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On the Road to iTextFileResult: Getting the Results from System.Web.MVC.WebFormViewEngine
I’m in the process of building a new ActionResult for ASP.NET MVC. This new ActionResult will allow you to transform data into a PDF, RTF, or HTML (it uses iTextSharp behind the scenes, and yes, I have a working prototype right now that isn’t all that useful yet.. and you have to know way too much in order to use it as of this time).
Essentially what I want to do is use any view engine that the programmer chooses and convert the resulting html, xml, or regular string data into a file that gets pushed to the browser. All this...
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jQuery-UI visual studio intellisense (vsdoc) file
If you’ve ever tried to use jQuery UI with Visual Studio, you’ve run into a JavaScript parse error and you lose JavaScript intellisense in Visual Studio. I wasn’t exactly sure of the issue until I read someone’s advice (who was just trying to get the datepicker working) to simply include a dummy jquery-datepicker-vsdoc.js file. So I did this for the jquery-ui.js file and lo and behold, no JavaScript parsing errors, and I had intellisense for everything EXCEPT jQuery UI.
Anyway, I dug around and couldn’t find one… so I created the beginnings of one. What you get is very core level...
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Better JavaScript class generation
For years, I have been espousing how great Script# is. I often do an advanced MS ASP.NET Ajax client talk and end it with a Script# talk. Mainly because I think that the idea of learning the nuances of JavaScript OO techniques can be a little confusing. It’s really the challenge (All you need to do is search the archives of my blog and you’ll see my own confusion on this topic).
I think many web developers can wrap their heads around building the functionality, but making something private/public/static can get a little confusing. Especially if you are used to using...
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Using the Ajax control toolbox with jQuery (and ASP.NET MVC)
[Here’s a preview of something I’m going to show Thursday night at the Tampa MVC group.]
You may have thought that by jumping on ASP.NET MVC that you have to leave behind all the cool Ajax Control Toolbox controls.. or more than likely you realize that it’s possible to use them, but one has to be a “JavaScript Rocket Scientist” to use them..
It’s really not, but you do need a couple things to use them.. First of all go here (Bertrand Le Roy’s blog) and pick up the jQuery plugin that let’s you instantiate MS Ajax Behaviors. Next go here to...
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The two ways one writes JavaScript code..
I think sometimes in the past I have been guilty in my presentation on JavaScript (JS) of not defining for myself who my audience is. Actually I know that I’ve done a poor job of this. You see there are 2 ways to write JavaScript code. Something that I knew, but recently realized the importance of.
OO Baby
If you are building your own controls then you are all about building things in an OO manner because it helps you in the areas on manageability. You may or may not be testing your components with automated/unit test tools...
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Client-side Scripting 101 Part 2: JavaScript OOP Basics
[Sorry this took so long to get out… I have been distracted by Windows 7 and am working between 2 OS’ on 1 machine… Win7 is now my primary OS and I didn’t have this post here… that and I’m now twittering doesn’t help either] Ok, since in the first version of my last article I referenced the "prototype" property, it felt natural to begin by talking about JavaScript OOP basics. Now, I’m not going to try to define all the terms that usually get associated with the type of OOP used in JavaScript ("JS" hereafter). I want to...
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"Subsonic" for Services found: Subsonic 3 + ADO.NET Data Services (Astoria)
About a month ago if you asked me what was big in my dev world (in other words what are you looking for). I would have promptly told you that I was looking for the "Subsonic" of services. In other words I wanted to create a database and hook a connection string and have everything generated for me... I want drop dead simple.
Astoria was as close as I could get, but it didn’t quite achieve what I was looking for. Don’t get me wrong, it’s easy enough. I’m just not sure what I think of EF yet which is...
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PDC2008: Reactions to ASP.NET 4.0 upcoming features presentation
I’m listening/watching this video on Channel9 which is on the ASP.NET 4.0 preview. Scott Hunter is the main presenter (at least at the beginning). This will probably be a little different of a post by me... Web Forms Did he say "HTML Standards Compliant?" (cool!) ClientIDs will be controlled by us (no more mangling... Hurray!) Moving away from table-based controls and using CSS2 adapters (sort of... invisibly) URL Routing (yawn... We have this...
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Tampa UX (TUX) First Meeting Tomorrow Night (Sept. 10th, 2008)!
Since we are still waiting on the website to go live (it will be at http://www.tampaux.org once the files get copied up), here’s some detailed info on the TUX meeting tomorrow ay 6:30 (for food) with the actual meeting starting around 7:00pm (we should be done around 9:00pm) Here’s Answers Systems (where we’re meeting) on Virtual Earth That address is 4029 Tampa Rd, Oldsmar, FL 34677-3206. Basically, if you are coming from Tampa, take Hillsborough Ave. to Oldsmar. We’re the bullding (on the same side of the street) just past the McDonald’s that...
