Code-Inside Blog International

Windows 7 RC Training Kit for Developer

Robert Muehsig — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:48:07 +0000

Microsoft released the Training Kit for developer yesterday. It contains presentations, Hands on Labs and democode for the new Windows 7 APIs.
The Traing Kit is directed towards to C++ developers, but Microsoft offers Wrapper classen for .NET.

Topics:

Taskbar
Libraries
Multi Touch
Sensors and Location
Ribbon
Trigger Start Services,
Instrumentation and ETW
Application Compatability

Download.

.NET Devs:

Some API will be integrated into the .NET 4.0 Framwork, e.g. Multitouch input, the taskbar & jumplists in WPF. With the Wrapper from Microsoft you gain access to the other APIs. The wrapper classes are open source (and are not supported by Microsoft!).

Via Swiss MSDN Team Blog

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Visual Studio 2010 & .NET Framework 4 Training Kit – May Preview

Robert Muehsig — Mon, 25 May 2009 09:20:07 +0000

Microsoft released a preview Training Kit for .NET 4.0 & VS 2010: Download. It includes 28 presentations, 13 demos & 16 Hands-on Labs.

Overview

The Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit includes presentations, hands-on labs, and demos. This content is designed to help you learn how to utilize the Visual Studio 2010 features and a variety of framework technologies including:

C# 4.0
Visual Basic 10
F#
Parallel Extensions
Windows Communication Foundation
Windows Workflow
Windows Presentation Foundation
ASP.NET 4
Entity Framework
ADO.NET Data Services
Managed Extensibility Framework
Visual Studio Team System

This version of the Training Kit works with Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 1.

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Inside Microsoft’s home of the future

Robert Muehsig — Wed, 13 May 2009 08:52:26 +0000

Microsoft shows in a Video how the “home of the future” might look like. Some photos of this house could be found here. Speak recognition & “NUI”s are “key features” in this house.

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Free eBook: Practical .NET Unit Testing

Robert Muehsig — Sun, 03 May 2009 11:06:14 +0000

Nice intro to unit testing (& mocking) with .NET:

- Practical .NET Unit Testing

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Free eBook: Testing Chapter from Beginning ASP.NET MVC

Robert Muehsig — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:19:32 +0000

Just found an interesting eBook:

- Free Chapter of Beginning ASP.NET MVC 1.0 – Testing ASP.NET MVC Applications (Blogpost)

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HowTo: Create RSS Feeds with Linq to XML / XLinq

Robert Muehsig — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:32:36 +0000

It´s very easy to create an RSS using Linq to XML. In my sample I create a ASP.NET page, which offers a RSS Feed. We add also a meta tag so that users can find our RSS Feed.

Project structure:

To let the user know that we offer a RSS Feed we create the following markup in the head of our ASP.NET page:


    Untitled Page

"RSS.ashx"

To create a RSS we use directly the ProcessRequest method of the ASHX:

        public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
        {

            XDocument document = new XDocument(
                                    new XDeclaration("1.0", "utf-8", "yes"),
                                    new XElement("rss",
                                        new XAttribute("version", "2.0"),
                                        new XElement("channel", this.CreateElements())
                                       ));

            context.Response.ContentType = "text/xml";
            document.Save(context.Response.Output);
            context.Response.End();
        }

Each time we create a new level of the XML tree we "chain" our XElements and return at the end the XDocument. The RSS Items will be create in a seperate method called "CreateElements":

private IEnumerable CreateElements()
        {
            List list = new List();

            for (int i = 1; i < 100; i++)
            {
                XElement itemElement = new XElement("item",
                                            new XElement("title", i),
                                            new XElement("link", "http://code-inside.de")
                                       );
                list.Add(itemElement);
            }

            return list;
        }

In this method we create the RSS Items and return this XElement list to the ASHX handler.

As you can see: Creating of an RSS Feed is really simple with Linq to Xml.

[ Download Source Code ]

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HowTo: Tweet with C#

Robert Muehsig — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:33:01 +0000

Twitter is the internet Microblogging Service – this is my acc BTW. Twitter has an API since the beginning (and IMHO is this one big reason why twitter is so successful). The Twitter API is REST based and so you can easily create Twitter-Clients with .NET. If you don´t want to create the HTTP basic stuff, check out existing libraries, like Tweetsharp.

Twitter API
You can find the Twitter API docs here and a good overview here.

Twittern via C# – "low level"
You can use HttpRequest & HttpResponse objects to use twitter: Sample here.

