Kintan Brahmbhatt has posted a very good series of articles that make you think about the design process.
In asking “How would you design a kitchen?”, he looks at the design process, and reminds us about what has to be the key tenet of design – making sure that your specify something that is fit for task for the end user.
Kitchen magic starts here: http://www.kintya.com/blog/2008/08/how-would-you-d.html
Yesterday Joe Stagner posted about the free digital release of the first draft of “Data Structures and Algorithms: Annotated Reference with Example”.
It’s not complete, and rather rough in places, but it’s definitely worth a bit of your time to remind yourself about fundamental data structures and the algorithms to manipulate them. In particular, the authors highlight the complexity of each algorithm – and tell you how the algorithm will scale.
Download, Read, Internalise: http://dotnetslackers.com/projects/Data-Structures-And-Algorithms/
Lots of people have blogged about it, including The Moth, but it’s still a remarkable thing to see happen – Microsoft has released the source code to .Net 3.5 (under appropriate licenses) so you can debug into the framework itself.
Why is this important? Well, even in plain-old ASP.Net, the framework can often appear to swallow your code entirely, making it nigh-on impossible to work out why your code is broken.
Now you can trace all the way up and down the stack – and Daniel’s posted a video on how to set up VS2008 to use this to go along with the official blog.
Use the Source: http://www.danielmoth.com/Blog/2008/08/debug-into-fx-35-sp1-source.html
Vineet Batta has posted a great first article on the CISG blog, espousing the virtues of the Anti-XSS library available to ASP.Net developers.
What does Anti-XSS do? Well, plenty actually – but in particular Vineet covers how to use the SafeHtml and SafeHtmlFragment methods to sanitise rich text input from a web form. I’m looking forward to his next instalment.
Dang well use it!: http://blogs.msdn.com/cisg/archive/2008/08/27/what-does-anti-xss-offer-for-html-sanitization.aspx
I had to work this out today as I wanted to disable functionality on a master page based on the type of page it was attached to.
The MasterPage class is one that sits “beside” the Page class in ASP.Net – specifically, whilst you can access the MasterPage instance from a Page instance, there’s no property on the MasterPage to go back to the current page.
Of course, we can fix this with a helper class – here I’ve coded the sample as an extension method just for fun:
public static class MasterPageExtensions
{
public static Page OwningPage(this MasterPage master)
{
HttpContext context = HttpContext.Current;
Page page = context.Handler as Page;
return Page;
}
}
Now we call access the page from the code-behind of a master page thus:
{
private void DoSomething()
{
Page currentPage = this.OwningPage();
...
}
}
Easy!
Busy day on the MSDN blogs today – as well as Mike Taulty wondering if he’s been blacklisted from TechEd (*G*), we’ve got a posting from Doug about uninstalling .Net Framework 3.5 SP1, but also serves as a very good reminder as to how the .Net framework is layered.
Next, Kirill Osenkov has a good post on understanding generics, Eric White has posts on finding duplicates using LINQ, using Lambda expressions for Event Handlers, and taking a “flat” collection and chunking it into a data structure.
Finally, Ed Glas points to a new version of Fiddler, that apart from anything else has a cool timeline visualiser.
The Register has a remarkably balanced article today giving 10 pros and 10 cons for silverlight.
Which side of the fence do you fall on? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/18/silverlight_pros_and_cons/
The Team Foundation Server Observations Bucket broke the news – FXCop 1.36 is now available.
Your code will comply: http://teamfoundation.blogspot.com/2008/08/get-new-version-of-fxcop-while-it-is.html
Well, not quite - but today Martin Grayson posted the second part of his Silverlight 2 samples, looking in greater detail at how to build a dragable/dockable/expanding layout.
Also notable is that the first release of the WPF Toolkit – which includes a nice WPF Datagrid. Whether this impacts the commercial offerings will have to be seen.
Drag yourself here to expand your mind: http://blogs.msdn.com/mgrayson/archive/2008/08/18/silverlight-2-samples-dragging-docking-expanding-panels-part-2.aspx
Get into the Grid here: http://blogs.msdn.com/publicsector/archive/2008/08/18/wpf-datagrid-the-wpf-toolkit.aspx
Nicholas Allen’s posted a nice little article today on how to stream data over a WCF service.
The trick?
binding.TransferMode = TransferMode.StreamedResponse;
Read all about it: http://blogs.msdn.com/drnick/archive/2008/08/18/streaming-web-content.aspx
Miguel de Icaza has linked to a couple of interesting articles today.
