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Asp.Net MVC 2 Areas

Posted by Chris Brandsma on Mar 13, 2010 in Dotnet, Silver Light  | View Original Article
 

imageI’m looking into the new stuff in Asp.Net MVC 2, trying to figure out what is cool and what is just there.  Areas look like a nice addition.  Areas allow you to separate your Asp.Net MVC application into more distinct partitions.  So all of the Controllers, Models, Views, and even routes belong to one directory structure.  It is like having a sub-project inside of you MVC project.

Here is the problem, as I see it:  as an MVC project gets large, keeping all of the necessary pieces and parts for a set of controller actions straight can get a bit daunting.  I’ve ended up with duplicate folder structures in views and models, which can make navigation a pain.

To make a new Area, simply right-click anywhere in you MVC project, Add->Area.  As I said, you can do this from anywhere in the project structure, but the Areas are created in a new “Areas” folder.  When you name the Area, a new folder is created with the Areas name as well.

Once created you should see all the familiar Controllers, Models, and Views folders (all blank).  In addition to that, you will see an <name>AreaRegistration.cs file.  This inherits from AreaRegistration, and this is where any new Routes go.  In the file is a prebuilt route that should look similar to this:

   1: context.MapRoute(

   2:     "test1_default",

   3:     "test1/{controller}/{action}/{id}",

   4:     new { action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }

   5: );

So a url to the area would include /test1/ (name of my Area) in the path.  That would be good if you had multiple controllers with the same name, but if you don’t, just take out the “test1” and you won’t need it in the path.

Also, if you leave Area name in the route, you will have a little more work to, here is what one of mine looked like:  <%=Html.ActionLink("test", "Index", "test1/TestArea") %>.  But it turns out this is more correct:

<%=Html.ActionLink("test", "Index", "TestArea", new { area="Test1"}, new {}) %>

This also mean that any controller actions you want to link to outside if Area needs to include a blank area in the link, like this:

<%=Html.ActionLink("Home", "Index", "Home", new { area=""}, new {}) %>

In case you are wondering, the first object in the area is for route values, the second is for html attributes.

So the downside of using Areas is that you could complicate your routing in a hurry.  Plus it does not look like the Html helpers are there to lend you a hand either.  It is very doable, just annoying.  Of course, the easy fix is to remove the Area name from the route and move on.  That should be ok so long as you do not have two controllers with the same name.

So are Areas a compelling feature? I think so.  Plus, the larger the site, the more compelling Areas can become.  For smaller sites, probably not.  But I would not say no either.

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The Essential Cloud Considerations

Posted by Latest News from Cloud Computing Journal on Mar 13, 2010 in CLoud Computing, General, Silver Light, Technology News  | View Original Article
 Thinking about jumping on the cloud? True, I’ve had no qualms in showing my skepticism towards the marketing of ‘cloud computing’ and it being the mere repackaging of solutions which have existed for years, but the fact is it still addresses a concept and reality that exists and one which holds numerous benefits. Indeed abandoning an existing on site IT infrastructure for a cloud provider that most often or not can’t offer the same level of security, control or performance is not an easy decision but one which CIOs and IT executives are seriously considering when weighing up the economic benefits. As with any change though, a move towards the cloud necessitates a sound and comprehensive assessment to avoid the trap of a short term benefit turning into a long term nightmare.

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Best Practices of Successful Cloud Users

Posted by Latest News from Cloud Computing Journal on Mar 13, 2010 in CLoud Computing, General, Silver Light, Technology News  | View Original Article
 Is your website available to end users 99.8% or more of the time? If not, then count yourself in the “laggard” category, according to standards set by The Aberdeen Group, in its 2008 report “The Performance of Web Applications: Customers are Won or Lost in One Second.” In that study, laggards had web application availability only 86.3% of the time. If 99.8% of the time seems a little unrealistic to you, consider the title of Aberdeen’s study – and that you can lose a customer in one second (to a competitor) if any part of their online experience goes sour.

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MvcFutures

Posted by Tony Rasa on Mar 13, 2010 in Dotnet, Silver Light  | View Original Article
 

ASP.NET MVC 2 has been released (yay).  One of the pieces I like about it is in the MvcFutures assembly.  MvcFutures is where the MVC team puts code for features that may or may not make it into a future version of the MVC framework – undocumented, somewhat risky, but hey you get all the source code if you find yourself painted into a corner.

One of the long-standing MVC practices has been ‘Shun Magic Strings.’  For example, rather than specifying Controller/Action names in an ActionLink by string, we’ve always used an Expression<Action<TController>> instead to define the Controller class and Action method “in code.”  If the action changes in the future, this gives you somewhat better abilities to discover the problem sooner vs. later. 

MvcFutures includes a version of this idea, taken to the next level:  you provide the expression with the arguments you want passed to the action included – you don’t provide a 2nd anonymous type defining the arguments.  This gets rid of the somewhat confusing “null” arguments inside the expression, and just looks better overall.  Plus, if the arguments to the action change, you’ll get better warning of that as well.

<asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">    <h2>Magic Strings are Evil</h2>    <p>        <%= Html.ActionLink<HomeController>(c => c.FavoriteNumber(16), "A Number") %>        <%= Html.ActionLink<HomeController>(c => c.FavoriteNumber(32), "Another Number") %>        <%= Html.ActionLink<HomeController>(c => c.FavoriteNumber(42), "Yet Another Number") %>            </p></asp:Content>

I like this method MUCH better. 

The implementation that makes this happen is in Microsoft.Web.Mvc.Internal.ExpressionHelper.  Which even though it’s in an “Internal” namespace, is neither marked Internal, Sealed, or otherwise made unavailable (hallelujah).  So you can use this trick for all sorts of things.

There is also a System.Web.Mvc.ExpressionHelper in the official MVC assembly, which is used to implement the smart Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Property) functionality.  This class is also NOT internal, not sealed, not obfuscated and hidden away.  We’ve used it to extend the Html.[control]For() abilities to some other control types.  Very useful stuff.  Plus its just interesting code to read.

One potentially big caveat:  I’m told that the Html.ActionLink<TController>() methods don’t work if you’re using Areas in your MVC application.  I haven’t tried this myself, we aren’t using Areas in any of our MVC 2 applications yet.  That might be why this functionality is hidden in MvcFutures and not out with the rest of the smart expression code.

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Cloud Computing for Small Business

Posted by Latest News from Cloud Computing Journal on Mar 13, 2010 in CLoud Computing, General, Silver Light, Technology News  | View Original Article
 Orchestra explains how we use Cloud Computing and how it can benefit many small businesses. Cloud computing allows us to lower our IT costs, keep out IT resources scalable, and provides greater security and stability than we can ourselves. Find out more about how cloud computing can benefit small business in this great article.

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White House CIO Vivek Kundra Touts Cloud Computing

Posted by Latest News from Cloud Computing Journal on Mar 13, 2010 in CLoud Computing, General, Silver Light, Technology News  | View Original Article
 Within the $79 billion--which is actually a slight reduction from the 2010 budget--there is a $50 million allocation for cross-governmental experimentation, as nicely reported by Wyatt Kash in the far-more-responsible-than-BW publication Government Computer News. Kash further reported that the Bush administration requested $35 million for similar funding, but was granted only 10 percent of that amount.

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.toolbox – Free online Silverlight and Expression Blend training

Posted by Davide on Mar 13, 2010 in Silver Light  | View Original Article
 

.toolbox is a free online training program where designers and developers can learn to create Silverlight applications using Expression Studio and to apply basic UX concepts to their solutions.

Check out the original post by Adam Kinney and the main site.

Happy Silverlighting!

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Big Data Goes Mainstream

Posted by Latest News from Cloud Computing Journal on Mar 13, 2010 in CLoud Computing, General, Silver Light, Technology News  | View Original Article
 A new third generation of tools for Big Data is now emerging that offer the scalability, parallelism, performance and data flexibility of tools like Hadoop, but, unlike Hadoop, can also continuously process realtime data streams. Moreover, these new tools are as easy to use as a spreadsheet.

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Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Posted by Aygul Zagidullina on Mar 13, 2010 in Design & Graphics, Silver Light  | View Original Article
 
Smashing-magazine-advertisement in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination
 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination  in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination  in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Do you remember?.. The first time you played with pieces of modeling clay, melting them in your hands and going deeper and deeper into the colourful plasticine world where your imagination was the only limit. Since the 19th century, when Franz Kolb and William Harbutt independently of each other invented plasticine (modeling clay), it has been used in almost all fields of art: illustration, web design, typography, claymation, installation design.

Plasticine artworks can be found just everywhere: advertisements, book/magazine as well as CD/DVD covers, movies / TV series, music videos, computer / console games, and even web design elements. Below you will find a collection of beautiful plasticine artworks that hopefully will inspire you and give you an idea about how this material can be used in your next design project.

[Offtopic: By the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has a mobile version? Try it out if you have an iPhone, Blackberry or another capable device.]

