**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!

Administering your SQL through Access

If you wish to administer your SQL through Access, use Access Projects, 
rather than OBDC connections. It uses native OLEDB, and provides better 
performance than OBDC.

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!

Redirecting a user to another mobile page in ASP.NET

To redirect a user to another mobile page in ASP.NET you should use:

RedirectToMobilePage("anotherPage.aspx", true);

rather than Response.Redirect, which is used on web forms.


**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!

Using Response.Write to solve SQL errors

If you Response.Write a problem sql string then you can determine whether your error 
is simply due to mistaking a variable for a string.

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!

How to fetch the recordcount when the table is bound to a DataSet

To fetch the recordcount when the table is bound to a DataSet, you 
should use the following syntax:

myDataSet.Tables("Authors").Rows.Count 


**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!

Using the Windows Script Host Object Model to get Registry values, when 
writing COM objects for ASP pages

When writing COM objects for your ASP pages, a common need is to get 
Registry values. One of the easiest ways is to use the Windows Script 
Host Object Model. 

Set a reference under the PROJECT menu of VB to that object and then 
you get can get Registry information. This example gets home page info 
from IE:

Dim WSH As New IWshRuntimeLibrary.IWshShell_Class
sHomePage = 
WSH.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\Main\Default_Page_URL")

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Dan Wahlin

With the introduction of ASP.NET, many Web server controls such as TextBox, DropDownList, and
Label controls are now available that generate HTML for the browser and provide an
object-oriented way to display and access data submitted by end users.  While XSLT can still be
used to generate text output from ASP.NET Web Forms, it can't be used directly to dynamically
create ASP.NET Web server controls within an ASP.NET page.  This is because the output of an
XSLT transformation is simply a string that is passed to the client and not handled on the
server by the ASP.NET infrastructure.   I've seen many people attempt to create server controls
using XSLT without realizing that the code is passed straight to the browser without being
processed.  Browsers obviously do not know how to handle code similar to the following:

<asp:Textbox id="txtName" runat="server" />

**********************************************************************
Tip of the Day!
by ASPToday Editor

HTML server controls appear very like HTML tags but have, in addition, 
the runat="server" attribute at the end of the HTML element. These 
server controls give the web developer the functionality of the Web Form's 
page framework, while retaining the ease of use of HTML tags, as they 
not only create an HTML element on a web page, but also create an 
instance of a server control.

For example,

<input type="button" id="button1" value="Click" runat="server">

Without the runat="server" attribute, this line of HTML would be parsed 
into a standard HTML button. With the runat="server" attribute, it will 
be parsed into an HTML server control.


**********************************************************************



Tip of the Day!
by S Hari

The .NET Framework provides us with a tool called AL.EXE which we can 
use to 
place an assembly in shared cache on-the-fly:

AL /i:mydll.dll

Now your dll will be placed at the proper location by the utility.


**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by ASPToday Editor

You can check which version of Treeview WebControls you have installed 
by viewing the Global Assembly Cache using the Windows Explorer folder 
C:\Winnt (or Windows)\assembly

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Mark Hoffman

The easiest way to copy files into the resource directory on SharePoint is to map a drive to the 
Web Storage System by running the following line from a command prompt:

subst m: \\.\backofficestorage

This will map drive M to the Web Storage System. If your workspace was called "workspace1", then 
you would navigate to:

M:\localhost\SharePoint Portal Server\workspaces\workspace1\portal\resources

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by ASPToday Editor

In Visual Studio.NET you can compile a component class by simply right-clicking on the project
in the Solution Explorer.

If you are writing the class by hand in a text file, you can compile it as follows:

vbc /t:library /r:System.dll /r:System.Web.dll MyComponent.vb

The /t:library parameter indicated that you want to create a DLL instead of an EXE.

The /r parameters specify any dependent assemblies you use.

