Moved July 26, 2006
Posted by Siva in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
I have moved to http://msmvps.com/blogs/siva
Please update your bookmark and/or the feed URL. Let me see how I can move the blog posts too to my new destination!
Per-request Code Execution in ASP.NET July 12, 2006
Posted by Siva in .NET, ASP.NET, Design.add a comment
I have seen some ASP.NET applications doing business logic checks in each and every page with repeated code; the code is literally copied and pasted in all the pages, aiming to do the work for every ‘request’. The code does various business rule checks based on the data stored in the session state. E.g.: give or deny access to a feature based on the current user’s role in the session state. I believe this pattern is largely inherited from the classic ASP world. To reduce the ‘perceived’ code repetition, some developers wrap the repeating code blocks inside a separate class and call methods on it from various pages. But, the net effect is the same: duplicate code. What if a dev forgets to include the repeating code in new pages included later?
For such scenarios, the best bet is using HTTP modules: wrap all per-request validation rules inside a HTTP module and hook it into the ASP.NET request pipeline via web.config. This way, your business rules are executed and appropriate action is taken even before the control comes to the page level. If you want to pass the result of the business rule execution down to page levels and use it further, you can use Session state as the communication channel.
This approach promotes a clean application design and improves the overall application performance.
What do you think?
Validating Strings for Empty or Null July 10, 2006
Posted by Siva in .NET.1 comment so far
Checking string variables for empty or null is always used to be via direct comparision. However with .NET 2, the shortcut is String.IsNullOrEmpty(). Pretty cool ugh…!
Outlook 2007 – Preview of Email Attachments July 6, 2006
Posted by Siva in Microsoft Office.add a comment
One of the cool features in Outlook 2007 is the ability to view (and only view) the email attachments (doc, xls, ppt, etc) within the message window itself; you don’t have to open the files explicitly. Outlook 2007 spawns the authoring application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc) inside the ‘preview window’ (for the lack of better name) and makes it to render the file. Since it is only a preview, you don’t get the standard context menus or menu command bars, but you do get options for common options such as slide navigation, Select All and Copy.
You can always tab between the message and attachment previews by clicking on the respective items.
Office 2007 continues to impress me!
Campus Rumpus July 6, 2006
Posted by Siva in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Alright, it has been quite sometime since my last post. I was busy visiting lot of engineering colleges and universities to recruit young bloods (a.k.a., campus recruitment) for my employer. I thought I will write on this topic today.
Campus recruitment is always a different experience – the kind of environment, the people (students) you meet, the hospitality you get and the whole recruitment process. My gray cells always take me back to my college days every time I step into a campus! The effect is amplified more because I am in a real college seeing everything you would expect inside a college! 
The most interesting part is the actual interview process (that’s what I do in the campus recruitment process) – you get to meet student folks from different disciplines, some of which you only heard of! More importantly, you ask questions only in his/her field of study as candidates are not expected to have software/computer exposure in their academics (except Computer Science students, of course) – you pose only chemistry related questions to a chemical engineering student, nothing more nothing less! And as a campus panelist I am expected to meet candidates from any discipline and I usually follow the rule. Don’t ask me how! Nevertheless, the main goal is to gauge the candidate’s aptitude and attitude (generally in 20-30 minutes) and judege his/her fitness to the organization.
Amidst the back-to-back interview sessions I am assigned to, I always take a few minutes of break after every three or four sessions and go out to get some fresh air. This energizes me for the next bunch of sessions. Whenever I break out of the panel room, I never fail to notice these typical scenes: candidates waiting impatiently for the final results, discussing how they performed in the interview with peers, few of those waiting to be grilled flipping through books. Their face will tell you the peak of anxiety they are in!
At the end of the show as the names of selects are read out, the situation changes up-side-down. Peers hugging selected ones, congratulatory hand-shakes from every corner, fixing a date and time for a big bash and the celebrations begin! Is it not great to be offered a job even before one gets out of the college?
Every time I step out of a campus, I always remember how much I was excited when I heard my name being read out by someone from the select list! Life goes on.
.NET 3.0 June 13, 2006
Posted by Siva in .NET, Windows.add a comment
Lots of news from TechEd 2006, Boston: WinFX is now .NET 3.0 and it has got is own site now: www.netfx3.com. And a new WiKi site for MSDN: msdnwiki.microsoft.com, but still in beta. Too good!
Automatic File Rename Detection in IE7 June 2, 2006
Posted by Siva in IE.add a comment
Few minutes back, I was trying out a small JavaScript/DHTML code and testing it with IE7 (beta 2). I made few changes in the HTML file and for some reason had to rename the file. Did so from Windows Explorer and when I switched to IE window…, surprise!!! The modified HTML file is already displayed in the browser and the new file name in the address bar! Just to tease, I renamed the file to have .doc extension and IE7 saw it and prompted to open the file with Microsoft Word!
Try it out!
Locking Windows Desktop June 1, 2006
Posted by Siva in Windows.add a comment
I see many Windows XP+ users pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del and Enter to lock their desktop, may be they are so much used to it. But WinKey + L is a quick shortcut.
Office 2007 Beta2 – Initial Impressions May 30, 2006
Posted by Siva in Microsoft Office.1 comment so far
I tested beta1 for some quite some time and used it on a daily basis. Later I ran into lot of problems stopping me doing my every day work. Word 12 (beta1 name) didn't let me do even basic things such as setting document properties. And Excel 12 crashed without any symptoms of doing so (yes, it was just beta) causing me to lose all my work despite the auto-save. Enough of it – I logged bugs and uninstalled it and switched back to Office 2003. Though there was a beta-1 refresh, I didn't bother to try it.
I installed beta-2 (download free at Microsoft Office website) on my laptop last night. The setup process was smooth and easy! The UI (Word, Excel & PowerPoint) is really cool and eye-candy, esp. the Vista-UI theme! Among other things, Office 2007's task-oriented ribbon (tab-like) UI is a big winner! No more nested menus! SmartArt (called as IGX in beta1) is also impressive!!
I explored few things here and there and intend to use it on a daily basis. Will let you know if I find anything interesting!
Hello (Blog) World! May 29, 2006
Posted by Siva in Uncategorized.3 comments
After a long thought (as usual), I finally decided to step into the world of blogging! And here I am!! One of the reasons behind this attempt is that being a person who works with technologies by profession, I often come across things that I feel I should share with everyone for good reasons and decided to do it with blogging. I hope I do it as frequently as I can. Another reason is the true inspiration from the whole blogging community. Though I am not new to blogs, I feel amazed everyday at the volume of knowledge, ideas and thoughts that get passed around via blogs! Truly powerful!!
Thanks to my fellow India MVPs (oh yea, I am a Microsoft MVP) who gave their recommendations on selecting a blogging site! Thanks WordPress!!
And thank you for reading my post ONE!
