DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by jamesewelch

How to append options to CascadingDropDown after initially populated v

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:54:32 GMT

I needed to add additional dropdown options to a DropDownList web control in use by the Ajax Control Toolkit CascadingDropDown ASP.NET AJAX extender. The CascadingDropDown provided a means to get an automatic population of a set of options called by the web service. needed a way to append an "All" option to the drop down list, but I didn't want to automatically include "All" as valid option in my Web Service. I wanted to append it on a specific form rather than as part of the data feed.

Free WPF Ribbon, BreadcrumbBar, CollapsiblePanel and ExplorerBar cntrl

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:40:25 GMT

Controls included in Odyssey: RibbonBar BreadcrumbBar ExplorerBar OutlookBar Project download site at http://www.codeplex.com/odyssey

Review of SubSonic 3 from a SubSonic 2.x user perspective

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:00:00 GMT

A quick review of SubSonic 3.0.0.3 from the perspective of a developer who's implemented SubSonic 2.x on numerous projects. An overview of initial likes and dislikes and a little bit of code snippets to bring back 2.x functions missing from 3.0.

How to merge pages from a PDF document

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:28:28 GMT

For this utility, imagine having a PDF document with pages that are 8 1/2? x 11? and you want to combine 2 pages into one larger page. The resulting output document would be 17? x 11? and show two pages from the input document on one page on the output document.

Add a DotNetKicks Badge to your Site

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:45:07 GMT

Drive more traffic to your site by adding the DNK badge, plugins for community server, graffiti, wordpress, and more!

How to write an application supporting plug-ins

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 06:31:59 GMT

A simple walk through of creating a basic plug-in architecture for a .NET application.

How to serialize SubSonic objects with nullable properties

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:27:31 GMT

Recently, I ran into the following error when trying to serialize some SubSonic generated classes. "Cannot serialize member 'XXX' of type System.Nullable`1[XXX]. XmlAttribute/XmlText cannot be used to encode complex types." The SubSonic autogenerated classes cannot serialize nullable types such as DateTime? and GUID?. This is really a .NET serialization problem and not directly related to SubSonic, since the SubSonic library just uses the native .NET code for serialization. I'll describe 3 (or 4) different ways of getting around this problem.

Adding Save() functionality to Microsoft.Net.Mail.MailMessage

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:45:33 GMT

The MailMessage class provides functionality using the SmtpDeliveryMethod.SpecifiedPickupDirectory of SmtpClient to generate the emails to a file folder. However, I needed to control the filename used to output the email instead of using the SmtpClient's random Guid() approach.

How to create a delimited list of values from a one-to-many relations

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:27:49 GMT

Shows how to create a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 function to combine values from one-to-many child records into a single delimited field.

Lesser Known ASP.NET Performance Tips

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:01:18 GMT

A small collection of less-popular ASP.NET Performance Tips.

Saving DotNetKicks

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:16:03 GMT

Keyvan wrote something about our popular social bookmarking site, DotNetKicks and talked about some spamming problems on DNK and discussed about saving DNK from this situation. A must read post for all DotNetKicks lovers!

New ASP.NET Charting Control

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:31:03 GMT

From ScottGu's blog. Brand new, Free, ASP.NET 3.5 chart control. It looks very nice!

How to extract pages from a PDF document

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 04:52:04 GMT

Code example showing how to use iTextSharp to extract pages from a PDF file to make a new PDF file.

How to use custom audit fields with SubSonic

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:46:13 GMT

SubSonic uses a few audit fields by default - you don't need to write any code. However, the field names that are used are coded into the source code. You can modify the source code and generate a new assembly, but if you're like me and would rather not edit the source code (so you don't need to update the code at every release), then you'll be looking for an alternative approach. Three options are discussed: 1) Modify SubSonic source code, 2) Use partial classes for each table, 3) Create a custom template and base class

Visual Studio macro to add file headers

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:08:19 GMT

Microsoft's StyleCop analyzes C# source code to enforce a set of style and consistency rules. It can be run from inside of Visual Studio or integrated into an MSBuild project. One of these rules is #SA1633. This rule requires that each of your files have a file header that contains a copyright XML element. Of course, you can disable this rule if you want through StyleCop settings. But just in case you have a similar rule at your work (or your own personal rule) or need to adhere to this rule, I'll describe the situation and provide the macro below.

