Today, I tried to implement SSL-based transport security for the webservices calls between our smart client running on NT4 and the server. Additionally, the client was supposed to include a user certificate in each call.

For the server configuration, IIS help provided a pretty good step-by-step tutorial which made it really easy.

The client certificate can be included with the following code (from MSDN):

// Load the client certificate from a file.
X509Certificate x509 = X509Certificate.CreateFromCertFile(@"c:\user.cer");
// Add the client certificate to the ClientCertificates property of the proxy class.
bank.ClientCertificates.Add(x509);

A blog post by Jan Tielens described the steps necessary to change the client code so that it accepts the servers SSL certificate.

Finally, I wanted to take the client certificate from Windows Certificate store instead of the file system and noticed that currently (.NET FX 1.1) there is no managed implementation for this scenario. A webpage by Michael Gallant explained two possibilities for that: one using the unmanaged CAPICOM dll and the second by P/Invoking the CryptoAPI. I decided for the second due to lower deployment hassle and it worked without problems.

To enumerate all certificates in the stores you can use the function CertEnumCertificatesInStore.

11/25/2004 8:54:33 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Finally, T-Mobile decided to offer a Windows Mobile-based Smartphone called SDA at a reasonable price here in Germany. Hopefully, more people can now enjoy the benefit of being able to sync their mails, contacts and appointments easily with their "handy".

http://www.t-mobile.de/shop/handy/1,4855,2963-_3127-0-1-0,00.html

11/25/2004 7:52:25 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

I am back from a wonderful trip to Australia and already heads down in a new project with the main focus on smart client, webservices, WSE 2.0 etc.

First thing I noticed when I got back was that I couldn't dial in to Microsoft Corpnet with my laptop. The hotline told me that my computer account was deleted after such a long inactivity. Seems to be really bizar for an American company that an employee is away for 5 weeks without having left the company or being on sabbatical. :)

11/25/2004 7:40:18 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [1] 

I am out on vacation for nice 5 weeks to Australia :)

So no HierarGrid and ASP.NET support for the next month. I am sure the geeks on www.asp.net/forums will jump in...

10/18/2004 4:42:57 AM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [1] 

Soma announces:

"One of the top feedback requests from our customers is support for Edit & Continue (E&C) in C# in Visual Studio 2005.  I am excited to announce that the C# team took your feedback to heart and has added support for E&C in Visual Studio 2005."

10/15/2004 6:30:29 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Alan Smith created a cool compilation of Biztalk-related blog posts as a CHM file:

http://www.gotdotnet.com/workspaces/releases/viewuploads.aspx?id=0dfb4f4e-d241-4bc8-8418-2c385d8e3e

10/11/2004 12:56:16 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Please take a close look at the info page about a reported security issue with ASP.NET:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/aspnet.mspx

Brian Goldfarb also started a new thread about it on the ASP.NET Forums:

http://www.asp.net/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?tabindex=1&PostID=711220

10/6/2004 11:04:42 AM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Quite an interesting article called "Open Source Myths: Thoughts on some frequently-stated dogma promoted by the Open Source community" by Neil Gunton

8/20/2004 4:24:03 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [2] 

The update can be found here.

8/17/2004 12:53:49 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

In case you haven't seen it yourself there is now a web version of MSN Messenger on http://webmessenger.msn.com/.

This is excellent news for people like me who are often behind firewalls at customer sites and cannot connect directly to the Messenger service.

8/11/2004 2:26:43 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

The new Reflector.FileDisassembler 4.0.18.0 contains the following changes:

• Feature: AssemblyResolver dialog appears only once per assembly
• Bugfix: Progressbar corrected

Download here

8/10/2004 4:19:25 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

The new release 1.7 of the HierarGrid contains the following changes:

• Feature: TemplateDataMode.RunTime makes it possible to choose between SingleRow and Table for each relation at runtime (thanks to Tom Schmidt)
• Feature: child templates are displayed for rows in selected state (thanks to Patrick Martin)
• Bugfix: state of Checkboxes in child templates is now correctly preserved (thanks to Paolo Falabella)
• Bugfix: corrected Mozilla DHTML incompatibilities (thanks to David Tétreault)

Download here.

8/9/2004 12:45:40 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Today SQL Server 2005 has been released to the MSDN subscriber downloads. If you try to install it on a machine that has Whidbey Beta 1 already installed you'll get a asking you to deinstall the .NET Framework. This is because Yukon ships with a slightly newer Framework build (40607.42) than the original Beta 1 of Whidbey (40607.16).

Just go to Add/Remove Programs and deinstall the .NET Framework - no need to deinstall Visual Studio 2005 itself. After that, you should be able to install Yukon which copies the newer version of the Framework to the disk.

Ready is your side-by-side install of Whidbey Beta1 and Yukon Beta2!

