Some good links October 15

.NET
Hierarchical Exception Handling with Enterprise Library
Progress indicators vs. Progress cursor
.Net and Deep Copy
Web Services Best Practices
HttpModule and HttpHandler sections in IIS 7 web.config files

ASP.NET
xacc.propertygrid
Cell Merging of DataGrid in ASP.NET

Management
The myth of the part time Scrum Master
Using Scrum on a multi project development team

Other
BizTalk Services: An overview
Bringing Agility to Architecture, and Architecture to Agility

Blog's view changed!!! :(

Hi there,
Unfortunately I have to change the face of the blog. The reason for this action that the current view does not fit well when a code snippet is post - like in my last post. I do not like tthe current design very much but this is the only one template that fits my needs. I'll try soon to edit the template and make it with a little bit better design.

Using exsiting IE cookies with HttpRequest

I've come accross an idea of making my own web spider with .Net. My tests were to grab information from the Experts-exchange site. I've used a code like this

HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(uri);
HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();

The request passes correct and getting the response was working well also. However the content of the response was not the correct one - I mean that it was different than the one I can see if I open an explorer.

What was the difference? The difference was the cookies! When I open the Internet Explorer and navigate to EE the EE server accepts me as logged in user using my cookies. However using the programatically created web request no cookies are associated with the request and the server does not show me the information I want.

During some research and some test I've come across the InternetGetCookie function. This function allows you to get the cookies stored by the Internet Explorer and assign them to your web request.

Here is the code I've come to:

    public class RequesstWithCookie
    {
        [DllImport("wininet.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
        static extern bool InternetGetCookie(string lpszUrlName, string lpszCookieName,
           [Out] StringBuilder lpszCookieData, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.U4)] out int lpdwSize);
 
        CookieContainer cookies;
 
        public RequesstWithCookie(String siteUrl)
        {
               LoadCookies(siteUrl);
        }

        public HttpWebRequest CreateRequest(string pageUrl)
        {
            Uri uri = new Uri(pageUrl);
            HttpWebRequest request = null;
            request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(uri);
            request.CookieContainer = cookies;

            return request;
        }

        private void LoadCookies(String url)
        {
            cookies = new CookieContainer();
            Uri uri = new Uri(url);

            StringBuilder cookieBuilder = new StringBuilder(new string(' ', 256), 256);
            int cookieSize = cookieBuilder.Length;

            if (!InternetGetCookie(url, null, cookieBuilder, out datasize))
            {
                if (datasize <> 0)
                {
                    return;
                }
                cookieBuilder = new StringBuilder(datasize);
                InternetGetCookie(url, null, cookieBuilder, out datasize);
            }

            cookies.SetCookies(uri, cookieBuilder.ToString().Replace(";", ","));
        }
    }

Hope this code will help somebody else to not lose an hour or more to find this out.

Some good links October 04

.NET
NUnit Templates and Snippets for Visual Studio 2005 - Now support C#
Releasing the Source Code for the .NET Framework Libraries

ASP.NET
10 Hot ASP.NET Tips and Tricks - 9/28/2007
The ASP.NET Page Lifecycle – A Basic Approach
ASP.Net : Clean up your use of ViewState

Other
Take control of your interview
Scrum for Team System Tips
10 cool web development related articles in 2007

Second edition of DevReach finished

This was just a wonderful event. I've been for second time on the DevReach in Sofia, Bulgaria and it was just amazing. For second time I have the ability to participate in sessions of Richard Campbell, Stephen Forte and Carl Franklin. I also participate in a session of Miguel Castro that is another amazing speaker.

Hope that this event will developed itself in future and will bring to Bulgaria more and more speakers of this rank.

There was a little problem with the rooms - some of the rooms was to small to hold everyone that wish to listen Stephen Forte or Miguel Castro. Hope that next year this part of the event will be better.

