.NET Enthusiast Daily Happenings

Another break through

2008-10-03T07:46:00.000-07:00

It is again a new start of life in Sydney. I have moved from London to Sydney last month with my family and getting settled in Western part of Sydney. I do enjoy the weather and life style in Sydney and plan to settle permanently here.

I am lucky to get a job in my first week and I am sure it will be too exciting as my first project will be in .NET 3.5 using TFS server for project management. It is a really a good chance for me to expose myself to new technologies. I am also exposed new domain of knowledge which I haven’t work before and I will be a part of a small smart team which will develop recruitment management system. I am already excited about the design of the product and it was superb and the product will be a small scale ERP system for the service industry.

Win 1000$ every week

2008-09-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

This is not a scam message and everyone has the chance to win 1000$ every week by helping others to solve questions and problems. You have better chance to win these days as the site was launched on last Monday only and having fewer members. Hurry up and visit to www.bornclever.com to get registered and for more details click on FAQ link.

Don’t think that bornclever.com people pay me for promoting their site and instead the whole site was designed, developed and implemented by me for my company. It is better to mention here that the site was designed according to the strict user requirement and you can’t blame me for any usability issues. But I will be responsible for any technical issues with the hosting provider here. I am happy to see one of my developed applications is going to be used by millions of people and hope best for the client to success in their business.

MCPD - Web Developer

2008-08-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

I have completed my MCPD Web development by passing the exam 70-551 UPGRADE: MCAD Skills to MCPD Web Developer by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework. I haven’t tried any Microsoft certifications after my MCAD which I achieved in January 2006. During the period 2006/2007 I was busy with my MBA and CIMA strategic level exams and I think it’s time to play around with technology again. I need to thank my previous office co-worker Nilmini for the support materials and the encouragement to do this exam and hope to continue the exam fever.

Web Server controls and the web project

2008-07-31T16:13:00.000-07:00

I came across some of the web control specific features in my last project and I thought of sharing with you all.

If you want to show some password in a password TextBox you can’t simply assign
txtPassword.Text = “*****”;

You need to do replace with txtPassword.Attributes.Add("value", “*****”);

My first issue was with the password textbox and the issue was that the created user’s password is empty when the user upload profile image. When I debugged the code, I noticed that when there is a page postback occurs, the password textbox is cleared due to security reason in ASP.NET 2.0. So in this case you need to think whether the postback is really needed or you can save the password in temporary storage.

The second experience was with Html server control HtmlInputImage. When I click on the htmlinputimage control then there was automatic postback to the server and this behaviour is not observed with HtmlInputButton control. This seems to be an expected behaviour and the workaround is to define onclick client event and return false as shown below.

Pass authentication details in System.Web.Mail

2008-07-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

I have assigned to fix the problem in sending email of asp.net 1.1 project. I haven’t involved in the development of the project but I setup the application in the live server. I developed and successfully deployed another asp.net 2.0 application with the same hosting provider. My project uses System.Net.Mail to send email works fine.

You can check ScottGu’s blog for more detail using System.Net.Mail here.

It was not easy for me to setup the email functionality in 1.1 asp.net app and I have searched a lot in the internet to pass the credential details. I ended up with a resourceful site to use System.Web.Mail which demonstrates sending username and password to the SMTP server to provide authentication.

MailMessage mail = new MailMessage();
mail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpauthenticate", "1"); //basic authentication
mail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusername", "my_username_here"); //set your username here
mail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendpassword", "super_secret"); //set your password here

Source: http://www.systemwebmail.com/faq/3.8.aspx

CIMA Strategic level Completed

2008-07-19T01:16:00.000-07:00

I have completed my CIM A strategic level and this is my second innings of CIMA. I studied the strategic level @ Virtual in Colombo and got through two subjects in Nov 2007 and completed the Financial Strategy paper this May 2008. The TOP CIMA is remaining and I plan to complete that in 2009.
I am also working towards getting my MCPD and hope I will be able to sit for the exam this month.

Expect the unexpected

2008-06-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

In my previous organisation we have a separate team called infrastructure team to build and deploy the products in Testing, Staging and Production environments. The development team duty is to check in the bits and releasing the product to infra team through a ticket with release notes. But in my current organisation the developer are sometimes involved in setting up the product for the client. These are mostly web applications and need to be hosted in third party environments. It means the product bits have to be moved to the server using ftp and not much access to the server environment for debugging and other information.

