ASP.NET - Code Snippets and Tutorials

A generic error occurred in GDI+ (Possible Solution)

Kulrom — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:13:14 +0000

I guess you’ve read about permissions thing which is that your application doesn’t have a write permission on some directory. But sometimes it can be simply a missing directory. Yeah it did happen to me today. I just found out that VS compiler excluded an empty folder from the pre-compiled version. As soon as i copied the precompiled version i started getting “A generic error occurred in GDI+” error. So next time just double check if missing folder is your problem. Find the code that deals with the GDI+ and be sure that your paths match existing folder(s).

Hope this helps to someone

How to get rid of the XML Parsing Error

Kulrom — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:29:52 +0000

XML Parsing Error

I just want to share a possible fix for this odd error. In my case it was a silly if statement in which i decide if MyPanel control should be rendered or not. However i missed the name of the panel control so i ended up with this XML Parsing Error. After i while i figured out that i have an error in the code-behind that looked like the following:

If condition = True Then
   MyPanel.Visible = True
Else
   Visible = False
End Try

Once i changed to the below it worked like a charm.

If condition = True Then
   MyPanel.Visible = True
Else
   MyPanel.Visible = False
End Try

Hope this helps to someone at least

WebsiteSpark Unsubscribe – is it possible?

Kulrom — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 09:48:24 +0000

I would say it is not. Why? Well, because they send you a broken unsubscribe links.
Of course i did that long time ago in the account options (currently cancelled) but it kept sending me various emails.
Most of them if not all, do not contain an unsubscribe link. And now they finally added the link at the footer but it does not work.
If you click it does nothing as it starts with “file:///C%7C/Users/Stephen/Desktop/Projects” etc.
This is the whole link:

file:///C%7C/Users/Stephen/Desktop/Projects/STX00063%20-%20WebsiteSpark-WW/2011-09/US/http://pages.email.microsoftemail.com/page.aspx?QS=11dfbe111fab00ea111afe11db11111e1836ec1111111ed&emailid=111111&memberid=1111111111&jobid=1111111&listid=1111111&listname=Subscription_111111111_111111&subscriberkey=myemail@domain.com&emailaddr=myemail@domain.com&subscriberid=111111111

Then i took only the portion which starts with http:// and pasted in the address bar.

This is what i ended with

WebsiteSpark Unsubscribe

Well guys, as you see you have to read all that crap coming from Microsoft. Don’t get me wrong, i am a MS man myself. I do .NET since its beginning but, this should not happen to such gigantic corporation like is Microsoft. Shame

How to add and watch movie on your PSP

Kulrom — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:38:17 +0000

watch movie on your PSP

I bought it several months ago. Mainly for my kids to play the games on it. But, last night they ask me if they can watch a cartoon on it. I googled and found a tons of tutorials about how to convert movie to psp format which is MP4. So far so good. I converted the Rio DvdRip to MP4. I connected the PSP with my laptop hoping that i will just copy the converted cartoon to the stick and it will work. But i was wrong. I put it to the root of the memory stick but it didn’t work at all. The PSP was not able to find the movie. Then i googled again and found a lots of tutorials about how to put movie on your PSP. They all suggested the same which is creating a two folders MP_ROOT and 100MNV01 inside it. Some of them even suggested that i name the files M4V10001.MP4, M4V10001.MP4 etc. respectively. None of these worked for me. Rather i tested something pretty silly as it seemed from beginning. Meaning, i created a brand new folder named VIDEO in the root of the memory stick and i put the converted file as is Rio 2011.mp4. Final result X:\VIDEO\Rio 2011.mp4 !!! Voila!

It worked like a charm. My kids were very happy because of that. Hopefully someone else will find this useful too.

Change Visual Studio 2010 Development Server (Cassini) Port Number

Kulrom — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 06:20:28 +0000

You guys probably know that Visual Studio includes a lightweight ASP.NET development server which is an enhanced version of Cassini.

You may have noticed or heard, people want to change the port number of it so here we go;

1. Rigth click your website in Solution Explorer window and select Properties from the context menu (Alt + Enter).

2. Select the Web tab as shown on the picture.

Development Server Specific Port

3. In the Servers section check the Specific Port radio button and set it to your preferred port number.

4. Launch the Website to see if it matches the value you specified.

If you use an earlier version of Visual Studio it can be little different.

e.g. You may want to change the port number in the Properties (F4) window:

1. Having the Properties window open (F4) LEFT-click the website in Solution Explorer.

2. Find the Developer Web Server section and change the “Use dynamic ports” to False.

3. Specify the port number.

4. Start debugging (F5) to see if it matches the new port number.

RadControls For ASP.NET AJAX 2011 Q1

Kulrom — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:10:15 +0000

Hello Guys,

Before I continue I would like to mention that I deleted the previous version of this review which was much longer, and more eloquent but then I realized that it is not necessary at all. Simplified, the Telerik controls are a must for every serious asp.net developer.

Ok here we go:

I am fairly new to Telerik stuff and I am wondering where to start really. Nevertheless I am very pleasantly surprised by the overall look and performance.

Actually I have NOT been so pleasantly surprised for longer. I cannot resist mentioning that I love its ease of use and above all, easy of install.

Well, usually you use the standard installation (.MSI Setup) but, rather you can DL the libraries and simply add a reference to DLL’s . Voila! You are all set up to use RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX.

It can’t be simpler, right?

Another thing that pleases me greatly is that Telerik constantly offers internal builds. Meaning, they quickly address your problem and get it fixed in the next internal build. In that way, you don’t have to wait for another official release or Service Pack. None of the vendors (except Telerik of course) is addressing and fixing bugs on daily or weekly basis. In addition the Support always answers quickly and never makes you feel inadequate or stupid for asking the questions. Hmm I could say a lot more about the support staff, but I believe it’s unnecessary.

