Now you can check my book on www.amazon.com by visiting the following link:

Professional ASP.NET 3.5 Security, Membership, and Role Management with C# and VB

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List Price: $59.99 Price: $37.79 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details You Save: $22.20 (37%) Special Offers Available Pre-order Price Guarantee. Details

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Isn't this cool? I am extremely happy!!

Regards 

 

Tags: ASP.NET 2.0, ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET Security

I passed by the following website that contains a tutorial of 22 Lessons on C#.

If you are newly learning C#, make sure to check it here (http://www.csharp-station.com/Tutorial.aspx) 

 

Hope this helps,
Regards

Tags: ASP.NET, C#

Here is a snippet code that helps you bind the items contained in an enumeration into a DropDownList in ASP.NET.

To start with, let us define an enumeration as follows:

    public enum Directions
    {
        North = 1,
        East,
        South,
        West
    }

The above is a C# definition for an enumeration called Directions that has 4 main values.

Now, to bind the above enumeration values to a DropDownList we need the following:

        if (!Page.IsPostBack)
        {
            // Loop through the Directions' items
            // and add them item by item into the DropDownList
            ListItem item = null;
            string[] directionNames = Enum.GetNames(typeof(Directions));

            for (int x = 0; x < directionNames.Length - 1; x++)
            {
                // Create the item
                item = new ListItem(
                    directionNames[x],
                    ((Int32)Enum.Parse(typeof(Directions), directionNames[x])).ToString());

                // Add the item to the list of items
                // inside the DropDownList
                this.ddlDirections.Items.Add(item);
            }
        }

You notice in the code above, to retrieve the names of all the items in the enumeration, you make use of the Enum.GetNames() method. Once you have all the items in the enumeration as String values, you loop through the list of values of the enumeration.

For each value, you create a new ListItem class passing to it the:

1. Text to be displayed which is in this case the name of an item inside the enumeration
2. Value to be stored in the value of the ListItem in this case the Integer value of an item in the enumeration which is retrieved by parsing the item name into a valid Directions enumeration, then casting to the type of the Enumeration, which is by default int.
   

 Once the ListItem is created, simply add it to the collection of Items of the DropDownList placed in the HTML markup.

The DropDownList is defined as follows:

    <asp:DropDownList ID="ddlDirections" runat="server" AppendDataBoundItems="true" >
        <asp:ListItem Text=" .. Choose a Direction .." Value="-1" Selected="True"/>
    </asp:DropDownList>

This is all what you need to do to bind a DropDownList to an enumeration!

Hope it helps,
Regards

Tags: ASP.NET 2.0, ASP.NET 3.5

The ASP.NET AJAX Roadmap is published and can be reached here (http://www.codeplex.com/aspnet/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=14924)

Enjoy it!

 

Regards     

 

Tags: AJAX-ATLAS, ASP.NET 2.0 - Master Pages, ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET Extensions 3.5

In ASP.NET 2.0 and ASP.NET 3.5 applications hosted under IIS 7.0 and are running with the Integrated Mode, ASP.NET Session State does not get initialized when a native or non-managed request enters the Integrated HTTP Request pipeline.

If you look at the IIS 7.0's applicationHost.config configuration file located at: %windir%/System32/inetsrv/config you will notice that the SessionStateModule is defined to handle only managed requests as follows:

<add name="Session" type="System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateModule" preCondition="managedHandler" /> 

You notice that the preCondition attribute has the value of managedHandler which means that this module would be initialized only for managed requests, i.e. .aspx, .asmx, etc ...

First of all to be able to make this module get initialized for non-managed resources, you need to remove this entry and then add the same entry but this time having the preCondition attribute set to empty string.

<remove name="Session" />
<add name="Session" type="System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateModule" preCondition="" />

With the above configuration added to the application's web.config configuration file under the <modules /> configuration section located in <system.webServer /> configuration section group.

Now, the Session State is still not initialized for non-managed resources, why?

