Mono and ASP.NET Authentication - asp.net

Does anyone know how to get to work the authentication mechanism configured using Web Site Administration Tool under Linux running Mono? Is it even possible?

I don't think you're going to find a ton of support for this, evidenced by the lack of activity on your question. The Web Site Administration Tool was removed from CodePlex around April 2009 due to inactivity (CodePlex rules state: It must be an ongoing project (no "abandoned" projects)) and it's use/adoption really declined. Many projects that were using it as a component just wrote their own after that.
There have been a few alternatives that have popped up in the community after it went missing:
Rolling Your Own Website Administration Tool
Create Your Own Web Site Administration Tool in ASP.NET
I think using code from one of those two projects is going to come as close to what you're after as is available. It's not ideal and will require some work to get working with the back-ends you desire (both of those use a SQL server back-end). I know this answer sucks, but sometimes that's the answer. I hope someone comes and proves me wrong and that what you want is out there, or at least could provide the WSAT source code as it last was on codeplex...that's be a huge head start in getting it to run.
If you're referring to a different WSAT please comment and correct me....it's such a generic term really, but that was by far the most popular one so I based this answer on that.

You have to set up your database schema manually for Membership/Roles support if using Mono. That said, following the FAQ answer (which I have found very handy in the past) alone may not be enough, I am not sure about the other dependancies for the Web Site Administration Tool itself (e.g. any .NET specific libraries it needs) but combined with an appropriate membership provider configured in system.web I'd say there is a reasonable chance it may.
If that doesn't work for you, I would second Nick's suggestion of taking a look at the solution by 4GuysFromRolla.com who have a lot of good info relevant to both .NET & Mono.

Related

Paypal PayFlow Pro Asp.Net configuration

So, this does not necessarily have to do directly with the code itself, although it is certainly a component of it.
I recently downloaded and installed the PayFlow Pro SDK for use with ASP.net
link here:
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/library_download_sdks
I installed this to my development machine. I also came accross this example code which I figured outlined the primary setup for basic Paypal Credit Card Transaction functionality.
link here:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/PayPal_PayflowPro.aspx
Anyways, I have two main questions
Do I have to install the SDK on the web hosts server in order to utilize the functionality of it? This seems to make sense, however, the tutorial in the second link suggests I create a web reference. Unless I am not understanding something here, wouldn't this just strictly work on my development machine, or at least, the functionality of the remote website that references this web reference to access the sdk, would this not be dependent on my computer running and broadcasting this information?
I just need clarification on how to install and/or access the sdk for use on a remote webhosts server (ie. do i need to install the sdk on the web-hosts server and if so, how would one go about doing so (ie. where to install, how to install)?).
Are there any other clean cut examples like my second link provides, that sort of outline the basic functionality of Payflow Pro? I find paypal's examples numerous and convoluted and their online slides/video tutorials to be tedious.
Perhaps I should just get off my lazy ass, but I have found peers from the general community to be much more informative in a way more efficient manner, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
For anyone interested, after enough searching I found a great example that notified me of all the fundamental processes to creating a basic transaction and allowed me the knowledge to further manipulate the sdk.
Check it -
Code Projects PayflowPro example and introduction.

Umbraco alternative?

