Port Elizabeth.NET

Community Lead wanted - Rhodes University - contact me ...

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:28:00 PDT

We are looking to setup a user community at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. I am looking for someone to help set it up... please mail me: dcoates at qzcreative.co.za

Integrate external content into your Sitefinity websites i.e. Picasa, Youtube, Facebook etc.

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:57:00 PDT

I found this and thought it might be useful. I didn’t write this. I have merely mastered and applied the art of Copy and Paste :). The original article is here -> http://www.graywebtech.com/blog/2009-06-12/Developers-Corner-Sitefinity-Social-Media-and-Multimedia-Enhancements.aspx

Facebook Integration

Pull in friend lists and other information from facebook. Create seamless links between your website and facebook. Here is an article with the technical nuts and bolts; keep an eye out for future posts and examples. Read More

YouTube Video List

Include your YouTube video play lists on your site. Visitors can scroll through and select a video to watch. Technical information

Picasa Photo Gallery Integration

Take advantage of Picasa to highlight your product images and other photography. Our Picasa controls make it simple to integrate your albums into your website. Read More

Enhanced Integration of 3rd Party RSS Feeds

It’s easier than ever to pull in news articles, blog posts, twitter feeds or any other RSS based information from other sites or applications. Take a look at this

Native Integration of Windows Media Player

Quickly and easily add Windows Media Player audio and video files to your Sitefinity driven website. Upload videos from the administrative section just like any other file and select what page to add the video to. Read More

Google Checkout Integration

Makes setting up an ecommerce site even easier. Read More

Technorati Tags: Sitefinity,Google Checkout,Youtube,RSS,Integration,Windows Media Player,Microsoft,.NET,C#,Tutorials

Presenter Profile - Ian van der Walt

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:38:00 PDT

Thanks to Ian for doing a presentation on Code Access Security last week. He gave a broad overview of the concepts of Code Access Security and how to get started.

Here is a little more about Ian: Although he started out with a MCP VB 6 for Desktop Applications qualification, his first couple of years in IT was spent mostly in web development - ASP, Javascript and VB, and then moving on to ASP.NET. Later he had his first proper exposure to Windows Forms development joining the corporate world as senior developer at a large national health company. However, the differences between IT as a cost center in a large organisation, to IT as the profit center meant he couldn't resist the opportunity to move to a small, dynamic and cutting edge IT company which is where he is currently employed as Senior Systems Developer. At the moment he is using C# and SQL Server on the .NET platform, in conjunction with the LLBLGen Pro ORM, on his biggest project to date, a Windows Forms billing system for a local municipality.

Enable Tracing and Output of generated SQL in LLBLGen Pro

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:00:00 PDT

We had the LLBLGen Pro Workshop on the weekend and discussed viewing the query generated by LLBLGen Pro during debugging or if you would like to learn how LLBLGen Pro works and how it generates the required SQL. Ian van der Walt checked the documentation and provided the following excerpt:

(See: Generated code - Troubleshooting and debugging)
"LLBLGen Pro's generated code offers two categories of tracing: info level and verbose level, and a variety of trace switches to switch tracing on or off. When a trace switch is switched on, the runtime libraries will produce trace output, depending on which switch you've turned on and to which level: verbose or info.
...
All trace switches have to be defined in the .config file, in a system.Diagnostics tag, which has to be placed inside the configuration tag. You don't have to define all switches, you can omit any switch definition if you'd like. When a switch isn't defined, it's considered turned off and no trace information is produced which is tied to that switch. The following snippet shows all available trace switches. These switches are described in detail in the following sections. The snippet below defines some switches with the value '3' (info level, switched on), '4' (verbose level, switched on) or '0' (switched off)

<system.diagnostics>
      <switches>
        <add name="SqlServerDQE" value="3" />
        <add name="AccessDQE" value="4" />
        <add name="OracleDQE" value="4" />
        <add name="FirebirdDQE" value="4" />
        <add name="MySqlDQE" value="4" />
        <add name="DB2DQE" value="4" />
        <add name="PostgeSqlDQE" value="4" />
        <add name="SybaseAsaDQE" value="4" />
        <add name="SybaseAseDQE" value="4" />
        <add name="ORMGeneral" value="0" />
        <add name="ORMStateManagement" value="0" />
        <add name="ORMPersistenceExecution" value="3" />
        <add name="LinqExpressionHandler" value="3" />
      </switches>
    </system.diagnostics>

I recommend Verbose Level (4) in order to view the SQL generated in the Output window when debugging the application.

