Dev-Kids Den

"The error indicates that IIS is not installed on the machine"

2008-11-23T16:44:00.001-08:00

Let's consider the example:

Fresh installation of Windows 2008 with Web Server role IIS and ASP.NET installed.
A web application using AjaxToolkit

By default the Application Pool on IIS 7 is set to Integrated Pipeline, which does not work with AjaxToolkit and switching to Classic mode caused several issues:

404.17 - File Not Found
Take a look on the 'handler' in the 'Detailed Error Information' - IIS treats .aspx file as a static content means ASP.NET is not installed on IIS with your application, and, definitely you need to register it for your site, but ..
aspnet_regiis.exe does not work well on IIS 7.0 (even with IIS 6.0 support installed) caused the "The error indicates that IIS is not installed on the machine .." exception what means you need to use server features to install it instead of command line

The quickest solution here is to update ASPNET by using the features - with no changes on application pool go to server roles, uninstall and then install again ASPNET. Both the issues will be fixed.

MOSS'07/WSS 3.0 Reuse existing Content database

2008-10-26T22:37:00.001-07:00

Reusing existing content database in WSS3.0 (WSS_Content_<<GUID>> by default) is very simple:

Create a new application (if no one still exists)
Go to Central Administration > Application Management > Content Databases and change 'Web Application' to required
Simply Add a content database.

Simple. After these steps all previous site collections will be appeared and available for you.

The only redundant object is new content database after the step 1. You can delete it too, but notice that by deleting it from SharePoint configuration it still remains on SQL Server.

Restore SharePoint Content Database

2008-10-26T22:07:00.001-07:00

Recently we have hard drive on our SharePoint server failed remaining only.mdf files. Hopefully, restoration procedure is simple, here is:

Install WSS(MOSS) as you usually do (you do not need to restore configuration file, it's simply not needed and can cause some troubles if restoration is on complete different environment)
Install features, packages and service packs (eg WSS SP1)
Attach/restore content database
Go to Central Administration > Application Management > Content databases and add the content database to required application.

UPDATE. Following links might be also useful:

"Windows SharePoint Services use a preexisting database as the content database"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888041

How to back up and restore installations of Windows SharePoint ...
[article describes how to back up Windows SharePoint Services content databases and restore the data to the same server where the backup was]
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833797

Optimizing NHibernate

2008-10-26T19:45:00.001-07:00

NHibernate is great unless you want to optimise it. And that's sometimes means 'falling back from NHibernate', especially when a huge report takes a very long built time by the reason of complicated application logic.

The easiest way to quickly speed up it up to x10 or more times is to simply gather queries by SQL Profiler and make stored procedure!.. based on them, instead of refractoring application logic itself. Yeah, that's simple. And from the business perspective 10 seconds report much much better than 10 hours.

Of course, it should not be overall, otherwise you simply break the idea of ORM. More over, it should be temporally used and good documented of used tables and fields.

For other tips of optimizing Performance of NHibernate follow the links 1 2 3 4 5

Starting SharePoint solution and planning your documentation

2008-10-02T17:53:00.001-07:00

I cant went by Michael's valuable post about documenting of beginning SharePoint projects:

..."When a new SharePoint project is about to start I use the following steps to design and plan solution

Creating Vision/Scope
Site structure and Navigation
Use Case Scenarios
Data Flow scenario
Content location
Site Collection Boundaries
List of required features and site definitions
Security: Roles and Permissions
Page Wireframes: layouts and content types
Targeting
Search strategy
Infrastructure Plan
Disaster Recovery
Deployment plan

Take into account that SharePoint SDLC differs from standard development, and not all projects require those steps. "...

It's a deep copy of Michael blog's post (check it for updates)

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 announced

2008-10-01T00:12:00.001-07:00

REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 29, 2008

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/sep08/09-29VS10PR.mspx

...”Visual Studio 10 and .NET Framework 4.0, we are focused on the core pillars of developer experience, support for the latest platforms spanning client, server, services and devices, targeted experiences for specific application types, and core architecture improvements. These pillars are designed specifically to meet the needs of developers, the teams that drive the application life cycle from idea to delivery, and the customers that demand the highest quality applications across multiple platforms.”...

No certain description of .NET 4.0 features, but even on the list of features of Visual Studio 2010 it is clear that it makes development more interoperable and integrated (continues to line of Visual Studio Rosario).

And, interesting, do you know something valuable in other platforms, like Java, what .NET still does not have?

More links: Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Overview

ScriptResource.axd 404 exception

2008-09-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

After installing a web application on IIS 7 you get sometimes 404 exception with ScriptResource.axd handler without any obvious reason even if you have everything installed properly. The issue hides itself in application settings. Answer is simple - switch a pool of your application to Classic mode, and it backs to work.

C# <> VB Differences

2008-09-24T22:55:00.000-07:00

What if developer has strongly enough experience in one of TOP 2 .NET languages but never used another one. Been asked of this question found nice link descirbing most hidden differences between VB.NET and C# http://msmvps.com/blogs/kathleen/archive/2008/07/25/what-a-c-coder-should-know-before-they-write-vb-updated.aspx not only from specification perspective.

