:: CODE Magazine - Online Content ::

	*Category: C#*
	98 Articles found and displayed in this view. The Baker’s Dozen: 13 Examples of Functionality in SQL Server 2008 Integration Services Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2010 JulAug Release Date: Monday, June 28, 2010 Quick ID: 1008061 A skilled database developer might find it difficult to accept that other tools can increase productivity. When Microsoft released SQL Server 2005 Integration Services (SSIS 2005), I did not think that any tool could possibly make me more productive than the C# and T-SQL code I was writing by hand. After some reconsideration (and subtle persuasion from peers), I discovered that SSIS 2005 contained many features that indeed reduced my development time - WITHOUT sacrificing flexibility. Microsoft added new functionality in SSIS 2008 to make a strong product even better. In this article, I’ll present 13 different examples that demonstrate the power of Integration Services. Centering Text on a WPF Shape Using a User Control Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2010 JulAug Release Date: Sunday, June 27, 2010 Quick ID: 1008021 WPF excels at creating great looking applications. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - A Platform for Packaged Software? Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2010 JulAug Release Date: Sunday, June 27, 2010 Quick ID: 1008051 Since its introduction in 2008, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 has been touted as a platform for rapid application development.We’ve always been hard core C# and ASP.NET snobs, but we were intrigued by the value that Dynamics CRM promised. We set out to build our next generation software product on that platform, and learned a lot about what’s real and what’s not so real. In this article, we will share the rollercoaster ride of our experience developing our software product on this new CRM “platform.” Chapter 12: Delegates and Lambda Expressions Magazine/Issue: Online CoDe Magazine, Book Excerpts Release Date: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 Quick ID: 100123 PREVIOUS CHAPTERS DISCUSSED extensively how to create classes using many of the built-in C# language facilities for object-oriented development. The objects instantiated from classes encapsulate data and operations on data. As you create more and more classes, you see common patterns in the relationships between these classes. Chapter 8 Magazine/Issue: Online CoDe Magazine, Book Excerpts Release Date: Monday, April 05, 2010 Quick ID: 100093 C# is an evolving language. This chapter looks at the new features added into C# 4.0 that combine to improve code readability and extend your ability to leverage LINQ to Object queries over dynamic data sources. The examples in this chapter show how to improve the coding model for developers around reading data from various sources, including text files and how to combine data from a COM-Interop source into a LINQ to Objects query. Chapter 2: Creating Versatile Types Magazine/Issue: Online CoDe Magazine, Book Excerpts Release Date: Sunday, March 21, 2010 Quick ID: 100083 Whenever you create your own classes, you need to consider the circumstances under which they could be used. For example, will two instances of your Item struct ever be compared for equality? Will your Person class need to be serializable, or sortable? ASP.NET MVC and the Spark View Engine Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2010 MarApr Release Date: Friday, February 12, 2010 Quick ID: 1003051 Getting friendly with HTML in ASP.NET MVC just got a whole lot easier.In this article, I’ll delve into the Spark View Engine, an alternate view engine for the ASP.NET MVC Framework. Spark’s main goal is to allow HTML to dominate the flow of view development while allowing code to fit in seamlessly. Using the Amazon Web Service SDK for .NET Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2010 MarApr Release Date: Friday, February 12, 2010 Quick ID: 1003071 The richest set of cloud computing services comes from a little e-commerce company known as Amazon.com. Developers can access the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform using numerous tools including the .NET platform.Amazon.com is a major player in the cloud computing space and has numerous services available to developers. In late 2009, Amazon released the AWS SDK for .NET. This article will demonstrate using the AWS SDK to create a custom backup service using the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). A Practical Use of Indexers Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2010 MarApr Release Date: Friday, February 12, 2010 Quick ID: 1003121 Consider this hypothetical: You need to track different ways it is permissible to contact a customer.Or perhaps there are multiple attributes you wish to attach to an entity. Further, perhaps you want to define new attributes that can vary from entity to entity. From a database perspective, this can present a thorny problem. Fortunately, indexers in C# provide an elegant solution to the problem. In this article, I will show you how to use indexers to expand an organization’s data and at the same time, have minimal impact on an organization’s database structure. I will also show you how to incorporate this technique with NHibernate and how to verify your results with the MBUnit and TestDriven.net unit testing frameworks. Developing Database Agnostic Applications with Entity Framework Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2010 MarApr Release Date: Friday, February 12, 2010 Quick ID: 1003101 Microsoft released Entity Framework, an ORM (Object Relational Mapping) tool, in 2008.Entity Framework gives developers the ability to be abstracted from the underlying relational database management system and allows them to talk to a database using familiar LINQ-based syntax. Supercharging ASP.NET MVC with MvcContrib Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2010 MarApr Release Date: Friday, February 12, 2010 Quick ID: 1003111 Hot on the heels of the groundbreaking release of ASP.NET MVC CTP 1 in December of 2007, an open source project called MvcContrib came to life.MvcContrib has enjoyed tens of thousands of downloads since it started in December of 2007. In this article, I will explain MvcContrib; it’s major components, how to use it, and how to get involved in its continued development. Can a Fish Use a Bicycle? Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2010 JanFeb Release Date: Friday, December 11, 2009 Quick ID: 1001011 S.O.L.I.D. Software Development, One Step at a Time Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2010 JanFeb Release Date: Friday, December 11, 2009 Quick ID: 1001061 Derick outlines how to achieve the benefits of low coupling, high cohesion, and strong encapsulation. He also shows how the five S.O.L.I.D. design principles can get you there.Most professional software developers understand the academic definitions of coupling, cohesion, and encapsulation.However, many developers do not understand how to achieve the benefits of low coupling, high cohesion and strong encapsulation, as outlined in this article. Fortunately, others have created stepping stones that lead to these goals, resulting in software that is easier to read, easier to understand and easier to change. In this article series, I will define three of the primary object-oriented principles and show how to reach them through the five S.O.L.I.D. design principles. Reinventing Error Handling Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2010 JanFeb Release Date: Friday, December 11, 2009 Quick ID: 1001081 Ned introduces the most significant advance in error handling since exceptions and he shows you a new way to look at errors.This article introduces the most significant advance in error handling since exceptions.You get improved tools for today and a glimpse of radical possibilities for tomorrow. You get a framework which supports more expressive error handlers and gives them equal access to error context information. You get a roadmap for adding improved error handling capabilities, including class-level error handlers and the ability to fix errors at run time. Above all, you get a new way to look at errors. Introducing Advanced Code Contracts with the Entity Framework and Pex Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2010 JanFeb Release Date: Friday, December 11, 2009 Quick ID: 1001101 Martin introduces Design by Contract and Code Contracts, and gives you a sneak preview of Pex—Microsoft’s new test-suite generator. Along the way, he will show you how to add contracts to ADO.NET entities and some interesting coding strategies, good practices, and pitfalls you may encounter while making a deal with your code.With Code Contracts, Microsoft delivers its own flavor of Design by Contract for the .NET Framework. But wait, what is this thing sometimes called Contract-First Development? How will it change the way you develop software and write your unit tests? And first and foremost, how do you use Code Contracts efficiently?In this article, I will introduce Design by Contract and Code Contracts, as well as give you a sneak preview of Pex-Microsoft’s new test-suite generator. Along the way, I will show you how to add contracts to ADO.NET entities and some interesting coding strategies, good practices, and pitfalls you may encounter while making a deal with your code. ASP.NET MVC 2 in Action Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2009 Nov/Dec Release Date: Friday, October 23, 2009 Quick ID: 0911081 Hot on the heels of the groundbreaking release of ASP.NET MVC 1.0, the ASP.NET MVC team at Microsoft has already released the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) of version 2.I have already predicted that Microsoft’s MVC Framework will become the new way to develop Web applications on top of ASP.NET. In this article, I will give a first look at the plans for version 2 and some of the features that already work in the first CTP. What’s New in Visual C# 4.0? Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2009 Nov/Dec Release Date: Friday, October 23, 2009 Quick ID: 0911071 Visual C# version 4.0 offers new features that make it easier for you to work in dynamic programming scenarios.Besides dynamic programming, you have support for optional and named parameters, better COM interop support, and contra-variance and covariance. This article will show you how each of these features work and provide suggestions of how they can be applied to help you be more productive. Silverlight 3: The Highlights Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2009 Nov/Dec Release Date: Friday, October 23, 2009 Quick ID: 0911091 From its earliest beginnings, Silverlight has tried to excite and inspire.Now that Silverlight 3 has shipped, it is time to determine if this is the magical version that every developer should finally take a look at. In this article, I will show you the changes Microsoft has made in hopes of helping you make that decision for your own organization. Post Mortem: Tower48 Software Escrow Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2009 Sep/Oct Release Date: Friday, August 21, 2009 Quick ID: 0909041 Getting Back to Basics Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2009 Sep/Oct Release Date: Sunday, August 16, 2009 Quick ID: 0909021 Our industry is constantly changing. So much so, that it is difficult to keep up sometimes. Essential LINQ Magazine/Issue: Online CoDe Magazine, Book Excerpts Release Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 Quick ID: 090083 LINQ is one of Microsoft’s most exciting, powerful new development technologies. Essential LINQ is the first LINQ book written by leading members of Microsoft’s LINQ and C# teams. Writing for architects, developers, and development managers, these Microsoft insiders share their intimate understanding of LINQ, revealing new patterns and best practices for getting the most out of it. The C# Programming Language - Chapter 7 Magazine/Issue: Online CoDe Magazine, Book Excerpts Release Date: Sunday, May 24, 2009 Quick ID: 090063 More Effective C#: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your C# - Chapter 5 - Working with LINQ Magazine/Issue: Online CoDe Magazine, Book Excerpts Release Date: Monday, May 11, 2009 Quick ID: 090043 The driving force behind the language enhancements to C# 3.0 was LINQ. The new features and the implementation of those features were driven by the need to support deferred queries, translate queries into SQL to support LINQ to SQL, and add a unifying syntax to the various data stores. Chapter 4 shows you how the new language features can be used for many development idioms in addition to data query. This chapter concentrates on using those new features for querying data, regardless of source. ThoughtWorking: Functional Programming in C# 2.0 Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2009 May/Jun Release Date: Monday, April 27, 2009 Quick ID: 0906101 Writing software is hard, particularly when the tools you use force you to think at too low a level; it’s time to start thinking about changing the way you write code… by making it easier to write code.Taking on new ways to program doesn’t always mean tossing away your favorite programming language or environment. Sometimes it just means taking a new look at how you’re using your language and trying out a few new ideas. It’s time to take a hard look at your favorite language and see if it’s possible to “fall in love all over again”. CHAPTER 1 - Introducing the .NET Platform Magazine/Issue: Online CoDe Magazine, Book Excerpts Release Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 Quick ID: 080093 Building Domain Specific Languages in C# Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2009 Jan/Feb Release Date: Friday, December 19, 2008 Quick ID: 0902041 At the JAOO conference in Aarhus, Denmark this year, domain specific languages came up in virtually every conversation. Every keynote mentioned them, a lot of sessions discussed them (including a pre-conference workshop by Martin Fowler and myself), and you could hear “DSL” in most of the hallway conversations. Why this, and why now? An Introduction to jQuery, Part 1 Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2009 Jan/Feb Release Date: Friday, December 19, 2008 Quick ID: 0902051 