December 2005 Entries

Blog Search Improved...Again!

A couple of days ago I posted how I improved my blog search.  Well, tonight, I decided to enhance it by using the MSN Searcn SDK.  My http handler makes a call to the MSN Search web service and returns the found matches and transforms their XML to HTML through XSLT.  I’m using the same mechanism I wrote about for calling a web service asynchronously from ASP.NET. Let me know what you guys think!

posted @ Wednesday, December 28, 2005 11:35 PM | Feedback (611)

Blog Search Improved

Today I changed the way I performed searching for the blog.  Instead of using the old post back method for getting information from MSN Search, I decided to post to an HTTP handler instead using AJAX.  Why did I do this?  Well, why not?!  It has been a while since I’ve done some web development, so I wanted to get back into it slowly… ;-) If you get a change to play with it, let me know what you think.

posted @ Sunday, December 25, 2005 11:59 PM | Feedback (611)

No Longer Professional...

…but Architect. Booyah!

posted @ Friday, December 23, 2005 11:02 PM | Feedback (611)

Atlas December CTP

Nikhil has posted a quick tour of the December Atlas CTP.  The coolest feature for this release are the partial updates components for a page.  Should make things easier for those pages that have a lot of content and the re-rendering of the entire page is unnecessary.

posted @ Thursday, December 22, 2005 8:56 PM | Feedback (611)

WCF to SCA Comparison

Looks like Jeff has beat me to the post.  For those interested, David Chappel has posted a really, really good comparison between WCF and Service Component Architecture (SCA).  Hopefully this should simplify the creation of web services on the Java platform by providing a platform/technology all vendors can agree on.

posted @ Thursday, December 22, 2005 8:51 PM | Feedback (612)

WinFX December CTP

Just in time for Christmas!  The latest (December) WinFX CTP components!!  The cool new features of the CTP is the Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” CTP WinFX Development Tools. This package has the WPF designer for VS called “Cider”.  Also, the SDK installation is now a DVD iso image!  It’s about time!! Runtime Components Windows SDK VS2005 Development Tools For those of you that have previous versions of the CTP, you can use this uninstall tool to make installation easier.

posted @ Monday, December 19, 2005 8:51 PM | Feedback (611)

Free VS2005 E-Learning

MSDN is giving away some free e-learning for VS2005.  If you’re interested in learning some of the new features of Visual Studio, this is an oppurtinity you can’t miss!  But, hurry!  The offers expires on 2005–01–05!

posted @ Sunday, December 18, 2005 10:30 PM | Feedback (611)

MSDN TV Holiday Special

Don Box and Chris Anderson showcase how you can use WinFX within your everyday lives on this MSDN TV episode.  I must say, their implementation is pretty cool … however, I wish I could say the same about their signing!  ;-) Check it out!

posted @ Saturday, December 17, 2005 9:40 PM | Feedback (592)

Google Groups: Software Architecture

I created a new Google group called Software Architecture.  It’s purpose is to be used as a place on which we can share ideas abouts design patterns, development methodologies, design processes and new trends in software development. If you’re interested in joining, check it out! http://groups.google.com/groups/softarch

posted @ Friday, December 16, 2005 10:24 PM | Feedback (568)

CodeProject ASP.NET Article Survey

<selfPromotion><![CDATA[Levi informed that my Extending ASP.NET 2.0 article has been selected for the favorite ASP.NET article of the month survey at CodeProject. If you have read my article and enjoyed it, go vote for it.]]></selfPromotion>

posted @ Wednesday, December 14, 2005 10:08 AM | Feedback (594)

Disk Based Output Caching for ASP.NET 2.0

Dmitri Robsman has created an HTTP Module that implements Output Cache for ASP.NET.  For those of you that played around with the beta versions of ASP.NET, you might recall this similar feature. Check it out if you have the time!

posted @ Tuesday, December 13, 2005 9:01 PM | Feedback (548)

Sharing Authentication Cookies From ASP.NET v.1.x to 2.0

ScottGu has done it again!  Ever wondered how you’re going to share auth from your 1.1 to 2.0 asp.net app?  Well, check out this post and get going!!

