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I just updated my web app template

My Framework neutral template for building apps with Webpack and Babel was just updated a few days ago.

Features

  • Builds clientside web applications with webpack and babel.
  • Includes a cachebreaker hash to the output files.
  • Treeshaking with webpack.
  • Splits libraries from application code to improve build times.
  • Automatic splitting of webpacked files to improve load times at runtime.
  • Also builds seperate css, fonts and other files. (Either from seperate entry points for css, or from require statements in JavaScript code.)
  • A webserver with hot reload when developing your app.

The template is created to make it easy to get started to use Webpack and Babel for creating client side web applications, utilising the newest version of JavaScript-. It is Framework neutral in that it doesn’t force a particular framework on you.

(Note: I have actually included the font-awesome and bootstrap packages to the project, but they are not in use. They are to demonstrate that such assets will also be included in the build. If you don’t want them there, just npm uninstall -D  them.)

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Clearing out the bookshelf

I spending this summer doing a lot of writing. But inspiration isn’t always a continuous flow. One of the things I did to get my mind of things was to look through books in the bookshelf. …and atop the bookshelf too, it seems. I’m allocated only about 1.5 meters (5 feet) of bookshelf for my computer books, so its always full.
So today became the day I made space for other books! 12.6 kg (27.8 pounds) or 40 cm (16″) of books were dismissed from my bookshelf today. Thats almost 7000 pages.

Some books might be really out of date, other might still be of value for someone. (I’ve already read them, so they’re out’a here!)

Here’s the list, anyone who wants them can come and get them.

Do you want any of these used computing books?

Used Computer Books
I'm giving away these used computer books
  • Programming SQL Server 2005 – O’Reilly
  • Programming ADO.NET 2.0 Core Reference – Microsoft Press
  • APPLICATIONS = CODE + MARKUP A Guide To The Windows Presentation Foundation – Microsoft Press
  • Programming Windows Forms 2005 Edition – Microsoft Press
  • MCTS Exam 70-528 Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Web-based Client Development Training Kit – Microsoft Press
  • MCTS Exam 70-536 Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Application Development Foundation Training Kit – Microsoft Press
  • MCTS Exam 70-431 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Implentation and Maintenance Training Kit – Microsoft Press
  • MCTS Exam 70-443 Designing a Database Server Infrastructure using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Training Kit – Microsoft Press
  • Introducing Visual Studio 2005 Team System Beta Edition – Microsoft Press
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services Step by Step – Microsoft Press

You’ll need to come and get them, though… I live just outside Oslo, Norway… (No, I’m not sending them. Books are heavy, and that makes postage very expensive…)

They won’t lie around here to long. They’ll be recycled in a few days…

Use the form below to let me know if you want any of them.

UPDATE: Most books were given away, the few remaining ones are recycled. The contact form is therefore removed.

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Custom ASP.NET DataSource parameters

With ASP.NETs DataSource controls you can parameterize your query and have those parameters automatically fetched from one of a few standard sources. Those include getting a parameter value from the querystring, a form parameter, a control or from a users session variables, profile or cookies.

These parameter types enables us to build a lot of functionality without leaving ASP.NET markup. Still, they don’t cover every imaginable scenario. So when someone asked how to get the username as a parameter in this question on Stackoverflow, it inspired me to write this article. Continue reading “Custom ASP.NET DataSource parameters”

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More presentations coming up…

ASP.NET

Did you miss the free one-day ASP.NET courses I gave in june or september? You’ve got another chance now! It’s scheduled again for thursday, december 3. Read more about it AND sign up for the ASP.NET course here!

Windows Azure

Also, since Windows Azure is being released  in just a couple of weeks, I’ll take a look at what that means for us, the developers, on wednesday, november 11. Read more AND sign up for Windows Azure course here!

(Both courses are presented in Norwegian.)

