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Test

Eric Nelson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:12:17 GMT

Download now or listen on posterous

ukmsdnflash009_low.mp3 (9898 KB)

Test

Posted via email from UK MSDN Podcast

Test 2

Eric Nelson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:11:42 GMT

Test 2

Posted via email from UK MSDN Podcast

MSDN Flash Podcast Show 011 - Steve Marx on Windows Azure

Eric Nelson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:09:01 GMT

Msdn Flash Show 011 - Steve Marx On Windows Azure by Eric Nelson At Iupdateable. Com
Download now or listen on posterous

ukmsdnflash011.mp3 (17418 KB)

Also knows as "that's where I left my shoe" (you will need to listen to understand that)

This is a bonus edition of the podcast recorded on the 6th of October in London with Steve Marx, Technical Strategist working on Windows Azure.

It starts slow, it needed a few edits (deletes!) as we battled with "what is still not public" but picks up to be a pretty useful look at the improvements we have made to Windows Azure over the last few months with a specific focus on storage.

Topics covered include:

Entity Group Transactions
StorageClient library
Queues
Blobs and Shared Access Signatures/Blob Container Access Policies
Communication between nodes without queues
Logging

Show Links:

Posted via email from UK MSDN Podcast

Visual WebGui Application Platform Released

Webgui — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:59:55 GMT

Visual WebGui released a new version today - version 6.3.12 is a further stabilization on the way to releasing the all-new 6.4.

The new release includes enhancements to the Control Wrapper such as improved support for 3rd party controls and a more stable overall operation after a few issues were resolved.

Visual WebGui provides Develop, Run, Manage & Migrate benefits for Ajax empowered Web / Cloud applications

Free Visual WebGui Development Tools Downloads

Writing custom MembershipProvider

Łukasz Kuryło — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:42:19 GMT

This text is based on the Chris Pels video located here.

ASP.NET Membership mechanism allows to use the build-in server tables to store and retrieve user data. By default, this mechanism can only be used with SQL Server database to which Microsoft provides suitable MembershipProvider class.
Inheriting from this abstract class, developer can use his own table(-es) from any database and use any database engine other than SQL Server, like Oracle, DB2 etc.

In this article I would like to show, how to implement this class for my own User table, using Linq to SQL.

This table looks like below. As you can see, there is less fields than in the default User table from the Membership mechanism, because now I have only these fields which I need in my project:

To select, delete and update data in this table, I created a several stored procedures:

The T-SQL code for this table and procedures can be found at the end of this article.

Implementing the class derived from the MembershipProvider it isn't all what have to be done. Beyond this, the provider must also be configured in the Web.config file:

  1:  		<authentication mode="Forms">
  2:  			<forms loginUrl="Default.aspx" name=".ASPXFORMSAUTH"/>
  3:  		</authentication>
  4:  		<authorization>
  5:  			<deny users="?"/>
  6:  		</authorization>
  7:  		<machineKey validationKey="C50B3C89CB21F4F1422FF158A5B42D0E8DB8CB5CDA1742572A487D9401E3400267682B202B746511891C1BAF47F8D25C07F6C39A104696DB51F17C529AD3CABE" decryptionKey="8A9BE8FD67AF6979E7D20198CFEA50DD3D3799C77AF2B72F" validation="SHA1"/>
  8:  		<!--Custom Membership Provider Configuration-->
  9:  		<membership defaultProvider="ShopMembershipProvider" userIsOnlineTimeWindow="15">
 10:  			<providers>
 11:  				<clear/>
 12:  				<add name="ShopMembershipProvider" type="Shop.Data.ShopMembershipProvider" connectionStringName="ShopConnectionString" enablePasswordRetrieval="true" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true" writeExceptionsToEventLog="false"/>
 13:  			</providers>
 14:  		</membership>

The abstract class have many methods, so the below source code is huge, despite the fact that, some of these methods aren't implemented, because I do not have corresponding fields in the data table.

