Recently I have been reading some really great tutorials on the Validation Application Block by David Hayden on his blog. For those that do not already know David Hayden is one of the few great bloggers out there that actually create well crafted blog posts that actually help us out. He certainly makes me look bad that is for sure, I have to work much harder to get to his level. Perhaps that is osmething I can work on next year? Perhaps, my friends.

This is what he has written about so far.

Validation Application Block in Enterprise Library 3.0 - Using Validation Facade Class - Part I

Validation Application Block in Enterprise Library 3.0 - ValidationFactory Class - Part II

Validation Application Block Ruleset in Enterprise Library 3.0 - Enterprise Library 3.0 Tutorials - Part III

Validation Application Block - Rules in External XML Configuration File - App.Config Web.Config - Enterprise Library 3.0 - Part IV

Validation Application Block - Business Layer and Data Access Layer Integration - Part V

If it were not for David Hayden's efforts I am sure many would be blind as to how to proceed in utilizing this tool that Microsoft has provided. Good work as always David!

Have you ever wondered how to integrate the LLBGenPro with ASP.Net 2.0? Do you need an easy to use walkthrough that demonstrates how to do just that? Well you are now in luck as Frank Bouma, the inventor of LLBGen Pro, has done exactly that.

You can find details here.

Now what would be cool is the Atlas functionality can be integrated into these examples so as to really demonstrate a powerful web application example. Just a thought. I am sure someone is working on such a thing right now.

Even though the Atlas toolkit is still in CTP, that is beta for the rest of us, there is a Automation Test Harness released to make testing your web applications just that much easier.

You can download the Atlas Toolkit here.

You can out how to test the toolkit thorugh Shawn Burke's Blog here.

And finally you can visit the Codeplex Atlas Control Toolkit page here.

I am really looking forward to the enhanced functionality provided by the atlas framework. Personally I have always felt that web applications have been lacking. This framework solves the problem.

Just a quick note that since Rocky Lhotka has sent his book off to publishing you can now get the source code for the next version of CSLA.Net 2.0 from his website. This is good news for all those using .Net 2.0. I have not yet had the chance to download and inspect it yet, because I am writing this blog post instead! <G>

You can find the code here.

When the book comes available I am sure there will be a much better explaination of how and why we should use this code framework. Enjoy!

I have some free DotNetNuke skins for all to download and use if they wish. I have a total of four skins with different color layouts. You are free to modify, alter or improve on these skins as much as you want. Furthermore there is no restriction as to how many computers you can run these skins on.

You can find them on my main personal website here. Enjoy! I will be back later with some more tutorials and other information as soon as I am done creating it. Thanks for reading!

I came across this fantastic resource on sorting alogrithms in C code. Now although many of these are included in the .Net framework it is nessesary to see how they are coded in order to properly understand how they work. Furthermore, this site explains the advantages of each algorithm.

You can find it here.

http://linux.wku.edu/~lamonml/algor/sort/

Rapid Module Development for DotNetNuke

I came across this really great article by Mark Hoskins on the use of various code generation tools to rapidly build modules for the DotNetNuke platform. Mark does a really great job on explaining how he goes about using these tools to develop his modules in a much shorter time frame.

You can read it here.

http://dotnet.sys-con.com/read/180968.htm

Publishing documents on the World Wide Web can seem daunting for the self proclaimed ludites out there. Let's face it HTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript to name just a few of the technologies that you would need to be familiar with in order to develop a truly professional looking website for yourself or your business. Fortunately there is a solution to the problem, it is called a content management system and it is an easier way for just about anyone willing to learn to publish to the Internet.

Some of these content management systems have stemmed from the need of publishing data to the web. CNet for example created one of their own in house content management systems which they later spun off into a separate company called Vignette. Since publishing to the web began to take off in 1995 the development of these systems has really begun to progress. However my focus will be only on open source versions of the web content management systems.

The first open source system that I want to mention is called DotNetNuke (http://www.dotnetnuke.com) which is a AsP.Net based system. By far one of the more popular open source projects out there today DotNetNuke has an avid following of hundreds of thousands of users. The benefits of using this system is the rapid updates to the platform and the intense support you will receive from it community. These are two very important factors when considering an open source system, the level of updates and the support you will receive from its creators or users of the platform. Further the innovations that are built into this system make it one powerful application by any measure. For instance the skinning mechanism is by far one of the easiest to modify and customize and the scheduling processor reduces some of the more mundane tasks of maintaining any website.

