ASP.NET 3.5 Interview questions

Top Open Source Web-Based Project Management Software

2011-10-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

This is an user contributed article.
Project management software is not just for managing software based project. It can be used for variety of other tasks too. The web-based software must provide tools for planning, organizing and managing resources to achieve project goals and objectives. A web-based project management software can be accessed through an intranet or WAN / LAN using a web browser. You don't have to install any other software on the system. The software can be easy of use with access control features (multi-user). I use project management software for all of our projects (for e.g. building a new cluster farm) for issue / bug-tracking, calender, gantt charts, email notification and much more.
Obviously I'm not the only user, the following open source software is used by some of the biggest research organizations and companies world wild. For example, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory uses track software or open source project such as lighttpd / phpbb use redmine software to keep track of their projects.

You use the following top 10 software for personal or business use. Keep track of all your projects in one place and finish them successfully on time.

#1: Codendi

Codendi is an open-source collaborative development platform offered by Xerox. From only one interface, it gathers, all the needed tools for software development teams: management and versioning of code, bugs, requirements, documents, reporting, tests etc. It is mainly used for managing software project processes.

Download Codendi

#2: Redmine

Redmine is a flexible project management web application. Written using Ruby on Rails framework, it is cross-platform and cross-database. It includes calendar and gantt charts to aid visual representation of projects and their deadlines.

Download redmine

#3: ProjectPier

ProjectPier is a Free, Open-Source, self-hosted PHP application for managing tasks, projects and teams through an intuitive web interface. ProjectPier will help your organization communicate, collaborate and get things done Its function is similar to commercial groupware/project management products, but allows the freedom and scalability of self-hosting.

Download ProjectPier

#4: Trac

Trac is an open source, web-based project management and bug-tracking tool. Trac allows hyperlinking information between a computer bug database, revision control and wiki content. It also serves as a web interface to a version control system like Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar and Darcs.

Download Trac

#5: Project HQ

Project HQ is a collaborative open source project management tool, similar to Basecamp and activeCollab. Project HQ is built on open source technologies like Python, Pylons and SQLAlchemy and is fully database independent. Project HQ uses a structured workflow to assist you in managing your projects.

Download Project HQ

#6: Collabtive

Collabtive is a web-based project management software that is being published as Open Source software. The project was started in November 2007. It strives to provide an Open Source alternative to proprietary tools like Basecamp or ActiveCollab.

Download Collabtive

#7: eGroupWare

eGroupWare is a free open source groupware software intended for businesses from small to enterprises. Its primary functions allow users to manage contacts, appointments, projects and to-do lists.
It is used either via its native web-interface, making access platform-independent, or by using different supported groupware clients, such as Kontact, Novell Evolution, or Microsoft Outlook. It can also be used by mobile phone or PDA via SyncML.

Download eGroupWare

#8: KForge

KForge is an open-source (GPL) system for managing software and knowledge projects. It re-uses existing best-of-breed tools such as a versioned storage (subversion), a tracker (trac), and wiki (trac or moinmoin), integrating them with the system’s own facilities (projects, users, permissions etc). KForge also provides a complete web interface for project administration as well a fully-developed plugin system so that new services and features can be easily added.

Download KForge

#9: OpenGoo

It is a complete online solution focused on improving productivity, collaboration, communication and management of your teams. OpenGoo main features include document management, contact management, e-mail, project management, and time management. Text documents and presentations can be created and edited online. Files can be uploaded, organized and shared, independent of file formats.

Download OpenGoo

#10: ClockingIT

ClockingIT is a free Project Management solution, which helps your team stay focused and on top of things.

Download ClockingIT

DotNetNuke Overview

2010-05-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

DotNetNuke is the leading Web Content Management Platform for Microsoft .NET. DotNetNuke can be used as a web content management system (CMS) for simple websites or as a powerful application development framework which enables businesses to quickly build and deploy feature-rich, interactive websites and applications in Microsoft .NET.

An intuitive, menu-driven interface allows non-technical users to easily create new sites or extend the functionality and features of their existing web site when used as a web CMS. An open API and the availability of over 6,000 third-party add-on modules available through Snowcovered.com allow web development professionals to create complex web sites for demanding applications. Installing new modules or skins is quick and easy, allowing users to deploy new functionality on their web sites in just minutes.

DotNetNuke is the world’s most widely adopted framework for building web solutions on Microsoft Windows Server. DotNetNuke powers over 500,000 portals, intranets, extranets, and public web sites. An enthusiastic open source community with more than 750,000 registered members supports the platform.

DotNetNuke Features

Easy to Install – You can have the DotNetNuke web content management system (WCM or CMS) and application development platform up and running within minutes. Just download the software and follow the simple installation instructions. In addition, several hosting companies offer DotNetNuke-specific hosting packages, which include the tools and support to make project set-up even easier.
Easy to Use – The DotNetNuke content management system makes it easy for administrators, content editors, developers, and designers to manage all aspects of their web assets. Wizards, content-sensitive help, and a well-researched user interface provide a smooth user experience.
Powerful – The DotNetNuke content management system can support multiple web sites from a single application installation. By dividing administrative tasks between host level and individual site level, administrators can manage an unlimited number of websites – each with its own unique appearance and content.
Feature-rich – The DotNetNuke application comes loaded with a set of built-in features that provide exceptional functionality. Site hosting, web design, content management, security, and membership options are all easily managed and customized through simple, browser-based tools.
Localized – DotNetNuke includes a multi-language localization feature that allows administrators to easily translate their sites into any language. And with an international group of hosts and developers working within the DotNetNuke ecosystem, native support is always close at hand.
Leading-edge – The DotNetNuke web content management system and application development platform gives developers the opportunity to leverage best-practice software development concepts and leading-edge technologies like ASP.NET 2.0, Visual Studio, SQL Server, Windows Server, and IIS.
Flexible and Extensible – The DotNetNuke web content management system and application development platform fits easily into existing computing environments. The core framework includes a series of open APIs that make integration with existing applications simple and straightforward, allowing businesses to focus on extending features and functionality rather than troubleshooting installations. And, DotNetNuke is flexible enough to be used for anything — new applications, minor site modifications, major overhauls, and swap outs.
Recognized – The DotNetNuke web content management system and application development platform is widely recognized and respected in the open source community, with hundreds of thousands of applications in use. DotNetNuke Corp. and DotNetNuke community members continue to evolve the software through rigorous development, testing, community participation, real-world trials, and end-user feedback.

Administration and Security

Single Installation, Multiple Portals – The DotNetNuke web content management system (CMS) provides support for multiple portals/sites using a single database. This allows the software to be installed on a web server and support multiple web sites through a single hosting account which is ideal for administrators who provide subhosting services to their membership or for companies that want to support unique web sites for each department.
Host and Administrator Accounts – For users supporting multiple sites, differentiating the Host from the Administrator is important.

Logging in as Host allows users to manage settings related to site hosting and e-commerce including monthly hosting fees, disk space, and demo period/expiration dates. The Host has access to a list of all hosted sites and their individual hosting information and the ability to edit, modify, or delete a specific site.
Logging in as Administrator allows users to manage settings related to their own individual site. The Administrator may edit, modify, or delete settings specific to their own site but has no access to other sites operating under the same host.

Security Roles and Protected Content – Administrators can define and assign roles for different user groups such as registered users, subscribers, content providers, affiliates, and media. They can then grant access and editing rights for each group. These rights can be assigned to the entire site, a single page, or even to an individual module on a specific page. Individual users may belong to more than one group. Administrators can also establish separate password-protected areas to control access.
Site Log – The site log allows administrators to track users and visitors by generating reports including detailed site log, page popularity, page views by day, page views by days of week, page views by hour, page views by month, user frequency, user registration by country, and user registration by date.
Manage Vendors and Affiliates – Administrators can store contact information, advertising materials (banners, button ads), and statistical data on site vendors and affiliates. This tool also manages start and end dates for ad campaigns, tracks impressions, and calculates cost per impression (CPM).
Bulk Email – Administrators can compose and send bulk email messages to specific users or groups.
Newsletters – Administrators can easily publish newsletters to a targeted group of users. Newsletters are created and sent as HTML documents.

Google products for your Nokia phone

2009-03-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

Stay connected with Gmail, Search, Maps and other Google products. Check products are available for your Nokia phone

Featured Free Products

Search - Find the information you need quickly and easily

Maps - Locate nearby businesses and get driving directions

Gmail - Stay connected with Gmail on the go

YouTube - Watch videos from anywhere

Sync - Synchronize your contacts with Google

Google provide facility for Mobile.

2009-03-22T22:34:00.000-07:00

Google Provide the following facility to mobile Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube and other Google products on your mobile device.
Mobile Phone list:
• Android
• BlackBerry
• iPhone
• Motorola
• Nokia phone
• Nokia S60 phone
• Samsung
• Sony Ericsson
• Windows Mobile

What is a content management system?

2009-03-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

A content management system allows you to easily add, edit or remove content on your website without the need to contact your website design company (Us), or the need for any IT or programming skills.

Changes to your website can be made via a simple web-based interface called WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. Which is an edior that can be accessed through any web browser, meaning you can update your website wherever you are, whenever you wish, as long as you have access to the internet. Updates are made in real time,and will be shown on your website instantly.

My organization went through the approval process of supporting the .NET Framework 2.0 in production. Do we need to go through the same process all...

2008-10-14T21:04:00.001-07:00

My organization went through the approval process of supporting the .NET Framework 2.0 in production. Do we need to go through the same process all over again for the .NET Framework 3.0? Do I need to do any application compatibility testing for my .NET Framework 2.0 applications?

Because the .NET Framework 3.0 only adds new components to the .NET Framework 2.0 without changing any of the components released in the .NET Framework 2.0, the applications you've built on the .NET Framework 2.0 will not be affected. You don’t need to do any additional testing for your .NET Framework 2.0 applications when you install the .NET Framework 3.0.

What happens when I install the .NET Framework 3.0? How can I upgrade if I already have the .NET Framework 2.0 installed?

2008-10-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

When you install the .NET Framework 3.0, the installer will check to see whether you already have the .NET Framework 2.0 (released version) installed. If not, the .NET Framework 3.0 installer will install the .NET Framework 2.0 for you, and then install the new .NET Framework 3.0 components. If you do have the .NET Framework 2.0 installed, the .NET Framework 3.0 installer will only install the new components of the .NET Framework 3.0.

How does the .NET Framework 3.0 relate to the .NET Framework 2.0?

2008-10-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

The .NET Framework 3.0 is an additive release to the .NET Framework 2.0. The .NET Framework 3.0 adds four new technologies to the .NET Framework 2.0: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and Windows CardSpace. There are no changes to the version of the .NET Framework 2.0 components included in the .NET Framework 3.0. This means that the millions of developers who use .NET today can use the skills they already have to start building .NET Framework 3.0 applications. It also means that applications that run on the .NET Framework 2.0 today will continue to run on the .NET Framework 3.0.

Here's a look at the structure of the .NET Framework 3.0:

What happens to the WinFX technologies?

2008-10-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

The WinFX technologies will now be released under the name .NET Framework 3.0. There are no changes to the WinFX technologies or ship schedule the same technologies you're familiar with now simply have a new name.

What is the .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly WinFX)?

2008-10-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

The .NET Framework 3.0 is Microsoft's managed code programming model. It is a superset of the .NET Framework 2.0, combining .NET Framework 2.0 components with new technologies for building applications that have visually stunning user experiences, seamless and secure communication, and the ability to model a range of business processes. In addition to the .NET Framework 2.0, it includes Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and Windows CardSpace.

How do I get Windows SharePoint Services?

2008-10-14T20:52:00.001-07:00

Windows SharePoint Services is a component of Windows Server 2003 and conforms to the Windows Server 2003 licensing model. Organizations simply need to own Windows Server 2003 licenses to have the rights to also use Windows SharePoint Services. Learn more about licensing Windows Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services on the SharePoint licensing page.

What is the relationship between Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007?

2008-10-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

Windows SharePoint Services is a key component of Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies, which include:

Windows SharePoint Services, formerly named SharePoint Team Services, a versatile technology in Windows Server 2003. In addition to its collaborative features, Windows SharePoint Services also exposes platform services and a common framework for document storage and management, as well as search, workflow, rights management, administration, and deployment features. These services provide the foundation for building scalable business applications.

