AspAdvice

Search for ASP.NET 2010 released

Keyoti — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:12:00 GMT

Keyoti have released Search for ASP.NET v2010 (version 4).

It has the following improvements;

Vastly improved indexing performance
Faster searching
New indexing methodology
Stop lists

A file called stoplist.txt is automatically created in the index directory when the Index Manager is launched. The stop list contains common words that will be ignored while indexing and searching allowing for greater performance, particularly with larger indexes.

API improvements
SearchBox options generates option controls automatically

The SearchBoxOptions control provides a readily useable (although less flexible than the following example) way to add content and/or location category search options to the page.

You can download v2010 here,

http://keyoti.com/support/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1451

Visual Studio Authors and Book Ideas invited by Packt

ssmith — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:40:53 GMT

“Packt Publishing today announced their plan to advance their line up of Enterprise focused titles, and invited potential authors with Visual Studio skills and book ideas.”

February 05, 2010 - Over the last few months, Packt Publishing has entered the Enterprise market and has made progress in developing some very interesting titles like Testing with VS.NET 2008 Team Edition, SOA with LINQ, WCF, and VS 2008, and Refactoring with Visual Studio. Following this trend, Packt has invited authors to submit their latest ideas on Visual Studio. Packt is interested in developing books on the following Visual Studio topics:

· Visual Studio integrations

· Visual Studio Administration

· Visual Studio reporting

Packt focuses on producing books on cutting-edge topics and technologies and fittingly, Visual Studio is widely used in the .Net community. Visual Studio is an area with over 300 books published and we still see people struggling to find information dedicated to specific topics. Packt is determined to continue developing books on specific topics to overcome this drawback. If the aforementioned situation is a familiar one, get in touch with Packt and they will try and develop a book on your submitted topic.

Packt is looking for authors for their new Visual Studio books. Rashmi Phadnis an Enterprise acquisition editor at Packt explains, “Most of our authors are first time authors so, if this is your first attempt in the writing world, we welcome you with open arms. Together with your passion for the subject and our team of experienced editors; we will deliver excellent results. The best part is that you won’t have to give up on all of your free time! You could be an experienced programmer, a trainer, or someone who loves working with Visual Studio—our author-centric editorial process will help you get the most from writing.”

If you’re interested in writing Visual Studio books, Packt wants to hear from you! Please visit Packt at http://authors.packtpub.com for submitting your book ideas and title suggestions.

About Packt:

Packt (www.PacktPub.com) is a modern, unique publishing company with a focus on producing cutting-edge books for communities of developers, administrators, and newbies alike.

Contact:

Kshipra Singh, Author Relationship Manager,

Packt Publishing.

E-mail: kshipras@packtpub.com

Silverlight 3 Hosting :: RIA Services - RAD for the Middle Tier

asphostcentral — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:32:00 GMT

RIA Services is a new Microsoft framework for developing n-tier Line of Business (LoB) applications. RIA Services make it easier to build Silverlight applications that communicate with a server, which is the focus of this article. As a developer, RIA Services provides automatic code generation for common scenarios where you need to perform CRUD operations on data and have a consistent model to validate data across tiers. The following sections explain how to get started with RIA Services, specify a data source and a UI, and automatically generate code for CRUD operations. Let me show you the big picture of RIA Services from an architectural perspective first

ASPHostCentral.com is the premier ASP.NET Hosting Provider which supports Silverlight 3 and RIA Services. You can start creating your first RIA Service project online from as low as $4.99/month ONLY! You can check our various Silverlight Hosting Plans by visiting our website directly at http://www.asphostcentral.com

Understanding RIA Services Architecture

RIA Services solves problems in n-tier application design for Silverlight applications by making it easier to serialize and stream objects across a network, sharing common validation among tiers, and automating asynchronous communication. To compare current development practices to what RIA Services offers, consider a common architecture, shown in Figure 1, using Web services to allow a Silverlight application to communicate with the server

Figure 1. N-Tier architecture with Web services

To the left of Figure 1 is a Silverlight control in a browser, which is the presentation tier. Following the network connection to the right, the Web service resides on the server, which is a separate tier where Business Logic Layer (BLL) and Data Access Layer (DAL) code reside; the sidebar, Layers and Tiers, explains the difference between layers and tiers.

LoB application development is very much about managing data properly. In the Web services scenario in Figure 1, you can see how data management must be handled in each tier. Perhaps you have a framework that makes it easier to stream data across the wire, but you still have manual work to do in each tier to manage CRUD operations

Observe in Figure 1 the separate validation code in each tier of the application, because in many cases you can’t make the assumption that presentation tier validation is sufficient. Especially in a Web services scenario, any client can send bad data

A common problem with network communications is timeouts and managing perceived performance in the presentation tier in the face of latency. A common way to handle this is via asynchronous calls where your thread returns to the UI immediately and the application later handles the return thread from the Web service and marshals the call back onto the UI thread to update the screen. There are patterns and framework support for managing this, but you must write the code yourself. The solid line between tiers demonstrates the fact that communication is synchronous by default

“Up to now, developers have been fortunate to have the tools to build sophisticated n-tier architectures easier than earlier generations of software technology. However, this scenario becomes even easier with RIA Services.”