However DotNetNuke does not come without any drawbacks. Since this system was eveloped in ASP.Net this means that you will need at least Visual Studio 2003 Professional or greater in order to truly modify the source and customize the system as you see fit. This can be a serious drawback as the cost of this development platform can run into the hundreds of dollars.

The second open source system that I have some experience in using is called AXCMS.Net (http://www.axcms.net) which is again built upon the .Net platform. This system is as feature rich as other open source systems such as DotNetNuke. However, this system has some definite drawbacks. First is its somewhat difficult setup and deployment problems that can seriously hinder any project. Also, there does not seem to be as an avid user base as DotNetNuke. However the system is as "solid" as they get and you will definitely be rewarded by your efforts once you have the system fully setup and ready to use. Also since this system is really a neat way to get introduced to the development team any updates or customizations you may need will be for a fee from the creators of the system. This really hinders the community support of the system and makes adoption that much harder.

There are many other open source systems out there with some more being developed as I write this article. The main factors when adopting any open source content management systems you should consider are: how well is this system supported by the community and how often is this system updated by its core development team. Even an open source system can have some hidden cost that must be considered before adoption into any business or enterprise.

Recently I have had the pleasure of using the open source content management system called DotNetNuke. I basically use this as my primary personal website as it is very easy to use and administer and does not mean I need to hand code HTML every time I wish to update my website. It also has the advantage of being editable from anywhere I have an internet connection.

This new version is a vast improvement over the previous version I was using which was version 1.0.10. Notably this version has an integrated scheduler provider which allows for tasks to be run in the background at designated intervals. Since this is an open source system you have the advantage of seeing how this code is implemented, such a bonus! The scheduler provider I believe should be implemented in every website I develop simply because this allows for hands free administration of some of the more mundane tasks of keeping a website as fast and efficient as possible. The creators of this content management system also included their architecture reasoning in the DNNDocs which can be located at the same place you can find the source code for this system.

The advantages of using DotNetNuke in its current form is its open source and hence free nature which allows experienced developers to extend and modify the existing code base to suit their needs. Some may want to use this as a base for an even larger web based application. Also, since this is one of the most popular open source projects on the internet today the community support is outstanding. Also since this demonstrates some of the best practices of developing an n-tier web application any serious web developer can obtain valuable nuggets of information and insight by studying the code and the reasoning behind those decisions.

However, when considering this for a large corporation such as one in the S&P 500 I would give some serious thought about the disadvantages to any open source system. An open source system appeals to the masses and this does not necessarily coincide with the specific business requirements of a large corporation. These requirements most likely would consider Sarbanes Oxley regulations, regulations by national state boards of oversight and local regulations that demand a high amount of information security that this portal may or may not satisfy. So therefore you have to consider the costs of implementing such improvements on this system or any open source system in order to meet those specific business requirements.

For all of those that want to get started developing .Net applications but do not want to shell out the hundreds of dollars a professional edition of Visual Studio 2003 will cost you, there is a solution. The developers at IC#Code have developed an open source IDE that is actually quite impressive. It has all the features you would expect in a commercial IDE and it is fully extensible through access to the raw source code and the plug-in architecture of the IDE.

#develop pronounced SharpDevelop has the following features:

• A forms designer for C# and VB.Net
• Code completion for C# and VB.Net
• An XML editor integrated within the environment
• “Code Folding” or what is known as regions in the Visual Studio IDE which allow you to separate your code so that you can view only the code that is relevant
• Ability to convert C# to VB.Net and vice versa in the IDE (even Microsoft does not have this feature yet)
• Integrated NUnit Support
• An “assembly advisor” which is an FxCop like program that helps you optimize your assemblies.

To see the full feature list visit their website for a full feature tour.

There is no other open source project like this one for .Net development. It would be great to see if these guys hook up with the team working on open source NTeam project. However that is only a dream of mine at this time.

There is even a book written by the authors of the source code which guide you through their development of this IDE. So not only can you see the code yourself but you can read about why they chose one design path over another which is a great help for those developing world class applications that many users will end up using in their day to day lives.

So why not download this IDE and give .Net a whirl if you have not already done so. If you are new to programming this also might be a good place to start as it is much better to program with an IDE than with notepad and the .Net SDK.