Office SharePoint Server 2007, an integrated suite of easy-to-use server applications that help people and teams improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Office SharePoint Server 2007 connects sites, people, and business processes—facilitating knowledge sharing by offering ready-to-go, enterprise-wide functionality for records management, search, workflows, portals, personalized sites, and more. Office SharePoint Server 2007 extends the capabilities of Windows SharePoint Services by providing highly flexible organization and management tools for SharePoint sites, and by making it possible for teams to publish information to the entire organization.

Office SharePoint Designer 2007, which provides tools for customizing Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server 2007 sites, and for creating reporting tools and application templates without writing new code or deploying new code on your servers.

How does Windows SharePoint Services integrate with the Microsoft Office system?

2008-10-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

Through a set of Web services and documented application interfaces, Windows SharePoint Services can be easily integrated with smart client tools. Users easily adopt these new tools because of their similarity to other familiar environments, such as the Microsoft Office system. For example, Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, Microsoft Office InfoPath, Microsoft Office Project, and Microsoft Office OneNote can use information in SharePoint sites natively. Users can create workspaces, post and edit documents, and assign tasks, all while working on documents stored in SharePoint sites. With Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, users can view calendars and contact lists stored on SharePoint sites and can create and manage sites for editing documents and organizing meetings.

My company currently uses Windows SharePoint Services 2.0. Why should we upgrade to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0?

2008-10-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 offers many new and enhanced features that help business organizations of all sizes further improve individual and team productivity, and the efficiency of their business processes. These new and improved features help employees to implement and manage workspaces and team sites more easily without help from IT, simplify and improve the management and maintenance of documents stored on SharePoint sites, and provide more robust and easy-to-use collaboration tools that encourage information sharing within the organization. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 also provides IT departments with enhanced control of company resources and a more flexible and robust foundation for building new, Web-based applications and services that can connect to and capitalize on existing line-of-business applications.

What’s new in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0?

2008-10-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

Key improvements to Windows SharePoint Services in Version 3.0 include:

Improvements to collaboration workspaces: SharePoint sites now offer e-mail and directory integration, alerts, RSS publishing, templates for building blogs (also known as weblogs) and wikis (Web sites that can be quickly edited by team members—no special technical knowledge required), event and task tracking, improved usability, enhanced site navigation, and more.

Enhancements to content storage: SharePoint lists and libraries now provide per-item security for better data control and integrity, a recycle bin, and enhanced flexibility for storing more types of content. Row and column capacity has also been increased, as has retrieval speed. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 can be easily integrated with smart client tools. In particular, close integration with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 provides offline access to events, contacts, discussions, tasks, and documents.

Easier provisioning of workspaces: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 provides more sophisticated and flexible security, as well as greater control over security settings and permissions.

A more robust foundation for Web applications: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 provides greater flexibility for customization and development of Web-based services and applications built on the Windows SharePoint Services platform.

Why should I consider using Windows SharePoint Services for my organization?

2008-10-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

Windows SharePoint Services offers you benefits in four primary areas:

Efficient collaboration: Help your employees and teams to stay connected and productive by providing access to the people, documents, and information they need.

Rapid deployment, ease of use: Deploy collaboration applications quickly that are easy to use through integration with familiar productivity tools such as the Microsoft Office system.

Manageable infrastructure: Manage the security of your organization’s information resources by deploying a scalable storage infrastructure with powerful administration services and controls.

Robust foundation platform for Web-based applications: Increase business process efficiency by creating Web applications and workflow scenarios on a cost-effective, extensible platform.

Who should consider using Windows SharePoint Services?

2008-10-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

Windows SharePoint Services is a technology that enables people to collaborate in browser-based workspaces while providing a manageable infrastructure and extensible application platform for improving the efficiency of business processes. A variety of audiences benefit from the enhanced collaboration and productivity provided by Windows SharePoint Services:

Organizations, business units, and teams seeking increased productivity and access to the people, documents, and information they need.
Organizations of any size that want to start tactical implementation of collaboration tools, standardize existing infrastructure, or invest in strategic use of collaboration systems that integrate well with existing line-of-business applications.
IT departments seeking better control over and security of company data, while adding value and efficiency to lines of business.
Developers creating rich and scalable Web-based applications.

What is Windows SharePoint Services?

2008-10-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

Built on Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows SharePoint Services also gives organizations a cost-effective foundation platform for building Web-based business applications that can scale easily to meet the changing and growing needs of your business. Robust administrative controls for managing storage and Web infrastructure give IT departments a cost-effective way to implement and manage a high-performance collaboration environment.

Interview Question on .Net

2008-05-18T23:37:00.001-07:00

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ASP.Net Interview Question and Answer

2008-05-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

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c# , Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, HR Interview Question

2008-05-18T23:04:00.000-07:00

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What's New in ASP.NET and Web Development

2008-04-30T03:07:00.000-07:00

The .NET Framework version 3.5 includes enhancements for ASP.NET in targeted areas. Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express Edition also include enhancements and new features for improved Web development.

The most significant advances are improved support for developing AJAX-enabled Web sites and support for Language-Integrated Query (LINQ). The advances include new server controls and types, a new object-oriented client type library, and full IntelliSense support in Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express Edition for working with ECMAScript (JavaScript or JScript).

The following sections of this topic describe the changes in ASP.NET and Visual Web Developer.

ASP.NET Enhancements

The .NET Framework version 3.5 includes enhancements for ASP.NET in the following areas:

New server controls, types, and a client-script library that work together to enable you to develop AJAX-style Web applications.
Extension of server-based forms authentication, roles management, and profile services as Web services that can be consumed by Web-based applications.
A new ListView data control that displays data and that provides a highly customizable UI.
A new LinqDataSource control that exposes Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) through the ASP.NET data source control architecture.
A new merge tool (Aspnet_merge.exe) that merges precompiled assemblies to support flexible deployment and release management.

The .NET Framework version 3.5 is also integrated with IIS 7.0. You can now use ASP.NET services such as forms authentication and caching for all content types, not just ASP.NET Web pages (.aspx files). This is because ASP.NET and IIS 7.0 use the same request pipeline. The unified request processing pipeline means that you can use managed code to develop HTTP pipeline modules that work with all requests in IIS. In addition, IIS and ASP.NET modules and handlers now support unified configuration. For more information, see ASP.NET Application Life Cycle Overview for IIS 7.0.

AJAX Development

The .NET Framework version 3.5 enables you to create Web applications that feature next-generation user interfaces with reusable client components. You can develop Web pages by using a server-based approach, a client-based approach, or a combination of both, according to your requirements. The AJAX server-based and client-based programming models feature the following:

Server controls that support server-based AJAX development. This includes the ScriptManager, UpdatePanel, UpdateProgress, and Timer controls. These controls enable you to create rich client behavior with little or no client script, such as partial-page rendering and displaying update progress during asynchronous postbacks.
The Microsoft AJAX Library, which supports client-based, object-oriented development that is browser independent. In addition to supporting the new AJAX-enabled server controls, the client library enables you to develop custom client components that extend DOM elements or that represent a DOM element.
Server classes that enable you to develop server controls that map to custom client components whose events and properties are set declaratively. Server types that support this functionality include controls that derive from the ExtenderControl or ScriptControl base classes, or that implement the IExtenderControl or IScriptControl interfaces.
Support for script globalization and localization by using client script. Globalization enables you to display dates and numbers based on a culture value (locale). Localization enables you to specify localized content (text, images, and so on) in client components for UI elements or exception messages.
Access to Web services and to ASP.NET authentication, roles management, and profile application services.

The .NET Framework version 3.5 enables you to easily enable asynchronous partial-page updates in a page, which avoids the overhead of full-page postbacks. You can just put existing controls and markup inside UpdatePanel controls. Postbacks from inside an UpdatePanel control become asynchronous postbacks and refresh only the part of the page that is inside the panel, which creates a more fluid user experience. You can display the progress of the partial-page update by using UpdateProgress controls.

Learning About AJAX Development in ASP.NET

The documentation provides extensive information to help you learn how to develop AJAX-style Web applications in ASP.NET. To get started, you follow the sequence of topics described in Adding Client Capabilities and AJAX.

Web Services and Application Services

The .NET Framework version 3.5 enables you to create both ASP.NET (.asmx) and WCF-based Web services that you can call from Web pages in client script by using the Microsoft AJAX Library. You can also call server-based application services that are exposed as Web services, which includes forms authentication, roles management, and profiles. These application services can be consumed in WCF-compatible applications, which includes AJAX-enabled Web pages and Window Forms clients. As a result, applications that are built with these ASP.NET or WCF technologies can share information that is made available by application services. For more information, see Web Services in ASP.NET AJAX and Using ASP.NET Web Services.

ListView Data Control

The ListView control combines many aspects of existing data controls. The ListView control is useful for displaying data in any repeating structure, similar to the DataList and Repeater controls. Unlike those controls, the ListView control supports edit, insert, and delete operations as well as sorting and paging. The paging functionality is provided for ListView by the new DataPager control.

The ListView control is a highly customizable control that enables you to use templates and styles to define the control's UI. Like the Repeater, DataList, and FormView controls, templates in the ListView control are not predefined to render specific UI in the browser. For more information, see ListView Web Server Control Overview.

DataPager Control

The DataPager control is used to page through data that is displayed by a control that implements the IPageableItemContainer interface, such as the ListView control. The DataPager control supports built-in paging UI. You can specify the paging UI by using the NumericPagerField object, which lets users select a page by page number. You can also use the NextPreviousPagerField object, which lets users navigate through pages one page at a time, or to jump to the first or last page. Alternatively, you can create custom paging UI by using the TemplatePagerField object.

LinqDataSource Control

The LinqDataSource control exposes Language Integrated Query (LINQ) through the ASP.NET data source control architecture. You use the LinqDataSource control when you are creating a Web page that retrieves or modifies data and you want to use the programming model that is provided by LINQ. You can simplify the code in a Web page by enabling the LinqDataSource control to automatically create the commands for interacting with the data. By using the LinqDataSource control, you can reduce the amount of code that you must write to perform data operations when compared to performing the same operations in the SqlDataSource control or the ObjectDataSource control. When you use the LinqDataSource control, you also benefit by learning only one programming model to interact with different types of data sources.

You can use declarative markup to create a LinqDataSource control that connects to data from either a database or a data collection such as a collection. In the markup, you can specify the criteria for displaying, filtering, ordering, and grouping data. When the data source is a SQL database table, you can also configure a LinqDataSource control to update, insert, and delete data. You do no have to write the SQL commands to perform these tasks. The LinqDataSource class provides an event model that enables you to customize display and update behavior. For more information, see LinqDataSource Web Server Control Overview.

ASP.NET Merge Tool

The ASP.NET merge tool (Aspnet_merge.exe) lets you combine and manage assemblies that are created by the ASP.NET pre-compilation tool (Aspnet_compiler.exe). (The merge tool was released earlier as an add-on for Visual Studio 2005,) The merge tool creates single assemblies for the site. You can create an assembly for the whole Web site, for each Web site folder, or for just the files that make up the Web site UI (pages and controls).

For more information, see ASP.NET Merge Tool (Aspnet_merge.exe). For more information about the ASP.NET compiler tool, see ASP.NET Compilation Tool (Aspnet_compiler.exe).

Visual Web Developer Enhancements

The following sections provide information about enhancements and new features in Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Web Developer Express Edition.

New Design View and CSS Design Tools

The Web page designer now lets you work in Design view, Source view, or Split view, which displays Design view and Source view at the same time.

Visual Studio now provides tools that make it easy to work with cascading style sheets (CSS). You can design the layout and style content in Design view by using new UI tools such as the CSS Properties window. You can also change positioning, padding, and margins directly in Design view by using WYSIWYG visual-layout tools.

For more information, see the following topics:

IntelliSense for JScript and ASP.NET AJAX

Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Web Developer Express Edition now offer significantly improved IntelliSense for coding in ECMAScript (JScript or JavaScript), and for writing client script for AJAX-style Web applications that use the Microsoft AJAX Library. IntelliSense is available for client script in script elements and for referenced .js script files.

Additionally, IntelliSense displays XML code comments. XML code comments are used to describe the summary, parameter, and return details of your client script. ASP.NET AJAX also uses XML code comments to provide IntelliSense for ASP.NET AJAX types and members. IntelliSense is also supported for external script file references that use XML code comments.