Thanks for pointing us in the right direction Ian! :)

Technorati Tags: LLBLGen Pro,Tracing,Output,SqlServerDQE,MSSQL,.NET,Microsoft,Port Elizabeth.NET,NMMU,Nelson Mandela Bay

Comma separated list from CheckedListBox checked items

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:23:00 PDT

I needed to get a comma separated list of all the text values of the checked items and/or their values on a checkedlistbox, so I decided to write methods we can use in our helper class library. Here are the methods I wrote. Hopefully someone else will find it useful:

       /// <summary>
       /// Gets the text from checked list.
       /// </summary>
       /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
       /// <param name="control">The control.</param>
       /// <param name="columnName">Name of the column.</param>
       /// <returns></returns>
       /// <remarks>Dave Coates - 2009/06/24</remarks>
       public static string GetTextFromCheckedList<T>(T control) where T : CheckedListBox
       {
           string strCheckedItemsText = "";
           System.Windows.Forms.CheckedListBox ListControl = control as CheckedListBox;

           if (ListControl.CheckedItems.Count > 0)
           {
               for (int i = 0; i < ListControl.Items.Count; i++)
               {
                   if (ListControl.GetItemChecked(i))
                   {
                       strCheckedItemsText += ListControl.GetItemText(ListControl.Items[i]) + ",";
                   }
               }
               strCheckedItemsText = strCheckedItemsText.TrimEnd(',');
           }
           return strCheckedItemsText;
       }

       /// <summary>
       /// Gets the indices from checked list box.
       /// </summary>
       /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
       /// <param name="control">The control.</param>
       /// <returns></returns>
       /// <remarks>Dave Coates - 2009/06/24</remarks>
       public static string GetIndicesFromCheckedListBox<T>(T control) where T : CheckedListBox
       {
           string strSelectedIndices = "";
           System.Windows.Forms.CheckedListBox ListControl = control as CheckedListBox;

           if (ListControl.CheckedItems.Count > 0)
           {
               for (int i = 0; i < ListControl.Items.Count; i++)
               {
                   if (ListControl.GetItemChecked(i))
                   {
                       strSelectedIndices += ((System.Data.DataRowView)(ListControl.Items[i])).Row.ItemArray[1].ToString() + ",";
                   }
               }
               strSelectedIndices = strSelectedIndices.TrimEnd(',');
           }
           else
           {
               strSelectedIndices = "-1";
           }
           return strSelectedIndices;
       }

Technorati Tags: .NET,C#,Helper,Library,Class,Example,CheckedListBox,Comma Seperated List,Control

Events, EventHandlers & Delegates in C# - Nice Tutorial: http://bit.ly/1fBEGF

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:17:00 PDT

I don’t know about anyone else, but if there’s one person on this planet that constantly gets confused when it comes to Events/EventHandlers/Delegates and how they all fit together... it’s me. There’s just something wrong with my internal wiring that causes me to keep getting confused, no matter how many times I ‘get-it’. Anyway, I found a nice and simple tutorial that might help someone out there...

Check it out here -> http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/csevents01.aspx?display=Print

Quick presenter profile: Simon Stewart - Broken Keyboards

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:18:00 PDT

This coming Saturday 27^th June 2009 we have an LLBLGen workshop at NMMU South Campus. This workshop will be facilitated by Simon Stewart.
Simon Stewart is the CEO of Broken Keyboards Software, a Johannesburg-based software development and training company which specialises in custom application frameworks. He has been a Microsoft C# MVP and co-founded the SADeveloper user group.
For more info please check out Broken Keyboards Software at http://www.brokenkeyboards.com/

Tech-Ed Early pricing about to expire

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:35:00 PDT

Tech-Ed 2009 Early Bird Pricing ends 19 June. You have 30 days pay, so book today to make sure you don’t miss out on the cheap tickets.

