ASP.NET

Channel you

Kent Sharkey — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:45:38 GMT

Do you admire the interface/functionality of Channel10/Channel8/channel whatnot? Did you know that the source of those sites was available? I didn't (but should have, I think), but I noticed it today on Codeplex.

MVC coding in VB (part 416)

Kent Sharkey — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:37:09 GMT

The bits move on, and only the code keeps changing.

My complaints in the last post are no longer valid. As of the 4/16 release of the MVC framework, VB no longer has that weird behaviour. Now, all action methods must return an ActionResult, so they become functions in both VB and C#.

Of course, you already knew that because you're not behind on your reading, and you've already read ScottGu's post on this. I just read blogs for a living (partly), unfortunately the posts I want to read oftimes get pushed back because of it.

MVC coding in VB

Kent Sharkey — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:46:20 GMT

Don't ask why, but I decided to try to use the porridge that was "just right" in VB while trying to create a site using the new ASP.NET MVC framework. As I will no doubt forget the syntax to use in about 42 seconds, I'm including it here. Others may find it useful as well.

ActionLinks:

<%=Html.ActionLink(Of ViewEngines.CategoryController) _
    (Function(c As ViewEngines.CategoryController) c.Add(), _
    "Add Category")%>

Form definition:

<%  Using Html.Form(Of ViewEngines.CategoryController) _
    (Function(c As ViewEngines.CategoryController) c.Update(ViewData.CategoryID), _
    FormMethod.Post)%>

The Function(c as ViewEngines.CategoryController) c.blah syntax is the equivalent syntax to the shorter, more symbolrific C# syntax: c => c.Add().

That was still giving me an error. What I found (see below) was that the trick seems to be to change your methods into functions (instead of the Subs that I was using), and it would work:

    Public Function Update(ByVal id As Integer) As Object
        Dim c As New Category()
        c.LoadByKey(id)
        c.LoadFromPost()
        c.Save()
        RedirectToAction("List")
        Return Nothing
    End Function

Now someone can please tell me I'm wrong, and there is a simpler solution. Barring that, I think I might stick with using the "less correct" versions of the calls (or, more likely, using C# for all my MVC sites)

(Special thanks to Chuwanga on the asp.net forums for the original solution. I wouldn't have figured out that last step)

Part 2 of 2 on SubSonic

Kent Sharkey — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:05:39 GMT

I see that my second (and for now at least final) article on SubSonic is up on DotNetSlackers. Hopefully someone will find it useful and informative. This one is intended to be more practical than the overview I did last time. It builds out some of the functions of a blog engine using SubSonic queries and controls.

Thanks again to Sonu, Karl and the rest of the DNS team.

SubSonic article on DotNetSlackers

Kent Sharkey — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:42:58 GMT

Thanks to Sonu (and Karl, and the rest of the DNS team), my (first) article on SubSonic is now up on DotNetSlackers. This one is intended to be an introduction, and I'll hope to continue professing my platonic admiration for said framework in the new year.

(Google) Charting my way

Kent Sharkey — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:03:38 GMT

I see that Google has yet another new API, this time for plotting charts. So, let's take some of the ultra-secret data from my time tracker of choice, and see what it produces:

Source URL (on one line):

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p3
  &chd=s:LILDEE3OG
  &chs=250x100
  &chl=Admin|CompA|Break|CompC|Internal|Lost%20time|CompM|WoW|Writing
  &chco=ff0000,2C327C,00ff00,FF9900,e2e2e2,000000,0000ff,480D06,c0c0c0

The parameters are cht=chart type, chd=data (in an unusual format, IMO), chs=size, chl=labels and chco=colours.

Now to figure out a use for it...

Mental note - IE and table row (TR) styles

Kent Sharkey — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:25:07 GMT

I was working on a site (that shall remain nameless), and one of the goals was to have a nice background for one of the rows in the layout table. (yes. moving on.) I naively did this:

<tr class="fancyBackground"><td...

Where:

.fancyBackground { background-image:url('url-to-image.png');background-repeat:no-repeat;}

Unfortunately, IE interpreted it as though I had asked:

<tr><td class="fancyBackground"></td>
    <td class="fancyBackgound"></td>
    <td class="fancyBackgound"></td></tr>

Meaning that the background restarted with each new cell. Kent (and moreso Customer) not happy. The fix I used:

<tr><td class="fancyBackgoundNaughty"></td>
    <td class="fancyBackgoundInternet"></td>
    <td class="fancyBackgoundExplorer"></td></tr>

Where:

.fancyBackgoundNaughty{background-image:url('url-to-image.png');background-repeat:no-repeat;
background-position: 0px 0px; width:135px; }

.fancyBackgoundInternet {background-image:url('url-to-image.png');background-repeat:no-repeat;
background-position: -135px 0px; width:350px;}

.fancyBackgoundExplorer {background-image:url('url-to-image.png');background-repeat:no-repeat;
background-position: -485px 0px; }

Now you can all tell me how to do it 'correctly'. (I see at least one fix I coulda-shoulda-may do, but I still feel the same way about that browser. (And where's the IE8 CTP?)