Windows 2008 Server Core findings

2008-09-23T23:42:00.000-07:00

After spending some time preparing presentation of Windows 2008 Core I discovered some points usually unclear after a quick view. Here they are:

Can you have IIS 7.0 on Windows 2008 Core: yes (with several limitations)
Can you install .NET Framework: no (hilarious, but, no)
Can you install Microsoft SQL 2005: still no

Having no possibilty to install .NET FW & SQL 2005 simply means that:

Can you install ASP.NET : no
Can you install Microsoft SharePoint: no
Can you install PowerShell: no

In this case Server Core is strongly server-role one, such as AD Domain Controller, Windows Backup, File Server and so on (http://www.trainsignaltraining.com/windows-server-2008-server-core-roles/2008-04-09/), not an business layer, what was initially expected.

As a server-role it has tangible benefit benefits (http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/sanderberkouwer/archive/2008/03/21/sc-enarios-server-core-scenarios.aspx) even aside of 10 surprises of Windows 2008 Core (http://www.builderau.com.au/program/windows/soa/10-surprising-things-about-Windows-Server-2008/0,339024644,339292005,00.htm)

Finally, these are several helpful links:

Official Server Core blog - http://blogs.technet.com/server_core/

SC'enario: Windows Web 2.0 Server 2008 (IIS 7) - http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/sanderberkouwer/archive/2008/03/22/sc-enario-windows-web-2-0-server-2008.aspx

Windows Server 2008 Command Lines for Administrative Consoles http://msmvps.com/blogs/ad/archive/2008/06/20/windows-server-2008-command-lines-for-administrative-consoles.aspx

WSS 3.0 Visual Studio 2008 Extensions

2008-06-23T23:51:00.000-07:00

Microsoft released new version of one of the most usefull tools for WSS 3.0 - Visual Studio 2008 Extensions. Windows 2008 is also supported. Can be downloaded from here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7BF65B28-06E2-4E87-9BAD-086E32185E68&displaylang=en

Tip! It's possible to install WSS 3.0 on Windows Vista using the WSS Vista Launcher. Thanks to Jonas Nilsson following link contains detailed description how to do it: http://community.bamboosolutions.com/blogs/bambooteamblog/archive/2008/05/21/how-to-install-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0-sp1-on-vista-x64-x86.aspx

Silverlight (JavaScript and CLR) vs DHTML vs Flash (Flex) vs WPF vs Apollo vs Java (Swing)

2008-05-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

Have found the site provides a test to directly compare performance of different RIA frameworks/approaches in different browsers. The test implements simple 2D animation demo initially created in DHTML, then ported to Silverlight (WPF/e), Flex and WPF (XBAP).

The site location is http://bubblemark.com/
You can see the results here: http://metalinkltd.com/?p=108

Briefly, WPF wins :)

Visual Studio 2008 and Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1

2008-05-13T05:41:00.000-07:00

Scott Guthrie posted comprehensive article about feature improvements of Framework 3.5 SP1 and VS 2008 SP1:
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/05/12/visual-studio-2008-and-net-framework-3-5-service-pack-1-beta.aspx

Briefly,

VS 2008 JavaScript has script formatting options, Intellisense also have been improved as performance of HTML Designer as some VB and C# improvements in dev/debug mode.
WPF is greatly improved in performance, includes several data binding and editing improvements to WPF, effects and interoperability with Direct3D.
ASP.NET AJAX also has additional support: Script Combining element and Back/Forward Button History.
ADO.NET Entity Framework and LINQ to Entities have been included into NET 3.5 SP1, at last!, as Data Services, formerly code-named "Astoria".
ASP.NET includes Routing Engine (System.Web.Routing) and dynamic data (Scaffolding Support).
Winforms receives additional elements - vector shape, printing, and DataRepeater.
SQL 2008 supported.
WCF has new Hosting Wizard, significant scalability improvements (5-10x) in Web-hosted application scenarios, with API usability improvements and debugging support in partial trust context.

Google your way to a wacky office

2008-03-15T06:00:00.001-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7290322.stm

You dont' know what to do with your IT department's mood? :) The Ambience can be the way, and Google rocks in this area, shown by example on how to "design of its new European engineering headquarters in Zurich Switzerland".

Thanks Michael for the link

Hard Drive Speed and Visual Studio Performance

2007-11-02T02:51:00.000-07:00

.. "People often ask me at conferences for PC hardware recommendations. Specifically - "what type of machine do you recommend I get for doing development with Visual Studio?" and/or "your laptop seems really fast, what type is it?" Some of my recommendations on this topic are fairly standard and obvious" ...

ps. useful tips especially when developing takes a place on a customer side on old notebook )

Acropolis will be a part of framework?

2007-10-30T03:14:00.000-07:00

Seems like Acropolis is going to next versions of Framework, but his existence as a standalone project is over.

