Articles : Page 1 of 8
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Passing multiple POST parameters to Web API Controller Methods
May 1209ASP.NET Web API introduces a new API for creating REST APIs and making AJAX callbacks to the server. This new API provides a host of new great functionality that unifies many of the features of many of the various AJAX/REST APIs that Microsoft created before it - ASP.NET AJAX, WCF REST specifically - and combines them into a whole more consistent API. Web API addresses many of the concerns that developers had with these older APIs, namely that it was very difficult to build consistent REST sty...
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Entity Framework 4.3.1 Migrations and non English locale
Apr 1230A few days ago I started migrating a web app I was working on from ASP.NET MVC 3 and EF4 to ASP.NET MVC 4 and EF 4.3.1. All went well, except for some problems with the automatic generation of the DB scheme using EF Code First: it was creating the database, but no tables and not even the __MigrationHistory table added in 4.3; and during the execution of the schema generation an error was raised with a weird datetime conversion error. I tried this both on SQL Express 2005 and SQL Compact and I ...
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GZip/Deflate Compression in ASP.NET MVC
Apr 1228A long while back I wrote about GZip compression in ASP.NET. In that article I describe two generic helper methods that I've used in all sorts of ASP.NET application from WebForms apps to HttpModules and HttpHandlers that require gzip or deflate compression. The same static methods also work in ASP.NET MVC. Here are the two routines: /// <summary> /// Determines if GZip is supported /// </summary> /// <returns></returns> public static bool IsGZipSupported() { string AcceptEncoding = HttpCon...
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ASP.NET MVC Postbacks and HtmlHelper Controls ignoring Model Changes
Apr 1220So here's a binding behavior in ASP.NET MVC that I didn't really get until today: HtmlHelpers controls (like .TextBoxFor() etc.) don't bind to model values on Postback, but rather get their value directly out of the POST buffer. Effectively it looks like you can't change the display value of a control via model value updates on a Postback operation. To demonstrate here's an example. I have a small section in a document where I display an editable email address: This is what the form displa...
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Wishful Thinking: Why can't HTML fix Script Attacks at the Source?
Apr 1215The Web can be an evil place, especially if you're a Web Developer blissfully unaware of Cross Site Script Attacks (XSS). Even if you are aware of XSS in all of its insidious forms, it's extremely complex to deal with all the issues if you're taking user input and you're actually allowing users to post raw HTML into an application. I'm dealing with this again today in a Web application where legacy data contains raw HTML that has to be displayed and users ask for the ability to use raw HTML as...
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Odd MVC 4 Beta Razor Designer Issue
Apr 1214This post is a small cry for help along with an explanation of a problem that is hard to describe on twitter or even a connect bug and written in hopes somebody has seen this before and any ideas on what might cause this. Lots of helpful people had comments on Twitter for me, but they all assumed that the code doesn't run, which is not the case - it's a designer issue. A few days ago I started getting some odd problems in my MVC 4 designer for an app I've been working on for the past 2 weeks...
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Impressions on jQuery Mobile
Apr 1210For the uninitiated, jQuery Mobile is a sweet little client framework that turns regular HTML into something more touch and mobile friendly. It results in a user interface that has bigger targets, rounded corners and simple skinning capability. When it was announced that ASP.NET MVC 4 would include support for a mobile-sensitive view engine, offering up alternate views for clients that fit the mobile profile, I was all over that. Combined with jQuery Mobile, it brought a chance to do some ex...
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Physical Directories vs. MVC View Paths
Apr 1205This post falls into the bucket of operator error on my part, but I want to share this anyway because it describes an issue that has bitten me a few times now and writing it down might keep it a little stronger in my mind. I've been working on an MVC project the last few days, and at the end of a long day I accidentally moved one of my View folders from the MVC Root Folder to the project root. It must have been at the very end of the day before shutting down because tests and manual site nav...
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JSON.NET Strong Naming And NuGet Woes
Apr 1204This post requires a little understanding about how strong naming works. Its complicated, but basically here is the jist: When you compile a library against a strong named assembly, only that specific version of the assembly can be used with the assembly that you are compiling with out resorting to heroics. You may say what [...]...
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Rebuilding CoasterBuzz, Part III: The architecture using the "Web stack of love"
Apr 1203This is the third post in a series about rebuilding one of my Web sites, which has been around for 12 years. I hope to relaunch in the next month or two. More: Part I: Evolution, and death to WCF Part II: Hot data objects I finally hit a point in the re-do of CoasterBuzz where I feel like the major pieces are in place... rewritten, ported and what not, so that I can focus now on front-end design and more interesting creative problems. I've been asked on more than one occasion (OK, just...

