As an organization, we approach training from a mentor/mentee concept. This allows our trainees to have a dedicated training partner to guide him/her through the module and it allows for the mentor to learn communication and management skills. We have begun reviewing our training process, in particular our .Net training modules. With this in mind we have started reviewing various methods for enhancement, with our focus on building off our present .NET training, which is still very effective. This current module includes basic .NET concepts, with the main focus on building a simple ASP.NET web application, teaching code-behinds, page life-cycle, and ASP controls.

In order to incorporate ASP.NET MVC 2 into our training, we are expanding on the base module with a new sub-module. This will allow the trainee to focus on the new technology without having to rewrite any existing business logic or data access logic. We believe this will be very effective in that it will allow the trainee to worry less about the business rules and emphasize the benefits of using the technology.

We also see further benefits in completing a separate component module will allow for more explicit examples to be completed since the trainee will not be merely scratching the surface of the concept in an add-on task of the original base module. Additionally, we can gear this not only towards trainees, but to seasoned .NET developers who need a solid introduction to new concepts.

In the following postings you will find how this methodology can be beneficial as we will go through an in depth example of completing certain components of the base module, then completing the MVC module and highlighting the differences between the two.

Topics to be covered in the next post:

ASP.NET Arch. VS MVC Architecture

ASP.NET Practices VS MVC Practices

-Craig and Karl

I created this Tiff file using only the following 5 lines of code:

AtalaImage atalaImage = new AtalaImage(2550, 3263, PixelFormat.Pixel1bppIndexed);
atalaImage.Resolution = new Dpi(300, 300, ResolutionUnit.DotsPerInch);
TiffDocument testDoc = new TiffDocument();
testDoc.Pages.Add(new TiffPage(atalaImage, TiffCompression.Group4FaxEncoding));
testDoc.Save(YOUR_LOCATION);

Prior to using this code I had simply scanned a blank sheet. I quickly realized this was not a good alternative due to inconsistencies with the scanner bed. Using this simple code I created a perfect Tiff.

-Craig

-Craig

Here is the code

public class BaseController : Controller

{

    protected override void OnActionExecuting

        (ActionExecutingContext filterContext)

    {

        // If session exists

        if (filterContext.HttpContext.Session != null)

        {

            //if new session

            if (filterContext.HttpContext.Session.IsNewSession)

            {

                string cookie =

                    filterContext.HttpContext.Request.Headers["Cookie"];

                //if cookie exists and sessionid index is greater than zero

                if ((cookie !=null) &&

                    (cookie.IndexOf("ASP.NET_SessionId") >= 0))

                {

                    //redirect to desired session 

                    //expiration action and controller

                    filterContext.Result =

                        RedirectToAction("SessionExpired", "Home");

                    return;

                }

            }

        }

        //otherwise continue with action

        base.OnActionExecuting(filterContext);

    }

}

}

This simple but effective method ensures that no actions will be executed if the session has expired forcing the user to login again

-Craig

1. Adding reference to SQLite.dll. After installing SQLite there will be a Compact Framework folder in the following path :C:\ProgramFiles\SQLite.NET\bin.  This folder contains the System.Data.SQLite.dll that needs to be referenced.

2 The same path will also contain the dll which Windows Mobile will need to invoke the methods contained in the SQLite.dll.  The following file needs to be added to the project which contains the main executable,  SQLite.Interop.065.DLL.

Once the interop dll is in the project you can start using SQLite in the Mobile Application just as you would for any other application.

Craig

While testing the policy, we were unable to return a proper FaultContract from the WCF Service.  The only error that we received was the generic Communication Error:

System.ServiceModel.CommunicationException: An error occurred while receiving the HTTP response to (path of service).
 This could be due to the service endpoint binding not using the HTTP protocol.
This could also be due to an HTTP request context being aborted by the server (possibly due to the service shutting down).
See server logs for more details. --->  System.Net.WebException: The underlying connection was closed:
An unexpected error occurred on a receive.
  System.IO.IOException: Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was
forcibly closed by the remote host.
 System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.

This error is incredibly deceiving and led to many dead ends while trying to track down the root cause of the error. I re-wrote the app.config file and removed and re-added the service references, all to no avail.

The cause of the problem was simply in the name of the policy. If you don’t name your shielding policy “WCF Exception Shielding” verbatim then the policy will not be found and the error above will be thrown.  If you do name your policy something different or you implement different policies for different types of exceptions then you have to explicitly state in the ExceptionShielding attribute the name of the policy as follows:

C#:[ExceptionShielding("MyPolicy")]
VB: <ExceptionShielding ("MyPolicy")>

I renamed the policy to the default name and started receiving the Fault Contracts as expected.

Hope this helps eliminate some headaches for someone.

-Craig

We finally realized that it was an issue with Resharper and how the tests were executed differently then when run is Visual Studio using default run (ctrl + r, t)

Once this was solved, we were getting reference exceptions.

To solve this error, it is necessary to reference in your test project all of the DLL’s that are referenced in your Spring xml file. It will not work unless you do so.

-Craig

/////////////////////////////////////////
// by Craig Vallee
// Consultant
// Tallan, Inc.
/////////////////////////////////////////

private static List<Bitmap> ImageToBitmap()
{
    //Create and Image object from file path and name
    Image originalImage = Image.FromFile(@"C:\Temp\Your_File.tif");

    //Create a collection of Bitmap objects 
    List<Bitmap> bitmapList = new List<Bitmap>();

    //Place holders for setting resolution of new Bitmap objects
    var xResolution = originalImage.HorizontalResolution;
    var yResolution = originalImage.VerticalResolution;

    //Create FrameDimesion for iteration through file frames
    FrameDimension frameDimension = new FrameDimension(originalImage.FrameDimensionsList[0]);

    //Framecount of image for iteration through file frames
    int frameCount = originalImage.GetFrameCount(FrameDimension.Page);

    //Simple iteration through file frames
    for (int i = 0; i < frameCount; ++i)
    {
        //Create bitmap to hold individual frame
        Bitmap bmp;

        //Moves active frame pointer to next frame in iteration
        originalImage.SelectActiveFrame(frameDimension, i);

        //Cast image frame to Bitamp holder
        bmp = (Bitmap)originalImage;

        //Create new Bitmap from placeholder
        Bitmap temp = new Bitmap(bmp);

        //Set bitmap resolution based on original resolution
        temp.SetResolution(xResolution, yResolution);

        //Add Bitmap to Bitmap collection
        bitmapList.Add(temp);
    }
    return bitmapList;

}

-Craig

Upon examination of the image, the resolution was 300 x 300. Upon creation of the bitmap it defaulted to 72 x 72.

This problem was quickly resolved by setting the resolution of all of the new  bitmaps  to the original resolution contained in the image object.

Seems like a simple fix, but it created a huge problem on the project.

-Craig