So what are we to do?

I thought, why not make that experience a little bit friendlier.  Why not show them a Flikr slideshow, a YouTube video or maybe a count down of the estimated repair time.  Maybe even a screencast of the new features that will be available when the updates are done.  The possibilities are endless.  So I threw together a simple app_offline.htm that utilizes a little client side scripting to improve the experience.

For my example, which you can view here (be sure to start the video right away to see the full effect), I added a YouTube video for their enjoyment.  The app_offline.htm file pings the application every 5 seconds.  If the site returns ok (status 200) we pass them on to the application.  To help usability, I only redirect them if the video is in a “not started”, “ended” or “cued” state.  If the video is playing, I update a message on the page, letting them that the site is back up and they can navigate to it when they are ready.

I also thought it might be nice for this example to pull in a Twitter feed account that is set up for applicaition outages.  This way users get an idea of what is going on.

Really the possibilities are endless.  Just remember, you’re restricted to resources with the app_offline.htm file or pulled in from another domain.  That’s right, no local images or scripts.  If you come up with a creative app_offline.htm file, please post a comment and link for others to gain inspiration.

Here’s an example

            LinqMetaData metaData = new LinqMetaData();

            var q = from customer in metaData.Customer
                    where customer.Id == customerId
                    select new { id = customer.Id, name = p.FullName };

            JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
            return serializer.Serialize(q);

Here’s another example with a 1:m return:

            LinqMetaData metaData = new LinqMetaData();

            var q = from meeting in metaData.ReviewMeeting
                    select new
                    {
                        CreatedBy = meeting.CreatedBy,
                        ReviewProvider = from providers in meeting.ReviewProvider
                                         select new { ProviderName = providers.FullName }
                    };

            JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
            return serializer.Serialize(q);

Nice thing about using the new linq features in LLBLGenPro is you’re only bringing back the data you care about. Yes, you could always ignore fields, but isn’t it easier to tell it what you want instead of what you don’t want?

Thoughts? I’d love to hear them.

Well it was a simple task until I tried to generate a thumbnail from a gif. After hours and hours trying to figure out how to improve the resolution I found a great article addressing this particular issue.

The key to this conundrum you ask? Color quantization.

Unfortunately System.Drawing uses a web-safe palette even though just about every gif you’ve ever seen uses an adaptive palette.

Before implementing Brendan Tompkins Octree-based quantization technique:
After implementing Brendan Tompkins Octree-based quantization technique:

The trick to setting up two different UpdatePanels is this. Lets say you have an UpdatePanel containing a GridView in one ContentPlaceHolder displaying a customer’s order history. You have another UpdatePanel in another ContentPlaceHolder that will display the order details when an order is selected.

The problem is you can’t declaratively set the Trigger to a control in a different ContentPlaceHolder.

What you need to do is override the OnInit() method.

Here is an example:

protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)
{
     base.OnInit(e);
     AsyncPostBackTrigger trigger = new AsyncPostBackTrigger();
     trigger.ControlID = grdOrderList.UniqueID;
     trigger.EventName = "SelectedIndexChanged";
     updateDetails.Triggers.Add(trigger);
}

Combine this with the UpdatePanelAnimation control to give a visual cue to the user that the data has been updated and you have a simple ajaxified solution.

<ajaxtoolkit:updatepanelanimationextender
    id="upAnimation"
    behaviorid="upAnim"
    targetcontrolid="updateDetails"
    runat="server">
    <animations>
        <onupdating>
            <sequence>
                <color
                 animationtarget="updateDetails"
                 duration="1"
                 startvalue="#ffffff"
                 endvalue="#ffffcc"
                 property="style"
                 propertykey="backgroundColor">
                </color>
            </sequence>
        </onupdating>
        <onupdated>
            <sequence>
                <color
                 animationtarget="updateDetails"
                 duration="1"
                 startvalue="#ffffcc"
                 endvalue="#ffffff"
                 property="style"
                 propertykey="backgroundColor">
                </color>
            </sequence>
        </onupdated>
    </animations>
</ajaxtoolkit:updatepanelanimationextender>

I created a simple Google gadget to show me how much money I have left before my caffeine headache kicks in. It’s a nice addition to my iGoogle account.

Project owned by: Miller Whiterunkle

Project owned by: Miller Whiterunkle

Project owned by: Miller Whiterunkle

System utilizes an extensive team/player validation engine that not only guarantees data integrity, but ensures the teams are ranked according to the aggregate of the player’s abilities.

Project owned by: Miller Whiterunkle