Sometimes technical, sometimes not, never a kitty

Super simple and sweet:

So I was looking for a real quick way to publish an RSS feed from a Web application I created for a friend and found some great articles and components (RSS Toolkit for ASP.NET 2.0.)  However, I didn t find anything that used XML Serialization (specifically) to work with the RSS 2.0 Specification (maybe my Google skills are truly weak today.)  I use XmlSerializer religiously, and thought it would be quite trivial to build a set of classes to quickly create and publish an RSS feed.   Thus, as any geek would do, I did just that.

...

These classes are adorned with System.Xml.Serialization attributes, which comply with the RSS 2.0 Specification.   To create an RSS document, it s no more difficult than creating and populating a PONO (Plain Ole .NET Object.)

Full story at http://weblogs.asp.net/skillet/archive/2006/08/29/RSS-in-.NET-Made-Easy-with-XML-Serialization.aspx

Hat tip: Greg's Cool ...

The August BADNUG meeting will be from 6–8pm on Aug 31 at Communifax HQ in Cranberry Township, PA.  Our presentation will be an overview of Community Server, from installation to administration to some free stuff to pimp out your site a little.  The presentation will be based in large part on the links below.

Whether you’re building an online community for marketing purposes or a corporate knowledge portal, one tool to consider is Community Server.  Community Server is essentially the spawn of a menage-a-trois of DotNetForums (I think that’s what they were called), nGallery and .Text.  Since its inception, more features have been added, but not to the detriment of its core functionality.

Sample Sites

Direct2Dell

MSNBC Cosmic Log

Offline Blogging Tools (one of many)

Windows Live Writer

Configuring WLW for CS

Photo Galleries

Lightbox Module

Batch Import Photos

Chiwi Photo Gallery Manager

Cross-posting from Flickr

Skinning

Create a New CS Skin in 5 minutes

Change the title image of your blog without access to the CSS file

Spam Control

angrypets reverse dos (not Community Server specific)

Why no CAPTCHA

Inside the Spam Blocker

Alabaster – Akismet Spam Rule Utility (what is Akismet?)

Developing Modules

Code Browser

Community Server 2.1 SDK

Community Server Developer Wiki (ICSModule entry)

Spreading the Word

ShareIt module in Scott Water’s CS Modules

Google Sitemap Add-on

WebIS has released FlexMail 2007, a replacement for the Pocket Outlook which ships on Windows Mobile 5.0 devices.  This is a significant upgrade to the FlexMail 2006, which I've used for several months now on my Treo 700w, but found myself wishing for a few more features and faster performance.  My few wishes and then some seem to have been taken care of in this new release.

FlexMail is far and above better in how it displayes messages with HTML formatting, and handles IMAP accounts better than Pocket Outlook.  GMail POP3 SSL is supported, as is storing messages on an SD card.  The featurelist is long, and everyone likes different things, so just go check it out for yourself.

Full story at http://webis.net/products_info.php?p_id=mail.

The nomination period ends September 1, so get on this soon if you haven't already.

Last week Packt Publishing announced an Open Source Content Management System contest. The contest is designed to encourage, support, recognize and reward Open Source Content Management Systems and offers a top prize of US$5000 to the winning project, second prize $3000, and third prize $2000.

Full story at http://dotnetnuke.com/Community/Blogs/tabid/825/EntryID/1053/Default.aspx

I'm sure this isn't what they meant to say, but that's how it looked on my Treo 700w.  Doh!  Death by cliche!

We have GolfGladiators.com up and running.  Based on Community Server 2.1, this is the 45–minute installation I did from the airport (see http://www.rjdudley.com/blog/How+Fast+Can+You+Set+Up+A+Community+Server+Site.aspx). 

We have some forums still to set up, but the Ryder Cup forum is online, and so is one devoted to Tiger Woods.  We’ll eventually have forums for course reviews in all 50 states.  If you’re in, say, Wisconsin, and want one before I work my way down the alphabet, let me know.  My mad art skillz are evident on the logo.

Also, we’re working on some interactive challenges and distance games you can play.  Stay tuned for those.  In the meantime, if you enjoy golf, join us at www.GolfGladiators.com.

Ankh is in RC1, but the concept of running both Tortise and Ankh--two Subversion clients--at the same time offends the sensibilities of some.  You can configure a custom toolbar in Visual Studio as a Tortise toolbar, and use Tortise for Subversion source control.  Full story at http://vorpal.cc/blog/development/tortoisesvn-in-visual-studio.

(hat tip: Mike Gunderloy)

Community voting for the "Made In Express" contest is now open.  There are a couple of cool projects, some are further along that others it seems.  But vote for your favorite and encourage the dev.

Until September 1, the current version of SQL Prompt is free.  The next version (v3) is now scheduled for release September 28th.  The price for v3 will be $195, BUT, you can get a pre-order discount price of $99.  You must order before v3 is released ("no exceptions" I'm being told).  To pre-order v3, contact Greg Tillman at greg.tillman [at] redgate.com, and ask him for a pre-order quote.  There is no public URL for the pre-order special.

If you have some ideas or feedback for v3, post them in the forum at http://www.red-gate.com/MessageBoard/viewforum.php?f=44.

