Default Button for a TextBox (Data entry screen) in ASP.NET

Sometimes I get annoyed when hitting the enter key in a TextBox (say login screen) resulting in undesired effects like the wrong Button being “clicked“. After so many code tricks, I found the below method that allows you to specify a default Button to submit when the user hits the enter key in a TextBox.

When you press a key on your keyboard, the js OnKeyPress event is fired. This calls a function to which we pass the id of the button associated with the TextBox. The function gets a reference to the button and simuilates a mouse-click on the Button. We perform a browser detection because IE and Netscape have different event models. The function finally returns false so that the keypress event is cancelled (otherwise a second form submit will be raised). I tried this code with newer versions of IE 6.0/Netscape 7 it worked great!.

//client side js
function clickButton(e, buttonid){
var bt = document.getElementById(buttonid);
if (typeof bt == 'object'){
if(navigator.appName.indexOf("Netscape")>(-1)){
if (e.keyCode == 13){
bt.click();
return false;
}
}
if (navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft Internet Explorer")>(-1)){
if (event.keyCode == 13){
bt.click();
return false;
}
}
}
}

//code behind
TextBox1.Attributes.Add("onkeypress", "return clickButton(event,'" + Button1.ClientID + "')");

The code behind generates the following code:

< input name="TextBox1" type="text" id="TextBox1" onkeypress="return clickButton(event,'Button1')" / >

This causes web control Button1 to be clicked when the enter key is hit inside TextBox1.



With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

Adding Cross-Site Scripting Protection to ASP.NET 1.0

ASP.NET 1.1 added the ValidateRequest attribute to protect your site from cross-site scripting. What do you do, however, if your Web site is still running ASP.NET 1.0? This article shows how you can add similar functionality to your ASP.NET 1.0 Web sites.

Check out the article @
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/ScriptingProtection.asp

With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

Multilingual Support in .NET

This is a Web Solution designed to teach all newcomers into the .Net field on how to incorporate Multi-language support into your Web Applications. You have to download the accompaning ZIP file.
This tutorial will teach you

- How to create the Resource files for various languages.
- How to access the Resource file data from the web pages.
- How to store Unicode (multilingual) data into the database.
- How to access multilingual data from the database.

You can find the tutorial article at http://www.developersdex.com/gurus/articles/500.asp?Page=1


With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

Better Ways to Manage Your Cache in ASP.NET

Caching is one of the features in ASP.NET 1.x that most developers are familiar with. And it has helped to fuel a yearning for cache dependency in SQL Server. The ability to refresh the cache if a row in a table has been modified is very useful to a lot of developers. And hence in ASP.NET 2.0, Microsoft built SQL Server cache dependency right into the product.

Read more here http://www.devx.com/asp/Article/21751/1954?pf=true


With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

Web Forms DataGrid and DataSet Programming

This is a working C# .NET program that demonstrates how to integrate most of the features of the DataGrid and DataSet in a single project including select, insert, update, delete, confirm delete, sort, filter and page.

Get more here http://www.developerfusion.com/scripts/print.aspx?id=3801


With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

How server form post-back works?

One of the most important features of the ASP.NET environment is the ability to declare controls that run on the server, and post back to the same page. Remember the days of classic ASP? We would create a form which would accept the user's input, and then we would most probably have to create another page that would accept all those inputs, either through HTTP GET or POST, and perform some kind of validation, display and action. Sometimes, even a third page was necessary to perform our actions. This wasted a lot of time and complicated things when you had to make a change. But of course, this is not necessary any more with ASP.NET. There is no need to create second pages that accept the inputs of the first, process them and so on. Form fields and other controls can be declared to run on the server, and the server simply posts the page back to itself and performs all the validation, display and actions. Our life as web developers has become a million times better. But how exactly is this done?

When a control is declared to run on the server, a VIEWSTATE is created which remembers the ID of that control, and the method to call when an action is performed. Submit event calls the JavaScript function __doPostBack (that's 2 underscore symbols in front of it). You do not write this function, instead it is generated by the ASP.NET engine and automatically included in our page. It submits the form to the same page, and accepts 2 arguments:

eventTarget: the control doing the submission
eventArgument: any additional information for the event

At least one control needs to be set to Visible, for the server to generate the __doPostBack function in our page. Even if we have numerous web controls declared to run on the server, but they are all set to Visible=false, then the javascript function will not be included and we will not be able to perform any actions.



With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

How is the viewstate encoded? Is it encrypted?

No, it isn't encrypted. It's Base64 encoded. By default, there's also a HMACSHA1 digest appended that prevents it from tampering. It's protected with an HMACSHA1 digest computed with the viewstate and a randomly generated 512 server secret so it is tamper resistant.




With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

Do we HAVE TO name the ASP.NET configuration file as web.config?

Yes, if you want ASP.NET to read it. You can store arbitrary stuff for your app elsewhere but you'll have to consume it explicitly.



With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

How do we handle session across ASP and ASP.NET pages in the same Site?

Unfortunately, they can't share. ASP supports in-proc state only and they run in different processes.If you need to support this, you might want to try keep state in a database and using a cookie to track it.


