Tuesday, June 29, 2010

IIS Express

Microsoft have been working on a new flavor of IIS 7.x that is optimized for developer scenarios that we are calling “IIS Express”. It combines the ease of use of the ASP.NET Web Server with the full power of IIS. Specifically:

  • It’s lightweight and easy to install (less than 10Mb download and a super quick install)
  • It does not require an administrator account to run/debug applications from Visual Studio
  • It enables a full web-server feature set – including SSL, URL Rewrite, Media Support, and all other IIS 7.x modules
  • It supports and enables the same extensibility model and web.config file settings that IIS 7.x support
  • It can be installed side-by-side with the full IIS web server as well as the ASP.NET Development Server (they do not conflict at all)
  • It works on Windows XP and higher operating systems – giving you a full IIS 7.x developer feature-set on all OS platforms


IIS Express (like the ASP.NET Development Server) can be quickly launched to run a site from a directory on disk.

Look at scott Guthrie's post for more information.

Note: Beta will be released soon.

Linq

I am using Linq to entities in one of my project and here are the few things I found.

LINQ to Entities does not recognize the method 'System.String ToString()' method, and this method cannot be translated into a store expression.

You may get the above error if you try to use the ToString() method in your Linq to SQL or lambda expression. To fix this try storing the ToString() value in a temporary variable and pass the temporary variable to the lambda query.

A specified Include path is not valid. The EntityType 'xxxxxxx' does not declare a navigation property with the name 'xxxxxxxx'

You may get the above error if you try to use a wrong entity name with Include.

eg. entities.Category.Include.Where(cat => cat.CategoryId == 1)

Friday, June 18, 2010

First project

Time for some real work after all other initial stuff in my new work place. I have started working on a project which has a mix of technologies Sharepoint, ASP.NET, C#, Linq to Entities, WCF, ASMX Web services, SQL SERVER 2008.

I am working on an Import/Export task using C#, Linq to Entities, WCF, ASMX Web Services.

I know about the Linq to Sql Debugger Visualizer addin for Visual Studio and it looks like Linq to Entitites also have one similar to that.

Linq to Entities Debugger Visualizer

Monday, June 14, 2010

Free icons to use for Applications Development

FAMFAMFAM Icons - http://famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/

http://p.yusukekamiyamane.com/

http://jonasraskdesign.com/iconarchive/iconarchive.html

Linquify

Business Class Generator for LINQ to SQL and the Entity Framework

Linquify by Primary Objects is a C# .NET business class generator for LINQ to SQL and the Entity Framework, helping to support rapid development of .NET and ASP .NET web application data layers. Linquify is free for use under the LGPL.

Linquify installs as a Visual Studio 2008/2010 addin, which allows you to select your LINQ to SQL dbml file or Entity Framework edmx file and automatically generate a set of easy to use business classes. The generated classes allow you to support a complete 3-tier software architecture and simple handling of database objects, with full support for LINQ queries. Customizations to the generated classes can be easily made within the generated user partial classes.

Linquify Key Features

  • Visual Studio 2008/2010 Addin for easy generation.

  • Compatible with LINQ to SQL and the Entity Framework.

  • Compatible with SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, and any other compatible database platform via the LINQ provider, DbLinq.

  • Automatic generation of Types library, containing business classes, and supporting 3-tier architecture.

  • Simple Load(), Save(), Delete() methods for making database calls.

  • Full support for LINQ queries.

  • Full support for passing DTO objects within Session and between postbacks.

  • Optimized SQL query execution.

  • Includes generated partial classes for customizing business objects.


Download Linquify Addin v 1.6

Note: The above installer should automatically create VS2008/2010 addin. If it is not created you can create it manually using the following instructions.

Linquify Addin instructions - Manual install