Categories
Nerding

Learning before the Web camp

 

(read about my ms web camp proposal)

just for fun read along as I journal blog my way through implementing

NerdDinner FlashMash = new NerdDinner(); // ;-)

I’ve written it reverse chronological with the most recent post first. (like anyone is reading this)

(I want to check these out next soon:)

http://www.mvcstarterkits.net/post/New-Northwind-Linq-Project-built-using-ASPNET-MVC-10.aspx

http://www.mvcstarterkits.net/post/Web-site-Installer-kit.aspx

June 15, 2010 0730

Complete! Despite a lot of bitching and moaning below I’ve learned quite a bit implementing NerdDinner as FlashMash. I have not done the unit testing in the tutorial. I have done unit testing in other tutorials. As I want to maximize my exposure to other technologies that will be discussed / used in the web camp I am going to skip the unit test for now and move on to the http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2010/05/12/introducing-the-mvc-music-store-mvc-2-sample-application-and-tutorial.aspx

June 14, 2010 0834

Hey! I’ve got the map working now too. Strange I thought I had a css problem. I’m checking my tags and rerunning it and the map wasn’t displaying in the div. I took my development notebook to the office this monrning and there ya go! It’s running correctly. I don’t think I ever flushed the cache, can’t think of what else it might be.

June 13, 2010 1640

Way Cool! Got it cleaned up so I can continue on with the tutorial. Now that I found the source to version 1.0 I was able to do a bunch of house keeping. I believe I have the conversion running and I’m on page 143. I got the login working too. I had some trouble with the RSVP insert. I had created the .dbml when the RSVP table did not have an identity. I ended up deleting the .dbml and recreating then futzin’ for awhile but it works now.

June 13, 2010 1504

I may have to retract some of my frustrations as I found the source code for the version 1.0 of NerdDinner. I did some house keeping based on comparison of my FlashMash implementation of NerdDinner v1.0. Then thought to build and run the v1 NerdDinner. There seems to be a problem with the save function of a new create NerdDinner just like the one I have in my FlashMash that has been driving me crazy for endless hours. I went hunting for the error a bit and came up with this errata for the book chapter 1 but not the free preview. Does that mean that there is no errata for the .pdf? If so I shake my head in wonder about the publishers and how many people new to MVC have had unnecessary trouble completing the tutorial? Once again for clarity; I downloaded the NerdDinner v1.0 source from Codeplex, built and ran it. It apparently has a problem with the phone validation right out of the box. I could not save a dinner with 5551234, 555-1234 or (509) 555-1234

http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/Professional-ASP-NET-MVC-1-0.productCd-0470384611,descCd-ERRATA.html

All the above aside what I’m really having trouble with now is apparently the AccountController.cs. Apparently it ?changes? when you change the web.config to support the login and application data to come from a sql db rather than the .mdf. All my mashes (dinners) are stored in the sql db viewed with server manager.

I duno. Perhaps I’ll comment out the authentication for now so I can continue on with the tutorial. I have run several MVC tutorials from the VS 2010 training kit and others…

June 12, 2010 0308

OK, now that’s the ticket. This training kit Rocks! It’s groovy. It’s cool. It’s the cat’s meow (that’s really reaching). Organized and all that, teaching ya what you need to know. Like taking a class. Like the map needed to get somewhere.  ok obviously I’m getting a bit ‘rummie let’s see if I can sleep now. Didn’t want to end this blog for the night/morning with all that ranting and raving….

June 12, 2010 0226

(ya might not want to read the next two entries – a lot of wailing, bitching and complaining)

I’m not giving up on the NerdDinner –> FlashMash learning and more interestingly conversion. But I am gona take a break and work with the Visual Studio 2010 Training kit that yet another Web Camp Attendance Reminder made mention of. I think I’m approaching like over five reminders for this now. Well what do you know, I can still find bugs or my own stupidity (NOT!) at least confusion. I’ve never done a training kit but it looks incredibly jam packed full of organized learning! I like. So here I am on my very first training kit, the very first example and wadayaknow? The distribution doesn’t follow the tutorial. Only a little thing so far like the ‘Begin’ sub directory where I guess you build the application as you follow along resides. I check all the other sub dirs – they all have it. But not the VERY FIRST TRAINING KIT, NOT THE VERY FIRST TUTORIAL IN A TRAINING KIT. Ohh no we wouldn’t want to start out without a bit of wonder or confusion. (yes I rant the prereq and installs) So anyway it looks like these tutorials are gona touch on the same subjects that I had trouble with in NerdDinner because of the lack of full listings to review at each step. (The .pdf) blah blah blah ehh? ;-)

Sheeze!

