Ramblings Of A Crazy DotNet Woman

How To Add Trusted Sites In Google Chrome

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:36:00 +0000

Recently, someone asked me how to add trusted sites to Google Chrome. Since the process isn't as clearly indicated in Chrome as it is in Internet Explorer, I thought I would blog about it.

In Google Chrome, click on the little wrench in the right hand side of the browser to get to the main menu.
Click on Options
Click on Under the Hood located on the left-hand menu
Scroll down to Network and click on Change proxy settings...
A familiar menu will pop up. Click on the Security tab.
Click on Trusted Sites, which is identified by the green check mark, and then click on the Sites button that comes up
Type in the name of your trusted site
Click the Add button
Click the Close button
Click the OK button

Wasn't that simple??? LOL.....

Smooches!

Kila Morton

EC02-015_10 - How To Possibly Save Your Iomega Hard Drive If You Need Part EC02-015_10

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:44:00 +0000

Hard drives fail..this is a fact. However, sometimes it SEEMS like a hard drive fails when it actually doesn't. I have a 1 terabyte iOmega drive that looks very stylish and sleek in its black case. However, that drive stopped working recently and I was about to lose my mind. Windows stopped recognizing the USB drive and I thought I was going to have to use my advanced skills of persuasion to coax my data out of that drive. As it turned out, I needed no such skill to get the hard drive back up and running.

I am a bit of a tinkerer. I like to open computerized things up and see what is inside. So when this drive that was already out of warranty stopped working, I opened it up. The first thing I noticed after getting the iOmega case off was that the white part of the USB port was disconnected from the silver USB casing area. That meant that the USB cord I was plugging into the drive was not making a love connection. Sad, sad, sad. Without that connection, the computer would fail to recognize that the drive was plugged in. I took down the part number EC02-015_10 and went online to find it. Well, to my shear surprise, the part was $95 in one place and $215 at another company. Say what? I AM NOT spending that much money on a part when the drive itself was about $100 bucks. That is just stupid. The drive was a 1 TB Samsung drive. It was the type of drive that is used inside of desktop machines - very normal, nothing extraordinary. It was totally clear to me that the drive could be put into any hard drive case and still function. The drive has a SATA 300 pin connection. I decided to find a case for the drive.

I found a case for the drive from Diablotek. The case was about $10. I added the drive to the new case, plugged it in and bada-boom - it worked! I could access my files and life was good.

The moral of this story is that you should not panic when your hard drive case decides to break, iOmega should fix that USB connector issue AND you should never pay more for a part than you do for a hard drive. I discovered that I am not the only person having the USB issue.

How To Stop Microsoft From Automatically Adding Your Contacts And Events Posted On The Windows Phone To Your Windows Live Account

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 01:09:00 +0000

I am REALLY angry with Microsoft! I mean BEYOND angry! That company SHOULD be at the head of the pack! They should be at the top of their game. Instead, they do stupid things that end up leaving them in the dust! Some person at that company thought it would be a good idea to force Windows Phone users to do a few things.

First, they want to force you to get a Windows Live account. This isn't a big deal. I am a developer. I have had a Windows Live account for years (a.k.a. Windows Passport account). It is WHY they want you to do this that is upsetting.
Second, they want to force you to add it to your Windows Phone. This is not good, but it isn't the end of the world.
Third, they want to force you to load your contacts and calendar in the cloud - to your Windows Live account by default or to your Gmail or other account if you select, BUT you have to load them somewhere other than just on your phone! If you don't select a different account, they will load that information on THEIR servers BY DEFAULT!!!! THERE IT IS!

I AM SO UPSET ABOUT #3. First of all, if I wanted my appointments in the cloud, I SHOULD HAVE THE CHOICE to put them there! Microsoft has DECIDED that they want them there and just added them! That is the most ridiculous decision EVER!!!!! I wish I could talk to the person that made this decision and ask them what they were smoking when they decided to do that. Now I love Microsoft, but I HATE some of the things the Windows Phone does. It really is unfortunate too, because the HTC Titan is a solid, well built phone with an EXCELLENT CAMERA that a photog like me REALLY likes.

SO, ever since I got this phone, I have been going over it to try to figure out how I could stop Windows Live from automatically grabbing my contacts and appointments and adding them online. I FINALLY figured out how it can be done and I wanted to share this with ANYONE and EVERYONE that wants to use the Windows Phone without having all of their private data added to Microsoft's servers, and hence, have all of their Windows Phone information added to the Internet. So without further adieu, here you go!

How To Stop Windows Phone 7 From Adding All Of Your Contacts And Calendar Information To Windows Live (On The Htc Titan)

Go to Settings
Go to email + accounts
Select the Windows Live (account you were forced to create)
Once the account information opens up, change the password to something other than the real password (:-) - LOL)
Hit the check at the bottom of the screen to save
Now go and add your contacts and calendar AND ADD WHATEVER YOU WANT WITHOUT HAVING IT END UP IN THE CLOUD UNLESS YOU WANT IT TO BE THERE!!!! YEAH!!!

After doing this, I was still able to download apps from the Marketplace using the phone and do all of the other things that I wanted to do with the phone. This, as stated earlier, was done using the fabulous HTC Titan (AWESOME phone HTC - GOOD JOB!).

I am so sad that I have to do this hacky BS to use this phone. I have an iPhone, a Samsung Infuse Android phone, a Sony S Tablet and this phone and this has REALLY stressed me out! I have to be honest, I would SUE Microsoft for this if I had enough spare time on my hands. You don't take people's information and add it to the Internet BY DEFAULT! Anyway, maybe Microsoft will get a clue and stop this stupid practice. If they don't, lets work together to make sure we come up with hacks to circumvent their stupid ideas. Also, make SURE that you download the Microsoft Suggestion App from their Marketplace and vote for the suggestion I put in there under Windows Live to stop this stupidity. As a side note, the Suggestion Box is messed up too. You can only enter 25 characters. I guess Microsoft thinks that all issues should be able to be described in 25 characters or less. They are wrong on that too!

Smooches,

Kila Morton

Why Microsoft Got The Windows 7 Phone Wrong - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 05:15:00 +0000

I love Microsoft. I really do. However, there are some things that Microsoft does that are so ridiculous that I really have to wonder. I have a brand new phone. It is the HTC Titan. I love new things. The phone has a big screen area - which I like - and a great camera - which I LOVE! Those are the good things about the phone. After having had an iPhone and an Android based Samsung Infuse, I was prepared to see something awesome from Microsoft. Microsoft, as we all know, was late to the mobile phone market. In my mind, that means that the product should be far above and beyond everything else on the market. The problem is that it isn't. I'm going to document my experiences with this phone because some of the issues I have with it are so ridiculous that I can't even believe I am having them. I'm going to add to this list and update things as the issues I have with the phone are resolved. I am also going to outline some things that I am going to personally do to help my experience with this phone - namely develop some apps for it. So here goes.

