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Well in my application I needed to return the data in 3 different formats.

One was the default .Net serialization XML, the second was JSON, the third was custom XML. 

One client of the service was a standard HTML JS application where the devs didn't know .Net so I chose REST services so I could use a simple address based API but allow querystring parameters to control which format is returned.

WCF REST gave me the ability to use the same URL string i.e. /Posts /Topics etc but by appending ?format=JSON or ?format=XML I was able to service different clients.

The power of WCF here was that I could use different contract methods mapped to the same URL.

So for my custom XML methods I basically used the same domain objects but had a XML conversion layer that used XmlDocument to build up my custom xml then I just returned this document as a XmlElement. 

[OperationContract]
        [
            WebInvoke(Method = "GET",
                        ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml,
                        BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare,
                        UriTemplate = "Topic/{topicName}")
]
XmlElement GetTopics(string topicName);

So what your really saying is that the automatic XML serializers in .Net are the issue not WCF.  

For instance I could build up the XML manually and return a XMLElement.  This is what I had to do for my service.  Using these attributes:

ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml,

BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare

Obviously it's more work than getting automatically serialized objects but it's still doable.

When you say it doesn't give you that much control over output what do you mean?

I have built WCF applications using the rest services that return pure XML and I can output any XML I want or I could just send back plain text or JSON etc. 

1 hour ago, elmer wrote

Can't you just buy them?

I get emails all the time offering me authentic certifications and degrees for anything I want from my choice of school etc... I was thinking of buying degrees for a rocket scientist, or a brain surgeon, just to hang on the wall.

I'd rather spend my money on Russian brides and Viagra

4 days ago, spivonious wrote

How long are the tests? Are they web-based or would I have to go to a training center?

I've done 4 MS Certs now and I tend to complete them in around 45 - 60 mins, there are between 40 and 50 multiple choice questions and you need to go to a Microsoft Certified training centre to complete them.  They are not web based.

I largely feel MS Certs are worth it if not to go over material that you might not come across in your day to day job.  But it also give you more credibility to a certain extent against someone who hasn't bothered to do any at all.  In fact I see no reason why any serious MS developer shouldn't be constantly taking exams.  

I'm a bit of a hypocrite because its been ages since my last one, but I have a SharePoint 2010 one coming up in a couple of weeks and I really haven't done enough revision.

I find 90% of the training material to be utterly boring to read and alot of the questions on the tests are obscure and stuff you would likely never want to know again.  

3 hours ago, W3bbo wrote

*snip*

Yes, but doing things the web-parts way means surrendering a lot of control over the resultant markup. They were released in 2002 before web standards became popular, and they didn't receive many (if any at all) changes in the 2.0 release of ASP.NET.

And if you're developing something that should be accessible you probably should avoid them (apparently certain public websites have to meet web content accessibility guidelines or you could be breaking disability discrimination laws).

Well the problem comes with the output of the WebPart zones not the WebPart itself as you can control exactly what is output from the WebPart in the render method. 

There are ways of controlling the markup of the WebPart zones also using control adapters which override the rendered markup.

However if accessibility and web standards are a big deal then you should probably steer clear of WebParts IMO.

They are not dead and still part of the Framework.  

If you want to be able to create modular like components that you can move around into different zones on a page then you may still want to use WebParts.

There are javascript libraries that acheive similar results without .Net depends on what user experience you want.

Yeah there are lots of features I would like to add, but not really got the time at the moment.

This was mainly an experiment to get an App in the marketplace but it's a start.  

Now just for that really lucrative app idea so I can retire to a beach somewhere...

http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=phoneApp&id=d2ee903e-1235-e011-854c-00237de2db9e

It's a Football & Sports News application.  It's my first attempt at a mobile app and looking to integrate full notifications soon.

Have you looked at SharePoint online from Office 365?

I have had problems accessing internet facing SharePoint sites from my WP7, issues regarding Windows Auth.