7/26/2004 6:47:46 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

If you send me an email and wonder why I never get back to you, maybe it has been stuck in my SPAM filter. My mail software blocks and sends me a list of all potential SPAM and virus mails and I just skim the subjects. So please make sure you DON'T use a trivial subject like "question" or "hi" and rather include "HierarGrid", "ASP.NET" or whatever might catch my attention.

7/9/2004 3:58:30 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

James Avery was kind enough to include my ASP.NET Version Switcher in his list of the "Ten Must-Have Tools Every Developer Should Download Now" that is published in the current edition of MSDN Magazine July 2004.

Yesterday, I've checked the current version with the Beta1 of Visual Web Developer Express and it worked. Please note that it does seem to have problems running from a network share but once locally installed everything was fine. Let me know if you have difficulties.

7/7/2004 8:25:00 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [1] 

Interesting article I stumbled over while reading an internal DL about the work of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC).

7/5/2004 6:47:23 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Today at Teched Europe 2004, Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1 (formerly code-named Whidbey) is announced. On the new Developer Center site you can download two sets of products:

• The full Visual Studio 2005 Beta, available to MSDN Subscribers initially; and by order for non-subscribers for a small fee in the near future.
• The Visual Studio 2005 Express Beta Products, available for free public download. "The Express products are lightweight, easy to use, easy to learn tools for hobbyists, enthusiasts, and students who want to build dynamic Windows applications and Web sites."

The other interesting site when developing with Whidbey is the MSDN Product Feedback Center, where you can submit Feature Requests and Bugs directly to the product teams, get notified of fixes, rate on the importance etc.

The MSDN documentation is available here.

6/29/2004 11:16:01 AM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

The new reflector build 4.0.9.0 is available vie Help|Check for updates.

As I am receiving many emails asking "Where is FileDisassembler for Reflector version X.X.X.X?" I wanted to point out, that not for each new Reflector build there needs to be a new FileDisassembler build.

Lutz changes the assembly version number only when breaking changes affect add-in writers. Therefore, a FileDisassembler build should work with a couple of different Reflector builds. Whenever he includes breaking changes, I am notified before and try to get a new version of FileDisassembler out simultaneously.

So please ask me only for new version, if you get the error message: "The following add-in(s) failed to load. Please check if you have the correct version installed."

6/29/2004 10:27:21 AM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Scott Mitchell wrote an excellent MSDN article on the inner workings of the ASP.NET ViewState. That's cool because now I can answer half of the emails I receive about my DynamicControlsPlaceholder and dynamic controls samples by sending them the link to this article :)

It consolidates much of the information that is contained in numerous ASP.NET forum posts and extends Paul Wilson's ASPAlliance article.

Good job, Scott!

6/24/2004 5:43:31 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

The update can be found here.

6/20/2004 10:53:21 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

I've been asked twice in the last 24h about the following error when trying to create your own build of the HierarGrid or any other of my components:

This happens because all builds that I compile are strong named and signed with my private key. The reference to my private key is located in the AssemblyInfo.cs file. Therefore, if you want to recompile the HierarGrid please either remove the reference to my keyfile in the AssemblyInfo.cs or create your own private key and use it to sign the assembly.

Further information on creating a key and strong named assemblies can be found here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cpconStrong-NamedAssemblies.asp

6/17/2004 10:12:05 AM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [3] 

Reflector.FileDisassembler now has its own page and of course RSS Category Feed.

6/1/2004 1:36:15 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

The new minor release 1.6 of the HierarGrid contains the following changes:

• Bugfix: corrected problem with non-unique IDs that were generated for "ChildTemplate" panel in a DataMode=Table HierarGrid
• Bugfix: child templates were inserted into first column when PagerStyle was set to "Top"
• Bugfix: resetting the DataItem after inserting the child templates for further custom processing
• Bugfix: copying selected state for <select> tags

Download here.

With the first bugfix, the FindControl call to access a child template changes to Control c=HierarGrid1.Items[i].Cells[1].FindControl("DCP").FindControl("Panel").FindControl("Panel_[PanelId]").FindControl("ChildTemplate_[PanelId]").FindControl("[InnerControlId]");

5/30/2004 9:00:33 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

There are a couple of interesting demo videos of some parts of Visual Studio 2005 Team System (code-named Burton)

http://www.activewin.com/awin/comments.asp?HeadlineIndex=24465

5/26/2004 10:23:18 AM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [1] 

The new version of FileDisassembler, an add-in for Lutz Roeder's Reflector 4.0.3.0 that allows to dump an assembly to source code files, contains the following new features:

• Assemblyinfo.cs is generated
• Reflector supports IL code as another language => FileDisassembler can now dump assembly in IL code
• (Custom) Attributes are written to the file (no matter what the reflector settings are)

5/22/2004 1:26:16 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [1] 

I've created a little add-in called FileDisassembler for the new version of Lutz Roeder's .NET Reflector that you can use to dump the decompiler output to files of any Reflector supported language (C#, VB.NET, Delphi). This is extremely useful if you are searching for a specific line of code as you can use VS.NET's "Find in Files" or want to convert a class from one language to another.