· An in-depth explanation of how to improve performance of dynamic invocation
· A C# port of Google’s Protocol Buffers.
Read and reflect: http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2008/Aug-14.html
Jeffery Palermo’s got a nice little piece on why Inversion of Control isn’t about testability – but about giving flexibility in how you design your software.
Worth a read: http://jeffreypalermo.com/blog/inversion-of-control-is-not-about-testability/
There’s a useful post on the MossyBlog describing the RSS support inbuilt in Silverlight.
When you need to retrieve complex data shapes from a database, you traditionally have been restricted to either dealing with multiple (and possibly sparse) rows per entity, or else performing multiple calls to the database and iterating the results to create your object graph.
The former CAN be pretty performant, but is a pain to implement the graph generation state-machine.
The latter suffers from the latency involved in setting up multiple database calls.
What’s needed is the ability to retrieve multiple data sets, but with just ONE database call.
SQL Server trumpets this as a feature, but Oracle’s been able to do this for a while as well. The problem has been that it’s very badly documented how you access the data through ODP.Net. Now I’ll show you how.
Let’s start by creating a stored proc that returns some data from 3 independent tables:
PROCEDURE PRO_GET_MULTIPLE
(
p_first OUT SYS_REFCURSOR,
p_second OUT SYS_REFCURSOR,
p_third OUT SYS_REFCURSOR
) IS
BEGIN
OPEN p_ first FOR
select * from table_one;
OPEN p_ second FOR
select * from table_two;
OPEN p_ third FOR
select * from table_three;
END;
Easy enough PL./SQL there. Let’s now retrieve the data using ODP.Net:
OracleDatabase db = OracleDatabaseFactory.CreateDatabase ();
OracleCommand cmd = new OracleCommand("MY_PACKAGE.PRO_GET_MULTIPLE", connection);
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
OracleParameter staffTypeResult = new OracleParameter();
staffTypeResult.ParameterName = "p_first";
staffTypeResult.OracleDbType = OracleDbType.RefCursor;
staffTypeResult.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;
OracleParameter nameTypeResult = new OracleParameter();
nameTypeResult.ParameterName = "p_second";
nameTypeResult.OracleDbType = OracleDbType.RefCursor;
nameTypeResult.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;
OracleParameter identifierTypeResult = new OracleParameter();
identifierTypeResult.ParameterName = "p_third";
identifierTypeResult.OracleDbType = OracleDbType.RefCursor;
identifierTypeResult.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;
cmd.Parameters.Add(staffTypeResult);
cmd.Parameters.Add(nameTypeResult);
cmd.Parameters.Add(identifierTypeResult);
//Return the filled Dataset
DataSet dataset = db.ExecuteDataSet(cmd);
Note how we add output parameters for each of the tables the stored procedure returns? This is where the magic lies – the OracleDatabase object knows how to fill a dataset from multiple out-parameters via the ExecuteDataSet command.
Now I should point out that the OracleDatabase type is our customised Enterprise Library Data Access Block provider, so your mileage may vary with other EntLib Oracle providers.
Once you’ve got a DataSet, of course, you can iterate it in the usual manner:
DataTable table = dataset.Tables[tableIndex];
int index = 0;
foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows)
{
Console.Write(string.Format("{0} : {1} {2} {3}",
index, row[0], row[1], row[2]));
Console.WriteLine();
index++;
}
And that’s all there is too it!
Raymond Chen has written an illuminating blog post on what *actually* happens when you write an iterator in C#.
This explains clearly what’s going on – essential for getting your head around how to use them, and in particular the yield return and yield break statements.
Start Leeks linked to it as part of his series covering yield.
Syntactic sugar: http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2008/08/12/8849519.aspx
Tom details a problem on the ASP.Net Debugging blog about web farms running ASP.Net apps.
Turns out that ViewState is NOT compatible across versions of ASP.Net, or even processor architectures.
Read about it here: http://blogs.msdn.com/tom/archive/2008/08/13/system-indexoutofrangeexception-on-a-webfarm.aspx
Joe Stagner links to a set of 60 free ASP.Net and Winforms controls now available from DevExpress.
Find them here: http://www.devexpress.com/Products/Free/WebRegistration60/
It’s clearly a busy day for Microsoft today – just looking at the sheer volume of postings on the MSDN blogs should tell you that something’s up. But what?
Well, today is a major release day for the developer devision:
· Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack and the NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 have both been released - good article by Somasegar here.