Port Elizabeth.NET will be presented at the Community Lounge this year. See you guys there! J

C# Winter Warmer – 25 June – FREE event

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:53:00 PDT

Please send me a quick blank mail with “C# Winter Warmer 25 June” in the subject to dcoates at qzcreative.co.za if you are attending, or click here and it will open up you email client and all you have to do is click send :)

The presentations will be on some pretty cool stuff. See below:

1. SINGELTON DESIGN PATTERN

We'll have a detailed look at the fascinating characteristics of singletons, examples of how to implement the design pattern in C#.NET, advantages and disadvantages of using this pattern, as well as the differences between singletons and static classes.
Presenter: Iwan de Beer (Providence - Port Elizabeth)

2. CAS (CODE ACCESS SECURITY) - WHAT, WHEN, HOW

CAS is a .NET CLR security model that enables you to control the permissions that individual applications have and is an integral and essential part of enforcing security in the .NET Framework. This presentation aims to provide an overview and introductory explanation of what CAS is, when it should be used and how to implement it.
Presenter: Ian van der Walt (emediaIT - Port Elizabeth)

3. INTEROP - USING UNMANAGED CODE IN .NET DEVELOPMENT?

In this session I will discuss and demonstrate running unmanaged code from within .NET applications. I will explore the concepts and how to create a wrapper for COM components in order to run unmanaged code safely.
Presenter: Dave Coates (QZ Creative IT - Port Elizabeth)

See you there! :)
Dave

Technorati Tags: Port Elizabeth.NET,C# Winter Warmer,C#,MSSQL. Singleton,Patterns,Singleton Pattern,Interop,CAS,Code access security,invoke,p/invoke

Object Orientated CSS – OOCSS

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:57:00 PDT

Yes, you read that right. Object orientated Cascading stylesheets.

Just when I thought software development couldn’t move forward any quicker a totally new (to me anyway) concept was pointed out to me. I was referred to an article about CSS used in an object orientated manner. This method was developed by Nicole Sullivan at Yahoo to make CSS easily maintainable and scalable. I’m not going to rewrite the whole article, but in short it means slightly larger HTML files, but smaller CSS files and the way it works allows your site to appear to load faster as the style elements load quicker and there’s less ‘blank-page’ time. So even though the HTML loads a little longer it’s all about appearance in the end and when users are presented with styled content quicker, they can start reading while the rest of the content loads.

It’s a again quite a different way of thinking, but in the end it’s all about what you are trying to achieve and this would surely lead to other advancements in the industry again, so check out the article (bit.ly/xM7fQ).

Technorati Tags: OOCSS,Object Oriented CSS,CSS,C#,Stylesheets,cascading stylesheets,preview,first look

SADeveloper.NET (http://www.sadeveloper.net) down - back next week

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:17:00 PDT

IS (Internet Solutions) forgot they where sponsoring the SADeveloper.NET website and that has been the reason for it being down. They are in the process of transferring everything onto the new host and should be back online next week.

LLBLGen Pro Workshop – presented by Simon Stewart (Jhb)

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:44:00 PDT

LLBLGen Pro Workshop – presented by Simon Stewart (Broken Keyboards - Johannesburg)

WHEN: Saturday 27 June 2009
TIME: 9:00 - 13:00
WHERE: Embizweni Building, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) South Campus
Click here for a map (or copy and paste the following link: http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=-34.00372,25.675392&spn=0.048954,0.090981&z=14)
Please register for this workshop by sending a blank reply/email (keeping the subject) to dcoates@qzcreative.co.za.
Please pass this mail on to as many developers as you can and ask them to send a reply/email (including the original subject) to confirm attendance.

WORKSHOP CONTENT:
This hands-on workshop will cover the theory of how ORM products work and will provide dozens of real world scenarios and best practices for LLBLGen Pro (probably the leading ORM tool on the market).

The workshop will use LLBLGen Pro 2.6, but we won't be covering the LINQ capabilities because of time constraints.

