Entries for zhuo

ASP.NET ViewState (flawed architecture?) [ASP.NET ViewState (flawed architecture?)]

zhuo — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 03:39:01 GMT

I've encountered an ArgumentException in ASP.NET and it has been a question that sort of stuck in my head for a while now.

I know the likely cause of this ArguementException is a ViewState issue. I think ViewState is the cause because the ASP.NET page in error loads a datagrid of many editable elements, all of which require ViewState to retain states. In cases where many rows are loaded, it may take a while for the whole page (including the ViewState) to load. If the user is impatient and clicks on another button on the page, the page errors out because an incomplete ViewState has been posted back thus can't be decoded properly.

I can't really see anyway of fixing this other than to try to reduce the latency of the loading process or some how reduce the use of ViewState whilst still being able to retain state somehow.

Isn't this (ViewState) a major flaw with ASP.NET architecture? I.e if ViewState information had been associated with individual elements/controls on a web page instead of being put into a single chunk of Base64 string then the problem described above wouldn't really be a problem in majority of the cases. Ruby doesn't have this problem, maybe ASP.NET can learn from their implementation?

What do you guys think?

James

in reply to ASP.NET ViewState (flawed architecture?)

Windows XP crashing. [Windows XP crashing.]

zhuo — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:39:16 GMT

Hey guys,

My windows XP machine crashes every now and then, i.e. no blue screen or nothing, it just goes black, sometimes it reboots itself, other times it just goes black and i have to manually reboot.

Is there a log or something that I can check to see what problem it is? I suspect it's the video driver but I've updated that with no luck.

This has already corrupted my system once, lucky i had all my data in tact.

Any suggestions is much appreciated. Cheers

James :)

in reply to Windows XP crashing.

Wireframing Tools [Wireframing Tools]

zhuo — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 01:52:05 GMT

Just wondering if anyone know of any good wireframing tools? Visio, word, PPT are just terrible for wireframing. So time consuming and hard to change.

Any suggestion is much appreciated.

in reply to Wireframing Tools

DNS service software for windows machine? [DNS service software for windows machine?]

zhuo — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 09:20:29 GMT

Does anyone know of any DNS service software for windows? I know the windows server product comes with DNS service and it's pretty good but I want free DNS service software to run on windows XP.

If you have had good experience with any free DNS service please reply in as much detail as you could. The software should preferrably have a nice user interface for configuration purpose and it would be a plus if there's a API.

Cheers,

James

in reply to DNS service software for windows machine?

Live Mail is such a shame compared to Gmail. What do you think? [Live Mail is such a shame compared to Gmail. What do you think?]

zhuo — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 13:48:17 GMT

I think Live Mail is such a shame compared to Gmail, what do you think?

in reply to Live Mail is such a shame compared to Gmail. What do you think?

How come they are charging for Community Server now? [How come they are charging for Community Server now?]

zhuo — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 13:17:00 GMT

Wasn't community server meant to be free and was released with some sort of public license or something? What's happening to it? Commercialisation of a product previously licensed to the public? Is that allowed?

in reply to How come they are charging for Community Server now?

Hey Cornelius Ellsonpeter, are you from Sydney? if you are, do you attend the sydney .net user group [Hey Cornelius Ellsonpeter, are you from Sydney? if you are, do you attend the sydney .net user group]

zhuo — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 13:50:55 GMT

Hey Cornelius Ellsonpeter, are you from Sydney? if you are, do you attend the sydney .net user group?

A dude named Cornelius from Sydney .net user group showed off some really cool stuff using reflection. http://acorns.com.au/cs/blogs/parallelthinking/archive/2006/06/18/RuntimeObjectEditor115_ReflectorIntegration.aspx

in reply to Hey Cornelius Ellsonpeter, are you from Sydney? if you are, do you attend the sydney .net user group

N-tier vs N-layer - suggested reading if you don't know the difference [N-tier vs N-layer - suggested reading if you don't know the difference]

zhuo — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 17:15:24 GMT

http://www.lhotka.net/WeBlog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=efa88d0a-2388-4909-bee1-c9bddb6e9868

good read any how.

in reply to N-tier vs N-layer - suggested reading if you don't know the difference

How many of you have seriouly looked at the dataaccess application block and what did you think of i [How many of you have seriouly looked at the dataaccess application block and what did you think of i]

zhuo — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 14:00:41 GMT

How many of you have seriouly looked at the dataaccess application block and what did you think of it?

I thought it's not that impressive after a fairly detailed look at it. And frankly it doesn't really constitute an application block as I would have expect of it.

