DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by dwahlin

Pushing Data to a Silverlight Client with Sockets: Part I

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:53:20 GMT

Silverlight 2 has built-in support for sockets which creates some interesting possibilities. If you've ever worked on a client-side application that needed to receive up-to-date data then you're probably used to solving the problem by polling. With polling the client contacts the server on a consistent, timed basis to see if any updates are available. ASP.NET AJAX provides a Timer control that makes this process easy and straightforward.

Silverlight 2 Networking Options

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:38:12 GMT

In addition to the request/response features built into Silverlight 2 you can also use sockets to communicate and exchange data.

Managing ASP.NET Dev, Staging and Production Connection Strings

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 01:00:45 GMT

If you work with a large number of applications then you know what a pain it can be to manage multiple web.config files and multiple connection strings for development, staging/test, and production databases. This article discusses an alternative that allows connection strings to be consolidated into a single file that can be shared across mutliple applications. It also shows how connection strings can be loaded dynamically based upon a URL which can greatly simplify getting correct connection strings for dev, staging, and production databases.

Video How To: Getting Started with Subversion and Source Control

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:26:04 GMT

In this video "how to" you'll see the steps required to install and configure Subversion to control your source code revisions and check code in and out using TortoiseSVN.

How To: Create an ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit Extender to Extend the GridView

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:31:02 GMT

This article provides a step by step guide to creating a custom ASP.NET AJAX extender control based upon functionality in the ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit. The tutorial covers creating the JavaScript file, embedding it in an assembly, and referencing it from a server-side control. The end result is an extender control that can freeze a GridView header and allow for scrolling of rows.

Setting up and running Subversion and Tortoise SVN

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:46:02 GMT

A quick walkthrough of setting up and configuring SubVersion with Tortoise SVN and getting started creating repositories, adding files and folders, creating local copies and working with SVN.

Video: First Look at Visual Studio .NET 2008 and the LinqDataSource

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 06:31:02 GMT

This video tutorial provides an introductory look at VS.NET 2008 and shows a few new features such as multi-targeting, split view, and the LinqDataSource control.

Album Viewer with Silverlight and ASP.NET AJAX

Wed, 02 May 2007 05:01:01 GMT

The Amazon.com AlbumViewer application originally written using WPF/E has been updated to use Microsoft's latest Silverlight release along with ASP.NET AJAX. The application can be viewed live online and all of the source code is available.

Custom ASP.NET Server Controls with Embedded JavaScript

Wed, 02 May 2007 13:16:01 GMT

This article discusses how JavaScript can be embedded in custom ASP.NET server controls and output efficiently. It provides a good introduction to using WebResource.axd, WebResourceAttribute and the ClientScriptManager.

The Power of Anonymous Methods in C#

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:46:02 GMT

Anonymous methods are a new feature in C# 2.0 that allow you to hook an action directly to an event as opposed to having a separate event handler. They can also be used anytime a method accepts a delegate as a parameter. This article provides a glimpse into how anonymous methods can be used in C#.

Simple ASP.NET 2.0 Tips and Tricks

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 12:31:01 GMT

This article provides a list of some of the most simple (yet cool) things you can do with ASP.NET 2.0 that require little or no C#/VB.NET code.

Video: Binding Data to ASP.NET 2.0 Server Controls

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 10:16:01 GMT

This video tutorial demonstrates how data can be bound to ASP.NET server controls using the SqlDataSource. It covers using control parameters, how stored procedures or inline SQL statements can be used, and how controls can be embedded inside of other controls such as the DetailsView by using templates.

Video: Calling Web Services Asynchronously with ASP.NET

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 07:29:17 GMT

This video tutorial walks you through the fundamentals of calling Web Services asynchronously from an ASP.NET page using the .NET 2.0 event driven model exposed by Web Service proxy objects. There are several different options for calling Web Services asynchronously including polling, callbacks and wait handles, but the event driven model is quite easy to use and does not put as much pressure on the ASP.NET thread pool as the other options.