Ream more ...
http://blogs.msdn.com/acropolis/archive/2007/10/29/An-Acropolis-Update.aspx
..."We are very excited to be entering the next phase of the project where we will begin to roll many of the Acropolis concepts into future versions of the .NET Framework for the desktop and Silverlight. Unfortunately, while we figure out exactly how to go about this, we have decided not to release any more Acropolis CTP's. We're going to keep the current CTP bits available to allow you to continue prototyping and evaluating the Acropolis concepts."...

.NET 3.X setup instructions

2007-08-30T15:54:00.000-07:00

I have discover setup instructions for those who need some tips on setting up environment to work with the latest technologies:

http://www.dasblonde.net/2007/08/14/SystemSetupForNET30AndNET35.aspx

ASP.NET vs PHP

2007-07-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

Allen Harkleroad and Jason Sexton wrote good article about comparition of ASP.NET and PHP. Considered estimation provided for availability, ease to develop, support, efficiency and hosting cost.

See there: http://www.technoblogo.com/2007/07/17/PHP+Versus+Microsoft+ASPnet++A+Straightforward+Comparison.aspx
In short, ASP.NET wins!

Useful Tip

2007-07-06T07:23:00.001-07:00

Just to remember :)

2007-07-02T12:51:00.000-07:00

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 June 2007 Community Technology Preview (CTP) has been released:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e6fd8663-8b77-4649-8d36-3830e18528fa

Quick short about what's new:

Deep integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness.
ASP.NET AJAX improvements.
New Web protocol support for building WCF services including AJAX, JSON, REST, POX, RSS, ATOM, and several new WS-* standards.
Full tooling support for WF, WCF, and WPF, including the new workflow-enabled services technology.
New classes in .NET Framework 3.5 base class library (BCL) address the most common customer requests.

What's new in SQL 2008 on microsoft eLearning

2007-07-02T06:51:00.001-07:00

The new course about new SQL Server 2008 features was published: http://msmvps.com/blogs/satheeshbabu/archive/2007/07/02/what-s-new-in-microsoft-174-sql-server-2008.aspx

VS for Testers Resource

2007-07-02T06:44:00.001-07:00

Ed published a great collection of resources for VS Team System for Testers

Read it there http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1177487&SiteID=1

Overcome security threats for Ajax applications

2007-06-30T10:52:00.001-07:00

Recommend to read the following article which describes the possible threats for AJAX apps and the way to secure them.

The main parts of article are:

Avoiding the same-origin policy: JSON and the dynamic script tag
Avoiding the same-origin policy: Ajax proxy
Avoiding the same-origin policy: Greasemonkey
Examining attack scenarios
Recommended best practices

Call client-side JS when UpdatePanel request is over

2007-06-13T02:50:00.001-07:00

Good sample described how to make client JS calls after UpdatePanel completed its work http://blog.jeromeparadis.com/archive/2007/03/01/1501.aspx

Web developer system tools set

2007-06-12T05:07:00.001-07:00

A good system tools set for the web developer: http://www.pluralsight.com/tools.aspx

Includes:

ASP.NET Pipeline Viewer
ASP.NET Security Context Viewer
ViewState decoder
MachineKey Generator
Interactive XPath Expression Builder
JS XML Schema validator
Interactive Window Station / Desktop DACL Editor
and etc

Using Selenium + FitNesse to test your web app

2007-06-03T08:22:00.001-07:00

In the current article the Selenium and FitNesse tools are reviewed in the aspect of automating web tests. Author shows the sample of how to use them in the real world.

Read good article.

Learning Silverlight - resources

2007-06-03T07:43:00.001-07:00

A good learning guide was published there: http://searchvb.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid8_gci1256287,00.html

Poster: VBScript most commonly used command

2007-06-02T13:21:00.001-07:00

Quick reference guide to commonly-used VBScript commands. For best results, open the file in Microsoft Word, print the contents to legal-sized paper (8 inches by 14 inches), and fold the resulting printout in half, making a four-page booklet.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9c80b0df-b9b4-4fcb-b513-02f8f40049e8&displaylang=en

Design-patterns guidance package

2007-05-23T09:19:00.001-07:00

On the CODEPLEX the "Deging Patterns" package for GAT was published.

So, now patterns are available as the templates - everything you need to do is select the desired pattern from the list and it will be generated for your project in VS 2005.

http://www.codeplex.com/dpguidance

Thoughts about virtual desktops

2007-05-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

Arnon Rotem wrote about AJAX-virtual desktops - the Apollo (a cross-OS runtime from Adobe Labs to build and deploy desktop RIA’s) and nowadays MS technologies (WPF/E etc.):

http://www.ddj.com/blog/architectblog/archives/2007/04/ajax_desktops_d.html

Also there are some Apollo resources:

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Apollo (homepage and download)
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/videos/apollo_demo07/index.html (demo at DEMO 07 conference)

.NET Tips & Tricks manual

2007-05-12T07:34:00.001-07:00

Published the list of our .NET Tips & Tricks: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgzv6kc_16dkmzhq

IF you have something to add - welcome

IE DevBar Release

2007-05-10T12:05:00.001-07:00

Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar has been released, finally.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E59C3964-672D-4511-BB3E-2D5E1DB91038&displaylang=en

