.networks

JSON and jqGrid Example

2012-02-13T11:39:00.002Z

Below is a simple example of how I use a JSON object to fill a jqGrid. I was at first unable to fill the grid and it always came back empty until I inserted the following property value:

            
jsonReader: {
   repeatitems: false
}

My HTML:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>My Grid</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <form id="form1">
      <table id="myGrid"></table>
      <div id="pager"></div>
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

My JavaScript:


//get this data from the cache
        var gridJson = { page: 1, total: 2, records: 10, rows: [
            { Id: 0, Label: "Custom Field 1", LastUpdatedDate: "10/02/2012" },
            { Id: 1, Label: "Custom Field 2", LastUpdatedDate: "10/02/2012"}]
        };

        //setup the grid
        $("#myGrid").empty().jqGrid({
            datatype: 'jsonstring',
            datastr: gridJson,
            colNames: ['Id', 'Custom Field Name', 'Last Update', 'Action'],
            colModel: [{ name: 'Id', index: 'Id', hidden: true, classes: 'id' },
                       { name: 'Label', index: 'Label', width: 500 },
                       { name: 'LastUpdatedDate', index: 'LastUpdatedDate', width: 200 },
                       { width: 132, sortable: false, classes: 'action', align: 'center'}],
            pager: jQuery('#pager'),
            jsonReader: {
                repeatitems: false
            },
            width: 832,
            height: "100%",
            scrollOffset: 20,
            rowNum: 10,
            rowList: [10, 15, 20, 25],
            sortname: 'Label',
            sortorder: "asc",
            viewrecords: true,
            hoverrows: false,
            caption: "",           
            beforeSelectRow: function (rowid, e) { return false; } //this disables row being highlighted when clicked
        });

LINQ to XML Enum Extension Method Converter

2012-02-07T15:50:00.000Z

Below are easy to use extension methods to extract a generic enum from an XML attribute using LINQ to XML:

    
public static class ExtensionMethods
    {
        public static string SafeAttribute(this XElement element, string key)
        {
            var attribute = element.Attribute(key);
            return attribute != null ? element.Attribute(key).Value : "";
        }

        public static T SafeAttribute<T>(this XElement element, string key)
        {
            var attribute = SafeAttribute(element, key);
            return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(attribute) ? (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), attribute) : default(T);
        }
    }

Any this is how you would call it:

var xml = XDocument.Load(filePath);
var e = xml.Element("Item").SafeAttribute<MyEnum>("myKey");

Custom routes for MVC Application

2012-01-26T10:31:00.000Z

Custom routes for MVC Application: This article provides detail about ASP.NET MVC Routing architecture and customize structure of the URLs of your ASP.NET MVC applications.

IE Hacks

2012-01-25T13:05:00.001Z

Create post about IE hacks click here.Summary...Use "\9" to target IE8 and below.Use "*" to target IE7 and below.Use "_" to target IE6.

Google PlusOne button not displaying

2011-12-14T14:52:00.001Z

I was having an issue on our mobile site with the Google PlusOne button not displaying. When the HTML was generated the iframe had a height of zero. I have no idea why this was happening. Anybody have any clues please let me know.

Anyway to fix it I placed this CSS in my code which resolved it:

#___plusone_0 iframe {
height: 25px !important;
left: 0 !important;
top: 0 !important;
position: static
}

Umbraco error: The current user doesn't have access to this application. Please contact the system administrator.

2011-12-08T12:33:00.001Z

We were alerted to this error when editors tried inserting links or images using the toolbar for tinymce. This is the error the got:

It was only happening for user type "editor" and not the administrators.

The solution mentioned in this post http://forum.umbraco.org/yaf_postst4772_The-current-user-doesnt-have-access-to-this-application.aspx states that you only need the Content section selected for the user, but this was already selected for my user experiencing the error.

The solution for me was to select the Media section for the user as well.

Umbraco table trigger to update a non-Umbraco table

2011-12-07T15:42:00.001Z

Due to the way our system is setup I had to write a database trigger to monitor move and sort changes and log those changes into a non-Umbraco table with the node ID and a date. Below is the trigger I created:

USE (yourumbracodatabase)
GO

IF  EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.triggers WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[TR_CNI_UmbracoNode_AfterUpdate]'))
DROP TRIGGER [dbo].[TR_CNI_UmbracoNode_AfterUpdate]
GO

/*
There are two very special tables that can exist only within triggers: the inserted and deleted tables. These tables are 
used to store the before and after state of the table that was affected by the INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement that 
caused the trigger to fire in the first place. 
*/

CREATE TRIGGER TR_CNI_UmbracoNode_AfterUpdate ON dbo.umbracoNode AFTER UPDATE
AS
 DECLARE @id INT 
 
 CREATE TABLE #NodeIds
 (
  nodeId INT
 ) 
  
