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Using an alternate JSON Serializer in ASP.NET Web API
Mar 1209The new ASP.NET Web API that Microsoft released alongside MVC 4.0 Beta last week is a great framework for building REST and AJAX APIs. I've been working with it for quite a while now and I really like the way it works and the complete set of features it provides 'in the box'. It's about time that Microsoft gets a decent API for building generic HTTP endpoints into the framework. DataContractJsonSerializer sucks As nice as Web API's overall design is one thing still sucks: The built-in JSON S...
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ASP.NET MVC + Selenium + IISExpress
Dec 1122The goal of this blog entry is to explain how you can create integration tests for ASP.NET MVC applications by using a combination of Selenium WebDriver and IISExpress. Integration tests are useful when you want to test an entire user story. For example, you might want to test whether a user can successfully add an item to a shopping cart. Adding an item to a shopping cart might require the execution of C# code, database code, and JavaScript code. Using an integration test, you can verify t...
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Scott Hanselman's 2011 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows
Dec 1101Everyone collects utilities, and most folks have a list of a few that they feel are indispensable. Here's mine. Each has a distinct purpose, and I probably touch each at least a few times a week. For me, util means utilitarian and it means don't clutter my tray. If it saves me time, and seamlessly integrates with my life, it's the bomb. Many/most are free some aren't. Those that aren't free are very likely worth your 30-day trial, and perhaps your money. Here are most of the contents of my ...
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New Bundling and Minification Support (ASP.NET 4.5 Series)
Nov 1128This is the sixth in a series of blog posts I'm doing on ASP.NET 4.5. The next release of .NET and Visual Studio include a ton of great new features and capabilities. With ASP.NET 4.5 you'll see a bunch of really nice improvements with both Web Forms and MVC - as well as in the core ASP.NET base foundation that both are built upon. Today’s post covers some of the work we are doing to add built-in support for bundling and minification into ASP.NET - which makes it easy to improve the perfor...
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Using the West Wind Web Toolkit to set up AJAX and REST Services
Nov 1103I frequently get questions about which option to use for creating AJAX and REST backends for ASP.NET applications. There are many solutions out there to do this actually, but when I have a choice - not surprisingly - I fall back to my own tools in the West Wind West Wind Web Toolkit. I've talked a bunch about the 'in-the-box' solutions in the past so for a change in this post I'll talk about the tools that I use in my own and customer applications to handle AJAX and REST based access to servic...
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What I liked of Agile.NET 2011 Europe
Oct 1120A few weeks ago I attended the Agile.NET 2011 Europe conference, in Gent. In this post I just want collect some links to the slides of the event, and give some personal comments on the sessions and topics. Agile from A to Z It all started very early on Monday (probably it’s standard here in Belgium, but it’s my first conference that starts with the first session at 9:00am) with a nice keynote from Jon Jagger, titled “Agile from A to Z”. It was a nice collections of quotes and facts about Agi...
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Loading jQuery Consistently in a .NET Web App
Oct 1110One thing that frequently comes up in discussions when using jQuery is how to best load the jQuery library (as well as other commonly used and updated libraries) in a Web application. Specifically the issue is the one of versioning and making sure that you can easily update and switch versions of script files with application wide settings in one place and having your script usage reflect those settings in the entire application on all pages that use the script. Although I use jQuery as an exa...
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RFC: Web Platform Installer (WebPI) with an offline feed mode for bandwidth savings
Sep 1124My wife is in the Kingdom of Swaziland this evening. If she was a developer over there and wanted to use Web Platform Installer to get Visual Studio or some large download she would have to patiently bring the bits down over 3G. If she was very well off, she might have ASDL with a maximum speed of 512kbps down, most likely with a cap. I've talked about limited connectivity in African countries and other nations (*cough* New Zealand *cough*) before on this blog and it's no fun. I've told the w...
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Installing and Running node.js applications within IIS on Windows - Are you mad?
Aug 1128Some folks on our team have been working on making node.js work awesomely on Windows. There's a few questions you might have. First, what's node.js? If you're not familiar with node.js, it's a new web programming toolkit that everyone's talking about. It's the one that makes you feel not hip if you don't know what it is. Like Ruby on Rails was a few years back. Folks called it Node and it's basically server-side JavaScript. The idea is that if you are doing a bunch of JavaScript on the cl...
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Learning about Progressive Enhancement - Supporting Mobile Browsers with CSS3 Media Queries
Aug 1125I blogged about how happy I've been working with designer Jeremy Kratz on my recent site redesign. We've been meeting lately about small improvements and tweaks. One of the core goals was to support many screen sizes from 30 down to a small smart phone screen. You can see the results on the right in a Windows Phone and iPhone. My team is doing a lot of work on Mobile lately, not just with things like jQuery Mobile and what that means not just for ASP.NET but the mobile web in general. We've...
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