Serialization in the .NET Framework

Serialization in .NET allows the programmer to take an instance of an object and convert it into a format that is easily transmittable over the network, or even stored in a database or file system. This object will actually be an instance of a custom type, including any properties or fields you may have set.

The first step in any serialization process is to take the instance of the object and convert it to a memory stream. From there we have the ability to perform any number of operations with (file IO, database IO, etc.).

There are 2 types of serialization. Binary serialization and xml serialization

Core Serialization Methods

#region Binary Serializers

public static System.IO.MemoryStream SerializeBinary(object request) {

System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter serializer =

new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();

System.IO.MemoryStream memStream = new System.IO.MemoryStream();

serializer.Serialize(memStream, request);

return memStream;

}



public static object DeSerializeBinary(System.IO.MemoryStream memStream) {

memStream.Position=0;

System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter deserializer =

new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();

object newobj = deserializer.Deserialize(memStream);

memStream.Close();

return newobj;

}

#endregion

#region XML Serializers
 
public static System.IO.MemoryStream SerializeSOAP(object request) {
  System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter serializer = 
  new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter();
  System.IO.MemoryStream memStream = new System.IO.MemoryStream();
  serializer.Serialize(memStream, request);
  return memStream;
}
 
public static object DeSerializeSOAP(System.IO.MemoryStream memStream) {
  object sr;
  System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter deserializer = 
  new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter();
  memStream.Position=0;
  sr = deserializer.Deserialize(memStream);
  memStream.Close();
  return sr;
}
#endregion

Making XAMPP (Apache) work with IIS

Port 80, and Apache (in my case) to run on Port 81 (and SSL running on Port 4499):

C:\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf:

• Search for “Listen 80″, change to “Listen 81″


• Search for “ServerName localhost:80″, change to “ServerName localhost:81″

C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-ssl.conf

• Search for “Listen 443″, change to “Listen 4499″


• Search for “<VirtualHost _default_:443>”, change to “<VirtualHost _default_:4499>”


• Search for “ServerName localhost:443″, change to “ServerName localhost:4499″

Then, you should be able to start Apache successfully through the XAMPP control panel.

Try using81 port.

http://localhost:81/xampp/

Making URL rewriting on IIS 7 works like IIS 6

what is URL rewriting ?

URL rewriting is the process of intercepting an incoming Web request and redirecting the request to a different resource. When performing URL rewriting, typically the URL being requested is checked and, based on its value, the request is redirected to a different URL.

Making URL rewriting  on IIS7?

Upgrading to IIS 7 should be rather transparent, unfortunately that is not the case when it comes to URL rewriting as we knew it from IIS 6. In IIS 6 all we had to do was to add a wildcard mapping making sure that all requests went through the ASPNET ISAPI process. After this was done, one could create a global.asax file that would either pass requests directly through or rewrite the URL based on an internal algorithm.

1) Start by opening the IIS Manager and selecting your website.

2) Now enter the "Handler Mappings" section

3) Notice the "StaticFile" handler. Currently it's set to match * and catch both File and Directory requests. If you look back at the first image, you'll notice that the error message details that the handler causing the 404 error is the StaticFile handler. As I know that all my static files will have a file extension (also I don't care for directory browsing), I'll simply change my StaticFile handler so it only matches *.* - and only files.

What needs to be done now is that we need to map any and all requests to the aspnet_isapi.dll isapi file - just like we would usually do in IIS 6.

Add a new Script Map to the list of Handler Mappings and set it up like this:

The aspnet_isapi.dll file cannot be used as a Handler for websites running in the new IIS 7 Integrated Mode, thus we will need to make our website run in classic .NET mode. Right click your website node in the IIS Manager and select Advanced Settings. Select the "Classic .NET AppPool" and close the dialog boxes:

"Failed to Execute URL", what a great descriptive error. Fortunately you won't have to spend hours ripping out hair... As I have already done that - at least I'll save a trip or two to the barber.

The problem is that the static files are being processed by the aspnet_isapi.dll file instead of simply sending the request along to the StaticFile handler. If you click the "View Ordered List..." link in the IIS Manager from the Handler Mappings view, you'll see the order in which the handlers are being executed for each request:

When you add a new Script Map it'll automatically get placed at the very top of the line taking precedence over any other handlers, including the StaticFile one.

What we have to do is to move our Wildcard handler to the very bottom, below the StaticFile handler. By letting the StaticFile handler have precedence over our Wildcard handler we ensure that any static files (matching *.*) gets processed correctly while any other URL's gets passed along to our own Wildcard handler that'll do the URL rewriting and make business work as usual:

SharePoint as a Document Management System

What is SharePoint?

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is an integrated suite of server capabilities that can help improve organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared business processes, and facilitating information-sharing across boundaries for better business insight. Additionally, this collaboration and content management server provides IT professionals and developers with the platform and tools they need for server administration, application extensibility, and interoperability.

Give your business a highly secure, central location where employees can efficiently collaborate with team members, find organizational resources, manage content and workflow, and gain the business insight to make better-informed decisions. Employees can create and manage custom team- and project-focused intranet sites for collaboration and document sharing.

SharePoint as a Document Management System

Document Management Basics

Before diving into the scenarios, it's important to understand the major components of any document management system and how SharePoint provides these. They include providing storage for the documents, versioning, metadata, security, indexing, workflow, and retrieval.

