DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by Matt_TCF

Using SpecsFor.Mvc - Dealing with Authentication

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 04:35:32 GMT

This is part four of my series on using SpecsFor.Mvc to write awesome automated acceptance tests for your ASP.NET MVC application. In this post, I'll show you how to create an authentication handler that will be used by SpecsFor.Mvc to authenticate with your app prior to executing each spec.

Using SpecsFor.Mvc - Reading Data

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 05:58:17 GMT

This is part three of my series on Using SpecsFor.Mvc to write awesome automated acceptance tests for your ASP.NET MVC application. In this post, I'll show you how to create tests that verify expected data is displayed on a page by leveraging the MvcDisplayTemplates project with SpecsFor.Mvc.

Using SpecsFor.Mvc - Navigation and Form Submission

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 03:00:48 GMT

This is part two of my series on Using SpecsFor.Mvc to write awesome automated acceptance tests for your ASP.NET MVC application. In this post, we'll look at navigating around your app from SpecsFor.Mvc and at how to locate, populate, and submit forms.

A very simple Jasmine runner for ASP.NET Applications

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:09:02 GMT

I made a very simple Jasmine test runner using ASP.NET WebPages. It automatically detects and executes your specs.

Using SpecsFor.Mvc - Introduction

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 17:39:29 GMT

SpecsFor.Mvc is a framework for creating automated acceptance tests, powered by borwser automation, for ASP.NET MVC applications. Unlike lower-level tools such as Selenium or Watin, SpecsFor.Mvc is strongly-typed and enables you to write unit-test like specs that will be translated into fullly automated tests through Internet Explorer or Firefox.

ASP.NET MVC 3, Razor-C#, and VB.NET WebForms - ActionLink, RenderParti

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:28:09 GMT

Today I'm going to show you how to use MVC helper methods in your ASP.NET WebForms markup. Why would you want to do this? Maybe you're in the same boat I'm in, working on a project that has an extensive investment in WebForms, and a wholesale migration to MVC is just not possible. With a little bit of black magic, I'll show you how to make strongly-typed action links, render partial Razor views, and render complete MVC actions within a standard ASP.NET WebForms application.

Quick-and-Easy Database Integration Tests with SpecsFor

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 05:27:21 GMT

SpecsFor makes it very easy to bolt on your own conventions, create your own base classes, and extend its behavior to support your specific testing needs. I'm working on a project that's built on LINQ to SQL, and I wanted to start creating integration tests around our stored procedures and views. Here's the base class I made to handle establishing a database connection, loading in "seed data," and then cleaning up after each set of specs once they're finished.

ASP.NET MVC 3, Razor-C#, and VB.NET WebForms - Part 2

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 03:46:42 GMT

Do you want to develop using C# and the latest ASP.NET MVC framework, but are stuck maintaining a legacy VB.NET WebForms application? There's hope! In the second part of this series, you'll see how you can write normal C# MVC code, including using Razor views, that can be consumed by a VB.NET WebForms application and how to leverage the existing VB.NET master pages.

ASP.NET MVC 3, Razor-C#, and VB.NET WebForms - A Tale of Black Magic V

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:36:25 GMT

What do you get when you mix a legacy VB.NET WebForms application, ASP.NET MVC, and Razor views that are written in C#? If you said "Pain!" you are quite right. But what you also get is the ability to leverage your existing investment in VB.NET WebForms while crafting new code in ASP.NET MVC Razory-C# goodness. In this series of posts, I'm going to tell you how you, too, can concoct a wicked brew that will enable you to do crazy things, such as creating Razor views in C# that utilize VB.NET WebForms master pages, or how you can render MVC action methods from within WebForms markup.

Kinect for Windows Now Available

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:07:01 GMT

On January 9th, Steve Ballmer announced at CES that Microsoft would be shipping Kinect for Windows on February 1st. Today version 1.0 of the SDK and runtime were made available for download, and distribution partners in twelve launch countries are starting to ship Kinect for Windows hardware.

Using Git with Subversion

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:57:38 GMT

Do you love Git? Are you working on a project that's using Subversion? Well, did you know that Git actually integrates quite nicely with Subversion right out of the box? I'll show you what you need to know to get started with Git and Subversion, and I'll show you the workflow I use for keeping my work in sync with everyone else on my team.

AppHarbor Rocks. Seriously.

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:05:29 GMT

You kids and your applications today. Back in my day, we published our applications like real men! We didn't have these fancy, cloud-based services like Heroku and AppHarbor. We couldn't just type 'git push origin' and have our application magically show up online, ready to rock and roll. We used to dread deploying our code because of all the hoops we would have to jump through. Oh, how times have changed!

