Problem
- Foundation3 with default CSS
- Foundation3 with SCSS (Sassy CSS, which is the syntax used by SASS – "Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets". SASS is an extension of CSS3 which brings familiar programming concepts to CSS like variables, nesting of selectors, functions aka mixins)
- Opened the design of table1 using SQL Server Management Studio.
- Selected the last 4 columns.
- Ctrl+C.
- Opened the design view of table2
- Ctrl+V
- A multi-tier design (mainly to separate presentation code from business logic)
- Support themes in presentation layer to switch designs easily at later stage.
- Object oriented business logic layer (BLL) (with business objects)
- Data access layer (DAL) to be independent of underlying database (to switch databases or even use XML files as data store at a later time)
- Data Transfer Objects (DTO) to pass data between BLL and DAL
- Maximum use of Data Binding at the presentation layer
Making Git Bash, SSH only GIT Remote, Pageant dance together
Given a SSH only GIT Repo, was unable to git clone the repo, despite my public key being successfully stored in the remote repo’s authorization_keys file.
The git clone command invoked from within the git bash kept prompting for password, but could not authenticate for some bizarre reason. Thought it could be some proxy issue. But no, was able to ping successfully to the server hosting the git repo.
Then came the saviour. Pageant.exe, which gets installed when PuTTy SSH client gets installed in windows. Pageant runs on the system tray and serves like a vault of .ppk keys. After adding my ppk to it, was able to successfully connect to the server using putty. Then I thought git clone will also work. But No. Apparently an environment variable GIT_SSH pointing to plink.exe (found within the putty installation directory) is needed. After adding that, I was able to git clone the repository without it prompting me for a password.
Getting started with SaSS, Foundation, Compass on Windows, for PHP web application development
My friend wanted to get started with using Foundation for an upcoming Greenfield project. The trouble is Foundation comes in two flavours:
The Compass framework does not have a Windows Installer. It is only available as a Ruby Gem package, which means we have to install Ruby for Windows first. After this, we follow the following steps to get Compass with Foundation:
Start Command Prompt with Ruby (Run as Administrator)
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
TIP: Copy/Paste Columns to Multiple Tables in SQL Server
Here is a tip I discovered today while at work. I had earlier postponed the addition of common columns needed for all the tables (columns needed for auditing purposes like AddedDate, AddedBy etc.). But, the time had come now to type in and set the properties for columns on all tables one by one. I finished adding these columns to the first table. When on the second table, my laziness kicked in and wanted an easier way to do this mundane task. So,
Remote access of SQL Server from Host Machine
I use Vista running on a Virtual PC as my development environment (I used to use WinXP, but then came along Windows Azure which required either Vista or Win Server 2003). The usage of SQL Server Management Studio on the Virtual PC was slowing down the system. So, I wanted to use my Host Operating System to access the SQL Server using SQL Management Studio. By default the SQL Server engine is configured to minimise the surface of attack. So, remote access to the sql server engine is also not enabled.
To access remotely, the TCP/IP protocol needs to be enabled, using the SQL Server Configuration Manager.
Start SQL Server from Command Line
I run a Virtual PC with Vista 32-bit as Guest operating system for my software development purposes. This VPC is quite slow despite taking measures to shut down various background services.
For reasons beyond my understanding (and me not willing to investigate on it), whenever a MMC console window is opened, CPU usage spikes to 100%. It was frustrating to to start SQL Server Engine by going to the services.msc console. So, I found a way to start SQL Server service from command line.
Please click on above image to see the command in clarity.
Tapovanam - application design and architecture
In redesigning and redeveloping Tapovanam's (my friend's organisation) web site, I want to put in place a good architecture. The following are some of the considerations:
Excluding vwd.webinfo from adding to VSS from VS 2005
When I have a ASP.NET WebSite (NOT WebApplication), I notice the presense of vwd.webinfo in my VS 2005 solution. The problem is the annoyance when it shows as a new source control item. (with a plus sign next to the filename). So, when ever I do a “Pending Checkins”/“Checkin”, it is included as part of the pending items.
At the moment I am taking care to uncheck this file and then do the checkin.
But, it would be nice to have tell VSS to exclude this file (or set of files) from trying to add to VSS.
I’ve also thought about “exclude from this project” option in Solution Explorer within VS 2005, but then it adds a file called vwd.webinfo.exclude and then this shows up in pending checkins once again.
Using the VSS client, there is a facility to include FileTypes. To my surprise, the *.webinfo was not included but still the VS 2005’s VSS plug-in tries to add it.
I’ve never managed to get an solution to this problem yet. Hopefully something might turn out at a later time.
From VSS to CVS; From CVS to SVN
Hmm…..After VSS came CVS and now after CVS it’s time to try out SVN!
Yesterday, I was finally determined to make my machine a build system(with WinXP SP2 Pro) for which I had to install and configure CruiseControl.NET. For which I had to install VSS. Then I thought of CVS (because, I was comfortable with CVS way of doing things for the past 1 year). Oh…then I thought of SVN (because, SVN is to be a compelling replacement for CVS).
The best part of SVN is the availability of the free e-book which is quite exhaustive. I was indeed more happy to read the TortoiseSVN e-book because it gave detailed steps to install the SVN Server and not just the TortoiseSVN Client.
