My name is Justin Kohnen, and I’m a Geek.

Developer Tip: Avoid random numerical constants

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 18:09:00 +0000

There always comes a time when we just need to use a single number or set of numbers in our code…. but please avoid typing something like:

       if (permissionID == 3){

          // do something

      }

Instantly I thinking

What is 3?

Is there a 1 and 2?

Is there documentation somewhere that can help?”

You can add a comment, that would be a bit helpful. But I believe a better solution is either an Enum or Class of constants. These solutions make your code more readable, and give more context around what “3” is.

Enum:

    enum Permissions : int{

        None = 0,

        Read = 1,

        Write = 2,

        FullControl = 3

    }

    // .....

    if (permissionID == (int)Permissions.FullControl){

        // do something

    }

Class of Constants:

    public static class Permissions {

        public static const int None = 0;

        public static const int Read = 1;

        public static const int Write = 2;

        public static const int FullControl = 3;

    }

    // .....

    if (permissionID == Permissions.FullControl){

        // do something

    }

Obviously these aren’t the only solutions… simply making a variable with a descriptive name might be enough…. but DO NOT just type a constant in the middle of your code.

A must have SharePoint Management Tool

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 16:21:00 +0000

I know I’m late to the game on this, but I thought I would share for others that are unaware.

If you manage or develop against SharePoint you should look into

SharePoint Manager 2010

It’s a great tool for finding feature ID’s, managing lists, pretty much anything you need to know about your SharePoint server and everything in it.

C# code to force the debugger to launch

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:45:00 +0000

There are times where you just can’t manually attach the Visual Studio debugger to your code. Like when you’re trying to debug Sharepoint feature events (FeatureActivated, FeatureDeactivating, etc.) when Visual Studio is deploying your SharePoint project.

For those situations you can use this line of code to attach Visual Studio to your process.

     System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Launch();

Just make sure to remove it before you ship your software.

HTTP Request Headers Testing

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:28:00 +0000

This is a trick I’ve been using for a while, but I wanted to share.

Sometimes third party software requests your Web Pages/Services and pass data via the HTTP Request Headers.

If you want to simulate these requests you can do so with Fiddler. Fiddler acts as a “man in the middle” for all the requests coming from your browser. Therefore, it has the ability to alter your HTTP requests before they are passed along to the appropriate destination.

Here is how you add a header to your browser requests.

Launch Fiddler and select Rules > Custom Rules…

Find the function called

     static function OnBeforeRequest(oSession: Session)

Within this function you can add items to your request header by assigning key/value combination to the “oSession.oRequest” array.

Here’s an example:

    static function OnBeforeRequest(oSession: Session)

    { 

        oSession.oRequest["Custom_Header_Key"] = "Custom Header Value";

    }

Now any request from a browser will contain that value. Including localhost requests

For more information about Custom Rules, I encourage your to visit the Fiddler Script Cookbook

What is the “Mythical Man Month”

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:38:00 +0000

Well, there is a book out there explaining it.
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition)
Though a great source, it’s one dry read.

I actually recommend the cliff notes.

The basic gist is this:

If a developer gives an estimate for a project that might take 320 hours or “2 Man Months.” Some might think 2 developers can complete the same task in half the time.

This might work in a manufacturing world, but not so well in a software world because of two factors, partitioning and communication to maintain the partitions.

The reality of the matter is, software depends on other software. Some things can’t be independently partitioned. When they can’t, developers must constantly communicate to make sure their pieces will work together. This communication takes additional time. The more developers you add, the more communication you need, and therefore the more time you’ll have to spend.

There is a “sweet spot,” but unfortunately, there isn’t a perfect way to calculate it. When writing software, every project is different.

-Justin Kohnen

For a better explanation I encourage you to read the book, or at least the cliff notes.

How to use Window 8 on a PC

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:01:00 +0000

So you’re thinking about installing Windows 8 (or you’ve already installed it) and you’re wondering “It’s changed so much, How the heck do I use it?”

