Articles : Page 1 of 2

  • POP Forums v9.2 posted to CodePlex, with new languages, post voting and the scoring game

    POP Forums v9.2 posted to CodePlex, with new languages, post voting and the scoring game

    Jan 12
    24

    POP Forums v9.2.0 is the third release for the ASP.NET MVC3 version of POP Forums. It is feature complete, stable, and ready for feedback. For previous release notes, see previous releases. Check out the live preview: http://popforums.com/Forums Setup instructions are available in the documentation section. Upgrading? If you're upgrading from v9.0 or v9.1, simply replace the existing files. You'll also have to run the PopForums4.xto4.2.sql SQL script against your existing database. That ...

  • Using QUnit with Razor Layouts

    Using QUnit with Razor Layouts

    Dec 11
    11

    Given how central JavaScript is to many modern web applications,  it is important to use unit tests to drive the design and quality of that JavaScript. But I’ve noticed that there are a lot of developers that don’t know where to start. There are many test frameworks out there, but the one I love is QUnit, the jQuery unit test framework. Most of my experience with QUnit is writing tests for a client script library such as a jQuery plugin. Here’s an example of one QUnit test file I wrote a ...

  • Four Years At Microsoft

    Four Years At Microsoft

    Oct 11
    15

    Today, October 15 2011, marks four years of being a Microsoft employee for me. As such, it’s time for a little introspection, but in many ways, Tim Heuer already introspected for me. Much of what he writes echoes my own experience, thus leaving me with less to write about. It’s the Microsoft way, or the highway. Which is conveniently located near Microsoft Way. - Photo by Todd Bishop, CC BY 2.0 Looking back in my archives, I realized I haven’t written a whole lot about what it’s like to...

  • RFC: Web Platform Installer (WebPI) with an offline feed mode for bandwidth savings

    RFC: Web Platform Installer (WebPI) with an offline feed mode for bandwidth savings

    Sep 11
    24

    My 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...

  • Adding Export Capabilities to the Razor WebGrid

    Adding Export Capabilities to the Razor WebGrid

    Sep 11
    03

    When MVC first came out I really missed having a grid control. Now a few years later, we finally have a grid control again. In case, you didnt know the WebGrid was included in the System.Web.Helpers assembly which shipped with MVC 3. After using a variety of grid controls over the years I was actually glad that the API for the new WebGrid was kept clean and simple. Here is a screenshot of what the grid looks like: To display a grid on a razor view page, you basically create a new grid objec...

  • Studio for Wijmo MVC Review

    Studio for Wijmo MVC Review

    Aug 11
    22

    I was recently asked to review Studio for Wijmo MVC by Component One and, overall, I am impressed. There are 2 major components of this. The first is Wijmo Complete which is a collection of over 30 UI widgets (very similar to jQuery UI). The second is Wijmo Scaffolding for MVC which builds upon the scaffolding that was released as part of the MVC 3 Tools Update (note: is does *not* build on top of powershell-based MVC Scaffolding which Microsoft released earlier this year). Some of the Wijmo...

  • The BackboneJS and Knockout Danceoff

    The BackboneJS and Knockout Danceoff

    Aug 11
    09

    I just rolled out Tekpub’s latest drop for the MVC 3 series: BackboneJS with MVC 3, and a lot of people are curious why I didn’t use Knockout. So here ya go - my thoughts on the two. http://www.pimpartworks.com/artwork/gmayhew/dance-off They Don’t Do The Same Thing It’s important to realize straight away that Knockout’s focus is different than Backbone. You can do the same things with Knockout that you can with Backbone - and vise-versa - but all they definitely are not two of the same f...

  • How to access controller methods from a view in ASP.NET MVC

    How to access controller methods from a view in ASP.NET MVC

    Jul 11
    30

    This question has been posed in several places. One of the places is on StackOverflow here. The use case here is that my controller has important state or an important function, and I’d like to leverage it from the view. It’s not appropriate to factor out to an html helper or other view-based utility class. It is something unique to the controller. It would be very easy to just pass the controller over to the view so that the view could make use of its methods, but there is a lot of discussion...

  • What’s the Difference Between a Value Provider and Model Binder?

    What’s the Difference Between a Value Provider and Model Binder?

    Jun 11
    30

    ASP.NET MVC 3 introduced the ability to bind an incoming JSON request to an action method parameter, which is something I wrote about before. For example, suppose you have the following class defined (keeping it really simple here): public class ComicBook { public string Title { get; set; } public int IssueNumber { get; set; } } And you have an action method that accepts an instance of ComicBook: [HttpPost] public ActionResult Update(ComicBook comicBook) { // Do something with ComicBo...

  • Community Day 2011 - Fun with ASP.NET MVC, MEF and NuGet

    Community Day 2011 - Fun with ASP.NET MVC, MEF and NuGet

    Jun 11
    24

    To start the blog post: AWESOME! Thats what I have to say about the latest edition of Community Day 2011. I had the privilege of doing a session on ASP.NET MVC 3, MEF and NuGet, and as promised to the audience: here are the slides. For those who want to see the session, the recording can be found on Channel 9 from a previous event. Fun with ASP.NET MVC3, MEF and NuGet Community Day 2011, Mechelen, Belgium, 23/06/2011 Abstract: So you have a team of developers And a nice architecture to bui...