.Net Thoughts and Ideas - Asp.Net

List Of Asp.Net Resources

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 10:26:54 GMT

Scott Guthrie put together a very extensive list of Asp.Net resources:
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/02/24/438953.aspx

A step by step to how to move membership tables from MS SQL express Edition to your database that you are used on your web site. The second part we will go in details to configure our asp.net web site
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/uploadfile/dsdaf/104012006083052am/1.aspx

Access Database Provider
http://blog.krisvandermast.com/UsingAccessInsteadOfSQLServerForYourASPNETApplicationServices.aspx

No 'Tilde' Sign in 'Location' Element

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:14:22 GMT

When specifying paths in in *.aspx files we refer to a folder using a 'tilde' sign, e.g. "~/SomeFolder".

So one would assume that one should follow the same principle with the <location> element in the web.config file, like so

<configuration> <location path="~/FolderA/FolderB">

<system.web> <authorization> <allow users="*"/>

</authorization> </system.web> </location> </configuration>

However it's not the case. Drop the 'tilde' and use paths as in the following example.

<configuration> <location path="FolderA/FolderB">

<system.web> <authorization> <allow users="*"/>

</authorization> </system.web> </location> </configuration>

It's simple when you know ;)

SqlCacheDependency and CommandNotification Rule

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:10:43 GMT

Continuing with my study using AppDev.com course, I feel compelled to mention two crucial steps in setting up "Query Notification" when using database caching techniques. I spent almost two days trying to get this techique to work! Thanks to AppDev it works now.

After adding

<%@ OutputCache SqlDependency="CommandNotification" Duration="9999999" VaryByParam="None" %>

there are two things that we must get right for this setup to work:

1. Establishing the target table and writing a correct query, as outlined in this MSDN article.

2. Configuring Service Broker as listed below

USE YourDatabaseName;

-- Ensure compatibility with SQL Server 2005
EXECUTE sp_dbcmptlevel 'Northwind',90;

-- Enable Service Broker
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.databases
WHERE name = 'YourDatabaseName' AND is_broker_enabled = 1)
BEGIN
ALTER DATABASE Northwind SET ENABLE_BROKER
WITH ROLLBACK AFTER 5 SECONDS;
-- Set Trustworthy
ALTER DATABASE Northwind SET TRUSTWORTHY ON;
END;
GO

-- Create an encryption key for Service Broker
IF NOT EXISTS
(SELECT * FROM sys.symmetric_keys
WHERE symmetric_key_id = 101)
CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = N't0psecret';
GO

-- Create a Service Broker endpoint
CREATE ENDPOINT BrokerEndpoint
STATE = STARTED
AS TCP ( LISTENER_PORT = 4037 )
FOR SERVICE_BROKER ( AUTHENTICATION = WINDOWS );
GO

select * from sys.dm_qn_subscriptions

It's easy when you know ;)

Output Cache Testing

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:37:54 GMT

When you develop Asp.Net site with Visual Studio 2005 and then test your site with internal browser, you may notice that your output cache directives do not make any difference. The trick is that Asp.Net Development Server used by the Visual Studio does not shut down after you closed the browser. Therefore, it keeps the previous version(s) of your cached pages. You can see its icon in the Menu Tray.

So, after you change cache parameters in your code before you run the page again, simply stop the Asp.Net Development Server by right-clicking on the icon and choosing "Stop" from the pop-up menu.

It's easy when you know ;)

Default Property Value of Custom Server Control Is Not Displayed At Design Time

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:01:31 GMT

This short tip relates to working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 when creating a Custom Web Server Control

When designing a custom server control that has a property you can use Attribute to set the property default value.

[DefaultValue( "MyDefaultValue" )] public String Value (){ get { String
tmpValue = ViewState["Value"] as
String; return tmpValue; } set { localVar = ViewState["Value"] as
String; } }

To make it display its value in the Properties Window right-click on the it and choose Reset

Asp.Net Profiles in Web Application Project with Web Profile Generator

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 06:40:17 GMT

When using Web Application Project to develop Asp.Net application Profile feature does not work with intellisense the way it works with Web Site Projects.

If the add-in that was designed to fix the issue does not work, you can access Profile values specified in web.config from code-behind use the following syntax:

Context.Profile.SetPropertyValue( "ProfilePropertyName", ProfilePropertyValue );

Context.Profile.GetPropertyValue( "ProfilePropertyName" );

In my experience, using Server 2003 64-bit with VS2005 Pro, I had no problems if the WebProfileGenerator was installed by running Setup.exe.

Download WebProfileGenerator1.3.zip (418.71 KB) from this site.

ASP.NET Web Site Administration Tool on a Server

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:20:01 GMT

When developing Asp.Net application with Visual Studio 2005 I use Web Application Project. However, this type of project does not allow using Web Site Administration Tool, so I searched the web for a possible solution. Gladly I came across the answer on R. Aaron Zupancic's blog.

