.NET Developer's Blog

LINQ DataSource Insert, Update and Delete : ASP.NET 4.0

2009-07-21T10:46:00.001-07:00

Its been some time I didn’t write any thing on the blog, I was busy with my projects, so now thought of writing some thing on LINQ Datasource in ASP.NET .NET 4.0 (also part of .NET v3.5).

In this example I am trying to display list of products in a GridView and Insert, Update and Delete products using LINQ Datasource, so lets start building the application.

Create a new Web Application Project in Visual Studio and add one GridView and LINQ DataSource to Default.aspx, before we configure LINQ data source we need a LINQ to SQL Class so add a new file to project and select LINQ to SQL class file.

Once this file is added project we need to select data from data base, for this open the server explorer and Drag and drop Products, Supplier and Category Tables to this file, please refer below screen shot.

Now we have successfully created LINQ SQL class with our required entities, to reflect these changes to project we need build project once here.

Now open Default.aspx and select LINQDataSource1 controls and click ‘>’ symbol to configure the datasource, once you click on that symbol you will be asked to select the Entity class, as we have already created our LINQ to SQL class you can select that from the combo box

Click on Next to select the actual entity that is products, here we need the option to Select, Update and delete so click on Advance button and select those options.

Once selected click on Ok, and Finish, now our LINQDatasource is bound with data and ready to bind to GridView, so select the GridView and click ‘>’ symbol to configure datasource. Select DataSource as LINQDataSource1 and check the options Enable Editing and Enable Deleting.

Now we are ready with our Display products, Edit Products and Delete products you can run the project and check these are working fine.

Now we will add a new product for that we need a separate web form where we will add new product, for this add new Web for and name it as AddProduct.aspx, now add 6 TextBoxs, 2 DropDownLists, 2 Buttons and one CheckBox control to this page as show in the below Screen shot, also add 3 LINQDataSource objects to form.

Here we need 3 LINQDataSource controls because we want to show Categories and Suppliers in combo boxes while creating the product so that user will select the values, so select LinqDataSource1 control and configure select SQL to LINQ class entity and select Suppliers as Table and select only SupplierId and CompanyName fields.

Similarly select LinqDataSource2 and configure and select Categories Table and select only CategoryId and CategoryName fields from this.

These two linq datasources are for displaying the data now we will configure LinqDataSource3 which is for inserting the Product details, so select the LinqDataSource3 and configure select Product table and all fields and select Advanced button and select the option LINQ to perform automatic insert

Now bind the Category and Supplier data to 2 DropDownLists using LinqDataSource1 and LinqDataSource2.

Similarly for Categories DropDownList, now we have to insert the data into LinqDataSource3 once user enters data and clicks Save button, so we need to write following code in the Save button’s click event

In the above code I am creating a ListDictionary object and adding all the values with the Column names and passing that object to Insert method of LinqDatasource after inserting I am redirecting to Default.aspx page.

So to launch Add Product page we need to add a link on the Default.aspx page and on clicking link redirect to AddProduct.aspx page.

Now we are ready with our code let build, run and test.

Hope this helps

Tags : LINQDataSource Insert, Update and Delete, ASP.NET 4.0, GridView, LINQ

Storing Files In Database Using ASP.NET

2009-06-14T00:03:00.001-07:00

In this example I am storing files like word document, text file and excel files into database and retrieving back from database and saving back into a folder.

So lets start creating a Table in SQL Server database in which we are going store our uploaded files, in this table I am creating following columns.

DocumentID int primary key Identity yes
DocumentName varchar(100) name of the document with extension
Document varbinary(MAX) binary column for saving file in Binary format.

Open SQL Server Management Studio and open Northwind database and run following script for creating Table

Now we are ready with our Database creation so lets create a web application

Open Visual Studio and create a Web Application and in Default.aspx add following controls.

One upload control
One Button for uploading
One DropDownList for displaying List of files which are in database already
One Button for opening selected document.

Please refer following screen shot for design.

In Page_Load event we have to retrieve all documents which are already stored in database before so I have written a method called FillDropDown to fill the DropDownList

Once user selected a file to upload and click on Upload button we have to store that file in database in Binary format so I am using InputStream of uploaded file and reading into byte array and connection to database and storing the data.

Once user selects one uploaded file click on open I am retrieving the binary data of that file from database and using FileStream object I am saving the a folder, I am created a Folder called Documents in the solution itself and storing files in that folder, if a file already present in the folder it will be over written. please add following code in open button click event.

Now we are ready with our code just build, run and test.

Tags : Storing files into database, ASP.NET, C#, Web Application, FileStream, InputStream.

Show Long Text Item in ComboBox

2009-06-13T22:54:00.001-07:00

Many times in our windows form we need to show data in Combo Box and items in combo box are have same length, so we face a problem that some item in the combo box is not shown fully, and increasing width of then combo might not always the good idea.

To avoid above mentioned problem we have a solution, we can increase the height of the combo box item at run time based on the length so the item can be read fully, so lets start building the example.

Open Visual Studio and Create a Windows Form Application and Add One label and one combo box and and some items in the combo box as shown in the below screen shot.

Now we are ready with design part, so lets start writing some code to increase the height of the combo box, for this we need to make use of the MeasureItem event of Combo box, in this item we can find out what is the length of each item and based on the length we can set the height, once you we set the item length we need to add the item in Combo Box using DrawItem event.

Normally the combo box draw style is OwnerDrawFixed so we cannot change any item at run time if it is OwnerDrawFixed so we need to change Combo Box’s DrawStyle to OwnerDrawVariable so that run time changes are allowed.

Please add following code in Form_Load, in below code I am setting DrawStyle and assigning MeasureIteam and DrawItem events to Combo Box

We need add following event handler for handling MeasureItem and DrawItem events.

Now we are ready with our code so lets build, run and test.