A Comparison of C# to Java

2007-05-05T12:54:00.001-07:00

Dare Obasanjo updated his "Comparison of Microsoft's C# Programming Language to Sun Microsystems' Java Programming Language" article, including C# 2.0 and Java SE 6.

top 10 application security vulnerabilities

2007-05-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Bryan Sullivan posted part 1 of his "top 10 application security vulnerabilities in Web.config files" articles. For now only five security "worst offenders" misconfigurations available:

1. Custom Errors Disabled
2. Leaving Tracing Enabled in Web-Based Applications
3. Debugging Enabled
4. Cookies Accessible through Client-Side Script
5. Cookieless Session State Enabled

Read at http://www.wwwcoder.com/tabid/68/type/art/parentid/258/site/6518/default.aspx

Update: another 5 vulnerabilities are there http://www.wwwcoder.com/tabid/68/type/art/parentid/258/site/6520/default.aspx

ASP.net newcomers

2007-05-05T10:46:00.001-07:00

Several newcomers are in the ASP.NET world on this week

1) "Astora" - new framework to make it easy for use to build Web data services to make it easy for developers to get data for a rich web client using ASP.Net Ajax and Silverligth.

2) "ASP.NET Futures" - the set of new controls for VS 2005 and VS Orcas

DynamicRssLink
DynamicDetails
DynamicList
DynamicNavigator
DynamicFilter
DynamicInsert
DynamicAutoData
SearchDataSource
History

Silverlight Developer Reference

2007-05-05T07:38:00.001-07:00

The graphical representation of Silverlight reference:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/2/e/f2ecc2ad-c498-4538-8a2c-15eb157c00a7/SL_Map_FinalNET.png

"Programming Windows Workflow Foundation" Book Review

2007-04-30T10:45:00.001-07:00

Programming Windows Workflow Foundation: Practical WF Techniques and Examples using XAML and C#
by K, Scott Allen

Read more about this title...

There are number of books about Microsoft Workflow (WF), but few of them are really worth being read. The current book will be useful as for WF newbies as for advanced developers.

Author explains the sense of workflow very neat and elegant. After first chapter you become familiar with the main activities and how to use them, even if you never used workflow before. There is no "padding" and other stuff with is widely used by authors. The book is really solid and meaningful.

The book starts from the describing main WF entities, Visual Studio Extension, XAML, and WF runtime. Then author tells us about base WF activities, events, fault handling, transaction + compensation, and rules. These descriptions are provided with colorful diagrams and code samples on C#. After that the advanced part stats, where custom activities, hosting, even-driven workflows are presented.

I always consider the "PACK Publishing" books the best among all publishers, and the current book confirm this.

Rating:

RadControls for Silverlight

2007-04-29T10:55:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard about the Silverlight? :)
If yes then Teleric made a RadControls for it:

[Overview]
http://www.telerik.com/products/silverlight/overview.aspx
[Demo]
http://www.telerik.com/demos/aspnet/silverlight/Cube/Examples/RoomDesigner/DefaultCS.aspx

The publised key features are:

Introduces the notion of layouts
Injection of controls in existing XAML files
Animation effects
Support for Themes
Seamless integration with ASP.NET AJAX
Client and Server Events
Preview shipped with 7 controls

Creating modules for IIS7

2007-04-26T13:44:00.001-07:00

The IIS.net posted detailed description of how to create modules for IIS7 using C# and C++.

Really good article

Visual Studio Orcas Beta 1

2007-04-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

Visual Studio Orcas Beta 1 has been released. Some links related to the subject:

Microsoft Pre-release Software Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Beta 1 Team Suite (Virtual PC version): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=36b6609e-6f3d-40f4-8c7d-ad111679d8dc
"Orcas" White Paper: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=17319eb4-299c-43b8-a360-a1c2bd6a421b
Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Downloads http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700831.aspx

AJAX in a nutshell

2007-04-19T13:36:00.001-07:00

Sanjeet published the really good overview the basis of AJAX

Very concise VS error

2007-04-10T01:37:00.000-07:00

Just got the following very concise VS 2005 error dialogbox :)

Awesome!!

Studio just gone down abruptly during debuggin' managed application.

Google Reader - Shared RSS as a new blog

2007-04-05T23:00:00.001-07:00

Just added a new feature "shared RSS item" to our "devkids.blogspot.com" team blog.

This is a Google Reader's feature which allows you to shared the most interesting items of your RSS and they will be available as the post of new blog. Cool, isn't it?

I've seen the number of bloggers who just posted the links to other resources in their blogs. Google Reader automates this process, now you can just share the post and it will appear in specific Google's blog.

I've add this features to the sidebar of our teamblog at http://devkids.blogspot.com with my shared RSS items.

The direct link to my shared items is: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/17877331264742925153/state/com.google/broadcast

"Foundations of WF" Book Review

2007-04-03T12:19:00.001-07:00

Foundations of WF: an Introduction to Windows Workflow Foundation (Expert's Voice in .Net)
by Brian Myers

Read more about this title...

When you are at the threshold of the new technology you need the really "dummy" introduction, to get the picture of it with extensive features description to understand to what extend in can be used in your project.

