Pratap Ladhani

Web Service Specifications

2006-09-05T22:04:00.000+05:30

To start with, take a look at the List of Web Service Specifications.

A list of Web Service Specifications on MSDN.

Also read the article : Security in a Web Services World: A Proposed Architecture and Roadmap - A Joint White Paper from IBM Corporation and Microsoft Corporation

ReadOnly Textboxes not preserving value in ASP.NET

2005-11-23T21:11:00.000+05:30

I just came across a behaviour in ASP.NET 2.0 which is a breaking change between the previous versions.

The MSDN Documentation mentions it as follows:-

Important:
The Text value of a TextBox control with the ReadOnly property set to true is sent to the server when a postback occurs, but the server does no processing for a read-only text box. This prevents a malicious user from changing a Text value that is read-only. The value of the Text property is preserved in the view state between postbacks unless modified by server-side code.

However I had a lot of code in my current application which uses the Text value of the control when it is ReadOnly.

So I wrote the following workaround in my PageBase class which is the base class for all Pages of my application:-


protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
        {
            SetReadOnlyTextBoxValue(Page.Controls);
   base.OnLoad (e);
        }
        /// 
        /// In ASP.NET 2.0, if the TextBox is ReadOnly, 
        /// then any changes made to it using javascript are not retained.
        /// This was not the case for ASP 1.1.
        /// This function overrides the behaviour by re-assigning 
        /// the values of the textboxes by collecting it from Request
        /// 

        /// 
        private void SetReadOnlyTextBoxValue(ControlCollection ctrls)
        {
            if (ctrls != null)
            {
                foreach (Control ctrl in ctrls)
                {
                    if (ctrl.HasControls())
                    {
                        SetReadOnlyTextBoxValue(ctrl.Controls);
                    }
                    TextBox txt = ctrl as TextBox;
                    if (txt != null && txt.ReadOnly && Request.Form[txt.ID] != null)
                    {
                        txt.Text = Request.Form[txt.ID];
                    }
                }
            }
        }

Web Deployment Projects

2005-11-07T20:48:00.000+05:30

Project files are back for web projects in VS 2005!
http://blogs.msdn.com/anutthara/archive/2005/10/20/483091.aspx

That's almost true .... :) Last week I was involved with testing an add in that the ASP.NET team was working on - it is called "Web deployment projects". This is an add in that will be shipped about the same time as VS 2005. Having used VS 2003 back in school, when I joined MSFT after graduating, I was a little unsettled at the thought of having web "projects" without project files! In the course of 2 years, I became used to this model though the pain of not having a project file would surface now and then.
With this add in, you can now associate any web app with a web deployment project that is nothing but an MSBuild project file. It is as easy as a right click + add. The web deployment project can be configured to built in various configurations and can automatically deploy your website on an IIS server (pretty cool from a Team Build perspective too). This comes integrated with the Asp_merge tool that can actually compile your web project into a single dll with a sane name (compare against the App32435435__90blah blah.dll that is auto generated now) or separate dlls per folder or per page. You can also replace sections of your web.config file in a simple UI to override specific settings. Strong name signing is also built into this UI along with options for delay signing. Of course, since this is an MSBuild project file, it is highly extensible and stubs are already provided in the project file to override and add custom tasks.
Undoubtedly, the feature I liked best was the IIS deployment feature, where you can choose the virtual directory to deploy to and also opt to delete pre-existing directories or not. The coolth of it is the integration it brings to Team Build web testing scenarios. Users that run web tests on web apps built in Team Build need to deploy the app on the IIS server on the build machine. There was no out of the box solution for this and it involved having to write custom tasks in order to deploy the web app. Now, all we need to do is include the deployment project in the team project to build, and lo - the web tests can run with no custom tasks in between.
I was pretty charmed by this add in, so much that I wondered why this wasn't part of the product itself ;-)
Let me know what you think of the web deployment project add in when you get to use it!

Web Deployment Projects to fix Lack of Web Project Files
http://weblogs.asp.net/pwilson/archive/2005/10/05/426689.aspx
I just saw a demo of a new feature that the MS ASP.NET team will be releasing as an add-on to VS 2005 -- it should be available at launch too. Its called Web Deployment Projects and its basically allowing you to handle a lot of the scenarios we used to be able to do with web project files -- and more. Under the cover its just a standard MSBuild file, so its already well documented and very extensible, but its also going to hook in the new aspnet_merge tool and provide a basic UI for common scenarios. Things you'll be able to do include specifying whether or not you want one assembly per page, folder, or entire web project -- and you'll be able to specify several naming options for those assemblies too. You'll also be able to have different build configuration options like you can today in VS 2003 -- but even better than today you'll be able to have the build process link or replace parts of your web.config file with configuration specific web.config pieces (like separate connection strings for debug, staging, and release). You'll also be able to specify things like assembly signing and you'll be able to tell it the asp.net compiler to follow the IIS metabase paths so that sub-webs are effectively excluded. It looks like its very much on track to give us everything we were missing from VS 2003, and more, as well as giving as an extensible solution for anything else we can dream up since this is just an MSBuild file like all the other project files. And of course this will be completely optional, so all those that have liked the simplicity of not having a web project file will in no way be forced to use this new web deployment project. Very cool stuff -- and I'm very glad that MS had listened to those of us that had issues with the lack of the web project.

