DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by CraigStuntz

Suspicious DNK Accounts

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:31:29 GMT

Conclusion There is an incentive for publishers that use DNK to setup phony accounts that will help get stories from certain domains on the front page. So guess what happens ... it would appear that a certain number of people are doing this.

Is WCF the Death of .NET?

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:12:17 GMT

I had the good fortune to attend the PDC pre-conference and was able to attend a day-long WCF session with Juval Lowy and Ron Jacobs. Juval went first and spoke for most of the day. Juval has been working closely with Microsoft for quite some time, and his COM(+) roots were showing big time. Essentially, Juval is of the opinion that WCF is a .NET killer and should be the way ALL applications are written from here on it. As Juval has extensive expertise with COM, I think he tends to see everything in terms of that model, and he may have a point. As a result, he made the bold statement in the pre-conf session of referring to WCF as a .NET killer. While I'm not prepared to follow Juval in claiming .NET dead at the hands of WCF, he makes some good points. If you think of the communication between objects in a system analogous to the communication of services in an architecture, WCF provides some cool abilities that the traditional model in .NET does not.

Mocking ASP.NET MVC HtmlHelper using Moq

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:26:19 GMT

HtmlHelper is used quite frequently in ASP.MVC. It has a number of dependencies, so testing the numerous extension methods on it (both default, and added) can make for some ugly code. This simple code sample shows how to mock out the dependencies (ViewContext for one) using Moq.

jQuery ajax with asp.net mvc preview 5

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:31:10 GMT

How to use the AjaxHelpers in preview 5 with jQuery as the ajax engine

Tips & Tricks: Use DebuggerDisplayAttribute for easier debugging

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:01:02 GMT

When debugging, it's common to hover over an object to get a quick view of what its properties are. This is where DebuggerDisplayAttribute comes in. The format string looks similar to normal .NET format strings in that the values to replace are between curly braces, but instead of being told what to substitute the debugger treats these values as expressions and attempts to evaluate them using the current context.

Sending Email in a Development Environment without an SMTP Server

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:46:02 GMT

Very handy... I'm forever looking this stuff up :-|

Expose New Linq Operations from the HashSet<T> Performance Monster

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:46:02 GMT

Linq is not just about databases. It's about reading the registry, your hard-disk, or even a list of function pointers to be invoked. Linq is about more event then sets (collections). It's about making tasks easier in many cases and vastly more powerful (and most importantly your code more readable and maintainable at the same time). It's astounding just how fast the HashSet<T> collection is. This post will show how to gain additional power that is fully supported from Microsoft which is often overlooked, yet it can solve some of the hardest problems (especially around performance however don't prematurely optimize!). Linq, HashSet, ORM, NHibernate, Linq to NHibernate, Linq Undocumented, Functional Programming, .NET 3.5

Using the ASP.NET MVC ModelBinder attribute

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:31:02 GMT

ASP.NET MVC action methods can be developed using regular method parameters. In earlier versions of the ASP.NET MVC framework, these parameters were all simple types like integers, strings, booleans, . When required, a method parameter can be a complex type like a Contact with Name, Email and Message properties. This blog post shows you how to use the ModelBinder attribute which allows ASP.NET MVC action methods to accept complex types.

Form validation with ASP.NET MVC preview 5

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:31:02 GMT

In earlier ASP.NET MVC previews, form validation was something that should be implemented "by hand". Since the new ASP.NET MVC preview 5, form validation has become more handy. Let me show you how you can add validation in such a ridiculously easy manner.

ASP.NET MVC P5 released on Codeplex

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:16:12 GMT

Keeping on with the 6 weeks release plan, the ASP.NET MVC team quietly release P5 of ASP.NET MVC on Codeplex.

Dear Asp.Net Developers: Stop Making Our Technology Look Bad

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:01:11 GMT

Have you ever tried to use one browser and one browser only? This article outlines how impossible it can be even in 2008 to do. There are countless public facing Asp.Net web sites that require Internet Explorer. The perception and impact this has on the non Asp.Net community is something developers need to think about. It is an interesting read that provides a lot of insight into the problem and some ways to fix it.