The SessionStateModule is usually initialized in the AcquireRequestState HttpApplication's event. This event usually gets called after the MapRequestHandler and PostMapRequestHandler events. This means, the AcquireRequestState event fires after the ASP.NET Runtime has decided on the HttpHandler for the current HTTP Request.

The SessionStateModule does a check if the current HTTP Request's Handler implements the IRequiresSessionState marker interface. If not, the SessionStateModule stops execution and no ASP.NET Session State gets initialized. Why? There is no native or non-managed Handler that can implement the managed IRequiresSessionState marker interface and hence if the SessionStateModule finds out that the Handler created for the current request does not implement the IRequiresSessionState, no Session State gets initialized.

Now, when a non-managed or native request enters the Integrated or Unified HTTP Request Pipeline, ASP.NET Runtime does not create an instance of a managed Handler, the HttpHandler for the current HttpContext is null and not initialized. This means that the SessionStateModule, that has already been mapped for native and managed requests, checks that the current HttpContext's Handler is null and hence there is already no Handler instance created to check if it implements the IRequiresSessionState marker interface.

The trick to solve this problem is provided by Mike Volodarsky (Program Manager in the IIS team) that can be read in this www.iis.net forum post (https://forums.iis.net/p/1094546/1648944.aspx#1648944)

What should be done is fake the SessionStateModule with an instance of a managed HttpHandler that implements IRequiresSessionState marker interface that gets created for native requests.

What are you talking about Bilal?

Well yes. The idea is to develop a custom HttpHandler that implements the IRequiresSessionState marker interface with empty implementation, this handler will be used as a temporary handler only as you will see later in the code.

Next, what we need to do is the following:

In the MapRequestHandler event, a managed handler is created when the HTTP request is for a managed resource. This means, in the PostMapRequestHandler event you can check to see if ASP.NET runtime has created an HttpHandler for the current request, if not, then this means the HTTP request is for a native resource and not a managed one. At this moment, you can initialize a new instance of the custom dummy handler that was introduced above, set it to the Handler of the current HTTP request.

After the PostMapRequestHandler executes, the AcquireRequestState event fires. At this moment, the SessionStateModule starts executing. Now, the SessionStateModule will find out that the current HTTP request has a valid HttpHandler that implements the IRequiresSessionState marker interface, this means now the ASP.NET Session State will get initialized successfully!!

In the PostAcquireRequestState event the current HTTP request's Handler should be reverted back to its original Handler (i.e. Handler created by ASP.NET runtime which is in this case NULL because the request originally is for a native and non-managed request). This is very important because if the custom dummy  HttpHandler was kept as the Handler for the current request, the ASP.NET Runtime would execute that Handler when it is time during the Integrated HTTP Request Pipeline to execute the Handler for the current request.

Therefore, you should check if the current request's Handler is of type the custom dummy HttpHandler then you should set it back to NULL, where NULL represents the Handler's instance that was originally created by the ASP.NET runtime.

The code below shows both the custom dummy HttpHandler and the custom module used to configure the PostAcquireRequestState and PostMapRequestHandler events.

CustomNativeHandler

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.SessionState;
using System.Web.Security;

public class CustomNativeHandler : IHttpHandler, IRequiresSessionState
{
    public bool IsReusable
    {
        get { return false; }
    }

    public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }

   public CustomNativeHandler()
    { }
}

 

SessionStateForNativeRequestsModule

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;

public class SessionStateForNativeRequestsModule : IHttpModule
{
    public void Dispose()
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }

    public void Init(HttpApplication context)
    {
        // Subscribe to the PostMapRequestHandler
        context.PostMapRequestHandler += new EventHandler(context_PostMapRequestHandler);

        // Subscribe to the PostAcquireRequestState
        context.PostAcquireRequestState += new EventHandler(context_PostAcquireRequestState);
    }

    void context_PostAcquireRequestState(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // Get an instance of the current Context
        HttpContext context = ((HttpApplication)sender).Context;

        // Use "as" so that if the current handler
        // is not a CustomNativeHandler, then no exception
        // will be thrown, like in the case of casting.
        CustomNativeHandler customHandler =
            context.Handler as CustomNativeHandler;