For more information, see the following topics:

Web Application Projects

Web applications projects, released earlier as an add-on for Visual Studio 2005, are now integrated into Visual Studio. By using the Web application project model, you can compile a Web site into a single assembly in the Bin folder and explicitly define project resources.

The Web application project model uses the same project, build, and compilation semantics as Web projects in Visual Studio .NET 2003. This enables you to easily migrate Visual Studio .NET 2003 Web sites to the current version of Visual Studio.

Web application projects do not replace the Web site project type introduced in Visual Studio 2005. Instead, they provide another project model to provide more options for how you deploy and maintain Web applications.

Note:
Web application projects are not supported in Visual Web Developer Express Edition.

For more information, see the following topics:

Multi-targeting Web Applications

Visual Studio now enables you to target a Web application to a specific version of the .NET Framework. You can use one instance of the Visual Studio to develop Web applications for .NET Framework versions 2.0, 3.0 (Windows Vista), and 3.5.

For more information, see the following topics:

Designer and IntelliSense Support for LINQ

A new set of features in Visual Studio 2008 support Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) and extend the powerful query capabilities into the language syntax of C# and Visual Basic. LINQ introduces standard, easily-learned patterns for querying and transforming data, and can be extended to support any kind of data source. The designer provides a visual representation of data classes that enables you to quickly create and edit classes that map to objects in a database. IntelliSense support provides information for LINQ language syntax and for using the LinqDataSource control in Source view. For more information, see LinqDataSource Web Server Control Overview

Support for Creating and Consuming WCF Services in a Web Project

In Visual Studio, you can add ASP.NET Web services (.asmx files) and WCF Web services (.svc files) to a project. Client applications that are written in managed code typically access these Web services through a proxy class. For example, these applications use the proxy class that Visual Studio generates when you use the Add Web Reference dialog box. AJAX applications can access Web services from the browser by using proxy classes that are automatically generated in client script. For more information, see Web Services Architectural Overview.

Support for ASP.NET AJAX Extender Controls

AJAX extender controls enhance the client capabilities of standard Web server controls in ASP.NET Web applications. You can provide a richer Web-based user experience by binding one or more extenders to Web server controls such as TextBox controls, Button controls, and Panel controls.

Visual Studio supports all ASP.NET AJAX extender controls. This includes extender controls that you create and those that you add from sources such as the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit, which is available on the ASP.NET Web site.

Preprocess Win32 Messages through Windows Forms

2008-04-29T05:29:00.000-07:00

In the unmanaged world, it was quite common to intercept Win32 messages as they were plucked off the message queue. In that rare case in which you wish to do so from a managed Windows Forms application, your first step is to build a helper class which implements the IMessageFilter interface. The sole method, PreFilterMessage(), allows you to get at the underlying message ID, as well as the raw WPARAM and LPARAM data. By way of a simple example:

public class MyMessageFilter : IMessageFilter
{
  public bool PreFilterMessage(ref Message m)
  {
    // Intercept the left mouse button down message.
    if (m.Msg == 513)
    {
      MessageBox.Show("WM_LBUTTONDOWN is: " + m.Msg);
      return true;
    }
    return false;
  }
}

At this point you must register your helper class with the Application type:

public class mainForm : System.Windows.Forms.Form
{
  private MyMessageFilter msgFliter = new MyMessageFilter();
  public mainForm()
  {
    // Register message filter.
    Application.AddMessageFilter(msgFliter);  
  }
…
}

At this point, your custom filter will be automatically consulted before the message makes its way to the registered event hander. Removing the filter can be accomplished using the (aptly named) static Application.RemoveMessageFilter() method.

Is it possible to output the command-line used to build a project in Visual Studio?

2008-04-29T05:28:00.000-07:00

Now that Whidbey has been out in Beta for more than a few months, it seems worth revisiting some frequently asked questions which have different (better?) answers now.

In Everett (v7.1) the answer used to be No.

However, in Whidbey (v8.0), the answer is Yes (and No).

For the yes part of the answer, after building, go to the Output Window, select "Show Output from: Build", and about half way down you will see a section like this:

Target "Compile" in project "ConsoleApplication1.csproj"

Task "Csc"

Csc.exe /noconfig /warn:4 /define:DEBUG;TRACE /debug+ /optimize- /out:obj\Debug\ConsoleApplication1.exe /reference:C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.31125\System.Data.dll, C:\WINDOWS.0\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.31125\System.XML.dll, C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.31125\System.dll /target:exe /win32icon:App.ico AssemblyInfo.cs Class1.cs

The task is invoking the IDE's in-process compiler to perform the equivalent of the above command-line.

Now for the no part of the answer. The project system does not actually execute this command line as part of the build process. As the output says, the IDE directly calls its own in-process compiler to perform the equivalent. However, in all cases, you should get the same results using the command line suggested in the output window. If you don't, you could be looking at a bug.

Note: before you cut and paste the build output to the command line, remember to add the path to CSC.EXE

How do I get and set Environment variables?

2008-04-29T05:26:00.000-07:00

Use the System.Environment class.Specifically the GetEnvironmentVariable and SetEnvironmentVariable methods.
Admitedly, this is not a question specific to C#, but it is one I have seen enough C# programmers ask, and the ability to set environment variables is new to the Whidbey release, as is the EnvironmentVariableTarget enumeration which lets you separately specify process, machine, and user.

How do I create a constant that is an array?

2008-04-29T05:25:00.000-07:00

Strictly speaking you can't, since const can only be applied to a field or local whose value is known at compile time.

In both the lines below, the right-hand is not a constant expression (not in C#).

const int [] constIntArray = newint [] {2, 3, 4};
 // error CS0133: The expression being assigned to 'constIntArray' must be constant
const int [] constIntArrayAnother = {2, 3, 4};
 // error CS0623: Array initializers can only be used in a variable or field
 //               initializer. Try using a new expression instead.

However, there are some workarounds, depending on what it is you want to achieve.

If want a proper .NET array (System.Array) that cannot be reassigned, then static readonly will do for you.

static readonly int [] constIntArray = new int[] {1, 2, 3};

The constIntArray field will be initialized before it its first use.

If, on the other hand, you really need a const set of values (say as an argument to an attribute constructor), then - if you can limit yourself to integral types - an enum would serve you well.

For example:

[Flags]
public enum Role
{
 Administrator = 1,
 BackupOperator = 2,
 // etc.
}

public class RoleAttribute : Attribute
{
 public RoleAttribute()
 {
  CreateRole = DefaultRole;
 }

 public RoleAttribute(Role role)
 {
  CreateRole = role;
 }

 public Role CreateRole
 {
  get { return this.createRole; }
  set { this.createRole = value; }
 }

 private Role createRole = 0;
 public const Role DefaultRole = Role.Administrator
   Role.BackupOperator;
}

[RoleAttribute(RoleAttribute.DefaultRole)]
public class DatabaseAccount
{
 //..............
}

RoleAttribute, instead of taking an array, would only take a single argument of flags (appropriately or-ed). If the underlying type of the Role enum is long or ulong, that gives you 64 different Roles.

What is the difference between const and static readonly?

2008-04-29T05:23:00.000-07:00

The difference is that the value of a static readonly field is set at run time, and can thus be modified by the containing class, whereas the value of a const field is set to a compile time constant.

In the static readonly case, the containing class is allowed to modify it only

in the variable declaration (through a variable initializer)
in the static constructor (instance constructors, if it's not static)

static readonly is typically used if the type of the field is not allowed in a const declaration, or when the value is not known at compile time.

Instance readonly fields are also allowed.

Remember that for reference types, in both cases (static and instance) the readonly modifier only prevents you from assigning a new reference to the field. It specifically does not make immutable the object pointed to by the reference.

class Program

{

public static readonly Test test = new Test();

static void Main(string[] args)

{

test.Name = "Program";

test = new Test(); // Error: A static readonly field cannot be assigned to (except in a static constructor or a variable initializer)

}

class Test

{

public string Name;

}

On the other hand, if Test were a value type, then assignment to test.Name would be an error.

How can I easily log a message to a file for debugging purposes?

2008-04-29T04:59:00.000-07:00

Often, you need a way to monitor your applications once they are running on the server or even at the customer site -- away from your Visual Studio debugger. In those situations, it is often helpful to have a simple routine that you can use to log messages to a text file for later analysis.

Here’s a simple routine that has helped me a lot for example when writing server applications without an user interface:

using System.IO;
       
public string GetTempPath()
{
    string path = System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TEMP");
    if (!path.EndsWith("\\")) path += "\\";
    return path;
}

public void LogMessageToFile(string msg)
{

    System.IO.StreamWriter sw = System.IO.File.AppendText(
        GetTempPath() + "My Log File.txt");
    try
    {
        string logLine = System.String.Format(
            "{0:G}: {1}.", System.DateTime.Now, msg);
        sw.WriteLine(logLine);
    }
    finally
    {
        sw.Close();
    }
}
With this simple method, all you need to do is to pass in a string like this:

LogMessageToFile("Hello, World");

The current date and time are automatically inserted to the log file along with your message.

How do I play default Windows sounds?

2008-04-29T04:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you might want to make your application a bit more audible. If you are using .NET 2.0, you can utilize the new System.Media namespace and its SystemSound and SystemSounds classes.
The SystemSounds class contains five static properties that you can use to retrieve instances of the SystemSound class. This class in turn contains the Play() method, which you can use to play the wave file associated with the sound in Windows Control Panel. Note that the user can also disable all sounds altogether, which would mean that no sound can be heard through the computer speakers.
To play for example the classical beep sound, you could use the following code:System.Media.SystemSounds.Beep.Play();
Similarly, you could play the “Question” sound with this code:System.Media.SystemSounds.Question.Play();
The System.Media namespace is defined in System.dll, so there are no new DLLs you would need to add to your project’s references to use the above code.

How do I calculate a MD5 hash from a string?

2008-04-29T04:51:00.000-07:00

It is a common practice to store passwords in databases using a hash. MD5 (defined in RFC 1321) is a common hash algorithm, and using it from C# is easy.
Here’s an implementation of a method that converts a string to an MD5 hash, which is a 32-character string of hexadecimal numbers.

public string CalculateMD5Hash(string input){
// step 1, calculate MD5 hash from input
MD5 md5 = System.Security.Cryptography.MD5.Create();
byte[] inputBytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(input);
byte[] hash = md5.ComputeHash(inputBytes);
// step 2, convert byte array to hex string
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < hash.Length; i++) {
sb.Append(hash[i].ToString("X2"));
}
return sb.ToString();
}

An example call:
string hash = CalculateMD5Hash("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz");

…returns a string like this:
C3FCD3D76192E4007DFB496CCA67E13BTo make the hex string use lower-case letters instead of upper-case, replace the single line inside the for loop with this line:

sb.Append(hash[i].ToString("x2"));

The difference is the ToString method parameter.

How do I send out simple debug messages to help with my debugging?

2008-04-29T04:48:00.000-07:00

Visual Studio offers tons of useful debugging features and allows you to step through your code line-by-line. However, there are times when you don’t want to step through your application, but want to make it output simple text strings with variable values, etc.
Enter the System.Diagnostics.Debug class and its Write* methods. By using the Debug class, you can output messages similarly to the way the Win32 API function OutputDebugString. However, the beauty of the Debug class is that when you build your application using the default Release configuration in Visual Studio, no code lines are generated for your Debug.Write* class. This means there’s no performance penalty for using the Debug class in release code.
To use the Debug class, simply add the “using System.Diagnostics;” statement to your C# code file, and call Debug.Write:

Debug.Write("Hello, Debugger!");

In addition to Write, you have the possibility to call WriteIf, WriteLine and WriteLineIf. For example:
bool @this = true;bool that = false;
Debug.WriteLineIf(@this that, "A conditional Hello!");

When you are debugging your application under the Visual Studio debugger, all the messages that are sent out by your Write method calls end up in the Output window (View / Output menu command or Ctrl+W,O on the keyboard). However, if you are running your application outside the debugger (say, by starting it from Windows Explorer), you can still view the messages using tools like DebugView from Sysinternals.
Remember, if you build your application using the default Release configuration, even DebugView won’t show your messages because the Debug.Write* calls are eliminated altogether. You can also control code generation by defining the DEBUG conditional directive.
Tip: The .NET debugging/tracing architecture also allows you to redirect debugging messages to different destinations, such as text files. See the help topic “Trace Listeners” for more information.

