Community Blogs

Cloning objects in .NET

ASP.NET Weblogs — Sun, 18 May 2008 06:27:38 GMT

In an interesting project where I'm giving a hand, we need to clone objects of a number of different types, perhaps surprisingly the CLR doesn't offer a general cloning method, of course you could use MemberwiseClone() but this is a protected method, so it can be invoked only from inside the class of the object being cloned, which makes it difficult to use it in a general method, besides, MemberWiseClone() does just a shallow copy and what we really need is a deep copy . There is a good reason for not having such a general method: object cloning is one of those problems which have a simple solution for simple scenarios but that resist a satisfactory solution for all the scenarios, for example the objects may have references to other...(read more)

New Article: Images as a Service with ADO.NET Data Services

ASP.NET Weblogs — Sun, 18 May 2008 02:01:00 GMT

For those of you who have already put your feet into the waters of .NET 3.5 SP1, you have probably seen some amazing things with ADO.NET Data Services coupled to the Entity Framework. But that coupling may lead to blindness. Allow me to explain. [continue to article: Images as a Service with ADO.NET Data Services ] Read More......(read more)

Interesting Finds: 2008.05.18

ASP.NET Weblogs — Sun, 18 May 2008 01:49:57 GMT

Debug ASP.NET Tips: What to gather to troubleshoot - part 3a - Crash revisited Using Process Explorer without an Internet Connection .NET Fast LZW Compression Using Binary Tree Getting Image Metadata with C# Web Javascript Tutorial - Continuous Pagination 20 Useful Tools to Make Web Development More Efficient Mojax - a mobile Ajax application framework Other Request/Response Testing with Windows PowerShell What Determines High Quality Code? Writing code that you’re proud of Read More......(read more)

"Swapping" instead of "Injecting" calls between classes

ASP.NET Weblogs — Sun, 18 May 2008 01:01:15 GMT

Eli Lopian, Typemock CEO and awesome Coder, just created a nice little API wrapper around Typemock Isolator that would allow a very simple and readable "Swapping" effect between classes. It would allow you to write code like this: [ Test ] public void SwapStatic_CallsFake () { Swap . StaticCalls < TypeA , TypeB > (); Assert . AreEqual ( 2 , TypeA . StaticReturnOne ()); Swap . Rollback (); } ...(read more)

Why Use the Entity Framework?

CodeBetter.Com - Stuff you need to Code Better! — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:42:47 GMT

I've prepared dozens of articles and presentations on the Entity Framework over the past year and a half and the questions always start with "Why would I want to use this instead of XYZ?" LINQ to SQL, a variety of ORM tools, straight up ADO.NET, custom data layers, CSLA.NET and this list goes on and on. This is a great questions and I was glad to see Danny Simons of Microsoft address this today on his blog. Danny mentions the differences between the Entity Framework and a few of these alternatives and specifically points out situations where they don't follow the same music. The differences between the choices is outline well in Danny's post. However the key point I like to stress is what Danny calls out in the last paragraph...(read more)

Being overrun by spammers

Sahil Malik - blah.winsmarts.com — Sat, 17 May 2008 21:47:05 GMT

.. this post will self destruct in 48 hours I was being overrun by spammers, so I put a captcha on my contact page. For those who have my email addy, or are on my facebook - would you mind giving it a whirr? http://www.winsmarts.com/Contact.aspx Thanks! Read More......(read more)

Dealing with LINQ to SQL DataContext Issues!

AzamSharp — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:57:19 GMT

The DataContext is an object representation of the database. It is responsible for all the operations performed on the database. One of the biggest issues when working with LINQ to SQL is the life time of an object when part of the DataContext. The DataContext is designed in a way that it will only handle the objects that were created by it. Although you can attach objects of one DataContext to a different DataContext but when you do this all hell breaks loose. Let's take a look at the example below where I am using a DepartmentRepository class to get the Department by Id. public static tblDepartment GetDepartment(int id) { using (VirtualRoomDBDataContext dc = new VirtualRoomDBDataContext()) { var department = (from d in dc.tblDepartments...(read more)

GeekFest Party at TechEd 2008 June 3rd

Steven Smith — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:31:30 GMT

Doug Seven of Microsoft is hosting a party at Howl at the Moon during TechEd on June 3rd. He has some details on his blog and the party will include (and require for admission) a rubber duck competition. You'll need to pick up your duck for admission at the Teched Technical Learning Center at the Developer Tools & Languages information desk. One duck will admit two people so bring a friend! Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it! Read More......(read more)

