ASP.NET Resources

October 2004

Lightweight Database Cache Dependencies: Part I

ASP.NET provides several convenient ways to cache data. You can either cache entire pages or only their parts via OutputCache directive, or you may choose Cache API to do the same. With Cache API you get a very cool feature—cache dependencies. For example, you can cache contents of a file and set a dependency on this file. Should the file change, the cached data will be flushed. This is an excellent way to make sure that what you serve from cache is always fresh and up to date.

10/31/2004 |

6 comments | No TrackBacks

Sorting DataView on Non-existent Columns

The DataView class represents a databindable, customized view of a DataTable for sorting, filtering, searching, editing, and navigation. It's an awfully helpful class... except when it comes to sorting the underlying data source on a non-existent column.

10/28/2004 |

1 comment | No TrackBacks

Authentication Ticket Hurdle

When implementing forms authentication in a web app I get my hands dirty with the FormsAuthenticationTicket class as opposed to the traditional RedirectFromLoginPage. I feel that tweaking an authentication ticket gives me a lot more flexibility. Besides, it's pretty much the only way to attach, say, a list of user's roles to a ticket.

10/27/2004 |

5 comments | No TrackBacks

Survival of the Unfittest

Will the real fit commander, please, stand up...

10/27/2004 |

No comments yet | No TrackBacks

Dissecting Adaptive Rendering

In ASP.NET some server controls render different markup based on the visiting browser. The notion of Adaptive Rendering is what is behind it. We've talked about it before, but I wanted to dig deeper into the internals of adaptive rendering and illustrate how it works.

10/25/2004 |

4 comments | No TrackBacks

How Much More Basic Do We Need To Get?

I've spent the entire day in Manhattan at an MSDN gig first and then the .NET Developer Group meeting at the mothership office. I don't know whose idea it was to hold the MSDN event over at a Regal Cinema, but the ambient smell of popcorn and people walking around with Coke and candies really gave me a funny feelin'. :)

10/21/2004 |

7 comments | No TrackBacks

Introducing XStandard

Back in September I invited you, guys, to share your opinions on which HTML Rich Edit controls could handle a content management system (CMS) best. I appreciate all the valuable feedback I've received since that post. I did check out all components you brought to my attention. Of them all XStandard stood out of the crowd. Here's why...

10/21/2004 |

5 comments | No TrackBacks

DateTime.MaxValue Metamorphosis

Suppose you need to represent a date range. If you want dates on each boundary to be infinite, you might want to use DateTime.MaxValue and DateTime.MinValue, right? Why reinvent the wheel if the .NET Framework has all you need. Not so fast! If you want to store this range in a database and read it back, you'll see that MaxValue != MaxValue.

10/20/2004 |

7 comments | No TrackBacks

Evacuate Event Handlers

When you need create a brand new web form, Visual Studio.NET offers a template that has everything wired up and ready to go. As you add server controls and hook up click/change/etc events, it's kind enough to write event hooks for you. Unfortunately, due to some annoying bugs it also takes liberty to wipe out event handlers while you're not looking.

10/17/2004 |

5 comments | No TrackBacks

Remote Scriptease

Postbacks and view state are two fundamental notions of ASP.NET which ease web development a great deal. Thanks to the postback processing model you don't have to parse the query string anymore. Thanks to view state you don't worry about repopulating controls with data on each roundtrip. Processing forms on the web has never been easier. However, excessive postbacks deteriorate usability, while large view state degrades performance.

10/14/2004 |

3 comments | No TrackBacks

Kerry - 3 : Bush – 0

Normally, when I feel the need to vent about something I wait out a day or two, sometimes three, and then write it. By that time I’m calm and toned down. Having watched presidential debates, I’ll deviate from the everyday geek talk and just go with it.

10/13/2004 |

No comments yet | 1 TrackBack

SSL as Remedy for Large View State?

Recently we've noticed something peculiar when serving pages with large view state over SSL. I've always been told that SSL slows things down, but we've witnessed the opposite.

10/11/2004 |

6 comments | No TrackBacks

Patterns in Web Design

Lately I've seen a couple of articles on patterns in web design. No, they aren't Martin Fowler type of patterns. These are best practices of building usable, accessible user-centered web sites and applications. In light of this I'd like to point out a resource I find indispensable when it comes to patterns in web design: The Design of Sites.

10/10/2004 |

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Mo' Eric, Mo' CSS

More Eric Meyer on CSS is a follow-up volume to his previous book, Eric Meyer on CSS. It's a book of its own, with 10 new projects. You can read these books in any order because their paths don't cross that much. You may even read chapters in any order since they don't have cross-dependencies.

10/9/2004 |

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Too Much Noise, Too Little Signal

I've had PCs ever since 8086. I've witnessed the evolution of 286, 386 with and without math coprocessors, 486, etc. Only recently I got my hands on a Mac, and I'm impressed.

10/7/2004 |

2 comments | No TrackBacks

See Image Replacement In Action (Beta 3)!

I’ve added the latest .IR (see part 1 and part 2) to my site to showcase it. You will see all blog post titles and article titles in Caflisch Script Web Pro.

10/5/2004 |

15 comments | No TrackBacks

.IR: Image Replacement With ASP.NET (Beta 2)

I've made some progress with the image replacement solution for ASP.NET since the first beta. Morgan Skinner, whose name should be well known to MSDN Magazine subscribers, pointed me to his article on quantization. With his code doing post-processing of dynamically generated images I can proudly say this is looking much much better! Hats off to Morgan!

10/3/2004 |

23 comments | No TrackBacks

Web talk

October 2004