I consider current book as a really good manual for newbies to start with Microsoft Workflow.

In his book Brian doesn't go deep into the WF structure, but he neatly describes the WF entities, providing detailed samples on C# and VB.NET. His book covers the all main WF features, demonstrating how and when to use them, providing good description and suggesting what and where should be used.

Books gives the readers the sence of WF and knowledge allowing readers to go deeper.

I recommend this book as the start material for those who are really new to WF.

Rating:

Another links to WF

2007-03-29T14:15:00.000-07:00

Also there are extra useful resources:

http://wf.netfx3.com/ - The headquartes of Workflow Foundation
Windows Workflow: The Base Activity Library - Cool all-round article describes applied usage of all WF activities.
Hello Workflow - Windows Workflow Foundation key concepts a screencast of helloword in WF
And Introduction to Developing with Windows Workflow Foundation and Visual Studio 2005 to pass a free-pay Microsoft course about WF.
The next reading stage of WF is BPEL for Windows Workflow Foundation (March CTP), coz what is the WF without BPEL
The Latest Windows Workflow Foundation stories
The article about Windows Workflow Foundation vs BizTalk Server
Starting Learning WF
And WF-resource lists, finally: 1 2 3 4

Workflow - recommended reading for newbies

2007-03-28T04:44:00.003-07:00

The following set of articles helps you to start with Microsoft WorkFlow

1) Getting Started with Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation: A Developer Walkthrough

General overview with diagrams and samples describing Sequential and StateMachine workflows

2) Hello, WF!

Description of activities with samples (no diagrams)

3) Windows Workflow Foundation

Sample of using WF with Windows Forms

4) Windows Workflow Foundation, Part 2

Sample of using WF with ASP.NET

5) Performance Characteristics of Windows Workflow Foundation

Ajax and XML: Five Ajax anti-patterns

2007-03-25T08:02:00.001-07:00

Article describes the most common AJAX antipatterns, such as

Polling on a timer when you don't need to
Not inspecting the return results in the callback
Passing complex XML when HTML would be better
Passing XML when you should pass JavaScript code
Doing too much on the server

Source: Ajax and XML: Five Ajax anti-patterns

Microsoft Design Guidelines

2007-03-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

Michael Nemtsev has discovered that Microsoft published the usability guidelines to design applications for Windows. The document describes best practices in designing interfaces, visual and functional consistency, the overall usability of your applications and stuff (but doesn't describe how to design proper components). Checklists are also provided.

Moreover, Michael described lack of usability in some aspects which are not covered by MS Guideline.

... more at http://laflour.spaces.live.com/blog/cns%217575E2FFC19135B4%21678.entry

Orcas features

2007-03-17T14:11:00.001-07:00

Currently, time to time I play with Orcas. So, decided to publish the list of features which I found in open sources.

ReaderWriterLockSlim in Orcas: lock for the performance-critical code
GC Collection Modes
GC Latency Modes
EventSchemaTraceListener: supporting the Vista's ETW Tracing
Automatic Properties, Object Initializers, and Collection Initializers
Extension Methods

CLR Adding blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/clraddins

Orcas Specifications: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa948851.aspx

Technorati tags: Orcas

Useful links to Orcas material

2007-02-25T04:21:00.000-08:00

John Papa has published a lot of good links to Orcas material with LINQ. Bad material out there - only some of the better ones that he has found. See it at http://codebetter.com/blogs/john.papa/archive/2007/02/09/Interesting-Orcas-_2600_-LINQ-Links.aspx
Besides this there are an outstanding desciption of LINQ features from Sahil Malik.

Building ASP.NET 2.0 Web Sites Using Web Standards

2007-02-23T09:37:00.000-08:00

HTML is officially outdated. The XHTML standard is coming as a replacement for it and we need to meet new standards and requirements for it. There for I've found the exceeding article which is written by Stephen Walther and contains an overview of XHTML and accessibility standards to help you to take an advantage using of ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005.

The article includes many example of standards usage and a step-by-step walkthrough for creating an ASP.NET 2.0 Web site that satisfies both XHTML and accessibility standards at the end.

The most important parts are:

DOCTYPE Switching
MIME Types
Accessible Web sites

Read it at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479043.aspx

31 Days of ReSharper Tips

2007-02-17T14:06:00.001-08:00

Joe White published the outstanding description of 31 ReSharper's tips, comparing them with standard Visual Studio 2005 features.

Technorati tags: ReSharper

Use Live.com and support campaign for youth refugee

2007-02-17T09:45:00.001-08:00

To the end of March 2007 you can support the campaign providing education and sports programs for the nine million refugee youth around the world. Everything you need to do is to use Live.com for your searches and Microsoft will donate to the http://www.ninemillion.org/

Resources: MS Press release, www.ninemillion.org, live.com, http://nine-million.spaces.live.com

Technorati tags: Ninemillion.org

"Windows Developer Power Tools" book review

2007-02-14T14:29:00.001-08:00

O'Reilly published the following book:

Windows Developer Power Tools: Turbocharge Windows Development with More Than 140 Free and Open Source Tools
by James Avery, Jim Holmes

Read more about this title...

