It's fair to says IIS7 has some differences when compared to IIS6 (Well, Duh!)

The one I found most difficult to get my head around was the Wildcard Handler Mappings.  Traditionally, we wrote the handler in .net, or used the global.asax file to map the requested re-written URL to a pgae in the application.  IIS6 had the option to specify whether or not the file exists.

For example, you request http://www.creative-jar.com/News.  There is not physical file called News in the root, and even if there was, there's no extension on the file in the URL so IIS wouldn't know which dll to map it to, generating a 404 beacuse the file isn't found.  So, you set the WildCard handler to NOT verify that the file exists, before passing it to the handler to do it's magic

It's this Verify File Exists option that's missing in IIS7, causing the 404 to fire before your handler even get's a bite of the apple.

I found a good post on the subject here.  It explains the extra steps you need to get IIS7 not verifying files in your web application, instead just passing the whole request to your app and let it carry on as normal.  The post links through to an open-source UrlRewriting HttpHander called UrlRewriter.NET which has such a simple setup, it's untrue.  It currently uses a section of the web-config to work out it's mappings but, being that it's open-source, you can change it to collect from wherever you like

enjoy :¬)

Man, I love the .net framework.  Each release see me writing less and less of the boring stuff, allowing me to concentrate on the more exciting things in development.  However, as each release passes by, I'm always left with the thought : "How did we cope before this release??!?!!"

It struck home good and proper today.

A Web Agency strives for perfection in design, perfection in usablity, perfection in accessability, perfection.*.  W3C validation is one of the many tests we put our sites under, and it gives some really good feedback on your mark-up ; which attribute have you forgetten to add? Which elements fit inside which elements?

We  know, by now, that <span> can contain very few HTML elements.  This has been the case for all eternity.  So, why oh why, does setting RepeatLayout.Flow on a DataList make anyone @ Microsoft think it's going to get away with wrapping each template up in a <span> when it can contain so few elements?

Thats the problem i was having today.  Alexey had coded me up some excellent HeaderTemplate, FooterTemplate and ItemTemplate for one of our ZoomSpace applications.  The raw HTML looked brilliant, the HTML was W3C compliant, everyone was happy, especially me.

Along comes DataList to ruin my day by injecting it's dodgy, non-compliant, and downright short-sighted markup into my ResponseStream.

DataList was prevalent in .net 2.0.  A good, lightweight, databound control which you could use to edit items, delete stuff, add new items, the lot.  I know the purer way would be to use the Repeater, but i needed the data-driven code.  I could have used ListView, but this a .net 2.0 application so that's out too.

We've been using ListView for a while.  It's pure mark-up, no additions and no weirdness.  How  easy I forget how different things were!!

A couple of the CJ Dev team were down in Brighton for Re-Mix 2008 a few weeks ago, and one of the most useful sessions I went to was "ASP.NET Front End Performance" by Chris Hay.

There's some really obvious things, but others that I didn't know. I've collated the key points together for easy reference:

• Combine all JavaScript files together (i.e. single request)
• Combine all CSS files together (i.e. single request)
• Use inline scripts and CSS on the home page, load script and CSS assets post UI
• Reduce image requests
  • Use image maps
  • Use large background images
• Implement IIS caching
• Use versioning policy on filenames to avoid unwanted caching (e.g. my-js-file-001.js)
• Use Server.Transfer instead of Response.Redirect where possible
• Use SilverLight controls for common areas of the site (headers, footers, etc.)
• Implement HTTP compression in IIS
• Use the .NET ViewState wisely
  • Only on pages where necessary
  • Compress the ViewState
  • Offload ViewState to Session if possible / advantageous
• Avoid use of .NET UpdatePanel control where possible
• Expose web services to AJAX for use by JavaScript code, manually altering DOM
• Combine auto generated scripts by .NET framework (e.g. ScriptResource.axd)
  • Use script resource profiler to discover all script files
• Use SilverLight instead of AJAX
  • Detect presence of SilverLight, and fail safe to AJAX if preferred to forcing use of SilverLight
• Use Content Delivery Network where applicable (large projects) to bring the content closer to the user
• Implement use of data caching
• Use page / control output caching  
• Queue requests for processing (if any large / long requests will occur)
• Ensure all debug flags are removed from application

Cheers to Chris Hay!!

