Practical .NET


Getting E-Mail Out the Door

Having looked at how to prepare an e-mail object, Peter turns his attention to getting the message mailed to someone.

The MailMessage Always Delivers

The MailMessage object that's part of .NET lets you send e-mail notifications to your users and supports all the customizations you'd want in e-mail.

On UI: Forget About the 'Experts'

Peter returns to the topic of user interfaces to explain why you shouldn't waste any time helping your "expert" users -- and what you should be doing instead.

'U' Scream, 'I' Scream: A UI Rant

Set aside ASP.NET for now. Let's talk about the most fundamental error developers make in designing their site's user interface.

Adding Events to User Controls

To fully exploit User Controls, you need to treat them as object -- which includes having them fire events. If firing your own events is new to you, here's a step-by-step guide.

User Controls as Objects

ASP.NET developers don't fully exploit User Controls -- until they start thinking of them as "User Interface" objects.

Create a Reporting Dashboard with WebPartZones (But Without WebParts)

All you need to let your users customize their Web pages is the ability to create UserControls.

Displaying and Updating Dynamic DataBound Columns with ObjectDataSource

Peter continues his series on integrating cascading DropDownLists with databound controls. But this time, he looks at what's different when you're using the ObjectDataSource.

Updating Dynamic DataBound Columns with SqlDataSource

Peter continues his series on integrating cascading DropDownLists with databound controls and the SqlDataSource.

Integrating Dynamic DataBound Columns with SqlDataSource

You've given your users cascading DropDownLists to make it easy for them to find the item they want -- but now your page won't update. Peter has a solution for single-tier applications using the SqlDataSource.

Integrating Master Pages + Content Pages + a Little AJAX

Getting your content and master pages to work side-by-side is easy, thanks to UpdatePanel.

Handling Runtime Errors Globally

Unhandled runtime errors hit the best of us. But if you catch them at the Page and Application levels, you'll save yourself a lot of grief.

Updating Multiple GridView Rows

Putting updateable controls in the ItemTemplate in a GridView gives developers what they want: the ability for users to change more than one row at a time. The cost is writing some extra code.

Accessing Connection Strings Reliably

Peter provides an alternative to the default mechanism for accessing connection string -- and plugs his next book.

Supporting Routing

Want to make life easier for your users? NET 3.5 SP1's routing technology has some extra features to let you do just that.

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