Recently I have been reading some really great tutorials on the Validation Application Block by David Hayden on his blog. For those that do not already know David Hayden is one of the few great bloggers out there that actually create well crafted blog posts that actually help us out. He certainly makes me look bad that is for sure, I have to work much harder to get to his level. Perhaps that is osmething I can work on next year? Perhaps, my friends.

This is what he has written about so far.

Validation Application Block in Enterprise Library 3.0 - Using Validation Facade Class - Part I

Validation Application Block in Enterprise Library 3.0 - ValidationFactory Class - Part II

Validation Application Block Ruleset in Enterprise Library 3.0 - Enterprise Library 3.0 Tutorials - Part III

Validation Application Block - Rules in External XML Configuration File - App.Config Web.Config - Enterprise Library 3.0 - Part IV

Validation Application Block - Business Layer and Data Access Layer Integration - Part V

If it were not for David Hayden's efforts I am sure many would be blind as to how to proceed in utilizing this tool that Microsoft has provided. Good work as always David!

I got a note from Stan Schultes that our next Sarasotadev meeting will be April 17th, 2006. The meeting details is as follows:

Note the choice of next Monday for our April meeting - it's a bit unusual for us (although we don't have a set day of the month for our regular meetings). Turns out this is the only day the facility is available at no cost to us in the middle two weeks of April (thanks to the Sarasota Community Foundation, and Van & Jody Vangor!).

April 2006 SarasotaDev meeting:

Hands-on sessions - by our own Dave Hayden. Dave's a top-notch, hands-on kind of guy, so these are very practical talks. I've seen both - and they really kick:

• SQL 2005 - native web services, SQL SMO, CLR integration, new XML datatype
• Enterprise Library 2.0 - Applying the Data and Logging Application Blocks

This meeting will be on Mon, Apr 17, 2006 at 6pm. Location: Sarasota Community Foundation, located at 2635 Fruitville Rd., Sarasota, FL 34237 (just west of Tuttle on the north side of Fruitville).

In the SQL 2005 session:

• Learn how to expose and consume your stored procedures as XML web services without using IIS.
• Understand the basics of creating and deploying CLR database objects, like stored procedures, user defined functions, and triggers.
• Use SQL Server Management Objects with C# to create database objects, script objects, and transfer database schema and data.
• Leverage schemas and XQuery with the new XML Datatype for validating and querying XML.

In the Enterprise Library session:
Leverage the application blocks in Enterprise Library 2.0 to more quickly create patterns-based, extensible applications in a consistent manner. Learn about the most popular application blocks (Data Access and Logging) in Enterprise Library 2.0 and how to use them in your applications.

Dave is a Sarasota-based consultant and a Microsoft MVP in C#. Find his excellent tech blog here:  http://davidhayden.com/blog/dave.

Seems like it is going to be a fairly good meeting. Be sure to attend if you have the time.