 IF UPDATE(parentID) OR UPDATE(sortOrder)
 BEGIN 
   
  SELECT  @id = d.id
  FROM  inserted i
  INNER JOIN deleted d ON i.id = d.id
  WHERE  d.parentID <> i.parentID
  OR   d.sortOrder <> i.sortOrder
  
  IF (@id IS NOT NULL)
  BEGIN     
   INSERT INTO #NodeIds
   SELECT @id -- Parent
   UNION ALL
   SELECT un.id -- Children
   FROM dbo.umbracoNode un
   WHERE un.[path] LIKE '%,' + CONVERT(NVARCHAR(40), @id) + ',%'   
  END
 END 
 
 -- Delete existing nodeId rows
 DELETE FROM dbo.T_CNI_PublishNodeData
 WHERE nodeId IN
 (
  SELECT nodeId
  FROM #NodeIds
 )

 -- Insert new dates for nodeIds   
 INSERT INTO dbo.T_CNI_PublishNodeData (nodeId, publishedDate)
 SELECT nodeId,
   GETUTCDATE()
 FROM #NodeIds

 DROP TABLE #NodeIds

Photoshop font to CSS font

2011-09-23T10:33:00.001+01:00

This is my solution to convert Photoshop font into CSS font.

First reset the style sheet: http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/reset/
Next set the font size in the body CSS to 100%.

body
{
font-size: 100%;
}

Next, get the font-size in pixels from Photoshop e.g. 25px. Convert to ems = 1.563em . I use this tool: http://pxtoem.com/ my base font size is 16px.
Then do the same for the line height in Photoshop e.g. 45px = 2.813em.

Now for the CSS. The font size remains the same but the line height must be divided by the font size e.g. 2.813em / 1.563em = 1.799em;

.mystyle
{
font-size: 1.563em;
line-height: 1.799em;
}

Visual Studio Project is complied even though I've set it not to complie

2011-07-08T16:10:00.005+01:00

I have a solution in Visual Studio 2010 with numerous projects and 1 of these projects must not be compiled when building the solution. I know you can set this in the Configuration Manager by un-ticking the Build checkbox.

But, there is another place as well that I over looked when working with a website project.

Right click on the website project

Select Property Pages > Build

Un-tick the Build solution action option Build Web site as part of solution

Simple enough but easily over looked.

Nant script error in TeamCity - SGEN An attempt was made to load an assembly with an incorrect format

2011-07-08T10:53:00.011+01:00

I'm using TeamCity to pull from a Mecurial repository and then execute a Nant script to build a Visual Studio solution file. The compilation fails with the following error:

"SGEN An attempt was made to load an assembly with an incorrect format"

I read various posts while using Google to find a solution. One option was to change the Generate Serialization Assembly flag to Off in the project properties build section. This did stop the error for that particular dll but it cropped up again in another project.

This was not the best solution because we are just hiding the actual error and SGEN is needed to improve performance on first run by serializing the dll.

So after a lot of head scratching I opened up the TeamCity Visual Studio solution and had a look at the Configuration Manager for my Release build. Sure enough the configuration differed in my dev Release build which targeted Any CPU and on the TeamCity server it targeted Mixed Platforms.

Resolution:

Open up your dev solution
Replace all lines that match this regular expression ^.*|Mixed Platforms.*$ with nothing - I use NotePad++ for this
Save the solution
Commit and then Push to Mecurial
Run the TeamCity build once again

The reason I'm hacking the actual solution file and not changing it in Visual Studio is because there is some UI error when editing in VS that keeps the Mixed Platforms line in the solution file. BY hacking the actual file we avoid this problem.

IE7 Hack to get anchor tags with a background image to display correctly

2011-07-05T10:40:00.002+01:00

This blog help me sort out a layout issue where my anchor tags that have background image weren't displaying.

http://mydrupalblog.lhmdesign.com/theming-search-submit-button-css-cross-browser-compatible-solution

Syntax highlighting in Blogger

2011-07-04T11:45:00.002+01:00

I have started using this syntax highlighter on Blogger! It's great!

SyntaxHighlighter

How to use SyntaxHighlighter in Blogger?

Simple jQuery AJAX example calling a MVC controller

2011-07-04T11:44:00.013+01:00

If you can't see the syntax highlighting in your feed reader (i.e. Google reader) please open the link in your browser.

In this post I will outline a very simple AJAX call to an MVC controller object using jQuery and JSON.

