Month: November 2007

VWD 2008 EE First Impressions

Post author By Patrick
Post date November 28, 2007
No Comments on VWD 2008 EE First Impressions

Uh, can’t understand the title? Verbosely, VWD is Visual Web Developer and EE is Express Edition. 😛

Microsoft not only released .NET 3.5 and the Express Editions but they also included new “How Do I?” videos. New videos include new features of ASP.NET 3.5 and LINQ. This is something that I really like from Microsoft – they release aside from the wordy walkthroughs, they provide downloadable videos with examples. Quite different during my stay where I had to recreate samples of my own by downloading the recorded webcasts from MSDN.

I was suppose to prepare some new content for ASP.NET 3.5 for the Philippine .NET Users Group. Since I am no longer from Microsoft and I don’t have any access to any non-Express Edition of Visual Studio 2008, I had to use the Visual Web Developer 2008 EE.

Like what I have said in my previous entry, the default target framework for VWD is .NET 3.5 although you can change the target framework for this. There are no additional extensions for AJAX that is needed to be installed since it is already built-in in the framework. A new ASP.NET project will give you a default webform (Default.aspx). If you want to have a default page that is AJAX enabled, you can delete this file and add a new item.

The UI is similar to the 2005 version only that there are new templates for .NET 3.5 (notice the LINQ to SQL Classes which by default points to the App_Code folder). I am not sure if it’s a glitch on this section where I tried to add a new master page for my project:

I guess this one means that you can nest masterpages in Visual Web Developer 2008 with IDE support. Way back in 2005, nested masterpages are supported by the framework but not in the IDE.

After creating the new AJAX Web Form, aside from having a ScriptManager control automatically on your webform, there’s a quite small nifty code that you might be curious about:

On the <head> part of the form, you’ll see a pageLoad() Javascript function. At first look, I thought it was just a simple JavaScript function. I tried to put a typical “Hello, World” alert in there and when I ran the application, it triggered the alert on page load. Going back to the page, I noticed that there are no explicit calls to the function on page load and I was thinking if this is a new feature or not. More often than not, should I want to call on a Javascript on page load, I explicitly put in the body tag of my page the “onload” event (e.g. <body onload=”PageLoadFunction();”>). I searched for articles about the events available although I haven’t found significant results even on MSDN. Maybe they are still building up the documentation of these new functions.

Since AJAX adoption in most web applications are inevitable, I downloaded Joe Stagner’s video in the link above regarding the AJAX integration in Visual Studio 2008. I was amazed at the integration of the AJAX Control Toolkit (ACT) with Visual Studio even if it is not a (/an official) Microsoft product. I tried it myself although to my dismay, I wasn’t able to replicate the steps he has done. What made it worse is that while I was able to add the new controls in my toolbox, I wasn’t able to drag the controls used in the video in my designer

(Sorry, mouse pointers are not included in screenshots. 😦 ).

There has been an ongoing discussion in the ASP.NET forums and the error was traced to the wrong assembly information in the latest release of AJAX Control Toolkit. It’s either I have to download the trial of VSTS 2008 or wait for an updated release of the AJAX Control Toolkit with the correct assembly information. The temporary workaround (if you have the full version) is detailed here:

Download the 3.5 AJAX Toolkit source code from ajax.asp.net
Open AjaxControlToolkit.csproj file
Bring up Project Property Pages for this project in Visual Studio 2008 (e.g., by right-clicking on C# AjaxControlToolkit project node and selecting “Properties”)
On the Application tab, click on the Assembly Information button
Change version number of Assembly Version to 3.5.0.0 (instead of 3.5.*.0)
Rebuild the assembly
Use the output DLL under bin\Debug or bin\Release subfolder (depending on which configuration you chose to build)

Whew, there are still more to discuss with the new features of Visual Web Developer. As I prepare myself bracing tableless design (for Search Engine Optimization), I think I should be prepared also facing several CSS issues across browsers. Whew!

ASP.NET Microsoft Software Development Technology Web Development Work

Moonlighting

I first heard of this word when my former boss told me this line “Aha! You are moonlighting!”. I was clueless then what does that mean. I wanted to tell him, “what do you want me to do?” but the clarification came first of its meaning: “sideline aka work outside formal work (employment)”. Of course I was relieved when he said that it was OK (well not that he explicitly mentioned it though I never got any reprimand nor suspension out of that. :P). Well of course, as courtesy, you should inform your boss if you have any other work aside from your work just to put things properly and to prevent any conflict of interest that may arise.

