Latest .Net Technologies

Safari

2006-02-16T00:40:00.000-08:00

Recently, i was too busy with this project. My role was to make the existing code compatible with broswer safari. "safari" browser? something new huh? yeah, it is a browser made available for Macintosh system only by apple computers. Nost of the people dont know about this browser. But today around 4% of the people in world use this. IE shares more than 50% and firefox shares more han 30%, rest of the part is shared anomg other browsers like mozzila, opera and all.

Problem with safari is that it supports only w3c standards html and javscript tags. This really makes the coding difficult. Most of us are aware of IE specific javscript and browser elements. So codes that we develop work beautifully in IE but just try to run it in firefox or other browser and see the effect.

Most of the developers love IE because it is very linient. Even if you make mistakes in specifyinh width of the element, or size of the font, IE does not show that mistake instead it takes the default value and shows the result. This might work for IE but will crash for the users accssing your site on other browsers.

This is very important for the developers. Every web designer or web developer must produce code such that it is compatible with all the browsers. If you dont make your site compatible, then it will be accessible only by the half of the world even if the entire world is interested in that.

So alwys follow the w3c standards, because that is supported by all the browsers including IE. If you want to check whether your site is compatible with w3c standsrds or not then you can check it on their site http://www.w3.org/ . Here you can verify your xml, HTML as well as css.

Even the safari has few problems. Many events and elements defined by w3c are still not supported. If you get to work with safari, then first thing to do is to update that software. Ask me more if you are really interested in knowing about developments in safari.

ASP.NET 2.0 : 'Atlas' Overview

2006-01-04T19:49:00.000-08:00

Introduction

The new ASP.NET Web development technologies, code-named 'Atlas', integrate client script libraries with the ASP.NET 2.0 server-based development platform. 'Atlas' builds on the AJAX strategy for building Web applications, which enables you to make calls to Web-based applications from client script. 'Atlas' also enables you to perform significant portions of an application's processing on the client, without requiring a round trip to the server to update the page.

This development strategy enables you to build a new breed of Web application that has a number of advantages over traditional Web applications. AJAX-style applications offer better performance, work across browsers, and enable you to create a user interface with more extensive UI features. For more information, see Understanding AJAX Applications and ASP.NET "Atlas".
ASP.NET 'Atlas' applies this new strategy for building Web applications, and significantly enhances it by adding both client and server-side development components. This topic describes the goals of the 'Atlas' feature, and explains the architecture of an 'Atlas' application, including the 'Atlas' client script libraries and 'Atlas' server components.

'Atlas' Goals

The main goal of 'Atlas' is to give you a broad range of application building blocks with the following aims:
• Helping you create 'Atlas' applications.
• Integrating 'Atlas' client script features with the features of ASP.NET on the server to provide a comprehensive development platform.
The first aim of 'Atlas' is to help you create AJAX applications. AJAX development can be complex. 'Atlas' manages this complexity for you by providing features such as the following:
• A consistent, object-oriented set of APIs for developing in JavaScript.
• Automatic browser compatibility, so that you do not have to write code or deploy components to make your applications run in multiple browsers.
• Client-script APIs and components that support rich UI features, which saves you from having to write the extensive code normally required in AJAX-style applications. For example, 'Atlas' provides commonly used behaviors including drag and drop, and you can bind these to HTML controls with minimal coding.
• A declarative scripting model for client development that is similar to the declarative syntax for ASP.NET server controls. This can reduce or eliminate much complex coding.
The second aim of 'Atlas' is to integrate client scripting with ASP.NET server-side development. Rather than focusing all development on only the client or only the server, 'Atlas' provides tools for both, enabling you to handle application tasks wherever it makes the most sense. ASP.NET provides the following server-side features for 'Atlas' applications:
• Web services that are useful to integrate with 'Atlas' applications, such as a profiles service.
• ASP.NET Web server controls that emit the client script needed for 'Atlas' applications. These controls ease the process of creating 'Atlas' applications, because they reduce the task of learning the 'Atlas' client script APIs and components.
• Integrated development tools such as Visual Studio, which provide a design-time development environment, debugging, statement completion, administration, and other productivity-enhancing features.

