Dane's blog

Education Raodmap, Create Games for Window Phone 7

2010-08-28T20:18:00.000+07:00

http://creators.xna.com/en-US/education/gettingstarted

Step by step instructions for android on hd2

2010-07-21T15:25:00.003+07:00

I've just got a very detail instruction to get android working on HTC HD2.

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR TESTING ANDROID ON HD2

1) Download an Android build (with or without sense user interface) (e.g. from gamesquare.co.uk)
2) Extract the contents to the ROOT of your sd card (Preferably format the card beforehand)
3) Launch any file manager from within windows mobile.
4) Launch haret.exe in the root of your sd (storage) card. Click Run (Preferably just after a soft reset)
Thats it!

Important Notes:
YOU WILL GET A BLACK/BLANK SCREEN (Linux text will disappear) if you don't have 2.xx.50.xx radio rom version. (2.xx.51.xx will not work)
Yes 51 radio versions are european and 50 radio versions are US, BUT 50 radio WILL WORK with your european HD2. In any case, you can always go back to your original radio. (Write down your version beforehand. You can get the info from HTC startup screen or from settings - phone information - software information
You don't need HSPL for linux boot. But you need HSPL if you need to change your radio to a 50 version. Your phone comes with original SPL only.

STEPS ONLY IF YOU GET BLACK SCREEN:
The following information is ONLY needed if your linux doesn't boot and freezes with black screen and you want to change your radio to a linux compatible one.
1) Get HSPL3 from: forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=6891358&postcount=1893 (Only if you don't have HSPL, if you don't know, then you don't have HSPL)
2) Get a 2.xx.50.xx radio rom from: forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=611787 (2.10.50.xx is fine)
3) Get Custom RUU from: forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4798017&postcount=1
4) Install HSPL(connect your phone in activesync mode via usb cable)
5) Install 2.xx.50.xx radio via customruu. Don't worry about what CustomRUU says, you will not lose settings and data. (It won't hard reset when upgrading only the Radio ROM)
Thats it! Now you can run haret and boot android
PLEASE COPY PASTE THE LINKS BECAUSE I AM NOT ALLOWED TO POST LINKS.

Dual boot android and win mobile
HSPL How To
Via: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=7108995#post7108995

PDF libraries

2010-07-08T14:08:00.001+07:00

http://www.pdfsharp.net/MainPage.ashx

http://www.pdfsharp.com/PDFsharp/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=40

http://csharp-source.net/open-source/pdf-libraries
http://sourceforge.net/projects/itextsharp/

Implement MultiTouch Behavior in Window Phone 7

2010-07-05T09:15:00.000+07:00

There are two video demonstrate the implementation MultiTouch Behavior in Window Phone 7 by Microsoft MVP Laurent Bugnion, an author of Silverlight 4 Unleashed.

Here, quote from Laurent:

I just published two videos on Vimeo (see the embedded videos at the end of this post)

* One is a short video showing the highlights of the MultiTouch Behavior I have been working on. It shows what gestures are available, and how easy it is to add it to a Windows Phone 7 application.
* The other is a detailed 15’ video that explains exactly how the behavior can be used.

I am still polishing a few things up and should be ready to release V1 on Codeplex very soon.

Features:

* Scale, Rotate, Translate are supported.
* Possibility to show markers on the screen for demos/projections/videos.
* Debug mode with addition on-screen information.
* “Mock” mode for development without multitouch screen. Simulate fingers with just one mouse.
* Enable/disable Scale, Rotate, Translate X and Y individually.
* Constrain Scale with minimum and maximum value.

Future plans:

Not supported (but in the plan) are:

* Multiple elements: Right now, the gestures can only apply to one element on the screen.
* Friction/inertia.
* Constraining the element to the screen.

More info

I will post more info as we progress. Stay tuned to this blog (“touch” tag), on my website http://www.galasoft.ch/touch or on Twitter (@LBugnion).
Credits

I want to thank Pete Blois (from the Microsoft Expression Blend team) for his help and some of the multitouch code, and the kind permission to open source it.

Also heartful thanks to Davide Zordan for starting this project on Codeplex and for the inspiration.

The Videos

The first video is a demonstration of his MultiTouch behavior implemented in a demo applications:

The second video is a 15mins long tutorial showing you how to implement it in your application:

Source: Laurent Bugnion, mobiletechworld

Learn Silverlight and Expression Blend in 5 days

2010-06-29T09:56:00.000+07:00

Learn how to design and develop innovative user interfaces for Window Phone 7,..using Expression Blend 4.0

Head over: Learn Silverlight and Expression Blend in 5 days

Windows Phone 7 Design Resources

2010-06-23T09:32:00.000+07:00

Windows Phone 7 Design Resources

I've just got good resources from:
davidcrow on June 21, 2010

MS Holm Daylight app from Clarity Consulting

I updated my Open Source Icons post earlier to include updated list of icons. The interesting part was this brought up some great mobile design and development resources. With the list of available mobile icons being just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Speckboy provides an unprecedented list of resources for mobile developers and designers it includes: Android, iPhone & iPad, mobile web & app testing, .PSDs of different phones, and other mobile platforms.

Tools

Training Materials

UX Guidelines & Tools

WP7 Design Template for Clarity Consulting

Panorama Navigation

Panorama Navigation on Windows Phone 7

Icons

Windows Phone 7 Icons by yankoa

2010-06-23T09:16:00.000+07:00

Need window phone 7 icons for your applications? Download here

Working with Excel in .Net

2010-06-15T11:49:00.005+07:00

There are two ways of reading and writing Excel. However, there are some differences between each of them. Sometime i found this helpful but sometime the other is better, so let me try to illustrate two ways in reading Excel file and their pros and cons.

Use ADO.NET to Retrieve and Modify Records in an Excel Workbook

Pros:

Easy to use with ADO.net objects
Easy in loading data into Dataset or Datable, Once we have a Datable, we can use Select method to filtering data.
Easy in querying data by using SQL Select Statement
Easy inserting or modifying data by using DataAdapter with SQL Insert and Update statement.

Cons:

Provide only basic features with basic purpose (Retrieve and Modify data only)
Not able to format Excel Cell or Range
There is a bug when writing or modifying data in Text type. Text value will be preceded by a single quote (').
In some cases, it cannot read the value of some Cells. It always retrieve Null value, but in fact, the value do exist in the Cells (It happens mostly in formatted Cells)
Not flexible regarding to Table Name. It's required to know Excel's SheetName as TableName to query from.

Connection string:

Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\Book1.xls;Extended Properties="Excel 8.0;HDR=YES;"

Excel 8.0 work for Microsoft Excel 8.0 (97), 9.0 (2000), 10.0 (2002) and also 11.0 (2003)

Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=c:\myFolder\myOldExcelFile.xls;Extended Properties="Excel 12.0;HDR=YES";

Excel 97-2007 Xls files with ACE OLEDB 12.0, this connection string to use the Office 2007 OLEDB driver
Note:
The quota " in the string needs to be escaped using your language specific escape syntax.
c#, c++   \"
VB6, VBScript   ""
xml (web.config etc)   "
or maybe use a single quota '.

"HDR=Yes;" indicates that the first row contains columnnames, not data. "HDR=No;" indicates the opposite.

"IMEX=1;" tells the driver to always read "intermixed" (numbers, dates, strings etc) data columns as text. Note that this option might affect excel sheet write access negative.

Table Naming Conventions
There are several ways you can reference a table (or range) in an Excel workbook:

Use the sheet name followed by a dollar sign (for example, [Sheet1$] or [My Worksheet$]). A workbook table that is referenced in this manner includes the whole used range of the worksheet.

Select * from [Sheet1$]
Use a range with a defined name (for example, [MyNamedRange]):

Select * from [MyNamedRange]
Use a range with a specific address (for example, [Sheet1$A1:B10]):

Select * from [Sheet1$A1:B10]

Add and Update Records

Directly run a command to insert or update records: To do this, you can create an OLEDbCommand object on your connection and set its CommandText property to a valid command to insert records:

INSERT INTO [Sheet1$] (F1, F2) values ('111', 'ABC')
UPDATE [Sheet1$] SET F2 = 'XYZ' WHERE F1 = '111'

Make Changes In Dataset/Datable and Use OleDbDataAdapter:

Set OleDbDataAdapter's InsertCommand to: INSERT INTO [Sheet1$] (F1, F2) values (?, ?)
Set OleDbDataAdapter's UpdateCommand to: UPDATE [Sheet1$] SET F2 = ? WHERE F1 = ?

Export data from another data source into an Excel workbook

Use OLEDbCommand object, set CommandText property to: INSERT INTO [Sheet1$] IN 'C:\Book1.xls' 'Excel 8.0;' SELECT * FROM MyTable" or SELECT * INTO [Excel 8.0;Database=C:\Book1.xls].[Sheet1] FROM [MyTable]

Create Workbooks and Tables

To create a table in an Excel workbook, run the CREATE TABLE command:

CREATE Tjavascript:void(0)ABLE Sheet1 (F1 char(255), F2 char(255))

Sample Code

Private m_sConn1 As String = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _
               "Data Source=C:\ExcelData1.xls;" & _
               "Extended Properties=""Excel 8.0;HDR=YES"""

Private m_sConn2 As String = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _
               "Data Source=C:\ExcelData2.xls;" & _
               "Extended Properties=""Excel 8.0;HDR=YES"""

Private m_sNorthwind = _
      "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\Samples\Northwind.mdb"

Private m_sAction As String

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
      RadioButton1.Text = "Create_Workbook"
      RadioButton2.Text = "Retrieve_Records"
      RadioButton3.Text = "Add_Records"
      RadioButton4.Text = "Update_Records"
      RadioButton5.Text = "Update_Individual_Cells"
      RadioButton6.Text = "Use_External_Source"
      Button1.Text = "Go!"
End Sub

Private Sub RadioButtons_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
      Handles RadioButton1.Click, RadioButton2.Click, RadioButton3.Click, _
      RadioButton4.Click, RadioButton5.Click, RadioButton6.Click
      m_sAction = sender.Text'Store the text for the selected radio button
End Sub