Plasticine + Photography / Illustration

Advertising

Nike Italy by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Nikeitalyzambrotta in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Faber Castell plasticine Advertisement by Unitas RNL Santiago (Chile)

Fabercastell01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Fabercastell03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Onida Washing Machines Advertisement by McCann Erickson Mumbai (India)

Onida02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Onida03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Freya Lingerie Advertising by Stuart Jackson

Photoplasticine01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Photoplasticine02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Photoplasticine03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Becks Advertisement by Scholz+Friends Hamburg (Germany)

Becks01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Becks02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Forma Total Gym by Artplan (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Formatotalgym01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Formatotalgym02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Nicorette Advertisement by DRAFTFCB KOBZA (Austria)

Nicorette in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Aniquem Advertisement by McCann Erickson Peru

Aniquem in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Stamyl Advertisement by Maruri Grey (Ecuador)

Stamyl01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Stamyl02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Stamyl03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Magazine Cover Design

Esquire (March 2009) – 30th birthday of plasticine character Morph

Esquire-cover in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Poster Design

“The Summer Reading Club” Poster for The Toronto Public Library by Barbara Reid

Poster01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

“Young Audience” Poster for Theatre Direct by Barbara Reid

Poster02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Flyer for The Ovnis by Pablo Alfieri

Poster03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Book Illustrations

Barbara Reid

Barbarareid01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Barbarareid02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Barbarareid03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Artworks

Amy Vangsgard

Amyvangsgard01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Amyvangsgard02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Amyvangsgard03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Amyvangsgard04 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Irma Gruenholz

Irmagruenholz01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Irmagruenholz02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Irmagruenholz03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Irmagruenholz04 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Anna Villalba

Anavillalba01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Anavillalba02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Anavillalba03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Manuela Martin

Charlotte Oh

Charlotteoh01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Charlotteoh02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Charlotteoh03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Tammy Durham

Tammydurham01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Tammydurham02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Tammydurham03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

CactuSoup

Cactusoup01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Cactusoup02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Cactusoup03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Plasticine + Animation = Claymation

Clay animation, or claymation as it is popularly known, is one of the types of stop-motion animation which is extremely laborious. Each animated piece is sculpted in plasticine clay. Some of the best-known clay-animation artists and studios include Will Vinton, Aardman Animation, Art Clockey and many others.

Animatied Movies / TV Series

The Gumby Show (1957 – …)

Closed Mondays (1974)

Morph (1977 – …)

The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986)

Wallace and Gromit (1989 – present)

Wallace and Gromit in “A Matter of Loaf and Death” (2008)

Creature Comforts (1989)

Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase (1992)

Loves Me… Loves Me Not (1992)

Purple and Brown (2006 – …)

Shaun The Sheep (2007 – …)

Chess Game “Poole – HAL 9000″ (from the “2001: A Space Odyssey” movie)

Pigeon Pilfer (2009)

Plasticine Crow (1981) [RU]

Last Year’s Snow Was Falling (1983) [RU]

From Iljitsch to Kuzmich (2000 – …) [RU]

Movie / TV Opening Title Sequences

Freaked

Freaked01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Freaked02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Spokoynoy nochi, malyshi! [RU]

Advertising

Levi’s

Sony Bravia: Play-doh

Chevron Cars

American Express: Modelling Clay by OgilvyOne London

Xbox 360

Music Videos

Frank Zappa – Baby Snakes (1979)

John Fogerty – Vanz Kant Danz (1987)

Grizzly Bear – Ready, Able (2009)

Paolo Nutini – Pencil Full Of Lead (2009)

Computer / Console Games

Claymates (1993)

Claymates in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

ClayFighter (1993)

Clayfighter in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Primal Rage (1994)

Primalrage in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

The Neverhood (1996)

SkullMonkeys (1998)

Skullmonkeys in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Platypus (2002)

Platypus in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Gumby vs. the Astrobots (2005)

Gumby in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Cletus Clay (2006)

Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures (2008)

Shaun The Sheep

Plasticine + Web Design

Microsoft: {You shape} it

Webdesign01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

lauren.brandcubator

Webdesign02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

malum

Webdesign03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Plastilina Creativa

Webdesign04 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Zaramella

Webdesign05 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Plastilin Event

Webdesign06 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Plasticine + Typography

Typoplasticine01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Typoplasticine02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Further Resources

Installation Design

James May’s “Plasticine Paradise” garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2009 on May 19-23, 2009 in London, England.

Garden01 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Garden02 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Garden03 in Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

Plasticine Art Tutorials

What do you think?

What is your opinion on plasticine art? In case any exceptional plasticine works haven’’t been covered, please feel free to use the comments area to share your thoughts and suggest other beautiful works. We are looking forward to your feedback and your thoughts!


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So It’s Gonna Drizzle on Rackspace

Posted by Latest News from Cloud Computing Journal on Mar 12, 2010 in CLoud Computing, General, Silver Light, Technology News  | View Original Article
 Rackspace has picked up the Drizzle team that Oracle cast off when it acquired Sun. In case you don’t know, Drizzle is a cloud-directed, Linux-leaning, stripped-down, hitherto for unsupported, GPL 2 MySQL 6.0 fork that Rackspace is betting will infinitely scale, or at least scale better than MySQL. It looks like Rackspace means to go to production with the thing this year. Hopefully it will be stable. Drizzle runs the risk of not being as stable as MySQL, because the Drizzle team is taking things out and putting other stuff in. Of course it may be successful in trying to create a product that’s more stable than MySQL. But creating a stable DBMS engine is something that has always taken years and years.

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