What's the difference between SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services?

2008-04-29T04:44:00.000-07:00

1) What's the difference between SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services?
This is by far the biggest point of confusion for most people.
Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is a technology built into Microsoft's Windows Server 2003. It's a service that allows you to create team sites to assist with smaller group collaboration with features such as document and form libraries (somewhat akin to a shared file system folder, but with check in/out, version control, integration with office, etc.), custom lists such as issue, task, contact and any other types of list you can think up (think of a list as a set of columns and rows), simple search-ability, discussion boards, image libraries (for storing photos and other images) and surveys. That all said, there are valid reasons to create team sites that the whole company might visit. It takes a good process to determine when to put something in a team site and when to put it in the portal. That's where we usually help out with our SharePoint Information Design process. The good news: WSS is free. The bad news...it's so good you'll quickly need...
SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) is server product offering (read: not free) that helps you organize all of those great team sites you built using WSS. It also has many more enterprise focused features such as enterprise search which can search your company file shares, external website or other repositories and user profiles: allowing you to create a very rich enterprise employee directory (including great integration with Active Directory). It also includes features such as "My Sites" which allow each employee in an organization to create their own personal private and public web-spaces and a great tool for publishing corporate news. Even though it's called a portal, that doesn't mean a company would only have one of them. In some cases companies need more than one for various reasons. The Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Intranets briefly talks about multi-portal scenarios.
There is a Microsoft document on this subject, but it's not the best in the world...but for reference it's available on Microsoft's site here.

What is a SharePoint Web Site?

2008-04-29T04:42:00.000-07:00

SharePoint Web Sites are pre-designed web sites that contain a wide range available services. When you subscribe to a SharePoint Web Site everything you need to get started using SharePoint is all ready and waiting for you. You can customize your web site in a variety of ways using tools included with SharePoint, or you can download and install one or more web site templates that include a variety of predetermined customizations. For a list of predefined customizations, click here.

What is the current version of Windows SharePoint Services?

2008-04-29T04:41:00.001-07:00

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is the latest version and is available for download.

How do I get Windows SharePoint Services?

2008-04-29T04:40:00.001-07:00

What is the relationship between Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007?

2008-04-29T04:39:00.000-07:00

Windows SharePoint Services is a key component of Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies, which include:
Windows SharePoint Services, formerly named SharePoint Team Services, a versatile technology in Windows Server 2003. In addition to its collaborative features, Windows SharePoint Services also exposes platform services and a common framework for document storage and management, as well as search, workflow, rights management, administration, and deployment features. These services provide the foundation for building scalable business applications.
Office SharePoint Server 2007, an integrated suite of easy-to-use server applications that help people and teams improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Office SharePoint Server 2007 connects sites, people, and business processes—facilitating knowledge sharing by offering ready-to-go, enterprise-wide functionality for records management, search, workflows, portals, personalized sites, and more. Office SharePoint Server 2007 extends the capabilities of Windows SharePoint Services by providing highly flexible organization and management tools for SharePoint sites, and by making it possible for teams to publish information to the entire organization.
Office SharePoint Designer 2007, which provides tools for customizing Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server 2007 sites, and for creating reporting tools and application templates without writing new code or deploying new code on your servers.

How does Windows SharePoint Services integrate with the Microsoft Office system?

2008-04-29T04:38:00.001-07:00

My company currently uses Windows SharePoint Services 2.0. Why should we upgrade to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0?

2008-04-29T04:35:00.001-07:00

What’s new in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0?

2008-04-29T04:33:00.000-07:00

Key improvements to Windows SharePoint Services in Version 3.0 include:
Improvements to collaboration workspaces: SharePoint sites now offer e-mail and directory integration, alerts, RSS publishing, templates for building blogs (also known as weblogs) and wikis (Web sites that can be quickly edited by team members—no special technical knowledge required), event and task tracking, improved usability, enhanced site navigation, and more.
Enhancements to content storage: SharePoint lists and libraries now provide per-item security for better data control and integrity, a recycle bin, and enhanced flexibility for storing more types of content. Row and column capacity has also been increased, as has retrieval speed. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 can be easily integrated with smart client tools. In particular, close integration with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 provides offline access to events, contacts, discussions, tasks, and documents.
Easier provisioning of workspaces: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 provides more sophisticated and flexible security, as well as greater control over security settings and permissions.
A more robust foundation for Web applications: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 provides greater flexibility for customization and development of Web-based services and applications built on the Windows SharePoint Services platform.

Why should I consider using Windows SharePoint Services for my organization?

2008-04-29T04:32:00.000-07:00

Windows SharePoint Services offers you benefits in four primary areas:
Efficient collaboration:
Help your employees and teams to stay connected and productive by providing access to the people, documents, and information they need.
Rapid deployment, ease of use:
Deploy collaboration applications quickly that are easy to use through integration with familiar productivity tools such as the Microsoft Office system.
Manageable infrastructure:
Manage the security of your organization’s information resources by deploying a scalable storage infrastructure with powerful administration services and controls.
Robust foundation platform for Web-based applications:
Increase business process efficiency by creating Web applications and workflow scenarios on a cost-effective, extensible platform.

Who should consider using Windows SharePoint Services?

2008-04-29T04:30:00.000-07:00

Organizations, business units, and teams seeking increased productivity and access to the people, documents, and information they need.
Organizations of any size that want to start tactical implementation of collaboration tools, standardize existing infrastructure, or invest in strategic use of collaboration systems that integrate well with existing line-of-business applications.
IT departments seeking better control over and security of company data, while adding value and efficiency to lines of business.
Developers creating rich and scalable Web-based applications.

What is Windows SharePoint Services?

2008-04-29T04:28:00.000-07:00

Windows SharePoint Services is a versatile technology included in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 that enables organizations and business units of all sizes to increase the efficiency of business processes and improve team productivity. With tools for collaboration that help people stay connected across organizational and geographic boundaries, Windows SharePoint Services gives people access to documents and information they need. With a familiar, Web-based interface and close integration with everyday tools including the Microsoft Office system of productivity programs, Windows SharePoint Services is easy to use and can be deployed rapidly. Users can create workspaces and then publish, store, share, and keep track of information, workflow, and documents.

Built on Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows SharePoint Services also gives organizations a cost-effective foundation platform for building Web-based business applications that can scale easily to meet the changing and growing needs of your business. Robust administrative controls for managing storage and Web infrastructure give IT departments a cost-effective way to implement and manage a high-performance collaboration environment.

On confidential matters…

2007-12-18T12:10:00.001-08:00

TRAPS: When an interviewer presses you to reveal confidential information about a present or former employer, you may feel it’s a no-win situation. If you cooperate, you could be judged untrustworthy. If you don’t, you may irritate the interviewer and seem obstinate, uncooperative or overly suspicious.Top

BEST ANSWER: Your interviewer may press you for this information for two reasons.

First, many companies use interviews to research the competition. It’s a perfect set-up. Here in their own lair, is an insider from the enemy camp who can reveal prized information on the competition’s plans, research, financial condition, etc.

Second, the company may be testing your integrity to see if you can be cajoled or bullied into revealing confidential data.

What to do? The answer here is easy. Never reveal anything truly confidential about a present or former employer. By all means, explain your reticence diplomatically. For example, “I certainly want to be as open as I can about that. But I also wish to respect the rights of those who have trusted me with their most sensitive information, just as you would hope to be able to trust any of your key people when talking with a competitor…”

And certainly you can allude to your finest achievements in specific ways that don’t reveal the combination to the company safe.

But be guided by the golden rule. If you were the owner of your present company, would you feel it ethically wrong for the information to be given to your competitors? If so, steadfastly refuse to reveal it.

Remember that this question pits your desire to be cooperative against your integrity. Faced with any such choice, always choose integrity. It is a far more valuable commodity than whatever information the company may pry from you. Moreover, once you surrender the information, your stock goes down. They will surely lose respect for you.

One President we know always presses candidates unmercifully for confidential information. If he doesn’t get it, he grows visibly annoyed, relentlessly inquisitive, It’s all an act. He couldn’t care less about the information. This is his way of testing the candidate’s moral fiber. Only those who hold fast are hired.

How do you feel about reporting to a younger person (minority, woman, etc)?

2007-12-18T12:09:00.000-08:00

TRAPS: It’s a shame that some interviewers feel the need to ask this question, but many understand the reality that prejudices still exist among some job candidates, and it’s better to try to flush them out beforehand.

The trap here is that in today’s politically sensitized environment, even a well-intentioned answer can result in planting your foot neatly in your mouth. Avoid anything which smacks of a patronizing or an insensitive attitude, such as “I think they make terrific bosses” or “Hey, some of my best friends are…”

Of course, since almost anyone with an IQ above room temperature will at least try to steadfastly affirm the right answer here, your interviewer will be judging your sincerity most of all. “Do you really feel that way?” is what he or she will be wondering.

So you must make your answer believable and not just automatic. If the firm is wise enough to have promoted peopled on the basis of ability alone, they’re likely quite proud of it, and prefer to hire others who will wholeheartedly share their strong sense of fair play.

BEST ANSWER: You greatly admire a company that hires and promotes on merit alone and you couldn’t agree more with that philosophy. The age (gender, race, etc.) of the person you report to would certainly make no difference to you.

Whoever has that position has obviously earned it and knows their job well. Both the person and the position are fully deserving of respect. You believe that all people in a company, from the receptionist to the Chairman, work best when their abilities, efforts and feelings are respected and rewarded fairly, and that includes you. That’s the best type of work environment you can hope to find.

The “Fatal Flaw” question

2007-12-18T12:08:00.002-08:00

TRAPS: If an interviewer has read your resume carefully, he may try to zero in on a “fatal flaw” of your candidacy, perhaps that you don’t have a college degree…you’ve been out of the job market for some time…you never earned your CPA, etc.

A fatal flaw question can be deadly, but usually only if you respond by being overly defensive.

BEST ANSWERS: As every master salesperson knows, you will encounter objections (whether stated or merely thought) in every sale. They’re part and parcel of the buyer’s anxiety. The key is not to exacerbate the buyer’s anxiety but diminish it. Here’s how…

Whenever you come up against a fatal flaw question:

1. Be completely honest, open and straightforward about admitting the shortcoming. (Showing you have nothing to hide diminishes the buyer’s anxiety.)

2. Do not apologize or try to explain it away. You know that this supposed flaw is nothing to be concerned about, and this is the attitude you want your interviewer to adopt as well.

3. Add that as desirable as such a qualification might be, its lack has made you work all the harder throughout your career and has not prevented you from compiling an outstanding tack record of achievements. You might even give examples of how, through a relentless commitment to excellence, you have consistently outperformed those who do have this qualification.

Of course, the ultimate way to handle “fatal flaw” questions is to prevent them from arising in the first place. You will do that by following the master strategy described in Question 1, i.e., uncovering the employers needs and them matching your qualifications to those needs.

Once you’ve gotten the employer to start talking about his most urgently-felt wants and goals for the position, and then help him see in step-by-step fashion how perfectly your background and achievements match up with those needs, you’re going to have one very enthusiastic interviewer on your hands, one who is no longer looking for “fatal flaws".

What are your outside interests?

2007-12-18T12:08:00.001-08:00

TRAPS: You want to be a well-rounded, not a drone. But your potential employer would be even more turned off if he suspects that your heavy extracurricular load will interfere with your commitment to your work duties.

BEST ANSWERS: Try to gauge how this company’s culture would look upon your favorite outside activities and be guided accordingly.

You can also use this question to shatter any stereotypes that could limit your chances. If you’re over 50, for example, describe your activities that demonstrate physical stamina. If you’re young, mention an activity that connotes wisdom and institutional trust, such as serving on the board of a popular charity.

But above all, remember that your employer is hiring your for what you can do for him, not your family, yourself or outside organizations, no matter how admirable those activities may be.

Tell me about a situation when your work was criticized.

2007-12-18T12:07:00.002-08:00

TRAPS: This is a tough question because it’s a more clever and subtle way to get you to admit to a weakness. You can’t dodge it by pretending you’ve never been criticized. Everybody has been. Yet it can be quite damaging to start admitting potential faults and failures that you’d just as soon leave buried.

This question is also intended to probe how well you accept criticism and direction.Top

BEST ANSWERS: Begin by emphasizing the extremely positive feedback you’ve gotten throughout your career and (if it’s true) that your performance reviews have been uniformly excellent.