The latest web project had worked fine in my computer and in our testing server too but it gave some unexpected and never seen error messages when it was hosted in the real environment. The first error message was “Unable to serialize the session state. In 'StateServer' and 'SQLServer' mode, ASP.NET will serialize the session state objects, and as a result non-serializable objects or MarshalByRef objects are not permitted. The same restriction applies if similar serialization is done by the custom session state store in 'Custom' mode.” This was handled by adding the following element to web.config as there is no external session management.

After this error fixing this error I got the error message “Validation of viewstate MAC failed. If this application is hosted by a Web Farm or cluster, ensure that configuration specifies the same validationKey and validation algorithm. AutoGenerate cannot be used in a cluster.” After some time of googling, I found this page which closely matches with my scenario and the solution work for me perfectly. http://aspadvice.com/blogs/joteke/archive/2006/02/02/15011.aspx

It is better to note that the machine.config file of the server would be different than your one and also it is good practice to clean the web. config file before moving to production environment for the elements compilation, authentication, customErrors, tracing and debugging with security in mind.

Moratuwa General Convocation - 2008

2008-06-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

Today is the General Convocation of Moratuwa University. I missed the opportunity to get my MBA title after 2 years of hard work. My MBA batch (2005/07) mates will be receiving their certificates in the convocation ceremony and congrats to all of them.

I came to UK on December 2nd and MBA research viva’s for my batch started one week after that. I requested the department to arrange my VIVA earlier and at first department replied me positively that it will be scheduled earlier for me but didn’t give any dates. I had the hope to have by latest on December 1st as that was a Saturday but on December 1st noon time, I got the sad news that it was not possible to arrange the VIVA for me specially. I could not think about it that time as I was busy with my travel arrangements.

I need to go back to Sri Lanka to have my MBA VIVA and hope this will happen before end of this year. This will enable me to receive my MBA title in the next convocation ceremony and hope for the best.

Free AJAX E-Learning Clinic

2008-02-12T10:48:00.002-08:00

There is a free ASP.NET AJAX E-Learning Clinic from MS learning available for limited period and anyone interested can subscribe by visiting here.
https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/courseDetail.aspx?courseId=73568

I have started the clinic right away otherwise it will slip from my TODO list.

Next Monday will be fresher and newer than before

2008-01-18T07:02:00.000-08:00

It is nice to get to know other technologies while you master in one technology. Last 5 weeks I have got the chance to work in Oracle 8i database with TOAD for Oracle. I got to work with Oracle in 2002 for my final year under graduate project and after wards I didn’t get the chance to work with Oracle. Another new experience is to get work with only VB.NET for my report building engine. I develop the Excel report engine and VB.NET is better selection than C# for Microsoft Office Interop projects. I will be moving to a new company from next Monday and expecting to work with the new technologies.

Language Converters

2008-01-14T06:02:00.000-08:00

A quick VB.NET and C# language syntax reference can be found here http://www.harding.edu/fmccown/vbnet_csharp_comparison.html . This can be a good starting point for those who have to switch to the other language. I do normally write it in C# and then convert using language convert tools available online such as http://authors.aspalliance.com/aldotnet/examples/translate.aspx. This is suitable only if you have to work for short time period or it is part of a small project but if you need to switch over the language fully then it is better to get used to the syntax which will save your time.

I have used C# in my previous work place for more than five years but now I am developing in VB.NET. I am sure I can get work with C# very soon and looking forward that day because I love C# then VB.Net. Don’t ask why?

Parse large XML files

2008-01-07T07:59:00.000-08:00

Our batch is one of the luckiest batch @ Computer Science & Engineering Dept of University of Moratuwa to have Sanjiva Weerawarna as a lecturer to teach XML and Web Services. That time only he returned from US to Sri Lanka and had worked for IBM from Sri Lanka. We were the first batch of him @ Uni of Mora. He was instrumental in putting up the solid foundation of XML related technologies in students mind and I can still remember his lecture about DOM parser and SAX parser for XML parsing.

OK, now we will come to the story….

