My Blog Moved to -> http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/rohanthomas/

Well, I got this confirmed, while I was trying to get a .net 2.0 Profiles sample up, I realised that the help installed with VS.Net 2005 Beta 2 is not up to date with the changes in Beta 2! It still contains some same files from Beta 1.

Nope, I never installed Beta 1 in this machine of mine...

Boy! Falling sick does really does take things right out of ur hands...
With Singapore's changing weather, I caught the Flu as well and its been a series of bad bad days since then. I have been totally disoriented, disconnected and frustrated!
Finally I am on the road to recovery by God's grace and I have a difficult task infront of me of getting things back into place.

Huh? My blog format was reset... Probs with community server? Whats happening?

Good News! The apps that are developed in 32-bit env. using .Net Framework 2.0 are fully supported by 64-bit processors!

Just transport your apps to the 64-bit machine with a .Net framwork and you are good to go!

Phew... and I was getting worried about porting my .net 2.0 app to 64-bit env...

Then came web-farming issue just when life started to seem smooth sailing :)

I am planning to utilize ASP.NET 2.0 profiles in my project and everything was good, then came the scenario whereby the UI layer in running on a Web-Farm! Hmmm...

Profiles utilize a local database to keep the info and in a Web-Farm it would be kinda impossible to perform that feat! Good thing Profiles are configurable!

Not only ASP.NET profiles but membership, roles, and web-part personalization also support web-farms!

So what we do is to configure the profiles to read from a central db (in this case, the db that the web farm machines are pointing to). When u modify the state of the profile object, the modifications are saved between visits to the site. So if the request is directed to a different server within the same session (in web-farm scenario), the profile state will be intact, since its stored and accessed out of central db.

So in a web-farm scenario, this is what you should do :

1)Point each machine on the web farm to the same database server to store the profiles. You can set this by changing the connection string on the provider configuration.
   - Since Profiles are API and Schema over database access, there shouldn't be a lot of considerations while shifting the db target from local to the web-farm central db.

2)Now to make profiles use your application's db instead of its own, use the "aspnet_regsql" tool (Window\Microsoft.NET\Framework\[version]) which will let you add the tables utilised by profiles to your own db. Run it without any command line parameters to get the windows wizard that configures all this for you (you can also point to the db used by ur app with this wizard). [OR, run it with the -? option to see all the command line parameter, yea, i know u already know this ;)]

3)So now, the database tables that profiles are using is in ur own application's db (the tables utilized by Profiles, Membership, etc will have a ASP.NET prefix), now go ahead and create relationships between these tables and your own application's tables!

Remember, Adding fields to the tables utilised by profiles is not recomended, unless you write your own provider that can handle these fields!

Cheers!

Wow! Been so busy with all the new things happening around me that I couldn't finish this months newsletter on time... What little portion I had done for the newsletter was lost along my dearest favourites and my mail duing VS.NET 2005 Beta 2 and SQL Server April 2005 CTP!

And then at work, everyday we had a new challenge to solve. I must admit, past couple of weeks have been very hectic! I didn't even get to sleep properly... yawn...

Well, now things are settling down, newsletter is out, and the clouds in the sky are starting to clear :)

Great times are ahead! ;)

Well, simple answer - MSF!

I am planning to implement MSF in my enterprise level project, and since VSTS supports this, well why not?

Reading this also suggests VSTS is more appropriate in for developing Enterprise Level applications etc...

VSTS definetly looks a ton better than VS std edition, from my point of view...

Manged to get VS.NET 2005 Beta 2 and SQL Server CTP working togther.. finally... phew...

But then, Justin diverted my attention to VS.NET 2005 Team Suite... Damn! How did I miss that??

Time to uninstall VS.NET 2005 Beta 2 Std Edition and go after Team Suite...

Damn! How did i miss that??

All of a sudden, there was a problem, and I found myself infront of Active Directory code..

Well, good atleast i get to explore more of LDAP and AD, cause I know nothing of it!

Talked to few of my friends, got the feedback - "Active Directory is huge dude!!"

Hmm... Started on a path towards LDAP, although I lack the time to study AD first. Google found that this is a good enough article which could get u thru the pains of LDAP, But how about AD?

Turns out, apart from being interesting, it is quite a big concept, so started here on the road to AD! Long AD way ahead....

That is a question which would be best answered, If I start from what happened on 19th March 2005. I've left Jadelite Technologies for good and joined another company where I'm currently working on R&D for .Net 2.0... The plan is to come up with an enterprise project which will be helping as a framework for the company to build other applications upon...

I am planning to build it to be something like Avanade's ACA.Net, but perhaps a smaller version... I am just 1 man after all.. :)

It is a tough and tedious process which will take quite a long time to yeild some visible result, but the good part is I get to get my hands dirty with .Net 2.0 and sql server 2005...

Well, finally after some persuation for kitkai, I am back on the blogging track...

I've wasted my 2 precious days installing VS.Net Beta 2 and SQL Server Server April CTP on my laptop, I was so lost I even had to reformat my system and lost all my mail and my favourites... What a shame... But that was because I ran out of patience and decide to do things in haste... Guess I deserved it...

Now that my PC is reformatted and I tried installing it all over again, VS.NET installed successfully. SQL Server CTP installed successfully. But, the shortcuts to SQL server are all missing...

nothing in the start menu... nothing...

Why me? why is this happening to me?

Just my luck with SQL Server CTP...

Wonder what does this signify?


Which OS are You?

Problem:
We all require Modal Web Dialogs once in a while, and so came my turn. I used js to pop up a modal dialog like so :

Just a Question I came across browing one of my forums;
Q. How do I disable the enter key?
A. Well its just a piece of code which goes like this :
function modifKey(e)
{
   var modif='';
   if (event.altKey)
   {
      modif+='[ Alt ] ';
   }
   if (event.ctrlKey)
   {
      modif+='[ Ctrl ] ';
   }
   if (event.shiftKey)
   {
      modif+='[ Shift ] ';
   }
   getKey(e,modif);
}
function getKey(e,modif)
{
   if (e.keyCode)
   {
      keycode=e.keyCode;
   }
   else
   {
      keycode=e.which;
   }
   char=String.fromCharCode(keycode);
   xCode=char.charCodeAt(0);
   if (xCode == 13) //Enter key is pressed!!
   {
      window.event.keyCode = 0;
   }
   else
   {
      return true;
   }
}

Took another of the Tickle tests... This is the result.. I think the downside part is quite true...  :-|

You are Balanced-brained

That means you are able to draw on the strengths of both the right and left hemispheres of your brain, depending upon a given situation.

When you need to explain a complicated process to someone, or plan a detailed vacation, the left hemisphere of your brain, which is responsible for your ability to solve problems logically, might kick in. But if you were critiquing an art opening or coming up with an original way to file papers, the right side of your brain, which is responsible for noticing subtle details in things, might take over.

While many people have clearly dominant left- or right-brained tendencies, you are able to draw on skills from both hemispheres of your brain. This rare combination makes you a very creative and flexible thinker.

The down side to being balanced-brained is that you may sometimes feel paralyzed by indecision when the two hemispheres of your brain are competing to solve a problem in their own unique ways.