With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

Asynchronous Programming in Web Services

Callback functions are the way to implement Asynchronous programming in Web
services... We will get into details of this topic sometime but now just an
overview...
A client calls the Begin method on the server object and passes a reference
to the callback method... The asynchronous method on the server object
finishes execution and gives a call back to the method on the client
object... This method in client object now causes the call to End method on
the server object.... The End Method then returns the result to the
client...
Well why would you do such a thing??... The simple reason can be when your
server side execution is really going to take long and you do not want to
wait for all that processing to happen...



With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

Top questions about Datagrid

Top questions about Datagrid

The DataGrid Web server control is a powerful tool for displaying information from a data source. It is easy to use; you can display editable data in a professional-looking grid by setting only a few properties. At the same time, the grid has a sophisticated object model that provides you with great flexibility in how you display the data.

This paper addresses some of the questions about customizing grid display that are commonly asked in newsgroups, on Web sites, and in other developer forums.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/vbtchTopQuestionsAboutASPNETDataGridServerControl.asp




Q) When I try to do an Update from my Datagrid, I keep getting the old/original values. Why?

This is caused by calling DataBind() on the grid before retrieving the updated values. The DataBind() overwrites the updates with the original values. Usually caused by having the initial DataBind() of the grid called on every Page_Load. Solution: call DataBind() only the first time the page is loaded:

Sub Page_Load(s As Object, e As EventArgs)
If Not IsPostBack Then BindGrid()
End Sub


With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

How do I specify more than one parameter for my HyperlinkColumn?

The HyperlinkColumn's DataNavigateUrlFormatString only supports one parameter. If you need more than one, switch to a TemplateColumn with an .
Note: You should always encode values passed into querystring to protect against spaces and special characters.













With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

ASP.NET State Management Overview

HTTP is a stateless protocol. Each request is serviced as it comes; after the request is processed, all of the data is discarded. No state is maintained across requests even from the same client.

However, it is very useful to maintain state across requests for certain solutions. ASP.NET enables you to maintain both application state and session state through use of application and session variables respectively.

Learn more about

Application State
Session State
Configuring Session State

here - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307598&Product=aspnet



With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

ASP.NET Page Framework Overview

The ASP.NET page framework is a scalable programming model that you can use on the server to dynamically generate Web pages. The ASP.NET page framework is the successor to Active Server Pages

Learn more about

Page Life Cycle
Page Events
Page Directives
Inline Versus Code-Behind Programming Models
here - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305141&Product=aspnet


With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

How to use Response.Redirect in C# .NET

How to use Response.Redirect in C# .NET

Use HttpResponse.Redirect

HttpResponse Class
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfSystemWebHttpResponseClassTopic.asp

HttpResponse.Redirect Method
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfsystemwebhttpresponseclassredirecttopic.asp

HttpResponse.BufferOutput Property
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfsystemwebhttpresponseclassbufferoutputtopic.asp

More here...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307903#7


With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

Common Request: Which Data Control should I use?

Common Request: Which Data Control should I use?

Learn about ASP.NET's three controls for displaying data: the DataGrid, the DataList, and the Repeater. Each of these controls has unique traits and associated advantages and disadvantages. When creating an ASP.NET application that displays data, it is important to choose the right control for the job.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/aspnet-whenusedatawebcontrols.asp


With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

Building Custom Controls with ASP.NET

# Developing ASP.NET Server Controls

* http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cpcondevelopingwebformscontrols.asp

# ASP.NET Server Control Samples (short demonstrations of server control authoring tasks)

* http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cpconservercontrolssamples.asp

# Microsoft® ASP.NET QuickStarts Tutorial – Authoring Custom Controls

* http://samples.gotdotnet.com/quickstart/aspplus/doc/webctrlauthoring.aspx


With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

Compilation

Technical details on how ASP.NET pages are compiled to native code when requested.

Machine boots.
Request for MyPage.aspx comes in (first time).
MyPage.aspx compiles to an assembly* (we'll call it MyPage.dll* ).
The portions of MyPage.dll that are needed for execution are JITed* to memory.*
Page execution completes. The JITed code stays in memory.
A new request for MyPage.aspx comes in. The page hasn't changed. The JITed code that is still in memory runs.
The source for MyPage.aspx changes.
A new request for MyPage.aspx comes in. MyPage.aspx compiles to an assembly, JITs, and executes. The JITed code stays in memory.
A new request for MyPage.aspx comes in. The page hasn't changed. The JITed code that is still in memory runs.
IIS is stopped and started.
A new request for MyPage.aspx comes in. The page hasn't changed. Because IIS was stopped and started, the JITed code is no longer in memory. The existing MyPage.dll JITs and executes. This new JITed code stays in memory.
The JITing process is similar with any .NET code, including .DLL's in your ASP.NET application and .DLL's and .EXE's in WinForms applications. Since there's no page, and since the assembly is already created, these steps don't take place. Instead, methods in the assembly are JITed to native code in memory when they're called (step 4 above), and unloaded from memory when the calling application (the Windows .EXE, or IIS and the ASP.NET worker process as in step 10 above) is closed.

