While the sabers continue to rattle over the superiority of either .Net or Java over its competing platform, the fact of the matter is that terrific software systems have been written in both platforms and sometimes we need them to just get along and work with one another. Perhaps you have built a best-of-breed turnkey platform in .Net but now have a major prospective client who is running in a Java environment. Or maybe you have legacy or acquired software written in Java but need to leverage it with a team of .Net developers. How will you get these two systems to communicate with one another and get the job done in a cogent, efficient and performant manner?

This talk looks at the various ways that .Net and Java systems can work together to provide solid business solutions. We'll look at the strengths and weaknesses of each platform as well as some of the problems that you will face when trying to interface one platform with the other. (Download sample code)

Re-architecting an existing software solution for the web is a difficult task given the static nature of HTML vs. the dynamic nature of most user interfaces. The AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) technique can help overcome the limitations of pure HTML to create feature-rich user interfaces matching those of most client/server-based applications.

This presentation looks at the basics of how AJAX works and offers a survey of the different toolkits that provide an AJAX platform for web applications. It compares and contrasts the Microsoft XMLHTTP object, a few of the AJAX frameworks currently available and the newer Atlas framework. The talk also presents some recent web-enabled applications that relied on AJAX for their novel approaches to web user experiences. The emphasis is on the practical aspects of AJAX so that attendees will be able to use this exciting technique in their own web applications to create powerful web-based user interfaces. (Download sample code)

This presentation shows how to validate and partially encrypt SOAP payloads using XSD, .Net encryption, WSE 3.0 and custom WS-Policy statements. For large SOAP payloads being processed by a web service, it is crucial that the payload data be validated according to a contractual XSD. It is also beneficial to be able to encrypt only those sensitive portions of the payload that require encryption rather than encrypting the entire payload. The article describes how to write custom WS-Policy statements and handlers for them, use embedded XSD documents to validate XML and use the encryption tools within .Net to encrypt the payload.  (Download sample code)