In this books authors described the most important tools and libraries that must be used in work by each developer.

The covered topics are:

Web libraries
WinForms libraries
General Code Libraries
Generating code libs
Alternative .NET IDEs
Creating documentation
VS IDE add-ins
Tools to analyze and test your code
Tools for the continuous integrations
Tools for the team collaboration
Bug tracking tools
Debugging and troubleshooting applications
Tools to tightening up the security
O/R Mapping Tools and libraries
Tools, libs and add-ins to enhance Web Development
and more another tools

I found this book really useful and rate is as "must-read".

Strongly recommend to read.

Cross-posted from http://spaces.live.com/laflour

.NET Framework 3.0 Training Kit: WF, WCF, and CardSpace

2007-02-13T12:59:00.000-08:00

Matt W's has posted the .NET 3.0 training kit for WF, WCF, and CardSpace including 10 hands-on-labs, 36 demos and more the 10 presentations.

http://wf.netfx3.com/files/folders/presentations/entry8793.aspx

The perfectly organized content lets you to plan your learning into a four day agenda!

Before you start you need to meet some additional requirements (some of items are required only for specific parts, but in any case you can view the presentations). The most significant requirements are Vista/2003 SP1, IIS 6/7, Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and .NET Framework 3.0 runtime components.

Also, you can find extra information about W*F on the:

ContentPresenter - a free WPF tutorial resource
Stanley Tan's resources - tons of links to WPF, WCF, WF, CardSpace and Vista blogs, whitepapers, videos, presentations, free trainings and sample applications

"principle of inclusions" - Microsoft Anti-Cross Site Scripting Library v.1.5

2007-02-08T15:18:00.001-08:00

Microsoft shipped the "Microsoft Anti-Cross Site Scripting Library" (1.5) which aimed to protect your site from Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

General solution in .NET to avoid XSS attack is to use the System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlEncode and other encoding methods.

But what if we wanna strengthen our protection against XSS?! Which way to use?!

Microsoft Patterns & Practice suggests the following pattern:

Validating and constraining input
Encoding output

This technique is known as "principle of inclusions", where we define a valid/allowable set of characters and then encoding anything outside this set.

"principle of inclusions" approach provides the high degree of protection against XSS and which is realized in "Microsoft Anti-Cross Site Scripting Library"

This library (AntiXssLibrary.dll) contains 7 methods:

Encoding Method	Description
HtmlEncode	Encodes input strings for use in HTML
HtmlAttributeEncode	Encodes input strings for use in HTML attributes
JavaScriptEncode	Encodes input strings for use in JavaScript
UrlEncode	Encodes input strings for use in Universal Resource Locators (URLs)
VisualBasicScriptEncode	Encodes input strings for use in Visual Basic Script
XmlEncode	Encodes input strings for use in XML
XmlAttributeEncode	Encodes input strings for use in XML attributes

Each encoding method is used in the specific context, so it contains the specific set of characters which is validated.

The using of library is simple:

For example, if the un-trusted input will be used to set an HTML attribute, then the Microsoft.Security.Application.HtmlAttributeEncode method should be used to encode the un-trusted input as in the code below:

// Vulnerable code
// Note that un-trusted input is being as an HTML attribute
Literal1.Text = "<hr noshade size=[un-trusted input here]>";
// Modified code
Literal1.Text = "<hr noshade size=" + Microsoft.Security.Application.AntiXss.HtmlAttributeEncode([un-trusted input here])+ ">";

or

<html> <img src=”/users/user.gif” id=<%= AntiXss.HtmlAttributeEncode(Request.Form[“ID”]) %> > </html>

The realization of HtmlAttributeEncode is trivial: we check the set of characters specific to the context of HTML Attributes

private static string HtmlAttributeEncode(string strInput)

      if (strInput == null)

            return null;

      if (strInput.Length == 0)

            return string.Empty;

      StringBuilder builder1 = new StringBuilder("", strInput.Length * 2);

      foreach (char ch1 in strInput)

            if ((((ch1 > '`') && (ch1 < '{'))  ((ch1 > '@') && (ch1 < '[')))  (((ch1 > '/') && (ch1 < ':'))  (((ch1 == '.')  (ch1 == ','))  ((ch1 == '-')  (ch1 == '_')))))

                  builder1.Append(ch1);

            else

                  builder1.Append("&#" + ch1.ToString() + ";");

      return builder1.ToString();

So, library just provides the methods to valid character sets depending on selected context, which helps you not to litter your code with the additional checks.

Resources:
Microsoft Anti-Cross Site Scripting Library
How To: Prevent Cross-Site Scripting in ASP.NET

Technorati tags: XSS, cross site scripting

WPF/E Pad - online version

2007-02-06T14:33:00.000-08:00

Wanna master your WPF/E skills but dont want to install all SDKs?! - WPF/E pad helps you http://www.simplegeek.com/mharsh/wpfepad/

It's like the standard XAML pad but especially for WPF/E and available online.
Samples are included. The only one disadvantage - it doesnt show the active line number, little discomfort in finding errors

Oracle supports Visual Studio .NET

2007-02-05T13:42:00.001-08:00

After a long time of ignoring the support of Visual Studio Oracle has released the number of items (only for 10 g version) integrating into Visual Studio and .NET.

