ASP.NET
There are 36 entries for the tag
ASP.NET
Not from me this time - Scott Guthrie has a good post with some of his own points on MVC, WebForms, and the debates. Link: About Technical Debates (and ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC debates in particular) Tags: ASP.NET, MVC
While scanning my RSS feeds this weekend I’ve noticed a lot of “MVC vs WebForms” type postings. I feel the need for my own little rant in this area. It’s one which I’ve been meaning to get off my chest for a little while, and so now seems like as good a time as any to get it over and done with.. so here goes. As a possible point of difference, my rant has nothing to do with technology. I keep coming across posts from developers who are new to ASP.NET, and are asking something along the lines...
It's coming up to the 2 year mark since I resigned from my full time job and went into freelancing / owning my own businesses. After many years of working as an employee, a contractor and doing small bits of freelancing on the side I probably thought that switching to freelancing would be a bit easier than it ended up being, which is part of why I wanted to write a little about my experiences. There's plenty of material out there offering freelancers helpful tips or things to avoid - this post is similar to many of those, but it's...
Local lads Mindscape released version 3.0 of their LightSpeed O/RM tool yesterday. The ‘what’s new’ list has some interesting technical additions (as you’d expect), but developers will also appreciate other changes such as improved samples (I’m a sucker for good samples), new databases providers, as well as a simplified licensing model. The migrations framework looks especially interesting – if it works half as well as the summary paragraph in the release post suggests then it’ll be a pretty invaluable feature for a lot of developers. I’d also suggest that using LightSpeed for this work instead of a tool such...
The world of .NET is an exciting and ever changing environment to work in so it’s easy to occasionally miss useful things when they’re released. The asp:Chart control fits into this category – it was released well over a year ago, however I haven’t had any reason to use it until very recently. Here's a short (possibly the shortest) post with a snippets of information that I found useful about the Control, my 60 second summary if you will. To use the control with version 3.5SP1 of the .NET framework you have to install a...
“'WebForm_PostBackOptions' is undefined” is one of those errors which can have a variety of causes. Here’s another one to add to that list – it’s pretty obvious, but easy to overlook if you’re in a rush. Firstly, check your httpModules, as custom modules can often cause this issue. However in my case I didn’t have any custom modules, in fact I’d just removed a couple – ripping out Intelligica’s ReWriter to replace it with the stock functionality provided by System.Web.Routing.. which of course was where the problem lies. I’d forgotten to add the StopRoutingHandler for all *.axd calls....
At the risk of adding too much to the echo chamber, Scott Guthrie's October 22nd post has some pretty useful resources for anyone looking to get better acquainted with the use of jQuery with ASP.NET (as well as other useful things of course, but I found the jQuery info particularly useful). Tags: JavaScript , ASP.NET
There's more MVC goodness announced on ScottGu's blog, namely the Preview 4 release which means another step closer to the final thing. As always there's a bunch of useful info showing it all in action, so check it out. Tags: ASP.NET , MVC
About a year back I wrote a quick post detailing a problem (and a fix) for an issue I was having with the SQL Server Web Report Viewer on Windows 2008 Server/IIS7 (the 'RSClientController is undefined' error). Most of the comments implied that the article helped people, however a few people weren't able to follow what was written. Partly because I wrote it very quickly at the time it was happening, and didn't grab a screenshot at the time. So I've just gone back and made a quick update to the article so that it now includes a bit...
LINQPad is a handy tool for anyone who works with LINQ: LINQPad is more than just a LINQ query tool: it's a code snippet IDE. Instantly execute any C# 3 or VB 9 expression or statement block! Best of all, LINQPad is free and needs no installation: just download and run. The executable is under 2MB and is self-updating. Fun! Tags: ASP.NET , SQL , LINQ
I found "The Dramatic Password Reveal" to be an interesting read. It's interesting to read the post and gauge your own personal reaction, followed by whether you change your mind after stopping and thinking about it a little bit. As the owner of 2 Das Keyboards I can tell you that there are many times when revealing my password for a quick double check before entering would be useful. Occasionally for online accounts I'll find myself typing my password into Notepad and then pasting it into the form to prevent me from locking my own account out. ...
Get your early dose of MVC goodness for Visual Studio 2008 here (and here for the MVC Toolkit extras). There's interesting mention of a few other items included in the extensions preview. One thing I've not followed closely is ADO.NET Data Services. The ADO.NET Entity Framework is billed as "a modeling framework that enables developers to define a conceptual model of a database schema that closely aligns to a real world view of the information". I'm very interested to see how this competes with something like LLBLGenPro (or even if that's it's intention in life). Tags: ASP.NET...
