Albert Pascual ASP.NET Blog

Microsoft MVP Award renewed!

2008-07-02T12:06:00Z

I received THE email this morning from my MVP Lead:

“Dear Albert Pascual,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2008 Microsoft® MVP Award! The MVP Award is our way to say thank you for promoting the spirit of community and improving people’s lives and the industry’s success every day. We appreciate your extraordinary efforts in ASP/ASP.NET technical communities during the past year.(…)”

Being an MVP allows you to be part of a great, intelligent group of people as well as tap on resources that otherwise you would never have access to. I believe last year I was able to learn more than any year previously. This year I am committed to take this award to its limits again. Help the .NET community as well as improve myself and the ones around me.

Thanks again Microsoft for this great opportunity as well thanks to my MVP Lead Suzanna Moran for your patience and support.

Cheers

Speaking at the Inland Empire User Group

2008-07-01T06:12:00Z

July 8th I’ll be presenting http://geotwitter.net at the Inland Empire User Groups. I don’t have a power point presentation yet for GeoTwitter. Right now I show the website and each part of the code as well as how to connect to the CodePlex to download the latest and greatest. However there isn’t Internet access at the IEUG.

Looks like I’ll be working on july 7th to create a presentation. If you are around SoCal on july 8th stop by.

Hopefully be then, GeoTwitter will include support to cross post to Pownce and Jaiku.

Cheers

ArcGIS 9.3 has was release today

2008-06-27T06:26:00Z

ArcGIS 9.3 Release comes with loads of online resources for anybody to get up to speed fast:

What’s new on ArcGIS 9.3

Watch the presentation here.

Documentation can be found here. With great ADF and JavaScript samples.

You’ll find online demos that will speed up your development

You can submit your project and share it with the world.

Need help? Use the user Forums. Become an ESRI MVP

Introduction to ArcGIS Server.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 are supported.

My latest project release was created using ArcGIS Server 9.3 with the JavaScript API.

Cheers

Hospital Implements High-Tech Emergency Response System

2008-06-26T06:10:00Z

The project I develop is in the news today:

From Information Week:

“GPS-enabled cell phones and other mobile location-tracking technologies used for Enhanced 911 capabilities are helping emergency response workers find people in trouble.

The deployment of a geographic information system and mobile applications in southern California is enabling emergency response personnel to more quickly and efficiently deploy rescue teams based on near real-time data about traffic conditions, the location of nearby ambulances and helicopters, and other factors, such as bed availability at area hospitals. “

Read The whole article here: Information Week Article

Cheers

UDP Packet Generator

2008-06-25T06:18:00Z

Tonight I need a UDP Packet generator, so I thought just to paste it here so I can help anybody looking for something like that. I have a few files I want to transfer using UDP to another machine. Remember that UDP does not warranty delivery.

Change the localhost to the destination IP as well as the destination port number.

System.Net.Sockets.UdpClient client = new System.Net.Sockets.UdpClient();

            client.Connect("localhost", 601);

            System.IO.DirectoryInfo info = new System.IO.DirectoryInfo("C:\\temp\\udp");
            System.IO.FileInfo [] fileInfo = info.GetFiles();

            foreach (System.IO.FileInfo inf in fileInfo)
            {
                string filePath = inf.FullName;

                StreamReader readStream = System.IO.File.OpenText(filePath);

                byte [] stre = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(readStream.ReadToEnd());

                readStream.Close();

                client.Send(stre, stre.Length);
            }

            client.Close();

Cheers

Best practices for using LINQ to SQL on your existing web applications.

2008-06-20T05:31:00Z

Previously I have been talking about the limitations of Linq to SQL for your data layer. You should read it here. This post is part of the Linq to SQL series. Linq to SQL is a great technology I found that adding the data layer on the web application will just work until you are deploying the application to another computer with another database.

Mixing 2.0 Web app with 3.5 LINQ to SQL

         SavedDataContext context = new SavedDataContext(_ConnectionString);
           
            var result = from c in context.viewerContexts
                         where c.UserID == userName
                         select new
                         {
                             Name = c.Name,
                             ID = c.ID,
                         };

            DataTable dt = new DataTable();
            dt.Columns.Add("ID");
            dt.Columns.Add("Name");

            foreach (var item in result)
            {               
                DataRow row = dt.NewRow();
                row["ID"] = item.ID;
                row["Name"] = item.Name;
                dt.Rows.Add(row);
            }

            return dt;

Problems with Connection Strings.

If you create the LINQ to SQL on the web application, by now you realized that deploying it is not a good option, as the connection string is embedded in the code. If you created a class library then you are save, just override the connection string in the web.config:

     <connectionStrings>
        <add name="AssemblyName.Properties.Settings.MyConnectionString"
            connectionString="Data Source=myserver;Initial Catalog=mydatabase_TEST;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=myuserid;Password=mypassword"
            providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
    </connectionStrings>

Xml converting types.