I wanted to share an instructional video with you that will answer just that question.

Here is the 25 minute version

And here is the “3 minute” version

Preparing a SQL database for CLR assembly loading

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 16:04:00 +0000

A few times, I’ve had to install CLR assemblies into a Microsoft SQL database.

In order to do so, the deploying user must be granted certain permissions.

Here is the script I use.

     /*===========================================================

      THIS SCRIPT WILL PREPARE A SERVER FOR LOADING AN ASSEMBLY 

      BY GRANTING RIGHTS FOR THE SPECIFIED USER TO LOAD

      ASSEMBLIES OF ALL PERMISSION SETS

      AND SETTING THE DATABASE TO TRUSTWORTHY TO 

      ALLOW THE ASSEMBLY TO BE LOADED INTO CLR

      NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU REPLACE THE <Username> PLACEHOLDER

        WITH THE USERNAME YOU WISH TO ELEVATE PERMISSIONS FOR

      NOTE 2: A USER CANNOT ELEVATE THEIR OWN PERMISSIONS. THIS SCRIPT

        SHOULD BE RUN BY A DIFFERENT USER THAN THE ONE BEING ELEVATED

      NOTE 3: RUN IN DATABASE YOU WANT TO LOAD THE ASSEMBLY

      ===========================================================*/

           DECLARE @user NVARCHAR(50)

           DECLARE @tsql NVARCHAR(MAX)

           DECLARE @error INT

           SELECT @user = '<Username>'

           PRINT 'STEP PREPARE SERVER AND DATABASE FOR ASSEMBLY LOADING'

           PRINT 'SERVER  :   [' + @@SERVERNAME + ']'

           PRINT 'DATEBASE:   [' + db_name() + ']'

           PRINT 'USER    :   ' + @user

           PRINT 'START TIME: ' + convert(varchar(max), getdate())

           PRINT ''

           PRINT 'GRANT PERMISSION TO LOAD EXTERNAL_ACCESS ASSEMBLIES'

           SET @tsql = 'USE MASTER ' + char(13) + char(10) + 

                                'GRANT EXTERNAL ACCESS ASSEMBLY TO ' + @user + ''

           EXEC sp_ExecuteSQL @tsql 

           SET @Error = @@Error

           IF @Error <> 0 

                  BEGIN

                         PRINT 'ERROR OCCURRED: ' + CONVERT(varchar(50), @error)

                         PRINT 'GRANTING EXTERNAL_ACCESS LOADING PERMISSIONS'

                         PRINT 'TO ' + @user

                  END

           ELSE

                  BEGIN

                  PRINT 'GRANT PERMISSION TO LOAD UNSAFE ASSEMBLIES'

                  SET @tsql = 'USE MASTER ' + char(13) + char(10) + 

                                       'GRANT UNSAFE ASSEMBLY TO ' + @user + ''

                  EXECUTE sp_ExecuteSQL @tsql 

                  SET @Error = @@Error

                  IF @Error <> 0 

                         BEGIN

                               PRINT 'ERROR OCCURRED: ' + CONVERT(varchar(50), @error)

                               PRINT 'GRANTING UNSAFE LOADING PERMISSIONS'

                               PRINT 'TO ' + @user

                         END

                  ELSE

                         BEGIN

                         PRINT 'MARK DATABASE ' + db_name() + ' SO ASSEMBLIES CAN RUN'

                         SET @tsql = N'USE MASTER ' + char(13) + char(10) + 

                                              'ALTER DATABASE ' + db_name() +

                                             ' SET TRUSTWORTHY ON '

                         EXEC sp_Executesql @tsql 

                         SET @error = @@ERROR

                         IF @error <> 0 

                               BEGIN

                               PRINT 'ERROR OCCURRED: ' + CONVERT(varchar(50), @error)

                               PRINT 'MARKING DATABASE ' + db_name() + ' SAFE TO RUN ASSEMBLIES'

                               END

                         END

                  END                        

           PRINT ''

           PRINT 'STEP COMPLETED'

           PRINT 'END TIME: ' + convert(varchar(max), getdate())

I post this in hopes that someone else will find value in it.

