Library tutorials & articles
-
SQL Trusted Connections with ASP.NET
by Barry Dorrans
Hard coding passwords into your application or your web site is a bad thing. Barry looks at how we can use trusted connections to provide the authentication we need, without the need for these potential security hazards.
-
Microsoft Indexing Service and ASP.NET
by Barry Dorrans
Microsoft Indexing Service is a service that provides a means of quickly searching for files on the machine. Barry investigates how we can use the indexing service to expose full-text searching in ASP.NET.
-
Using SQL Server for ASP.NET session state
by Barry Dorrans
Learn how you can use an alternative session storage method, using SQL Server - very useful if you're running sites across multiple servers, or need session state to persist across application restarts.
-
Common Intermediate Language
by Granville Barnettt
Granville gets down with the CLR, and takes a look at CIL/MSIL - the intermediate language that every .NET language gets compiled to, and has full access to the capabilities of the CLR.
-
Have you seen the Silverlight?
by Dave Wheeler
So you want fancy, sexy streaming media in the UI? And you want cool animations, fancy glow-in-the-dark buttons and decent, scalable vector graphics? And you want to run your application in a browser on both Windows and Mac OSX? If you’re already reaching for your copy of How to Wow with Flash, stop. There’s a new kid muscling onto the somewhat crowded Rich Interactive Application (RIA) block, and it’s coming from Microsoft.
-
Putting the Cart After the Horse: Project Planning and Scope Definition
by Chris Wright
Without proper project planning that defines scope and Work Breakdown Structure, it's easy for projects to get out of hand in today's complex business world. Learn how to define your project from the beginning and help keep it on time and on budget.
-
Effective Controls for Attaining Continuous Application Security Throughout the Web Application Development Life Cycle
by Caleb Sima
Improving your Web application development process is one of the best ways to avoid security vulnerabilities and nasty surprises during security assessments. Learn about the points in the software development life cycle where additional security awareness and training is needed to ensure that your organization remains successful and secure.
-
Improving Application Quality Using Test-Driven Development (TDD)
by Craig Murphy
What is the one activity or phase that improves the quality of your application? The answer is an easy one: Testing, and plenty of it. Traditionally, testing is a phase somewhere towards the expected end of the project - when the cost of any code or requirement changes is known to be much higher. Craig looks at how TDD can address this by adopting a more agile approach.
-
Ten CSS Tricks You May Not Know
by Trenton Moss
Some great tips and tricks using CSS - from applying more than one CSS class to an element, specifying a different style sheet to be used for printing, image replacement techniques and more.
-
Using Ajax for Web Application Development: What Businesses Need to Know
by Francis Wong
Ajax is a hot topic today when it comes to web application development projects. Because it's become such a buzzword, businesses may be wondering how they can incorporate this form of web programming into their websites and what the benefits could be. This article will help you understand the origins of Ajax as well as the pros and cons of its use.
-
Web Application Vulnerability Assessment Essentials
by Caleb Sima
It is important for a business to understand the fundamentals of running a vulnerability assessment in order to determine how one will be run and what can be expected from the results. A web application security scanner can automate the process, but a quality assessment may still require actual human eyes to catch specific issues. Learn more about the whys and hows of vulnerability assessments.
-
Secrets of Successful Software Requirements
by Igor Jese
Although most companies do some form of requirements, there is often a lack of understanding as to exactly why the requirements need to be created and how. Let's look at some secrets to improve your requirements process even under tight deadlines.
-
Top 10 Application Security Vulnerabilities in Web.config Files - Part Two
by Bryan Sullivan
In this second part of a two-part series, you will learn about application security issues related to authentication and authorization, as well as five vulnerabilities commonly found in ASP.NET web-based applications. Additionally, find out how to keep configuration files from being unintentionally modified by uninformed programmers or administrators, as well as why it is critical to never rely on default setting values.
-
Top 10 Application Security Vulnerabilities in Web.config Files - Part One
by Bryan Sullivan
In part one of this two part article, you will learn about five of the top ten “worst offenders” of misconfigurations of application security that can cause overall problems for ASP.NET Web-based applications. Learn more about how to secure the Web.config files of an ASP.NET application.
-
Edit and Encrypt Web.Config sections using C# 2.0
by Mohammed Habeeb
An article to illustrate editing and encrypting of sections of Web.Config file programatically. It is illustrated with an ASP.NET 2.0 application, which can edit and encrypt sections of Web.Config.
-
Service-Oriented Architecture: What Is It and How Can It Help Your Business?
by Charlie Fink
Service-oriented architecture is a hot topic in today’s business world, and it can provide many key benefits. It is important to look at service-oriented architectures from both a real-world perspective as well as a technical perspective to gain a complete understanding of this new concept. Read more about service-oriented architecture and learn how it can add functionality to Web-based applications and save developers time over the long term.
-
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Checklist
by James Crowley
Search engine optimisation is pretty much part and parcel of creating websites these days. Getting the basics right don't require a large amount of work, but can make all the difference.
-
Developing for Office 2007
by Matt Nicholson
The forthcoming 2007 Microsoft Office System offers many new opportunities for software developers. Matt Nicholson looks at the new user interface and the Open XML file format, finds out what's happened to VSTO, and explores the possibilities opened up by SharePoint Server 2007 and Groove 2007.
-
Testing for Security in the Age of Ajax Programming
by Bryan Sullivan
Ajax programming, which allows a web page to refresh a small portion of its data from a web server, is an exciting technology that has recently been introduced. However, this type of programming can also leave applications open to SQL injection and similar attacks. Learn more about Ajax programming and what it means in terms of security.
-
Read and write Open XML files (MS Office 2007)
by Zeljko Svedic
Learn how to read and write Open XML files in the new Microsoft Office 2007, with a particular examination of the Excel file format.