Please Note:

Step 3: Note that a code file (.CS for C# code, .VB for Visual Basic code or no code) gets created from the .ASPX page first, then this file gets compiled into an assembly (.DLL).
Step 3: The MyPage.dll assembly won't have a friendly name like that. Expect more like "yxgq4-hz.dll". Whatever it's called, it will be under a directory called something like "C:\WINNT\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\Temporary ASP.NET Files".
Step 4: "JITed" is shorthand for "just-in-time compiled." In .NET, methods from your assemblies are compiled into native binary code when they are called. In ASP.NET, this happens when pages are requested by the web browser--at runtime, and thus, just in time before serving the response. Contrast this with COM components, which must be compiled to binary code ahead of time, before they can be called.
Step 4: This is just a one-time performance hit, and even so, it shouldn't be of concern. In Scott Guthrie's words: "Note that in practice, the cost of dynamic JITing the first access of a page's code is minimal. Because most of the overall page code path actually lives within [.NET] Framework libraries (for example: the code within the page base class, the code within System.Data, System.XML, etc.), the number of instructions generated from your actual code are pretty minimal. Because we can dynamically JIT millions of instructions to native code per second, this one-time cost ends up being noise in the grand scheme of things."



With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

ASP.NET Page Execution

Here I want to explain the basics on what order events and methods get executed during the lifecycle of a request. Its essential to understand this order when debugging what can be complex bugs in Page and WebControl code.

Here's a short exercise that will help you internalize what is happening during the creation and execution of a page. Do this without looking up the answer, and it will really make you think through what is happening. Put the following events in order, assuming the request is a PostBack resulting from a Button click:

Unload
Pre-Render
Handle Postback Events
Dispose
Save State
Load View State
Load
Button Click Handler
Process Postback Data
Initialize
Send Postback Change Notifications
Render

You can lookup the answer in MSDN http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cpconcontrolexecutionlifecycle.asp, but realize that at least one of the events is out of order in the documentation.

Consider the events in your Global.asax class on the first request received by an application not yet started:

Authorize Request
Application Start
Authenticate Request
End Request
Page Execution
Begin Request
Session Start

The next time you try to access ViewState during the Init event, you'll know why it doesn't work correctly.

With Best Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

Maintaining State Across ASP.Net Pages

We will talk about two standard methods of maintaining state across ASP.Net pages today... The more sophisticated methods will be discussed from tomorrow onwards...

1) Using QueryString : You can pass values of one page to another page using Query strings... This is an old ASP custom but for security reason not always recomended in ASP.Net

2) Using Session : You can also pass values of one page to another by storing them in session... Use of session is pretty simple and we have discussed that earlier as well (Click Here)... But do understand the fact that Session variables are to store user specific information which is unique to each user and not each page... Also do note that if you forget to clean the session variables in the next page you might land up increasing the session size like anything effecting performance of your application...

Other Advance Methods Are :

3.) Using HttpContext/RequestParams with Server.Transfer: We discussed adding to session yesterday, similarly you can add to HttpContext as well and this eliminates the cleaning code required in the next page like the way it is required in Session... There are other advantages too...

If you use Server.Transfer then all your control values are automatically transferred to the next page you do not have to add anything to the context explicitly here rather just access the values in the coming page... The code example will show this more clearly...

If you have certain values other than the above mentioned then you have to do certain special operations to explicitly add them in the first page and retrieve them in the second...

CODE SNIPPET

FirstPage Code:
//These are the special values being added to context
//we will retrieve them in the next page
context.Items.Add("specialVariableName", "specialVariableValue");
//We set the second parameter of Server.Transfer to True this will help
//sending certain values automatically
Server.Transfer("NextPage.aspx", True);


NextPage Code:
string strValueOfFirstPageTextBox;
string strSpeciallyAddedValue;
//Use Request.Params to get values of the standard variables
//which get automatically transferred
strValueOfFirstPageTextBox = Request.Params.Get("firstPageTextBox")
//Use HttpContext to get the values specially added
strSpeciallyAddedValue = context.Items("specialVariableName")


4.) Using Properties with Server.Transfer: Make your first page in such a way that you expose the required values in next page as properties in the first page... Then use Server.Transfer to go to the next page(keep the second parameter as false here, WHY SO WE WILL TALK TOMORROW)... Now in the next page using context handler you can get all the properties of the first page...

I am not writing the first page code as it is just simply adding values into properties and calling Server.Transfer and I believe you all know how to do that...

CODE SNIPPET

NextPage Code:

if(Context.Handler != null)
{
string strInternalVariableOfNextPage;
FirstPage objFirstPage = new FirstPage();
objFirstPage = (FirstPage)Context.Handler;
//Note that SomeValue is a public property of First Page
strInternalVariableOfNextPage = objFirstPage.SomeValue;
}

Inside IIS and ASP.NET

This article explains how IIS and ASP.NET communicate, and describes some techniques for intercepting some of this communication. It also shows how ASP.NET is configured to handle requests, and how applications and Web services are handled by default.

http://theserverside.net/articles/showarticle.tss?id=IIS_ASP

Regards,
Mitesh Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com

Script Debugging Tips

http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/csharp/learn/whitepapers/How%20to%20debug%20script%20in%20Visual%20Studio%20.Net.doc

A few quick highlights:

o Internet explorer defaults to having script debugging disabled. IE also likes to disable script debugging when you install a new version of IE (example: XP SP2). In IE, go to Tools->Internet Options->Advanced. Prior to Windows XP SP2, the option you needed to uncheck was 'Disable Script Debugging'. In XP SP2, the IE team decided to split this into two separate options - 'Disable Script Debugging (Internet Explorer)' and 'Disable Script Debugging (Other)'. The 'Other' option control script debugging in other applications that use mshtml.dll such as Outlook.

o Try to keep all of your script running in the same script block. IE will sometimes get confused if you have more then one.

o To debug client side script that is in a .ASPX file, you will need to either open the ASPX file from the Running Documents window (called the 'Script Documents' window in Visual Studio 2005), or set a breakpoint by function name (Ctrl-B).