Up to now, developers have been fortunate to have the tools to build sophisticated n-tier architectures easier than earlier generations of software technology. However, this scenario becomes even easier with RIA Services. Figure 2 shows how RIA Services simplifies data management, validation, and communications

Figure 2: RIA Services architecture.

The single Data Objects block in Figure 2 demonstrates that the UI and BLL/DAL tiers use the same objects. RIA Services supports LINQ to SQL, ADO.NET Entity Framework, and POCO out of the box, reducing the amount of work that you must do to move data across the network. Similarly, Validation has a single block, showing that the same validation rules defined in the BLL will be used in the UI. RIA Services build a proxy for the UI layer to encapsulate asynchronous communication, represented by the dashed line between UI and middle tier, freeing you from the extra coding

The rest of this article shows you how RIA Services can help reduce the amount of code you write for n-tier LoB applications, starting with an explanation of how to start a Silverlight project that uses RIA Services

Starting RIA Services in a Silverlight 3 Project

The easiest way to use RIA Services is via the Silverlight Application wizard in Visual Studio 2008. The following steps will walk you through the process of creating a Silverlight application that uses RIA Services. For this article I’ll use a C# project, but you can do the same with a Visual Basic project:

1. Start a new Silverlight application by selecting File | New | and Project. You’ll see the New Project window in Figure 3
2. Select Visual C#, select Silverlight in Project types, and select Silverlight Application in Templates
3. Set Name to RIAServicesDemo, specify the Location where you want the project to reside, and click OK. You’ll see the New Silverlight Application window in Figure 4

Figure 3: New Project window.

Figure 4: New Silverlight Application window.

If you’ve built Silverlight applications before, the New Silverlight Application window in Figure 4 will be familiar. The Host the Silverlight application in a new Web site check box creates a new ASP.NET Web site with sample pages containing the new Silverlight control. You can change the project name to anything you like, but this demo will use the default. This demo will also use the default of ASP.NET Web Application Project as the project type; the alternative being an ASP.NET Web Site project. What’s new, for Silverlight 3, in the New Silverlight Application window is the Link options section. To use RIA Services, you must check the box for Link to ASP.NET server project, which establishes the proper assembly references and any other settings required for using RIA Services. If you forget to check the Link to ASP.NET server project box and change your mind later, you can open the Properties window for the Silverlight project and there is an option called ASP.NET server project link on the Silverlight tab that you can change

4. Click OK to create a new solution with a Silverlight application project and an ASP.NET project, shown in Figure 5

Figure 5: New RIA Services application solution.

A couple items in Figure 5 are worthy of mention: assembly references and Toolbox controls. Notice that the Silverlight project, RIAServicesDemo, includes a reference to System.Windows.Ria; the assembly containing RIA Services types. In addition, you can see several new controls in the Toolbox such as DataForm, DataPager, and DatePicker that are new in Silverlight 3

RIA Services supports multiple types of DAL in your architecture, including LINQ to SQL, LINQ to Entities, or custom.”

ASP.NET 4 Hosting :: What's NEW in Visual C# 4.0?

asphostcentral — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:20:00 GMT

Visual C# version 4.0 offers new features that make it easier for you to work in dynamic programming scenarios. Besides dynamic programming, you have support for optional and named parameters, better COM interop support, and contra-variance and covariance. This article will show you how each of these features work and provide suggestions of how they can be applied to help you be more productive.

To help you follow the path of C#, this article looks at the history of C#, today’s use of C#, and helps you understand the future of C# and what the language intends to provide for you. After you understand the theme of C# 4.0, you’ll learn about the new features of C# 4.0. Finally, this article will show you how to create a dynamic object of your own with late-bound calls to dynamic methods based on conventions.

C#: Then and Now

The previous major versions of C# were 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. There was a minor version 1.1 in April of 2003, but it didn’t significantly change the theme of the 1.0 release.

Microsoft first announced C# on June 16th 2000. It was the first high-level programming language that was built specifically to target the .NET Common Language Runtime. C# 1.0 grew its heritage from C++, but borrowed features from languages such as Delphi, Java, and others. In C# 1.0, Microsoft planned to provide an object-oriented, component-based language that was very simple to use. When Microsoft released C# 1.0 to manufacturing on February 13th 2002, it was an immediate hit and steadily grew in popularity

When C# 2.0 rolled around, Microsoft finally added all of the features that should have been in C# 1.0. For example, generics was huge and is an important part of .NET development today. C# 2.0 also introduced anonymous methods, iterators, and nullable types. An interesting addition to C# 2.0, nullable types was a pre-cursor feature for what was coming in the next version, focusing on data

Most developers work with data, which was the primary theme of C# 3.0. The largest C# 3.0 language addition was Language Integrated Query (LINQ). Most other language features added in C# 3.0 were primarily to support LINQ, but the new features; including implicitly typed local variables, anonymous types, object and collection initializers, lambdas, and extension methods, can have value on their own in development that doesn’t involve LINQ

The next version of C# will be 4.0, which is the focus of this article. C# 4.0 will primarily focus on dynamic programming. The following sections of this article explain the dynamic programming features of C# 4.0 as well as other new features such as optional/named parameters and covariance/contravariance

Why Dynamic Programming?