Cheers,

Justin

Error 21 CA0055 : Could not unify the platforms

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 18:07:00 +0000

After a recent upgrade from Silverlight 4.0 to Silverlight 5.0, I started getting this error from Visual Studio 2010

Error 21 CA0055 : Could not unify the platforms (mscorlib, Version=2.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e, mscorlib, Version=5.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e) for '[path to Silverlight project dll]'.

Took me a while to track it down, and I found the solution to my problem in this post.

Being that we don’t use Code Analysis, I just turned it off on my Silverlight project.

But if you do use it, you’re going to have to run the command line arguments as the post suggests.

Error 17 Unknown build error, 'An item with the same key has already been added.'

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:03:00 +0000

I recently got this error after doing a code merge. No source file, no line number, just the project name and nothing else to point me in the proper direction to rectify my issue.

After much searching I found the answer to my problem in this post.

The post states this can occur if there are duplicate lines within a <ItemGroup> node in a csproj file.

I did a compare on my project file and found this.

I removed the duplicate line and everything was right with the world again.

redgate SQL Source Control Revision Numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:10:00 +0000

Anyone that’s developed with me in the last 7 years knows that I’m a HUGE fan of redgate. Honestly, now that I use their tools, I don’t know how I would work on MS SQL databases without them.

Recently, I’ve been taking a deep dive into SQL Source Control and SQL Compare. So far, I love it.

SQL Source Control: Is a Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio plug-in which allows me to commit my database schema, static data, and migration scripts into version control.
SQL Compare: Is a stand alone tool that allows me to compare and deploy schema changes. From a Database, Backup, Snapshot, Script Folder, or directly from source control to any combination there of.

In my case, I am using SQL Compare to deploy schema changes directly from source control, to my database.

One notable feature, is SQL Compare’s use of Extended Properties to track the version control revision number, in the database.

Here is an example of the script they use:

        1: DECLARE @RG_SC_VERSION BIGINT

       2: SET @RG_SC_VERSION = 13670

       3: IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM fn_listextendedproperty(N'SQLSourceControl Database Revision', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL))

       4:   EXEC sp_dropextendedproperty N'SQLSourceControl Database Revision', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL

       5: EXEC sp_addextendedproperty N'SQLSourceControl Database Revision', @RG_SC_VERSION, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL

       6: GO

This means you can figure out the revision number of your database by querying the Extended Property.

       1: SELECT Name, Value FROM fn_listextendedproperty(N'SQLSourceControl Database Revision', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL)

Why does this matter?

Well, when the time comes to update a client’s database to the latest version, it’s as easy as.

Figure out the version of their database (using the script above)
Using SQL Compare: Set your “Source” to the Head of your source control, set the “Target” to the version of the database the client is at
Using SQL Compare: Compare the two database schemas, and generate a deploy script

So awesome.

Using a delimited list for SQL ‘IN’ statement

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 18:38:00 +0000

Sometimes I want to pass a list of items from my C# code to my stored procedures so they can be used as part of an ‘IN’ clause.

In my greener years I would do something like:

Unsafe Way

<WARNING>Do NOT write code like this. This opens the door to SQL injection. </WARNING>

        1: -- @ProductIDs contains a list of id's delimited by a ',' (i.e. '1,34,56,7,8,98')

       2:  

       3: sp_executesql 'SELECT * FROM Products WHERE ProductID IN (' + @ProductIDs + ')'

Safer Way

My safer solution is adding a function to my database called “SPLIT.”