Finally it happens!

Silverlight is released, to much fanfare. After anticipating this release in the Creativer Jar Studio for over a year, it's very exciting news!

http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Silverlight2IsOut.aspx

http://www.liveside.net/main/archive/2008/10/13/microsoft-releases-silverlight-2-on-tuesday-oct-14.aspx 

Of course - check out our own Silverlight Portfolio http://silverlight.creative-jar.com/ 

Silverlight is already installed on a quarter of PC's. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/oct08/10-13Silverlight2PR.mspx

 

 

 Just as you thought you were getting to grips with everything.. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc948977.aspx

Also take a look here http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/VisualStudio/Visual-Studio-Team-System-2010-Week-on-Channel-9/

I could list the exciting things, but you're best off checking the above links!

Two days after the VBug presentation,  Simon and I have been asked to do a similar presentation at the Conchango offices in London

Promises to be a high-profile event with a good mix of developers and designers attending

 http://blogs.conchango.com/michelleflynn/archive/2008/07/21/uk-silverlight-user-group-date-confirmed.aspx

It's happening on the 14th of August and they're still filling designer spots.  Pop Michelle an email if you're a designer and wish to attend :¬)

Plenty of the CJ team will be there

Microsoft have just created a case study detailing our winning competition entry for the 'Be all you can be challenge'

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002403

Nice to be featured on Microsoft.com, big props to all involved :¬)

Now, don't get me wrong, i love all the new stuff Microsoft have release this year.  Silverlight has inspired me immensly, SilverlightStreaming has amazing potential for all the new ideas people are coming up with, DeepZoom is about the most amazing and usable thing I've seen for a long time.  The question really is this : how many people that i write software for (IE the General Public) have any idea on how to use it?

Jesse Liberty just wrote an amazing post that sums up that entire concept

http://silverlight.net/blogs/jesseliberty/archive/2008/07/11/the-5-levels-of-technophilia-and-silverlight.aspx

He descibes people's technical acceptance in a set of 5 percentiles, ranging from the uber geeks to the people who still record Eastenders on a BetaMax.  The CJ team are all sitting in Percentiles 1 and 2, while the majority of the internet users are more like 3, 4 and 5

Point is : it's all very well writing stuff in the latest technology but if the target audience is in the fouth and fifth percentiles then all that technological brilliance is wasted to a certain extent as the user will only use 5% of the functionality anyway. 

Not that it will stop me writing DeepZoom based e-commerce this year of course.  People are exposed to new tchnology all the time and it become the 'norm' as more people are exposed and learn to use it to their advantage. I hear they have installed the Microsft Surface app in a Las Vegas casion so how long before we're operating meetings at a table with Surface installed?  or using a touch-screen device to operate our home devices?  That may be a long way off but things like the DeepZoom application are moving people up the Technophile Percentiles all the time, adding more aspects to the user experience and expoingthem to new ways of doing onlice activities. This is exciting for the people writing these things as we can then push our apps even further :¬)

While searching on how to enable right click menus in SilverLight, I came across this site details some Top Tips for use when coding your SilverLight

http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2008/07/01/silverlight-tips-of-the-day.aspx

The author is going to add a tip every few days and it looks like a really good reference for all those little problems you come up against with new languages

Now we just need them to enable SEO for silverLight apps :¬)

Simon and I scored a presentation piece for VBug in August

Based on the success of the Microsoft Mix07 'Be All You Can Be Challenge', VBug asked us to do a seminar on how it was all put together, from Expression Design, into Expession Blend to add all the visual states and into Visual Studio to wire up the events and data, to then be displayed on the form for all to see

It's in Bracknell on the 12th of August 2008, stars Creative Jar's finest silverlight developers and there will be refreshments courtesy of Conchango who have also blogged the event for max spider effect http://blogs.conchango.com/michelleflynn/archive/2008/07/09/vbug-bracknell-creating-silverlight-apps-using-blend-amp-vs-08.aspx

Event is listed here >> http://www.vbug.co.uk/Events/August-2008/VBUG-Bracknell-Creating-Silverlight-apps-using-Blend-and-VS08.aspx