SuperTal2011

Programming for Kids

2011-08-09T08:33:00.000-05:00

Over the past few months my 2 boys (7 and 9) have been having a good time in computer class. They are writing their first programs or should I say, games!! Ha! Microsoft has released this cute game programming tool for kids called Kodu.

It's great for teaching logic and a great introduction to learning programming interactions.

Give it a try!

PDF manipulation

2011-07-14T15:06:00.000-05:00

Ran across a great article when working with PDF files that are dynamically generated:
dotnetscraps

C# Escape Sequences

2011-04-28T13:22:00.000-05:00

Some escape sequences commonly used:

\n Newline
\t Horizontal Tab
\v Vertical Tab
\b Backspace
\r Carriage Return
\f Form feed
\a Audible Alert (bell)
\\ Backslash
\? Question mark
\' Single quote
\" Double quote

System.TypeLoadException for System.ServiceModel.Activation.HttpModule in ASP.NET 4

2011-03-15T08:58:00.000-05:00

Ran into this problem when deploying a new web site and wanted to pass it along: IIS.NET

Silverlight 4 DVD Shelf

2010-12-30T19:57:00.000-06:00

Wanted to share something I did this past summer, almost forgot to post about it. It is a little Silverlight 4 project that displays my superhero collection (well not all of them by any means).

http://superherocollection.talkelley.com/

It uses a simple XML file as a datasource. I'll try to post some sample code after the new year!

A lil' HTML Help

2010-11-30T12:27:00.000-06:00

Thought I'd post a little help with HTML Special characters and such. Hope you enjoy!

HTML Source

Microsoft Web Farm Framework

2010-09-09T09:23:00.000-05:00

Running an IIS server farm? Need help managing it or setting it up?
Take a look at this, looks nice:

ScottGu - Microsoft Web Farm Framework

Can't wait to give it a spin.

Team Foundation Server Install

2010-08-05T10:20:00.000-05:00

Recently, performed an install of Team Foundation Server 2010 using SQLExpress as a backend, and also installed Visual Studio 2010 Pro.

I created a few screen shots to demo the install process. Here is a link to the file showing all of the screen shots.

ASP.NET Redirect to Self

2010-06-10T13:06:00.000-05:00

It's easy to reset a page to it's initial state in ASP.NET by redirecting to itself. Here are 3 ways you can do it:

1. Response.Redirect(Request.Path);

In which the path to the request is presented in the following form: /MyApp/MyFile.aspx

2. Response.Redirect(Request.RawUrl);

In which not only is the path exposed, but also any querystring parameters like:
/MyApp/MyFile.aspx?foo=bar

3. Response.Redirect(Request.Url.ToString());

In which not only is the path and querystring parameters exposed, but made available as an absolute reference in the form:
http://MyServer/MyApp/MyFile.aspx?foo=bar

Busy Upgrading

2010-04-26T12:51:00.000-05:00

Well, I haven't posted in a while, but have been busy upgrading. With the advent of Microsoft releasing new versions of their products, well, let's just say it's been fun.

Got everything recompiled in VS 2010 and the .NET 4 framework (love it). Setting up Team Foundation Server now since my old Source Safe is pretty much gone. :)

Stop the hard-coding!

2010-02-25T15:17:00.000-06:00

I often use lookup values for various conditions, and have to check for those conditions in my code in order to perform some action. Welcome the enum:

strControlType = ((enmControlType)int.Parse(drTempDataRow["ControlTypeID"].ToString()));
switch (strControlType)
{
    case enmControlType.ListBox:
        ..some action..
        break;
}

Short but sweet...

WCF basicHttpBinding with Windows Authentication

2009-12-07T07:28:00.000-06:00

Wrote a Report scheduling program and was having a little problem with Windows Authentication and didn't want to turn Anonymous access on so I stumbled upon the following article which was a great help:

Recipe: WCF basicHttpBinding with Windows Authentication

Saving Binary in SQL Server to PDF file

2009-10-07T14:54:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm working on a project where I enable a user to upload a file and store it in SQL Server 2005, and then need to pull it out of the database and save the PDF file to disk using a WinClient app.

System.IO.FileStream fs;                // Writes the binary to a file (*.pdf).
System.IO.BinaryWriter bw;              // Streams the binary to the FileStream object.
int bufferSize = 100;                   // Initial size of the binary buffer.
byte[] outbyte = new byte[bufferSize];  // The binary byte[] buffer to be filled by GetBytes.
long retval;                            // The bytes returned from GetBytes.
long startIndex = 0;                    // The starting position in the binary output.
string rec_id = "";                     // The id to use in the file name.

while (myReader.Read())
{
    // Get the id.
    rec_id = myReader["DocumentationUploadID"].ToString();

    // Create a file to hold the output.
    fs = new System.IO.FileStream("DocumentID-" + rec_id + ".pdf", System.IO.FileMode.OpenOrCreate, System.IO.FileAccess.Write);
    bw = new System.IO.BinaryWriter(fs);

