Kirill Chilingarashvili Write an article about loading and executing Javascript files from Javascript and ASP.NET. Here's the small excerpt from beginning of this article:

«Quite often we need to load js files dynamically right from javascript. With ASP.NET AJAX it is simple.

ASP.NET AJAX library has internal ScriptLoader class that can be used to load js files, specify callbacks that will be invoked when script is downloaded and ready, and execute functions inside newly loaded files.

I will not list all available methods from ScriptLoader class - you can see them in more details in AJAX source.

I will demonstrate how to load files and execute some functions in it.»

Read the full version of this article and download the source codes from devarchive.net blog.

Matt Berseth shows how to build styled color Progress bar control with changeable skins on ASP.NET 3.5. Matt writes:

«If you use AJAX in your web app's, you no doubt have made use of some sort of progress/status indicator that lets the user know that some operation is currently executing. In the app I am currently working on we use an animated gif for this. It works great, but sometimes you might find it nice to have more control over the indicator - i.e. interacting with it via JavaScript and styling it using CSS.»

Source: Matt Berseth blog

Simone Chiaretta post an intresting article about managing ASP.NET validation from Javascript with jQuery. Here's the small excerpt from this article:

«Validators are a great part of the ASP.NET framework: they provide a standardized and easy way to add validation to form fields. But even if the framework provides different kinds of validators, there are so many different validations patterns that sometimes you have to write custom code to match your specific requirements.

Scott Mitchell write a new article in which he tells how to prevent user from the password input when the Caps Lock is on.He writes

«Most security systems' passwords are case-sensitive. Case sensitivity nearly doubles the number of possible characters that can appear in the password, which makes it harder for nefarious users trying to break into the system. As a result, if a user logging into the system has Caps Lock turned on, they'll enter letters in the opposite case and not be able to login. Because the textboxes that collect user input typically are masked to prevent an onlooker from seeing a user's password, the user typing in her password may not realize that Caps Lock is on. To help prevent this type of user error, many login screens for desktop-based applications display some sort of warning if the user's Caps Lock is on when they start typing in their password.»

Source: 4Guys from Rolla.

There is a new article about metadata in the image files posted on the Switch on the code site. This article tells about getting the the metadata from the image file with the C# languaage Here' the small excerpt from this article:

«Everyone has images. Maybe you're a photographer, a graphic artist, or you simply had a really awesome vacation, but chances are you have a lot of them. What you may or may not know is that every image contains extra information about itself: when it was taken or created, the size of the image, and sometimes even details such as the focal length and type of lens used. Almost every image has some sort of extra data, called metadata, and using C# we can write a function or even a class to help us get this metadata from the image.

Image metadata is formatted according to a set of standards, which can be found in a multitude of ways. Basically each piece of metadata is referred to as a property and has four attributes: Id, Type, Value, and Length. The Id is a number that corresponds to what the property is, e.g. the image width property has an Id of 0x0100. Considering an image file is binary, probably the most important attribute is the type, which tells us what type of data the value attribute is going to be, like a string for example. Finally you have the length which tells you how long the value is. With those four attributes, you can get, format, and display metadata. »

You can read the full version of this article on the Switch on the Code site.

Scott Guthrie writes about the beta version of the service pack for .NET 3.5 a nd Visual Studio 2008. Here's the the shoprt list of the improvments and fixes provided by this service pack and related to web development:

• ASP.NET Data Scaffolding Support (ASP.NET Dynamic Data)

• ASP.NET Routing Engine (System.Web.Routing)

• ASP.NET AJAX Back/Forward Button History Support

• ASP.NET AJAX Script Combining Support

• Visual Studio 2008 Performance Improvements HTML Designer and HTML Source Editor

• Visual Studio 2008 JavaScript Script Formatting and Code Preferences

• Better Visual Studio Javascript Intellisense for Multiple Javascript/AJAX Frameworks

• Visual Studio Refactoring Support for WCF Services in ASP.NET Projects

• Visual Studio Support for Classic ASP Intellisense and Debugging

• Visual Web Developer Express Edition support for Class Library and Web Application Projects

Source: ScottGu's blog.