Lets start with the front-end code. Below is a simple HTML input and anchor tag:


Image ID

Find

When a user enters an image ID in the in the text box and clicks on the find link we will send an AJAX request using jQuery and sending JSON data to the MVC controller. The JSON helper object below is explained here. Below is the JavaScript code:


$(".findLink").click(onFindClick);

function onFindClick(e) {
var jsonData = { imageId: escape($("#ImageId").val()) };

$.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: "/Controllers/ImageManager/FindImage",
        contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
        data: JSON.stringify(jsonData), // Convert JavaScript object into a JSON object string.
        dataType: "text json",
        success: function (XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, data) {
            var jsObj = jQuery.parseJSON(data.responseText); // Convert JSON object into a JavaScript object.

            if (jsObj != null) {
                alert("JSON result = " + data.responseText);
            }
        },
        error: function (XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
            alert("There has been an error: " + errorThrown + " - " + textStatus + " - " + XMLHttpRequest.statusText);
        }
    });
}

Now for the MVC controller:


public class ImageManagerController : Controller
    {
        public string FindImage(string imageId)
        {
            // Do some code to get the image object...
// Assume image object has 2 properties: Id and Url.
            return SerializeNode(image);            
        }
}

        private static string SerializeNode(ImageReference imageRef)
        {
            var serializer = new System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer();
            var simple = new { Exists = imageRef != null, Id = imageRef != null ? imageRef.id : 0, Url = imageRef != null ? imageRef.Url : "" };
            return serializer.Serialize(simple);
        }

Hope this helps. A very brief example but should outline the major points.

Cross-browser JSON Serialization in JavaScript

2011-07-01T09:26:00.003+01:00

This is a great site that helps serialize JSON to string and to a JavaScript object.

http://www.sitepoint.com/javascript-json-serialization/

Could not load file or assembly 'XXXXX' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.

2011-06-09T13:24:00.003+01:00

This started happening all of a sudden when I tried to build or rebuild my VS2010 solution. This was because some of the projects in the solution target different platforms (mixed platforms).

I fixed this by going to the Configuration Manager... which is in the drop-down of your configurations (Debug, Release etc.) in VS2010. Then I set "Active solution platform" drop-down to "Any CPU".

I rebuilt the solution and it succeed in compiling.

Host file not working

2011-06-07T10:54:00.003+01:00

I had my website folder e.g. C:\www\wesbite1
I created an IIS 7.5 website e.g. Website1 with the host name = website1.dev
I pinged website1.dev and received a reply

Then when I goto http://website1.dev I get an error:

Cannot find server - DNS fail

What the hell?

Then I remembered that I'm using a proxy and I had to ignore website1.dev in the proxy settings of my browser. This can be found in Firefox > Options > Advanced > Network > Connection Settings > No proxy for:

Hope this helps.

Html form not submitting values to server code c#

2011-04-13T15:27:00.004+01:00

If you have a HTML form like this within a .NET master page and you not getting values make sure you have a name attribute for each control. I had an id attribute and this was not submitting. Correct form below:

<input name="search" type="text">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">

Setting the first clause in a Lucene query to a SHOULD clause using Umbraco Examine

2011-03-23T12:08:00.004Z

I'm using Umbraco Examine to index my content by setting up an Index on my Shared document type. I wanted to allow multiple search terms to be looked for in the index regardless of their order. So for example if a search for:

technology portable

portable technology

Both technology and portable will be searched for in the index. This was done using GroupOr methods but the problem was the first search term would always be included in the query as a MUST clause. Here is the code.

// Get the search criteria by using our searcher provider and looking only in the content tree of Umbraco.

var criteria = ExamineManager.Instance.SearchProviderCollection["SharedSearcher"].CreateSearchCriteria(IndexTypes.Content);

// Build the search query.

Examine.SearchCriteria.IBooleanOperation query = null;

foreach (var searchTerm in nonEmptySearchTerms)

{

query = query == null ? criteria.GroupedOr(fields, searchTerm.Trim().MultipleCharacterWildcard()) :

query.Or().GroupedOr(fields, searchTerm.Trim().MultipleCharacterWildcard());

}

// Perform the search.

results = ExamineManager.Instance.Search(query.Compile());

results.OrderByDescending(x => x.Score); // Relevance.

The only changed required was in the criteria creation to set the default BooleanOperator to an or, and thus setting the first clause to be SHOULD instead of MUST. Here is the corrected line:

var criteria = ExamineManager.Instance.SearchProviderCollection["SharedSearcher"].CreateSearchCriteria(IndexTypes.Content, BooleanOperation.Or);

Default Umbraco Master Page

2011-03-09T17:32:00.001Z

Manual Umbraco Setup

2011-03-09T12:11:00.010Z

Setup Umbraco Development Environment

Technologies used:

· Visual Studio 2010

· IIS7 (using hosts file)

· Tortoise-SVN

· Windows 7

· Umbraco 4.6.1

· SQL Server 2008 (management studio)

· .NET 4.0

Get Umbraco

1. Download the version of Umbraco you want from http://umbraco.codeplex.com/releases/view/59502

2. Create an Umbraco folder on your computer where you will extract the files to e.g. C:\Development\Umbraco\4.6.1.

3. Copy the downloaded file to C:\Development\Umbraco\4.6.1 and once there right click on the zip file and select Properties. Under the General tab click Unblock and then Ok.

4. Unzip the files here. They will be extracted into sub-folders but you need to copy the actual files under the build folder into C:\Development\Umbraco\4.6.1.

5. Delete the sub folders generated by un-zipping.

6. Add NetworkService user to C:\Development folder with full permissions.

Hosts file

7. Click the orb in Windows 7 and type %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\ into the search textbox and open the folder.

