Well, I haven't written PHP since my web scripting class in college 5+ years ago, and now due to some client requirements I'm now building a PHP site.
Thankfully it is pretty much duplicating an existing site, adjusting some of the functionality and reskinning it. So it's not exactly rocket science, but using IIS7's PHP plugin and a local install of MySql I'm able to test and develop.
Now that I've gotten into it, I'm thinking to figure out if there's a way to mimic master pages...
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
ASP.Net Custom Controls
So back when I started teaching myself C# and .Net 1.0, I started learning about User Controls and how much cooler they are than include files in ASP Classic. I also had a desire to create a control that I could drop on the page, but would be like a vamped up text box. Then I started learning about Custom Controls.
So I wrote a .cs file that extended the TextBox control, added some functionality that tied into JavaScript and auto formatted text the user typed in based on a mask attribute added to the text box.
So <uc:mytextbox runat="server" id="txtPhone" mask="999-999-9999" /> would render as a standard <input /> box, but with some JavaScript it would only allow the user to type in numbers, and as they type, it would add the dashes and format the input to look like a phone number. Granted, it all relied on JavaScript on the browser, but it was pretty fun and a good learning experience.
Well, yesterday at work we had an Autonomy day. Basically a single day a quarter where we can work on or do anything we want. Either client related, or not, project related, or not. Since we have a common library what we use in all of our projects, and I like to use ASP Validator controls, I decided to create my own Custom Control which extended BaseValidator. I was able to use to validation that's already built into the common library for things like phone number, zip code and email validation through regular expressions. Having some extra time I figured out how to include some JavaScript for client side validation as well (also using the same regular expressions).
Having no idea what I was doing, and using a little bit of Google for reference, I manage to get it figured out. It was a cool exercise, I feel like I learned something, I created something that can be used by the company going forward, and also provided a platform that we can expand on the validation, as well as open the door for the other developers to see and grow their own controls as well.
All in all, I think it was a good day.
So I wrote a .cs file that extended the TextBox control, added some functionality that tied into JavaScript and auto formatted text the user typed in based on a mask attribute added to the text box.
So <uc:mytextbox runat="server" id="txtPhone" mask="999-999-9999" /> would render as a standard <input /> box, but with some JavaScript it would only allow the user to type in numbers, and as they type, it would add the dashes and format the input to look like a phone number. Granted, it all relied on JavaScript on the browser, but it was pretty fun and a good learning experience.
Well, yesterday at work we had an Autonomy day. Basically a single day a quarter where we can work on or do anything we want. Either client related, or not, project related, or not. Since we have a common library what we use in all of our projects, and I like to use ASP Validator controls, I decided to create my own Custom Control which extended BaseValidator. I was able to use to validation that's already built into the common library for things like phone number, zip code and email validation through regular expressions. Having some extra time I figured out how to include some JavaScript for client side validation as well (also using the same regular expressions).
Having no idea what I was doing, and using a little bit of Google for reference, I manage to get it figured out. It was a cool exercise, I feel like I learned something, I created something that can be used by the company going forward, and also provided a platform that we can expand on the validation, as well as open the door for the other developers to see and grow their own controls as well.
All in all, I think it was a good day.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
F# Firsts...
Well, I followed http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chrsmith/archive/2008/05/02/f-in-20-minutes-part-i.aspx and duplicated it to write my first F# program.
With Java, C# and a touch of VB.Net in my background this may take a pretty significant thought shift.
With Java, C# and a touch of VB.Net in my background this may take a pretty significant thought shift.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Introductions
Hello world. My name is David and I am 30, live in Southwest Iowa and am an Application Developer (that's what it says on my business card!). Junior year of High School a friend convinced me to take a computer programming class senior year. We were the last class taught in Pascal, they moved on to C++ after I graduated. I took a semester of C first year of college, took a few years off and then took two semesters of C++ and four semesters of Java. Had two classes in SQL Server and one in Oracle. I've wanted to be a computer programmer since High School, and now I am.
I got my first job supporting a VB 6 application and ASP Classic + ColdFusion website and taught myself .Net along the way. I am now a C# developer writing custom applications for a small company in Nebraska.
That brings me to this world. I listen to the .Net Rocks podcast as well as Hanselminutes. Scott Hanselman made a comment when talking to a designer that everyone should have a blog. I write server oriented code, so it's not possible to show people what I do, but I can talk about my experiences and such here.
On .Net Rocks the hosts brought up a comment about how writing and developing in a single language will cause a person to think and try to solve problems in that language. They mentioned the concept of learning a new programming language a year. I did some Googling and found that this is a concept brought up in the book The Pragmatic Programmer. I think I'm going to try to do this, and hopefully use this blog to document the process along the way.
From what little I've read so far, the intent is not to learn a language to put on one's resume, or even start using it on a day to day basis, but to get a different feel for things, and start thinking about problem solving differently. So I'm not sure where I'll start first, but I'm thinking about F#.
Thanks for listening!
I got my first job supporting a VB 6 application and ASP Classic + ColdFusion website and taught myself .Net along the way. I am now a C# developer writing custom applications for a small company in Nebraska.
That brings me to this world. I listen to the .Net Rocks podcast as well as Hanselminutes. Scott Hanselman made a comment when talking to a designer that everyone should have a blog. I write server oriented code, so it's not possible to show people what I do, but I can talk about my experiences and such here.
On .Net Rocks the hosts brought up a comment about how writing and developing in a single language will cause a person to think and try to solve problems in that language. They mentioned the concept of learning a new programming language a year. I did some Googling and found that this is a concept brought up in the book The Pragmatic Programmer. I think I'm going to try to do this, and hopefully use this blog to document the process along the way.
From what little I've read so far, the intent is not to learn a language to put on one's resume, or even start using it on a day to day basis, but to get a different feel for things, and start thinking about problem solving differently. So I'm not sure where I'll start first, but I'm thinking about F#.
Thanks for listening!
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