Yet Another Software Developer

2008-02-06T21:05:00.000+01:00

Billiga flyg stuff:

flyg billigt
flygbiljetter
billigt flyg
flyg

2007-11-14T22:08:00.000+01:00

Long time ago we saw action here... it's a PR4 (because of the links from Nyman)...sooo...

När man ska ut och resa så är internet en oändlig källa av information; vart ska jag resa, vilka flygbolag har de billigaste flygstolarna? En bra startpunkt för att hitta den billigaste flygen är på sajten Billiga flyg - förutom detta så hittar du även information om resmål och flyg destinationer, t ex billiga flyg till Zagreb.

Ska du resa till Göteborg finns det bra och prisvärt boende, på sajten Hotell Göteborg. Kolla in den.

2006-01-23T10:47:00.000+01:00

We are growing BIG!

This blog started as humble collection of posts with things I found interesting enough to share with other people. I noticed there is a number of good blogs I am reading, but with time, there is less and less good postings on them. Authors start with nice, on-topic postings, but after they write some 10 or 20 short articles, they cannot keep such rhytm of quality texts, so we are reading about their personal life. From 80/20 (professional/personal) ratio they soon reach 20/80.
Yes, blog is short for "web log", but I really do not think my personal life is interesting enough for me to share it with you. And if I ever do, please stop reading this blog. That way you will tell me I am on the wrong way.
So, I decided to post interesting links in the days when I do not have something important and useful to say.

Obviously, some other people liked this concept, so after few weeks Emil decided to join me, and lately Niklas gave us a honor of good company.
That makes three of us, and I said: "Guys, there is no place in this blog for all of us".

So, we started new site GoYasd (http://www.goyasd.com). We will do no more posts here, and you are welcomed to visit us at new location. Everything you liked about this blog will continue on the new one. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy making it.

2006-01-14T16:52:00.000+01:00

Simple custom URL rewriting in ASP.NET 1.1

This post can also be found here

This post describes how you can create a simple url rewriting engine in ASP.NET in order to create custom urls for your webpage..
I’ve used the great tutorial on 15 seconds, Rewrite.NET - a URL Rewriting engine for .NET written by Robert Chartier and modified some minor parts.
Instead of fetching the urls from inside the web.config file, I’ve used a simple xml document to store my customs paths.
I have also found a method for preventing the postback issue and will describe on how to change the file extensions in your urls.

We will start off by creating a xml file and calling it MyUrls.xml. I chosed to move the content from the web.config file because I whish to be able to easily change the urls from a web interface that's not causing the project to reboot which will happen when you re-save the web.config file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<urls>
<url custom="/project/Start.aspx" real="/Project/index.aspx?id=123" />
<url custom="/Project/Custom.aspx" real="/Project/index.aspx?id=456" />
</urls>

We now create a new class called RewriteClass.cs and add it somewhere in our project.

using System;
using System.Xml;

namespace UrlRewriting
{

public class RewriteClass : System.Web.IHttpModule
{
public RewriteClass()
{
}

public void Init(System.Web.HttpApplication Appl)
{
Appl.BeginRequest +=new EventHandler(Appl_BeginRequest);
}

private void Appl_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//cast the sender to an HttpApplication object
System.Web.HttpApplication

Appl=(System.Web.HttpApplication)sender;

XmlDocument xDoc = new XmlDocument();
xDoc.Load(System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("MyUrls.xml"));

XmlNodeList xnl = xDoc.SelectNodes("//urls/url");
for(int i=0; i<xnl.Count;i++)
{
//see if we have a match
string custom = xnl.Item(i).Attributes[0].Value;
string real = xnl.Item(i).Attributes[1].Value;
if(Appl.Request.Path.ToLower() == custom.ToLower())
{
SendToNewUrl(real,Appl);
break;
}
}
}
public void SendToNewUrl(string url, System.Web.HttpApplication Appl)
{
Appl.Context.RewritePath(url);
}
public void Dispose()
{
}
}
}

Now we’re almost finished. We have to add this code inside the web.config <system.web> [code goes here] </sytem.web>.