One of my friends had problem in loading big XML file and wanted a solution to parse and then insert the records to the database for one of his application. He tried with XMLDocument and got the “Memory out of Exception”. Here we need to use the SAX parser instead of DOM parser and.NET XmlTextReader class comes to solve the problem which provides a fast, non-cached, forward only read access to read XML data. Using the XmlTextReader we can load large files 4kB chunk by chunk into memory and process.

You can read about working with large xml files here.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa302289.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998559.aspx

ASP.NET MVC framework

2007-12-31T04:34:00.000-08:00

Today I find some time to watch the video of ScottHanselmanIntroToMVC and Hanselman once again did a good job by posting the video introducing ASP.NET MVC framework. He explains well the new and awaited feature Model-View- Controller framework and introducing to the user more than the framework there. Visit here to catch all the actions.
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ASPNET35ExtensionsPlusMVCHowToScreencast.aspx

First day at United Clearing

2007-12-19T05:54:00.000-08:00

This is my first post from London and today is my first day at United Clearing. I joined as a Microsoft .NET developer and will be the part of their web application development team.

First I worked in web application development projects then movcd to smart client application development projects and now again its web application development. I need to refresh my self to work with web apps and in London most .NET developer openings are for web apps only.

Hope to have a good time in the future.

Last Post from Sri Lanka

2007-11-28T13:29:00.000-08:00

This would be my last post from Sri Lanka and this week end I will fly to London and will continue my writing from next week. Due to my CIMA exams and MBA project work I didnt get the time to update my blog and in the future you can expect more coverage on Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5.

I want to try out these new technologies and going to start with Visual Studio 2008 Training Kit which includes 20 hands-on labs, 28 presentations, and 20 scripted demos. The technologies covered in the kit includes: LINQ, C# 3.0, VB 9, WCF, WF, WPF, Windows CardSpace, Silverlight, ASP.NET Ajax, .NET Compact Framework 3.5, VSTO 3.0, Visual Studio Team System, and Team Foundation Server.

Little Break through

2007-10-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

I got UK visa under the HSMP category yesterday and will be moving to UK end of November. These days’ lot of happenings are going simultaneously, preparing for my strategic level CIMA exams and MBA thesis are the heavy ones. I will be writing about my research thesis detail in a separate post.

I am looking forward fresh and new life in UK and will be moving to UK with lot of hopes. I am very lucky to get the visa on the last date of my HSMP offer expiry date.

Send email with attachments

2007-09-24T08:45:00.000-07:00

System.Net.Mail.MailMessage class is really rich and you have number of samples to send email using this. The attachments can be added with time stamp information for the file using ContentDisposition property of the Attachement object. Here is the little sample to add content disposition.

using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Net.Mime;

MailMessage message = new MailMessage();
Attachment data = new Attachment(attachmentFilePath, MediaTypeNames.Application.Octet);
// Add time stamp information for the file.
ContentDisposition disposition = data.ContentDisposition;
disposition.CreationDate = File.GetCreationTime(attachmentFilePath);
disposition.ModificationDate = File.GetLastWriteTime(attachmentFilePath);
disposition.ReadDate = File.GetLastAccessTime(attachmentFilePath);
// Add the file attachment to this e-mail message.
message.Attachments.Add(data);

Tip: The TO and CC MailAddress Collection Properties can be set with collection objects of email addresses or simply by passing a comma separated email addresses in a string.

University of Moratuwa is ranked 10th in Indian sub continent

2007-08-29T06:50:00.000-07:00

University of Moratuwa is ranked 10th place according to the webometrics ranking of world universities in the indian sub continent region and world rank is 3144. University of Peradeniya is ranked @ 15, University of Colombo @ 26 and University of Sri Jeyawardenapura @ 48. In the indian sub continent Indian Institute of Technology universities of India are ranked in top places.

Access the report here: http://www.webometrics.info/Webometrics library/Indian SC jan07.pdf

2007 IET Skills Survey(UK): Key Findings

2007-08-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the key findings of the IET skills survey(UK) and better read in conjunction with the Sri Lankan ICT work force survey report 2007 (Rising Demand).