jQuery is a small JavaScript library that makes development of HTML-based client JavaScript drastically easier. With client logic getting ever more complex and browsers still diverging in features and implementation of features, jQuery and other client libraries provide much needed normalization when working with JavaScript and the HTML DOM. The Baker’s Dozen: 13 Miscellaneous C#, SQL, and Business Intelligence Development Tips Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2009 Jan/Feb Release Date: Friday, December 19, 2008 Quick ID: 0902071 No, the title isn’t a misprint-this installment of the Baker’s Dozen will visit both sides of the planet. These days, many .NET user group meetings focus on database and business intelligence topics as well as hardcore .NET content. Over the last several months, I’ve spent roughly half my time modifying my own development framework for WCF. The result is some basic but functional factory classes I’d like to share. The other half of the time, I’ve been looking at different capabilities in the SQL Server 2005 and 2008 Business Intelligence stack, and solving requirements that BI developers often face. So rather than pick one side and make the other side wait two months, I decided to combine the two. Languages Re-Unleashed Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2008 Sep/Oct Release Date: Friday, August 22, 2008 Quick ID: 0809011 Sept/Oct 08 Editorial by Rod Paddock Polyglot Programming: Building Solutions by Composing Languages Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2008 Sep/Oct Release Date: Friday, August 22, 2008 Quick ID: 0809041 Polyglot programming refers to leveraging existing platforms by solving problems via solutions that compose special purpose languages.This concept leverages the multi-language nature of the CLR to create simpler solutions to vexing problems. This article delves into the motivation, benefits, and challenges of writing applications in this style. From Delegate to Lambda Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2008 Sep/Oct Release Date: Friday, August 22, 2008 Quick ID: 0809081 The key to understanding lambda expressions is understanding delegates. Delegates play a tremendously important role in developing applications for the .NET Framework, especially when using C# or Visual Basic. Events, a special application of delegates, are used all over the framework. And the application and possibilities of delegates has only grown over time. C# 2.0 introduced the concept of anonymous methods and C# 3.0 and VB 9 take anonymous methods to the next level with lambda expressions. This article reviews the evolution of delegates and examines possibilities and syntax of delegates and lambdas in .NET 3.5. Getting Started with Windows Mobile Development Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2008 Jul/Aug Release Date: Friday, June 06, 2008 Quick ID: 0807071 In today’s world of fast food, fast cars, and instant gratification, people expect to be in touch at all times.We have become conditioned to staying in touch with businesses, friends, and families. Because of this desire for instant data, we have the Internet, cell phones, Wi-Fi, MP3 players, and DVD players. As the equipment needed to drive this thirst has become smaller and smaller, we find ourselves looking for portable replacements for our bulky desktop computers. Beyond the Reach Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2008 Jul/Aug Release Date: Friday, June 06, 2008 Quick ID: 0807111 July August 2008 .Finalize(): column by Ken Getz. MVP Corner: A Baker’s Dozen of Reflections Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2008 Jul/Aug Release Date: Friday, June 06, 2008 Quick ID: 0807021 July August 2008 MVP Corner by Kevin S. Goff Chapter 38: The Payroll User Interface: Model View Presenter Magazine/Issue: Online CoDe Magazine, Book Excerpts Release Date: Saturday, March 15, 2008 Quick ID: 070203 from Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C# As far as the customer is concerned, the Interface is the product.-Jef Raskin WPF Meets the iPhone Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2008 Mar/Apr Release Date: Thursday, February 28, 2008 Quick ID: 0803061 The iPhone is one of the most compelling and exciting user interfaces to appear on any consumer electronic device, with many innovations that make it a pleasure to use. How can you deliver a similar experience with your .NET applications?This article demonstrates how you can implement these features in your .NET applications in a step-by-step format as you recreate the iPhone interface using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) technology with both Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft Expression Blend. Visual Basic and Respect Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2008 Jan/Feb Release Date: Friday, December 28, 2007 Quick ID: 0801111 Ken Getz Jan/Feb 08 FInalize article. C# 3.0 Syntax Additions-Design Guidelines Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2008 Jan/Feb Release Date: Friday, December 28, 2007 Quick ID: 0801061 C# 3.0 includes a few syntactical additions to the language. For the most part, Microsoft added these language additions to support Language Integrated Query (LINQ). These features include (but are not limited to) lambda expressions, extensions methods, anonymous types, implicitly typed local variables, automatic properties, and object initializers. Chapter 11: Generics Magazine/Issue: Online CoDe Magazine, Book Excerpts Release Date: Thursday, November 01, 2007 Quick ID: 070083 Essential C# 2.0 is a clear, concise guide to C#—including the features new to C# 2.0. The book clearly presents material for beginners and experts and provides contrasts and comparisons between C# and other languages. The C# language is covered comprehensively and each important construct is illustrated with succinct code examples. Complete code examples are available online. Mark Michaelis has organized the material for quick access. Graphical “mind maps” at the beginning of each chapter show what material is covered and how each topic relates to the whole. Microsoft XNA: Ready for Prime Time? Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2007 Sep/Oct Release Date: Friday, August 10, 2007 Quick ID: 0709041 Microsoft opened the doors of game development to the .NET developer community in December 2006 with the first release of XNA Game Studio Express.No longer constrained to enterprise systems, database-driven applications or Web service layers, .NET developers can now spread their digital wings and let their pixelized imagination run wild as their favorite development platform and language now enable them to explore new worlds and new challenges of their own making, all in full high definition (HD) at 60 frames per second! But who is XNA for? Is it a serious enough initiative, platform, and set of tools for professional game developers in the gaming industry? Eager to answer those questions, I (virtually) sat down with a number of professional game designers, studio directors, and developers for a chat in order to find out: Is Microsoft XNA ready for prime time? Introducing XNA Game Studio Express Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2007 Sep/Oct Release Date: Friday, August 10, 2007 Quick ID: 0709051 What does XNA stand for? It’s a recursive acronym that stands for “XNA’s Not Acronymed”. Aren’t developers fun? The Baker’s Dozen: A 13-Step Crash Course for Using LINQ Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2007 - Jul/Aug Release Date: Friday, June 29, 2007 Quick ID: 0707051 How many software tasks DON’T involve reading through data? Answer: very few. Developers work all the time with database data, XML data, DataSets, collections, lists, and arrays-all with different syntax and functionality for each one. Developers who write T-SQL code often covet set-based language statements when they work against other types of data. Additionally, developers who have coded against strongly-typed custom collections wish they could write SQL database queries with IntelliSense. Language Integrated Query (LINQ), a set of extensions to the .NET Framework for the next version of Visual Studio codename “Orcas”, brings the promise of integrated and uniform query capabilities to increase developer productivity when working with different types of data. While LINQ is a large topic worthy of books, this edition of The Baker’s Dozen will provide a crash course to learn what’s under the LINQ hood. Create a Custom DataGridView Column Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2007 - Jul/Aug Release Date: Friday, June 29, 2007 Quick ID: 0707061 Creating custom column types for the DataGridView control isn’t nearly as tricky as it once was.In this article, you’ll learn how to take advantage of inheritance to create your own bar graph column in a grid cell. The Baker’s Dozen: 13 Steps for Building a Lookup Page Using ASP.NET 2.0, SQL 2005, and C# 2.0 Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2007 - Mar/Apr Release Date: Friday, March 02, 2007 Quick ID: 0703041 Lookup and navigation screens initially seem like no-brainers, when compared to other parts of an application-yet by the time a developer has met all the user requirements and requests, he/she has expended much more time than expected. This issue of The Baker’s Dozen will build a lookup Web page using ASP.NET 2.0, SQL Server 2005, and C# 2.0. The lookup and results page will contain optional lookup criteria and custom paging of the result set. The solution will utilize new language features in SQL 2005 for providing ranking numbers to correlate with custom paging, and new capabilities in .NET generics to pump the results of a stored procedure into a custom collection. Just like Mr. Mayagi taught Daniel the martial arts by doing exercises, the example in this article will demonstrate some common design patterns, such as factory creation patterns, using .NET generics. The article also subtly presents a general methodology for building database Web pages. Everyday Use of Generics Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2007 - Mar/Apr Release Date: Friday, March 02, 2007 Quick ID: 0703061 You may think of generics as a Ferrari that you only take out for special occasions; but they are better compared to your trusty pickup, perfectly suited for everyday use. The Missing LINQ Magazine/Issue: CoDe Focus Magazine, 2007 - Vol. 4 - Issue 1 - Sedna: Beyond Visual FoxPro 9 Release Date: Monday, January 29, 2007 Quick ID: 0703032 Visual FoxPro’s (VFP) Data Manipulation Language (DML) is one of VFP’s most compelling features. It is also the most obvious feature VFP developers miss in .NET languages such as C# and Visual Basic. However, Language Integrated Query (LINQ), a new query language for .NET developers is a new feature in the upcoming releases of C# 3.and Visual Basic 9.0 that addresses these shortcomings. The Baker’s Dozen: 13 Productivity Tips for Generating PowerPoint Presentations Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2006 - Nov/Dec Release Date: Friday, October 20, 2006 Quick ID: 0611071 This installment of “The Baker’s Dozen” finds the Baker expanding from pastries to eye candy: generating PowerPoint output. Many power users build presentations using data from Excel or other data sources. This article shows how to automate Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 from within a Visual Studio 2005 application. The article presents a class called GenPPT, which creates several different types of slides, including slides that integrate tables and charts. GenPPT is written in Visual Basic 2005, and the demo program that calls it is written in C#: this demonstrates using multiple .NET languages in a solution. LINQ Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2006 - Mar/Apr Release Date: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 Quick ID: 0603021 At PDC 2005, Microsoft introduced brand new technology known as LINQ, which stands for “Language Integrated Query.”The feature-set hiding behind this acronym is truly mind-boggling and worthy of a lot of attention. In short, LINQ introduces a query language similar to SQL Server’s T-SQL, in C# and VB.NET. Imagine that you could issue something like a “select * from customers” statement within C# or VB.NET. This sounds somewhat intriguing, but it doesn’t begin to communicate the power of LINQ. LINQ Up! Magazine/Issue: Online CoDe Magazine, Publisher's Point Release Date: Monday, December 19, 2005 Quick ID: 050133 At PDC 2005, Microsoft announced a new technology called Language Integrated Query (LINQ), which will be available with Visual Studio “Orcas” (the next version of Visual Studio). A lot of exciting new technologies are announced at every PDC, and as a result, LINQ got some attention, but not nearly as much as I think it deserves. LINQ represents the ability to run queries right inside of Visual Basic, C#, or any other .NET language. C-Sharpest Magazine/Issue: Online CoDe Magazine, Publisher's Point Release Date: Sunday, December 04, 2005 Quick ID: 050123 C# 2.0 just shipped with a number of interesting new features: anonymous methods, nullable objects, iterators, partial classes, generics, and others. But the innovation does not stop there! Microsoft (and Anders Hejlsberg in particular) have already allowed us a sneak peek at some of the new features that will be available in C# 3.0. LINQx Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2005 - Nov/Dec Release Date: Friday, October 28, 2005 Quick ID: 0511121 Microsoft demonstrated a new technology at PDC called LINQ (Language Integrated Query). The following note from Alan Griver, a member of the LINQ team at Microsoft, offers some details related to the LINQ project. In future issues of CoDe Magazine we will have more details on LINQ.Microsoft demonstrated a new technology at PDC called LINQ (Language Integrated Query). The following note from Alan Griver, a member of the LINQ team at Microsoft, offers some details related to the LINQ project. In future issues of CoDe Magazine we will have more details on LINQ. .Finalize(): Seek and Ye Shall Find: AutoComplete in Windows Forms 2.0 Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2005 - Sep/Oct Release Date: Thursday, August 25, 2005 Quick ID: 0509111 Finalize Column Sept/Oct 2005 Ken Getz Ask