The dynamic programming story in C# can fall into fulfilling categories of need in the way of multiple-language integration, simpler reflection, access to HTML DOM in Web scenarios, and easier COM interop. Some of these categories of need might not apply to your particular situation, and that’s okay because there isn’t anything that says that you have to use a language feature just because it’s there.

Most C# developers use multiple tools in a single application to accomplish complex tasks. If you’re writing WPF desktop applications, you’re using C# and XAML. It is quite possible that you might find some open source code that solves a problem, but it might be written in another language such as VB or F#. One of the benefits of .NET since its inception is the ability to have cross-language interoperability and the runtime is even called the “Common Language” Runtime (CLR). In recent years, Microsoft has created dynamic languages, such as IronRuby and IronPython, but developers don’t have an easy way to perform interop with dynamic languages. If you have this need, then you’ll welcome the ease with which C# dynamic programming makes interop between C# and dynamic languages possible

When performing reflection to run a method on an object, there are several hoops to jump through, including obtaining a reference to an object type, getting a reference to a member info object, determining the type of bindings to use, and then invoking the member. While reflection has an undeniable coolness factor, it still feels like a hack and that’s where C# 4.0 dynamic methods can help

If you write Silverlight applications, you might have the need today or in the future to access the HTML DOM containing your Silverlight control. C# dynamic programming makes this task easier

Performing COM interop with C# has always been cumbersome; partly because of the need to write extra syntax for conversions, optional parameters, and more. This has left some C# developers with a touch of VB envy because VB has easier COM interop support. One of the purposes of dynamic programming in C# is to help the C# programmer write cleaner syntax in COM interop scenarios

Where do you go for Visual C# 4.0 Hosting?

Basically, you need to look for a host that supports ASP.NET 4.0 Hosting. ASPHostCentral.com is the premier ASP.NET 4 Hosting provider and you can always start from as low as $4.99/month to host your first Visual C# 4.0 project.

ASP.NET 4 Hosting :: URL Routing in ASP.NET 4 Framework

asphostcentral — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:57:00 GMT

URL routing was a capability we first introduced with ASP.NET 3.5 SP1, and which is already used within ASP.NET MVC applications to expose clean, SEO-friendly “web 2.0” URLs. URL routing lets you configure an application to accept request URLs that do not map to physical files. Instead, you can use routing to define URLs that are semantically meaningful to users and that can help with search-engine optimization (SEO).

For example, the URL for a traditional page that displays product categories might look like below

http://www.mysite.com/products.aspx?category=software

Using the URL routing engine in ASP.NET 4 you can now configure the application to accept the following URL instead to render the same information:

http://www.mysite.com/products/software

With ASP.NET 4.0, URLs like above can now be mapped to both ASP.NET MVC Controller classes, as well as ASP.NET Web Forms based pages. You can even have a single application that contains both Web Forms and MVC Controllers, and use a single set of routing rules to map URLs between them.

ASPHostCentral.com proudly announces that we are the first host to offer ASP.NET 4 Hosting with support of Entity Framework 4 to all our new and existing customers and you can start using this newest server from just as low as $4.99/month.

Response.RedirectPermanent() Method

It is pretty common within web applications to move pages and other content around over time, which can lead to an accumulation of stale links in search engines

In ASP.NET, developers have often handled requests to old URLs by using the Response.Redirect() method to programmatically forward a request to the new URL. However, what many developers don’t realize is that the Response.Redirect() method issues an HTTP 302 Found (temporary redirect) response, which results in an extra HTTP round trip when users attempt to access the old URLs. Search engines typically will not follow across multiple redirection hops – which means using a temporary redirect can negatively impact your page ranking. You can use the SEO Toolkit to identify places within a site where you might have this issue

ASP.NET 4 introduces a new Response.RedirectPermanent(string url) helper method that can be used to perform a redirect using an HTTP 301 (moved permanently) response. This will cause search engines and other user agents that recognize permanent redirects to store and use the new URL that is associated with the content. This will enable your content to be indexed and your search engine page ranking to improve

ASP.NET 4 also introduces new Response.RedirectToRoute(string routeName) and Response.RedirectToRoutePermanent(string routeName) helper methods that can be used to redirect users using either a temporary or permanent redirect using the URL routing engine. The code snippets below demonstrate how to issue temporary and permanent redirects to named routes (that take a category parameter) registered with the URL routing system.

