Yesterday I received a visual studio 2010 Ultimate edition from work.

I’ve already test the  express edition when it was in beta phase, but it’s not the same …

So, let’s install it !

I install it on a Fujitsu Siemens laptop with 4 GB Ram and a Intel Core 2 Duo processor (2,53 GHz) running  Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate edition.

Launch the auto run program

Loading screen

Click Next

Read and accept the license terms

Choose your installation mode : Full installation (takes more than 6 GB) or Custom installation

I choose Custom

Select the features you want :

(notice that “Microsoft SharePoint Developer Tools” are integrated)

I just don’t want Dotfuscator community to be installed, so I uncheck  it

I keep the rest because I want to test some features

Click Install

Installation running :

After less than 10 minutes, the installation asked me to restart my computer:

I click “Restart Now”

When restarting, a loading form is showing

Then the setup continue

After about 45 minutes, the setup is finished

You can choose to install the documentation, but I choose to click on the “Finish” button.

The installation windows appears :

I Click Exit

Visual Studio 2010 is now installed

The installation takes me about one hour, and no problem occurred.

Now I can launch the product

I choose my default environment settings (I used to choose Visual C# Development settings so I pick this one).

I Click on “Start Visual Studio”

First time loading form

Visual studio is up and running

Help and documentation are on the start page:

A What’s new section is available on the start page :

• Visual Studio 2010 Overview
• What’s new in .NET Framework 4
• What’s new in Visual C#

Some other links are available :

• Creating application with Visual Studio
• Extending Visual Studio
• Community and Learning Resources

Some resources for Windows, Web, Cloud, Office,SharePoint and Data development are accessible too.

Next step : migration of a Visual studio 2008 solution !

If you want to use asp.net validation system with the SharePoint’s DateTimeControl, the first thing you need to know is that this control is “just” a wrapper around simple ASP.NET controls (textbox, dropdownlist).

If you want to set the ControlToValidate property of an ASP.NET validator to the DateTimeControl’s ID, it will throw an error!
As you can guess, you have to target the controls inside the DateTimeControl.

Since the DateTimeControl set the name of the controls programmatically, you can retrieve the id of the control:

• Textbox date: DateTimeControl.ID +”Date”
• Dropdownlist hours: DateTimeControl.ID +”DateHours”
• Dropdownlist minutes: DateTimeControl.ID +”DateMinutes”

Example:

If you use the SharePoint:DateTimeControl with the TimeOnly property set to “true”

<SharePoint:DateTimeControl runat="server" ID="TheTime" TimeOnly="true"/>

You’ll have two dropdownlists, one for the hours and one for the minutes
The DateTimeControl set the name:

Dropdownlist hours: DateTimeControl.ID +”DateHours”

Html will be:

<select name="ctl00$PlaceHolderMain$ctl07$ctl02$TheTime$TheTimeDateHours" id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl07_ctl02_TheTime_TheTimeDateHours" dir="ltr">
 <option value="00:">00:</option>
 <option value="01:">01:</option>
 <option value="02:">02:</option>
 <option value="03:">03:</option>
 <option value="04:">04:</option>
 <option value="05:">05:</option>
 <option value="06:">06:</option>
 <option value="07:">07:</option>
 <option value="08:">08:</option>
 <option value="09:">09:</option>
 <option value="10:">10:</option>
 <option value="11:">11:</option>
 <option value="12:">12:</option>
 <option value="13:">13:</option>
 <option value="14:">14:</option>
 <option value="15:">15:</option>
 <option value="16:">16:</option>
 <option value="17:">17:</option>
 <option value="18:">18:</option>
 <option value="19:">19:</option>
 <option value="20:">20:</option>
 <option value="21:">21:</option>
 <option value="22:">22:</option>
 <option value="23:">23:</option>
</select>

Dropdownlist minutes: DateTimeControl.ID +”DateMinutes”
Html will be:

<select name="ctl00$PlaceHolderMain$ctl07$ctl02$TheTime$TheTimeDateMinutes" id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl07_ctl02_TheTime_TheTimeDateMinutes" dir="ltr">
 <option value="00">00</option>
 <option value="05">05</option>
 <option value="10">10</option>
 <option value="15">15</option>
 <option value="20">20</option>
 <option value="25">25</option>
 <option value="30">30</option>
 <option value="35">35</option>
 <option value="40">40</option>
 <option value="45">45</option>
 <option value="50">50</option>
 <option value="55">55</option>
</select>

So you can retrieve the ASP.NET controls by using :

• For the date: TheTime$TheTimeDate
• For the hours: TheTime$TheTimeDateHours
• For the minutes: TheTime$TheTimeDateMinutes

Real case example:

I have two DateTimeControl, one named TheStartTime and one other named TheEndTime,

I want to validate that the end time is not before the start time.