Function:

       1: CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[SPLIT] (

       2:     @str_in VARCHAR(8000),

       3:     @separator VARCHAR(4) )

       4: RETURNS @strtable TABLE (strval VARCHAR(8000))

       5:  

       6: AS

       7:  

       8: BEGIN

       9:     DECLARE

        @Occurrences INT,

        @Counter INT,

        @tmpStr VARCHAR(8000)

    

    SET @Counter = 0

 

    IF SUBSTRING(@str_in,LEN(@str_in),1) <> @separator 

        SET @str_in = @str_in + @separator

 

    SET @Occurrences = (DATALENGTH(REPLACE(@str_in,@separator,@separator+'#')) - DATALENGTH(@str_in))/ DATALENGTH(@separator)

    SET @tmpStr = @str_in

 

    WHILE @Counter <= @Occurrences 

    BEGIN

        SET @Counter = @Counter + 1

        INSERT INTO @strtable

            VALUES ( SUBSTRING(@tmpStr,1,CHARINDEX(@separator,@tmpStr)-1))

 

        SET @tmpStr = SUBSTRING(@tmpStr,CHARINDEX(@separator,@tmpStr)+1,8000)

 

        IF DATALENGTH(@tmpStr) = 0

 

        BREAK

    END

 

RETURN 

END

This function takes a “str_in” parameter representing the delimited String, and separator parameter representing the delimiter of the string.

Using these two values, the delimited string is broken apart into a table that can be queried.

Usage:

       1: SELECT *

       2: FROM Products

       3: WHERE

       4: ProductID IN ( SELECT * FROM SPLIT(@ProductIDs, ','))

I’m sure there is a more efficient way to perform the same task, but it works well enough for my needs. However, I am open to suggestions.

Happy Coding,

Justin

How to dynamically load a JavaScript file.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:02:00 +0000

How do you dynamically load a JavaScript file? With JavaScript of course!

        1: function loadjsFile(filepath) {

       2:      try {

       3:          var h = document.getElementsByTagName('head').item(0); 

       4:          var t = document.createElement('script'); 

       5:          if ('object' != typeof(t)) {

       6:               t = document.standardCreateElement('script');

       7:          } 

       8:          t.setAttribute('src', filepath); 

       9:          t.setAttribute('type', 'text/javascript'); 

      10:          h.appendChild(t);

      11:      } catch(e) { alert('Error: ' + e); }

      12: }

      13:  

      14: // ...

      15: // Later in your code

      16:  

      17: loadjsFile("MyDynamicScript.js");

In fact, dynamically loaded JavaScript is the basic concept for Bookmark Applets (a.k.a Bookmarklet)

With just a few tweaks you can make your own bookmarklet.

<a href="javascript: (function () { try { var h = document.getElementsByTagName('head').item(0); var t = document.createElement('script'); if ('object' != typeof (t)) { t = document.standardCreateElement('script'); } t.setAttribute('src', 'http://www.JustinKohnen.com/bookmarklet/BlogPostBootstrap.js'); t.setAttribute('type', 'text/javascript'); h.appendChild(t); } catch (e) { alert('Error: ' + e); } })();
">hyperlink</a>

If you are concerned about caching, you can always append a timestamp to your script reference.

<a href="javascript: (function () { try { var h = document.getElementsByTagName('head').item(0); var t = document.createElement('script'); if ('object' != typeof (t)) { t = document.standardCreateElement('script'); } t.setAttribute('src', 'http://www.JustinKohnen.com/bookmarklet/BlogPostBootstrap.js?x=' + new Date().getTime()); t.setAttribute('type', 'text/javascript'); h.appendChild(t); } catch (e) { alert('Error: ' + e); } })();
">hyperlink</a>

Here, try it. Drag this hyperlink up to your bookmark bar and click it. After a few seconds, you should see a special message from me to you.

Cheers and happy coding,

Justin

<postscript>

If you load reference JS files within Bookmarklet JavaScript you may introduce a race condition. This is why my little demo takes a second to load. I had to put a delay to allow for my reference files to download. And even still, it might not work on slower internet connections.