8. Locate the hosts file. This file must not have a extension. Open this file.

9. Add a new entry with the IP 127.0.0.1 (localhost) and space and then your site name e.g. fuelcelltoday.local.

10. Save the file.

11. Click the orb in Windows 7 and type cmd. Once the command line window has opened type ping fuelcelltoday.local and hit enter. If you get a reply then you site is setup correctly.

SQL Server 2008 setup

12. Open SQL Server 2008 Management Studio.

13. Add a new database called e.g. FuelCellToday. This is the database Umbraco will use.

14. Add a new login e.g. fuelcelltoday/password

15. Add a new user e.g. fuelcelltoday/password

IIS7 setup

16. Open IIS7 and right click on Sites then select Add Web Site.

17. Add the site name e.g. FuelCellToday.

18. Point the physical path to C:\Development\Umbraco\4.6.1.

19. Add the host name you chose e.g. fuelcelltoday.local

20. Click Ok.

21. Click on the Application Pools. Right click the application pool created for your site e.g. FuelCellToday and select Advanced Settings.

22. Change the .NET Framework Version to v4.0.

23. Make sure Managed Pipeline Mode is set to Integrated.

24. Set the Identity to NetworkService.

25. Set Load User Profile to False.

26. Click Ok.

Install Umbraco

27. In your browser open the new IIS site URL e.g. http://fuelcelltoday.local.

28. Walk through the Umbraco setup and make sure you select the database we created above. You will also be able to create an admin Umbraco user login during this process. It’s very simple step-by-step process. Once this is done the Umbraco tables will be installed to the database.

29. Test you can login into the Umbraco admin section e.g. http://fuelcelltoday.local/umbraco/umbraco.aspx

30. Test you can see the Umbraco default screen e.g. http://fuelcelltoday.local.

Create SVN repository using Tortoise-SVN

31. In your SVN provider create a new repository e.g. FuelCellToday. Copy the URL created.

32. Create a new folder where the web application will live e.g. C:\Development\Websites.

33. With Tortoise-SVN Checkout the SVN repository here so a new folder is created link to SVN e.g. C:\Development\Websites\FuelCellToday.

Setup Visual Studio 2010 solution

34. Open Visual Studio 2010 and create a new ASP.NET Empty Web Application project. I keep the solution file in the root so I uncheck Create directory for solution option. It’s up to you. Select the folder location you wish to create your project e.g. C:\Development\Websites\FuelCellToday.

35. Copy all the files and folders from the Umbraco folder e.g. C:\Development\Umbraco\4.6.1 to this new website folder. Overwrite any of the files generated by the application with the files from Umbraco folder.

36. In Visual Studio click the Show all files icon in the solution explorer and then Include all the folders and files you just copied into the solution. This might take a while.

37. Build the solution to make sure everything is in order.

Add files to source control using Tortoise-SVN

38. The following files/folders must be ignored. This is so we can easily copy newer versions of Umbraco to this folder and not files that aren’t needed to be under source control:

a. App-Code

b. App-Data

c. bin

d. data

e. install

f. obj

g. python

h. umbraco

i. umbraco_client

j. *.user

k. *.sln

l. *.suo

39. Commit the folder using Tortoise-SVN.

40. Build the solution.

41. Point IIS physical folder to the new website folder e.g. C:\Development\Websites\FuelCellToday.

42. Check the site URLS work e.g. http://fuelcelltoday.local.

New developers

43. Create a checkout folder and download the SVN code e.g. C:\Dev1\Webistes\FuelCellToday.

44. Download Umbraco and unzip files, then copy them into the website folder.

45. Open Visual Studio 2010 and select Open Web Site and select the new folder e.g. C:\Dev1\Webistes\FuelCellToday.

46. Setup IIS as explained above to point to the new folder.

47. Open the site URL.

Umbraco bug with deleting data types

2010-05-16T13:18:00.002+01:00

In Umbraco v4.0.3 I needed to delete a data type I created. Once the data type had been deleted I tried modifying the document type which had a property using the deleted data type, and an error occurred:

Node node exists with id '1609'.

After a lot of searching it seems Umbraco did not delete a record in cmsPropertyType with the dataTypeId = 1609 - the data type I deleted. After deleting this record I could modify the document type without getting an error.

VSS Batch File Apply Patched Files

2010-01-12T09:45:00.004Z

Below is an example of how I get a base version of my files in VSS and then apply (overwrite) any other files that are in the patch for that version.

My batch file takes 3 arguments:
1. SSDIR
2. Base label
3. Patch label

Here is an example of calling the batch file GetPatch.bat:

"C:\Documents and Settings\shane\Desktop\GetPatch.bat" \\myVSS\Sourcesafe "v0.0.1" "v0.0.1 Patch 4"

Note your label must start with a leter i.e. v0.0.1 in order for the version to be picked up.

Another thing to note is you must go into VSS and click on Tools > Options and then tick the option "Act on projects recursively".