Good engineers are increasingly hard to find.
Recruitment of women into the engineering and technology sector has remained static in the past year.
More than 70 percent of companies in the UK are struggling to recruit experienced or mid career level staff, which could threaten national growth and competitiveness.
Companies believe that leadership skills are most important among experienced or mid-career level staff. Around 90 percent said they have to provide additional training, in areas such as mentoring, coaching, communication and leadership.
Half of respondents saidd that they would not be recruiting school leavers.

Another new survery has shown how how email has changed our working patterns, and how increasingly complex it is becoming to manage.

75% of the respondents have a minimum of 3 email addresses, with 13.8 % using 10 or more addresses.
Thee survey also showed a creatain amount of blurring of email boundaries, with work email finding its way into personal accounts and vice versa.

The findings are more or less applicable in Sri Lankan context and I would highlight one fact that leadership skill/soft skill is highly demanded and those who want to move in the career ladder in management area better take steps to improve or enrol for courses like MBA.

MBA in IT research project Questionnaire

2007-07-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Last few weeks I am dead busy with my questionnaire preparation for my MBA research project and I manage to host the draft questionnaires to do the pilot study.

I will be happy if any one of you participate in the pilot study and give your comments/thoughts. The questionnaire is available in the following url http://www.globalsols.com/rajah/questionnaire.shtml.

It is better to note that I have not done any input validation in the current version of the form and be smart and assume the role of Manager - Software Engineering when you fill the form. Your earliest replies will be appreciated.

Sri Lankan Software Industry

2007-07-04T02:56:00.001-07:00

Do you know how many Sri Lankan software companies operate in the industry and the type of business they are in? There are two main software associations operate in the industry such as Software Exporters Association (SEA) and Sri Lanka Association for Software Industry (SLASI). The good news is that these two associations work closer after signing the MoU but the problem is that these two associations combined have only around 60 software companies in their member list.

It is expected that there are more than 200 software companies operate in Sri Lanka and for my MBA research project I managed to find around 175 companies with their web url. It is a serious issue for the researchers to select their samples in this industry since there is no up to date official list of software companies. I have plan to publish the list after I edit it and it will not be having other details about the company but you can get it by visiting the web site.

If you want to know about Sri Lankan ICT or software industry then you better get to know about the following organizations in addition to the above two that I mentioned.

Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA)
Sri Lanka Information and Communication Technology Association (SLICTA)
ITPro
The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka

Here are some of the interesting facts about Sri Lankan software companies published in the article by SEA in 2004 and I am not sure about the validity of the facts in current context but I am sure we will be having more success stories now.

Did you know that capital markets in Boston, Nairobi, Colombo, Mauritius, Ghana and Croatia, use an advanced Automated Trading/Depository Software for Stock Exchanges, designed and developed in Sri Lanka?
Did you know a US Fortune 500 company in mobile technology solutions has one of its R&D centres in Sri Lanka?
Did you know that the World’s largest mobile phone manufacturer uses Repair and Return software developed by a Sri Lankan company?
Did you know that a Sri Lankan software company developed a web based software solution for the predominant ferry operator in the Baltic Sea that transports nearly 6 million passengers and
more than 130.000 cargo units annually?
Did you know that a global ERP provider has a research and development facility in Sri Lanka?
Did you know that the billing and customer care software for several telecom operators in the Developing World was
developed by a Sri Lankan company?
Did you know that award winning Airlines from the Emirates and Scandinavia use mission critical software developed by a Sri Lankan company?
Did you know that a Sri Lankan software company has over 1000 developers working at offices and development centres in USA, India and Sri Lanka?

Free e Learning Clinics at Microsoft Learning

2007-06-29T02:19:00.001-07:00

Today I manage to finish the free e Learning clinic 5135: Introduction to Developing with Windows® Presentation Foundation and Visual Studio® 2005 after some time. I have forgotten the subscription of the clinic then I got the reminder from Microsoft eLearning saying that my subscription is about to expire. I get some free time today and finish the clinic.

I prefer microsoft e Learning clinics than reading books because it is very much interactive with videos, lab sessions and Self Test. It gives you the basic idea and if you need the in depth knowledge then you need to refer books.

Still you have following free clinics with other clinics offer from Microsoft eLearning and grab the offer before ends. Check here for full developer catalog.

