Keith Rull

I've been working on ASP.NET AJAX eversince it's beta days and the UpdateProgress and UpdatePanel has been my bestfriend since day one. I've learned a few tricks while using ASP.NET and today I'd like to share with you several ways to customize the look and feel of you UpdateProgress control with this sample solution. I have created a sample application that would demonstrate different ways to position your UpdateProgress control in the web browser. 

The samples included in the solution is as follows:

• Sample 1

  The usual ASP.NET AJAX UpdateProgress control usage. This demonstrates the typical use of the UpdateProgress control in an application

• Sample 2

  An ASP.NET AJAX UpdateProgress control positioned in the top right of the browser. (GMAIL like behavior)

• Sample 3

  An ASP.NET AJAX UpdateProgress control positioned in the top right of the browser with a transparent gray background. (GMAIL like behavior)

• Sample 4

  An ASP.NET AJAX UpdateProgress control positioned in the top right of the browser with a transparent gray background and the notification following the scrollbar position (fixed position).

• Sample 5

  An ASP.NET AJAX UpdateProgress control positioned in the middle of the browser with a transparent gray background.

• Sample 6

  An ASP.NET AJAX UpdateProgress control positioned in the middle of the browser with a transparent gray background and the notification following the scrollbar position (fixed position).

• Sample 7

  An ASP.NET AJAX UpdateProgress control that uses the AlwaysVisibleControlExtender trick to place the progress notification at the top right of the browser.

• Sample 8

  An ASP.NET AJAX UpdateProgress control that uses the AlwaysVisibleControlExtender trick to place the progress notification at the middle of the browser.

The project includes all aspx files, images and stylesheets that demonstrates effective UpdateProgress notifications. You can checkout the running sample of this ASP.NET AJAX project at the DevPinoy.org demo site. 

I hope what I shared with you can be useful in your daily life as a .NET developer. If you are interested you can download the source code for the whole project here: KeithRull.BuildingABetterAJAXLoadingNotification.zip (191.48 KB)

Never use your computer when you are sleepy. Period.

I woke up this morning and I immediately saw my pc with some Internet Explorer windows open so I immediately sat down and tried to delete the cookies and form data from machine but instead of deleting the cache I accidentally deleted the IE icon in my desktop. Imagine how absolutely annoyed I felt at myself that time, so early in the morning. I've got top of the line hardware and I have what could be the world's most seamless Internet speed in the form of O2 broadband, but somehow I got myself stuck in blackhole thanks to a minor mistake I made while half awake.

Anyway, I need to restore it and found this link that show you how you can do it.

Basically, all you need to do is run regedit.exe

Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ HideDesktopIcons \ NewStartPanel

and change the value of the key {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D} to 0

And that should do the trick ;)

Note to self: Never use the computer when you are sleepy.

I know. I know. I know. I wasn't able to post anything this past few weeks. It's been really busy and the amount of task that i would be dealing in the next few days is going to get crazier because of my current project. I'm currently working on a KPI project that involves building custom dashboards using Dundas Charts, Microsoft Reporting Services, ASP.NET and alot of SQL Server data. Much of the task has been data mining and making sure that data represented on the screen matches the actual amounts stored in the database.

All I can say is that it's a tedious and messy process.

Currently we are in the last leg of development and QA should be underway in the next few days. Hopefully by that time I would have some extra time to resume my blogging activites (hehe).

So, what should you expect in the next few days? Well, I have a few things listed in my notepad that I am planning to post once I get my much covetted free time. Here's some things that i have on my list: the ADO.NET walkthrough I promised Marl, a real-world example on Lambda Expressions (jakelite has my favorite explanation about Lamda), some more LINQ stuff and an ASP.NET AJAX sample application that I have been brewing in my head for more than a month.

Oh well, time to work again. I'll keep you guys updated! Later!

Hey you!

Yes you!

Yup you!

You who is reading this blog right now!

Are you one of the 75 people subscribed to my blog? Or are you just a passer by? I'm wondering if it would be ok if you could put a comment on this post and let me know why you subscribed to my blog, how you stumbled upon this space and what tech topics you'd like to see me writing.

Yup! I'd like to hear from you and this is your chance. So please leave me a note!

Post it!

Say it!

and be heard!

Hope to see those comments! Thanks!

Here's a small trick i use alot. Question: What's the easiest way to get the distict rows of data in a DataTable and DataView in .NET 2.0? Answer: The easiest way to get distinct DataRows in a DataTable or DataView is by using the DataView.ToTable() method. Here is a demonstration

It's funny, just after posting this post in response to an article that N@rds posted that I realized that I have been preaching about extension methods and his problem was a great example on when to make use of this excellent feature.

I was browsing at DevPinoy.org today when I saw this interesting post by n@rds about searching for files in a directory using multiple search patterns and it made me realize that there are alot of ways you can accomplish this task. Here are some examples on how you can search files in a directory using multiple search patterns

I wrote an article about this topic a few months ago but I wanted to explain it a little further in this article by showing real-world scenarios on when and how to use this feature. So what does Extension Method mean? According to MSDN: "Extension methods enable you to "add" methods to existing types without creating a new derived type, recompiling, or otherwise modifying the original type. Extension methods are a special kind of static method, but they are called as if they were instance methods on the extended type." Now that we have that settled lets look at a good scenario that depicts a great time when to use an Extension Method.

Woohoo! That was a great Code Camp. Thanks to Woody and the gang for making this event happen. It was a fun and knowledge-filled event. I even got swags (a few books, a shirt, a small bag and a gym cup from Avanade)...

Me and my wife will be at the Code Camp in Fullerton tommorow and we are excited. Code Camp is a great time to get together, learn new things about technology and network with people with the same mindset about technology and that is passion for learning and enriching knowledged. We are driving tonight to Fullerton so that we can be early tommorow.

There are already a few sessions that I am eyeing to go to. One of them is the session of John Bowen regarding WPF DataBinding and WPF controls. I met John Bowen 3 years ago in the .NET Rocks roadshow bus. I think this session is going to be awesome. I've been playing with alot of WPF lately and I'm interested in seeing and learning cool things about this technology.

Another session I'd love to see is the topic "Branching and Merging Guidance for VSTS 2008 and Team Foundation Server" presented by Mickey Williams. I haven't done anything with VSTS before but I know its going to be a great primer for me because merging and branching is one of the things that happens alot when you are in a team development environment.

Oh boy! This is going to be a great Code Camp. Time to go home and get ready for this event. See you there!