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Writing Better JS Components
Perry (my boss... a developer/manager... he codes and manages) and I have been having a recurring conversation lately. One that keeps bringing to my mind a product that I knew about when I worked for ZAC Catalogs (way back in the day). I would daresay that none of you had even heard of it (although we did pick it up as a result of Xtras carrying it, so maybe a few of you knew about it). I believe it was a called "MFC DataGrid Wizard" or something like that. Anyway what it did was build a custom DataGrid component for...
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MS MVC Thoughts
[NOTE: I haven’t quite had much of a chance to look at the new Preview 4, so take this as someone nearly informed. I haven’t read about anything in the Preview 4 that changes what I’m going to say. Also, remember that I am the admin/editor of the blog site which is Alt Alt.NET... so testability/mockabilty doesn’t really resonate with me.] I know it’s shocking that I would have something to weigh in on MS MVC, but I do. For those who don’t know. I took some issue with Ayende’s "leaky abstraction" back in my CodeBetter days (they had...
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Tampa User eXperience (TUX) User Group is coming September 10th, 2008…
I am proud to announce that I and a couple other guys are starting User Group that revolves around User Experience (or UX) in the MS tools eco-system. The other guys are Shawn Cady, Perry Panagopoulos, and Bill Reiss (MVP) [Bill always gets his MVP props].
I could give you all their backgrounds, but I’ll make them do it at the first meeting. I’m sure Papa Fish (aka www.devfish.net) the local MS Dev Evangelist (my Blog Father) Joe Healy will be around (at least for the first meeting).
TUX' Focus
Our focus will be on the "now" of Ajax and how it...
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Types of Silverlight2 apps
I want to go on record for a prediction. I believe when the dust settles with Silverlight2 (SL2, hereafter), we will have 2 major types of apps. To me this is fairly obvious, but if all you did was look at SL2 tutorials you would get a different view altogether. You see all the tutorials that exist out there show you what I think is the preferred way: a single application that lives in the browser as a plugin. I also see another SL2 type of app: the SL2 enhanced Ajax App. Seriously, there will be those who will...
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An Answer to my post for young programmers
My good buddy (actually my best friend from High School), "The Witt" complained that I wasn’t being helpful to programmers who are trying to learn the craft when I posted two weekends ago on "A Question you should ask when hiring a non-entry level developer." (OK, he wasn’t the only one... but, hey, we have a history, so he can get me to post a response, and you can’t... deal...) I decided that our subsequent conversation in email would make a good followup post for those who want to know what they should be doing, and with his...
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To Cache, To Static, or To Session "When?" is the question
DonXML has an interesting article over here that got me thinking about a technique I have been using for years now, and I’m not sure I’ve seen much written about it. The basic tenet begins like this: I avoid session like the plague (not sure why except I have visions of some abuses I have seen... like full DataTable’s stored in session). The only time and I mean the ONLY TIME I use Session is if I have a value that needs to be associated with a user across the WHOLE site. As a result I really try to...
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Cool ScriptManager stuff I missed...
So the last week or so I have been doing some heavy handed UpdatePanel development (stuff where I needed to fix an existing form that needs help to support an UpdatePanel or stuff where I needed to do something special while the page was posting back asyncronously).
In the midst I discovered some cool mechanisms that I missed!
For instance you can determine whether the current request is an async request by doing something like this:
1: ScriptManager sm = ScriptManager.GetCurrent(Page);
2: if (sm != null && sm.IsInAsyncPostBack)
3: {
4: ...
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Script#: Events/Delegates in an Atlas/MS Ajax style script
First of all if you don’t know what Script# is, it is a C# language variant available in VS2005/2008. The difference is that it can be used to create JavaScript. The compiler produces an assembly (usable in other Script# projects) and a set of JS files (a release and a debug version). Nikhil Kothari (the author) also has 2 script frameworks you can target: Nikhil’s framework, and the "Atlas"/MS Ajax (aka MS ASP.NET Ajax) framework. There are difference in what you can do when using the "Atlas" framework. Event Limitations Let me start with a quote...
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Silverlight2 Programming: The Designer Rule
I’m starting a new series on Silverlight2. I am currently building a little SL2 prototype, and as I am learning things I thought I would write them down here. The first rule deals with working with Designers. It is stated as such. "Prefer XAML code to CLR/DLR code when it comes building interfaces" Note the word "prefer" here. That word means "usually", "normally", or "unless there is an exception." This is best explained by some C# code I saw the other day. It looked something like this: ...
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Necessary Evil??
I want to write today about the 300lb Gorilla that none of us really wants to talk about. I'm talking about the people we use to find new jobs. As you may be aware I closed down IntraDynamics, LLC (well, I have greatly curtailed my company's offerings),and got a new job (at Answers Systems, Inc.)
I was "exchanging notes" with my new boss regarding the process and discovered some things (none of this is surprising, but you may want to think about it next time you are pursuing a new job).
I had two recruiters that were aware of my interview...