  1:  using System;
  2:  using System.Collections.Generic;
  3:  using System.Linq;
  4:  using System.Web;
  5:  using System.Web.Security;
  6:  using System.Configuration;
  7:  using System.Configuration.Provider;
  8:  using System.Web.Configuration;
  9:  using System.Security.Cryptography;
 10:  using System.Text;
 11:  
 12:  namespace Shop.Data
 13:  {
 14:      public class ShopMembershipProvider : MembershipProvider
 15:      {
 16:          private MachineKeySection machineKey;
 17:          private ShopMembershipDataContext db;
 18:          private int newPasswordLength = 8;
 19:  
 20:          public override string ApplicationName
 21:          {
 22:              get;
 23:              set;
 24:          }
 25:  
 26:          private bool enablePasswordReset;
 27:          public override bool EnablePasswordReset
 28:          {
 29:              get { return enablePasswordReset; }
 30:          }
 31:  
 32:          private bool enablePasswordRetrieval;
 33:          public override bool EnablePasswordRetrieval
 34:          {
 35:              get { return enablePasswordRetrieval; }
 36:          }
 37:  
 38:          private bool requiresQuestionAndAnswer;
 39:          public override bool RequiresQuestionAndAnswer
 40:          {
 41:              get { return requiresQuestionAndAnswer; }
 42:          }
 43:  
 44:          private bool requiresUniqueEmail;
 45:          public override bool RequiresUniqueEmail
 46:          {
 47:              get { return requiresUniqueEmail; } 
 48:          }
 49:  
 50:          private int maxInvalidPasswordAttempts;
 51:          public override int MaxInvalidPasswordAttempts
 52:          {
 53:              get { return maxInvalidPasswordAttempts; }
 54:          }
 55:  
 56:          private int passwordAttemptWindow;
 57:          public override int PasswordAttemptWindow
 58:          {
 59:              get { return passwordAttemptWindow; }
 60:          }
 61:  
 62:          private MembershipPasswordFormat passwordFormat;
 63:          public override MembershipPasswordFormat PasswordFormat
 64:          {
 65:              get { return passwordFormat; }
 66:          }
 67:  
 68:          private int minRequiredNonAlphanumericCharacters;
 69:          public override int MinRequiredNonAlphanumericCharacters
 70:          {
 71:              get { return minRequiredNonAlphanumericCharacters; }
 72:          }
 73:  
 74:          private int minRequiredPasswordLength;
 75:          public override int MinRequiredPasswordLength
 76:          {
 77:              get { return minRequiredPasswordLength; }
 78:          }
 79:  
 80:          private string passwordStrengthRegularExpression;
 81:          public override string PasswordStrengthRegularExpression
 82:          {
 83:              get { return passwordStrengthRegularExpression; }
 84:          }
 85:  
 86:          public override void Initialize(string name, System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection config)
 87:          {
 88:              if (config == null)
 89:              {
 90:                  throw new ArgumentNullException("config");
 91:              }
 92:  
 93:              if (name == null || name.Length == 0)
 94:              {
 95:                  name = "ShopMembershipProvider";
 96:              }
 97:  
 98:              base.Initialize(name, config);
 99:  
100:              ApplicationName = GetConfigValue(config["applicationName"], System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.ApplicationVirtualPath);
101:              maxInvalidPasswordAttempts = Convert.ToInt32(GetConfigValue(config["maxInvalidPasswordAttempts"], "5"));
102:              passwordAttemptWindow = Convert.ToInt32(GetConfigValue(config["passwordAttemptWindow"], "10"));
103:              minRequiredNonAlphanumericCharacters = Convert.ToInt32(GetConfigValue(config["minRequiredAlphaNumericCharacters"], "1"));
104:              minRequiredPasswordLength = Convert.ToInt32(GetConfigValue(config["minRequiredPasswordLength"], "7"));
105:              passwordStrengthRegularExpression = Convert.ToString(GetConfigValue(config["passwordStrengthRegularExpression"], String.Empty));
106:              enablePasswordReset = Convert.ToBoolean(GetConfigValue(config["enablePasswordReset"], "true"));
107:              enablePasswordRetrieval = Convert.ToBoolean(GetConfigValue(config["enablePasswordRetrieval"], "true"));
108:              requiresQuestionAndAnswer = Convert.ToBoolean(GetConfigValue(config["requiresQuestionAndAnswer"], "false"));
109:              requiresUniqueEmail = Convert.ToBoolean(GetConfigValue(config["requiresUniqueEmail"], "true"));
110:  
111:              string temp_format = config["passwordFormat"];
112:              if (temp_format == null)
113:              {
114:                  temp_format = "Hashed";
115:              }
116:  
117:              switch (temp_format)
118:              {
119:                  case "Hashed":
120:                      passwordFormat = MembershipPasswordFormat.Hashed;
121:                      break;
122:                  case "Encrypted":
123:                      passwordFormat = MembershipPasswordFormat.Encrypted;
124:                      break;
125:                  case "Clear":
126:                      passwordFormat = MembershipPasswordFormat.Clear;
127:                      break;
128:                  default:
129:                      throw new ProviderException("Password format not supported.");
130:              }
131:  
132:              System.Configuration.Configuration cfg = WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration(System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.ApplicationVirtualPath);
133:              machineKey = cfg.GetSection("system.web/machineKey") as MachineKeySection;
134:  
135:              if (machineKey.ValidationKey.Contains("AutoGenerate"))
136:              {
137:                  if (PasswordFormat != MembershipPasswordFormat.Clear)
138:                  {
139:                      throw new ProviderException("Hashed or Encrypted passwords are not supported with auto-generated keys.");
140:                  }
141:              }
142:          }
143:  
144:          private string GetConfigValue(string configValue, string defaultValue)
145:          {
146:              if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(configValue))
147:              {
148:                  return defaultValue;
149:              }
150:  
151:              return configValue;
152:          }
153:  
154:          public override bool ChangePassword(string username, string oldPassword, string newPassword)
155:          {
156:              if (!ValidateUser(username, oldPassword))
157:              {
158:                  return false;
159:              }
160:  
161:              ValidatePasswordEventArgs args = new ValidatePasswordEventArgs(username, newPassword, true);
162:  
163:              OnValidatingPassword(args);
164:  
165:              if (args.Cancel)
166:              {
167:                  if (args.FailureInformation != null)
168:                  {
169:                      throw args.FailureInformation;
170:                  }
171:                  else 
172:                  {
173:                      throw new Exception("Change password canceled due to new password validation failure.");
174:                  }
175:              }
176:  
177:              InitDB();
178:  
179:              db.ChangePassword(username, EncodePassword( newPassword));
180:  
181:              try 
182:              {
183:                  db.SubmitChanges();
184:              }
185:              catch (Exception e)
186:              {
187:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
188:                  return false;
189:              }
190:  
191:              return true;
192:          }
193:          
194:          public override bool ChangePasswordQuestionAndAnswer(string username, string password, string newPasswordQuestion, string newPasswordAnswer)
195:          {
196:              if (!ValidateUser(username, password))
197:              {
198:                  return false;
199:              }
200:  
201:              InitDB();
202:  
203:              int result = db.ChangePasswordQuestionAnswer(EncodePassword( newPasswordAnswer), newPasswordAnswer, username);
204:             
205:              try 
206:              {
207:                  db.SubmitChanges();
208:  
209:                  if (result != 0)
210:                  {
211:                      return false;
212:                  }
213:              }
214:              catch (Exception e)
215:              {
216:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
217:                  return false;
218:              }
219:  
220:              return true; 
221:          }
222:  
223:          public override MembershipUser CreateUser(string username, string password, string email, string passwordQuestion, string passwordAnswer, bool isApproved, object providerUserKey, out MembershipCreateStatus status)
224:          {
225:              ValidatePasswordEventArgs args = new ValidatePasswordEventArgs(username, password, true);
226:  
227:              OnValidatingPassword(args);
228:  
229:              if (args.Cancel)
230:              {
231:                  status = MembershipCreateStatus.InvalidPassword;
232:                  return null;
233:              }
234:  
235:              if ((RequiresUniqueEmail && (GetUserNameByEmail(email) != String.Empty)))
236:              {
237:                  status = MembershipCreateStatus.DuplicateEmail;
238:                  return null;
239:              }
240:  
241:              MembershipUser membershipUser = GetUser(username, false);
242:  
243:              if (membershipUser == null)
244:              {
245:                  System.DateTime createDate = DateTime.Now;
246:  
247:                  InitDB();
248:  
249:                  int result = db.CreateUser(Guid.NewGuid(), username, EncodePassword(password), passwordQuestion, EncodePassword(passwordAnswer), email);
250:  
251:                  try 
252:                  {
253:                      db.SubmitChanges();
254:  
255:                      if (result == 0)
256:                      {
257:                          status = MembershipCreateStatus.Success;
258:                      }
259:                      else 
260:                      {
261:                          status = MembershipCreateStatus.UserRejected;
262:                      }
263:                  }
264:                  catch (Exception e)
265:                  {
266:                      HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
267:                      status = MembershipCreateStatus.ProviderError;
268:                  }
269:  
270:                  return GetUser(username, false);
271:              }
272:              else 
273:              {
274:                  status = MembershipCreateStatus.DuplicateUserName;
275:              }
276:  
277:              return null;
278:          }
279:  
280:          public override bool DeleteUser(string username, bool deleteAllRelatedData)
281:          {
282:              InitDB();
283:  
284:              int result = db.DeleteUser(username);
285:  
286:              try 
287:              {
288:                  db.SubmitChanges();
289:  
290:                  if (result == 0)
291:                  {
292:                      if (deleteAllRelatedData)
293:                      {
294:                          //Process commands to delete all data for the user in the database. 295:                      }
296:                  }
297:                  else 
298:                  {
299:                      return false;
300:                  }
301:              }
302:              catch (Exception e)
303:              {
304:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
305:              }
306:  
307:              return true;
308:          }
309:  
310:          public override MembershipUserCollection FindUsersByEmail(string emailToMatch, int pageIndex, int pageSize, out int totalRecords)
311:          {
312:              InitDB();
313:  
314:              FindUsersByEmailResult result = db.FindUsersByEmail(emailToMatch).FirstOrDefault();
315:  
316:              MembershipUserCollection membershipUsers = new MembershipUserCollection();
317:              
318:              int counter = 0;
319:  
320:              try 
321:              {
322:                  db.SubmitChanges();
323:  
324:                  int startIndex = pageSize * pageIndex;
325:                  int endIndex = startIndex + pageSize - 1;
326:  
327:                  while (result!=null)
328:                  {
329:                      if (counter >= startIndex)
330:                      {
331:                          MembershipUser membershipUser = new MembershipUser(this.Name,
332:                  result.Login,
333:                  result.UserId,
334:                  result.Email,
335:                  result.Question,
336:                  null,
337:                  true,
338:                  false,
339:                  result.RegisterDate,
340:                  DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now);
341:                          membershipUsers.Add(membershipUser);
342:                      }
343:  
344:                      counter += 1;
345:                  }
346:              }
347:              catch (Exception e)
348:              {
349:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
350:              }
351:  
352:              totalRecords = counter;
353:  
354:              return membershipUsers;
355:          }
356:  
357:          private void InitDB()
358:          {
359:              if (db == null)
360:              {
361:                  db = new ShopMembershipDataContext();
362:              }
363:          }
364:  
365:          public override MembershipUserCollection FindUsersByName(string usernameToMatch, int pageIndex, int pageSize, out int totalRecords)
366:          {
367:              InitDB();
368:  
369:              FindUsersByNameResult result = db.FindUsersByName(usernameToMatch).FirstOrDefault();
370:  
371:              MembershipUserCollection membershipUsers = new MembershipUserCollection();
372:              
373:              int counter = 0;
374:  
375:              try 
376:              {
377:                  db.SubmitChanges();
378:  
379:                  int startIndex = pageSize * pageIndex;
380:                  int endIndex = startIndex + pageSize - 1;
381:  
382:                  while (result != null)
383:                  {
384:                      if (counter >= startIndex)
385:                      {
386:                          MembershipUser membershipUser = new MembershipUser(this.Name,
387:                  result.Login,
388:                  result.UserId,
389:                  result.Email,
390:                  result.Question,
391:                  null,
392:                  true,
393:                  false,
394:                  result.RegisterDate,
395:                  DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now);
396:                          membershipUsers.Add(membershipUser);
397:                      }
398:  
399:                      counter += 1;
400:                  }
401:              }
402:              catch (Exception e)
403:              {
404:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
405:              }
406:  
407:  
408:              totalRecords = counter;
409:  
410:              return membershipUsers;
411:          }
412:  
413:          public override MembershipUserCollection GetAllUsers(int pageIndex, int pageSize, out int totalRecords)
414:          {
415:              InitDB();
416:  
417:              GetAllUsersResult result = db.GetAllUsers().FirstOrDefault();
418:  
419:              MembershipUserCollection users = new MembershipUserCollection();
420:  
421:              totalRecords = 0;
422:  
423:              try 
424:              {
425:                  db.SubmitChanges();
426:  
427:                  int counter = 0;
428:                  int startIndex = pageSize * pageIndex;
429:                  int endIndex = startIndex + pageSize - 1;
430:  
431:                  while (result!=null)
432:                  {
433:                      if (counter >= startIndex)
434:                      {
435:                          users.Add(new MembershipUser(this.Name,
436:                  result.Login,
437:                  result.UserId,
438:                  result.Email,
439:                  result.Question,
440:                  null,
441:                  true,
442:                  false,
443:                  result.RegisterDate,
444:                  DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now));
445:                      }
446:  
447:                      counter += 1;
448:                  }
449:              }
450:              catch (Exception e)
451:              {
452:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
453:              }
454:  
455:              return users;
456:          }
457:  
458:          public override int GetNumberOfUsersOnline()
459:          {
460:              throw new NotImplementedException();
461:          }
462:  
463:          public override string GetPassword(string username, string answer)
464:          {
465:              if (!EnablePasswordRetrieval)
466:              {
467:                  throw new ProviderException("Password Retrieval Not Enabled.");
468:              }
469:  
470:              if (PasswordFormat == MembershipPasswordFormat.Hashed)
471:              {
472:                  throw new ProviderException("Cannot retrieve Hashed passwords.");
473:              }
474:  
475:              InitDB();
476:  
477:              GetPasswordResult result = db.GetPassword(username).FirstOrDefault();
478:  
479:              string password = String.Empty;
480:              string passwordAnswer = String.Empty;
481:  
482:              try 
483:              {
484:                  db.SubmitChanges();
485:  
486:                  if (result!=null)
487:                  {
488:  
489:                      password = result.Password;
490:                      passwordAnswer = result.Answer;
491:                  }
492:                  else 
493:                  {
494:                      throw new MembershipPasswordException("The supplied user name is not found.");
495:                  }
496:              }
497:              catch (Exception e)
498:              {
499:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
500:              }
501:  
502:              if (RequiresQuestionAndAnswer && !CheckPassword(answer, passwordAnswer))
503:              {
504:                  throw new MembershipPasswordException("Incorrect password answer.");
505:              }
506:  
507:              if (PasswordFormat == MembershipPasswordFormat.Encrypted)
508:              {
509:                  password = UnEncodePassword(password);
510:              }
511:  
512:              return password;
513:          }
514:  
515:          public override MembershipUser GetUser(string username, bool userIsOnline)
516:          {
517:              InitDB();
518:  
519:              GetUserResult result = db.GetUser(username).FirstOrDefault();
520:  
521:              MembershipUser membershipUser = null;
522:  
523:              try 
524:              {
525:                  db.SubmitChanges();
526:  
527:                  membershipUser = new MembershipUser(this.Name,
528:                  result.Login,
529:                  result.UserId,
530:                  result.Email,
531:                  result.Question,
532:                  null,
533:                  true,
534:                  false,
535:                  result.RegisterDate,
536:                  DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now);
537:  
538:              }
539:              catch (Exception e)
540:              {
541:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
542:              }
543:  
544:              return membershipUser;
545:          }
546:  
547:          public override MembershipUser GetUser(object providerUserKey, bool userIsOnline)
548:          {
549:              InitDB();
550:  
551:              GetUserByUserIdResult result = db.GetUserByUserId((Guid)providerUserKey).FirstOrDefault();
552:  
553:              MembershipUser membershipUser = null;
554:  
555:              try 
556:              {
557:                  db.SubmitChanges();
558:  
559:                  if (result!=null)
560:                  {
561:  
562:                      membershipUser = new MembershipUser(this.Name,
563:                  result.Login,
564:                  result.UserId,
565:                  result.Email,
566:                  result.Question,
567:                  null,
568:                  true,
569:                  false,
570:                  result.RegisterDate,
571:                  DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now);
572:                  }
573:              }
574:              catch (Exception e)
575:              {
576:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
577:              }
578:  
579:              return membershipUser;
580:          }
581:          
582:          public override string GetUserNameByEmail(string email)
583:          {
584:              InitDB();
585:  
586:              GetUserNameByEmailResult result = db.GetUserNameByEmail(email).FirstOrDefault();
587:       
588:              string username = String.Empty;
589:  
590:              try 
591:              {
592:                  db.SubmitChanges();
593:                  username = result.Email;
594:              }
595:              catch (Exception e)
596:              {
597:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
598:              }
599:  
600:              if (username == null)
601:              {
602:                  return String.Empty;
603:              }
604:              else 
605:              {
606:                  username.Trim();
607:              }
608:  
609:              return username;
610:          }
611:         
612:          public override string ResetPassword(string username, string answer)
613:          {
614:              if (!EnablePasswordReset)
615:              {
616:                  throw new NotSupportedException("Password Reset is not enabled.");
617:              }
618:  
619:              if ((answer == null) && (RequiresQuestionAndAnswer))
620:              {
621:  
622:                  throw new ProviderException("Password answer required for password Reset.");
623:              }
624:  
625:              string newPassword =
626:                System.Web.Security.Membership.GeneratePassword(
627:                newPasswordLength,
628:                MinRequiredNonAlphanumericCharacters
629:                );
630:  
631:              ValidatePasswordEventArgs args = new ValidatePasswordEventArgs(username, newPassword, true);
632:  
633:              OnValidatingPassword(args);
634:  
635:              if (args.Cancel)
636:              {
637:                  if (args.FailureInformation != null)
638:                  {
639:                      throw args.FailureInformation;
640:                  }
641:                  else 
642:                  {
643:                      throw new MembershipPasswordException("Reset password canceled due to password validation failure.");
644:                  }
645:              }
646:  
647:              InitDB();
648:  
649:              GetPasswordAnswerResult result = db.GetPasswordAnswer(username).FirstOrDefault();
650:  
651:              int rowsAffected = 0;
652:              string passwordAnswer = String.Empty;
653:  
654:              try 
655:              {
656:                  db.SubmitChanges();
657:  
658:                  if (result != null)
659:                  {
660:  
661:                      passwordAnswer = result.Answer;
662:                  }
663:                  else 
664:                  {
665:                      throw new MembershipPasswordException("The supplied user name is not found.");
666:                  }
667:  
668:                  if (RequiresQuestionAndAnswer && (!CheckPassword(answer, passwordAnswer)))
669:                  {
670:                      throw new MembershipPasswordException("Incorrect password answer.");
671:                  }
672:  
673:                  int updateResult = db.UpdatePassword(EncodePassword(newPassword), username);
674:                  db.SubmitChanges();
675:  
676:                  rowsAffected = updateResult;
677:              }
678:              catch (Exception e)
679:              {
680:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
681:              }
682:  
683:              if (rowsAffected > 0)
684:              {
685:                  return newPassword;
686:              }
687:              else 
688:              {
689:                  throw new MembershipPasswordException("User not found, or user is locked out. Password not Reset.");
690:              }
691:          }
692:  
693:          public override bool UnlockUser(string userName)
694:          {
695:              throw new NotImplementedException();
696:          }
697:  
698:          public override void UpdateUser(MembershipUser user)
699:          {
700:              InitDB();
701:  
702:              db.UpdateUser(user.Email, user.UserName);
703:  
704:              try 
705:              {
706:                  db.SubmitChanges();
707:              }
708:              catch (Exception e)
709:              {
710:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
711:              }
712:          }
713:  
714:          public override bool ValidateUser(string username, string password)
715:          {
716:              bool isValid = false;
717:  
718:              InitDB();
719:  
720:              ValidateUserResult result = db.ValidateUser(username).FirstOrDefault();
721:  
722:              string storedPassword = String.Empty;
723:  
724:              try 
725:              {
726:                  db.SubmitChanges();
727:  
728:                  if (result != null)
729:                  {
730:                      storedPassword = result.Password;
731:                  }
732:                  else 
733:                  {
734:                      return false;
735:                  }
736:  
737:                  if (CheckPassword(password, storedPassword))
738:                  {
739:                      isValid = true;
740:                  }
741:              }
742:              catch (Exception e)
743:              {
744:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(e.Message);
745:              }
746:  
747:              return isValid;
748:          }
749:  
750:          private bool CheckPassword(string password, string dbpassword)
751:          {
752:              string pass1 = password;
753:              string pass2 = dbpassword;
754:  
755:              switch (PasswordFormat)
756:              {
757:                  case MembershipPasswordFormat.Encrypted:
758:                      pass2 = UnEncodePassword(dbpassword);
759:                      break;
760:                  case MembershipPasswordFormat.Hashed:
761:                      pass1 = EncodePassword(password);
762:                      break;
763:                  default:
764:                      break;
765:              }
766:  
767:              if (pass1 == pass2)
768:              {
769:                  return true;
770:              }
771:  
772:              return false;
773:          }
774:  
775:          private string EncodePassword(string password)
776:          {
777:              string encodedPassword = password;
778:  
779:              switch (PasswordFormat)
780:              {
781:                  case MembershipPasswordFormat.Clear:
782:                      break;
783:                  case MembershipPasswordFormat.Encrypted:
784:                      encodedPassword =
785:                        Convert.ToBase64String(EncryptPassword(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(password)));
786:                      break;
787:                  case MembershipPasswordFormat.Hashed:
788:                      HMACSHA1 hash = new HMACSHA1();
789:                      hash.Key = HexToByte(machineKey.ValidationKey);
790:                      encodedPassword =
791:                        Convert.ToBase64String(hash.ComputeHash(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(password)));
792:                      break;
793:                  default:
794:                      throw new ProviderException("Unsupported password format.");
795:              }
796:  
797:              return encodedPassword;
798:          }
799:  
800:          private string UnEncodePassword(string encodedPassword)
801:          {
802:              string password = encodedPassword;
803:  
804:              switch (PasswordFormat)
805:              {
806:                  case MembershipPasswordFormat.Clear:
807:                      break;
808:                  case MembershipPasswordFormat.Encrypted:
809:                      password =
810:                        Encoding.Unicode.GetString(DecryptPassword(Convert.FromBase64String(password)));
811:                      break;
812:                  case MembershipPasswordFormat.Hashed:
813:                      throw new ProviderException("Cannot unencode a hashed password.");
814:                  default:
815:                      throw new ProviderException("Unsupported password format.");
816:              }
817:  
818:              return password;
819:          }
820:  
821:          private byte[] HexToByte(string hexString)
822:          {
823:              byte[] returnBytes = new byte[hexString.Length / 2];
824:              for (int i = 0; i < returnBytes.Length; i++)
825:                  returnBytes[i] = Convert.ToByte(hexString.Substring(i * 2, 2), 16);
826:              return returnBytes;
827:          }
828:      }
829:  }