Of course, no one is perfect and you always welcome suggestions on how to improve your performance. Then, give an example of a not-too-damaging learning experience from early in your career and relate the ways this lesson has since helped you. This demonstrates that you learned from the experience and the lesson is now one of the strongest breastplates in your suit of armor.

If you are pressed for a criticism from a recent position, choose something fairly trivial that in no way is essential to your successful performance. Add that you’ve learned from this, too, and over the past several years/months, it’s no longer an area of concern because you now make it a regular practice to…etc.

Another way to answer this question would be to describe your intention to broaden your master of an area of growing importance in your field. For example, this might be a computer program you’ve been meaning to sit down and learn… a new management technique you’ve read about…or perhaps attending a seminar on some cutting-edge branch of your profession.

Again, the key is to focus on something not essential to your brilliant performance but which adds yet another dimension to your already impressive knowledge base.

What good books have you read lately?

2007-12-18T12:07:00.001-08:00

TRAPS: As in all matters of your interview, never fake familiarity you don’t have. Yet you don’t want to seem like a dullard who hasn’t read a book since Tom Sawyer.

BEST ANSWER: Unless you’re up for a position in academia or as book critic for The New York Times, you’re not expected to be a literary lion. But it wouldn’t hurt to have read a handful of the most recent and influential books in your profession and on management.

Consider it part of the work of your job search to read up on a few of these leading books. But make sure they are quality books that reflect favorably upon you, nothing that could even remotely be considered superficial. Finally, add a recently published bestselling work of fiction by a world-class author and you’ll pass this question with flying colors.

Tell me honestly about the strong points and weak points of your boss (company, management team, etc.)…

2007-12-18T12:04:00.002-08:00

TRAPS: Skillfull interviewers sometimes make it almost irresistible to open up and air a little dirty laundry from your previous position. DON’T

BEST ANSWER: Remember the rule: Never be negative. Stress only the good points, no matter how charmingly you’re invited to be critical.

Your interviewer doesn’t care a whit about your previous boss. He wants to find out how loyal and positive you are, and whether you’ll criticize him behind his back if pressed to do so by someone in this own company. This question is your opportunity to demonstrate your loyalty to those you work with.

Why have you been out of work so long?

2007-12-18T12:04:00.001-08:00

TRAPS: A tough question if you’ve been on the beach a long time. You don’t want to seem like damaged goods.

BEST ANSWER: You want to emphasize factors which have prolonged your job search by your own choice.

Example: “After my job was terminated, I made a conscious decision not to jump on the first opportunities to come along. In my life, I’ve found out that you can always turn a negative into a positive IF you try hard enough. This is what I determined to do. I decided to take whatever time I needed to think through what I do best, what I most want to do, where I’d like to do it…and then identify those companies that could offer such an opportunity.”

“Also, in all honesty, you have to factor in the recession (consolidation, stabilization, etc.) in the (banking, financial services, manufacturing, advertising, etc.) industry.”

“So between my being selective and the companies in our industry downsizing, the process has taken time. But in the end, I’m convinced that when I do find the right match, all that careful evaluation from both sides of the desk will have been well worthwhile for both the company that hires me and myself.

What are your career options right now?

2007-12-18T12:03:00.002-08:00

TRAPS: The interviewer is trying to find out, “How desperate are you?”

BEST ANSWER: Prepare for this question by thinking of how you can position yourself as a desired commodity. If you are still working, describe the possibilities at your present firm and why, though you’re greatly appreciated there, you’re looking for something more (challenge, money, responsibility, etc.). Also mention that you’re seriously exploring opportunities with one or two other firms.

If you’re not working, you can talk about other employment possibilities you’re actually exploring. But do this with a light touch, speaking only in general terms. You don’t want to seem manipulative or coy.

Why do you want to work at our company?

2007-12-18T12:03:00.001-08:00

TRAPS: This question tests whether you’ve done any homework about the firm. If you haven’t, you lose. If you have, you win big.

BEST ANSWER: This question is your opportunity to hit the ball out of the park, thanks to the in-depth research you should do before any interview.

Best sources for researching your target company: annual reports, the corporate newsletter, contacts you know at the company or its suppliers, advertisements, articles about the company in the trade press.

Describe your ideal company, location and job.

2007-12-18T12:02:00.001-08:00

TRAPS: This is often asked by an experienced interviewer who thinks you may be overqualified, but knows better than to show his hand by posing his objection directly. So he’ll use this question instead, which often gets a candidate to reveal that, indeed, he or she is looking for something other than the position at hand.

BEST ANSWER: The only right answer is to describe what this company is offering, being sure to make your answer believable with specific reasons, stated with sincerity, why each quality represented by this opportunity is attractive to you.

Remember that if you’re coming from a company that’s the leader in its field or from a glamorous or much admired company, industry, city or position, your interviewer and his company may well have an “Avis” complex. That is, they may feel a bit defensive about being “second best” to the place you’re coming from, worried that you may consider them bush league.

This anxiety could well be there even though you’ve done nothing to inspire it. You must go out of your way to assuage such anxiety, even if it’s not expressed, by putting their virtues high on the list of exactly what you’re looking for, providing credible reason for wanting these qualities.

If you do not express genuine enthusiasm for the firm, its culture, location, industry, etc., you may fail to answer this “Avis” complex objection and, as a result, leave the interviewer suspecting that a hot shot like you, coming from a Fortune 500 company in New York, just wouldn’t be happy at an unknown manufacturer based in Topeka, Kansas.

Where do you see yourself five years from now?

2007-12-18T12:01:00.002-08:00

TRAPS: One reason interviewers ask this question is to see if you’re settling for this position, using it merely as a stopover until something better comes along. Or they could be trying to gauge your level of ambition.

If you’re too specific, i.e., naming the promotions you someday hope to win, you’ll sound presumptuous. If you’re too vague, you’ll seem rudderless.

BEST ANSWER: Reassure your interviewer that you’re looking to make a long-term commitment…that this position entails exactly what you’re looking to do and what you do extremely well. As for your future, you believe that if you perform each job at hand with excellence, future opportunities will take care of themselves.

Example: “I am definitely interested in making a long-term commitment to my next position. Judging by what you’ve told me about this position, it’s exactly what I’m looking for and what I am very well qualified to do. In terms of my future career path, I’m confident that if I do my work with excellence, opportunities will inevitable open up for me. It’s always been that way in my career, and I’m confident I’ll have similar opportunities here.

Aren’t you overqualified for this position?

2007-12-18T12:01:00.001-08:00

TRAPS: The employer may be concerned that you’ll grow dissatisfied and leave.

BEST ANSWER: As with any objection, don’t view this as a sign of imminent defeat. It’s an invitation to teach the interviewer a new way to think about this situation, seeing advantages instead of drawbacks.

Example: “I recognize the job market for what it is – a marketplace. Like any marketplace, it’s subject to the laws of supply and demand. So ‘overqualified’ can be a relative term, depending on how tight the job market is. And right now, it’s very tight. I understand and accept that.”

“I also believe that there could be very positive benefits for both of us in this match.”

“Because of my unusually strong experience in ________________ , I could start to contribute right away, perhaps much faster than someone who’d have to be brought along more slowly.”

“There’s also the value of all the training and years of experience that other companies have invested tens of thousands of dollars to give me. You’d be getting all the value of that without having to pay an extra dime for it. With someone who has yet to acquire that experience, he’d have to gain it on your nickel.”

“I could also help you in many things they don’t teach at the Harvard Business School. For example…(how to hire, train, motivate, etc.) When it comes to knowing how to work well with people and getting the most out of them, there’s just no substitute for what you learn over many years of front-line experience. You company would gain all this, too.”

“From my side, there are strong benefits, as well. Right now, I am unemployed. I want to work, very much, and the position you have here is exactly what I love to do and am best at. I’ll be happy doing this work and that’s what matters most to me, a lot more that money or title.”

“Most important, I’m looking to make a long term commitment in my career now. I’ve had enough of job-hunting and want a permanent spot at this point in my career. I also know that if I perform this job with excellence, other opportunities cannot help but open up for me right here. In time, I’ll find many other ways to help this company and in so doing, help myself. I really am looking to make a long-term commitment.”

NOTE: The main concern behind the “overqualified” question is that you will leave your new employer as soon as something better comes your way. Anything you can say to demonstrate the sincerity of your commitment to the employer and reassure him that you’re looking to stay for the long-term will help you overcome this objection.

Why should I hire you?

2007-12-18T12:00:00.002-08:00

TRAPS: Believe it or not, this is a killer question because so many candidates are unprepared for it. If you stammer or adlib you’ve blown it.

BEST ANSWER: By now you can see how critical it is to apply the overall strategy of uncovering the employer’s needs before you answer questions. If you know the employer’s greatest needs and desires, this question will give you a big leg up over other candidates because you will give him better reasons for hiring you than anyone else is likely to…reasons tied directly to his needs.

Whether your interviewer asks you this question explicitly or not, this is the most important question of your interview because he must answer this question favorably in is own mind before you will be hired. So help him out! Walk through each of the position’s requirements as you understand them, and follow each with a reason why you meet that requirement so well.

Example: “As I understand your needs, you are first and foremost looking for someone who can manage the sales and marketing of your book publishing division. As you’ve said you need someone with a strong background in trade book sales. This is where I’ve spent almost all of my career, so I’ve chalked up 18 years of experience exactly in this area. I believe that I know the right contacts, methods, principles, and successful management techniques as well as any person can in our industry.”

“You also need someone who can expand your book distribution channels. In my prior post, my innovative promotional ideas doubled, then tripled, the number of outlets selling our books. I’m confident I can do the same for you.”

“You need someone to give a new shot in the arm to your mail order sales, someone who knows how to sell in space and direct mail media. Here, too, I believe I have exactly the experience you need. In the last five years, I’ve increased our mail order book sales from $600,000 to $2,800,000, and now we’re the country’s second leading marketer of scientific and medical books by mail.” Etc., etc., etc.,

Every one of these selling “couplets” (his need matched by your qualifications) is a touchdown that runs up your score. IT is your best opportunity to outsell your competition.

The “Silent Treatment”

2007-12-18T12:00:00.001-08:00

TRAPS: Beware – if you are unprepared for this question, you will probably not handle it right and possibly blow the interview. Thank goodness most interviewers don’t employ it. It’s normally used by those determined to see how you respond under stress. Here’s how it works:

You answer an interviewer’s question and then, instead of asking another, he just stares at you in a deafening silence.

You wait, growing a bit uneasy, and there he sits, silent as Mt. Rushmore, as if he doesn’t believe what you’ve just said, or perhaps making you feel that you’ve unwittingly violated some cardinal rule of interview etiquette.

When you get this silent treatment after answering a particularly difficult question , such as “tell me about your weaknesses”, its intimidating effect can be most disquieting, even to polished job hunters.

Most unprepared candidates rush in to fill the void of silence, viewing prolonged, uncomfortable silences as an invitation to clear up the previous answer which has obviously caused some problem. And that’s what they do – ramble on, sputtering more and more information, sometimes irrelevant and often damaging, because they are suddenly playing the role of someone who’s goofed and is now trying to recoup. But since the candidate doesn’t know where or how he goofed, he just keeps talking, showing how flustered and confused he is by the interviewer’s unmovable silence.

BEST ANSWER: Like a primitive tribal mask, the Silent Treatment loses all it power to frighten you once you refuse to be intimidated. If your interviewer pulls it, keep quiet yourself for a while and then ask, with sincere politeness and not a trace of sarcasm, “Is there anything else I can fill in on that point?” That’s all there is to it.

Whatever you do, don’t let the Silent Treatment intimidate you into talking a blue streak, because you could easily talk yourself out of the position.

Why are you leaving (or did you leave) this position?

2007-12-18T11:59:00.002-08:00

TRAPS: Never badmouth your previous industry, company, board, boss, staff, employees or customers. This rule is inviolable: never be negative. Any mud you hurl will only soil your suit.

Especially avoid words like “personality clash”, “didn’t get along”, or others which cast a shadow on your competence, integrity, or temperament.

BEST ANSWER:

(If you have a job presently)
If you’re not yet 100% committed to leaving your present post, don’t be afraid to say so. Since you have a job, you are in a stronger position than someone who does not. But don’t be coy either. State honestly what you’d be hoping to find in a new spot. Of course, as stated often before, you answer will all the stronger if you have already uncovered what this position is all about and you match your desires to it.