Some good links September 27

.NET
A good reason for calling GC.Collect()
Being more productive with C# 3.0
Using C# 3.0 Anonymous Types as Dictionaries
LinqDataSource vs ObjectDataSource vs SqlDataSource
A few C# Time Utilities for Fractional Time Values
Implement Sort and Custom Enumerator in Generic List
Reading (Active) Directory information from outside the domain

ASP.NET
How to makeuse of IsPostPack Method inside UserControl?
Calendar UI Extender Control

Tools
15+ Free Visual Studio Add-Ins
Build financial, engineering and scientific applications faster

Other
Why Your Project Plan Will Fail
September 23rd Links: VS, ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, Silverlight, WPF
XUnit.NET aims to be the Next NUnit, but it's too soon
Understanding Agile Software Development
Project Risk Management 101 articles in order

Some good links September 24

.NET
Reflection, GetMember() and COM Objects?
Using DocxToText to Extract Text from DOCX Files
Events, Reflection and how they don’t work in C#
How To Use .NET 3.5 "Extension Methods" for Validation
Improving Performance With LINQ
Refactoring Support for XML Literals
The C# ?? null coalescing operator (and using it with LINQ)
Assembly Manipulation and C#/VB.NET Code Injection
Remoting in .NET Using C#
How to go from Thread to ProcessThread

ASP.NET
How do I freeze an ASP.NET GridView header?
LinqDataSouce - DataItem in code behind
Integrate Windows Live ID Authentication Into Your Website
Understanding ASP.NET Web Parts
Rendering ASP.NET Controls out of place
Website screenshot capture with ASP.NET and PHP
Using a Modal Popup to Modify LINQ GridViews
Asynchronous Asp.net Page
Managing Multiple Configuration File Environments with Pre-Build Events
Enum Addin and the new Addins Section
LiveValidation
A Web Spider Library in C#
MSBuild Vs. NAnt
DisplayFusion to manage multiple screens

Other
Get up to speed on Visual Studio 2008
Targetting the .NET Framework 2.0 with Visual Studio 2008
Factonomy
Learning Resources
Process Analysis 101 - Part 1
Good Practice - ETVX
Specifying Good Requirements
Multi-threaded Debugging in Visual Studio 2008
Comparing Flash and WPF

Some good links September 17

.NET
[.NET C#] Unified C# 3.0 Specification
Debugging Tip for VS 2008
Debugging and Profiling Features in VS 2008
String Concatenation vs Memory Allocation

ASP.NET
Using DayPilot 2 (Outlook-like calendar/scheduling control for ASP.NET)
ASP .Net Interview Question Answers - 1
Forms Authentication Without Password In ASP.NET
September 16th Links: ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, IIS7, Visual Studio, Silverlight

Other
Learn Lisp today and other stuff
10 Qualities of Good Developer
How Often You Should Run Team Meetings
Top ten tips for software prototyping
[Fill-In-The-Blank] Enterprise Architecture
Scrum Product and Sprint Backlogs using Excel
No One Is Unmistakable

DevReach event,Sofia, Bulgaria; 1-2 October, 2007

There will be a realy good event this year about developers in Sofia. This will be the second edition of the DevReach. I think that the first edition was one of the best developers events in Bulgaria and as I can see in the speakers' list and the sessions titles - this year we should expect much more ( Richard Campbell, Dino Esposito, Stephen Forte, Carl Franklin and more).

There is a discount if you register before 18th of September, so hury.

Experts exchange solutions

This is a list with solutions provided by the experts in the Experts exchange for the last week.Remember that if you want to see the solution you must register in the site first.