GetPatch.bat
------------

@ECHO OFF
CLS
ECHO Arguments
ECHO =========
ECHO.
ECHO 1. SSIDR: %~1
ECHO 2. Base label: %~2
ECHO 2. Patch label: %~3
ECHO.

IF "%~1"=="" GOTO ArgumentInvalid
IF "%~2"=="" GOTO ArgumentInvalid
IF "%~3"=="" GOTO ArgumentInvalid

SET SSDIR=%~1
ECHO Getting base files for label "%~2". Please be patient this will take a few minutes.
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual SourceSafe\SS.exe" GET $/VSSProject/Project1/*.* -GF -VL"%~2"
ECHO Getting patch files for label "%~3". Please be patient this will take a few minutes.
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual SourceSafe\SS.exe" GET $/VSSProject/Project1/*.* -GF -VL"%~3"

ECHO.
ECHO Done
GOTO Exit

:ArgumentInvalid
ECHO Missing arguments. Not able to continue.

:Exit
ECHO.
PAUSE

Example: Use a cursor to fetch records and update individual records

2009-12-03T16:13:00.001Z

-- Only add the new column if it doesn't exist.
IF NOT EXISTS (
SELECT Object_ID FROM sys.columns
WHERE Name = N'DateTimeStamp' and Object_ID = Object_ID(N'dbo.tblLog')
)
BEGIN
-- Add a new column to store a proper datetime value.
ALTER TABLE dbo.tblLog
ADD DateTimeStamp DATETIME

-- Get the char dates for conversion into proper datetime objects.
DECLARE DateList CURSOR FOR
SELECT date, hour FROM dbo.tblLog FOR UPDATE OF DateTimeStamp

-- Loop variables
DECLARE @Date CHAR(20)
DECLARE @Hour INT

-- Loop thorugh and update the new column with the current row date string as a proper datetime.
OPEN DateList
FETCH NEXT FROM DateList
INTO @Date, @Hour
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
UPDATE dbo.tblLog
SET DateTimeStamp = CONVERT(DATETIME, SUBSTRING(@Date, 7, 4) +
'-' + SUBSTRING(@Date, 4, 2) + '-' + SUBSTRING(@Date, 0, 3) +
' ' + CONVERT (CHAR(2), @Hour) + ':00:00')
WHERE CURRENT OF DateList

FETCH NEXT FROM DateList INTO @Date, @Hour
END

-- Clean up.
CLOSE DateList
DEALLOCATE DateList
END

SELECT * FROM dbo.tblLog

Generic method to get control from LoginView

2009-11-17T10:15:00.001Z

private T GetLoginViewControl(string name) where T : Control
{
return LoginView1.FindControl(name) as T;
}

Dual monitors not working for new install of Windows 7 on Dell M2300 laptop

2009-11-08T11:13:00.003Z

I recently did a brand new install of Windows 7 Professional on my Dell Precision M2300 laptop. When I connected my monitor or TV to the laptop it was not picked up by 7.

The solution was to go onto Dell.co.uk and download the Nvidia Quadro FX 360 for Vista 32bit not Windows 7 as it is not supported.

Browser CSS Overrides

2009-11-05T12:57:00.004Z

The following is a quick reference on how to override CSS styles in different browsers.

#body
{
margin:10px; /* All browsers */
}
#body
{
margin:10px;
*margin:5px; /* IE6 Override */
}
#body, x:moz-any-link
{
margin:4px; /* Only Firefox */
}

This link is very useful: CSS Hacks

SoapException: UnauthorizedAccessException

2009-09-28T11:59:00.002+01:00

I started getting this error when I replace my existing COM object with an updated version. In order to get it to work I gave full permissions to the dll for ASPNET user.

"System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: Server was unable to process request. ---> System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {69F9C9A0-2E91-4E87-B089-02393AB1E665} failed due to the following error: 80070005.\n at ChoicesSurveyWS.SurveyWS.GetSurveyList(String strUser, String strPass) in C:\\DevProjects\\web\\NETQuest\\WebServices\\ChoicesSurveyWS\\SurveyWS.asmx.cs:line 56\n --- End of inner exception stack trace ---"

Rounded corners no images and no JavaScript

2009-08-17T09:38:00.002+01:00

Rounded corners style with no images and no javascript:http://blog.benogle.com/2009/04/29/css-round-corners/

Merge simillar XML documents with LINQ

2009-07-13T16:54:00.006+01:00

Say you had this XML:

... and this XML:

Now you want to merge the 2 based on "name" and you want to include additional elements that could be in either sequence. This code should do it:

var master = XDocument.Parse(masterXml);

var current = XDocument.Parse(currentXml);

// Concatenate the two XML decendent nodes together so we have all the nodes.

var all = master.Descendants("Audience").Concat(current.Descendants("Audience"));

// Group them by name to get unique names.

var unique = from a in all

group a by a.Attribute("name").Value into groups

select groups;

// When merging...

