DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by swalther

Essential Visual Studio Tips & Tricks that Every Developer Should Know

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:01:02 GMT

In this blog entry, Stephen Walther lists the essential tips and tricks that every developer who uses Visual Studio 2008 should know. The list is kept brief. The list focuses on only those tips and tricks that can be used on a daily basis. Almost all of these tips and tricks are just as useful regardless of whether you are building an ASP.NET Web Forms or ASP.NET MVC application.

A Guide to Learning ASP.NET MVC Beta 1

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:31:03 GMT

ASP.NET MVC Beta1 learning guide by Stephen Walther

ASP.NET MVC Tip #44 - Create a Pager HTML Helper

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:53:54 GMT

This tip demonstrate how you can create a custom HTML Helper that you can use to generate a user interface for paging through a set of database records. Stephen built on the work of Troy Goode and Martijn Boland. Also demonstrate how you can build unit tests for HTML Helpers by faking the HtmlHelper class.

New ASP.NET MVC Videos and Tutorials

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:01:02 GMT

15 new ASP.NET MVC videos were just published at the http://www.ASP.net/mvc website. The first 10 videos are basic tutorials on the ASP.NET MVC framework. If you haven't had a chance to play with ASP.NET MVC yet, these tutorials are a great introduction. The second set of 5 videos is part of an ongoing video series: ASP.NET MVC Pair Programming. In these videos, I pair with a prominent community expert to build an entire ASP.NET MVC application from start to finish (because of time constraints - a very, very simple application). The goal is to emphasize the process of building a web application instead of the product.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #26 - Create a Lightweight Control View Engine

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:20:34 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther shows you how to create a custom ASP.NET MVC view engine that supports lightweight, declarative controls. He shows you how to create both simple controls and controls that display database data. He also shows you how to test the rendered output of the lightweight controls.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #25 - Unit Test Your Views without a Web Server

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:56:35 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther demonstrates how you can unit test ASP.NET MVC views without running a Web server. He shows you how to unit test views by creating a custom MVC View Engine and a fake Controller Context.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #21 - Fake the Data Context

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:29:32 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther shows you how to unit test your data access code by faking the DataContext with an in-memory DataContext.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #20 - How to Unit Test Data Access

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:17:29 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther demonstrates how you can write unit tests for MVC controller actions that access a database. He shows you how to create a base unit test class that you can use to unit test your LINQ to SQL controller action code.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #19 - Use the nVelocity View Engine

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:13:57 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther demonstrates how you can use the nVelocity view engine, instead of the normal Web Forms view engine, when displaying views from an ASP.NET MVC application.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #18 - Parameterize the HTTP Context

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:12:39 GMT

Context is the enemy of testability. In this tip, Stephen Walther demonstrates how you can eliminate, once and for all, the HTTP Context from an ASP.NET MVC application by creating a custom Action Invoker and Controller Factory.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #16 - Create ASP.NET MVC Macros

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:06:24 GMT

Real programmers use the Command window. In this tip, Stephen Walther demonstrates how you can create new ASP.NET MVC project items by firing off macro commands from the Visual Studio 2008 Command window.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #14 - Create a Template Helper Method

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:03:18 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther shows you how to create and use templates in the MVC framework that you can use to display database data. He shows you how to create a new MVC Helper method named the RenderTemplate() method.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #13 - Unit Test Your Custom Routes

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:04:12 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther demonstrates how you can create unit tests for custom routes that you define for your ASP.NET MVC application. He shows you how to test custom routes by faking the HTTP Context.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #12 - Faking the Controller Context

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:01:10 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther shows you how to test ASP.NET intrinsics when building unit tests for an ASP.NET MVC application. He shows you how to create a standard set of fake objects that enables you to fake the current user, the current user roles, the request parameters, session state, and cookies.

An Introduction to the xUnit.net Testing Framework

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:31:03 GMT

In this blog entry, Stephen Walther demonstrates how to use the xUnit.net testing framework while building an ASP.NET MVC application. He discusses how to build unit tests for controller actions that perform database access.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #11 - Use Standard Controller Action Names

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:02:01 GMT

ASP.NET MVC Tip #11 - Use Standard Controller Action Names by swalther In this tip, I recommend that you use standard names for your controller actions in order to make your code more transparent to other developers. I propose action names that will work with the default route table and that will work with both C# and VB.NET.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #6 Use the PRG Pattern when Submittng a Form

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:39:40 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther explains why you should call the RedirectToAction() method after submitting form data instead of returning a view.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #5 - Create Shared Views

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:45:52 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther explains how to create shared views for controller actions. A shared view can be used with multiple controllers. In particular, I explain how to create shared views for displaying and editing database data.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #4 - Create a Data Controller Base Class

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:22:25 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther discusses how you can create a custom controller base class that exposes actions for performing common database operations such as displaying, inserting, updating, and deleting data.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #3 - Provide Explicit View Names when Unit Testing

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:53:48 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther explains how you can unit test whether a controller action returns a particular view. He recommends that you be explicit about view names when you plan to create unit tests.

Create an ASP.NET MVC Action Result that returns Excel

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:53:43 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther shows you how to create a custom action result that you can return from an ASP.NET MVC controller action. This action result generates a Microsoft Excel Document from a LINQ to SQL query.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #1 - Creating New HTML Helpers with Extension Methods

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:31:02 GMT

In this tip, Stephen Walther shows you how you can create two new HTML Helpers that you can use within an ASP.NET MVC View. I show you how you can use extension methods to create new HTML Helpers for displaying bulleted and numbered lists.

Introduction to Moq

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:01:04 GMT

In this post, I provide an introduction to Moq which is the newest of the Mock Object Frameworks. Moq is promoted by its creators as easier to learn and use than other Mock Object Frameworks such as Rhino Mocks and TypeMock Isolator.