The T-SQL code:

  1:  USE DB
  2:  GO
  3:  SET ANSI_NULLS ON
  4:  GO
  5:  SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
  6:  GO
  7:  CREATE TABLE [dbo].[User](
  8:  	[UserId] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL,
  9:  	[Login] [nvarchar](150) COLLATE Polish_CI_AS NOT NULL,
 10:  	[Password] [nvarchar](max) COLLATE Polish_CI_AS NOT NULL,
 11:  	[Question] [nvarchar](255) COLLATE Polish_CI_AS NOT NULL,
 12:  	[Answer] [nvarchar](255) COLLATE Polish_CI_AS NOT NULL,
 13:  	[Email] [nvarchar](200) COLLATE Polish_CI_AS NOT NULL,
 14:  	[RegisterDate] [datetime] NOT NULL,
 15:   CONSTRAINT [PK_User] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
 16:  (
 17:  	[UserId] ASC
 18:  )WITH (IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF) ON [PRIMARY]
 19:  ) ON [PRIMARY]
 20:  go
 21:  create procedure ChangePassword(
 22:  	@login nvarchar(150),
 23:  	@password nvarchar(max)
 24:  )
 25:  as  
 26:  begin
 27:  		SET NOCOUNT ON;
 28:  
 29:    Update [User] Set
 30:    Password=@password
 31:    Where 
 32:    [Login]=@login
 33:  
 34:  end
 35:  go
 36:  create procedure GetUser(
 37:  	@login nvarchar(150)
 38:  )
 39:  as  
 40:  begin
 41:  	select	UserId,
 42:  			[Login],
 43:  			Password,
 44:  			Question,
 45:  			Answer,
 46:  			Email,
 47:  			RegisterDate
 48:  	from	[User]
 49:  	where  
 50:  			[Login]=@login
 51:  end
 52:  go
 53:  create procedure CreateUser(
 54:  			@UserId uniqueidentifier,
 55:  			@Login nvarchar(150),
 56:  			@Password nvarchar(MAX),
 57:  			@Question nvarchar(255),
 58:  			@Answer nvarchar(255),
 59:  			@Email nvarchar(200)
 60:  )
 61:  as  
 62:  begin
 63:  	SET NOCOUNT ON;
 64:  
 65:  	insert into [User](	
 66:  			UserId,
 67:  			[Login],
 68:  			Password,
 69:  			Question,
 70:  			Answer,
 71:  			Email,
 72:  			RegisterDate
 73:  	) values(
 74:  			@UserId,
 75:  			@Login,
 76:  			@Password,
 77:  			@Question,
 78:  			@Answer,
 79:  			@Email,
 80:  			getdate()
 81:  	)
 82:  end
 83:  go
 84:  create procedure GetUserByUserId(
 85:  	@UserId uniqueidentifier
 86:  )
 87:  as  
 88:  begin
 89:  	select	UserId,
 90:  			[Login],
 91:  			Password,
 92:  			Question,
 93:  			Answer,
 94:  			Email,
 95:  			RegisterDate
 96:  	from	[User]
 97:  	where  
 98:  			UserId=@UserId
 99:  end
100:  go
101:  create procedure GetUserNameByEmail(
102:  	@email nvarchar(200)
103:  )
104:  as 
105:  begin
106:  	set @email=@email+'%'
107:  
108:  	select	UserId,
109:  			[Login],
110:  			Password,
111:  			Question,
112:  			Answer,
113:  			Email,
114:  			RegisterDate
115:  	from	[User]
116:  	where 
117:  			Email like @email
118:  	order By [Login] Asc
119:  end
120:  go
121:  create procedure ValidateUser(
122:  	@login nvarchar(150)
123:  )
124:  as 
125:  begin
126:  	select	Password
127:  	from	[User]
128:  	where 
129:  			[Login]=@login
130:  end
131:  go
132:  create procedure ChangePasswordQuestionAnswer(
133:  	@question nvarchar(255),
134:  	@answer nvarchar(255),
135:  	@userName nvarchar(150)
136:  )
137:  as 
138:  begin
139:  	
140:  	SET NOCOUNT ON;
141:  
142:    Update [User] Set
143:    Question=@question,
144:    Answer=@answer
145:    Where 
146:    [Login]=@userName
147:  
148:  end
149:  go
150:  create procedure DeleteUser(
151:  	@login nvarchar(150)
152:  )
153:  as 
154:  begin
155:  	 Delete [User]
156:    Where 
157:    [Login]=@login
158:  
159:  end
160:  go
161:  create procedure GetAllUsers
162:  as 
163:  begin
164:  	select	UserId,
165:  			[Login],
166:  			Password,
167:  			Question,
168:  			Answer,
169:  			Email,
170:  			RegisterDate
171:  	from	[User]
172:  	order by [Login] asc
173:  end
174:  go
175:  create procedure GetPassword(
176:  	@login nvarchar(150)
177:  )
178:  as 
179:  begin
180:  	select	Password,
181:  			Answer
182:  	from	[User]
183:  	where	[Login]=@login
184:  end
185:  go
186:  create procedure GetPasswordAnswer(
187:  	@login nvarchar(150)
188:  )
189:  as 
190:  begin
191:  	Select	Answer
192:  	From	[User]  
193:  	Where	[Login]=@login
194:  end
195:  go
196:  create procedure UpdateUser(
197:  	@email nvarchar(200),
198:  	@login nvarchar(150)
199:  )
200:  as 
201:  begin
202:  	Update	[User] 
203:  	Set		Email=@email
204:  	Where	[Login]=@login
205:  end
206:  go
207:  create procedure FindUsersByName(
208:  	@login nvarchar(150)
209:  )
210:  as 
211:  begin
212:  	Set @login=@login+'%'
213:  
214:  	select	UserId,
215:  			[Login],
216:  			Password,
217:  			Question,
218:  			Answer,
219:  			Email,
220:  			RegisterDate
221:  	from	[User]
222:  	where 
223:  			[Login] like @login
224:  	order by [Login] asc
225:  end
226:  go
227:  create procedure FindUsersByEmail(
228:  	@email nvarchar(200)
229:  )
230:  as 
231:  begin
232:  	Set @email=@email+'%'
233:  
234:  	select	UserId,
235:  			[Login],
236:  			Password,
237:  			Question,
238:  			Answer,
239:  			Email,
240:  			RegisterDate
241:  	from	[User]
242:  	where 
243:  			Email like @email
244:  	order by [Login] asc
245:  end
246:  go
247:  create procedure UpdatePassword(
248:  	@password nvarchar(MAX),
249:  	@login nvarchar(150)
250:  )
251:  as 
252:  begin
253:  	Update [User] Set
254:    [Password]=@password
255:    Where [Login]=@login
256:  end

Gabriel Schenker introduction to NHibernate and Fluent NHibernate.

van — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:54:28 GMT

Topic
I will present an introduction to NHibernate and Fluent NHibernate. This introduction will not only discuss NHibernate in isolation but show its usage embedded in a realistic yet simple WPF application. All aspects of how to setup, run and extend such an application will be discussed. An important focus will be put on the differences between testing and running the application.

Bio
After receiving my Ph.D. of Physics at the Federal Institute of Technologies in Zurich, Switzerland, I worked for some time in building physics, and subsequently moved to behavioral science. Among other things, I was involved in training expert examiners of different industries in how to write and take exams that are fair and really test the relevant aspects of their profession.
In 1996, I started as an independent consultant, mentor, trainer and developer. In 2001, a partner and I founded a small software company. We have been writing customer specific software for all kinds of industries as well as for the government.
Since March 2009, I have been working as a senior software architect for TOPAZ Technologies in Austin, TX. I moved to Austin in October 2009.

I have been working on the .NET platform in my professional work since 2000. I am the author of the NHibernate FAQ blog and am a member of "Los Techies". I have also published several articles on DotNetSlackers about NHibernate and Fluent NHibernate.

Times below are Central Standard Time
Start Time: Wed, November 11, 2009 8:00 PM UTC/GMT -6 hours
End Time: Wed, November 11, 2009 10:00 PM UTC/GMT -6 hours
Attendee URL: http://www.virtualaltnet.com/van

Microsoft Releases New Facebook SDK Version (v 3.0)

Mohamed Meligy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:59:47 GMT

Microsoft has released a new Facebook SDK Version 3.0 (other than their old not-so-great one) and it looks to have not just updated APIs but also wide range of features supported in many application types.

Quoting a related blog post from c|net “The web services report” blog:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13515_3-10393823-26.html

Microsoft on Monday released a software development kit for Facebook that allows developers to create Facebook applications for Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation. This should expand the reach of Facebook in third-party applications as well as make Silverlight and WPF more viable platforms for developers looking to build social applications.

A screenshot showing off the NewsFeed control for WPF.

(Credit: The Silverlight Team Blog)

The SDK comes complete with samples and tools to develop Facebook applications in ASP.NET, Silverlight, WPF, and WinForms. It also features the source code for the API, components, controls, and samples.

There are currently other libraries available that allow Facebook developers to develop with other technologies, such as JavaScript, PHP, ActionScript, and the iPhone. There are a variety of others as well, which can be seen here, but these are the ones that Facebook officially provides support for.

Microsoft, as you may remember, invested $240 million in Facebook back in October 2007. Many called this move more of a strategic play to keep Google and Yahoo from getting a stake in the company. The release of this SDK is a part of Facebook and Microsoft's ongoing partnership.