There's no doubt in my mind that thinking about MVC and/or MVP frameworks is bound to scare some developers out there. Changing the entire approach to ASP.NET development by throwing out ViewState and Postbacks is bound to make some people ask "Why fix it if it aint broke?" A lot of the MVC related writing at the moment seems to focus on the benefits of using the MVC approach - Yay for TDD! Yay for clean URLs! Yay for extensible pluggable architectures! Yay foreach Benefit benefit in List<MVC_Benefit> benefits! Which is all fine and dandy, however I...
Mads Kristensen has an interesting take on the potential dangers in Microsoft's ASP.NET MVC Framework. Some people might think he's being overly cynical, but there's definitely some valid points in there. Attend any event which contains a mix of C# and VB developers, and start talking about language and you'll see the same sort of effect. I love the term "Search Driven Development" that he uses in the post. It's a pretty obvious one, but I've never heard it put like that before. Technorati Tags: ASP.NET , MVC
The 10920 release of the AJAX Control Toolkit was shipped a few days back (thanks Doug). Lots of general fixes and control specific fixes - check out the link for more info. A couple of the fixes look like things I've experienced in the past, so I'm looking forward to some time to upgrade various solutions to 10920 and have all my AJAX woes magically fixed! Technorati Tags: AJAX , ASP.NET
I've had a load of tabs open in my browser for the last week, all of which are useful and interesting, but none of which justify a full post. Here they are: Scott Guthrie talking about the asp:Listiew Control which is coming in ASP.NET 3.5 - I've been working with GridViews and Repeaters over the past couple of weeks, and doing so is making me really look forward to the ListView! As welcome as the control will be, you have to think that it's been a loooong time in coming (thanks for the link Doug, even if I did forget...
"Fun"!
This weekend I was working on some basic ASP.NET input forms inside an existing application. The forms can be opened for read mode, or for edit mode - as you might expect from a form! There was some C# code which was setting the textboxes to be enabled or disabled (but still visible) depending on the appropriate edit mode, and I naievely figured it'd be pretty easy to throw in some css to simply remove the textbox borders when the form was being viewed, which would make the data look like labels.
Labels being what should have been used in this...
This falls into the "oh crap I have a bit of reading to do" category. The 2.5 release (which is a free upgrade for existing 2.0 customers) has a couple of interesting sounding major features such as auditing and authorization, as well as a lot of other improvements (such as improved prefetch paths, field exclusion for fields containing large amounts of data, and support for even more database types). Link: LLBLGen Pro v2.5 Tags: ASP.NET, LLBLGenPro
The observant among you will notice that the site has changed. I'm no longer running on Domino, and hence I'm no longer running on Blogo. The site is now fully powered by ASP.NET, and is running the excellent Open Source Subtext. Thanks go out to Ferdy for all the time he's spent writing and maintaining Blogo - if you're in the market for an open source Domino blogging engine then check it out, it's well worth it.
Why Subtext? I can't really say. I played with a few .NET solutions out there, and decided that I really liked quite a few...
The AjaxControlToolkit CalendarExtender is one of the more usable and useful controls in the kit. However there are a couple of things you might want to do to it in order to increase it's usefulness:
First, the default behavior is to hide the calendar when the textbox you're extending loses focus. This might be ok for some people, but I wanted it to disappear when a date was selected. Simply add a hideCalendar function, which you can either do in static JavaScript or via RegisterClientScript block depending on your application:
Page.ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptBlock(this.GetType(), "hideCalendar", @"function hideCalendar(cb) { cb.hide();...
Wow, what a post title. It's a couple of weeks old, but this list over at haacked.com is a quick list of classes that developers tend to code themselves rather than use what's provided in the framework. The constant reinvention is symptomatic of a large and comprehensive framework - there's so much in there, it's sometimes hard to know where to look for something that does what you're trying to do.
Looking through the list was quite refreshing. There were a few obvious ones such as System.IO.Path.Combine, however I'd never thought that a framework which is destined to...
The latest release of the AJAX Control Toolkit is now available. On top of over 125 bug fixes and enhancments the new Toolkit includes something called the "ToolkitScriptCombiner" - a control designed to dynamically merge multiple client-side Javascript scripts into a single file that is downloaded to the client at runtime.
2007-06-06 release of the AJAX Control Toolkit has a number of fixes identified as important by the community including designer support for Tabs and Web Services. It also has Animation support for some extenders, event support across the Toolkit, a Script combiner for reducing...
