Justin Saraceno's Blog : asp.net

Linkbutton with image and text

justinsaraceno — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:06:00 GMT

I ran across the need to have a linkbutton that contained an image and text. A little background... I was creating a file structure-like list in a repeater control. Each row had to be clickable by the folder name or folder icon; just like in Windows Explorer.

By default, the linkbutton has a Text property but this was of no help for trying to also squeeze in an image too. But did you know you could do this with a linkbutton:

<asp:LinkButton ID="lbYear" runat="server" CausesValidation="false">

<asp:Image ID="imgFolder" runat="server" ImageUrl="~/images/folder.jpg" />

<%# Container.DataItem %>

</asp:LinkButton>

Here you see the LinkButton control acts like a template for the image control and text it needed to display.
Seriously, I know this isn't rocket science but it took me a few minutes to think about how this works because how often do you do this with the linkbutton control? Enjoy!

Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

justinsaraceno — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:54:19 GMT

One way to make sure you're current in your developer skills is to surf the job sites. I'm very happy with my current position but I know I need to keep my skills current and marketable so every once in a while I surf the job boards and see what technologies are in hot demand. If I'm unfamiliar with a skill or technology, I make an effort to get on it.

Usually doing this results in no shockers but I just found a recent exception. One local company is seeking a Principal Software Engineer with strong C# experience in .NET 1.1 and 2.0. Then the ad goes on to state, "Please Note: ASP.NET experience not considered". What?!? How can this be? An ASP.NET developer doesn't need to know .NET code?

Now I can maybe see someone looking for a C# developer not considering Classic ASP experience as relevant, but ASP.NET? If you are on the level to be considered for a Principal Software Engineer, the font-end interface of your development projects shouldn't matter. That's the beauty of OO and multi-tiered programming. A DAL and BAL written in C# should be able to be plugged in to a Windows form app or Web form app with little or no changes. In today's .NET world a Windows form developer and Web form developer need the same C# skills because it's all the same code base, same objects, same everything until you get to the UI. I've switched back and forth from Web and Windows forms development and I prefer the stateless challenges of Web form development but never considered either type of app less demanding of coding skills.

Does anyone else think different? I can't even come up with a remotely feasible argument why ASP.NET experience should be discounted for a senior level C# coder position.

ReorderList with ObjectDataSource

justinsaraceno — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:36:00 GMT

If you ask me, the AJAX Control Toolkit's ReorderList is the most under appreciated control in the Toolkit. Compared to many of the other controls, it gets no love. The Toolkit demo site's sample for this control isn't really all that helpful and third party samples are sparse. And how do you bind it with an ObjectDataSource control? Read on to find out...

The ReorderList had a 'real word' use for me. There was a situation where I inherited a web form with a priority ranked list that was composed of a list of items that each had a textbox control to the left of them. The textbox contained the priority order for the item in the list. If the user wanted to change the order, he or she would change the numbers in the textboxes and then press a Save button which updated the priority order for the list. Obviously, the users were having a difficult time making this work.

In comes the ReorderList, the magical key to this situation. But how does this work; the Toolkit sample site didn't go far enough. I wanted to bind this with an ObjectDataSource control and it just wasn't working. Well I eventually figured it out and the first thing I thought of was I needed to write an article about this. Of course this was over 6 months ago but now that I have this blog I thought that someone may benefit from my pain.

I am including the sample project for this but let's walk through it.
First thing's first - we need some data to reorder. How about a Wish List? The below image shows a WishList table which is included in the project in a SQLExpress database. There are only three columns: WishID (uniqueidentifier) which is the primary key; WishDescription (varchar) which is the wish text; and WishOrder (int) which holds the order of my wishes. It is pictured here:

So next create a class in App_Code for the ObjectDataSource to bind to. I've called it ReorderClass. First we need to have a method return a DataSet containing the wish data in from the database. Here is the code for that:

Since the order number from the ReorderList needs to be saved back in the database, we also need an Update method for our ObjectDataSource control. The key here that many people miss is the Update method MUST have a method parameter for each of the data items that were selected in the above DataSet. Not only is that true, but the method signatures must also be the same data type of the items returned from the Select method's DataSet. Yes, even if you are not updating all the fields, you still need all the Selected fields in the Update method's signature. So the DataSet in the Select method returned WishID, WishDescription, and WishOrder. So, this Update method needs all three of those fields in its method signature. The three method parameters are WishID which is of type Guid, WishDescription of type string, and WishOrder of type integer. The code for this is here:

Now it's time for the ReorderList control. You can bind data to the ReorderList but unlike the GridView control, there is no built-in auto binding option. You have to create the template to bind the data to. Here I've created a table for that contains the Wish Order number and Wish Description. Also note that the ReorderList has properties including SortOrderField and DataKeyField. The SortOrderField needs to be bound to the data item containing the sort order for your items. The DataKeyField needs to be bound to your data item's identifier field (most likely its primary key in the database).

Now we're going to bind this to an ObjectDataSource control. Notice that the Select Method is the method that returns the DataSet. Also notice that the UpdateParameters match the fields that were in the Select statement. Since there is no option for Type of uniqueidentifier, the wishID Parameter has been set to type of Object.

Now that it's all together, it will load, reorder, and save the reorder.

It's not the simplest tool in the Toolkit to use but it is one of the coolest for sure.

Hello Secure World

justinsaraceno — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 01:24:00 GMT

First, welcome to my new blog on the www.asp.net site. It was set up for me by Microsoft's Joe Stagner.

So what's with Hello Secure World? Well this week MSDN Events brought their roadshow here to Raleigh, NC. I have attended these MSDN events in the past but haven't made it to one in over a year. They usually are packed with an insight to the latest and greatest developer topics but I must admit, this one was a little stale. Content ranged from ASP.NET security (wasn't that a big MSDN event back in 2004) to ASP.NET 2.0 Application Services. Yeah I picked up a few tidbits of info but we are in the ASP.NET 3.5 world now, aren't we?

The best thing I got out of the event was a link to Microsoft's Hello Secure World web site. It's packed with info on how to secure your applications. There are video tutorials, code samples, the works. Everything you need to get started on putting up a defense for XSS, SQL Injection, one-click attacks, and more are right there. The next best thing I walked away with was a Hello Secure World t-shirt. Now I'll never forget that URL!