August 30, 2007
Coming from a .Net development background I am used to and promote the Continuous Integration paradigm. The benefits are just worth the intial effort, especially so in team development projects.
There are lots of benefits but the main one is the encourage users to develop solutions that work more than just "on their machine", so that when the build server builds the solution and deplo
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April 23, 2007
You can never have enough naming standards guides. I've been working on a project for the last nine months with about 15 other developers. We're coding in C# in VS2005 and the standards that were provided covered camel casing, pascal casing etc. But one thing that really bugs me is the use of Manager, Editor, Factory so randomly throughout. Also methods called CreateBlah(), InsertBlah() and AddBl
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February 26, 2007
<NoteToSelf> I had some issues with SelectedValue() on a WinForms ComboBox when adding values dynamically to it and used this:public class ComboValues{ private string
_key;
private string
_value;
public string Value
{ get { return _value; } set { _value = value;
}
}
public string Key
{
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February 15, 2007
We've been doing a lot of work with DataSets recently on this project and have had some issues on standards for creating new DataTables and TableAdapters. We have tried to enforce having DataTables with TableAdapters that directly reflect the base tables in a DataSet so that you can use the default Insert, Update, Delete, Select methods provided.Complex ProceduresOne problem occurs when you have
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February 12, 2007
I have been doing a lot of work recently with Strongly typed datasets and table adapters. We have found that the standard 40 seconds for some methods just wasn't enough...mainly due to big batch processes that call in large amounts of data in a view from various tables. I found a great article which has helped us out on this issue.It demonstrates how extensible the standard datasets are and I'm s
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January 18, 2007
I'm sure this is an obvious one, but this is a nice use of the new List with Generics:
List<DirectDebitsRequestPayment> payments =
new List<DirectDebitsRequestPayment>();
DirectDebitsRequestPayment
payment = new DirectDebitsRequestPayment(); payment.Amount =
new decimal();
payment.FromAccountName = string.Empty;
p
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January 16, 2007
I was looking for a way to call a stored procedure asynchronously and Keyvan Nayyeri's article which does just that. This can come in handy where you do not want to increase the timeout of a stored procedure but have some serious processing going on in the database. I'm currently doing a lot of work on batch processes which are triggered when messages are dropped on queues and this should suit me
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November 26, 2006
You
can add your own custom shortcut to build only the current project (and its
dependencies). Go to Tools | Options and under Environment, click Keyboard.
Type Build.RebuildSelection in the ‘Show commands containing:’ text box. Then
type in your desired shortcut in the ‘Press shortcut keys:’ text box (mine was
CTRL+B, CTRL+P). Finally, click the Assign button. Apparently
the C# keyboard ma
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November 21, 2006
Cursors are the bane of performance life for me at the moment! I've been looking at rewriting some stored procedures with temp tables and found this article which clarifys things for me a bit more between variable tables and temp tables.
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November 7, 2006
Big talk around this area which I have recently experienced first hand on the project I am on...this article has a great explanation of it. Most definately the way to develop code.
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November 5, 2006
Being having some fun with ClickOnce deployment using Mage and some certificate signing. Found a good article by Brian Noye's discussing this.
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November 5, 2006
I've been looking into Release management and versioning assemblies in .Net 2.0. Joshua shows a good way of using a nant script to do this automatically. Joe's blog explains how you can do this in one location using a SolutionInfo.cs file, but this is not automated on the actual version numbers. I am using CruiseControl currently, I somehow need to integrate the build label in cc.net into the as
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November 2, 2006
Was looking for the quickest way to list all the web servers on a server with their IDs:C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs enum w3svc /p
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October 30, 2006
Saw this on MSDN, has a great list on 10 add ins. Always wondered how people format up code in their blogs...now I have the answer! Also downloaded Firefox 2.0, gotta love the spell checker built in to Input fields in a web page...great for blogging!
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October 23, 2006
Always a handy tip:In Visual Studio Choose "Options..." from the "Tools" menu.
Expand "Source Control" in the treeview.
Click "Visual Studio Team Foundation Server" in the treeview.
Click the "Configure User Tools..." button.
Click the "Add..." button.
Enter ".*" in the "Extension" edit.
Choose "Compare&qu
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October 17, 2006
I've been looking into the Exception Handling Block which is part of the Enterprise Library January 2006. There is a good article on DevX which goes over defining Policies, using the Enterprise Library Logging Block and also Custom Handlers. This article also covers the same thing but in more detail. This MSDN article highlights a use for this with a Critical Errors Database scenario.The diagram
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October 17, 2006
I've been using the new Web Services Factory and am looking into the arguments behind Exception Shielding the internal workings of the Web Service when firing SoapExceptions. Found some great articles from Eric that explain how you can shield but also extract more detail on the errors that happened in the web service.Write a custom ExceptionHandler to expose more details in SoapExceptionAn Excep
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September 25, 2006
Found this article and it's well worth a read...hit some high notes with me and I'm glad I'm on the right track by knowing these things so early on.
