Rick Strahl's Web Log

Weblog Posts in August 2007

Using Html Help Builder in Visual Studio 2008
August 30, 2007 @ 2:43 pm

Couple of people asked me over the last few days whether the Help Builder Visual Studio integration works with Orcas and the answer is yes. Automatic installation in Visual Studio 2008 will be provided with the next update shortly but there are a few small things that need to get addressed for this...

1 comment

Dynamic Type Invokation in .NET
August 30, 2007 @ 4:01 am

There many ways to dynamically instantiating types in .NET and while it's not a common task when you need it you might find that there are a lot of different ways that you can instanatiate a type. Here's some discussion of different ways you can do it and a few helper functions to make life a bit easier.

9 comments

Version Fields and LINQ: Careful of underscores in Field Name
August 28, 2007 @ 4:46 pm

This probably falls into the bonehead category, but this might bite somebody else so I'm writing it up: LINQ to SQL works best when your database tables have version fields that can be used to see change state. So recluctantly I resigned myself to give in to this and decided I'd use a consistent...

1 comment

Dynamic Expressions in Linq to Sql
August 28, 2007 @ 12:43 am

Using LINQ there are two issues that I've been struggling with and both have to do with dynamic query results: Hitting the wall with SQL that can't be expressed via LINQ and using dynamic expressions inside of LINQ queries from within framework level code. As it turns out there are ways that this can be addressed with lower level LINQ methods that provide the abillty to be a bit more flexible in controlling what SQL gets executed and creating dynamic expressions for results.

13 comments

The SQL Data Tools in Orcas
August 27, 2007 @ 4:40 pm

The SQL data tools in Orcas are the first time I've actually looked at the database extensions for Visual Studio. When DataDude was released sometime last year it went straight into the Visual Studio DataBase Edition, but it wasn't part of Team Suite so I never actually had a chance to look at it...

11 comments

Registration Ids: The simpler the better?
August 27, 2007 @ 1:02 am

Having gone through easily 50 registration screens in the last few days, reinstalling applications on my new box got me to once again thinking about registration codes in applications. Somebody last week asked me as I provided them with a software key with Help Builder - what's this - this isn't a...

File Locations on Windows Machines = Absolute Madness
August 25, 2007 @ 6:58 pm

I configured and updated a brand new machine last week and overall the process has been pretty smooth and painless. But once again I'm reminded how silly Windows' scattering of files all over the place really is. I installed the new box on Monday. It's now Saturday night and I'm still picking up a...

9 comments

LINQ To Sql - Getting a Command Object from a Query
August 24, 2007 @ 3:24 am

LINQ to SQL is all about returning object from database queries, but sometimes it's actually useful to use good old DataReaders or DataTables - especially in ASP.NET applications that use DataBinding. Entities are objects and databinding requires Reflection which is very slow, compared to a DataReader. Luckily LINQ to SQL provides the abillity to retrieve a Sql Command object that can be used to return an alternate result set.

18 comments

Creating a scrollable and grouped Repeater Layout
August 23, 2007 @ 1:49 am

A couple of people asked me today about a layout I put together for an application. The layout is bascially a scrollable and grouped repeater that looks a little like a ListView control in WinForms. This sort of layout can be great for longer lists when paging is not really the right choice - a common scenario in AJAX applications actually. Here's a quick walk through on how this layout is put together.

4 comments

Strong Name Validation failed when Debugging ASP.NET on IIS7
August 21, 2007 @ 3:07 pm

Ugh, since I installed a new machine I ran into this error message above earlier. That's a pretty omnious sounding error message which seems to hint at a mis-configuration during installation. The error occurs as soon as you try to debug a Web application against IIS 7... As it turns out the...

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New machine - new day
August 21, 2007 @ 1:12 pm

It's been a little quiet around here the last couple of days - that's because I got a new machine and have been buried in setting up the new box and trying to get some work done at the same time - always a fun exercise. As you probably know if you read this blog even occasionally I've been having...

11 comments

GridView and Paging Alignment
August 18, 2007 @ 8:57 pm

The GridView's Pager row is a pain to get properly right aligned in a cross browser fashion. While the alignment settings that the control provides work in IE, they fail to properly right align in Firefox and a bit of work is required to get it to work right.

15 comments

Open Folder in Windows Explorer in VS 2008
August 17, 2007 @ 4:03 pm

There's a silly little, but very useful addition on the project context menu in Visual Studio 2008 that lets you pop up Explorer in the project's folder easily. Sometimes it's a little thing that makes life a little easier.