// "name" is the key in the group above

// "expr" can have multiple values so seperate with pipe character |

// "factor" both values will alway be the same so select the first

var merged = from u in unique

select new XElement("Audience",

new XAttribute("name", u.Key),

new XAttribute("expr", string.Join("|", u.Select(x => x.Attribute("expr").Value).ToArray())),

new XAttribute("factor", u.Select(x => x.Attribute("factor").Value).First())

);

Add web reference as a service reference

2009-06-19T14:48:00.007+01:00

With the introduction of WCF I am attempting to add my existing web service (ASMX) to a class library but using WCF service references.

So I have this web service URL i.e. http://localhost/ChoicesSurveyWS/SurveyWS.asmx

I create a new class library project.
I right-click on the new class library and select "Add service reference".
A dialog pops up and I place my web service URL into the "Address" bar.
Click "Go".
Type in a new namespace name i.e. SurveyService.
Click "Ok".

Now a service reference is added to the project and an app.config file.

Create a new console project to be the client (consumer) of the web service.
Add the class library we created as a project reference to the console project.

*NB* MOVE THE app.config FILE FROM the class library into the console project. This will prevent you getting an error like this:

Could not find default endpoint element that references contract in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element match

Linq to XMl Joins

2009-05-19T11:31:00.000+01:00

Here is an example of a left join:

var joinXml = from m in result.Descendants("Report")
join o in ordered.Descendants("Report")
on (string)m.Attribute("name").Value.ToLower()
equals (string)o.Attribute("name").Value.ToLower()
into mainGroup
let orderedMatch = (
from x in mainGroup.DefaultIfEmpty()
where x != null
select new XElement("Report",
new XAttribute("name", m.Attribute("name").Value),
new XAttribute("trend", "true"))
)
let orderedNoMatch = (
from y in mainGroup.DefaultIfEmpty()
where y == null
select new XElement("Report",
new XAttribute("name", m.Attribute("name").Value),
new XAttribute("trend", "false"))
)
let total = orderedMatch.Concat(orderedNoMatch)
select total;

LINQ to XML

2009-05-13T15:30:00.002+01:00

Below is an example of how I used LINQ to XML to read an XML string and search for nodes that match a criteria within the tree. It also shows how I order by an attribute.

The XML:

The Code:

How to find controls in ListView ItemTemplate

2009-04-23T11:54:00.002+01:00

This example below explains how to find controls and set them in the ItemTemplate of a ListView control when using XmlDataSource:

protected void ListView1_ItemDataBound(object sender, ListViewItemEventArgs e)
{
if (ListView1.EditItem == null)
{
// Format the vertical % to 2 decimal places.
var data = (ListViewDataItem)e.Item;
var vert = XPathBinder.Eval(data.DataItem, "./Vert", "0");
var formatVert = float.Parse(vert.Replace("%", ""));

((Literal)e.Item.FindControl("Literal8")).Text = formatVert.ToString(VERT_FORMAT);
}
}

App_Code Class not working

2009-04-16T14:41:00.002+01:00

I have a class in my App_Code folder and I am trying to reference it in my code behind. The name spaces are the same but I keep getting an error that is can't find the class.

The reason being I am using a web application project and not a web site project. In order for the class to be recognised I need to change the "Build Action" of the class file to "Complie" from "Content".

Build and it works now.

Validate XML with XSD

2009-03-30T16:21:00.001+01:00

In order to make sure your XML matches your XSD schema you need to link it. I have done this below using XElement (LINQ to XML) and then saved the file:

XNamespace ns = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance";

var userSettings = new XElement("UserSettings",
new XAttribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "xsi", ns.NamespaceName),
new XAttribute(ns + "noNamespaceSchemaLocation", ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("ChartSchemaLocation")),
new XElement("Options",
new XElement("ChartType", ChartTypes.SelectedValue),
new XElement("DrawingStyle", DrawingStyle.SelectedValue),
new XElement("Theme", Theme.SelectedValue),
new XElement("Show3D", Show3D.Checked.ToString()),
new XElement("Weighted", Weighted.Checked.ToString()),
new XElement("Vertical", Vertical.Checked.ToString()),
new XElement("DisplayTitleAxis", ShowAxisTitles.Checked.ToString())));

userSettings.Save(UserSettingsFilePath);

Generating XSD from and XML file

2009-03-30T16:05:00.001+01:00

If you want to generate an XML schema (*.xsd) file from an existing XML file you can use the xsd.exe tool.

Go to your Visual Studio command line and type in the following:

xsd.exe C:\file.xml /outputdir:C:\

Done!

Navigating XElement

2009-03-27T15:09:00.005Z

The XMl looks like this:

I first create a navigator with an XPath expression to get the nodes set I want to work with:

XElement root = XElement.Load("data.xml");
var answers = root.CreateNavigator().Select("/Category/Subject/Question/Answer");

Then I loop through each answer...

while (answers.MoveNext())
{

Here I convert the underlying object to an Element to get the values:

var details = answers.Current.UnderlyingObject as XElement;

Now I can access the elements I want:

var val = details.Element("Description").Value;

}

ViewState Helper

2009-03-27T11:40:00.002Z

A great tool to aid in viewing the percentage of the page that is ViewState.