You can use the above routes and methods for both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC based URLs

Summary

ASP.NET 4 includes a bunch of feature improvements that make it easier to build public facing sites that have great SEO. When combined with the SEO Toolkit, you should be able to use these features to increase user traffic to your site – and hopefully increase the direct or indirect revenue you make from them

ASP.NET MVC 2 RC Hosting with ASPHostCentral.com

asphostcentral — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:33:00 GMT

ASP.NET MVC 2 RC provides a new Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework on top of the existing ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 runtime.

ASPHostCentral.com proudly announces that we are the first host to offer ASP.NET MVC 2 RC Hosting to all our new and existing customers and you can start using this newest server from just as low as $4.99/month.

Overview

ASP.NET MVC 2 is a framework for developing highly testable and maintainable Web applications by leveraging the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. The framework encourages developers to maintain a clear separation of concerns among the responsibilities of the application – the UI logic using the view, user-input handling using the controller, and the domain logic using the model.

ASP.NET MVC applications are easily testable using techniques such as test-driven development (TDD).
The installation package includes templates and tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP 1 to increase productivity when writing ASP.NET MVC applications. For example, the Add View dialog box takes advantage of customizable code generation (T4) templates to generate a view based on a model object.

The default project template allows the developer to automatically hook up a unit-test project that is associated with the ASP.NET MVC application.
Because the ASP.NET MVC framework is built on ASP.NET 3.5 SP 1, developers can take advantage of existing ASP.NET features like authentication and authorization, profile settings, localization, and so on.

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7; Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista
.NET 3.5 SP1. Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2008 SP1 or Visual Web Developer 2008 SP1 are required to use certain parts of this feature.

Reasons to trust your ASP.NET MVC website to us

What we think makes ASPHostCentral.com so compelling is how deeply integrated all the pieces are. We integrate and centralize everything--from the systems to the control panel software to the process of buying a domain name. For us, that means we can innovate literally everywhere. We've put the guys who develop the software and the admins who watch over the server right next to the 24-hour Fanatical Support team, so we all learn from each other

- 24/7-based Support - We never fall asleep and we run a service that is operating 24/7 a year. Even everyone is on holiday during Easter or Christmas/New Year, we are always behind our desk serving our customers
- Excellent Uptime Rate - Our key strength in delivering the service to you is to maintain our server uptime rate. We never ever happy to see your site goes down and we truly understand that it will hurt your onlines business. If your service is down, it will certainly become our pain and we will certainly look for the right pill to kill the pain ASAP
- High Performance and Reliable Server - We never ever overload our server with tons of clients. We always load balance our server to make sure we can deliver an excellent service, coupling with the high performance and reliable server
- Experts in ASP.NET MVC Hosting - Given the scale of our environment, we have recruited and developed some of the best talent in the hosting technology that you are using. Our team is strong because of the experience and talents of the individuals who make up ASPHostCentral
- Daily Backup Service - We realise that your website is very important to your business and hence, we never ever forget to create a daily backup. Your database and website are backup every night into a permanent remote tape drive to ensure that they are always safe and secure. The backup is always ready and available anytime you need it.
- Easy Site Administration - With our powerful control panel, you can always administer most of your site features easily without even needing to contact for our Support Team. Additionally, you can also install more than 100 FREE applications directly via our Control Panel in 1 minute

ASP.NET 4 Hosting :: What's New in Entity Framework 4.0?

asphostcentral — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:41:00 GMT

Last summer Microsoft released the first version of the ADO.NET Entity Framework as part of .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1. It builds on the concept of Dr. Peter Chen’s Entity Relationship Model by introducing a conceptual model, called the Entity Data Model (EDM), which sits on top of the database schema to represent the data in a way that is closer to how objects are modeled in the real world. This higher level of abstraction can help reduce the impedance mismatch that exists between the worlds of relational data and object oriented programming. However, the Entity Framework is much more than another Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) tool. In fact, you can query the EDM using a database-agnostic dialect of SQL called Entity SQL and use old-style data readers to fetch results without materializing them as objects.

ASPHostCentral.com proudly announces that we are the first host to offer ASP.NET 4 Hosting with support of Entity Framework 4 to all our new and existing customers and you can start using this newest server from just as low as $4.99/month.

The first ORM released by Microsoft was LINQ to SQL, which shipped with .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008. It’s a single-purpose ORM that only works against SQL Server (2000 or later), so Microsoft has decided to throw most of its weight behind the Entity Framework, because it is built on the ADO.NET provider model and can connect to any database for which an Entity-Framework-enabled provider exists (including Oracle, Sybase, and other major DBMS’s).

While the first version of the Entity Framework provided a richer mapping experience, including different ways to model inheritance, it lacked many features required by real-world applications, especially those built on the tenets of service-orientation. For example, classes generated by the entity model designer were tightly coupled to the Entity Framework, which made them difficult to use in n-tier applications where entities should be completely unaware of how they will be persisted.

