IZWebFileManager 2.5.4 release is out

I am very happy to announce that IZWebFileManager 2.5.4 has been released.

From now (and forever) it supports Chrome, Safari and Opera browsers.
You are welcome to try it using online demo:
http://www.izwebfilemanager.com/demo/default.aspx

The release is available for download from Google Code
https://code.google.com/p/izwebfilemanager/

Cheers!

Build .NET Project with NAnt

Since NAnt comes with NAnt 0.90 release I was interested to use it with my project IZWebFileManage.

At first look it is powerful tool allows me easy to build project, run tests and package release.

The first task was"build" of course.

For such purpose NAnt offers <csc> task, but using this task I have to declare output type, list of source files, resources etc. It is quite good if you are using Notepad or any other (not Visual Studio) IDE, but I (and I believe most of .NET developers) use Visual Studio and have *.csproj file.

Is there a way to build VS project with NAnt? Yes, you may find it in NAntContrib. It provides <msbuild> task. But problem is that NAntContrib is quite out of date. The last release is on 2006/10/15 and I am not sure it supports NAnt 0.90 and VS 2008

Is there alternative way to build *.csproj? Yes - msbuild command line!
NAnt has <exec> task which run any command line you want.

There is my Default.build file:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<project name="IZWebFileManager" default="build" 
        xmlns="http://nant.sf.net/schemas/nant.xsd">

 <property name="project.config" value="Debug" />

 <target name="clean">
     <exec program="${framework::get-framework-directory(framework::get-target-framework())}\msbuild.exe"
               commandline='/t:Clean /p:Configuration=${project.config} /p:Platform="AnyCPU" /v:n'
                 workingdir="." />
 </target>
 
 <target name="version">
 </target>

 <target name="build" depends="clean, version">
     <exec program="${framework::get-framework-directory(framework::get-target-framework())}\msbuild.exe"
               commandline='/t:Build /p:Configuration=${project.config} /p:Platform="AnyCPU" /v:n'
                 workingdir="." />
 </target>

</project>

I place Default.build file near to *.csproj file and msbuild find it by default, so there is no need to mention name of project file explicitly.

Run build using command line:

>nant build


P.S. After a while I figured out <solution> task. Looks like that is what I need to run msbuild with NAnt. I will discover it...

ASP.NET MVC 2 Client side validation using jQuery validation plug-in

ASP.NET MVC 2 has validation architecture that support both server-side and client-side validation. ScottGu describes in details how to get validation works in his post ASP.NET MVC 2: Model Validation.

The best feature in client-side architecture is that you may use alternative java scripts validation libraries like jQuery validation.

There are a steps to get client-side validation works using jQuery validation plug-in:

1. Download and add to your ASP.NET MVC project following java scripts:
   
   • jquery-1.4.2.js
   • jquery.validate.js
   • MicrosoftMvcJQueryValidation.js (ASP.NET MVC 2 Futures download)
   I assume you put all scripts into /Scripts folder of your MVC application
   
2. Enable client side validation
   
   • add three JavaScript references to your view
     
     
   • write one line of code in the view before form
     

That's it! Now you have Client-side validation using jQuery validation plug-in!

S#arp Arcitecture 1.5 - running T4 teplate error

I decided to build some project using S#arp Architecture. I am using VS 2010.

I went through all installation steps and created my first project S#arp Architecture Application.

My next step was running scaffolding generator. And then I got the troubles.

Any time I run custom tool, I get two error messages:

Compiling transformation: Metadata file 'Inflector.Net.dll' could not be found
Compiling transformation: Metadata file 'SharpArch.Core.dll' could not be found

I checked the references - they was set correctly. I was stuck but I didn't want to surrender, and after hours of googling and voodoo I got the solution.

The problem is solved by specifying the absolute path to the referenced assembly in template file (@assembly directive)

I found two files where Inflector.Net.dll and SharpArch.Core.dll are referenced:

[solution folder]\tools\CrudScaffolding\EntityScaffoldingDetails.tt
[solution folder]\tools\CrudScaffolding\Templates\BaseTemplate.tt

and replaced following rows

<#@ assembly name="SharpArch.Core.dll" #>

with

<#@ assembly name="[solution folder]\lib\SharpArch.Core.dll" #>

and

<#@ assembly name="Inflector.Net.dll" #>

with

<#@ assembly name="[solution folder]\lib\Inflector.Net.dll" #>


No error anymore!

IZWebFileManager 2.5.3 has been released

IZWebFileManager 2.5.3 has been released

It includes:
* Thumbnail view fix (http://www.izwebfilemanager.com/forums/thread/445.aspx)
* New Netherlands/Dutch translation (by Marcel van den Arend)

The release is available for download from Google Code
https://code.google.com/p/izwebfilemanager/

Cheers!

Query the database with NHibernate 3.0

Introduction

NHibernate gives you many alternative APIs for querying database. There is HQL, which is similar to SQL, Linq to NHibernate and finally ICriteria.
And once you start to use NHibernate in your project, you have to decide which API to use. Since NH 3.0 you have one more option. It is QueryOver API.

In this post I want to compare a usage of different APIs for a simple query.

For this sample I created a console application with embedded database. Full source code is available at google code.
In my sample I have a database with one table Emploee (Id, Name, Age, Salary) and I want to calculate average salary of employees who's between 25 to 30 years old.

Lets start!

HQL

Since I was not familiar with NH (but had an experience with SQL), I found HQL is easiest way to get started with.
There is query:

var salary = session.CreateQuery(
@"
select
    avg(employee.Salary)
from
    Employee employee
where
    employee.Age >= 25 and employee.Age <=30
"
).UniqueResult<double>();

Looks good, readable but not strongly typed.

Go next one.

ICriteria

The ICriteria API is NHibernate's implementation of Query Object.

var salary = session.CreateCriteria(typeof(Employee))
                    .Add(Restrictions.Between("Age", 25, 30))
                    .SetProjection(Projections.Avg("Salary"))
                    .UniqueResult<double>();

Much better, but still has some "magic strings". I am looking for strongly typed code where refactoring tools like 'Find All References', and 'Refactor->Rename' will work perfectly.

Linq

NHibernate 3.0 has a built-in Linq provider.

var query = from employee in session.Query<Employee>()
            where employee.Age >= 25 && employee.Age <= 30
            select employee.Salary;

var salary = query.Average();

Pretty good! Strongly typed, readable. But it uses the fact that Enumerable has Average in this case. Would we need a more complicated projection, it would be not available in LINQ. Also, LINQ syntax is still confusing for some people. It just looks different than surrounding C# code.

Keeping looking for a perfect.

QueryOver

QueryOver combines the use of Extension Methods and Lambda Expressions to provide a statically typesafe wrapper round the ICriteria API.

var salary = session.QueryOver<Employee>()
                    .WhereRestrictionOn(e => e.Age).IsBetween(25).And(30)
                    .Select(e1 => e1.SelectAvg(e2 => e2.Salary))
                    .List<double>()
                    .Single();

Perfect!

In my opinion this one is the best.

IZWebFileManager 2.5.2 has been released

IZWebFileManager 2.5.2 has been released

It includes:
* FileDownload event
* New Swedish translation (by Peter Strömblad)
* IE8 compatibility fixes

The release is available for download from Google Code
https://code.google.com/p/izwebfilemanager/

Cheers!