</postscript>

Good practice when naming a Boolean variable/Property

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:55:00 +0000

<soapbox>

When defining a Boolean (true/false) variable or property

Prefix the name with "Is" or "Has"
Do not negate in your variable name.

Bad Boolean variables names:

Allowed (No prefix)
IsNonUser (Negated Name)
IsNotAllowed (Negated Name)
Permission (No prefix)

Good boolean variable names:

IsAllowed
IsUser
IsAllowed
HasPermission

Why?

Because if statements with negation become easier to read.

I think this if statement is harder to read

        1: if(!IsNotAllowed) 

       2: { 

       3:     ShareCandy(); // "If not is not allowed then share candy"

       4: }

Then this if statement

       1: if(IsAllowed) 

       2: { 

       3:     ShareCandy(); // "If is allowed then share candy"

       4: }

</soapbox>

A quote from modernizr

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:14:00 +0000

I read this in the modernizr documentation on polyfills and I thought I would repeat it:

And remember, none of your users view your site in more than one browser; It’s okay if it looks and acts differently.

So true. All too often people want their websites to work exactly the same on all browsers. But in reality, users don’t know if there are slight differences because they have nothing to compare it to. As long as the user can get the same information and actions they get on other browsers. It’s ok if it’s off by a few pixels.

Using an ObjectDataSource in Sharepoint

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:54:00 +0000

A Co-worker was trying to use an ObjectDataSource within a UserControl within SharePoint.

After a bit of research. We learned one must use the fully qualified name of the class and assembly when defining the TypeName.

So we did it, but in the code behind.

ASCX Snippet

        1: <asp:ObjectDataSource ID="odsProfit" runat="server" 

       2:     SelectMethod="GetData">

       3:         <SelectParameters>

       4:             <asp:Parameter Name="DataID" Type="Int32" />

       5:         </SelectParameters>

       6: </asp:ObjectDataSource>

ASCX.cs Snippet

       1: protected void Page_Init(object sender, EventArgs e)

       2: {

       3:     odsProfit.TypeName = new ProfitManager()

       4:                                 .GetType()

       5:                                 .AssemblyQualifiedName;

       6: }

I just thought I would share.

Cheers.

How To: Stop IIS7 from timing out while you’re debugging

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:26:00 +0000

Have you ever seen this before while you’re debugging an IIS7 application?

When you’re debugging code such as webpages, services, SharePoint event receivers, and SharePoint workflow handlers. You only have so long before you get a timeout message from IIS7 and you can no longer continue debugging.

This is because IIS "pings" it’s Application Pools to see if they are still responsive. You can either disable this or change the response time from the default 90 seconds.

Bring up IIS7 Manager

Expand the Server in the left pane
Click on Application Pools
On each application pool, right click and choose Advanced Settings
Under the Process Model, change Ping Enabled to False or change the Ping Maximum Response Time to a greater value

Cheers,

Justin

How To: Disable “Attach Security Warning” of Visual Studio

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:36:00 +0000

When you attach to a process, you sometimes get the message confirming whether you want to attach the process.

This happens for each process you are attaching. ANNOYING! This is how to disable it.

Make sure Visual Studio 2010 is first shut down
Click Start > Run... Type "regedit" <Enter>
For VS 2010 navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Debugger
1. For VS 2008 navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Debugger
Set DisableAttachSecurityWarning to 1

Cheers,
Justin

Developing for a specific version of Silverlight

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:50:00 +0000

I recently ran into an issue where the version of Silverlight I had installed on my development environment didn’t match my end clients’ version of Silverlight.

I was running Silverlight v4.0.60831.0, they were running Silverlight v4.0.50401.0. (Who would of thought a 0.0.1 difference would of really mattered?)

Anyway I set out to accomplish two tasks

Replicate the issue by uninstalling my version of Silverlight and installing there’s.
Update my development environment so that I could fix the problem.

Here are my notes:

I using Control Panel to Uninstall Silverlight 4 from my test box.