With Best Regards
Mitesh V. Mehta
Email : miteshvmehta@gmail.com
http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta/

Asp.net:Delegates and events

Asp.net:Delegates and events

NET, defines a delegate as a class that holds a reference to a method oEssentially a typesafe callback method reference (pointer) In Vb.NET you can define delegate as Public Delegate Sub MyCallbackHandler(x as integer) The signature of the delegate defines the signature of the methods it can call. For example, the MyCallbackHandler delegate shown above can be used to refer to void methods that take a single integer as a parameter: Delegate Tutorial: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/csref/html/vcwlkDelegatesTutorial.asp and Events are declared as Public Event MyCallbackEvent As MyCallbackHandler Events can be used to inform an object that something significant has happened, and interrupt the flow of control in that object causing it to execute a method designed for handling the event. An event provides a component with a hook that an interested client can attach one of its methods to. When the component wants to indicate that something significant has happened, it can raise the event and consequently call the associated methods Events are closely related to delegates, and rely on the functionality of multicast delegates for registering methods to be called when an event is raised Events Tutorial : http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/csref/html/vcwlkEventsTutorial.asp Regards, Mitesh v. Mehta miteshvmehta@gmail.com http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta

Design Days: View State Performance Tips

Design Days: View State Performance Tips In controls like listbox controls, items added to the list are carried between client and server via view state... When the list of items become considerably large it starts hitting the performance and increasing the traffic between client and server... To avoid this set the EnableViewState property of the control to be false... By this unnecessary data will not move back and forth to the server... Though, do note that by doing so your selected items will no longer remain selected after postback and you will have to write special code to achieve this functionality... The same problems are also faced in controls like Datagrid so do ensure that you use View State judiciously and give enough thoughts while designing your application... To see the view state of a page right click on displayed page and 'view source', here you will see a long line of junk characters for __VIEWSTATE property... This is the encrypted view state of your controls... Well, that makes me add one more point the performance... All the viewstate data that passes to and comes back from server goes through the cycles of encryption and decryption which in itself is also a costly affair hitting performance... Regards, Mitesh v. Mehta http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta

ASP.Net Server Controls Categories

ASP.Net Server Controls Categories ASP.Net Server Control can be broadly classified into 4 categories... 1. Intrinsic Controls -These controls correspond to their HTML counterpart... eg Textbox control, Button control 2. Data-Centric Controls - These controls are used for data display, binding, modification purposes... They bind to various data sources... e.g.. DataGrid control 3. RichControls - Usually do not have HTML counterparts... These are usually composite controls which in themselves contain other controls... e.g. Calendar control 4. Validation Controls - As the name suggest they are used for validation purposes and can validate many type of user inputs.... e.g. RegularExpressionValidator Mitesh Mehta miteshvmehta@gmail.com

Numeric TextBox - A Simple Way!

Numeric TextBox - A Simple Way!

One of my site visitor ask me a query that he wants Numeric TextBox in Asp.NET, i suggested him to use javascript but he was haveing problem on how to write it in javascirpt. i send him this code function IsNumeric(e) { if (isNaN(e.value) == true) { alert("VALUE SHOULD BE NUMERIC"); e.value = ""; e.focus(); return false; } else return true; } <INPUT type="text" name="amount" onkeyup="return IsNumeric(this)"> but then i thought can't we do that in a simple one line. the thought lead me to Investigate and i found one can use RegEX to do the same in ONE Line... <INPUT type="text" name="decimal" onkeyup='this.value=this.value.replace(/[^\d]*/gi,"");' /> Regards, Mitesh v. Mehta http://cc.1asphost.com/miteshvmehta

