September 2008 - Posts

• jQuery in Action

  Assuming you were not living under a rock on Monday, you likely saw the announcement that Microsoft will be shipping jQuery in the next version of Visual Studio. The jQuery intellisense annotation support will be available as a free web-download in a few weeks (and will work great with VS 2008 SP1 and the free Visual Web Developer 2008 Express SP1).  The new ASP.NET MVC download will also distribute it, and add the jQuery library by default to all new projects. We will also extend Microsoft product support to jQuery beginning later this year, which will enable developers and enterprises to call and open jQuery support cases 24x7 with Microsoft PSS. Going forward we'll use jQuery as one of the libraries used to implement higher-level controls in the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit, as well as to implement new Ajax server-side helper methods for ASP.NET MVC.  New features we add to ASP.NET AJAX (like the new client template support) will be designed to integrate nicely with jQuery as well.  We also plan to contribute tests, bug fixes, and patches back to the jQuery open source project.  These will all go through the standard jQuery patch review process. [Scott Guthrie] This is good news for two reasons: Microsoft is shipping open source. Some where in Redmond there is a room full of lawyers hyperventilating. jQuery rocks! A couple of months ago I decided I wanted to learn the ins and outs of jQuery quickly, so I picked up the excellent jQuery in Action by Manning. While the book is great, there is so much to jQuery I doubt anyone really knows everything you can do with it (this is a good thing). Since it will be “in the box” shortly, if you are not familiar with jQuery and books are your thing, I would recommend grabbing a copy. Posted to Code and tagged as jquery , books Similar Posts Unfuddle == BaseCamp For Developers IIS7, UrlRewriting, No File Extensions Quick Tips For ASP.Net - Part One Posted Sep 30 2008, 07:37 AM by Simpable Filed under: Code

• On A PC

  As I previously noted, I have been increasingly frustrated with using my MBP for work. After hours it is still second to none, but as also previously noted, things are quite busy around here now and I really just want to get some things done. Here are a couple of quick observations on the switch back to Vista/Windows for the last couple of weeks. x64 – I heard some horror stories from folks who jumped on x64 Vista on day one, however I have had zero issues with my everyday applications. There are some edge case utilities, but nothing I would miss. I am still pre-winrot, but both laptops fly on x64. Sexy – I am writing this post on a Dell Latitude D630. It is a solid machine, but even if you hate Apple, you have to admit the MBP is a beautiful piece of hardware. However, I did see a new Latitude E series last week and Dell has made a major jump forward. If you are looking to buy a new Windows laptop, at least on appearance I would highly recommend you check out the E series. Evernote – Evernote is an extremely useful tool which I have written about quite a bit. Although I do prefer the GUI for the OS X version, the integration story is way better on Windows. You can send clippings directly from the browser and Outlook directly to the Evernote. Live Writer – By far the best blogging client at any price point Windows or OS X. The Wave 3 beta version is a bit flaky, but it is still very useful. Battery – I popped a secondary battery into the modular bay and Vista is now saying I have about 6 hours. Vista on my MBP was horrible (~1 hour). Not sure if this is an Apple or Microsoft issue, but the new Dell is much better. Vista Battery – speaking of batteries, this is a very helpful addition for those looking to eek out a little extra battery. (hat tip to Josh). Chat – Live Messenger still does not have tabs. This makes no sense to me. Outlook – I still hate email and Outlook is still a mess, but it is years ahead of Entourage in just about every way. Launchy – Launchy is nice, but it is no QuickSilver. 1Password – This is a killer OS X app which integrates directly into every browser and manages all of your username/passwords and much more. I can still access my account via the browser, but it is not the same. SharedView – this application for sharing your screen (and desktop control) for Windows has come along way since it was first released. More on this in a future post. Stable – I skipped Vista pre-SP1. Except for an occasional Wifi hicup on Boot Camp, Vista has been really stable for me (~7 weeks usage). Weight – My new 14 inch Dell weights more than the 15 inch MBP (even with out the second battery). I am starting to seriously consider picking up a NetBook (Dell Mini, HP, or Lenovo S10) for travel. My power needs are much less when on the road, so this is starting to sound like a no brainer. Just need to wait a bit and see which machine comes out on top. Posted to Technology and tagged as vista , os-x , evernote , wlw , x64 , mbp , sharedview , netbook Similar Posts My MBP – Bye Bye Luster iPhone vs. BlackBerry What Software do I use on the Mac? Posted Sep 29 2008, 07:34 AM by Simpable Filed under: Technology