5/5/2004 4:10:42 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [9] 

BusinessWeek has a very interesting yet critical article about the future of Microsoft called "Microsoft's Midlife Crisis". Interesting to see the company more from a business analyst and less technical point of view.

5/4/2004 6:12:17 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Nigel Parham was kind enough to create and let me publish a simplified version of his business application that uses the HierarGrid. Included in the app are samples for:

- sorting, filtering
- paging with variable page size and customized style
- row highlighting
- export to Excel
- keyboard support

Please note that due to simplifying the original application, data access code was moved into the code-behind files thus resulting in methods that exceed a screen page. Of course, that should not be considered a best practice :)
Furthermore, as any code on my site it is provided as-is with no warranties, and confers no rights - please consider this as a quick tutorial or proof-of-concept.

The sample app can be downloaded here ("How to get started") and there is also a separate word document that describes installing it.
Thanks Nigel!

5/3/2004 3:44:26 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

This article talks about the trend of linux distributors to commercialize the OS and cites Rick Carey, a former proponent of OSS who was Chief Technology Architect at Merril Lynch and now Bank One: "The companies that are trying to treat Linux like it's regular software and have a business model based on per-CPU or per-desktop licensing worry the heck out of me. For us, that makes Linux prohibitively expensive. And it makes a stronger case for us to go Windows".

4/29/2004 1:38:33 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

While developing the HierarGrid I noticed that there are some subtle differences between loading UserControls with Page.LoadControl and Page.LoadTemplate. Without digging deeper into that I decided to add a property “TemplateControlMode” to the HierarGrid so that the developer can choose which way to load the template.

After some users asked what the "right" setting for the property is or reported exceptions that were related to choosing the "wrong" setting, I decided to take a look at the two implementations to find the differences. My new article on ASPAlliance explains what I've found.

3/30/2004 2:55:27 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

I've found an interesting page on CodeProject that references the HierarGrid: Tony Truong wrote an article about the ExDataGrid, which has the ability to expand and contract datagrid columns rather than datagrid rows as the HierarGrid does. Unfortunately, he decided not to build his own custom control instead of extending the HierarGrid to support both requirements. But it looks like he did a good job anyway.

Furthermore, I got an email from Ariel Dolan who pointed me to his homepage which integrates the HierarGrid with filtering, sorting and paging. Enter "555" into the textbox and hit search. Then click on the "Filter Sort/Hit table" and see the hierarchical grid in action.

Didier Depretz sent me a snapshot of his application which also shows the possibilites of the HierarGrid.

2/20/2004 6:22:48 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

"Xen, a new programming language coming out of Microsoft Research and developed in conjunction with the University of Cambridge, promises to bring together three disparate but integral components of programming, wrapping them together in .Net."

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1441099,00.asp

2/2/2004 12:51:00 AM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

A nice article called Behind the scenes of ASPX files by Natty Gur describes how dynamic compilation in ASP.NET works and extends the last paragraph of Dino's article The ASP.NET HTTP Runtime I wrote about a couple of months ago.

Still, I am missing an article that explains how dynamic code generation in ASP.NET works from an ASPX page with a couple of markup tags through the PageParser into a .cs file that is then compiled into a .NET assembly.

2/2/2004 12:42:20 AM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

The following document explains how to watch dvr-ms files on a standard Windows XP machine:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/using/tips/recordedTV.asp

1/6/2004 4:20:29 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Another MCE related post:

On a thread on TheGreenButton.com I found a nice enhancement to the Irremote.ini file that makes the Hauppauge remote control work with MCE. I do have some problems with the shortcuts that include special keys like Ctrl, Alt etc. (I have to press several times until it recognizes it) but it works.

Link is here and search for "IR.exe". One additional comment: delete the remarks like "; Up arrow" from Kenzos listing.

Update: updated the link

1/3/2004 12:11:26 AM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [9] 

Interesting take on IT outsourcing in Red Herring.

12/31/2003 11:12:40 AM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Now, that I've set up Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 on my brand new Dell Dimension 8300 with ATI Radeon 9800XT and Hauppauge WinTV PVR350, I wanted to know how to burn the recorded dvr-ms files to a DVD so that my standard DVD player is capable of displaying them.

During my Google search I came across these three cool MCE community sites:

• TheGreenButton.com: informative forum, good FAQ and download section
• xpMCE:good forum and FAQ as well
• shspvr.com: which is mostly related to the Hauppauge WinTV card

The answer to my question is:

The dvr-ms format is a MPEG-2 stream extended by some metadata. For further reference see this MSDN article. Sonic MyDVD and Nero's newest version 6.3 are able to import these files and burn them onto DVD.