Out of the box, the ASP.NET Ajax UpdatePanel and UpdateProgress controls do a pretty good job of removing postbacks from your applications, but they need a little bit of styling to get them looking their best. Here's a couple of links to get you started on the right track:
Link: Using the UpdateProgress as a modal overlay
Link: Gmail style 'loading' indicator using UpdateProgress
Link: UpdateControls: UpdateHistory and AnimatedUpdatePanel
Raj's modal overlay (the first link above) allows you to target either an individual control (such as a panel or a GridView), or the entire page. It's very slick looking, but...
It seems I've come across yet another AXD related issue. This time with the SQL Server Web Report Viewer Control which was being served up via IIS7 on a Longhorn server. As soon as the page loaded I was getting JavaScript errors of 'RSClientController is undefined'. The report had been working fine on development boxes, so I was pretty sure it was either related to the deployment or IIS. In checking the source of the page I found the following entry: <script src="/Reserved.ReportViewerWebControl.axd? OpType=Resource&Version=8.0.50727.817&Name=Scripts.ReportViewer.js" type="text/javascript"></script> Which of course didn't exist when I pasted the URL into...
UpdatePanels are a pretty neat part of Microsoft's Ajax Extensions. It's interesting to note how much faster pages *seem* when you remove all visual aspects of the postback. Sure, the postback is still happening, but without the need to re-render the entire page things seem so much snappier.
However to make sure that your page is running as fast as it possibly can, remember to set the UpdatePanel's UpdateMode to Conditional (which isn't the default).
It might seem like an obvious thing, but when you're working on complex pages that contain multiple UpdatePanels, multiple UpdateProgress controls, as...
One of the breaking changes which was made with the 1.0 release of the Microsoft Ajax Extensions was the renaming of the 'Debug' class to 'Sys.Debug' for reasons of compatiability with other frameworks. Breaking changes like this can often be a source of frustration, however today I was pretty glad that they renamed the class, as it helped me to troubleshoot issues with the awful MSI on a Vista development box.
The problem shows as a JavaScript error which states "Sys.Debug.IsDebug is null or not an object", basically telling you that something is using the wrong version of...
Every developer has their own list of customisations and tweaks which they apply to their IDE to give it that personal touch. This is my personal list of settings and customisations for Visual Studio 2005.
I'm partly writing this down as a reference guide for myself lest I forget - reinstalling Visual Studio is something I try to do as little as possible, and so having a reference list is useful for those moments after a reinstall where you know something doesn't quite feel right in the IDE, but can't remember exactly which setting you've missed! I realise...
The IIS 7.0 Beta3 shipped a few days ago with a Go-Live License for those of you who simply can't wait to get your production apps installed on the latest and greatest version of Microsoft's web server. Alternatively, there are plenty of webhosting providers who have installed the beta and are now offering it to customers so you can perform some testing without needing to perform any upgrades. This is especially handy if you're still using Windows XP or 2003 server, and don't have any spare hardware available to install Longhorn or Vista (which IIS7 requires).
On a...
Recently I had a need to add some simple tooltip text to a header of a Gridview. Nothing fancy, just a quick sentence explaining the column headers as they all contained abbreviated text. My searches all turned up overly complex dhtml samples, involving large chunks of JavaScript. These were all fine, but I was really after something a lot more simple than that. It's easy to achieve using some basic HTML with the GridView, so here it is for anyone who wants to do something similar.
After the simple example, I'll show you how you can make things...
It's obviously not new, but the January 2006 edition of MSDN Magazine has some useful performance tips, particularly in the area of Regular Expressions. File this under the category of 'things I talk about here so I can refer to them myself later'.
A few quick quote snippets:
In the Regular Expression (Regex) space, there is the option to specify that a regular expression is compiled through use of the RegexOptions.Compiled setting. This switch hints at an underlying aspect of regular expressions in .NET: they have three modes.
Interpreted Regexes have the...
If you work with typed datasets often enough, then chances are that at some point you're going to run across this error message:
Failed to enable constraints. One or more rows contain values violating non-null, unique, or foreign-key constraints.
The error message is logical enough - it tells you what's wrong. You have a dataset, and there's a piece of data which is violating it's constraints. If you have a small dataset, then you can usually spot where the problem lies quickly enough. However for larger datasets the offending table(s) and/or column(s) are usually harder...
Back in October 2006 I wrote an article which covers troubleshooting problems related to WebResource.axd. A few months down the track, and the article has had a lot of hits, a few comments, and a few external links - I can only conclude that a lot of you out there have had major problems with WebResource.axd!
I wrote the article as a result of problems when deploying the project I was working on at the time, and it seems that I was 'lucky' enough to need to make changes or to verify the configuration for a lot...
If you happen to press F7 in the while working in the DataSet designer, it will generate you a class file for your DataSet. If you've pressed F7 accidentally and dont want/need this file, then you might delete it at some point, or someone tidying up your code might decide to do it for you. The file might seem like an obvious candidate for deletion - the main hint being that it contains no code! However, if the file is simply deleted then your solution may no longer compile.
