Kriztine Mendoza

Senior .NET Developer & Tech Partner for Scalable Software Solutions

.Net Development

The tooltip or Intellisense for methods do not appear!

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The Story

One day, while I was doing my usual job of coding, I have noticed that when I type open parenthesis after the method name, the parameters do not appear automatically the way it used to.

I thought at first that my Visual Studio 2017 was just too slow. It’s been happening for quite some time, so I’ve tried restarting the Visual Studio, but the problem was not solved.

I’ve also tried deleting my user profile – nothing happened.

Finally, after a few days of being annoyed (and procrastinating to find the solution), I have found the fix!

(I have learned that the shortcut to display the method parameters is  Ctrl+Shift+Space. But, that is not what I want.)

 

The Fix

Go to TOOLS > Options > Text Editor > C# > General and check the Parameter Information.

 

Scrollbar doesn’t show on Safari

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The Story

One of the applications we are working on requires a modal popup to show the Terms and Conditions after the user registered to the app. Initially, the Accept and Decline buttons are disabled. The user should read the Terms and Conditions first before he/she can click a button. The user has to scroll down to the bottom of the page before the buttons become enabled. Now, we know that the Terms and Conditions are quite long, so the browser will automatically show a scrollbar.

However, the scrollbar is hidden in Safari browser by default. You can only see it when you scroll down using a mouse or touching the screen of your device. This can lead to confusion if the user sees the Terms and Conditions popup, but not being able to click the Accept or Decline button.

Solution

1. Use CSS to override the default scrollbar’s styling and visibility

/* Override the default to keep the scrollbar always visible */

::-webkit-scrollbar {
    -webkit-appearance: none;
    width: 8px;
}

::-webkit-scrollbar-track {
    -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 6px rgba(255,255,255,0.3);
    border-radius: 4px;
}

::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb {
    border-radius: 4px;
    background-color: #8f8f8f;
    -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.5);
}

2. Add a note at the bottom of the popup to inform the user to scrolldown to be able to read the full text.

 

WebResource.axd File Compression

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I was working on a custom .Net CMS that needs optimization.  To analyze the performance of a particular page, we were using the PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom tools.

The PageSpeed Insights recommends minifying JavaScript files. After I have bundled and minified all the js files in the system, PageSpeed is still reporting the issue due to the WebResource.axd files.

The application’s WebResource.axd files come from Telerik and ASP.Net page with server-side controls.

The Telerik’s WebResource.axd file is already minified, so I have just added the ScriptMode=”Release” tag.

<telerik:RadScriptManager ID="RadScriptManager1" runat="server" ScriptMode="Release"></telerik:RadScriptManager>
    <telerik:RadAjaxManager ID="RadAjaxManager" runat="server">
</telerik:RadAjaxManager>

For the other WebResource.axd file, I had to create an HTTP module.

Implementation

  1. Write an HttpModule class named AxdCompressionModule.cs. After the axd files have been downloaded, it will be cached in the browser. The axd files will not be combined into a single file, though.
  2. Add settings to the web.config
<modules>
      <add name="AxdCompressionModule" type="ProjectName.Http.AxdCompressionModule, ProjectName" preCondition="managedHandler" />
</modules>

A Simple Review of Third Party Controls for ASP.Net MVC

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A company in the US wants to establish its software development department. They already have 4 to 5 projects lined up. And I will be starting to design the first one. Exciting times, eh?

One of the primary requirements is to use third-party controls that can somewhat emulate Microsoft Office’s feel. The reason for this is that – most users are already accustomed to using Microsoft Office, they do not need to undergo extensive training. Since I am planning to use ASP.Net MVC, the controls should also have support for ASP.Net MVC extensions.

For this, I have checked SyncFusion, DevExpress, Telerik, and Infragistics.

Third Party Vendors That Have Controls That Can Emulate Microsoft Office End-User Experience And Has Razor Support (Asp.Net Mvc Extensions)

Important Controls

SyncFusion

DevExpress

Telerik

Infragistics

No ASP.NET MVC extensions

jQuery Controls

HTML5
+ JS

DevXtreme

Kendo UI

Ignite UI

Ribbon

ü

ü

 ASP.NET
MVC  have simple, lightweight Menu
and Toolbar

Menu

ü

ü

ü

Navigation

ü (Accordion)

ü

ü (PanelBar)
Hierarchical Treeview ü ü ü
Grid ü ü ü
Splitter ü ü ü
File Upload / File Manager Upload box. No file manager ü Very cool

 

