Categories
.NET

Whats New in .NET Framework 3.5

An overview of what's new in .NET Framework 3.5 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332048.aspx

Categories
Career Growth

Beginner Developer Learning Center

While surfing around Developer Center links in msdn online I came across the interesting Beginner Developer Learning Center.

a centralized learning environment specifically targeted to beginning programmers. Here you’ll find a rich array of learning content that starts with the very basics, and guides you through step-by-step to becoming a fully-fledged developer!

No experience or programming knowledge required – so dive right in! [more]

In most forums and in real life, one of the most common questions is where to I start if I want to learn programming. The answer would (IMHO) take a very long time to discuss with regards to what language (this in itself could take ages to debate on), learning design vs. syntactics and semantics of a language, web/windows  and the list goes on.

But if you want to skip the issues above and as the site says “dive right in” with primarily Microsoft technologies then this is a good place to start. And though again the debate could go along way with choosing the right tools and platform, being a .NET Developer (with very minimal knowledge on other languages and platform) I can safely say that development with Microsoft is a very good start (if not very till the end).

Currently the first step is figuring out whether the aspiring developer would like to start on web or windows development and then moving forward with Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 developement.

Of course in addition to this, there is always the ASP.NET GetStarted and Learning Site and Windows Client GetStarted and Learning Site (just knew about this too and got redirected when i typed in windowsforms.net)

Will see if I could update this from time to time or maybe a separate links for learning links. Hope this helps anyone. Enjoy coding!

Categories
.NET

ASP.NET 3.5 MCTS Beta Exam

In connection with a previous post of mine on ADO.NET 3.5 beta exam availability, ASP.NET 3.5 beta exams also runs on the same beta period.

71-562: TS: Microsoft .NET 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development

Promo Code: 562B1 

Preparation Guide : http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-562.mspx 

Some video tutorials here especially on new features for 3.5 and of course http://www.asp.net

Exam preparation information : http://blogs.msdn.com/gerryo/archive/2008/03/13/get-ready-for-the-asp-net-3-5-mcts-exam.aspx

I personally haven't looked deep into these yet (there's just too many things to do and learn everyday) but hey keep those brain cells working 🙂

Categories
.NET

ADO.NET 3.5 MCTS Beta Exam

Just received my MSDN Flash Special Edition regarding Invitation for ADO.NET 3.5 MCTS Exam today. The beta period will run from March 14, 2008 – April 4, 2008

71-561: TS: Microsoft .NET 3.5, ADO.NET Application Development counts as credit towards the following certification(s).

Register thru Prometric

Promo Code : 561B1

Beta exams are by invitation and not available to the general public but there have been some posting on the promo code so might as well have it too.

Also posting some additional information included in the the invitation here (and other resources as I will try to prepare for this exam too)

Preparation Guide : http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-561.mspx

[more]Find exam preparation information: http://blogs.msdn.com/gerryo/archive/2008/03/13/get-ready-for-the-ado-net-3-5-mcts-exam.aspx.

Special Offer: Register to be the first to know when Visual Studio 2008 exams become available. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/sqlvs/offer/default.mspx to see the offer details.
There seems to be no prep guide available yet but even if you won't take the exam, it's always a good idea to stay ahead of the curve.
And here are some info about beta exams

 

Categories
.NET

Multiselect WebCombo (Infragistics)

As Infragistics webcombo (current latest is v7.3) doesn't directly support multiple selection yet as mentioned here I figured I'd post a work around I did while facing the same issue.

Attaching a sample ASP.NET Website Project to this post  (see below) but basically it involves a checkbox column within the webcombo. [more]

However, encountered a few issues in firefox and thus more work-around:

1. clicking on the checkbox column closes up the dropdown – override aftercloseup and afterdropdown client side events to prevent the close up unless the mouse is clicked outside of the dropdown

2. even with the on postback/callback – before posting back (or callback) to the server, saved the selected values (IDs where checkbox was checked) in a hidden form (vertical tab delimited) and parse in the server side.