(If you do not presently have a job.)
Never lie about having been fired. It’s unethical – and too easily checked. But do try to deflect the reason from you personally. If your firing was the result of a takeover, merger, division wide layoff, etc., so much the better.

But you should also do something totally unnatural that will demonstrate consummate professionalism. Even if it hurts , describe your own firing – candidly, succinctly and without a trace of bitterness – from the company’s point-of-view, indicating that you could understand why it happened and you might have made the same decision yourself.

Your stature will rise immensely and, most important of all, you will show you are healed from the wounds inflicted by the firing. You will enhance your image as first-class management material and stand head and shoulders above the legions of firing victims who, at the slightest provocation, zip open their shirts to expose their battle scars and decry the unfairness of it all.

For all prior positions:
Make sure you’ve prepared a brief reason for leaving. Best reasons: more money, opportunity, responsibility or growth.

Tell me about something you did – or failed to do – that you now feel a little ashamed of.

2007-12-18T11:59:00.001-08:00

TRAPS: There are some questions your interviewer has no business asking, and this is one. But while you may feel like answering, “none of your business,” naturally you can’t. Some interviewers ask this question on the chance you admit to something, but if not, at least they’ll see how you think on your feet.

Some unprepared candidates, flustered by this question, unburden themselves of guilt from their personal life or career, perhaps expressing regrets regarding a parent, spouse, child, etc. All such answers can be disastrous.

BEST ANSWER: As with faults and weaknesses, never confess a regret. But don’t seem as if you’re stonewalling either.

Best strategy: Say you harbor no regrets, then add a principle or habit you practice regularly for healthy human relations.

Example: Pause for reflection, as if the question never occurred to you. Then say, “You know, I really can’t think of anything.” (Pause again, then add): “I would add that as a general management principle, I’ve found that the best way to avoid regrets is to avoid causing them in the first place. I practice one habit that helps me a great deal in this regard. At the end of each day, I mentally review the day’s events and conversations to take a second look at the people and developments I’m involved with and do a doublecheck of what they’re likely to be feeling. Sometimes I’ll see things that do need more follow-up, whether a pat on the back, or maybe a five minute chat in someone’s office to make sure we’re clear on things…whatever.”

“I also like to make each person feel like a member of an elite team, like the Boston Celtics or LA Lakers in their prime. I’ve found that if you let each team member know you expect excellence in their performance…if you work hard to set an example yourself…and if you let people know you appreciate and respect their feelings, you wind up with a highly motivated group, a team that’s having fun at work because they’re striving for excellence rather than brooding over slights or regrets.”

What are your greatest weaknesses?

2007-12-18T11:58:00.000-08:00

TRAPS: Beware - this is an eliminator question, designed to shorten the candidate list. Any admission of a weakness or fault will earn you an “A” for honesty, but an “F” for the interview.

PASSABLE ANSWER: Disguise a strength as a weakness.

Example: “I sometimes push my people too hard. I like to work with a sense of urgency and everyone is not always on the same wavelength.”

Drawback: This strategy is better than admitting a flaw, but it's so widely used, it is transparent to any experienced interviewer.

BEST ANSWER: (and another reason it's so important to get a thorough description of your interviewer's needs before you answer questions): Assure the interviewer that you can think of nothing that would stand in the way of your performing in this position with excellence. Then, quickly review you strongest qualifications.

Example: “Nobody's perfect, but based on what you've told me about this position, I believe I' d make an outstanding match. I know that when I hire people, I look for two things most of all. Do they have the qualifications to do the job well, and the motivation to do it well? Everything in my background shows I have both the qualifications and a strong desire to achieve excellence in whatever I take on. So I can say in all honesty that I see nothing that would cause you even a small concern about my ability or my strong desire to perform this job with excellence.”

Alternate strategy (if you don't yet know enough about the position to talk about such a perfect fit):
Instead of confessing a weakness, describe what you like most and like least, making sure that what you like most matches up with the most important qualification for success in the position, and what you like least is not essential.

Example: Let's say you're applying for a teaching position. “If given a choice, I like to spend as much time as possible in front of my prospects selling, as opposed to shuffling paperwork back at the office. Of course, I long ago learned the importance of filing paperwork properly, and I do it conscientiously. But what I really love to do is sell (if your interviewer were a sales manager, this should be music to his ears.)

What are your greatest strengths?

2007-12-18T11:57:00.002-08:00

TRAPS: This question seems like a softball lob, but be prepared. You don't want to come across as egotistical or arrogant. Neither is this a time to be humble.

BEST ANSWER: You know that your key strategy is to first uncover your interviewer's greatest wants and needs before you answer questions. And from Question 1, you know how to do this.

Prior to any interview, you should have a list mentally prepared of your greatest strengths. You should also have, a specific example or two, which illustrates each strength, an example chosen from your most recent and most impressive achievements.

You should, have this list of your greatest strengths and corresponding examples from your achievements so well committed to memory that you can recite them cold after being shaken awake at 2:30AM.

Then, once you uncover your interviewer's greatest wants and needs, you can choose those achievements from your list that best match up.

As a general guideline, the 10 most desirable traits that all employers love to see in their employees are:

1. A proven track record as an achiever...especially if your achievements match up with the employer's greatest wants and needs.

2. Intelligence...management "savvy".

3. Honesty...integrity...a decent human being.

4. Good fit with corporate culture...someone to feel comfortable with...a team player who meshes well with interviewer's team.

5. Likeability...positive attitude...sense of humor.

6. Good communication skills.

7. Dedication...willingness to walk the extra mile to achieve excellence.

8. Definiteness of purpose...clear goals.

9. Enthusiasm...high level of motivation.

10. Confident...healthy...a leader.

Tell me about yourself.

2007-12-18T11:57:00.001-08:00

TRAPS: Beware, about 80% of all interviews begin with this “innocent” question. Many candidates, unprepared for the question, skewer themselves by rambling, recapping their life story, delving into ancient work history or personal matters.

BEST ANSWER: Start with the present and tell why you are well qualified for the position. Remember that the key to all successful interviewing is to match your qualifications to what the interviewer is looking for. In other words you must sell what the buyer is buying. This is the single most important strategy in job hunting.

So, before you answer this or any question it's imperative that you try to uncover your interviewer's greatest need, want, problem or goal.

To do so, make you take these two steps:

1. Do all the homework you can before the interview to uncover this person's wants and needs (not the generalized needs of the industry or company)

2. As early as you can in the interview, ask for a more complete description of what the position entails. You might say: “I have a number of accomplishments I'd like to tell you about, but I want to make the best use of our time together and talk directly to your needs. To help me do, that, could you tell me more about the most important priorities of this position? All I know is what I (heard from the recruiter, read in the classified ad, etc.)”

Then, ALWAYS follow-up with a second and possibly, third question, to draw out his needs even more. Surprisingly, it's usually this second or third question that unearths what the interviewer is most looking for.

You might ask simply, "And in addition to that?..." or, "Is there anything else you see as essential to success in this position?:

This process will not feel easy or natural at first, because it is easier simply to answer questions, but only if you uncover the employer's wants and needs will your answers make the most sense. Practice asking these key questions before giving your answers, the process will feel more natural and you will be light years ahead of the other job candidates you're competing with.

After uncovering what the employer is looking for, describe why the needs of this job bear striking parallels to tasks you've succeeded at before. Be sure to illustrate with specific examples of your responsibilities and especially your achievements, all of which are geared to present yourself as a perfect match for the needs he has just described.

OOPS

2007-12-18T03:16:00.000-08:00

Class:
Class is concrete representation of an entity. It represents a group of objects, which posses similar attributes and behavior. Provides Abstraction and Encapsulations. A category name that can be given to group of objects of similar kind.

Object:
Object represents/resembles a Physical/real entity. An object is simply something you can give a name.

Object Oriented Programming:
is a Style of programming that represents a program as a system of objects and enables code-reuse.

Encapsulation:
Binding of attributes and behaviors. Hiding the implementation and exposing the functionality.

Abstraction:
Hiding the complexity. Defining communication interface for the functionality and hiding rest of the things.
In .Net destructor can not be abstract. Can define Either Finalize / Destructor. For Destructor access specifiers can not be assigned. It is Private.

Overloading:
Adding a new method with the same name in same/derived class but with different number/types of parameters. Implements Polymorphism.

Overriding:
When we need to provide different implementation than the provide by base class, We define the same method with same signatures in the derived class. Method must be Protected/Protected-Friend/Public for this purpose. (Base class routine can be called by Mybase.Method, base.Method)

Shadowing:
When the method is defined as Final/sealed in base class and not overridable and we need to provide different implementation for the same. We define method with Shadows/new.

Inheritance:
Gives you ability to provide is-a relationship. Acquires attributes and behaviors from another. When a class acquires attributes and behaviors from another class. (must not be Final or sealed class in .Net)

Abstract Class:
Instance can not be created. Optionally can have one or more abstract methods but not necessary. Can provide body to Classes.

Interface:
What a Class must do, But not how-to.
Bridge for the communication when the caller does not know to whom he is calling.
Describes externally visible behavior of element.
Only Public members which defines the means of the communication with the outer world. Can-be-Used-As Relationship.
Can not contain data but can declare property. There can be no implementation. Interface can be derived from another interface.

Polymorphism:
Mean by more than one form. Ability to provide different implementation based on different no./type of parameters.
A method behaves differently based on the different input parameters. Does not depend on the Return-Type.

Pure-Polymorphism:
Make an method abstract/virtual in base class. Override it in Derived Class. Declare a variable of type base class and assign an object of derived class to it. Now call the virtual/abstract method. The actual method to be called is decided at runtime.

Early-Binding:
Calling an non-virtual method decides the method to call at compile time is known as Early-Binding.

Late-Binding:
Same as pure-polymorphism.

Identifiers/Access Specifies and scope:
Private, Protected, Friend, Protected Friend, Public
private, protected, internal, protected internal, public

What is a Delegate?
A strongly typed function pointer. A delegate object encapsulates a reference to a method. When actual function needs to be called will be decided at run-time.

Static Variable and Its Life-Time:
Public Shared VAR As Type Or public static Type VAR;
Life time is till the class is in memory.

Constructor: Special Method Always called whenever an instance of the class is created.

Destructor/Finalize:
Called by GC just before object is being reclaimed by GC.

ADO.Net

2007-12-18T03:10:00.000-08:00

ADO.Net Components:
Connection, Command, DataReader, DataAdapter

Differentiate between DataSet and RecordSet:
1) DataSet is entire relation DB in memory. Table/Relation/Views While RecordSet is representation of Table. It do not contain information on relationships, Constraints, Keys.
2) DataSet is designed to work in disconnected mode.
3) There’s no concept of cursor-types in a DataSet
4) DataSet has no record pointer.
5) You can store many edits in a DS and write them in Original DataSource in a single call.
6) DataSet internally represents data with XML and can be serialized. Thus you can easily retrieve data from a DB and then write directly to XML file or reverse.

DataSet is always disconnected?
True

What is advantage of DataReader over DataSet?
DataReader is readonly stream of data returned from the DB as the query executes. It contains one row of data at a time and is restricted to forward-only. Supports to a access multiple result sets but only one at a time and in order retrieved. DataReader needs connection to DB throughout its usage. DataReader is faster than DataSet.

Typed DataSet?
Data access is normally done using indexes on collection in object model. In ADO.Net it is possible to create a variation on a Dataset that supports syntax like DataSet.TableName.Rows(0).ColumnName . Errors in syntax are detected during compile time rather than runtime.
Advantages: Data Designer generates typed ds. When we type ds. We get all table names and column names on row. We do not need to remember.

How to reflect updation of data in dataset to database?
Dim ds As New (Typed)DataSet
Dim da As New SqlDataAdapter(“Select Command”)
Dim cd As New SqlCommandBuilder(da)
da.Update(DataTable/DataSet, srcTable)
If SELECT command is SP and to update/insert/delete we have created SPs
We can create SqlCommand Objects in Code and assign it to InsertCommand,
UpdateCommand and DeleteCommand Property of adapter.

What are Different types of command can be executed?
ExecutedNonQuery, ExecuteScaler, ExecuteReader (In Execute NonQuery we can use transaction. In other Scaler and Reader we can not use transaction. We do not need to assign transaction to every command if connection string has ENLIST=true; it automatically assigns current transaction in the Context to the command being executed.