Coming of Age

With version 4.0 of the .NET Platform, Microsoft will release its second version of the Entity Framework, which will include a raft of new features, making it a viable option for use in real-world applications. (As of this writing, the first Community Technology Preview is available for Entity Framework 4.0, which runs on .NET 4.0 Beta 1 with Visual Studio 2010.)

1. Persistence Ignorance: You can define your own POCO’s (Plain Old CLR Objects) that are decoupled from any specific persistence technology. This allows you to swap out one data access stack for another should the need arise
2. T4 Code Generation: EF 4 will ship with a number of T4 code-generation templates which you can customize or replace with your own. (T4 is a code-generation technology built into Visual Studio 2008 or later.)
3. Lazy Loading: In addition to eager and explicit loading, related entities can be loaded automatically on demand. For example, with an Order class that has an OrderDetails property, marking this property as virtual will cause order details to be loaded from the database automatically when the OrderDetails property is enumerated
4. POCO Change-Tracking: EF4 will support two models for tracking changes on POCO’s. By default EF will take a snapshot of the original state of your objects and then compare it to the current version when saving changes. Alternatively, you can define properties as virtual so that their state is continually tracked and kept in sync with the object state manager
5. Better N-Tier Support with Self-Tracking Entities: The first CTP for EF4 includes a T4 template for generating entities that track their own changes on the client, which are then serialized when sent across service boundaries and saved to the database
6. Model-First Development: Create a model for your entities, then have Visual Studio 2010 generate DDL to create a database with matching tables and relations
7. Code-Only Development: Write classes and have EF infer a conceptual model (no edmx file!). You can even generate DDL from the dynamic model to create the database and tables

In addition to these features, EF 4 will include a number of other improvements, such as singularization and pluralization of entity names (for example, when creating a model for the Northwind sample database), an enhanced entity model designer, complex type support, inclusion of foreign keys in the entity model, additional functions and operators for LINQ queries, testability improvements with IObjectSet<T>, and better readability / performance for generated SQL

Better N-Tier Support

One of the most common reasons for using POCO’s is to conceal details of object persistence behind a data access layer. Similarly, POCO’s are often passed across tiers as Data Transfer Objects (DTO’s) in a service-oriented application. One problem that has vexed distributed application developers is how to pass changes from one tier to another so they can be persisted in a disconnected manner. At first, the Entity Framework team decided to provide a low-level API for applying changes to detached objects, requiring you to roll your own change-tracking mechanism, but much of the feedback they received included requests for a built-in change-tracking mechanism and an end-to-end architecture for building n-tier apps that use the Entity Framework. In response to this feedback, the team delivered a T4 template for Self-Tracking Entities, which allows each entity to keep track of its own change state, so that you can pass it to a remote service where the entire object graph is persisted

Each generated class implements the IObjectWithChangeTracker interface, which has a ChangeTracker property, as well as methods to mark the entity as Unchanged, Modified, Added or Deleted. ObjectChangeTracker not only records the object state but also maintains original values of reference properties as well as objects that have been added to or deleted from collection properties. This means that the client can make changes to an Order by adding or removing OrderDetails, and the state of the Order and OrderDetails can be sent to the service for persistence. Change state is serialized because each entity is marked with a [DataContract] attribute and the ChangeTracker is marked with a [DataMember] attribute

Self-Tracking Entities allow the client to track change state on entities without needing to reference the Entity Framework assembly, System.Data.Entity. The change-tracking code is auto-generated by the T4 template, which produces the ObjectChangeTracker class and a generic FixupChangeTrackingCollection class that does relationship fix-up and implements ICollection to keep track of additions and deletions. Deleted items are cached so they can be removed later when changes are persisted on the service side

Your service would typically expose a method for retrieving an object graph such as Order and OrderDetails, and a method for updating the object graph. In the update method, you would call ApplyChanges<T> on the appropriate entity set. ApplyChanges is an extension method residing in the Microsoft.Data.Entity.CTP assembly, which you bring into scope by adding a using directive for the Microsoft.Data.Entity namespace. This method accepts an object graph as well as a pointer to a method that returns an IEntityChangeTracker, which is responsible for informing the object state manager of these changes. The Self-Tracking Entities T4 template also generates a EntityChangeTrackerAdapter class that implements IEntityChangeTracker by translating the persistence-neutral ObjectState enum (Added, Deleted, Modified, Unchanged) to the equivalent EF-specific EntityState enum values. The code in your service-side update method could look something like this

public Order UpdateOrder(Order order)
{
    using (NorthwindEntities ctx = new NorthwindEntities())
    {
        ctx.Orders.ApplyChanges(order,
            EntityChangeTrackerAdapter.GetSelfTrackingEntityInfo);
        ctx.SaveChanges();        return order;
    }
}

Conclusion

The nice part about POCO and N-Tier support is the use of T4 templates for code generation, which you can customize or replace altogether. This greatly reduces the amount of code you would otherwise have to write. In addition to these and other features, there are numerous bug fixes and improvements that provide a richer and more rewarding development experience, making the Entity Framework 4.0 an attractive candidate when selecting an ORM tool for building distributed line of business applications

SharePoint CAML Queries - Grouping Clauses

zbussinger — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:10:00 GMT

I've been using CAML queries in SharePoint for some time now to fetch data that I need from lists and document libraries. For the longest time, I couldn't find the right way to group clauses together so I would often be stuck simplifying my queries and trimming out the fat in code after retrieving my data set.

