Over the weekend, I was playing in a sandbox, working out some ideas for our client, PICA.

I was really impressed with all of the out-of-the-box functionality available in ASP.Net 2.0, specifically these:

• Personalization
• Membership
• Menu Control
• Security Trimming
• Two Way Data Binding

I was able to build a full app, albeit wanting of some CSS love, in about four hours time.

The site shows a few pages of content. It lists some events that were created in a password protected part of the site. The events can be added to a cart and "bought" by a user by clicking a dynamic link to PayPal. The user's cart is persisted via cookies if they come back later. The user's cart is also migrated to a persistant data source if they decide to authenticate. The menu of the site uses the asp.net menu control and it has a nice "Security Trimming" feature that omits any items in the site map that the given user doesn't have access to view.

These features really let me focus on the core business problem, rather than getting bogged down by plumbing and implementation details. The number of new features in ASP.Net 2.0 is huge and a little overwhelming, but I'm starting to wrap my arms around it, after months of reading. I really dig it.

 

Here's a great list of shortcuts available using the Windows Key.

Nice.

So I picked up a copy of Professional ASP.Net a few weeks ago and I'm really digging it. Wrox Press has usually done a great job of explaining new technologies and ideas to me, and this book is no exception. I've been reading chapters in my own preferred order, starting with databinding and moving into profiling and membership.

At the end of each chapter my grin just keeps getting wider. I can't believe all of the features that we have available in ASP.Net 2.0, like creating a membership system in about 10 minutes, perhaps in 60 seconds if I study hard enough.

For example, ASP.Net has several authorization and authentication controls that can be dragged onto a webpage from the toolbar. One control contains a prebuilt set of fields to enable a user to register for an account. Another control enables a user to login to the site, another control for resetting a forgotten password, and a couple others. Each control handles all of the internal business logic and database access. It even creates the appropriate database tables. It's a true out-of-the-box situation, AND they're all skinable which lets me pass the buck to our great CSS folks.

Since version 1.0, ASP.Net has been moving in a direction that handles so much of the internal plumbing that most systems need which lets me focus on the real business problem of the day. I love it!

Here's a fun post that applies to a lot of situations.

When we build software, a common part of the conversation is "Will this be useful elsewhere?" and "If so, what should I do now to make it useful elsewhere?"

Over the past year or so, I'm feeling very comfortable with the camp that says this as its core political platform:

• Let the "elsewhere's" starve
• Solve your own problem today, on time and on budget
• Make your solution simple and elegant

I have absolutely no qualms about refactoring code next week based on what I learn this week. I cringe at the software bloating and rambling discussions consuming precious time when today's problem is still unsolved. I'm really happy when the discussion of the day is on today's real problems.

 

Ok, so I'm behind on my RSS Aggregator. Brad Abrams has a reference to another gem.

Atlas Webcast

Always a pain, and certainly a concern with Atlas.

Here's a reference by Brad Abrams. Looks like VS.Net can be our friend here.

First impressions of 16 hours in Vegas.

Windows SharePoint Forums comparison between 2000 and 2003.

Fun with XSD Schema on a Saturday night. Wahoo!!

The .Net programmers on my team were debating the concepts of how a generic class is better than an object array.