Application Developers and designers often seem addicted to playing video games. Is this wasted time? Perhaps not, if they are quick to learn from the game that there must be no blind alleys in software, you must always provide a way of making progress, and that users of tools don't want to use software particularly, they need to get a job done.… Read more
Use a profiler to measure before you optimise. If ever you doubt this advice, then you should read this fascinating account of how an application was given a five-fold speed increase just by finding out exactly where the performance problems were and then tackling them in detail.
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Gayani provides the complete source code for a sample Data Access Layer for LINQ to SQL, using the Northwind Database, and explains how it all works and how to get good performance. She shows how easy it is to use stored procedure and views as well as queries to provide a robust run-time infrastructure for managing relational data as objects.… Read more
We think Reflector is a fantastic tool, and we know you do too. We'd love to hear about the times you've used it to save the day. What were you working on? What happened? Send us your epic tales of .NET Heroism...… Read more
Ben Hall takes a look at a simple add-in to .NET Reflector that helps team development work in a number of ways, and show how useful it can be in understanding how an API to a third-party assembly works. … Read more
It sometimes happens that Web Server controls that visualize data
don't quite fit with the way that the data is actually held in the application. This shouldn't be an obstacle, as Ion Freeman
points out. To prove his point, he shows how to use Nested Sets with Treeview.… Read more
Prasanna is reminded of pizza in cardboard boxes when he explores the possibilities of Synchronization Services for ADO.NET. Data applications are becoming increasingly mobile, and often disconnected, and data is often wrapped up to be consumed later. Miccrosoft's Merge Replication was their first, and most heavyweight, solution, but now comes a different tack, based on SQL Server 2008 and ADO.… Read more
Stephen confesses his anger at Visio, which he is having to use all day, every day, in order to design software. Unlike the average 'angry blogger', he offers a constructive solution to some of his gripes that you may download.… Read more
If you are developing a browser-based application, or using Adobe AIR, then jQuery and Ext JS are prime choices for your framework. Of course you could code it all in raw Javascript and HTML but Daniel Penrod hasn't got the time or the inclination to type code all day. He wants results!… Read more
If you are new to using .NET Reflector, or you are wondering whether it would be useful to you, you'll appreciate Jason Crease's quick run through of the basic functionality. This is also available as a video.
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.NET Reflector is almost an intrinsic part of the .NET Framework, a free tool for browsing the contents of a .NET assembly. When Lutz Roeder passed responsibility for development of the code to Red Gate, the team preserved the characteristic minimal look, focussing on updates and code improvements. Then they added a free add-in that allowed it to be accessed from within Visual Studio. Reflector Pro is a paid-for extension that allows Visual Studio users to debug code in .NET Reflector.… Read more
We're very aware that some of the brightest NET programmers want to use ANTS 4, but are on tight budgets. Have no fear, as we have ten copies to give away to those who can illuminate the dark mysteries of the NET Framework.… Read more
If you are developing a software product, you'll know that the sooner you can get feedback from the users, the better. But, what sort of feedback, which users, and how? If your users have to test your software within their own development environment and workplace, you are presented with a challenge. Stephen explains a practical solution… Read more
Developers can get so used to relying on computers for everything that they can forget how useful it can be in the design process to elicit and refine ideas whilst working in groups, using a sketchbook, pencils and crayons. Sometimes we all need a jolt to force us to take a different approach to solving software design problems.… Read more
The ADO.Net Data Services framework enables you to provide data services to Web applications that are simple to integrate with them. The data services use URIs to point to pieces of data, and use standards such as JSON and XML to transfer that data. ADO.NET Data Services uses the Entity Framework, which allows an easy translation from a Database layer based on Stored procedures, to an object-orientated Application layer. It all seems surprisingly sensible. Prasanna explains all, as usual.… Read more
It is not good enough to make assumptions about the way that users go about getting help when they use your application. Heather Fielding describes how she was able to test the effectiveness of various different ways of providing embedded help in an application. By changing the design, she discovered, you can greatly increase the users willingness to use such help to make the task easier.… Read more
When you are binding Data to DataGrid in .NET, this has to be done at design-time.
That's fine if you know what the form of the data is at design time: but what if you don't? Vlad Bodurov looks at some of the options and demonstrates an unusual dynamic technique that transforms IDictionary into a typed object… Read more
Silverlight 2 is far more versatile than Silverlight 1. It can handle data-sources with some subtlety. John Papa tackles the whole subject of data-binding with Silverlight. This article is a partial excerpt from John Papa's upcoming book Data Access with Silverlight 2 by O'Reilly, due to be released in December 2008. … Read more
Prasanna Amirthalingam provides an overview of Entity Framework and how it can be used. He shows that it can provide an excellent interface between the Object-oriented model and the relational. The Entity Framework allows developers to work with data in the form objects and properties without having to concern themselves directly with either the stored procedures or functions of the defined interface, or the the underlying database tables and columns where this data is stored.… Read more
Amirthalingam Prasanna gives a simple and practical guide about why you need to profile your .NET applications and how you would go about doing it.… Read more
