If you ever the the error message “Unrecognized attribute 'xmlns'.” appear in the browser.
the reason is because the .NET framework is set to version 1.1 and not 2.0. To fix this open IIS and right click the virtual directory, in this case CSSSearch and select Properties from the menu.
Click the ASP.NET tab and change the ASP.NET version to 2.0.
Click OK and that should be it.
public object GetSuppliers()
{
ObjectQuery supplierQuery;
using(NorthwindEntities northwindContext = new NorthwindEntities())
{
supplierQuery = northwindContext.Suppliers;
}
return supplierQuery.ToList();
}
I love firebug, I’d go as far as saying the main reason you’d want to download the browser to use use this fantastic little bit of functionality. This handy little tool allows for the debugging, editing, and monitoring of any website's CSS, HTML or JavaScript. It’s also very handy for working with JQuery.
First you need a copy of Firefox which you can get from the web. (Note: you should be on FireFox v3 or higher to use FireBug)
Once you’ve started Firefox go to Tools/Add-ins from the menu.
Click “Get Add-on” in the upper left hand corner and type “FireBug” into the search field below and hit Enter..
Firebug should be the first one returned. Click the “add to Firefox” button
Click the Install Now button and close the Add-In window and restart FireFox.
Now you should be able to see the Firebug logo in the bottom right Hand corner, click this at any time to start the Add-in.
On any webpage click the bug icon.
A window will appear below showing all the HTML on that page which can be easily navigated.
To run a script click on the Console tab.
Click on the Console box and hit the “Apply settings to <server name>”
You will need to expand the Console window by clicking the red arrow in the bottom left hand corner.
Enter your script into this box and click Run.
e.g. Before
after hitting Run.
As you can see the word “Hello” has been added to the DIV named “theDiv”. The left hand side of the screen returns the results or any errors encountered on that JQuery script.
If after attempting to install SharePoint Moss you get the following issue where it will no allow you to choose a “Complete” installation.
This problem is not due to MOSS itself but to WSS version 3 which is a required pre-requisite. When installing WSS the User probably chose the “basic” installation option.
Unfortunately there is no simple way to change the installation once it has been created so you need to remove the old version and reinstall.
From the Control Panel chose Add/Remove Programs and choose “Microsoft Windows SharePoint Service 3.0” and click the Remove button. Click “Yes” to confirm you with to remove the program.
You will get a warning message regarding any existing data you may have in SharePoint, Click OK.
Eventually the uninstall will complete, click Yes and allow the server to reboot.
Run the installation for WSS version 3 again which can be downloaded directly from Microsoft.
You should see the progress bar.
Accept the Licence Agreement and click Continue, when the message dialogue appears.
Choose “Advanced”.
Choose “Web Front End” and click “Install Now”.
Unclick the “Run the SharePoint Products and Technology Configuration Wizard now” option and click “Close”.
Now when you run the MOSS installation you should see the following:
Now you get the option to install MOSS as a “Complete”.
As we were talking about autocode documenting, you should try out GhostDoc which is a very simple and easy to use add-in for Visual Studio.
Just download the ZIP file from the website
Run the installer MSI file.
Check Next
Agree and click Next.
Choose the default location or change it as required. Click Next and Next Again
After a few seconds you should see the following to say Installation was successful. click Close.
Start visual Studio 2008 for the first time after installation you’ll see the following message.
Take the default option of <CTRL><SHIFT>D and click Assign.
Create a new default configuration for the rules (we can create one later if the developers feel like it’s a good product to use). click Create and then Click Finish, Visual studio should then start as normal.
From within any application source code you can add a new comment to a function by placing your cursor on the first line.
In the above example the cursor is on line 19 for the button1_click. Hold down <CTRL><SHIFT> and D, or whatever you assigned above.
The additional comment information is automatically added.
So what’s so different about Ghost Doc over the built-in functionality of just typing ‘///’?
Well, if you provide good variable names it will actually come up with reasonably good comments automatically, for example above it knew “Click” was an Event, which would not happen in the built-in options.
Also you have a whole load of functionality around customising the language used or rules that can be applied.
To access the configuration area choose Tools/GhostDoc/Configure GhostDoc.
I’m not even going to try and set out the number of options you have here.
If nothing else it’s worth a look.
According to Microsoft LINQ is “a codename for a set of extensions to the .NET Framework that encompass language-integrated query, set, and transform operations. It extends C# and Visual Basic with native language syntax for queries and provides class libraries to take advantage of these capabilities”. What they actually mean is that its a very interesting way of doing Functional programming using C#. I make the BIG distinction here between LINQ and LINQ/SQL (i.e. LINQ for SQL databases) as the latter is probably not something that will remain in the Framework long term. It is probably going to be replaced with the ADO.NET Entity Framework.
As an introduction you should download LinqPad which is an excellent tool for the beginner or experience functional programmer. Not only does it provide a number of samples for a quick start, it also provides a test bed where you can run your queries directly against your data sources.
Download to your local machine the LinqPad.exe file from the website.
Double click the LinqPad icon and you should be presented with the application desktop.
The easiest way to test your queries is to do it against a data source, so click the “Add Connection” on the left of the screen.
Use the options to connect to your database server and click OK.
Next you select the Database using the “Database” dropdown in the top right and then all you need to do is type your LINQ queries into the work area below.
from c in Companies
where c.Comp_name.Contains("Iona Tech")
select c
Pressing the play button will execute the query.
This example is against a SQL database but that is only for convenience there is no issue at all running queries against array or other collections and that is where the power of this technology can be seen.
from word in "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog".Split()
orderby word.Length
select word
from n in new[] { 5, 4, 1, 3, 9, 8, 6, 7, 2, 0 }
where n < 5
select n
- or simply -
(new[] {5, 4, 1, 3, 9, 8, 6, 7, 2, 0 } ).Where (n => n < 5)
LINQ has a future for the .Net Framework, you only need to look at the developments with PLINQ and the Entity Framework to know that the syntax will start to move into day-to-day C# code. Also I’d recommend having a review of the F# Development Centre, this is an extension for Visual Studio for developers who really, really, really like their functional programming.
Here are some links to resources which will come in useful.
Microsoft have (finally) released a new scripting language for XP, Vista and its server Products called PowerShell. This is a vast improvement on the bad old days of writing everything in DOS. It will be installed by default in Windows 2008, however for earlier OS products you can get it from the Microsoft Site.
Here are the instructions for getting a copy. Download and run the EXE from the Microsoft site and follow the online prompts. Just choose the defaults for all the settings and agree the Licence Agreement.
This will add a new item to your Start menu, selecting the Windows Power Shell item will bring you into the PowerShell environment, which is much the same as the standard Command (CMD.EXE) window except you had access to a whole set of new functions and facilities.
You can create a Powershell script using notepad, Visual Studio or any text editor, however this is a little limited. I’d recommend the free Power Shell GUI application which can be downloaded and installed. This gives you IntelliSense some debugging facilities. Just download and install selecting all the standard default.
When you start PowerGUI you get this friendly and basically useless console window. Just ignore this until you get to the stage of wanting to add your own scripts to the tree. Your main editor is available from the Tools/PowerGUI Script Editor option on the menu.
From here on you can just type your PowerShell scripts and and press the Play button to see it in action.
There are numerous examples of good PowerShell scripts on the Internet here are a few I use:
This message is very annoying on the servers when you just want to download some software.
Here are the instructions for removing it.
Go to Control Panel/Add Remove Programs and select Windows Components. When the dialogue appears find the “Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration” entry and uncheck the box and click Next.
Once this is completed you should click Finish.
The message should now not be displayed every time you attempt to access a website.