Tags: Showing full item text in Combo Box, .NET, C#, Windows Application

Client Side AJAX in ASP.NET 4.0

2009-06-08T08:18:00.001-07:00

AJAX is most used technology these days, this avoids page reloads and user will not get frustrated, however it still requires a post back to server so ASP.NET 4.0 introduced ClientSide AJAX which is achieved by using some jQuery and server side service

Here I am going to build a sample using Northwind database Categories and Products, on selecting a category all products under that category will be listed, to list the products I am using a HTML Table and Templates.

So lets start, open Visual Studio 2010 and create a Web Application and name it as ClientSideAjax. To retrive the data from database I am using 2 DataSources those are

1) SQLDataSource1 : Just drag and drop a SQLDataSource object from tool box and select connection and connect to Northwind database’s Categories table.

2) ProductsCategories.edmx: This datasource is EntityDataModel, just right click on project in Solution Explorer and add a new file select EntityDataModel and name it as ProductsCategories.edmx, just follow the steps and connect to Northwind Database and select Product and Categories tables and finish.

Now we have created required datasources for our project, so let start designing the web form, we need to add one Dropdownlist for listing all the categories and one HTML table for listing all the products under selected category, set the DataSource1 to DropDownlist and set DataTextField = CategoryName and DataValueField = CategoryID

We will talk about {{ ProductName }} template in details below.

So now lets write a service from where we will get the all the products under a category, for that I added a WebService page Northwind.asmx(create a folder called Services and Northwind service under that folder) and a web method to get products based on category, please find the asmx page in code below I am creating a public web method getProducts, in this method I am reading the data from ProductsCategories EntityDataModel and returning products.

Now we are ready with our server side code and let start write some client side JQuery to read the data from web service and display using JQuery templates. so we need add some Microsoft AJAX JavaScript files to our project just create a folder in our project called MicorsoftAjax and add following files

You can download these JavaScript files from http://aspnet.codeplex.com

Add reference in the Default.aspx page to all js file and Northwind service, also create a style temple which is used to hide the jQuery template initially

So now we will write a PageLoad method in JQuery to get the products, now we will add following method to Default.aspx

Now we are ready with our code lets build, run and test

Hope this helps.

Tags: Client Side AJAX in ASP.NET 4.0, jQuery, Visual Studio 2010, C# .NET

QueryExtender Web Control : ASP.NET 4.0

2009-06-04T07:47:00.001-07:00

Query extender is a new control introduced in ASP.NET 4.0, this control is used to filter and sort data by using different expressions, it has Search Expression, OrderByExpression, RangeExpressions etc.

When you have data in your Datasource and you want to filter at the application end so you always go for this control.

As of now this control is used with LINQDataSource other DataSource controls are not support with Query Extender in Visual Studio 2010 ASP.NET 4.0 beta 1.

I am building a example how we can filter data using QueryExtender, as it is part of ASP.NET 4.0 here I am using Visual Studio 2010 beta 1 so lets start.

Create a web application and Name it as QueryExtender, now we will add a LINQ To SQL Class file to our project by right clicking the project in Solution Explorer selecting Data and Select LINQ to SQL Class file and name it as LINQProducts.dbml, this is the LINQ DataSource for LINQDataSource.

Once you add this file to our project you can see LINQProducts.dbml file and you will observer 2 parts in the file, now you need to drag and drop your table from Server explorer to right side part, here I am selecting Northwind database's Products table and dropping.

To effect the changes we need to build our project here once.

Now we have created LINQ source for LINQDataSource control, Now open the design view of Default.aspx page and Add LINQDataSource Control from the Toolbox.

Once you have added the LINQDataSource control select the control and click on '>' symbol and click on Configure DataSource, now you will see a wizard for configuring the datasource, select the 'Show only DataContext objects' check box and choose the LINQProductsDataContext from Context combo box, click on next.

Now choose required fields to display, here I am selecting ProductId, ProductName, UnitPrice, UnitsInStock fields to display and click finish.

Now we have creaetd LINQDataSource object and bind the data with Products table to display, now drag and drop GridView control from tool box and add to Default.aspx, and '>' and click on Configure DataSource and select LINQDataSouce1 as datasource and Save.

To check whether data is getting display or not just run the project and see the output .

By this point we have displayed the data using LINQDataSource control to filter the data displayed we will use QueryExtender control, before creating the QueryExtender we need to add a reference in Web.Config to make use of its Expressions, so please add following in Pages -> Control section in Web.Config

Note : In above line you need to replace the PublicKeyToken value with other controls PublicKeyToken.
Once you have done this we are now ready to add QueryExtender to our project just add following code in our Default.aspx page, before adding we need to add some control to our form for search purpose, so add one label and textbox and a button to Default.aspx as shown in the screen shot Design.jpg

Now add QueryExtender control to Default.aspx

In the above lines I am creating a QueryExtender and assigning its taget control as our LINQDataSource1, for filtering I am getting the value from a text box, you can also get the result in order by using OrderByExpression.

Now we are ready with our code so let build, run and test

Hope this helps.

EntityDataSource Control ASP.NET

2009-06-03T11:32:00.001-07:00

ASP.NET 3.5 sp1 introduces a data source control called EntityDataSource using this control we can bind data to different Data Binding controls.

Now lets start building an example application which gets the data from Northwind database employee table.

Open Visual Studio 2008/2010 and create a Web Application.

Now right click on Solution explorer and add new item and select ADO.NET Entity Data Model and name it as Employees, we will fill EntityDataSource object using this model only.

Select the option generate from database and click next

Now click on the New Connection button and give required details and create a connection to Northwind Database and click next

Once you have connected to database it list all the table procedures etc, here I would like to display data of Employee Table so I selected Employee table and click on finish.

Now we are ready with our model once you have done this, in you project you will Employees.edmx file

to use our model we need to build our project and check whether there are any error or not, just build the project once.