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
      Try
         ' Call the associated routine to add/update/modify the workbook.
         Select Case m_sAction
            Case "Create_Workbook" : Create_Workbook()
            Case "Retrieve_Records" : Retrieve_Records()
            Case "Add_Records" : Add_Records()
            Case "Update_Records" : Update_Records()
            Case "Update_Individual_Cells" : Update_Individual_Cells()
            Case "Use_External_Source" : Use_External_Source()
         End Select

      Catch ex As OleDbException
         Dim er As OleDbError
         For Each er In ex.Errors
            MsgBox(er.Message)
         Next
      Catch ex2 As System.InvalidOperationException
         MsgBox(ex2.Message)
      End Try


End Sub

Public Sub Create_Workbook()

      ' If the workbooks already exist, prompt to delete.
      Dim answer As MsgBoxResult
      If Dir("C:\ExcelData1.xls") <> "" Or Dir("C:\ExcelData2.xls") <> "" Then
          answer = MsgBox("Delete existing workbooks (C:\ExcelData1.xls and " & _
                   "C:\ExcelData2.xls)?", MsgBoxStyle.YesNo)
          If answer = MsgBoxResult.Yes Then
              If Dir("C:\ExcelData1.xls") <> "" Then Kill("C:\ExcelData1.xls")
              If Dir("C:\ExcelData2.xls") <> "" Then Kill("C:\ExcelData2.xls")
          Else
              Exit Sub
          End If
      End If

'==========================================================================
      ' Create a workbook with a table named EmployeeData. The table has 3 
      ' fields: ID (char 255), Name (char 255) and Birthdate (date).  
'==========================================================================
      Dim conn As New OleDbConnection()
      conn.ConnectionString = m_sConn1
      conn.Open()
      Dim cmd1 As New OleDbCommand()
      cmd1.Connection = conn
      cmd1.CommandText = "CREATE TABLE EmployeeData (Id char(255), Name char(255), BirthDate date)"
      cmd1.ExecuteNonQuery()
      cmd1.CommandText = "INSERT INTO EmployeeData (Id, Name, BirthDate) values ('AAA', 'Andrew', '12/4/1955')"
      cmd1.ExecuteNonQuery()
      conn.Close()

'==========================================================================
      ' Create a workbook with a table named InventoryData. The table has 3 
      ' fields: Product (char 255), Qty (float) and Price (currency). 
'==========================================================================

      conn.ConnectionString = m_sConn2
      conn.Open()
      Dim cmd2 As New OleDbCommand()
      cmd2.Connection = conn
      cmd2.CommandText = "CREATE TABLE InventoryData (Product char(255), Qty float, Price currency)"
      cmd2.ExecuteNonQuery()
      cmd2.CommandText = "INSERT INTO InventoryData (Product, Qty, Price) values ('Cola', 200, 1.35)"
      cmd2.ExecuteNonQuery()
      cmd2.CommandText = "INSERT INTO InventoryData (Product, Qty, Price) values ('Chips', 550, 0.89)"
      cmd2.ExecuteNonQuery()
      conn.Close()

      ' NOTE: You can ALTER and DROP tables in a similar fashion.

End Sub

Public Sub Retrieve_Records()

      '==========================================================
      'Use a DataReader to read data from the EmployeeData table.
      '==========================================================

      Dim conn1 As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(m_sConn1)
      conn1.Open()
      Dim cmd1 As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand("Select * From [EmployeeData$]", conn1)
      Dim rdr As OleDbDataReader = cmd1.ExecuteReader

      Debug.WriteLine(vbCrLf & "EmployeeData:" & vbCrLf & "=============")
      Do While rdr.Read()
         Debug.WriteLine(System.String.Format("{0,-10}{1, -15}{2}", _
            rdr.GetString(0), rdr.GetString(1), _
            rdr.GetDateTime(2).ToString("d")))
      Loop
      rdr.Close()
      conn1.Close()

      '========================================================
      'Use a DataSet to read data from the InventoryData table.
      '========================================================
      Dim conn2 As New OleDbConnection(m_sConn2)
      Dim da As New OleDbDataAdapter("Select * From [InventoryData$]", conn2)
      Dim ds As DataSet = New DataSet()
      da.Fill(ds)
      Debug.WriteLine(vbCrLf & "InventoryData:" & vbCrLf & "==============")
      Dim dr As DataRow
      For Each dr In ds.Tables(0).Rows'Show results in output window
         Debug.WriteLine(System.String.Format("{0,-15}{1, -6}{2}", _
            dr("Product"), dr("Qty"), dr("Price")))
      Next
      conn2.Close()

End Sub

Public Sub Add_Records()

'==========================================================================
      ' Run an INSERT INTO command to add new records to the workbook. 
'==========================================================================
      Dim conn1 As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(m_sConn1)
      conn1.Open()
      Dim cmd As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand()
      cmd.Connection = conn1
      cmd.CommandText = "INSERT INTO [EmployeeData$] (ID, Name, BirthDate) values ('CCC', 'Charlie', '10/14/48')"
      cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
      cmd.CommandText = "INSERT INTO [EmployeeData$] (ID, Name, BirthDate) values ('DDD', 'Deloris', '7/19/98')"
      cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
      conn1.Close()

      '====================================================================
      'Use the InsertCommand object to add new records to the InventoryData
      'table.
      '====================================================================
      Dim conn2 As New OleDbConnection(m_sConn2)
      Dim da As New OleDbDataAdapter("Select * From [InventoryData$]", conn2)
      Dim ds As DataSet = New DataSet()
      da.Fill(ds, "MyExcelTable")

      ' Generate the InsertCommand and add the parameters for the command.
      da.InsertCommand = New OleDbCommand( _
         "INSERT INTO [InventoryData$] (Product, Qty, Price) VALUES (?, ?, ?)", conn2)
      da.InsertCommand.Parameters.Add("@Product", OleDbType.VarChar, 255, "Product")
      da.InsertCommand.Parameters.Add("@Qty", OleDbType.Double).SourceColumn = "Qty"
      da.InsertCommand.Parameters.Add("@Price", OleDbType.Currency).SourceColumn = "Price"

      ' Add two new records to the dataset.
      Dim dr As DataRow
      dr = ds.Tables(0).NewRow
      dr("Product") = "Bread" : dr("Qty") = 390 : dr("Price") = 1.89 : ds.Tables(0).Rows.Add(dr)
      dr = ds.Tables(0).NewRow
      dr("Product") = "Milk" : dr("Qty") = 99 : dr("Price") = 2.59 : ds.Tables(0).Rows.Add(dr)

      ' Apply the dataset changes to the actual data source (the workbook).
      da.Update(ds, "MyExcelTable")
      conn2.Close()

End Sub

Public Sub Update_Records()

'==========================================================================
      ' Run an UPDATE command to change a record in the EmployeeData
      ' table.
'==========================================================================
      Dim conn1 As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(m_sConn1)
      conn1.Open()
      Dim cmd As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand()
      cmd.Connection = conn1
      cmd.CommandText = "UPDATE [EmployeeData$] " & _
                    "SET NAME = 'Aaron', BirthDate = '5/4/1975' WHERE ID = 'AAA'"
      cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
      conn1.Close()

      '====================================================================
      ' Use the UpdateCommand object to modify records in the InventoryData
      ' table.
      '====================================================================
      Dim conn2 As New OleDbConnection(m_sConn2)
      Dim da As New OleDbDataAdapter("Select * From [InventoryData$]", conn2)
      Dim ds As DataSet = New DataSet()
      da.Fill(ds, "MyInventoryTable")

      ' Generate the UpdateCommand and add the parameters for the command.
      da.UpdateCommand = New OleDbCommand( _
         "UPDATE [InventoryData$] SET Qty = ?, Price=? WHERE Product = ?", conn2)
      da.UpdateCommand.Parameters.Add("@Qty", OleDbType.Numeric).SourceColumn = "Qty"
      da.UpdateCommand.Parameters.Add("@Price", OleDbType.Currency).SourceColumn = "Price"
      da.UpdateCommand.Parameters.Add("@Product", OleDbType.VarChar, 255, "Product")

      ' Update the first two records.
      ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("Qty") = 1000
      ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("Price") = 10.1
      ds.Tables(0).Rows(1)("Qty") = 2000
      ds.Tables(0).Rows(1)("Price") = 20.2

      ' Apply the dataset changes to the actual data source (the workbook).
      da.Update(ds, "MyInventoryTable")
      conn2.Close()

End Sub

Public Sub Update_Individual_Cells()

'==========================================================================
      ' Update individual cells on the EmployeeData worksheet; 
      ' specifically, cells F3, G3, and I4 are modified.
'==========================================================================

      ' NOTE: The connection string indicates that the table does *NOT* 
      ' have a header row.
      Dim conn As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(m_sConn1.Replace("HDR=YES", "HDR=NO"))
      conn.Open()
      Dim cmd As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand()
      cmd.Connection = conn
      cmd.CommandText = "UPDATE [EmployeeData$F3:G3] SET F1 = 'Cell F3', F2 = 'Cell G3'"
      cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
      cmd.CommandText = "UPDATE [EmployeeData$I4:I4] SET F1 = 'Cell I4'"
      cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
      conn.Close()

End Sub

Public Sub Use_External_Source()

      ' Open a connection to the sample Northwind Access database.
      Dim conn As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection( _
            "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" & m_sNorthwind & ";")
      conn.Open()
      Dim cmd As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand()
      cmd.Connection = conn

'=======================================================================
      ' Run an INSERT..INTO command on the Northwind database to append 
      ' the records from a table/query to an existing table in the Excel 
      ' workbook.
'=======================================================================
      cmd.CommandText = "INSERT INTO [EmployeeData$] IN 'C:\ExcelData1.xls' 'Excel 8.0;'" & _
         "SELECT EmployeeID AS ID, FirstName AS Name, BirthDate FROM Employees"
      cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()

'==========================================================================
      ' Run a SELECT..INTO command on the Northwind database to insert 
      ' all the records from a table/query into a new sheet in the Excel 
      ' workbook.
'==========================================================================
      cmd.CommandText = "SELECT * INTO [Excel 8.0;Database=C:\ExcelData2.xls].[ProductSales]" & _
                      "FROM [Product Sales for 1997]"
      cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()

      conn.Close()

End Sub

Extra Source Code:

Get Excel SheetName:

private String[] GetExcelSheetNames(string excelFile)
{
  OleDbConnection objConn = null;
  System.Data.DataTable dt = null;

  try
  {
    // Connection String. Change the excel file to the file you

    // will search.

