Ian Blackburn

March 2006 Entries

Sharing files and folders over the web

I have toyed with various products in the past for giving access to files in the office from remote locations (including vpn's,  and lots of products call accessmyfiles, or accessmycomputer), but I have to say the simplest and fastest has to be the foldershare site (www.foldershare.com) that Microsoft has just bought.  Simple to install and nothing needed on the client apart from a browser, and you are away.  What's more performance is good too.

Cheers

Ian

 

.NET Compact Framework v2.0 CAB Error #4

If you get this error during installation of CF2 then you need to download the latest version of rhe framework that has a fix streamlined into it, ahead of SP1.

Details here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/markprenticems/archive/2006/03/28/563143.aspx

HTH

Ian

Wrapping tableadapters calls in a transaction

If you have multiple tableadapter method calls that you want to run within a transaction, the following is the simplest way to do it. 

Key points:

  • Use TransactionScope from System.Transactions namespace
  • Expose your connection property for the TableAdapter (if it is in a referenced project then you will need to change a the connection modifier in the DataSet designer to make it Public rather than Internal)
  • To avoid having the transaction promoted to DTC (and thus degrading performance and requiring the DTC service is running on the Sql Server), make sure you use only one connection, and ensure that you have opened it manually before you call the tableadapter methods.

ProcessStageTableAdapter adp1 = new ProcessStageTableAdapter();

JobCategoryTableAdapter adp2 = new  JobCategoryTableAdapter();

using (TransactionScope tsc = new TransactionScope())

{

using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MyConnectionString"].ConnectionString))

{

conn.Open();

adp1.Connection = conn;

adp2.Connection = conn;

adp1.Insert("New Data");

adp2.Insert("New Data");

tsc.Complete();

}

}

This will work great with SQL Server 2005.  For other options see Sahil Malik's post and for general info on transactions visit Florin Lazar's blog and the Msdn Transactions forum

HTH

Ian

What the BBC is doing with Vista

This is a fascinating look into the BBC's plans for delivering TV over the Internet and integration into Vista.

http://blog.mix06.com/virtualmix/archive/2006/03/17/BBC_demo.aspx

Ian

 

Atlas Go Live License Available Now!

Atlas now has a Go Live License with the March Release available here:  http://atlas.asp.net/Default.aspx?tabid=47

If you want to see how Atlas makes implement AJAX amazingly easy, check out Scott Gu's video: mms://wm.microsoft.com/ms/uifx/asp_net_atlas.wmv from the MIX 06 Keynote.

This is an empowering technology that brings "Web 2" (or "Live", depending on your viewpoint) to all asp.net developers, and really is a must if you want to stay competitive over the next 12-24 months.

Ian

Rename SQL Table in Visual Studio

I always found it a pain that you couldn't rename a table using Server Explorer in Visual Studio.  Right-clicking the table does not offer it as an option.  You could of course run an SQL Script but lifes too short for that, so I often used Entprise Manager/Management Studio instead.

However I just found this neat trick which certainly works for VS2005/SQL2005 - not tried it with other combinations:

  • Create/Open a database diagram
  • Add the table you want to rename
  • Select the table, change the (Name) property in the properties window and save

HTH

Ian

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Google Mars

Google now have Mars mapped:  mars.google.com (well at least a tiny bit of it).

Come on Microsoft - why not get some of those other planets mapped ;)

 

Uk Traffic Map Gadget

Checkout this really nice example of using the Mappoint Web Service and also the Backstage.bbc.co.uk service to bring an interactive traffic map to your browser, or to www.live.com as a gadget (http://microsoftgadgets.com/forums/3399/ShowPost.aspx)

http://traffic.dotnetsolutions.ltd.uk/

Ian

Microsoft Moon

Do you remember Google Moon?

Just spotted this in the MapPoint Web Service Api:  MapPoint.Moon Data Source - not sure how long it has been there, but it's a shame it doesn't support routing.  From the docs:

Rendering maps of a route, for example, the path of a lunar rover, is not available with the MapPoint.Moon data source.

Ian

The Tablet PC is Dead!

Long live the Windows Mobile PC!

Acording to ActiveNick Microsoft is dropping the term "Tablet PC" in favour of "Mobile PC".  This is a good move IMHO - many people misunderstand the term Tablet and see it as a very different device to a laptop when really it is just a superset.  Mobile PC implies that more clearly I think.

Ian

Origami Project - View Source

This is so obvious it was clearly meant to be seen.  But for those wondering what the Origami project actually is.  Go to http://www.origamiproject.com/2/ then view the source in your browser.  Right at the top is a helpful comment (Look away now if you don't want to spoil the surprise) and it says:

<!--

    Origami Project:  the Mobile PC running Windows XP

-->

Well it was hardly a surprise.  What is intriguing is if XP will have extensions to support the cool stuff that we have in Windows Mobile like the camera/phone support that is not currently available in XP.  I guess we have to wait another week for the full details...

Ian

 

C# Code Snippets

Out of the box the C# code snippets  are a tiny subset of what you get with VB.

That particular disparity has been resolved with the release of many new snippets from Microsoft:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/downloads/codesnippets/default.aspx 

HTH

Ian