Our model is ready now, so lets bind the data to a EntityDataSource control for that we need to select a EntityDataSource control from ToolBox and add to Default.aspx, and also add one GridView control to Default.aspx

To bind the model to our EntityDatasource control just select the control and click on > symbol and select configure.

Select Named Connection combo box and select our EntityModel, click on next

Select EntitySet name as employees, you will see only one employee table because while creating model we have selected only one table if select more those tables also will be listed, one you select employees all the columns of that table will be listed below select which are appropriate to you here I am selected EmpId, first name and last name and finsh

Now we are created EntityDataSource lets bind the data to grid view for that select the grid view and click on ‘>’ symbol and select EntityDataSource1 as data source.

Now we are ready with our code just build, run and test.

tags: Using EntityDataSource Control, EntityDataModel, ASP.NET 3.5, ADO.NET

Bing : A decision making engine

2009-06-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

Bing is new search engine from Microsoft; actually they say it is not search engine but decision making engine. Microsoft tries to live up to Google search.

Bing is good in finding deals, so try it yourself www.bing.com.

List all the Logical Drive in the Computer : Windows Application, C#

2009-05-25T08:21:00.001-07:00

Using System.Management name space we can read the all operating system details and we query System_Win32 database in the following example I am trying to read all the logical drives in the computer and list them in a ListBox and select a drive and you can browse all the files in the drive.

So lets start creating the example, open visual studio and create a Windows Forms Application.

Add one list box and 2 buttons to the Form, you can below screen shot for the design

Now we need to add the reference for the System.Management.dll to project so that we can make use of some class using which we can read all logical drives. Once you add the reference you need to import the System.Management namespace, you can refer below screen shot.

Now we are ready with Design part and reference part so let start putting code to retrieve drive, for that please double click on Get All Drives button and add following code, in the following code I am call a method GetAllDrives in which I am creating object for ManagementObjectSearcher and searching all the drives using “SELECT Caption, DeviceID FROM Win32_DiskDrive” query, please refer below screen shot for code

Now we are done with searching and listing all the drives in the local computer now we will add the code for opening the selected drive in listbox, please refer the below screen shot.

We are now ready with our code just build, run and test.

Hope this helps.

Tags: Read all Logical Drives in Local Computer, C#, Windows Application, .NET

What’s New In Visual Studio 2010 ASP.NET 4.0

2009-05-23T00:25:00.001-07:00

Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2010 and ASP.NET 4.0 beta 1 recently, I felt there are some amazing features which can help developers improve productivity.

Please have look at screen shot of new feature below.

1) New Start page where you have 3 tabs, one is Welcome where we can find welcome note, feedback etc, second tab is project where you can create open projects, third one is Visual Studio tab where you have MSDN, community links

2) Target Multiple Versions of .NET: we can build project on different version of .NET versions and also navigation of projects selection is improved.

3) Code Snippets: this is one of the best feature I felt in Visual Studio 2010 ASP.NET 4.0, type control name like button and press tab you will button control tag is generated for you similarly when you type script and press tab you will see script tags are created for you.

4) FormView Improvements, normally when you use FormView Control it will be rendering HTML with Table tag now by default RenderTable = False if you want you can make it True this is still kept for compatible issues.

5) Improved intelligence, now you can filter the intelligence result by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Space

6) ViewState changes: Now ViewState of a control is by default inherit, that means you can set page level view state and under page all control can inherit its ViewState, if you want to set ViewState to one control separate then you can set for individual control.

This can be done using ViewStateMode = “Inherit” / “Disable” / “Enable”

7) ASP.NET provides multiple ways of generating ClientID. You set a way of ClientID in following ways.
Legacy : The ClientID value is generated by concatenating the ID values of each parent naming container with the ID value of the control. In data-binding scenarios where multiple instances of a control are rendered, an incrementing value is inserted in front of the control's ID value. Each segment is separated by an underscore character (_). This algorithm was used in versions of ASP.NET earlier than ASP.NET 4.0.
Static : The ClientID value is set to the value of the ID property. If the control is a naming container, the control is used as the top of the hierarchy of naming containers for any controls that it contains.
Predictable : This algorithm is used for controls that are in data-bound controls. The ClientID value is generated by concatenating the ClientID value of the parent naming container with the ID value of the control. If the control is a data-bound control that generates multiple rows, the value of the data field specified in the ClientIDRowSuffix property is added at the end. For the GridView control, multiple data fields can be specified. If the ClientIDRowSuffix property is blank, a sequential number is added at the end instead of a data-field value. Each segment is separated by an underscore character (_).
Inherit : The control inherits the ClientIDMode setting of its parent control.

These are very few of new features I will be posting more very soon.

Hope this helps

Tags: What's New in Visual Studio 2010, ASP.NET 4.0

Read & Write ListBox Item into File: Windows Application

2009-05-22T07:54:00.001-07:00

Normally some projects will have very small requirement of storing data, so going to have database and storing small amount of data into database is not suitable answer, you can go for storing data into XML or txt file, in following example I am trying to read and write Listbox items into txt file.
I am using Form_Load method to read data from the txt file and on closing the form I am reading all items in the list box and saving them into a txt file with , separator.
Let start building the example.
Create a windows forms applciation and add a List Box, a Text Box and 2 buttons.
Please refer the screen shot : Design.jpg.

Make sure that you have created data.txt in c:\logs folder, here I am using C:\logs path you can create any where in the system and change page in the code.
Once you are ready with design and creating txt file, we will add code to read all the items in the text file in Form_Load and also in Form_Closing we will ad code to store all the items in to text file back please refer the code below in screen shot FomLoadUnload.JPG

Once we have added code to read and write to text file now we will add code to add and remove items in the list box, we are using Button2 for removing the items and Button1 for adding the items, please add Click event of Button 1 and 2 to the code, you can refer below code in screen shot AddRemoveItems.JPG

Now we are ready with code just build, run and test

hope this helps.