When you create a column on SQL as a xml, LINQ to SQL will convert that column as an XElement looks like instead of a string. If you try to set that element from a string you’ll get the error:

Cannot implicitly convert type 'string' to 'System.Xml.Linq.XElement'

So you’ll have to set the content as: Viewer.Element.Add(Mycontent);

Maybe this is smart to only allow you to pass a XElement instead of string, the validation is done in your code instead of raising an exception.

Summary.

The wonderful world of LINQ to SQL is getting better every day. It’s time to jump into the code to start creating your own data layer as a Class Library in 3.5. You won’t have to convert the web application to 3.5, just make sure to return objects supported by framework 2.0.

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And the free MSDN Subscription goes to …

2008-06-17T06:27:00Z

Share this post :

I spent this weekend looking at all the submission from all around the world. I finally narrow it down to 5 people that in my mind and opinion, even maybe wrong, they deserve the Premium MSDN subscription. I was looking for a person that could use the MSDN subscription for the community and will improve the skills of the people around him. Somebody that helps and volunteers in the .NET world.

After a huge consideration as in my opinion many of the people emailing me should receive a Free MSDN subscription, at the end I have to select a winner!

And the free MSDN subscription goes to … Nikolaos Kantzelis you can read his blog here.

Thanks everybody for emailing me. Because you didn’t win does not mean you were not the best to receive this free MSDN subscription as I am not the best person to make a choice like that I’ve learned.

Cheers

Code Collection: Old code for retriving emails using POP3

2008-06-14T18:40:00Z

Looking still around my hard disk I am finding lots of code that I didn't know I had, I hope somebody can use it. This code is to handle email POP3.

//
// To do
// Extracting mail attachment, and supporting differenet mime types and content
// types.
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

using System;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.IO;
using System.Collections;
using System.Text;

namespace SuperJockey
{
class MailMessage
{
  public string contentType;
  public string contentTransferEncoding;
  public string message;
};

public class MailHeader
{
  public int number;
  public int size;
  public string received;
  public string received2;
  public string received3;
  public string from;
  public string to;
  public string subject;
  public string date;
  public string messageID;
  public string mimeVersion;
  public string contentType;
  public string boundary;
  public string X_Priority;
  public string X_MSMail_Priority;
  public string X_Mailer;
  public string importance;
  public string X_MimeOLE;
  public string X_RCPT_TO;
  public string X_UIDL;
  public string status;

public ArrayList messages;
};

/// <summary>
/// Minimal POP3 Commands:
///
/// USER name               valid in the AUTHORIZATION state
/// PASS string
/// QUIT
///
/// STAT                    valid in the TRANSACTION state
/// LIST [msg]
/// RETR msg
/// DELE msg
/// NOOP
/// RSET
/// QUIT
///
/// Optional POP3 Commands:
/// APOP name digest        valid in the AUTHORIZATION state
/// TOP msg n               valid in the TRANSACTION state
/// UIDL [msg]
///
/// POP3 Replies:
/// +OK
/// -ERR
/// </summary>
class MailPOP3
{
  // variables for pop3 class
  public TcpClient tcpClient;
  public NetworkStream netStream;
  public StreamReader streamReader;

  /// <summary>
  /// Connect and authorized user.
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="pop3host">
  /// Pop3 Mailserver
  /// </param>
  /// <param name="port">
  /// Port of the mailserver, normaly 110
  /// </param>
  /// <param name="user">
  /// a string identifying a mailbox (required), which is of
  /// significance ONLY to the server
  /// </param>
  /// <param name="pwd">
  /// a server/mailbox-specific password (required)
  /// </param>
  /// <returns></returns>
  public string DoConnect(string pop3host,int port, string user, string pwd)
  {
   try
   {
    // create POP3 connection
    tcpClient = new TcpClient(pop3host,port);

    // initialization
    netStream = tcpClient.GetStream();
    streamReader = new StreamReader(tcpClient.GetStream());
    string retVal = streamReader.ReadLine();
    if(!retVal.StartsWith("+OK"))
     return retVal;

    // send login
    retVal = SendCommand("USER "+ user + "\r\n");
    // Possible Responses:
    // +OK name is a valid mailbox
    // -ERR never heard of mailbox name
    if(!retVal.StartsWith("+OK"))
     return retVal;

    // send password
    // Possible Responses:
    // +OK maildrop locked and ready
    // -ERR invalid password
    // -ERR unable to lock maildrop
    return SendCommand("PASS " + pwd + "\r\n");
   }
   catch(Exception err)
   {
    return ("-ERR " + err.ToString());
   }
  }

  /// <summary>
  /// Send a command to the pop3 server
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="command">
  /// command string
  /// </param>
  /// <returns></returns>
  string SendCommand(string command)
  {
   try
   {
    byte[] bData = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(command.ToCharArray());
    netStream.Write(bData,0,bData.Length);
    return streamReader.ReadLine();
   }
   catch (Exception err)
   {
    return ("-ERR " + err.ToString());
   }
  }