I've been trying to learn how develop websites with ASP.NET as well as setup a personal website to use as a online porfolio/resume. With my website I've decided to not try to reinvent the wheel and thus decided to use a premade ASP.NET based CMS.
After reading a lot of reviews I settled on Umbraco, but now I'm seeking out alternatives. I like Umbraco a lot but I keep running into problems. Since installing it on my host I haven't made any changes through the file system, or database directly. All changes have been through the admin site. Yet somehow I kept getting it into some state where I could not delete a datatype, and now I'm having problems removing or renaming one of my templates. I've searched for Umbraco forums for solutions and usually find that I have to run some SQL script workaround on the database to clean things up. This kind of thing is really not something I want to fiddle with for my personal site.
Has anyone else had a lot of problems with Umbraco like I have? Are there other free CMS systems out there that are more reliable, yet similar to Umbraco? Specifically I really like how Umbraco gives me total control over the HTML generated by my site. Simple is also better in this case. I'm not trying to create some kind social network/community portal/forum/blog site. There won't be multiple people logging onto this site or anything like that.
I've been reading a bit about N2, which I'm now starting to consider. I like that it's more developer based and that you setup page types through real .NET classes in Visual Studio. Again I don't want to attempt to build my own CMS from scratch, but at the same time I really don't like how hard it is to see what's going on under the hood with most other CMS systems.
I haven't used N2 so I can't comment on that, but alternatives you can consider are Orchard or FunnelWeb, both are on MVC 3 and Razor.
If you're wanting a blog that is mostly just a blog then FunnelWeb is a good option.
I'm currently writing a comparison between Orchard and Umbraco if you're interested as well.
I think you'll be happy you stuck with Umbraco. I was so frustrated with Umbraco when I first started working with it for the exact reasons you stated above. The issue with not being able to delete data types could mean that it's connected to something (IE: document or media type) somewhere and if you force delete it (IE: via the db) you could really mess up your install. <- speaking from experience.
I'm absolutely in love with Umbraco now though. I am completely confident that I can build just about anything I need with it now.
I think that my best piece of advice I can pull from my own experience is make sure that you've got your site architecture planned out thoroughly before starting to build it out in Umbraco. You don't want to be fiddling around in there afterward changing things and that's where you can really get yourself into some hot water.
Have fun!
if you want a minimal .net mvc4 cms with good performance check out puck https://bitbucket.org/yohsii/puck/overview
it adds very few concepts on top of what you need to know for .net mvc but it does require .net4.5 (and therefore VS2012) to work with.
it also uses localdb out of the box but if you don't want to install that just attach the database mdf file to regular sql server and change the connection string

How can I convert a bunch of .asp to .aspx?

I want to port an existing, legacy, ecommerce website from ASP to ASP.NET.
What approaches do I have ?
is there a way to run an ASP file with an ASP.NET engine ?
are there tools to automatically convert ASP to ASP.NET and do they work on complex websites ?
other approaches ?
Thanks for your help
Jerome Wagner
No, but if you have Asp.NET on the server, that doesn't mean the Asp pages won't run anyway. Having Asp.Net installed does not break classic asp. However, newer versions of Windows come with classic Asp turned off by default, so you have to go into add/remove programs/add/remove windows components and drill down to install asp. And there's nothing to prevent you from having asp pages sitting side-by-side with Asp.Net pages in te same website, or even the same directory, so really the first question si not really an issue.
I've never heard of them. Classic ASP is so different from Asp.NET that it's just not feasible.
Manually, one page at a time. And that is an approach that has issues because sharing session between Asp and Asp.Net is not trivial and relies on hacks.
I know this isn't an answer to your question and it's probably none of my business, but in my experience, this may be a good time to look at a commercial ecommerce site. Several are out there at good prices. The amount of time you'll spend on this may be way less than you'd spend. Also, PCI rules and security issues have changed so much since classic Asp was a "real" development platform that you're definitely better off with a commercial app.
I say this from experience. We just replaced our old shopping cart with a commercial one after spending quite a bit of time going back and forth on our best approach. If you can afford it, i strongly recommend it.
The other answers are valid, so I'll only add that there is a migration tool of sorts provided by microsoft: The ASP to ASP.NET 1.x Migration tool . It doesn't claim to completely migrate a site, but may assist with a large portion of it. Of course, this assumes that a asp.net 1.1 site will run just fine on the latest incarnation of asp.net.
Step 1. Gather requirements for the new system
Step 2. Does anything exist that already meets your needs? if so, stop here and buy it.
Step 3. Build a data model and screen designs.
Step 4. Does the new system jive with the stake holders expectations. Go back to step 1 if necessary.
Step 5. Code new site
If necessary, review various standard project templates (scrum, waterfall, whatever). Pick one and stick to it.
You'll notice a distinct lack of anything remotely related to "converting" the old code / data files to the new platform. This is to preserve your sanity and help ensure the project will be a success.
To answer the actual question: no. You might as well have asked if there were tools to convert a php site to java. They are radically different things with their own approaches.

Framework /starting point for social networking site in .NET?