The solution is pretty simple - you simply need...
This one managed to slip by me. I'm not sure on the exact release date, but looking at digg.com makes it look like it was released only a couple of days ago. There are seperate downloads for Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite (includes SP1 updates for Standard, Professional, and Team Editions of Visual Studio 2005), Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server, and Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions. The version for Windows Vista (beta) is apparently coming soon.
There are a lot of important fixes in this service pack, especially for anyone working with Team Suite to do load...
A textbox character counter is a pretty simple piece of functionality, and there's a lot of different ways to apply one to your application. The following method is nice and simple, and can be done using only clientside JavaScript if required, or combined with server side code in order to create a more dynamic effect (ie, turning the counter on/off conditionally).
First, we'll add the most basic static implementation of the field counter to a form using only a JavaScript function and event handlers in the aspx file, then we'll look at how we can extend the functionality...
The .NET 2.0 framework changed the way clientside JavaScript is delivered to the browser. Previously, ASP.NET 1.1 used the aspnet_client directory whereas now 2.0 uses WebResource.axd.
When things go wrong, you'll see JavaScript errors about missing functions, including the now infamous 'WebForm_PostBackOptions is undefined'. After having this problem in one of my applications, doing a lot of googling on it, and eventually fixing it, I feel it's my turn to add to the fray of people writing about this in the hope that it helps someone.
There are a few things which can go...
About me
My name is Ross Hawkins and I'm a Developer, Consultant and Writer based in Auckland,
New Zealand (pictured below!). My current work revolves around ASP.NET, C#, jQuery, Ajax,
SQL Server, and a mix of other Microsoft development technologies.
I also have about 14 years of experience with IBM Lotus Notes/Domino and associated technologies. While Notes/Domino
is no longer my primary focus I still like to dabble and keep my skills up to date.
I own and run 2 businesses - Hawkins Consulting Services,
and Ignition Development.
Search
Popular Content
Troubleshooting WebResource.axd
The .NET 2.0 framework changed the way clientside JavaScript is
delivered to the browser. Previously, ASP.NET 1.1 used the
aspnet_client directory whereas now 2.0 uses WebResource.axd.
Published on October 8, 2006
Microsoft AJAX Extensions: Sys.Debug is null or not an object
One of the breaking changes which was made with
the 1.0 release of the Microsoft Ajax Extensions was the renaming
of the 'Debug' class to 'Sys.Debug' for reasons of compatiability
with other frameworks. Breaking changes like this can often be a source of frustration..
Published on May 22, 2007
Simple ASP.NET Character Counter
A textbox character counter is a pretty simple piece of functionality, and there's a lot of different ways to apply one to your application. The following method is nice and simple, and can be done using only clientside JavaScript if required, or combined with server side code in order to create a more dynamic effect
Published on December 4, 2006
Adding Tooltips to Gridview Headers
As the title says, this is a very simple but dynamic way of achieving tooltip text on a header column. It's not overly flash, but it's lightweight and quick to implement.
Published on April 15, 2007
Archives
March, 2010 (3)
February, 2010 (6)
January, 2010 (12)
December, 2009 (13)
November, 2009 (11)
October, 2009 (12)
September, 2009 (12)
August, 2009 (2)
July, 2009 (7)
June, 2009 (12)
May, 2009 (9)
April, 2009 (9)
March, 2009 (9)
February, 2009 (8)
January, 2009 (7)
December, 2008 (6)
November, 2008 (7)
October, 2008 (9)
September, 2008 (12)
August, 2008 (9)
July, 2008 (6)
June, 2008 (24)
May, 2008 (13)
April, 2008 (16)
March, 2008 (8)
February, 2008 (10)
January, 2008 (1)
December, 2007 (14)
November, 2007 (11)
October, 2007 (11)
September, 2007 (13)
August, 2007 (11)
July, 2007 (5)
June, 2007 (15)
May, 2007 (11)
April, 2007 (9)
March, 2007 (9)
February, 2007 (10)
January, 2007 (8)
December, 2006 (18)
November, 2006 (11)
October, 2006 (14)
September, 2006 (9)
August, 2006 (10)
July, 2006 (4)
June, 2006 (4)
May, 2006 (6)
April, 2006 (3)
February, 2006 (6)
January, 2006 (10)
September, 2005 (2)
August, 2005 (4)
Post Categories
ASP.NET
AJAX
Amusing
NZ
NZ Trains
Notes/Domino
Visual Studio
Web Development
Miscellaneous
Me
Rugby
C#
SQL
Twitter