A Blog About Random Computer Subjects
Frank DeCaire Summary In this blog post I’m going to explain the basics of Entity Framework code-first. I’ll show how to setup your context so that a database is not generated. Code-First / Code-Only If your database is already in place, then the most obvious method of using EF is to use Database First. This is where … Read moreEntity Framework Code-First and Code Only
Summary This is going to be a short post on how to query an MS SQL Server database and produce XML output. The Query There are two formats that you can use when you want to convert a query result into XML, Elements format and Properties Format. The following query will select from a table … Read moreExporting XML From MS SQL Server
Summary The title of this blog post is a bit of a mouth-full. I do a lot of xml serialization and de-serialization. It’s all part of the new paradigm of using APIs to communicate with other systems over the Internet. One of the annoying “features” of the xml serializer is that it doesn’t support nullable … Read moreXML Serializing Nullable Optional Attribute
Summary In this blog post I’m going to talk about the wrong and right way to layout your front side assets. By this, I mean the html, js, images and css files. Legacy Code In the “good ole’ days” of legacy code such as ASP, and .Net using front-side and code-behind, many programmers would mix … Read moreWebpage Source Code Layout
Summary One of the biggest problems I used to find in unit testing is that most of the products I work on contain mostly methods that access a database. I found that most objects and methods work with data and it’s very tedious to try and mock or fake the database component. If you’ve followed … Read moreUnit Testing Methods that Call Stored Procedures
Summary One of my areas of expertise is in mass data transfers using API’s, FTP, WebDAV or SOAP connections. In this post I’m going to talk about techniques that can be used to increase the throughput of accessing data from a Web API and putting it in a database. I’m also going to discuss issues … Read moreLoading Data From an API Quickly
Summary In this blog post I’m going to demonstrate how to do a bulk data insert using ADO. I’ll be adding code to my helper set of tools so that you can use the ADO database code at my GitHub account to write clean ADO database methods. Bulk Inserts The C# SqlClient library contains a … Read moreBulk Data Inserts
Summary The purpose of this blog post is to describe how legacy code gets perpetuated years beyond its useful life and how to put a stop to it. I will also make my case for why this process needs to be stopped. I will attempt to target this article to managers as well as the … Read moreLegacy Code Writers
Summary I’ve blogged about how to write a windows service before (click here). In my previous blog post I did not deep-dive into how to handle a cancel request issued by someone who is clicking on the stop button. In this article, I’m going to expand on the previous article and show how to setup … Read moreWriting a Windows Service with a Cancellation Feature
Summary In this post I’m going to demonstrate how to generate a safe token for a custom session module. The Session Token When a user logs into a website, there needs to be a way to keep track of who the person is after the authentication occurs. One method is to give the user a … Read moreGenerating a Custom Session Token