1. Don't make people create a Windows Live account to use the phone!

Microsoft was late to the market with the Windows Phone. When I say late, I mean REALLY LATE! That means that people already have Google accounts and iTunes accounts that they want to use with their phones. I'm not saying that you shouldn't brand your phone, but forcing people to sign up for a worthless account is counter-productive. I have a Windows account because I develop in Microsoft technologies, however, I don't want that linked to my phone and I don't want to HAVE to create a dummy account for no other reason than using the phone. Apple does this too, but Apple was first to create an application store. It's like arriving to a potluck dinner late and insisting that everyone eat your food. If you are late to the party, you should, in my opinion, make it SUPER easy for people to use your device. If you don't use your Windows Live account, the phone is basically a brick - you can make calls with it and do a few other things, but that is about it. Wrong move Microsoft.

2. After you force me to sign up for a Windows Live account, DO NOT automatically add contacts I save to the phone to that Windows Live account. I was SO angry to see that the phone was doing this. I searched all over the phone to figure out how to stop it from adding contacts to my Windows Live account, but I couldn't figure out how to stop it. If there is a way to do it and I couldn't figure it out, then it isn't simple enough to find. I can't stand this feature. Microsoft should give users the choice to save a contact to Windows Live OR to the phone only!

3. The Windows Phone doesn't allow you to easily add, see and switch in between multiple email accounts. This is a BIG issue for people like me. I'm a business person. I have several personal email accounts as well as many business email accounts. I loved how I could see them all on my iPhone and on the Samsung Infuse. Why can't I do the same thing out of the box

on the Windows Phone? Microsoft likely thinks that giving people a choice will stop them from using Microsoft products. However, the bigger issue should be to give people what they want. Not having this feature is just plain dumb. Again, if the phone does have it and I just missed it, then it isn't simple to enough to find. On the iPhone, this process is clear, concise and to the point.

UPDATE -

OK. I was wrong on this one. The phone DOES allow you to add multiple accounts and easily access them, BUT it shows ALL of the accounts as different squares on the home page instead of giving you ONE email screen that lists all of the accounts and allows you to select which one you want. I have about 20 email accounts and having 20 different little squares on my home page is a PAIN IN THE REAR ENDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!

4. The phone should give users the opportunity to make those huge icons on the main screen much smaller. The Windows Phone setup seems to be geared toward people who need glasses. I'm not joking. Although those big squares are colorful, they take up a lot of screen real estate. If users had the OPTION to make them smaller, life would be so much better. Bad, bad Microsoft!

5. When you link contacts, the phone does some weird crap if you try to send a text message to one of the linked contacts. It groups all of the phone numbers under the name you select instead of just showing one phone number. So lets say that you have Sara, Selena and Stacy in a group. Each one of those people has a different number. If you select Sara to send a text message to, the phone shows the numbers for all 3 people under Sara's name! I tried it twice to be sure that my eyes weren't deceiving me. That is the craziest, most ridiculous process! I had to unlink to be able to send a text message to the correct person. Bad, bad, bad Microsoft.

6. The marketplace for Windows Phone 7 SUCKS! I wish it didn't. I am SO disappointed in Microsoft for this. If I were Microsoft, I would have hired a team of developers well BEFORE the launch of the phone and made it their BUSINESS to crank out app after app after app. There should have been apps for many things that there aren't apps for right now simply because they were late. I feel that if you come late, you come better!

7. Making me keep an XBOX Live icon on the list of apps makes me unhappy. Apple and Google both do this, but making it so that users can't remove certain unnecessary apps is upsetting to me. I don't own an XBOX, play on an XBOX or intend to play on an XBOX ever in my life. Maybe THAT is my problem - lol.

Right now, December 29, 2011, this list ends at 7. As I go through the HTC Titan, which is an absolutely solid, beautiful phone.

If you are considering a Windows 7 Phone, I would say that you should go for it. The phone is responsive. However, if you do a lot of business and need certain applications to do that work, I would give the platform a chance to grow up a bit. Right now the platform is a little wet-behind-the-ears. I love you Microsoft.

Smooches,

Kila Morton

How To Remove Duplicates And Sort Lists Of Things In C#

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:02:00 +0000

This is a quick and dirty simple list of how to remove duplicates from lists of items in C#. It is simple to do, yet a lot of people create monstrous for loops to accomplish deduping and sorting. It isn't and doesn't have to be complex. Here is a quick and easy list of some ways for you to dedupe and sort your lists.

string[] sItems = { "one", "two", "three", "four", "five", "one", "two", "one", "two", "one", "two", "one" };

//counts the number of times a value occurs

var counts = from sItem in sItems

group sItem by sItem into g

select new { Item = g.Key, Count = g.Count() };

//removes duplicates and preserves the original order

var dedupe1 = new HashSet<string>(sItems);

//removes duplicates and preserves the original order

var dedupe2 = sItems.Distinct();

//removes duplicates and reverse the order of elements

var dedupeAndReverse1 = sItems.Distinct().Reverse();

//remove duplicates and sort

var dedupeAndSort = sItems.Distinct().OrderBy(x => x);

There are additional ways to accomplish the same thing, but these are simple, quick and easy to use.

OMG! How To Burn AVI Files In iDVD On A Mac For Free!

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 02:56:00 +0000

I know! The title has the word MAC in it! What is wrong with me? Well sometimes you have to use all of the tools at your disposal. I have PCs and Macs and sometimes the Mac is the tool for what I'm trying to do. Right now, I'm doing some Android development. I could do this on a PC, but I have to be honest - the emulator just works more quickly on a Mac. There....I said it!

Anyway, I recently decided to burn some videos using iDVD. However, the videos were .AVI files. That shouldn't be a problem right? WRONG! iDVD doesn't allow you to burn .avi files to DVD right out of the box - at least not the version I have. So what is a girl with .avi files to do when she wants to burn them to DVD using iDVD? DOWNLOAD THE CODEC THAT WILL ALLOW ME TO DO IT! :-)

I found a lot of misinformation out there about how to burn .avi files on a Mac. Some people suggested that I would need to download Toast, which is not free. They also suggested other programs which were not free. Since I have PCs, I'm used to not paying extra for ordinary things like burning .avi files and I'm not going to change that trend. Anyway, follow these instructions to burn your. .avi files using iDVD.

Before you begin, close iDVD if it is open.

1. Download the Divx codec using this link. http://www.divx.com/en/software/download This link will send you to the Divx download page that offers everything you need. Just download it. It is going to contain some things that you likely aren't going to use, but it is all in one package.