  /// <summary>
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="command"></param>
  /// <returns></returns>
  public string GetCommandBlock(string command)
  {
   StringBuilder CommandBlock = new StringBuilder();
   try
   {
    string sTemp = SendCommand(command);
    if(sTemp.StartsWith("+OK"))
    {
     do
     {
      CommandBlock.Append(sTemp+"\r\n");
      sTemp = streamReader.ReadLine();
     }while(sTemp != ".");
    }
    else
    {
     return sTemp;
    }
   }
   catch(Exception err)
   {
    return ("-ERR " + err.ToString());
   }
   return CommandBlock.ToString();
  }

  /// <summary>
  /// Restrictions:
  /// may only be given in the TRANSACTION state
  ///
  /// The POP3 server issues a positive response with a line
  /// containing information for the maildrop. This line is
  /// called a "drop listing" for that maildrop.
  /// In order to simplify parsing, all POP3 servers are
  /// required to use a certain format for drop listings. The
  /// positive response consists of "+OK" followed by a single
  /// space, the number of messages in the maildrop, a single
  /// space, and the size of the maildrop in octets. This memo
  /// makes no requirement on what follows the maildrop size.
  /// Minimal implementations should just end that line of the
  /// response with a CRLF pair. More advanced implementations
  /// may include other information.
  /// NOTE: This memo STRONGLY discourages implementations
  /// from supplying additional information in the drop
  /// listing. Other, optional, facilities are discussed
  /// later on which permit the client to parse the messages
  /// in the maildrop.
  /// Note that messages marked as deleted are not counted in
  /// either total.
  /// </summary>
  /// <returns>
  /// Possible Responses:
  /// +OK nn mm
  /// </returns>
  public string GetStat()
  {
   // Send STAT command to get number of mail and total size
   return SendCommand("STAT\r\n");
  }

  public string GetList()// Send LIST command with no parametrs to get all information
  {
   // For saving 'list' results
   return GetCommandBlock("LIST\r\n");
  }

  /// <summary>
  /// Restrictions:
  ///   may only be given in the TRANSACTION state
  ///
  /// If an argument was given and the POP3 server issues a
  /// positive response with a line containing information for
  /// that message. This line is called a "scan listing" for
  /// that message.
  /// If no argument was given and the POP3 server issues a
  /// positive response, then the response given is multi-line.
  /// After the initial +OK, for each message in the maildrop,
  /// the POP3 server responds with a line containing
  /// information for that message. This line is also called a
  /// "scan listing" for that message. If there are no
  /// messages in the maildrop, then the POP3 server responds
  /// with no scan listings--it issues a positive response
  /// followed by a line containing a termination octet and a
  /// CRLF pair.
  /// In order to simplify parsing, all POP3 servers are
  /// required to use a certain format for scan listings. A
  /// scan listing consists of the message-number of the
  /// message, followed by a single space and the exact size of
  /// the message in octets. This memo makes no requirement on
  /// what follows the message size in the scan listing. Minimal
  /// implementations should just end that line of the response
  /// with a CRLF pair. More advanced implementations may
  /// include other information, as parsed from the message.
  ///
  /// NOTE: This memo STRONGLY discourages implementations
  /// from supplying additional information in the scan
  /// listing. Other, optional, facilities are discussed
  /// later on which permit the client to parse the messages
  /// in the maildrop.
  /// Note that messages marked as deleted are not listed.
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="num">
  /// a message-number (optional), which, if present, may NOT
  /// refer to a message marked as deleted
  /// </param>
  /// <returns>
  /// Possible Responses:
  /// +OK scan listing follows
  /// -ERR no such message
  /// </returns>
  public string GetList(int num)
  {
   return SendCommand("LIST " + num + "\r\n");
  }

  bool ReadMessageBody (MailHeader mailHeader)
  {
   if(mailHeader.messages==null)
   {
    mailHeader.messages = new ArrayList();
   }

MailMessage mailMessage = new MailMessage();
string delimiter = "--" + mailHeader.boundary;

   StringBuilder sBody = new StringBuilder();

   while(true)
   {
    string sTemp = streamReader.ReadLine();

    if(sTemp.StartsWith(delimiter) || sTemp==".")
    {
     mailMessage.message = sBody.ToString();
     mailHeader.messages.Add(mailMessage);

if ( sTemp == "." )
return true;

     if(sTemp.Remove(0,delimiter.Length)=="--")
     {
      return true;
     }

     mailMessage = new MailMessage();
     sBody.Length = 0;
     sBody.Append(streamReader.ReadLine());
     sBody.Append("\r\n");