Visual Studio 2005 Web Deployment Projects
http://aspadvice.com/blogs/ssmith/archive/2005/10/05/Visual_Studio_2005_Web_Deployment_Projects.aspx
The ASPInsiders were just introduced to an upcoming and as-yet-unannounced addin for Visual Studio 2005 that should ship with or close to RTM. The feature is called Web Deployment Projects, and will extend VS 2005's capabilities for building and deploying ASP.NET web projects. VS 2005 did away with web project files, and there has been some pushback in the community on this because there are many enterprise scenarios where project files make sense (they were removed because they cause a lot of pain in VS 2002/2003).
The Web Deployment Projects feature works like this. It's an addin, so it builds on top of VS 2005 but doesn't touch any of the actual bits there (it's separate). So, it's optional if you want to install it, but most enterprise users will likely want to do so. To create one, right click on a website in VS2005 solution explorer and select the new menu item, Add Web Deployment Project. This will add a new project to the solution which will manage the build and deploy options for the website.
The Web Deployment Project is literally just an MSBuild file, with some UI to help set it up. You can always drop down and hand edit the MSBuild file if you need to. The UI covers most of the usual scenarios, though, and supports separate configurations for deployment for each different build config in Visual Studio. Some scenarios it enables out of the box are:
Precompiling websites
Merging precompiled outputs into single assembly
Swapping out config sections per-configuration option
Swapping out entire config files per configuration option
Include/Exclude different folders/files per configuration option
At RTM there will be 2 white papers published detailing how this was built and how to use it in a variety of scenarios. This is not RTM so you should expect to see some other blogs talking about it today and in the near future. There were a lot of things that VS2005 couldn't easily do because of its omission of web project files, so this is a great addition that covers most (all?) of these scenarios.

Looking for resources to learn about ClickOnce?

2005-10-30T16:08:00.000+05:30

Saurabh has compiled a list of resources for ClickOnce at his blog:
Top X ways to learn about ClickOnce -

ClickOnce Discussion Forums:

External forum - http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=6 - As I as have mentioned earlier in my blogs, the forum is the ideal site to go to with ClickOnce issues, bugs, feature request and even general discussion on App Model/Deployment. It is looked at regularly by the ClickOnce product team who do a great of following up on the posts.

Microsoft sites:
Smart Client Dev Center Home: http://msdn.microsoft.com/smartclient/understanding/windowsforms/2.0/features/clickonce.aspx
MSDN content on ClickOnce - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wh45kb66(en-us,vs.80).aspx.

Video of Jamie Cool the PM on the Winforms/ClickOnce team demoing ClickOnce - http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=15303

Article by Brian Noyes on configuring trust with ClickOnce - http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwinforms/html/clickoncetrustpub.asp

Article on ClickOnce and Regfree COM - http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/04/RegFreeCOM/default.aspx

Overview article by Brian Noyes - http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/04/05/ClickOnce/ - Bit old so some specifics may have changed but overall is accurate)

Non-Microsoft sites:

Links to various ClickOnce related material - http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/clickonce.htm.

VS Support for ClickOnce - http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2004/10/11/clickonce.html

Another VS walkthrough - http://www.15seconds.com/issue/041229.htm

Few Blog references to ClickOnce:

Saurabh's blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/saurabh/ -

The one stop Authoratative ClickOnce Resource (well Sammer's mail didn't say so but it should have :-) )
http://mtaulty.com/blog/(5re21u3e1v3wjmm1qhgybqfo)/archive/2004/07/05/524.aspx http://mtaulty.com/blog/(32qtav45kx5a5zeb2taste3j)/archive/2004/07/06/525.aspx

First Experience while working with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (Beta 3)

2005-10-08T01:49:00.000+05:30

I just finished installing the Team Foundation Client on my machine. I also installed the Team Foundation Proxy on a server hosted here locally in Hyderabad. (My TFS Server is out in Redmond).
My VS2005 IDE was configured to use VSS.
I had to switch the Source-Control Options to "Visual Studio Team Foundation Server".

I also had to set the location of the Proxy server that I had configured.

