March 2006 Blog Posts
Here's an interesting thing I came across.
Create a form, put some text boxes with required field validators on it. Have a list bound by ObjectDataSource.
Now drop a couple buttons on it, one button to add an item to the list. The other button to go to the next form and should have causesvalidation = false.
Because we want to make sure they add at least one thing to the list before they go to the next form, set the visible=false property on the next button. Set it to true in the ObjectDataSource Selected event if the items returned has count > 0.
Go...
I come across situations like this all the time. Literally 70% of the project work I've done has been spent coming in after failed efforts and fixing things. Now, while I like this superhero type feeling it gives me, I would like to pass on a challenge to all you developers out there.
Start with clarity, then refactor to patterns. Keep it simple, stupid.
The most common causes I see for the WTFs I find in the wild are:
Not understanding the toolset you are given.
Trying hard for something "pure" or "elegant" in the OO sense without having the experience to do it properly.
If you...
So I've been toying with the new object datasource in our new pet insurance quoting engine we are building and I must say that even though I started with a very wary feeling thanks to Sahil, this control is really growing on me.
The basic scenario in this exercise is that users are filling out a form with pet information that I want to display in a 3 column datalist with a button in the data to remove a pet they have already added. I wanted to leverage the ObjectDataSource calling a method that provided a generic list of QuotePet objects. ...
So we had an issue recently where a bit of code that we do not have the source for and is obfusticated (grr) was making a series of inserts and updates to the database that were causing some issues elsewhere.
Being that it was a many stepped process we weren't sure what the impact would be or even what all it was changing.
Solution: Take a backup of the database, make a copy of it, run the code routine, then fire up Red-Gate's Data Compare tool to quickly find what was modified!
So I received my new winbook A730 which happens to have the AMD Turion 64 processor in it. The workplace decided to use me as a test subject for windows xp 64 and I've been into it for a week so I figured I'd blog the results.
Finding all the 64 bit drivers for my hardware was somewhat of a chore, but we were able to find everything except the drivers for the card reader which is a texas instruments model and the video card driver for the radeon isn't the same generation as the one in the laptop but it...
How's that for a title? I am trying to get a the maxinum number of hits for the keywords I'd use on Google for this one since it wasn't all that straightforward.
Let's say you are using the object datasource to return a generic list of address objects. Inside the address object is a "subobject" called address type which has properties of description and id.
The question is, since the gridview's list of available columns doesn't drill into the subobject, how do I display the description property on AddressType?
The answer lies within the template column. <minirant>Template columns are a favorite of mine...
Being a "web guy" I tend to have very little if any dealings with printing solutions so naturally I have to turn to the codebetter community.
Looking for a print server type solution that does the following:
Allows templates to be set up in a variety of formats (word, excel, pdf, whatever) that support sending in detail information in a standard format be it delimited or xml
Manages the storing of the information sent in so that a record is kept of what was printed when, allow viewing and reprinting.
Have a nice clean interface to be called from other programs to start batch...