AJAX

The Cheyenne Project – Part 1

Sep 22nd

Posted by admin in .NET Framework

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In my last post I told you that I was going to work on a project that was “for me–by me”.   The project idea that I eventually decided on was a job board application that was very Web 2.0 centric and played nicely with the social networking websites that are so popular today.  I finally got around to finding a “code” name for this project and doing some initial project setup work.

So, what’s up with the name Cheyenne? Good question.  Well, after a few days I couldn’t find a good name I like so I decided to use my 20 month old daughters middle name. Yes, Daddy has a soft spot and she is it!

This web application will be built using the ASP.NET MVC framework.  I will be using a SQL 2008 Express database and using LINQ to SQL as my data layer.  I will be using the Repository Pattern to provide some layer of abstraction over my data layer just in case I want to easily swap out my data access implementation.  

 

Here are some screen shots of what the project looks like in Visual Studio 2008:

 

cheyenne_vsproject

 

Here is what the Entities and the Repository classes look like:

 

Entities

 

 

Repository

 

I want to see the code!  Ok…I was just getting to that. I uploaded the first installment to my Windows Sky Drive account and you can download it below:

 

Let me know what you think. There is currently no user interface! Actually, the MVC project don’t currently run at the moment; but the project does compile. I removed all the defaults that the MVC project gave me since I wanted to start out from scratch. Hopefully, by the next installment I will have a basic UI and have some data loaded on the screen.  If you have any suggestions or comments, let me know. Until next time…

 

Happy Programming!

Let’s build something!

Sep 16th

Posted by admin in .NET Framework

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Yeah, that’s what software developers do right?  For a while I have been thinking about building a web application where I can simple have some fun doing it and not have to worry about deadlines or business users changing the requirements every other week.  Don’t get me wrong, that’s all a part of being a professional software developer; but I think it is time to do something, “for me — by me”.

So, I’ve decided on building a job board application. No, I’m not trying to be the next Monster.com, although that would be nice. I just want to provide something that is simple to use and plays nicely with the social media networks that have gotten so popular over the past few years. Here are a list of features that I have so far:

  • ASP.NET MVC Application
  • Simple and clean user interface
  • Simple interface to search the job board.
  • All job postings are public
  • Easy authentication ( OpenId, Facebook Connect, Custom )
  • Web  2.0 centric  ( AJAX, RSS, IE8 Slices )
  • Allow easy sharing job postings with popular social networking sites ( Twitter, Facebook, Digg )
  • Allow only registered user’s to respond to job postings in a private manner.
  • Allow job posters to respond to job inquiries.
  • Provide an easy to use interface for any registered user to post a job
  • Job posting can be tagged with certain keywords.
  • Provide a mechanism for user’s to provide feedback for the overall site

Ok. Easy enough?  Well, If I’m going to pull this off then I will have to get familiar with many of the social media integration API platforms since this will be the first time using any of them. But; have no fear. There is a lot of resources out there to look at and most of all, I have YOU here to help me.

I’m not sure how long this is going to take. I do have a full-time job and I do have to spend time with my family and like I said, no deadlines! I will try to provide a part one to this series of blog post within a week. Oh, I just broke my rule about no deadlines. Until next time…

Happy Programming!

Forgotten AJAX Extenders

Jun 3rd

Posted by admin in AJAX

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Today, I started a project on CodePlex called Forgotten AJAX Extenders.  The purpose was to create my own Ajax control based on the ASP.Net Ajax Control Toolkit.  The toolkit comes with a nice set of pre-built controls; but I think a few controls were left out and that was the reasoning behind the Forgotten AJAX Extenders project name.  The first control under development is the Textbox Character Count Extender. I posted a lengthy explanation about what this extender control does on my project home page.  Please let me know what you think and if there is a feature that you fell is missing, please use the Discussions tab to provide me with your comments. Well, that’s all for now. Until next time…

 

Happy Programming!