Rick Strahl's Web Log

Weblog Posts in April 2006

An update to my free ASP.NET 2.0 Compiler UI Front End Tool
April 29, 2006 @ 7:31 pm

I've posted a small update to the free ASP.NET Compiler UI utility today that fixes a problem with the compiler not being found if the default (incorrect) version number is not changed to the actual .NET version.

1 comment

Converting my Web Store to Web Application Projects
April 28, 2006 @ 1:14 am

So I went through the excercise of converting my Web Store project to Web Application Project from standard 2.0 projects. I've been getting increasingly pissed off by the ASP.NET stock 2.0 project model and the various inconsistencies that come from 'unique' compilation model that 2.0 projects use that make it near impossible to use Page and Control level inheritance. Anyway I converted the project today and here are a few notes and problems I ran into.

10 comments

ASP.NET ItemTemplates, EVAL() and embedding dynamic values into controls
April 27, 2006 @ 2:53 pm

Dealing with complex Eval() expressions inside of ItemTemplate or other data containers always makes me do a double take. Here are a few observations and thoughts on how to handle and possibly improve handling of this feature in the future.

26 comments

Centering containers using proper XHTML/CSS?
April 26, 2006 @ 1:27 pm

29 comments

I'll be speaking again at ASP.NET Connections in November
April 25, 2006 @ 1:12 pm

2 comments

Live.com – I don't get it
April 24, 2006 @ 4:37 pm

I've been stopping by at live.com a few times trying to figure out what the hoopla is about. I don't get it. Bad slow, UI, unintuitive behavior and nothing new on this site. Just because it's uses AJAX to pull page parts doesn't make this any more exciting.

27 comments

Multi-way Messaging - To Queue or not to Queue
April 22, 2006 @ 12:30 am

I'm never quite sure how Queues fit in Messaging scenarios. Queues seem to get prime billing in SOA and general messaging scenarios but I find that queues often aren't the right fit for two or multi-way messaging.

6 comments

Installing controls to the Visual Studio Toolbox
April 21, 2006 @ 1:13 pm

I recently needed to install some ASP.NET controls into the toolbox for our Web Connection tool and so I've been digging through some information to do this. I got it working using the Community Installations in the Controls folder. It works, but there is one major gotcha.

4 comments

Sending SMS Messages/Alerts
April 19, 2006 @ 12:22 pm

Sending SMS messages is as easy as sending an email to the right email address provided by the various wireless carriers. Here's a list of carrier number domains.

7 comments

Vista Install - still no joy
April 18, 2006 @ 6:52 pm

Still struggling with getting a portable Vista installation going that I can take on the road with me for a presentation without wheeling a desktop along with me ...

6 comments

ASP.NET wwHoverPanel Update posted
April 18, 2006 @ 3:45 am

I've posted a fairly major update to the popular wwHoverPanel control. It includes a few fixes and tweaks as well as support for pop up windows using IFRAMEs that allow support for fully self contained pages ontop of the current page as well as addition of a few useful JavaScript utility functions.

1 comment

OnMouseOut and reliably trapping element mouse exit - or not!
April 18, 2006 @ 2:40 am

Trapping mouse exit behavior reliably on an HTML element is not easy. In fact I still haven't found a reliable solution to make this happen. Here are some thoughts on the subject, but unfortunately no good solutions.

5 comments

Master Page Inheritance and User Controls
April 12, 2006 @ 12:00 pm

I've run into yet another snag with user controls in ASP.NET 2.0 - this time in relation to Master Pages. Looks like on inherited pages User Controls are treated as separate entities that get pulled into each dynamically compiled page/directory assembly that ASP.NET creates, making user controls difficult to 'inherit'.

16 comments

Vista 5308 Install on VPC crashes
April 12, 2006 @ 11:56 am

Trying to get Vista 5308 installed on my machine with VPC and not having much luck. I get an exception right out of the chute.

14 comments

Integrating Credit Card Electronic Processing into ASP.NET Applications
April 11, 2006 @ 12:20 pm

I've posted a long article that discusses online payment processing with ASP.NET. The article covers alot of ground from an overview of the processing that occurs, to the process of finding a provider and signing up, to creating a library of Gateway provider classes as well as a walk through on how to integrate processing into an ASP.NET Web application.

64 comments

ATLAS Web Service Chat Sample posted
April 10, 2006 @ 5:21 pm

I moved the Anthem Chat sample part of the AJAX samples I posted last week to ATLAS using the Web Service functionality and it's interesting to comprae the two approaches. Here's more info on how the sample works along with links to the demo and code.

11 comments

ASP.NET 2.0 MasterPages and FindControl()
April 09, 2006 @ 12:35 am

Using MasterPages in your layout changes the control hierarchy of your page considerably which can break some existing code that relies on dynamically locating controls on the page with FindControl().

98 comments

Unlocking an Audio Vox SMT 5600 phone
April 08, 2006 @ 7:52 pm

I upgraded my phone today - or rather intended to - when the nice people at Cingular pulled a last minute bait and switch attempt when they announced the phone I wanted isn't actually available in the store. Ack. So I ended up with cancelled service for my AT&T locked SMT 5600 phone for a few days. Luckily I ran into one site with instructions to unlock the phone and now at least I can run the phone on Cingular with the new SIM card.

6 comments

AJAX Session Samples posted
April 04, 2006 @ 9:46 am

I've posted my live samples from the ASP.NET conferences to play with and crash my server .

7 comments

Bozo presentation mistake
April 03, 2006 @ 10:52 am

Bozo trick #55: Don't reset your timezone before giving a demo that uses time sensitive data.

6 comments