9 comments

Multiple Enumeration of LINQ results
August 16, 2007 @ 12:02 am

LINQ result set enumeration can be a little unexpected if you don't pay close attention the returned Enumeration. Because of the way queries are enumerated at enumeration time, not when they are declared can easily result in multiple queries being run against the LINQ data or list source.

7 comments

LINQ to SQL and Disconnected Entities Follow-up
August 15, 2007 @ 12:17 am

Several people have been flogging me for my LINQ and disconnected Entity post, so I thought I should follow up on the issues I've been having. First let me restate Entity issue I raised a couple of days ago, but let me present it in a simpler context with the Northwind database, so you can try...

39 comments

ASP.NET Orcas Designer Customization
August 14, 2007 @ 4:11 pm

I ran into an interesting issue a couple of days ago with the Orcas ASP.NET designer - I had several controls on the page that are marked as display:none (they get activated by AJAX calls) and the designer didn't show them. Now that's accurate rendering <g> - except in this case I didn't want...

2 comments

LINQ to SQL and Dynamic Queries and Expressions?
August 13, 2007 @ 12:02 pm

Continuing my experiments with LINQ in the middle tier I ran into another problem: Inability to make LINQ run any dynamic operations that are not defined explicitly in the LINQ to SQL import. For building a generic business framework that doesn't have concrete type references (to say a PK field) but dynamically needs to create SQL to query data. Even relatively simple things like retrieve a single record by primary key where primary key is dynamic not explicit is not easily accomplished without getting real low level into Lambda expression creation.

22 comments

LINQ to SQL and attaching Entities
August 12, 2007 @ 6:49 pm

I have been experimenting with LINQ to SQL in the middle tier and have run into the apparently common issue of re-attaching entities to a DataContext in cross tier scenarios. Either the support re-attachment is not there or it is broken but either way it doesn't work which makes it pretty tough to use LINQ to SQL in the middle tier.

34 comments

IIS/ASP.NET Settings and Virtual Directory Inheritance
August 11, 2007 @ 12:32 am

Root directory web.config settings can easily interfere with child virtual application settings causing all sorts of problems. Here's why this is a problem and how to get around it.

15 comments

Crytponomicon - man what a read
August 10, 2007 @ 1:51 am

Just got through Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and man what a fun ride this book has been. Not really sure how I ended up with this book in the first place - it's really not the sort of thing I usually read as I usually chew through Sci-Fi or non-fiction, but this is one hell of a ride that made...

8 comments

Video Drivers and Vista Updates - Some Improvements!
August 09, 2007 @ 8:57 pm

If you've followed this blog for a while you know that I've been having major, major video driver problem under Vista with my Laptop and the nVidia GO 7800 card. All sorts of problems with very frequent driver crashes and worst of all dual monitors not working at all (well, not working in native...

19 comments

XmlWriter and Schema
August 09, 2007 @ 1:16 am

In the ResX exporter for my data driven Resource Provider I use a bit of code that iterates over the database resources and then spits out ResX resources from the data as an option to get your resources into your Web site. The code I've used in this stretch of code uses an XmlWriter to quickly spit...

8 comments

Setting up and running Subversion and Tortoise SVN
August 08, 2007 @ 3:58 am

Since I've been working with Subversion a bit recently I thought I'd write up a quick step by step guide to getting started with Subversion and Tortoise SVN. Actually this has had a practical side to it - I have a couple of developers on a project that needed to get a quick start and get...

21 comments

West Wind Html Help Builder Update
August 08, 2007 @ 2:29 am

I've put out an updated version of Help Builder today. Here are a few development perspective comments on this release. Code Pasting This update adds a handful of new features in regards to handling code in topic content. If you've been following my blog you've probably seen some of the...

3 comments

RTF to HTML Conversion
August 05, 2007 @ 3:45 am

I've had a real frustrating day to day trying to find a solution for properly pasting code from Visual Studio and Visual FoxPro into Help Builder. Currently the way this process works is that you can either choose to paste code as text and then mark it up manually by highlighting the block and then...

7 comments

ListView and DataPager in ASP.NET 3.5
August 02, 2007 @ 2:22 am

I spent a couple of hours today looking over the ListView and DataPager controls in ASP.NET 3.5. Both controls sound interesting and both provide welcome new features to the ASP.NET control arsenal. Although I'm a little wary of having yet another list control (as if we haven't enough of those...

39 comments

Nothing is Trivial!
August 01, 2007 @ 1:13 pm

I got a call from a customer last week who needed a small piece of work done that he defined as 'Trivial'. Ok, trivial can be good - quickie in and out and you're done, but usually when I hear the word trivial I always cringe because it rarely is. It's an issue of perception of course and it...

17 comments