How to Set DataRelation between in two columns:
ds.Relations.Add(DataRelation Object)
New DataRelation(ParentColumns(),childColumns())
New DataRelation("RelationName", ParentColumn, childColumn)
New DataRelation("RelationName", ParentColumn, childColumn, CreateConstraint = True)
New DataRelation("RelationName",ParentColumns(),childColumns(),CreateConstraint=True)

How do we sort the data from a DataTable:
DataTable.Select(strFilter, strSort) As DataRow()
New DataView(DataTable) and DataView.Sort = “Column1,Column2,...)

How do we get only edited/deleted/inserted records from a DataTable:
DataTable.GetChanges(DataRowState.Added Or
DataRowState.Deleted Or
DataRowState.Modified Or
DataRowState.Detached Or
DataRowState.Unchanged)

How does DataAdapter.Fill Work?
Executes the Execute Reader method and gets the reader.
Reads Each ResultSet using NextResultSet of DataReader From the and Fills the DataTable form the reader. Also creates DataTable if MisingSchemaAction is Add/AddWithKey.

Difference between HTML and XML?
XML : User defined tags. Content driven, End tags required , case sensitive. Quotes required around attributes. Slash required in Empty Tags.

What is XSLT and its usage?
XSL Transformations. Used to transform XML document to any other text format such as HTML, text, XML etc.

ASP.Net

2007-12-18T02:44:00.000-08:00

Different Types of Caching?

Output Caching: stores the responses from an asp.net page.
Fragment Caching: Only caches/stores the portion of page (User Control)
Data Caching: is Programmatic way to Cache objects for performance.

Authentication and Authorization: Authentication is identifying/validating the user against the credentials (username and password) and Authorization performs after authentication. Authorization allowing access of specific resource to user.

Different Types of Directives:
Page, Register, Control, OutputCache, Import, Implements, Assembly, Reference

Difference between Server-Side and Client-Side:
Server-Side code is executed on web-server and does not transmitted to client, while client-side code executed on client(browser) and is rendered to client along with the content.

Difference Server.Transfer and Response.Redirect:
Both ends the processing for the current request immediately. Server.Transfer start executing the another resource specified as parameter without acknowledgement to client(browser) while Response.Redirect intimate client that your requested resource is available at this location and then client request for that resource.

Different Types of Validators and Validation Controls:
RequiredFieldValidator, RangeValidator, RegularExpressionValidator, CompareValidator, CustomValidator, ValidationSummary

How to Manage State in ASP.Net?
Client based: ViewState, QueryString and Cookies
Server based: Session, Application.

Difference between User Control and Custom Control:
CUSTOM Controls are compiled code (Dlls), easier to use, difficult to create, and can be placed in toolbox. Drag and Drop controls. Attributes can be set visually at design time. Can be used by Multiple Applications (If Shared Dlls), Even if Private can copy to bin directory of webApp add reference and use. Normally designed to provide common functionality independent of consuming Application.

3 Types of Session State Modes?

InProc(cookieless, timeout),
StateServer (Server, Port stateConnectionString="tcpip=server:port"),
SQLServer (sqlconnectionstring) and Off.

What is ViewState and How it is managed, Its Advantages/Benefits?
ViewState is a special object that ASP.NET uses to maintain the state of page and all webcontrols/ServerControls within it. It is in this object preserves the states of various FORM elements during post-backs. It is rendered to client(browser) as a Hidden variable __VIEWSTATE under FORM tag. We can also add custom values to it.

What is web.config and machine.config:
machine.config is default configuration for all applications running under this version, located in %WinDir%\Microsfot.Net\Framework\Version. Settings can be overridden by Web.Config for an specific application Web.Config resides in application’s root/virtual root and exists in sub-sequent folders.

Role of Global.asax:
Optional file contains the code to handle Application level events raised by ASP.Net or By HttpModule. This file resides in application root directory. Application_Start, _End, _AuthenticateRequest, _Error, Session_Start, _End, BeginRequest, EndRequest. This file is parsed and compiled into dynamically generated class derived from HttpApplication.

Page Life Cycle: Init, LoadViewState, LoadPostBackData, Load, RaisePostBackDataChangedEvent, RaisePostBackEvents, Pre-Render, SaveViewState, Render, Unload,

(IpostBackDataChangedEventHandler and IpostBackEventHandler)

Error, CommitTransaction, AbortTransaction, Abort

inetinfo.exe, aspnet_isapi.dll aspnet_wp.exe, HttpModules (OutputCache, Session, Authentication, Authorization, Custom Modules Specified) and Then HttpHandlers PageHandlerFactory for *.aspx

Can the action attribute of a server-side FORM tag be set to a value and if not how can you possibly pass data from a form to a subsequent Page?
No assigning value will not work because will be overwritten at the time of rendering. We can assign value to it by register a startup script which will set the action value of form on client-side.

Rest are Server.Transfer and Response.Redirect.

ASP.Net List Controls and differentiate between them?
RadioButtonList, CheckBoxList, DropDownList, Repeater, DataGrid,DataList

Type Of Code in Code-Behind class: Server-Side Code.

What might be best suited to place in the Application_Start and Session_Start:
Application level variables and settings initialization in App_Start
User specific variables and settings in Session_Start

Difference between inline and code-behind. Which is best?
Inline is mixed with html and code-behind is separated. Use code-behind, Because Inline pages are loaded, parsed, compiled and processed at each first request to page and remains in compiled code remains in cache until it expires, If expires it again load, parse and compile While code-behind allows to be pre-compiled and provide better performance.

Which Template must provide to display data in Repeater?
ItemTemplate.

How to Provide Alternating Color Scheme in Repeater?
AlternatingItemTemplate

What base class all Web Forms inherit from?
System.Web.UI.Page

What method do you use to explicitly kill a user’s Session?
HttpContext.Current.Session.Abandon()

How do you turn off cookies in one page of your asp.net application?
We will not use it. But can not turn off cookies from server. To allow or not is a client side functionality.

Which two properties are on every validation control?
ControlToValidate and Text, ErrorMessage

How do you create a permanent cookie?
Set expires property to Date.MaxValue (HttpCookie.Expires = Date.MaxValue)

What is the standard you use to wrap up a call to a Web Service?
SOAP

Which method do you use to redirect to user to another page without performing a round trip to Client? Server.Transfer(“AnotherPage.aspx”)

What is transport protocol you use to call a Web-Service SOAP?
HTTP-POST

A Web Service can only be written in .NET?
FALSE

Where on internet would you look for Web services?
www.uddi.org

How many classes can a single .NET DLL contain?
Unlimited.

How many namespaces are in .NET?
124

What is a bubbled event?
When you have a complex control like DataGrid. Writing an event processing routine for each object (cell, button, row etc.). DataGrid handles the events of its constituents and will raise its own defined custom events.

Difference between ASP Session State and ASP.Net Session State?
ASP: relies on cookies, Serialize all requests from a client, Does not survive process shutdown, Can not maintained across machines in a Web farm/garden.

Layout: GridLayout and FlowLayout

Web User Control:
Combines existing Server and HTML controls by using VS.Net. to create functional units that encapsulate some aspects of UI. Resides in Content Files, which must be included in project in which the controls are used.

Composite Custom Control: combination of existing HTML and Server Controls.

Rendered custom control: create entirely new control by rendering HTML directly rather than using composition.

Where do you store the information about user’s Locale? Page.Culture

Should Validation occur on Client/Server Side for Date Input?
Both. Client-side reduces extra round-trip. Server-Side ensures prevention against hacking and failure against automated requests.

.Net Framework

2007-12-18T02:34:00.000-08:00

.Net Framework: Is an environment that facilitates Object Oriented Programming Model for multiple languages. It wraps OS and insulates Software Development from many OS specific tasks such as file handling, memory allocation & management.

It has two main components CLR and .Net Class Libraries.

CLR: Common Language Runtime. It is heart of .Net Framework. Core of CLR is it’s execution engine which loads, executes and manages the managed code that has been compiled to Intermediate Language (MSIL).

CTS: Common Type System. It defines the common set of types that can be used in different languages regardless of OS and hardware. Each language is free to provide/define it’s own syntaxes.

CTS defines that how types are declared, used and managed in runtime. Most important addition is runtime support for cross language integration. It does:

Establishes a Framework
Provides Object Oriented Programming Model
Defines set of rules that language must follow to be CLR compliant.

CLS: Common Language Specification. It is Subset of CTS which is all .Net languages are expected to implement. Idea behind the CLS is Cross Language Integration.

Managed Code: The .Net framework provides several core run-time services to the programs that run within it. For example exception handling and security. For these services to work the code must provide a minimum level of information to runtime. Such code is called Managed Code.

Managed Data: This is data for which memory management is done by .Net runtime’s garbage collector this includes tasks for allocation de-allocation. We can call garbage collector to collect un-referenced data by executing System.GC.Collect()

What is an Assembly?: are fundamental building blocks of .Net Framework. They contains the type and resources that are useful to make an application. Assemblies enables code reuse, version control, security and deployment. An assembly consist of: Manifest, Type Metadata, MSIL and resource file.

Assemblies are Private and Shared. Private are used for a single application and installed in application’s install directory or its sub-directory. Shared assembly is one that can be referenced by multiple application and resides in GAC(local cache for assemblies managed by .Net Framework).

gacutil /i myDll.dll can see and %windir%\assembly

Metadata and Menifest: Menifest describes the assembly itself. Assembly name, version, culture, strong name, list of files, type reference and reference assembly. While Metadata describes contents within the assembly like classes, namespaces, interfaces, scope, properties, methods and their parameters etc.

Application Domain: is a virtual process that serves to isolate an application. All object created within the same application scope are created within same application domain.

Garbage Collection: is Automatic Memory Manager for .Net Framework. It manages the memory allocated to .Net Framework.

When a variable is defined it gets a space in memory (stack) and when an object is created memory for the object is allocated in heap. When an object is assigned to a variable it increments the reference counts for the object and when program control comes out of the function the scope of variable gets ended Or NULL is assigned to variable it decrements the reference count of object by 1. When reference count of one object becomes zero GC acts call destructor of object and then releases the memory acquired by the object.

Can .Net Components can be used from a COM? Yes, can be used. But There are few restrictions such as COM needs an object to be created. So static methods, parameterized constructor can not be used from COM. These are used by COM using a COM Callable Wrapper (CCW).

TlbImp.exe and TlbExp.exe

How does .NET Remoting work? It involves sending messages along channels. Two of the standard channels are HTTP and TCP. TCP is for LANs only and HTTP can be used on LANs or WANs (internet). TCP uses binary serialization and HTTP uses SOAP (.Net Runtime Serialization SOAP Formatter).

There are 3 styles of remote access:

SingleCall: Each incoming request is handled by new instance.

Singleton: All requests are served by single server object.

Client-Activated Object: This is old state-full DCOM model. Where client receives reference to the remote object and keep until it finished with it.

Versioning: MajorVersion.MinorVersion.BuildNumber.Revision

DLL-HELL: situations where we have to put same name Dlls in single directory where are Dlls are of different versions.

Boxing and Un-Boxing: Implicit(automatic) conversion of value type to reference type is known as Boxing And Explicit (manual) conversion of Reference type to value type is said to be Un-boxing. (conversion of Integer variable to object type)

Professional ASP .Net page 7

2007-10-29T00:34:00.001-07:00

· SQL Injection Problem

A user can enter a user-name and password in a pattern (such as ['b or '1'='1]) that when you concatenate them in the query to check the credential, the query will always be succeeded. To protect from this, you should either parse the strings they enter and remove all single quotes, or use the technique of retrieving the password from the database and comparing it with the value that the user entered or use a stored procedure.

· CLR has the ability to short-circuit expression testing.

· According to performance testing done by Microsoft, the runtime (CLR) can allocate nearly 10 million objects per second on a moderately fast machine.

· The Option Explicit On statement forces the declaration of all variables before they are used and will generate a compiler error if a variable is used before it is declared. The Option Strict On greatly limits the implicit data type conversions. This also disallows any late binding.

· In C#, properties and methods are non-virtual by default, which means that they cannot be overridden in any derived classes. To make a method overridable you have to prefix it with keyword virtual, unless you will get a compilation error.

· If you imported a name-space in a base class, you have to re-import that name-space in the derived class as well. Because the name-spaces are not inherited by the derived classes.