This was a little pain for something that seems to be a simple requirement so would appreciate any comments or if there is a much simpler solution.

Hope this helps anyone.

MultiSelect_WebCombo.zip (4.58 kb)

And just a little after I posted this I came across this which pretty much does the same thing as above only better 🙂  Turn WebCombo into multiselect Checkbox Combo

This means i'll have to revisit my solution above. Good find. 

Categories
.NET

Visual Studio Gallery

Just ran into one of Bill Evjen's blog post about interesting Visual Studio Plugins and from there came across Visual Studio Gallery – Products and Extensions for Visual Studio.

I don't actually mess with my Visual Studio installation (except for CoolCommands) since as we know it's critical for work but if you feel like giving things a test drive then the items there looks pretty interesting. There's just too many new things going on and needs to be learned lately but trying things out than simply reading about them always is a good way to learn.

Categories
.NET

Convert Enum to Collection For DataBinding

I had a need to convert an enum to a collection for binding and I came across the solution from here

In addition, I thought I'd post an method I've coded before where I needed enum values for binding to (ID and Name) but since enum names cannot contain spaces and I needed the DataTextField (binding with dropdownlist then) to be user friendly. What I did was use DescriptionAttribute for the enum entries and use Reflection to determine the string/text for the enum values.

There is probably a more efficient way to do this but posting nevertheless. Also, I'm honestly not sure where I got the idea for this or if I had a reference so I wouldn't easily claim the code.

[more]

 ** Note that "Entity" below is just a class with public properties  ID(int) and Name(string) and contains an overloaded constructor which accepts parameters ID and Name

   66 public static Collection<Entity> GetBindableEnum(

   67             Enum en)

   68         {

   69             Collection<Entity> retVal = new Collection<Entity>();

   70             Type enumType = en.GetType();

   71             FieldInfo[] fields =

   72                 enumType.GetFields(

   73                     BindingFlags.Public |

   74                     BindingFlags.Static);

   75 

   76             foreach (FieldInfo fld in fields)

   77             {

   78                 // See if the member has a Description attribute:

   79                 object[] descriptionAttributes =

   80                     fld.GetCustomAttributes(

   81                         typeof (DescriptionAttribute), true);

   82 

   83                 if (descriptionAttributes.Length > 0)

   84                 {

   85                     string description = ((DescriptionAttribute) descriptionAttributes[0]).Description;

   86                     int value = Convert.ToInt32(fld.GetValue(en));

   87                     retVal.Add(

   88                         new Entity(

   89                             value,

   90                             description));

   91                 }

   92             }

   93 

   94             return retVal;

   95         }

 Here's an example of an enum with description:

   97 public enum RecurrencePattern

   98         {

   99             [Description("Run Once")]

  100             RunOnce = 1,

  101             [Description("Daily")]

  102             Daily,

  103             [Description("Weekly")]

  104             Weekly,

  105             [Description("Monthly")]

  106             Monthly

  107         }

calling GetBindableEnum(new RecurrencePattern()) should return the Collection of Entity(ies)

Ohh and I just read one of his other blog entries and looks like this is a good addition : Enums and Custom Attributes 

 

Categories
Web

My Technorati Profile

To claim this blog in technorati I have a link to my profile so here it goes: Technorati Profile

Rank: 8,911,336 – not a bad start. hehehe

 

Categories
Data

Introduction to SQL Server 2008 Free eBook

I belive all you need is a Windows Live ID.

The book is not complete yet. Only chapter 1 (Declarative Management Framework) is currently viewable without signing up and signing up includes Chapter 11 (Transact-SQL Enhancement). But when the book is completed the whole content of the book will be available for free. The 1st Chapters is enough for a teaser.

Click here

Categories
.NET

Fixes in .NET Framework 2.0 SP1

For a list of problems that were fixed by .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1, see link below.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945757