• Intel Capital invests $20M in Telligent

  Today is the official announcement of a very big next step in the life of Telligent. Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment organization, today announced an agreement to acquire a $20 million stake in Telligent Systems, makers of social computing solutions and business intelligence tools. Based in Dallas, Telligent will utilize the funds to expand its sales teams and territories, including growth in international markets, as well as increase its marketing and advertising initiatives and product development plans. I have personally gone back and forth over the last four years on the topic of investment funding. I was never a big fan of taking money simply with the idea of building something big and hoping to make money on small margins. However, as Rob mentioned, our market is growing and getting more competitive daily. We have a pretty clear understanding of where we want to go and how we would like to get there. It is time to go all in and play the hand we were dealt (or in our case built). The market news over the last couple weeks and the still lingering remnants of the .Com bust are hard to overlook, but I am personally really proud of what we built and I am really looking forward to the bigger ride over the next couple of years. Posted to Business and tagged as telligent , intel-capital Similar Posts A Remarkable Moo Cow My MBP – Bye Bye Luster iPhone vs. BlackBerry Posted Sep 23 2008, 09:11 AM by Simpable Filed under: Business

• NVelocity Server Control

  I have been chatting with some folks about the possibility of introducing NVelocity into ASPX pages without the need to use MVC or have the entire page generated by it. Using the SimpleTemplate component I pushed previously, I wrote a light weight server control which wraps the NVelocity implementation. This control should be usable with both ASP.Net MVC and regular ASPX pages. Before we look at the code, here it is in action: <T:SimpleTemplateControl runat="Server" ID="test1" >   #foreach($name in $content) <h1>Name: $name</h1> #end   </T:SimpleTemplateControl>   <T:SimpleTemplateControl runat="Server" ID="test2" DataSourceName = "names" > #foreach($name in $names) <h1>Name: $name.First, $name.Last</h1> #end   </T:SimpleTemplateControl> Then, some simple code to bind the data: protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { string[] names = {"Scott", "Beata", "Emily"}; test1.DataSource = names;   object[] items = { new {First = "Scott", Last = "Watermasysk"}, new {First = "Emily", Last = "Watermasysk"} };   test2.DataSource = items; } There is quite a bit which could be done to improve the code (caching, shared contexts, access to the context, remove #foreach, etc), but for now, here it is: [ParseChildren(false)] public class SimpleTemplateControl : DataBoundControl { public string DataSourceName { get; set; }   [PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerDefaultProperty)] public string Template { get; set; }   protected override void AddParsedSubObject(object obj) { var litControl = obj as LiteralControl; if(litControl != null) Template = litControl.Text; }   protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer) { if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(Template)) return;   var icntx = TemplateEngine.CreateContext(); if(DataSource != null) icntx.Put(DataSourceName ?? "content", DataSource);   writer.Write(TemplateEngine.Parse(Template, icntx)); } } Also note, as previously mentioned, NVelocity’s support for fancy loops means there is no need for separate templates like ASP.Net’s Repeater control.  Posted to Code and tagged as nvelocity , aspnet , mvc Similar Posts SimpleTemplate MvcContrib NVelocity Extension Simplifying ASP.Net - NVelocity Posted Sep 02 2008, 05:49 AM by Simpable Filed under: Code