    // Reset the starting byte for the new Binary.
    startIndex = 0;

    // Read the bytes into outbyte[] and retain the number of bytes returned.
    retval = myReader.GetBytes(1, startIndex, outbyte, 0, bufferSize);

    // Continue reading and writing while there are bytes beyond the size of the buffer.
    while (retval == bufferSize)
    {
        bw.Write(outbyte);
        bw.Flush();

        // Reposition the start index to the end of the last buffer and fill the buffer.
        startIndex += bufferSize;
        retval = myReader.GetBytes(1, startIndex, outbyte, 0, bufferSize);
    }

    // Write the remaining buffer.
    bw.Write(outbyte, 0, (int)retval);
    bw.Flush();

    // Close the output file.
    bw.Close();
    fs.Close();

Windows 7 Launch Party

2009-09-28T20:02:00.000-05:00

Attended the Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 launch party in Atlanta today.

It was interesting to see the sensor demos so I thought I'd post a quick note about it if anyone is interested.

Having Fun link

Pad Integer with Zeros using C#

2009-09-21T15:27:00.000-05:00

A quick example for padding an Integer with zeros in C#:

System.Int32 intMyInteger = 87366;
System.String strMyInteger = intMyInteger.ToString().PadLeft(20, '0');

SQL Change Table Owner

2009-09-10T12:39:00.000-05:00

Need a quick way to change the table owner for multiple tables then try this:

DECLARE @old sysname, @new sysname, @sql varchar(1000)

SELECT
  @old = 'CHANGE_name_here_ONLY'
  , @new = 'dbo'
  , @sql = '
  IF EXISTS (SELECT NULL FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
  WHERE
      QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA)+''.''+QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) = ''?''
      AND TABLE_SCHEMA = ''' + @old + '''
  )
  EXECUTE sp_changeobjectowner ''?'', ''' + @new + ''''

EXECUTE sp_MSforeachtable @sql

Little fun...

2009-08-05T14:18:00.000-05:00

Well, it's getting close to football season so I thought I'd post a little fun.

Who do you think would win? :)

Formatting Dates with T-SQL

2009-06-19T12:57:00.000-05:00

I've seen a lot of weird and extravagant ways to format dates, and wanted to share a simple method for displaying dates with as little code as possible.

CONVERT (VARCHAR, column_name, StyleID)

Example StyleIDs are listed below:

0 or 100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
9 or 109
110
111
112
13 or 113
114
20 or 120
21 or 121
126
130
131

mon dd yyyy hh:miAM (or PM)
mm/dd/yy
yy.mm.dd
dd/mm/yy
dd.mm.yy
dd-mm-yy
dd mon yy
Mon dd, yy
hh:mm:ss
mon dd yyyy hh:mi:ss:mmmAM (or PM)
mm-dd-yy
yy/mm/dd
yymmdd
dd mon yyyy hh:mm:ss:mmm(24h)
hh:mi:ss:mmm(24h)
yyyy-mm-dd hh:mi:ss(24h)
yyyy-mm-dd hh:mi:ss.mmm(24h)
yyyy-mm-dd Thh:mm:ss.mmm(no spaces)
dd mon yyyy hh:mi:ss:mmmAM
dd/mm/yy hh:mi:ss:mmmAM

ASP.NET menu problem in IE8

2009-05-04T08:45:00.000-05:00

If you use the ASP.NET menu on any of your web sites and just upgraded to IE8 then you probably just noticed that the drop down menu may have a white background.

What IE8 is doing is correct (by design), in the sense that in Standards mode IE8 is following the standards. By default the (element).currentStyle.zIndex returns "auto" when the zindex has not been set. The ASP.NET menu controls just assumes a different value. :)

Override the zindex property. Like such:

CSS

<style type="text/css">
   .IE8MenuFix
   {
      z-index: 100;
   }
</style>

HTML

<DynamicMenuStyle CssClass="IE8MenuFix" />

Modal Progress Display for ASP.NET

2009-05-01T15:10:00.000-05:00

If you use the AJAX Extensions in your ASP.NET web site then you've probably used the UpdateProgess control to display that some action is processing in the background.

Here is a code snippet of a simple Modal type processing box I use for some static notifications of some action.

HTML:

<asp:UpdateProgress ID="UpdateProgress2" runat="server" DynamicLayout="False" DisplayAfter="1">
    <ProgressTemplate>
        <div class="PageWorkingBackground">
        </div>
        <div class="UpdateProgress">
            <asp:Image ID="Image1" runat="server" ImageUrl="~/images/SEIB-Validating.gif" AlternateText="[image]" />
            <asp:Image ID="ajaxLoadNotificationImage" runat="server" ImageUrl="~/images/bar_loader.gif"
                AlternateText="[image]" />
        </div>
    </ProgressTemplate>
</asp:UpdateProgress>

CSS:

.PageWorkingBackground
{
position: fixed;
top: 0;
left: 0;
background-color:Gray;
filter:alpha(opacity=75);
opacity:0.75;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
min-height: 100%;
min-width: 100%

}

.UpdateProgress
{
background-color:#fff;
width: 150px;
text-align: center;
vertical-align: middle;
position: fixed;
bottom: 50%;
left: 45%;
border: solid 2px #453825;
margin: 10px;
padding: 10px;
}

Here is a picture of the modal box in action:

Complicate Brute Force Attacks in ASP.NET

2009-04-24T09:11:00.000-05:00

Have you ever used a test program to simulate a Brute Force attack on your login screen? It's pretty vicious and cool at the same time.