 Simple upload. No file manager
Drag and Drop X ü X
Charts ü ü ü
Dock and Modal Popups ü ü Notification & Window controls
Tabs ü ü ü
PDF / PDF Viewer ü X X
Responsive Layout X ü ü
Reports Based on RDL/RDLC, XML based, capable of dynamic
reporting		 Uses own Report Engine Uses own Report Engine
Documentation 3.5/5 4/5 5/5 1/5
Support No experi No experience.  I heard it’s great. Superb support.
Pricing (source code included) Free for Individual
developers or up to five users at companies with annual gross revenue below
$1 million USD.Essential Studio $2,495		 Universal Subscription (includes everything)
$ 2199.99		 DevCraft Ultimate (includes
everything)
$ 1,999.00		 Ultimate
$ 1995.00 –  $2,495 (w/ Priority Support)
Others Can be Free has Outlook-inspired application pre-built template. Microsoft uses Telerik in their UIs.

 

Conclusion:

I think we should base our decision on which set has the most controls that are useful to the projects we are going to work on. Like are we going to use File Upload / File Manager with drag and drop features, hierarchical grid, ribbon control etc?

Here are some comments about DevExpress vs Telerik vs Infragistics vs jQuery UI that I have found on LinkedIn:

* First 3 is heavy. For lightweight option, use jQuery and jQuery UI. Can be easily customized.
* If going to use charts, 3rd party would be nice too.
* Ok to use for a quick project
* Angular JS is the future, jQuery is great (jqGrid for the grid) – problem would be if you need reporting
* Telerik is open source
* Telerik won on //www.techwars.io/fight/telerik/devexpress/
* Telerik has a very polished UI with a solid api. Infragistics had a lot of functionality but was a bit buggy. UI wasn’t quite as polished as Telerik. I’ve heard they’re stronger on the winforms side.
* Infragistics is buggy. We use it but spent a lot of time working around issues with browser support. The controls also have issues with ajax interaction
* If its something specific like Chart, then I would say DevExpress is leading the way. If its something to do with grids and grid customization, the you would be better off going for Infragistics. Telerik fits in when you need a diagramming type of component. So all in all each one is good in a specific area IMO.
* I’ve used Infragistics and Devexpress… Devexpress is superior hands down. Their support and samples are great… 90% of the time I can find a working sample that’s helps me find a solution to issues I am trying to solve.
* I’ve used Telerik & DevExpress but when it comes to WinForms and reporting I have to say DevExpress all the way. Telerik is great for web development.
* For new WEB application I’d recommend you Sencha Ext JS. It will bring you MVC pattern on client side, supplying you rich set of controls, good contacts with ASP.NET MVC, CSS and HTML5. Other modern candidates are Wijmo or Kendo from Telerik.
* I’ve used telerik, devexpress, ,infragistics and syncfusion. In my opinion telerik is really flexible tools. In devexpress i experience some troubles about customizing. infragistics is quite good but telerik is really good for me.
* I have used both Telerik and Devexpress. Devexpress is good for Winforms and Telerik is awesome for web apps. Both are comparatively good.
* Infragistic : – I have used it for asp.net web application. They provide rich user experince but heavy. lot of java script code.
Devexpress : I have used it for mvc project and lot of features and rich user experience. But very heavy. Even single text box it add lot of html and rendering takes time. Learning curve is bit high. But it works.
Jquery UI and other jquery plugins : Best opton for me. Very light. Free. Customizable if you good in jquery and java script easy to use.

Entity Framework 6 Error: Unable to load the specified metadata resource

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I was using the Entity Framework Database First approach and it worked well when I generated the edmx file within the ASP.NET MVC project.

But because we need to adhere to the N-layering practice, I have created a ProjectName.DataModel class library and generated an edmx file there.

It no longer worked and returned an error “Unable to load the specified metadata resource”.

Craig Stuntz fully explained the source of error here.

So what I did to solve the problem was go to the config file and modified the part of Entity Framework generated connection string to this:

connectionString="metadata=<b>res://ProjectName.DataModel/Model.csdl|</b><b>           res://ProjectName.DataModel/Model.ssdl|</b>
<b>res://ProjectName</b><b>.DataModel/Model.msl</b>;

Noticed that I have removed the “*/” part. That did the trick.

[Solved] “Load report failed… Unsupported Operation. A document processed by the JRC engine cannot be opened in the C++ stack”

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I was ready to bang my head on my keyboard because. I couldn’t seem to find the solution for the error I was receiving when loading Crystal Reports from my deployed Windows application.

Then, I got an idea when I read from this article that this could be the culprit –

The report location specified in the ‘Load ()’ method is invalid or report does not exist at that location.

So, I copied the rpt files to the Program Files path and voila – I got the reports loading.

Load report failed...
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