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September 18, 2006
Found lots of talk from TFS community about a new Mailing List which Grant Holiday has set up in the East. I've never been a big fan of mailing lists due to the way I use my inbox as a kind of read and archive style approach in GMail or tag to action or await a reply. So unless I feel like reading the mailing list email it kind of either gets archived straight away or deleted. I'm going to be pat
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September 14, 2006
I've been trying to set up my development machine with DotNetNuke 4.3.4 and get it debugging in Visual Studio. I can't find too much documentation on standards for where this should be placed or configurations for new modules or debugging modules within the DNN project.Chris Paterra talks about how there were changes from v3 to v4 in the way the project was structured in Visual Studio based on te
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September 6, 2006
"REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. 14-JUN-2006 Today, in an event hosted by Oracle President, Charles Phillips,
Oracle unveiled plans to help customers and partners more easily control, secure
and manage large volumes of unstructured content. With Oracle(r) Content
Database and Oracle Records Database, organizations can manage the full
information spectrum of structured data and unstructured co
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August 23, 2006
Was reading Steve Sofian's blog on his journey with Hummingbird to IBM Document Manager ingetration and wondering about whether Microsoft will bother to integrate with IBM DM themselves. Hummingbird are making mad efforts to integrate with Sharepoint 2003 and 2007 in the thought that if they integrate, customers won't dump Hummingbird for DM but just use Sharepoint as a Portal.Realistically Share
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August 23, 2006
I've been doing
some .Net 2.0 development with a Web Service to communicate with the DM server
via the COM API. I have written a Class Library which both a Windows Forms app
uses and a Web Service uses. I've deployed these to a standard Windows 2003 SP1
machine and the Windows Form app works, but the Web Service call fails with the
below error:
System.ApplicationException: Error -2147220997
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August 7, 2006
In the last major web application development I worked on we auto generated a whole data layer based on a defined database schema. Microsoft have popped their heads up now with ADO.NET advancements and are offering up their own Entity type objects.Channel9 have got a nice video regarding this and the ADO.NET team blog also has a good introduction to where they are going with this. Thanks to Lee
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June 7, 2006
Not a bad
little site on Enterprise Content Management:
http://www.aiim.org/index.asp
An interesting plug for RedDot CMS too:
http://www.aiim.org/article-docrep.asp?ID=31517
Oh, and if
you were ever confused what ECM is…have a look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_content_managementIt's a shame it has taken M$ Sharepoint 2007 to jump on the band wagon to really get som
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May 23, 2006
Slowly the wheels at M$ are turning now that Sharepoint 2007 release gets closer. There's a good article that's just been published on Sharepoint for CMS 2002 users which clears up a few unanswered questions I had.I'm downloading Vista Beta 2 now and also got Sharepoint 2007 to install on it...lets see what choas I can create!I'd really like to get GrooveServer working to see how they are doing c
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May 15, 2006
I've been looking for some answers around ASP.Net platform over Coldfusion platform. This forum thread is a good start.I'm also looking into discussions regarding Open source vs. Vendor products. There are a lot of discussions around Operating Systems, but not much around Application solutions.Found this FAQ on MCMS thanks to Antony Day.
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May 4, 2006
Having the same problems with passing a Wrapper Class through on a return from a web service:An exception of type 'System.InvalidOperationException' occurred in System.Xml.dll but was not handled in user codeAdditional information: There is an error in XML document (1, 1348).Code compiles correctly and the XML looks fine when I request it directly in the .asmx page! <?xml
version="1.0&
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May 3, 2006
I've had to do a bit of work with integrating Hummingbird DM5 into a .Net 2.0 WSE3 Web Service. I was quite suprised at the lack of developer community around this product and was referred to these Yahoo Groups: HumAPI and Docs open mailing list. I also found this one on Google comp.doc.management.The PDF documentation is very detailed and gives sample code but simple things like how to connect t
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April 9, 2006
I've been following Scott's progress with the Web Application Project (coined WAP) for some time now and after converting my pet project over to ASP.NET 2.0 and finding the problems with the new VS2005 IDE I was greatful for his work! The download is on MSDN.The biggest one for me was definately the locking of .aspx files when in debug mode and the batch compilation it does without the new .desig
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March 28, 2006
Jonathen Hawk has published a great article on ATLAS and creating a mashup with Virtual Earth. I really can't wait to get my hands dirty with ATLAS and get it into my pet site to benefit the community and hopefully pump up some promotion of the site!Australia is still not mapped on VirtualEarth except a few main suburb names, GoogleMaps only has an outline! The USA/UK is mapped on both. VirtualEa
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March 27, 2006
Just found Tim Anderson's blog whilst hunting around for XAML information. Interestingly, M$ are looking at a cross platform solution for XAML, which is a good step forward for M$...they are going that way with all their LIVE products being less dependent on M$ OS...it will be interesting to see how compatible these are in different browsers on different platforms. This blog article also mentions
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March 26, 2006
Found a good set of ASP.NET 2.0 tutorials here, very useful for getting started in the new features available.Still not got my new phone yet, since my last one got stolen! Optus Phone Insurance still haven't got the 02 XDA Atom on their list...even though it is in their stores! I ring up each week and they say "try back in three weeks" or "maybe at the beginning of next month"
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March 22, 2006
M$ have a migration wizard that does the upgrade from 1.1. to 2.0 and it reports on areas it struggles on. I did try this directly with my pet project and it seemed to convert the class files fine. There seem to be a fee issues I think it just comes down to how M$ .Net pure you wrote your application.CodeBetter seemed to have no problems at all with their upgrade. The main advantages are performa
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February 26, 2006
Well, I've been investigating CMS's again and have found quite a few .Net ones lying around on the web.FREE OPEN SOURCEDotNetNukeFREE SHARED SOURCE
AxCMS.NetCOMMERCIALKentico (USD$500 per site)Dozing Dogs (USD$249 per site)ADXStudioDigiMaker (couldn't find licensing on their site!)SiteCore (USD$8,910 per site)ContentXXL (EU4500) QuantumArt Basically found these by digging around blogs, Google and
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