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For those who tested the new SQL Server 2008, you probably got this message, when trying to change the columns in some tables, add columns or change nullity conditions. "Save is not permitted"... and something like tables have to be dropped and re-created. The only choice you have is to click cancel, or to choose to save the message to a text file, which is, i think, not very useful :). The solution i found today is in SQL Books Online, and it is pretty easy:

Tools -> Options -> Designers, and uncheck the option "Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation".

Hi Friends,

I found the great article here for messaging system.

Please go though once. Its really very good.

iCalender is something like an open format text file to add items to the calendar (like Outlook calendar).  It is simply a text file which contains fields and information about the particular event of a calendar.  Once you double click on the iCalendar file, the respective event gets registered in Outlook calendar (of course, with your approval for the event!).

Following is the ASP.NET code, which generates iCalendar file dynamically (on the fly) and pushes the same to user.  The user can either directly open it into Outlook or simply save the iCalendar file.

 Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

        Dim sb As New StringBuilder(215)

        sb.AppendFormat("BEGIN:VCALENDAR{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("CALSCALE:GREGORIAN{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("VERSION:1.0{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("BEGIN:VEVENT{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("DTSTART:20080703T093000{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("DTEND:20080703T113000{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("LOCATION:testing some location{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("SUMMARY:Testing Some subject{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("CLASS:PUBLIC{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("END:VEVENT{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("END:VCALENDAR{0}", Environment.NewLine)

 

        Dim enc As New UTF8Encoding

        Dim arrBytData() As Byte = enc.GetBytes(sb.ToString)

 

        Response.Clear()

        Response.ContentType = "text/plain"

        Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=vCalendar.ics")

        Response.AppendHeader("Content-Length", arrBytData.Length.ToString())

        Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream"

        Response.BinaryWrite(arrBytData)

        Response.Flush()

        Response.End()

    End Sub

End Class

Caching is a very useful way for you to retain pages or data across HTTP requests, so that you can reuse them without the recreating them.

In ASP.net 2.0, it makes you easier to implement data caching. SQL cache dependencies are one of ASP.net 2.0 coolest features, which allows you to create dependencies between cached items and database entities. This enables cached query results to be automatically evicted from the cache if the underlying data changed.  This feature applies to SQL Server 7, 2000 and 2005.

SQL cache dependencies are more powerful when paired with SQL Server 2005
- you can set the cache dependencies are more granular

- this is not rely on polling but on query notifications from SQL Server 2005
- this require no preparation of the database

Here are the steps on how to enable the SQL cache dependency on a table.

1. Enable notifications using SQL registration tool
To enable SQL cache dependency, first you have to register the database, tables by using the Sql registration tool (C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727)
At the command prompt, type
aspnet_regsql -S [servername] -E -d [databasename] -ed -et -t [tablename]
-S = Server
-E = TrustedConnection
-d = Database
-ed = Enable caching at database

-et = Enable caching at table
-t = table

other options, -u = username, -p = password

After you run the statement, you hit refresh at your database.
You will notice there is an extra table created to store the cache data and a trigger created for the particular table. When there is changes on the table, the trigger will be fired up and write the changes to the cache table.

2. Register the notification in the Web Configuration
Enable the sql cache dependency at the web configuration file and set the poll time.
<system.web>
       <caching>
             <sqlCacheDependency enabled="true" pollTime="2000">
                    <databases>
                         <add name="conn" connectionStringName="conn"/>
                  </databases>
             </sqlCacheDependency>
     </caching>
</system.web>

The poll time is specifies how often the application checks to see whether the data has changed.

3. Define SQL Dependency
There are two options to define the SQL dependency
- You can specify on the OutputCache directive
<%@ OutputCache Duration="10" VaryByParam="*"
SqlDependency="[sqldependencyname]:[tablename]" %>

- or, specify directly on a datasource control
<asp:SqlDataSource EnableCaching="true" CacheDuration="Infinite"
SqlCacheDependency="[sqldependencyname]:[tablename]" ... />

After you have defined the SQL dependency, any changes that made to the database will be reflected on your web pages immediately though you have set the cache duration on the page.
This can make sure that you users always get the latest data from the server.

4. Notification-based cache invalidation
If you are using SQL Server 2005, you can use the Notification-based cache invalidation.
Unlike polling based validation, no <sqlCacheDependency> needs to be registered in your application's configuration. Furthermore, no special configuration using the aspnet_regsql.exe tool is needed.

A notification based dependency is configured on the OutputCache directive using the string CommandNotification.
<%@ OutputCache Duration="10" VaryByParam="*" SqlDependency="CommandNotification" %>
This value indicates to ASP.NET that a notification based dependency should be created for the page or datasource control.

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDependency.Start() method must be called before the first SQL query is executed. This method could be placed in Application_Start() event in global.asax file.

void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDependency.Start(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["conn"].ConnectionString);
}

This option is much more efficient as there is no pollung going on but the ASP.net acts as client, only if there is changes, ASP.net will get notified.

You may use SQL profiler to monitor the perfomance of your database to compare before and after you apply this SQL cache dependency

Caliburn is a framework designed to aid in the development of WPF and Silverlight applications. It implements a variety of UI patterns that are geared towards solving problems encountered in real-world scenarios.