· A serviced component is a .Net component, but it is hosted inside of a COM+ application, and therefore can access the services offered by COM+.

· The manifest can either be embedded within a single DLL, as in the single file assembly, or can be in a separate file, as in the case with multi-file assembly.

· To store an assembly into the global assembly cache:

1) Create a strong name for the assembly using the SN.EXE tool. This tool will generate a file that contains the necessary public and private keys to define a strong name.

2) Pass the contents of that file to the Assembly Generation Tool (AL.EXE) to create an assembly with a strong name associated with it.

3) Use the Global Assembly Cache Tool (GACUTIL.EXE) to install the assembly into the global assembly cache.

· In checking version, the CLR first check the major and minor versions. These must match in order for the assembly to be compatible. If these two numbers match but the build number is different, then as long as the build number of the assembly is greater than the build required by the application, it can be assumed to be backwards compatible with the version expected by the application.

· SOAP is a W3C submitted note that used HTTP and XML to encode and transmit application data.

· ASP .Net Web service files are simply source file with a .asmx file extension.

· Building A Web Service

Define a normal class with properties, methods and all. Expose the application logic as you do in normal applications. To transform this normal class into a web service, just prefix <WebMethod> attribute to the methods or properties. Save your file with a .asmx extension. When you request this file through browser a help page is displayed, containing the information about your web service. The template page that generates this help page is DefaulWsdlHelpGenerator.aspx. You have to add a mandatory directive at the top of .asmx file:

<%@ WebService Class="Fibonacci" %>

You have to import the name-space System.Web.Services. You can gain access to the ASP .Net intrinsic objects, such as Application or Session, by inheriting your own web service class from the base class WebService. ASP .Net page has access to the same application state memory that ASP .Net web service do. Classes do not need to be inherited from the WebService base class in order to be a functional web service. You can still access the intrinsic objects using HTTPContext. For example to use Application object:

StrName = HTTPContext.Current.Application("Name")

· Protocols define how communication between systems takes place. ASP .Net supports three default protocols HTTP-GET, HTTP-POST, and SOAP but can be extended to support others.

· The web service we build locally and test used HTTP-GET as a default protocol to communicate to end-point. The parameters are passed on the query string in the form Fibonacci.asmx/GetSeqNumber?FibIndex=6 in case of HTTP-GET. The output from HTTP-POST is similar to HTTP-GET. The difference is HTTP-POST passed parameters or data as name/value pairs within the body of the HTTP request rather than in query string. You can enable a HTTP-POST protocol in the web service by setting showPage flag to true in the DefaultWsdlHelpPage.aspx.

· A SOAP protocol message contains four parts:

1) Envelop

2) Encoding Rules

3) RPC representation

4) Protocol bindings

· The WebMethod Attribute's Properties

1) Description: It used to provide a brief description of the Web-callable method. The value of the Description property is added to the WSDL and to the web service Help page.

2) Enabling Session State: The default is disabled.

3) Aliasing Web Method Names: The most common use of the MessageName property is to uniquely identify polymorphic methods within a class that is to be marked as web-callable.

4) Caching Web Service: Like ASP .Net pages, ASP .Net services support output caching, because on the first request web service has be compiled. The use of caching for web services is configured on a method-by-method basis through the use of the WebMethod attribute's CacheDuration property. Caching variation based on the parameters supplied to the method is supported by default.

5) Buffering The Server Response: The default is true.

· The WebService Attribute

The WebService attribute is used to configure properties for the class rather than the method or property. But it does not, however, mark the methods within the class as Web-callable.

1) Description:

<WebService (Description:="String")> Public Class WSer

2) Namespace: XML uses the namespaces to uniquely identify sections of an XML document. Namespaces are Universal Resource Indicators (URI) such as http://microsoft.com and allow the markup language used to be unique within a given namespace. Even though a URI might take the shape of an http://address, this does not imply that some value or meaning exists at this end-point, it is simply a unique string. The default namespace that ASP .Net assigns to a Web service in http://tempuri.org. You can change it for your web service as:

<WebService (Namespace:="String")> Public Class MyWService

3) Name: You can change the name of your class that is going to be instantiated by the proxies as:

· Synchronous Versus Asynchronous

A synchronous design allows the ASP .Net thread of execution to run until it's complete. If an action within the code has the potential to block, this can stall the ASP .Net worker thread. This all translates to an impact on the performance and scalability of the system.

An asynchronous design, on the other hand, allows the ASP .Net thread of execution to start up another thread, which can call back onto an ASP .Net thread when the work is complete.

· The best place to find a web service is www.uddi.org.

· WSDL is an XML document that describes:

1) How a web service is used.

2) The location of a web service.

3) The nature of the message exchange.

· Using Web Services

To use a web service in your local code, you have to do it through a proxy class/object. A proxy works on the behalf of others. To do this, you have to create a proxy class in your local code. This proxy class exposes the same methods and properties (even the name will be same) that the actual remote web service class has. The proxy does not implement any method or property inside it, it just calls the actual web service methods on the behalf of its user. For example a method named GetSeqNumber is exposes by the actual web service. You can call this method via your proxy class's method as:

Public Class Fibonacci

Inherits SoapHttpClientProtocol

Public Sub New()

MyBase.New

Me.Url = "http://[Server]//Fibonacci_vb.asmx"

End Sub

Public Function GetSeqNumber(ByVal FibIndex As Integer) As

Integer

Dim Result() As Object = Me.Invoke ("GetSeqNumber",

New Object() {FibIndex})

Return CType(results(0), Integer)

End Function

End Class

· There are four ways to create proxies for web services:

1) Use Visual Studio .Net and add a Web Reference you're your projects.

2) Use the wsdl.exe command-line utility

3) Use the Microsoft SOAP toolkit.

4) Implement your own custom procedure.

· Using Visual Studio .Net For Proxy Classes

Including a reference allows you to early-bind to the object, instead of late-binding. Use Project | Add Web Reference option or use References in the Solution Explorer to add a web service into your project. Visual Studio .Net will do all the work required to connect to the web service, parse the WSDL, and will generate a proxy class that you can use. For example you can use it in your code as:

Dim ObjFibonacci As New Server.Fibonacci()

Result = ObjFibonacci.GetSeqNumber(3)

Here is what happens when you execute the code:

1) ASP .Net creates an instance of the proxy and calls it.

2) The proxy calls the Fibonacci Web service via SOAP, which computes the results and sends it back to the proxy via SOAP.

3) The proxy then de-serializes the SOAP message, (converts the values within the SOAP message to .Net types) and returns an Integer value.

· Using WSDL.EXE For Proxy Classes

First specify the location of the WSDL document for the web service as:

WSDL.Exe http://server/. . /Fibonacci_cs.asmx?wsdl

It will generate a source file and this source file will be compiled again into a .Net assembly. To compile this source file you can use any language compiler (but should be same as used into generate the source file) to generate an assembly.

· Controlling Timeout

Using the Timeout property of the proxy ensures that the application won't wait for a slow web service. The default is 20 seconds but for example you can make it 5 seconds:

Dim ObjProxyClass As New ProxyClass()

ObjProxyClass.Timeout = 5000

· Setting The URL

You can also set the end-point URL of the proxy where the web service is located.

ObjProxyClass.Url = http://. . .

· Maintaining State

If you intend to maintain state through the use of ASP .Net session state within the web service, you need to re-present the HTTP cookie on each subsequent use of the proxy by your application. The cookie that the proxy receives is only valid for the life of the proxy. When the proxy instance goes out of scope or is destroyed, the cookie is lost and on subsequent requests you no longer have access to the Session. To overcome this problem, create an instance of a CookieContainer class and assign that instance to the proxy's CookieContainer property. For example consider the following example. The web service class is as follows:

Import System.Web.Services

Public Class SessionExample

Inherits WebService

<WebMethod (EnableSession:=true> Public Function

SetSesion (Key As String, Item As String)

Session(Key) = Item

End Function

<WebMethod (EnableSession:=true> Public Function

GetSesion (Key As String) As String

Return Session(Key)

End Function

End Class

Now you can create a proxy for this and using that proxy you can store and retrieve the values in the Session at web service:

Import System.Net

Dim ObjProxyClass As New ProxyClass()

Dim ObjCookieContainer As New CookieContainer()

ObjProxyClass.CookieContainer = ObjCookieContainer

ObjProxyClass.SetSession("Name","Rod")

StrResult = ObjProxyClass.GetSession("Name")

· SOAP Exceptions

In case of any error a web service is throws an exception of type SoapException. You can use this exception in your code when calling a web service. You have to import the System.Web.Services.Protocols namespace in your code for using that type of exception.

· Web Services Security

Because ASP .Net web services are simply part of an ASP .Net application, we can take advantage of all the security features provided by ASP .Net.

When web services uses the windows authentication and anonymous access is not enabled, you have to send user credential along with your request. To do this, import System.Net namespace in your code. Create a NetworkCredential object and assign the username, password and other required properties to it. Next set this object as a Credential property of the proxy. Now when you call the web service, you will be authenticated against the credentials you sent with your request.

Those web service users, who come from the non-windows application, can use the Clear-Text/Basic Authentication.

When we use the forms-based authentication with the web services, we have to authenticate the user and generate an authentication cookie our self.

FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie("User-Name","Password")

Apart from all the inbuilt authentication and authorization mechanisms provided by the ASP .Net, we can develop our own custom mechanism using SOAP headers.

· Interoperability

Interoperability is a term used to define working of two architecturally different components one upon. In case of .Net interoperability represents using COM components in .Net or using .Net components in COM. To accomplish this, a wrapper is designed between two types of components. This wrapper is responsible for the communication across the boundaries.

Data type marshalling or mapping is performed by the wrapper automatically. There are two kinds of types as far as marshalling goes:

1) Blittable Types: These are the same on both sides of the boundary, and therefore don't need any conversion.

2) Non-Blittable Types: These are different on either side of the boundary, and therefore require conversion. For non-blittable types, you can specify how they are marshaled across the boundary.

· Using COM Objects From .Net

Using COM component from .Net is extremely simple, as there is a tool that takes a COM component or type library and creates a managed assembly (a callable wrapper) to manage the boundary transition for you. From the programming perspective all you have to do is call methods and access properties as you would with the COM component. The difference is that you will be calling the wrapper class, which will take the .Net type, convert them to COM types, and call the COM interface methods. There are several ways in which you can generate the wrapper class:

1) Adding a COM reference in Visual Studio .Net.

2) Using the type library import tool (tlmimp.exe)

3) Using the type library convert class

The System.Runtime.InteropServices namespace contains a class called TypeLibConverter, which provides method to convert COM class and interfaces into assembly metadata.

4) Creating a custom wrapper

Using the wrapper assembly is very easy. First you have to import that assembly into your code. Now you can access its methods and properties as a normal managed assembly.

· Using .Net Components From COM

It is just a reverse process of what is described above. The difference is that you have to explicitly decide which interface and methods you want exposed to COM. This is crucial point, because for .Net components to be available in COM they have to have an interface. You can do this either manually or automatically.

Manually creating interfaces means you use the language features to explicitly declare the interfaces.

Automatically creating interfaces means you use the Interop Services attributes to have an interface automatically created from the class.

Once the .Net assembly has been created, you need to create a COM type library so that COM clients can set reference to the classes. Use tldexp.exe tool to do this. Once the type library is created, the class needs to be registered in the Registry as regasm AssemblyName.

· Registering The DLL For Global Use

If you wish the .Net assembly to be used in multiple applications, then it must be registered in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC). This applies not only to .Net components used from .Net, but also to .Net components used from COM. To register an assembly into GAC you have to follow the steps:

1) Generate the strong name: sn k Person.snk (This generates a key pair and stores it in the file Person.snk)

2) Add a link attribute in the assembly:

<assembly:AssemblyKeyFile("Person.snk")>

3) Installing in GAC:

Gacutil.exe /i Person.Dll

· API Calls

.Net provides a way to access DLLs that aren't COM based, using the Platform Invoke Services (P/Invoke). You can call the APIs in a manner similar to the way Visual Basic 6 does it. First declare the API to call as:

Declare Auto Function GetSystemMetrics Lib "User32.Dll"

(nIndex As Integer) As Integer

Now you can call it as:

Dim mt As New Metrics

Dim val As Integer = mt.GetSystemMetrics(SM_CXSCREEN)