Archive for October, 2010


I’m a huge fan of making code shorter, where possible. One of the tricks that I use the most often is to make shorthand IF/ELSE statements. It seems as though a lot of beginner programmers are coming across these on the internet and can’t understand what’s going on. I can assure you that, once you see the syntax, you’ll easily understand it and even become a fan.

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Case-Sensitive Calls to SQL

on October 14, 2010 | Filed Under SQL | No Comments »

Storing case-sensitive information in a SQL database can be a bit of a challenge. Traditionally, if you’re going to store information that needs to be retrieved based on the case, you need to encrypt it. But what happens when you are brought in on a project and a data set has been given to you, which has been created over a long period of time? Sure, you can create an application that goes through and encrypts the data, then go through thousands of lines of code, to ensure that every reference to that field is changed to use your encryption method. But maybe that’s not an option.

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Rounding Corners with CSS 3

on October 13, 2010 | Filed Under CSS | No Comments »

With the prospect of CSS 3 (sometimes referred to as CSS 5, due to its release with HTML5) becoming a standard within web browsers, many web designers have began implementing some of the new features on their websites. One of the most anticipated implementations is the use of Rounded Corners.

You may recall from my post, Creating Rounded Corners, that the current implementation of CSS requires you to create images and use a bit of programming to accomplish a small effect. Thanks to the newest version of CSS, that is no longer the case.

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I was browsing some forums over the weekend and someone had asked how you can validate an ASP.NET CheckBoxList on the client-side. The natural instinct would be to use the RequiredFieldValidator control. Unfortunately, this control is not compatible with the CheckBoxList

The only way to properly accomplish this is by using Javascript, or creating a server-side user control that has some Javascript built into it. So here’s my solution:

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Creating Rounded Corners

on October 11, 2010 | Filed Under CSS | No Comments »

Today’s lesson is focusing on the current way to implement rounded corners, as part of your site’s design. Some designers use them on small elements, while others use them for the entire site’s layout. CSS 3 (sometimes referred to as CSS 5,) as part of HTML5, will be introducing rounded corners as a standard command (See my post, Rounding Corners with CSS 3), eliminating the need to use graphics to produce them. Until then, web designers and programmers are forced to keep Photoshop handy.

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