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Ian Vink

To see if an XML element exists, set a Node equal to it then see if 
that Node "Is Nothing":
    
    Set xmlNode = xmldoc.selectSingleNode("SomeNodeName")
    If Not xmlNode Is Nothing Then
        'Do something with the node data
    End If


**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by ASPToday Editor

A command allows us to define a function for the data source to perform. Using a connection, 
we execute a command against the data source which may, or may not, return results. Commands 
have a CommandText property that defined the command action, which might be a SQL statement. 
The CommandText is interpreted based on the CommandType set for the command. If the command type
is "StoredProcedure" then the command text is interpreted as the name of a stored procedure. 
If the type is "Text" then it is interpreted as a direct command.

In order for a command to be executed, it must be associated with a connection that is open at 
the time the command is executed.

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by ASPToday Editor

Cookies are only sent to the server with requests for pages that are within the 
same virtual path as that set in the cookie, i.e. the value of "path" and any pages 
within (or below) this virtual path. The default, if a value for the "path" is not 
specifically set in the cookie, is the virtual path of the page where the cookie we 
created. To have a cookie sent to all pages in a site, we just use Path = " / ".

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by ASPToday Editor

A neat way of handling connection strings is to use the appSettings section of web.config:

<configuration>
    <appSettings>
        <add key="ConnectionString" value="Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=ASPToday; Integrated Security=SSPI"/>
    </appSettings>

    <system.web>
        <!-- Web site configuration parameters go here... -->
    </system.web>

</configuration>

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Editor ASPToday

This simple snippet allows you to delete files on your hard drive from an ASP.NET page.

<%@ Page Language="VB" debug="true" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.IO" %>
<%
File.Delete("C:\file.txt")
Dim f As FileInfo
f = New FileInfo("C:\file.txt")
f.Delete()
%>

If you attempt to delete a file that does not exist, no exceptions are thrown unless part 
of the path does not exist, in which case a DirectoryNotFoundException is thrown.

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Editor ASPToday

The following snippet will delete a directory.

<%@ Page Language="VB" debug="true" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.IO" %>
<%
Directory.Delete("C:\Create")
Dim dir As DirectoryInfo
dir= New DirectoryInfo("C:\Create")
dir.Delete()
%> 

If you attempt to delete a non-existent directory, a DirectoryNotFound exception 
will be thrown.

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by S Hari

Here is a simple way to find out whether a given EXE file is managed or 
not in a .NET Environment

1. Run the ILDASM utility with the EXE name as a parameter, for example, ILDASM test.exe
2. If the file is not managed, ILDASM will display the message, "test.exe 
has no valid CLR header and cannot be disassembled."
3. If the file is managed, the ILDASM tool will run successfully.

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Ajoy Krishnamoorthy

To validate a phone number, add a textbox control to accept the phone number, then, add a 
regularexpressionvalidator control to validate the phone number textbox. You then specify 
the rules in the validationexpression property as shown below:

validphone.aspx
--------------------
<form runat="server">
<td>Telephone (000) 000-0000</td>
<td><asp:textbox id=Telephone runat="Server" maxlength="100"></asp:textbox></td>
<td><asp:regularexpressionvalidator errormessage="Enter a valid telephone number." 
validationexpression="\(\d{3}\)\s\d{3}-\d{4}" controltovalidate="Telephone" runat="Server" 
ID=Regularexpressionvalidator1></asp:regularexpressionvalidator>
</td>
</form>
 


**********************************************************************
Tip of the Day!
by ASPToday Editor

When building an interactive form using classic ASP, a common technique is to use some 
client-side script with certain controls (e.g. listbox and checkbox) to automatically 
submit the <form> they reside on to the server for processing when the user selects a value. 
This allows the server to update the page in response to changes the user makes in the form.

In ASP.NET, certain Web form server controls (TextBox, CheckBox, RadioButton) provide a property 
named AutoPostBack. If we set this property to TRUE for a control, that control will 
automatically post its value, and the values of the rest of the controls on a form, back to the 
server when the user selects a value.

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Ian Vink

If you need to see client side what the XML data looks like in your XML Document server side 
and don't wish to write it to the browser, add this piece of code in your client side VBScript: 

MSGBOX "<%=xmlDocument.XML%>"


**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Sandra Gopikrishna

A User Control can contain client script, HTML elements, ASP.NET code and other server 
controls.