Web Services

some questions

Still wondering how to get your web server to talk to your client over the internet, eh ? :) My answers follow: 1. Being the richest of platforms, the Microsoft platform is not constrained to just .net or vb for consuming web services. You have the choice of going for Java which is very capable in the webservices realm. Then, there is SOAPLite with Perl. Python also has similar features. Then you can have a browser based client which can consume a webservice, which you can very well see with ASP.NET webservices, as the browser on the server machine can act as a client. Now, how are all these possible brings me to answer question number 2. 2. Webservices are just a means of having a client consume a service being exposed on the webserver. While standardizing it, the standards body went in for an XML based protocol, somewhat akin to XML RPC. To present a simple outlook of SOAP, the comm. on the internet happens using HTTP. How would one create a standard means of invoking anything across the web? The answer, encapsulate the HTTP calls in an XML Structure and name that structure 'SOAP' and write some proxies and stubs on either side of the comm. channel. Thats all there is to it. Now, in .NET when we say ASP.NET webservices, a simple way to consume it is to use SOAP, and this step is made simple by using Visual Studio. But, having an ASP.NET webservice in no way undermines your ability to invoke this webservice from a Linux box with a Perl/SOAPLite -- because its "Standard." Then there is XML-RPC which you can use. And, then there are the rest.. err. I mean "REST". For more info on these you could try these websites. http://www.nwfusion.com/news/tech/2001/1217tech.html http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/05/12/SoapAgain http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2002/02/06/rest.html http://effbot.org/zone/rest-vs-rpc.htm http://www.intertwingly.net/stories/2002/07/20/restSoap.html http://www.xml.org/xml/resources_focus_soap.shtml http://www.xmlrpc.com/ http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=when+to+use+SOAP+and+XML+RPC 3. To measure execution speed of your component, there are a couple of approaches a. Write to log files with the date/time stamp and then using a simple vbscript open the log file and parse the times, and draw graphs or whatever. To make it more persistent, log it to a database. Could consider MSDE here. b. You can expose the relevant data as performance counters and this can be read using the tool "perfmon.exe" (under WinNT/2K/XP). Again, .NET makes it a breeze to provide/consume Performance counters in your code. 4. Already answered in the other replies 5. Just a reminder, in case you are looking for a status/progress kind of animation, you might want to check out the AVI files in the "graphics" folder in your VB installation. The samples folder also contains a sample project which makes use of these videos. In case these explanations just increase your questions, fire away, Regards, Mitesh Mehta

Editable dropdown list box

Editable dropdown list box

An "editable drop-down list" or a combo-box per se is not supported by any browser, at least not by IE and Netscape. So having this type of control is not possible. However, what could be done is to use a textbox along with a drop-down list and add the contents of the textbox to the drop-down when the TextChanged event of the textbox fires. Here's how: Technique 1: Using client-side code (note that asp.net controls can also be used here) <script> function addToCombo(val, obj) { if(val.length > 0) { obj.options.add(new Option(val)); } } </script> <input type=text name="txtCombo" onchange="addToCombo(this.value, this.form.selCombo)"><br> <select name="selCombo"></select> Technique 2: Using code-behind (C#) <asp:TextBox id="txtCombo" runat="Server"/><br> <asp:dropdownlist id="selCombo" runat="Server"/> code behind: private void txtCombo_TextChanged(...) { if(txtCombo.Text.Trim().Length > 0) { selCombo.Items.Add(new ListItem(txtCombo.Text)); } }

manipulating drop-downs in template column of datagrid

Code snippet for demonstration of manipulating drop-downs in template column of datagrid:

Copy the following between the

tags of the aspx page in HTML view.























Copy the following in the Page_Load method in code-behind or

between the tags



private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{

DataTable dt = new DataTable();

DataRow dr;

DropDownList ddl;

int i;



//Create the datasource for the datagrid

dt.Columns.Add("col1", Type.GetType("System.String"));

for(i = 0; i < 5; i++)

{

dr = dt.NewRow();

dr[0] = i.ToString();

dt.Rows.Add(dr);

}



//bind datasource to the datagrid

dgtest.DataSource = dt;

dgtest.DataBind();



//manipulate the drop-down list of each row of the datagrid.

//this code simply displays the ID as the sole element of the drop-down.

for(i = 0; i < dgtest.Items.Count; i++)

{

ddl = (DropDownList)dgtest.Items[i].FindControl("ddltest");



if(ddl != null)

{

ddl.Items.Clear();

ddl.Items.Add(i.ToString());

}

}

}



output:

ID ¦

-------------------

0 ¦ | 0 |v|

1 ¦ | 1 |v|

2 ¦ | 2 |v|

3 ¦ | 3 |v|

4 ¦ | 4 |v|

Server.Transfer VS Response.Redirect

Server.Transfer VS Response.Redirect

Server.Transfer is often a better choice than Response.Redirect. Example: Let's say you're on A.aspx and you want to send the user to B.aspx. Response.Redirect flow A.aspx calls Response.Redirect("B.aspx",false); which sends a 302 redirect header down to the client browser, telling it that the asset it has requested (A.aspx) has moved to B.aspx, and the web application terminates. The client browser then sends a request to the webserver for B.aspx. IIS tells asp_wp.exe to process the request. asp_wp.exe (after checking authentication and doing all the other setup stuff it needs to do when a new request comes in) instantiates the appropriate class for B.aspx, processes the request, sends the result to the browser, and shuts down. Server.Transfer flow A.aspx calls Server.Transfer("B.aspx");. ASP.NET instantiates the appropriate class for B.aspx, processes the request, sends the result to the browser, and shuts down. Note that Server.Transfer cuts the load on the client and the server. Server.Transfer is easier to code for, too, since you maintain your state. Information can be passed through the HTTP Context object between the pages, eliminating the need to pass information in the querystring or reload it from the database. More info http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/familjones/archive/2004/04/08/11020.aspx and http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/20030531.asp. Regards, Mitesh Mehta Microsoft Certified Professional Direct Information Pvt. Ltd.,