Some of the items we will cover:

A quick run through of LLBLGen for those new to it
Performance tips and tricks
Easy way to implement auditing
A few more complex LLBLGen topics for those with experience

Be sure to read the requirements before downloading the LLBLGen demo. If you would like to get a management overview of LLBLGen Pro and why it could be worthwhile using, check out the “Convince your manager” page on the LLBLGen Pro website.

What you need to bring:

Download the LLBLGen Demo here (http://www.llblgen.com/pages/DownloadDemo.aspx) and install.
Bring along your notebook with a sample SQL database. You can get the Microsoft AdventureWorks database here (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa992075(VS.80).aspx)

If you cannot bring a notebook, please still attend. It will just make it easier to grasp the concepts if you can bring a notebook to work on in order to get hands-on experience.

Course notes will be available at the end of the workshop at no charge.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you need any more information.

Dave Coates
Email: dcoates@qzcreative.co.za
Cell: +27 84 548 0077
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/pedeveloper
Community updates: http://www.twitter.com/pedotnet

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 - Beta 1 Shipped

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:30:00 PDT

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 has been shipped.

If you’re an MSDN subscriber you can get it here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx?pv=18:370

Official download site: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010/default.mspx

Convert Files – Online service

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:28:00 PDT

I just found a website (http://www.convertfiles.com) that offers a free and easy to use online file converter that supports a wide range of file types. It can convert almost any type of documents, archives, spreadsheets, audio and video files from one format to another. This service is absolutely free, and there's no need to download any software! Just click on BROWSE then select your file and upload it. They take care of the rest.

I removed a couple inappropriate video sites (p_rn tube, t_be8 etc.) that I know is blocked by corporate proxies. P_rn isn’t my thing, so I may have missed a couple though…

Below are the supported formats

ARCHIVE

RAR to TAR, ZIP, TGZ, TAR.GZ
TAR to RAR, ZIP, TGZ, TAR.GZ
TGZ to TAR, RAR, ZIP
TAR.GZ to TAR, RAR, ZIP
ZIP to TAR, RAR, TGZ, TAR.GZ

DOCUMENT

DOCX to DOC, ODT, RTF, SWX, TXT, HTML, XHTML, PDF, PDB, ZIP
DOC to ODT, RTF, SWX, TXT, HTML, XHTML, PDF, PDB, ZIP
ODT to DOC, RTF, SWX, TXT, HTML, XHTML, PDF, PDB, ZIP
RTF to ODT, DOC, SWX, TXT, HTML, XHTML, PDF, PDB, ZIP
SXW to ODT, RTF, DOC, TXT, HTML, XHTML, PDF, PDB, ZIP
TXT to ODT, RTF, SWX, DOC, HTML, XHTML, PDF, PDB, ZIP
ODS to xls, CSV, RTF, PDF, HTML, ZIP
XLS to ODS, CSV, PDF, HTML, ZIP
XLSX to XLS, ODS, CSV, PDF, HTML, ZIP

PRESENTATION

ODP to PPT, PDF, SWF
PPT to ODP, PDF, SWF

IMAGE

BMP to GIF, JPG, PNG, TIF, ZIP, PDF
GIF to BMP, JPG, PNG, TIF, PDF
JPG to GIF, BMP, PNG, TIF, PDF
PNG to GIF, JPG, BMP, TIF, PDF
TIF to GIF, JPG, PNG, BMP, ZIP, PDF

AUDIO

AAC to WAV, MP3, OGG, M4A, FLAC, AU, WMA, AMR
AMR to WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA, AAC, FLAC, AU, M4A
AU to WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA, AAC, FLAC, AMR, M4A
FLAC to WAV, MP3, OGG, M4A, AAC, AU, WMA, AMR
M4A to WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA, AAC, FLAC, AU, AMR
MP3 to WAV, OGG, AAC, M4A, FLAC, AU, WMA, AMR
OGG to WAV, MP3, AAC, M4A, FLAC, AU, WMA, AMR
WAV to MP3, OGG, AAC, M4A, FLAC, AU, WMA, AMR
WMA to WAV, MP3, OGG, M4A, AAC, FLAC, AU, AMR
MKA to WAV, MP3, OGG, M4A, AAC, FLAC, AU, AMR, WMA