Storage

SharePoint leverages a concept called a document library to store documents. Document libraries let you define containers for keeping documents together, such as documents for a specific project, department, or any other logical grouping. Document libraries are not limited to Microsoft Office files—they can hold any document format, including PDFs, images, videos, and text files. However, SharePoint provides additional functionality for Microsoft Office 2007 documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.).

In terms of the underlying technology, SharePoint uses a different approach for physically storing the documents than most document management products. While most vendors choose to store the documents on the file system and store the metadata in a database, SharePoint 2007 stores both documents and metadata in the database.

Versioning

Versioning saves copies of a document, letting users and administrators see and track changes to a document over time. When a user saves a new version of a document to a document library, the older versions remain available as well. This is an important feature in a collaborative environment where many people may be making changes to the same document.

Metadata

In a document management system, metadata is the information that describes the document. It comes in two flavors: automatic and user-defined.

• Automatic metadata is traditional descriptive information, such as title, author, created date, file size, etc. This metadata is automatically added to the system when a user adds a document to SharePoint,


• User-defined metadata requires an administrator or developer to add extra "columns" to SharePoint document libraries. These columns hold additional information about the document. For example, when creating a document library to house sales presentations, you might add columns for the presentation location, the presenter, and the presentation date. SharePoint supports individual data types for each column, so the presentation location column could be a dropdown of all major cities where presentations are held, the presenter column could be validated against all Active Directory users, and the presentation date could be defined as a date.

Security

Whenever documents are stored in a central repository, it's important to consider who will be able to access them. SharePoint allows administrators to define security rights to SharePoint sites, libraries within those sites, and documents within those libraries. These rights consist of permissions assigned to individual users or groups of users. Permissions levels range from read-only to full control.

Indexing

Indexing of documents is important when you're trying to find the right document quickly. SharePoint not only indexes the metadata for the documents it stores, it also creates a full-text index of any Microsoft Office documents. The full-text index lets users search for documents even when the target search terms appear somewhere deep within a document.

SharePoint 2007 enhances the search functionality significantly over previous versions. It has better relevancy algorithms, better security trimming (prevents users from seeing search results for which they should not have access), and better search management and reporting tools.

Workflow

A document workflow is a prescribed set of steps the document may go through during its development and lifetime. You can think of a workflow as an assembly line for your documents. Some documents may be subjected to more workflow than others. For example, a loan application may go through a rigorous process, passing from one person to another and according to a set of complex rules. At a simpler level, you may just want to ensure that someone provides feedback for meeting notes before you publish them to a team. Either way, SharePoint workflows can help.

SharePoint 2007 ships with several basic workflows that allow you to quickly request feedback on a document or get approval. To define more complex workflows, users can leverage SharePoint Designer or write custom code.

Automatic SQL Server Backup

Automatic SQL Server Backup

I am running Windows Server 2008 with MS SQL Server and put togther this HOW-TO about how to backup a database automatically. I figured I would share it with you:

I am using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express but you should be able to use these instructions for all versions of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

CREATE A SQL FILE and save it as "backup.sql"

declare @filepath varchar(255)
declare @filename varchar(255)
declare @file varchar(510)

set @filepath='D:\Praticle Test\'
declare @date varchar(8)
set @date=CONVERT(varchar(8), GETDATE(), 112)
set @filename= '-Backup.bak'
set @file=@filepath+ @date + @filename

Backup Database EHSolution To Disk = @file

CREATE A BATCH FILE With following content


sqlcmd -E -S pserver -i D:\backup.sql

SET BATCH FILE TO RUN IN WINDOWS TASK SCHEDULER

Start -> Run.

CODE

schtasks /create /sc Daily /st 03:30:00 /tn "MyTask" /tr "cmd /c D:\Backup.bat"

Sending HTML Mail

MailMessage mail = new MailMessage(FromEmail, Toemail);
mail.Bcc.Add(AdminEmail);

mail.Subject = "Subject goes here";

string strBody = "";
strBody = "Message Body";

mail.IsBodyHtml = true;
mail.Body = strBody;

SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient();
client.Host = SMTPServer;
client.Port =SMTPPort;

System.Net.NetworkCredential basicAuthenticationInfo = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(SMTPUser, SMTPPassword);
client.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
client.Credentials = basicAuthenticationInfo;

try
{
client.Send(mail);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{

}

How to Configure Source Control for Visual Studio 2008

When you have first installed Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Micrsoft Visual SourceSafe 2005, there is not initially a configured relationship between the two applications.
Source Control is not a menu item at this state until you configure the Source Control plug-in by using the Options dialog screen.

You can open the Options dialog screen by selecting Tools in the main menu then selecting Options submenu item. Drill down to the Source Control and Plug-in Selection in the options treeview.
There is a drop down list which lists available Source Control options and applications and an option for indicating not to use any of the source control software. In order to use Microsoft Visual SourceSafe 2005, you can select "Microsoft Visual SourceSafe" in the available source control plug-in combobox.

[caption id="attachment_53" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="plug-in-selection for Visual studio 2008"][/caption]

If you select Visual SourceSafe plug-in two more branches will appear in the options treeview below the Source Control, "Environment" and "Plug-in Settings".