ASP.NET ViewState Helper

BareTail

2009-03-26T09:29:00.001Z

BareTail is a very useful log file viewer. All you need to do is point it to the latest log file i.e.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\Logfiles\W3SVC1\ex080512.log

You can download it from: BareTail

Best way to write XML in C#

2009-01-29T09:39:00.002Z

This is my opinion the way to create XML within c# - LINQ to XML:

var root =

new XElement("content",

new XAttribute("id", node.Id),

new XAttribute("url", node.NiceUrl),

new XAttribute("title", property != null ? property.Value : node.Name)

);

XSLT and .NET user control breaks in IE7

2009-01-15T17:22:00.004Z

I was getting random XHTML in my IE7 page due to me HAVE an XSLT above my .NET user control. A change in the XSLT solved this issue:

xsl:output method="html" declaration="yes"

Instead of

xsl:output method="xml" declaration="yes" />

Changing the routing table XP

2009-01-14T13:20:00.003Z

This is a neat tick shown to me by Alex Norcliffe.

Environment: My laptop has to connect to SVN via my wireless connection while all other requests can go through the local LAN connect on my laptop. I am using Tortoise SVN to access my SVN repository. The LAN connects through a proxy to the Internet so I thought changing the Tortoise SVN proxy settings would allow me to just use the LAN connection, but unfortunatley the proxy doesn't allow SVN requests.

Solution:
So using both connections (Wireless and LAN) Alex changed the routing table so only SVN request get redirect via the wireless. This is how he did it:

1. Command prompt
2. Type: route print (This will bring up the routing table list)
3. Ping the SVN URL to get the IP address
4. Add a new route entry by typing: route add SVN_IP mask 255.255.255.255 WIRELESS_IP
5. Test by typing: tracert SVN URL

Genius short-hand way of concatenating rows into single string in SQL

2009-01-14T09:53:00.000Z

DECLARE @ValueList NVARCHAR(MAX)

SELECT @ValueList = COALESCE( @ValueList + ', ' + ColumnAlias, ColumnAlias, @ValueList)

FROM MyTable

PRINT @ValueList

Thanks to Alex Norcliffe for this!

Could not resolve assembly reference

2009-01-09T16:42:00.002Z

I am using SVN with Visual Studio 2008 and updated to the latest version, then tried to rebuild. I got this message:

Unable to reslove assembly reference assemblyname.dll

After trying numerous rebuilds and other fixes I came to this solution:

1. Remove the offending assemly reference from the reference list
2. Reinsert it
3. Build - fails
4. Revert
5. Buil - success!!!!

Not sure why but this works :)

Exited with code -1073741819

2009-01-06T10:29:00.002Z

I was having trouble building my VS2008 solution today due to the following error:

Error 1 The command "copy "C:\SVN\..." "C:\SVN\..." /Y
xcopy "C:\SVN\..." /S "C:\SVN\..." /Y" exited with code -1073741819.

This was occuring in my post build events on one of my project files.

My Solution:

IISRESET

Seems to do the trick :S

Unexpected error encountered. It is recommended that you restart the application as soon as possible.

2008-12-11T14:01:00.003Z

When opening my SVN repository today I recieved this error and one of my projects was unavilable.

Unexpected error encountered. It is recommended that you restart the application as soon as possible.

Error: The parameter is incorrect.

File: vsee\lib\xfcstr\winstrw.cpp

Line number: 166

The solution

Source

Open Visual Studio Tools > Options > Source Control
Then select None (Mine was on VSS)

The difference between Web Site and Web Application Projects in VS

2008-11-26T15:43:00.002Z

I think web application projects are the way to go as they support master pages, cassini (web server), and code behind model. For a detailed explaination of the differences read:

Comparing Web Site Projects and Web Application Projects

Another useful link to read is:

ASP.NET: Web Site versus Web Application Project

Point old dll versions to newer versions in web.config

2008-11-24T17:37:00.006Z

The following web.config entry was giving me an error stating it could not find the dll:

The reason for it missing is because System.Web.Extensions.Design is now in the GAC with .NET 3.5 and it can not find version 1.0.61025.0.

To fix this I placed the following config entry which routes any old dll to the new dll:

dependentAssembly>

assemblyBinding>

runtime>

Make sure it is below the ConfigSections.

Using HTTPModules to globalize a website

2008-11-18T12:12:00.017Z

I am going so you a simple example of using HTTPModules to globalize a website. There are many reasons to use HTTPModules in this case - read more here.

First lets automatically detect the browser's prefered language in the web.config:

<system.web>

Next lets create an XML file of cultures our website supports:

xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

Cultures>

Lets call the XML file SupportedCultures.xml.