How to create pie charts in web applns

How to create pie charts in web applns

Pie Chart in ASP.net <%@ Import Namespace="System.Drawing"%> <%@ Import Namespace="System.Drawing.Imaging"%> <%@ Import Namespace="System.Drawing.Drawing2D" %> <script language="C#" runat="server"> void Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) { // Since we are outputting a Jpeg, set the ContentType appropriately Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg"; // Create a Bitmap instance that's 468x60, and a Graphics instance const int width = 300, height = 300; Bitmap objBitmap = new Bitmap(width, height); Graphics objGraphics = Graphics.FromImage(objBitmap); // Create a black background for the border objGraphics.FillRectangle(new SolidBrush(Color.White), 0, 0, width, height); Draw3DPieChart(ref objGraphics); // Save the image to a file objBitmap.Save(Response.OutputStream, ImageFormat.Jpeg); // clean up... objGraphics.Dispose(); objBitmap.Dispose(); } // Draws a 3D pie chart where ever slice is 45 degrees in value void Draw3DPieChart(ref Graphics objGraphics) { int iLoop, iLoop2; // Create location and size of ellipse. int x = 50; int y = 20; int width = 200; int height = 100; // Create start and sweep angles. int startAngle = 0; int sweepAngle = 45; SolidBrush oibjBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Aqua); Random rand = new Random(); objGraphics.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.AntiAlias; //Loop through 180 back around to 135 degress so it gets drawn // correctly. for( iLoop = 0; iLoop <= 315; iLoop += 45) { startAngle = (iLoop + 180) % 360; objBrush.Color = Color.FromArgb(rand.Next(255), rand.Next(255), rand.Next(255)); // On degrees from 0 to 180 draw 10 Hatched brush slices to show // depth if((startAngle < 135) || (startAngle == 180)) { for(iLoop2 = 0; iLoop2 < 10; iLoop2++) objGraphics.FillPie(new HatchBrush(HatchStyle.Percent50, objBrush.Color), x, y + iLoop2, width, height, startAngle, sweepAngle); } // Displace this pie slice from pie. if(startAngle == 135) { // Show Depth for(iLoop2 = 0; iLoop2 < 10; iLoop2++) objGraphics.FillPie(new HatchBrush(HatchStyle.Percent50, objBrush.Color), x - 30, y + iLoop2 + 15, width, height, startAngle, sweepAngle); objGraphics.FillPie(objBrush, x - 30, y + 15, width, height, startAngle, sweepAngle); } else // Draw normally objGraphics.FillPie(objBrush, x, y, width, height, startAngle, sweepAngle); } } </script> Mitesh Mehta Microsoft Certified Professional

How to create pie charts in web applns

How to create pie charts in web applns

SVG : Scalable Vector Graphics is an exciting new XML-based language for Web graphics from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). For more info on SVG you can visit Adobe's SVG Zone. VML : Vector Markup Language is an application of Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 which defines a format for the encoding of vector information together with additional markup to describe how that information may be displayed and edited. For more info on VML please check out W3.org's VML Specification. regards Mitesh Mehta Microsoft Certified Professional miteshvmehta@gmail.com

Session State in ASP.Net

Session State in ASP.Net

Session State in ASP.Net ASP.Net supports three different providers for Session State... They are: InProc - Session values are kept live in the memory of ASP.Net worker process StateServer - Session values are serialized to store in the memory of a separate process i.e. aspnet_state.exe SQLServer - Session values are stored on SQL Server... Mitesh Mehta Microsoft Certified Professional Mail : miteshvmehta@gmail.com C# FAQ C# Code SQL Server 2005 VB.NET 2005 ASP.NET Help

mode="SQLServer" for sessionState When you choose your sessionState to be SQLServer, ASP.Net uses the default DB and initial catalogs for storing your session information into SQLServer... That is the reason you are not allowed to pass tokens such as Database and Initial Catalog in the connection string... Finally your entry in the web.config file will look like <configuration> <system.web> <sessionState mode="SQLServer" sqlConnectionString="server=127.0.0.1;uid=<user id>;pwd<password>" /> </system.web> </configuration> user id and password can be replaced by integrated security settings... Mitesh Mehta Microsoft Certified Professional

Changes to Validation Controls in ASP.NET 2.0

Changes to Validation Controls in ASP.NET 2.0

While ASP.NET 1.x supported validating user input, ASP.NET 2.0 increases the flexibility of the validation through the addition of validation groups. This article looks at this new feature, and shows you how you can use it in a number of common scenarios. http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/whidbey/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/ValGroups.asp Regards, Mitesh Mehta Microsoft Certified Professional miteshvmehta@gmail.com

ASP.NET 2.0 Custom Controls

ASP.NET 2.0 Custom Controls

Creating ASP.NET 2.0 Custom Controls http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/whidbey/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/custwebcon.asp Summary: The new adaptive rendering model in ASP.NET 2.0 provides a number of new options for control writers. This article shows how those options make creating custom controls for ASP.NET easier than before. Regards, Mitesh Mehta Microsoft Certified Professional miteshvmehta@gmail.com

Personalization with ASP.NET 2.0

Personalization with ASP.NET 2.0

Personalizing a Web site has always involved a large amount of complex supporting code. With the new personalization features in ASP.NET 2.0, however, developers can not only create personalized applications faster, they can also build entirely new classes of applications. The user management system and login controls make recognizing a user even easier than before, and the profile features help store user data in a fast and efficient manner. The Web Parts framework, however, provides a revolutionary new design paradigm for Web sites. Thanks to Web Parts, a Web site is no longer constrained to the linear document format that formed the basis for the HTML standard. Web Parts offer much greater flexibility, and allow developers to create Web applications that are almost indistinguishable from the most powerful desktop systems. Read More... http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/whidbey/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/person_fin.asp#person_topic11 Regards, Mitesh Mehta

Visual Studio for WebService Development - Free!