Oracle Developer Tools (ODT) for Visual Studio .NET

VS adding that brings the power of the Oracle Database to .NET developers. Main features:

Oracle Explorer to browse/change schema

Automatically generated .NET code

Integrated context sensitive online help (Oracle SQL and PL/SQL Users Guides)

Oracle Data Window for the routine DB tasks

SQL Query Window

.NET Deployment Wizard to deploy .NET stored procedures and function into DB

Oracle Database Extensions for .NET

Ability to embed .NET code into .NET

"After deploying, a .NET stored procedure can be called from within .NET application code, from SQL or PL/SQL, from another .NET, PL/SQL or Java stored procedure, from a trigger, or from anywhere else a stored procedure or function call is allowed."

Demos of both tools are available.

Resources: ODT with demo, screenshots, ODE

Technorati tags: Oracle, .NET, Visual Studio integration

IIS.NET updates

2007-02-04T12:25:00.000-08:00

The IIS.NET introduced the DownloadCENTER
http://www.iis.net/News/Item.aspx?i=1316

- the single source for Microsoft Internet Information Services tools, samples and such stuff created for discovering and sharing IIS-related solutions in a single place for others. Dozens of existing downloads, for all versions of IIS – both from Microsoft and the community – are already available there now.

Also there is the “Overview of IIS 7 differences Across Windows Vista Editions and Windows Server Longhorn Editions”. It's interesting that on Windows Vista Editions, IIS7 will play a dual role. First, it offers web developers the complete web platform experience for building and testing web applications on Windows, for deployment on Windows Server, just like Windows XP. Second, it enables process activation and management and the necessary HTTP infrastructure for enabling connected consumer scenarios that will be built using the Windows Communication Foundation (WinFX)…

Read more at http://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=2&subtabid=25&i=1100

"The Quality Code Handbook" Book review

2007-02-03T16:04:00.001-08:00

Ozzie guys published free "The Quality Code Handbook" e-book. This book is about what each developer should know and must use in his/her everyday work. Authors are from the Australia, from the different companies and takes different roles - Microsoft MVP, Research Directors, Evangelist and etc.

Book consists of the several parts:

Test-driven development
Performance-tuning managed applications
Code quality tools for native development
Application threat modeling
Code analysis with FxCop
Web application load testing
Customizing check-in policies

Authors describe the best methodics of how to write really quality code and provide number of samples demonstrating the gist of each chapter.

I strongly recommend to read this book for those who are anxious about the quality of code which they write.

Book is here and you need dnl reader add-in to read book.

Vista & .NET 3.0 Developers resources

2007-02-01T14:15:00.000-08:00

Ron posted the collection of developer resources for .NET 3.0 and Vista: http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/ron_cundiff/archive/2007/02/01/net-framework-3-0-and-windows-vista-development-resources.aspx

Manuals, SDKs and etc for: WPF, WCF, WF, CardSpace and Vista

MSMQ on Vista?!

2007-02-01T14:09:00.000-08:00

YES! Vista supports MSMQ, but unfortunatelly this feature documented nowhere. (why?! I really dont know). But MS guys commit this: http://blogs.msdn.com/johnbreakwell/archive/2007/01/30/what-editions-of-vista-have-msmq.aspx

Microsoft wins Harris Interactive/The Wall Street Journal ranking

2007-02-01T06:20:00.000-08:00

Microsoft is in the eighth-annual Harris Interactive/The Wall Street Journal ranking of the world's best and worst corporate reputations. Respondents gave Microsoft very high marks for leadership and financial results.

http://users1.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkLogin?mg=wsj-users1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB117019715069692873.html%3Fmod%3Dhome_whats_news_us

Programming Quotations

2007-02-01T06:02:00.000-08:00

The really good resource of the programming quotations.

"Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems" (Jamie Zawinski)

Awesome!

WPF/E CTP (Feb 2007)

2007-02-01T01:24:00.000-08:00

The Februrary 2007 CTP version of WPF/E has been published.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e63992d3-ccf5-40b9-b98a-d16bca57467c&displaylang=en&tm

ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0 Source Code

2007-01-31T02:31:00.000-08:00

Followed by the latest vogue MS has opened the source codes for ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX (as you know the Sun has opened not long ago the source code of the Java VM):

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ef2c1acc-051a-4fe6-ad72-f3bed8623b43&DisplayLang=en

The Bill Gates's talk about his favorite Vista

2007-01-30T15:27:00.000-08:00

"From Times Square in New York City, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates hosted the worldwide launch of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System. The celebration paid tribute to the millions of Microsoft customers, partners and product testers around the world who provided input and feedback on these products"...

See On-Demand Webcast

And a day before:
http://microsoftwowlaunch.com/archive/2007/01/28/bill-gates-talks-about-his-favorite-windows-vista-features.aspx

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/business/234031,5_WA29_vista.article
"This *Wow* thing is a great way of describing what we've got here," - told he on Monday to The Associated Press - "There are chances for *wows* all over the product."