2. Once the package has been downloaded, double-click it and walk through the install process.

3. Download Perian's software. This will allow you to hear your videos - which is a nice thing. Go to http://www.perian.org/.

4. Once the software downloads, double-click it and walk through the Perian installation process.

5. After the install process has completed, restart your machine.

6. After you restart your machine, go to iDVD and start a new project.

7. Now select File/Import/Video and select your .avi file.

8. Create the rest of your menu.

9. Check your movie to see if it works the way you think it should. This isn't a tutorial on how to use iDVD, so if you don't know what to do, follow the tutorial inside of the iDVD help area to learn how to make your movie menu, etc.

10. Burn your dvd.

There you have it! Now, here are a few things to remember. You CAN import .avi files into iDVD without doing a thing, however, if you don't have the correct codec installed, you won't see anything more than a green chromakey screen when you try to view your videos. DON'T make the mistake of importing the video and then just burning a DVD. If you can't watch the video in iDVD, then it WILL NOT show up correctly on the DVD you create. You will see the menu and be able to select the movie, however, it will just show up as a green screen on your DVD player. If you do not install Perian, you will not be able to hear your videos. You will be able to see them with Divx, but the audio codec that will allow you to hear the audio encoded into most .avi files will not be present - so make sure you install Perian.

IMPORTANT NOTES:
MAKE SURE THAT YOU WATCH THE MOVIE BEFORE YOU BURN IT TO DVD! IF THERE ARE ANY ISSUES, SEEING BEFORE YOU WASTE A DVD IS ALWAYS PREFERABLE.

MAKE SURE THAT YOU DELETE ANY ENCODED ASSETS IF YOU ARE NOT CREATING A NEW PROJECT. (IN IDVD CLICK ON ADVANCED/DELETE ENCODED ASSETS)

MAKE SURE THAT THE SYSTEM OUTPUT VOLUME IS NOT DOWN LOW OR ON MUTE. CLICK ON THE APPLE SYMBOL IN THE UPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THE SCREEN AND SELECT SYSTEM PREFERENCES. UNDER HARDWARE, SELECT SOUND. AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN, YOU WILL SEE OUTPUT VOLUME. MAKE SURE THAT IS ALL THE WAY UP AND NOT ON MUTE.

Have fun burning your .avi files using iDVD on a Mac for free!

Smooches,

Kila

I HATE Microsoft Excel And That Darn Ribbon!

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 20:17:00 +0000

Whew! There! I said it! I just had to get that off of my chest. I'm so sick of the ribbon that I could cry. I have long since abandoned Microsoft Office in favor of Open Office because of the ribbon and the decrease in productivity I had from having to search for things that were no longer where they should be. However, I'm currently working on a project with a company that uses Excel and I absolutely can't stand it! From a user perspective, why on EARTH would Microsoft think that it was a good idea to FORCE people to relearn how to use Excel, Word and all of the other Office items that now use the Ribbon WITHOUT PROVIDING A WAY TO SEE THINGS USING THE CLASSIC VIEW? The Office products are now such crap that I absolutely refuse to use them unless I'm forced to. I don't have the time to hunt and peck to find what I need. I don't have the time to click through mind numbing icons that don't mean crap to me when I need to go to File/Save. Why would ANYONE think that an icon based menu would be better than words? Why would ANYONE WHO ISN'T HIGH OR DRUNK think that removing ALL of the words in favor of pics would be OK with everyone. I can't stand it! I wish that I could get that ONE GUY or GIRL who came up with the ribbon idea and give that person a good thrashing!

Or.......maybe I'll quit my ranting and raving and just go develop a classic menu for Excel myself. Darn, if only I had the time! Microsoft, I'm really upset with you for this. Using MS Office used to be quick and efficient. Now, using it means hunting for the things I want to do and resting my mouse pointer over things to figure out if something is what I want. I spent 3 minutes trying to find the word count feature before I finally just went online to a word count website and used that tool instead! How is that better than what we had with the classic menu? You can't tell me that I'm alone here.

I KNOW I'm not alone. Productivity With MS Office - WAY DOWN! Frustration Level - WAY WAY UP!!!

http://www.exceluser.com/explore/surveys/ribbon/ribbon-survey-results.htm

How To Drop All Stored Procedures In Your Database When Using Sql Server

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 22:36:00 +0000

Ever have the need to drop all of the stored procedures in your database? Well if you do, you are in luck! Here is a script that will drop all of the stored procedures in your Sql Server database for you. Just open a new query window, enter the script, type your database name in the Use statement and press F5!

USE YourDatabaseNameHere
GO

declare @storedProcedureName sysname

declare procCursor cursor for
select name from sysobjects where type = 'P' and objectproperty(id, 'IsMSShipped') = 0

open procCursor
fetch next from procCursor into @storedProcedureName
while @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
begin
exec('drop proc ' + @storedProcedureName)
fetch next from procCursor into @storedProcedureName
end

close procCursor
deallocate procCursor
go

That is it! Now you can delete all of the stored procedures in your database quickly and easily!

Smooches,

Kila

How To Use Html.Action With Areas

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 03:48:00 +0000

Microsoft created Areas to make our lives easier. The sad thing is that some little details can make your life worse. We are going to take a look at one of those things - Html.Action. When you are using Areas in your application, Html.Action can generate errors. The typical error you will see is "The controller for path '/whateverpath/' was not found or does not implement IController".

That is real helpful isn't it? You can tell a lot from that error right? NOT!!!! That error might lead you to believe that some controller is having an issue. That is not the case! Instead, that error means that you have not set up your Html.Action item correctly. To get your areas to cooperate with Html.Action, you have to set your link up like this.:

Html.Action("YourMethod", "YourController", new { area = "YourArea" })

You might be wondering what you should do if you are using Html.Action and you are using a controller that is NOT in an area. Well let me tell you so you can stop wondering. You set up the action method like this:

Html.Action("YourMethod", "YourController", new { area = "" })

And that is it!!

Smooches,

Kila Morton

Problem:

"The controller for path was not found or does not implement IController"

Solution:

Use
Html.Action("YourMethod", "YourController", new { area = "YourArea" })
if you are referencing something inside of an area.

Use
Html.Action("YourMethod", "YourController", new { area = "" })
if you are not referencing something outside of the areas

How To Reset The Canon MP 190 So You Can Scan If You Have No Ink! Eliminate The Canon MP 190 Scan Blues!