Following his article I created a little utility that I hope could make using Aaron's approach a little more flexible.
Basically it's an aspx page (you can download it here SelectWebSite.zip) that allows you to select a Web Project and run the ASP.NET Web Site Administration Tool against it.

1. Please follow Aaron's article to create a virtual directory for %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\ASP.NETWebAdminFiles

Create a new virtual directory that references %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\ASP.NETWebAdminFiles.
Make sure that the appopriate version of ASP.NET is used.
On the directory security tab, disable anonymous access.

2. Then set the default document name to SelectWebSite.aspx

3. Download SelectWebSite.zip, un-zip and copy it to %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\ASP.NETWebAdminFiles

4. Make sure that the user account that runs Asp.Net has "Modify" permissions on the Asp.Net project directory and file that you want the WSAT to administer.

To check what account (or group) is used

Create an .aspx file
Copy the following code to it

<%@ Page Language="C#" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
<title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
<% Response.Write(System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name); %>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Place it in a virtual directory of your IIS server
Run this page with a browser
Note the ID that appears on the page
Grant that ID "Modify" permissions on the Asp.Net project

4. Run you browser and point it to the newly created virtual directory. It should display SelectWebSite.aspx

5. You can add the URL to your "Favorites" or "Bookmarks" and call it up when you need to run Asp.Net Web Site Administration Tool for a particular Asp.Net app you are developing.

SelectWebSite.zip (1.1 KB)

ASP.NET version 2.0 Session State is not installed

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:33:22 GMT

Today I was playing with different options that can be set for State Management in Asp.Net.

"State Server"
Setting this method was fairly straight forward. Start "ASP.NET State Service" and set web.config

where srvOrIp is the server where the "ASP.NET State Service" is running.
If srvOrIp is a remote server, you will also need to set it up to allow for remote access. This is done by editing the registry settings on this server. Set AllowRemoteConnection to 1. You can also change the port number.

"SQL Session State"
If you are using .Net Framework 2.0, you should use aspnet_regsql.exe located in %systemroot%\microsoft.net\Framework\v2.0.50727.
Your <sessionState/> section in web.config files may look similar to this

So, having done this, every time I run my test site I woul get the error ASP.NET version 2.0 Session State is not installed ... I had a good look around the web hoping to find a solution, but in the end solved the issue by setting the following permissions for the SQL Server user account used in the connection string:

In tempdb database - grant membership in db_datareader and db_datawriter roles
In ASPState database - add the user to dbo schema

BTW
1. To test that aspnet_regsql.exe command completed successfully add user account to sysadmin server role.
2. Run the site
3. If no errors were received, remove the user from sysadmin and set permissions as per above

It's easy when you know ;)

Parser Error Message: Could not load type 'SiteMaster'.

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 08:02:24 GMT

When using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Web Deployment Projects I received this error:

Parser Error Message: Could not load type 'SiteMaster'.

There were no errors during compilation, but when I ran the site after it had been published, this error came up on first hit.

I used "Merge all outputs to a single assembly" for Web Deployment project.

The problem was that I gave Web Deployment assembly the same name as the output assembly for the site.

Changed the names - problem solved.

It's easy when you know ;)

Asp.Net_SessionID Head Ache

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 13:44:11 GMT

It took me ages to figure out why Request.Cookies[“ASP.NET_SessionID”] was always ‘null’ in my attempts to learn about its behaviour.

For “ASP.NET_SessionID” to materialise - Page.Session MUST be written to!

System.InvalidOperationException: Unable to generate a temporary class

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 07:21:56 GMT

I was installing dasBlog 1.9 and encounted the error below.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: "System.InvalidOperationException": Unable to generate a temporary class (result=1).
error CS2001: Source file 'C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\fxsvqhpv.0.cs' could not be found
error CS2008: No inputs specified

It turned out to be the permissions for the user account used by IIS to process Asp.Net requests.
So, to resolve this issue, grant this user account the 'List Folder Contents' and 'Read' permissions on the
%windir%\Temp folder.

Source
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908158

BTW
To find out which account IIS uses for Asp.net
1. Create the following *.aspx file

<%@ Page Language="C#" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
<title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
<% Response.Write( System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name ); %>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>

2. Copy it to your IIS server virtual directory and run in a browser.

It's easy when you know ;)

Changing Default Provider in Visual Studio 2005

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 13:48:19 GMT

When you install Visual Studio 2005 Asp.Net gets SQL Express as a default provider. This means that all your web project security - Roles, Membership, etc - is handled in aspnetdb on the local machine. To change from local machine to an SQL Server you need to make these modifications.

This is from Scott Guthrie's blog
How do I change the providers to use SQL Server Instead of SQL Express?