If you're interested in taking a look, you can download the SDK here.

Check out the SDK Overview at:

www.microsoft.com/facebooksdk

Quoting from homepage:

The toolkit is comprised of the following core assemblies:

Facebook.dll: This is the main assembly that will be used by all applications. This has all the logic to handle communication with the Facebook application. This assembly also has specific support of XAML applications (Silverlight and WPF) to enhance the Facebook platform to make databinding and data caching easier.

Facebook.Silverlight.dll: This is the Silverlight version of the main assembly that will be used by all Silverlight applications. This has all the logic to handle communication with the Facebook application. This assembly also has specific support of XAML applications to enhance the Facebook platform to make databinding and data caching easier. The REST API in this assembly is Asynchronous only.

Facebook.Web.dll: This assembly should be used by Canvas applications. The main functionality supported in this assembly is to encapsulate the handshake between the Facebook application and a canvas application (both FBML and IFrame)

Facebook.Web.Mvc.dll: Provide a support building canvas applications using ASP.NET MVC. Separated from Facebook.Web.dll to avoid all developers from needing to install the MVC bits.

Facebook.Winforms.dll: This assembly provides support for writing Facebook applications using Winform technology. This provides a Component that wraps the API to make it easier to use from Winforms. This also contains some user controls to help display Facebook data easily.

To get started we recommend you download the SDK and refer to the "How to" guides and the Facebook Developer Wiki to get familiar with these new resources.

Download the SDK.

Refer to the detailed instructions on the Facebook Developer Wiki. Here are some important links to use as a starting point.

Anatomy_of_a_Facebook_App

Platform_Core_Components

How-to_Guides

Creating_a_Platform_Application

Facebook SDK Version 3.0 Notes

ASP.NET Development

Canvas Development

Facebook Connect

FBML Canvas

IFrame Canvas

Overview of ASP.NET Development

ToolKit Content Folder

Facebook Connect

FBML Canvas

IFrame Canvas

Facebook Platform

Facebook Platform

REST API

Other Platforms

Silverlight

WinForm

WPF

Have fun,

Technorati Tags: Facebook,Microsoft,Microsoft News,Developers,Applications,SDK

Cross posted from weblogs.asp.net/meligy

Delegate in anonymous type

argot — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:42:38 GMT

We all know the usage of the anonymous type:

var obj = new { Name = "John", Age = 24 };

What if we want to add a anonymous delegate or Lamba to it?

Like:

var obj = new { Name = "John", Age = 24, behaviour=delegate(string name, int age) { return "Customer Name: " + name + ", Age: " + age; } };

var obj = new { Name = "John", Age = 24, behaviour = (name, age) => string.Format( "Hello, {0}! You are {1} years old.", name, age ) };

The above two will cause compile time error, because anonymous type need anonymous type property, not the anonymous method or lambda expression.

There is some way to do it:

1. define a Func:

Func<string, int, string> behav =delegate(string name, int age)

{

return "Customer Name: " + name + ", Age: " + age;

};

then we can do it:

var obj = new {Name = "John", Age = 24, behaviour = behav };

2. declare a delegate:

delegate string behav(string name, int age);

then we can do:

var obj = new { Name = "John", Age = 24, behaviour = (behav)delegate(string name, int age) { return "Customer Name: " + name + ", Age: " + age; } };

var obj = new { Name = "John", Age = 24, behaviour = (behav)((name, age) => string.Format("Hello, {0}! You are {1} years old.", name, age)) };

This is the demonstration only, if we want to use IEnumerable<AnonymousType>, as anonymous type can only be cast as object, there is article here to describe how to use it. Here is another solution:

class Foo<TName, TAge, TBehaviour>

{

public List<object> Collection { get; set; }

public Foo()

{

Collection = new List<object>();

}

public void AddValue(TName name, TAge age, TBehaviour func)

{

var cust = new { CustomerName = name, Customerage = age, Behaviour = func };

Collection.Add(cust);

}

static T Cast<T>(object obj, T type)

{

return (T)obj;

}

static void Main(string[] args)

{

Func<string, int, string> behav =

delegate(string name, int age)

{

return "Customer Name: " + name + ", Age: " + age;

};

var _foo = new Foo<string, int, Func<string, int, string>>();

_foo.AddValue("John", 24, behav);

_foo.AddValue("Tom", 26, delegate(string name, int age) { return "Customer Name: " + name + ", Age: " + age; });

_foo.AddValue("Tim", 30, (name, age) => string.Format("Hello, {0}! You are {1} years old.", name, age));

var typeinfo = new { CustomerName = "", Customerage = 0, Behaviour = behav };

foreach (var customer in _foo.Collection)

{

var typed = Cast(customer, typeinfo);

Console.WriteLine(typed.Behaviour(typed.CustomerName, typed.Customerage));

}

Otherwise we can do it without anonymous type as below:

public class Customer<TCustomerName, TCustomerAge, TFunction>

{

public TCustomerName CustomerName { get; set; }

public TCustomerAge Customerage { get; set; }

public TFunction Behaviour { get; set; }

}

public class Foo<TName, TAge, TBehaviour>

{

public List<Customer<TName, TAge, TBehaviour>> Collection { get; set; }

public Foo()

{

Collection = new List<Customer<TName, TAge, TBehaviour>>();

}

public void AddValue(TName name, TAge age, TBehaviour func)

{

var cust = new Customer<TName, TAge, TBehaviour>

{CustomerName = name, Customerage = age, Behaviour = func};

Collection.Add(cust);

}

static void Main(string[] args)

{

Func<string, int, string> behav =

delegate(string name, int age)

{

return "Customer Name: " + name + ", Age: " + age;

};

var _foo = new Foo<string, int, Func<string, int, string>>();

_foo.AddValue("John", 24, behav);

_foo.AddValue("Tom", 26, delegate(string name, int age) { return "Customer Name: " + name + ", Age: " + age; });

_foo.AddValue("Tim", 30, (name, age) => string.Format("Hello, {0}! You are {1} years old.", name, age));

foreach (var customer in _foo.Collection)

Console.WriteLine(customer.Behaviour(customer.CustomerName, customer.Customerage));

}

In .Net 4.0, you even can do it more flexible by using dynamic type:

class Foo

{

public List<object> Collection { get; set; }

public Foo()

{

Collection = new List<object>();

}

public void AddValue(dynamic name, dynamic age, Func<dynamic, dynamic, dynamic> func)

{

var cust = new { CustomerName = name, Customerage = age, Behaviour = func };

Collection.Add(cust);

}

static T Cast<T>(object obj, T type)

{

return (T)obj;

}

static void Main(string[] args)

{

Func<dynamic, dynamic, dynamic> behav =

delegate(dynamic name, dynamic age)

{

return "Customer Name: " + name + ", Age: " + age;

};

var _foo = new Foo();

_foo.AddValue("John", 24, behav);

_foo.AddValue(DateTime.Now, 26, delegate(dynamic name, dynamic age) { return "Customer Name: " + name + ", Age: " + age; });

_foo.AddValue(Int32.MaxValue, 30, (name, age) => string.Format("Hello, {0}! You are {1} years old.", name, age));

var typeinfo = new { CustomerName = (dynamic)"", Customerage = (dynamic)0, Behaviour = behav };

foreach (var customer in _foo.Collection)

{

var typed = Cast(customer, typeinfo);

Console.WriteLine(typed.Behaviour(typed.CustomerName, typed.Customerage));

}

Console.Read();

}

To pause one and start another…

Ray Linder — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:59:13 GMT

This Friday, I’ll may have to stop a project due to limited funding. This web project is for a client who ran into a budget freeze (assumed) and haven’t been able to financially support the project until further notice. But that’s ok, most of the project is completed and they’ll have a very nice website with a web-based intranet all built in ASP.NET MVC 2 Preview 2.

So, until funds start flowing, I’ve decided to start a new rebuild of Glacsy.com. Yes, another rebuild. But this time, it’ll be built in pure ASP.NET MVC 2 also. Along with that, it’ll be the first and only website built in ASP.NET MVC 2. I’ll be including various jQuery plugins, exercising DataAnnotations, and dumping as much features and eye candy as possible (but not too much). I’m doing this to truly test the extensibility of ASP.NET MVC 2 and prove that it-can-be-done-in-MVC-two!!!

Glacsy.com will keep the current layout & design, but the under pins will be powered by ASP.NET MVC 2. Glacsy.com will be a webfarm of 6 tightly integrated websites. So, let the excitement begin… ;P

Exposing the Internals of a Project to Another Unit Testing Project

robertbunn — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:39:14 GMT

I have two projects one is production code (called Main), the other is a unit test project to test the real production code (called Main.Test). Both Main and Main.Test are signed with a strong name key. To expose the internal stuff to the Main.Test project we have to add an item at the bottom of the AssemblyInfo.cs class (in Main, not Main.Test) which looks similar to this:

(Note: Names and Public Keys have been changed to protect the innocent, and semi-innocent)

[assembly: System.Runtime.CompilerServices.InternalsVisibleTo("Main.Test, PublicKey=1028000004800030940000100602000000240000525341310004
0000010001001312297cb7c20cfb40f4efef6e5e96dcf84fa46db61b43b2bf65cf
49d547d6a5f14ef07f54d6313b39b10ae631e158748b39e2ab4c816b0753f2a
432160dddf06a1a7170d7ab6e4df081784da7a08b37a3a8a47b722ed6cf6c1c
f6896bc709f805a8087a758156171b7deb74a2ded23ce55688f9b2a67bfeedf1
081496da76f4")]

Now you may be thinking to yourself: "That's great bob, but how in the hell did you get this value for the public key in the first place?"

Good question! Here is the answer:

1. Open a visual studio command prompt and enter this command:

(This is using Visual Studio 2008)
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC>sn -p "[RestOfPath]\Main.Test\MainProjectStrongNameKey.snk" "[RestOfPath]\Main.Test\MainProjectStrongNameKey.publickey"

2. You should then get a message that says "Public key written blah blah blah".

3. Now in the same command window, enter this command:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC>sn -tp "[RestOfPath]\Main.Test\MainProjectStrongNameKey.publickey"

Now the command line should spit out the long public key, which you can then use like I did above. Now you can test your internal members in the Main project from the Main.Test project

Happy testing!

Error Handling in ASP.NET MVC 1 [Part 2 of 2]

Sanjay — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:38:07 GMT

In the first post in this series, I provided a little info on the HandleError attribute in MVC 1. In case you don’t want to flip back, the HandleError attribute can decorate a method or a class and will push your users to a generic errors view provided customErrors is “On” or “RemoteOnly”. There’s a little more to it, but that’s all the background we need for this post.

The out-of-the-box HandleError attribute works well, until you’re in a scenario where you need to do more than hide your errors. Typically, you may want to do some logging or fire-off some alerts. Now, as luck should have it, I did some searching before writing this up and Danny Tuppeny already has a great post on this very subject…I encourage you to take a peak at his post, as I’ve provided a very high-level, yet functional summary below.

The facts are these…

- System.Web.Mvc.Controller contains an OnException method that gets fired when an exception occurs [provided custom errors are On/RemoteOnly in the web.config]

- The OnException method can easily be overridden, allowing you to either completely change behavior or add behavior (by calling base.OnException)

- This method will fire regardless of whether your class or method is decorated with HandleError

This means that your could will look like this:

        1: using System;

       2: using System.Collections.Generic;

       3: using System.Linq;

       4: using System.Web;

       5: using System.Web.Mvc;

       6:  

       7: namespace MvcErrorHandling.Controllers

       8: {

       9:     public class ControllerBase : System.Web.Mvc.Controller

      10:     {

      11:         protected override void OnException(ExceptionContext filterContext)

      12:         {

      13:             //Do whatever stuff you'd like

      14:             DoSomeOtherStuff();

      15:             

      16:             //Displays a friendly error, doesn't require HandleError

      17:             filterContext.ExceptionHandled = true;

      18:             this.View("Error").ExecuteResult(this.ControllerContext);

      19:             

      20:             //Displays a friendly error, *requires* HandlError

      21:             //base.OnException(filterContext);

      22:         }

      23:  

      24:         protected void DoSomeOtherStuff() { /* brevity */ }

      25:     }

      26: }

To get the above code to work you’d simply make your controller inherit from ControllerBase. Of course, you’d likely have additional utility-methods in this class that you’d need in multiple controllers.