Visual Studio for WebService Development - Free!

You might have noticed but again, the recently announced Visual Studio 2005 Express Beta allows doing Web Service development. Download the Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition Beta and one of the types of projects you can create is a Web service project. Here's the default C# Web service project: using System.Web; using System.Web.Services; using System.Web.Services.Protocols; [WebServiceBinding(ConformanceClaims=WsiClaims.BP10, EmitConformanceClaims = true)] public class Service : System.Web.Services.WebService { [WebMethod] public string HelloWorld() { return "Hello World"; } } You can even use Visual Basic or C++. Regards, Mitesh Mehta Microsoft Certified Professional miteshvmehta@gmail.com

WSE 2.0 - What's New and Different in WSE 2.0?

WSE 2.0 - What's New and Different in WSE 2.0?

Web Services Enhancements for Microsoft .NET version 2.0 includes a number of enhancements over earlier versions of WSE like: Policy WS-Trust and Security Context Tokens Kerberos Security Tokens Role-based Security Using Security Tokens Signing and Encrypting Security Tokens SOAP Messaging XML Security Token Support To read more on WSE 2.0 Enhancement features go to -> http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/building/wse/WhatsNew/ Regards, Mitesh Mehta M.C.P. miteshvmehta@gmail.com

New data source components in ASP.NET 2.0

New data source components in ASP.NET 2.0

This article discusses: http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/archive/default.aspx?pull=/msdnmag/issues/04/06/aspnet20data/default.aspx New data source components in ASP.NET 2.0 Binding to business objects and XML data GridView and DetailsView controls Summary: Data source controls make codeless binding possible, but seldom practical in real-world situations. Some code must always be written to fine tune the page, but data source controls significantly reduce the quantity. Data source controls also integrate caching capabilities and allow you to enable caching declaratively. Everything happens behind the scenes so you can deliver best-practice code with almost no effort. Data source controls enable a consistent model across a variety of data sources. You can use the same data-binding model regardless of whether the data source is a SQL table, an XML document, a business object, a site map, or even an Excel worksheet. The new architecture is more automatic in nature, but works side-by-side with the old model based on enumerable objects. Regards, Mitesh V. Mehta Microsoft Certified Professional miteshvmehta@gmail.com

New data source components in ASP.NET 2.0

New data source components in ASP.NET 2.0

This article discusses: http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/archive/default.aspx?pull=/msdnmag/issues/04/06/aspnet20data/default.aspx New data source components in ASP.NET 2.0 Binding to business objects and XML data GridView and DetailsView controls Summary: Data source controls make codeless binding possible, but seldom practical in real-world situations. Some code must always be written to fine tune the page, but data source controls significantly reduce the quantity. Data source controls also integrate caching capabilities and allow you to enable caching declaratively. Everything happens behind the scenes so you can deliver best-practice code with almost no effort. Data source controls enable a consistent model across a variety of data sources. You can use the same data-binding model regardless of whether the data source is a SQL table, an XML document, a business object, a site map, or even an Excel worksheet. The new architecture is more automatic in nature, but works side-by-side with the old model based on enumerable objects. Regards, Mitesh V. Mehta Microsoft Certified Professional miteshvmehta@gmail.com

Article: Improved Caching in ASP.NET

Article: Improved Caching in ASP.NET

New caching feature included in ASP.NET 2.0, improves the performance and scalability of ASP.NET applications. The ASP.NET 2.0 framework includes a number of significant new enhancements that make it easier to take advantage of caching in applications. The new DataSource controls include properties that make it easy to cache database data in memory. By taking advantage of the DataSource controls, database data can be retrieved and cached without writing a single line of code. The new support for SQL Cache Invalidation enables to automatically reload database data in the cache whenever the data is modified in the underlying database. This feature provides all the performance benefits of caching, without the worries of stale data. Finally, the new Substitution control enables more easily mix dynamic content in a cached page. The Substitution control gives an island of dynamic content in an cached page. You can find more details in below URL: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/CachingNT2.asp Regards, Mitesh Mehta

What's new in ASP.NET 2.0?

What's new in ASP.NET 2.0?

Check it out @ http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/rearchitectv20.asp

allowOverride Attribute

allowOverride Attribute If you have a common server where you are going to host your website and you do not want anyone to override your configuration settings after the site is deployed then within your web.config file, use < location > tag and set allowOverride attribute to false.... Mitesh Mehta If You Think YOU CAN... You Can...

Controls

Controls

Web Server Control: provide a programming model that is more conducive to visual design environments similar to VB I think you should read this article: http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/msdnmag/issues/01/09/asp/toc.asp Usage wise i have seen people prefer HTML controls to hande client site events (javascript) and ServerControls to hande server side events. you can add runat server attribute to htmlcontrols and handle server side events also <asp:textbox> vs the <input runat=server> tags , when to use one and the other, it's up to what you're doing. In general, I would go with the webcontrols. Regards, Jignesh Desai.