Some time after, I encountered the word in an unexpected scenario: in the registration part of Visual Web Developer Express. On the bottom part of the registration, you can see the following:

Of course, you saw my answer (:P). Good thing the Microsoft guys know that some developers are really moonlighting. 😛

Miscellaneous Movies Mushy

Enchanted

The child in me went back again when I watched “Enchanted” yesterday. It’s a typical song and dance movie since it’s a Disney film. I’m not really that much of a Disney fan especially with my disappointment on “High School Musical 2”.

Sure enough, when I was a kid, I really loved Disney movies but as I grew old, seems like the magic is going away – except for this one. The movie is really a feel good movie, and at the end, everyone’s happy (and no bitter persons like me, :P)

Amy Adams was effortless and I really like her performance.

“Welcome to New York”

“Thank You” 😛

James Marsden is singing again! After Hairspray, here comes another sing and dance movie of his. His performance in Hairspray is good and while he sang less here compared to Hairspray, his performance is superb. One thing that I noticed is that James Marsden has been always the third party in some of the movies he’s been a part of (Notebook, X-Men, Superman).

Overall, the movie is good. Glad that I’m back to my movie days again after a long hiatus of extensive work in the office (don’t mind if my officemates will raise an eyebrow on this :P). It is still showing and this was a good relief after a disappointing Beowulf experience.

And I’m currently having a last song syndrome (LSS) with the movie:

“I’ve been dreaming of a True Love’s Kiss…” 😛

ASP.NET Microsoft Technology Web Development

Playing with Visual Web Developer 2008

Post author By Patrick
Post date November 22, 2007
1 Comment on Playing with Visual Web Developer 2008

I got the RTM bits of Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions yesterday and I was eager to play around with Visual Web Developer (VWD). Like what I have said in my previous blog, Microsoft has released an all-in-one Express Edition DVD. This is in contrast with the previous release (Express Edition 2005) where all the SKUs are in a single CD. Nonetheless, it’s pretty much understandable that this newer version has to have a larger size as it targets 3 frameworks: 2.0, 3.0, 3.5.

After burning the ISO, I immediately installed VWD. It’s an autoplay DVD and the screen looks like this:

Since SQL Server 2008 hasn’t shipped RTM, the database server included in this DVD is SQL Server 2005. The installation screen is pretty much the same with 2005 except that it install more components aside from VWD itself, the 3.5 framework (and perhaps if you don’t have the two other frameworks, it will install them as well), MSDN Express.

To note specifically are item #2, 3, 5 relative from the ones displayed in the image above. VWD 2008 also installs the Silverlight 1.0 runtime (and SDK) if it’s not installed yet in your system. After all the installation hullabaloo, the default screen of VWD 2008 is found below:

(click on the thumbnail to see full view)

I remember in one of the demos of VS 2008 that I attended before, I saw that there’s a screen that will allow you to choose what framework are you targetting. However, on my dismay, I didn’t see these on the new website screen of VWD 2008. Instead, it creates by default a .NET 3.5 version of ASP.NET.

After selecting the target path of your web application, the default screen appears:

(click on the thumbnail to see full picture) In the new layout, you’ll also see the new tabs for CSS support.

Notice that you’ll see the new Data Controls for .NET 3.5 in your toolbox:

You might have a question like: “How to change the target framework of your web application?” Here are the steps:

1. Right click on your project in the Solution Explorer and select “Property Pages”

2. A window will show up and go to the “Build Option”. From there you will see your preferred target framework for your web application. Select one and press “Ok”.

You’ve seen earlier that by default, the new .NET 3.5 controls are in your toolbox. When you change your target framework to 2.0, version specific controls will be removed from the toolbox. Should you try to run these applications, it will create an exception saying that these controls aren’t recognized by ASP.NET.

So here’s my share of some tidbits of VWD 2008. I’m still playing this one around and I’ll share more of the future of some tips that might help you.

Blog Personal Rants

I Screwed My Blog

The last post (ASP.NET Membership Schema) I made screwed my blog big time.

If you see the title mentioned above as the last post before this, can you post what browser are you using. If you see “Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Released!”, please post it as well. I made an investigation though it seems like there’s an inconsistency with the output of my blog entries. Note that I didn’t place the absolute URL of the blogs since I don’t want to count these as ping backs to my blog.

Some of my seatmates in the office see “ASP.NET…” while others see “Visual…”. Those using Firefox experience the same so I don’t know what makes the inconsistencies considering that the “ASP.NET…” post appears well in “Posts” area of WordPress.

If you see this, then I think in some ways, it is “solved”. 😦