In this next part of the series, we’ll take a look at how the combination of Entity Framework and WCF Data Services gives you an awesome data access layer in no time flat, Quick, Easy and Powerful.

The 5.6.7 and 6.1.3 CE and PE/EE versions of DotNetNuke have been released. The  release notes can be read @ DotNetNuke 6.1.3/5.6.7 Released . The 5.6.7 release only contains these one security fix (as per our Sunsetted releases policy which can be read here ), which is rated “critical”. The bulletin for 5.6.7 can be read here: Non-approved users can access user and role functions – fix for a “Critical” issue   The 6.1.3 release contain two security fixes, one of which was in 5.x and o... [read more]

For this point release, we focused on stabilising by fixing a small number of bugs that popped up, sometimes as a result of new versions of DNN.Tags: EventsCategory: Development

The next version of the Media Module for DotNetNuke is once again here! In previous releases, ground-breaking features like oEmbed were added. In future releases, expect to see mobile rendering and HTML5 to be in the mix. Today, there were a handful of things that needed to be taken care of before taking this module to the next level.

After working with ASP.Net Webforms for the past decade, the time has come to move on. I have enjoyed using Webforms and I was pretty good at bending ASP.Net to my will. Having recently tried some newer web frameworks I find that I am more productive than ever before. Over the past couple of years I have dabbled with ASP.Net MVC, jQuery and even WebFormsMVP but none of them truly held my interest for long. I never felt like they really offered solutions to problems that I was worried about. Beca... [read more]

First, I would like to thank everyone for the feedback and support since the original release of this module. It’s been quite interesting. This module has many things planned for it, but I did want to make sure it lived in the wild for a bit to fix any issues that have been found before I begin adding more features. As it turns out, there were two significant fixes that were required. Category: Development

I’m pleased to announce that DotNetNuke 6.1.3 and 5.6.7 are officially released. These maintenance releases contain several updates which further emphasizes our commitment to making the 6.X version of DotNetNuke the highest quality version ever. We will continue to release maintenance updates as needed while we continue to see more users upgrade to take advantage of the features included in 6.0 and 6.1.  

It’s that time of the year again! DevConnections 2012 is right around the corner and we have a lot of great new workshops and sessions planned for the ASP.NET and Client-Dev (HTML5, Windows 8 Metro, JavaScript, jQuery, etc.) tracks. The keynote at DevConnections will be given by the one and only Scott Guthrie who’s always up to something cool and is a lot of fun to listen to. Several other great speakers will be at the conference as well. Here’s a quick sampling: John Papa (awesome ... [read more]

Today I wanted to find a way to flush the IIS FTP logs on-demand.  The logs for IIS FTP flush to disk every 6 minutes, and the HTTP logs every 1 minute (or 64kb).  This can make troubleshooting difficult when you don’t receive immediate access to the latest log data. After looking everywhere I could think of, from search engine searches to perusing through the IIS schema files, I figured I had better go to the source and ask Robert McMurray. Sure enough, Robert had the answer and eve... [read more]

The question was asked, "how hard is it to configure FAST and what does that effort give you?" The none-too-helpful answer is that with every search product you get what you give. FAST happens to have more substance so logically there will be more to...(read more)

What book editing isn't better the second time around?  Like a dog returns to his vomit and the fool to his folly, the author must return to his writing.  And with the past week, my author team and I have finished our AR and Production Editing for Wrox's "Professional Android with Mono for Android and .NET/C#." We are literally 8 months from being AR and PE complete the first time around (I really hope that there isn't a third). And with the upload to my editor a... [read more]

I have a client who lists as one of the key challenges with implementing agile practices with their teams as managing to define user stories that are valuable but not too big.  This is actually a very common challenge, and one that we run into frequently ourselves at Lake Quincy Media and with other clients of NimblePros. Naturally there are many books available on the subjects of extreme programming, agile software development, user stories, etc. and these are certainly worth reading. ... [read more]

Recently I picked up an HP MediaSmart EX470 Windows Home Server to help consolidate my files at home and to provide a simple backup solution.  It’s been great and it’s an extremely economical way to get backups.  You can hook it up with Amazon S3 using JungleDisk and get simple offsite backup of the files (but not the backups) easily and cheaply as well, and JungleDisk is just one of many plugins available.  I recommend the 500GB version for the price, as you can pick ... [read more]