    String connString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" + 
        "Data Source=" + excelFile + ";Extended Properties=Excel 8.0;";
    // Create connection object by using the preceding connection string.

    objConn = new OleDbConnection(connString);
    // Open connection with the database.

    objConn.Open();
    // Get the data table containg the schema guid.

    dt = objConn.GetOleDbSchemaTable(OleDbSchemaGuid.Tables, null);
 
    if(dt == null)
    {
      return null;
    }

    String[] excelSheets = new String[dt.Rows.Count];
    int i = 0;

    // Add the sheet name to the string array.

    foreach(DataRow row in dt.Rows)
    {
      excelSheets[i] = row["TABLE_NAME"].ToString();
      i++;
    }

    // Loop through all of the sheets if you want too...

    for(int j=0; j < excelSheets.Length; j++)
    {
      // Query each excel sheet.

    }

    return excelSheets;
  }
  catch(Exception ex)
  {
    return null;
  }
  finally
  {
    // Clean up.

    if(objConn != null)
    {
      objConn.Close();
      objConn.Dispose();
    }
    if(dt != null)
    {
      dt.Dispose();
    }
  }
}
References: 
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316934

http://www.connectionstrings.com/excel

Using Excel Object Library

Import Textfile(.txt) to an existing excel file

2010-06-08T09:41:00.000+07:00

The following uses ADO.NET to import into an existing Excel Worksheet named ReportSheet. The source
text file is ReportFile.txt.

Function ImportTextToExcel() As Boolean

Dim ExcelConnection As New
System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection("Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _
"Data Source=e:\My Documents\Book20.xls;Extended Properties=""Excel 8.0;HDR=NO;""")

ExcelConnection.Open()

Dim ImportCommand As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand("INSERT INTO [ReportSheet] (F1, F2,
F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9, F10) SELECT * FROM [Text;HDR=NO;DATABASE=E:\My
Documents\TextFiles].[ReportFile.txt]", ExcelConnection)

ImportCommand.ExecuteNonQuery()
ExcelConnection.Close()

End Function

Another contest of Window Phone 7

2010-06-08T08:42:00.000+07:00

Got a great idea for an app, but no programming skills? Microsoft has a new contest going on where you can send them some great application ideas... Then everyone else votes on which application sounds the best. Whomever wins gets their application built and made available for free on the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. You also get $5000 and a Windows Phone 7 device. For more information and to enter, visit WindowsPhone7.com/INeedThisApp/

I've already entered one of my ideas. What do you think? Feel free to vote for it, even though it's highly unlikely that Microsoft would even be able to build that one by December.

Develop games on the Window Phone 7 Series

2010-04-02T09:19:00.000+07:00

Want to develop game on Window Phone 7 Series? Quick! Quick! Be the first of all to get yourself around the new OS. Guys from channel9 have created a tutorial on how to create game running on the platform.

Here is the table of content:

Overview

Exercise 1: XNA Games on the Windows Phone 7 Series
o Task 1 – Game Basics
o Task 2 – Game Resources
o Task 3 – Game Loop
o Task 4 – Game Input
o Task 5 – Alien Game Logic

Summary

There is also Window Phone Series "Rockstar" Awards will be given away to the developer team who win the competition range from first prize to third prize.

Award Finalists receive:

* First Prize: $8,000 USD, a trip to the Worldwide Finals in Warsaw, Poland from July 3-8, 2010, and a Windows Phone for each team member.
* Second Prize: $4,000 USD and a Windows Phone for each team member
* Third Prize: $3,000 USD and a Windows Phone for each team member

Deadline for application entry: May 24, 2010 at 11:59 P.M. GMT.

Detail info and how to register: go to here

Let me know if you are interested. I am thinking to build a team for this competition.

Count total number of pages in pdf file (C#)

2010-03-24T10:02:00.001+07:00

It is actually a simple solution to get a total number of pages in pdf file. I found it from devasp and I think it's worth to share.

using System.IO;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

public static int GetNoOfPagesPDF(string FileName)

{
int result = 0;

FileStream fs = new FileStream(FileName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);

StreamReader r = new StreamReader(fs);

string pdfText = r.ReadToEnd();

System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex regx = new Regex(@"/Type\s*/Page[^s]");

System.Text.RegularExpressions.MatchCollection matches = regx.Matches(pdfText);

result = matches.Count;

return result;
}

Window Phone 7 Series Development Tools

2010-03-16T15:14:00.000+07:00

In this Mix10 event, Microsoft has released a set of development tools for Window Phone 7 Series.

The Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP includes the following

Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone CTP

Windows Phone Emulator CTP

Silverlight for Windows Phone CTP

XNA 4.0 Game Studio CTP

Download here

Android on HTC Window Mobile Phone

2010-03-12T13:29:00.000+07:00

The XDAndroid project, Android Mobile OS for Window Mobile-Based HTC devices, has progressed tremendously and has archived many great performances for lots of Window-Mobile-Based devices to work with Android platform (sorry for HTC-HD2 users. Base on my understanding no any Android version working on HTC HD2 yet because of device driver issue). In the previous release, not many components worked, but in the recent release guys from pocketnow has tested with HTC touch pro and it works with call, sms, data.

Checkout the following links to get Android platform installed on your specific device.

Android on HTC Windows Phones:

• Touch Pro2 (GSM)
• Touch Pro2 (CDMA - must take SIM card out)
• Touch Diamond2/Pure
• Touch HD
• Touch Pro/Fuze (GSM)
• Touch Pro (CDMA)
• Touch Diamond (GSM)
• Touch Diamond (CDMA)

Via: pocketnow

Android Development Kits Hits Several New Update

2010-03-10T09:02:00.001+07:00

At the same time of the announcement of Window Phone Series 7 which seems to rock the mobile market so much, Google Android is also working hard with its platform to bring developers realistic development features for their mobile development market.

The release of several update of development kits I believe will make the platform become more interesting to mobile companies and developers.

Below are several new update of development kit of Android in this March-2010.

- ADT 0.9.6: ADT Plugin for Eclipse hit version 0.9.6

- Android SDK, R5: The pakage include SDK Tools which provide developer the Development and Debugging Tools. If you are using the old version of SDK tools and want to upgrade to the new version, no need to download the whole SDK package again. You can just update the SDK tools by using the Android SDK and AVD Manager (via Eclipse or run "SDK Setup.exe" under SDK package folder)

- Android NDK,r3: Known as Android Native Development Kit currently hit Revision 3, bring new support for OpenGL ES 2.0 native library, will bring a new generation of fantastic 2D and 3D games like what we've seen in IPhone. NDK is used conjunction with Android SDK which mean we need to have Android SDK installed and you will likely use C/C++ language for coding.

Read more: http://developer.android.com

Regular Expression Examples

2010-03-02T15:03:00.000+07:00

Regex to get Class Name from CSS content:

Regex: \.[-]?[_a-zA-Z][_a-zA-Z0-9-]*|[^\0-\177]*\\[0-9a-f]{1,6}(\r\n[ \n\r\t\f])?|\\[^\n\r\f0-9a-f]*

Input:

.center {text-align: center;}
.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u {text-decoration: underline;}

#body { ...}

Output:

.center
.smcap
.u

Regex to get all element from CSS content:

Regex: \.[-]?[_a-zA-Z][_a-zA-Z0-9-]*|[^\0-\177]*\\[0-9a-f]{1,6}(\r\n[ \n\r\t\f])?|\\[^\n\r\f0-9a-f]*

Input:

.center {text-align: center;}
.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u {text-decoration: underline;}
#body { ...}
div.test div.yoyo {...}

Output:

.center
.smcap
.u
#body
div.test div.yoyo

Regex to get HTML element and its content

Regex:

<span\b[^>]*>(.*?)</span>
(wrong in case this: onetwoone).

and

<span\b[^>]*>(?:(?=([^<]+))\1|<(?!table\b[^>]*>))*?</span>

Input:

<p><span><a name="bookmark1" />dirt farmer's son</span></p>

Output:

<span><a name="bookmark1" />dirt farmer's son</span>

Cross browser object check

2010-02-22T15:19:00.000+07:00

HTML

<input type="button" onclick="handleViewHTMLContent(event);" id="button1" value="View Content" style="float: right;">

<input type="button" onclick="handleViewHTMLContent(event);" id="button2" value="View Content" style="float: right;">

Javascript

...
function handleViewHTMLContent(event) {
var button = event.srcElement || event.currentTarget; //IE : Firefox
alert(button.id);
}

Design Interaction on your website in just a minute by using a JQuery Base tool

2009-10-28T16:39:00.000+07:00

Background:

IxEdit is a JavaScript-based interaction design tool for the web which is implemented base on JQuery.

Why use this tool?

This tool can help use to design interaction to a website visually on the site itself and then generate JQuery codes. Finally, all you need to do is to copy the codes and do implement your main code.

See a video demo:

http://www.ixedit.com/

Fancy Form Design Using CSS

2009-10-22T15:39:00.000+07:00

http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/fancy-form-design-css

CSS and Round Corners: Build Boxes with Curves

2009-10-22T15:38:00.000+07:00

http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/css-round-corners-boxes-curves

Agile Project Management Tools (Open Source Project)

2009-10-09T10:18:00.000+07:00

www.agile-tools.net

Agile Project Management Tool

2009-10-09T10:05:00.000+07:00

Bright Green Projects is an application to capture and prioritise requirements, build estimates, manage iterations, track issues and deliver shippable software to your happy customers.

www.brightgreenprojects.com

Use NetSpell (Spell check) in your ASP.NET 2.0 application

2009-10-08T09:08:00.000+07:00

http://www.aspcode.net/Use-NetSpell-in-your-ASPNET-20-application.aspx

Xpath Example

2009-09-22T09:45:00.000+07:00

This topic reviews the syntax examples that appear throughout the XPath Reference. All are based on the Sample XML File for XPath Syntax (inventory.xml). For an example of using an XPath expression in a test file, see "Example of Unions ( | )", at the bottom of this topic.

