Fundamentals of WCF Security   17 Jan 2007 02:31 GMT
The labyrinth of security features for WCF is intricate and at times even overwhelming. At its core, however, are a basic set of security principals for authentication, authorization, and message transfer protection.
Source: DevX

Persisting Page State in ASP.NET 2.0   17 Jan 2007 00:00 GMT

There are different types of state in an ASP.NET web application: page state, session state, and application state. Page state is state that is specific to a particular user's visit to a particular page and is commonly used to remember any programmatically changed state of the page across postbacks. Session state is state remembered for a particular user across all visits and all pages during their session. Application state is state that is shared across all users on all pages and all requests and is often used for caching data or information that is applicable to all users visiting the site.

Page state, commonly referred to as view state, is persisted in a hidden form field, by default. When a page is being rendered, any programmatic changes to a control's state is saved to the page's overall view state. During the rendering stage, this view state is serialized into a base-64 encoded hidden form field and sent down to the client's browser. On postback, the view state data is sent back to the web server, where it is deserialized and returned to the appropriate Web controls in control hierarchy so that they may re-establish their state as it was prior to the postback.

View state provides a slick way to remember state in a stateless client-server model and it happens underneath the covers without any extra effort from page developers. The downside of view state, however, is that in certain situations the view state can grow to be exceedingly large. A large view state requires a longer page download time since it bloats the total web page size and also affects the postback time, since the entire view state content must be posted back to the web server along with the other form fields.

It is possible, however, to persist view state to an alternate medium. Such customizations were possible in ASP.NET version 1.x by overriding a couple of methods in the Page class. ASP.NET 2.0 makes customizing page state persistence easier as this logic is handled through a separate class. In this article we'll explore the built-in page state persistence options in ASP.NET 2.0, which includes the ability to persist page state to session state rather than through a hidden form field. We'll also look at how to extend the functionality to provide a custom persistence scheme. Read on to learn more!
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Source: 4GuysFromRolla

Use DataTable.Rows.Find() Instead of DataTable.Select()   16 Jan 2007 21:35 GMT
Find out why using DataTable.Rows.Find() is faster than using DataTable.Select() to find records based on a primary key value.
Source: DevX

ASP.NET 2.0 CSS Friendly Control Adapters 1.0 Released   16 Jan 2007 19:21 GMT
Adaptive control behavior in ASP.NET 2.0 gives you the ability to customize the functionality of common ASP.NET controls. Check out this demonstration of how to generate XHTML 1.1 compliant markup using the ASP.NET 2.0 CSS Friendly Control Adapters kit. This kit provides an excellent example of the power and possibilities developers have in ASP.NET.
Source: MSDN

The ASP.NET AJAX (formerly known as "Atlas") Beta is now Available!   16 Jan 2007 19:19 GMT
Download and install the Beta release of ASP.NET AJAX v1.0, a free framework for quickly creating a new generation of more efficient, more interactive and highly-personalized Web experiences that work across all the most popular browsers.
Source: MSDN

Custom Iterators   16 Jan 2007 00:46 GMT
Learn from top selling author Bill Wagner how to create building blocks for your program using custom iterators and the yield statement.
Source: MSDN

Data Joins The Team: Introducing Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals   15 Jan 2007 20:40 GMT
Here Brian Randell presents everything you need to know to get started with Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals.
Source: MSDN

Office Add-Ins: Develop Add-Ins For PowerPoint And Visio Using VSTO   15 Jan 2007 20:32 GMT
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System is more powerful than ever, allowing you to create add-ins for Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visio, and InfoPath.
Source: MSDN

RibbonX API: Extend The 2007 Office System With Your Own Ribbon Tabs And Controls   15 Jan 2007 20:24 GMT
If you want to create your own professional looking tabs and controls in Office, check out the RibbonX API of the 2007 Microsoft Office system.
Source: MSDN

Take It for a Spin in Microsoft Visual C# Virtual Labs   13 Jan 2007 01:26 GMT
Develop .NET-connected software more easily with Visual C# Virtual Labs online. Takes seconds to get started and no need to download full trial versions or dedicate test machines.
Source: MSDN