For example, if i wanted to form a query like this:

WHERE X==XValue AND (Y == YValue OR Z == ZValue)

You'd think that a CAML query like this would work:

    <Eq>
      <FieldRef Name="X" />
      <Value Type="Text">XValue</Value>
    </Eq>
    <Or>
      <Eq>
        <FieldRef Name="Y" />
        <Value Type="Text">YValue</Value>
      </Eq>
      <Eq>
        <FieldRef Name="Z" />
        <Value Type="Text">ZValue</Value>
      </Eq>
    </Or>
</And>
</Where>

But this will not group the OR clause. You'd end up with "WHERE X==XValue AND Y == YValue OR Z == ZValue". In order to get the desired query results, you need to use a special attribute called "Group" on your Or clause like this:

    <Eq>
      <FieldRef Name="X" />
      <Value Type="Text">XValue</Value>
    </Eq>
    <Or Group="true">
      <Eq>
        <FieldRef Name="Y" />
        <Value Type="Text">YValue</Value>
      </Eq>
      <Eq>
        <FieldRef Name="Z" />
        <Value Type="Text">ZValue</Value>
      </Eq>
    </Or>
</And>
</Where>

.NET Vision 2010 Vol.1 - adding Chart and Diagram improvements, PDF, Flash, Silverlight export and more

nevron — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:42:00 GMT

Nevron Software, the global leader in component based data visualization technology, announces the official release of Nevron .NET Vision 2010 Vol.1. Among the many new features and improvements, the release adds vector export capabilities to PDF, Flash, Silverlight (XAML) and EMF formats. Together with the already supported SVG vector export, the components in the new Nevron .NET Vision suite are now uniquely positioned to offer support for both Rich Internet Applications (RIA) and printed media...(read more)

New KB Article : Registering license key when using TFS (Team Foundation Server)

Keyoti — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:38:00 GMT

When using RapidSpell Desktop .NET with TFS, the build server needs the key registered under the TFSSERVICE user. To do that, use Control-Register.exe from under

\Program Files\Keyoti Inc\RapidSpell Desktop .Net\.Net2_DLLs\

This requires Keyoti.RapidSpell.NET2.dll to be in the same folder when run.

The simplest way to do this is to install RapidSpell on the server, but it's not required, the EXE and DLL can be copied over. Then use "Run As..." on Control-Register and choose TFSSERVICE.

RapidSpell Desktop .NET adds as you type spell checking to .NET Win Form applications - for details please see keyoti.com

LiveDocx - Template-based document creation

Christopher Krause — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:21:00 GMT

LiveDocx allows developers to create word processing documents by combining user-defined Microsoft Word templates with data from disparate data sources, such as XML files and databases. It is typically used to create professional, print-ready word processing documents in DOCX, DOC, RTF and PDF.

LiveDocx is a Web Service that can be easily integrated into any web application without installing or configuring any software on your server. Currently, the following programming languages are supported:

- ASP.NET
- PHP

As LiveDocx is strictly based on open standards, it is simple to add support for more programming languages. As long as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is available on the client-side system, LiveDocx runs on all operating systems and in all programming languages.

Typical Applications:

Using LiveDocx, developers can merge data with Microsoft Word templates into one print-ready, word processing document.

For example, the sales department of an enterprise can access constantly fluctuating sales data that is stored in a centralized location and combine it with a richly formatted template to programmatically produce a set of sales reports. The resulting word processing documents can be sent by e-mail, fax or snail mail to their recipients.

Similarly, telephone companies can deploy LiveDocx to generate customer invoices. All connection information and billing information is stored in one centralized customer database. Selected data is assigned to LiveDocx and combined with a standardized template to produce the resulting invoice.

Summary

- Populate templates with data from any data source (DB, XML, CSV).
- Build mail merge or mass-mail applications.
- Generate customized documents on-the-fly with constantly changing data.
- Generate print ready PDF documents, with multiple security settings.
- Share your created documents or
- Integrate them into your web site using the LiveDocx widget.

Advantages of the LiveDocx Client/Server Architecture

As LiveDocx reduces document generation to the absolute lowest common denominator, its deployment also lowers the total cost of document creation. Developers no longer need to worry about installing and maintaining 3rd party tools or applications on their servers. They simply call LiveDocx over the Internet, using a very simple API.