Bad advice on exceptions from Joel

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:46:02 GMT

Starting from some comments on my exception handling series of articles I run into a couple of blogs pointing to this post on joelonsoftware.com. I think this is the worst advice on exception handling I have ever read, sorry Joel. I know this is an old post, I know Joel is entitled to his own opinion and I know he has the right to write his code as he sees fit. But as an opinion leader he influences others.

Starting with jQuery - Effects

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 09:31:09 GMT

This is second post in a string of posts where I chronicle my adventure in learning jQuery from having no previous experience with the framework. This week, we look at basic animation effects that affect an element's visibility that are available "out of the box" with jQuery.

7 principles of clean and optimized CSS code

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:01:02 GMT

With the popularity of CSS layouts and JavaScript-enriched web page experiences, it's not uncommon, particularly for large sites, for the CSS files alone to grow in size, but there are some principles to consider during and after you write your CSS to help keep it tight and optimized. Optimization isn't just minimizing file size - it's also about being organized, clutter-free, and efficient. You'll find that the more knowledge you have about optimal CSS practices, smaller file size will inevitably come as an direct result of their implementation. You may already be familiar with some of the principles mentioned in this article, but they are worth a review. Being familiar with this concepts will help you write optimized CSS code and make you a better all-around web designer.

Implementing a Repository and Specificaiton pattern using Linq

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:31:03 GMT

In my previous post I put down some thoughts on the Repository and Specification patterns and in the end said that with the introduction of Linq and the growing popularity of ORM frameworks and their support for Linq, it's time to look back at these two patterns and see how we can leverage Linq to simplify the patterns and make them infrastructure agnostic.

Enabling Javascript Intellisense In External Libraries

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:01:10 GMT

To get JavaScript IntelliSense working in VS 2008 SP1, you need to tell IntelliSense the location of the libraries that you're using. You do that by adding a special comment at the top of the .js file. Here's How..

Filters in ASP.NET MVC Preview 4

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:31:02 GMT

In CodePlex Preview 4 of ASP.NET MVC, we split out our action filters into four types of filters, each of which is an interface. To write a custom filter, you simply need to create an attribute that also implements one of the four interfaces I mentioned.

How to easily enhance your existing tables with simple CSS

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:01:02 GMT

A detailed example of how to use CSS to style an HTML table. The example is specifically focused on styling a table generated on the client-side via AJAX, but is applicable to any HTML table.

What's new for Entity Framework in the VS 2008 SP1?

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:58:49 GMT

Between the Visual Studio 200 SP1 beta and RTM , there are a number of fixes and even a few new things to be found. What's in ADO.NET? Check out this list for what's new in the Entity Framework and Entity Designer.

ASP.NET Browsers Filter!!

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:16:03 GMT

Yesterday .NET SP1 released and many new features for ASP.NET where added. But yesterday i also discovered a feature that ASP.NET has from version 2.0 Let's say we have a button. We can decide what value will the properties have for different browsers!!! And we can do that with this way...

SQL Server 2008 Installation Confusion, VS 2008 Sp1 and NetFx 3.5 Sp1

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:36:34 GMT

Clear as Mud? I try...

JSON Serializers in .NET - not there yet

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:01:02 GMT

.NET Framework 3.5 provides a couple of choices for JSON Serialization and Deserialization. Find out how you can use them and also some of the problems that both of these tools impose.

Utilizing Ninject with ASP.NET MVC Framework

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:55:36 GMT

A in depth article about how to use Ninject with ASP.NET MVC...

Combining jQuery Validation with ASP.NET MVC

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:31:02 GMT

See how the jQuery Validation plugin can be used with the MVC framework to validate all the inputs in a form before it is submitted to the controller.

AJAX Panels with ASP.NET MVC

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:27:47 GMT

ASP.NET MVC Preview 4 brought a bit of AJAX support, which is a natural fit for the MVC design pattern. This article will show how incredibly easy it is to create "lazy loading AJAX panels" with ASP.NET MVC.