Introducing the AngularU Conference

In late 2014 my good friend Peter Kellner approach me with a big idea – an idea that immediately caught my attention. He wanted to explore collaborating on a new conference idea that would highlight Angular and other “hot” Web development topics and wondered if I’d be interested in working with him and another friend of his named Kevin Nilson (who is also a good friend now) on a full-scale conference. I’ve been involved with chairing a lot of conference tracks over the years but never been the driving force behind organizing an entire conference. While the idea was definitely […]

Creating a TypeScript Workflow with Gulp

TypeScript provides a lot of great functionality that lets you leverage many of the features available in ES6 today but how do you get started using it in your favorite editor? If you’re using Visual Studio or WebStorm then TypeScript support can be used directly and everything happens magically without much work on your part. But, if you’re using Sublime Text, Brackets, Atom, or another editor you’ll have to find a plugin to compile .ts files to JavaScript or create your own custom workflow. While several plugins exist to compile TypeScript and even provide code help as you’re writing TypeScript […]

Getting Started with TypeScript – Classes, Types and Interfaces

One of the big announcements at ng-conf this week was the collaborative work that the Angular and TypeScript teams have been doing. Angular 2 will leverage TypeScript heavily and you can as well in any type of JavaScript application (client-side or even server-side with Node.js). You can also use ES6 or ES5 with Angular 2 if you decide that TypeScript isn’t for you. Andrew Connell and I gave a talk on TypeScript at ng-conf that you can view here if interested: I’ve been a big fan of TypeScript for many years and decided to update a few previous posts I’ve […]

The AngularJS Custom Directives Video Training Course Has Been Released!

  I’m excited to announce that my new AngularJS Custom Directives video training course has been released on Udemy.com! If you’ve been wanting to dive deeper into AngularJS directives and understand how they work while also clarifying terms such as isolate scope, transclusion, linking, and much more then this is the course for you. If you enjoyed my AngularJS JumpStart course or my AngularJS in 60ish Minutes video on YouTube then I guarantee you’ll love this course. The first 2 modules of the course are available to view absolutely free so that you can check it out. Here’s an additional […]

Adding Azure Active Directory and OWIN Code into an AngularJS/ASP.NET MVC Application to Handle User Authentication

In a previous post I discussed how to setup the necessary configuration code and assemblies in an AngularJS/ASP.NET MVC application in order to authenticate users against Azure Active Directory (AAD). Once the initial configuration is complete you can write code to redirect users to the AAD login screen to retrieve an ID token. In Part 4 of an article series I’m writing for http://itunity.com I discuss the necessary code that’s required to authenticate a user and retrieve the ID token. Additional topics covered include hooking AAD into the ASP.NET MVC pipeline, creating an Entity Framework token cache, triggering authentication against […]

Adding Azure Active Directory Configuration Code and Assemblies into an AngularJS/ASP.NET MVC Application

In a previous post I discussed the process for registering an application with Azure Active Directory (AAD) so that users can be authenticated. AAD supports a wide range of features that can be used to perform authentication, authorization, and claims-based security tasks. Once an application has been registered with AAD you’ll need to add configuration code into the application’s web.config file, add related NuGet packages, and add custom C# code into the application in order to take advantage of AAD authentication functionality. In Part 3 of an article series I’m writing for http://itunity.com I discuss these tasks and walk-through the […]

Creating Custom AngularJS Directives Part 6 – Using Controllers

Creating Custom AngularJS Directives Series Up to this point in the AngularJS directives series you’ve learned about many key aspects of directives but haven’t seen anything about how controllers fit into the picture. Although controllers are typically associated with routes and views, they can also be embedded in AngularJS directives. In fact, there are many scenarios where custom directives can take advantage of controllers to minimize code and simplify maintenance. While using controllers in directives is certainly optional, if you’d prefer to build directives using similar techniques that you use now to build views then you’ll find controllers are essential […]

Getting Started with ES6 – Transpiling ES6 to ES5 with Traceur and Babel

In the first post in this series I introduced key features in ECMAScript 6 (ES6), discussed tools that can be used today to transpile code to ES5 so that it can work in today’s browsers, and listed several resources that will help get you started. Before jumping into the first official ES6 feature (that’s coming in the next post) I wanted to write a step-by-step walkthrough that covers how to get the Traceur and Babel transpilers working with Gulp (a JavaScript task runner). I’m also going to sneak in a little TypeScript as well since it’s another option. By getting […]

Registering a Custom AngularJS Application with Azure Active Directory

If you’re working with Azure and need to add authentication and identity management into an application look no further than Azure Active Directory (AAD). AAD provides a robust set of services for single sign-on, authentication, multi-factor authentication, and more. Rather than setting up a custom authentication provider for an app, you can leverage existing functionality provided by AAD. To associate a custom application with AAD you first need to register it. If you’ve ever registered a custom app with Facebook, Twitter, or another service you’ll find the AAD app registration process to be quite similar. When you register your application, […]

Building Applications with AngularJS, Azure Active Directory, and Office 365/SharePoint

One of my favorite features of Single Page Applications (SPAs) is the ability to integrate data from nearly any backend technology and have it display on a variety devices (desktop browser, mobile, tablet, and more). Whether you’re calling a service like Firebase or Azure Mobile Services or hitting a custom REST API, the data that’s returned can be integrated into your SPA regardless of the language, technology, or operating system being used on the server. Some of the backend technologies I’ve been spending a lot of time with from a business perspective lately include Azure and the the Office 365/SharePoint […]