Expression Refers to

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./author

All <author> elements within the current context. Note that this is equivalent to the expression in the next row.

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author

All <author> elements within the current context.

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first.name

All <first.name> elements within the current context.

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/bookstore

The document element (<bookstore>) of this document.

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//author

All <author> elements in the document.

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book[/bookstore/@specialty = @style]

All <book> elements whose style attribute value is equal to the specialty attribute value of the <bookstore> element at the root of the document.

Xml	Copy Code
author/first-name

All <first-name> elements that are children of an <author> element.

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bookstore//title

All <title> elements one or more levels deep in the <bookstore> element (arbitrary descendants). Note that this is different from the expression in the next row.

Xml	Copy Code
bookstore/*/title

All <title> elements that are grandchildren of <bookstore> elements.

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bookstore//book/excerpt//emph

All <emph> elements anywhere inside <excerpt> children of <book> elements, anywhere inside the <bookstore> element.

Xml	Copy Code
.//title

All <title> elements one or more levels deep in the current context. Note that this situation is essentially the only one in which the period notation is required.

Xml	Copy Code
author/*

All elements that are the children of <author> elements.

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book/*/last-name

All <last-name> elements that are grandchildren of <book> elements.

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/

All grandchildren elements of the current context.

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*[@specialty]

All elements with the specialty attribute.

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@style

The style attribute of the current context.

Xml	Copy Code
price/@exchange

The exchange attribute on <price> elements within the current context.

Xml	Copy Code
price/@exchange/total

Returns an empty node set, because attributes do not contain element children. This expression is allowed by the XML Path Language (XPath) grammar, but is not strictly valid.

Xml	Copy Code
book[@style]

All <book> elements with style attributes, of the current context.

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book/@style

The style attribute for all <book> elements of the current context.

Xml	Copy Code
@*

All attributes of the current element context.

Xml	Copy Code
./first-name

All <first-name> elements in the current context node. Note that this is equivalent to the expression in the next row.

Xml	Copy Code
first-name

All <first-name> elements in the current context node.

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author[1]

The first <author> element in the current context node.

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author[first-name][3]

The third <author> element that has a <first-name> child.

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my:book

The <book> element from the my namespace.

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my:*

All elements from the my namespace.

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@my:*

All attributes from the my namespace (this does not include unqualified attributes on elements from the my namespace).

Note that indexes are relative to the parent. Consider the following data:

Xml	Copy Code
<x> <y/> <y/></x><x> <y/> <y/></x>

Expression Refers to

Xml	Copy Code
x/y[1]

The first <y> child of each <x>. This is equivalent to the expression in the next row.

Xml	Copy Code
x/y[position() = 1]

The first <y> child of each <x>.

Xml	Copy Code
(x/y)[1]

The first <y> from the entire set of <y> children of <x> elements.

Xml	Copy Code
x[1]/y[2]

The second <y> child of the first <x>.

The remaining examples refer to the Sample XML file for XPath.

Expression Refers to

book[last()]

The last <book> element of the current context node.

Xml	Copy Code
book/author[last()]

The last <author> child of each <book> element of the current context node.

Xml	Copy Code
(book/author)[last()]

The last <author> element from the entire set of <author> children of <book> elements of the current context node.

Xml	Copy Code
book[excerpt]

All <book> elements that contain at least one <excerpt> element child.

Xml	Copy Code
book[excerpt]/title

All <title> elements that are children of <book> elements that also contain at least one <excerpt> element child.

Xml	Copy Code
book[excerpt]/author[degree]

All <author> elements that contain at least one <degree> element child, and that are children of <book> elements that also contain at least one <excerpt> element.

Xml	Copy Code
book[author/degree]

All <book> elements that contain <author> children that in turn contain at least one <degree> child.

Xml	Copy Code
author[degree][award]

All <author> elements that contain at least one <degree> element child and at least one <award> element child.

Xml	Copy Code
author[degree and award]

All <author> elements that contain at least one <degree> element child and at least one <award> element child.

Xml	Copy Code
author[(degree or award) and publication]

All <author> elements that contain at least one <degree> or <award> and at least one <publication> as the children

Xml	Copy Code
author[degree and not(publication)]

All <author> elements that contain at least one <degree> element child and that contain no <publication> element children.

Xml	Copy Code
author[not(degree or award) and publication]

All <author> elements that contain at least one <publication> element child and contain neither <degree> nor <award> element children.

author[last-name = "Bob"]

All <author> elements that contain at least one <last-name> element child with the value Bob.

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author[last-name[1] = "Bob"]

All <author> elements where the first <last-name> child element has the value Bob. Note that this is equivalent to the expression in the next row.

Xml	Copy Code
author[last-name [position()=1]= "Bob"]

All <author> elements where the first <last-name> child element has the value Bob.

Xml	Copy Code
degree[@from != "Harvard"]

All <degree> elements where the from attribute is not equal to "Harvard".

Xml	Copy Code
author[. = "Matthew Bob"]

All <author> elements whose value is Matthew Bob.

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author[last-name = "Bob" and ../price > 50]

All <author> elements that contain a <last-name> child element whose value is Bob, and a <price> sibling element whose value is greater than 50.

Xml	Copy Code
book[position() <= 3]

The first three books (1, 2, 3).

Xml	Copy Code
author[not(last-name = "Bob")]

All <author> elements that do no contain <last-name> child elements with the value Bob.

Xml	Copy Code
author[first-name = "Bob"]

All <author> elements that have at least one <first-name> child with the value Bob.

Xml	Copy Code
author[* = "Bob"]

all author elements containing any child element whose value is Bob.

Xml	Copy Code
author[last-name = "Bob" and first-name = "Joe"]

All <author> elements that has a <last-name> child element with the value Bob and a <first-name> child element with the value Joe.

Xml	Copy Code
price[@intl = "Canada"]

All <price> elements in the context node which have an intl attribute equal to "Canada".

Xml	Copy Code
degree[position() < 3]

The first two <degree> elements that are children of the context node.

Xml	Copy Code
p/text()[2]

The second text node in each <p> element in the context node.

Xml	Copy Code
ancestor::book[1]

The nearest <book> ancestor of the context node.

Xml	Copy Code
ancestor::book[author][1]

The nearest <book> ancestor of the context node and this <book> element has an <author> element as its child.

Xml	Copy Code
ancestor::author[parent::book][1]

The nearest <author> ancestor in the current context and this <author> element is a child of a <book> element.

Example of Unions ( | )

To demonstrate the union operation, we use the following XPath expression:

x | y/x

selects all the <x> elements whose values are green or blue in the following XML file:

XML File (data1.xml)

Xml	Copy Code
<?xml version='1.0'?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="union.xsl"?><root> <x>green</x> <y> <x>blue</x> <x>blue</x> </y> <z> <x>red</x> <x>red</x> </z> <x>green</x></root>

XSLT File (union.xsl)

Xml

Copy Code

<?xml version='1.0'?><xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"      xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:template match="root">   <xsl:for-each select="x | y/x">      <xsl:value-of select="."/>,      <xsl:if test="not(position()=last())">,</xsl:if>   </xsl:for-each></xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>

Formatted Output

green,blue,blue,green

Processor Output

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>green,blue,blue,green

Get files with multiple extension from a directory

2009-09-07T14:06:00.001+07:00

Backgroud:

System.IO.Directory class provide a method GetFiles(...) to get a list of files from a directory. But, there is a limitation if programmers want to code to get a list of files with multiple extension provided.

Solution:

In order to get this done, I come up with a simple solution to create a method with 3 parametters.

Method:


public static string[] getFilesWithMultipleExtensions(string path, string extensionList, string delimeter)
{
System.Collections.Generic.List strFiles = new System.Collections.Generic.List();

foreach (string strExt in extensionList.Split(delimeter.ToCharArray()))
{
strFiles.AddRange(Directory.GetFiles(path, strExt));
}
return strFiles.ToArray();
}

Usage:
getFilesWithMultipleExtensions("c:\\path",".jpg;.jpeg;.jpe;.jfif;.tiff;.tif;.bmp;.dib;.png",";");

Debug Window Service In Visual Studio

2009-09-07T11:21:00.000+07:00

Background:

I have a window service created in Visual Studio. For some reasons,I want to debug my code.

Solution:

1. Install Window Service.

2. In Visual Studio, Go to Debug menu and choose Attach to process...

3. A dialog display, check "Show process from all users", find my service, then click Attach button

How to compress, resize image in .net (C#, VB, Asp.net)

2009-08-20T11:15:00.000+07:00

You may want to compress image and save to a new file or compress them while loading any big images in your asp.net application.

Here you go:

Asp.net with C#


  //Suppose we get image from query string
  string strImgUrl = Request.QueryString["imgUrl"];
  //Load image
  System.Drawing.Image imgFullSize = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile(strImgUrl);
  //Set return image type
  Response.ContentType = "image/gif";
  //Create Encoder Parameter and specify the quality
  EncoderParameter qualityParam = new EncoderParameter(Encoder.Quality,50L);
  // Create an EncoderParameters object.
  // An EncoderParameters object has an array of EncoderParameter
  // objects. In this case, there is only one
  // EncoderParameter object in the array.  
  EncoderParameters encoderParams = new EncoderParameters(1);
  encoderParams.Param[0] = qualityParam;

  //Resize image if you want
  //In this case, if the image width greater than 1800, do resize width and height
  //int intWidth, intHeight;
  //intWidth = imgFullSize.Width;
  //intHeight = imgFullSize.Height;
  //if (imgFullSize.Width > 1800)
  //{
     //intWidth = 1800;
     //intHeight = (int)(((float)intWidth / imgFullSize.Width) * imgFullSize.Height);
  //}
  
  //System.Drawing.Image imgThumbNail = imgFullSize.GetThumbnailImage(intWidth, //intHeight, new System.Drawing.Image.GetThumbnailImageAbort(ThumbnailCallback), //IntPtr.Zero);
  //imgThumbNail.Save(Response.OutputStream, jpegCodec, encoderParams);  
  //imgThumbNail.Dispose();

  //Return image 
  imgFullSize.Save(Response.OutputStream, jpegCodec, encoderParams);



