We’re halfway into 2010 already so it’s time for a little update about my plans for this year. Quite a few things have changed since the original post.
Get certificated
I have decided not to go for the MCTS 70-536 – Application Development Foundation and MCTS 70-562 – Microsoft .NET 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development certificates. Why? Because there is a new certificate: the 70-515 Web Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4 certificate. Since it covers the .NET 4.0 framework and ASP.NET MVC and doesn’t require you to get another certificate first, it is a lot more interesting.
So as soon as there is a book covering the 70-515 exam, I’m going to get started!
Build a demo application in ASP.NET MVC 2
This hasn’t changed. I still plan to build a small sample application and I finally have an idea what that application might be.
Build a demo application with a NoSQL solution
In the original post, I talked about using MongoDB, CouchDB and/or db4o in an application.
I still want to use a NoSQL solution, but instead of using one of the above, I think I will give Raven DB a try. Raven is an open source document database for the .NET/Windows platform. It is developed by the incredible Ayende Rahien. Since it was built with .NET in mind, it should be a lot easier to use than MongoDB, CouchDB and db4o.
Learn some more about continuous integration
I have started to read some more about continuous integration and it seems it can be quite complicated. I think it might be better to start learning/using a basic part of continuous integration first: source control and versioning. I’m not sure whether to use git or Mercurial. Thankfully, Tekpub has video series about them both.