Using SMOs, Read Tables Script using C#.NET

2009-05-20T07:49:00.001-07:00

SQL Server Management Objects (SMOs) are used manipulate database for DBA activities via an application build by you, you can automate some of the DBA tasks by using SMOs in the application.

In this article I am try to explain how we can use SMO to retrieve all the Table listed in Nortwind database and selecting a Table I am display its create script and listing down all the columns in that table.

So lets start create an example how to use SMOs.

Create a Windows Forms application and Add following controls

1) 2 List boxes one is for listing all the tables and one is for listing all the columns in particular table
2) A Text box with multi line mode true and set scrollbars to Vertical

Refer Screen Shot: Design.JPG

Once we have added controls and designed, we need add SMO DLLs for reference so that we can use built-in class.

You need to add following 4 DLL for reference
1) Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfo
2) Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo
3) Microsoft.SqlServer.SmoEnum
4) Microsoft.SqlServer.SqlEnum

You will find these DLL at following location:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\SDK\Assemblies\

Once you have added DLL import them for use, please refer screen shot: References.JPG

Now we are ready with our design and references part, so let’s start writing code to get all the Tables in the Northwind Database and add to the ListBox1, for this I have to create a Server object which represents a SQL Server in the machine we need to pass the server name to create that object, here I am creating module level variable so that I can use it in other methods also.

Once you have created server object, you need to get the Database object and Database object will have collection of table, read the Table collection and add Table names to ListBox1, please can refer the code below and also screen shot:Form_Load.jpg

Now ListBox1 has all the Tables in the Northwind database on selecting any of the table in ListBox1 we want to show all the columns of that table in Listbox2 and also display Create Script of that table in multi line Text box, for that we need to write code in listBox1_SelectedIndexChanged , we create a Table object using selected Table Name in ListBox1 and read all the columns of that table and display in ListBox2, you can refer below code and also screen shot ListColumns.jpg

Now we are ready with our code just build, run and test.

Hope this helps.

Search Files in a Directory : Windows Application

2009-05-18T07:57:00.001-07:00

Following example I am trying to search files in a directory using a criteria, using DirectoryInfo.GetFiles() method we can search files with Criteria and you can use * to find all files those are starting with the some string.

So lets start building example, create a windows forms application and add one label, text box, a button and list box, please refer following screen shot

Add following function to Form1 which takes Search Text as file name and Folder Path where files needs to be searched, In following function I am taking FileName as search text and DirectoryName as folder path and searching the files

Double click on Search button add following code, following code I am simply taking the search text and selecting folder path and passing to the above function

Now we are ready with Code, lets build, run and test

Output:

Tag: DirectoryInfo, FileInfo, C#, Windows Application, Search Files

TechEd 2009 India Experience

2009-05-16T22:57:00.000-07:00

I have attended Microsoft TechEd 2009 at Hyderabad HICC from 13 to 15 May 2009; it was great experience and a great chance to learn new technologies.

Day 1 Experience:
It was awesome to Steve Ballmer speaking at TechEd, he mentioned about present and future opportunities in the market and he mentioned that we need to be more productive in the financial situation, do more with less will help us to come out from the present situation. He also mentioned that being innovative will help us go gain more opportunities. Day 1 I also attended Stephen Walther’s presentation what‘s new in ASP.NET 4.0

Day 2 Experience:
Attended Stephen Walther’s Presentation what’s New in ASP.NET AJAX 4.0, I also personally speak to him and had a photograph with him.

Day 3 Experience:
Attended Presentations on Sliver Light and also some of SQL Server 2008 presentation and those were very informative.

Tags: TechEd 2009 India

SQL Server 2008 Developer Training Kit Available

2009-05-16T22:38:00.000-07:00

The training kit offers the following benefits:
Learn how to build web applications that exploit the unique features and capabilities of SQL Server 2008.
Provides a comprehensive set of presentations, demos and hands-on labs
Designed for web developers who are already familiar with SQL Server application development.
Easy to download and install and works on free editions of SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008.

Produced by Southworks SRL, a well-known provider of evangelism content, using both existing and new content custom developed for this training kit.
Software Requirements
The following software is not included with the training kit and must be downloaded and installed separately.

SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services (or higher-level SKU)
Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express (or higher-level SKU)
AdventureWorks 2008 Sample Databases

The training kit is available at the following URL:
SQL Server 2008 Developer Training Kit

SQL Server 2008, Learn, Training Kit, SQL Server 2008 Learning Videos

Export DataGridView into .csv file

2009-05-12T09:49:00.001-07:00

Following example I am trying to save the DataGridView's Data into .csv file

Please create a Windows Application and Add a DataGridView and a button on Form1, to fill the data initially please add following code in Form1_Load

Double click on the Button and add following code in Button1_Click, in this code we are reading all columns and rows and forming a string and saving in data.csv file

Now we are ready with our code, just build, run and test.

Tags: Export DataGridView to .csv file, Windows Forms, C#, .NET

Handle Click Event of Eclipse: Windows Application

2009-05-12T09:23:00.001-07:00

Normally we dont have any event for the Drawing objects like circle, eclipse ect., so here I am trying to draw a eclipse using graphics and try to give clicking effect and handing that event.

Declare the event handler and deligate to handle the events

Initialise the Click Event for eclipse we are drawing in Form_Load

Draw eclipse in Form paint method

To give clicking effect we need to draw a similar eclipse when you
press the mouse, also check the bounds where mouse is being clicked, please add following code in Form1_MouseDown

And add following code in Form1_MouseUp

Following event will be called when you click the eclipse, so please add following code block

Now we are ready our code just build, run and test.

