WebMatrix

All those interested in ASP.NET might benefit from newest Microsoft toy. It is called WebMatrix and it is currently available as a beta. It brings to table everything lightweight web development needs: easy syntax (ASP.NET Razor), small database (well known SQL Server Compact Edition) and decent web server (IIS Developer Express). Those interested might as well check video presentation.

For me IIS Developer Express is probably best thing in this package. It is simple web server that does not need ninja to configure it properly. Works with any recent Windows system (yes, even XP is supported) and all that while having almost complete compatibility with full IIS Server. That is quite a feat since all IIS 7 modules are also supported alongside whole IIS 7 extensibility model.

All that and it needs only some space on hard drive and standard user privileges for both running and debugging.

Naming Issues

I had to install SQL Server 2008 R2 on Windows Server 2003. As soon as install started, I was greeted with message that Windows Installer 3.1 and .NET Framework 3.5 are missing (yes, it was quite an old installation). Fortunately links were provided and I was ready to continue install.

After checking system requirements, SQL Server had another surprise for me - it needed PowerShell 2.0. Although it was annoying that I haven’t got this error before, I just went to big evil Internet to download it.

To my surprise I could not find direct link to PowerShell 2.0 download. There was a lot of talk about it, quite a few links to PowerShell 1.0 - everything but quick link toward PowerShell 2.0. After restricting search to Microsoft only, problem was found.

For some reason Microsoft decided to pack PowerShell 2.0 with some additional tools and call it a Windows Management Framework update. Following links on that page finally brought me to download containing PowerShell 2.0 (among other things).

KulenDayz 2010

There is still hope in this world. KulenDayz 2010 conference will be held this year at little bit later date. As usual it will be three-day event starting on Friday evening (2009-09-03) and ending on Sunday afternoon (2010-09-05).

While I did give presentation on KulenDayz 2009, I am not sure whether I will give one this year but I am sure that I will attend anyhow.

Since conference will be held in Beli Manastir, Croatia I do understand that it is probably somewhat inconvenient to 97% of my foreign readers but I can promise that anyone coming will not be sorry.

Conference is small, friendly, free and you have a chance to meet me. It does not get better than that. :)

We're Off to See the Market

In order to put application on Android Market one of most important steps is signing it. There is pretty comprehensive guide available for that in developer documentation. I followed instructions wondering why everything needs to be done in command-line only to discover at the very end that those steps are not needed.

All you need is proper setup of your development environment. Once you have that, creating Market-ready application is just matter of right-clicking on project and selecting “Export Android Application”. From there wizard will guide you through key creation, compilation and all other necessary steps.

I'm on the Market

My first Android applications are out in-the-wild.

I will list them here:

• Poštanski broj will allow you to search through all places in Croatia in order to find their post number, geographic location or just to view map of their surrounding.
• Praznik will give you overview which holiday comes next in Croatia.
• Rođoš makes use of existing birthday field in contacts and shows them all in one place.

As you might guess, user interface is in Croatian. Fortunately all applications are quite simple so usage for non-Croatian speakers should also be possible. English version might come in future but that highly depends on my free time.