Create A Netflix/Blockbuster Style Pop-Up Using the AJAX Control Toolk

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:19:52 GMT

I just recently signed up for NetFlix to get my videos over by mail. My wife in particular pointed out to me how nice the descriptions are being shown in a pop-up. Thereafter, I noticed that they have done super cool UIs all over their website. One of the things I got curious about was the way they showed descriptions of the movie by poping up a box with an arrow. The nice thing is that the box has a transparent shadow/glow in the back. I wanted to impress my wife and show her that this can be done easily. This article will show you how to show a pop up like the one mentioned above, both statically and dynamically by using the AJAX Control Kit's HoverPopUpMenu.

Free Data Structures and Algorithms book

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:43:02 GMT

This book written by Granville Barnett and Luca Del Tongo is part of an effort to provide all developers with a core understanding of algorithms that operate on various common, and uncommon data structures. Data Structures and Algorithms: Annotated Reference with Examples is completely free!

Top 10 Things That Annoy Programmers

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:46:03 GMT

Programmers all have their personal pet peeves. Whether it's scope creep, Hungarian notation, or smelly coworkers, there are certain nuisances that we must put up with in our line of work. The following is a list of the top 10 things that annoy programmers, compiled from the results of my recent question on StackOverflow along with some of my own experiences as a programmer:

New ASP.NET MVC Videos and Tutorials

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 02:01:02 GMT

15 new ASP.NET MVC videos were just published at the http://www.ASP.net/mvc website. The first 10 videos are basic tutorials on the ASP.NET MVC framework. If you haven't had a chance to play with ASP.NET MVC yet, these tutorials are a great introduction. The second set of 5 videos is part of an ongoing video series: ASP.NET MVC Pair Programming. In these videos, I pair with a prominent community expert to build an entire ASP.NET MVC application from start to finish (because of time constraints - a very, very simple application). The goal is to emphasize the process of building a web application instead of the product.

ASP.NET MVC Tip #35 - Use the NHaml View Engine

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:01:08 GMT

In this tip, I explain how you can use the NHaml view engine as the view engine for an ASP.NET MVC application. I demonstrate how to create NHaml views that display both static content and database records. I also discuss how you can use master pages and user controls with the NHaml view engine.

ASP.NET gets no Respect

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:16:11 GMT

Poor ASP.NET! Is it really that bad? I say No!

Create apple.com-like breadcrumb using simple CSS

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:01:02 GMT

Janko shows an extremely simple and nicely polished way to create graphical breadcrumbs like on apple.com.

Over 60 Free Controls from DevExpress

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:16:02 GMT

Once you register, you will be forwarded an Email with your login credentials to our product download portal. With this information in hand, you will be able to download and install all the controls and tools listed above free of charge. The applications you create with these controls can be distributed royalty free (see the EULA that accompanies the products for more information). Note that the installation you download will include evaluation versions of our entire product line. You can install these trials if you wish during the setup process. Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 are fully supported.

The Work-at-Home Developer's Guide to Happiness

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:31:02 GMT

As a long time work-at-home developer, I've come to realize over the years how important it is to have the right work routine and balance to remain happy in both your professional and personal life. I've worked from my home 100% of the time for the last 6-7 years and had often worked from my home in spurts before that. Without question, it requires the right mindset and dedication. There's an upside as well as a downside to working from home, but with the right routine you can be successful at it.

A sneak peak at ASP.NET AJAX 4.0's client-side templating

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:31:15 GMT

Hot on the heels of the recent ASP.NET AJAX roadmap, Bertrand and team have released a limited preview of the new AJAX functionality coming in ASP.NET 4.0. Dave is giving a sneak peak about it