ASP.Net 2.0 - New Compilation System

2005-12-21T00:45:00.000-08:00

I was learning asp.net 2.0 from the PDF of the book "Professional ASP.Net 2.0" and found this great feature. Instead of putting it in my words i have simply copied and placed it here so that you get the exact idea of the concept. Here it goes.

"In ASP.NET 2.0, the code is constructed and compiled in a new way. Compilation in ASP.NET 1.0 was always a tricky scenario. With ASP.NET 1.0, you could build an application’s code-behind files using ASP.NET and Visual Studio, deploy it, and then watch as the .aspx files were compiled page by page as each was requested. If you made any changes to the code-behind file in ASP.NET 1.0, it was not reflected
in your application until the entire application was rebuilt. That meant that the same page-by-page request had to be done again before the entire application was recompiled.

Everything about how ASP.NET 1.0 worked with classes and compilation changed with the release of ASP.NET 2.0. The mechanics of the new compilation system actually begin with how a page is structured in ASP.NET 2.0. Most pages were constructed using the code-behind model because this was the default when using Visual Studio .NET 2002 or 2003. It was quite difficult to create your page using the inline style in these IDEs. If you did, you were deprived of the use of IntelliSense, which can be quite the lifesaver when working with the tremendously
large collection of classes that the .NET Framework offers.

ASP.NET 2.0 offers a new code-behind model because the .NET Framework 2.0 offers the capability to work with partial classes (also called partial types). Upon compilation, the separate files are combined into a single offering. This gives you much cleaner code-behind pages. The code that was part of the Web
Form Designer Generated section of your classes is separated from the code-behind classes that you create yourself. Contrast this with the ASP.NET 1.0 .aspx file’s need to derive from its own code-behind file to represent a single logical page.

ASP.NET 2.0 applications can include an \App_Code directory where you place your class’s source. Any class placed here is dynamically compiled and reflected in the application. You do not use a separate build process when you make changes as you did with ASP.NET 1.0. This is a just save and hit deployment model like the one in classic ASP 3.0. Visual Studio Web Developer also automatically provides IntelliSense for any objects that are placed in the \App_Code directory, whether you are working with the code-behind model or are coding inline.

ASP.NET 2.0 also provides you with tools that enable you to precompile your ASP.NET applications, both .aspx pages and code behind so that no page within your application has latency when it is retrieved for the first time. It is also a great way to figure out if you have made any errors in the pages
without invoking every page yourself.

Precompiling your ASP.NET 2.0 applications is as simple as calling the precompile.axd imaginary file in the application root of your application after it has been deployed. This one call causes your entire application to be precompiled. You receive an error notification if any errors are found anywhere within
your application. It is also possible to precompile your application and deliver only the created assembly."

so that expalins a lot about this new feature. great huh?

ASP.Net 2.0 - GridView server control : Developer Productivity

2005-12-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

Much of the focus of ASP.NET 2.0 is on productivity. Huge productivity gains were made with the release of ASP.NET 1.x—could it be possible to expand further on those gains?

One goal the development team had for ASP.NET 2.0 was to eliminate much of the tedious coding that ASP.NET originally required and to make common ASP.NET tasks easier. The ASP.NET team developing ASP.NET 2.0 had the goal of reducing by two-thirds the number of lines of code required for an ASP.NET application! It succeeded in this release; you will be amazed at how quickly you can create your applications in ASP.NET 2.0.

The new developer productivity capabilities are presented throughout this book. First, take a look at the older ASP.NET technology. Code below provides an example of using ASP.NET 1.0 to build a table in a Web page that includes the capability to perform simple paging of the data provided.

Although quite a bit of code is used here, this is a dramatic improvement over the amount of code required to accomplish this task using classic Active Server Pages 3.0. We won’t go into the details of this older code; we just want to demonstrate that in order to add any additional common functionality (such as paging) for the data shown, the developer had to create custom code.