Like earlier this afternoon I help my content hosting provider discover some weird bug because I’m using a host name over 22 characters long and iis or dotnetpanel doesn’t like it in their specific setup as they deploy Framework 4. I’m trying to deploy my flashmobmashup.org. Too funny. If there is a bug that 3million other people don’t hit in the normal execution of their life – well leave it to me! I did publish a MVC2 fw 4.0 Hello World with a shorter name…

June 11 2010 2104

I’m on page 142

<complain>

ya know a tutorial assumes you’re starting at the beginning right? This one is making a lot of assumptions. It would be a lot easier if it had been a little bit more verbose in some sections. Like having the source code available to look at along each step. Not just the completed project. I haven’t  been programming asp.net for all that long so some of this is a little new. And there are typos that I see have been reported by the net like at Wrox. Well why not incorporate these errata fixes into a new document! #$%^&*() I’d be done and on to the next starter project reinforcing what I have learned instead of being a bit irritable, pissed and cranky.

I’m high on MVC but I’m thinking why would I want to buy this book? Actually some of what I have learned is cool and understandable but it’s a struggle with the syntax particularly the first time you implement a new concept. It’s just nice to see it right once and it’s so much easier to understand once you’ve seen it work. And this constant struggle to get past errata, ommissions etc is FRUSTRATING Like a missing comma on page 141 in the ajax action link and the

<a href="/Account/Logon">Logon</a> to RSVP for this event. doesn’t work in this and other sections.

wow that’s a lot of complaining. OK. I feel better now (slightly)…

</complain>

 

June 10, 2010 0815

Cool. I got some sleep. I’m thinking clearer and I’m more than 1/2 way through at page 101 heading into ViewData and ViewModel

errata (or did I do that in my sleep?) views/mashes/delete.aspx

<asp:Content ID="Title" ContentPlaceHolderID="head" runat="server">

should be <asp:Content ID="Title" ContentPlaceHolderID="TitleContent" runat="server">

personally I would prefer to use head but I’d have to change a lot of pages.

June 9 2010

Freakin’ blue screen! unreal. Anyway…. :)

some questions at web camp when I have access to the experts

  • is there a way to deploy a connection string based on whether you’re running from the development environment or deployed after a publish?
  • Say I have an existing 2008 web project. I want to add blogengine to it. Do I have to publish the site and the blog every time I publish the site. What about small changes, that’s a lot of file moving if you publish again. At least when I’m using FTP. This question pertains to other apps too. Like if screwturn wiki was deployed by web installer.

 

Does the nerdDinner .pdf match the video? It seemed that in the video there was some tweaking of the .dbml properties that I didn’t see in the .pdf.

 

June 8, 2010 1759

This will be confusing. I’m gona start entering from the top of the blog. Date reversed so to speak. Like a news section…..

Got the authentication and content data bases moved from the .mdf to my mssql 2008 on a vm server 2008r2 on my intranet at home. Even figured out how to move tables and data from the .mdf to a db in the server. Cool. All that and I’m on page 62. Gota head out to my ceramics class right now. c ya..

June 7, 2010 19:35 (sequential from here)

I left a comment in this thread announcing a .pdf chapter of a MVC 1.0 book http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/05/15/worldwide-web-camps.aspx#7520758 (look to the end) inquiring about some simpler tutorials. Not hearing back within fifteen minutes (this is the internet!) I decided to watch the eighty minute video on creating nerddinner and do the nerddinner project from the pdf. Got to about page 32 when I had a problem with

partial void OnValidate(ChangeAction action) Solved it by adding a using System.Data.Linq; to the Dinner.cs in \Models. …after a quick google Bing search.

Actually I’m calling the project FlashMash rather than NerdDinner, but leaving everything the same in so far as the tutorial goes. I first called it jLinqSql but soon got to renaming and refactoring! :-)

OK, I’m gona get back to it. Linq is cool. I had just finished writing a custom class for an sql db that I used in a asp.net final project at Spokane Community College a few days ago. Took some time and lines of code. Linq just makes it for you with a drag and drop. Now how cool is that? Groovy! ;-)

I would love to find a FAQ / Blog / Article / Forum or clay tablet with some notes on publishing the application in ‘challenged’ hosting environments. For now I’ll stick to the tutorial.

2127

Way cool! I’m on page 45 and jus ran the application for the first time. It’s starting to work! Here is the output from my controllers class.