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:11:00 +0000

I hate companies that try to force you into using their products or.....companies that force you to refill their empty ink cartridges just to use a scan feature. OK - hate is a strong word. I will say that I strongly dislike that. Anyway, I have so many printers and scanners that it should be easy for me to print and scan whenever I like. However, that is not always the case. Today I needed to scan something using my Canon MP190. The MP 190 isn't a great all in one, but it does work appropriately in most cases. The one thing that I don't like about it is that the printer will not scan if you do not have ink in there. The reason is that Canon has an initialization process for this printer that checks if there is adequate ink. If there isn't, that process fails and you can't do much else - until now. I figured out a way to bypass this "system fault" so that you can scan again. The solution and is a VERY simple one.

Ready? Hold down the Stop/Reset button for about 30 seconds! There you go! I wish I could make it more intense. There just isn't anything else to it. Holding down that button will allow you to go back and scan documents even if you are completely out of ink. (SEE BELOW)

Don't you just love it?

UPDATE 3/22/2011

I feel compelled to update this post with a few more details.

First, you must have the MP Navigator software installed to use my little trick.

Second, the printer needs to be ON. I didn't specify this when I first posted this and I see that a few people had problems.

Third, you need to hold the Stop/Reset button down UNTIL THE LIGHTS START BLINKING. So hold the button down, let the lights come on and start to blink and then after the lights stop blinking, then let go. That may be MORE than 30 seconds. That is why I said "about" 30 seconds above.

That should get you going.

If it doesn't, please don't post that it didn't work. Instead, post what you did and what happened! That is something that I can investigate. It doesn't work means nothing because it does and did work for me. So help me to help you!

Smooches,

Kila

Why Do I Love Cheating On Dot Net As Much As I Do With.....Ruby(LOL)!

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 01:50:00 +0000

I try to keep this site clear of anything other than my love for .Net, but I am the biggest cheater I have ever known. You know why? I really, really love Ruby on Rails! There.... I said it! I mean I REALLY love Ruby on Rails! I'm telling you this for a few reasons. First, as you move through the programming world, it is important to keep your mind open. A programmer should know multiple languages. It helps you on a number of levels. Professionally, it helps if you can demonstrate your flexibility in learning new things. Second, if you ever need to find a new job, you have more than one programming language under your belt which can open up more programming opportunities for you. Third, knowing more than one language helps you to see deficiencies more clearly in the languages you use. I can tell you from experience that learning .Net and then learning Ruby made me clearly see some key deficiencies in .Net - even though I still love .Net.

I'm not saying that you need to learn every language under the sun, but knowing additional languages can only be a good thing. If you are a .Net programmer, I HIGHLY suggest that you add Ruby on Rails to your arsenal. As a plus, you can likely create a fully functioning program in Ruby in less time than it took you to read this.

Smooches,

Kila

Finding The .SQL Mime Type SQL Server Mime Type

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 18:26:00 +0000

OMG! Why are some things so much more difficult than they need to be? I am creating a database application to make my life simpler. The application allows you to enter class file information once and then the application automatically, or should I say automagically, creates the class .cs file, Fluent NHibernate mapping files in your choice of AutoMap or ClassMap files (AutoMap and overrides are my preference) and the database .sql script. Creating the files and saving them to the database is simple. The problem came when I needed to download the files from the database. The system was adding a .txt file to the end of the file - Example: FileName.sql.txt. This was making me very sad.

I decided to get the actual mime type for a sql file so that the file would download appropriately without adding .txt to the file. Well you would think that I was trying to find how to get into Fort Knox or something. The general consensus is that most people just want to use text/plain. Not I said the mouse! Well I decided to use something I had used before - the Gnome Mime Type database. This database had allowed me to find a mime type that worked properly with some other Microsoft files that I was saving and retrieving from a database (for example, the mime type for a .cs file in the Gnome library is text/c-sharp and it works perfectly). Sooooo back to my good old friend.

The mime type for a .sql file is text/x-sql. The Gnome mime library is pretty extensive. The goal is to be a resource and standard way of using and finding mime types.

This is a simple thing, but since Google wasn't the easiest resource for finding the mime type for .sql files, I thought you might find this useful.

PROBLEM:

What is the .sql mime type? Where can I find the .sql mime type? Should I use text/plain or another mime type for .sql files?

SOLUTION:

You can use text/x-sql and you can use the Gnome library to find out more mime types as needed.

Smooches,

Kila Morton

How To Solve System.Web.Mvc.HtmlHelper' does not contain a definition for 'RenderPartial' and no extension method 'RenderPartial'

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 08:01:00 +0000

Sometimes there are errors when you build in ASP.NET MVC that just make you want to shoot your own computer! You resist the urge of course (I hope), but the desire is still there! While I was creating an extension helper in ASP.NET MVC using Visual Studio 2010, I came across this error:

How To Solve System.Web.Mvc.HtmlHelper' does not contain a definition for 'RenderPartial' and no extension method 'RenderPartial' accepting a first argument of type 'System.Web.Mvc.HtmlHelper' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

Ummm.....NO I am NOT missing a using directive or assembly reference - thank you very much! Well actually I was - LOL. I'm using MVC2. It seems that it wants an additional reference to reference RenderPartial now.

Here is a list of the usings I was using
(notice that wording - "usings I was using" - that makes me laugh - I crack myself up sometimes!) -

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Routing;
using System.Web;
using System.Reflection;

The using statements above SHOULD be enough to allow me to use RenderPartial. Unfortunately, I had to add ONE MORE using statement to make it work -

using System.Web.Mvc.Html;

That solved the issue! Why does Microsoft change little things like this? Do they do it just to drive people crazy?

Smooches,

Kila

PROBLEM:
How To Solve System.Web.Mvc.HtmlHelper' does not contain a definition for 'RenderPartial' and no extension method 'RenderPartial' accepting a first argument of type 'System.Web.Mvc.HtmlHelper' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

SOLUTION:
Make sure you are referencing MVC in your web.config, make sure you have a mvc using statements listed above in your file and make sure you add the following item to that list of using statements.

using System.Web.Mvc.Html;

Problems With The HP ZD8000!

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 21:07:00 +0000

There are very few products that I actually can say that I hate, however, HP has managed to make two products that are on my list.

A few years ago, I was given an HP zd8000 as a gift. I know the person that gave this thing to me cares for me very much so I don't hate them, but this laptop has to be one of the worst pieces of technology I have EVER owned. If this was my only laptop, I would be really, really angry right now. As it stands, it is one of many. However, since I just had to spend more time than I care to admit upgrading it to Windows7, I'm going to just list the problems I have had to date.

The computer is now 3 years old. However, I have been having many of these issues for a while now.

1.) The keyboard misses, skips and does not register some keystrokes. It happens to all of the keys. You will go along typing with a smile on your face only to realize that half the letters you typed were not registered by the keyboard. I used to have a USB keyboard attached to this laptop so I didn't notice this problem. It makes you want to scream!