It's goals are:

• Support building WPF/SL application that are TDD friendly.
• Implement functionality for simplifying various UI design patterns in WPF/SL.  These patterns include MVC, MVP, Presentation Model (MVVM), etc.
• Ease the use of a DI container with WPF/SL.
• Simplify or provide alternatives to common WPF/SL related tasks.
• Provide solutions to common UI architecture problems.

This new version contains support for two primary features: Actions and Commands.

Actions were primarily inspired by frameworks like Monorail and ASP.NET MVC.  Caliburn attempts to bring this methodology of UI architecture to WPF and Silverlight.  Using this feature allows developers to eliminate the need for code behind files by allowing UI components to bind directly to methods on other classes.  Actions supports a rich set of features such as auto determination of input parameters, databinding of return values, filters, automatic asynchronous code execution, UI updates based on action availability, etc.

Commands are built on top of Actions and enable the GOF Command pattern.  This implementation is unrelated to the native WPF implementation and (IMHO) is superior to it in a variety of ways.  Commands have all the features of Actions.  Additionally, commands can be linked to form composite command chains.

Now that I have the code up, I'll be spending some time blogging about how to use the specific features.  In the mean time, there are nine samples for both WPF and Silverlight that demonstrate the basic usage of these features.

You can find the project site here.

Hi Friends,

There is something new coming up from Microsoft. Visual Studio 2010 with .NET Framework 4.0. Take a look at the IDE Changes here

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/concept_ide.aspx

Also, You can also go through below links for more information.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/sep08/09-29VS10PR.mspx

http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/This+Week+On+Channel+9/This-Week-on-C9-Visual-Studio-2010-week-Silverlight-RC0-and-Cloud-services/

If you want to create,merge,extract PDF files in .NET, PDFSharp is the best one to use. Creating PDF's Without using Adobe Acrobat libraries. I know there is lot of libraries from Open Source, but the best one i've seen is PDFSharp ( Free ).

Get it from here - http://www.pdfsharp.com/PDFsharp

The Unity Application Block (Unity) is a lightweight, extensible dependency injection container. It facilitates building loosely coupled applications and provides developers with the following advantages:

• simplified object creation, especially for hierarchical object structures and dependencies.
• abstraction of requirements; this allows developers to specify dependencies at run time or in configuration and simplify management of crosscutting concerns.
• increased flexibility by deferring component configuration to the container.
• service location capability; this allows clients to store or cache the container.

Download Documentation for VS 2008

Download Application Block for VS 2008

Kaxaml is a lightweight XAML editor that gives you a "split view" so you can see both your XAML and your rendered content (kind of like XamlPad but without the gigabyte of SDK). Kaxaml is a hobby and was created to be shared, so it's free! Feel free to download and try it out. If you don't like it, it cleans up nicely.

If you're having problems with the installer or if you're just a do-it-yourself kind of individual, you can download the files you need as a zip.

Requirements

Kaxaml is built using WPF. To use it, you need to have the .NET Framework version 3.0 installed on your machine. If you're running Vista, you already have it. If you're running Windows XP, you can get it here. Sorry, Kaxaml doesn't work on a mac or on earlier versions of Windows.

I found two approaches for creating WPF Master Pages.

1) Approach 1 :- Got a pointer to Brad Cunningham's write up on WPF "Master Page" like functionality from Adam Calderon.  This is a popular ASP.NET feature that many like to enable in WPF. 

2) Approach 2 :- Karin Huber's approach (www.codeproject.com/.../WPFMasterPageControl.aspx), which exposes the content zones as Objects, enables you to do this._myControl.Whatever in the code-behind (rightly or wrongly. I was surprised it worked :o)), and also enables you to handle events in the code-behind, too.

The major drawback (for me at least) with either approach, is that you cannot do element binding between content zones. For example, if you had a Details zone which was intended to display some details for the selected item in the main content zone (kinda master-detail), then you cannot do a "{Binding ElementName=masterControl, Path=SelectedItem}" in the details zone because the binding engine is unable to resolve the element.

If there was a MasterPage solution that simply provided a layout framework, but you could access elements and handle events in the code-behind AND binding between elements in different content zones, then I'd be happy. :-)

There are lot of new things coming up from Microsoft for Developers.

• New Learning Portal Launched
• .NET Framework 3.5 Certifications are about to come.

Using the patterns & practices of the Guidance Automation Toolkit, you can make reusable code and pattern assets directly available in Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008.

The toolkit is designed to simplify integrating reusable code into applications allowing architects to automate development activities that developers would usually have to perform manually; often by following a series of instructions. By using the toolkit, architects can also ensure that repetitive and often error-prone activities are performed in a consistent manner, streamlining and accelerating the development process.

The toolkit can be used with assets developed in-house or by third parties; such as the assets created by the Microsoft patterns & practices team. These assets can be exposed to developers within Visual Studio, and in some cases, configured by using configuration files, templates, and wizards.