Video: Creating Web Services with the .NET Framework

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:16:01 GMT

The video discusses how to create a Web Service from scratch using the .NET framework and also discusses some of the pros and cons that you should know about.

WPF/E and ASP.NET AJAX AlbumViewer Application Now Live

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:01:01 GMT

Back in December I released a sample application that demonstrated how WPF/E and ASP.NET AJAX could be integrated to view albums returned from an Amazon.com Web Service in a simulated 3D type view. I finally made some time to get the application running live so feel free to take it for a spin.

Video: Creating an N-Layer ASP.NET Application

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 13:31:01 GMT

In this video tutorial Dan Wahlin walks you through the fundamentals of creating an N-Layer ASP.NET application. This includes creating presentation, business, data and model layers.

Video: Creating a Service with Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 12:01:01 GMT

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF - part of .NET 3.0) provides a robust framework that allows Web Services and .NET Remoting applications to be built and consumed using a consistent object model. In this video tutorial Dan Wahlin walks through the fundamentals of creating a WCF service exposed through HTTP and IIS. Topics covered include defining a data contract using XSD schemas, generating data entity code using svcutil.exe, creating a service interface, implementing a service interface and consuming a service through a client-side proxy.

Video: Creating Custom Events and Delegates with C#

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:31:01 GMT

It's no secret that events and delegates play a crucial role in the .NET framework. Without them it would be hard to handle user input or notify other objects when an action occurs. In this video Dan Wahlin outlines the fundamentals of creating a custom class that exposes an event and a delegate. The video also demonstrates how to create a custom EventArgs class and how events can be consumed using C#.

Video: Viewing Albums with WPF/E and ASP.NET AJAX

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 09:01:02 GMT

In this video Dan Wahlin show's an album viewer application that demonstrates how to tie ASP.NET AJAX and WPF/E together to display content to users in a more visual manner. Source code for the application is available.

Video: Using XPath with the XmlDocument Class

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:01:02 GMT

In this video tutorial I walk through how to use XPath statements to parse an RSS feed and display results using the XmlDocument class.

Video: Parsing XML with the XmlDocument Class

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 13:31:02 GMT

In this video tutorial Dan Wahlin walks you through the fundamentals of using the XmlDocument class in .NET to parse an RSS feed and display results.

Video: Debugging ASP.NET AJAX Applications with VS.NET 2005

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:01:01 GMT

Debugging is a key skill that every developer has to learn to become productive. However, how do you debug ASP.NET AJAX applications and client-side JavaScript? In this video tutorial Dan Wahlin walks through a few required steps to enable debugging and shows how to use tools such as the Script Explorer to simplify the process.

Video: Calling Web Services using ASP.NET AJAX and JavaScript

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 09:01:03 GMT

ASP.NET AJAX provides several different ways to call Web Services including JavaScript, XML Script and the AutoCompleteExtender. In this video tutorial Dan Wahlin shows how to call Web Services using JavaScript. Topics covered include creating a Web Service, applying the ScriptService attribute, creating a client-side JavaScript proxy and calling a Web Service using JavaScript and callbacks.

ASP.NET AJAX, Windows Mobile 5, Bluetooth GPS and Virtual Earth

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 13:31:01 GMT

There's a lot of fun stuff that can be built using the .NET framework. The sample application discussed here demonstrates how to use ASP.NET AJAX with Web Services, the .NET Compact Framework V2 with bluetooth GPS to track positioning and Virtual Earth APIs to map the GPS coordinates. Screenshoots are included to see how the Web application looks.

Free Copies of Vista Business and Office 2007 Professional

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 09:01:02 GMT

Microsoft just launched several Webcasts that provide details on Windows Vista and Office 2007. Watch 3 and get a free copy of Vista Business and/or Office 2007 Professional. Sounds like a good deal for getting some free training on the new products.