December 2005 - Posts
Cross Page Navigation Techniques A good reference for cross page navigation techniques for both ASP.NET 1.x and 2.0.
NUnit 2.2.5 Released The latest version of NUnit for VS2005 and .NET 2.0 has been released.
Upcoming ASP.NET 2.0 Stuff Scott has a nice compilation of useful ASP.NET 2.0 features that are coming down the pipe.
ASP.NET 2.0 ReadOnly Behavior Change Rick finds a difference in the behavior of ReadOnly controls between 1.1 and 2.0.
ASP.NET 2.0 Control Adapters Scott has points to some good MSDN resources regarding Control Adapter Architecture.
December Atlas CTP Overview of the latest Atlas release.
Windows Vista Task Dialog Great demo of the new Task Dialogs in Vista.
SQL Server 2005 System View Map Very big map showing the system views in SQL Server 2005.
Top Ten UI Development Breakthroughs In WPF Good list of reasons why Windows Presentation Foundation is cool.
ASP.NET for Designers
New section on MSDN dedicated to ASP.NET design.
IASA Web SiteThe Internation Association of Software Architects has launched their website.
Until January 5, 2006, Microsoft is offering a free eLearning module. These are basically three-hour online lessons. They are offering a variety of ASP.NET 2.0 topics. You can select one for free. As long as you register and start the lesson before January 5th, you will have free access to it for 90 days. During that time, you can access the lesson as much as you like. I have never used Microsoft’s eLearning classes, so I don’t know what the level of quality will be.
I just wanted to pass it along in case you are interested
Here is the link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/learning/elearning_promo/
The initial preview of the Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Project Model is now available. However, there are still quite a few bug fixes and features that still need to be added. If you prefer the VS2003 style web project, then this is definitely worth checking out.
Here is a link to ScottGu's Blog for more information: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2005/12/16/433374.aspx
Peter Provost just posted about an MSDN Webcast on January 5, 2006 regarding the integration of Test Driven Development and Pair Programming. It will be presented by Peter Provost and Brad Wilson. As most of my friends and co-workers are aware, I have quickly become a big advocate of TDD within the last month. This would be a great opportunity to learn about the two practices, especially if you are new to the topics.
Don't miss it!
The New Methodology Updated version of Martin Fowler's essay that describes the essentials of Agile Methods.
Reflecting Over Generic Types Some good pointers to keep in mind when using reflection in conjunction with generics.
IE Developer ToolbarVery handy utility for web developers targeting IE
Dictionary vs HashtableFrans Bouma points out some 1.x to 2.0 differences
Select Count(*)Good ole Sahil reminds us about the expense of using Select Count(*)
No SoapFormatter for GenericsFrans Bouma discovers there is no SoapFormatter support for Generic Types
CSS Properties WindowNew utility that adds more support for CSS Design View in VS 2005
ASP.NET 2.0 Disk Based CachingDmitry released a new module to support disk based output caching in ASP.NET 2.0
MIX 06Registration is now open.
After complaining about GoDaddy refusing to alter my server configuration for me to run dasBlog, I did some more digging and noticed they offer a one-click installation of Community Server. My first attempt to get it to run was not successful. However, I saw an obscure note that mentioned hosting any .NET 2.0 applications in your root directory would cause errors with Community Server. So, I moved my only .NET 2.0 application into a virtual directory beneath the root of my site and voilà...it is working.
I haven't really tinkered any with Community Server previously, but so far I am really impressed. There is a lot of "out of the box" functionality. It is hard to believe that this is only the free community license. From what I read, it sounds like the full version adds even more cool features.
I have a few more settings to work through and still want to customize the CSS for the site. However, I am finally getting close to start the Test Driven Development series that I mentioned in my last post. Hopefully, I should have the first article posted by the end of the week. It will serve as an introduction to the topic and the rest of the series will drill down into more detail.
After going three rounds with
GoDaddy over the permissions for
dasBlog, I am throwing in the towel. It turns out that the .NET Security Policy for my server has completely disabled file read/write access via the CLR. This causes a small problem for
dasBlog since it is an XML file-based blogging engine. I politely and very specifically described the problem and requested that this be corrected. However, they refuse to modify the .NET Security Policy. In addition, they won't set permissions for the ASPNET user account to have read/write access to the specific folders for my site.
They maintain that it is against their policy to customize permissions on a shared server. I find this odd considering that
Todd Miranda's Blog is also hosted by
GoDaddy using
dasBlog and it works just fine. However, I am running ASP.NET 2.0 on my site, but Todd is still running ASP.NET 1.1. This could be part of the problem. (And, yes...I have
dasBlog configured correctly for 2.0)
GoDaddy recommended that I use their Custom Directory Permission utility to grant any necessary privileges for my application. However, this utility is used to grant read/write access for anonymous users. I don't really want to give everyone on the web permission to write to my blog directory. In any case, I won't be converting over to
dasBlog in the immediate future. I am debating on whether I want to upgrade to a Virtual Dedicated Server or try a different blogger that uses SQL Server for a data store...or worse yet, write my own (like I have the time).
Despite this incident, I still recommend
GoDaddy as a hosting provider. I haven't found anyone that can compete with the amount of space/bandwidth they offer at a very reasonable price. As long as you can tolerate customer service that insists on reading from their Standard Question Response Card, it really isn't that bad.
Within the next few days, I will be starting a series of posts about Test Driven Development. This is something that is buzzing in the development community lately and I have really started to develop an interest in it.
It seems that my web host is having some issues with
dasBlog. There seems to be some permissions that I don't have access to grant. I have submitted a support ticket to get it resolved. When the application attempts to read Site.Config, I am getting a .NET Security Exception. According to the documentation, the ASP.NET worker process needs read/write access to the SiteConfig folder, which contains the Site.Config file. The same goes for the content and logs folders as well. Hopefully, granting read/write access will resolve the problem.
Until then, blogger will continue to get the job done.
Well, it has been about a month since I posted anything. I have decided to make a conscious effort to blog some useful information at least one a week. For now, I will have to settle for plugging
dasBlog. It is a pretty cool open source blogging framework that is based on .NET 1.1 and written in C#. I am getting it setup on the site and will be converting my blog over to use it very soon.
Disclaimer:The opinions and views expressed within this blog are solely my own and do not represent those of my employer or anyone else.