the Doc Detective Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2005 - Jul/Aug Release Date: Monday, June 20, 2005 Quick ID: 0507101 Doc Detective - July/August 05 Pest Control Magazine/Issue: Online CoDe Magazine, Publisher's Point Release Date: Monday, February 07, 2005 Quick ID: 050033 Brian Kernighan [1] once said, "Debugging is twice as hard as writing code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it." This quote gets a little giggle out of most developers, but on the serious side, there is a lot of truth in it. Writing code that does cool or useful things certainly is much easier than writing code that does cool or useful things reliably. Great Reasons to Ring In 2005! Magazine/Issue: Online CoDe Magazine, Publisher's Point Release Date: Thursday, January 06, 2005 Quick ID: 050013 Wow, another year has gone by, and as you read this, you are probably returning to the office after a few more or less relaxing holiday time spent with friends and family and a New Year's celebration. Interesting things have happened in our industry in the last 12 months, but I predict that the next 12 months will be quite a bit more interesting! Seldom before have I been as excited about new technologies and developments as I am now. Sorting Objectively Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2005 - Jan/Feb Release Date: Friday, December 24, 2004 Quick ID: 0501021 Jonathan Goodyear (the Angry Coder) January/Febuary 2005 Sorting Custom Collections Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2005 - Jan/Feb Release Date: Monday, December 20, 2004 Quick ID: 0501051 Have you ever wanted to use a strongly-typed collection to bind your data presentation controls to, only to find that you have very limited sorting capabilities, if any at all?If you are trying to stick to good object-oriented design and shrink the amount of data that you keep in memory, transfer from your data source, or serialize to clients, you likely have run into this situation because you are using strongly-typed collections of your domain objects. So what do you do if you need to sort those collections for presentation or faster searching? 'For-Each' Of My Own Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2004 - September/October Release Date: Friday, August 20, 2004 Quick ID: 0409091 The .NET Framework provides many new collection classes that you can iterate (for-each) through.But did you know that you can also iterate through values in any of your classes, not just those that use or inherit from collections? Building a Better Configuration Settings Class Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2004 - July/August Release Date: Sunday, June 20, 2004 Quick ID: 0407081 Configuration settings make it possible for users and administrators to configure an application before it is run for the first time and while it runs..NET provides a good rudimentary mechanism for storing and retrieving configuration settings in the application's .config file with the ConfigurationSettings class, but this mechanism is missing a number of essential features. This article describes how to improve on the base functionality using a class that provides strong typing, allows for writing of keys, and provides optional encryption of keys. Overload Operators to Operate on Your Objects Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2004 - July/August Release Date: Sunday, June 20, 2004 Quick ID: 0407041 Operator overloading provides an intuitive way to support mathematical and comparative operations on your objects.Operator overloading is one of those features that you don't need very often, but when you need it, operator overloading is very nice to have. You will find operator overloading in C# now, but you won't find it in Visual Basic until the upcoming Visual Studio 2005 release. Async-Up Your Objects Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2004 - May/June Release Date: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 Quick ID: 0405051 Encapsulate asynchronous functionality directly into your business objects.The .NET Framework facilitates calling object methods asynchronously through the use of delegates. You may already know how to do this using helper code, but there is a cleaner and much cooler way of packaging this kind of functionality right inside your business objects. Behold WSE 2.0: Removing Another Layer of WS-Pain Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2004 - May/June Release Date: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 Quick ID: 0405061 The official release of Microsoft's Web Services Enhancements (WSE) toolkit promises to help developers deal with at least some of the pain and suffering accompanying the emerging Web services' standards.Updated to support the OASIS WS-Security specification and a promising WS-Policy specification, developers will be able to build standards-compliant Web services in less time and with less code. Use Generics to Create an Audit Trail Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2004 - May/June Release Date: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 Quick ID: 0405041 Building an audit trail into your application provides a mechanism for tracking who updated what when, and the new generics feature in Whidbey helps you build that trail.The Whidbey release of .NET will include a new Common Language Runtime (CLR) feature called generics. Generics allow you to use a variable to represent a desired data type, and thereby create very generic code (hence the name) that works with any data type.You define the data type for the generic variable at run time and the CLR substitutes that data type for the variable everywhere in the code that it is used; basically providing you with strongly typed generic code. Give Your Forms a Base Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2004 - March/April Release Date: Friday, February 20, 2004 Quick ID: 0403031 Create a base form class to ensure that all of the forms in your application behave consistently. This technique minimizes the amount of repetitive code you need to write to manage the user's interaction with your forms. Asynchronous Windows Forms Programming Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2004 - March/April Release Date: Friday, February 20, 2004 Quick ID: 0403071 Windows Forms applications often require some sort of asynchronous invocation option.You rarely want to block the user interface while a lengthy operation executes in the background. Windows Forms pose a set of complicated design and implementation issues when it comes to asynchronous method invocation and multithreading due to the underlying Windows messages processing. Although .NET does provide a uniform asynchronous invocation mechanism (described in my article, "Asynchronous .NET Programming", CoDe Magazine, May 2003) you cannot apply it as-is in a Windows Forms application. To address this problem, the next version of .NET (version 2.0, code-name Whidbey) provides a new component designed to ease the task of developing asynchronous Windows Forms applications. This article starts by describing the current asynchronous programming model available to Windows Forms developers. Then, not