Steve Sharrock

Oh, Crud! Yet another O/RM Code Generator

shark — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 18:24:00 GMT

Just a few weeks away...

www.RollYourORM.com

SourceGear Vault at OrcsWeb.com

shark — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 04:37:00 GMT

It has been quite a while since I've blogged here, so perhaps that will add emphasis to how I feel about this product, especially hosted by www.OrcsWeb.com

I have several clients, and I work from different locations. I've always used Visual SourceSafe, but with the same problems that everyone has with remote access. Since I first tried SourceGear's Vault, I liked it, but didn't really want to host it on my own servers. I've been a long time (extremely satisfied) client at OrcsWeb.com, and when I found out they did SourceGear Vault hosting, I jumped at the chance.

I can now work from any location with Internet access. OrcsWeb does daily backups which protects me and my clients, and I never suffer from "version-itis" when changing from a laptop on the road to my favorite desktop at home. I use other version control software for some clients (like CVS), but SourceGear has done a really great job integrating Vault with Visual Studio and I really miss that with CVS.

Good job, folks.

www.OrcsWeb.com

www.sourcegear.com

ASP.NET FTP Deployment Tool Downloads Fixed

shark — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 04:34:00 GMT

Details, details. The site was moved to a new server, and in the process the "new member" sign-in to get an Evaluation or Purchased copy of the AND+FTP Deployment Tool was broken. This has been fixed.

If you tried to use the site between 3/8 and 3/10/05, I apologize. Please try again at http://www.DotNetFTP.com

ASP.NET FTP Deployment Tool (AND+FTP) Update

shark — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 03:01:00 GMT

Realizing there haven't been any updates for a long time, I stopped to wonder if that means the product is really that solid, or it's just getting ignored. I hope it is more the former than the latter.

For any developers using the ASP.NET FTP Deployment Tool available at www.DotNetFTP.com, there have been minor updates to remove a few annoying exceptions during FTP connection that were not being handled properly.

You can use your existing product key to download the latest version from the site (www.DotNetFTP.com). If you don't have your product key or tracking info, just send an email to support@DotNetFTP.com.

Thanks to all of those supporting this developer tool.

ASP.NET FTP Deployment (AND+FTP) Support Email

shark — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 16:28:00 GMT

My apologies to anyone trying to contact support at www.DotNetFTP.com. Without our awareness, the email for this address has been blocked for quite some time, and we're just now starting to process as many old support requests as we can find. I know we've lost some potential business, but I hope this has not adversely impacted anyone who has already purchased the ASP.NET FTP Deployment tool.

WebUIValidation.js / Framework Version Problem Solution

shark — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 21:38:00 GMT

I just had one of my clients deploying some existing ASP.NET web applications to a few new servers. In the process, some of the client-side validation stopped working with the symptom of no post-back to the server when validation should have passed.

As it turns out, the Framework was recently installed on the new servers with all of the latest patches; however, when the applications were moved from the older servers, they also moved the files from "aspnet_client/system_web/1_1_4322" to the new servers. This apparently created a conflict with the WebUIValidation.js file that was downloaded to the client, and the JavaScript code generated for each page sent to the client browser.

Running "aspnet_regiis -c" installed the correct version of WebUIValidation.js (and other scripts) on the new servers, and all is well.

I hope this might be of help to someone chasing a similar problem.

Pivot Tables with ADO.NET and Display Horizontal Paged DataGrid

shark — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 15:50:00 GMT

This is a new article I've added to ASPAlliance. It's been a while since I've written, but I'm happy to have some time to add some more articles that I've been sitting on.

"Pivot Tables with ADO.NET and Display in Horizontal Paged DataGrid".

This article describes a simple method to pivot a DataTable producing rows for each column and a column for each row. The pivoted DataTable is then displayed in a DataGrid using horizontal paging to view a limited number of Columns in each page. This is a common display technique used to compare, for instance, product features, where the product names appear across the top of the DataGrid with the Features listed down the side.

http://aspalliance.com/538

IIS Compression Praise -- Help with Infragistics

shark — Sun, 14 Mar 2004 18:30:00 GMT

I recently received an email from OrcsWeb advising they were about to enable compression on the shared server I use. The results were great--thanks Brad and the gang at www.OrcsWeb.com.

This jogged my thinking about a problem I've had with one of my clients who hosts several applications on his private web servers. The applications rely heavily on Infragistic's Web Grid which produces huge JavaScript downloads to the client's browser. We've struggled with performance for over a year now.

I suggested to my client that he try installing compression on his servers. The results were awesome. I'll post some actual numbers as we quantify the improvement. Since these applications rely very little on graphics, the compression of the text is just amazing.

I hope this simple solution helps others who may have had similar problems with client side controls that require large JavaScript downloads.

OrcsWeb.com Rocks for ASP.NET Hosting

shark — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 19:22:00 GMT

I've been with OrcsWeb.com for my hosting since I started with .NET over 3 years ago. There support is fantastic--and I'm compelled to mention it here for anyone looking for ASP.NET hosting.

I've had several small low band-with sites running under the same account using my own 3rd party DNS, and then redirecting from the root to the appropriate application root folder based on the incoming URL. The only problem is that since each application was not really in a Virtual Application folder, I needed to use a common /bin folder in the root and depend on many of the root's web.config values that could not be overridden in the “sub” applications.

Now, OrcsWeb has allowed me to make any sub folder a Virtual Application folder. This makes everything so much cleaner. And, a side benefit--my production sites now have the same folder structure as my localhost web server.

