FX.Web.ASPNET
Cross-Domain, Ajax Fundamental understanding
I had promised my students that we would implement a “Find nearest XXXX” feature in our on going project. I was doing this for the first time and thought it would not be difficult. But, most of my time while preparing for the class, I was frustrated.
I could not come up with a WCF Web Service (hosted on Visual Studio’s development web server eg., [localhost/MyService...](http://localhost:1234/MyService.svc) ) that could be invoked by Javascript on my website (hosted again on Visual Studio’s development web server eg., [localhost/MyWebsite...](http://localhost:9876/MyWebsite/Default.aspx) ).
Due to time constraints, I abandoned the WCF Service implementation and went in for the ASP.NET Ajax Page Methods
It’s only after reading this nice article, I understand the mistake I made or the way the cross-domain web requests work.
Mash-it Up with ASP.NET AJAX: Using a proxy to access remote API
Web client software factory - Hands-on-lab
Having decided on giving the WCSF a try, I had a pretty smooth experience with installing WCSF.
The February-2008 release of WCSF does not use the Enterprise Library 4.0. It uses Enterprise Library 3.1. Although, the EntLib 3.1 is sufficient for WCSF-Feb'08, it just feels good to have and build upon the latest version. It took a few careful steps to get the WCSF working with EntLib 4.0. And even after that, at times, the guidance packages generate code that still uses EntLib3.1. This is not a major problem because I was able to re-reference the projects to the latest EntLib 4.0 assemblies.
The foremost concept to understand is the Modular structuring of the Web Application.
Then comes the understanding of Model-View-Presenter pattern. It took a while for me to figure out the role of Controller.
There is also the concept of a Service that gets consumed by a Controller. This Service has nothing to do with Web Services.
In fact, there is much more fundamentals to understand than I could discover in the hands-on-lab sessions.
The best resource (and by far the best writing) to explain concepts related to WCSF is Simon Ince's blog series. His posts made me understand the purpose of WCSF and have also inspired me on the various architectural considerations.
Working with ASP.NET UI Designer!
First, the controls could not be compacted within each cell of the table.
Second, confused whether to use the HTML view of Design view to create the pages.
My Kata - Forms Authentication
Today’s task of the day was to enjoy. So, the Kata was to experiment with Forms Authentication.
It has taken nearly a week to understand the Security Issues related with the ASP.NET application. Finally got a hang on Roles, Users,IPrinciple,Encryption and all other simple matters related to security.
The best part of today’s Kata was that it got over is just 60 minutes (The last 60 minutes of the day).
Two more kata’s are pending. One is to integrate the previous kata on Storing Encrypted passwords in Database with today’s kata. The second is to integrate the resulting kata with User Interface Process Application Block.
Off to meet a friend and discuss C# Types.
ASP.NET Application Hosting
Yesterday, I was successful in hosting my sample ASP.NET web application over the free ASP.NET web hosting facility available at http://europe.webmatrixhosting.net/
The best part was the usage of the System.Web.Mail namespace’s MailMessage Type.
Pretty cool stuff I thought.
Just set the properties of the email message to be sent; choose the smtp server and lo, message is sent.
since my company’s smtp server was temporarily not receiving mails, learnt about Relay server and other SMTP related stuff. (Thanks to my SysAdmin, Mr. Sudeesh)
Currently using hotmail’s smtp server.
The smtp server was OK today and hence i can now use the Web.config to store the smtp server address.
All it took to put up two pages of functional ASP.NET site was 2 hours.
My sample application stands at http://ideamani.europe.webmatrixhosting.net/
GTG Treking….
Back on Monday!