Performing CRUD and Grouping Operations with the LinqDataSource Control   01 May 2008 00:50 GMT
Build fully-editable Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) database front-ends easily and discover how to group and aggregate data using the new LinqDataSource control in ASP.NET.
Source: DevX

Override a Child Class' Parent Method   30 Apr 2008 00:09 GMT
Here's a workaround to override a child class' parent method with a more granular return type.
Source: DevX

Working with XML Data Using LINQ, a TreeView, and a ListView :: Editing Data   30 Apr 2008 00:00 GMT

ASP.NET includes a variety of tools for displaying and editing XML documents. A previous article, Working with XML Data Using LINQ, a TreeView, and a ListView :: Displaying Data, showed how with a TreeView control, a ListView control, an XmlDataSource control, a LinqDataSource control, and about 50 lines of code we could create a web page that displayed the contents of a hierarchical XML file. Specifically, the page displayed the contents from a fictional employee phonebook, which allowed for an arbitrary number of employees nested within branches and departments. The TreeView and XmlDataSource controls displayed the various branches and departments, while the ListView and LinqDataSource controls displayed the employees belonging to the selected branch or department (or one of its subdepartments).

In addition to displaying data, the ListView and LinqDataSource controls can be augmented to edit, insert, and delete data. This article examines how to update the ListView and code to enable the visitor to add, edit, and delete employee phone records. By the conclusion of this article we will have constructed a web page that displays XML data and enables an end user to modify the data from a simple, easy-to-use web page interface. Read on to learn more!
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Source: 4GuysFromRolla

Master Managed Threading and Synchronization Techniques   25 Apr 2008 23:32 GMT
Dive deep into the various synchronization techniques available in the .NET framework, including inter-thread and inter-process synchronization.
Source: DevX

Running In the Field: How to Make Your Handheld Your Best Friend   23 Apr 2008 04:53 GMT
Enterprises take note: as handheld devices become both more capable and more user-friendly, they're also becoming "must-have" equipment for people who work away from the office, replacing their heavy laptops with smaller and lighter but still fully-functional equipment.
Source: DevX

Working with XML Data Using LINQ, a TreeView, and a ListView :: Displaying Data   23 Apr 2008 00:00 GMT

With more and more data being stored in XML, web applications today commonly need some way to view and edit the data stored in an XML file from a web page interface. If the XML data is relatively "flat" and tabular in nature, we can use data Web controls like the DataGrid, GridView, and Repeater. (See Quickly Editing XML Data for an example of editing XML data through a DataGrid control.) But what if the XML data is more hierarchical and in a less tabular format? Consider a company-wide phone book, which is recursively structured into branches and departments, subdepartments, and so forth. How can this XML data, which can have any number of nodes and any level of children, be displayed and edited through a web page?

In this article we will build a web page that displays the contents of a company-wide phone book whose information is encoded in an XML file. The page will recursively display the phone book XML data using a TreeView to list the branches and departments and a ListView to enumerate the employees that belong to the selected branch or department. In particular, the ListView will display the employees that belong to the selected branch or department as well as all the employees that belong to any subdepartments. (In a future article we will look at how to extend the ListView to enable the user to add, edit, and delete phone book entries.)

Read on to learn more!
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Source: 4GuysFromRolla

SharePoint Applied—Stsadm Is Your Friend   22 Apr 2008 21:31 GMT
I am a self-confessed command line junkie. Sure, I see value in GUIs—and they're great for getting accustomed to a tool—but after crawling, the command line lets you walk, run, and then fly!
Source: DevX

Examining ASP.NET's Membership, Roles, and Profile - Part 10   16 Apr 2008 00:00 GMT

The Membership system automatically tracks the last date and time each user's account has been accessed. With the SqlMembershipProvider, this information is stored in the aspnet_Users database table in a datetime column named LastActivityDate. This column is automatically updated to the current UTC date and time whenever a user logs into the site, whenever their user account information is updated, and whenever their user account information is retrieved.

In addition to tracking each user's last activity date and time, the Membership system includes a method named GetNumberOfUsersOnline. This method returns the number of users whose last activity date and time is within a specified window; by default, this method returns the number of users whose aspnet_Users.LastActivityDate value falls within the last 15 minutes.

This article, the tenth installment of a multipart article series on ASP.NET's Membership, Roles, and Profile systems, examines the GetNumberOfUsersOnline method and see how to extend the Membership system to include additional user activity information. Specifically, we will add a new table to the database used by the SqlMembershipProvider that associates a description of each user's current action. We will then update our ASP.NET pages to update the records in this table to include a description of the user's current action. For example, when visiting the home page we may use the description, "Viewing the home page." Finally, we will create a web page that displays the list of currently logged on users and their last known action. Read on to learn more!
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Source: 4GuysFromRolla

Live from the Web! Bring the Windows Live Messenger Experience to Your Web Applications   10 Apr 2008 01:46 GMT
The collective features of the Windows Live Messenger IM Control, the Windows Live Messenger Presence API, and the Windows Live Messenger Library go beyond the simplicity of a chat application, making it possible to embrace this new era of social networking by leveraging a built-in Windows Live network within any web application.
Source: DevX

Creating an Online Boggle Solver :: Solving the Puzzle   09 Apr 2008 00:00 GMT

My family enjoys playing games and one of our favorites is Boggle, an addictive word game where players attempt to find as many words in a 4x4 grid of letters. At the end of a game, players are left wondering whether there were any unearthed words. To answer this question once and for all, I created an online Boggle solver using ASP.NET version 3.5.

This article is the second installment in a two-part series. Last week's article, Building the User Interface, examined the Boggle solver web page's user interface, which consists of 16 TextBox Web controls arranged in a 4x4 grid and three Button Web controls for solving the user-entered puzzle, solving a randomly-generated puzzle, and clearing the board. A ListView control is used to display the solutions in a three-column HTML <table>. The user interface also included a handful of JavaScript functions to ease entering the board data.

This second and final installment details the code used to solve the puzzle. Solving the puzzle requires having a dictionary of legal words and objects that mirror the structure and functionality of the board and of solutions. These objects are implemented as classes that include internal data structures that use a number of features in the .NET Framework, including: Generics; automatic properties; and caching. The complete source code is available for download at the end of the article.

Try out the live demo or read on to learn more!
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Source: 4GuysFromRolla