Installing the Guidance Automation Toolkit

To work with the Guidance Automation Toolkit, you must first install a prerequisite run-time component named the Guidance Automation Extensions. Once the run-time component is installed, you can download and install the Guidance Automation Toolkit. For more information, see Guidance Automation Toolkit and Guidance Automation Extensions Download.

Click here to launch the forum for this.

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This article is originally published by Microsoft.

Hi Friends,

This is something new (Not New, Change of practice ;-) ).

How to add keyboard shortcut to WPF controls. It was pretty simple in old VB and .NET languages. Just add '&' in the caption of control.

Now Microsoft has changed it to '_'.

So remember wherever you require to put keyboard shortcut then use '_' instead of '&'.

Something for testers and also for developers J

Testers can do coding along with their regular testing job.

They can play with our dlls.

For automation  they can use a free source tool Watin.

Very useful tool. It has record and play features.

This is another tool ; Wax

 http://www.codeplex.com/wax. Wax allows users to create automated WatiN tests using Microsoft Excel 

Good ones

A set of Unit Test rules by Michael Feathers

http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=126923

Test Double Patterns

http://xunitpatterns.com/Test%20Double.html

Report Writer’s Guide: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Aa645137.aspx

Create a report in 15 minutes or less: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/using/customizing/reporttutorial.mspx

Filtered Views: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa681857.aspx

Blog on Filtered Views:  http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2006/05/01/587823.aspx

Part time job portals

http://bangalore.kijiji.in/
http://www.netjobsparttime.blogspot.com/
http://ejobsjunction.com/
http://getafrechancer.com/
http://forums.sulekha.com/
http://www.offshoringtimes.com/
http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/home.jsp
http://dataprocessing.itmatchonline.com/
http://softpkl.com/
http://bangalore.locanto.in/
http://www.expatriates.com/

ILMerge is a utility that can be used to merge multiple .NET assemblies into a single assembly. ILMerge takes a set of input assemblies and merges them into one target assembly. The first assembly in the list of input assemblies is the primary assembly. When the primary assembly is an executable, then the target assembly is created as an executable with the same entry point as the primary assembly. Also, if the primary assembly has a strong name, and a .snk file is provided, then the target assembly is re-signed with the specified key so that it also has a strong name.

ILMerge is packaged as a console application. But all of its functionality is also available programmatically. Note that Visual Studio 2005 does allow one to add an executable as a reference, so you can write a C# client that uses ILMerge as a library.

There are several options that control the behavior of ILMerge. See the documentation that comes with the tool for details.

ILMerge runs in the v2.0 .NET Runtime, but it is also able to merge v1 or v1.1 assemblies. However it can merge PDB files only for v2 assemblies.

Currently, ILMerge works only on Windows-based platforms. It does not yet support Rotor or Mono.

If you have any problems using ILMerge please contact mbarnett _at_ microsoft _dot_ com. More details are available at the ILMerge web site.

Click here to download.

This article is originally published by Microsoft.

The ASP.NET repeater is a great control for creating an arbitrary templated look for lists of data in ASP.NET web applications. WPF's databinding bears a great deal of similarity to the templating support found in the repeater, taking the power of templating even further by allowing templates to be defined as resources and re-used in multiple contexts, and in lots of different types of controls. However in spite of this there is no Repeater control in WPF.

Sample Repeater (from MSDN)
<asp:Repeater id="Repeater1" runat="server">
  <HeaderTemplate>
    <table border="1">
       <tr>
          <td><b>Company</b></td>
          <td><b>Symbol</b></td>
       </tr>
   </HeaderTemplate>
   <ItemTemplate>
     <tr>
       <td> <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Name") %> </td>
       <td> <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Ticker") %> </td>
     </tr>
   </ItemTemplate>
   <FooterTemplate>
     </table>
   </FooterTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>

How can you replicate the functionality  of the repeater in WPF? It turns out this is quite easy using an ItemsControl. ItemsControl is the base type that lots of list-like controls in WPF like ListBox, ComboBox and Menu which inherit from it either directly or indirectly. ItemsControl is also the parent to some list-like controls you might not expect such as the toolbar (which is really just a list of buttons and other controls, usually laid out horizontally) and StatusBar (once again, usually just a kind of horizontal list of controls). In spite of its fairly fundamental nature to lots of the usual suspects in the WPF controls namespace it isn't an abstract type and can be created in markup and bound like this:

ItemsControl Xaml Code
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding}">
  <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
    <DataTemplate>
<!-- apply additional customizations for
      the items here in the template -->
      <TextBlock Text="{Binding}" />
    </DataTemplate>
  </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>

The <DataTemplate> element allows us to specify how we want each item the ItemsControl is bound to, and the ItemsSource property on the ItemsControl populates the bound items from the data context (I'm assuming for the purposes of this demo that the stuff you want to bind to is in there). Another thing you may wish to do with the ItemsControl is to place it inside of a ScrollViewer control. The ASP.NET repeater generates HTML which is hosted in the browser, which handles showing a scroll-bar if the document is longer than can be displayed on a single screen. WPF Windows and Pages don't default to this way of operating, and thus you probably want to add the scroll viewer if more items are added to the ItemsControl than can be displayed inside the Window or Page.

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This article originally published by learnwpf.com