C# APIs for Twitter
If you don´t want do deal with the low level things, then you should look at these C# APIs

One example: Tweetsharp
Tweetsharp is a really cool, fluent interface for accessing Twitter, Url-Shorting-Services, Twitpic and so on. Here I create a simple update on twitter:

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var twitter = FluentTwitter.CreateRequest()
            .AuthenticateAs("USERNAME", "PASSWORD")
            .Statuses().Update("testing, one, two, three!")
            .AsJson();

            var response = twitter.Request();
        }
    }

Look at the Google Code wiki or on the homepage for more information.

Authorization

If you use a 3rd Party Twitter Client (like Tweetdeck) you have to type in your credentials to get access to your Twitter-Data. This is from a security point of view not very smart. That´s why Twitter enabled OAuth authorization, which is also provided by Tweetsharp (look here & here).

Sample

You can find a nice WPF Twitter Client on Codeplex.

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Free eBooks: ADO.NET Entity Framework, Powershell & C#

Robert Muehsig — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:44:00 +0000

Just found 3 eBooks:

- ADO.NET Entity Framework: Learning Guide
- Effective Windows Powershell
- Illustrated C# 2008

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HowTo: From the view to the controller in ASP.NET MVC with ModelBinders

Robert Muehsig — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:03:23 +0000

With ASP.NET MVC the developer has now full control about the HTML rendering and how the form data will be transmitted to the server. But how can you get the form values on the server side? There are better ways in MVC to do that than Request.Form["..."].

Intro
If you are new to ASP.NET MVC, I recommend you to read this post or look at asp.net/mvc.

"Bindings"
In this HowTo you can learn how to access the form data in a more elegant way than Request.Form["..."].

Structure

We have a "BindingController" and in the Model folder a "Person" class and 3 views:

- "CreatePerson" (form to create a person)
- "Result" of the action
- "Index" is the overview page

Person Class:

view plain copy to clipboard print ?

public class Person
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public string Prename { get; set; }
public string Surname { get; set; }
public int Age { get; set; }
}

    public class Person
    {
        public Guid Id { get; set; }
        public string Prename { get; set; }
        public string Surname { get; set; }
        public int Age { get; set; }
    }

Form in CreatePerson.aspx:

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<% using (Html.BeginForm()) {%>
Fields
for="Id">Id:
<%= Html.TextBox("Id") %>
<%= Html.ValidationMessage("Id", "*") %>
for="Prename">Prename:
<%= Html.TextBox("Prename") %>
<%= Html.ValidationMessage("Prename", "*") %>
for="Surname">Surname:
<%= Html.TextBox("Surname") %>
<%= Html.ValidationMessage("Surname", "*") %>
for="Age">Age:
<%= Html.TextBox("Age") %>
<%= Html.ValidationMessage("Age", "*") %>
"submit" value="Create" />
<% } %>

    <% using (Html.BeginForm()) {%>

        
            Fields
            
                Id:
                <%= Html.TextBox("Id") %>
                <%= Html.ValidationMessage("Id", "*") %>
            
            
                Prename:
                <%= Html.TextBox("Prename") %>
                <%= Html.ValidationMessage("Prename", "*") %>
            
            
                Surname:
                <%= Html.TextBox("Surname") %>
                <%= Html.ValidationMessage("Surname", "*") %>
            
            
                Age:
                <%= Html.TextBox("Age") %>
                <%= Html.ValidationMessage("Age", "*") %>
            
            
                
            
        

    <% } %>

Binding: 1. Option – FormCollection:

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[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult FormCollection(FormCollection collection)
{
Person person = new Person();
person.Prename = collection["Prename"];
person.Surname = collection["Surname"];
person.Age = int.Parse(collection["Age"]);
return View("Result", person);
}

        [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
        public ActionResult FormCollection(FormCollection collection)
        {
            Person person = new Person();
            person.Prename = collection["Prename"];
            person.Surname = collection["Surname"];
            person.Age = int.Parse(collection["Age"]);
            return View("Result", person);
        }

This option is the simplest possible way to access the form data, but not very elegant and hard to test, because you need to know which keys are in the FormCollection.

Binding: 2. Option- Parameter Matching:

view plain copy to clipboard print ?

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult ParameterMatching(string Prename, string Surname, int Age)
{
Person person = new Person();
person.Prename = Prename;
person.Surname = Surname;
person.Age = Age;
return View("Result", person);
}

        [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
        public ActionResult ParameterMatching(string Prename, string Surname, int Age)
        {
            Person person = new Person();
            person.Prename = Prename;
            person.Surname = Surname;
            person.Age = Age;

            return View("Result", person);
        }

This option is very handy. The HTTP form values will be mapped to the parameters if the type and name are the same as the transmitted form value. This option is easy to test, but you have to map the parameters to your model manually.