    }
    else
    {
     sBody.Append(sTemp);
     sBody.Append("\r\n");
    }
   }
  }
  /// <summary>
  /// Read each part of a multipart message
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="mailHeader">
  /// </param>
  /// <returns>
  /// </returns>
  bool ReadMessage(MailHeader mailHeader)
  {
   if(mailHeader.messages==null)
   {
    mailHeader.messages = new ArrayList();
   }

MailMessage mailMessage = new MailMessage();
string delimiter = "--" + mailHeader.boundary;

StringBuilder sBody = new StringBuilder();

string sTemp = streamReader.ReadLine();

   sBody.Append(sTemp);
   bool readHeder = true;
   while(true)
   {
    sTemp = streamReader.ReadLine();
    if(readHeder)
    {
     if(sTemp.Length>0 && sTemp[0]<=' ')
     {
      sBody.Append(sTemp);
      continue;
     }

     string key = sBody.ToString();
     sBody.Length = 0;
     if(sTemp.Length==0)
     {
      readHeder=false;
     }
     else
     {
      sBody.Append(sTemp);
     }

     if(key.StartsWith("Content-Type: "))
     {
      mailMessage.contentType = key.Remove(0,14);
     }
     else if(key.StartsWith("Content-Transfer-Encoding: "))
     {
      mailMessage.contentTransferEncoding = key.Remove(0,27);
     }
    }
    else if(sTemp.StartsWith(delimiter))
    {
     mailMessage.message = sBody.ToString();
     mailHeader.messages.Add(mailMessage);

     if(sTemp.Remove(0,delimiter.Length)=="--")
     {
      return true;
     }

     mailMessage = new MailMessage();
     sBody.Length = 0;
     sBody.Append(streamReader.ReadLine());
     readHeder = true;
    }
    else
    {
     sBody.Append(sTemp);
     sBody.Append("\r\n");
    }
   }
  }

  bool SetMailHeader(MailHeader mailHeader, string key)
  {
   if(key.StartsWith("Received: "))
   {
    if (mailHeader.received==null)
    {
     mailHeader.received = key.Remove(0,10);
    }
    else if (mailHeader.received2==null)
    {
     mailHeader.received2 = key.Remove(0,10);
    }
    else if (mailHeader.received3==null)
    {
     mailHeader.received3 = key.Remove(0,10);
    }
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("From: "))
   {
    mailHeader.from = key.Remove(0,6);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("To: "))
   {
    mailHeader.to = key.Remove(0,4);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("Subject: "))
   {
    mailHeader.subject = key.Remove(0,9);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("Date: "))
   {
    mailHeader.date = key.Remove(0,6);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("Message-ID: "))
   {
    mailHeader.messageID = key.Remove(0,12);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("MIME-Version: "))
   {
    mailHeader.mimeVersion = key.Remove(0,14);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("Content-Type: "))
   {
    int index = key.IndexOf("boundary=");
    mailHeader.boundary = "";

    if(index!=-1)
    {
     if(key[index+9]=='\"')
     {
      int index2 = key.IndexOf("\"",index+10);
      mailHeader.boundary = key.Substring(index+10,index2-index-10);
     }
     key = key.Substring(0,index);
    }
    mailHeader.contentType = key.Remove(0,14);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("X-Priority: "))
   {
    mailHeader.X_Priority = key.Remove(0,12);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("X-MSMail-Priority: "))
   {
    mailHeader.X_MSMail_Priority = key.Remove(0,19);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("X-Mailer: "))
   {
    mailHeader.X_Mailer = key.Remove(0,10);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("Importance: "))
   {
    mailHeader.importance = key.Remove(0,12);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("X-MimeOLE: "))
   {
    mailHeader.X_MimeOLE = key.Remove(0,11);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("X-RCPT-TO: "))
   {
    mailHeader.X_RCPT_TO = key.Remove(0,11);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("X-UIDL: "))
   {
    mailHeader.X_UIDL = key.Remove(0,8);
   }
   else if(key.StartsWith("Status: "))
   {
    mailHeader.status = key.Remove(0,8);
   }
   else
    return false;

return true;
}

  /// <summary>
  /// Get all mails form the pop3 server.
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="body">
  /// If set it returns mailheader and message.
  /// </param>
  /// <returns></returns>
  public MailHeader[] GetMails(bool body)
  {
   string list = GetList();
   if(list==null || list.Length==0 || !list.StartsWith("+OK"))
    return null;

string[] param = list.Split('\n');
string[] listHeader = param[0].Split(' ');

int count = int.Parse(listHeader[1]);

