Use Remote Dev Container with GitHub Codespaces

As Software Engineers, we usually work with multiple projects in parallel. This forces us to configure our work stations with multiple software development tools, which eventually leaves our workstation performing poorly. To overcome this problem, we often use virtual machine (VM) instances that run...

Visual Studio Code Online - Quick Intro

Visual Studio Code (VSCode) Online is a browser hosted IDE for software development purposes. It works similarly as the full version of VSCode.  You can access VSCode Online by visiting https://vscode.dev.  After the IDE is loaded on your browser, you can connect to any GitHub repo,...

Request a code review with Visual Studio 2012 Premium

Before any code is check-in, a developer can request a code review using Visual Studio. The steps for a code review request and response are as follows: Send a review request:  (developer) Do not check-in your code On Team Explorer Home, click on Request Code Review o   Enter the name of the reviewer o   Enter the following information §  Task name §  Area...

What is the difference between ObjectSet and EntityCollection?

When working with the Entity framework, you may see that there are two types of collection created, ObjectSet and EntityCollection. Many of us get a bit confused as of why there are two types of collections and about their use. I will try to describe my understanding of their differences: ObjectSet Definition from MSDN: public class ObjectSet<TEntity> : ObjectQuery<TEntity>,...

Fluent Interface to Simplify an API

The mail goal of an API is to facilitate the use of commands and attributes to achieve certain functionality.  Over time, an API may have evolved and become somewhat obscure on its usage which reduces its usability and increases the implementation time. To clean/simplify an API you can apply a fluent interface to it. This allows you to modify the API with a more descriptive interface which improves...

Extend web control with an extension method

When using Label and TextBox controls, we often have the need to reset the text value and/or hide the control during a post back. A common example is when using a Label control to display messages to the user. We only need to set the message once after a postback. We may then need to reset the content of that message and not display the control all together on subsequent postbacks.   To...

Select/UnSelect all items from CheckBoxList, DropDownList, ListBox with an Extension Method

The CheckBoxList, DropDownList and ListBox controls have an items collection based on the ListItemCollection class. To select/unselect the items on the list, we can iterate through the items in the collection and set the selected attribute to true or false. The following code snippet shows an extension method that implements a common solution for all these controls. The method allows us to extend...