C#

private void VaryQualityLevel()
{
    // Get a bitmap.
    Bitmap bmp1 = new Bitmap(@"c:\TestPhoto.jpg");

    //Or you do can use buil-in method
    //ImageCodecInfo jgpEncoder GetEncoderInfo("image/gif");//"image/jpeg",...
    ImageCodecInfo jgpEncoder = GetEncoder(ImageFormat.Jpeg);

    // Create an Encoder object based on the GUID
    // for the Quality parameter category.
    System.Drawing.Imaging.Encoder myEncoder =
        System.Drawing.Imaging.Encoder.Quality;

    // Create an EncoderParameters object.
    // An EncoderParameters object has an array of EncoderParameter
    // objects. In this case, there is only one
    // EncoderParameter object in the array.
    EncoderParameters myEncoderParameters = new EncoderParameters(1);

    EncoderParameter myEncoderParameter = new EncoderParameter(myEncoder, 50L);
    myEncoderParameters.Param[0] = myEncoderParameter;
    bmp1.Save(@"c:\TestPhotoQualityFifty.jpg", jgpEncoder, myEncoderParameters);

    myEncoderParameter = new EncoderParameter(myEncoder, 100L);
    myEncoderParameters.Param[0] = myEncoderParameter;
    bmp1.Save(@"c:\TestPhotoQualityHundred.jpg", jgpEncoder, myEncoderParameters);

    // Save the bitmap as a JPG file with zero quality level compression.
    myEncoderParameter = new EncoderParameter(myEncoder, 0L);
    myEncoderParameters.Param[0] = myEncoderParameter;
    bmp1.Save(@"c:\TestPhotoQualityZero.jpg", jgpEncoder, myEncoderParameters);

}


...


private ImageCodecInfo GetEncoder(ImageFormat format)
{

    ImageCodecInfo[] codecs = ImageCodecInfo.GetImageDecoders();

    foreach (ImageCodecInfo codec in codecs)
    {
        if (codec.FormatID == format.Guid)
        {
            return codec;
        }
    }
    return null;
}



VB.net

Private Sub VaryQualityLevel()
    ' Get a bitmap.
    Dim bmp1 As New Bitmap("c:\TestPhoto.jpg")

    //Or you can use build-in method
    //Dim jgpEncoder As ImageCodecInfo = GetEncoderInfo("image/jpeg");
    Dim jgpEncoder As ImageCodecInfo = GetEncoder(ImageFormat.Jpeg)

    ' Create an Encoder object based on the GUID
    ' for the Quality parameter category.
    Dim myEncoder As System.Drawing.Imaging.Encoder = System.Drawing.Imaging.Encoder.Quality

    ' Create an EncoderParameters object.
    ' An EncoderParameters object has an array of EncoderParameter
    ' objects. In this case, there is only one
    ' EncoderParameter object in the array.
    Dim myEncoderParameters As New EncoderParameters(1)

    Dim myEncoderParameter As New EncoderParameter(myEncoder, 50&)
    myEncoderParameters.Param(0) = myEncoderParameter
    bmp1.Save("c:\TestPhotoQualityFifty.jpg", jgpEncoder, myEncoderParameters)

    myEncoderParameter = New EncoderParameter(myEncoder, 100&)
    myEncoderParameters.Param(0) = myEncoderParameter
    bmp1.Save("c:\TestPhotoQualityHundred.jpg", jgpEncoder, myEncoderParameters)

    ' Save the bitmap as a JPG file with zero quality level compression.
    myEncoderParameter = New EncoderParameter(myEncoder, 0&)
    myEncoderParameters.Param(0) = myEncoderParameter
    bmp1.Save("c:\TestPhotoQualityZero.jpg", jgpEncoder, myEncoderParameters)

End Sub 'VaryQualityLevel



...


Private Function GetEncoder(ByVal format As ImageFormat) As ImageCodecInfo

    Dim codecs As ImageCodecInfo() = ImageCodecInfo.GetImageDecoders()

    Dim codec As ImageCodecInfo
    For Each codec In codecs
        If codec.FormatID = format.Guid Then
            Return codec
        End If
    Next codec
    Return Nothing

End Function



Pass parameter to IN clause in SQL Server
2009-08-18T14:52:00.000+07:00
Problem:

Suppose you have a query statement (either in Store procedure or Sql state) something like:

SELECT * FROM
     myTable WHERE
        Field IN(@DelimiterString)

and you want to execute this by passing a delimiter string '1, 2, 3, 4' to execute the query. Unfortunately, you can't do this. You will get error message "Conversion failed when converting the nvarchar value 'xxx,xxx' to data type int."

Solution:

There are several solutions to this problem something like split the value and save to temp table and read them back in IN clause. But i would like to introduce a simple solution by using dynamic sql. I may transform my query to:

exec('SELECT * FROM
     myTable WHERE
        Field IN(' + @DelimiterString + ')')

Finally, call your store procedure or sql statement accordingly with your delimiter parameter


Pass Multiple Parameters to a Thread in C#
2009-08-13T09:58:00.000+07:00
I think it would help someone working with Thread in C#. I found a good article at CodeProject:

Introduction
 Have you wondered how you can send a parameter to a C# thread? Have you  thought of using anonymous method calls and outer-variable semantics when you  put a function in C# thread? If these questions interests you then you are at a  right place to read the article further.
 Background
 I had a simple scinario of creating a C# thread then send a function that  takes multiple input parameters and output a single value. I have been searching  over net to find a help on that but could not find many. However, I have figured  out a way to do that and thought of sharing the idea with other.
 Using the code
 Here is a sample code to create C# thread then send-in a delegate to the  thread that casts a normal C# function and takes two input parameters. We also  return an output from the same function when the thread execution is complete.  
 This sample has 3 simple C# projects. 
 PROJECT1: First project is a C# class library and has a one  class inside. This class has a single function which takes two int input. The  logic for this function is to multiply 'A' with 'N' times where 'A' = First  input parameter and 'N' = second input parameter. Then it returns the calculated  value to the caller. Following is a code snippet for that.
   Collapse Copy Code
public class Thread1
{
   public double Multiply(int lOpr1, int lOpr2)
   {
       double retVal = 1;
       for (int i = 1; i <= lOpr2; i++)
       {
           retVal *= lOpr1;
       }
       return retVal;
   }
}         
 PROJECT2: This project is a C# class library and also has a  single class with a single function that takes two int inputs. The logic for  this function is to add 'A' with 'N' times where 'A' and 'N' are input  parameters to this function. This function also returns the calculated value to  the caller. Following is a code snippet for that.
   Collapse Copy Code
public class Thread2
   {
   public double Add(int lOpr1, int lOpr2)
   {
       double retVal = 0;
       for (int i = 1; i <= lOpr2; i++)
       {
           retVal = retVal + lOpr1;
       }
       return retVal;
   }
}
 PROJECT3: This is a windows forms project with three text  box and a button. On the button click event we will write a code to create two  threads to call the above two class' that are to be executed within its own  thread. (huh.. catching up with multithread). Following are the steps to do:
 1. Declare two local variable and get the user input values in it.
2.  Declare local variables to receive output value
3. Create an instance of a  class from Project1
4. Create first thread thereby cast the above instance as  a anonymous method to a type ‘delegate’. We assign the local variables created  in step 1 as inputs to the anonymous method. This technique is called  outter-variable semantics. We also assign a local variable to receive the return  value - all in one step.
5. Start the first thread
6. Repeate step 3 to 5  to create second thread for the class from Project2
7. This step is to check  whether both threads are done with the execution. If so write the output values  to a text box. 
 Block of code for the button click event:
   Collapse Copy Code
using System;
using System.Threading;
namespace MainThread
{
  public partial class AppOne
  {
  private void btnMultiThread_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
   {
   //1
   int lOpr1 = Int32.Parse(txtInput1.Text);
   int lOpr2 = Int32.Parse(txtInput2.Text);
   //2
   double getmul = 0;
   double getadd = 0;
   //3
   Thread1 ClsMultiply = new Thread1();
   //4
   Thread MulThread = new Thread(delegate()
       {
       getmul = ClsMultiply.Multiply(lOpr1, lOpr2);
       });
   //5
   MulThread.Start();
   //6
   Thread2 ClsAdd = new Thread2();
   Thread AddThread = new Thread(delegate()
       {
       getadd = ClsAdd.Add(lOpr1, lOpr2);
       });
   AddThread.Start();
   //7
   while (MulThread.IsAlive || AddThread.IsAlive)
        Thread.Sleep(1);

   txtOutput.Text = "Addition of " + txtInput2.Text + " Times of " + txtInput1.Text + " = " + getadd
       + " ||| Multiplication of " + txtInput2.Text + " times of " + txtInput1.Text + " = " + getmul; 
   }
  }
} 
 Remember to notice that, we can send any number of input parameters to a  called method using this technique. Hope, you find this informative and simple  to understand.



How to remove or ignore Document Type Definition (DTD) declarations/ Doctype from XML Files using C#
2009-07-28T15:25:00.000+07:00
If you want to read an  XML file and XML file itself has reference to DTD file or schema file. You may get error if you do not referent them correctly. On the other hand, sometime it is not necessary to have it for reading purpose.  You might want to remove the Doctype declarations. The following code should help you to remove Doctype or ignore Doctype
private void Remove_Doctype_From_XML(String strXmlFile)
{
try
{
XmlDocument XDoc = new XmlDocument();
XDoc.Load(strXmlFile);
XmlDocumentType XDType = XDoc.DocumentType;
XDoc.RemoveChild(XDType);

//... Proceed reading

//...Or Saving to file
XDoc.Save(strXmlFile+ ".xml");
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
}
}


Snippet Designer Visual Studio 2008
2009-06-24T08:41:00.000+07:00
The Snippet Designer is a plugin which enhances the Visual Studio IDE to allow a richer and more productive code snippet experience.

http://www.codeplex.com/SnippetDesigner


Load image/rotate image in Canvas tag (support only firefox)
2009-06-17T11:29:00.000+07:00
How to load an image in a canvas tag?