Lines 17 and 18 can be used to push the user to your error view after you execute the DoSomeOtherStuff() method – this would not require the HandleError attribute. Alternatively, you can execute System.Web.Mvc.Controller’s OnException by calling it explicitly as it’s done on line 21. In this case, the HandleError would be required to push your use down the custom-error path you’ve got configured.

And that’s pretty much all there is to centralizing & customizing your error-handling in MVC 1.

Technorati Tags: MVC,c#

Kayaking on the Deep River

Lance Robinson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:42:21 GMT

If you know of a better place to take-out of the Deep River at US1, I’d appreciate a note here. :) Yesterday, my buddy Blake and I went out on a kayak adventure on the Deep River. “Kayak”, because we took kayaks with us. “Adventure” because it was very loosely planned and we figured if we ran into any trouble we’d just figure it out and deal with it. Turned out we did run into some trouble and we did deal with it! It was a ton of fun! We knew there was a take-out spot somewhere near the US1 bridge over the Deep River in Chatham County, and we knew there was a put-in spot somewhere near the 15-501 bridge (roughly 7 miles up river). Unfortunately we couldn’t find an obvious take-out spot…there was one place, but it was below a spillway, and neither of us thought it would be fun to kayak over the spillway. :) We ended up driving around searching, but never found a place. Finally we just decided we’d take-out before the spillway and drag the kayaks out the rest of the way (adventure #1). Problem was…we’d spend so much time searching that now it was late enough in the day to worry about darkness. We decided that we could make our way through the woods down the river in the dark with a mini-maglight that Blake had in his car (adventure #2). :)

With a plan in mind, we put in and headed down the river. This section of the Deep River is wide, shallow (hah), slow, and rocky. The river was beautiful, we saw ducks, cool birds, and a river otter that barely escaped our cameras. It was a slow and steady paddle, with a few minor fast parts that were unfortunately slowed by running into underwater rocks we couldn’t see.

Thankfully we got through one really slow-going rocky part just before dark. Because it would have taken us forever to get through there in the complete dark. Whew.

Now its complete dark. We got to the spillway and couldn’t find a place to get out, but we’d met a stranger along the way who mentioned that he thought there was a way to paddle around the spillway. We poked around and saw something, but by this point it was so dark we couldn’t really tell what anything was. The mini-maglight was no good from more than a few feet away. Then we saw someone elses flashlight beam ahead – it was the stranger. They’d found a place to take-out off to the side, but couldn’t paddle around the spillway, unfortunately.

The stranger dragged his kayak out through the woods to a nearby road where he was to be picked up. We decided to walk around the spillway area and get back in the water somehow. We may or may not have gotten into some sort of canal that ran alongside the river. I don’t think we were supposed to be in it, but our options were limited. We made it down to the US1 bridge, but now we needed to cross the river in order to get out! In the dark, we managed to somehow climb out of our kayaks onto the steep bank of the canal, walk through the grass and woods to the river, and drop back into the river. Visibility was about 6 or 7 feet I’d say, which made for a very interesting and spooky paddle adventure. I said I felt like a native American on a night-time war raid, and he said he felt like a marine. We decided we were native American marines, or something like that.

Technorati Tags: Kayaking,Deep River,Chatham County

10 DIY SharePoint Web Parts #9

Lance Robinson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:13:51 GMT

This post is the ninth in a series of postings, containing examples of SharePoint WebParts that anybody can build all by themselves. To read all posts in this series, or to get started with the RSSBus WebPart, go here.

#9 – Microsoft Dynamics CRM

The credit for this particular web part template goes to one of my co-workers Shannon Prue. I asked him if he could put together a MS CRM template example for me, and a few minutes later I had in my inbox a 10 line example template! In the past, integrating MS CRM with SharePoint meant investing a lot of time, dollars, and ending up with a bunch of rigid complexity. Not now. :) This particular example uses Microsoft CRM Services, but that is not a requirement.

Step one is to make sure you have the RSSBus Web Part installed. See here for instructions.

Step two, make sure that you have the MscrmOps Connector installed. Get the service URL for your installation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM (e.g, https://crmserver:5555/mscrmservices/2006/crmservice.asmx) as well as a username and password needed for accessing the service (CRM uses integrated authentication by default, so this will normally be your domain account and password).

Step three, add the RSSBus WebPart to your page, paste the following template into its source editor, edit the serviceurl, username, and password settings to correspond to your own MS CRM instance, and click “Apply”. You’ll see the web part rendered with a list of contacts from MS CRM.

<rsb:import lib="RSSBus.MscrmOps"/>   <rsb:set attr="serviceurl" value="http://10.0.1.197:5555/mscrmservices/2006/crmservice.asmx"/> <rsb:set attr="username" value="YOURUSERNAME"/> <rsb:set attr="password" value="YOURPASSWORD"/> <rsb:set attr="maxresults" value="300" />   <rsb:set attr="_meta.YUITableAttrs" value="mscrm:fullname, mscrm:telephone1, mscrm:address1_city"/> <rsb:set attr="_meta.YUITableLabels" value="Full Name, Phone #, Country"/> <rsb:call op="mscrmContact" format="YuiTable" />

That’s it. If you’ve read the previous 8 DIY articles in this series, you know what' is coming next: Of course, you can customize this template for your own needs. This particular template just renders a grid using the YUI (Yahoo UI) Table. You can do your own html rendering by inserting your own html inside the scope of the <rsb:call>. You can list other CRM entities, like appointments, leads, contracts, etc. In fact, I can change the previous example to list CRM appointments by only changing one line of code. Just replace op=”mscrmContact” with op=”mscrmAppointment”! You can create pie charts of CRM invoices, bar charts of orders, etc, just by changing the operation call (the op= part) and the html formatting of the data that comes back!

See all posts in this series: 10 DIY SharePoint Web Parts.
Browse RSSBus Connectors.
Basic RSSBus Scripting Cheat Sheet.

Technorati Tags: SharePoint, RSSBus, WebPart, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, CRM.

Huge news for mixed-technology shops using TFS!

Aaron Kowall — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:00:31 GMT

Microsoft has purchased Teamprise, who created a Team Foundation Server plug-in for Eclipse as well as extensions for doing Java builds with Team Foundation Server.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/nov09/11-09TeamprisePR.mspx

This is big news since many of the industry experts from the analyst firms have cited lack of multi-platform support for Team Foundation Server Client as a weakness of the platform. Eclipse is now a fully supported MS environment for ALM.

Technorati Tags: TFS,Eclipse,Teamprise,Java

Slide Decks from QAI TesTrek 2009

Aaron Kowall — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:53:47 GMT

I’ve made the slide decks I presented at QAI TesTrek 2009 in Toronto available for download here.

There is one deck on aspects of testing SOA and another on using VS 2010 test features supporting exploratory testing.

My apologies for the delay but I’ve been off battling the flu.

Thanks to the TesTrek organizing team and to all the attendees. I had a great conference.

Technorati Tags: TesTrek,SOA Testing,Exploratory Testing,VS 2010,MTLM

Imaginet Resources Corp. featured in Microsoft Ad Campaign

Aaron Kowall — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:50:03 GMT

Some EXCELLENT work done by Imaginet Resources is being featured in a Microsoft Ad Campaign. This solution is also a finalist for a Microsoft Impact Award.

Check it out here: http://www.imaginets.com/news--events/imaginet%27s-healthcare-software-featured-in-microsoft-ad-campaign.aspx

Notice my buddy Steve “Dr. Efficiency” Porter :) He is available for House Call’s :)

Technorati Tags: Imaginet,Impact Award

SQL Server Event

Michael Stephenson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:48:25 GMT

Thought this may be of interest to some SBUG Members as they will be discussing SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Azure at the Edge UG

http://edgeug.net/

TeamPrise acquired by Microsoft.

Shawn Cicoria — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:39:29 GMT

TeamPrise – the cross platform “client” for TFS, with Eclipse support (plug-in), command line – has been acquired by Microsoft.

So, we’ve been pushing folks to a 3rd parties to get back to the ALM Mothership – which is by far the best Enterprise class ALM platform that can scale from “1” person (see 2010 TFS) to thousands, geo-distributed – now, we can offer it direct resolving client’s concerns.

Not that the SourceGear guys are of concern, they’ve been around for quite some time.

This is great news.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/nov09/11-09TeamprisePR.mspx

http://www.teamprise.com

http://www.microsoft.com/pathways/teamprise/

SharePoint Saturday Presentation Slide Deck

Adam McKee — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:11:07 GMT

As promised, here's the slide deck for my SharePoint Saturday presentation:

Download Slide Deck

Thanks again for attending!

Silverlight Cream for November 09, 2009 -- #727

Dave Campbell — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:22:34 GMT

In this Issue: Damian Schenkelman, Jit Ghosh, Jeff Prosise, Jesse Liberty, Victor Gaudioso, and René Schulte

Shoutouts:

If you can get to Twitter during the day (lucky you), check out Jesse Liberty's Subscribe to 62 Silverlight Twitter’ers.... there's a stellar list of devs on there!

Adding to the burgeoning list of sites to check every day, Brad Abrams announced http://silverlight.net/riaservices/ is Live!

Timmy Kokke has gathered together links to all the current Silverlight and Expression Tools starter kits: StarterKits for Silverlight and the Expression Tools

From SilverlightCream.com:

Prism 2 (Composite Application Guidance for WPF & Silverlight) migrated to Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2: Damian Schenkelman is continuing investigating Prism, and this time out he's investigating Prism and VS2010 ... check out how that worked for him.
Windows Media Metadata in Managed Code (and by extension - Silverlight): Jit Ghosh explains how to get Windows Media metadata into Silverlight. All his code is available except the piece to extract SMPTE Timecode ranges, and he says he will have that up this week.
Silverlight 3's New {RelativeSource} Markup Extension: Are you familiar with Silverlight 3's RelativeSource markup extensions? No? ... well, let Jeff Prosise explain them to you in this post.
Designer v Xaml v Code: Jesse Liberty has Part 2 of his new series up and is discussing (gasp) XAML ... well ok, just a little :) ... he's placing controls in grids and lots of code and explanation... keep reading folks, this is good stuff!
New Silverlight Video Tutorial: How to use the Silverlight Toolkit’s WrapPanel to Create a Three Column ListBox: Victor Gaudioso has a few cool things up since I last checked the BlogSpot blogs... this first one is on using the Toolkit's WrapPanel to create a ListBox with 3 columns... good video tutorial, and code!
Drawing Shapes - Silverlight WriteableBitmap Extensions III: René Schulte is back at it again with the WriteableBitmap and this time he's drawing ellipses... this is very cool stuff, René!

Stay in the 'Light!

Win $10,000 for programming an application with fewer lines of code

Webgui — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:17:45 GMT

In the first code challenge of its kind, Visual WebGui is offering a $10,000 and giving away prizes valued at thousands of dollars in their call to developers to be the first to submit a Webmail application written by another framework with fewer lines of code.

Visual WebGui web/cloud platform's productivity is featured via the "Project Webmail", which is an Outlook-like web application with desktop responsiveness & performance & functionalities that was developed by a single developer in only one month

Developers can register for the Code Challenge on-line from anywhere in the world, but special prizes such as free licenses, free support packages and extended evaluation periods will be raffled between those who visit Visual WebGui’s booth 316 at PDC or booth V5 Tech-Ed.

Registeration link

ReSharper is not available

Marko Apfel — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:23:27 GMT

Today a colleague ask me to help.

On his system all ReSharper menus are grayed out. Also the Visual Studio Add-In Manager does not show this add-in.

He tried:

a new installation: without success,
running with administrative privilegeg: without success,
looking in event- and application-logs: no entries.

After searching a little bit with old buddy google we found this message: Wild World of Visual Studio -- Mysterious Component

We downloaded and installed the latest Microsoft Core XML Services (MSXML) 6.0 Service Pack 1 and ReSharper works fine. :-)

The colleague remembered that he uninstalled SQL Server 2005 – and for this MSXML6 is a installation feature – so a full deinstallation removes MSXML6 also. :-(

BizTalk 2004 Standard Edition - with Second CPU

StuartBrierley — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:55:49 GMT

We were recently looking at ways to improve the performance of one of our BizTalk Servers, a server which is only using BizTalk Server 2004 Standard Edition. In our scenario, the server was often maxing out the single CPU it had, under peak load this resulted in time outs on the front end system that was calling our BizTalk web services.