I located an older version of Silverlight by using Microsoft’s “Microsoft® Silverlight™ Release History.” Which I installed on my test box.

I successfully reproduced the error.

I used Control Panel to Uninstall Silverlight 4 SDK from my development box.

I downloaded the SDK for the specific version I needed. Once again, using Microsoft’s “Microsoft® Silverlight™ Release History.” Which I installed on my development box.

I opened Visual Studio 2010, rebuilt the solution, deployed, the error was corrected.

That’s it. I hope it helps someone.

Making the selected time of a RadTimePicker scroll to top.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:22:00 +0000

I rely heavily on Telerik’s ASP.NET AJAX tools. Recently I had an issue with the RadTimePicker when we attempted to put it in a scrolling container. Once in the container could scroll we wanted the selected time to be the first item when the picker’s TimeView appeared.

Out of the box this behavior is not possible, so I had to find a solution. After a lot of research, and some help from Telerik, I would like to share my solution:

To allow for scrolling you have to apply the proper styles

        1: <style type="text/css">

       2:     #<%= StartTime.ClientID %>_timeView_wrapper {

       3:             overflow:auto;

       4:             width:83px;

       5:             height:200px;

       6:     }

       7: </style>

The RadTimePicker

       1: <telerik:RadTimePicker runat="server" ID="StartTime" CssClass="rsAdvTimePicker"

       2:     Width="78px">

       3:     <dateinput id="DateInput3" runat="server" emptymessagestyle-cssclass="riError" emptymessage=" " />

       4:     <timepopupbutton visible="false" />

       5:     <timeview id="TimeView1" runat="server" columns="1" showheader="false" starttime="00:00"

       6:         endtime="23:59" interval="00:30" />                                                        

       7:     <ClientEvents OnPopupOpening="InitializePopup" />

       8:     <ShowAnimation Duration="0" />

       9:     <HideAnimation Duration="0" />

      10: </telerik:RadTimePicker>

Lastly, I used a bit of JavaScript and jQuery to apply the “scroll to top” behavior.

       1: <script type="text/javascript">

       2:     function InitializePopup(sender, eventArgs) {

       3:         var htmlPopUp = eventArgs.get_popupControl().get_element();

       4:         var jQueryPopUp = $(htmlPopUp);

       5:  

       6:         setTimeout(

       7:         function() {

       8:             var selectedTime = jQueryPopUp.find(".rcSelected");

       9:  

      10:             if (selectedTime.length > 0) {                    

      11:                 selectedTime.get(0).scrollIntoView(true);

      12:             }

      13:         }, 150);

      14:     }        

      15: </script>

You’ll notice I set a delay on line 6. This is because the TimeView html object needs a bit of time to render before we preform the find. Without this delay, the find returns an empty collection, and the scroll will not work.

I hope this helps someone.

Cheers.

Grok talk on NuGet 6/22/2011 1800 EST

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:53:00 +0000

I will be giving a grok talk about “NuGet” (the Visual Studio 2010 extension) to the Dayton .NET Developers Group. If you’re in area, I invite you to come down. (Don’t forget to point and laugh )

Here is my slide deck.

When: June 22, 2011 at 6pm EST

Where: 711 East Monument Avenue, Suite 101 in downtown Dayton, OH

jQuery Boxy content will not display / show

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:24:00 +0000

Every so often I’ve used the jQuery plugin called “Boxy”

Today I ran into an issue: The content I gave boxy would not display / show on the page.

Here was my incorrect code:

        1: new Boxy("Justin Kohnen is the best programmer ever!", 

       2: { 

       3:     closeText: "close"

       4:     , title: "Shout out."

       5:     , unloadOnHide: true

       6: });

After reading the fantastic manual I found: (underline added for emphasis)

The content passed to the constructor can be any valid parameter to jQuery's $() function - a DOM element, an HTML fragment or another jQuery object. Whatever is provided will be set to display: block and have the class boxy-content added prior to its insertion within the dialog.