   MailHeader[] myHeader = new MailHeader[count];
   for (int n=0;n<count;n++)
   {
    string[] msg = param[n+1].Split(' ');

    myHeader[n] = GetMail(int.Parse(msg[0]),body);
   }
   return myHeader;
  }

  public MailHeader GetMail(int num, bool body)
  {
   MailHeader mailHeader = null;
   try
   {
    string sTemp;
    if(body==true)
     sTemp = SendCommand("RETR " + num + "\r\n");
    else
     sTemp = SendCommand("TOP " + num + "\r\n");

    if(sTemp.StartsWith("+OK"))
    {
     string []param = sTemp.Split(' ');

     string delimiter = "--";
     mailHeader = new MailHeader();
     mailHeader.number = num;
     mailHeader.size = int.Parse(param[1]);

StringBuilder sBody = new StringBuilder();

     while(true)
     {
      sTemp = streamReader.ReadLine();
      if(sTemp==".")
      {
       // FIXME AL:
       bool bRet = SetMailHeader(mailHeader,sBody.ToString());
       /*if (bRet == false && body == true)
        ReadMessage(mailHeader);
       */
       break;
      }
      else if(sTemp.Length>0 && sTemp[0]<=' ')
      {
       sBody.Append(sTemp);
       sBody.Append("\r\n");
      }
       // Begin off message body
      else if (sTemp.StartsWith(delimiter))
      {
       // new Message
       ReadMessage(mailHeader);
      }
      else if (sTemp.Length == 0 && body == true)
      {
       ReadMessageBody(mailHeader);

       break;
      }
      else
      {
       if(sBody.Length>0)
       {
        SetMailHeader(mailHeader,sBody.ToString());
        delimiter = "--" + mailHeader.boundary;
       }

       sBody = new StringBuilder(sTemp);
      }
     }
     // . - is the end of the server response
    }
   }
   catch(Exception)
   {
    return null;
   }
   return mailHeader;
  }

  /// <summary>
  /// If the POP3 server issues a positive response, then the
  /// response given is multi-line. After the initial +OK, the
  /// POP3 server sends the message corresponding to the given
  /// message-number, being careful to byte-stuff the termination
  /// character (as with all multi-line responses).
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="num">
  /// a message-number (required) which may NOT refer to a
  /// message marked as deleted
  /// </param>
  /// <returns>
  /// Possible Responses:
  /// +OK message follows
  /// -ERR no such message
  /// </returns>
  public string Retr(int num)
  {
   return GetCommandBlock("RETR " + num + "\r\n");
  }

  /// <summary>
  /// The POP3 server marks the message as deleted. Any future
  /// reference to the message-number associated with the message
  /// in a POP3 command generates an error. The POP3 server does
  /// not actually delete the message until the POP3 session
  /// enters the UPDATE state.
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="num">
  /// a message-number (required) which may NOT refer to a
  /// message marked as deleted
  /// </param>
  /// <returns>
  /// Possible Responses:
  /// +OK message deleted
  /// -ERR no such message
  /// </returns>
  public string Dele(int num)
  {
   return SendCommand("DELE " + num + "\r\n");
  }

  /// <summary>
  /// The POP3 server does nothing, it merely replies with a
  /// positive response.
  /// </summary>
  /// <returns>
  /// Possible Responses:
  /// +OK
  /// </returns>
  public string GetNoop()
  {
   return SendCommand("NOOP\r\n");
  }

  /// <summary>
  /// If any messages have been marked as deleted by the POP3
  /// server, they are unmarked. The POP3 server then replies
  /// Send RSET command to unmark all deleteting messages
  /// </summary>
  /// <returns>
  /// Possible Responses:
  /// +OK
  /// </returns>
  public string Rset()
  {
   return SendCommand("RSET\r\n");
  }

  /// <summary>
  /// The POP3 server removes all messages marked as deleted
  /// from the maildrop and replies as to the status of this
  /// operation. If there is an error, such as a resource
  /// shortage, encountered while removing messages, the
  /// maildrop may result in having some or none of the messages
  /// marked as deleted be removed. In no case may the server
  /// remove any messages not marked as deleted.
  /// Whether the removal was successful or not, the server
  /// then releases any exclusive-access lock on the maildrop
  /// and closes the TCP connection.
  /// </summary>
  /// <returns>
  /// Possible Responses:
  /// +OK
  /// -ERR some deleted messages not removed
  /// </returns>
  public string Quit()
  {
   if( netStream==null || streamReader==null)
   {
    return ("-ERR no connection");
   }
   string tmp = SendCommand("QUIT\r\n");;
   netStream.Close();
   streamReader.Close();
   return tmp;
  }

  /// <summary>
  /// If the POP3 server issues a positive response, then the
  /// response given is multi-line. After the initial +OK, the
  /// POP3 server sends the headers of the message, the blank
  /// line separating the headers from the body, and then the
  /// number of lines of the indicated message's body, being
  /// careful to byte-stuff the termination character (as with
  /// all multi-line responses).
  /// Note that if the number of lines requested by the POP3
  /// client is greater than than the number of lines in the
  /// body, then the POP3 server sends the entire message.
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="num_mess">
  /// a message-number (required) which may NOT refer to to a
  /// message marked as deleted, and
  /// </param>
  /// <param name="num_strok">
  /// a non-negative number of lines (required)
  /// </param>
  /// <returns>
  /// Possible Responses:
  /// +OK top of message follows
  /// -ERR no such message
  /// </returns>
  public string GetTop(int num_mess, int num_strok)
  {
   return GetCommandBlock("TOP " + num_mess + " " + num_strok + "\r\n");
  }

  public string GetTop(int num)
  {
   return GetCommandBlock("TOP "+ num + "\r\n");
  }

