CodeBetter.Com
CodeBetter.Com
RSS 2.0 via Feedburner
           Do you Twitter? Follow us @CodeBetter

John Papa [MVP C#]

.NET Code Samples, Data Access, and Other Musings

April 2008 - Posts

  • DotNetKicks PlugIn for Windows Live Writer

    I've been using some javascript snippet that generates a DotNetKicks KickIt image for a blog post. I found the javascript to insert the KickIt link in a post by Jon Galloway. (Thanks Jon!) I tweaked his javascript to suit my needs and it works well. However, I rarely used my converted script because I was too lazy to copy it into my posts. I tried using the some of the Windows Liver Writer plugins that are available on CodePlex and other places, but none that I found did exactly what I wanted. So I decided to create a Windows Liver Writer plugin that inserts a KickIt link in my posts. It was pretty simple to throw together, and even though there probably is a better one out there already, I had fun doing this :)

    Once I get a few more features in and test it a bit more I will post the bits on johnpapa.net for anyone who is interested in them. 

    I used the SDK and threw together a plugin with a few properties in the sidebar pane (see below).  The buttons allow you to choose a color from a color dialog. One of the features I wanted was the ability to change the colors of the links, so the properties made sense for me.

    image      image

    It works now (as you can see the link at the bottom of this page), but once I get some more features in it I will make the bits available for download in case anyone wants it. I plan on putting in a better mechanism to manage default values, clan up some code I don't like, and customize a few other options. If you have any requests for features, leave me a comment or shoot me an email from my contact page.

    And don't forget to kick it!

    kick it on DotNetKicks.com
  • JohnPapa.NET is Open for BusinRSS

    No that's not a typo in the title ... it's my poor attempt at dry humor :)

    I have had several questions from people over the past few months regarding my noticeable sparseness in blogging. The truth is that it took me a while to get back to setting up my new blogging home at www.johnpapa.net . I used the various beta versions of Graffiti CMS to get it started and then I recently migrated the site over to the release version of Graffiti. I must say that Graffiti is perfect for my needs. I can consolidate my posts, organize my events, articles, and add some ASP.NET and SilverLight aspects, too.

    So what will you find on www.johnpapa.net ? You will find my usual technical posts as well as a listing of all of the articles I have published (the books listing is not there yet) and all of the events I will be speaking at as they get scheduled and confirmed.

    Will I still post to CodeBetter.com ? Yes, I will still cross post some content to CodeBetter.com but the superset of the posts will be on www.johnpapa.net including technical content, reviews, and opinions.

    So please add my new site www.johnpapa.net to your aggregated feed  list http://feeds.feedburner.com/JohnPapa.

    I'll be at DevConnections this coming week in Orlando, so if you are going to be around please stop by one of my sessions on windows mobile development, LINQ, the Entity Framework or SQL Server Reporting Services and say hi!

    Posted Apr 19 2008, 06:59 PM by John Papa with no comments
    Filed under:
  • Entity Framework Setup - Installation Fun!

    Yeah, I know its expected that when a product is in beta and its ancillary features are released in a CTP that there will be some "interesting" issues in getting set up. But its getting a bit out of control (in a good way) lately with all of the installations related to the Entity Framework. I had not noticed much until this weekend as I am preparing my laptop for my sessions at DevConnections in Orlando next week.

    Here is the list of installations that I had to go through just to get the Entity Framework up and running:

    There are the bits themselves, then there are several extras from the Data Team which are very useful. Then there are the tools such as the Mapping Helper (very cool indeed) and eSqlBlast (very cool helpful writing Entity SQL). Finally, there are a few examples that are nice to walk through. of course, then there are the dozens of example projects I have built that I need to migrate to my laptop.

    Over time these don't seem like much but when I had to install all of these today it struck me on how much is going into the Entity Framework and from so many sources!. I love this stuff!

  • Resharper 4 EAP - Build 767

    I've been monitoring the nightly EAP builds of Resharper 4 and the latest ones have been pretty stable. While all of the features are not in yet (most notably full support for LINQ), there is enough in here to really get a sense for how it is evolving. I installed build 767 a few days ago and its working pretty well.

    Read more at johnpapa.net

  • Standard Query Operators with LINQ

    In the March issue of MSDN Magazine's Data Points column I explore a variety of the Standard Query Operators and how they work with LINQ.

    Read more about standard query operators at johnpapa.net ...

     

    2008-03-MSDN

More Posts