Sometimes technical, sometimes not, never a kitty

After working with XMod for about an hour and a half last night, I’m of the opinion that 90% of the modules available on Snowcovered.com can pack their bags and go home.  The 90 minutes is rougly the time from purchase, through installation, to finishing my first working form.

Installation isn’t difficult, but you do need to read the installation guide.  There are several PAs for different versions of DNN.  After you upload the correct PA, you need to do a little manual configuration (easy, and well guided in the installation instructions).

Lats night’s task was to build an input form for a client’s site.  This is one of several forms my client needs, and is the shortest.  The complete documentation is 370 pages, but the vast majority is reference and examples.  The Getting Started is about 10 pages, and was all I needed for last night’s task.  It’s intimidating when you first see the size of the documentation, but it doesn’t take long to get rolling.

Creating the forms is a snap—there’s a simple editor for beginners.  All you do is select the type of input you want, and a little properties box shows up.  You enter some information about that input, and add the field.  You can change the input’s characteristics manually in the editor as well, and trak your progress with the handy preview.  You even have complete control over how the confirmation e-mails look, if you need those.

The authors claim XMod “Can’t do everything, but you may never notice”, and they’re not kidding.  I’ll have a longer review when I get this site finished.  But my first look is very positive.

In order to help turn TestDriven.NET from a hobby into somethig that pays the bills, Jamie has released a Professional and Enterprise version of TestDriven.net. There's still a free version, non-crippled and non-nag, but he asks if you regularly use TestDriven.NET in one of the licensing scenarios, please buy a license.

Full story at http://weblogs.asp.net/nunitaddin/archive/2006/07/10/EnterpriseAndProfessional.aspx.

Bil Simser responded to Shaun Walker's DNN vs. Sharepoint Feature Matrix, and for some reason I can't get the Submit button to work on Bil's blog.  So I'm posting my comments here.  Two points to add to Bil's great list:

1) Unless there have been some changes made, storing files in the file system with DNN is not secure.  This is the only way to store files in DNN 3 (unless the newest release changes this), and one option in DNN 4.  Someone paying attention can access files by direct URL.  In SharePoint, files are stored in the database, and acceses to these files can be strinctly controlled at several levels.

2) It's actually far, far easier to develop and deploy SP webparts with the free SmartPart than it is to develop DNN PAs.  The distribution method of PAs is great, but development of DNN modules can be a pain.  The SmartPart allows any ASCX control to be used in SharePoint, and has found significant use in my SP installations.  Without the SmartPart, developing for either can be a miserable experience.

Recently, a question came up in the ASP.NET security forums about the lack of a remote membership/role configuration tool in ASP.NET 2.0.  Being able to remotely manage users is important in pretty much any site where you have users.  Fortunately, QualityData has stepped in and developed that plus a little more in their Membership Manager Control.  Apparently works in AJAX and exposes an API as well.  At $59, it's pretty darn cheap, too.

If you need a free license (beyond the trial version) for your needs, they also have a link-for-license program.  Add a link like Asp.Net Server Controls by Quality Data, and let them know.

The result of the problem is that search engines won't index the content on your Community Server based site.  That's bad if you're counting on being found in the SEs.

The problem appears to be a bug (or a feature nobody wants) in the URL Rewriting part of ASP.NET 2.0.  When the URL is rewritten and the response is redirected to the destination URL, a result code of 302 (temporary redirect) is returned, instead of 200 (destination found OK).  Most SEs won't index pages that return a 302, since that is a trick heaviliy used by SE spammers.

Matt Cutts has a post about this at http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/asp-net-2-and-url-rewriting-sometimes-harmful, and there's discussion at Telligent at http://communityserver.org/forums/536640/ShowThread.aspx.

This isn't to call out Telligent, since anyone using the built-in URL Rewriting will be affected.  I just think the thread on their site is a good one to watch.

In a comment to my Web Application Settings in ASP.NET 2.0 article, I was asked about overriding default web.config values by replacing external files using the file attribute, as he could in .NET 1.1.  The web.config has several new sections, and none support the 'file' attribute--instead, the configSource is used.  This wasn't so satisfactory to the commenter, so I recommended MS Build for the task.