VIDEO

3GP to AVI, MOV, WMV, M4V
AMV to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V, WMV
ASF to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, WMV, MOV, AVI, M4V
AVI to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, VOB, WMV, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V
FLV to 3GP, AVI, MP4, MPEG, VOB, WMV, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V
MKV to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, WMV, MOV, ASF, M4V
MOV to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, WMV, MKV, ASF, M4V
M4V to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, MOV, MKV, ASF, WMV
MP4 to FLV, 3GP, AVI, MPEG, VOB, WMV, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V
MPEG to AVI, 3GP, MP4, FLV, VOB, WMV, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V
MPG to AVI, 3GP, MP4, FLV, VOB, WMV, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V
VOB to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, WMV, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V
WMV to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V

OTHER

EPS to GIF, JPG, PNG
PSD to GIF, JPG, PNG

SUPPORTED VIDEO SHARING WEBSITES

YouTube.com - ConvertFiles.com can be used as every other YouTube Downloader or YouTube Covnverter. Just copy the url of any YouTube video in to the "or download it from:" filed and select your desire output format.
MetaCafe.com
MegaVideo.com
DailyMotion.com
XNXX.com
Veox.com
YouKu.com
56.com
Ku6.com

Technorati Tags: Convert,Convert Files,Conver.Files,online tool,tool,Tips & Tricks

.NET events - digi-cam needed to borrow - mail dcoates at qzcreative.co.za

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Sat, 16 May 2009 05:52:00 PDT

Does anyone have (or know of) a digicam or other camera that we could possibly use to film the .NET event presentations? I would like to post all videos of future presentations online. I have arranged to use a member of the community’s still camera that can take videos in the mean time, but a digi-cam would be more suited as it is built for the job J This would mean that if anyone cannot attend the events they can watch the videos in order to not miss out on anything…any other ideas will also be appreciated J

Please lemme know at dcoates at qzcreative.co.za.

NULL or Default Value?

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:44:00 PDT

Ever wonder whether you should use nulls or assign default values to database fields? Especially in the case of numerical values? When using numerical data one generally assumes that the data will be used in a calculation, so 0 will suffice if there is no value, but I personally feel it depends on your design and reasoning, but in saying that I think that designing to take nulls into consideration adds complexity and confusion which in most cases isn’t necessary. Give the forum post a quick read. It’s not ground-breaking stuff, but it is useful to know and handy to keep in the back of your mind, especially if you are designing larger applications with a few hundred tables with a few complex calculations thrown in the mix. :)

On the similar note I believe validation for null should be done at the lowest level i.e. in the database. This pre-empts a number of bug fixes due to ‘oh, I forgot to…’

Any comments? Feel free to leave some comments below.

Technorati Tags: null,string.Empty,Microsoft,Tips & Tricks,.NET,MSSQL,MSSQL 2005,SQL,Database,Design

Tech-Ed SA 2009 - Registrations open

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:51:00 PDT

Tech-Ed SA 2009 has been opened for registration! – Check it out at: http://www.tech-ed.co.za/. They have some super awesome early bird specials, so if you’re thinking of going, it’s easy….just do it! :D It’s gonna be bigger than ever and I’ve accepted the position of Community Lounge Lead so come pop in to say hi when you need a break from all the massively great talks J

LLBLGen Pro Workshop - Free Training! - Simon Stewart (Jhb)

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Tue, 12 May 2009 02:16:00 PDT

There will be a LLBLGen Pro workshop on Sat 27 June, but it all depends on numbers to make it viable. Simon Stewart from Broken Keyboards in Johannesburgwill be presenting the workshop and it will be from approx. 9:00 – 13:00. I will need to confirm numbers as soon as possible. Could you please let me know whether you would like to attend? If you would like to attend, please send an email to dcoates at qzcreative.co.za with ‘LLBLGen Pro Workshop’ in the subject line or body.