Tags: Drawing in C#, Eclipse, Handling Events

Getting the Selected Value of Combo Box in DataGridView

2009-05-09T00:22:00.001-07:00

In following example I am try to get the Selected value of Combo Box which is in DataGridView.
Create a Windows Applicaiton and Add a DataGridView in the Form1

We need to initialise DataGridViewEditingControlShowingEventHandler of DataGridView to handle its control events, so please use follwoing code in Forms Constructor

In the form load we will fetch all the data and assign to DataGridView

Now catch the control edit event in the DataGridView and assign the SelectIndexChanged event to each Combo Box in DataGridView

Add Follwoing Combo Box's SelectedIndexChanged which we assigned to all the combo boxes in DataGridView

Now we are ready with our code lets build, run and test.

Output:

Tags: Getting the Selected Value of Combo Box in DataGridView, DataGridView

Reading Outlook Contacts in VB.NET

2009-05-06T11:16:00.001-07:00

In this article I am trying to read the Outlook contact into a Combo Box and selecting a contact I am displaying his/ her details in below Label controls, so lets start building example.

Create a Windows Forms Application and Add Label and Combo Box and change the lable text to Select Contact.

To use the Outlook object in our project we need include a dll from the add references, now add a reference and select "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook" dll from the list.

After adding the dll, now we will import the name space for that use following import

To access Outlook we need to create a object for Outlook via its interface and to get current session we need a NameSpace object to create these object use following code

Now in the Form Load we will initialise the objects and fill the combo box with contact names, for that in the Form_Load use following code

Once we get the list of contacts in the Combo box use will select a Contact on selecting a contact we will display his or her details in the labels we put on the form for that we need to add following coding in the ComboBox_SelectedIndexChanged event, basically we are searching through all contacts and get the selected contact and display his or her details

We need to clear the object memory we used in the project in Form_Disposed event

Now we are ready with our code just build, run and test

Tags: Reading Outlook Contacts using VB.NET

Reading ini File using VB.NET

2009-05-05T23:20:00.000-07:00

Following fucntion reads INI file by Section and Keys and get the value of the Section. Following function uses GetPrivateProfileStringW API function to read the INI file

Private Declare Unicode Function GetPrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" _
    Alias "GetPrivateProfileStringW" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, _
    ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal lpDefault As String, _
    ByVal lpReturnedString As String, ByVal nSize As Int32, _
    ByVal lpFileName As String) As Int32

Public Overloads Sub ReadINIFile(ByVal INIPath As String, _
ByVal SectionName As String, ByVal KeyName As String(), _
ByRef KeyValue As String())
    Dim Length As Integer
    Dim strData As String
    strData = Space$(1024)
    For i As Integer = 1 To KeyName.Length - 1
        If KeyName(i) <> "" Then
            'This will read the ini file using Section Name and Key
            Length = GetPrivateProfileString(SectionName, KeyName(i), KeyValue(i), _
            strData, strData.Length, LTrim(RTrim((INIPath))))
            If Length > 0 Then
                KeyValue(i) = strData.Substring(0, Length)
            Else
                KeyValue(i) = ""
            End If
        End If
    Next
End Sub

Testing above function
Create a Sample INI file using below text in C:\Logs\test.ini
[Sample Section 1]
SampleKey1=SAMPLEVALUE1
SampleKey2=SAMPLEVALUE2
[Sample Section 2]
SampleKey3=SAMPLEVALUE3
SampleKey4=SAMPLEVALUE4

And use following code
Dim KeyName(2) As String
Dim KeyValues(2) As String
KeyName(1) = "ServerName"
KeyName(2) = "DBName"
ReadINIFile("C:\Logs\test.ini", "TEST Server", KeyName, KeyValues)
MessageBox.Show(KeyValues(1) & " " & KeyValues(2))

Hope this helps

Validate All TextBoxes Using JavaScript

2009-05-04T23:02:00.000-07:00

Using following function you can find out all text boxes in the page are entered a value or not, no need to manually write each text box name to validate.

Tags : Validate JavaScript, All TextBoxes, document.getElementByTagName

Microsoft Tech-Ed 2009 At Hyderabad

2009-05-02T07:19:00.001-07:00

Microsoft’s Tech-Ed is going to happen in Hyderabad this year, you can here latest technology news from Microsoft speakers who are actually involved in developing that particular technology.

Tech-Ed is one place where you can make yourself ready for next generation technology, today's economic scenario you need to be ahead of others so this Tech-Ed will help you to stay ahead of others.

You can know about the event at Tech-Ed 2009

You can see what is the agenda at Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

You can register for the event at Register

Tags: Tech-Ed 2009, ASP.NET

Most Valuable Member : DotnetSpider.com

2009-04-28T20:12:00.001-07:00

Today I have received The Most Valuable Member award from the DotnetSpider team, I am active on Dotnetspider.com forum from last 4 years.

Recently they introduced the MVM award for the best and quality contributors, I am very happy to receive this.

You can find the post at DotnetSpider MVMs and my profile in dotnetspider at My Profile

I am also happy for other members who got this award as this is prestigious to us.

Congratulations to all the Winners.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every member in the forum.

Also I would like to thank editors, Raghav and Tony for your support towards me all the time.

Cheers,

Satish.

Creating Dynamic Controls, and Preserve them for alternate Page Loads : ASP.NET

2009-04-23T08:41:00.001-07:00

Normally when you create a control dynamically means at runtime, on the next page load you will loose that control, that control will be no longer exists, in this example I am try to explain how we can store that controls and get them back.

Create a Web Application and Add one button to it.
In the page load add following code, in the following code I am creating a object of Control Collection and keeping it in the Session.

Now Doble click on button1 and add following code in Button1_Click event.
Here in this code I am storing all the controls created into control collection and saving into session.

now we are ready with code just build, run and test.

Tags: Creating Dynamic controls, ASP.NET, C#, Preserve the Dynamic controls

Saving, Retrieving Data in Smart Device Applications

2009-04-20T02:43:00.000-07:00

In this example I am try to use SQL Compact Edition with Smart Device Applications.

We can store data and update the data in the device using SQL CE, so lets start building a example.