I did do some googling and searching on this site but did not find exactly what I was looking for.
I'm hoping that someone can point me in the right direction here. I'm an ASP.NET/SQL Server developer and would like to develop a (intially) basic social networking site (gasp). Before I start from scratch with a blank solution in ASP.NET, I'm wondering if there are any frameworks out there ASP.NET specific that would serve as a good starting point. I'm already thinking of using the Google Maps jquery control for my Google Maps integration, as well as the 'sharethis' control for my social networking website sharing integration. Captcha for human authentication... But other than that I'm not sure what I can leverage... Nothing on Google jumped out at me on my search terms.
I'm also wondering if anyone else has done something similar and could share their post mortem/war stories with me.
I'm also open to learning a new platform/language if it would mean saving time - my experience is mostly in ASP.NET, so that is what I plan on using if it makes the most sense. My initial requirements are basic and realistic - profile setup (images, information, etc.), 'group' creation, Google Map integration, calendar controls shared by groups, SMS support, discussion forums among groups, searching for groups, OpenID integration most likely, etc. I am not going to try to build the entire site and then release it, but take baby steps and release pieces of functionality at a time.
Any advice is greatly appreciated for a broad question such as this. Thanks again.
I've found DotNetOpenAuth which seems to be a nice API for handling OpenID for ASP.NET web forms. They also have an ASP.NET MVC version
I also found MS Web Platform. This looks like some good stuff. Anyone ever use it and think it would do well for this sort of app?
I found a library for DotNetNuke called ActiveSocial. It's priced right ($500) and has more than the features I need but lacks some. I wonder if anyone here has ever used AS before. Is DNN easy to extend so I can add Google Maps functionality and such? It doesn't say anywhere on snowcovered (the vendor that sells AS) if AS comes with the source. If it didn't, then I might be screwed because I wouldn't be able to integrate the functionality I want.
I went through this exercise about 15 months ago when I built a SNS for a client. Hoping to find some basic framework for Friends, Chat, Profiles etc I was pretty disappointed.
That said, in retrospect I wish rather than building one that we would have purchased a solution like Community Server. As with most projects I looked at the problem scope with beer, no strike that, ambitious goggles on and the level of work to cover all the edge cases was more than I imagined.
Tread careful my friend, tread careful.
I think this is what you're looking for. Kigg is an open source ASP.NET MVC app that would be a good starting point for what you want. Here is the url: http://www.codeplex.com/Kigg
You can also find a site that is using this here: http://dotnetshoutout.com/
At the very least you will learn the ASP.NET MVC framework which is fantastic.
While not exactly intended to be used for social networking sites, both of these frameworks can help you so you don't have to start from scratch:
DotNetNuke: http://www.dotnetnuke.com/
Umbraco: http://umbraco.org/
Also, for an out of the box solution (no code involved) you could always try this: http://www.ning.com/
Good luck!

ESB Toolkit 2.0 - Is Anyone REALLY ACTUALLY Using It?

We've made a big investment in Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 and it works like a dream for all our asynchronous work. We want to do much more synchronous work with it, though, and that's why we're seriously looking into the ESB Toolkit 2.0.
However, I've had issue after issue with this toolkit, and my gut feeling is that it falls short of being enterprise-ready. In other words, there are just too many bits that need to be installed in the absolute correct sequence, and too many things that can (and do) go wrong - too much hacking of .config files to get it to work, documentation full of errors, exception messages with spelling mistakes, etc.
Anyone share that opinion?
Is anyone actually using this toolkit in a live production environment?
Have you got BTS 2006/2009 but decided against using ESB Toolkit?
Really interested to hear some opinions.
Thanks
Andrew
I think there are many developers and projects out there that found the same issues about the ESB toolkit that you describe. I've seen a handful of projects and companies leverage the toolkit but usually what I see is that the source code is used (not the MSIs and/or compiled code, the source is cleaned up and only parts of it are deployed on the project. I've seen the ESB portal be used the most for its "out of the box" error management features and since its ASP.NET I've seen and been part of extensions built for it. I think it will get there, kind of reminds me of the early years of the enterprise library, in my opinion it only got enterprise ready after 3-4 years of development.
We have spent a few years improving the ESB Toolkit, making is useful. We have a SharePoint web part (that can be used with SP Foundation).
There are quite a few enhancements. To name a few:
Re-submission at the point of failure (instead of the beginning of the itinerary)
Friendly XML editor (instead of a string editor)
Logging of business data
Ajax portal (no pressing F5 all of the time)
Visibility into all of the steps of the itinerary (what has happened, what is next)
Logging of who made modifications

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