Coming Soon: FlashMashs <—output from FlashMash

June 8, 2010 0921

page 55. Got some scaffold detail view running! :-) I think I’m about caught up in the .pdf where I paused in the video. I’ll go check it out. Stay tuned for more episodes of: “As the Flash Mashes”

June 8 1647

Deployed the FlashMash to my local (notebook) iis server. Also configure it to use an aspnetdb on a mssql 2008 server on my intranet. The following error occured because I haven’t created the FlashMash and RSVP tables on that server. I want to keep this error so I can ask about Linq and how it pluralizes dbs. Note the mashes and mashs. who is doing this naming? linq2sql seemed to pluralize Mash to Mashes. I even deleted the entire project and started again not quite believing my eyes. I had been attempting to spell it Mashs but the linq2sql appears to name it Mashes. Then I see this object name in the stack trace and … well confusion abounds….

Line 15:         public ActionResult Index()
Line 16:         {
Line 17:             var mashes = mashRepository.FindUpcomingMashes().ToList();
Line 18:             return View("Index", mashes);
Line 19:         }

Source File: C:\Users\jeffa\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\FlashMash\FlashMash\Controllers\MashesController.cs    Line: 17

[SqlException (0x80131904): Invalid object name ‘dbo.Mashs’.]

line 17) var mashes = mashRepository.FindUpcomingMashes().ToList();

Categories
Nerding

Web camp project proposal – flash mob mash up

 

Introduction

I’ll be attending Microsoft web camp in Redmond at the end of June. The following are some notes on what I will propose for a project.

I am Jeff Albrecht, you can call me jeffa, president of www.iea-software.com. We are in our 5th generation of authentication and billing solution know as Emerald for various service providers. We also have a WiFiHotSpot built on linux and a IM system. I am expanding and diversifying our products. Currently implementing an internship program with Spokane Community College. To compliment my current unparalleled team of programmers I am assembling a group of truly talented individuals who have had interesting careers and experience that will benefit this new endeavor.

Idea

(While at the webcamp I’m working on this and articulated a few of the things I’d like to add, I listed them below. Then I went to the codeplex site and read about plans for v2.0 of NerdDinner. The list is about a direct match. Looks like I could contribute with my blog per mash idea. Other than that I need to explore the ‘morality’ of attempting to bring a service online that appears so similar to this project. Hmmm…. ???? Just spoke to ScottGu he said: “Go for it!” I’ll sleep better now!

flashmobmashup.org – I also have the .com .mobi….

flash mob just tweetin’ and textin’ and bloging and bookin’ and after this you will be silicon… (sung to just Wishin’ and Hopeing…)

mash up I watch Glee regularly. I believe that mash up is becoming much more universal in our vocabulary not just specifically to music.

So my thought is that a flash mob mash up might bring people of dissimilar interests together to exchange ideas. Say for instance at graduation my CIS class mates and my Art (I’m into ceramics) class mates could get together for a dinner and exchange of ideas. Think of it the left brain and the right brain need each other. A web development team comprises programmers and artists to bring to the public a project that engages usefully.

Sounds like event management.

Pitch

A site that incorporates some of the ideas of the Codeplex nerddinner see ScottGu’s blog on nerdinner (note I’ve had the flashmobmashup domain previous to my interest in MVC and hence the NerdDinner :-) ) with a blog for announcements and discussion, wiki for historical archives, email list manager and social connection tools to interact with other social media organizations such as Facebook, Twitter, google and Microsoft etc… I would want to support  MS live id, open id and any others from social media organizations logins (do api’s exist?).

How about a table that maintains a url to a blog describing each mash. The social tools for notification such as Twitter might be better placed in the blog. Or if no blog exists on mash page.

Team

  • Social networking tools guru nija kinda person user and/or implementer
  • CSS / artist – look and feel make or find a new button set etc….
  • DBA Data base architect/designer. Entity development experience
  • Site Administrator – experience with deployment
  • VS Developer – How to add multiple projects into a deployable and maintainable site.

 

 

Think Tank

It would be great to get together ?Friday evening? to discuss intent, philosophy, capabilities and methodology. Discuss what would be cool, then determine what would be useful from the ‘cool’ list.

Stuff

When the concept takes off the .org site could be supported by the .com. A store front in the .org could accept donations (ala PBS pledge drives) and reward with gear while the .com can just sell gear and adds product placements etc…

possible projects to include  in mash up

Should the entire project be built on top of a CMS?

CMS atomsite built on MVC

Blogengine.net is there a MVC alternative?

wiki screwturn

? list manager ? smcm (Social Media Content method|mechanism|management ?my term?)

Thoughts (before they flee)

in the .mobi a filter to twitter to show just tweets regarding subscribed Mashes?

 

 

Read my experiences learning by doing the NerdDinner as FlashMash