Create SmartDeviceProject and add 2 Forms to it, please design the Form1 & Form2 as displayed in the Screen shot.

Now lets create a SQL CE database file, for that please right click on the project add new file and select Database file and name it as Employees.sdf

After adding the database file, create a table with following fields.
ID int
Name nVarchar
City nVarchar
Designation nVarchar

Now we are ready with design part lets write some code to insert data into table.

Now double click on the Add button and add following code, in the following code we are creating SQLCeConncetion object and SQLCeCommand Object to insert the data into the .sdf file, it is almost similar how we insert data into normal SQL Server database, normally our database file will be saved on the device where the application is installed so I have taken the path of the .sdf and creating a connection.

Double click on the View button and create a object for Form2 where will show all the employees details.

Now open the Form2 and add grid and one button as shown in the screen shot above, in Form2_Load event write the code to fill the datagrid, double click on back button and write a code to go back to Form1

Now we are ready with our code let built, run and Test

Implementing Tabs using MultiView Control : ASP.NET

2009-04-11T23:57:00.001-07:00

Using MultiView control in ASP.NET we can achieve tabs in a web page, now in this example I am going to explain how we can create tabs using MulitView control

Create a web application and add a Table control with 1 row and 3 columns and a MultiView control with 3 views, you can refer below screen shot

Here we are adding 3 cells using table control and each cell will have a link button which acts as Tab

We need to set ActiveViewIndex property of a MultiView control to see particular tab for that initially in Page_Load we set ActiveViewIndex to 0 and on clicking every link we will call TabChange event to show the particular tab, in the below code we identify which link button is clicked and based that we will change the ActiveViewIndex to show the contents

Now we are ready with out code, just build, run and test

Hope this helps

Tags : Tab control in ASP.NET, MulitView control, Satish Kumar J

Save Images in Access Database : ASP.NET

2009-04-10T09:20:00.001-07:00

Using OLE Object we can save images in Access Database, in this example we will select a image and save that image in Access database using ASP.NET.

First we will start creating a table in access database.

Create a table ImageTable with following fields

ID AutoNumber (Primary Key)
ImageName Text
ImageValue OLE Object

Now create a WebApplication and add following controls on the Web Form

Upload Control
Button for uploading image and saving into database
DropdownList for listing all the images in Dabase Table
Button for saving the image into a folder
Image to show the image save on the disk

Initially we will fetch the image names which are already saved in the table and show in the drop down list, for that use Page_Load method and insert following code

now double click on upload image button and add following code, in following code we are just reading the image into stream of bytes and we are storing into the database

To resave the image on to the disk we will use following code, once we save image from database to disk we will show that image in image1 control.

now we are ready with our code just build, run and test

hope this helps

Tags: Save images in Access Database, ASP.NET, Save images in Database

IsNumeric in C#

2009-04-08T02:48:00.000-07:00

In C#.NET we don’t have IsNumeric function; to achieve same functionality as IsNumeric in C# we can make use of Double.TryParse. Please find following example how we can achieve this

double db;
string strInput = "SomeValue";
if (double.TryParse(strInput, out db))
{
Response.Write(db.ToString());
}
else
{
Response.Write("Not a number");
}

Hope this helps.
Tag: IsNumeric in C#, .NET

Get All Sundays in a Year

2009-04-06T00:17:00.000-07:00

Following function will return all the Sundays in a specified Year.

///

/// This function will return all the dates of sundays in a Year
/// for example if you pass if year is 2009
/// it will return all the dates of sundays in the year in form of list
///

/// Year
/// List all dates of sundays in form of list string
public List getAllWeekDates(int Year)
{
List strDates = new List();
for (int month = 1; month <= 12; month++)
{
DateTime dt = new DateTime(Year, month, 1);
int firstSundayOfMonth = (int)dt.DayOfWeek;
if (firstSundayOfMonth != 0)
{
dt = dt.AddDays((6 - firstSundayOfMonth) + 1);
}
while (dt.Month == month)
{
strDates.Add(dt.ToString("dd/MMM/yyyy"));
dt = dt.AddDays(7);
}
}
return strDates;
}

Testing above function

List allSundays = getAllWeekDates(DateTime.Now.Year);
DropDownList1.DataSource = allSundays;
DropDownList1.DataBind();

Hope this helps

Tags: .NET, C# DateTime, All Sundays in a Year

Export to Excel from DataGridView

2009-04-02T08:53:00.001-07:00

Here I am explaining, how we can generate Excel file from the DataGridView.

Here I am using DataTable.WriteXML method generate the excel file.

Create a Window Forms Application and on the Form1 add following controls

DataGridView
Button and rename to “Generate Excel File”
FolderBrowserControl

Now add following code in Form1_Load Event, in following code I am creating a DataAdapter to get the data from data base and assigning DataGridView’s DataSource.

And add following code in Button1_Click event, In following code I getting back the DataSource and converting it into DataTable and using DataTable’s WriteXML method I am generating Excel File.

Now we are ready with our code just Build, Run and Test

Hope This Helps.

Tags: DataGridView, Excel, Export, C#, windows

HttpWebRequest and HttpWebResponse

2009-03-29T22:47:00.000-07:00

Following example I am trying to explain how we can request to a URL from our coding and read the Header content of the response.

Create a web application and add a Textbox and a Button to Default.aspx and double click on the button and add following code.

protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
//Create a object for HttpWebRequest using this request object we will
HttpWebRequest req = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(TextBox1.Text);
//request a response from the URL
HttpWebResponse res = (HttpWebResponse)req.GetResponse();
//Reading all header content of response
for (int i = 0; i < res.Headers.Count; i++)
{
Response.Write(res.Headers.AllKeys[i] + " : " + res.Headers[i].ToString() + "
");
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
//Catch if there are any exception
Response.Write(ex.Message);
}
}

Now we are ready with code, lets build, run and test

Hope this helps.

