Jan 22 2009

How to find the Microsoft® File Transfer Manager?

Category:Bil@l @ 10:36

Have you ever tried to locate the Microsoft File Transfer Manager on your PC? Sometimes, it happens with me that I need to restart the PC while the File Manager is working, downloading software from my MSDN account. Then when the PC is up and I need to re-open the manage, I couldn't find it and what I used to do is login again to MSDN, try to download any software, so that I get the File Manager again.

Well, there is an easier solution, simple follow the steps and it works perfect:

  1. Open the CMD (Command Prompt)
  2. Change directory to %SystemRoot%\Downloaded Program Files\
  3. Type TransferMgr.exe
  4. You will see the File Manager window in front of you on the screen

 The above steps can be found in more details here: Microsoft® File Transfer Manager

Hope this helps,
Regards

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Jan 20 2009

Beirut - Number 1 Place to Visit in 2009

Category:Bil@l @ 06:40

It feels great to know that Beirut (Capitol of Lebanon - my country) has been selected to be the number 1 city to visit in 2009.

Check this URL: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/11/travel/20090111_DESTINATIONS.html

 

I guess you know where you will spend your vacation in 2009 ;)

 

You are all welcome!
Regards

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Jan 7 2009

Travis Illig Review on ASP.NET 3.5 Security, Membership and Role Management in C# and VB

Here is an interesting review on my book by Travis Illig that I was referred to by Jim Minatel

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

Here is an excerpt of Travis review:

"Chapter 18, though, is where you'll want to flip right to. This is where it all comes together - all the stuff you'll have learned from the previous chapters, put together in a near-checklist form, so you can take a step back from the application you're working on, look through this, and ask yourself, "Am I doing this in a secure fashion?" Common gotchas and attacks are discussed here as well as ways to protect yourself.

It's definitely not for folks new to ASP.NET - if you haven't written an ASP.NET app before or you're just starting out, this isn't for you. This book gives you in-depth information that, in some cases, you'd only otherwise get by using .NET Reflector to delve into the actual .NET assemblies and follow the code. It's heavy, detailed information. For mid-level to experienced ASP.NET developers, you definitely need to pick this up.

In all, this is one of those books I'm really glad to have on my shelf, right alongside Professional ASP.NET 3.5 in C# and VB."


Hope you enjoy reading this review and reading the book :)

Regards

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Jan 6 2009

Visual Studio 2008 tips/tricks: Immediate Window Not Showing

Category: Visual StudioBil@l @ 13:59

Sometimes, the *Immediate Window* doesn't show when working inside the Visual Studio 2008. To show that window, follow these steps:

  1. Right-click on the VS Toolbar.
  2. Click on the *Customize* entry
  3. Go to the *Command* tab
  4. Select the *Debug* under the *Categories* list box.
  5. On the *Command* list box to the right-side, select the *Immediate* entry and drag it to the VS toolbar.

 

Hope this helps,

Regards

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Dec 4 2008

Why UpdateProgress Not Showing Sometimes?

Category: ASP.NET AJAXBil@l @ 22:00

I was stuck this afternoon while working on a very simple AJAX task when the UpdateProgress stopped showing for some reason when an asynchronous request is fired!

I browsed a bit online and found this nice blog post: Why the UpdateProgress won't display. I strongly recommend you read that blog post!

The UpdateProgress controls stops showing or displaying when the control that fired the asynchronous event is located outside the UpdatePanel that the UpdateProgress is attached to or when the ChildrenAsTriggers property on the UpdatePanel is set to false.

Why is this? Let us have a look at this sample code from the AJAX library:

     function Sys$UI$_UpdateProgress$_handleBeginRequest(sender, arg) {
        var curElem = arg.get_postBackElement();
        var showProgress = !this._associatedUpdatePanelId;
        while (!showProgress && curElem) {
            if (curElem.id && this._associatedUpdatePanelId === curElem.id) {
                showProgress = true;
            }

            curElem = curElem.parentNode;
        }
        if (showProgress) {
            this._timerCookie = window.setTimeout(this._startDelegate, this._displayAfter);
        }
    }

Without going into too much details look at the line bolded above! The UpdateProgress control hooks to the BeginRequest of the PageRequestManager. What happens inside this handler mainly in the bolded line shows that, only when the event is fired from inside the UpdatePanel associated to the UpdateProgress control, this controls displays its UI.

I have written articles on ASP.NET AJAX and never noticed this :). The more you learn, the more you realize there are still things missing!!!

The solution as proposed by the above link, is to hook yourself to the BeginRequest event of the PageRequestManager and display the UpdateProgress!!

 

Hope this post helped you!
Regards

 

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Dec 4 2008

Patterns and Practices: New Pocket Guides

Category: Patterns and PracticesBil@l @ 13:40

New Pocket Guides are now available from the Patterns and Practices website. The guides include:

  1. Agile Architecture Method Pocket Guide
  2. Web Architecture Pocket Guide
  3. Mobile Architecture Pocket Guide
  4. RIA Architecture Pocket Guide
  5. Rich Client Architecture Pocket Guide
  6. Service Architecture Pocket Guide

To download them, go to the website at: http://www.codeplex.com/AppArch

Thank to Raed for pointing out these guide for me.

 

HTH,
Regards

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Dec 1 2008

OpenAccess by Telerik

Category: Telerik ControlsBil@l @ 12:47

OpenAccess by Telerik provides the following features:

  • Forward and Reverse Mapping for 6 databases
  • Step-by-step Visual Studio wizards
  • Disconnected API
  • Transparent Persistence, Lazy Loading
  • LINQ support
  • Synchronized distributed Level 2 cache
Make sure to check it out here: OpenAccess by Telerik

Regards

 

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Dec 1 2008

URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0

Category: ASP.NET 3.5 | IIS 7.0Bil@l @ 06:47

I came across the URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0. That was released by the IIS Team on November 10th 2008. Check out the release page here:
URL Rewrite Module  - Release to Web

The module has so many important features that any ASP.NET developer should have a look at.

 

Hope this helps,
Regards

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Nov 16 2008

ASP.NET AJAX's CompositeScript in .NET 3.5 SP 1

Category: .NET 3.5 SP1 | ASP.NET AJAXBil@l @ 09:28

The .NET 3,5 SP1 adds several features to the .NET products. One of the major improvements in my opinion regarding the ASP.NET AJAX 3.5 is the CompositeScript.

Usually, when you place a ScriptManager instance on the page, you include several scripts and you place them within the Scripts class collection. This means, if you had like 5 scripts to load, you will have 5 different calls to the server to request the 5 script files.

The improvement in .NET 3.5 SP1 is the addition of the CompositeScript class that allows you to group a collection of script files and have them rendered to the cllient as a single script file and hence instead of requesting 5 script files (according to the example above), you will be requesting a single script and hence minimized the requests to server from 5 to 1.

<asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server">
<CompositeScript>
<Scripts>
<asp:ScriptReference Path="~/Scripts/Script1.js" />
<asp:ScriptReference Path="~/Scripts/Script3.js" />
</Scripts>
</CompositeScript>
</asp:ScriptManager>

 As you can see this has a great improvement in performance since less requests will be issued to the server.

 

Regards

 

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Nov 15 2008

My presentation in Barcelona TechEd 2008 - Speaker Idol

Category:Bil@l @ 10:56

For those of you interested in checking out the presentation I delivered during the Speaker Idol competition (where I came second in my heat), here is the link:

http://www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/developer/default.aspx

Browse to Page 3, the last bottom-right video!

 

Regards

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