2.) Several of the USB ports have DISCONNECTED from whatever they are connected to inside of the computer. I'm pretty handy with a screwdriver so I can correct this one, but it should not have happened in the first place.

3.) The computer overheats to the point that it could cause a fire! I have handled this issue with a Belkin cooling fan underneath the laptop. I hope this will help.

4.) The DVD RW drive stopped recognizing DVDs. This was OK after an upgrade to Windows 7. Well let me say that it MIGHT be OK. I say MIGHT because I JUST upgraded the machine from XP to Windows 7 TODAY! However, so far so good on that issue.

5.) The laptop battery no longer works. The system will not register that there is a battery. This is my FOURTH battery! There is a recall on this issue, so maybe it will work now.

6.) The power supply stopped working. It seems like it is the power supply connector that is the issue. I had to use some electrical tape to keep it connected and still.

7.) The middle of the touch pad has worn down to the point that I can see the green circuit board underneath it.

Of course, the warranty is gone so the best I can do is replace the parts myself. I wasn't angry about these things until I did a search and discovered that these are major issues for MANY ZD8000 owners! In fact, I saw MANY people talking about and suggesting class action lawsuits over the ZD8000 issues.

It makes me feel sick to my stomach that a company like HP would make computers like this without the thorough testing needed to make sure that they will work consistently and it really makes me sick to know that HP won't make things right!

How To Get Fluent NHibernate, NHibernate And Castle To Work Using Medium Trust

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 07:31:00 +0000

There are times when open source projects can give you incredible joy. Then there are other times when you just want to go find the developers of a particular open source project and yell at them just a little bit. The truth is that we should all be thankful that open source developers care enough to create fantastic open source projects, but sometimes things can get hairy and scary. I had one such situation with NHibernate, Fluent NHibernate, Castle and StructureMap when I tried to get everything working in a medium trust environment. I'm going to tell you how to solve the problem so that you can have an easier go of things than I had.

I created a beautiful project using NHibernate, Fluent NHibernate , the part of Castle that NHibernate relies on and StructureMap. Everything worked perfectly in development and I was super happy and all smiles. Instead of just releasing the project, I decided to create a coming soon page for it. The coming soon page can be seen here - http://www.thedesigncoders.com/comingsoon. That page has a contact form on it that uses NHibernate to persist the data. This page looked and worked great on my development machine, but I got a rude awakening after deploying it. That rude awakening was an error - System.Security.SecurityException: That assembly does not allow partially trusted callers. What? OMG! Here was the first lesson for me - always run your project on dev using the same trust level as your production environment. Doing this would have shown me the error well before deployment. OK. Lesson learned.

Now I was in a pickle. The error was occurring in Castle according to the error message. I used Google to investigate the issue. There were a whole lot of different things that people tried. One of them was to disable lazy loading. I nearly lost my lunch when I read that! I had set up Fluent NHibernate using its AutoMap feature and I had an EXTENSIVE database system with a lot of interconnected many to one, one to one and one to many relationships. Disabling lazy loading would basically mean that I might as well remove NHibernate and Fluent NHibernate and use Entity Framework. That, however, would have taken me a long time to do and it simply wasn't anything I even wanted to think about. I don't have anything against Entity Framework, but it took effort for me to set up NHibernate, Fluent NHibernate and StructureMap and I wasn't about to abandon my beautifully done project because of one stupid error. I was GOING to figure this out.

OK. So after viewing some blogs AND the NHibernate website, which suggested that I would need to go through hell and high water to get things to work, I decided to keep searching. Here are some of the articles I came across.

Use NHibernate Proxy Generators
http://nhforge.org/blogs/nhibernate/archive/2008/09/23/introducing-nhibernate-proxygenerators.aspx
This would be good, but I'm using Fluent NHibernate's AutoMap feature so I don't use mapping files. That means that this is useless to me and it is likely unnecessary for you.

Disable Lazy Loading, Disable Reflection Optimization & Change Web.Config Permissions
http://nhforge.org/wikis/howtonh/run-in-medium-trust.aspx
No, no and NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Fluent NHibernate's AutoMap feature makes things REALLY easy for me. If I had to disable lazy loading on my project given how large the database is and how much work Fluent NHibernate saves me from doing, I would have a fit. This just WAS NOT an option. In fact, it was a beyond useless idea to me.

Rebuilding The Castle Project, NHibernate and Fluent NHibernate
http://blog.yeticode.co.uk/2010/03/running-nhibernate-in-medium-trust/
Hmmmm....this sounds good...... or so I thought! I would SIMPLY download all three projects, change the assembly in Castle to AllowPartiallyTrustedCallers, build it and use the dlls to then rebuild everything else. Great! I download the latest version of Castle and I start down that road. God/Allah/Jehovah/Jesus/Messiah/ HELP ME!!! It is times like these that make you feel stupid. I did all of that without thinking about ONE important (very important) thing - I didn't initially pay attention to the various versions of the files! Doooh!! Things did not match up! This version needed that version and that version needed this version and so on and so on. The problem wasn't JUST the versioning. Castle rolled its Dynamic Proxy into Castle.Core. It used to be its own project, but they changed this in the latest version. This meant that I had to change various parts of NHibernate. NHibernate was looking for a reference to Castle.Core AND Castle.DynamicProxy. I was starting to think about looking for a drink - and that says a lot because I have never had a drink of alcohol in my life! Fortunately, I figured out a different way.

I started thinking about the problem. The problem was that I couldn't set this project up on my chosen host because they don't allow people's apps to use full trust and the components I was using required full trust to do certain things. Surely I wasn't the only person who had this issue. In fact, I was positive I wasn't the only person with this issue because Google told me so (lol). Therefore, someone else had to have come up with a solution. I found that someone or a group of someones (I know this isn't proper grammar) had already solved the problem for their project. That project is called Cuyahoga. That brings me to solution number 4 -

4. When In Doubt, Use The Files Of Someone Else To Work It Out! (I love that rhyme)

Yeah! Now that is my kind of solution. After pulling out my hair by the root, this “solution” left me with 5 strands left! Cuyahoga is using NHibernate with Castle. Since they have already conquered the medium trust issue, I knew that their latest files should be sufficient for me. They don't use Fluent NHibernate (shame on them), but I knew that it would be nothing for me to download the latest source of Fluent NHibernate, add the dlls I took from Cuyahoga to the src and then compile everything. That is what I did and it worked like a charm. I swapped out the dlls in my project and I didn't have to disable or change anything else. Yes! Yes! Yes!

Here is the link to the Cuyahoga files.

https://cuyahoga.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/cuyahoga/trunk/lib

There you have it! Using those files will allow you to get everything running in a medium trust environment!