Start unpretentiously with an empty canvas tag:



Now the javascript. Two variables to store a handle to the canvas element and the 2D context of the canvas:

var can = document.getElementById('canvas');
var ctx = can.getContext('2d');

Now let's load an image into the canvas. Using the new Image() constructor you can create an image object, then set its src property to point to the location of the image file. Then set an onload handler for the image which is an anonymous function to be called when the image is done loading. There you put the image inside the canvas using the drawImage() method of the canvas context.

var img = new Image();
img.onload = function(){
    can.width = img.width;
    can.height = img.height;
    ctx.drawImage(img, 0, 0, img.width, img.height);
}
img.src = 'zlati-nathalie.jpg';

You can also notice how the dimensions of the canvas are adjusted to match the dimensions of the image.
How to flip the image upside down

The canvas context provides a rotate() method. The rotation always happens around the top left corner of the image, so we first translate() the image to the bottom right. This way when the image is rotated, it fits back into the canvas. (There is also a one pixel correction, I have no idea why, just saw that the image wasn't flipping exactly otherwise). Assigning this functionality to the onclick:

can.onclick = function() {
    ctx.translate(img.width-1, img.height-1);
    ctx.rotate(Math.PI);
    ctx.drawImage(img, 0, 0, img.width, img.height);
};

C'est tout! Once again, the demo is here.


Configuring Multiple Sitemaps in .NET
2009-05-20T17:11:00.000+07:00
http://itechtalk.wordpress.com/2007/12/07/configuring-multiple-sitemaps-in-net/


Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio
2009-02-13T09:04:00.000+07:00
The 11g release of Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio (ODT) includes a host of powerful new features that make Oracle and .NET development easier and faster. These features make it convenient for Microsoft Visual Studio developers to stay in Visual Studio for the entire development lifecycle. The new features detailed in this paper are available for Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio .NET 2003. This release supports Oracle Database version 9.2 or later and is also compatible with any version of the Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET). The Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio is a free product that is available for download. 

Learn more: http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/dotnet/tools/index.html


Error: The task with the name Data Flow Task and the creation name "DTS.Pipeline.1" is not registered for use on this computer
2009-02-02T14:52:00.000+07:00
I also ever experienced this problem. This problem occured probably, you use username and password to log on to your computer, so sql server need to verify the user who authorized to use the sql server service.. But sometimes sql server cannot  redirect to the account, so we need to configure the user.

Here's the step :
1. open sql server configuration mangager
2. choose sql server 2005 services
3. right click sql server integration services, choose properties
4. choose log on tab, select this account, enter your username and password which is used to log on your computer.
5. reopen the business intelligence studio. There you are, the data flow task component can work properly again.

finally, i found out how to solve this problem...
thanks to sulton..


How To Enable jQuery Intellisense in VS 2008
2009-01-12T15:54:00.000+07:00
Good news for .net developer. That is from what i have found on the web. 


On November 21, the vice president of Microsoft's .NET Developer division, Scott Guthrie, announced that his group had produced "great jQuery IntelliSense support" in for both Visual Studio 2008 and the free Visual Web Developer 2008 Express package in collaboration with the jQuery development team. This delivers on his promise, made in September, that such support would be forthcoming. Guthrie's blog post has instructions on how to grab and install the proper hotfix to add this capability.


Several programmers have written about this problem in detail. Brad Vincent noted the IntelliSense jQuery bug in a blog entry more than half a year before all the recent hoopla, and James Hart came up with a clever solution to javascript:void(0)the jQuery IntelliSense problem in Visual Studio. Hart's fix is to create a dummy JavaScript file that contains stubs to all of jQuery's calls and link to it within Visual Studio; the editor picks up the dummy APIs and auto-completes based on them, but the end-user's Web browser actually uses the jQuery library. Scott Hanselman has also put together a nice tutorial on working with jQuery inside VS 2008.

or read this for simple solution without installing hotfix http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2008/10/28/rich-intellisense-for-jquery.aspx


Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site, Operation aborted. Asp.net menu control.
2008-12-09T10:24:00.000+07:00
This error is caused by rendered javascript code of asp.net control trying to change an element when the page is not completely loaded.
It happens when moving the mouse pointer to the menu items and the page is loading.

A solution to work around this issue is to surround the menu control with <div> tag.
Set its attribute visibility:hidden. On page_load, set it back to visible.
The purpose is to hide the menu control when the page is loading and show it after loading page is finished. 

See the sample code bellow:


......
    <script type="text/javascript">
        function showMenu() {
          document.getElementById("menuHeader").style.visibility='visible';
        }

    </script>
......

<body onload="showMenu()" >
    <div id="menuHeader" style="visibility:hidden;">
        <asp:Menu ID="Menu1" runat="server" Orientation="Horizontal" DataSourceID="SiteMapDataSource1"/>
</body>

......


Trust me it works great with litle effort.
Dane


Javascript and Asp.net
2008-11-17T13:23:00.000+07:00
1) Access Asp.net controls via Javascript:

-Javascript in .aspx page


document.getElementById('<%=NameOfControl.ClientID%>').PropertyName


-Javascript in .js file

First, you have to get the id of the control after the page is rendered (IE/FireFox->View->Page Source->Find the the control id)

document.getElementById('ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$txtFullName').focus();


2) Add Javascript function to asp.net controls:

NameOfControl.Attributes.Add("eventname","javascriptMethod") [vb]

NameOfControl.Attributes.Add("eventname","javascriptMethod") [C#]


Example: Validate empty value in a textbox.

-In aspx page add javascript function as following

<script type="javascript">
function IsEmpty()
{
if (document.getElementById('<%=textbox1.ClientID%>').value == "")
{
   alert("Textbox is empty");
}
}
</script>


-In code behind, Add Following code on page_load

btnSubmit.Attributes.Add("onclick","IsEmpty()");

3)


Validators on update panel not working properly
2008-11-17T11:13:00.000+07:00
The problem is occurred seriously on window 2003. Error messages of validators is not displayed properly. 

-Simulate the problems:

1. Create a sample asp.net ajax application.
2. Drag a textbox, a requirefieldvalidator and a button to an update panel.
3. Deploy it to web server running window 2003.
4. Leave the value in the textbox empty, then click submit button. It work fine in this stage. 
5 Enter some text and click submit. At this time, server is doing asynchronous post back to the server. Finally try to leave the value empty again and click submit. You will not see the error message of validator controls. 

- Solution:
1. There is a work around to solve this problem by setting EnableClientScript = False of every validator controls under update panel. This will disable client validatation, so instead we need to do validation on server. 

if(Page.IsValid) 
{ //do actioin
}

2. Another solution from Matt Gibbs's blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/mattgi/archive/2007/01/23/asp-net-ajax-validators.aspx

It works fine most of the case,but it has a problem when setting "DisplayMode" of validation controls to "Dynamic". Validation is not fired unless the page submit two times.


65 Excellent jQuery Resources (tutorials,cheat sheets,ebooks,demos,plugins…)
2008-11-05T11:22:00.000+07:00
http://speckyboy.com/2008/04/02/65-excellent-jquery-resources-tutorialscheat-sheetsebooksdemosplugins/


GridView Tips and Tricks using ASP.NET – Part III ( Fron dotnetcurry)
2008-10-23T15:40:00.000+07:00
GridView Tips and Tricks using ASP.NET – Part III

 

The GridView control is quiet a handy control and is the most commonly used control when building an ASP.NET site. The more you work with it, the more you realize how powerful it can be while presenting data.

Moving ahead with our GridView Tips and tricks series, I have added some more tips in this article. The previous two articles on the Tips and Tricks are mentioned below:

GridView Tips and Tricks using ASP.NET 2.0 – Part I

Some More GridView Tips and Tricks using ASP.NET - Part II

For this article, we would be using the following template to populate the GridView.

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >

<head runat="server">

    <title>GridView Tips and Tricks Part 2</title>

</head>

<body>

    <form id="form1" runat="server">

    <div>

    <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False" DataKeyNames="CategoryID"

            DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" ShowFooter="true" AllowPaging="True" AllowSorting="True" 

            PageSize="5" OnRowDataBound="GridView1_RowDataBound">

            <Columns>                        

                <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="CategoryID" InsertVisible="False" SortExpression="CategoryID">

                    <ItemTemplate>

                        <asp:Label ID="lblCategoryID" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("CategoryID") %>'></asp:Label>

                    </ItemTemplate>                   

                </asp:TemplateField>

                <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="CategoryName" SortExpression="CategoryName">

                    <EditItemTemplate>

                        <asp:TextBox ID="txtCategoryName" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("CategoryName") %>'></asp:TextBox>

                    </EditItemTemplate>

                    <ItemTemplate>

                        <asp:Label ID="lblCategoryName" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("CategoryName") %>'></asp:Label>

                    </ItemTemplate>

                </asp:TemplateField>

                <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Description" SortExpression="Description">

                    <EditItemTemplate>

                        <asp:TextBox ID="txtDesc" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("Description") %>'></asp:TextBox>

                    </EditItemTemplate>

                    <ItemTemplate>

                        <asp:Label ID="lblDesc" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("Description") %>'></asp:Label>

                    </ItemTemplate>                                

                </asp:TemplateField>                

            </Columns>

        </asp:GridView>

        <asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource1" runat="server" ConnectionString="Data Source=SUPROTIM;Initial Catalog=Northwind;Integrated Security=True"

            ProviderName="System.Data.SqlClient" SelectCommand="SELECT [CategoryID], [CategoryName], [Description] FROM [Categories]"

            UpdateCommand="UPDATE [Categories] SET [CategoryName] = @CategoryName, [Description] = @Description WHERE [CategoryID] = @CategoryID"/>

    </div>

    </form>

</body>

</html>

The web.config holding the connection will look similar to the following:

<configuration>

      <appSettings/>

      <connectionStrings>

            <add name="NorthwindConnectionString" connectionString="Data Source =(local);Integrated Security = SSPI; Initial Catalog=Northwind;"/>

      </connectionStrings>

...

</configuration>

 

Tip 1: Change the color of a GridView Row based on some condition

C#

    protected void GridView1_RowCreated(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)

    {

        if (e.Row.DataItem != null)

        {

            DataRowView drv = (DataRowView)e.Row.DataItem;

            string catName = Convert.ToString(drv["CategoryName"]);

            if (catName.Trim() == "Confections")

                e.Row.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.LightBlue; 

        }

    }

VB.NET

      Protected Sub GridView1_RowCreated(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As GridViewRowEventArgs)

            If Not e.Row.DataItem Is Nothing Then

                  Dim drv As DataRowView = CType(e.Row.DataItem, DataRowView)

                  Dim catName As String = Convert.ToString(drv("CategoryName"))

                  If catName.Trim() = "Confections" Then

                        e.Row.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.LightBlue

                  End If

            End If

      End Sub

Tip 2: How to create an Image Command Field Column and add to the GridView at runtime

C#

        if (!Page.IsPostBack)

        {

            CommandField cmdField = new CommandField();

            cmdField.ButtonType = ButtonType.Image;

            cmdField.SelectImageUrl = "~/Images/Home_Np1.GIF";

            cmdField.ShowSelectButton = true;

            cmdField.HeaderText = "Select";

            GridView1.Columns.Add(cmdField);

            GridView1.DataBind();

        }

VB.NET

            If (Not Page.IsPostBack) Then

                  Dim cmdField As CommandField = New CommandField()

                  cmdField.ButtonType = ButtonType.Image

                  cmdField.SelectImageUrl = "~/Images/Home_Np1.GIF"

                  cmdField.ShowSelectButton = True

                  cmdField.HeaderText = "Select"

                  GridView1.Columns.Add(cmdField)

                  GridView1.DataBind()

            End If

Tip 3: How to display images in the GridView from Filesystem based on an existing Column

Let us imagine that you have a folder ‘Images’ where you have stored images for each category. Eg: 1.GIF, 2.GIF, 3.GIF and so on. Now you want to display a different image based on each CategoryID. So for CategoryID = 1, the image is 1.GIF; for CategoryID=2, the image is 2.GIF and so on.

               <asp:TemplateField>                

                    <ItemTemplate>

                        <asp:Image runat="server" ImageUrl='<%# "~/Images/"+ Eval("CategoryID") + ".GIF" %>' >

                        </asp:Image> 

                    </ItemTemplate>

                </asp:TemplateField> 

Tip 4: How to Retrieve Images from the database and display it in a GridView

I will assume that we have a image column called CatImg in the Categories table.

The first step would be to create an ImageHandler. In such scenarios such as the gridview, usually prefer to go in for a handler when I have to return binary data directly from the database. It gives more control on the resource returned. Moreover it is a preferred solution when you have to set the image programmatically.

To add a handler, right click project > Add New Item > Generic Handler > ShowImage.ashx. The code shown below, uses the Request.QueryString[“id”] to retrieve the CategoryID from it. The ID is then passed to the ‘ShowCatImage()’ method where the image is fetched from the database and returned in a MemoryStream object. We then read the stream into a byte array. Using the OutputStream.Write(), we write the sequence of bytes to the current stream and you get to see your image.

C#

<%@ WebHandler Language="C#" Class="ShowImage" %>

 

using System;

using System.Configuration;

using System.Web;

using System.IO;

using System.Data;

using System.Data.SqlClient;

 

public class ShowImage : IHttpHandler

{

    public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)

    {

        Int32 catid;

        if (context.Request.QueryString["id"] != null)

            catid = Convert.ToInt32(context.Request.QueryString["id"]);

        else

            throw new ArgumentException("No parameter specified");

 

        context.Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg";

        Stream strm = ShowCatImage(catid);

        byte[] buffer = new byte[4096];

        int byteSeq = strm.Read(buffer, 0, 4096);

 

        while (byteSeq > 0)

        {

            context.Response.OutputStream.Write(buffer, 0, byteSeq);

            byteSeq = strm.Read(buffer, 0, 4096);

        }

        //context.Response.BinaryWrite(buffer);

    }

 

    public Stream ShowCatImage(int catid)

    {

        string conn = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["NorthwindConnectionString"].ConnectionString;

        SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(conn);

        string sql = "SELECT catImg FROM Categories WHERE CategoryID = @ID";

        SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(sql, connection);

        cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;

        cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@ID", catid);

        connection.Open();

        object img = cmd.ExecuteScalar();

        try

        {

            return new MemoryStream((byte[])img);

        }

        catch

        {

            return null;

        }

        finally

        {

            connection.Close();

        }

    }

 

    public bool IsReusable

    {

        get

        {

            return false;

        }

    }

 

 

}

 

VB.NET

<%@ WebHandler Language="vb" Class="ShowImage" %>

 

Imports System

Imports System.Configuration

Imports System.Web

Imports System.IO

Imports System.Data

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

 

Public Class ShowImage

      Implements IHttpHandler

      Public Sub ProcessRequest(ByVal context As HttpContext) Implements IHttpHandler.ProcessRequest

            Dim catid As Int32

            If Not context.Request.QueryString("id") Is Nothing Then

                  catid = Convert.ToInt32(context.Request.QueryString("id"))

            Else

                  Throw New ArgumentException("No parameter specified")

            End If

 

            context.Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg"

            Dim strm As Stream = ShowCatImage(catid)

            Dim buffer As Byte() = New Byte(4095){}

            Dim byteSeq As Integer = strm.Read(buffer, 0, 4096)

 

            Do While byteSeq > 0

                  context.Response.OutputStream.Write(buffer, 0, byteSeq)

                  byteSeq = strm.Read(buffer, 0, 4096)

            Loop

            'context.Response.BinaryWrite(buffer);

      End Sub

 

      Public Function ShowCatImage(ByVal catid As Integer) As Stream

            Dim conn As String = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("NorthwindConnectionString").ConnectionString

            Dim connection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(conn)

            Dim sql As String = "SELECT catImg FROM Categories WHERE CategoryID = @ID"

            Dim cmd As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand(sql, connection)

            cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text

            cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@ID", catid)

            connection.Open()

            Dim img As Object = cmd.ExecuteScalar()

            Try

                  Return New MemoryStream(CType(img, Byte()))

            Catch

                  Return Nothing

            Finally

                  connection.Close()

            End Try

      End Function

 

      Public ReadOnly Property IsReusable() As Boolean Implements IHttpHandler.IsReusable

            Get

                  Return False

            End Get

      End Property

 

 

End Class

 

To access this image in the GridView based on the CategoryID, just add the following:

                <asp:TemplateField>                

                    <ItemTemplate>

                        <asp:Image runat="server" ImageUrl='<%# "ShowImage.ashx?id=" + Eval("CategoryID") %>' >

                        </asp:Image> 

                    </ItemTemplate>

                </asp:TemplateField>   

Tip 5: How to programmatically enable/disable a control in the GridView when in the Edit Mode

If you want to quickly take a decision whether to enable or disable a control when the user edits the row, then use the Enabled attribute and set it to a method that returns a bool value:

<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="CategoryName" SortExpression="CategoryName">

                    <EditItemTemplate>

                        <asp:TextBox ID="txtCategoryName" runat="server" Enabled='<%# EnableDisableTextBox() %>' Text='<%# Bind("CategoryName") %>'></asp:TextBox>

                    </EditItemTemplate>

                    <ItemTemplate>

                        <asp:Label ID="lblCategoryName" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("CategoryName") %>'></asp:Label>

                    </ItemTemplate>

                </asp:TemplateField>

C#

    protected bool EnableDisableTextBox()

    {

        if (1 == 1)

            return false;

    }

VB.NET

      Protected Function EnableDisableTextBox() As Boolean

            If 1 = 1 Then

                  Return False

            End If

      End Function

You can test this code by adding a CommandField to the GridView as shown below

<asp:CommandField ButtonType="Link" ShowEditButton="true" /> 

Tip 6: How to insert an Image in between Rows of a GridView using ASP.NET

Please check my article on the same over here

http://www.dotnetcurry.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=152

Tip 7: How to loop through all the rows in all the pages of a GridView

One simple way to loop through all the rows in all the pages of a GridView is to access its DataSource. In this example, we will loop through the SQLDataSource to retrieve all the rows in a GridView and access its cell value. You can modify the logic depending on the type of controls you have added to the GridView

C#

    protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        DataSourceSelectArguments dsaArgs = new DataSourceSelectArguments();

        DataView view = (DataView)SqlDataSource1.Select(dsaArgs);

        DataTable dt = view.ToTable();

        for (int i = 0; i < dt.Rows.Count; i++)

        {

            for (int j = 0; j < dt.Columns.Count; j++)

            {

                string s = dt.Rows[i][j].ToString();

            }

        }       

    }

VB.NET

       Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)

            Dim dsaArgs As DataSourceSelectArguments = New DataSourceSelectArguments()

            Dim view As DataView = CType(SqlDataSource1.Select(dsaArgs), DataView)

            Dim dt As DataTable = view.ToTable()

            For i As Integer = 0 To dt.Rows.Count - 1

                  For j As Integer = 0 To dt.Columns.Count - 1

                        Dim s As String = dt.Rows(i)(j).ToString()

                  Next j

            Next i

       End Sub

Well that was a quick overview of some of the most frequently used features of the GridView control. I hope you liked the article and I thank you for viewing it. 

 



GridView Tips and Tricks using ASP.NET - Part II (From dotnetcurry)
2008-10-23T15:35:00.000+07:00
Some More GridView Tips and Tricks using ASP.NET - Part II

 

The GridView control is quiet a handy control and is the most commonly used control when building an ASP.NET site. The more you work with it, the more you realize how powerful it can be while presenting data. 

In one of our previous articles GridView Tips and Tricks using ASP.NET 2.0, we discussed ten of the most frequently asked questions about the GridView control. This article adds ten more tips and tricks to our collection, related to the GridView control. 

[Update: The 3rd part of the GridView Tips and Tricks can be found over here: GridView Tips and Tricks using ASP.NET - Part III  ]

For this article, we would be using the following template to populate the GridView.