There did appear to be any design or tuning changes that would make a hude difference to this busy system, so we started looking into licensing costs and the idea of more CPUs and I came across an interesting section in the Licensing FAQ from Microsoft:

“BTS04 STD and PAR are limited to only one processor. The BTS04 Engine is technically limited to use only one processor on the server, even if it consists of multiple processors. For deployments where the BTS04 Engine is used, you only need to buy one processor license, regardless of the number of processors on the server.”

This basically tells us that if we did put a second CPU in the server, BizTalk 2004 Standard Edition would not use it and we would not have to pay for it.

We decided to see what performance gain this might give us, as other processes such as IIS, COM+ and various OS processes could potentially make use of this second CPU.

With the second processor addeed the BizTalk host processes defaulted to running on processor 0.

Under average load we saw that CPU 0, running the BizTalk host, was still busy but didn't max out. Under peak load CPU 0 continued to max out but we did not see the timeout issues we were getting previsouly. In the peak scenario the second CPU was running at about 50%.

While not ideal, this did allow the system to go live without any additional licensing costs, and suggests that if you have a very busy BizTalk 2004 standard server you may see benefits from a second CPU.

Unfortunately for those of you running BizTalk Server 2006 or 2009, the licensing model had changed. Later versions of the Standard product use two CPUs by default, and the license states that if you have more CPUs in the server you have to pay for licenses for all of these. For example, the BizTalk Server 2009 licensing FAQ states:

"The BizTalk Server 2009 STD engine can technically use only two processors on the server, even if it consists of more processors. For deployments where BizTalk Server 2009 is used, you need to buy the same number of processor licenses that Windows Server will utilize on that server. For example, if you have BizTalk Server 2009 STD installed on a four-processor server and the Windows operating system is utilizing all four processors, because the server’s performance is benefiting from all four processors running the operating system, you need to purchase four licenses of BizTalk Server 2009 STD."

Arabic SharePoint Resources and Screencasts

Mohamed Meligy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:29:12 GMT

Some cool guys (all working in ITWorx I guess, one of the biggest Egyptian Software houses) have created a new website:

http://www.sharepoint4arabs.com

The website, as the name implies, is dedicated for ARABIC resources related to SharePoint.

It originally contained the technical blogs of the site founders (Founders' Blogs) which are very useful for posts about SharePoint, then very recently they have also lunched Screencasts (Also in Arabic) that start from the very beginning until further advanced stuff.

I think you’ll enjoy them!

I hope you like them,

Technorati Tags: Arabic,MOSS,SharePoint,Video,Videos,Screencasts,SharePoint4Arabs,Microsoft,News,Microsoft News

Cross posted from weblogs.asp.net/meligy

BizTalk 2004 Naming Guidelines

StuartBrierley — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:47:26 GMT

The following BizTalk naming guidlines are heavily based on those proposed by Scott Colestock over at Trace Of Thought.

As you can see from the link, Scott wrote his naming conventions for BizTalk Server 2006, whereas I am still using BizTalk Serevr 2004. In reality these guidlines are pretty much universal across any version of BizTalk you may wish to apply them to.

Although the general principles for these guidlines are the same as Scott's, I have made some changes based on personal preference and the conventions that I already had in place. You may find these interesting as an alternative view on naming conventions for BizTalk.

I would suggest that you have a read of both guidelines on offer, and whether you take one on wholesale or come up with you own flavour for your guidlines, the important thing is that you have some and follow them.

General Rules

All names should be named with a Pascal convention.

Project Namespaces

For message schemas:

[CompanyName].XML.Schemas.[FunctionalName]*

Examples:

ABC.XML.Schemas.Underwriting

DEF.XML.Schemas.MarshmellowTradingExchange

* Donates potential for multiple levels of functional name, such as Underwriting.Dictionary.Valuation

For web services:

[CompanyName].Web.Services.[FunctionalName]

Examples:

ABC.Web.Services.OrderJellyBeans

For the main BizTalk Projects:

[CompanyName].BizTalk.[AssemblyType].[FunctionalName]*

Examples:

ABC.BizTalk.Mappings.Underwriting

ABC.BizTalk.Orchestrations.Underwriting

* Donates potential for multiple levels of functional name, such as Mappings.Underwriting.Valuations

Assemblies

BizTalk Assembly names should match the associated Project Namespace, such as ABC.BizTalk.Mappings.Underwriting.

This pertains to the formal assembly name and the DLL name.

The Solution name should take the name of the main project within the solution, and also therefore the namespace for that project.

Although long names such as this can be unwieldy to work with, the benefits of having the full scope available when the assemblies are installed on the target server are generally judged to outweigh this inconvenience.

Messaging Artifacts

Artifact	Standard	Notes		Example
Schema	<DescriptiveName>.xsd		.NET Type name should match, without file extension. .NET Namespace will likely match assembly name.	PurchaseOrderAcknowledge_FF.xsd or FNMA100330_FF.xsd
Property Schema	<DescriptiveName>.xsd	Should be named to reflect possible common usage across multiple schemas		IspecMessagePropertySchema.xsd UnderwritingOrchestrationKeys.xsd
Map	<SourceSchema>2<DestinationSchema>.btm	Exceptions to this may be made where the source and destination schemas share the majority of the name, such as in mainframe web service maps		InstructionResponse2CustomEmailRequest.btm (exception example) AccountCustomerAddressSummaryRequest2MainframeRequest.btm
Orchestration	<DescriptiveName>.odx			GetValuationReports.odx SendMTEDecisionResponse.odx
Send/Receive Pipeline	<DescriptiveName>.btp			ValidatingXMLReceivePipeline.btp FlatFileAssembler.btp
Receive Port	A plainly worded phrase that will clearly explain the function.			FraudPreventionServices LetterProcessing
Receive Location	A plainly worded phrase that will clearly explain the function.	? Do we want to include the transport type here ?		Arrears Web Service
Send Port Group	A plainly worded phrase that will clearly explain the function.			Customer Updates
Send Port	A plainly worded phrase that will clearly explain the function.			ABCProductUpdater LogLendingPolicyOutput
Parties	A meaningful name for a Trading Partner.	If dealing with multiple entities within a Trading Partner organization, the Organization name could be used as a prefix.
Roles	A meaningful name for the role that a Trading Partner plays.

Orchestration Workflow Shapes

Shape	Standard	Notes	Example
Scopes	<DescriptionOfContainedWork> or <DescOfcontainedWork><TxType>	Including info about transaction type may be appropriate in some situations where it adds significant documentation value to the diagram.	HandleReportResponse

Receive	Receive<MessageName>	Typically, MessageName will be the same as the name of the message variable that is being received “into”.	ReceiveReportResponse
Send	Send<MessageName>	Typically, MessageName will be the same as the name of the message variable that is being sent.	SendValuationDetailsRequest
Expression	<DescriptionOfEffect>	Expression shapes should be named to describe the net effect of the expression, similar to naming a method. The exception to this is the case where the expression is interacting with an external .NET component to perform a function that overlaps with existing BizTalk functionality – use closest BizTalk shape for this case.	CreatePrintXML
Decide	<DescriptionOfDecision>	A description of what will be decided in the “if” branch	Report Type? Perform MF Save?
If-Branch	<DescriptionOfDecision>	A (potentially abbreviated) description of what is being decided	Mortgage Valuation Yes
Else-Branch	Else	Else-branch shapes should always be named “Else”	Else
Construct Message (Assign)	Create<Message> (for Construct) <ExpressionDescription> (for expression)	If a Construct shape contains a message assignment, it should be prefixed with “Create” followed by an abbreviated name of the message being assigned. The actual message assignment shape contained should be named to describe the expression that is contained.	CreateReportDataMV which contains expression: ExtractReportData
Construct Message (Transform)	Create<Message> (for Construct) <SourceSchema>2<DestSchema> (for transform)	If a Construct shape contains a message transform, it should be prefixed with “Create” followed by an abbreviated name of the message being assigned. The actual message transform shape contained should generally be named the same as the called map.	CreateReportDataMV which contains transform: ReportDataMV2ReportDataMV


Construct Message (containing multiple shapes)		If a Construct Message shape uses multiple assignments or transforms, the overall shape should be named to communicate the net effect, using no prefix.
Call/Start Orchestration	Call<OrchestrationName> Start<OrchestrationName>
Throw	Throw<ExceptionType>	The corresponding variable name for the exception type should (often) be the same name as the exception type, only camel-cased.	ThrowRuleException, which references the “ruleException” variable.
Parallel	<DescriptionOfParallelWork>	Parallel shapes should be named by a description of what work will be done in parallel
Delay	<DescriptionOfWhatWaitingFor>	Delay shapes should be named by a description of what is being waited for.	POAcknowledgeTimeout
Listen	<DescriptionOfOutcomes>	Listen shapes should be named by a description that captures (to the degree possible) all the branches of the Listen shape	POAckOrTimeout FirstShippingBid
Loop	<DescriptionOfLoop>	A (potentially abbreviated) description of what the loop is.	ForEachValuationReport WhileErrorFlagTrue
Role Link		See “Roles” in messaging naming conventions above.
Suspend	<ReasonDescription>	Describe what action an administrator must take to resume the orchestration. More detail can be passed to error property – and should include what should be done by the administrator before resuming the orchestration.	ReEstablishCreditLink
Terminate	<ReasonDescription>	Describe why the orchestration terminated. More detail can be passed to error property.	TimeoutsExpired
Call Rules	Call<PolicyName>	The policy name may need to be abbreviated.	CallLendingPolicy
Compensate	Compensate or Compensate<TxName>	If the shape compensates nested transactions, names should be suffixed with the name of the nested transaction – otherwise it should simple be Compensate.	CompensateTransferFunds

Orchestration Types

Type	Standard	Notes	Example
Multi-Part Message Types	<LogicalDocumentType>	Multi-part types encapsulate multiple parts. The WSDL spec indicates “parts are a flexible mechanism for describing the logical abstract content of a message.” The name of the multi-part type should correspond to the “logical” document type, i.e. what the sum of the parts describes.	InvoiceReceipt (which might encapsulate an invoice acknowledgement and a payment voucher.)
Multi-Part Messsage Part	<SchemaNameOfPart>	Should be named (most often) simply for the schema (or simple type) associated with the part.	InvoiceHeader
Messages	<SchemaName> or <MuliPartMessageTypeName>	Should be named based on the corresponding schema type or multi-part message type. If there is more than one variable of a type, name for its use within the orchestration.	ReportDataMV UpdatedReportDataMV
Variables	<DescriptiveName>		TargetFilePath StringProcessor
Port Types	<FunctionDescription>PortType	Should be named to suggest the nature of an endpoint, with pascal casing and suffixed with “PortType”. If there will be more than one Port for a Port Type, the Port Type should be named according to the abstract service supplied. The WSDL spec indicates port types are “a named set of abstract operations and the abstract messages involved” that also encapsulates the message pattern (i.e. one-way, request-response, solicit-response) that all operations on the port type adhere to.	ReceiveReportResponsePortType or CallEAEPortType (This is a two way port, so Receove or Send alone would not be appropriate. Could have been ProcessEAERequestPortType etc....)
Ports	<FunctionDescription>Port	Should be named to suggest a grouping of functionality, with pascal casing and suffixed with “Port.”	ReceiveReportResponsePort CallEAEPort
Correlation types	<DescriptiveName>	Should be named based on the logical name of what is being used to correlate.	PurchaseOrderNumber
Correlation sets	<DescriptiveName>	Should be named based on the corresponding correlation type. If there is more than one, it should be named to reflect its specific purpose within the orchestration.	PurchaseOrderNumber
Orchestration parameters	<DescriptiveName>	Should be named to match the caller’s names for the corresponding variables where appropriate.

Resumable Workflow Activity

sanket — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:54:45 GMT

BACKGROUND

Recently, I have been working on Windows Workflow Foundation. We are trying to create a custom host for workflow, and this workflow host is supposed to have a facility, such that it shold be able to provide a way to resume from the exact point where a workflow failed from the Admin UI. Something similar to the Biztalk HAT.

Well, having said that the question how can something like this can be achieved ?

