vlad navazhylau's blog - todo

updating ...

vlad — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:52:00 +0200

new look coming soon ...

Quick way to create UML Sequence diagrams

vlad — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:22:00 +0200

I stumble upon this post the other day.
This led me to wonderful online tool http://www.websequencediagrams.com/ .
The SD/MSC Generator is an easy alternative to using mouse-centric tools like Microsoft Visio.
It has nice Domain Specific Language and API for creating quick sequence diagrams.

I would prefer this approach for creating any UML diagram anytime over any mouse-centric diagramming tool. Any UML diagram drawn will be rarely revisited later and adjusted/updated to the reality of the live code base. Usually when some process is better can be presented visually you want to have it done as quickly as possible while the idea is still fresh in you head. With traditional tools you would probably spend 70-85% of your time resizing horizontal and vertical lines, boxes, searching for the right shape and stencils, trying to remember to save the document in the correct format and with all this “noise” you loose concentration and spend 3-4 hours on simple diagram that would take 30 minutes to one hours with the tool like SD/MSC Generator. It is so much easier to learn Domain Specific Language for this tool than count pixels on the Visio grid.

And here is the best part of tool like this: you can store text/instruction for your diagram as regular text file in your favorite version control system rather then binary file.

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with this product.

I just found another tool or technique that makes more sense, to me, and makes software project more Agile and less bureaucratic.

Generic Singelton pattern in C# and VB.NET

vlad — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:40:08 +0200

//SINGLETON - C#

using NUnit.Framework;

[TestFixture()]
public class SingletonTest
{
    [Test()]
    public void ObjectsAreTheSameTest()
    {
        DeploymentInfo firstDeployment = Singleton<DeploymentInfo>.UniqueInstance;
        DeploymentInfo secondDeployment = Singleton<DeploymentInfo>.UniqueInstance;
        Assert.AreSame(firstDeployment, secondDeployment);
    }
}

//Singleton Pattern 
//Generic Version

public class Singleton<T> where T : class, new()
{
    private Singleton()
    {
    }

    private class SingletonCreator
    {
        static SingletonCreator()
        {
        }
        // Private object instantiated with private constructor
        static internal readonly T instance = new T();
    }

    public static T UniqueInstance {
        get { return SingletonCreator.instance; }
    }
}

'SINGLETON - VB.NET

Imports NUnit.Framework

<TestFixture()> _
Public Class SingletonTest
    <Test()> _
    Public Sub ObjectsAreTheSameTest()
        Dim firstDeployment As DeploymentInfo = Singleton(Of DeploymentInfo).UniqueInstance
        Dim secondDeployment As DeploymentInfo = Singleton(Of DeploymentInfo).UniqueInstance
        Assert.AreSame(firstDeployment, secondDeployment)
    End Sub
End Class

'Singleton Pattern 
'Generic Version

Public Class Singleton(Of T As {Class, New})
    Private Sub New()
    End Sub

    Private Class SingletonCreator
        Shared Sub New()
        End Sub
        ' Private object instantiated with private constructor
        Friend Shared ReadOnly instance As New T()
    End Class

    Public Shared ReadOnly Property UniqueInstance() As T
        Get
            Return SingletonCreator.instance
        End Get
    End Property
End Class

CSS rounded corners

vlad — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:58:07 +0200

CSS Round Corners
http://www.spiffybox.com/
http://www.spiffycorners.com/
http://blog.yosle.com/2007/09/20/css-round-corners/
http://www.smileycat.com/miaow/archives/000044.php

Playing with Regex

vlad — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:51:16 +0200

Example - URL Extractor
http://www.dotnetcoders.com/web/Learning/Regex/exHrefExtractor.aspx

http://regexlib.com

http://sexyregex.com/regex/test/replace/3863#testdata

ASP.NET page lifecycle and master pages

vlad — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:48:45 +0200

ASP.NET Page Life Cycle Overview
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178472.aspx

A comprehensive look at the Master Page
http://www.vikramlakhotia.com/Working_With_Master_Page.aspx

LINQ to SQL, WCF, REST and AJAX alternatives

vlad — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:45:30 +0200

Rick Strahl posted his session slides and samples from his ASP.NET Connections. Really good presentations.
http://west-wind.com/weblog/posts/336745.aspx

Good VB.NET and Linq to XML resource

vlad — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 03:27:46 +0200

Beth Massi posted nice presentation on Ling to XML on Infoq.com.
http://www.infoq.com/presentations/massi-linq-xml

She also rights regularily on her blog "Sharring the goodness tha is VB" - http://blogs.msdn.com/bethmassi/

VB.NET 9.0 has nice syntactic sugar tha C# 3.0 don't have for working with XML and Linq.

JavaScript frameworks

vlad — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:43:42 +0200

I am getting more and more comfortable with different javascript frameworks.
The simple reason is that frameworks got much better.
I used javascript here and there before but tried to stay away from internals and poluting my memory with different behaviors of JavaScript in different browsers.

My first encounter with AJAX was via using MagicAjax.net at the begining of 2005. Later when Atlas/ASP.NET AJAX got better I start using it for my projects.
I have now enough understanding to see that ASP.NET AJAX can be somewhat havy and from now on I am trying to use more browser friendlier and much lighter options utilizing following javascript libraries and CSS resources:

jQuery is a fast, concise, JavaScript Library that simplifies how you traverse HTML documents, handle events, perform animations, and add Ajax interactions to your web pages. jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript.
Ext JS 2.0 Ext JS is a cross-browser JavaScript library for building rich internet applications.
Dynamic Drive's new CSS library! Here you'll find original, practical CSS codes and examples such as CSS menus to give your site a visual boast.

Combine this with the good server side scripting technology like ASP.NET, PHP, Ruby on Rails and others and you may get very close to perfect harmony and nice warm Zen like feeling about design and performance of your web application. ;-)

Quest: is AJAX bad for SEO?

vlad — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:55:59 +0200

This sounds like a simple question. I will say like many other developers/architects/consultants - "It depends..."

Bottom line AJAX is bad for SEO!
For publicly facing company websites, were SEO important, stick with the server side scripting such as ASP.NET, PHP, Ruby on Rails and others.
I am not mentioning static HTML pages here since medium and big size companies most likely will have data driven web site.

If you are building Line of Service business application AJAX will only make your application better.
Do not think twice learn it well and use it.

If you absolutely have to use AJAX follow "Unobtrusive JavaScript" pattern.
AJAX is great tool when used for proper application types.

Here is my prediction -> 3 years from now Search engines will learn to understand and properly index and rank RIA/AJAX/FLASH/Silverlight/Flex/Put your faviorite client side technology here. Until then ...

AJAX and SEO: How to have an SEO Friendly AJAX website using jquery
http://www.davidpirek.com/blog.aspx?n=AJAX-and-SEO:-How-to-have-an-SEO-Friendly-AJAX-website-using-jquery

http://www.seomoz.org/crawl-test

12 More SEO Tips for 2007 http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-Engine-Optimization-Help/12-More-SEO-Tips-for-2007/

SEO Myths http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-Engine-Optimization-Help/SEO-Myths/3/
SEO for AJAX http://www.johnon.com/270/seo-for-ajax.html
AJAX, Web 2.0 and SEO http://www.hybrid6.com/webgeek/2007/01/ajax-web-20-and-seo.php
Web 2.0 Technologies and Search Visibility http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3624222
Unobtrusive JavaScript http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtrusive_JavaScript
CSS, AJAX, Web 2.0 & Search Engines http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/006889.html
Search engine optimization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization