February 2009 - Posts

• Programming Entity Framework by VB MVP Julie Lerman

  Programming Entity Framework Julie Lerman is very excited to share with fellow MVPs that her book, Programming Entity Framework, has finally hit the shelves. The book spans a lot of topics from baby steps of creating a model, to querying to architecting n-tier apps with lots of plumbing on the way. All code samples are in VB and C#. "Programming Entity Framework is a thorough introduction to Microsoft's new core framework for modeling and interacting with data in .NET applications. This book not only gives experienced developers a hands-on tour of the Entity Framework and explains its use in a variety of applications, it also provides a deep understanding of its architecture and APIs. From the Entity Data Model (EDM) and Object Services to EntityClient and the Metadata Workspace, Programming Entity Framework covers it all." Posted Feb 22 2009, 06:05 AM by Mike McIntyre

• Visual Basic 2005/2008 - Get String Array from Lines in a Multiline TextBox

  A post on vbCity asking how to get the lines in a VB6 multiline TextBox reminded me how much I like using VB.NET. In VB.NET 2005 its this easy: Dim multilineStrings() As String = Me.MyMultilineTextBox.Lines In VB.NET 2008, you can use LINQ too:   Posted Feb 20 2009, 07:09 AM by Mike McIntyre Filed under: Multiline TextBox, Multiline, Linq

• Visual Basic 2008 - Use Lambdas with Generic Lists

  Lambdas make it easy to query Generic Lists.  Here's a simple example that uses the Lambda Where() function to query a List(Of Integer): Public Class GetDotNetCodeSamples       Private integersList As New List(Of Integer)       Public Sub New()         Dim numbers() As Integer = {5, 4, 1, 3, 9, 8, 6, 7, 2, 0}         integersList.AddRange(numbers)     End Sub       Public Function Example01() As String         Dim integersQuery = integersList.Where(Function(n) n < 5)         For Each x As Integer In integerQuery             result &= x & Environment.NewLine         Next         Return result     End Function   End Class   Posted Feb 18 2009, 07:39 PM by Mike McIntyre Filed under: visual basic 2008, lambdas, generic list

• Visual Studio 2010 - Dynamic Programing in Visual Basic: IronPython

  The new dynamic feature in Visual Basic 2010 let's you mix late-bound code in with statically typed code ie. you combine early and late binding in the same code. The dynamic feature uses the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) for caching and dynamic dispatch which enables interop with dynamic objects. The example below demonstrates how you would use an IronPython runtime to interop with with IronPython objects. Note the code example below will not work with the October 2008 CTP as the dynamic feature was not yet functional in VB at that time. Posted Feb 16 2009, 09:12 AM by Mike McIntyre Filed under: visual basic 2010, dynamic language runtime, IronPython, DLR

• Visual Studio 2010 - Visual Basic Array Literals

  Here's another way Visual Basic 2010 makes it easier to program: Array Literals    The Visual Basic compiler is smart enough to recognize when an array literal is composed of elements of the same type e.g. it 'infers' an array of integer in the first line of code above.   Posted Feb 13 2009, 07:35 AM by Mike McIntyre Filed under: visual basic 2010, array literal

• Visual Studio 2010 - Visual Basic Auto Properties

  Auto-implemented properties, new in Visual Basic 2010, provide a one-line way to declare a simple property with a backing field and a getter and a setter: Public Class Customer     Property CustomerID As Integer     Property CustomerName As String End Class   The compiler generates a backing field with the same name as the property, but with a preceding underscore.   Notice in the example below that the Customer class'  CustomerID and CustomerName properties have been auto generated and are available via intellisense:   Initializers can be used to give an auto-implemented property a default value (which gets set in the class’ constructor):         Property ID() As Integer = -1     Property SupplierList() As New List(Of Supplier)     Property OrderList() As New List(Of Order) With {.Capacity = 100}         <DefaultValue("-")>     Property Name() As String Implements ICustomer.Name Note: Auto-implemented properties cannot have parameters, nor can they be declared ReadOnly or WriteOnly.         Posted Feb 11 2009, 11:23 AM by Mike McIntyre

• Visual Studio 2010 Web Development - ClientIDMode and ClientID DropDownList Example

  Before Visual Studio 2010, I've not liked fiddling with client side IDs in ASP.NET, especially when web page element is nested in another element. For example, this markup that is part of a user web control sets ClientID to 'CustomerChoice'. <asp:DropDownList ID="ddlCustomers" ClientID="CustomerChoice" runat="server">     <asp:ListItem>Jason</asp:ListItem>     <asp:ListItem>Jack</asp:ListItem> </asp:DropDownList> If the user web control is hosted on an .aspx page, id becomes 'wucCustomers1_ddlCustomers' when rendered in a browser. The user control's ID is added as a suffix to the DropDownList's ID to become the ID.  <select name="wucCustomers1$ddlCustomers" id="wucCustomers1_ddlCustomers">                <option value="Jason">Jason</option>                <option value="Jack">Jack</option> </select> If a JavaScript script is created that uses that id and then the control is moved to say - a content area, the id changes and the script breaks. Visual Studio 2010 introduces the ClientIDMode attribute to solve that problem. <asp:DropDownList ID="ddlCustomers" ClientID="CustomerChoice" ClientIDMode="Static" runat="server">     <asp:ListItem>Jason</asp:ListItem>     <asp:ListItem>Jack</asp:ListItem> </asp:DropDownList> Look at how the client side ID renders in the browser now: <select name="wucCustomers1$ddlCustomers" id="CustomerChoice">                <option value="Jason">Jason</option>                <option value="Jack">Jack</option> </select>       Posted Feb 09 2009, 08:48 AM by Mike McIntyre

• Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar

  Though its been available for several years, not everyone knows about Microsoft's 'Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar' for web developers. The toolbar makes it easy to explore a web page's markup, attributes, styles, and more.  You can check the pages you create to debug and tweak them.  You can examine pages from the web to discover new techniques.  The screen shot below shows a typical use for the toolbar. The toolbar is shown at the bottom of a web page. 1. Click the 'Select Element by Click' button. This turns the cursor into an arrow that can be used to click any part of the page. 2. Click on a page element e.g. a drop down. 3. In the document outline, the markup for element clicked will be shown.  You can drill down into the markup. 4. Attributes and styles associated with the outline selection are shown.   Download it at -> Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar Note:  You may get the erroneous warning below if you try to download the IE Developer Toolbar via Google search.  If you do use Microsoft Live Search instead -> http://www.live.com         Posted Feb 07 2009, 08:20 AM by Mike McIntyre

• Microsoft Transact SQL - CASE Statements in ORDER BY Clauses

  Case statements can be used to return columns of data created from logic.  The example below shows how a CustomerType column can be returned that types customers as either 'International' or 'Domestic' depending on whether the 'Country' column in a customers table contains 'USA' or not. But what if the results need to be ordered by a column created by CASE WHEN logic? Just use the CASE statement in the ORDER BY clause. The query example below shows how that is done and in the results pane, it shows customers ordered by CustomerType. Posted Feb 05 2009, 07:52 AM by Mike McIntyre

• Visual Studio 2010/.NET 4.0 - Snippets in .Aspx Page Markup

  Being a huge Visual Studio snippets fan and doing a lot of web development,  I really like this Visual Studio 2010 feature for web developers:   snippets in markup! WIth this feature you can insert built in Asp.Net and JavaScript snippets.  You can create your own libraries of snippets and insert them too. Posted Feb 03 2009, 09:12 AM by Mike McIntyre Filed under: Visual Studio 2010, javascript, .aspx, snippets

• Visual Studio 2010/.NET 4.0 - Visual Basic <-> C# Language Parity

  In the slide below language features in white text are being added to the language:   Posted Feb 01 2009, 08:43 AM by Mike McIntyre Filed under: Visual Studio 2010, parity, language