Typically, printer drivers, fonts and licenses need to be installed, maintained and administered when programmatically generating word processing documents on a server. Using LiveDocx, this load is shifted from the developer to a team of professional server administrators.

Developers are thus free to concentrate on building world-class applications and not be hassled by the mundane work associated with sever administration.

Thanks to its modulate and open architecture, LiveDocx can be easily integrated into existing work flow systems, using most programming languages.

Summary

- Deploy in a multi-programing language environment.
- Substantially reduce server load and consequently total cost of ownership (TCO).
- Simple integration into existing systems.
- Decrease server maintenance.

Find out more here: LiveDocx

Attaching an mdf file to the app_data folder

brettemiller — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:15:00 GMT

If you wish to attach an mdf file in your application's app_data folder at run-time using SQLExpress, you may encounter a permission problem:

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Directory lookup for the file "C:\Documents and Settings\*\My Documents\WebSites\*\App_Data\*.mdf

The trick is to give the mssqlexpress user on your machine read and write permission on the app data folder. To find the sqlexpress username, issue this command at the command prompt:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL>cacls data

You should see something like this:

SQLServerMSSQLUser$<machine>$SQLEXPRESS:(OI)(CI)F

Copy the entire username: SQLServerMSSQLUser$<machine>$SQLEXPRESS

Next, browse to the app_data folder for your web site. Right click on the folder and add the above user with read,write,execute permissions.

Another tip: If you're moving the mdf file form one machine to another, don't include the *.ldf file with it.

Finally, here's my connection string:

<add name="default" connectionString="data source=.\SQLEXPRESS;AttachDbFilename=|DataDirectory|\<database>.mdf;Integrated Security=True;Initial Catalog=<database>;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>

Good luck! --Brett

Meet TX Text Control at BASTA! Spring 2010 in Germany

Christopher Krause — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:33:00 GMT

In February (22nd - 26th), we will be attending BASTA! Spring 2010 in Darmstadt, Germany.

Interesting speakers, industry leading component vendors and highly professional visitors are expected on one of the largest .NET conferences in Europe.

We will be there with our own booth to show you our latest developments and future plans. If you plan to visit this conference, make sure you stop by our booth. I would be glad to meet you in person.

More information about the conference and all sessions can be found on the official conference website:

BASTA! Spring 2010

About TX Text Control:

TX Text Control was originally released in 1991, since then more than 40,000 copies have been sold. Starting off as a single, small DLL, TX Text Control has made its way through 16-bit DLL and VBX versions to today‘s Enterprise edition with its .NET and ActiveX components. The recent addition to the family, TX Text Control .NET Server, offers all of TX Text Control advanced word processing functionality in an easy-to-use server-side .NET component. Customers benefit from these years of experience, large user base, and at the same time, appreciate developing with a mature, reliable product.

Contact Informations:

support@textcontrol.com

North & South America:
Phone: +1 704-370-0110
Phone: +1 877-462-4772 (toll free)

Europe:
Phone: +49 421 335 910

Asia Pacific:
Phone: +886 2-2797-8508

Kentico Announces Winners of the Site of the Year Awards

ssmith — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:37:39 GMT

Nashua, New Hampshire, USA, January 14, 2010 – Kentico Software (http://www.kentico.com), the Web content management system vendor, has just announced the Kentico Site of the Year 2009 Awards winners. The Chicago Zoo Web site, implemented by Kenico Certified Partner Designkitchen, was chosen as the global winner of the contest.

The contest seeks out the best Kentico CMS web site implementations. Its winners are selected in 12 different industries and 5 special categories.

The Global Winner

· Chicago Zoological Society Web site (http://www.brookfieldzoo.org) implemented by Designkitchen received the most votes of all the competing projects and won 2 categories – Best Nonprofit Organization Site and Best Graphic Design

Winners of the Special Categories

· Largest Site: The Royal Horticultural Society Web site (http://www.rhs.org.uk) was selected as the winner with more than 5.7 million page views per month.

· Best Migration from other CMS: Blackboard.com site (http://www.blackboard.com) was chosen as a winner for its successful migration from Microsoft CMS to Kentico CMS that was done by Atom Group, a Kentico Gold Partner.

· Best Integration: The EVN Portal (http://www.evn.at) won this category for its integration with SAP implemented by diamond:dogs Group, a Kentico Gold Certified Partner.

· Best Graphic Design: Chicago Zoological Society,(http://www.brookfieldzoo.org)

Implemented by Designkitchen

· Most complete use of Kentico CMS features: Park City Green, (http://www.parkcitygreen.org)

Implemented by Data Transfer Solutions, LLC

Winners in Particular Industries

· Association Site: Chicago Zoological Society, http://www.brookfieldzoo.org

Implemented by Designkitchen

· Consumer Product Site: DTSwiss, http://www.dtswiss.com

Implemented by orange8 interactive ag

· Education Site: Learning Outside the Classroom, http://www.lotc.org.uk

Implemented by Oculus Design & Communications Limited

· Financial Services Site: JLT Business Insurance Services, http://www.jltbis.co.uk

Implemented by Crafted Media

· Healthcare Site: Birth.com.au, http://www.birth.com.au

Implemented by Get Started

· Manufacturing Site: Kinematics Manufacturing Inc., http://www.kinematicsmfg.com

Implemented by Gatesix Inc.