Thanks, OrcsWeb

ASP.NET FTP Deployment (AND+FTP) Release Version Available

shark — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 16:46:00 GMT

After a long and successful beta program, the release version of the ASP.NET FTP Deployment tool (AND+FTP ™) is now available on the download site:

http://www.dotnetftp.com.

This tool is designed specifically to deploy ASP.NET Visual Studio projects from a local workstation to a remote server using FTP. The same options to copy files offered from within Visual Studio using FrontPage extensions or File share are also available with this tool. Like Visual Studio, you can choose to deploy only files needed to run the application, all files in the project, or all files in the project's folders. Timestamps of previously deployed files are used to determine exactly which files in the project need to be deployed.

A fully functional 30 day EVALUATION download is available on the site. The PURCHASE version will be available within the next few days as we are doing final testing of the secure Credit Card processes. The special introductory purchase price is only $28

Members of the Beta Test Team who downloaded the product before 1/26/2004 are eligible for a free upgrade. Simple go to the site and follow the “Beta Upgrade” link on the home page.

I want to personally thank the almost 200 individuals who participated in the Beta program. I hope the tool is helpful, and becomes more feature rich and easy to use with your feedback.

Steve Sharrock

Architecture/Design/Programming

Microsoft MVP: ASP.NET

www.sharkcode.com

www.DotNetFTP.com

Run a Long Process from an ASP.NET Web Page

shark — Mon, 02 Feb 2004 21:15:00 GMT

I've always wanted a simple method to start a long process from a web page, and return to the client before the process completes. Once again, XML web services came to my rescue--requiring only that I insert a one-line attribute in then web service defination.

There is a full article with details of this at ASPAlliance.com...

http://aspalliance.com/329

JavaScript Page Transitions

shark — Sat, 18 Oct 2003 19:35:00 GMT

I'm building a little brochure site for a friend that uses page transitions with the following meta tag:

from within an IFRAME to “fade” quotes into a header on each page. You can see the effect I'm looking for by viewing the site at:

http://www.Doris4Dance.com

I don't like the fact that each “quote” page-load requires a little post back, or that most IE browsers are setup to make the clicking sound during page loads.

I guess I'm looking for the JavaScript that would provide some kind of transition effect, or better yet, a .NET component that would take, say, and XML list of quotes to roll thru. If I can figure out the JavaScript, perhaps I'll write a component.

--- After the first few responses, I should have added that I would prefer to keep this “text based” (rather than animated gifs) so my friend can maintain the messages with a little content editor. Currently they have a “admin” page that lets them update the messages that are persisted to XML. Also, I'd like to extend this, and use it as a learning subproject. Thanks for the responses.

SDForum .NET Month

shark — Tue, 30 Sep 2003 06:13:00 GMT

The Silicon Valley's SDForum is having it's .NET month with a panel speaking on the topic of “18 Months and Counting--Lesson Learned”. Yours truly (Steve Sharrock) will be speaking at this event. I hope to see some of you there.

Panelists:

Yitzchak Ehrlich, Software Engineer - Dynamic Ventures Inc.
Howard Lee, Senior Consultant - CreaTelliSoft
Heinrich Gantenbein, .NET Consultant - IDesign Inc.
Steve Sharrock, President - Stephen Sharrock Consulting, Inc.

Presentation Overview

.NET celebrates its 18 month birthday in October. Come hear what your peers have to share about their experiences with Microsoft's "bet the company" operating platform. You'll hear how local managers, architects, designers, and developers are grappling with the opportunities and challenges presented by .NET. This is guaranteed to be a no-holds-barred discussion about real world experiences from local .NET pioneers. Learn from their experiences; celebrate their victories; feel their pain.

Date: October 1, 2003

Location:

Cubberly Community Center
4000 Middlefield Road, Room H-1
Palo Alto, CA 94105

Directions

Agenda:

6:30-7:00pm registration/networking/open forum/pizza
7:00-7:15pm announcements
7:15-9:00pm presentation

ASP.NET FTP Deployment Tool

shark — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 16:43:00 GMT

It's been a long time without a blog, but I said I would never complain about too much work--ever again.

With a short break from my consulting gig, I've finally been able to work on the first release of the ASP.NET Deployment Tool (AND+FTP). This product has been in beta for several months with about 100 kind souls testing it. This tool allows you to deploy your Visual Studio ASP.NET applications from your local workstation to a remote FTP site in much the same way Visual Studio allows you to deploy using FrontPage extension or File share.

The beta will still be available until the end of August, 2003 and can be downloaded from:

http://www.dotnetftp.com

Beta testers signing up before the end of this period will receive the first production release without charge; although, the price is going to be pretty minimal anyway.

Thanks go to all of the beta testers so far. Your feedback has been great.

Sams ASP.NET Developer's Cookbook by Steven A. Smith and Rob Howard

shark — Sat, 14 Jun 2003 21:51:00 GMT

Sams ASP.NET Developer's Cookbook

I'm proud to be a member of ASPAlliance and one of the contributing authors of "ASP.NET Developer's Cookbook" by Steven A. Smith and Rob Howard. Details...

I just returned from my local Barnes & Noble book store and had the opportunity to see Sam's latest title from our very own Steven A. Smith, and that guy from Microsoft to which we all owe so much. I must admit it was quite a little ego boost to see my very own name listed as one of the contributing authors.

I'm sure this will become one of the well known resources for ASP.NET developers. I'm looking forward to a complete read with a book review to follow.

Best of luck with the publication, and keep up the good work--to both Steven and Rob.