Since I did not have Apache Web Server in my system, I prefered the SVNServe type of SVN Server which listens on port 3690. With that I had my svn server setup but before running the server, I read a piece of information in the book which said that the svnserve.exe can be run as a windows service using a wrapper called SVNService. Without much thought, I tried running the svnserve as windows service.
But, to my despair when I tried to view the repository which I had just created using TortoiseSVN, I could not find the repository using the repo-browser of TortoiseSVN. Something has gone wrong somewhere….After 30 minutes, I started to suspect the SVNService wrapper. So, instead of going to that level of abstraction, I decided to run the svnserve manually using command prompt. And lo there was Windows XP SP2 in action asking my permission to unblock the port 3690. Phew! that was a relief. After unblocking it, I reverted back to SVNService.
There ended my initial adventure with SVN which was quite less exciting than my earlier ones with CVS and TortoiseCVS. I am expecting the real thrill when I start using ASP.NET application with SVN.
Finally, A Good Bye to Visual SourceSafe!
In my previous post on “Using CVS with VS.NET”, I’ve discussed the need to switch to CVS and also the problems faced in doing so.
After long time (nearly 2 months) my team has finally become very comfortable with using CVS and VS.NET. Looking back 2 months from today, I get reminded of those days when a whole day would be spent by me wondering who did what and what went wrong. With good push from my team-mate, Jimson, CVS was finally chosen as our Source Control. We did find a good plug-in called “Push-Ok” for VS.NET 2003. An excellent plug-in I should say. But, it came for a price.
We chose to stick on to Tortoise CVS and take the hard way around. We found that apart from files being edited by us, the VS.NET IDE also changed some files (like .csproj). Then with the help of Jimson, found out the right files to got into the CVS repository. Thus, after a half day session for the team on how to use “CVS with VS.NET” things got settled and now everyone seems to be comfortable with the “Copy-Modify-Merge” way of doing things.
A great feeling and a great relief….
Good going team…..
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.
Basic Integrated App using UIPAB and Forms Authentication
Just yesterday afternoon, when I thought of having a difficult weekend to crack the problem with UIPAB, lightning struck. I got a reply to my question posted to news.microsoft.public.dotnet.distributed_apps redirecting me to GotDotNET workspace where a fix to the Back button problem with UIPAB was posted. God, that was timing. Had the reply come at sometime evening, I would have been spending my entire day today searching for alternatives for UIPAB (specifically Maverick) and working on it. ( I think i’ll take some time off and try Maverick some time before UIPAB v 2.0 release).
As such, the Fix for Back button problem ( http://groups.msn.com/BDotNet/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=12337&LastModified=4675459353602606026 for a description on the problem) did infact work out very well. I guess, the fix has been taken care in UIPAB v2.0.
With this fix, I managed to complete a Demo application integrating UIPAB and Forms Authentication yesterday evening.
The demo application will be used in my presentation on Monday to share my knowledge on UIPAB and Forms Authentication to my collegues.
Currently trying to use Data Access Applicaton Block in my demo application.
Also listening to DonBox’s .NET Rocks Internet Audio Show (talking about Indigo,SOAP…..)
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.
C# Types
While having discussion with my friend yesterday, I realized that “There’s plenty of room in C# Types”.
Some of the questions i faced were:
Why did they go for Value Types?
What is actually a Stack and Heap?
Many more fundamental doubts arised. I am now in quest for answering those fundamental questions.
The First, among the plethora of doubts would be to clear “How much memory is allocated in Stack and in Heap for a simple program like the one below?”
//simple.cs
namespace ManiSoft.Practice
{
internal class Simple
{
public static void Main()
{
int x;
x = 7;
}
}
}
Also wondering at
Is x a Value Type? (B'cause it is within a Reference Type)
Ok. Out to read some basic stuff from Jeff Richter.
Using CVS for SourceControl
“An alternative to VSS” was the requirement. Decided to plunge into CVS. SA had the CVS server installed on a Linux machine. My task was to find and explore the various CVS clients for Windows.
First, tried WinCVS. Then went on to look for CVS plugins for VS.NET. Found Jalindi Igloo. Igloo was a major failure inspite of a detailed article on the CodeProject.
Then looked into the TortoiseCVS. Inspiring integration with the windows shell. The ease of use was spell bounding. The help accompanying installation gave a detailed look into the two different methodologies for SourceControl namely, Lock-Modify-Unlock and Copy-Modify-Merge. TortoiseCVS uses C-M-M model.
A VS.NET plugin for TortoiseCVS was under development. I tried it but failed to Check out a module.
Then looked into the SubVersion alternative for CVS. Even this follows C-M-M model. But, the VS.NET plugin developed for SubVersion, ankhsvn looks good by seing the Screen Shots. Got to install svn soon and try it. The free book on subversion is excellent.
Then went on to read the Microsoft’s “Team Development Guide” from Patterns&Practices. This guide is indispensible for VSS and VS.NET users.
Another Microsoft Article from MSDN was very good. This is related to SourceControl and build control for Web Projects.
For now, using WinCVS and TortoiseCVS together.
Waiting for something to happen………