What I am going to present here is one of the ways of achieving it. There would be other ways which would be better than the way I am going present here, need less to say, that I am still trying to learn my way through Windows Workflow Foundation.

Well, the idea came to me after going through some of msdn articles about Workflow from Matt Milner. {Personal Opinion: He is damn good at explaining}

1. Error Handling In Workflows - Matt Milner

2. ActivityExecutionContext in Workflows - Matt Milner

3. Build Custom Activities To Extend The Reach Of Your Workflows - Matt Milner

I would highly recommend to read these articles before reading below. Even if you are not interested, I would recommend you to read the above articles, they give hell of an insight into workflow.

SOLUTION

So now you have the background information of the required stuff and as well as we have a problem at hand that we want to solve. This idea is based of RetryActivity. So we create a general purpose, WFFaultReportingSystem Service. I am registering the service to the run time. This service becomes the medium of reporting the error to the Host, that something wrong happened.

using System;

namespace Coderslog.Workflow.Services
{
    public interface IWFFaultReportingSystem
    {
        void ReportError(Exception ex, object message);
        void ReportResumableError(Guid wfInstanceId, string queueName,Exception ex, object message);
    }
}

Now lets look at the activity itself.

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.ComponentModel.Design;
using System.Collections;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Workflow.ComponentModel;
using System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Design;
using System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Compiler;
using System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Serialization;
using System.Workflow.Runtime;
using System.Workflow.Activities;
using System.Workflow.Activities.Rules;
using Coderslog.Workflow.Services;

namespace Coderslog.Workflow.Activities
{
        [Designer(typeof(SequenceDesigner), typeof(IDesigner))]
        public partial class ResumableActivity : CompositeActivity, IActivityEventListener<QueueEventArgs>
        {
                public ResumableActivity()
                {
                                                  //The call to the partial generated class

InitializeComponent();

                                                QueueName               = "ResumableActivity";
                                    CurrentActivityIndex    = 0;
                }

                                //The Last Error that happened while executing any child activity
                       [Browsable(false)]
                       public Exception LastError { get; set; }

                               //The Current Activity that I am trying to process now
                       [Browsable(false)]
                       public int CurrentActivityIndex { get; set; }


        protected override ActivityExecutionStatus Execute(ActivityExecutionContext executionContext)
        {
            if (EnabledActivities.Count == 0)
                return ActivityExecutionStatus.Closed;

            //try to execute the child activities in a new context
            BeginIteration(executionContext);
            return ActivityExecutionStatus.Executing;
        }

                //Initiating the Iteration
        private void BeginIteration(ActivityExecutionContext executionContext)
        {
            //create a new activity execution context
            Activity child = EnabledActivities[CurrentActivityIndex];
            ActivityExecutionContext newContext = executionContext.ExecutionContextManager.CreateExecutionContext(child);

            //register for both closed and faulted events
            newContext.Activity.Closed += new EventHandler<ActivityExecutionStatusChangedEventArgs>(child_Closed);
            newContext.Activity.Faulting += new EventHandler<ActivityExecutionStatusChangedEventArgs>(Activity_Faulting);

            //execute the clone activity
            newContext.ExecuteActivity(newContext.Activity);
        }

        void Activity_Faulting(object sender, ActivityExecutionStatusChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            //if the child faults, clear the exception if retrying
            e.Activity.Faulting -= Activity_Faulting;

            //Get hold of the error
            LastError = (Exception)e.Activity.GetValue(ActivityExecutionContext.CurrentExceptionProperty);
                         //Clear the Error, We don't want anyone to know anything about the Error

                         e.Activity.SetValue(ActivityExecutionContext.CurrentExceptionProperty, null);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Creates the queue and registers for items to be available.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="parentContext"></param>
        /// <param name="parentEventHandler"></param>
        public void Subscribe(ActivityExecutionContext parentContext, IActivityEventListener<QueueEventArgs> parentEventHandler)
        {
            WorkflowQueuingService qService = parentContext.GetService<WorkflowQueuingService>();
            if (qService != null)
            {
                if (!qService.Exists(QueueName))
                {
                    WorkflowQueue q = qService.CreateWorkflowQueue(QueueName, false);
                    q.RegisterForQueueItemAvailable(parentEventHandler, QualifiedName);
                }

            }
        }

                //Property for holding the QueueName on which to Subscribe and Expect the response
        [Browsable(false)]
        public string QueueName { get; private set; }


        /// <summary>
        /// Removes the listener from the queue and deletes the queue.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="parentContext"></param>
        /// <param name="parentEventHandler"></param>
        public void Unsubscribe(ActivityExecutionContext parentContext, IActivityEventListener<QueueEventArgs> parentEventHandler)
        {
            WorkflowQueuingService qService = parentContext.GetService<WorkflowQueuingService>();
            if (qService != null)
            {
                WorkflowQueue queue = qService.GetWorkflowQueue(QueueName);
                if (queue != null)
                {
                    queue.UnregisterForQueueItemAvailable(parentEventHandler);
                    qService.DeleteWorkflowQueue(QueueName);
                }
            }
        }

               // Helper Method to Get Hold of the Queue
        private WorkflowQueue GetQueue(ActivityExecutionContext ctx)
        {
            WorkflowQueuingService qService = ctx.GetService<WorkflowQueuingService>();
            if (qService != null && qService.Exists(QueueName))
                return qService.GetWorkflowQueue(QueueName);
            else
                return null;
        }

                //The Big Bang Close Method
        void child_Closed(object sender, ActivityExecutionStatusChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            ActivityExecutionContext thisContext = sender as ActivityExecutionContext;
            ActivityExecutionContext childContext = thisContext.ExecutionContextManager.GetExecutionContext(e.Activity);
            e.Activity.Closed -= child_Closed;

            thisContext.ExecutionContextManager.CompleteExecutionContext(childContext);

                         //if of the EnabledActivities, the current one has completed successfully, move to the next one
            if (e.ExecutionResult == ActivityExecutionResult.Succeeded && CurrentActivityIndex < EnabledActivities.Count - 1)
            {
                this.SetValue(ActivityExecutionContext.CurrentExceptionProperty, null);
                CurrentActivityIndex += 1;
                BeginIteration(thisContext);
                return;
            }

            //if the child completed successfully, then we can close
            if (e.ExecutionResult == ActivityExecutionResult.Succeeded && CurrentActivityIndex == EnabledActivities.Count - 1)
            {
                this.SetValue(ActivityExecutionContext.CurrentExceptionProperty, null);
                thisContext.CloseActivity();
                return;
            }


            //otherwise, if we are not done retrying
            //we need to resume again and make sure to clean up errors
            if (this.ExecutionStatus == ActivityExecutionStatus.Executing)
            {
                SetResumePoint(e, thisContext);
            }
        }

// We try and get the instance of the Fault Reposrting System, if yes, we report the error and subscribe to the Queue

                // so that on basis of the users input we would be able to resume from the point where it broke or terminate
        private void SetResumePoint(ActivityExecutionStatusChangedEventArgs e, ActivityExecutionContext thisContext)
        {
            IWFFaultReportingSystem wfFRS = thisContext.GetService<IWFFaultReportingSystem>();
            var error = LastError;
            if (wfFRS == null)
            {
                throw new Exception("This activity requires that the Service IWFFaultReportingSystem is registered");
            }
            if (error != null)
            {
                this.SetValue(ActivityExecutionContext.CurrentExceptionProperty, null);
                Subscribe(thisContext, this);
                wfFRS.ReportResumableError(WorkflowInstanceId, QueueName, error, null);
            }
        }

               // Fires when there is the required actvity in the Queue
        public void OnEvent(object sender, QueueEventArgs e)
        {
            //start a new iteration after the event happens
            ActivityExecutionContext ctx = sender as ActivityExecutionContext;
            if (sender == null)
                throw new ArgumentException("Sender must be ActivityExecutionContext");

            WorkflowQueue q = GetQueue(ctx);
            if (q != null)
            {
                object data = q.Dequeue();
                //use the data - Resume
                if (data != null && bool.Parse(data.ToString()))
                {
                    Unsubscribe(ctx, this);
                    BeginIteration(ctx);
                }
                else
                {
                    throw new ApplicationException("The Workflow cannot be Resumed from this point onwards!");
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

The other peripherals:

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.ComponentModel.Design;
using System.Collections;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Workflow.ComponentModel;
using System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Design;
using System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Compiler;
using System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Serialization;
using System.Workflow.Runtime;
using System.Workflow.Activities;
using System.Workflow.Activities.Rules;

namespace Coderslog.Workflow.Activities
{

        public partial class ResumableActivity
        {
                #region Designer generated code

                /// <summary>
                /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
                /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
                /// </summary>
                        [System.Diagnostics.DebuggerNonUserCode]
                private void InitializeComponent()
                {
                        this.Name = "ResumableActivity";
                }

                #endregion
        }
}

This covers the Activity. I have tried and put comments where ever required. Hopefully it should be self explanatory.

IMPORTANT PART OF CLIENT CODE - TEST HARNESS

Sample IWFFaultReportingSystem.cs implementation.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using CP.Services;
using System.Workflow.Runtime;

namespace Coderslog.Client.ResumableWorkflow
{
        public class FaultReportingSystem:IWFFaultReportingSystem
        {
        WorkflowRuntime _runtime;
        Guid            _instanceId;
        string          _queueName;

        public FaultReportingSystem(WorkflowRuntime runtime)
        {
            _runtime = runtime;
        }

        #region IWFFaultReportingSystem Members

        public void ReportError(Exception ex, object message)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
        }

        public void ReportResumableError(Guid wfInstanceId, string queueName, Exception ex, object message)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("WF ID :" + wfInstanceId.ToString());
            Console.WriteLine("Queue Name :" + queueName);
            Console.WriteLine("Error :" + ex.Message);

            _instanceId = wfInstanceId;
            _queueName = queueName;

            var action = new Action(ProcessError);
            action.BeginInvoke(CallBack, action);
        }

        void ProcessError()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("What you want to do ? R for Resuming or any key for Exit");
            var key = Console.ReadLine();
            var instance = _runtime.GetWorkflow(_instanceId);
            if (key == "R" || key == "r")
            {
                instance.EnqueueItem(_queueName, true, null, null);
            }
            else
            {
                instance.EnqueueItem(_queueName, false, null, null);
            }
        }
        #endregion

        static void CallBack(IAsyncResult ar)
        {
            var action = ar.AsyncState as Action;
            if (action != null)
                action.EndInvoke(ar);
        }
    }
}

The Highlighted part shows what the user needs to do to resume the workflow. Just drop a message in the Workflow Queue.

dynamic - II - introduction

sanket — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:48:53 GMT

You remember the previous post on dynamic. We will today look into it in a bit more detail. Yeah, let's ILDASM it and try and identify what is going on under the hood. But for the context of the post let's look at a simpler tale.

namespace Coderslog.Net4.Samples
{
    public class SimpleDynamic
    {

        public void CallDoSomething()
        {
            var instance = GetDoSomething();
            instance.DoSometing();
        }

        private dynamic GetDoSomething()
        {
            return new BehaviourA();
        }
    }
}

A very basic class, hmmm which roughly translates to something like, I might not be absolutely correct, but to get a fair idea, it is something like the following

public class SimpleDynamic
{
// Method: A Bit more involved than the reflection way, with Optimization

    public void CallDoSomething()
    {
        object instance = this.GetDoSomething();
        if (CallDoSometning_SiteContainer.delegatePlaceHolder == null)
        {
            CallDoSometning_SiteContainer.delegatePlaceHolder =
                CallSite<Action<CallSite, object>>.Create(
                        new CSharpInvokeMemberBinder(
                                CSharpCallFlags.None,
                                "DoSometing",
                                typeof(SimpleDynamic),
                                null,
                                new []
                                        {
                                                new CSharpArgumentInfo(
                                                        CSharpArgumentInfoFlags.None
                                                        , null
                                                )
                                        }
                        ));
        }
        CallDoSometning_SiteContainer.
                delegatePlaceHolder.
                        Target.Invoke(
                                CallDoSometning_SiteContainer.delegatePlaceHolder
                                , instance);
    }


    //But theres an attribute on the object of
    //Type:System.Runtime.CompilerServices.DynamicAttribute
    private object GetDoSomething()
    {
        return new BehaviourA();
    }

    // Nested Types
    //Compiler Generated Class- Internal Class
    private static class CallDoSometning_SiteContainer
    {
        // Fields
        public static CallSite<Action<CallSite, object>> delegatePlaceHolder;
    }
}

So as you can see, the internal static class is there so as to ensure that, we don't always spend resources on the delegate, once it is evaluated.