.NET
text box label backcolor change on the fly
CLR Integration: Visual Studio 2003, SQL Server 2005
How can I make the child Form's ToolStrip merge with it's parents? (.NET C++/CLI)
How can I tell if the .Net Framework has been installed on a network
Using vb.net, how to send POST request with post data and save the binary response to a file?
Difference between standard and pro version of visual studio
Dynamic Parameter List
License a dll
Unable to Run Exe from Another PC
WebDav & Exchange: Create appointment, avoid overwrite existing one

C#
License a dll
How do I capture the information of the Toolstripmenuitem that was clicked
Unable to Run Exe from Another PC
Menustrip window forms - how do I find the hierarchy of menu items that lead to the menu item clicked and close the dropdownitems
aggregattion in datagridview 2.0
WebDav & Exchange: Create appointment, avoid overwrite existing one
Error loading image

VB.NET
Using vb.net, how to send POST request with post data and save the binary response to a file?
How can I get a list of groups in Active Directory and find out who is in those groups
How to communicate with a device (printer or something else) using an ethernet card
Obtaining Host IP Address
Row Already belongs to this table
Function () with multiple Return values
'Send' is ambiguous across the inherited interfaces 'Outlook._MailItem' and 'Outlook.ItemEvents_10_Event'.
Error Handling in MS Word, Merged rows count issue
Dynamic Parameter List

ASP.NET
text box label backcolor change on the fly
How can I tell if the .Net Framework has been installed on a network
Understanding "Public Shared" Declaration

Some good links September 10

.NET
MbUnit 2.4.1 Released
C# 3.0 Features: Object Initializers

ASP.NET
ASP.NET enhancements in VS2008 and .NET FX3.5
Extend Model View Presenter to ASP.Net 2.0
Save Changes on Close of Browser or when exiting the page
Introducing to ASP.NET Page Modules
Cookies and Unicode characters
20 Tips to Improve ASP.net Application Performance

Tools
Paint.NET (download and source code ;) )
Reverse Engineering with Reflector and Reflexil
Ways to use .Net Reflector #2.1: Creating your own add-ins
Using Html Help Builder in Visual Studio 2008

Other
[Fill-In-The-Blank] Enterprise Architecture
How to Configure Client Certificates
Funding Enterprise Architecture Efforts and Why It Matters
New Release: patterns & practices Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications

A trip to an ancient world

Last week my dream came true - I've been on a trip to Rome.
Just one week that allows me to see some of the greates things of the world - monumentals, churches and wonderful night life.

It was a pleasure to see another world that was the most powerfull empire in the past. Everything in Rome is fulfilled with energy, glory of the past and smile of the present.

This is a town where you can spent a life and a half to see, understand and become a part of it - not more or less. A life and a half. You can see a monumental or a church right after each corner, you can feel the power of the Catholic Church (even you are not a Catholic).

However I felt the calmness only in those small churches that you can not see on the map. The cursches on those small streets that are not named on the map.

When you see the gloriest Basilica St. Pietro, the Vatican's Museums you will understand why you must another life and half devoted to Rome.

And of course the trip will be incomplete if you don't feel the night life of rome with all the smiled faces of the Italian people, artists and musicians.

If you can afford it - you must definitely go to Rome.

Some good links August 23

.NET
C# 3.0 and LINQ
Creating a managed service factory
PLINQO - Supercharge LINQ to SQL
Mixing .NET remoting with COM+ to set user limitations
Visualizing project dependencies automatically
Typed vs Untyped Datasets - Code Generation
PowerShell: Using PowerShell to Debug .NET Class Libraries
TFS Event Handler in .NET 3.5 Part 1 - The Architecture

ASP.NET
Strong Name Validation failed when Debugging ASP.NET on IIS7
NHibernate Tutorial (1) - and ASP.NET
13 disasters for production web sites and their solutions
Public Hotfix Patch Available for VS 2005 F5 Debugging Performance Issue with ASP.NET
Creating an ASP.NET 2.0 Polling User Control: Design Decisions and the Data Model
Displaying Gentle Error Messages with ASP.NET
Securing Web.config
Encrypt a querystring with expiration
ASP.NET AJAX: Canceling an async postback

Tools
SQL Server Migration Assistant for Oracle V3.1
SketchPath - The XPath Tool
100% Reflective Class Diagram Creation Tool

Other
COM Connection Points
Extending Chain of Responsibility Design Pattern
Pocket Guide to Pocket ACE
How to use C# typeof in Powershell
Leading by Example
Did you know... How to convert spaces to tabs and tabs to spaces?
Tips to become Happy Software Engineer
VS 2008 (Beta 2) Templates for WCF

Experts exchange solutions

This is a list with solutions provided by the experts in the http://www.experts-exchange.com/ for the last week.Remember that if you want to see the solution you must register in the site first.