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >

<head runat="server">

    <title>GridView Tips and Tricks Part 2</title>

</head>

<body>

    <form id="form1" runat="server">

    <div>

    <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False" DataKeyNames="CategoryID"

            DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" ShowFooter="true" AllowPaging="True" AllowSorting="True" 

            PageSize="5" OnRowDataBound="GridView1_RowDataBound">

            <Columns>                        

                <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="CategoryID" InsertVisible="False" SortExpression="CategoryID">

                    <ItemTemplate>

                        <asp:Label ID="lblCategoryID" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("CategoryID") %>'></asp:Label>

                    </ItemTemplate>                   

                </asp:TemplateField>

                <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="CategoryName" SortExpression="CategoryName">

                    <EditItemTemplate>

                        <asp:TextBox ID="txtCategoryName" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("CategoryName") %>'></asp:TextBox>

                    </EditItemTemplate>

                    <ItemTemplate>

                        <asp:Label ID="lblCategoryName" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("CategoryName") %>'></asp:Label>

                    </ItemTemplate>

                </asp:TemplateField>

                <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Description" SortExpression="Description">

                    <EditItemTemplate>

                        <asp:TextBox ID="txtDesc" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("Description") %>'></asp:TextBox>

                    </EditItemTemplate>

                    <ItemTemplate>

                        <asp:Label ID="lblDesc" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("Description") %>'></asp:Label>

                    </ItemTemplate>                                

                </asp:TemplateField>                

            </Columns>

        </asp:GridView>

        <asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource1" runat="server" ConnectionString="Data Source=SUPROTIM;Initial Catalog=Northwind;Integrated Security=True"

            ProviderName="System.Data.SqlClient" SelectCommand="SELECT [CategoryID], [CategoryName], [Description] FROM [Categories]"

            UpdateCommand="UPDATE [Categories] SET [CategoryName] = @CategoryName, [Description] = @Description WHERE [CategoryID] = @CategoryID"/>

    </div>

    </form>

</body>

</html>

The web.config holding the connection will look similar to the following:

<configuration>

      <appSettings/>

      <connectionStrings>

            <add name="NorthwindConnectionString" connectionString="Data Source =(local);Integrated Security = SSPI; Initial Catalog=Northwind;"/>

      </connectionStrings>

...

</configuration>

Tip 1: Enable Disable Controls inside a GridView 

There are at times when you have to disable controls on some rows, when a certain condition is satisfied. In this snippet, we will see how to disable editing for rows that have the CategoryName as ‘Confections’. Use the following code:

C#

protected void GridView1_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)

    {

        if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow)

        {

            if (e.Row.DataItem != null)

            {

                Label lblControl = (Label)e.Row.Cells[2].FindControl("lblCategoryName");

 

                if(lblControl.Text == "Confections")

                {

                    e.Row.Cells[0].Enabled = false;

                }

            }

        }

    }

VB.NET

 Protected Sub GridView1_RowDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As GridViewRowEventArgs)

            If e.Row.RowType = DataControlRowType.DataRow Then

                  If Not e.Row.DataItem Is Nothing Then

                        Dim lblControl As Label = CType(e.Row.Cells(2).FindControl("lblCategoryName"), Label)

 

                        If lblControl.Text = "Confections" Then

                              e.Row.Cells(0).Enabled = False

                        End If

                  End If

            End If

 End Sub

 

Tip 2: Adding Arrows for Sorting Columns in a GridView

When you are sorting the columns in a GridView, it would be a nice to have feature, to display arrows which depict either an ascending or descending sort as shown below. Create a folder called ‘images’ and add two small images called up.gif and down.gif:

C#

    protected void GridView1_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)

    {

        if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.Header)

        {

            foreach (TableCell cell in e.Row.Cells)

            {

                if (cell.HasControls())

                {

                        LinkButton btnSort = (LinkButton)cell.Controls[0];

                        Image image = new Image();

                        if (btnSort.Text == GridView1.SortExpression) 

                        {

                            if (GridView1.SortDirection == SortDirection.Ascending)

                            {

                                image.ImageUrl = "images/up.gif";                          }

                            else

                            {

                                image.ImageUrl = "images/down.gif";     

                            }

                        }

                        cell.Controls.Add(image);

                     

                }             

            }

VB.NET

Protected Sub GridView1_RowDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As GridViewRowEventArgs)

If e.Row.RowType = DataControlRowType.Header Then

            For Each cell As TableCell In e.Row.Cells

                  If cell.HasControls() Then

                        Dim btnSort As LinkButton = CType(cell.Controls(0), LinkButton)

                        Dim image As Image = New Image()

                        If btnSort.Text = GridView1.SortExpression Then

                        If GridView1.SortDirection = SortDirection.Ascending Then

                              image.ImageUrl = "images/up.gif"

                              Else

                              image.ImageUrl = "images/down.gif"

                              End If

                        End If

                        cell.Controls.Add(image)

                  End If

            Next cell

Tip 3: How to Add a Row Number to the Gridview

There are a couple of ways to do this. However I will share a very handy tip that was shared by XIII in the asp.net forums. 

Just add the following tags to your <columns> section of your GridView

<asp:TemplateField>

    <ItemTemplate>

        <%# Container.DataItemIndex + 1 %>

    </ItemTemplate>

</asp:TemplateField>

Tip 4: How to programmatically hide a column in the GridView 

There are two conditions to be checked in the Page_Load to hide a columns in the GridView, let us say the 3^rd column:

If ‘AutoGenerateColumns’ = True on the GridView

C#

       GridView1.HeaderRow.Cells[2].Visible = false;

        foreach (GridViewRow gvr in GridView1.Rows)

        {

            gvr.Cells[2].Visible = false;

        }

VB.NET

         GridView1.HeaderRow.Cells(2).Visible = False

            For Each gvr As GridViewRow In GridView1.Rows

                  gvr.Cells(2).Visible = False

            Next gvr

If ‘AutoGenerateColumns’ = False on the GridView

C#

GridView1.Columns[2].Visible = false;

VB.NET

GridView1.Columns(2).Visible = False

Tip 5: Handling Concurrency Issues in GridView

If you are using the SqlDataSource (or ObjectDataSource), you can use both the SqlDataSource.ConflictDetection and OldValuesParameterFormatString property to handle concurrency issues. These two properties together control how to perform updates and delete operations when the underlying data source changes, while the operation is being carried out. The original and modified versions of each column can be tracked using the two properties.

Read more about it over here.

Tip 6: How to transfer multiple values from GridView to a different page

Check my article over here:

http://www.dotnetcurry.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=147

Tip 7: Displaying Empty Data in a GridView

When there are no results returned from the GridView control’s data source, the short and simple way of displaying a message to the user, is to use the GridView’s EmptyDataText property.  

    <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False" DataKeyNames="CategoryID"

            DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" EmptyDataText="No data available"

            ShowFooter="true" AllowPaging="True" AllowSorting="True" 

            PageSize="5" OnRowDataBound="GridView1_RowDataBound">

Note: You can also add style to the EmptyDataText by using the EmptyDataRowStyle property.

Tip 8: Displaying an Image in case of Empty Data in a GridView

As an alternative to using the EmptyDataText property, if you need to display an image or any HTML/ASP.NET control, you can use the EmptyDataTemplate. In this snippet below, we are using the image control in the <EmptyDataTemplate> to display an image.

    <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False" DataKeyNames="CategoryID"

            DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" ShowFooter="true" AllowPaging="True" AllowSorting="True" 

            PageSize="5" OnRowDataBound="GridView1_RowDataBound">

 

            <EmptyDataTemplate>

              <asp:Image id="imgNoData"

                ImageUrl="~/images/NoDataFound.jpg"

                AlternateText="No data found" 

                runat="server"/>

            

            </EmptyDataTemplate>

Tip 9: Highlight a Row in GridView without a PostBack

Check my article on the same over here:

http://www.dotnetcurry.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=123

Tip 10: How to Bind a List<> to a GridView

Let us see how to bind a List<> to a GridView. We assume that the ‘AutoGenerateColumns’ = True. We will create a class called Employees and bind it to the GridView with the help of a List<>. 

Create a class called ‘Employees’

C#

public class Employee

{

    private string enm;

    private int ageofemp;

    private string department;

 

    public string EName

    {

        get

        {

            return enm;

        }

        set

        {

            enm = value;

        }

    }

 

    public int Age

    {

        get

        {

            return ageofemp;

        }

        set

        {

            ageofemp = value;

        }

    }

 

    public string Dept

    {

        get

        {

            return department;

        }

        set

        {

            department = value;

        }

    }

 

    public Employee(string ename, int age, string dept)

    {

        this.enm = ename;

        this.ageofemp = age;

        this.department = dept;

    }

 

 

}

 

VB.NET

Public Class Employee

      Private enm As String

      Private ageofemp As Integer

      Private department As String

 

      Public Property EName() As String

            Get

                  Return enm

            End Get

            Set(ByVal value As String)

                  enm = value

            End Set

      End Property

 

      Public Property Age() As Integer

            Get

                  Return ageofemp

            End Get

            Set(ByVal value As Integer)

                  ageofemp = value

            End Set

      End Property

 

      Public Property Dept() As String

            Get

                  Return department

            End Get

            Set(ByVal value As String)

                  department = value

            End Set

      End Property

 

      Public Sub New(ByVal ename As String, ByVal age As Integer, ByVal dept As String)

            Me.enm = ename

            Me.ageofemp = age

            Me.department = dept

      End Sub

 

 

End Class

 

Bind the ‘Employee’ data to the GridView using a List<>

C#

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        System.Collections.Generic.List<Employee> emp = new System.Collections.Generic.List<Employee>();

        emp.Add(new Employee("Jack", 22, "Marketing"));

        emp.Add(new Employee("Anna", 28, "Advertising"));

        emp.Add(new Employee("Linra", 23, "Advertising"));

        emp.Add(new Employee("Jacob", 44, "Production"));

        emp.Add(new Employee("Zinger", 28, "PPC"));

 

        GridView1.DataSource = emp;

        GridView1.DataBind();

 

 

    }

VB.NET

      Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)

            Dim emp As System.Collections.Generic.List(Of Employee) = New System.Collections.Generic.List(Of Employee)()

            emp.Add(New Employee("Jack", 22, "Marketing"))

            emp.Add(New Employee("Anna", 28, "Advertising"))

            emp.Add(New Employee("Linra", 23, "Advertising"))

            emp.Add(New Employee("Jacob", 44, "Production"))

            emp.Add(New Employee("Zinger", 28, "PPC"))

 

            GridView1.DataSource = emp

            GridView1.DataBind()

 

 

      End Sub


Well that was a quick overview of some of the most frequently used features of the GridView control. I hope you liked the article and I thank you for viewing it.