posted @ Sunday, December 11, 2005 12:06 PM | Feedback (611)

New Software Factories Book

Jack Griendfield, Keith Short and Mauro Regio are planning on writing a book called, Software Factories Applied.  This book will be a complement to the original Software Factories book and will show how to create SFs with the DSL Tools, GAT and VSTS. I can’t wait to read it!

posted @ Friday, December 9, 2005 8:10 PM | Feedback (596)

IADNUG Meeting Last Night

Wow!!  First, thanks for all of those that showed up for the presentation!  I think that was one of our biggest crowds!  Second, I would like to apologize for these two things: My lack of preparation (granted, I received the slides the day before). The prize give away procedure (yes, I know things could have gone A LOT smoother). In all, I think the presentation was a success!  Fred did an EXCELLENT job even with his VSTS issues!  Thanks Fred for stepping up and presenting to the group! Also, if you would like to present at a user group, let me know and we can set...

posted @ Thursday, December 8, 2005 7:08 AM | Feedback (611)

Generate Config Sections for ASP.NET 2.0

Dmitry Robsman, Dev Manager for ASP.NET, has completed his Simple Config Definition Language (SCDL) tool.  This tool alllows yout generate config sections for your web.config along with the source code and the XSD to use in Studio! Pretty sweet tool!  Thanks Dmitry!

posted @ Thursday, December 8, 2005 7:02 AM | Feedback (611)

Iowa DotNet User Group Meeting Tomorrow

Tomorrow, we’re having our monthly .NET Usergroup meeting.  Topic?  Test Driven Development. If you’re in the region, come check it out!

posted @ Tuesday, December 6, 2005 10:24 PM | Feedback (611)

Visual STudio Team System Techical Notes

For those of you out there working with Visual Studio Team Systems (TS), you’ll find these technical notes quite useful.  If you’ve ever wondering why things work the way the do in TS, this is a must read.

posted @ Tuesday, December 6, 2005 7:51 PM | Feedback (611)

Channel9 ArcTalk: DSLs and Software Factories with Steve Cook

For those of you out there that are fans of Channel 9, have you seen their new line-up of shows?  I checked out this conversation between Ron Jacobs and Steve Cook about DSLs and Software Factories.  If you’re wondering what software factories are and if they can make your life easier, check the podcast out.

posted @ Monday, December 5, 2005 10:13 PM | Feedback (611)

Nikhil's Data Source Control Article Is On MSDN

This is sweet!  Nikhil has posted his awesome series on creating data source controls on MSDN!!  I’ve used his control for a demo to the IADNUG members and it was well received!  Check it out! Part I: The Basics Part II: Parameters Part III: Asynch Data Access Part IV: Caching Part V: Design Time Functionality

posted @ Monday, December 5, 2005 10:03 PM | Feedback (611)

Data-Bound Controls in ASP.NET 2.0

Dino has a pretty good article on creating data-bound controls for you ASP.NET applications.  The article covers topics rather quickly but still is a pretty good read.

posted @ Monday, December 5, 2005 9:54 PM | Feedback (612)

Fusion Logs: Revisited

Thanks to fellow HDC speaker, Dave Donaldson, a lot of people have been interested on my fusion log post!  Tim (no, not this Tim), asked: What about webApplications, Is the tool usefull there as well?, When I run a local Webapp on my machine I cant se anything i the Fuslogvw. If you use the ASP.NET setting and refresh the list, it should pick up your web application’s (actually aspnet_wp.exe’s) assembly loader.  The steps outlined on the post will display all loader information (informational and error messages).  The UI layout for fuslogvw has changed ( just a little) in 2.0.  I plan on...

posted @ Thursday, December 1, 2005 9:58 PM | Feedback (612)

GotDotNet ASP.NET Alerts Workspace

Bertrand Le Roys has created a workspace on GotDotNet to show how you display message boxes from ASP.NET.  I hope this works better than my failed attempts to use MessageBox.Show()! :-)

posted @ Thursday, December 1, 2005 9:27 PM | Feedback (612)