Validating WCF services with System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotions

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:26:27 GMT

All WCF services operations need some level of parameter validation to ensure that the data passed to the operation is present and correct. Two popular methods are manual checking and the Validation Application Block (VAB) from Enterprise Library. This article discusses another option - using the validation features from System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.

Static Code Analysis

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:52:27 GMT

The most important thing I have done as a programmer in recent years is to aggressively pursue static code analysis. Even more valuable than the hundreds of serious bugs I have prevented with it is the change in mindset about the way I view software reliability and code quality.

Shortest String That Contains All Words

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:11:10 GMT

Mango12 created an interesting competition to kick off the New Year, and I decided to try it out. It's a simple task along the lines of a code kata, and I recommend you try it yourself before looking over my solution. Task: Compress a list of words into the shortest string that contains all words. Test: "testing", "ginger", "german", "minutes" should become "minutestingingerman" Here is my approach: create a weighted graph connecting each term then recursively reduce the highest weighted edges.

Status Update on SpecsFor.Mvc

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:07:04 GMT

SpecsFor.Mvc is an integration testing framework for ASP.NET MVC applications. It enables you to write integration tests that are strongly-typed, refactor-friendly, and that run under the testing framework of your choice, all while leveraging your existing unit test writing skills. SpecsFor.Mvc is a work-in-progress, so please take a moment to give me some feedback on how the API is shaping up.

8 Things clients need to learn about software development

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:55:45 GMT

Software developers always have to do everything they can to deliver good software, lot's of books have been written on the subjects of quality assurance, requirements management, agile, etc. Something that deserves its own book however are the rules you as a client should obey when starting a new software project. The biggest problems are the fact that most customers want their software to be as cheap as possible, the ever changing requirements and the lack of communication.

Inversion of Control Containers - Things You Should Know

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:43:03 GMT

Think you're a senior developer? Not yet senior, but interested in taking the next step? Today's topic in the "Things Every Senior .NET Developer Should Know" series will cover Dependency Injection, Inversion of Control containers, and my favorite Inversion of Control container, StructureMap.

SpecsFor.com Launched, SpecsFor 2.2 Released!

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:25:35 GMT

I'm pleased to announce that SpecsFor.com is now live. I've also shipped a new version of SpecsFor that simplifies the painful task of creating multiple mocks of the same type for injection into IEnumerable parameters.

SOLID - Things Every Senior .NET Developer Should Know, Part 2

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:09:34 GMT

Think you're a senior .NET developer? Then you should already be familiar with SOLID, a set of five principles originally introduced by Robert Martin. These principles will help guide you towards better, more maintainable code and may help you have more fun at the same time. In this article, I'll cover the Single Responsibility, Open-Closed, Liskov Substitution, Interface Segregation, and Dependency Inversion principles.

NHibernate Session-Per-Method-Call via StructureMap Nested Containers

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:28:33 GMT

There are several documented approaches you can follow to implement the session-per-method-call pattern with NHibernate and StructureMap. The majority of these approaches fail to leverage the full capabilities of StrurctureMap and are therefore more complex than they need to be. In this short post, I'll show you how you can implement a simpler solution by utilizing StructureMap's nested containers.

SpecsFor 2.0 Released!

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:24:31 GMT

The newest version of the SpecsFor behavior-driven development framework is out with additional functionality to eliminate common points of testing friction. With a single NuGet package, you now have everything you need to start writing clean test cases. Read on to see how much easier writing tests could be.

Things Every Senior .NET Developer Should Know, Part 1 - OOP

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 23:50:43 GMT

If I could pick only one thing that a senior-level .NET developer should know, it would be Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). True, OOP is not .NET specific, and indeed I think at this point a senior developer on virtually any platform should be familiar with OOP, it's especially important here in the .NET world. Read on to find out why I think OOP is so important and to get a quick introduction and refresher on the four major tenets of OOP.

Things Every .NET Developer Should Know-Introduction

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:28:41 GMT

.NET will officially turn 10 years old in February. Our platform and our community have matured and grown in that time, and today it is virtually impossible for a developer to truly be an expert in everything .NET-related. There are, however, several things that I think everyone on the .NET platform, particularly those of us that are arrogant enough to call ourselves "senior" level, should know.

What's in your Definition of Done?

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:20:00 GMT

Every team, whether you are practicing agile or not, regardless of platform or language, should really have some Definition of Done. What things have to happen to achieve "done" status? Defining these things will help with estimating effort, and it may also help increase the quality of your product.