Here is a simple user control that outputs HTML when the page is rendered:

footer.ascx
---------------------

<hr>
<table border="2">
<tr><td colspan"2" align "center">This table is in a User Control</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Page Created on: <%= Now() %></td></tr>
</table>

asptoday.aspx
---------------------
<%@ Register tagprefix="asptoday" Tagname="footer" Src="footer.ascx" %>
<asptoday:footer runat="server" />

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Sandra Gopikrishna

The following snippet shows a method of how to do a simple Replace() in a string by 
employing the Regex object of ASP.NET: 

replace.aspx
------------
   <%@ Import Namespace="System.IO" %>
   <%@ Import Namespace="System.Text.RegularExpressions" %>
   <script language="VB" runat="server">
   Sub Page_Load(Src As Object, E As EventArgs)
   Dim str1 As String
   str1 = "Welcome to ASPToday."
   original.text = str1
   str1 = Regex.Replace(str1, "Welcome to", "Goodbye from") 
   replaced.text = str1
   End Sub
   </script>
   <html>
   <body>
   Original Text: <asp:label id="original" runat="server"/>
   <hr />
   Replaced Text: <asp:label id="replaced" runat="server"/>
   </body>
   </html>

When this example is run, the string "Welcome to ASPToday." is converted to "Goodbye 
from ASPToday." and displayed on the screen.


**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Ajoy Krishnamoorthy

An update or insert call to the database with the data containing a single quote could 
result in an error. To avoid this, use the VBScript "replace" method to replace the 
single quote with two single quotes.

Eg:
 strSQL="insert into table_name values(NAME='"&replace(request("NAME"),"'","''")&"',
"&request("DoB")&")"

In the above example if the value of the name field contains a single quote it will 
be replaced with two single quotes.


**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by JS Greenwood

To determine whether ASP script is executing on a live or development server, or 
whether it is being executed by a developer or end user, you can check the HTTP_HOST 
Server-Variable, and see if it is "Localhost".  If it is, then we can assume that 
the system is being used for development purposes. 


**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Editor ASPToday

When using classes such as StreamWriter to populate a memory stream, the stream's 
Length property will not be accurate until the stream writer's Flush method is called 
(because of the buffering it performs).

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Editor ASPToday

C# is the only one of the supplied .NET langauages that supports operator overloading. 
This works in the same way as method overloading, but for operators. The reason for this 
is to allow the standard operators to be used on objects such as classes.

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Editor ASPToday

If you're a Visual Basic or VBScript programmer trying out C# for the first time, 
then there's one really important thing to note: C# is case sensitive.

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by ASPToday Reader

Today's tip has been supplied by ASPToday reader, Tom Le Blanc:

If you have a problem with your ASP code that only manifests itself on the
production server, here is a tip for tracing the problem without burdening
your users too much.

In the development environment with classic ASP you would likely use
Response.Write to output a SQL string, or series of outputs you expect of
your code. You can do the some thing on your production server, but this
time bracket the output in HTML comments:

Response.Write('<!-- ' & SQLString & ' -->' & VbCrLf)

This way, you can use View Source to see the outputs, but your users
won't notice your tracing activity on the face of the page.

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by ASPToday Reader

Today's tip has been supplied by ASPToday Reader Neil Rudd:

If you use Microsoft Visual Interdev 6 and code Javascript, you will know
that Visual Interdev does not recognise *.js files. There is a way to alter
Visual Interdev so it can.

** Please note this tip involves altering the system registery settings and
should not be attempted unless you know what you are doing. Please also note
that I have only done this on a Windows 98 SE machine, I have not tried this
on any other OS. **

1. Open the registry (regedit.exe) and locate the "VisualStudio" key under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft
2. Within this key "VisualStudio/6.0" open "Editors".
3. You should see 3 sub keys. Locate the Key that contains the extensions
HTML, HTM, ASP etc.
3. Within this key create a new DWORD Value with the name js and assign a
hexadecimal value data of 28
4. Close the registery and restart Visual Interdev.
5. Now, if you open any js files and include //<script> at the top of each
page, it will parse the language.