I checked in an entire project into the source control and it took less than 2 minutes. The same thing if I had used VSS, it might have taken me at least 2-3 hours due to the distance between Hyderabad (India) and Redmond (USA)).

Incredible speed!!!

VSTS ROCKS!!!!!

patterns & practices Security Guidance for Applications Index

2005-10-07T11:04:00.000+05:30

The Patterns and Practices team has published an index of patterns & practices Security Guidance for applications. The resources include guides and books available on MSDN together with modular content of various types including scenarios and solutions, guidelines, explained, checklists, and How Tos.

This article is also available via an easy to remember url: http://www.msdn.com/SecurityGuidance

The index to the .NET 2.0 security guidance can be found at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnpag2/html/AppSecGuidanceForFrameworkV2.asp.

So now you know where to go for any Security Related guidance.
Enjoy!

Security Guidance for .NET Framework 2.0

2005-09-20T09:55:00.000+05:30

Interesting notes at PDC

2005-09-16T09:48:00.000+05:30

Lots and lots of new technology being announced at the PDC 2005.

Watch the Bill Gates Keynote.

I am compiling my list:-

Quite interesting General Session notes at Bob Muglia General Session Notes.
DSL specific notes at Domain Specific Languages Session Notes

HTTP Debugging

2005-09-11T00:58:00.000+05:30

I came to know of a nice tool today, while reading about AJAX.NET Professional at Michael Schwarz's site, by the name Microsoft Fiddler.

What is Fiddler?

Fiddler is a HTTP Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your
computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set
breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data. Fiddler is designed to
be much simpler than using NetMon or Achilles, and includes a simple but
powerful JScript.NET event-based scripting subsystem.

Read more about Fiddler at these MSDN Articles - Fiddler PowerToy - Part 1: HTTP Debugging and Fiddler PowerToy - Part 2: HTTP Performance.

Happy Fiddling :)

Getting Started with MSBuild

2005-09-04T23:35:00.000+05:30

Listed below are certain important links which may be useful for getting started with MSBuild.

MSDN Home page of MSBuild
View the MSDN TV Episode on Visual Studio 2005: MSBuild by Alex Kipman
Alternatively you can read the transcript of the episode: Transcript: Visual Studio 2005: MSBuild
Mike Taulty's Blog on Getting Started with MSBuild
And a lots of resources listed at the Channel9 MSBuild Wiki Home Page
MSBuild Reference at MSDN
Overview of MSBuild, Part 1: From a Project Author's Perspective
Overview of MSBuild, Part 2: From the Task Author's Perspective
Overview of MSBuild, Part 3: What Is the Limit to Extensibility?
Mitch Denny's Blog on "The Road to MSBuild"

Displaying the Gmail ATOM feed in your Web Browser

2005-03-10T11:57:00.000+05:30

A great article by Alex Hoffman which explains how you can convert the GMail Atom Feed on a web-browser using XSL Stylesheets.

http://weblogs.asp.net/ahoffman/archive/2004/10/14/242158.aspx

Localization in ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio .NET 2005

2004-08-02T15:50:00.000+05:30

Interesting blog regarding Localization in ASP.NET 2.0.
(Application Wide Resources & Code Changes)

Localization in ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio .NET 2005

Improving Web Application Security: Threats and Countermeasures

2004-07-29T17:54:00.000+05:30

I went throught this important article from MSDN related to Web Application Security:-

Improving Web Application Security -> Solutions at a Glance

It addresses the following topics:-

How to identify and evaluate threats
How to create secure designs
How to perform an architecture and design review
What is .NET Framework security
How to write secure managed code
How to handle exceptions securely
How to perform security reviews of managed code
How to secure a developer workstation
How to use code access security with ASP.NET
How to write least privileged code
How to constrain file I/O
How to prevent SQL injection
How to prevent cross-site scripting
How to manage secrets
How to call unmanaged code securely
How to perform secure input validation
How to secure Forms authentication
How to implement patch management
How to make the settings in Machine.config and Web.config more secure
How to secure a Web server running the .NET Framework
How to secure a database server
How to secure an application server
How to host multiple ASP.NET applications securely
How to secure Web services
How to secure Enterprise Services
How to secure Microsoft .NET Remoting
How to secure session state
How to manage application configuration securely
How to secure against denial of service attacks
How to constrain file I/O
How to perform remote administration

Creating Custom Web Controls with ASP.NET 2.0

2004-07-23T22:07:00.000+05:30

Creating Custom Web Controls with ASP.NET 2.0
A great url for exploring the new features that are available in ASP.NET 2.0 for Custom Web Controls.

Blogging Experience

2004-07-23T11:58:00.000+05:30

This is the first blog that I am creating. I just want to experiment out and log all the cool things that I find out while working or reading.

More to come soon...
Pratap