Binding: 3. Option – Default Binding:

view plain copy to clipboard print ?

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult DefaultBinding(Person person)
{
return View("Result", person);
}

        [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
        public ActionResult DefaultBinding(Person person)
        {
            return View("Result", person);
        }

Now we use our own model as parameter type. The default model binder, which is included in the ASP.NET MVC, will map the incomming HTTP form values to the properties of our person, if type and name match.

Binding: 3. Option with addon – Default Binding with Include:

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[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult DefaultBindingWithInclude([Bind(Include="Prename")] Person person)
{
return View("Result", person);
}

        [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
        public ActionResult DefaultBindingWithInclude([Bind(Include="Prename")] Person person)
        {
            return View("Result", person);
        }

You should think bevor you bind – to secure your applicaiton you can specify which properties will be mapped to the properties of the parameters.

Binding: 3. Option with addon – Default Binding with Exclude:

view plain copy to clipboard print ?

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult DefaultBindingWithExclude([Bind(Exclude = "Prename")] Person person)
{
return View("Result", person);
}

        [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
        public ActionResult DefaultBindingWithExclude([Bind(Exclude = "Prename")] Person person)
        {
            return View("Result", person);
        }

The same functionality, but this time reversed.

Binding: 3. Option with addon – Default Binding with Prefix:

If you put a prefix in your Html Input controls (because you have multiple "name" fields), than you can specify a prefix.

All these options can be used together and you can map more than one parameter.

Binding: 4. Option – IModelBinder

If the values are getting more complex or you want your own mapping logic than you can use the IModelBinder interface. One example is Fileupload or to get the session user.

Now you just need to implement the IModelBinder interface:

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public class PersonModelBinder : IModelBinder
{
public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
{
if (controllerContext == null) {
throw new ArgumentNullException("controllerContext");
}
if (bindingContext == null) {
throw new ArgumentNullException("bindingContext");
}
NameValueCollection collection = controllerContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request.Form;
Person returnValue = new Person();
returnValue.Id = Guid.NewGuid();
returnValue.Prename = "Modelbinder: " + collection["Prename"];
returnValue.Surname = "Modelbinder: " + collection["Surname"];
int age = 0;
int.TryParse(collection["Age"], out age);
returnValue.Age = age;
return returnValue;
}
}

public class PersonModelBinder : IModelBinder
    {
        public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
        {
         if (controllerContext == null) {
             throw new ArgumentNullException("controllerContext");
         }
         if (bindingContext == null) {
             throw new ArgumentNullException("bindingContext");
         }

            NameValueCollection collection = controllerContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request.Form;

            Person returnValue = new Person();
            returnValue.Id = Guid.NewGuid();
            returnValue.Prename = "Modelbinder: " + collection["Prename"];
            returnValue.Surname = "Modelbinder: " + collection["Surname"];
            int age = 0;
            int.TryParse(collection["Age"], out age);
            returnValue.Age = age;

            return returnValue;
        }

    }

You get full access to the form values or other controller properties or route value.

You can register your Modelbinder global in the Global.ascx:

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protected void Application_Start()
{
RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
ModelBinders.Binders[typeof(Person)] = new PersonModelBinder(); // Important!
}

        protected void Application_Start()
        {
            RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
            ModelBinders.Binders[typeof(Person)] = new PersonModelBinder(); // Important!
        }

Everytime you have a parameter of type "Person" the "PersonModelBinder" will try to map the values to this object.

Or you can specify it per ActionMethod:

view plain copy to clipboard print ?

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult PersonModelBinder([ModelBinder(typeof(PersonModelBinder))] Person person)
{
return View("Result", person);
}

        [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
        public ActionResult PersonModelBinder([ModelBinder(typeof(PersonModelBinder))] Person person)
        {
            return View("Result", person);
        }

Lists/Array Binding:

You can even "bind" arrays / lists. Read Scott Hanselmans post for more information.

Screens:

[Download Source Code]

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HowTo: Rename SQL Tables in Visual Studio

Robert Muehsig — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:41:46 +0000

The integration of SQL Servers in Visual Studio is really great. I use VS to create my SQL tables and simple administration stuff – it´s not often that I start SQL Management Studio. But one thing is really annoying: You can´t rename SQL Tables in VS! But there is a little trick to do that.

The context menu:

Unfortunately there is no "rename" button here and the name property is disabled.

The trick:
Just add the tables to an database diagram and rename it there and save it – that´s it.

I found this nice trick on this site – there are some cool features in the database diagram view.

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