Next we will create the resx files that contain the language strings. Create the App_GlobalResources folder if it doesn't already exist within Visual Studio. Add the following resex files:

This is the contents of LocalizedText.resx:

This is the contents of LocalizedText.it-IT.resx:

Now lets move on and work on the web form:

<body>

<div>

Browser culture: <asp:Literal ID="CurrentCulture" runat="server" Text="Current culture:{0} Current UI culture:{1}">asp:Literal>

div>

<div>

Force culture:

<asp:DropDownList ID="CultureList" runat="server"

DataSourceID="SupportedCulturesDataSource" DataTextField="NativeName"

DataValueField="Name" AutoPostBack="True"

ondatabound="CultureList_DataBound"

onselectedindexchanged="CultureList_SelectedIndexChanged">

asp:DropDownList>

div>

<h1>

<asp:Literal ID="Header" runat="server" Text="<%$ Resources:LocalizedText, Heading %>">asp:Literal>h1>

<asp:Literal ID="MainBody" runat="server" Text="<%$ Resources:LocalizedText, Body %>">asp:Literal>

<div>

<asp:Literal ID="HomePageText" runat="server" Text="<%$ Resources:LocalizedText, HomeText %>">asp:Literal>

div>

<asp:Literal ID="Footer" runat="server" Text="<%$ Resources:LocalizedText, Footer %>">asp:Literal>

div>

<asp:XmlDataSource ID="SupportedCulturesDataSource" runat="server"

DataFile="~/Resources/SupportedCultures.xml">asp:XmlDataSource>

form>

body>

html>

On this web form we have created a literal to display the browers current culture settings (CurrentCulture). We have a drop down list (CultureList) that is databound to the XML file we created eariler which displays a list of supported cultures. You can see we using explicit localization i.e. <%$ Resources:LocalizedText, Body %>.

Now lets wire up the events:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

CurrentCulture.Text = string.Format(CurrentCulture.Text, Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.Name,

Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture.Name);

}

protected void CultureList_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

Response.Redirect(Request.Url.AbsolutePath + "?culture=" + CultureList.SelectedValue);

}

protected void CultureList_DataBound(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

CultureList.SelectedValue = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.Name;

}

The HTTPModule code to handle every request is below:

using System;

using System.Data;

using System.Configuration;

using System.Globalization;

using System.Linq;

using System.Threading;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Security;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using System.Xml.Linq;

namespace Sandbox.CondeNet.Platform20.HTTPModules

{

public class GlobalizationModule : IHttpModule

{

#region Implement IHttpModule

public void Init(System.Web.HttpApplication context)

{

context.BeginRequest += new EventHandler(Context_BeginRequest);

}

public void Dispose()

{

}

#endregion

private void Context_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

HttpRequest request = ((HttpApplication)sender).Request;

HttpContext context = ((HttpApplication)sender).Context;

string culture = request.QueryString.Get("culture");

if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(culture) == false)

{

Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture(culture);

Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture;

}

context.RewritePath(request.Url.AbsolutePath);

}

Now link this in the web.config of your web site:

httpModules>

Using HTTPModules instead of Global.asax

2008-11-18T11:21:00.001Z

Great article on why we should use HTTPModules instead of Global.asax. Helps in error handling and localization.

Global.asax? Use HttpModules Instead!

Getting started with jQuery

2008-11-13T11:14:00.001Z

This article below is a great place to start with jQuery. Have a read:

How jQuery Works

IDesign C# Coding Standard

2008-11-13T10:56:00.001Z

This is a great PDF explaining in simple terms the best practices when designing in C# - a must read:

IDesign C# Coding Standard

Umbraco and XSLT

2008-11-13T10:09:00.002Z

Umbraco is a great opensource ASP.NET CMS system. This article explains how the CMS is managed as a XML document and how you can use XSLT to transform the data in the XML document.

Umbraco - What is XSLT

Outlook not opening - pst corrupt

2008-11-11T09:53:00.005Z

I opened up my MS Outlook 2005 and the following error popped up, and then shutdown Outlook:

---------------------------
Microsoft Office Outlook Offline Folders
---------------------------
'Microsoft Office Outlook' exited without properly closing your Outlook data file 'C:\...\outlook.ost'. 'Microsoft Office Outlook' must be restarted. If this error message recurs, contact support for 'Microsoft Office Outlook' for assistance.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

Solution was to:

1. Run Start > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools > Microsoft Office Diagnostics

Helpful links:

http://www.fixya.com/support/t1163842-cannot_open_outlook_2007
http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/downloads/default.aspx (Office Update)

Quirks Mode in IE6

2008-11-07T16:59:00.000Z

Have a read at this page: Quirks Mode

Test IE6 with IE7 installed

2008-10-31T15:05:00.000Z

This software can help you out:

Tredosoft

Hope it helps!

.netTiers

2008-10-24T15:41:00.001+01:00

.netTiers is an open source code generation framework. It uses CodeSmith and is built on MS Application Blocks. Have a look here: .netTiers