Collection 5134: Developing Rich Experiences with Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio® 2005
Clinic 5135 : Introduction to Developing with Windows® Presentation Foundation and Visual Studio® 2005
Clinic 5136 : Introduction to Developing with Windows® Workflow Foundation and Visual Studio® 2005
Clinic 5137: Introduction to Developing with Windows® Communication Foundation and Visual Studio® 2005
Clinic 2806: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training for Developers
Clinic 2807: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training for Developers II

Microsoft Exams Offer at IDM

2007-06-20T23:22:00.000-07:00

You have a price offer from IDM exam centre in Sri Lanka for any Microsoft exams given that you select Pearson VUE as your exam provider. This offer is valid only up to September 2007 and applicable to those who pay cash. The offer price is now Rs. 4100 and normal exam fee is Rs. 5600. If you want to get more details you can call Kanchana on 2597676 @ IDM but I had a bad experience in getting more details with her.

I am not sure whether this offer is available at any other exam centers in Sri Lanka but this is a good time to clear your Microsoft exams and get your MCTS or MCPD or any other titles.

Research Project Proposal Approved

2007-06-15T01:29:00.001-07:00

Last saturday we had our proposal presentations and I got the approval to do the research project "Empirical study of identifying value drivers of Human Capital in Sri Lankan Software Development Companies" under the supervision of Dr. Kennedy Gunawardena from University of Sri Jeyawardenapura. I am really delighted to do the research project on the area of my interest and the industry that I work. Here is the abstract of my research project and you can get some idea about my research project.

Abstract

It is projected that software exports will reach the 1 billion $ mark in 2012 and more than 4000 IT professionals are required in IT sector for year 2007. The significance of software industry in Sri Lankan economy is increasing every year and creates new jobs to the labour market.

Intellectual Capital can be classified into 3 such as human capital, structural capital and relational capital. Among the three human capital is more important and it is used as a tool to exploit the structural capital and relationship capital. The role of Intellectual Capital in the new economy is enormous and measurement of Intellectual Capital would help to manage it very well and to reveal the true value of the company.

The human capital which is the main component of Intellectual Capital plays major role in software industry due to the nature of software development and demand of team working, design and architecture skill with art of writing code. The first step in measuring human capital is to identify the value drivers. The identification of value drivers will be great beneficial to the industry as a whole from the internal and external perspective.

This paper analyses the driving factors of human capital in Sri Lankan software industry and try to model casual map of human capital formation area. A suitable structural modelling technique will be used to form the structural model with testing the hypothesis defined to test the firm based characteristics. A historical review of the human capital drivers will be looked with new set of drivers and the suitability to software industry will be analysed.

It is better noted that measuring human capital is not directly available and difficult to measure. Human capital has two perspectives such as individual perspective and company perspective. Individual effort is also paramount in human capital management with the company action which addresses current business problems of employee attrition, motivation, unemployment, employees retire, resign.

Keywords: Intellectual Capital, Human Capital, Software Industry, Sri Lanka

Mathematics and my life

2007-06-07T04:00:00.001-07:00

I love Mathematics like "Alwa" and maths have been playing a critical role in my life from my child hood. Basically Maths is crucial for number of other streams of studies and a great instrument in my management, engineering and computer science studies. I did Maths in my A/L which was a big step in my life and open up the higher studies world to me. You don’t get self satisfaction in writing theory answers but by proving or calculating a given sum you get self satisfaction and greater motivation.

Even though I love Maths, I do poor in exams and still I don’t know the exact reason. I do silly mistakes in exams and not adding much to my average or GPA. Here is an email which talks about beauty of Maths from my Inbox.

Beauty of Maths!

      1 x 8 + 1 = 9
      12 x 8 + 2 = 98
      123 x 8 + 3 = 987
      1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
      12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
      123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
      1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
      12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
      123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

      1 x 9 + 2 = 11
      12 x 9 + 3 = 111
      123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
      1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
      12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
      123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
      1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
      12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
      123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

      9 x 9 + 7 = 88
      98 x 9 + 6 = 888
      987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
      9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
      98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
      987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
      9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
      98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

Brilliant, isn't it?

And finally, take a look at this symmetry:

      1 x 1 = 1
      11 x 11 = 121
      111 x 111 = 12321
      1111 x 1111 = 1234321
      11111 x 11111 = 123454321
      111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
      1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
      11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
      111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321