LLBLGen Pro is an ORM (Object Relational Mapper) which allows better separation between your datalayers and business logic. It has saved our company thousands of Rands in development time even after taking the small license purchase into consideration.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions.

I will send out a message with the final details as soon as we have enough people attending.

Meet the presenters of 29 April 2009 event

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:38:00 PDT

At the most recent event we had 3 excellent developers that presented us with some great stuff. I’d like to post their profiles and in future I’ll post the profiles before the actual event. I posted a quick review of the event here –> http://pedotnet.blogspot.com/2009/04/wow-so-much-great-info-presented-by.html

Topic 1: Using threading to maximise the UI experience

Presenter:
Bruce Hodgkinson (Korbitec) - B.Sc. Hons. (Computer Science), University of Port Elizabeth
About Korbitec:
Korbitec is one of South Africa's leading independent software development houses. The company's core strategy is to research, develop and deliver leading edge software based services and products to both the local and international marketplace. Korbitec’s products are used in the Conveyancing, Legal, Banking and Property markets.
About Bruce:
Bruce has been with Korbitec for over 10 years. As part of Korbitec’s development management team, Bruce’s responsibilities include mentoring of project architects and technical leads; establishing technical policies and ensuring project compliance; and deriving and implementing company technology strategies.

Topic 2: SQL Performance Practises

Presenter:
Iwan de Beer (Providence Risk Managers)
About Providence Risk Managers:
PROVIDENCE was established in 1992 with the vision to manage healthcare risk for employers and their employees. Our vision has evolved into the company's current MISSION to manage healthcare risk optimally for our clients to allow them to focus on their core business. Living our mission has led to the rapid growth and development of the company, with offices in South Africa's major centres. Our client base includes many top 100 companies, major international brands and tertiary educational institutions.
About Iwan:
Iwan is a Senior Developer that is responsible for architecture, development of new applications, as well as support of existing applications. Most of his work centers around SQL Server and C#.NET development – both ASP.NET and Windows applications. Even after 11 years as a software developer he still finds coding to be a very enjoyable activity! He started his career as a SAS developer, moving on to Progress, Delphi, VB 6, VB.NET and finally settled on C#.NET and SQL Server.

Topic 3: Silverlight – What is it and how can we use it

Presenter:
Pat Ramadass (emediaIT.com)
About emediaIT:
emediaIT provides unique business solutions that enable companies to grow through the improvement of business processes, reduction in costs and increase in revenues, all through the expertly managed use of Information Technology. emediaIT is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a Dell Certified Partner and are able to provide best of breed solutions for your business, be they software, hardware or network related.
About Pat:
Venketash (Pat) Ramadass is a Systems Architect and Managing Director at emediaIT

Technorati Tags: Presenters,Profiles,Events,.NET,Port Elizabeth.NET,Microsoft,ASP.NET,SQL,SQL 2005,T-SQL,Silverlight,Threading

Before you search Google – SQL functions

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:37:00 PDT

Before you jump on your little Google horse and tire the poor animal by looking for the syntax of a specific SQL function or even looking if there is a function that could do what you want. Try from within SQL first. You can view all the system functions i.e. Sum, Count, Var, CharIndex, QuoteName, Replace etc. from within the SQL Management Studio.

Open up Sql Management Studio and connect to your favourite (or least favourite :P) database server
Expand your choice of database (i.e. click on that little ‘+‘ sign :)
Expand Programmability –> Functions –> System Functions
Viola! Bob is now married to your aunt Myfanwy (yes that is an actual Irish name)

Technorati Tags: SQL,functions,SQL Functions,Microsoft,SQL 2005,MSSQL,.NET,Tips & Tricks,Tips,Tricks

The Free Office WPF Ribbon

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Wed, 06 May 2009 01:00:00 PDT

So you want to use a Ribbon toolbar similar to Microsoft Word in your applications, but you don’t want to purchase one from a third party. Well if you haven’t heard already, you can get a free one directly from Microsoft. Yes, you heard me correctly, FREE, and FROM MICROSOFT. So where do you get this free Ribbon control?

