Take your ASP.Net 2.0 App Offline quickly!!!

I stumbled upon this little tidbit & decided it was reposting here. If you create a file in an ASP.Net 2.0 application named app_offline.htm it will bring down the appdomain & just return the contents of that HTML document!

Make sure your HTML page is at least 512bytes in size, or IE's "friendly errors" may eat it. :)

The MAJOR benefit I see here is that you can quickly rename a standby page to app_offline.htm, make a few changes (replace locked files, etc) & then rename it back to app_online.htm & you're back in business.

ASP Tags Not Recognized w/Nested Masterpages

Okay, I had an odd thing occur today while editing one of my projects. All of the tags had the red squiggly line under them, claiming:

“unrecognized tag prefix or device filter ‘asp’”

After a little searching I found a Google group post stating that:
”…building makes no difference. what does make a difference is leaving the nested master page file open in the IDE editor window…”

So, just keep your "nested" master page open & all will be well.

My new obsession? The Droid!

Okay, it's finally time for me to carry on about my newest obsession, the Google Android based group of phones scheduled to hit Verizon soon™. What was initially thought to be campaign aimed at the Motorola Droid (a.k.a. Tao/Sholes). However, it’s been recently discovered that it’s actually a full “marketing blitz” for a range of Android OS phones on “Big Red”.

Known so far:
Motorola Droid
HTC Droid Eris (re-brand of HTC Hero)

Rumored:
Motorola Calgary (Running Moto BLUR UI)
HTC Passion (Possibly the Dragon & running a Snapdragon 1GHz processor)

But that’s not of concern to me, I’ve got my eyes on the Moto Droid, it’s a wonderful bit of tech & may be enough to make me learn Java, just to be able to write apps for it!

It’s also supposed to come with this sexy dock, that turns it into an alarm clock! Woot!!!

The kicker for all of this is that it’s supposed to NOT be locked down by Verizon like all of their non-smartphone offerings.

So, needless to say, I’m really “geeking out” about this & can’t wait until tomorrow morning, when all will be revealed!

ASP.Net Custom Paging Control

I've been playing with GridViews for quite some time & have always wondered if there's a better way of displaying the pager at the bottom, instead of the "1 2 3 ..." that you get by default.

As it worked out, I had the reason today to look more into this for a customer request. I happened to find an article that gave code to do this. It was a decent starting point, but I didn’t like how the records displayed were numbered from 0-(count-1), but it got me going.

Here’s what two options I’m considering using:

This one uses media player type links (i.e. |< << >> >|)

<PagerTemplate>
<asp:LinkButton CommandName="Page" CommandArgument="First" ID="LinkButton1" runat="server" Style="color: white">|&lt;</asp:LinkButton>
<asp:LinkButton CommandName="Page" CommandArgument="Prev" ID="LinkButton2" runat="server" Style="color: white">&lt;&lt;</asp:LinkButton>
[Records <%= (Grid.PageIndex * Grid.PageSize)+1 %> - <%= Grid.PageIndex * Grid.PageSize + Grid.Rows.Count %> (<%= iTotalRecordCount %>)]
<asp:LinkButton CommandName="Page" CommandArgument="Next" ID="LinkButton3" runat="server" Style="color: white">&gt;&gt;</asp:LinkButton>
<asp:LinkButton CommandName="Page" CommandArgument="Last" ID="LinkButton4" runat="server" Style="color: white">&gt;|</asp:LinkButton>
</PagerTemplate>

And this one has words for First/Last as well:

<PagerTemplate>
<asp:LinkButton CommandName="Page" CommandArgument="First" ID="LinkButton1" runat="server" Style="color: white">&lt;&lt; First</asp:LinkButton>
<asp:LinkButton CommandName="Page" CommandArgument="Prev" ID="LinkButton2" runat="server" Style="color: white">&lt; Prev</asp:LinkButton>
[Records <%= (Grid.PageIndex * Grid.PageSize)+1 %> - <%= Grid.PageIndex * Grid.PageSize + Grid.Rows.Count %> (<%= iTotalRecordCount %>)]
<asp:LinkButton CommandName="Page" CommandArgument="Next" ID="LinkButton3" runat="server" Style="color: white">Next &gt;</asp:LinkButton>
<asp:LinkButton CommandName="Page" CommandArgument="Last" ID="LinkButton4" runat="server" Style="color: white">Last &gt;&gt;</asp:LinkButton>
</PagerTemplate>

One caveat, I use a variable iTotalRecordCount that is defined on the code behind:

public int iTotalRecordCount = 0;

And defined in a BindGrid() method I call on button click:

iTotalRecordCount = dataTable.Rows.Count;

Lastly, you need to implement the "OnPageIndexChanging" event:

    protected void Grid_PageIndexChanging( object sender, GridViewPageEventArgs e ) {
       Grid.PageIndex = e.NewPageIndex;
       BindGrid( );
   }

Anyway, I hope someone out there finds this useful. :)

BlizzCon & the state of Warcraft

Well another BlizzCon has come & gone, but alas, this time I was left watching the con from my living room. They sold 20,000 tickets in less than 1 minute...that's insane!

One real benefit of buying the Internet Stream (not DirecTV in my house) is that I was able to watch the opening ceremony live, and then got to watch the rest of the segments "On Demand" from the website. If I had been there, it would have been "What did he say? Did I hear that correctly?" and then wait until I get to the hotel to see what the blogs/fansites were saying!

That being said, I'm writing these thoughts since Silvermoon-US is currently down, along with a BUNCH of other servers as Blizzards Battle.Net authentication network has a massive stroke. :S

New Mechwarrior Game Announced!!!

Woohoo, I'm sooo excited! I just read the linked article and am ecstatic to learn there's a "reboot" to the Mechwarrior series! From watching the trailer it looks AWESOME & fairly far along! Woot!

Warrior Caps!

Okay, so I'm trying to make sure that I've got all of my bases covered & after scouring over a TON of different posts on several sites, I believe I've compiled a concise list of the "soft caps" for a warrior. I've posted them here, so I can quit emailing myself this info & possibly help someone else out. Please feel free to comment below if my numbers are completely out of whack.

Protection-Tank:
Hit Rating: 163
Expertise (Rating): 24 (189)
Defense: 540

DPS-Fury:
Hit Rating: 165 (w/Precision)
Expertise (Rating):
- 18 (149) with Weapon Mastery
- 26 (214) without Weapon Mastery

DPS-Arms:
Hit Rating: 263
Expertise (Rating):
- 18 (149) with Weapon Mastery
- 26 (214) without Weapon Mastery