GeekZilla
Articles written by Dave Howard
Presenting Leading Zeroes in a Query
Presenting Leading Zeroes in a Query This little tip came in handy for me when sorting objects by their position within a tree structure. If you build up a string such as 0.0.1.0 representing the nodes position within a tree structure then sorting will result in an ascii sort where 0.
Dave Howard - 1,425 viewsXMLHTTPRequest in Stored Procedure
XMLHTTPRequest in Stored Procedure I recently had a requirement to call a webservice from a stored procedure. I looked into doing this by writing a CLR assembly in SQL 2005. There were a few articles online describing this but working in a large organisation I knew that getting the thi
Dave Howard - 20,769 viewsJson converters lacking in Microsoft AJAX RTM
Json converters lacking in Microsoft AJAX RTM Having spent some time developing a project using a CTP version of Microsoft Ajax ("ATLAS" back in the day) I finally came to migrate the project to the RTM version. After uninstalling the CTP release, and installing the RTM release I wasn
Dave Howard - 5,024 viewsUsing Enum.Parse()
Using Enum.Parse() Have you ever written any code along the lines of... myEnum GetEnumValue(string EnumString) { myEnum enumValue; switch (EnumString) { &n
Dave Howard - 25,386 viewsTyped Masterpage reference
Typed Masterpage reference ASP.NET master pages are pretty handy and here is a simple tip to make them even easier to use. Using the MasterType reference in your content page allows you to refer to your master page properties without having to cast it to your master page type everytime.
Dave Howard - 9,662 viewsHow to add a Digg This counter to your article
How to add a Digg This counter to your article Simply by adding the HTML below to this page... <script> digg_url = 'http://digg.com/programming/How_to_add_a_Digg_This_link_to_your_web_site'; </script> <script src="http://digg.com/api/diggthis.js"
Dave Howard - 2,248 viewsT-SQL script automatically adds auditing to a table
T-SQL script automatically adds auditing to a table The script below looks at the structure of the table you specify and creates a new table called xxx_Audit with the same structure plus a timestamp, less any constraints/unique keys etc. It then creates a new trigger on the original tabl
Dave Howard - 30,705 viewsSelect Column Information using SQL Server
Select Column Information using SQL Server Use this T-SQL to select infomation about a specific table/columns, Useful for automated scripts. DECLARE @tablename varchar(100) SET @tablename = N'myTable' SELECT clmns.name&n
Dave Howard - 154,739 viewsWhy we use C# for .NET development
Why we use C# for .NET development In the company where we work, we have a policy of using Java for all major developments. The core reason behind this being that we have a long term aspiration to being vendor and platform independent. Regards the .NET framework the policy is to
Dave Howard - 38,114 viewsBug in VS2005? Using Typed DataSets with SQL 2005 and stored procedures
Bug in VS2005? Using Typed DataSets with SQL 2005 and stored procedures I have been a fan of typed datasets since I started using them in VS2005. Using the feature with SQL Express/stored procedures, Express/SQL Statements, SQL Server/SQL Statements all generate my DAL just fine. However, I
Dave Howard - 10,176 viewsChanging Schema for a group of objects
Changing Schema for a group of objects This script moves all of you stored procedures from one Schema to another. This was really handy when using a Typed Dataset with SQL 2005 and stored procedures. The wizard creates stored procedures in the users Schema (and complains if it does not e
Dave Howard - 11,421 viewsEnabling Agent XPs on a new SQL Server 2005 install
Enabling Agent XPs on a new SQL Server 2005 install I had to do this prior to creating a maintainence plan for a database on my development box. When i first tried to create the plan I was given a message that Agent XPs are not enabled and that I should run sp_reconfigure. Run t
Dave Howard - 28,886 viewsShould I use C# or VB .Net?