Bill demonstrates how the new Vista is working...

Joke :-)

SOA Terminology.

2007-01-29T14:18:00.001-08:00

Feel yourself a SOA geek?! If so, you should know what are the:

SOA foundation reference model
SOA solution stack
SOA lifecycle
Governance
Business alignment
BPEL

If not - just read this: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-soa-term1/index.html?ca=drs-

Technorati tags: SOA, BPEL, Business alignment

VS 2005 keyboard shortcut Poster: How to make your work with VS 2005 easier

2007-01-29T00:33:00.000-08:00

MS published the Poster of the keyboard shortcuts for the Visual Studio 2005.

C#, VB.NET and C++ layouts in color and grayscale PDF.

WPF grid

2007-01-27T14:01:00.000-08:00

Since the WPF has been introduced it had one drawback - no grid at all. So, if u wanted to show your data in grid u had two ways:

custom drawing;
host exited WinForms grid;

Now Xceed introduces WPF grid. Amazing functionality and it's absolutely free. Online demo on their site: http://xceed.com/Grid_WPF_Demo.html

Unfortunately, no WPF/E version :( Hope it will be realized later.

Test your web site in different browsers

2007-01-26T05:31:00.000-08:00

Thinking about testing your site in different browsers, but don't want to install all possible OS on your machine?! It's that we are stumble over when going website to production.

http://browsershots.org/ Helps your to solve your problem, providing you the screens and reports of how your site is looking under all possible web browsers.

#region template

2007-01-25T13:03:00.000-08:00

Have you ever used #region during programming? If no – you missed the greateful feature to make code readable, if yes – you know how important to find the right structure it to make the code organization easier for all team members ... if used properly.

In our projects we are using the following structure of the regions, which proves the pertinent basis in most cases:

1. on the basis class:
(the declaration section)

#Fields – for any fields
#Properties – for properties
#Events/Delegates – for events and delegates

(the functionality section)
#Constructors – for constructors (constructors are methods, but it’s important to open the document and see constructors right away).
#Methods – other methods for the current class
#Handlers – for the handlers

2. on any inherited interface:
#<Interface> Properties
…
#<Interface> Methods
#<Interface> Handlers

3. on any overridden class:
#<Overridden class> Properties
…
#<Overridden class> Methods
#<Overridden class> Handlers

It’s important to follow this structure and don’t create empty regions if they are empty.
And if the interface/class are in the bounds of one screen - use no regions (Michael)

There are key combinations for Outlining and Hiding Code:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/td6a5x4s(VS.71).aspx

Toggle All Outlining — Sets all procedures to the same hidden or expanded state. If some regions are expanded and some hidden, then the hidden regions are expanded. Shortcut keys are CTRL+M and then CTRL+L.
Collapse to Definitions — Collapses the members of all types so that all of the members belonging to a type are clearly seen. Identical to the Collapse Block command except that the environment automatically runs through all of the code in the document, creates regions in each of your procedures, and then hides them. Shortcut keys are CTRL+M and then CTRL+O.
....

What's the SOA?! - Read the FAQ

2007-01-25T06:41:00.000-08:00

The SOA is really buzz word - everybody understands this, but nobody knows what's it exactly.
There is even a joke "SOA in nutshell, 7,205 pages".

Btw, the Microsoft tries to demystify this, creating SOA FAQ: http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/solutions/soa/soafaq.mspx

Together over here

2007-01-25T06:26:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody.

Alex (http://ameleta.spaces.live.com) and I (http://laflour.spaces.live.com/) has been blogging about different aspects of modern software engineering for several years. But recently we've understood that we are doing absolutely the same thing - but from different aspects :)
Alex writes about modern things, I - about distributed. So, we've decided to combine our endeavors in the single blog "Dev-Kids".

Here we will be posting our thoughts, articles, ideas, links and code about development in .NET and Java - everything that we consider useful for those who wanna be on the bleeding edge of the modern software development.
My part will be about distributed/enterprise systems (like EAI, ESB, SOA, EDA and etc) and Alex's one is about .... about about that he considers useful for u (I'd like it be about AJAX and WPF/E, cos it's that what he's doing now :)

So, we are starting...

PS: A little bit about me. Full name is Michael Nemtsev. Have been working in SW dev since 2000 in different roles. Hold the status of Microsoft MVP in .NET/C# .More about me on my blog: http://laflour.spaces.live.com/
PPS: Time to time I'm blogging on http://blogs.gotdotnet.ru/personal/laflour (Russian GDN)

About us

2007-01-25T06:10:00.000-08:00

Here we go!

Together over here!

To bring the thoughts in aspects which can be combined to provide something more... provide united ideas about up-to-date and cutting edges technologies together!

And we called this place the DevKids - because we are developers, and kids ;) all the developers are kids, because they need to continuously learn something, to play with pretty smart toys (like Vista) and do such stuff.

What's about me, so I'm passionate to work with the bleeding edge technologies - like SOA, W*F, AJAX etc. And I will write about them to you. Hope you will find this blog useful.

What's about Michael, so.. Michael?