There are a couple of things that I found during my search that troubled me. There have been a lot of people who have had this issue. I would think that the open source project creators, especially NHibernate, would create source code that works in a medium trust environment. They won't. Making people do it themselves isn't necessarily a bad thing, but everyone doesn't want to spend time struggling to get things done. That is one of the things that makes Entity Framework appealing to the masses - for the most part, it just works.

Here is a link to one particularly onerous discussion surrounding the issue involving users and the Nhibernate developers. I found the whole character of the discussion to be completely distasteful. It shouldn't be so hard to do something that is so easy.

http://groups.google.com/group/nhusers/browse_thread/thread/dbfa6840d42f4c12/0db76f949568f947?lnk=gst&q=medium+trust#0db76f949568f947

If you have this issue, don't fret, worry or drive yourself insane. Just get those files and make it happen. Do not, I repeat, do not disable lazy loading for NHibernate to make it work in a medium trust environment. That defeats the whole purpose of the tool.

Smooches,

Kila

How To Tell What Happened When Publish Failed In ASP.NET MVC

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 05:56:00 +0000

This is a simple one. If you use the Publish feature in Visual Studio, you might be wondering how you can tell why a publish fails. The reason could be anything from an image file not being loaded in a project, to something more serious. To find out, you can click on View and then select Output to see exactly why the publish failed. Wasn't that simple?
Smooches,
Kila

How To Uninstall Internet Explorer 9 Beta

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:51:00 +0000

I made a mistake. I should have known better than to install a Microsoft Beta product. I love Microsoft, but their Beta products have some real quirks sometimes (I know....hence the term Beta). I usually wait - never wanting to be first in that arena. However, I decided to take a chance on Internet Explorer 9 Beta. The install SEEMED to go smoothly. The computer restarted, but I would get an error when I tried to use IE9. Every single time I clicked on it, I got the dreaded Windows has an error message and then Windows is checking for a solution message. Over and over. I tried all of the instructions provided by Microsoft to fix it, but I finally decided that I didn't and don't have the time to work through the issues. I need IE for development purposes and it HAS to work for me so I did an uninstall. However, when I went to do my uninstall, I couldn't find IE9! Since anything that is added has to have a way to be removed, I started searching to find it. I did and here is the solution so you won't have to spend as much time as I did.
On Windows 7 here is what you do:

Go to Control Panel
Select Programs And Features
In the upper left hand corner, select View Installed Updates
You will be provided with a list of updates, but you will likely not see Windows Internet Explorer 9 clearly in the list
To find Windows Internet Explorer 9, go to the search box in the upper right hand corner and type in Windows Internet Explorer 9
Windows Internet Explorer 9 will magically appear and you should select it and then hit the Uninstall button.
The computer will uninstall the components and then ask you to restart.
Once you restart, you will need to set up some attributes of Internet Explorer 8 again, but you will be rid of Internet Explorer 9 and ready to rock and roll.

Whew....lets not EVER do that again until IE9 is ready - lol!

Smooches,

Kila

How To Solve A SQL Server Database Marked As Suspect Mode

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:14:00 +0000

I'm going to keep this short and to the point. You may log into SQL Server some day and find that some of your databases have an exclamation point along with being marked with the following: DatabaseName (Suspect). That just makes you frown. Well I'm going to show you how to turn your frown upside down!

The solution is listed below.

Smooches,

Kila

Problem:

SQL Server marks your database as (Suspect). It won't open and you don't know what to do.

Solution:

To solve the problem, run the following in query analyzer.

EXEC sp_resetstatus 'YourDatabaseName';

ALTER DATABASE YourDatabaseName SET EMERGENCY

DBCC checkdb('YourDatabaseName')

ALTER DATABASE YourDatabaseName SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE

DBCC CheckDB ('YourDatabaseName', REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS)

ALTER DATABASE YourDatabaseName SET MULTI_USER

After you run this, right click on the database and hit Refresh. There you go! Now your frown is turned upside down!

Primary Keys Do Not or Should Not Equal Clustered Index....Repeat After Me...Learn How To Add A Clustered Index On A Non Primary Key Column

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:16:00 +0000

Today I'm going to tell you about a novel concept that I just had to demonstrate to one of my employees who didn't know/believe that it was possible. Before I tell you about this concept, I need to give you a little bit of background information. If you are using SQL Server, you know that when you create a table and add a primary key, a clustered index is automagically created for you on the primary key column. However, the problem with that is that the primary key you create may not be the clustered index you are looking for. There can be only one clustered index on a table. SO what are YOU going to do if the clustered index on your primary key is not on the column you want? What are you going to do if you need to add a clustered index on a column that is not the primary key? The answer to those questions is to change the clustered index first and then create your primary key. In order to change your clustered index, you need to remember a few things.

A primary key is not an index. Primary keys uniquely identify columns in your table - nothing more and nothing less. You don't have to use them for indexing.
A clustered index, reorders the physical rows of your table. So if you are consistently doing searches on a particular column AND it is unique in your table, you can use that column in a clustered index. Don't forget this. I always use the example of a telephone book. Clustered Indexes are like telephone books. Why would you want to have a telephone book ordered by a randomly generated Primary Key? The answer is that you wouldn't. Instead, you need a real world way to order your information.
You SHOULD NOT let SQL Server decide the clustered index for you. It happens by default, but accounting for this is part of good database design.
Setting up a clustered index that IS NOT your primary key is easy to do.

I love #4.... I love #4....repeat after me....

So with all of those things in mind, let me give you an example. Lets say that you have a table called Options. Your table is defined like this.

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Options](
[OptionId] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL CONSTRAINT [DF_Options_OptionId] DEFAULT (newid()),

[OptionName] [nvarchar](200) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NOT NULL,

[OptionDisplayName] [nvarchar](200) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NOT NULL,

[OptionDescription] [nvarchar](max) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NOT NULL,

[OptionStatus] [nvarchar](50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NOT NULL CONSTRAINT [DF_Options_OptionStatus] DEFAULT ('ACTIVE'),

[LastStatusChangeDate] [datetime] NOT NULL CONSTRAINT [DF_Options_LastStatusChangeDate] DEFAULT (getdate()),

[CreatedBy] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL,

[DisplayOrder] [int] NOT NULL,

[DateAdded] [datetime] NOT NULL CONSTRAINT [DF_Options_DateAdded] DEFAULT (getdate())

) ON [PRIMARY]

Here is what this table looks like in the flesh without a key:

Looks good right? Now what? Well if you are like most people, your next step is to add the primary key! But this isn't correct. Adding the primary key will automatically create a clustered index. INSTEAD, we are going to create the clustered index FIRST! That's right! I said FIRST! You create the clustered index first and then you add the primary key after the fact.

Here is what you end up with.