When you have done the steps above, create a new Javascript
template with the following lines

//== Visual InterDev Language Parser ==
//== <script language="javascript">

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Sandra Gopikrishna

When using Seagate Crystal Report in ASP, it is very important to 
create a virtual directory called 'viewer' mapped to the directory 
"DRIVENAME:\PROGRAM FILES\SEAGATE SOFTWARE\VIEWERS" of the web application 
through Internet Service Manager otherwise reports will not be displayed in 
the clients machines that do not have Crystal Reports installed on 
them.

**********************************************************************


Tip of the Day!
by S Bashkar

The ArrayList class of ASP.NET can be employed for generating arrays 
dynamically using its 'ToArray()' method:

<%Dim myarrlist as New ArrayList()

myarrlist.Add('value1')
myarrlist.Add('value2')
myarrlist.Add('value3')
myarrlist.Add('value4')

Dim myarr as String()
myarr = myarrlist.ToArray(Type.GetType('System.String'))
%>

**********************************************************************


Tip of the Day!
by Ajoy Krishnamoorthy

Using the MinimumValue and Maximum Value property of the RangeValidator Control to test 
if a value entered by the user is within a set range:

Range1.aspx
_______________

  <form runat='server'>
  <td>Salary</td>
  <td>
  <asp:textbox runat=Server id='Salary' maintainstate=True tooltip='Enter a value within the 
range'>
  </asp:textbox>
  </td>
  <td>
  <asp:rangevalidator runat=Server controltovalidate='Salary' minimumvalue='1999.99'
 maximumvalue='99999.99' type=Currency errormessage='Please enter a value between 1999.99 
and 99999.99'>
  </asp:rangevalidator>
  </td>
  </form>


**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Kalpesh Shah

You can use this C# snippet to list the printers installed on a system:

using pset = System.Drawing.Printing.PrinterSettings;

public void listPrinters()
{
    String[] strPrinters = new String[pset.InstalledPrinters.Count];
    cntPrinters = pset.InstalledPrinters.Count;

    for (int i = 0; i < cntPrinters ; i++)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(pset.InstalledPrinters[i]);
    }
}


**********************************************************************
Tip of the Day!
by David Schultz

When using/setting up WMI scripts in ASP be sure to not allow anonymous
access to the script (file) so that proper permissions will be in place.
Otherwise you will most likely get Access Denied errors.

**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by S Bashkar

To use ASP.NET components in ASP we have to create a callable wrapper 
of the component to be accessed from ASP and have to register it by 
employing 'RegAsm.exe':

regasm AssemblyName [Options]

**********************************************************************


Tip of the Day!
by ASPToday Reader

Today's tip is from ASPToday Reader, Paresh Patel.

You can generate documentation of a C# project as a set of well formed 
HTML pages in VS.NET.
Write comments in the special tags above the Class, Delegate, 
Interface, Event, Property, Method or Namespace declaration/definitions as shown 
below:
 
/// <summary>
/// Class Level summary documentation goes here
/// </summary>
/// <remarks>
/// Long comments here
/// </remarks>
public class YourClass
{
    /// <summary>This method checks your name against a database to 
verify the accessibility.</summary>
    /// <param name='name'>Pass your name in this parameter</param>
    /// <returns>This function returns an integer 1 if you are in the 
database else returns 0 </returns>
    public int CheckMyNameInDA(string name)
     {
     } 
 
      ....
}
//Note : This example shows very few tags, for usage of all other tags 
please refer to VS.NET documentation.
 
Save your edited files and then click on 'Tools -> Build Comment Web 
Pages' from the menu in VS.NET IDE, select the entire solution or just 
select your project and note down the path where your documentation files 
will be saved.  Click OK to generate the html documentation.  You will 
be amazed to see the output, it has a standard and professional look.