Over the weekend, I worked a little with Web Deployment Projects, and there is functionality to replace web.config sections built in to the tool.  You could create several different build configurations--Debug (Dev), Debug (Test), Release (Test), Release (Prod) for your web application.  Then, create a different deployment project for each build config, and specify different SMTP or connection strings as necessary.  This is probably where the commenter wanted to go, but I found this out a little too late.  Hope it helps someone else down the road, though.

This one is an oldie (in Internet terms) but a goodie.  Even though it was published in 2002, The GigaLaw Guide to Internet Law is still an extremely valuable resource today.   Written by Doug Isenberg, who founded GigaLaw.com, an Internet site consolidating news relating to Internet law (long before RSS feeds and newsreaders were popular, Doug hand edited the home page with fresh content daily).  The daily e-mail updates almost always include an interesting story.

If you've never read Doug before, you'll be surprised at how well he explains complicated legal issues, with technical detail, in an easy to understand manner.  Over the past several years, this has been a valuable reference on my bookshelf.  This isn't a book you read cover to cover; it's broken down into major parts (Copyright Law, Domain Names and Trademarks, Patent Law, Privacy, Free Speech and the First Amendment, Contract Law and High Technology, and Employment Law), with chapters focusing on specific topics in each part (COPPA, Spam, Message Board Misconduct, etc).  Pick the topic you need and read that chapter for an overview of the issues and precedents.

Since its original writing, additional cases have decided in many important areas, especially in Spam and privacy laws, so you shouldn't take the case studies as a comprehensive list.  Just to take a trip down memory lane, one of the case studies invloves a Playboy Playmate using "Playboy" in the META tags of her website.  Blogs aren't mentioned, but there is good discussion about message boards.  The issues and arguments regarding each of these topics are still relevant, but finer issues have been worked out by additional precedents.  It will be worth watching if Doug publishes an updated version.  If so, it would be a good idea to get a copy immediately.  If not, chapters such as "The Basics of Copyright Law" and "Website Development Agreements" make this is still an excellent (and understandable) introduction to complicated legal issues surrounding Internet law.  This book is available in both print and downloadable electronic format from Amazon.

Just a reminder that the Butler Area Dot Net User Group will be meeting from 6-8pm tomorrow (6/22/2006) at the Communifax HQ in Cranberry Township.  Directions can be found at http://communifax.com/.

The topic will be SQL Server Potluck.  We'll have 10-15 min presentation on SQL Delta (one of my favorite tools) by me, and another short presentation on Fuzzy Matching in SSIS by Communifax's Greg Duffie.

What sort of tips are we looking for?  Here's one--if you're in Query Analyzer, you can highlight the name of a table and press Alt-F1 to retrieve the schema for that table.  Column names, types, etc.  Bring us your favorite DBCC commands, hotkey combinations, plug-ins and extensions.  Sorry if I just shorted someone a tip.

One lucky person will walk away with a full license for SQL Delta.

The local flower shop is one retail operation which has translated well to the Internet.  From the hundreds and hundreds of local florists (such as www.bloomery.com) to the huge players like FTD and 800–Flowers, websites have made it easier than ever to send flowers to friends and family.  But our business to consumer website is not the only way florists are embracing the Internet.

Before you could get “whatever it is” at eBay, we florists could participate in online Dutch auctions held in Holland, Miami and California.  The end result is better selection and higher quality for the floral consumer.  There are several private forum sites where florists gather to exchange tips and commiserate, and www.floristblogs.com has a growing roster of prominant florists blogging for consumer benefit.

The latest installment J Schwenke’s JTV, a subscription site for online training of the latest techniques.  J presents his lessons in 10–15 minute videocasts (or webisodes, or blogscasts, or whatever you want to call them).  J is a very talented designer who should be kept far away from caffeine.  Incidentally, J trained at the Phil Rulloda school, and you’ll find their blog at http://floristblogs.com/blogs/avant_gardens/default.aspx.

For a long time, “vertical integration” was one of the big buzzwords surrounding Internet business.  The floral industry is one where, while it’s taken time to get here, is pretty integrated from top to bottom, and left to right.