It’s CTP time again!!!

The WinFX (now .NET 3.0 Framework) June CTP is available for download. If you aren’t in a big hurry, and you only have time to play with one CTP in the next 2 months, you are much better off to wait for the July CTP (no really, not just my opinion) — as well, I believe that the long-awaited almost-mythical-by-now IAM Resource Kit will be updated by that time too.

One small fly in the ointment: the June CTP doesn’t actually seem to work with any internet-based Relying Parties. Every single one of them results in the CardSpace introductory page coming up on my client, but then the client exits and I’m left with an error page on the RP. (update – Big Dave Diode points to a published but not proven workaround here)…

But hey. Can’t have everything, right? I’ll try and figure out what’s wrong there, and I’ll also fire up my Sept Resource Kit code and see if it works or breaks. Until then, I can’t really talk about functionality yet, just the eye-candy:

New Colors!!!

(OMG I feel like a teenager squealing over a new prada purse :-))

• All of a sudden, CardSpace looks like a built-in Windows component. I have no idea what the Vista look/feel is, but I have to imagine that it is closer to this new GUI than it was to the old one (although I was very partial to the old one).
• There are tons of new options too, like accessibility and so on. I can’t actually authenticate to anything yet, but when I do, I expect to see other exciting things.

Logo

• Both the CardSpace logo and the “digital identities” control panel applet have nice new logos.

Small Bitty Itty Cards

• All that trouble to add your own picture to your card, and you can barely see it! On a managed card, you may want to examine it in a more detailed fashion than is currently available.
• I remember asking if it was possible to resize your cards to your own liking — apparently there are just a few items higher on the priority list for version 1.0 :-)

New/Altered Claim Types

• Web Page URL:
  • The CardSpace UI has been changed to add a field called “Web Page”. Woohoo, first item to be fully checked off of my Laundry List!
• Date of Birth Validation:
  • The CardSpace client no longer allows you to type in a random text string for the Date of Birth – it is now a calendar pop up. I have no idea what the backend storage type is (perhaps ISO 8601?) but as soon as I can, I’ll find out and let you know. I have to imagine that an updated version of the technical reference will be coming out soon, with these claim types updated.

General Flakiness

• Every so often I lose all of the desktop icons and the task bar (not a huge deal cause you can still use CTRL-ALT-DEL to log off & on again)
• I’m not sure if the “can’t authenticate” thing is a bug or just an incompatibility (or a PEBKAC thing). If it is a bug it is short-lived, as the July CTP is going to obsolete this preview right away. My guess is that this is temporary.
• Update – there also seems to be a few issues with shutting down. As in, it hasn’t managed to accomplish that task yet, although it has been trying valiantly for quite some time.

IE7 Notes

• Good news: IE7 beta 3 now supports a whole bunch more platforms, including Windows Server 2003. This is much less restrictive. Bad news: you now have to “Validate” your Windows installation. This really cheeses me off, in fact the whole “must be on the internet to install” thing enrages me, for both dotnetfx and for IE7. I am using virtual machines that I don’t particularly feel like patching and therefore DO NOT WANT ON THE INTERNET!!! Forcing me to do so makes my life riskier, and I resent not having a choice in the matter.