Chiwi's CS Galllery Manager is a free application for uploading multiple images into a CS gallery.  Prior to uploading, you have the ability to add a photo title and description, and you can control thumbnail settings.  You can upload to any gallery you have permission to, and can choose the album/tag for the photos.

The first issue I found was URL you need to configure.  You want to use http://<siteurl>/photos/galleryservice.asmx.  For instance, I had to configure http://floristblogs.com/photos/galleryservice.asmx. 

The second issue I found was exceeding the maximum request size.  In uploading some images into floristblogs.com, any image over 1.5MB could not be uploaded using Chiwi's tool.  However, I could upload the same photos via the photo control panel.  I have a Nikon D50, and almost all of my photos are right around the 1.5MB mark with the high-quality setting.

If you have a lot of images that only need to be resized slightly, get the free Image Resizer PowerToy and shrink your images slightly, then upload using Chiwi's tool.

TheBeerHouse starter kit enables you to implement a website with functionality typically associated with a CMS/e-commerce site. This website demonstrates key features of ASP.NET 2.0...

Features include WebParts, Master Pages, Membership & Profile, and on-line payment clearing.  Don't forget the SSL!

Full story at http://www.asp.net/downloads/starterkits/default.aspx?tabid=62#beerhouse.

Windows Live Writer is a brand new blogging tool from Microsoft.  It's easily configured for use with a number of blog applications, including Community Server.  FloristBlogs.com uses the Express edition of Community Server, and this post will help you configure Windows Live Writer for use with FloristBlogs.com.  The steps below will only need to be completed once.

1. Download Windows Live Writer from http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/blog/cns%21D85741BB5E0BE8AA%21174.entry.  Save the file somwehere you can find it again.
2. When the download completes, find the Writer.msi file and double-click to start the installation.
3. When installation has completed, you'll be able to start the program from the Start menu.
4. When you start the program, you'll see the welcome screen below.  Click Next to continue.
   
5. You need to choose "Another weblog service", and click Next.
   
6. Enter the information for your blog.  Your URL should be similar to below.  Remeber that the subdirectory for your blog is "blogs" (plural), not "blog" (singular).
   
7. Live Writer will analyze your blog to try and determine some features of your blog.
   
8. Live Writer will need to be configured for Community Server by selecting it from the drop down list.
   
9. You need to change <hostname> to floristblogs.com, as seen below.
   
10. Live Writer will again scan your blog.
    
11. If your configuration information is correct, Live Writer will display your blog information.  Click Finish and Live Writer will start.
    
12. Live Writer's interface is a simple rich text editor, similar to Word but far more basic.  You can easily choose categories, add photos, enter and format text.
    
13. Community Server doesn't support direct uploadingof photos into galleries, so you'll first have to upload images to your photo gallery and then add them to your blog by using Insert >> Picture from Web.  Then, enter the URL of the image from your photo gallery.
    
14. As you edit your post, you'll be able to see the formatting, and choose options for formatting images in your post.
    
15. Just to the right of the Save Draft button is the preview button.  One cool option is the ability to see your post exactly as it would look without publishing it by choosing Web Preview.  You cannot edit your post in this mode; you'll have to change back to Normal mode to resume editing.
    
16. Inserting a hyperlink is easy.  Highlight the text you want to turn into a hyperlink and click the globe and chain icon on the toolbar.  Enter the URL's information, including its relation.  Setting the Rel to "tag" adds the link to your site's tagcloud, and signals sites such as Technorati to add the link text to their tagcloud.  Setting Rel to "nofollow" means that Google and other search engines should ignore this link.
    
17. When you're done, click the Publish button to add the post to your blog.

There are a lot more features than covered here.  For instance, you can open old posts to edit them, then publish the edited post (which will correct the version online).  You can save drafts and edit them later.  You can also configure several blogs, if you have more than one.

Even though Community Server doesn't support direct upload of images, Live Writer can upload photos to an FTP folder on your site.  The configuration for every website will be different, so we're not going to go through that here.  This makes adding images very easy, but your readers won't find the images in your photo gallery.  You'll also have to add a watermark manually to all images, where the Community Server photo gallery will add the watermark automatically.

<semi-correction 8/16/2006>

The Metablog API, used by Community Server (as well as most blogging platforms) doesn't support image upload.  Community Server does have an API for directly uploading images into galleries, which is used by Chiwi's CS Gallery Manager.  If you have a lot of images and want them in your galleries, this app might be a great help.  With any luck, someone will add a plug-in for WLW which will support CS galleries.

If you're using Chiwi's app, the address you need is http://<siteurl>/photos/galleryservice.asmx.  Remember to replace <siteurl> with your site's URL.

 I wasn’t aware of this until I saw Don’s article:

Fortunately, Microsoft has committed to providing a steady stream of documentation and educational materials to help solve the problem. Their latest ASP.NET security freebie has the rather unwieldy moniker of ASP.NET 2.0 Security Reference Implementation. This product is a combination of documentation and source code that is worthwhile to study to get right at the best practices that you can implement in ASP.NET 2.0 Web sites. The package itself is a bit daunting, but it doesn’t take long to figure out what’s what.

There are two Word docs and 17 projects, released under a GotDotNet license so you can lift entire projects for your own needs.  I found MS’s P&P guides absolutely essential for working with .NET 1.1, so I’m glad to see some updated material.