Enterprise Library 4.0 Released

ASP.NET Weblogs — Sat, 17 May 2008 15:39:18 GMT

Enterprise Library is a collection of application blocks intended for use by developers who build complex, enterprise-level applications. Enterprise Library is used when building applications that are typically to be deployed widely and to interoperate with other applications and systems. In addition, they generally have strict security, reliability, and performance requirements. The goals of Enterprise Library are the following: Consistency . All Enterprise Library application blocks feature consistent design patterns and implementation approaches. Extensibility . All application blocks include defined extensibility points that allow developers to customize the behavior of the application blocks by adding their own code. Ease of use. Enterprise...(read more)

.NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1 and Page.RegisterStartupScript

ASP.NET Weblogs — Sat, 17 May 2008 12:36:00 GMT

First, if you are are developing exclusively ASP.NET 2.0+ applications, sorry, there is nothing interesting for you in this post. Second, if you are involved in some ASP.NET 1.1 projects and have no plans to install new development environment, then, sorry again, there is probably no reason for you to read on either. Ok, I've done all I could to warn you against reading it. Don't blame me for wasting you time, because I am going to start from the very beginning. One of my current projects is ASP.NET 1.1 Web Application. It is already released and rather stable. And yesterday I got new development machine on my workplace and migrated all my data to it. .NET Frameworks 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 were preinstalled before I first logged in (thanks...(read more)

Automated Builds with SQLExpress

CodeBetter.Com - Stuff you need to Code Better! — Sat, 17 May 2008 07:01:00 GMT

A quick tip about scripting a software build using SQL Express 2005. It isn't network-enabled by default, so you'll want to change the network configuration to enable TCP/IP. The setting is in Sql Server Configuration Manager. Here is a screenshot: And I used Cropper on x64 windows to make the screenshot. Read More......(read more)

Cropper can now work on x64 Windows (and SvnBridge works well)

CodeBetter.Com - Stuff you need to Code Better! — Sat, 17 May 2008 06:42:00 GMT

I recently tried out Windows Server 2008 x64, and I'm gradually transitioning. I'm installing all the tools I have on my XP drive, but I won't complete the switch until I've verified there are no blocking issues. I regularly use Cropper to grab snapshots of my screens and portions of them. I tried running it, and it failed spectacularly! I decided to grab the code from CodePlex and see why it was failing. I ran through and was able to fix the issues. The main issue was that it was built against .Net 2.0 with Any CPU, but it depends on Win32 APIs. I switched the build configurations to x86, refactored an assembly load problem buried in a static constructor, modified the MSI setup project, and it started working. I've submitted...(read more)

Everyman Links for May 17, 2008

Dave Burke — Sat, 17 May 2008 05:55:32 GMT

Linksys Security Enabled Routers aren't for everybody. Cisco should make securing their ubiquitous Linksys routers easier for Everyman. I'm not complaining, of course. I'm enjoying free Internet access throughout the week while supporting my little girl's after-school activities. During her piano lesson on Tuesdays I can jump on a Linksys in a neighboring condominium and while at soccer practice on Thursdays I can choose from 3 or 4 obliging routers on the Burlington South Side. To be honest, my router was open for probably a year until I created a family WEP key. I feel kind of bad about it being closed sometimes. Tonight my Comcast broadband connection was really sucky, for instance, so I jumped on my neighbor's DSL Linksys...(read more)

The Week of the Website Project

Dave Burke — Sat, 17 May 2008 03:43:52 GMT

It's generally a good rule to not blog about what you don't know, but sometimes it's a moral imperative. With my ignorance highlighted with a yellow marker, let me tell you about my Visual Studio Website Project Awakening, the week that was. As I mentioned in a previous post, I created a web site for my sister during my latenight geek sessions this past week using Expression Web and BlogEngine.Net. I couldn't consider using a .NET application unless I had the source, so I fired up the BlogEngine.Net Visual Studio Solution to discover it's a Website Project, not the Web Application Project model that I've been using for, umm, ever. 99% of you know this, but for the 2 guys who don't, the Website Project model was somewhat...(read more)

Enterprise Library 4.0 Released with Unity IoC Integration

CodeBetter.Com - Stuff you need to Code Better! — Sat, 17 May 2008 03:20:00 GMT

I was wondering just the other day when Enterprise Library 4.0 might be released and low and behold today was the day. There are no new application blocks with Enterprise Library 4.0, but there are a few enhancements to existing blocks and the much anticipated Unity IoC Integration. If you so desire, you can now use Unity to wire up your application blocks when using Enterprise Library in your applications. This is, of course, optional. You can use the existing configuration model that has been at the core of Enterprise Library since 2.0 and replaced the Configuration Application Block. You can download Enterprise Library 4.0 here . I recommend you visit the landing page to learn about all the particulars of Enterprise Library 4.0. If you are...(read more)