<httpModules>
<add name="RewriteClass" type="Project.RewriteClass, Project" />
</httpModules>

All done! Now for the postback issue. Go to /Project/Start.aspx and look at the form-tag in the page source code. Here’s what you will see:

<form name="Form1" method="post" action="index.aspx?id=123" id="Form1">

If we do a postback to this page, the real url will show. We can easily prevent this with a JavaScript code that we will register inside index.aspx.cs. Add this code of line inside Page_Load:

RegisterStartupScript("PostBackFix","<script type=\"text/javascript\">document.forms[0].action='';</script>");

This will prevent the real url from showing when postbacking unless user doesn’t have JavaScript enabled. The small amount of people how doesn’t have JavaScript enabled wont be harmed according to me.

Custom file extensions
If you wants to use another file extension instead of .aspx, let’s say .html, all you have to do is to map the .html extension to the aspnet_isapi.dll file.
Open up the properties for your webpage inside IIS and click on Configuration. If you can’t find .html in the Mappings list, click Add. Now browse your way to the aspnet_isapi.dll file stored here C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322[or your version]\apnet_isapi.dll.
Click Ok and move over to the Extension field and add .html. Check Limit to: and add GET,POST,HEAD. Now uncheck Check that file exists and click Ok. Finished!
You can now go back to MyUrls.xml file and modify Start.aspx to Start.html.

This of course can be a problem if your application is stored at a web hotel. But if you ask nicely, maybe they’ll help you out. My hotel did :)

References:

2006-01-11T10:34:00.000+01:00

Lightbox JS

"Lightbox JS is a simple, unobtrusive script used to to overlay images on the current page. It's a snap to setup and works on all modern browsers."

2006-01-10T16:42:00.000+01:00

Looking for a job?

Preparing for a job interview is like writing a personal diary - if you do it the right way, you will have chance to ask yourself some fundamental questions and get some answers that will help you develop further.
Beside standard questions ("can you tell me something about yourself"), some companies tend to develop set of questions that are meaningless at first sight ("how would you move Mt.Everest", "design 1m x 1m bathroom"), but answering them reveals your creativity, mindflow and stress bearing capability.
As an illustration, here is Google's GLAT test (p1, p2, p3, p4) with answers, and some of the questions Microsoft use.

2006-01-09T10:45:00.000+01:00

BigTable: A System for Distributed Structured Storage

Did you ever wonder how Gmail can offer almost 3Gb of storage for each registered user, or where all those indexed pages and cache are kept? Okay, here is the answer - video lecture with explanation of BigTable, storage system used at Google.

2006-01-08T23:53:00.000+01:00

What I learned at MIT

Philip Chu attended MIT, and here are some of his experiences...

2006-01-02T20:59:00.000+01:00

Google Zeitgeist

" For both breaking news and obscure information alike, people around the world search Google. This flurry of searches often exposes interesting trends, patterns, and surprises. The Google Zeitgeist page is regularly updated to reflect tidbits of information related to the search behavior of Google users."

Visit Google Zeitgeist at http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html

2006-01-01T21:33:00.000+01:00

Visual Studio Add-Ins Every Developer Should Download Now

Latest issue of MSDN Magazine delivers list of ten essential tools for MS developers.

2005-12-29T17:28:00.000+01:00

How to be more productive, part II

Aaron Swartz has nice collection of advices.

2005-12-29T00:07:00.000+01:00

Web 2.0 Bingo!

What's web 2.0? This chart explains some of it. Everything gets big which i like :)
http://web2.0bingo.com/

2005-12-25T10:51:00.000+01:00

Tree House Magazine

This is an online magazine with focus on web developing: css, xhtml, javascript etc.
The issues is released once a month and a single issue costs 3$, "so cheap, so good" is their main slogan :) and you can't argue with that! I like.

Just subscribe and download in pdf-format.
http://treehousemagazine.com/

2005-12-24T20:20:00.000+01:00

Seven Habits of Highly Effective Programmers

Nice list of advices. Read and apply.

2005-12-23T14:19:00.000+01:00

Writing Faster Managed Code

Nice article about code optimization in .NET

2005-12-21T17:18:00.000+01:00

Which ads will your website show?