On my login screens I've developed for public access I perform the following to help block any Brute Force attempt.

1. Implement Captcha technology after 3rd failed login attempt.
2. Lock account after fifth failed login attempt (optional).
3. Implement a random delay using System.Threading.Thread.Sleep on each failed login attempt.

Of couse, all of this may not be 100% attack proof, but is sure complicates things.

Below is some pseudocode I used to implement step 3 above:

...
//Sample function to validate user
if (fncValidateUser(ref mCN, txtUserID.Text.Trim(), txtPassword.Text.Trim()))
{
   ...
   Response.Redirect(strReturnURL, true);
   ...
}
else
{
   //Delay Request
   subDelayRequest();
   ...
}

//Randomly delay request, I use anywhere between 2 and 20 seconds.
private void subDelayRequest()
{
   System.Int32 minSeconds, maxSeconds;
   minSeconds = 2;
   maxSeconds = 20;
   Random rand = new Random();
   System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(rand.Next(minSeconds, maxSeconds) * 1000);
}

A Little Fun with Generic Filters

2009-04-16T09:37:00.000-05:00

Some have asked about my generic filters, and to answer some of the questions:

I have finally finished it (back in February).

It is database driven - heard of meta data driven ui? :)

It is used for both filtering data and filtering report criteria.

A little history on my project..
I've worked on 2 similar projects in the past. The first was a database driven filter screen written in classic ASP and simply provided a stacked layout of different controls and a simple listing of results with hyperlinks to edit details. It was precise and functional, but not expandable to include reports or reuse elsewhere. The second, my previous job, was class driven and cumbersome to develop against, to say the least. It generated only list boxes and a full page of results - thus it had no paging or reording abilities, but had a nice flow layout.

Since I started a new job I decided to start on my own generic filter that borrowed the idea of a database driven backend and various control types, and a flow layout (using DIV tags instead of tables) and threw in a slew of other enhancements.

Here is a quick screen shot of my generic filter (uses test data):

Here is the results screen, notice it uses paging and sorting (took a while to figure that out since my gridview isn't bound).

Here is a screen shot of the Reporting filter, it allows saving and scheduling of reports and more.

Granted there are a myriad of other options that a few simple screen shots can't show, but I'll try to post more info in the future. Best of all it's a simple component that will fit into any web page provided you have a database backend. :)

Equal Column Heights using CSS and JQuery

2009-03-22T10:05:00.000-05:00

Thought I would share a little JQuery code.

I finished my dynamically generated filter screen a few months ago and when I did the layout I decided to dynamically generate DIV tags instead of TABLES.

I basically had 3 types: small, medium, and large columns that floated left with a maximum of 3 small columns per row, 2 small and 1 medium, etc.

All worked fine except I had a nice light brown background for each and the heights were not equal. It kind of looked like a jumbled bar chart. :)

Since everything is dynamic, I turned to JavaScript. I first wrote a couple of JavaScript functions and all worked in IE but not FireFox (yep, it's usually the other way around, huh?) so I settled with JQuery afterall it's backed by Microsoft and they now offer Intellisense for it in VS 2008 SP1. It was sure easier, take a look at the code below:

//Function to loop through each item with passed in Class
        function equalHeight(group) {
            tallest = 0;
            group.each(function() {
                thisHeight = $(this).height();
                if (thisHeight > tallest) {
                    tallest = thisHeight + 5;
                }
            });
            group.height(tallest);
        }

        //Code to call equalHeight passing in Wildcard col because different width
        //columns get generated (colSmall, colMedium, colLarge)
        $(document).ready(function() {
            equalHeight($("[class^=col]"));
        });

Dynamically generated CSS Level 2.1 at it's finest. :)

Pretty simple and quick, huh? Here's quick photo of what it looks like:

Windows 7 Install Experience

2009-02-08T20:55:00.000-06:00

Well, one word.. "WOW"

Yes, I installed Windows 7 Beta 1 on my Dell Latitude 610, and it took roughly 20 minutes. Let me rephrase that, I was online with my wireless connection and no errors in 20 minutes. Pretty sweet compared to how long it took to reload in XP.

More updates as they come...

Installed the following successfully:
Adobe Flash Player 10
Adobe Reader 9
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
SnagIt 8
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition

Loop through DataSet

2009-01-08T10:06:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to share a quick snippet of looping through a .NET DataSet

DataSet ds = new DataSet();
foreach(DataRow dr in ds.Tables[0].Rows)
{
Console.WriteLine(dr["ColName"].ToString());
}