Dave Balzer

TheRuntime.com - Take 2

I guess I prematurely announced the launch of our new blogging community, www.TheRuntime.com

After our initial launch we discovered some configuration problems that, although not insrumountable, were just irritating enough to make us look for another platform on which to run the community. We settled on subText and are once again up and running. We are anxious to start delivering top quality content so we are releasing the site with most of the out-of-the-box configuration intact. We will be adding additional features and a branded look to the site as soon as we can. I encourage you to come by and check it out.

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

Announcing TheRuntime.com

I would like to announce a new community blogging site that has hit the world this week. www.TheRuntime.com

I know what you all are thinking, "Not another blogging community!" I think you will find this one worth your time to follow. I encourage you to check it out. It includes many authors, speakers and recognized experts in the development community. I don't know how I got lucky enough to be in their company as I really don't belong, but they are allowing me to participate. The first bloggers include Jay Kimble, John Papa, Brian Peek, Eric Wise, Rob Teixiera, Dana Stevens, and myself. I think you will find lots of great content in the days to come.

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

Must Read! Rob's Project Manifesto

I try not to just post links to other blogs too often, but there are times when I find something that I feel is important enough to break that rule. This is one of those times. I found Rob's Project Manifesto, by DevPrime here on DevAuthority, to be one of the best articles I've read in months. I just want to thank Rob for this. I will be printing it and distributing it to my team as required reading. [This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

Night of AJAX - Silverlight in Cleveland

We now have a date for the "Night of AJAX/Silverlight" in Cleveland, Ohio. We will be holding the event on Monday October 15th at 6:00 pm. We will have Jay Kimble of CodeBetter.com here to talk about these emerging technologies. Come on out and join us. It will be held at the Microsoft Office in Independance near the I77 - I480 interchange off of Rockside Rd.

Microsoft Offices
6050 Oak Tree Blvd # 300
Cleveland, OH 44131
(216) 986-1440

We will also be officially announcing the date for Code Camp Cleveland at this event.

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

Code Camp Cleveland Site is Live

It's taken longer to get the ball rolling on this than I originally expected. The good news is that we have started gaining momentum in organizing CodeCampCleveland. To that end, the site is now live and will be updated regularly with information about what's happening in the planning and execution of the events.

So check it out http://www.codecampcleveland.com

And if you are in the Cleveland, Ohio area (or if you are willing to travel here) let me know if you are interested in speaking or volunteering for the event. Email all inquiries to dave@devauthority.com

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

A Night of AJAX - Silverlight

It's now official. Plans to hold the first official Code Camp in Cleveland are beginning to materialize. We even have a site. It has no content or functionality yet, but the design is in place courtesy of Tina Vance owner of Whiskey Island Design. Thanks Tina! Be sure to stop by the new site and check it out. And with any luck I'll start getting some real content on there by Monday. www.codecampcleveland.com

The real reason for this post however, is to anounce that we will be holding a "pre-camp" event in mid/late October. I don't have a date or location yet, but these will be comming. We are going to be welcoming Jay Kimble of Codebetter.com fame and AJAX guru from Florida. We will plan to hold a two hour event in which Jay will present an Intro to AJAX followed up with AJAX best practices and a discussion of Javascript Alternatives (eg. Script#/Silverlight). Please plan to check it out. Be sure to check back for more information as it becomes available. Also, if you would like to be alerted when the plans are solidified, feel free to comment here or send me an email so I can let you know personally.

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

.Net 2.0 Operators

So I'm following up with some of the comittments I made back in May. I've begun working again to organize Code Camp Cleveland (more on that soon) and I've started a push to get my Certifications.

So I've been starting to study for my first exam and ran accross a quick blurb in the materials about the new Operators in .Net 2.0. I realize that we are now onto 3.0 and 3.5 will be here before we know it, but somehow I missed this whole concept when 2.0 came out. I am looking for some more information on it. Is anyone using them? What are your experiences? Does anyone know of any good articles that explain them in more depth?

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

Shame me into it!