only does this article describe the Whidbey solution, it also provides a .NET 1.1 implementation of the solution so that you can take advantage of this superior programming model today and ease the transition into Windows Forms 2.0 in the future. Integrating the Google Web Service Into ASP.NET Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2004 - March/April Release Date: Friday, February 20, 2004 Quick ID: 0403091 Google now offers the functionality of its search engine through a Web service.Over the past couple years, Google has become the most popular search engine used on the Web. Building upon its popularity, Google has developed additional search accessories and interfaces for both personal and commercial use. The most powerful interface offered by Google is exposure of its database and search capabilities through the use of a Web service. An Introduction to Visual Studio .NET Whidbey Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2004 - January/February Release Date: Monday, January 05, 2004 Quick ID: 0303022 When I was asked to write a few pages on what's coming in the next version of Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (code named Whidbey), the biggest issue I had was how to limit this article to a few pages.I opted to list a few categories and drill down into each. I'm not going to cover everything, just some key items in each area. Please note that not all of these changes are implemented in the PDC build that attendees are receiving, and that some of these features are still in the planning stages. That said, here are the categories that I'd like to discuss: Creating Skinned Controls for ASP.NET Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2004 - January/February Release Date: Monday, January 05, 2004 Quick ID: 0401051 Skinned controls make a user interface very flexible.With skinned controls, the functionality and the presentation of a server control are effectively separated, making it very easy to change the presentation of the control. If used properly, you can use skinned controls to change the look of an entire Web site by just selecting a separate set of skins. C# 2.0 Code Refactoring Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2004 - January/February Release Date: Monday, January 05, 2004 Quick ID: 0401071 The next version of C# will feature a code refactoring engine built into the Visual Studio environment.A term coined by Martin Fowler, code refactoring allows you to change the code structure without changing or affecting what the code itself actually does. For example, changing a variable name or packaging a few lines of code into a method are code refactoring. The main difference between C# 2.0 refactoring and a mere edit or find-and-replace is that you can harness the intelligence of the compiler to distinguish between code and comments, and so on. This article provides a preview of Visual C# 2.0 code refactoring, to be released with the next version of Visual Studio .NET, code-name Whidbey. Three Cool New Features in C# Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2004 - January/February Release Date: Thursday, January 01, 2004 Quick ID: 0303072 C# has always had a reputation as a clean language with lots of innovation.The Whidbey-release of Visual Studio .NET ships with a new version of the C# compiler that has a number of great new features. Some of them will be implemented as generic runtime features that will show up in other languages as well, and some are truly C#-specific. All of them originated in the C# camp. In this article, I will shed some light on my three favorite new features. Creating Tablet PC Applications with VS .NET Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - September/October Release Date: Monday, September 01, 2003 Quick ID: 0309041 In the Fall of 2002, Microsoft introduced Tablet PCs based on the popular Windows XP operating system.By default, this new platform includes applications with special Tablet PC features enabled, such as Ink Input and Pen-based operation. In order for this platform to become truly popular, third-party vendors will also have to ink-enable their applications. Luckily, this is a pretty straightforward task. Working with .NET Threads Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - September/October Release Date: Friday, August 15, 2003 Quick ID: 0309071 The .NET class Thread defined in the System.Threading namespace represents a managed thread.The Thread class provides various methods and properties to control the managed thread. Unfortunately, there is a significant potential for abusing these mechanisms, and most developers may not even realize they are doing anything wrong. This article describes the dos and don'ts of the Thread class, and then presents a wrapper class that simplifies starting a thread, correctly terminates a thread, and offers a more consistent class interface than that of the raw Thread class. Creating ASP.NET Custom Controls with Style Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - September/October Release Date: Friday, August 15, 2003 Quick ID: 0309091 Having a custom control display properly is a challenge in itself.Getting your custom control to behave the way you want it to is only half the work. Once you get to the visual side of things you have to create the logic that generates the actual HTML shown in the browser. If you want the control to display properly, this can be a tedious task, especially if you want it to render properly in different browsers. Five ASP.NET Controls You Might Be Craving Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - September/October Release Date: Friday, August 15, 2003 Quick ID: 0309051 ASP.NET is a terrific platform for Web applications.That does not mean that tricky coding is always one or two clicks away within a dockable and resizable Visual Studio .NET dialog box. Tricky solutions require tricky coding, just the kind of features that a wizard-driven environment and a general-purpose framework can't provide. In this article, we'll tackle five ASP.NET features that require wicked and creative code. Cryptography the .NET Way Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - July/August Release Date: Sunday, June 15, 2003 Quick ID: 0307051 In real-world applications you just can't do without encryption.The problem with cryptography, though, is that sometimes it may make you use an overly complex API. The .NET Framework classes for cryptography don't require you to become an expert mathematician or a cryptography guru. In the .NET Framework you'll find symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic providers as well as hash providers. Some of these provider classes end up calling into the unmanaged CryptoAPI library while other parts of the .NET cryptography solution are purely managed code. Defining and Using Custom Attribute Classes in C# Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - July/August Release Date: Sunday, June 15, 2003 Quick ID: 0307041 The complex, component-style development that businesses expect out of modern software developers requires greater design flexibility than the design methodologies of the past. Microsoft's .NET Framework makes