Should I use C# or VB .Net? What a conundrum, each developer has their favourite. In this article I will try to document the pro's and con's, or at least the differences of each language. I will admit that I am a C# developer but I will try to keep this unbiased. VB C#
Dave Howard - 1,563 viewsEncoding string to Base64 / UTF8
Encoding string to Base64 / UTF8 Sometimes you need to convert strings to Base64, for example in security components. The function below does this: public string stringToBase64(string s) { try
Dave Howard - 20,706 viewsAuthenticated HTTPRequests (Using Credentials)
Authenticated HTTPRequests (Using Credentials) Recently I had to make a SOAP call to a Cisco CallManager (an IP PBX). This required that the request used basic authentication. I couldn't add a web reference as the cisco interface doesn't support GET requests, so the Visual Studio discovery
Dave Howard - 81,933 viewsLightweight Ajax
Lightweight Ajax Ajax doesn't have to be complicated - at its most basic it just means partial updates your pages rather than reloading the whole page. The attached js library contains just two functions - GetContent and RunJS. GetContent() takes a URL and a element name: It si
Dave Howard - 7,739 viewsWeb service calls from javascript using ATLAS (part 3) - Complex properties
Web service calls from javascript using ATLAS (part 3) - Complex properties Part two covered returning objects with multiple properties from a webservice and accessing those properties from javascript. This article demonstrates that even 'complex' properties are supported by the ATLAS
Dave Howard - 5,389 viewsWeb service calls from javascript using ATLAS (part 2) - Complex return types
Web service calls from javascript using ATLAS (part 2) - Complex return types Following on from part one which showed how to make web service calls from javscript, this article will now show the flexibility of the ATLAS framework by calling a web service that returns an object from jav
Dave Howard - 7,069 viewsWeb service calls from javascript using ATLAS (part 1)
Web service calls from javascript using ATLAS (part 1) ATLAS provides a fantastic mechanism for making web service calls from javascript code. Take the simple web service below... public class myWebService : System.Web.Services.WebServic
Dave Howard - 5,990 viewsAuto-complete using ATLAS
Auto-complete using ATLAS Setting up an auto-complete input box in ATLAS is pretty simple, here is a quick guide to illustrate this... Assuming you already have the ATLAS framework referenced in your project then select an <asp:TextBox> to apply auto-complete to. See Mark
Dave Howard - 8,966 viewsStrongly Typed Dataset doesn't always auto generate DELETE and UPDATE stored procedures
Strongly Typed Dataset doesn't always auto generate DELETE and UPDATE stored procedures I found this problem whilst creating a STD that included a many to many relationship between two tables. I created a table consisting of the two foreign keys and appropriate constraints to support t
Dave Howard - 7,318 viewsReturn new identity from Strongly Typed Dataset DataTable.Insert method
Return new identity from Strongly Typed Dataset DataTable.Insert method Datasets are pretty good at auto generating stored procedures and wrapping c# code around them for you. However with the insert method you often want to do something with the object that you have just inserte
Dave Howard - 26,796 viewsExtending Strongly Typed Datasets
Extending Strongly Typed Datasets Strongly Typed Datasets are a rather nice addition to VS2005 (they don't lend themselves well to acronyms however) You still need to create a database and tables and realationships but using STDs saves a writing huge amount of code. If this code
Dave Howard - 6,301 viewsHandling hierachical structures in SQL
Handling hierachical structures in SQL Dealing with tree structures in SQL can be tricky. A common solution is to have a self referencing table with a primary key and parent key column. This allows for any depth of tree and allows each 'node' to have zero or more child nodes. Be
Dave Howard - 5,175 viewsSerializing abstract classes to XML
Serializing abstract classes to XML Digg it: http://digg.com/programming/Serializing_abstract_classes_to_XML_in_c It is often useful to have abstract classes with several derived types to allow use of strongly typed lists and the such. For example you might have a DocumentFragmen
Dave Howard - 23,779 viewsStrongly Typed DataSets and GridViews
Strongly Typed DataSets and GridViews If you are anything like me you don't enjoy writing 5 or 6 stored procedures for each business object in your solution. If you do, then click here to read more about T-SQL! http://www.geekzilla.co.uk/Browse.aspx?CategoryID=32 For the re
Dave Howard - 9,744 viewsUpdating Foreign keys in a GridView
Updating Foreign keys in a GridView A GridView generally shows and allows the user to update rows in a database. They are easy to set up until the values that you want to update is a foreign key. Its not obvious how to send the appropriate value back to the database or how to
Dave Howard - 12,311 viewsGarmin and Google Maps
Garmin and Google Maps The bought a Garmin Forerunner recently which is a really cool piece of kit but the maps that come with it are very poor. Google maps has an API that allows you to integrate these rich maps into your own web applications. Garmin has the option to export yo
Dave Howard - 13,472 viewsUpdating controls from another thread
Updating form controls from another thread. Form controls, by default, can only be updated by the forms thread. Otherwise an invoke must be used. The example below shows a simple logging function that can be called by threads other than the forms. delegate void LogSa
Dave Howard - 5,079 viewsSystem tray and balloon tips
Balloon Tips from the System Tray You can really easily add system tray function to .NET windows forms by dragging the NotifyIcon object onto your form. You can then use this to display balloon tips from the system tray with the code below: myNotifyIcon.ShowBalloonTip(500,&nbs
Dave Howard - 31,212 views