Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5 Express

Microsoft has released final version of it’s so called lighter version of IIS 7.5 called as “IIS 7.5 Express” which makes developers to utilize the features of IIS 7.5 in Windows XP and above Operating system environments. IIS 7.5 Express is a simple and self-contained version of IIS 7.5 that is optimized for developers. IIS 7.5 Express enhances your ability to develop and test web applications on Windows by combining the power of IIS 7.5 with the convenience of a lightweight web server like the ASP.NET Development Server (also known as Cassini). IIS 7.5 Express is included with Microsoft Web Matrix, an integrated suite of tools designed to make developing web applications on Windows simple and seamless. IIS 7.5 Express can also be used with Visual Studio 2010 as a powerful alternative to Cassini. The benefits of using IIS 7.5 Express include:

• The same web server that runs on your production server is now available on your development computer.
• Most tasks can be done without the need for administrative privileges.
• IIS 7.5 Express runs on Windows XP and all later versions of Windows.
• Many users can work independently on the same computer.

Download: IIS 7.5 Express Final

Export GridView to Excel in ASP.NET

Here is the same code to export GridView from C# in ASP.NET

protected void ExportButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=Contacts.xls");
   Response.Charset = String.Empty;
   Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.xls";
   System.IO.StringWriter sw = new System.IO.StringWriter();
   System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter hw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw);
   ContactsGridView.RenderControl(hw);
   Response.Write(sw.ToString());
   Response.End();
 }

Hope this is useful

How to update Web.config dynamically?

I need to update web.config dynamically? So this is what I did, this code below has done the trick for me.

string value = "webmaster@company.com";
Configuration config = webConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration("~");
AppSettingsSection appsetting = config.GetSection("appSettings");
appsetting.Settings("fromAddress").Value = value;
config.Save();

Make sure to add System.Web.Configuration in the namespace. Have fun

assemblyBinding: Using Shared DLLs in .NET

How to Share DLLs in VS 2010. Recently I and my team had a problem working with a Shared DLL. Our developers are saving our project in different locations of our computer. Few are saving in D drive and few in E drive. So while getting latest solution from the Visual source safe some of us are having missing references problem with the DLLs when we have Shared DLLs in a location. So to resolve this we have created a folder in *\bin folder with name Shareddlls and placed all the Shared dls in that folder.

Once we have done this we need to add piece of code in web.config.

 <runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <probing privatePath="bin;bin/shareddlls" />
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>

This worked perfectly for me. Microsoft rocks. When I first read that .NET assemblies could be "redirected" at runtime, I was stunned and a little bit suspicious. By using Assembly Binding Redirection you can redirect an assembly binding reference to another version of an assembly by using entries in the application or machine configuration files. You can redirect references to .NET Framework assemblies, third-party assemblies, or assemblies of your own application. Each version of the .NET Framework has a machine configuration file, and any redirection information in that file affect all applications running under that version of the .NET Framework.

Redirecting .NET Framework Assembly Binding

The .NET Framework assembly unification model treats all .NET Framework assemblies of a given version, and the runtime of that version, as a single unit. The redirections that occur with this model are the default behavior for the runtime.
There are several ways to instruct the runtime to load a .NET Framework assembly with a different version than that of the loaded runtime:

• Add settings in the application configuration file.


• Add settings in the machine configuration file.


• Create a publisher policy file that is distributed with a component to specify which assemblies a component should use.

A binding redirection in an application configuration file for a unified .NET Framework assembly cancels the unification for that assembly. To redirect an assembly binding reference for an assembly that is not part of the .NET Framework, specify the binding redirection information in the application configuration file using the <assemblyBinding> element.

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