A great tool for previewing the ad content that will be shown on your website.

http://googleadspreview.blogspot.com/

2005-12-20T11:54:00.000+01:00

Debugging in .NET

If you are having problems debugging asp.net applications, here is Word document describing most common problems with solutions.

2005-12-18T00:21:00.000+01:00

The Art & Science of Web Design

This is a very informative, yet very refreshing book. Easy to read.
And, most important, free for download in PDF format. Enjoy.

2005-12-17T17:40:00.000+01:00

Die pixel, die

I've never understood the deal with small font sizes on the web. Sure, it looks good, but it's hardly readable. To be honest, I seldom bother reading things on the web but when I do, I always enlarge the text because my eyes aren't that good and gets red when constantly beeing straiend. It sucks looking hangover 24/7.
Embiggening text often causes the layout of the webpage to crash because web developers rarely use relative sizes. Building webpages with relative sizes is a hassle until you get a hang of it, but in the end it's worth the effort.

Good reading:
http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/typography/index.html

2005-12-16T14:31:00.000+01:00

JSON

Do you sometimes feel like XML is being used in all places around, even when there is no good justification to do it? What is wrong with good old CSV format? Well, here is one good step to bringing some sanity back to programming. And yet another acronym for my CV, of course.

JSON is short for JavaScript Object Notation. It is lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the Javascript Programming Language (Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition - December 1999)

Here is short example - simple data structure represented by JSON


{"ResultSet":{"Result":[{"precision":"city","Latitude":"34.05217","Longitude":"-118.243469","Address":"","City":"LOS ANGELES","State":"CA","Zip":"","Country":"US"}]}}}

Okay, I know, now you might ask: "Why introducing another data format". Well, now comes the best part.

Since JSON is proper subset of JavaScript, JSON is not only data exchange format. It is actually executable notation. In almost every browser you can get your hands on. Just enclose call to JSON service in eval() call and there you go. One liner. Simple as that.
And there are some more good news - big names like Yahoo started supporting it.

Here are some interesting links you should visit and learn some more about JSON

Introducing JSON - technical introduction with syntax
SpiffY! - search engine prototype built using JSON
Web Services + JSON = Dump Your Proxy
Yahoo Javascript Development Center

2005-12-14T10:45:00.000+01:00

Ajax

No, not that Ajax. This is newly coined acronym for "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML", web development technique that have been around for years, but were overlooked by many web developers until recently when applications such as Gmail, Google suggest, and Google Maps hit the streets.

Traditional web applications essentially submit forms, completed by a user, to a web server. The web server does some processing, and responds by sending a new web page back. Because the server must send a whole new page each time, applications run more slowly and awkwardly than their native counterparts.

Ajax applications, on the other hand, can send requests to the web server to retrieve only the data that is needed, and may use SOAP or some other XML-based web services dialect. On the client, JavaScript processes the web server response, and may then modify the document's content through the DOM to show the user that an action has been completed. The result is a more responsive interface, since the amount of data interchanged between the web browser and web server is vastly reduced. Web server processing time is also saved, since much of it is done on the client.

Here are some useful resources:

Ajax: Getting started (by Mozilla Developer Center)
Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications - this article coined the term
Ajax.net Professional - there are a lot of libraries for integrating Ajax into .NET application, but I liked this one most
Ajax for Java developers - nice article on integrating Ajax with Java
Javascript Refactoring For Safer Faster Better AJAX
SAJAX - fine support for Ruby and Python

2005-12-13T23:12:00.000+01:00

Customize your interface
I think this webpage is pretty sweet. It lets you customize you interface by adding/deleting content and then freely dragging and dropping it around. I've seen a similar webpage not long ago, however, that page didn't work in Firefox.
http://www.netvibes.com/

2005-12-12T12:35:00.000+01:00

Coding Guidelines: Fact and Fiction - How to create coding standards, guidelines, costs and benefits.