Love to hear from you, could start another discussion on this.

in reply to How many of you have seriouly looked at the dataaccess application block and what did you think of i

the limit of sql server 2000 [the limit of sql server 2000]

zhuo — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 01:55:24 GMT

Has anyone hit the limit of sql server 2000 yet? What happens when you database gets really really big? well how big can it get before it hits the limit or is there one?

in reply to the limit of sql server 2000

Can I get an idea how many of you have started using .net 2.0 commercially? [Can I get an idea how many of you have started using .net 2.0 commercially?]

zhuo — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 15:53:15 GMT

Can I get an idea how many of you have started using .net 2.0 commercially?

in reply to Can I get an idea how many of you have started using .net 2.0 commercially?

server clusters - do you know how? [server clusters - do you know how?]

zhuo — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 08:23:55 GMT

Hi all,

I understand that it is possible to set up asp.net webs to run on clusters but i have no idea how this could be done. Any thoughts welcome even if you don't know how to set up one.

Here are my thoughts

From what I understand, to set up an web app to run on a cluster of servers, the first thing that needs to be achieved is to load balance the web servers, this means app sessions need to persist across diff servers, this could be easily achieved in .net by using a database to store session variables. but the question is how do you set up load balancing for IIS?

The next question is how do you load balance the database. Now this is a really tough one. Is it even possible to achieve this using SQL Server 2000 without building this functionality in as part of the application itself? I know this is possible with oracle 10g, but what's sql server doing about this?

James Zhuo :)

in reply to server clusters - do you know how?

Cory Doctorow - DRM and MSFT: a product no customer wants [Cory Doctorow - DRM and MSFT: a product no customer wants]

zhuo — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 07:55:40 GMT

http://content.digitalwell.washington.edu

This video's very cool. A long one though.
Watch it if you are interested in business and technology.

James

in reply to Cory Doctorow - DRM and MSFT: a product no customer wants

DAL Design - tell me what you think [DAL Design - tell me what you think]

zhuo — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 12:36:18 GMT

Hello,

I've am currently in the middle of a new contract. For this project, I've used a different approach to creating a data access layer and it seems to work really well, very efficient, consistent and highly maintainable in a multi developer environment.

I thought I should share with you and see what you have to say about it.

Before I start, i should mention this new data access layer is not meant to be generic and a lot of business logics (if not all) have been implemented as stored procedures, this is in contrast with my past approach where I've created highly generic/flexible data access layer which required no change to the layer even when fields are added to the under lying database tables. This earlier approach meant majority of business logic is implemented in .net rather than on the database end. I've also found this earlier approach inefficient (but had no choice because of flexibility required of it).

In general, generic/flexibility -> inefficiency, seen it too many times in too many different forms. If you disagree, I would like to hear from you.

Language: VB.NET
RDBMS: SQL Server 2000

Folder structure supporting the DAL
-> Base
   -> SqlBaseNonQuery.vb
   -> SqlBaseReader.vb
   -> SqlBaseAdapter.vb
-> [Entity1]
   -> Insert.vb
   -> SelById.vb
   -> Update.vb
   -> Delete.vb
   -> [other specialised stored procedure]
-> [Entity2]
   -> ....

Each folder maps directly to a namespace under DataAccess, e.g. DataAccess.Base, DataAccess.Entity1, DataAccess.Entity2.

Base folder - contains base classes which handles connection management and other common functions, all other DAL classes inherits from these base classes.

   -> SqlBaseNonQuery - is used for update, delete, insert & most other specialised stored procedures
   -> SqlBaseReader - is used for returning a single row
   -> SqlBaseAdapter - is used for returning multiple rows as a dataset

[Entity] folder - contains data access classes specific to the [entity], each class here maps directly to one sql stored procedure. Stored procedures implements business logics.

NB: Please let me know if there's anything unclear.

There are several advantages of this approach
1. There are no object created to represent each logical [entity]. I've circumvented this because there was no need for it, in addition it would create a huge overhead and unnecessary dependency otherwise.
2. The data access layer can be implemented by multiple developers at the same time due to that each function is implemented in a separate file mapping to a single stored produre. again low dependency. allowing the flexibility of creating the neccessary function just-in-time for a particular part of the app without build woes..
3. A good amount of business logics are implemented directly in the specialised stored procedures bypassing the need for a business layer while easily maintaining transactional executions within a single round trip.
4. This dataaccess layer is highly consistent as all classes inherit from the 3 base classes each suited to a particular scenario/purpose. All 3 base classes are very light in nature.
5. It is also highly efficient with each operation involving a single round trip.
6. Given the low level of dependency between functionalities this is particularly suited to agile development but is no less suited to more structured development approach.

