My site was down since yesterday due to some server configuration issues. I’m back up and running now.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 is also now available. This is a very exciting release with support for:

• Silverlight 2 SDK Beta 2 & Silverlight Tools Beta 2
• MVC Preview Release #3
• ASP.NET Extensions/Dynamic Data Preview
• VC 2008 Feature Pack
• VB PowerPack Controls (2.0 & 3.0)
• Expression Studio 2 (RTM)
• SQL Server 2008
• .NET Framework 3.5 SDK
• XSLT Profiler
• VSTA 2.0 SDK
• Visual Studio 2008 SDK

I can’t wait to dig into the new MVC Framework. You can download the service pack here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=FBEE1648-7106-44A7-9649-6D9F6D58056E&displaylang=en

Microsoft has released Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1.

Download Here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AB99342F-5D1A-413D-8319-81DA479AB0D7&displaylang=en

So I’ve been looking a little into the new MVC framework that will be included in .NET 3.5 SP1 (Currently avalible in Preview version 4). Check out Scott Guthrie’s blog series starting at http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/10/14/asp-net-mvc-framework.aspx

I can’t wait to start playing with it. Also check out the asp.net MVC home page at: http://www.asp.net/mvc/ Scott Hanselman has some really good videos on MVC. Especially check out the Storefront Starter Kit. Not only does it go over MVC but also TDD (Test Driven Development). I’ve never used TDD before and it looks very intresting. I will be looking into that as well.

I just updated WordPress to 2.6. I did lose some stuff in the process but no big deal. I also changed the look of the site some too. Now I just need to work on getting more posts out. I have a lot of ideas so look forword to reading those soon.

I have been doing a lot of research on AJAX and have recently purchased a WROX book called Professional AJAX (amazon).  I haven’t gotten far in the book but it starts off with a little history on AJAX starting with Google suggest.  As I read on they were talking about many different methods for pulling data asynchronously and one thing that came up was how Google Maps and Gmail uses frames.  Well this got me to thinking and I wanted to see if I could find a good way to do this using an iframe.  So this is what I came up with. 

First off I created a simple .net webservice and enabled webservices to accept HTTP-GET requests.  Then dynamiclly using javascript I created a <IFRAME> along with an event listener for its onload event to call the SomeWebserviceCall_Complete() function when the iframe is loaded.  Then I set the iframe’s src property to the webservice address with the proper attributes for the service call and this sends the HTTP-GET request through the iframe.  Because I setup the event listener on the "onload" event, once the iframe is loaded from the webservice call the SomeWebserviceCall_Complete() function is fired.

Here is the code simplified for IE:

This is really easy to setup for a simple AJAX request to a web service. 

UPDATE ——————-

Here I put it into action

This implementation just places the contents of the iframe (webservice response) into a div element on your page with an id of ‘mydiv’

I have yet to find a good website on the JSON standard.  Maybe this is because the concept is not that difficult and is grasped quickly.  I have been spending a lot of time at http://www.json.org and at first found the site to be very hard to read.   I get turn off pretty quick by websites that don’t look like any time was put into them.  The more I access it though the more I am getting used to it.  I will keep trying to find a better site, or at least a better looking easier to follow site. 

Getting turned on to JSON only recently I really like working with it.  I have been using it with ASP.NET AJAX and WebServices and it is real easy to create and use.  So for those out there who are just finding out about JSON and are finding it difficult to find good documentation… don’t fret.  It’s easier then the json.org site makes it seem at first.  You can also get information on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON but still not as detailed as I would like.  If anyone knows of any good json sites please let me know.

I just read the announcement from the www.asp.net website that ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 has been released.  Read more from Scott Guthrie’s Blog for details:

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/01/23/asp-net-ajax-1-0-released.aspx

These tools have been an enormous help to me in many of my projects.  Thanks guy’s.

Here is a good article on converting XML to JSON using a webservice:  http://www.codeproject.com/soap/xml2json.asp

I am working on an ASP.NET project that uses a dropdown list with so many records that it is not practical to download them all on a page load.  What I have done is created a Google Suggest like Ajax enabled dropdown that pulls records based on the first few characters entered and the number of records returned.  This makes for a much faster page load and better user experience.  I plan on writing up an article and submitting it to www.codeproject.com.  After I right it up I will post a link to it here.  Look for it in the next week….

I am starting on a new learning expedition into software design patterns.  I have learned that the bible of design patterns is a book called ‘Design Patterns, Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software’ published by Addison Wesley.  This book is used as a textbook for many Software Engineering programs. 

 Design Patterns in this book are broken down into three main categories; Creational Patterns, Structural Patterns, and Behavioral Patterns.  My goal is to study each design pattern and summarize my findings and to record any insights I may have.  Look forward to a writup on each pattern.  The first pattern in this series will be the Abstract Factory pattern.

Ok… so I have been putting this off for some time now.  Just to give you a little background on me I am a programmer living in beautiful Bellingham, WA.  I have a passion for programming and all things computer.  Trying to keep up with developing trends and new technologies is very hard in todays ever changing and increasing technology market.  What I hope to achieve with this blog is to use it as a learning tool in documenting my quest for knowlege and hopefully inform others who share in my quest.  

Well all I can say now is stay tuned for more wonderful and exciting information to come.