        // If the current handler is our custom dummy handler
        // then revert back to the managed handler that was
        // originally created by the .NET Framework for the
        // current request, which is null in this case
        // since .NET Framework does not create a managed Handler
        // for a native request
        if (customHandler != null)
            context.Handler = null;
    }

    void context_PostMapRequestHandler(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // Get an instance of the current Context
        HttpContext context = ((HttpApplication)sender).Context;

        // If the current HttpHandler is null, then this must be
        // a native request being processed.
        // Create a new instance of the CustomNativeHandler
        // and set it to the current request Handler.
        if (context.Handler == null)
            context.Handler = new CustomNativeHandler();
    }
}

 

To configure the above custom module in an application's web.config configuration file, you add the following section:

    <system.webServer>
        <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false"/>
        <modules>
            <add name="SessionStateForNativeRequestsModule" type="SessionStateForNativeRequestsModule"/>

            <remove name="Session" />
            <add
                name="Session"
                type="System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateModule"
                preCondition="" />

        </modules>
    </system.webServer>
 

Hope this helps,
Regards

Tags: ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET Session State, IIS 7.0, SessionStateModule

I was searching for the WinSDK for .NET 3.5 and found it on the MSDN website. This is very essential especially when you are about to learn a new technology, it is worth hundreds of books out there!!

Check it out here:  Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E6E1C3DF-A74F-4207-8586-711EBE331CDC&displaylang=en).

 

Hope it helps,
Regards

Tags: Windows SDK, Windows SDK .NET 3.5, Windows SDK Server 2008

Community Nights Session

 Interfaces and Abstraction

Ralph Varjabedian (Telephone.com Team Leader)

Monday, July 14, 2008 - 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Microsoft office

Please use the REGISTRATION PAGE to register for the session. Seats are limited, make sure you confirm your attendance once you receive the email upon regisration.

Note: If you have any problem with registration, please contact Bilal Haidar:

Tags:

This post should have been written long time ago in fact!!

Haissam is running a very interesting blog at: http://dotnetslackers.com/Community/blogs/haissam/

What is worth mentioning about Haissam's blog is that he is posting nowadays on integrating ASP.NET and .NET with other technologies and this is really cool. He is working on Adobe Flex this period as a UI layer for Web applications and having .NET as the back-end and hence the beauty of this integration.

Check out his blog!

Keep up the great job Haissam! All of luck.

Regards 

Tags:

Few months ago Telerik started a new strategy of delivering guides and tutorials to its products by adding the Telerik Trainer. The Telerik Trainer is a special Media-Player software that you can download for free from the Telerik website (http://www.telerik.com/training.videos/TelerikTrainer.zip). This Media Player has all the features required to watch the T.T. videos with special and customized effects and hence no need for any other media player to watch the T.T. videos. Once you download the T.T. you can download several T.T. videos that are evolving day after day with lots of videos being added. You can reach the download page here (http://www.telerik.com/support/teleriktrainer.aspx).

In addition, Telerik already has a Videos page that you can download and watch to get to know more about their controls and how to use them and do special tasks with them. You can reach the Videos page here (http://www.telerik.com/support/videos/default/b220i-a.aspx).

Moreover, Telerik provides a self-paced tutorial that is around 600 pages compiled in a PDF document that covers all of their controls. It is a Step-By-Step tutorial that you can go through to learn how to use and configure the controls properly. You can reach this long-tutorial here (http://www.telerik.com/support/self-paced-tutorial.aspx).

Also, when you download and install the Telerik controls there is the main CHM documentation file that contains heavy tutorials, online links on how to build some features and a complete documentation for all the classes that build up the Telerik controls.

Finally, Telerik provides an online Forums that you can make use of to ask questions where other developers using the Telerik controls help you there and reply to your questions including Telerik MVPs and Telerik core developers. 

Last but not least, Telerik provides an online support tickets where you can send a request to the support team to help you with your problems, issues and bugs (if any).

 

Hope all this helps!
Regards

Tags: Telerik Controls