June 2006 - Posts
Following comments from beta testers Microsoft has released a new Beta 3 for IE 7.
Download here
what's new in Beta 3
Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 is now available for download and includes improvements in reliability, compatibility, user features, and security. Although Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 was layout complete, based on our customers’ feedback, we’ve made some additional changes to the look and feel of the browser. Beta 3 allows users to add the e-mail button back to the toolbar, enables users to reorder the tabs by dragging them to the left or right, and enables horizontal scrolling while zooming.
To improve the RSS experience, Internet Explorer 7 now allows users to update all their RSS feeds automatically. In addition, the user has more control in marking their RSS feeds as "READ."
Beta 2 testing has helped us improve compatibility with websites and web applications in Beta 3. Internet Explorer 7 reliability has improved in Beta 3 as several layout-rendering bugs have been fixed as well.
In addition, Beta 3 contains all the security fixes addressed in the June Internet Explorer Security Bulletin MS06-021.
A very good tip from MSDN magazine (July 2006). If you want to keep your ASP.NET pages lighter why not keeping lengthy ViewState in memory instead of the page.
Tested, works perfectly well. One question, is it scalable? I mean what's happens with hundreds of simultaneous users?
The magazine has the C# code, so here we go with the VB.Net override functions:
UPDATE: Well it's a bad idea, I got too much timeout issues, see the comment below for more explanations.
Protected Overrides Function LoadPageStateFromPersistenceMedium() As Object
Dim key As String = Request.RawUrl + "_VIEWSTATE"
Dim state As Object = Session(key)
If state Is Nothing Then
Return MyBase.LoadPageStateFromPersistenceMedium()
Else
Return state
End If
End FunctionProtected Overrides Sub SavePageStateToPersistenceMedium(ByVal viewState As Object)
Dim key As String = Request.RawUrl + "_VIEWSTATE"
Session(key) = viewState
End Sub
Well according to the WinFS Team themselves, what was supposed to be the new milestone of file storage for Vista seems to be dumped as a whole project.
"... These changes do mean that we are not pursuing a separate delivery of WinFS, including the previously planned Beta 2 release. With most of our effort now working towards productizing mature aspects of the WinFS project into SQL and ADO.NET, we do not need to deliver a separate WinFS offering. ..."
Read more...
Look what I developed in two weeks, thanks to .Net (1.1) and Ajax!
ImageBank is a new service for schools and kids in Ireland to provide a way to store their photos and let them search through different categories.
90% .Net 90% Ajax and two weeks to go before release ! (click on the picture for a bigger image)
Thanks to Karin Huber for this nifty Javascript code to fix the headers of any table.
Read more...
I didn't post too much lately because I am quite busy on a challenging website using Ajax and .Net 1.1.
As I said before architecture is the key for a solid Ajax application, and one hot debate at the moment is about the handling of the refresh and back buttons.
In a real world (not the fancy techie one where everything is perfect!) I can't blame a user if he hit Refresh and all the data he has entered in aform suddenly disappear!
Remember Ajax name for most of the people on this planet is associated with detergent :-)
Yes some solutions exist, but too complicated for what I need and the one I notice is based on an Ajax framework (see the demo here) and I prefer not to bloat my pages with a big chunk of Javascript just for that.
Anyone here has found a right way? I did some experiments with Google Ajax applications and most of them have the same issues. So unless I find something, my Ajax code will be limited to some basic features and through iframes.
I dare to blame the browsers developers on that (Internet Explorer 7 and for Firefox 2.0). After all we're talking about Ajax since 2 to 3 years so I don't understand why when Microsoft or the Mozilla foundation develop a new browser they can't address this issue by a clever standard implementation.
I think they missed a big opportunity to create a true Web 2.0 platform.
Now maybe we have to wait for IE 8 and Firefox 3?
UPDATE 1: This post on Isolani give an interesting point of view on the subject.
Abstract:
Is AJAX a web document or a web application?
Part of the AJAX problem is understanding whether an AJAX enhanced page is actually a web application, or is it still just a web document? I'm inclined to agree with Jeremy Keith, in his blog post Hijax, where he opines: Web applications and web pages are not mutually exclusive. One is built on top of the other.
Web applications have been around before AJAX was christened. Even before Microsoft invented XmlHttpRequest. Outlook Web Access before XmlHttpRequest used frames - and ran into a number of usability and accessibility issues.
...
Fixing the browser history object
Solving the addressability issue goes a long way to solving the navigation and bookmarking issues of an AJAX document. But its not a complete solution. Browser vendors need to update their browsers so that JavaScript can modify the history object of a browser.
When JavaScript modifies a document, it should be able to add a new item to the browsers history, and store the current document in the browser's cache (storing the state of the current document). At this point, two documents are available - the starting document, and the document after JavaScript has modified it. The URLs used to store these documents in the browser cache should be valid enough that if the cache is cleared, then requesting the URL should still be able to retrieve the document by one of the three methods outlined above.
There's a number of security issues arising from opening up the history object in this way. These need to be carefully weighed to prevent malicious use.
UPDATE 2: On OReilly site I forgot to mention a potential contender for a solution. Check also this step by step implementation of the Really Simple History javascript library.
You know how to use AJAX to pull rows from a database, but do you know how to create an AJAX-based system to organize the records neatly into pages? You'll know how to do that by the end of this series! This first article shows you how to build the user interface.
This is based on a Java article but I am sure this can be adapted easily to .Net!
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It seems that the naming department in Microsoft has gone crazy in a matter of months. Or maybe nobody is really in charge anymore!
After the W naming mess (WPF instead of Avalon, WCF instead of Indigo, etc...) now they're coming with some silly idea to rename WinFX as .Net FX 3.0 (and even 3.5).
Lol, this must be a joke. I just started to think about migrating my projects from 1.1 to 2.0, then now I already have to think about 2007 to see .Net 3.0. No wait .Net 3.0 is not a new framework, it's .Net 2.0 + WinFX :-)
What a mess! Microsoft deserve an entry in the WTF blog. Check Brad Adams post for more madness.
A little less than three months ago, Newsgator announced a couple of new mobile RSS readers that were in the works. One of them was a reader for Windows Mobile devices called SmartRead, which was under development by Kevin Cawley. Now christened NewsGator for Windows Mobile Devices, the product has entered public beta, and is available for download here.
Christian Weyer's talk in Dublin this evening has been cancelled. Unfortunately, Christian has come down with a serious flu bug and can't travel. He sends his apologies and promises that he will be back over soon to Ireland to deliver this talk.
Apologies for the late notice.
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