Installer for Globalization

Installer for Globalization If you have different versions of your web application built for different languages and you have separate resource files for each language when you need to deploy your application according to the language settings of the server then in that case make an Installer that has Custom Action to install only location-specific files... Vishal Joshi Microsoft MVP .Net If You Think YOU CAN... You Can...

Mixing Forms and Windows Security in ASP.NET

ASP.NET developers have been asking for a way to combine Forms and Windows security. Paul Wilson provides a solution that does just that; it captures the Windows username, if possible, and otherwise redirects users to a logon screen. Check it our here http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/using/understanding/security/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/mixedsecurity.asp

Article: ASP.NET Grid View

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/04/08/GridView/default.aspx This article discusses: The ASP.NET 2.0 GridView, FormView, and DetailsView Differences between the DataGrid and the GridView The programming interfaces of these controls How to achieve master/detail views Very interesting and informative.. Rgds, Mitesh Mehta

MVC Architecture in ASP.Net

The example Nitin have given is an example of Observer Pattern.where
subject notifies to all the observer if it(subject) gets changed. In
MVC pattern there are main three entity Model View and as you know
Controller. In this architecture following kind of transactions
occurs...

1. View Requests to Controller for data.
2. Controller fetch the data from the model and updates the view.
3. View reuest controller to update the data.
4. Controller updates the data on the modle.

These
kind of trasactions keeps on occuring among the View, Controller and
Model. ASP.Net allow us to use this pattern the form of Codebehind.
where your aspx page is view, you codebehind base class is controller
and your database or any persistant storage is modle...

Hope you got the answer...

MVC Architecture in ASP.Net

to understand the concept better there are few articles: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnpatterns/html/ImpMVCinASP.asp This is very good site of OOPS also.. http://ootips.org/mvc-pattern.html http://www.object-arts.com/EducationCentre/Overviews/MVC.htm

Article:Creating your own web.config section handler

In my previous article I explained how to create your own web.config section that is handled by built-in section handlers. In this article I will show how to create your own section handler that can handle your custom sections. http://www.dotnetbips.com/displayarticle.aspx?id=261 Author: Bipin Joshi

About Column Types in Data Grids

Column Types in Data Grids A DataGrid control is formed by data bound columns. The control has the ability to automatically generate columns that are based on the structure of the data source. Auto-generation is the default behavior, but you can manipulate that behavior by using a Boolean property named AutoGenerateColumns. Set the property to false when you want the control to display only the columns you explicitly add to the Columns collection. Set it to true (the default) when you want the control to add as many columns as is required by the data source. The default algorithm for column generation creates simple data bound columns that use literal controls to display the contents of the corresponding data source fields. The DataGrid control supports additional column types that can render the column data so that it performs an action when clicked. BoundColumn Displays a column that is bound to a field in a data source. It displays each item in the field as plain text. ButtonColumn Displays a command button for each item in the column. The text of the button can be data bound. The command name of the button must be common to all items in the column. When the value for the command name is Select, clicking the column button automatically selects the row. EditCommandColumn Displays a button column that is automatically associated with the Edit command. This class receives special support from the DataGrid control, which is manifested as a redrawing of the clicked row using a template. HyperLinkColumn Displays the contents of each item in the column as a link. The link text can be bound to a field in the data source, or it can be static text. Also, the target URL can be data bound. Clicking a link column causes the browser to jump to the specified URL. This column class supports target frames. TemplateColumn Displays each item in the column according to a specified template, allowing you to provide custom controls in the column. Regards Mitesh

OT - Eclipsing .NET

You've heard the hype about .NET. You've read a couple of vague articles about dynamic discovery and invocation, service-oriented architecture, and how SOAP and a handful of other XML standards are forever changing the software industry. These ideas have intrigued you and you're interested in learning more - or at the very least, you recognize the importance of being able to add these acronyms to your resumé. In either case, you want to explore the world of .NET, but are unable or unwilling to fork over a thousand bucks for Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET product. This article is for you. <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> http://www.sys-con.com/webservices/article.cfm?id=360<o:p></o:p>

HttpMoudles and HttpHandlers uses and explanation

HttpMoudles and HttpHandlers uses and explanation

Hi Bipin has a good article explaining the same. http://www.dotnetbips.com/displayarticle.aspx?id=13 Regards, Jignesh Desai http://www.dotnetJiNi.com

Datagrid Paging for Arabic Languages

Datagrid Paging for Arabic Languages

Check out here http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/msdn/arabicsupp.aspx

Smart Navigation

Smart Navigation   "SmartNavigation" is a Boolean property which can be set in the page's code behind or in the @page directive... This property is really helpful in case you want to enhance user experience... Set this property to true and you will get following advantages in navigation if your browser is IE 5.5 and above... 1.) Maintaining the scroll bar position (useful in long length pages) 2.) Set focus to the same control on which it was before navigation (useful in pages with lots of controls) 3.) saving last page state in the browser history (useful when a page does not changes considerably across frequent postbacks... e.g. changing control values on change of dates in calendar control) 4.) The flash effect caused during navigation (useful when your page is pretty heavy to load)