So I’ll use the ASP.NET comparevalidator validator to compare the hours:

<asp:CompareValidator id="valDate" runat="server" ControlToValidate="TheEndTime$TheEndTimeDateHours" ControlToCompare="TheStartTime$TheStartTimeDateHours"
 Type="Integer"
 Operator="GreaterThanEqual"
 ErrorMessage="The end time must be greater than the start time">
 </asp:CompareValidator >

Now, if you want to validate both hours and minutes, one option is to add an “asp:CustomValidator” and check conditions server side :
Markup:

<asp:CustomValidator runat="server" ID="EndTimeMustBeLaterThanStartTimeCustomValidator"
EnableClientScript="false" ErrorMessage="Start time must be before end time"/>

Before the action, validate:

if (!IsEndTimeLaterThanStartTime())
{
 EndTimeMustBeLaterThanStartTimeCustomValidator.IsValid = false;
 return;
}

Validation method:

private bool IsEndTimeLaterThanStartTime()
{
 // retrieve the DropDownList
 DropDownList startHours = TheStartTime.FindControl("TheStartTimeDateHours") as DropDownList;
 DropDownList endHours = TheEndTime.FindControl("TheEndTimeDateHours") as DropDownList;

 // prevent from errors
 if (startHours == null ||
 endHours == null ||
 string.IsNullOrEmpty(startHours.SelectedValue) ||
 string.IsNullOrEmpty(endHours.SelectedValue))
 {
 return; // dont' do anything
 }

// the hour value is "00:"
 int startHour = Convert.ToInt32(startHours.SelectedValue.Replace(":",""));
 int endHour = Convert.ToInt32(endHours.SelectedValue.Replace(":", ""));
 if (endHour < startHour)
 {
 args.IsValid = false;
 }
 else
 {

 if (endHour == startHour)
 {
 // check the minutes
 DropDownList startMinutes = TheStartTime.FindControl("TheStartTimeDateMinutes") as DropDownList;
 DropDownList endMinutes = TheEndTime.FindControl("TheEndTimeDateMinutes") as DropDownList;
 // prevent from errors
 if (startMinutes == null ||
 endMinutes == null ||
 string.IsNullOrEmpty(startMinutes.SelectedValue) ||
 string.IsNullOrEmpty(endMinutes.SelectedValue))
 {
 return; // dont' do anything
 }

 int startMinute = Convert.ToInt32(startMinutes.SelectedValue);
 int endMinute = Convert.ToInt32(endMinutes.SelectedValue);

 if (endHour <= startMinute)
 args.IsValid = false;

 }
 }

 args.IsValid = true;

 }

You can also validate the Date himself if you choose to display it,
you can make a client side validation if you know javascript,
you can do everything like in “classic” ASP.NET.

 Css mixer is a tool I’ve developped in C# winforms, .NET framework 3.5

You can use it to improve you ASP.NET Themes or your CSS files for all your web projects.

If you have many css files linked to a page, you can group them in a single file with CSS Mixer.

You can also minify CSS files to save the bandwith.

To use it, open a folder containing CSS files,

choose an action (simple combine, or combine and minify) then click Save as …

Download the last version of CSS Mixer on codeplex.

I hope you’ll find it usefull. please give me feedback on it

To retrieve the parent folder

my extension method

public static SPFolder GetParentFolder(this SPListItem spListItem)

{

if (spListItem == null)

return null;

SPFile spFile = spListItem.Web.GetFile(spListItem.Url);

if (spFile == null)

return null;

return spFile.ParentFolder;

}

Use

SPFolder parentFolder = sPListItem.GetParentFolder();

if (parentFolder != null)

{

// do some stuffs..

}

In my previous post I explain a way to build a “visible on hover” menu using jQuery.

Now, I’ll explain you how to do that without javascript, using only CSS.

First, built the web page and a CSS file

<html>
 <head>
 <title>Sam Beauvois | CSS on hover menu</title>
 <link href="demo.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />
 </head>

 <body>
 <h2>Visible on hover with CSS demo.<h2>
 <h3>Please put you mouse hover the following texts</h3>

 <div>
 Demo 1
 <div>
 <a href="#">action 1</a> | <a href="#">action 2</a> | <a href="#">action 3</a>
 </div>
 </div>

</body>

Then add a class to the container and content divs

</pre>
<div class="hidden_action_container">
Demo 1
<div class="hidden_action">
<a href="#">action 1</a> | <a href="#">action 2</a> | <a href="#">action 3</a>
</div>
</div>
<pre>

And define the classes in the CSS file :

.hidden_action_container .hidden_action
{
 display: none;
}
.hidden_action_container:hover .hidden_action
{
 display:inline;
}

note the class declaration :

.hidden_action_container:hover .hidden_action

Now it’s functionnal,

Add a style to make it nicer :

.hidden_action_container
{
 padding : 15px 15px 15px 15px;
 background-color: #DDDDDD;
 border-style:solid;
 border-color:#EEEEEE;
 height:50px;
}

.hidden_action_container .hidden_action a
{
 color:#999999;
 font-size: 20px;
 font-weight:bolder;
}

.hidden_action_container .hidden_action
{
 display: none;
}
.hidden_action_container:hover .hidden_action
{
 display:inline;
}

You can see the online demo here : http://www.sambeauvois.be/Demos/CSS/VisibleOnHover/demo.html