Matt Berseth tells in his blog about intresting bug in the new AJAX ASP.NET Timer control and shows how to solve it. Matt writes:

«I know most dev's prefer writing new code over fixing/maintaining the existing stuff. And most days I feel the same way. But every once in a while it is kind of fun signing up for that one lingering defect that no one else can seem to fix. Maybe you know the one - its not reproducible, only occurs in production and brings the system to its knee's? Sound familiar?

Well I thought I might try something new and blog about some of the juicy bugs we have found hanging out in our app. This might turn into a blog series or something, or maybe not. Who knows.

The app I am currently working on has a page that uses ASP.NET AJAX's new Timer control to automatically refresh the page every 30 seconds. The page is one of those status pages that lets you monitor the progress of some off-line processes. Under normal usage a user would make a request to run some off-line process and then be taken to this page where they can monitor the progress. »

Source:Matt Berseth blog.

Continous LINQ1.1.0.0 released.

Continous LINQ is a .NET Framework 3.5 extension that builds on the LINQ query syntax to create continuous, self-updating result sets.
In traditional LINQ queries, you write your query and get stale results. With Continuous LINQ, you write a query and the results of that query are continuously updated as changes are made to the source collection or items within the source collection.
Here's the list of main features of this release:

• Support for Continuous Aggregation. Now, in addition to being able to have your result sets automatically update themselves in response to changes in the source set as well as changes to items in the source set, you can have aggregate scalar values that continuously update in the same fashion. The following is a list of the supported aggregation types that can now be done continuously:

  • Average

  • Min

  • Max

  • Sum

  • Standard Deviation

  • Count

• Brand new demo application. This demo application not only shows off the power of continuous queries and WPF data binding, but also shows you how to use continuous aggregates, create your own continuous aggregates, and how to databind a WPF GUI to a continuous aggregate value.

Source:.NET Addict Blog.

There is an intresting article abou performin the CRUD operations with LinqDataSource control. Here's the short tables of contents of this tutorial:

• Intoduction

• CRUD with LinqDataSource

• Handling the Updating Event

• Grouping and Aggregating Data

You can read the full version of this tutorial on the devX.com site.

Miroslav Kadera post the second chapter of his article about workin with XML data using LINQ and Listview. Here' the lis of topics that he reviews this time:

• Configuring the ListView to Support Editing

• Saving the Editing Record Back to the XML File

• Deleting Employee Phone Records

• Adding New Employee Phone Records

Read the full version of Article on the 4 Guys From Rolla site.

Scott Guthrie published slides and examples from his ASP.NET connections Orlando talks. This slides divided on three parts:

• General Session.

• Building .NET applications with Silverlight

• ASP.NET MVC

Also Scott published the source codes of examples demonstrated in this slides.

Source: ScottGu Blog.

Matt Berseth post an article about creating themes for AJAX ASP.NET controls. He writes:

Nathan Good published a tutorial in which he tells about some intresting time-saving technics in Eclipse Europe. From this tutorial you will learn about how to better use refactoring tools, search tools, workspaces, and code templates. After completing this tutorial, you should be an Eclipse power user — able to be more productive by doing less. Our goal is to show you how to leverage Eclipse features to perform mundane tasks.

Source: IBM developerWorks.

Working with strings is a commmon task in web development. Michael Kuehl post an intresting article about working with strings using StringBuilder object from the .NET framework.. He writes:

«Everyone loves strings, you use them all the time in writing code (especially if you are writing any code that needs to interact with the user). And C# makes it really easy to work with strings - the useful operators just work (like '+' and '+=') and every object has the extremely useful ToString function call. In fact, strings are so easy to work with in C#, one might almost say that they are too easy to work with.

Why would someone say that? Well, because of some of the underlying performance characteristics of the String class. Did you know that every time you manipulate a string in C#, you get a new string object back? This isn't that bad when dealing with short strings, or a short number of operations per string, but when you start concatenating a bunch of strings together it can get out of hand quickly.»

You can read full version of this aarticle on the Switch on The Code Site.

There is an intressting article about using the Working with XML Data Using LINQ, a TreeView, and a ListView for displaying the data. Here's the short list of topics disscused in this article:

• A Look at the Source XML Data

• Populating a TreeView Control with the XML Data

• Displaying the Selected Emloyees in the ListView Control

• Conclusion

You can read the full version of article with examples on a 4Guys from Rolla site.