SatishKumar J
Microsoft MVP(ASP.NET)
Tags : HttpWebRequest, HttpWebResponse, Headers

Error Logging Windows Application VB.NET

2009-03-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

Logging is very important for debugging exception at run time; normally logging will help us finding out problem in live environment.

I am post here a logging function using VB.NET, Just add this function in you class and create a directory in C: called Logs.

Public Sub Log(ByVal message As String)
             ' Check whether log.txt is already present or not
               If Not File.Exists("C:\Logs\log.txt") Then
                         'Create if not present
                       Dim fs As FileStream = New FileStream("C:\Logs\log.txt",   FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.ReadWrite)
                      Dim s As StreamWriter = New StreamWriter(fs)
                           s.Close()
                            s.Dispose()
fs.Close()
fs.Dispose()
End If
'Open log.txt in append mode to log errors
Dim fs1 As FileStream = New FileStream("C:\Logs\log.txt", FileMode.Append, FileAccess.Write)
Dim s1 As StreamWriter = New StreamWriter(fs1)
'Wrting a line with error message
s1.Write("Message: " & message & vbCrLf)
'Logging the Date and Time of error
s1.Write("Date/Time: " & DateTime.Now.ToString() & vbCrLf)
s1.Close()
s1.Dispose()
fs1.Close()
fs1.Dispose()
End Sub

Now testing the above function

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Try
Dim j As Integer = 10
Dim i As Integer = 0
Dim k As Integer = j / i
Catch ex As Exception
Log(ex.Message)
End Try
End Sub

Hope this helps

ASP.NET AJAX and Calendar Control

2009-03-25T09:23:00.001-07:00

Normally when we use calendar control in asp.net we see that calendar control occupies lot of space and selecting a date will cause a post back.

To avoid that problem we can use AJAX to select a date from calendar control with out any page post back and hiding the calendar control will save lot of space.

Now lets create a web application and add a script manager and a update panel control, now under update panel add text box, button and a calendar control as shown the below screen shot and make calendar control visible property to false

Now lets write logic in .cs file for that double click on Button and add following code

Calendar1.Visible = true;

and double click on calendar control and add following code

protected void Calendar1_SelectionChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
TextBox1.Text = Calendar1.SelectedDate.ToShortDateString();
Calendar1.Visible = false;
}

Now we are ready with our code, lets run build and test.

Hope this helps.

ASP.NET MVC 1.0 is now Live

2009-03-25T08:53:00.001-07:00

ASP.NET MVC 1.0 is now live and you can download that from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=144444 and you can access the documentation from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=145989.

Tags : ASP.NET MCV, .NET C#, ASP.NET 3.5

Internet Explorer 8

2009-03-19T08:15:00.001-07:00

Latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer v8.0 is released today, and you can download this at following location.

http://www.microsoft.com/ie8

Some of the new features are:

Accelerator on the fly you can email, search with the selected content

Web Slices will fetch you latest information on your favourite sites which you browse frequently

You can easily find content on the page with Smart search and find on page tool bar.

Smart Page Filters gives you more security from internet threats.

It also include lot more features I feel it will be great experience browsing with IE8.

Tags : Internet Explorer 8, IE 8, download Internet Explorer 8.

System Driver Information : Windows Application

2009-03-17T09:54:00.001-07:00

System.Management namespace has lot of classes which will help us in reading Operating system information, Driver information etc.

Lets build a sample application which retrieves what all drivers installed in system.

Create a Windows Application and add one Combo Box and One Button and One List box as shown in below screen shot

What we are going to do here is, first load all the driver names in the Combo Box and after selecting any driver from Combo Box and click on Show Driver Details button we will show all details regarding that driver.

For loading driver names into Combo Box initially we write following code in Form_Load event

Once a driver is selected and clicked on Show Driver Details button then we will show all the details of the driver in list box for that we write following code in Button1_Click event

Now we are ready with our code please build run and test

Hope this helps.

Tags: Driver Information, C#, .NET, Windows Application, System.Management

External Images in .rdlc Reports : ASP.NET

2009-03-16T08:34:00.001-07:00

In this example I will explain how we can use external images in .rdlc reports.

Create a Web Application.

Right click on Project in Solution Explorer –> Add New Item – Select a .rdlc Report

Now Drag and Drop a image control in Header section in the Report.rdlc

Go to Report Menu in Visual Studio and Select Report Parameters –> and Add a parameter with name Path

Now we will set this path parameter to our image’s value property and provide the value at run time, select image and properties(F4) and set following values to Source and Value properties

Source = External and Value = !Path.value

Now create a Image folder in your solution and Add some images to that folder.

As I am only concentration on showing images on the report in this example I am not loading any data on to the report.

Now open Default.aspx page and add MicrosoftReportViewer Control and set MicrosoftReportViewer control source to Report1.rdlc

Now we are ready with design part,

One of the most important thing while displaying external images is to set EnableExternalImages perperty of MicrosoftReportViewer.LocalReport’s to True, this will allow us to show external images on the .rdlc reports

And also we need to set the Path parameter value so that image will be displayed on the report for that we need to all following code to Page_Load event

Now we are ready with our code, just build and run and test

Hope this helps.

Tags : .rdlc report, external Images, ASP.NET

Start date and End date of Current Month

2009-03-16T07:18:00.001-07:00

Following code snippet is will help you find our starting date and ending date of current month.

Dim Year As Integer = DateTime.Today.Year
Dim Month As Integer = DateTime.Today.Month
Dim stDate As DateTime
stDate = New DateTime(Year, Month, 1)
Dim endDate As DateTime
endDate = New DateTime(Year, Month, DateTime.DaysInMonth(Year, Month))
MessageBox.Show(stDate.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy"))
MessageBox.Show(endDate.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy"))

In the above code I have taken Current year in Year variable current month in Month. For start date of any month will be 1 so we can directly give Year, Month, 1 as parameters to create start date. For end date we have to get the current month end date for that we can use in built function DayInMonth and create end date.

