DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by rafi

Rant about Rant: Stop the Madness

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:20:29 GMT

Have you caught yourself bashing some "anonymous" developer's code? Of course, you have - don't deny it, and I bet you enjoyed it too! I, for one, am tired of this madness. I see this happening way too much. In company after company, in team after team. Mirror Mirror When you are doing it for fun, perhaps you can justify

Two Things to Make Testing Fun

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:46:14 GMT

How many of you actually enjoy writing tests, probably not a lot, right? Even though you know testing is important. For some of us, it just doesn't feel right to spend time on creating tests than working on our world class application. I will not argue the merits of testing here, but I will tell you two things that will make testing fun:

SolrNet to the Rescue - Why Use SolrNet?

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:28:34 GMT

Instead of SolrSharp or other libraries why not use SolrNet. It is easy to use and extremely flexible.

A Simple way to run Tests with Actual Parameters

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:26:28 GMT

Without further ado then: the idea is to just record actual parameters from you application in JSON form, and then use that in a simple Integration/ Unit Test. There are simply three steps to this: 1. Create a generic method to write to an xml file some string values. 2. Access the xml file in your test. 3. De-serialize and Use.

Is it time to go from XML to JSON?

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 19:29:42 GMT

The answer is a qualified yes. Qualified because, of course, there is a place for XML; however, I think it is time for an exodus towards JSON. More specifically, we need this exodus for storing simple data files for settings, etc, in a web application.

wcf.codeplex.com is now live

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:45:52 GMT

The WCF Team have been busy building a variety of projects which bring better support for HTTP based services, and better support for JavaScript/jQuery based clients. These projects have all been collected together and are being hosted on CodePlex.

When you are Stuck with Ugly Code

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 22:50:07 GMT

If you are lucky you spend most of your time coding new application, but if you are anything like me, you would be reading/maintaining somebody else's code, or worse your own. You swear on your beloved Obi Wan statue that you did not write that code, but yes you did and now you have to deal with it. For such situations here is some advice:

Refactoring Code with Complexity Analysis: Visual Studio Code Analysis

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:17:14 GMT

An idea for refactoring your code with complexity analysis. Using Visual Studio or source monitor.

Dynamic Data, oData, and WCF Data Services a Killer Combination

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 01:27:43 GMT

This article shows how to build a powerful web application using Dynamic Data, WCF Data Service, oData, jQuery template.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Database Size Limit Increased to 10GB!

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:30:52 GMT

So what is so exciting about the SQL Server 2008 R2 Release? Well, along with plenty of BI features and enhancements, there is a tiny cute feature that I am sure all of us will appreciate a lot. The product team has increased the Database Size limit for SQL Server 2008 R2 Express from 4 GB to 10 GB. So if you have got a growing SQL Server Express database that is close to the 4 GB Limit, hurry, upgrade to R2 Express.

How to run, ON THE CHEAP, an IIS7 hosted website on Amazon EC2

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Its beautiful.... This article shows step by step, with clear instructions and lots of images, how to host your asp.net website on Amazon's EC2. I'm shocked at how easy it is. 1) Create account 2) Select image 3) do a little dance 4) publish your website to the cloud

The black arts of custom Type conversion in c#

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:30:01 GMT

One of the little used features of c#, is user written implicit and explicit type conversion. Put simply: sometimes you have a object (custom or built-in .Net framework) and want to convert it to another type of object. While you can easily write left to right style code to accomplish this every time, there is a lot cleaner way of doing this by empowering your objects to cast themselves as another type.

ASP.Net and Custom Error Pages, an SEO nightmare?

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:30:00 GMT

How to avoid custom error pages impacting on your SEO.

ASP.NET MVC 2 Preview 2 Released

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:45:00 GMT

Today we just released ASP.NET MVC 2 Preview 2 for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (and ASP.NET 3.5 SP1), which builds on top of the work we did in Preview 1 released two months ago. Some of the cool new features we've added to Preview 2 include...

Is Silverlight the new WebForms?

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:30:01 GMT

Is Silverlight becoming the same crutch that WebForms was nearly a decade ago?

C# Identify Crisis, You Have To Know Your Identity

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:45:00 GMT

Marking the beginning of the end of C# as language and its ongoing identity crisis.

LINQ to SQL and Transactions

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:45:00 GMT

Using explicit Transactions with Linq to Sql is fairly rare but when you need them you'll find that it natively doesn't provide manual transaction management. Rather you have to rely on the TransactionScope class to provide transaction wrapping. Here's a contrived example, and a couple of different transaction scenarios using TransactionScope to manage multiple L2S data operation as a single transaction.

The "Sim City" effect

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:30:00 GMT

What happens when you turn your back on a software development project.

IIS Search Engine Optimization Toolkit (ScottGu)

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:45:05 GMT

"Today we are shipping the first beta of a new free tool - the IIS Search Engine Optimization Toolkit - that makes it easy to perform SEO analysis on your site and identify and fix issues within it."

Open Source or Die - The Real Future of Graffiti?

Tue, 12 May 2009 10:16:02 GMT

Telligent's Graffiti hasn't quite flatlined yet, but the signs aren't looking too good. Could OSS be the way to breathe life back into this once-promising CMS platform?

Top 5 SQL System stored procedures every developer should know

Wed, 13 May 2009 15:31:02 GMT

There are a number of documented and undocumented system stored procedures in MS SQL Server that are helpful for every web developer working with databases. From the developer's perspective, here's a list of 5 System stored procedures that are my favorite.

15 Essential Checks Before Launching Your Website

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 05:46:02 GMT

Your website is designed, the CMS works, content has been added and the client is happy. It's time to take the website live. Or is it? When launching a website, you can often forget a number of things in your eagerness to make it live, so it's useful to have a checklist to look through as you make your final touches and before you announce your website to the world.

SubSonic to Acquire NHibernate

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:01:18 GMT

Hanalei, HI - April 1, 2009: SubSonic (http://subsonicproject.com), a data access tool and "Super High-fidelity Batman Toolbelt" (according to its owner, Rob Conery), is set to acquire NHibernate, a much larger data access technology built on the .NET platform. The terms of the deal have not yet been announced but the stage has been set for what many see as a hostile transition of ownership.

Putting the "M" Back in MVC

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 02:46:14 GMT

"Trying to keep up my end of the bargain with respect to MVC and SubSonic :). I did a walkthrough of it and decided that I was talking too much and, in honor of everyone telling me "SubSonic is dead" I thought it fitting to toss in some Rob Zombie."

Content Stealing Jerks

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:01:02 GMT

I've grown somewhat accustomed to seeing my articles regurgitated on some random blogger's site and passed off as their own. Usually I just send content stealing jerk (CSJ for future reference) an e-mail asking that they provide some sort of link back to my original article and leave it at that. Sometimes they comply, oftentimes they don't. In the end, life goes on. After all, it's not like I'm going to press charges over it.