Another great discovery is that each control can have a different skin. Unlike the other vendors, Telerik made it possible. Oh yeah. Now you can have unlimited number of controls with different skins applied and have them all on the same page which is great? You don’t have to use themes anymore.

The feature that made me proud owner of these controls was the RadGrid’s VirtualItemCount Property. Omg, it makes the custom paging so easy.
Say that you have a datasource with e.g. 20 items and you set the VirtualItemCount to preferred number of items e.g. 1000. The RadGrid will show up these 20 items but will also indicate that there are 49 pages for the items that exceed the actual number.

Ok there is one more Telerik control I want to mention, the RadMonthYearPicker. You will not believe how much I missed this control. I had to hack the RadDatePicker or to use two dropdown lists to achieve the wanted effect. Usually I needed it for checkout forms when a client has to provide expiration date of his CC, or when one wants to generate a monthly report for certain month and year. Now you can get that having a single control named RadMonthYearPicker.

Hmm although I love the RadRotator I hope they will improve one little thing so I don’t have to explicitly set the width and height of the banners. Beside this flaw this rotator can be used in many different ways. It can serve as an Image gallery, Slideshow, News, Live Scores, Weather Forecast, Banner Rotator, etc. etc.

The last one i want to mention in this review is RadWindow control. Man this is something really extra. I couldn’t believe it’s possible. You can have as much as you want windows there. For instance i found that it’s pretty useful for generating reports but you don’t want to leave the current page.

Reading here and there I saw that a lot of developers complain about the produced code. If you compare the other vendors with Telerik you’ll see that produced HTML code counts much more lines and is more complicated than Telerik.

Ups, did I mention the upgrade process. If you install the controls using .msi installation it will add a new menu in the Visual Studio so all you have to do is to click the update menu item. Nothing easier, right? If you are referencing the DLLs directly you have to download the new libraries and put them in your Bin folder replacing the old ones.

For further information on buying RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX please refer their website http://www.telerik.com

ASP.NET versus ASP Classic

Kulrom — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:52:29 +0000

If you often revise your decision to go for .NET. then let me tell you a few things about ASP.NET.

By the way, if I have to be an ASP developer starting now I would rather work as a cleaner in a public WC indeed.

Here we go:

No Visual Studio or any other IDE? No way!

No server side controls? Waaaa

No third-party controls? Waaa

No master pages? Waaa

No membership? Hey!

No forms authentication and validation? C’mon…

No built-in debugging and tracing? Then how I can debug that “unstructured code”?

Should I write the business logic layer in VBScript or JavaScript? Hmm should i?

…….. A lots of other questions here ……….

Advantages (a shorten list):

Strongly typed variables, ADO.NET, XML classes, Object Oriented Programming, Caching, Custom Web Controls, Encryption, Web Service integration, Scalability, Reliability, Security, Stability etc.etc.

There tons more reasons .NET is a drastic improvement. ASP.NET is orders of magnitudes.

P.S.

When it comes to Stability:

ASP is running under the inetinfo.exe (IIS) process space, making it susceptible to application crashes. This happens because the IIS needs to be stopped or restarted on a regular basis. The ASP.Net process is separate from inetinfo.exe, meaning that it is not susceptible to these types of application crashes. This means that the final product will be much more stable.

How to Remove unused Application Pools using ServerManager Class

Kulrom — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:12:42 +0000

Public Sub RemoveUnusedApplicationPools()
        Dim manager As New ServerManager
        Dim AppPools As New List(Of String)
        ' fill the list with all pools
        For Each apppool As ApplicationPool In manager.ApplicationPools
            AppPools.Add(apppool.Name)
        Next
 
        ' if it's used remove from the total list
        For Each website As Site In manager.Sites
            For Each app As Application In website.Applications
                AppPools.Remove(app.ApplicationPoolName)
            Next
        Next
 
        ' remove the unused pools
        For Each unusedApplicationPool As String In AppPools
            Dim apppool As ApplicationPool = manager.ApplicationPools(unusedApplicationPool)
            manager.ApplicationPools.Remove(apppool)
        Next
 
        ' call the commitchanges method
        manager.CommitChanges()
        manager.Dispose()
    End Sub

DevExpress How to Enable Form Skins

Kulrom — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:31:17 +0000

DevExpress WinForm Skins

I just realized something about the Skins. Actually it is not enough to add XtraForm (DevExpress Form) to your project and then drag & drop DefaultLookAndFeel. Oh no! If you want your forms appear with skins applied you have to do something more.

No big deal, but if you don’t know this you’ll probably struggle with it.

Meaning, to get ride of this please open the ApplicationEvents.vb (Properties -> View Application Events) and then add the following code to the Partial Friend Class MyApplication:

Private Sub MyApplication_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As Microsoft.VisualBasic.ApplicationServices.StartupEventArgs) Handles Me.Startup
DevExpress.Skins.SkinManager.EnableFormSkins()
DevExpress.UserSkins.BonusSkins.Register()
End Sub

Note: If you haven’t referenced the BonusSkins you should do that. Otherwise just remove the second line of the code above.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1

Kulrom — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 08:06:03 +0000

Visual Studio 2010 SP1

Hello guys. I was wondering what do you think about the final version of the Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1?

I found that a lots of developers react negatively. Many of them even rolling back the SP1. They talk about incompatibilities with the SP1 release.

Please share your experience and opinion about the new Service Pack!!! Thanks

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