The Liverpool .Net User Group is officially formed! Join fellow .Net enthusiasts in the Liverpool area for discussions on all things .Net. Visit our website at http://www.usersof.net/ or join our Google group at http://groups.google.co.uk/group/liverpoolusersofdotnet to connect with other members and stay updated on upcoming meetings. The next meeting is scheduled for April 17th, 2008 - http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/454169/. We encourage everyone interested in .Net to join us!
DevWeek Conference Day 1: Jeff Prosise's keynote covered the history of web programming, from CGI to ASP.NET AJAX and WPF/E. While I enjoyed his talk, I would've preferred more focus on the future. The "Attack and Defense" session was disappointing, lacking depth compared to available online resources. David Wheeler's "Practical Patterns" was a highlight, with clear explanations and code examples of design patterns. The vendor presence was smaller than expected. Infragistics showcased promising XAML controls, while TechExcel impressed with their enthusiasm and software demo. Other vendors, like NAG and the Enterprise Architect distributors, could have been more engaging.
Arrived at DevWeek 2007 last night. Looking forward to the keynote by Jeff Prosise on ASP.NET AJAX and then attending architect track sessions on securing ASP.NET 2.0 apps and practical patterns in .NET. Hoping to post summaries if internet access allows.
Check out my colleague Phil Calver's new site, www.whatsatthetop.com, a Top 10 Retail Mashup built with ASP.Net 2.0 and Web parts. It pulls data from sites like Amazon, CNet, and Booksense. Phil's looking for feedback, so let him know what you think! Share any suggestions or ideas for charts you'd like to see at webmaster@whatsatthetop.com.
I've decided to create iforgive.eu, a C# ASP.Net 2.0 sample site, and document the entire process on my blog. This includes design, development, refactoring, and even my mistakes! I'll begin by outlining the site's purpose, planning its design, and employing a TDD approach. Follow along as I build this site from the ground up!
I've been busy with side projects lately, so the blog has been quiet. One project should be released this week. Another is a .Net 2.0/ASP.Net 2.0 hosted site for examples from this blog (and to help me learn .Net). It's behind schedule, but will eventually host controls, tutorials, etc. More info soon on the first project. And, btw, the FIELDSET tag is awesome!
I'm excited to share (even though it's old news) that all Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions (Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual J#, Visual C++, and Visual Web Developer Express) are now permanently free! This is a game-changer for aspiring developers, opening up access to powerful tools for Windows and ASP.Net development. While there are some limitations (like only one project per solution), the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. Check out the official announcement and some cool new tools!
While ASP.NET 2.0 offers improvements and reduces code in certain areas, it's not a magic solution that eliminates all development challenges. It doesn't significantly impact the time spent on data access and business logic layers, despite the addition of new server controls. Although there are aspects I dislike, such as personalization, it's worth exploring further.
This post is a follow-up to my earlier one about using SOAP requests in ASP.Net to access the eBay API. I've finally figured out how to make it work! A few key things to note: most requests need the "version" attribute, some require the "DetailLevel" attribute, and you'll need an eBay Authentication Token (a cryptographic hash) for security. When using the WSDL URL, remember to include query string parameters so eBay knows what to do. I've included some sample C# code demonstrating how to build the request URL, set credentials, and handle the response.
This post explains AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) and its use in .NET. AJAX allows web pages to update small sections without reloading the entire page, improving user experience. Traditional ASP.NET (1.x) struggles with this as it's designed to reload entire pages. However, .NET's flexible request pipeline allows plugins/HTTPHandlers to manage AJAX requests, enabling developers to execute specific methods within a page. The post lists several .NET AJAX frameworks, including AjaxPro, Arshad.NET, and AjaxAspects, and points readers to ajaxpatterns.org for more options.
I'm exploring the eBay API using ASP.NET and SOAP. It's proving a bit cumbersome due to its monolithic structure. Ideally, each API call would have its own WSDL and SOAP interface for easier management. Currently, I'm stuck on generating a User Token for authentication, having tried my developer account, regular eBay account, and a new account without success. Any advice on obtaining a User Token would be greatly appreciated!
This post discusses how to determine a user's locale in C#. For ASP.NET applications, the Request.UserLanguages array provides the user's preferred languages, with the first element being the primary locale. This can be used to set the thread's culture using CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture(). In Windows Forms or services, the current culture can be accessed via Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture and several properties like TwoLetterISOLanguageName or DisplayName allow retrieval of locale information.
I'm really interested in ATLAS (AJAX), but I need to prioritize my time. I can't afford to get sidetracked by this project right now, especially since it's not .Net-based and my current work focuses on .Net.
Microsoft's Start.com has launched a new developer API, possibly using the ATLAS framework (precursor to ASP.NET AJAX). It seems to focus on creating JavaScript-based "Gadgets," similar to RSS consumers, that need to be hosted on a server. The API also requires enabling cross-domain data sources in Internet Explorer, a topic I've discussed previously.
During the development of a custom IHttpModule, it's important to be aware of the timing of context access. Avoid accessing HttpContext properties directly within the Init method, as the context isn't fully initialized yet. Instead, handle events like BeginRequest. Within those event handlers, the HttpContext object provided will be fully populated, allowing access to properties such as HttpMethod, QueryString, and Form.
I've been pondering an ASP.Net security concern: while it blocks potentially harmful querystring characters by default, turning this off puts the onus of validation on developers. I'm exploring the idea of a declarative approach to query parameter validation, where developers define predicates (like data types) for expected parameters within the Page Class definition itself. This could simplify validation and ensure data is HTML-safe before reaching the developer. This would streamline validation compared to using custom validators. I'm considering the benefits and implementation details of such an approach.