extensive use of attributes to provide added functionality through what is known as "declarative" programming. Attributes enhance flexibility in software systems because they promote loose coupling of functionality. Because you can create your own custom attribute classes and then act upon them, you can leverage the loose coupling power of attributes for your own purposes. .NET Web Services Security Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - July/August Release Date: Sunday, June 15, 2003 Quick ID: 0307071 Web services are all about connecting businesses in a standard and secure manner.For a real-life Web service, security is intrinsic to every facet of operation and no party would ever agree to interact with a non-secure Web service. Unfortunately, Web services security is still in its infancy; standards such as WS-I are just emerging and there is no built-in support in the development tools for them. That being said, there are quite a few programming techniques you can use today in .NET 1.1 to secure your Web services, and do so in a way that will ease the transition to future standards and protocols. The Basics of GDI+ Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - May/June Release Date: Thursday, May 01, 2003 Quick ID: 0305031 In graphical user interfaces such as Microsoft Windows, drawing on the screen is an important task.Everything displayed on the screen is based on simple drawing operations. Often, environments such as Visual Basic abstract those drawing operations away from the developer. However, the same drawing operations still take place under the hood. In Visual Studio .NET, developers have easy access to that drawing functionality whenever they need it through a technology called GDI+. Using GDI+, developers can easily perform drawing operations such as generating graphs or building custom controls. Using GDI+ in ASP.NET Web Applications, Part 1 Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - May/June Release Date: Thursday, May 01, 2003 Quick ID: 03050801 GDI+ is a technology that developers generally associate with Windows Forms applications because they use it to draw anything on the screen from custom controls to diagrams.However, you can also use GDI+ in ASP.NET Web applications whenever you want to serve up dynamic images. You can use GDI+ to create dynamic banners, photo albums, graphs, diagrams, and more. Dynamically Adding Wired Controls to Web Forms Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - May/June Release Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 Quick ID: 0305101 The task of creating dynamic ASP.NET Web Forms whose behavior is based upon user interaction and depends upon the purpose and intended goal of the Web Form.Web Forms that require only controls and functionality provided by the built-in ASP.NET Web server controls are easy to create. But creating Web Forms that require or are designed with extended controls and functionality can be a challenge. GDI+ Drawing Page, Part 1 Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - May/June Release Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 Quick ID: 0305061 There was a time, not too long ago, when browser-based user interfaces were considered both the status quo and the Next Great Thing.The demand for Windows Forms-based applications started to dwindle as the developer community fully embraced browser/server applications with their centralized server components and ubiquitous user interfaces. .NET, however, brings a much more powerful library of distributed communication technologies (such as Web services and remoting). As a result, .NET developers are seeing some of these traditionally browser-based applications becoming, more simply, Web-enabled and less tied to a browser. In short, developers can now see a very real business case for building distributed applications on Windows Forms technology. The .NET File System Object Model Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - May/June Release Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 Quick ID: 0305051 The .NET Framework doesn't change the structure of the file system, nor does it build a new layer on top of it.More simply, but also more effectively for developers, it supplies a new object model for file system-related operations. A managed application can work with files and directories using high-level methods rather than low level understanding of the file system. This article provides an overview of methods and classes contained in the System.IO namespace. Asynchronous Calls in .NET Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - May/June Release Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 Quick ID: 0305071 When you make a method call on an object, typically you must block the client while the object executes the call, and control returns to the client only when the method completes execution and returns.However, there are quite a few cases where you want to call methods asynchronously?that is, you want control to return immediately to the client while the object executes the called method in the background, and then somehow let the client know when the method execution is completed. Such an execution mode is called asynchronous method invocation and the action is an asynchronous call. Asynchronous calls allow you to improve availability, increase throughput and performance, and make your applications more scalable. XQuery, the Query Language of the Future Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - May/June Release Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 Quick ID: 0305091 XQuery will likely become the dominant language for querying data from most data sources.Although designed for querying XML data, you can use XQuery to tie together data from multiple data sources. In that respect it is much more powerful than SQL, which will slowly but surely be replaced as the main query language. Getting Started with ASP.NET Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - March/April Release Date: Saturday, March 01, 2003 Quick ID: 0303081 ASP.NET represents a significant leap forward from traditional Active Server Pages (ASP) development. In this article, I'll show you what it takes to begin building ASP.NET Websites with Visual Studio .NET. This article will provide you with the knowledge you need to jumpstart your foray into the world of ASP.NET development. What's New in Visual Studio .NET 1.1? Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - March/April Release Date: Saturday, March 01, 2003 Quick ID: 0303121 Visual Studio .NET provides a new set of features designed to improve and enhance the development experience. Most of these changes have to do with user ergonomics and are typical of a minor release of a Visual Studio product. Only a few of the changes are related to the underlying platform. This article assumes you are familiar with Visual Studio .NET 1.0 and it presents only the new features of the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) of Visual Studio .NET 1.1, for both C# and Visual Basic .NET. J# is not discussed because it was not part of Visual Studio .NET 1.0. In the interest of space, some minor cosmetic changes (such as reorganization of the Start page) are not listed. A Not-So-Quick Tour of the Web DataGrid Control Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - March/April Release Date: Saturday, March 01, 2003 Quick ID: 0303091 Data-bound controls play a key role in the development of ASP.NET applications. Data-driven controls allow you to associate their whole interface, or individual properties, with one or more columns of a .NET-compliant data source. In this article, I'll delve into the depths of an extremely versatile data-bound control that is a fixed resence in any real-world ASP.NET application - the DataGrid control. I'll focus on the key programming aspects of the control, including data binding, column mapping, paging, and sorting. Using the ASP.NET Runtime to Extend Desktop Applications with HTML Scripts Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - March/April Release Date: Saturday, February 15, 2003 Quick ID: 0303131 People often think of HTML as the sole domain for Web applications.But HTML's versatile display attributes are also very useful for handling data display of all sorts in desktop applications. The Visual Studio .NET start page is a good example. Coupled with a scripting/template mechanism you can build highly extendable applications that would be very difficult to build using standard Windows controls. In this article, Rick introduces how to host the ASP.NET runtime in desktop applications and utilize this technology in a completely client-side application using the Web Browser control. Shaped .NET Windows Forms Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2003 - Jan/Feb Release Date: Wednesday, January 01, 2003 Quick ID: 0301061 Since the earliest versions of the Windows operating system, all Windows have been rectangular.However, the number of applications that break out of this boring mold is rising. Even Microsoft, the king of rectangularity, is starting to create applications that use shaped windows, such as Media Player. Unfortunately, creating shaped forms has always been quite tricky. Until now that is! The .NET Framework and the Windows Forms package in particular make it easy to produce forms that have rather sophisticated shapes. Threading Support in the .NET Framework Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2002 - Nov/Dec Release Date: Friday, November 01, 2002 Quick ID: 0211141 This article explains in depth how to implement multi-threading in your .NET applications. Dynamically Executing Code in .NET Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2002 - Nov/Dec Release Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 Quick ID: 0211081 This article demonstrates the techniques for compiling dynamic code in your .NET applications. C#: Why Do We Need Another Language? Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2002 - Sept/Oct Release Date: Thursday, August 15, 2002 Quick ID: 0209041 New computer languages are rare and successful ones are rarer still, yet Microsoft decided to create a new language to go along with the .NET Developer Platform. Why weren't existing languages good enough? Ask the Doc Detective Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2002 - Sept/Oct Release Date: Thursday, August 15, 2002 Quick ID: 0209101 Tips and Tricks from the Doc Detective .NET Interface-based Programming Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2002 - May/June Release Date: Monday, April 15, 2002 Quick ID: 0205091 In component-based programming, the basic unit of use in an application is a binary-compatible interface.The interface provides an abstract service definition between the client and the object. This is in contrast to the object-oriented view of the world that places the object implementing the interface at the center. An interface is a logical grouping of method definitions that acts as the contract between the client and the service provider. Each provider is free to provide its own interpretation of the interface and its own implementation. To use a component, the client only needs to know the interface definition and have a binary component that implements that interface. This extra level of indirection between the client and the object provides for interchangeability between different implementations of the same interface, without affecting client code. Retrieving HTTP content in .NET Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2002 - May/June Release Date: Monday, April 15, 2002 Quick ID: 0205081 HTTP content retrieval is an important component for applications these days.Although .NET reduces the need to explicitly retrieve content from the Web through built-in mechanisms in the Web Services framework, ADO.NET and the XML classes, there are still many needs to retrieve Web content directly and manipulate it as text or data downloaded into files. In this article, I will describe the functionality of the HttpWebRequest and HttpWebResponse classes and provide an easy to use wrapper class. The class simplifies the HTTP access and provides most of the common features in a single interface while still providing full access to the base functionality of the HttpWebRequest class. In the process, I will describe some sticky issues like string encoding and Cookie handling and some related topics like implementing events and running multiple threads to service Web requests. XML to Database using .NET's XmlTextReader Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2002 - Jan/Feb Release Date: Saturday, December 15, 2001 Quick ID: 0201031 As XML becomes more and more prolific in the world of data exchange it's increasingly important that data can be quickly and easily extracted from XML documents and moved into more permanent data stores.Although .NET offers several different ways for performing this task, the XmlTextReader represents the most efficient and scalable solution. Custom .NET Windows Forms Controls Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2002 - Jan/Feb Release Date: Saturday, December 15, 2001 Quick ID: 0201081 The .Net framework provides two base classes for controls; one for Windows forms and the other for ASP.NET server controls.We can extend the existing controls by adding specific functionality to them or develop our own controls from scratch. Such controls are called custom controls. We can also group controls together and create another control, such as an address box, that contains couple of textboxes and labels. Controls that are grouped together and are based on System.Winforms.UserControl are called user controls. This article explains the process of creating a user control and demonstrates how we can extend the functionality of the framework's DateTimePicker control. Building Data Access Components in C# Magazine/Issue: CoDe Magazine, 2001 - Issue 1 Release Date: Monday, January 15, 2001 Quick ID: 0101021 With the functionality provided by the .NET runtime, building data access components with C# (pronounced "c-sharp") is not difficult.In this article, we discuss how to access data stored in a SQL Server database. We will then review the steps necessary to build a Dynamic Link Library and an Executable file in C# to query a table and display the results.