• Look at a lot of the different architectures for different projects.

• Learn about different project management methodologies.

• Learn about approaches for evaluating technology that can provide value to a business.

CodeProject

My Top 5 Blog Posts from 2012

On this last day of 2012, I'd like to look back and share my top 5 most popular blog posts from this year.

5. On January 8, I introduced a CoffeeScript Assertion Library called ExpectThat. ExpectThat makes it easy to create expressive, self-documenting assertions in CoffeeScript with a syntax similar to that provided by FsUnit.

4. In September, an example of a Single Page Application with Backbone.js, ASP.NET Web API, and F# was provided. This was then added to the F# and C# ASP.NET MVC 4 project template.

3. At the end of January, an example was given for how to use ExpectThat with Mocha to test a jQuery plugin. This example builds on a nice post by Josh Bush entitled Testing jQuery plugins with Node.js and Jasmine and it includes examples for both browser and Node tests with Mocha and ExpectThat.

2. In March, I announced an addition to the F# and C# ASP.NET MVC 4 template that makes it easy to create modern HTTP services with ASP.NET Web API and F#.

1. And my most popular post from 2012 was an example of a Single Page Application with Knockout.js, ASP.NET Web API, and F# . This was later added as an option to the F# and C# ASP.NET MVC 4 project template.

Happy New Year!

Buiilding Web, Cloud, and Mobile Solutions with F#

I'm happy to say that my book entitled Building Web, Cloud, and Mobile Solutions with F# is now available in both print and electronic formats. The description of the book is provided below and you can find the book examples on my GitHub.

Learn how to build key aspects of web, cloud, and mobile solutions by combining F# with various .NET and open source technologies. With helpful examples, this hands-on book shows you how to tackle concurrency, asynchrony, and other server-side challenges. You’ll quickly learn how to be productive with F#, whether you want to integrate the language into your existing web application or use it to create the next Twitter.

If you’re a mid- to senior-level .NET programmer, you’ll discover how this expressive functional-first language helps you write robust, maintainable, and reusable solutions that scale easily and target multiple devices.

• Use F# with ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Web API, WCF, Windows Azure, HTML5, CSS3, jQuery Mobile, and other tools
• Build next-generation ASP.NET MVC 4 web applications, using F# to do the heavy lifting on the server
• Create WCF SOAP and HTTP web services
• Develop F# web applications and services that run on Windows Azure
• Build scalable solutions that allow reuse by mobile and web front-ends
• Use F# with the WebSharper and Pit frameworks to build end-to-end web stacks

CodeProject