Dave Burke - A freelance .NET Developer specializing in Online Communities

Dave Burke's Blog has moved

2005-03-18T04:09:00Z

You'll find my current blog at http://dbvt.com/blog. Many thanks to Scott Watermasysk for hosting my blog here at weblogs.asp.net, beginning back in 2003 when it was dotnetweblogs.com and running Scott's .Text application.

I specialize in building online communities and enhancing existing sites with social networking capabilities like blogs, forums, media galleries and wikis. I take .NET Open Source solutions like those you see in action at dbvt.com--BlogEngine.Net for my blog and Gallery Server Pro for my photo gallery--and integrate them into a unified community application.

I am a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer and proud to promote Microsoft Software Solutions as an Independent Software Vendor and partner in the Microsoft Empower Program for ISVs.

Peace.

Lucene searching added to my .text 0.95 blog

2005-01-25T05:16:00Z

I haven't reported in on my weblogs.asp.net account for a few weeks, but this is a cool technology that is definitely post-worthy. Being a ScottW groupie, I wanted the opportunity to work with his latest 0.96 source, and DotLucene looks like a great application. So in deciding how to add searching to my 0.95 blog there was no other choice for me. There are details I'm still working through (scheduling and highlighting), but it works great. Search page at http://dbvt.com/blog/search.aspx. Post describing the implementation is located here.

Adding Podcasting support in .Text

2004-12-23T20:59:00Z

Yesterday I posted the details of adding podcasting support in a .text project on a dbvt.com/blog post located here.

WebMon for tracking new blog post comments

2004-11-19T00:31:00Z

I've been recently interested in tracking other people's blog posts where I may have left comments, or posts I simply wanted to track. After sitting on it a bit it seems obvious that a web monitoring application would fit the bill quite nicely. After some investigation into both web- and client-based options, I went with WebMon (a freeware application) and it seems to work great in receiving notification of new blog post comments. More info and screenshot pics on a personal blog post here.

Job Security Implications for the Quiet Nerd

2004-11-19T00:27:00Z

Good article at SD Times titled “Out of Site, Out of a Job“ by Larry O'Brien.

While it’s hard to lament the loss of the incompetent, the other type of programmer that is doomed is the developer with poor social skills...

P.S. Thanks Julie Lerman for the link to Larry's blog. Subscribed.

Using reflection for either ParentType usercontrol or webpage

2004-11-11T01:17:00Z

I had a piece of code in a usercontrol today which could have been the child of either a web page or another usercontrol. If I've referred to a usercontrol type with reflection before I've forgotten it, so today's reflection tidbit seemed like the first time, and first time events get a blog plug.

The code excerpt is on a personal blog post here.

Simple tip on controlling display of asp:CheckBoxList control

2004-11-05T19:13:00Z

I discovered a quick tip on fixing the wraparound in the checkboxlist control short of overriding the ListControl object and altering the rendering of the base control: I wrapped the text of each checkbox item inside a TableCell TD. Produces the bottom checkboxlist display and works in both IE and Firefox. Details in a personal blog post here.

Doing Email Testing in development without an Exchange Server

2004-11-03T18:11:00Z

My home office Exchange server crashed in September and while the server has been replaced, I really don't want to re-install Exchange on it unless I absolutely have to. So I implemented a real simple approach to test HTML-based email components without requiring Exchange or any type of email server. The result is that HTML emails are sent to web folder for viewing in IE rather than sent to Exchange for viewing in Outlook. I cover the details with the source code on a personal blog post here if you're interested.

Review: Seth Godin's The Big Red Fez: How to Make any Website Better

2004-10-30T20:21:00Z

The Big Red Fez is based on a simple yet effective analogy of a monkey (wearing a big red fez) being trained to jump into a vat of lime Jell-O, but to do so the monkey must be rewarded with a banana. If the search for that banana is not obvious, the monkey will lose interest and not complete the Jell-O jump. So to the monkey, its all about the banana.

I posted a detailed review of the book on a personal blog post here, along with 10 points on improving web site design and the user experience.

Implementing CAPTCHA. Easy AND fun.

2004-10-29T17:57:00Z

It took less than an hour to implement captcha on my personal blog, based on the work of Chris Kunicki, BrainJar, and CMU nerds. Details, links, and code excerpts on my personal blog here.

Bypassing SharePoint Document Library Security to retrieve documents

2004-10-29T13:08:00Z

I needed to provide external access to items from selected folders in a SharePoint Services 2.0 Document Library. I couldn't give read access to the entire library (our only option in WSS 2.0) because allowing them to browse the entire folder tree was not an option. I found the best solution was to retrieve the binary directly from the WSS SQL database using the item's GUID. Code and details on my personal blog post located here.

Series Collections added to my personal .Text blog

2004-10-14T16:08:00Z

I added Series Collections to my personal blog at http://dbvt.com/blog. Series are in essence subcategories, which focus on a specific area within my primary categories. This keeps categories pertinent and their growth in check and allows for a large number of subject-specific subcategories, or Series.

The functional value of .Text Series may not be obvious to fellow bloggers, but it was another opportunity for me to work with ScottW's most excellent .Text 0.95 source.

This post describes the functions four components (sidebar menu, separate page to display Series, Series Administration, and Post Entry with Series.) I detail the code changes and additions to .Text for each of the four components in separate posts. In general, I treated a Series object as a LinkCategory object but with a new CategoryType.SeriesCollection value, extended the LinkCategory data object to include ParentCatID and ParentTitle properties, and went from there.

Comment notification online at my personal .Text blog site

2004-09-29T03:43:00Z

I mentioned the Comment notification piece I was adding to my personal .Text blog last time I posted here. Its pretty much done and online. Description, details, and, umm...comment notification at http://dbvt.com/blog if you're interested.

Adding comment notification and other stuff to my personal .text blog

2004-09-19T01:57:00Z

A couple nights ago I began the process of adding comment notification to my personal blog at http://dbvt.com/blog. This gives readers the opportunity to receive comments to a selected post by email, and it gives me the opportunity to work with the most excellent code base of .text release 0.95.2004.102. I'll be posting my notes on the process of putting this feature online and how I'll be using DotNetNuke for authentication, so please drop on by sometime if you're interested.

We've Moved!

2004-09-09T22:09:00Z

This post is the equivalent of the banner you see hung from the old AutoZone store on the outskirts of town, having taken a lease on the abandoned store next to the grocery store. Volume, volume, volume! Yeap, striking out on my own at http://dbvt.com/blog. I list a few reasons why I'm going solo at the new site. Thanks to all for the great weblogs.asp.net experience!