UG talk in "The Peg"

Kent Sharkey — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 04:55:51 GMT

While all the cool kids are off in TO for "The Game", and the mondo-cool kids are heading to Vancouver for "The Teach", I find myself back once again in the Casa Nobura-Spafford in Winnipeg. What's the occasion? I'm actually going to be at the next iteration of the Winnipeg .NET User Group.

Why? Someone asked. (Someone I can't say no to)
When? Thursday, Nov 22nd (two days from now and counting)
Where? 1700 Richardson Building 17th Floor, One Lombard Place (you know, the big old one)
Who? Well, you already know that one (me -- duh)
What? The technology formerly known as SubSonic (soon to be known by its future Microsoft product name: Microsoft Convention-driven Toolset 2008 for the Microsoft MVC Framework System for Microsoft ASP.NET (tm))

Here's a clip from the official announcement. I really must have been drinking hard lately -- I cannot for the life of me figure out where that bio came from. I really have to meet that guy someday...

Kent Sharkey of Apptius Computer Solutions
presents
Subsonic - a toolset that helps a website build itself

Don't create data access layers because they're too much work, or are you just tired of writing the same code over and over again?

See how Subsonic ("The Zero Code DAL") can help you plug your data into your applications easier than ever before, without burying yourself in angle brackets.

The talk will show how/where Subsonic fits in your application, common (and a few uncommon) uses, and how it compares to a few competing products.

Kent Sharkey is an MCSD, MCSE, MCT, and MCP+SB. He is currently working at Apptius, and has previously worked at Microsoft as a Technical Evangelist within their Developer Relations Group. Before joining Microsoft, Kent had built up many years experience as a trainer and consultant, concentrating on architecting and writing n-tier applications using Visual Basic. He has written and collaborated on a number of books on Visual Basic, including MCSD Fast Track: Visual Basic Exam 70 -17, MCSD Fast Track: Visual Basic Exam 70 -176, MCSD Fast Track 4 in 1, and Beginning Visual Basic 6.0 Application Development. He is a regular speaker at various developer conferences focused on Microsoft development.

Securing Web.config

Kent Sharkey — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 18:52:17 GMT

One worry that many have is the information in the web.config file, especially items you might have in your appSettings and/or connectionString sections. It might be older news to some, but you can lock down sections to feel a little safer. (I knew there was something there, but I hadn't researched the code until last week, so it was new for me)

Locking a section:

Configuration config = WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration("/");
ConfigurationSection sect = config.GetSection("appSettings");
if (!sect.SectionInformation.IsProtected) {
sect.SectionInformation.ProtectSection("RsaProtectedConfigurationProvider");
config.Save();
}

Unlocking a section:

Configuration config = WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration("/");
ConfigurationSection sect = config.GetSection("appSettings");
if (sect.SectionInformation.IsProtected) {
    sect.SectionInformation.UnprotectSection();
    config.Save();
}

The appSettings section is then encrypted with all the joy of XML Encryption.

Before:

<appSettings>
    <add key="someKey" value="someValue" />
    <add key="anotherKey" value="anotherValue" />
    <add key="secretStuff" value="Password=password" />
</appSettings>

After:

<appSettings configProtectionProvider="RsaProtectedConfigurationProvider">
    <EncryptedData Type="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#Element"
        xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#">
        <EncryptionMethod 
           Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#tripledes-cbc" />
        <KeyInfo xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#">
            <EncryptedKey xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#">
                <EncryptionMethod 
                  Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#rsa-1_5" />
                <KeyInfo xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#">
                    <KeyName>Rsa Key</KeyName>
                </KeyInfo>
                <CipherData>
                    <CipherValue>c4Tk3Jvl2FFj etc.</CipherValue>
                </CipherData>
            </EncryptedKey>
        </KeyInfo>
        <CipherData>
            <CipherValue>xI9gWzS9nOcD/blDgUPX you get the idea</CipherValue>
        </CipherData>
    </EncryptedData>
</appSettings>

Even better is the fact that you can use the ConfigurationManager.AppSettings to read the encrypted values without a problem (so you don't have to keep flipping it back and forth, restarting your process). You can also use aspnet_regiis to encrypt the section, but this seemed like more fun.

Why slow? Get YSlow

Kent Sharkey — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 23:48:46 GMT

Web pages are funny things. They *seem* like they're standalone thingies hiding behind URLs, but they're actually a mess of possibly multiple requests that are rendered independently. It's a wonder they work at all some times. Making them work fast shouldn't be rocket surgery, but with so many slow sites out there, I guess it is. Yahoo has released a tool to help you identify areas that need improvement. The new tool is YSlow. It's a plugin for the incredible Firefox plugin Firebug. Running YSlow on a site gives you reports on the individual objects that make up your Web page, and suggestions for areas of improvement (along with a grade for the page). As the suggestions are based on their "Thirteen simple rules for speeding up your Web sites" and targeted at large sites, not all suggestions are appropriate for all sites. Still, there are some areas that will definitely help, providing low hanging fruit for fixes.

Here's a sample of the output (for this site):

It does look like the Subtext folk have some room to increase perf (or I do as it's open source), but there are some excellent items in the report: Look at the extent to which they're using the browser cache. Of course, it's not like I have enough useful content that all of the items from the site might already be loaded in your cache, but that's not the point (I guess what I'm saying is well done guys).