  /// <summary>
  /// If an argument was given and the POP3 server issues a positive
  /// response with a line containing information for that message.
  /// This line is called a "unique-id listing" for that message.
  /// If no argument was given and the POP3 server issues a positive
  /// response, then the response given is multi-line. After the
  /// initial +OK, for each message in the maildrop, the POP3 server
  /// responds with a line containing information for that message.
  /// This line is called a "unique-id listing" for that message.
  /// In order to simplify parsing, all POP3 servers are required to
  /// use a certain format for unique-id listings. A unique-id
  /// listing consists of the message-number of the message,
  /// followed by a single space and the unique-id of the message.
  /// No information follows the unique-id in the unique-id listing.
  /// The unique-id of a message is an arbitrary server-determined
  /// string, consisting of one to 70 characters in the range 0x21
  /// to 0x7E, which uniquely identifies a message within a
  /// maildrop and which persists across sessions. This
  /// persistence is required even if a session ends without
  /// entering the UPDATE state. The server should never reuse an
  /// unique-id in a given maildrop, for as long as the entity
  /// using the unique-id exists.
  /// Note that messages marked as deleted are not listed.
  /// While it is generally preferable for server implementations
  /// to store arbitrarily assigned unique-ids in the maildrop,
  /// this specification is intended to permit unique-ids to be
  /// calculated as a hash of the message. Clients should be able
  /// to handle a situation where two identical copies of a
  /// message in a maildrop have the same unique-id.
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="num">
  /// a message-number (optional), which, if present, may NOT
  /// refer to a message marked as deleted
  /// </param>
  /// <returns>
  /// Possible Responses:
  /// +OK unique-id listing follows
  /// -ERR no such message
  /// </returns>
  public string GetUidl(int num)
  {
   return SendCommand( "UIDL " + num + "\r\n");
  }

  public string GetUidl()
  {
   return GetCommandBlock("UIDL\r\n");
  }
}
}

Giving away a free MSDN subscription to the community.

2008-06-12T04:54:00Z

I got another free MSDN subscription to give away, I gave one last night to the Inland Empire User Group.

How do I make sure to give it to the community? I thought that anybody reading my blog is part of the community. I want to make sure that goes to a person or community that can use it, if you want it, please send me an email or leave a comment and let me know how you going to use it. Do you have an open source project? Are you building an application for a organization to give back? Do you have installed GeoTwitter.NET on your blog? ;-) That gives you points as well. The gift is not for sale. I’ll be happy to send it to a school, another user group or students.

Last night I went to the Inland Empire dot.net User Group, there were 37 enthusiastic people spending their night improving themselves. I must say, I haven’t seen that number of people on a user group in a very long time.

There was, as well, a great presentation from Reza Madani – Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2008; “Reza's presentation covered SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)”

I was very tired, my bed time was overdue. I was shocked that they didn’t had any Internet connection, that challenge alone can be difficult to provide presentations to that user group.

Still a great experience to see a community learning and involved. Its what is all about. Does not matter if you use the ASP.NET forums or a user group, its all the community that at the end of the day will help you improve your skills as a developer.

NOTE: All costs to send the MSDN subscription will be paid by me and the gift is provided by Microsoft. However I assume all taxes laws that may apply and I am responsible for any local, state or federal taxes in connection with any gratuities given. No cost for the recipient of the gift. Microsoft provided the gift to be to share with other individuals of my choosing in the community.

Cheers

GeoTwitter version 1.0 released!

2008-06-05T05:07:00Z

Finally I released the first version, you can see the big map with all the twitters here. Added the iPhone supprt, new look and feel, contact form for your feedback as well. Please let me know what you think and where to go from here!

The biggest feature that I have been asked by many users, was to add the avatars of the people on the map, I changed the default icon now to the user avatar.

As promised a month ago, now you can see the location of all users, not just the ones using GeoTwitter.NET, you can also find the other users on the map with an approximation of the location added when they register into Twitter.

Another new feature is the button “Auto Find Me” that will set your position using your IP address, just press the button and the coordinates will be auto populated depending on your IP address. Of course you can still set your position by entering the complete address, city or zip code.

I have received a few emails from people outside of the US, asking me, why I center the map to the US only. My apologies, now the map will be centered by locating your IP address, so you can see the people around you that you are following.