This is one area where the new developer productivity gains are most evident. ASP.NET 2.0 now provides a new control called the GridView server control. This control is much like the DataGrid server control that you may already know and love, but the GridView server control (besides offering many other new features) contains the built-in capability to apply paging, sorting, and editing of data with relatively little work on your part. Code below shows you an example of the GridView server control. This example builds a table of data from the Customers table in the Northwind database that includes paging.

That’s it! You can apply paging by using a couple of new server controls.
you don’t need to write any server-side code to make this all work! You have to include only some server controls:
one control to get the data and one control to display the data. Then the controls are wired
together.
This is just one of thousands of possible examples, so at this point you likely can’t grasp how much more productive you can be with ASP.NET 2.0. As you work through the book, however, you will see plenty of examples that demonstrate this new level of productivity.

ASP.Net 2.0 rocks!!!

2005-12-19T18:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I saw little of asp.net 2.0 and i was just surprised to see the variety of features provided. How many of you keep praying to god for removing all the coding hassles? If you do then thought not god but Microsoft has definitely listened to that.

I will be taking one feature at a time and writing next blogs on them, so that you get a better idea of all the features newly available on this blog. So check out my next posts.

Office .Net

2005-12-16T03:08:00.000-08:00

yeah office .net... something new huh? when i heard about it for the first time, i thought it must be related to .net programming. some new component in .net that makes it easy for a programmer to create office related softwares. is it really like that?

No. It is slightly different than that. Office.Net is ofcourse related to MS Office and .NET in a way that it supports an easy integration of your MS Office into any .Net application. How is it possible? Through Web Services ofcourse.

Have a look at how it works.

This means that now you can carry your office wherever you go withought any problem. Isn't it interesting, huh?

I think, it is a good step towards web applications. we have been used to using software applications till now. but with google's entry into the market with online products like google talk, google desktop and others, a new era has begun where software aplication is slowlt being replaced with web applications.

many of you might wonder if it is really a good idea to have online application which might cause a problem in case of low connection. Fortunately with the help of latest technologies like AJAX and ATLAS for.Net, these applications work efficiently even on a machine with low connectivity.
and it also solves many problems for vendor like:

Distribution
Licensing
Updates
Patches
Feedback
and many more.

for Users also, it becomes almost free to use as the owner of the web application gains money mainly from the hits he gets. and security? you never need to worry about things like viruses, and security patches and updates. life becomes more easy, isnt it?

XML Designing

2005-12-15T19:39:00.000-08:00

has anyone ever thought about writingna book on "How to design an XML file" ? yeah, you are right. no one has thought till now. but i guess the time has come now for someone to think in that direction.

we have had various designing techniques on database, system , applicatino etc. recently even oops was covered in designing as OOAD. have you ever thought who has come up with such designign techniques and why?

it is a known fact that all the authors of the boks on designing technique are masters of their fields. after years of experience they came up with the techniques to implement the application design in the best possible way. and people follow these techniques because it makes their life simpler. ofcourse you must have got the answer to the question above.

coming back to xml designing, xml is now becoming more and more integral part of the applications. even the systems have started to rely on xml. you can see that in EJB. but best known example for this would be to mention .net. .net has used xml everywhere. entire ado.net has teh underlying schema as xml. it has xml parsers that can handle xml well. .net has good objects that convert data into xml easily.

looking at the speed with which the use of xml is increasing, we will need a good guidance on how to design the xml. designing is veru esential because it only makes a developer's life easier. putting data in xml is not a big deal but how easily you can access teh data is more important.

Your comments are welcome

2005-12-14T03:22:00.000-08:00

hello everyone,

i have modified the settings for comments and hence everyone can put the comments on my blog. please put a line or two if possible that helps me improve my log.

thanks

MSN 8.0 Beta

2005-12-14T01:39:00.000-08:00

yeah the latest versino of MSN Messenger which is the next generation messenger from microsoft. it is also known as Windows Live Messenger which is said to be integrated with the yahoo messenger. do you know what this means? simply you dont need to maintain multiple versions of the messengers or multiple versions of them now. just use this 8.0 and integrate yahoo list too in this. amazing isnt it?

i tried it myself..and really it is cool with all changed looks and interface. can you imagine sending offline messages through MSN ? it is possible now. if you want to try out the new version then go get it from

http://www.wallpaperspecial.com/msn8.htm

follow all the instructions as you will need to download other application too to run this version.

enjoy!!