To get it just follow these steps:

Go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/officeui
Click on “License the Office UI”
Login using you Windows Live ID. If you don’t have one you can create one for free.
Read and accept the Office UI License
Click on the WPF Ribbon download button
Accept the WPF Ribbon CTP License and follow the instructions to save the ribbon binaries to your computer.

Now that you have the Ribbon, you will notice there isn’t a lot of documentation. So how do you use this thing? Well lets start with the basics.

Adding the WPF Ribbon Control:

The first thing you need to do is add a reference to the RibbonControlsLibrary to your project. Next add the namespace declaration to your XAML.

<xmlns:r="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Windows.Controls.Ribbon;assembly=RibbonControlsLibrary“ />

Now that you have that done you can add the Ribbon control like so.

<DockPanel LastChildFill="True">

     <r:Ribbon DockPanel.Dock="Top">

     </r:Ribbon>

</DockPanel>

I personally like to place it DockPanel and dock it to the top. So this is what you should have so far. I know it is not much to look at right now, but we will fix that.

Adding the Application Menu:

Now that we have a Ribbon control we can start setting up our Application Menu. In Microsoft Word, this is the big round button in the top left corner of the application.

<r:Ribbon.ApplicationMenu>

     <r:RibbonApplicationMenu>

          <r:RibbonApplicationMenuItem />

     </r:RibbonApplicationMenu>

</r:Ribbon.ApplicationMenu>

The above XAML will produce this:

I know what your thinking. What the hell is that? How do I set my text? How do I set my icon? All I see is an empty box. Enter the RibbonCommand. RibbonCommands allow you to define a ribbon element’s UI and reuse it at will. So how do you set one up? Let me show you.

<r:Ribbon.Resources>

     <r:RibbonCommand x:Key="cmdAddNew"

                      Executed="OnAddNew_Executed"

                      LabelTitle="New Project"

                      LabelDescription="Creates an empty project."

                      LargeImageSource="Images/Large/New32.png"

                      SmallImageSource="Images/Small/New16.png"/>

</r:Ribbon.Resources>

Now we set the Command attribute on our element.

<r:Ribbon.ApplicationMenu>

     <r:RibbonApplicationMenu>

          <r:RibbonApplicationMenuItem Command="{StaticResource cmdAddNew}"/>

     </r:RibbonApplicationMenu>

</r:Ribbon.ApplicationMenu>

And BAM! You now have your icons and text. One thing to mention is that if you do not specify an Executed event, your button will be disabled until you do so.

Adding the Quick Access Toolbar:

The Quick Access Toolbar, also known as the QAT, is the mini menu that is normally at the top of the application just to the right of the application menu and includes a Customize Menu which end-users can use to add and remove buttons from the QAT. So how do we add one? Like so….

<r:Ribbon.QuickAccessToolBar>

     <r:RibbonQuickAccessToolBar>

          <r:RibbonButton Command="{StaticResource cmdAddNew}“ r:RibbonQuickAccessToolBar.Placement="InCustomizeMenuAndToolBar" />

     </r:RibbonQuickAccessToolBar>

</r:Ribbon.QuickAccessToolBar>

Remember that RibbonCommand we created earlier, well here it is again. Now you should have something like this:

See our new little icon at the top of the screen? Pretty isn’t it? Okay, not really, but it will be when we get finished with it.

Adding Tabs:

Okay this is really easy.

<r:RibbonTab Label="Home">

</r:RibbonTab>

Thats it! Now you should have this:

Adding Groups:

These are just as easy.

<r:RibbonGroup>

    <r:RibbonGroup.Command>

        <r:RibbonCommand LabelTitle="File" />

    </r:RibbonGroup.Command>

    <r:RibbonButton Command="{StaticResource cmdAddNew}"/>

</r:RibbonGroup>

Make sure this code snippet goes inside the Tab you created.

Also, a little caveat, or word of caution, you cannot have an empty group. If you do, then you will get a compile error. So make sure you have at least one control inside of your group definition.