You didn't see it, but the table is now physically ordered by the Display Order column - NOT the OptionId column. As you can see, we have a Clustered Index AND a Primary Key column which is unique, yet non-clustered. How did we do that? We did it by remembering to do the following:

Create your Clustered Index FIRST - before you add a Primary Key!
Add your unique Primary Key after you have added the Index.

This will allow you to have the clustered index set on the column that you actually should have it on instead of using the default set up that SQL Server offers you.

Problem:
You don't know how to add a non primary key column as a clustered index in SQL Server.

Solution:
Add the clustered index first on the column the table should be ordered on and then add the primary key.

* Note - Always remember to add your Clustered Index and then save and then add your primary key and then save AND THEN add your relationships. If you are using the SQL Database Diagram feature, don't try to add your clustered index and then use the diagram to add your primary key and relationships without saving the primary key BEFORE YOU ADD RELATIONSHIPS. If you add the clustered index and then go to the diagram to add the primary key and relationships WITHOUT SAVING the primary key before you add the relationships, when you save the primary key and relationships, the system will remove your custom clustered index and try to add the clustered index on the primary key only. This seems to be a quirk of using the database diagram feature.

Always remember the order -

Add clustered index on your column
Save
Add primary key
Save
Add relationships
save

Smooches,

Kila Morton

How To Do A One To One Mapping In Fluent NHibernate Using HasOne! It Is So Easy! (Lets Map A One To One With Fluent NHibernate..YEAH!!)

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:22:00 +0000

I am going to give you a solid example of a One to One Fluent NHibernate mapping. Fluent NHibernate can be a fabulous tool once you learn how to use it. Once you get the hang of it, it is so much simpler than Entity Framework. I know that your eyes may bulge at that statement because what could be easier than dragging and dropping on a GUI. Automapping in Fluent Nhibernate is really even easier than that - ONCE YOU UNDERSTAND HOW TO DO CERTAIN THINGS. One of the ways you can learn more about Fluent NHibernate is by reading the documentation, however, sometimes that is not enough. One of the things that I found when trying to figure out how to do a one to one mapping using .HasOne is that the documentation on using .HasOne is sparse at best. What I found, over and over, was that there were no EASY, reasonable, concrete, full examples of exactly how you should map a one-to-one in Fluent NHibernate using .HasOne. So, I sat down and invested some time in figuring out how to do a one-to-one mapping in Fluent NHibernate using .HasOne and now I'm going to make things easier for you by telling you how to do it without adding all kinds of crazy things to your code and without pulling out your hair.

Since I like to give clear and concise examples, lets go through this step by step. This example is extremely simple, but it illustrates the point beautifully.

We are going to map two tables - TestUser and TestFullName. In this example, every user needs to have a full name saved with them. There can be only one name for each user. The two tables are connected on the UserId so TestUser.UserId = TestFullName.UserId. OK. Lets get all Fluenty (I made that word up)!

Step 1 - The Database Tables

You can create the two tables in any way you deem appropriate. The tables should have the columns specified in the following image:
(CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE A BIG VERSION OF IT)

Notice the one to one key designation. Also, as you can see, each table has UserId as the primary key, which is the key feature of a one to one mapping in Fluent NHibernate. As you can also see, a relationship has been defined on the two tables. That relationship establishes the TestUser table as being the Primary Key table and the TestFullName table as being the Foreign Key table. This is EXTREMELY important in the mapping. If you accidently set the mapping up using reverse syntax, your mapping will not save and you will sit in front of the screen banging on your head asking yourself, "WHY GOD WHY WON'T THIS SAVE?" Now that we have the tables created, the primary keys assigned and the relationship mapped, we are going to go to step 2 and create the classes.

Step 2 - The Classes

public class TestUser
{
public virtual Guid UserId
{ get; set; }
public virtual string Username
{ get; set; }
public virtual TestFullName FullName
{ get; set; }
}

public class TestFullName
{
public virtual Guid UserId
{ get; set; }
public virtual string FullName
{ get; set; }
public virtual TestUser TestUser
{ get; set; }

public virtual void AssignUser(TestUser user)
{
TestUser = user;
user.FullName = this;
}
}

As you can see, I have a property in both tables that references the other table. Notice also that there is no IList mapping in there because this is a true one to one. Do you see how I created a property that allows you to assign a user?

Step 3 - The Actual Mappings

NOW, here is where it gets pretty guys and gals. Why do I say that? Well if you have been looking for how to do a one to one mapping using Fluent NHibernate, you have likely seen example after example of hacks that just don't feel correct due to the convoluted nature of the answers. It isn't as bad as you thought it would be. I am using the AutoMap feature of Fluent NHibernate to do a one to one mapping, so the code below includes the Override keyword. With the AutoMap feature you don't have to worry about class maps - unless of course you want to. Here is the mapping.

.Override
(map => map.Id(f => f.UserId))
.Override
(map => map
.HasOne(x => x.FullName)
.Class()
.Constrained())

.Override
(map => map.Id(f => f.UserId)
.GeneratedBy.Foreign("TestUser"))
.Override
(map => map
.HasOne( x => x.TestUser)
.Class()
.Cascade.All()
))

OOOhhhhhh Yeah! Doesn't that look great? Of course it does. Let me explain a little bit about why I did things this way.

First, you will notice that I map the Id. This is because the Id is not clear to Fluent NHibernate. Since UserId isn't intuitive based on the table names, I had to use the map feature to add an Id. Notice that I also use .GeneratedBy.Foreign. This tells Fluent NHibernate where the Id is coming from. Next, you can see that I've thrown Constrained() in there. That tells NHibernate that there is a Foreign key constraint on TestUser that refers to the primary key in TestFullName. On the other side I use a Cascade since things like Updates, Deletes, etc. should be persisted across both entities. There is one additional very important thing to notice here. I use .HasOne on BOTH sides of the mapping. All of these things ensure that you each instance saved will have the same primary key value across both tables.

I'm not showing you how exactly how to save things because I don't know how you have everything set up, but here is the outline of what you do.

Step 4 - Saving Things

Assign a new user to a name using the handy-dandy .AssignUser method we created in Step 2.
Save the name.
Save the user

These things need to be done in order to avoid conflicts.

That's it! Aren't I great, super, fantastic and wonderful? Of course I am! This is how to easily map a one to one relationship in Fluent NHibernate using .HasOne. Now remember, don't go getting yourself confused about what a one to one is. James Gregory has spent so much of his time telling people on Stack Overflow and the Fluent NHibernate group that they want a many to one and not a one to one that I'm surprised he isn't in a straight jacket sitting in a padded room somewhere (Maybe He Is...). So read the documentation on Fluent NHibernate and use this example of how to map a one to one in Fluent NHibernate so you can look super smart.