.NET
A book on Compiling in .Net
CS0234 and System.DirectoryServices
Visual Basic Net Datatable filter by column
make a hole in a form??
Error connecting the Asp.net to the Dbase IV
get bandwith usage of drives
Creating Day Planner in .Net 2.0
Looking for 2 common things
Difference between enumerators and constants
Modify ClickOnce publish page
Problem downgrading TypeDescriptor.GetProperties from .NET 2.0 to 1.1
Reset Visual studio 2005 system message box questions without re-installing

C#
C# Sliding Menu Control
Bluetooth howto
get bandwith usage of drives
Creating Day Planner in .Net 2.0
Looking for 2 common things
Difference between enumerators and constants


VB.NET
Visual Basic Net Datatable filter by column
make a hole in a form??
Looking for 2 common things
Problem downgrading TypeDescriptor.GetProperties from .NET 2.0 to 1.1
Reset Visual studio 2005 system message box questions without re-installing

ASP.NET
override Login Authentication Function
how to reduce the size of an image in asp.net?
Error connecting the Asp.net to the Dbase IV

Some good links August 20

.NET
Boxing/Unboxing In .NET
System Setup for .NET 3.0 and .NET 3.5
NGEN perf boost in red bits
The .NET Show on Silverlight
Callbacks, ConcurrencyMode and Windows Clients
Enterprise Library 3.1
C# static constructors are called on demand, not at startup
Analyzing .NET Patches
Materials on .NET FAQs List
10 Things You Should Know About Microsoft's Silverlight
Extension methods and .NET 2.0

LINQ
Multiple Enumeration of LINQ results
LINQ to SQL in Beta 2
LINQ to SQL (fka DLinq): What's new in Orcas beta2
Inserting new records with the ListView & LinqDataSource
LINQ to SQL (Part 6 - Retrieving Data Using Stored Procedures)

Web
Make your ASP.NET application extendable
ASP.NET Orcas Designer Customization
Master Page Reuse Across Applications
ASP.NET 2.0 FileUpload Server Control
How Do I: Determine Whether an Asynchronous Postback has Occurred?
Storing And Displaying Image From Database
Cool new ASP.NET 3.5 and Silverlight demo application
Strong password checker online
Developing IIS7 modules and handlers with the .NET framework
Make your web application run faster
GridView and Paging Alignment
Workflow + InfoPath Forms, Form is not workflow enabled??

Tools
DatePicker in ASP.NET 2.0 and AJAX Control Toolkit
Nevron .NET Vision Q2 2007 now available - AJAX Support, Gauges and many more
VS 2008 Tools menu

Other
Prepare for growing projects
Reading to Be a Better Developer - The Coding4Fun DevKit
Generic Methods
Smart enumerations
Design Patterns
Fading Forms In and Out
Silverlight Controls
Automatically GAC an assembly after a build and include debug info.
The Daily Grind 1207
Design Patterns
When BizTalk meets SharePoint, it makes sense…
ESB Guidance
What is the order of evaluation in C#?
Why the debugger will not hit your breakpoints?
E -Books Collection( Free Torrent Download)
Microsoft Interview Questions
Running FxCop and the quirks
CopySourceAsHtml in Visual Studio 2008
SOA in the Real World
Microsoft Biztalk Server 2006 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007
Using managed code to detect what .NET Framework versions and service packs are installed
Building LINQ Queries at Runtime in F#
A couple SharePoint logging tricks (Dev Environment only)
Mixing VS2008 with VS2005