So where has the webgypsy been?? I know, it was January 4th the last time I posted to this blog! Like any good gypsy, you might think that I had moved on looking for the next opportunity. On the contrary, shortly after the last entry, I got promoted to Software Development Manager in my company and have been very busy learning skill of management. My new position is very different from my job as a Developer, but I have learned to enjoy it very much. I like the opportunity that I have to bridge the gap between the development staff and management. On the downside, I have my share of mindless administrative tasks, but I also get the benefits setting architectural direction and doing as much R&D coding as I can fit in. All-in-all life is good right now for this webgypsy! In fact this gypsy may settle in for a while.

Anyway, to the point of this post, things are once again settling down a little now that I've been doing the job for nearly 5 months. So I have been thinking about some of my personal goals for the rest of this year. I don't know how realistic my entire list is, but here they are:

Begin blogging more frequently (I learn so much when I write down my thoughts)
Pick up and continue to organize CodeCampCleveland! (I have been working on this for about 9 months now, but got sidetracked for quite a while)
Get Certified! (this is one I've wanted to do for a long time now)
Spend more time Improving DevAuthority.com (I love this site, I guess I should try harder to show it the affection it deserves <grin/>)

So there you have it. My goals for the next 9+ months or so. I suppose writing them here doesn't mean much unless you all take the time every once in a while to hold me accountable to them. If you feel so inclined over the course of this next year, drop me a line and just ask me about one of these and maybe the shear shame of it all will drive me to see at least some of these through to completion.

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

DevAuthority Still Growing

I wanted to take the time to thank all the DevAuthority bloggers for making 2006 a phenominal year! We are seeing consistent growth in the amount of traffic comming to our little corner of the world. In 2006 we saw nearly half a million unique visitors and we served nearly 2.5 million pages. I congratulate all of you for making this community the success it has become. I know that with your continued contributions we will have an even better 2007.

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

Code Camp Cleveland Update

I just wanted to post an update for anyone that has been wondering about where CodeCampCleveland stands.

I have been working with several people in the area to secure a location and so far we have been unsuccesful. I have a few more leads and some renewed hope, but at this point I'm pretty sure that we aren't going to be looking at late-Winter/early-Spring as we had originally hoped. I will keep the updates coming as they become available. In the meantime anyone in the Cleveland area with any connections to a suitable facility. Please contact me! I have a couple of possibilities developing but wouldn't mind researching a few others.

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

Naming Conventions

Where I work, we are in the process of creating a new standards document for our vb.net development efforts. We have been trying to mold ourselves to the industry standards as much as possible. Everyone has been pretty agreeable on everything until we got to the naming conventions portion (specifically regarding the naming of controls). One camp wants to follow the industry trend that says all controls should be named according to it's purpose without identification of type e.g. a text box named "FirstName". The other camp proports the traditional add-a-prefix view citing that the controls you are looking for will be grouped together in intellisense e.g. same text box named "txtFirstName". I am suprised at how passionate people are on this point. I am not trying to stir up a heated debate here, but I would really like to know how others feel on this subject. Give me your feedback. I'd love to hear it.

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

Find Jobs, Find Employees, Support This Community!

CodeBetter.Com, the inspiration for the creation of this community, has launched it's newest feature, a new job board which went live today. You can read about the benefits of jobs.codebetter.com in the latest post from Eric Wise.

One of the key features that I would like to point out is that these postings will be displayed throughout the blogging community on a variety of affiliate sites. When an employer purchases a listing, they get the benefit of exposure to a vast base of developers who are reading blogs and trying to improve their skills.

If you are an employer and would like to take advantage of this new board, then please click the "Post a Job Here" link on the job teaser on this page or go to jobs.codebetter.com and type in the referal code "DEVAUTHORITY". When you do so you help to keep this site up and running.

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

Persist a WebForm

Have you ever needed to save a webform for later use? If so, Eric Wise has come up with a really slick solution for this. Check out his article HERE!