**********************************************************************


Tip of the Day!
by Sandra Gopikrishna

Quite often we will be facing situations where we have to display data 
based on some date entered by the user. In traditional ASP Pages this 
is accomplished by providing a text box for getting the date from the 
user. Using this way the developer has to spend lot of time writing 
validations for the date entered by the user. In ASP.NET we can efficiently 
handle this kind of situations by using the 'Calendar' Server control 
provided with it:

dispcal.aspx
-----------------
<html>
<body>
<form runat = "server">
<asp:calendar runat = "server" backcolor = "beige" forecolor = "brown" 
/>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Invoking the above page displays a  calendar  in the user browser


**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by S Hari

IIS supports the HTTP Verbs GET, HEAD, and POST by default, but if we try to 
access any other verbs apart we will get the access forbidden error 403. 

The work around for this problem is as follows

1. In the IIS Management Console select the "Properties" of the virtual directory
2. click the "Configuration" button and add the verb that you wish to use in those
ASP pages to the list of verbs supported by .ASP files.

**********************************************************************


Tip of the Day!
by Srinivasa Sivakumar

How to read all the Operating System environment variables from 
ASP.NET:

<%@ Import Namespace="System" %>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<script language="vb" runat=server>
 Sub Page_Load(ByVal Source As Object, ByVal E As EventArgs)
  'Read All the environment Variables
  Dim EnvVars As object = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariables()
  Dim obj As Object
  
  'Enumerate the Environment Variables
  For each obj in EnvVars 
   response.write("<b>Variable Name:</b> " & obj.Key & _
"<BR><b>Value</b>: " & obj.Value & "<BR>")
  Next
  
  obj = Nothing
  EnvVars = Nothing
 End Sub
</script>
</body>
</html>

**********************************************************************
Tip of the Day!
by Srinivasa Sivakumar

How to find the Operating System version information from ASP.NET:

<%@ Import Namespace="System" %>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<script language="vb" runat=server>
 Sub Page_Load(ByVal Source As Object, ByVal E As EventArgs)

  'Read OS info in to the operating system object
  Dim OSVer As OperatingSystem = Environment.OSVersion()  

  response.write("<b>OS Service Pack Info:</b> " & "<BR>")
  response.write("<b>Platform:</b> " & OSVer.Platform & "<BR>")
  
  'Read the OS Version in to the Version class
  Dim AssemblyVer As Version = OSVer.Version() 
  
  response.write("<b>OS Build:</b> " & AssemblyVer.Build & "<BR>")
  response.write("<b>OS Major:</b> " & AssemblyVer.Major & "<BR>")
  response.write("<b>OS Minor:</b> " & AssemblyVer.Minor & "<BR>")
  response.write("<b>OS Revision:</b> " & AssemblyVer.Revision)
  
  OSVer = Nothing
  AssemblyVer = Nothing
 End Sub
</script>
</body>
</html>

**********************************************************************
Tip of the Day!
by Sandra Gopikrishna

In VB.NET we can retrive the command line arguments passed to the 
application on-the-fly by employing the 'GetCommandLineArgs' method of 
the 
Environment class:

retcommand.vb
-------------
Imports System
Imports System.Threading

Namespace cmdparam

    Module cmdparam

        Public Sub Main()

            Dim args As String()
            args = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs()

            If (args.Length <> 3 ) Then
                Console.WriteLine("The program accepts only 2 
parameters")
                Exit Sub
            End If
            Console.WriteLine("The value of first argument is : " + 
args(1))
            Console.WriteLine("The value of second argument is : " + 
args(2))
        End Sub
    End Module
End Namespace

compiling the above file
-----------------------
vbc retcommand.vb

running the file
-----------------
retcommand.exe param1 param2


**********************************************************************

Tip of the Day!
by Sandra Gopikrishna

A Proper Case String (sometimes known as Title Case) is one that is lowercase, but the first 
character of every word is in uppercase. The following Tip demonstrates a method 
of converting the supplied string into Proper Case by using the StrConv native 
method of ASP.NET:

propercas.aspx
---------------

<%@ Page Language="VB" %>

<script language="VB" runat="server">
 Protected Sub Page_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
  'init test string
             Dim s As String = "the string is in proper case."
  output.Text = StrConv(s,VbStrConv.ProperCase)
 End Sub
</script>

<asp:label id="output" runat="server" />

**********************************************************************