Styling the WPF Ribbon:

Okay, I admit, our ribbon is still butt ugly. So lets go ahead and fix this. There are a couple of different ways we can style our ribbon. We could custom write a resource dictionary and manually set all the style attributes to get the look we want. Or we can just use a supplied Office 2007 theme by using the PopularApplicationSkins class that is included with the RibbonControlsLibrary.dll.

In code behind you would do something like this:

Resources.MergedDictionaries.Add(Microsoft.Windows.Controls.Ribbon.PopularApplicationSkins.Office2007Blue);

In XAML it would look like this:

<Window.Resources>

    <ResourceDictionary>

        <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>

            <ResourceDictionary Source="/RibbonControlsLibrary;component/Themes/Office2007Blue.xaml" />

        </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>

</ResourceDictionary>

</Window.Resources>

Either way our application is now looking good and ready to roll.

I hope this gets you going in the right direction. I plan on posting more advanced topics dealing with the ribbon in the future such as using the RibbonWindow, populating the “Most Recent Items List”, and using a Dialog Launcher. If you have any requests please feel free to ask.

Download Source

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Office Ribbon,Tips,Tricks,Free,.NET,Port Elizabeth.NET

Thanks to Elegant Code for sharing the article. Check them out at <http://www.elegantcode.com>

Windows 7 Release Candidate Released

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:09:00 PDT

Windows 7 Release Candidate Released for public scrutiny -> http://bit.ly/SyfmJ

Remember! This version will expire so don’t go and install in production environment. J

Port Elizabeth.NET - Presentation Material

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:01:00 PDT

I have uploaded the presentation material for the last event that took place on 29 April 2009. The online drop will expire in about a month, so better be quick :P

Get it here -> http://drop.io/pedotnet2904

The 3 presentations where:

· T-SQL performance Practises
Tips and practises on optimizing queries and stored procedures for performance
Presenter: Iwan de Beer – Providence (Port Elizabeth)

· USING THREADING TO MAXIMISE THE UI EXPERIENCE
This session will introduce you to issues relating to processing work in the background while maintaining an interactive User Interface. Whether you’re reading a file, calling a web service or using a COM object or OCX control, keeping the UI responsive can be tricky. Topics discussed will be threading, cross thread invoking, message loops, delegates and anonymous methods
Presenter: Bruce Hodgkinson – Korbitec (Cape Town)

· Silverlight – What is it and how can we use it
An introduction to silverlight, how it has matured and how it can be used to create or augment existing applications
Presenter: Pat Ramadass – emediait (Port Elizabeth)

Creating Silverlight layouts

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Sun, 03 May 2009 23:49:00 PDT

I thought this to be quite fitting after the recent Silverlight presentation we had on 29^th April.

Charlie Calvert has put together some tutorials and information on how to create a Silverlight layout using Grid controls. He goes through the setup of the Silverlight application and then some simple ways to work with Grid controls that are divided into Rows and Columns.

He has a series of articlea on Silverlight that should also be quite helpful for anyone wanting to get back to basics or start using Silverlight.

Check out the article here -> http://blogs.msdn.com/charlie/archive/2009/04/19/silverlight-layouts-part-1.aspx

His series of articles:

· Silverlight Post 1

· Creating a Silverlight Project

· Silverlight Layouts Part I

· Silverlight Simple Animation

Enjoy!

How to search all tables in a database for value

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Coates) — Sun, 03 May 2009 03:29:00 PDT

The database we are working with is a little bigger than just a handful of tables and also with some old/previous naming conventions so to save myself time when making changes/additions to stored procedures I sometimes need to try and find relations and values. Not always sure where to start I try and pick the most logical tables and from branch out only to find it in some really obscure places or done in quote an obscure way (well, in my mind anyway), so I found a stored procedure online that can find any value in the whole database (not just a particular table). This is very handy and has saved me an hour or two just today and I’m certain many more in future.

The original article is here -> http://vyaskn.tripod.com/search_all_columns_in_all_tables.htm

Many thanks to the author! You rock! :D BE AWARE though, if you’re database isn’t small it might take a minute or more (depending on the amount of tables and data). In the long run, this still saves me more than enough time however. I tried posting the script, but it doesn't quite work withough causing havoc on the post formatting. So check it out on the above link...