Recently I was in Toronto and attended the Ektron Developer meet-up with David Fung. As I mentioned in a previous post it was great to meet other developers and roll over all aspects of our industry. We had great discussions, some that I am still reflecting on. It is important for developers to meet-up, whether in the virtual or physical sense of the word, and exchange stories, best practices and touch on the future.

In this week's blog post by David Fung, Pursuit of Developer Happiness, he talks about these relationships and the importance of collaborating and community. He touches on the need for collaboration and some of the tools we already have in place, such as the meet-ups, the Ektron Developer Forum, and the Ektron Exchange.

One great event we have coming up is Ektron Synergy 2010 (Nov 7-10) where you have the opportunity to meet with Ektron engineering staff, attend developer certifications, network with peers, and hear Ektron's vision for the future of the web. I guarantee you will have a great time and walk away having learned a lot. It's not too late to sign up for this event, so register now.

Here are just some of the items covered in this week's Ektron Developer Roll-Up:

• ASP.NET MVC3 Beta Released
• Widely anticipated DevCon2010 in Bangalore India
• Ten .NET Caching mistakes that break your app
• jQuery: A Quick Start Guide

Blog Posts not to Miss 

Martin Jarvis, a developer at Freestyle Interactive LTD in the U.K has a good developer blog with a number of posts on Ektron and also .NET development in general. In total there were about a dozen blog posts that I considered posting here, but I've chosen to highlight a three part blog series he wrote on Ektron and Web Application Projects. In this series he covers the pros and cons of Web Site over Web Application and walks through ways to mitigate the cons. Check out the blog posts here:

• Ektron and Web Application Projects (Part 1) 
• Ektron and Web Application Projects (Part 2) 
• Ektron and Web Application Projects (Part 3)  

Release Notes 

ASP.NET MVC 3 beta version has been released. This release has some major updates from the preview released a few months ago. Some of the new features include NuPack package manager integration, improved new project dialog box, additional dependency injection support, and new support for unobtrusive jQuery/JavaScript. It also now supports the new Razor view-engine option. You can read more about the new features or just download it.

Upcoming Events 

Ektron Synergy 2010 is coming up in less than a month (Nov 7-10). Take advantage of the opportunity to meet with Ektron engineering staff and learn about the latest technologies thorugh developer certifications. It's not too late to sign up for this event, so register now.

This week we're focusing on some of the global events of interest to Ektron Developers world wide. For our friends in the UK, today is the First UK Online Tech Days - three free tracks of Windows Azure Platform goodness. Participants can enjoy three tracks on Windows Azure, listen to experts, watch demos, and learn all there is to know concerning the Windows Azure Platform. This is a free Live Meeting open to all developers interested. Register online to jump in the sessions now.

Our friends in India, take note that tomorrow kicks off the Bangalore Developer Conference. Bangalore, referred to as the Silicon Valley of India, will play host to the widely anticipated DevCon2010 which you will need to register for if you plan on attending. The agenda and conference sessions are highlighted in this blog post for your reading pleasure. Learn more about what you will find at DevCon2010, including some session insights like Windows Phone 7, Windows Azure AppFabric, WPF 4 and Silverlight 4, and more.

Growing your Toolkit 

• Ten Caching mistakes that break your app: In this very thorough blog post you will learn about the top ten mistakes developers make when distributing cache and how to make better decisions on when to cache and when not to. Some of the most common mistakes include caching large objects, caching config settings, and caching entire collections.
• ASP.NET Wiki Javascript libraries: JQuery: A Quick Start Guide: Have you been hearing about JQuery but have not yet used it or are looking to learn more about how to implement it? It is an extremely powerful client side library and one that Ektron uses extensively in its server controls and workarea. This guide will explain the jQuery JavaScript library, show you some code and how to understand it, and give you a base to start using it.
• CMS Wire posts a valuable article on Information Architecture: Emptying the Dishwasher: Making Information Architecture Real for End-Users expands on the important concepts within Information Architecture while making them easier to understand by using kitchen analogies.

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