However, when I try to import a recorded TV show using either program, it suddenly locks up with a Watson screen. Anyone aware of what's wrong?

12/30/2003 11:30:23 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Joel Spolsky has a very nice article on his homepage that talks about the cultural clash between Unix and Windows developers. Absolutely worth a reading.

Guten Rutsch ("have a good slide" as we say in German) into a happy new year!

12/29/2003 3:52:57 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Jon points to this nice tool called ieHttpHeaders which I haven't heard of previously.

12/8/2003 4:06:35 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

In case you are using WS2003 as your primary, every day OS the following site may be helpful. It consolidates many of the tips to deactivate features directed to a "real" server (like shutdown tracker etc.) and reactivate features for a consumer OS (like theming, DirectX, etc.)

How to convert your Windows Server 2003... to a Workstation!

12/5/2003 10:36:49 AM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

I've just read that the session videos from the PDC are all available online at http://microsoft.sitestream.com/PDC2003/Default.htm

11/23/2003 11:42:38 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

... I may not forget a link to this cool page: Microsoft Codename compilation

11/19/2003 2:21:46 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

I've heard a couple of times that people - especially who have not been to the PDC - are a bit confused about all the new codenames and the technologies behind them. While it seems easy to google for more information about each it is also important to know which technology wave they belong to.

The first upcoming technology wave is made up of Yukon, the next version of SQL Server and Whidbey, the 2.0 version of the .NET Framework and Visual Studio (currently the version number is still 1.2 which is expected to be changed prior to the release). They are supposed to ship simultaneously in late 2004 (I think that's what I've heard at PDC - correct me if I'm wrong).

The second one is the "Longhorn wave", where Longhorn is the codename for the next version of the Windows operating system. The .NET FX is then included in the OS and the whole set of APIs is called WinFX. According to the Microsoft Developer Roadmap a new version of Visual Studio, code-named Orcas will be released at the same time (Currently, you can use the Whidbey version to develop Longhorn applications). A server version of Windows called "Longhorn Server" is expected to be shipped shortly after the client.

Yukon/Whidbey wave:

• ClickOnce (no-touch deployment)
• MSBuild (new build system)
• ObjectSpaces (O/R mapper)
• Whitehorse
• parts of System.Transactions (according to Don Box's session at the PDC)

Longhorn/WinFX/Orcas wave:

• Avalon (new graphic subsystem)
• WinFS (new storage system)
• Indigo (communication, good FAQ here, perhaps separately before Longhorn for WS2003 and WINXP)
• Monad (command shell)
• SuperFetch
• NGSCB

11/17/2003 5:04:34 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [2] 

Miguel announces the Mono roadmap and the Hacking roadmap that contains plans about the upcoming Whidbey features and even about implementing Indigo and Avalon.

11/5/2003 1:14:12 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Just noticed the nice tweak guide for the PDC build of Longhorn:
http://69.50.228.116/Chris123NT/PDC_4051/LHGuide.html

Thanks to Bill Evjen.

11/4/2003 4:44:31 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

Nigel Parham sent me a snapshot of his application that uses the HierarGrid to display nested tables. It looks like he also implemented editing, deleting, filtering, sorting and paging - really amazing!

Thanks Nigel for letting me publish this.

11/4/2003 3:03:45 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

For the German .NET Community:
Just noticed the announcement of the .NET Community Conference in Karlsruhe in Alex's blog. It's free and covers an exclusive preview of ASP.NET 2.0. Patrick A. Lorenz, the writer of ASP.NET 2.0 Revealed is speaking.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, the conference is cancelled but a replacement is planned.

11/4/2003 2:20:38 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

I was asked if the ASP.NET Version Switcher works with the bits from the PDC (Whidbey Alpha and Longhorn).

Actually, I've tested it with

• IIS 5.0 (Win2k)
• IIS 5.1 (WinXP)
• IIS 6.0 (WS2003)
• IIS 7.0 (Longhorn)

and Framework 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2.30703.*. It should all work. If you notice any problems please let me know.

Download

11/4/2003 12:05:08 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

There are numerous sites with content of the PDC:

Videos:

• PDC 2003 Central - Multimedia section: summary of the three days
• MSDN TV: Lap Around Longhorn by Chris Anderson and Don Box
• Paul Thurrott's SuperSite: live snapshots from the keynotes

Session Slides:

• PDC 2003 Central: Sessions

And of course:

• PDCBloggers.net
• LonghornBlogs.com

11/3/2003 6:17:36 PM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [0] 

An updated version of the Developer Tools Roadmap can be found here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/productinfo/roadmap.aspx