Steve Holstad's "the bright lights"

IIS 7 with deployable IIS configuration settings

Jon Rauschenberger just informed us that iis.net has launched, and I'm excited to try out one of the new features that should make IIS 7 great... deployable configuration settings. IIS Config now supports XML, ASP.NET-style configuration that is able to be deployed alongside an application. I've spent the better part of 2 months (on and off) adjusting our custom build actions for a 2.0 web site deployment project; even minor changes to the deployment lead to quite a bit of dev time to adjust and test IIS config changes. Now these changes will be almost as simple as changing your web.config file for app config updates. Here's what IIS.net has to say:

IIS7 provides developers and administrators a unified configuration system for storing IIS and ASP.NET settings in a single XML format, and includes a set of managed code and scripting APIs for accessing configuration for the web platform. IIS7's configuration is clean, well-structured XML that is easy to read and edit. Configuration values are stored as easy to understand strings; for example, bitmasks or integer values are now persisted as easy to understand enumerations. IIS7 configuration shares a similar grammar and syntax with ASP.NET configuration, and it can also be stored along side ASP.NET configuration in web.config files!

They also will be offering virtual labs available in 90 minute blocks, so you can see the features of IIS 7 yourself, without a dedicated machine on your end. very cool.

Utility List Envy....my favorite three apps

I know as well as anyone that Scott Hanselman posted the world's all-time best tool list, which I use all the time to find certain utility programs. I've whittled my favorites down to only three, but they are all free, and good enough that I put them on my relative's systems when I am doing routine maintenance for them:

»SlickRun:  SlickRun is a great little command-line utility that provides an always-on GUI that isn't annoying, and provides some amazing flexibility. I pretty much open up every file & website I need to start my day using this, replacing all need for the Start-Programs tab. Craig Goren asked me two years ago what my favorite app was, I told him this. I'd tell him the same today.

»Paint.NET:  My family loves this app, it is a .NET based clone of Photoshop, with a ton of functionality included. It was created at Washington State University, so you get that great 'sticking it to the man' feeling when using it. Also, (and my favorite) it doesn't have the huge footprint that Photoshop has that requires a thirty second startup time.

»Audacity:   A simple, intuitive audio recording and editing program. I've played guitar for a few years, and this program provides more than enough audio manipulation for me...I've used a lot of recording software, and this is the one that always seems to stick around for me. Easy to use for beginners, too.

Feel free to post your favorites!

Sort a datatable before binding using DefaultView

Here's a quick solution I found that may save you a few minutes...

I needed to sort a datatable of records, which normally would be handled by my stored procedure, however in this case the data had been delivered from a hashtable:

Instead of using the datatable's Select statement to produce an array of DataRows, you can use the DefaultView of the datatable to handle sorting for you; much quicker and more efficient than repopulating another datatable:

// currentTable is a datatable of non-sorted rows
DataSet dsSorted = new DataSet();
private const string Sort_Column_Key = "myColumn";
private const string Sort_Direction = " DESC";
private const string Sort_Format = "{0} {1}";

// Sort by our sort column, in Sort_Direction order
currentTable.DefaultView.Sort = string.Format(Sort_Format, Sort_Column_Key, Sort_Direction);

// Add sorted table to dataset, then bind to control
// NOTE the use of ToTable to produce a datatable from our sorted view        
dsSorted.Tables.Add(currentTable.DefaultView.ToTable());
gridView1.DataSource = dsSorted;
gridView1.DataBind();

Clarity Tech Challenge.... Round One Live Blog

A quick realtime update of Clarity's 10th Tech Challenge, Clarity Tecmo Bowl:

Matchup 1: Khalid Smith (1) vs. Simon Hughes (8):

An early FG by 85 bears (ksmith), answered by 80 yd. TD pass by the newcomer Soccer Hooligans....turnovers abound as a major upset is in progress....another 90 yard bomb....amazing!  The Englishman has stunned the world!  Final: Soccer Hooligans 38, 85 Bears 3

 

Web Application Project 1.0 available next week

Scott Guthrie just posted an update to the release of .NET Web Application Project...looks like its slated for next Monday, May 8.  I can't wait to get this, as updated support for edit and continue while debugging, team builds within VSTS and a custom build action tool will really make my life easier!

He also mentions that this will be included in the upcoming VS 2005 SP1 release.

Scott's post:  http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/05/02/444847.aspx