27.07.2005
MSN Frameworks and the new Start.com MSN Blog Map
From my previous few discussions on MSN and Frameworks, you may have guessed that we have a client framework infrastructure. We are developing a framework to enable us to consistantly implement and integrate rich components.
To demonstrate how the MSN Frameworks will enable us to innovate quickly - I built and shipped (beta quality :-) a new MSN Blog Map component within start.com. The MSN Blog Map maps bloggers from throughout MSN (expect the list to grow over the next few weeks). You can check it out at
http://www.start.com/3. After the page loads, add MSN Blog Map from Staff Favorites in the left column.
This component leverages
MSN Virtual Earth to create a new component that integrates with
Start.com. Having our client framework enables quick experimentation, implementation, and ship of integrated scenarios. For the MSN Blog Map, I added custom logic on top of the Virtual Earth rendering component and integrated with the existing RSS rendering objects of start.com.
Having a strong framework for building and integrating rich, highly interactive components enables MSN to deliver much better (and consistent) user experiences. The Framework provides us with a client-side component model, network stacks, firefox compatibility, and OO language enhancements that allows us to "engineer" rather than ad-hoc script the client.
Many of our goals and work is going to be captured in the
Microsoft Atlas effort. Microsoft Atlas, from the ASP.net team, is an upcoming toolset to quickly enable any web-developer to create and build highly-interactive web-sites.