Training developers

2005-12-13T21:40:00.000-08:00

i miss posting new stuff these days cause i have been training few guys these days. and this bacth is not of freshers but it is a little different batch.

this batch consists of the testers that are getting into testing automation. those who have created application for automation testing would know well how different it is from a normal application.

testers are generally always in fight with the developers. this is true mainly because both have different thinking. both look at the application from different angle. developers are the creaters of the application where as testers try to destroy the application and try to prove the lack of quality development.

so, i guess now they will have to start thinking from the developers point of view too which might be difficult for them initially.

Use XML as much as possible

2005-12-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

as i said yesterday, i am working on an application that uses xml data pool so much that the functioning of application totally depends on it.

many of you must have heard of the increasing use of xml these days. and certainly xml is takin the top place slowly but steadily. many professionals have started using xml as a source of data. does this mean that database is no longer going to exist? does that mean that xml will kill database systems and take its place?

i think the answer would be, upto some extent, yes. database has millions features that is imposiible to implement in xml. features like user groups, login accounts, security and the best of all transaction handling can never be implemented in xml. simple reason for this is xml is just a file similar to a normal text file or word document with .xml extension and well formed tags. can you ever expect this simple document to ask for your username and password? or can it make sure that the updation of data will be handled safely and completely? ofcourse not.

xml is a good option for those applications that have small databases and information retrieval is not a problem. an application which is just showing the general information can effectively make use of xml.

database system is ofcourse the choice for applications where data secracy is highly required. and ofcourse transation handling is also a point to be considered.

so you decide which fits best to your application.

XPathDocument vs XmlDocument

2005-12-07T22:10:00.000-08:00

you must have read this on lot of blogs.but today i myself experienced the differecne between these two. i was given an application to design in which there was a huge xml data pool. later in the application i use this data pool to extract lot of contents. you can say the application was totally based on the xml data.

hence i had to use an API which provides me the fast and efficient output. as the datapool was huge and i was supposed to do lot of iterations i thought of using the XmlDocument object. but soon i realized the amount of time it was taking.

basically, XmlDocument is designed mainly for writing to the xml document. but if you task is limited only to reading xml doc then xpath is the best option as it is a read-only and forward-only object and hence no compromise on performance.

now this application is bugging me a little bit. the structure is getting more and more complex. i m thinking of redesigning it in case the new design is easier and less complex.

Busy with 2.0

2005-12-07T03:28:00.000-08:00

yesterday...i was too lost in the 2.0. there are few awsome features that i will be sharing soon with you all.

.Net component architecture

2005-12-05T04:53:00.000-08:00

today i was preparing for the presentation which i am supposed to give at PIIT(Pillai's institute of information technology) soon. while preparing i came across this detailed explanation of the .net component architecture.

it is really interesting that .net can be used with more than 20 different languages. but more interesting thing is you can integrate different components developed in different languages. what i mean is if you have already developeda component in visual basic language and you want to use that in an application using c# then nothing stops you from doing that. more interesting thing is this is useful even at the network level. to simplify this, say method A on machine B written in C want to give a call to method D, on machine E written in F. this can be done withought much problem using .net.

but what i explained just now is a small thing to a big scenario. imagine where you want to integrate various components on various devices like PDA, windows, mobile etc. it is reallu difficult in case of any other language. but in case of .net due to the same platform across different devices, it is very easy. interesting huh?

will be waiting for the comments if someone wants to have more discussion.

Hello there

2005-12-02T00:52:00.000-08:00

hello everyone,

this is teh first time in my life i am posting something on the blog. it is exciting definitely. i intend to write more and more about the experience that i gain while learning all cutting edge technologies. so wait for more posts, they are on their way. i think i will start with something on speech and then about asp.net 2.0.

you may find maximum posts related to dotnet technologies here, but i cant help about it as i m really fascinated by that and i will be doing moer researchon that.

hope to write something useful for everyone.