A big deal on work adding support for the iPhone location services. When you use GeoTwitter.NET using the iPhone you’ll find out that your location will be found, as well as using the desktop or any other mobile device you can change your location by pressing the button “Set Address”

I need your help

Even this is the release I wanted, now I have been gathering more requirements, thanks to all the people that blog and used twitter. Having Robert Scoble tweet about it didn’t hurt at all. The first hour after he tweet, I got 600 users!

Amazing that one person has so much power, he was blamed last week for taking down Twitter. Just glad GeoTwitter was design to take a small load of people at the time without any problem. Even that I need more repeating users, so if you got a few minutes, please be kind and check out Geotwitter.NET, then send me some feedback. If you own a blog or if you would like to tweet about and help spreading the word as well . It’s very important to get at least 100 users using it in the same time.

The future is bright

What’s next for me? Well one thing looks clear, a new look and feel for GeoTwitter is in order. Improved other mobile devices support instead of the iPhone as well as creating a desktop application to track your locations. Adding the way to geotag a image taken by your mobile device to the current location. There are many features they were requested, like finding friends around you, however now that you can see the map avatar, one simple look and you’ll be able to see who is around you. Let me know what do you think!

Cheers

How to add GeoTwitter to your blog or website

2008-05-29T06:41:09Z

You can add Geotwitter.NET to your website or blog with a simple JavaScript include and will provide two functions:

You can see the last 10 users using Twitter the have a location as well as you can only show your last location.

The code to add on your website is:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://geotwitter.net/Where.ashx"></script>

Has a few parameters that you can modify the size to fit your website

To change the the size you can use parameters Width and Height.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://geotwitter.net/Where.ashx?width=500&height=300"></script>

You'll be required to create a key at Google Maps with the domain you are using, to create the key if free and you can generate it here. Then you sent it on the script like this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://geotwitter.net/Where.ashx?googlekey=ABQIAAAAel8IPnI5wEvR5PtOvUjVJxQNlqpZBVZoSHorPhx1jq-2Q98j_hSr8_uxZyh4Mo--_q1VGkVdnmqp6Q"></script>

The above samples will just provide the last 10 people using GeoTwitter, if you only want to provide your location you can just pass the username

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://geotwitter.net/Where.ashx?Width=800&Height=600&googlekey=ABQIAAAAel8IPnI5wEvR5PtOvUjVJxR27VTUqgbR8dNmH64FZ-vxUR2MiBSF3HjombTc31cw-p0IB0OSNdE7PQ&Username=alpascual"></script>

Cheers

ASP.NET MVC Preview 3 Released

2008-05-28T06:50:00Z

Microsoft news about releasing products does not come from a news release any more, for the past 2 years Scott Guthrie breaks the news to the geek world. I hope he was in twitter or better yet at geotwitter.

Why is ASP.NET MVC lately so important to geeks? Is the new way to write web apps? Is the webforms not good anymore?

I don’t think that web forms is not important anymore, the big deal is that for first time, Microsoft is providing an open source from inside the house. ASP.NET MVC is the first open source project from Microsoft. To do that they gave a job to Phil Haack, a very well known guy on the open source world, creator of SubVersion. That funny enough after getting the job at Microsoft he went dark on the open source world!

He is working in a few fixes for SubText, and he is blogging here and there, however the ASP.NET MVC open source project is only one way, they release the code and we get it all, however, I was expecting a little more interaction and allowing non-Microsoft users to submit changes to the main branch. Maybe I was expecting too much. None less a great move by Microsoft to show interaction with the community, even when they grab something that was “very Java” to move it into .NET. Some say a genius move by Scott Guthrie.

ScottGu announcement and tutorial

Haacked announcement

Cheers

iPhone support for GeoTwitter.Net

2008-05-24T23:51:40Z

I spent this shorts periods of free time this long weekend providing iPhone support to GeoTwitter, actually for a non UI person like me a little more difficult that I thought, still looking back to it, looks pretty crappy compared to other iPhone designs like Hahlo.

The improvements in the new version already available at CodePlex includes;

iPhone support including geolocations, allowing you to set the location by just entering the street, city, state, county. Saved in your profile until you change it.
AutoLogin, if you check the Remember Me checkbox, every time you come back to geotwitter.net you'll be auto login into the system.
Major code clean up and moved crappy code from pages to classes.
The Google maps now open on the iPhone to see the location and the messages of your friends, you can pan, zoom in and out. The iPhone Google Maps support GeoRSS and that's how GeoTwitter streams the positions to the iPhone internal Google Maps application.
Added support to enter the address in the main page (not using the iPhone) or to click on the map.

Also participate on the reply tracking by following http://twitter.com/mvps

Every reply you get from watched twitter users, will be recorded and added on the list: http://geotwitter.net/replies.aspx Right now, Scott Hanselman is in the top of the list, no shocker as he is famous for engaging the audience on his speeches.

