How to read and write a DataSet from and to XML (C#)

private DataSet ReadDataSet(string dataPath)
{
    DataSet ds = new DataSet();
    ds.ReadXml(dataPath, XmlReadMode.ReadSchema);
    return ds;
}
private void WriteDataSet(DataSet ds, string path)
{
    ds.WriteXml(path, XmlWriteMode.WriteSchema);
}

How to convert a comma seperated file (.csv) into a dataset (C#)

A small program to convert .csv file into a dataset which returns a dataset.

public DataSet CSVFileParser( string fileName)
{
     string pathName = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(fileName);
     string file = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(fileName);
     OleDbConnection excelConnection = new OleDbConnection
     (@"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source="+ pathName + ";Extended Properties=Text;");
     OleDbCommand excelCommand = newOleDbCommand(@"SELECT * FROM "+ file, excelConnection);
     OleDbDataAdapter excelAdapter = newOleDbDataAdapter(excelCommand);
     excelConnection.Open();
     DataSet ds = new DataSet();
     excelAdapter.Fill(ds);
     excelConnection.Close();
     return ds;
}

Hope this is helpful. Happy coding!

URL Escape Characters

What is the % Code in My URL?

In order to prevent the misinterpretation of special characters such as a space, bracket (< and >), or % in the URL (which stands for Uniform Resource Locator - it is the address you see in your browser's address bar indicating the location of the website you are visiting), browsers parse certain special characters using URL escape characters.

Table of URL Escape Characters
Character	Escape Character	Character	Escape Character
Space	%20	#	%23
$	%24	%	%25
&	%26	@	%40
'	%60	/	%2F
:	%3A	;	%3B
<	%3C	=	%3D
>	%3E	?	%3F
[	%5B	\	%5C
]	%5D	^	%5E
{	%7B	|	%7C
}	%7D	~	%7E

 

Good Coding Practice

It is good coding practice to avoid the need for URL escape characters. As a rule of thumb, avoid using the special characters above when formulating a URI string (filename), and I recommend using the hyphen (-) instead of the underscore (_) (as all search engines recognize the hyphen as a space separator, but the same is not true for the underscore; and older browsers do not correctly interpret the underscore in CSS). If you must use the above characters make sure to escape them using the above escape characters so when the browser parses your code it will not misinterpret the link. It's important to note that these URL escape characters differ from HTML escape characters.

Which ajax control toolkit version?

You need the Toolkit version 1.0.20229.0, AjaxControlToolkit.zip the dll's are targeted to .NET 2.0 and you need also the ASP.NET AJAX Extensions 1.0 for .NET 2.0.

FireAtlas – Firebug for ASP.NET

FireAtlas is a Firebug extension dedicated to ASP.NET AJAX. It enables tracing of PageRequestManager events, Partial Updates and WebService calls.
It lists all ASP.NET Ajax components instantiated in a page.

FireAtlas will provide you with useful services when developing ASP.NET AJAX web sites:
* PageRequestManager events tracing
* WebService calls tracing and inspection
* Partial Update inspection within Firebug Net Panel
* ASP.NET Components listing

This add-on can be downloaded here.

Here are the extensions available for Firebug.