If we look at the GetDomethingMethod, the Dydnamic Attribute on the returned object from the method GetDoSomething tells the run time that "Indicates that the use of Object on a member is meant to be treated as a dynamically dispatched type.". If you notice the type of the static field is of type CallSite<Action<CallSite, object>> is System.Runtime.CompilerServices..::.CallSite<(Of <(T>)>) { MSDN: A dynamic call site base class. This type is used as a parameter type to the dynamic site targets.}.

Lets look at the place where all the action is happening, i.e. the method CallDoSomething. the method checks if the class CallDoSometning_SiteContainer.delegatePlaceHolder is populated or not, but if not it initializes it with the Create Method and you can notice ... CSharpInvokeMemberBinder {CompleteNamespace: Microsoft.CSharp.RuntimeBinder.CSharpInvokeMemberBinder} {MSDN: Represents a dynamic method call in C#, providing the binding semantics and the details about the operation. Instances of this class are generated by the C# compiler }.

This feels like .Net Reflection and one tends to ask, how optimized is it. Well, something Microsoft can enlighten us more about.

dynamic - Introduction

sanket — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:46:32 GMT

Lets examine the dynamic key word introduced in .Net 4.0. It can keep an instance of any type. Then what is the difference between it and System.Object. Well the essential difference between them is the dynamic method dispatching which enables lazy binding, i.e. it allows you to write method, operator and indexer calls, property and field accesses, and even object invocations which bypass the normal static binding of C# and instead gets resolved dynamically.

It provides a unified approach to selecting opeartions dynamically.

Lets see an example:

//Class Program.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace Coderslog.Net4.Samples
{
    class Program
    {
        private static Type _toggle;

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var val = "";
            do
            {

                                 //Dynamic way
                dynamic d = GetMeMyDynamicObject();
                Console.WriteLine(d.GetType().FullName);
                d.DoSometing();

                                //Reflection way
                object inst = GetMeMyDynamicObject();
                Console.WriteLine(inst.GetType().FullName);
                Invoke(inst, "DoSometing" );

Console.WriteLine(

                                             "Press Q/q to quit and y/Y to continue!");
                val = Console.ReadLine();

            } while (val.ToLower() != "q");
        }

        private static void Invoke(object inst, string methodName)
        {
            var methodInfo = inst.GetType().GetMethod(methodName);
            methodInfo.Invoke(inst, null);
        }

        private static dynamic GetMeMyDynamicObject()
        {
            if (_toggle == null)
                _toggle = typeof(BehaviourB);
            if (typeof(BehaviourB) == _toggle)
            {
                _toggle = typeof(BehaviourA);
                return new BehaviourA();
            }
            else
            {
                _toggle = typeof(BehaviourB);
                return new BehaviourB();
            }
        }
    }
}

//Class BehaviourA.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace Coderslog.Net4.Samples
{
    public class BehaviourA
    {
        public void DoSometing()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Behaviour A - Do Something!");
        }
    }
}

//Class BehaviourB.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace Coderslog.Net4.Samples
{
    public class BehaviourB
    {
        public void DoSometing()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Behaviour B - Do Something!");
        }
    }
}

Notice the dynamic way of invoking the method and Reflection way. Thats the benefit of dyanmic and many more. But it comes with its own problem. The same problem that is there with the reflection way is still there.

We will as well look at some other aspects of the dynamic in the following posts.

How to change the text of a softkey menu?

TechTwaddle — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:34:59 GMT

To change the text of a softkey menu item, all you have to do is pretend that they are buttons. Well, they are specialized buttons in any case. So in order to change its property (in this case the 'text') you will have to use the TBBUTTONINFO structure along with TB_GETBUTTONINFO and TB_SETBUTTONINFO messages. Lets dive into the code:

Note: Error checking is omitted for obvious reasons.

    TCHAR szText[128] = TEXT("");
    TBBUTTONINFO tbi;
    ZeroMemory(&tbi, sizeof(tbi));

    tbi.cbSize = sizeof(tbi);
    tbi.dwMask = TBIF_TEXT | TBIF_COMMAND;
    tbi.pszText = szText;
    tbi.cchText = sizeof(szText);
    tbi.idCommand = IDM_MARK_UNMARK;

    SendMessage(g_hWndMenuBar, TB_GETBUTTONINFO, (WPARAM)IDM_MARK_UNMARK, (LPARAM)&tbi);

    if (!wcscmp(szText, L"Mark"))
    {
        wcscpy(szText, L"Unmark");
    }
    else
    {
        wcscpy(szText, L"Mark");
    }

    SendMessage(g_hWndMenuBar, TB_SETBUTTONINFO, (WPARAM)IDM_MARK_UNMARK, (LPARAM)&tbi);

So we fill up the TBBUTTONINFO structure and then send TB_GETBUTTONINFO message to the menu bar. After this call returns, szText will contain the text of the menu item. We switch the contents of szText and then send a TB_SETBUTTONINFO message. And the text on the menu item changes.

Couple of seasons back I was working on an application which let the user "Mark" and "Unmark" dates on a calendar control. It was for a smartphone, so I thought this technique is quite handy and just qualifies for a post.

Here is a video of it in action,

Windows Phone: “Hey, That Was My Idea”

andrewbrust — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:57:07 GMT

The tech influencers’ Twitter streams have been all aflutter this weekend, with talk of the Motorola Droid. Verizon Wireless launched its version this phone on Friday, and the techies are swooning. They love the screen, the Google Maps-based turn-by-turn navigation and the thinness of the phone, which still manages to sport a physical, slide-out keyboard. Most of all they love the Verizon network, which offers resilient service and ubiquitous 3G coverage.

There seems to be something else though. There’s something that people either like about the Droid, or are at least willing to tolerate: the fact that the handset manufacturer (Motorola) and the phone OS vendor (Google) are separate entities. People seem intrigued by the idea that unlike Apple, which makes both the iPhone and iPhone OS, and which controls the entire software channel for the device, that the Droid’s platform is decentralized, and the Android Market is open to all developers willing to pay the $25 registration fee.

What’s ironic about the market’s new-found love for an open platform, that OEMs can customize and anyone can develop for? It’s the exact same concept that Windows Mobile/Windows Phone has used for more than six years.

I thought (up until now) that the iPhone succeeded because it dispensed with that model. Apple decided to (1) own the platform, (2) design and manufacture the devices, (3) market the product and (4) bully their exclusive US carrier to the degree that they almost control their device’s network, too. Microsoft, on the other hand, saw companies like HTC, Samsung and Motorola make most of their phones and let the various carriers market the devices as they saw fit. I thought that lack of uniformity and control was a huge part of why Microsoft lost so much share and momentum to Apple.

But I think the Droid may prove me wrong. Google’s got a similar model to Microsoft’s, many of the same OEM’s, the same approach to carriers and the same democratic approach to developers. Meanwhile, people mistakenly believe Google invented this model, and the Droid seems poised to take off in a way that Windows Mobile never has.

I’m going to write another post one day about Microsoft’s victory in the mobile space. But it will be a look back. The win was in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Microsoft built the PocketPC, and used it to beat Palm and its eponymous PDAs. The problem is that Microsoft rested on that victory, using a little-evolved version of that same device in the phone market and thus leaving themselves wide open for the drubbing they got. First from Apple and their different approach. And now from Google with an almost identical one.

It’s ironic, and it’s sad. But it’s hopeful too, because Google’s success will be, in some measure, a validation of Microsoft’s original approach. And, hopefully, it will also be a lesson in how to make better devices and strive for superior execution.

ReleaseWeek.com Launched

Scott Kuhl — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:32:27 GMT

My wife and I have been working on a new site for the past couple of weeks. This is our second project since we re-launched our home business.

ReleaseWeek.com

The site lists major new releases of movies and television on DVD and Blu-Ray, video games, music and books. All of this is put into a simple current week format.

This is our first project released as part of the Microsoft WebsiteSpark program. We built everything in ASP.NET Web Forms 3.5. I’m working on a new article on how to create public facing websites with Web Forms and I’m using this site as a test bed. I’ll post the article here sometime in the coming months after I have tested everything out in a real world scenario.

We’ll be tweaking it over the next few weeks. Let us know what you want to see in the site. To stay up to date on announcements of changes to the site, subscribe to our company blog at Code Alt Delete.

Solving 'KataPotter', or: What kind of developer are you ?

Thomas Weller — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:13:44 GMT

From time to time (and when there's room for it, of course), I'm doing a so-called Code Kata, a small to mid-size programming exercise that usually originates from some seminar or meeting. (Kata collections can be found here or here, for example.) What I especially like about them is the level of professional self-knowledge that they provide: When working on a Kata, you can experience how you deal with things without the usual business pressure.

Lately, I did the KataPotter (you can download my solution here), and doing it gave me some valuable insights into my coding process. Of course, they were not totally new to me, but I never did formulate them before in such an explicit clarity. Here they are:

Although I'm consequently doing Test-driven development, I usually refuse to write a single line of code before I have an (at least vague) idea of the solution's architecture - TDD without a minimum amount of upfront-design is like starting off without having an idea about the destination - chances are good, that you will end up in the middle of nowhere...
I'm not writing much code, instead I try hard to write the right code. Measuring productivity with the Source lines of code (SLOC) metric feels just plain wrong to me - a monkey can produce code lines. For me, developing software is not about writing code in the first place, it's about providing solutions in the form of computer programs - sometimes I even feel like software development is about avoiding code in the first place...
I care very much about readability, maintainability and extensibility in general, and about the clarity and expressiveness of my unit tests in particular.
I hardly can see a piece of software outside its business context and lifecycle.
I have serious difficulties to adhere to the YAGNI principle, although I find it absolutely reasonable in theory. It's just that my brain instinctively tries to anticipate all possible future situations, and actively ignoring them feels quite uncomfortable to me. Consequently, I failed to provide a just-good-enough solution for the Kata, and came up with a general one instead...
I'm almost an idiot, when it comes to logical and mathematical algorithms. Instead, I try to do all my coding on the basis of common sense and the realities of the respective business context. - This is mainly a consequence of the fact that I studied humanities (Psychology, Sociology, Literature, and Philosophy) in university, and therefore have no in-depth background in any natural science. However, there rarely was a situation during the last ten years, where this was a problem. To the contrary, it often proofed to be beneficial to have a non-technical background, which allowed me to see further than the end of the (technical) nose.
I'm nearly helpless, if I don't have a connection to the internet. Having access to the world's knowledge and insights about coding, as well as to my beloved and frequently used Safari Books Online technical library, is essential for my coding process.

I guess, the above doesn't make me the typical programmer (whatever this might be exactly). That's ok: I never intended to be one of that breed ...

The sample solution

My solution for the KataPotter (VS 2008) can be downloaded here. To compile and run, you must have the Gallio automation platform installed, which you can get from here.

Just interviewed Atif Aziz for the DotNetRadio podcast

Andrew Siemer - www.andrewsiemer.com — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:04:00 GMT

I just got through interviewing Atif Aziz (@raboof on twitter – foobar spelled backwards!) probably most known (at least to me) for his ELMAH (Error Logging Modules and Handlers) contribution. We discussed ELMAH, ELMAH’s Veracode Application Security Rating which made OWASP top 10 in 2007 and SANS-CWE top 25, Fizzler, Jayrock, BackLINQ, LINQBridge, and MoreLINQ. Atif is a very smart guy and you can truly hear his passion for sharing with the development community when speaking with him. This was a great interview that I think any .net developer could learn a thing or two from. Look for this interview in the near future on the DotNetRadio podcast.

Subscribe to the podcast feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dotnetradio

And follow the show on twitter here: http://twitter.com/dnetradio

Technorati Tags: Atif Aziz,ELMAH,Jayrock,BackLINQ,LINQBridge,MoreLINQ

.Net RIA services is live

thanigai — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:44:39 GMT

Hi All,

The most awaited RIA services is live. You can check the below blog post. http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/default.aspx

Thanks, Thani