DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by deedee

error "Failed to generate a user instance of SQL Server due to a..."

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:55:18 GMT

Have you ever tried to create a user instance database from Visual Studio on SQL Server 2005 Express (or above) and got this terrible (can it be more confusing?) message: "Failed to generate a user instance of SQL Server due to a failure in starting the process for the user instance. The connection will be closed." If you did and tried to find how to resolve this you probably Googled (or Binged) for hours without being able to find the solution that really works. Well lets put an end to that. Two simple things need to be done...

Ruby inspired C# Extension Methods for natural DateTime operations

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:16:02 GMT

FluentDateTime is a open source library of Ruby inspired C# Extension Methods for easier and more natural DateTime handling and operations in .NET that allows you to write code like this: DateTime.Now + 1.Week() + 3.Days + 14.Minutes(); 3.Days().Ago(); 5.Days().After(new DateTime(2000, 1, 1)); DateTime.Now.NextDay(); DateTime.Now.WeekAfter(); DateTime.Now.Midnight(); DateTime.Now.SetTime(11, 55, 0);

Fun with Empty string.

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:16:27 GMT

Which is the fastest / most readable way to compare to an Empty string?

How to Create a Drag & Drop / Move, Zoom In & Out Content Control

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:46:03 GMT

As the Headline says, I will show you how to make a Drag and Drop / Move Content control. for this example I will use a canvas and an Image. But you can easily make it more generic by using a Content Control instead of the image.

How and when (not) to use Extension Methods in C# and .NET?

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:46:11 GMT

Lets first briefly examine Extension Methods, show some basics usages and then we will tackle some more advanced and concrete examples used to provide fluent, natural DateTime operations (similar to Date and Time operations available in Ruby on Rails).

Load and Play Media Files at Runtime using Silverlight 2

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:16:02 GMT

Sometime back, I had written a similar article Load and Play a Video File at Runtime using Silverlight 2 Beta 2. The article made use of the OpenFileDialog class in Silverlight Beta2 to load files at runtime. There have been quite a few breaking changes from Beta 2 to the final release of Silverlight. One of these changes affects Silverlight 2 application using the OpenFileDialog. In this short article, we will study these changes and explore how to load and play media files at runtime using the OpenFileDialog control using the final release of Silverlight 2.

A Guide to Learning ASP.NET MVC Beta 1

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:31:03 GMT

ASP.NET MVC Beta1 learning guide by Stephen Walther

How to add startup JavaScript code from Content Page to Master Page?

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:12:49 GMT

If you are creating a website that has Master and Content Pages and if you need to add some JavaScript code from your Content pages that should run when the page is loaded you fill find out that its not straightforward. Content page do not have all the elements of HTML page like BODY tag that you could hook up to and add your script code to its onload event...

Add grunge effect to text using simple CSS

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:01:02 GMT

Excellent, as usual, demonstration on how to do something pretty cool-looking using css by janko. Excellent style and idea inside...

Harnessing the Power of Linq2Sqls Delayed Execution

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:01:06 GMT

Short screencasts on harnessing the Power of Linq2Sqls Delayed Execution

How to control ASP.NET Validators ClientSide validation from JScript?

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:10:03 GMT

Recently I needed to disable some ASP.NET RequiredFieldValidator controls on one page depending on the user input. This is trivial you say. But the problem was that this needed to occur instantly on Client Side based on the state of one CheckBox control and not after a full page PostBack. There is a simple way to do this...

Software I can't work without

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:46:10 GMT

I'm about to configure a new development machine this week. It's going to be my 3rd install from scratch in the last 12 months, which I know is not all that much, but certainly more than I wish I had to.

Silverlight 2.0 - Concepts To Become A Silverlight Master (Part 3)

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:16:03 GMT

Part 3 of the Silverlight Master Series focuses on Expression Blend and its importance in the Silverlight design process.

Comparing Multiple SQL Server Datasets with the INTERSECT and EXCEPT

Thu, 15 May 2008 05:43:43 GMT

With SQL Server 2005, Microsoft introduced the INTERSECT and EXCEPT operators to further extend what you could already do with the UNION and UNION ALL operators...

Query Composition using Functional Programming Techniques in C# 3.0

Fri, 16 May 2008 01:01:02 GMT

This stuff is easy. It's also really fun. You don't have to read academic papers to learn about, enjoy, and benefit from functional programming in C# 3.0. There are about half a dozen concepts you need to learn, each one easy. Concepts like just a new way to write a method (that has no name), or a new way to write a static method for a class. Then you put them all together, and the result is more than the sum of the parts.

How to Capitalize the First Letter of All Words in a string in C#

Sat, 10 May 2008 22:01:02 GMT

Often we need to capitalize the first letters of some word or some text (for example when we want to display users name or city name etc). Since string class does not have a method to do this we could think that there is no built-in solution in C# for this problem, but...

How to disable web.config Inheritance for Child Applications?

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:01:02 GMT

Each ASP.NET Web Application has its own configuration file called web.config file. In fact every directory in ASP.NET application can have one. Settings in each web.config file apply to the directory where its placed, and all the subdirectories of that directory. This is called Configuration Inheritance and it can cause serious headaches if you are not fully aware of how it works...

6 free online editors for your asp.net project

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:16:04 GMT

A list of web editors that can be easily embedded in your asp.net projects

Howto get live detailed info about all online visitors of your website

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:16:02 GMT

If you ever had 'Online visitor counter' feature on your website, at some point of time, you have undoubtedly asked yourself: "who are those 17 people that are currently browsing my precious website ?" "What are their IP addresses? When did they come here, what page they first opened and from where did they came from?" Here is the complete tutorial on how to display detailed list of all visitor currently browsing your ASP.NET website.

A .NET Cryptography Primer, part 1

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:01:04 GMT

First in a series of blog posts geared towards .NET developers with not much experience in Cryptography, concentrating more on code than on theory. First installment covers managed/unmanaged and encodings.

Handy list of all JavaScript KeyCodes

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:46:05 GMT

Very often when programming in ASP.NET and ASP.NET AJAX we have to write JavaScript code. When writing JavaScript that interacts with user we have to deal with keyboard events. Here is the list of (almost) all JavaScript KeyCodes we could find:

Observer Pattern Revisited - Events and Delegates

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 02:31:03 GMT

This article shows how to use events and delegates in the .NET Framework to simulate the Observer Design Pattern.

How to easily insert row in GridView with SqlDataSource?

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:33:30 GMT

Asp.Net 2.0 GridView control is very powerful control. Developers at Microsoft really did a great job when designing it. Its like Swiss Army knife for selecting, editing, sorting, paging and displaying data. Combined with various DataSource controls (ObjectDataSource, SqlDataSource) it helps you execute most of your Read, Update and Delete operations without writing a single line of code. Off course, nothing is perfect. For example, creating new data is is one common task that is not so simple to accomplish with GridView. Let see how we can easily insert new rows of data using GridView and SqlDataSource...

How to do Cross Page Postbacks in Asp.Net 2.0 - Tutorial with examples

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:31:51 GMT

Back in the days of ASP.NET 1.x there was no easy way to make post-backs to pages different than the current page (so called Cross Page Postbacks). From Asp.Net 2.0 this is solved with built-in features that allow us to easily send information from one page to another. Lets see how...

How to fix ASP.NET Ajax Rating control jump to top of page bug?

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:53:45 GMT

This little hack shows how to overcome little bug in Asp.Net Ajax Control Toolkit Rating Control that causes focus to jump to the top of page when user clicks on the control to rate some content.