Chanh's blog

I have been using Visual Studio for a long time and also using the Express edition but until recent version 2008 of Visual Studio Express Web Developer Edition I say this is a clear winner but one little wish item, more about that later…

The Visual Studio Express Web Developer Edition is a freeware web development tool from Microsoft. Its main function is to create ASP.NET pages, It has a WYSIWYG interface and very good HTML editor, support CSS, Javascript, XML, drag-and-drop user interface designer; a database explorer for SQL express edition; and lot more!

I would not go into the limitation in compare to the paid version of Visual Studio but I do want to expand on the database explorer for SQL express edition. Some might think it is limited but I think it is perfect for personal development. It allow you to explore SQL database file without needing to concern about the standard SQL security and all that headache! You can debug your web site which access your SQL database file easily. In some case I would prefer this Express edition over the paid version although I do have both version load on my computer.

I heard the rumor that the future version of Visual Studio Express 2010 will have build in support for PHP if that is to be true it would be wonderful for open source developer. There is a big void out there for a nice editor that support PHP for free! There are some out there and I won’t name it but it just take too long to start up. If Visual Studio Express will have build in support for PHP that will be a big thumb up from me.

One little wish item that I would like to see in Visual Studio Express is to have some kind of plugin or extension support so that the open source community can help to extend this wonderful product further!

I have been searching for hosting service and there are so many out there, free and paid!

For most typical free hosting offering are provided with some catch like ads, point base, etc and with very limited web space, database size, bandwidth, etc.

Then I found this 000webhost, they gave you 1.5 Gig of web space, 2 MySQL databases, lot of bandwidth, rewrite rule support, PHP 5, GD, IMAP, webmail, etc.

You can read more about this service here.

Mod_rewrite was the only mean to have search engine friendly URL for a long time but it is no longer the case with this Microsoft URL rewrite module! It is extremely easy to use not like Mod_rewrite!

I will write more on how to use this URL rewrite module at my Docs site later but for now I will just post some high light!

Once this module is installed there are three templates available and they are:

# User Friendly URL
# Rule with Rewrite Map
# Request Blocking

There are so much more you can do with it!

You can download it here.

You can get more information here.

I have been looking for a search solution for our intranet site and have evaluate several search packages!

I recently come across Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express which is a free application that you can download from here.

It can crawl content from various sources such as Windows SharePoint Services sites, file shares, Exchange Public Folders, and Web sites. Although Search Server Express includes only a subset of the search features of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 but from what I can see it is just perfect for my need.

Here are a features list of this product.

On top of that, don’t forgot this is a SharePoint Service bundle with search so you can do all things that you can with SharePoint including Wiki, blog, calendar, and lot more…

With such a features list who need anything else!

This took me several weeks to figure out how to fix this problem!

It starts out when I try to install IIS to my Windows 2003 R2 sp2 server and for some reason IIS just only show htm file but none for asp, aspx or php!

I searched high and low, I tried numerous sources, I combed through many forum, Microsoft support site, etc but can’t find a solution!

In the process I found out that there are lot of people having very similar symptom but none seem to have the same problem like mine.

The symptom are:

. IIS won’t show asp, aspx but only show htm

. IIS MMC crashes when try to set “allow” in “web extension”

. There are no error in the event log

. Can’t un-install .NET framework 2.0 (keep asking for install.exe”) <– clue

The solution is very simple once I figure it out!

Here are the steps:

. Un-install all newer .NET framework

. download and extract .NET framework 2.0 to a folder call “dotnetv2″

. Un-install .NET framework 2.0 and point to “dotnetv2″ folder when prompt for “install.exe”

. Reinstall .NET framework 2.0

. Re-apply all patches and all new .NET framework

Now all the above symptom that I described are all gone and IIS happily serves up htm, asp, aspx, even php too!

That’s it!

Windows 7 is amazing!  It is fast!  It is super!  It is looking somewhat like Vista but much better than Vista!

It runs on almost all the pc that I have which are ranging from new to a several years old and even on pc that I built from components!  Many of these old pc that Vista refused to install but it all works fine with Windows 7!

Even if some of the devices might not have the right driver during initial install but as long as you can get your pc that is running Windows 7 on the network then it will detect and download the right driver for your pc.

I even able to install many legacy software using the compatibility mode in Windows 7 even though the “compatibility wizard” is missing in Windows 7 but I was able to get around that by using the compatibility mode that I mention above.

Windows 7 is definitely a done right out the gate!

Bing is the replacement search engine from Microsoft to replace “Live”

Bing a new search engine has a better-organized search experience give consumers cash back when made a purchase (look for “Bing Cashback” link) and Ping shows consumers with relevant ads while they are searching to purchase.

Bing offer API for developer and publisher, more to come later…

Check out the new search engine:  http://bing.com

IE 8 has just released and it is FAST!

I did a side by side comparison with FF 3. I double click on FF then double click on IE 8, IE 8 already finish render the page fully while FF still no where to be seen. A few second later FF show up but still trying to load the home page.

I also use IE 8 to search for site and run into a site that do some strange thing and might even be malicious, IE 8 just close that session like nothing has happen. If it would be FF either FF will freeze or lock up my computer, that is usually happen with FF.

IE 8 also come with tone of add-ons and if I can get most of the FF add-ons in IE 8 I will be going solo with IE 8.

You can check out IE 8 here

And the add-ons are here

Yii framework, if you like PRODO you will like Yii more! Yii is a high performance (see comparison chart) component PHP 5 framework. Yii’s features include MVC, DAO/ActiveRecord, I18N/L10N, caching, jQuery-based AJAX support, authentication and role-based access control, scaffolding, input validation, widgets, events, theming, Web services, and etc.

Yii framework resources

I have been playing with Windows SharePoint Services for a long time but with the latest WSS short for (Windows SharePoint Services SP1) and especially with service pack 1, it is very mature and ready for production use.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is included in Windows Server 2003 and in Windows Server 2008, and is also available separately as a download.

With  WSS you can build site as Wiki, Blog, social networking, document sharing, extensible with web parts, ASP.NET, integrate with SQL reporting services, etc.  You can develop for WSS with Visual Studio tools or SharePoint designer.  It comes with support for workflow which you can create human process for thing like form approval, decision making, etc.

I will write more about WSS here and at my main site http://ongetc.com on how-to and pratical use of WSS.  Stay tune!