Can anyone see any disadvange of this approach? It's so far so good up to this point. The app is not highly complex and has around 16 tables with less than 5 weeks development time (i've spent 1st week preping and designing and given 2 weeks to implement, seemed impossible at first but maybe we will just make the deadline).

I would be very glad to hear from you if you have any comments.

James Zhuo
.net/sql server contractor/consultant
interest: information systems/software/art/nature/machines/yoga
personal: http://zhuocorporation.spaces.msn.com/

in reply to DAL Design - tell me what you think

Visual Studio .NET has detected that the specified Web server is not running ASP.NET version 1.1. Yo [Visual Studio .NET has detected that the specified Web server is not running ASP.NET version 1.1. Yo]

zhuo — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 14:30:17 GMT

Hi

I've first installed visual studio 2005,
then i installed Internet Information Service,
then i installed visual studio .net 2003.

And when I tried to create a new project in visual studio .net 2003 it comes up with the message.

"Visual Studio .NET has detected that the specified Web server is not running ASP.NET version 1.1. You will be unable to run ASP.NET Web applications or services."

I am running this under winXP SP2. This is pretty urgent as I need to test out some stuff before returning to work on monday. Stressed!!!

James

in reply to Visual Studio .NET has detected that the specified Web server is not running ASP.NET version 1.1. Yo

What's a proxy stub? [What's a proxy stub?]

zhuo — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 05:52:04 GMT

What's a proxy stub? When do you use it? Why do you use it?

in reply to What's a proxy stub?

live mail and space [live mail and space]

zhuo — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 03:35:43 GMT

Could some one from Channel9 or MSN or microsoft with the power help me get rid of the Ads on my live mail and space? I don't mind the ad on msn messenger but I want the ads out of mail and more importantly my space. My msn contact is yuxiangzhuo@hotmail.com

Please please please.

James

in reply to live mail and space

Software testing. [Software testing.]

zhuo — Fri, 12 May 2006 14:04:18 GMT

Hi

How do you do your testing?
I hear Unit test all the time but I have no idea how to do it on a practical level. I am a little ashame to say but frankly I've never written any test automated test module.

So to raise a few question to kick off the discussion.
1. What do you test, what don't you test?
2. Doesn't writing unit test mean creating a automated test for each property and method in a class?
3. If so does this not mean I am writing almost twice the code?
4. How do you do it?
5. How does microsoft does it?
6. How do you test win-form and web-apps, or do you test the UI at all?

Regards,
James

in reply to Software testing.

Software Documentation [Software Documentation]

zhuo — Thu, 11 May 2006 16:20:51 GMT

Hi

I was wondering how many of you guys actually work for a firm that cares about documentations. Of course documentation could be at many different levels from code to higher level design documentations.

As analyst developers, what do you usually document? Can people provide the type of document you write along with a structure that you usually use?

Cheers
James

in reply to Software Documentation

ASP.NET Web Application Installer - need suggestions/answers [ASP.NET Web Application Installer - need suggestions/answers]

zhuo — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 07:17:52 GMT

I've created a installer using VS2003's web setup project. All works well other than one reported error. Though the installer seem to get generated anyway, so I am not too worried for now as i am in the prototyping stage and the errors reported seem to be an unresolved issue as no one seem to have an answer, take a look at what google returns.

What's more important to me now is that the installer generated using VS2003 setup project can only install one instance of the web application on the same machine. It checks to see if the same web app has been installed before by default and if not installs it into the default website.

I need the VS2003 set up project to
1. Allow me to choose a website (that has been pre-configured and visible in IIS manager) that I want to install the web app under
2. Allow me to install multiple instances of the same webapp on different/same website(s) on the same machine, in particular on a win 2003 server machine.

If possible, I would also like to know how to create a website in IIS programmatically.

I am guessing someone must have done something similiar so I thought I should ask before I go wild with trying every possible method. Any suggestions and help is much appreciated.

Thank you,

James

in reply to ASP.NET Web Application Installer - need suggestions/answers

Idea for .net framework team to help minimize the impact of deprecated functions/library [Idea for .net framework team to help minimize the impact of deprecated functions/library]

zhuo — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 15:01:36 GMT

Hi,

Last time I've posted an idea regarding
What I want to get to eventually is to define a docking template invisibly and to be able dock say "MSN Messenger" inside one of the docking area.

Any ideas of where I can start off? I want to do this in .net. Alternatively if you think there is already something out there that does this, please do send me a link.

Cheers
James

in reply to Docking windows?