· ADO.Net Data Services (formerly known as “Project Astoria” was released today too – see the Project Astoria Team Blog.
· And finally, the Entity Framework has RTM’d as well. Their Team Blog has plenty of info.
Oh and don’t forget that SQL Server 2008 was released a few days ago as well.
Good times!
I spotted this on Eric Nelson’s blog first (thanks to his twitter feed) – the Microsoft Sync Framework has finally been released!
Why is this good – well, it SHOULD make things much easier when building occasionally connected applications. Now I just need to work out how to connect it to Oracle via my business services layer. Exciting stuff.
Read all about it: http://blogs.msdn.com/ericnel/archive/2008/08/07/microsoft-sync-framework-released.aspx
Get the goods: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C88BA2D1-CEF3-4149-B301-9B056E7FB1E6&displaylang=en
We’re looking to hire a .Net developer to work on our next-generation product using the latest Microsoft technologies. Here’s the skinny – and if you’re interested, say you heard about the role from here!
Position
.Net Developer reporting to the Development Manager, based in Altrincham, Cheshire.
Candidate Profile
The development department has a flat structure with small teams formed according to the needs of the developments in question. This means that we do not have fixed team leader roles but allocate responsibility based on experience and skills. An ideal candidate must:
The candidate must have a minimum of 1-2 years demonstrable experience in a commercial environment developing AJAX style ASP.NET web applications in C#. Experience with Silverlight 2.0 and WPF would be a significant advantage.
Role
To work in a team of analyst/programmers, developing and maintaining the in4tek’s next generation software products including work on customer specific portals, web services, integration projects and web applications using leading edge technologies form Microsoft and Oracle.
Approximately 80% of the time will be spent designing and developing new modules, with the remainder allocated to maintaining and enhancing existing software.
Specific activities within the role include:
Personal development with the aim of obtaining Microsoft Certification will be encouraged.
Skills/Experience
KEY: R = required, D = desirable
Skill/Experience | |
Degree level qualification in IT or Business related subject | R |
At least 1-2 years commercial .Net experience in C# | R |
Demonstrable experience of ASP.Net 2.0/3.5 with AJAX | R |
Experience of structured methodologies for software design and UML. | D |
Experience of Agile methodologies of Software development | D |
Experience of developing within a n-tier architecture | D |
Experience of the design of n-tier architectures | D |
Commercial Oracle and PL/SQL development experience (or equivalent SQL Server) | D |
Database design experience (structure, relationships and triggers) | D |
Experience of working to ISO9000 / TickIT standards | D |
Knowledge of XML and its use in specifying and implementing software interfaces | D |
Experience of Silverlight 2.0 and WPF | D |
Rob Caron links to an excellent entry on the positivespace Graphic Design blog that gives “30 (actually more) Essential PDF Documents Every Designer Should Download”.
That’s bedtime reading sorted: http://www.positivespaceblog.com/archives/pdf-documents-designer/
Eugene Zakhareyev has an interesting commentary today on how often developers check their code into source control, and the control gates that some organisations can use to ensure quality of the checked in code.
Read it now or else: http://teamfoundation.blogspot.com/2008/08/check-in-your-stuff-now-or-else.html
Martin Grayson has started blogging about the silverlight controls that the MS CUI team developed for the Patient Journey Demonstrator.
This is really good news, because it gives us an insight into how some of the most compelling UI in the market has been developed (and a leg-up on doing it ourselves).
Silverlight goodness here: http://blogs.msdn.com/mgrayson/archive/2008/08/01/silverlight-2-samples-dragging-docking-expanding-panels-part-1.aspx
Matt Manela reminds us of two useful and free tools for the WPF developer, XAMLPadX and Snoop.
Read his opinion of them: http://blogs.msdn.com/matt/archive/2008/08/01/the-two-most-important-wpf-tools.aspx
Raymond Lewallen’s got an interesting take on how to fix bugs within the structure of an iteration.
Interesting reading: http://codebetter.com/blogs/raymond.lewallen/archive/2008/08/01/the-fly-in-the-soup-of-the-iteration.aspx
"Tom" posts about an article in the April edition of MSDN Magazine, entitled Scaling Strategies for ASP.NET Applications.
He mentions a bunch of stuff, but I'd never seen the "Performance Equation for the web" before:
Seems I need to be doing some more "theoretical" research.
Read his thoughts here: http://blogs.msdn.com/tom/archive/2008/08/01/asp-net-scaling-strategies.aspx
