In wanting a website for the longest time, I finally broke down and bought a domain and am hosting at a co-workers home on his webserver (that I sold to him). A fine Dell 600SC server that holds up well over a business-level cable connection. My site has some shots of my home, my dog, and our newly decorated baby room (we're expecting real soon now). If you get bored and want to surf, check out www.mightybs.com and the baby section. Anyone know of a decent, free photo album for .NET that is simple to use (I can drag-n-drop photos to a directory and it will place them in the site with a description and all)?
Programming structure...a hot topic at my workplace. We've fought over this topic for the last 2 years. Here's the deal. Two different approaches are mentioned.
The first, the “Control Structure”, is a central area where everything passes through it. Think Fuse Box methodology if you are a Cold Fusion developer. In the old days (yeah...ASP 3.0), we would use a central page (main.asp) and pass an action query string value through it (main.asp?action=ShowUsers), which would call a sub or function from another page (users.asp). The other page would be a gathering of functions, subs, classes that were specific to a function in the program. This works great (especially for troubleshooting), but is hard to follow through if you are not used to it. In the .NET realm, we have come up with a similar method of using a default.aspx page but plugging user controls into it programmatically. I like this method, but to me, it seems slower and more clumsy in testing. Sure, it's clear and concise, but is it the best use of .NET?
The second method involves a page-for-page approach. Microsoft demonstrates this through several of their .NET code examples. Each section is its own page (users.aspx, admin.aspx, etc.). I recently finished a project where the deadline quickly approached and I used this method. The project went smooth and we've since added on some functionality and it was simple to do so. I don't have issues with this approach, but other developers in my group do.
What structure do you use for a web project? Have you come up with your own methodology (per se) for the layout (structure) of your applications? Is any of our approaches bad or good in some way? I'd like the community to speak out on this one. Not very many folks speak of structure (but do speak of code and samples).
I just stumbled on a great blog entry by Tyson Dowd about the legacy of the DataGrid Girl (aka Marcie Robillard). Naming yourself after a cool .NET class is very daring, but cool nonetheless, as Tyson attempts to clear a name for himself. Thanks Tyson for making my day that much better. I'm looking through the .NET classes trying to make a name for myself...and I'm coming up short. I'll stick to coding rather than trying to be a celebrity in the community.
I was introduced to several aspects of the datagrid through her website (even though I thought the site was a joke at first). If you have not visited DataGrid Girl, I suggest you do so. The datagrid is extremely useful.
My name is Brian Swiger. I've been a developer for 8 years. My background is mostly military contracting (although I've never been in the military). My strengths are Visual Basic/VB.NET/ASP.NET although I have completed several Java/ColdFusion/PERL/JSP/C# projects. I enjoy my transition to .NET with VB because of the object-oriented aspects of the language. I currently work at ACI Worldwide, an e-payments software company, as a Web developer currently working with .NET technologies. I've worked at SAIC (a government contractor amongst other things), HDR (engineering/architecture), American Agrisurance (crop insurance, no longer in business), and e-Vansys, Inc. (a small dot-bomb that is no longer in business).
Thanks to Scott Watermasysk for this excellent weblog. I've always wanted to have my very own virtual soapbox, but was never given the chance. Thanks!