The key here was raw text is not a “valid parameter to jQuery’s $() function.”

So my fix is simply to wrap my text in a <p> tag. Making it an HTML fragment

Here is the corrected code:

       1: new Boxy("<p>Justin Kohnen is the best programmer ever!</p>", 

       2: { 

       3:     closeText: "close"

       4:     , title: "Shout out."

       5:     , unloadOnHide: true

       6: });

Simple, but silly problem.

I hope this helps someone.

Cheers.

Installing and Uninstalling a Windows Service from the Command Line

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:47:00 +0000

I develop a windows service every now and then. I always have to dig up the install and uninstall commands. I figured I would post it for all.

Install

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\installutil /LogToConsole=true "<path_to_service_exe>"

Uninstall

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\installutil /u "<path_to_service_exe>"

Make sure to replace <path_to_service_exe> with what works for you.

If you’re on Win7 or Win2008 Server, you’ll need to start your Command Prompt as an administrator.

Cheers.

Tracking a browser’s Time zone Offset in ASP.NET

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:14:00 +0000

Just the other day I was required to display a website’s dates in a user’s local time.

The solution I came up with was based on getting the time zone offset from the user’s browser using JavaScript, Storing that value into a cookie, then converting the cookie value to the a number I’m used to working with (i.e. negative hours), then I can convert UTC dates to the user’s local time zone by adding the Offset.

All of this magic happens for me in my website’s base page. (All my pages inherit from my base page)

        1: public class BasePage : System.Web.UI.Page

       2: {

       3:     private const string mTimeZoneCookieName = "TZOS"; // Time zone Offset

       4:  

       5:     protected override void OnPreInit(EventArgs e)

       6:     {

       7:         setCookieForTimezoneOffset();

       8:     }

       9:  

    private void setCookieForTimezoneOffset()

    {

        if (Request.Cookies[mTimeZoneCookieName] == null)

        {

            ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(GetType(), "Timezone",

            string.Format(

            @"<script language=""javascript"">document.cookie = ""{0}="" + new Date().getTimezoneOffset(); </script>",

            mTimeZoneCookieName));

        }

    }

  

    public int TimezoneOffset

    {

        get

        {

            return getTimezoneOffset();

        }

    }

  

    private int getTimezoneOffset()

    {

        int returnValue;

        returnValue = (Request.Cookies[mTimeZoneCookieName] == null) ? 0 : Convert.ToInt32(Request.Cookies[mTimeZoneCookieName].Value);

        // JavaScript returns 300 if the offset is -5 offset so I convert the number

        return (returnValue / 60) * -1; 

    }

}

The only catch is: The very first time a user loads any page the times will be GMT/UTC after a single postback everything is as right as rain. On way this could be corrected is by tweaking the “Timezone” start up script a bit to force a refresh. (And that’s just one solution, I’m sure you can come up with another.)

I hope that helps someone.

Cheers.

My TortoiseSVN Global ignore pattern

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:41:00 +0000

Some files shouldn’t be committed into version control. Usually things generated by the computer (i.e. exe’s, dlls, etc.) and user specific files (i.e. *.suo, *.user, etc.)

Here is the global ignore pattern I use for TortoiseSVN to exclude such files.

<pattern>
*.o *.lo *.la *.al .libs *.so *.so.[0-9]* *.a *.pyc *.pyo *.rej *~ #*# .#* .*.swp .DS_Store _ReSharper.* *.resharper *.suo *.user bin obj
</ pattern>

Hope it helps someone.

Computing First and Last Day of the Month

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:56:00 +0000

I stumbled across this the other day and I thought it was so slick I would share.

This example computes the DateTime for both the first and last day of the current month.

     var monthStartDate = new DateTime(DateTime.Now.Year, DateTime.Now.Month, 1);

    var monthEndDate = start.AddMonths(1).AddDays(-1);

You can take the range even further by changing the “AddMonths” number.

Pretty slick.