Smooches,

Kila Morton

Problem:
You can't map a one to one in Fluent NHibernate using .HasOne OR you need to know how to do a one to one mapping in Fluent NHibernate.

Solution:
I won't list it here. You have to read everything above on this one!

As a side note, James Gregory is one of the creators of Fluent NHibernate. I think he has likely rubbed the skin off of his fingers due to how many times he has had to explain that many of the mappings that people consider to be one to one are actually many to one. You can take a look at his post here. We have a true one to one Fluent NHibernate mapping here so I don't think that we will get on James Gregory's bad side.

One Solution To The Fluent NHibernate Error "The given key was not present in the dictionary."

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 01:45:00 +0000

Problem:
You have set up some mappings and you get the following Fluent NHibernate error - "The given key was not present in the dictionary."

Solution:
This error can be generated for multiple reasons. One of the reasons is that you forget to map an entity. Before you go any further, check that you have mapped EVERY entity and check that you have registered every entity if you are using something like StructureMap or any other IOC.

Smooches,

Kila

How To Handle The Following Error When Using StructureMap With ASP.NET MVC -The controller for path was not found or does not implement IController.

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:13:00 +0000

{"The controller for path 'main_bg.gif' was not found or does not implement IController."} Doesn't that error look great? If you say yes then I know that you don't have enough to do. When you are working with StructureMap, or really any dependency injector, to handle the creation of your controllers, you might run into a situation where you get the following error :

{"The controller for path 'main_bg.gif' was not found or does not implement IController."}

Of course, /Content/images/main_bg.gif won't be in YOUR error message, but some image you are using will likely be in your message. As you can see, StructureMap seems to be looking for a controller for the path of one of my image files. Well isn't that great? Now what? Fear not my friends, the solution to this problem is very, very simple - I promise. Before I tell you the answer, I'm going to ask you a question. What area can you use in MVC to tell your program to ignore or follow certain paths? .........1..........2.........3........Give up? It is the RegisterRoutes area of the global.asax. In this case, you just need to tell your code to ignore the route to your beautiful graphic and StructureMap will stop giving you the error. See, I told you it was simple!

Smooches,
Kila

Problem:
You are receiving the following error when you are debugging your ASP.NET MVC application in Visual Studio.
{"The controller for path 'main_bg.gif' was not found or does not implement IController."}
(You might also see something like the following:

{"The controller for path '/' was not found or does not implement IController."})

Solution:
Change your global.asax RegisterRoutes routine to ignore the offending path.

Example: routes.IgnoreRoute("{*ignoregifs}", new { ignoregifs = @".*\.gif(/.*)?" }); This will ignore all gifs.

If your issue is some other type of file or "/", you simply adjust the regular expression accordingly.

Html.ActionLink Displaying The Word Length In The URL - What?

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:04:00 +0000

Don't you just love crazy weirdness when you create urls? I sure do....NOT! Sometimes the smallest things can provide you with the biggest pain - especially when you are pressed for time. I ran across a crazy little problem in ASP.NET MVC 2 with an url I created using Html.Actionlink.

I wanted an url that looked like this -

http://www.mysite.com/Project/Pages/someGuidId.

I used the following Html.Actionlink -

<%= Html.ActionLink("View Project Pages", "Pages", "Project",
new { id = page.PageId })%>

This generated an url with a Length property at the end of it -

http:/www.mysite.com/Project/Pages?Length=7

What in the world is that? Length is NOT my friend! Fear not though! This error is very easy to solve with minimal effort. Adding one value makes the difference. I just needed to change my Html.Actionlink to the following:

<%= Html.ActionLink("View Project Pages", "Pages", "Project",
new { id = page.PageId }, null)%>

That nice little null does the trick quite nicely and makes everyone happy!

Smooches,

Kila

Problem:
<%= Html.ActionLink("View Project Pages", "Pages", "Project",
new { id = page.PageId })%>
generates http:/www.mysite.com/Project/Pages?Length=7

Solution:
<%= Html.ActionLink("View Project Pages", "Pages", "Project",
new { id = page.PageId }, null)%>

NHibernate Not Saving And You Get A One Way To Fix Unexpected row count: 0; expected: 1 Error In NHibernate

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 04:14:00 +0000

I love NHibernate and I love Fluent NHibernate. Fluent NHibernate allows you to use NHibernate without the XML configuration files that would normally be required by NHibernate. In fact, by using the AutoMap feature of Fluent NHibernate, you can use NHibernate without writing ANY additional lines of code beyond adding virtual to your POCO classes. That sounds great.

Sometimes, however, NHibernate can give you error messages that aren't as intuitive as they could be. This is a small complaint because we software developers can always figure out how to do things....right? So you have created your classes, set up Fluent NHibernate and tried to save something only to find that NHibernate is not saving your entity. You try and try, but NHibernate will not save your entity. You look at the error message and you see the following:

Unexpected row count: 0; expected: 1

That message doesn't look good. Why won't NHibernate save? Whatever could the NHibernate problem be? Well I don't know all of the reasons that this error message might occur, but I do know one reason that I'm going to tell you about.

If you are using GUIDs or INTs as the primary key on your entity, NHibernate needs to see that entity id as empty so that it will know that the item you are saving is new. You will get the error shown above if you try to add the GUID or INT yourself. I know. I know. This is kind of counter to how you do things in Entity Framework, but isn't NHibernate smart? It can and will generate the id for you so you can sit back and relax (well you can't really relax, but NHibernate will create the id for you). To solve the problem, do not try to assign an int or Guid to your id. When NHibernate sees that the value is empty, NHibernate will recognize this to be a new item and perform a database Insert instead of an Update.

Wasn't that simple. I just told you to do nothing and I solved your problem.
Hope this saves you some time!

Smooches,

Kila

Problem:

System.MissingMethodException: No parameterless constructor defined for this object! Does This Error Really Mean What It Says?

noreply@blogger.com (Kila Morton) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 02:42:00 +0000

System.MissingMethodException: No parameterless constructor defined for this object. What a great error message right? If you are using ASP.NET MVC, You may be fooled into thinking that receiving this message always means that you need to add something to your controllers. It doesn't! That's right - I said it doesn't always mean that. This message, which is about as helpful as a porcupine in your bathtub, can often point to an issue with the routes in your application.

Instead of going through a lengthy explanation about this error, I'm just going to get to the point. This error can be caused by having an incorrect route defined in your global.asax file. To troubleshoot this error, check your global.asax file and make sure that any parameter that is not a required parameter has the UrlParameter.Optional item. For example, id = UrlParameter.Optional. This error can occur if you have a route defined without an action and then you send in an url WITH the action. Making the action equal to UrlParameter.Optional can, in some instances, solve the problem.

Smooches,
Kila