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

Passing an array as a paramater to a stored procedure... A.K.A. I love XML

I was recently tasked with creating a document repository where the documents get uploaded into a sql server database by way of a management page and pulled and displayed in various places throughout the application. I was asked to make it generic enough to be able to be tied in for other uses in the future. I also need to be able to provide a way to specify some filter data (or metadata) to identify the document and allow searching. The way I implemented this for my scenario is by creating a Document Filter Data table which has four columns, a RecordID, a DocumentID, a FilterKey, and a FilterValue. I then needed to be able to pass an array of these key/value pairs in when inserting the file into the database. In the old days I probably would have looped over the collection or array of values and made a call to the database for each set that needed inserted. Alternatively, I would have passed in some delimited string that would then have to be parsed inside the procedure (yuck). I certainly don't advocate either of these aproaches. So what's a guy to do when he needs to pass an array of values into a stored procedure? ENTER XML! I created a stored procedure that takes an xml string with the key/value pairs specified and does a batch insert by converting that xml string into a table that can be selected from, joined on, or used as any other temporary table would be in a procedure. The magic for this resides in the OPENXML function in Sql Server. You must first run sp_xml_preparedocument and finish with sp_xml_removedocument (which I will show you some examples of later). For the xmlParam I pass in a string that looks like this:

<root>
<FilterItem FilterKey="Building" FilterValue="1" />
<FilterItem FilterKey="UserType" FilterValue="Admin" />
<FilterItem FilterKey="SomeOtherType" FilterValue="" />
</root>

One of the cool things about this is by passing in an empty string for one of the values, the proc converts that to a null in the database and allows for that to be ignored by searches and be selected regardless of the value passed in, such as an "all" selection.

CREATE PROCEDURE prDOCFilterValuesIns
(
@documentID varchar(50),
@xmlParam text
)
AS
DECLARE @DocHandle int
EXEC sp_xml_preparedocument @DocHandle OUTPUT, @xmlParam

INSERT INTO DOCDocumentFilterData
(DocumentID, FilterKey, FilterValue)
SELECT
   @documentID,
   a.FilterKey,
   CASE LTRIM(RTRIM(a.FilterValue))
      WHEN '' THEN NULL
       ELSE a.FilterValue
   END
FROM OPENXML(@DocHandle, '/root/FilterItem') WITH (FilterKey varchar(50), FilterValue varchar(100)) AS a

EXEC sp_xml_removedocument @DocHandle

Once the you have the data in there you can also select it by running a similar procedure that also accepts an xmlParam. This time, however, it is used to create a temp table that we join on to retrieve all matching records.

CREATE Procedure prDOCDocumentListByFilterDataSel
(
@xmlParam text
)
AS
DECLARE @elementCount int
DECLARE @docHandle int
SET NOCOUNT ON

EXEC sp_xml_preparedocument @docHandle OUTPUT, @xmlParam

DECLARE @FilterData TABLE
(
FilterKey varchar(50),
FilterValue VARCHAR(100)
)

INSERT INTO @FilterData
SELECT *
FROM OPENXML(@docHandle, '/root/FilterItem') WITH (FilterKey varchar(50), FilterValue varchar(100))

SET @elementCount = (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM @FilterData)

select a.DocumentID, a.DocumentTitle, a.DocumentDescription
from DOCDocuments a with (nolock)
inner join (select distinct b.DocumentID from DOCDocumentFilterData b with (nolock)
inner join @FilterData c
on b.FilterKey = c.FilterKey and b.FilterValue = c.FilterValue
group by b.DocumentID
having count(*) >= @elementCount
) as d
on a.DocumentID = d.DocumentID
ORDER BY a.DocumentTitle

EXEC sp_xml_removedocument @docHandle

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]

EnableSortingAndPagingCallbacks = Strange Behavior in GridView

Today I was called in to look at an issue where a GridView that had a button column was exhibiting some strange behaviors. Everything was fine until you sorted or paged the GridView. After that, the button columns no longer referred to the correct rows. The rows sorted, but the buttons did not. Short answer was that we found someone had inadvertantly set EnableSortingAndPagingCallbacks to True on the GridView. Setting this to false fixed the problem. Has anyone else experienced this? Why is it causing the button columns not to sort correctly?

[This post was originally posted at my DevAuthority.com blog. http://www.devauthority.com/blogs/dbalzer/default.aspx Go to http://www.devauthority.com to get your own .Net blog.]