When we last saw our hero, he had fallen victim to an evil plot to disable his computer’s ability to boot up.  After great efforts at recovery, eventually he was forced to concede defeat to Vista and reinstall everything from scratch.  Let’s return now to see what’s in store in the next chapter of our story, already in progress… So, day 2 after my issue with Vista and I’m now at least able to use my laptop again for real work.  However, it still is m... [read more]

One of my applications relies on a singleton pattern to create a single instance of a server which processes requests from many different ASP.NET handlers.  It is created using pretty much standard Singleton code: public static Context CreateContext() { return CreateContext(new ConfigurationFileSettings()); } Recently, this server needed to be made aware of whether requests were coming into it via SSL or standard HTTP.  The solution that was checked in (and which worked and pa... [read more]

Last week I encountered a problem with Outlook that I’m happy to report I’ve just solved.  I found a bunch of things on the Interwebs that looked like they might be useful, but none of the fixes there did the trick for me (of the ones I tried – some fixes were more extreme than I wanted to attempt).  Here are some resources that may help you if my fix does not: Outlook Send-Mail Infinite Loop Message stuck in Outbox How to troubleshoot mail stuck in Outbox in Outlook... [read more]

  I just finished my DevReach Online presentation, A Whirlwind Tour of Software Development Fundamentals.  In this 45-minute talk, I covered what I consider to be fundamental principles, patterns, and practices of software development, with a little bit of time for a demo at the end.  The session was recorded and will be available on the DevReach Online web site soon.  You can get my slides and demos from the talk here, though.  I’ve also included some of the links... [read more]

I’ve been working with Azure off and on since last summer, and like any new API or platform, there are hurdles involved with the learning curve.  This is especially true for pre-release software that is rapidly changing and of course has neither official documentation nor much in the way of info on blogs or developer community sites like ASPAlliance.com.  One of the ways I like to learn about projects these days is through testing.  Ideally, the project will already have a s... [read more]

NUI is OUI, Dear Reader. About eight years ago I blogged about "text mode" and said (if I may be silly and quote myself): "I’m just saying that my Tab,Tab,Tab,Enter will beat your Click,Tab,Alt-F,O,Click,Double-Click, more often than not." - Me I like to look at the computer systems of the businesses that I visit on a regular but spaced apart basis over the course of years. You know these businesses - your dentist, your eye doctor, the car shop that changes your oil, ... [read more]

I love PowerShell and spent years and years working with it since it first came out. I've actually got 15 or so pages of PowerShell posts on this blog going way back. PowerShell is insanely powerful. I would even go so far as to say it was (is) ahead of its time. PowerShell is totally dynamic and is almost like having JavaScript at the command line, but even more thoughtfully designed. I appreciate folks that love their bash shells and what not, but PowerShell can do some wonderful things. A ... [read more]

For the most part, I'm an ASP.NET developer. I don't need to specify MVC or Web Forms, because it's all One ASP.NET its core. My apps are often hybrids and include not just Web Forms or MVC but also SignalR and Web API. Web Forms often gets picked on because of large View State, weird markup or maybe folks don't like the controls model. However, Web Forms has its place and it's getting even better with .NET 4.5. Here's a little sneak peek of some cool ideas Damian Edwards and the team have been... [read more]

Common Sense and Opt-In: http://weblogs.asp.net/erobillard/archive/2003/05/08/6680.aspx Eight years ago I wrote a brief piece on cookie management proposing that preferences be remembered by default with an opt-out option. The part that got the most feedback...(read more)

What are Application Pools? Application Pools are a .NET construct, and each pool represents an instance of the Common Language Runtime (CLR) executing managed .NET code. Each application pool in IIS hosts one or more web applications, and the recommendation...(read more)

Warning, this is long. I'll be frank with you, as I always am. I have an iPhone, a number of iPads and I like them fine. I have a Windows Phone that I use occasionally. I know C# but I do not know Objective-C. TL;DR Version I made my first Phone Application. I've spent about 6 hours on it. It's called Lost Phone Screen and it makes nice wallpaper. It's over at http://lostphonescreen.com. It was way easier and more fun to make than I expected. If I make a million bucks with this thing I'm GONE... [read more]

I've been experimenting with my diet a little and considering a Paleo diet. What an amazing and selfish thing, though, for me to even consider or be able to change my diet in a fundamental way. Only someone who isn't worried about their next meal could explore that aspect of their lives without fear or concern. One doesn't get to have certain luxuries until other more basic needs are met. Here's an interpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs:   I was talking to a customer a while ba... [read more]