Earlier this year we launched the Ektron Exchange year to provide a site for developers to find and share code created by Ektron and the Developer Community. Code on the exchange can be uploaded by both Ektron developers as well as any individual, and is available for you to take and use in your web projects now. Over the past month there have been a number of uploads from the community, including a Stock Ticker and Rating Controls, from Ektron Partner SpadeWorx. The top three most popular widgets on the Exchange (based on the number of downloads) remain:

1. Jason Masterson's Rotating Banner Widget 
2. eGandalf's FlexMenu to Nested List 
3. Jason Masterson's Facebook Live Stream Widget 

If you're building an ektron website, and particularly one that incorporates PageBuilder, make sure to check to see what components are available before you start - you might find something that saves you a some time or have something to share.

Release Notes 

Microsoft TechNet has posted an important Security Bulletin MS 10-070 detailing the vulnerability in ASP.NET that could allow information disclosure. The security update addresses the vulnerability by additionally signing all data that is encrypted by ASP.NET. For more information about the vulnerability, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability. This security update also addresses the vulnerability first described in Microsoft Security Advisory 2416728.

This week Microsoft released SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2. Both the Service Pack and Feature Pack updates are available for download. Some key improvements include: Integrating reporting services with SharePoint products, SQL Server 2008 Instance Management, and Data-tier Application (DAC) Support. You can download it or go to the blog post for more information and additional downloads.

Upcoming Events  

Now available on the Ektron website is the recording from yesterday's Developer Webinar. The topic: Writing an RIA application on top of the Ektron Platform. Learn basic concepts on how to display XML managed content in an RIA and walk through the process of creating a sample RIA application. Jason Arden will begin by explain RIA basic concepts and demonstrate best practices for data manipulation within the sample application. The concepts learned in the webinar apply to developing RIA applications with jQuery, Silverlight, and Flex.

This weekend will play host to the New England Code Camp 14 in Waltham, MA. This is a free event for developers to learn technical tracks as well as entrepreneurial tracks. Check out this blog post to see the schedule with 49 sessions delivered by 33 speakers. If you're chatting about the event be sure to use the tag #necc14. A number of Ektron Engineers will be in attendance, so if you're interested in meeting up, let us know through the blog comments.

Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference (PDC10), is coming up this month in Redmond, and the event has been sold out for some time. The good news for anyone that will not be in attendance is that you can watch it via live broadcast, so sign up to make sure you get the announcement. For those of you who will be attending there will be numerous sessions, meet-ups, and hands on labs. This year the PDC will also hold a Code Camp, and the event organizers are asking developers what type of format they'd like to see for this event. Read about the options and place your vote through the blog post comment.

Growing your Toolkit  

• When developing a mobile web strategy start with business goals; In this blog post, Ektron's VP of Web Solution Tom Wentworth underscores the importance of making sure you have business goals in place before you jump into a mobile web project. It's an important thing for developers to keep in mind since analysts predict that by 2013 mobile phones will overtake desktops as the most common Web access device - this can only mean more mobile development projects coming down the pipe.
• In interesting post on evercookie; the JavaScript API available that produces extremely persistent cookies in a browser. It takes the concept of Super Cookies to the next level (for better or worse) by providing an API for storing client side information in multiple locations (browser cookies, flash super cookie, etc) and rebuilding them if they're deleted. Read this blog post for all the details or download it.
• Become a Cut, Copy, Past JavaScript Programmer - I love the title of this one, but it's not a post about CPDD (or Copy Paste Driven Development!) Instead, this post shows you how to manipulate the clipboard through JavaScript and jQuery.

As always, if you have anything you'd like to see in or contribute to the next Ektron Developer Roll-up, let me know in the comments. - Bill Cava