Web user controls are easy to make, but they can be less convenient to use in advanced scenarios. You develop Web user controls almost exactly the same way that you develop Web Forms pages. Like Web Forms, user controls can be created in the visual designer, they can be written with code separated from the HTML, and they can handle execution events. However, because Web user controls are compiled dynamically at run time they cannot be added to the Toolbox, and they are represented by a simple placeholder glyph when added to a page. This makes Web user controls harder to use if you are accustomed to full Visual Studio .NET design-time support, including the Properties window and Design view previews. Also, the only way to share the user control between applications is to put a separate copy in each application, which takes more maintenance if you make changes to the control.

Web custom controls are compiled code, which makes them easier to use but more difficult to create; Web custom controls must be authored in code. Once you have created the control, however, you can add it to the Toolbox and display it in a visual designer with full Properties window support and all the other design-time features of ASP.NET server controls. In addition, you can install a single copy of the Web custom control in the global assembly cache and share it between applications, which makes maintenance easier.

considering the kind of flexibility we get from web custom controls, i believe most of the times it would be much better to use custom controls.

 Check out the following article about Integrating PayPal Payments into ASP.NET E-Commerce Applications. this a very descriptive, useful article.

http://www.west-wind.com/presentations/PayPalIntegration/PayPalIntegration.asp

The process of integrating a PayPal payment involves several pages and HTTP POST backs.

 need to know about new cool features in visual studio 2010? check this link which describes new features for entity framwork in vs 2010

http://blogs.msdn.com/efdesign/archive/2009/01/22/customizing-entity-classes-with-t4.aspx

browsing internet i found this document about ado.net entity framework which comes with microsoft .net framework 3.5 sp1.

check it out at:

 

 

(reference http://cid-245ed00edb4c374e.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/entity%20framework%20learning%20guide.pdf)

 

What is the Azure Services Platform?

he Azure™ Services Platform (Azure) is an internet-scale cloud services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers, which provides an operating system and a set of developer services that can be used individually or together. Azure’s flexible and interoperable platform can be used to build new applications to run from the cloud or enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities. Its open architecture gives developers the choice to build web applications, applications running on connected devices, PCs, servers, or hybrid solutions offering the best of online and on-premises.

 

Windows Azure

Windows® Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage internet or cloud applications. Windows Azure supports a consistent development experience through its integration with Visual Studio. In the early stages of CTP, .NET managed applications built using Visual Studio will be supported. Windows Azure is an open platform that will support both Microsoft and non-Microsoft languages and environments. Windows Azure welcomes third party tools and languages such as Eclipse, Ruby, PHP, and Python.

 

Hi,

if you have been working with Windows communication foundation and you still don’t know how to organize your layers in a very good way, you have to check this out. in this video of DNRTV Miguel Castro shows us how to get the best out of Windows Communication Foundation. Miguel extholls the virtues of doing WCF projects from scratch, and not using the Visual Studio templates.  you can get/watch the video from the following link

http://www.dnrtv.com/default.aspx?showNum=122

Want to learn LINQ? looking for a lightweigh and fast application to evaluate your linq expression? now check this out. i found a very good free application which lets you interactively query SQL databases in a modern query language: LINQ. LINQPad is also a great way to learn LINQ: it comes preloaded with 200 examples from the book, C# 3.0 in a Nutshell.  And finally LINQPad is more than just a LINQ tool: it's a code snippet IDE that instantly executes any C#/VB.net expression, statement block or program. Put an end to those hundreds of Visual Studio Console projects cluttering your source folder! you can get it from here.

if you want to develop and ECommerce application in .net, you should definitely check the post regarding a real eCommerce article. For sure it will help a lot.

 

here is a quick comparision between microsoft c# (.net) and java 

 

Concept	C#	Java	Notes
Virtual machine	CLR	JVM	CLR is not quite the same as JVM concept, but very similar.
Namespace	namespace/ using	package/ imports	C# allows multiple namespaces in a file, Java does not.
Attributes	[attribute]	@annotation	C# 1.0, Java 1.5
Base class	base	super
abstract objects	abstract class	abstract class
abstract methods	abstract	abstract
sealed objects	sealed	final	In both cases, sealing is discouraged.
sealed methods	sealed	final
replacement methods	new keyword	not supported	Effectively ignores the base method.
constants	const / readonly	final static
Enum's	enum keyword	enum keyword	C# 1.0, Java 1.5
virtual functions	explicit virtual	always virtual	This is one of the gotcha's when working between the two languages
override intention	override	@Override (though members override by default)	Causes compiler error if method is not actually overriding a base method.
Class/Type representation of simple types	Map 1:1 with the simple type keywords.	Behave different to simple type keywords.	C# seems more natural than Java in it's behavior
Getters/Setters	get/set keywords, behave like properties	Explicit get/set methods	Again, C# seems more natural with this.
Events	Typically via delegates	Typically via interfaces
Reference equivalence	Object. ReferenceEquals()	==	Another C# vs Java gotcha.
Value equivalence	== or Object.Equals()	object.equals(), == for value types	Java's choice of using == for reference equals adds to the need to distinguish between objects and value types.
Object introspection	Object.GetType()	object.class	Very similar
Exceptions thrown by method	implicit	throws keyword	Actually liking Java's philosophy here, albeit taking some getting used to.
Stack scoping	using keyword, or try/finally keywords	try/finally keywords	'using' keyword is syntax sugar that calls IDisposable.Dispose() method at end of block.
Simple synchronization	lock keyword	synchronized keyword	'synchronized' can also be used on a method.
Generics	class<type>	class<type>	C# 2.0. Java 1.5. C# has a cleaner implementation and discovery of generics in reflection. In Java, class and class<type> cannot co-exist. class becomes synonymous to class<object>.
Output parameters	out, ref	Not allowed	Not a huge loss in Java, there are simple workarounds.
Switch fall-through	Not allowed	Allowed
iteration	foreach(type x in y)	for (type x : y)	C# 1.0. Java 1.5.
Lambda/Closures	=>	(future)	C# 3.0. Java 1.7 (maybe)

 

in the last sub system which we were working on, there was requirement to export the result of a query which is from oracle database and is displayed in an asp.net data grid into excel file. but the component we are using for export to excel functionality gets the collection as input parameter and export the data to excel file and write the excel file into response object of the asp.net. this means once the functionality is invoked, a dialog box will be displayed asking Open the file, save the file of cancel the operation. no issue with save and cancel. but when they clicked on the open it opens the excel file in the same browser window where they were viewing the page and they close the window once they were through with viewing the excel file. this means they close the application.

now they needed the excel file be opened in a new window so that they will not loos their application states. what we did to do so is a little bit tricky. in the query page when user clicks on export to excel button we save the data to be exported in an asp.net session state and open a new browser on the user's machine using following code :

BaseList<QueryInvoiceResult> result = GetInvoices(p);

Session["exceldata"] = result;

Response.Write("<Script>window.open('ExcelExport.aspx')</Script>");

and we also moved the export to excel logic to the ExcelExport.aspx page

try

{

if (Session["exceldata"] != null)

{

BaseList<QueryInvoiceResult> result = (BaseList<QueryInvoiceResult>)Session["exceldata"];if (result.Count > 0)

{

ExportToExcel(ExportToExcelContent(result));

}

}

}

catch (Exception)

{

throw;

}

finally

{

Session["exceldata"] = null;

}