2005-12-11T01:23:00.000+01:00

XSLT Reference
This is a great XSLT resource page with plenty of examples. Check it out!
http://www.zvon.org/xxl/XSLTreference/Output/index.html

2005-12-09T17:39:00.000+01:00

Along came the swede

Sooo, entering the world of blogging.
I'll start off by posting a link concerning url rewriting in asp.net.
This code library is supposed to have it all.
http://www.15seconds.com/issue/030522.htm

2005-12-09T16:28:00.000+01:00

HTML Label element

This is one of the HTML elements almost noone heard about, thought it was introduced in HTML 4.0 back in 1998. Just remember how many times you were entering data in a form where you had to pinpoint radio or checkbox button with mouse in order to click on it. No, text next to it was not reacting, like it has nothing to do with it.
Label element is intended just for this purpose. Try it yourself:

Male

<input id="gender-male" type="radio" name="gender">
<label for="gender-male">Male</label><label for="gender-male"></label>

Thanx Robert Nyman for pointing me to this.
There are some more tips for better forms.

2005-12-08T11:43:00.000+01:00

VisualStudioHacks.COM: Hacks, add-ins, tips, macros, articles and more. There is also O'Reilly book on this topic.
Optimizing JavaScript for Execution Speed - Many advices from this text can be applied to any interpreted language.
Techinterviews.com - Good starting point for preparing technical part of your interview. Here is another one for C#.

2005-12-07T10:49:00.000+01:00

Google 20% Time - You probably heard that Google allows its engineers to spend 20% of paid work time on personal projects. Here are details on how this practice really works.
Web Developer's handbook - The ultimate and constantly updated collection of links

2005-12-06T13:04:00.000+01:00

Best Software Writing I Online

This is the title of compilation by Joel Spolsky featuring best essays on software. These articles are were written on variuos blogs and sites during 2003 and 2004 and Joel selected them and published as a book.
Here are links to all essays from the print edition.

Joel Spolsky - Introduction

Ken Arnold - Style Is Substance
Leon Bambrick - Award for the Silliest User Interface: Windows Search
Michael Bean - The Pitfalls of Outsourcing Programmers
Rory Blyth - Excel as a Database
Adam Bosworth - ICSOC04 Talk
danah boyd - Autistic Social Software
Raymond Chen - Why Not Just Block the Apps That Rely on Undocumented Behavior?
Kevin Cheng and Tom Chi - Kicking the Llama
Cory Doctorow - Save Canada's Internet from WIPO
ea_spouse - EA: The Human Story
Bruce Eckel - Strong Typing vs. Strong Testing
Paul Ford - Processing Processing
Paul Graham - Great Hackers
John Gruber - The Location Field is the New Command Line
Gregor Hohpe - Starbucks Does Not Use Two-Phase Commit
Ron Jeffries - Passion
Eric Johnson - C++ -- The Forgotten Trojan Horse
Eric Lippert - How Many Microsoft Employees Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?
Michael "Rands" Lopp - What to do when you're screwed
Larry Osterman - Larry's Rules of Software Engineering #2: Measuring Testers by Test Metrics Doesn't
Mary Poppendieck - Team Compensation (pdf)
Rick Schaut - Mac Word 6.0
Clay Shirky - A Group is its Own Worst Enemy
Clay Shirky - Group as User: Flaming and the Design of Social Software
Eric Sink - Closing the Gap Part 1, Part 2
Eric Sink - Hazards of Hiring
Aaron Swartz - PowerPoint Remix
why the lucky stiff - A Quick (and Hopefully Painless) Ride Through Ruby (with Cartoon Foxes)

Reading these essays not only makes you aware of some aspect ordinary software engineer usually do not think too much about, but also makes you research deeper into some important topics. Have a happy reading!

2005-12-06T09:32:00.000+01:00

Death by UML Fever - Do you feel any symptoms ?
Steve Pavlina : Personal Development for Smart People - Not only you will read some interesting things here, but more important, it will make you think about your life. Which is good. Well, most of the times....

2005-12-05T12:59:00.000+01:00

Top 10 custom JavaScript functions of all time - List of 10+1 oftenly used functions. Very nice. Remember this site next time you have problems handling cookies in JavaScript!
Lisp books -Free full text Lisp books. Some in PDF, some readable online.
Learning/Using C++ ? - Here is huge list of links to tutorials, lecture notes, articles.

2005-11-30T11:48:00.000+01:00

The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities - Nice collection of free software
encarta@conversagent.com - Add this contact to your MSN IM Contact list, and start asking questions. On the other side is bot looking for answers in Encarta Encyclopedia