· Nonprofit Organization Site: Chicago Zoological Society, http://www.brookfieldzoo.org

Implemented by Designkitchen

· On-line Store: BabolatStore.cz, http://www.babolatstore.cz

Implemented by Bluesoft

· Other/At Large Site: Visit Europe, http://www.visiteurope.com

Implemented by Last Exit

· Publishing Site: Delta Sky Magazine, http://deltaskymag.delta.com

Implemented by bswing and MSP Communications

· State/Local Government Site: EU Matters, http://www.eumatters.ie

Implemented by X Communications

· Intranet Site: Best Intranet Site, MyShaw Intranet

Implemented by Shaw Industries

More information about the contest is available at http://www.kentico.com/Company/Site-of-the-Year-2009-Contest.aspx

About Kentico CMS

Kentico CMS is an affordable Web content management solution providing a complete set of features for building Web sites, community sites, intranets and on-line stores on the Microsoft ASP.NET platform. It supports WYSIWYG editing, workflows, multiple languages, full-text search, SEO, on-line forms, image galleries, forums, groups, blogs, polls, media libraries and is shipped with 200+ configurable Web parts. It’s currently used by more than 4,000 Web sites in 83 countries. The clients include Microsoft, McDonald's, Vodafone, O₂, Orange, Brussels Airlines, Audi, Mazda, Ford, Subaru, Samsung, Gibson, Bayer, ESPN, Guinness, DKNY, Abbott Labs, Medibank, Ireland.ie and others. Kentico CMS is available at http://www.kentico.com.

About Kentico Software

Kentico Software (www.kentico.com) helps clients create professional Web sites, online stores, community sites and intranets using Kentico CMS for ASP.NET. It's committed to deliver a full-featured, enterprise-class, stable and scalable Web Content Management solution on the Microsoft .NET platform. Founded in 2004, Kentico is headquartered in the Czech Republic and has a U.S. office in Nashua, NH. Since inception, Kentico has continued to rapidly expand the Kentico CMS user base worldwide. Kentico Software is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. In 2009, Kentico was named a Deloitte Technology FAST 50 Rising Star, being ranked as one of the fastest growing companies in Central Europe.

###

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

TX Text Control sponsores the first Columbia Code Camp

Christopher Krause — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:58:00 GMT

The Columbia Enterprise Developers Guild is hosting the first Columbia Code Camp this month.

We are proud to help the organizers by sponsoring them.

The code camp takes place on the campus of the University of South Carolina on Saturday, January 30th starting at 8:00 AM.

More information about the code camp can be found on the dedicated website:

http://www.columbiacodecamp.com

More information about TX Text Control here.

About TX Text Control:

TX Text Control was originally released in 1991, since then more than 40,000 copies have been sold. Starting off as a single, small DLL, TX Text Control has made its way through 16-bit DLL and VBX versions to today‘s Enterprise edition with its .NET and ActiveX components. The recent addition to the family, TX Text Control .NET Server, offers all of TX Text Control advanced word processing functionality in an easy-to-use server-side .NET component. Customers benefit from these years of experience, large user base, and at the same time, appreciate developing with a mature, reliable product.

Contact Informations:

support@textcontrol.com

North & South America:
Phone: +1 704-370-0110
Phone: +1 877-462-4772 (toll free)

Europe:
Phone: +49 421 335 910

Asia Pacific:
Phone: +886 2-2797-8508

0) { document.write(''); document.write(''); document.write(' '); document.write(' '); document.write(' Related Links'); document.write(' '); document.write(' '); document.write(' '); document.write(' '); document.write(' '); document.write(''); document.write(''); document.write(' '); document.write(' '); document.write(' '); document.write(''); document.write('

'); // document.write('Related LinksRelated LinksRelated Links

'); document.write(' '); document.write(''); document.write(' '); document.write(''); for(i = 0; i '); document.write(''); } document.write('

Ads by Google'); document.write('

'); document.write(''); document.write(google_ads[i].line1); document.write('
'); document.write(' ' + google_ads[i].line2 + ' '); document.write(' ' + google_ads[i].line3 + ' '); document.write('
'); document.write('

' + google_ads[i].visible_url + '

'); document.write('

'); } } var google_ad_client = 'ca-techtargetserver_js'; var google_ad_channel = 'discussions'; var google_ad_output = 'js'; var google_max_num_ads = 5 ; // --> google_protectAndRun("ads_core.google_render_ad", google_handleError, google_render_ad);

Related Links