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Diving deeper into Windows Azure table storage

In this previous posts about Windows Azure Table Storage, I relied on the StorageClient project in the Azure SDK samples. This feels a bit strange, and raises the question: Am I expected to include references to sample projects and be using Microsoft.Samples.whatever namespaces in my future projects?

This raises a couple of questions about license, copyright, support and more. Instead of digging into those questions, I came up with some alternate questions:

  • What does this sample project give us?
  • How does it work?
  • Can we do these things ourselves?

A lot of the searching was done in the sample code, since most of the other articles about accessing Windows Azure Table Storage depend on the same sample files. I was disappointed to see that even the Windows Azure SDK help file shows some partial code calling into the sample project. Little help there… Continue reading “Diving deeper into Windows Azure table storage”

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Files from the one-day ASP.NET course

You can download all the files used and created during my one-day ASP.NET course here. The zip file contains the slides (PDF), the databases  and all the files used and created during the presentation.

I added a default.aspx page listing the samples, so hopefully it should be easy to find the demo you’re looking for.

  • Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition.
  • SQL Server 2005/2008 Express Edition or better. (Installs with the above by default.)

(The free Microsoft Web Platform Installer will install the minimum requirements.)

Instructions to run the demos:

  1. Unzip the contents.
  2. In the Install folder, you’ll find the SetUpDb.cmd. Double-click it to install the Northwind and Pubs sample databases into your SQL Server.
  3. In the Demos folder, you’ll find the solution file (Demos.sln). Double-click to open it in Visual Studio / Visual Web Developer.
  4. Press F5 to run.
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Free one-day course in ASP.NET

Today I’m presenting the free one-day course in ASP.NET at Microsofts Norway offices at Lysaker again.

I’ve prepared a zip archive containing both the presentation slides (as PDF) and a few artifacts I’ll use during the presentation. (Code files, sample XML documents, sql scripts etc.) Click here to download them! (Come back for the demos later. I will upload whatever code I create during the presentation.)

If you don’t already have Visual Studio, you can download the free Microsoft Web Platform installer here.

The course is presented by Programutvikling AS and Microsoft Noway.

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What is the fascination with Twitter?

Ok, I know this isn’t exactly breaking news. Twitter has been out there for a couple of years, but still many people don’t know what Twitter is. If you’re one of them, have a look at this short video explaining Twitter (2’23”).

Video explaining Twitter (From codecraft.com)

And even knowing what Twitter is, fewer understand the fascination with it. I think Twitter with its simplicity has several interresting aspects, and they are different for all of us. Continue reading “What is the fascination with Twitter?”

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Authenticating against Azure Table Storage

When searching for articles/blogs/samples about using Azure Table Storage from .NET, it seems most of them (if not all) depend on the StorageClient sample in the Azure SDK. I read about authentication with SharedKey or SharedKeyLite, and I always found the magic of these authentication schemes were wrapped up into several layers of abstractions in this SDK sample.

Hoping that I could get at my data without it (the sample), I needed to research how to authenticate against Azure Table Storage. So how does it all work? Continue reading “Authenticating against Azure Table Storage”

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How to use Windows Azure table storage

I found several great articles showing how to work with Windows Azure Table Storage:

All these, however, assume that the table storage will be used from an Azure web or worker role. I wanted to see if the Windows Azure Table Store could be used with applications running elsewhere, like on your computer. I’m creating a console application here, but the code can be easily adapted to a WPF, Windows Forms or even an ASP.NET application too. Continue reading “How to use Windows Azure table storage”

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Mythbusters: Unit-testing

While I believe most or many developers have heard of JUnit/NUnit/<your testing framework here>, fewer know how to write a test and running it using such a framework. And from those, even fewer have a good understanding of how to make unit testing a part of the development workflow.

I’ve known about unit testing and unit test frameworks for maybe 7-8 years. I first tried using it in a small project 5-6 years ago, but it is only in the last few years that I’ve learned how to do it right. (ie. found a way that works for me and my team…)

For me some of the things learned were: Continue reading “Mythbusters: Unit-testing”