I'll improving and testing GeoTwitter on the iPhone, having the internal iPhone Google maps read the posts by location using GeoRSS is a great advance, however, what I would like to do now is to be able to refresh Google maps every x amount of time to enhance the experience using GeoRSS. The user won't have to leave the iPhone Google maps to read the posts, only to write a message.

Also all posts from geotwitter now come with location as well as from geotwitter tag, thanks to Twitter for doing that.

For more information, please follow me with GeoTwitter or subscribe to the blog. Feel free to help out with the cleaning of the code or with the UI at codeplex.

Please be sure to leave comments and feedback, any idea is important to me. What do you like and what do you hate, did you find bugs? If you have an iPhone please use Google Maps app to read the messages.

You can add GeoTwitter.NET on your website, by adding the code below. A map will show on your website/blog with the latest updates geocoded. Also by using a parameter you can only show where are you at the time.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://geotwitter.net/Where.ashx">

or just you with:

<script type="text/javascript" src=http://geotwitter.net/Where.ashx?Username=alpascual">

You can add width, height on the parameters to change the map size as well you need googlekey to use the maps.

Cheers

Writing good performance web application for the masses. Twitter FAQ?

2008-05-22T06:04:16Z

I have recently being a twitter user, not proud that I become a user or better said a reader. I have blogged before about twitter, but after forcing myself to use it I have a much better opinion about such a service. I like to read some people’s microblogs at twitter. It’s like a big chat channel that you can filter the people that you see. In other words you create your own chat. Does not mean the person that you reading will be reading you back.

Twitter is a great sample of a web application that should be fast and optimize for speed, the user load of twitter is huge, can be hundreds of updates a second from different clients and geographic locations. As you can see the big picture, you can start thinking about the great effort of architecture and thought that had to be under the hood of twitter. A huge undertaking and exciting project in my opinion.

Lately, seems that twitter architecture or the people that design the application, miss that point all together, the application has been going down in regular basis. Maybe due the user load of the hardware issues? Or they might me refactoring the system to undertake such big demand, in any case if you have been using twitter last week, you’ll be getting sick of the error page. I personally hope, twitter comes back soon faster and stronger. There is a place for twitter.

There are a few things that confused me when I started using Twitter, and I learn step by step. If you are new at twitter you may want to read the rest of the post as may help you.

- There are different clients for twitter, as they best way to use it is with a mobile device connected to the Internet. My favorite for the iPhone is called Hahlo.com.

- Other clients allow you to do a little bit more with Twitter, like providing the location from where you using it. My favorite of course is GeoTwitter, but the best one is called BrightKite.com

- To reply a message you add the @ before the users name, make sure is at the beginning of your message or the user won’t see it on their replies.

- There is a report about replies that keeps track of what users gets more replies.

- The character # will group subjects that can be read on this service.

I believe this is what I know by now, only been using twitter for a month. You’ll find lots of useless or useful information by following the right people.

Before you dismiss twitter like I did myself previously, you should give it a chance by setting up the people you want to follow, of course you are very welcome to follow me. Many people that maintains a blog they’ll keep as well an account at twitter and update it during the day. As well as they keep a widget in their blog with their updates.

I see how is very useful in big events to follow presentations or news, update what you are doing or sending links to things happening real time in the technology world. We are asking every year the content to be deliver to us in real time, this is the beginning of that technology. News don’t always mean international news, regional or even local, means what is MVC project people up to and what’s happening at the MIX today. What is my co worker working on and what did he/she found out about LINQ to SQL? News that other people won’t care, is the most important to you.

Something good that twitter came out with, was to creating a generic API so developers can use twitter and create their own clients with twitter, thus GeoTwitter came along, adding something on top of twitter. The success of web applications are link to their design to be enhanced. Another sample here is Facebook, even being second to myspace, they are gaining more users every month. Instead of developers creating their own application a la twitter, they tap into the program to extend it, using twitter resources and database. There are a few arguments on the blogs about exporting data as well as keeping the history. I do believe that twitter could be more useful if google was able to index the messages, after 2 days, messages are being deleted? So that resource or conversation will be erased, blogs still for almost ever, looks like.

Let me recommend you to try it, but wait until twitter fixes their recent issues.

Cheers

Who gets more replies on Twitter? GeoTwitter Alpha 0.3 available and running!

2008-05-19T12:28:36Z

Added a new feature requested that had nothing to do with geography but seemed pretty cool. I'll be keeping track of peoples replies to see who gets more replies on the public timeline. There is a delay on the public timeline, however hopefully in a few days we can tell who is in the lead. See report here to find out who gets more @replies.

Note: You'll have to follow http://twitter.com/MVPs to be counted on the report.

Also fixed a few bugs and started working in the new features to be able to use GeoTwitter on the iPhone. For a list of features go to the post series. The new release is up on CodePlex if you want to help, I need to clean up lots of code and design a much better database.

Follow me at twitter for now.

Cheers