Hope this helps

Tags : Start Date, End Date of Current Month in VB.NET

Kobe : Microsoft Implementation of Web 2.0

2009-03-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

Web 2.0 much discussed term nowadays; what is Web 2.0 lets us first define what Web 1.0 and then come to Web 2.0.

Web 1.0: Normal web applications which provide some information and very minimal user interaction with the application, this is server centric

Web 2.0: A rich Web application which provides more interactions with user, and user can customize his content etc, and this is user centric.
One of the examples for Web 2.0 is twitter.com, in this web site you can share photos, customize view etc.

Microsoft has come with some starter kit for implementing Web 2.0 applications and it is called Kobe.

They are providing some good information how to plan and build Web 2.0 application, you can find more details, examples and some videos at following link.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/bb194897.aspx

Sync Services in SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Visual Studio 2008

2009-03-02T20:42:00.000-08:00

Sync Services in SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Visual Studio 2008

Visual Studio 2008 has a powerful feature Sync Services for SQL Server Compact Edition, which will allow user to sync data from client to server and vice versa, this will make job easy for developer who are developing smart device application or window application with local database.
Modify local database as and when you needed and updating with server database is far easier than earlier merge applications.

Let us build a sample application for demo the Sync Services in SQL CE 3.5

Create a windows application and a new item and select LocalDataCache type, this LocalDataCache is the local database file holds the local copy of your server database

Once you add LocalDataCache file you will see following window on your screen to select particular tables from the server database which you want to keep at client side. Here you need to select the Server connection by clicking new and client databse(.sdf) file is automatically created by VS2008 for you

Here I am taking the Northwind database for this example and I am selecting Employees table for demo

Now click on Add button at below to select specific tables

Once you have selected the tables just click on the Show Code Example and copy the code into clipboard this code we will use for Synching the data.

Now we are ready with the back end part, creating a local database etc.

Now let’s design a form to demonstrate the synching mechanism
Here I am adding 2 DataGridViews one is for local database and second is for server database.

Click on Add Project Data source

Select Database click on Next

Select Client Connection and Click Next

Click on Finish.

Now we will add data source for second datagridview and it will be server database data.

Add Project Data Source

Click on Next

Select Server Data connection and Click next

Select the employee table and click finish.

Now add 3 buttons showed in below screen shot

Double click on Update Local Data and add following code, this code updates the data in the local database

private void btnLocalUpdate_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
employeesTableAdapter.Update(this.northwindDataSet.Employees);
}

Double click on Update Server Data and add following code, this code updates the data in the Server database

private void btnServerUpdate_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
employeesTableAdapter1.Update(this.northwindDataSet1.Employees);
}

Now we are updating Local and Server database individually, now we will write a code that will sync both the databases, now double click on Sync data and add following code

private void btnSync_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Call SyncAgent.Synchronize() to initiate the synchronization process.
// Synchronization only updates the local database, not your project’s data source.
LocalDataCache1SyncAgent syncAgent = new LocalDataCache1SyncAgent();
Microsoft.Synchronization.Data.SyncStatistics syncStats = syncAgent.Synchronize();

this.northwindDataSet.Merge(this.employeesTableAdapter.GetData());
// TODO: Reload your project data source from the local database (for example, call the TableAdapter.Fill method).
// TODO: This line of code loads data into the 'northwindDataSet1.Employees' table. You can move, or remove it, as needed.
this.employeesTableAdapter1.Fill(this.northwindDataSet1.Employees);
// TODO: This line of code loads data into the 'northwindDataSet.Employees' table. You can move, or remove it, as needed.
this.employeesTableAdapter.Fill(this.northwindDataSet.Employees);
}

To sync data bio directional that mean updating from client to server and vise versa we need to add a line of code, now open the LocalDataCache1.cs add following line in OnInitialized

this.Employees.SyncDirection= Microsoft.Synchronization.Data.SyncDirection.Bidirectional;

Now we are ready with our example just run the application and modify data in any one the grid and update it and click on Sync Data and see the out put.

Hope this helps.

ASP.NET AJAX 3.5 Example

2009-02-27T01:53:00.000-08:00

`In this example I am Using AJAX to show how you can display data using AJAX.

This will work very fast and you will see there is not page reload is occurring

Create a Web Application and modify Default.aspx html content
I am adding Script manager control and a Update Panel control, Under Update panel control add 2 labels and 2 dropdownlist control and gridview like below

Once Modify Default.aspx, open Default.aspx.cs and modify the Page_Load and add following code.

Now we will add code to fetch the Orders by particular Employee, for that we need write code in DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged event, please add following code

Now we will fetch the order details of selected order number for that we need to add the following code in DropDownList2_SelectedIndexChanged event

Now we are ready with over code, just build, run and test

Hope this help you.

SQL Server Compact 3.5 Sync Services

2009-02-26T20:25:00.000-08:00

SQL Server Compact 3.5 Sync Services is introduced in SQL CF 3.5 which is very useful in storing offline data in our application and synchronising the same with server as and when required, previous to SQL CE 3.5 we used do this operation using Merge application however we were not having much flexibility with merge applications.

When you ported your application on any mobile device or compact device which will have limited network connectivity, you can use this SQL Server Compact Sync services to store your data offline in your application and as and when your get the Connectivity you can sync data with server database, this Sync services has all the in-built facilities to Sync your data properly

Counting Characters in Word Document Using VB.NET

2009-02-25T20:57:00.000-08:00

Following function is used to count the number of character in a Word document, parameters are file name and optional include number of lines also.

Cheers,
SatishKumar J
Microsoft MVP(ASP.NET)

.NET Developers blog

2009-02-25T20:37:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Welcome to my blog here I will be blogging all about .NET.

Thanks for visiting, visit again.

SatishKumar J
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (ASP.NET)