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User Controls:
In ASP.NET: A user-authored server control that enables an ASP.NET page to be re-used as a
server control. An ASP.NET user control is authored declaratively and persisted as a text file
with an .ascx extension. The ASP.NET page framework compiles a user control on the fly to a
class that derives from the System.Web.UI.UserControl class.
Example
Response.Write(“Hello {0}”,DateTime.Now.ToString()); //Will lead to Compile time error
Response.Output.Write(“Hello {0}”,DateTime.Now.ToString()); //Will work fine
Where does the Web page belong in the .NET Framework class hierarchy?
System.Web.UI.Page
CachingOutput Caching: Caches the dynamic output generated by a request. Some times it
is useful to cache the output of a website even for a minute, which will result in a
better performance. For caching the whole page the page should have OutputCache directive.<
%@ OutputCache Duration="60" VaryByParam="state" %>
Fragment Caching: Caches the portion of the page generated by the request. Some times it is
not practical to cache the entire page, in such cases we can cache a portion of page<%@
OutputCache Duration="120" VaryByParam="CategoryID;SelectedID"%>
Data Caching: Caches the objects programmatically. For data caching asp.net provides a
cache object for eg: cache["States"] = dsStates;
How do I debug an ASP.NET application that wasn't written with Visual Studio.NET and
that doesn't use code-behind?
Start the DbgClr debugger that comes with the .NET Framework SDK, open the file containing
the code you want to debug, and set your breakpoints. Start the ASP.NET application. Go back to
DbgClr, choose Debug Processes from the Tools menu, and select aspnet_wp.exe from the list
of processes. (If aspnet_wp.exe doesn't appear in the list,check the "Show system processes"
box.) Click the Attach button to attach to aspnet_wp.exe and begin debugging.
Be sure to enable debugging in the ASPX file before debugging it with DbgClr. You can enable
tell ASP.NET to build debug executables by placing a
<%@ Page Debug="true" %> statement at the top of an ASPX file or a <COMPILATION
debug="true" />statement in a Web.config file.
Do ASP.NET forms authentication cookies provide any protection against replay attacks? Do
they, for example, include the client's IP address or anything else that would distinguish the real
client from an attacker?
No. If an authentication cookie is stolen, it can be used by an attacker. It's up to you to prevent
this from happening by using an encrypted communications channel (HTTPS). Authentication
cookies issued as session cookies, do, however,include a time-out valid that limits their
lifetime. So a stolen session cookie can only be used in replay attacks as long as the ticket inside
the cookie is valid. The default time-out interval is 30 minutes.You can change that by modifying
the timeout attribute accompanying the <forms> element in Machine.config or a local Web.config
file. Persistent authentication cookies do not time-out and therefore are a more serious security
threat if stolen.
MailMessage and SmtpMail are classes defined in the .NET Framework Class Library's
System.Web.Mail namespace. Due to a security change made to ASP.NET just before it
shipped, you need to set SmtpMail's SmtpServer property to "localhost" even though "localhost"
is the default. In addition, you must use the IIS configuration applet to enable localhost
(127.0.0.1) to relay messages through the local SMTP service.
SetNoStore works by returning a Cache-Control: private, no-store header in the HTTP response.
In this example, it prevents caching of a Web page that shows the current time.
Setting AspCompat to true does two things. First, it makes intrinsic ASP objects available to
the COM components by placing unmanaged wrappers around the equivalent ASP.NET objects.
Second, it improves the performance of calls that the page places to apartment- threaded COM
objects by ensuring that the page (actually, the thread that processes the request for the page)
and the COM objects it creates share an apartment. AspCompat="true" forces ASP.NET request
threads into single-threaded apartments (STAs). If those threads create COM objects marked
ThreadingModel=Apartment, then the objects are created in the same STAs as the threads that
created them. Without AspCompat="true," request threads run in a multithreaded apartment
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(MTA) and each call to an STA-based COM object incurs a performance hit when it's
marshaled across apartment boundaries.
Do not set AspCompat to true if your page uses no COM objects or if it uses COM objects that
don't access ASP intrinsic objects and that are registered ThreadingModel=Free or
ThreadingModel=Both.
Should validation (did the user enter a real date) occur server-side or client-side? Why?
Client-side validation because there is no need to request a server side date when you could
obtain a date from the client machine.
What are ASP.NET Web Forms? How is this technology different than what is available
though ASP?
Web Forms are the heart and soul of ASP.NET. Web Forms are the User Interface (UI) elements
that give your Web applications their look and feel. Web Forms are similar to Windows Forms in
that they provide properties, methods, and events for the controls that are placed onto them.
However, these UI elements render themselves in the appropriate markup language required by
the request, e.g. HTML. If you use Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, you will also get the familiar
drag-and-drop interface used to create your UI for your Web application.
Which template must you provide, in order to display data in a Repeater control?
ItemTemplate
If I'm developing an application that must accomodate multiple security levels though secure login
and my ASP.NET web appplication is spanned across three web-servers (using round-robbin
load balancing) what would be the best approach to maintain login-in state for the users?
Use the state server or store the state in the database. This can be easily done through simple
setting change in the web.config.
<SESSIONSTATE
StateConnectionString="tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424"
sqlConnectionString="data source=127.0.0.1; user id=sa; password="
cookieless="false"
timeout="30"
/>
Where would you use an iHTTPModule, and what are the limitations of any approach you might
take in implementing one
"One of ASP.NET's most useful features is the extensibility of the HTTP pipeline, the path that
data takes between client and server. You can use them to extend your ASP.NET applications by
adding pre- and post-processing to each HTTP request coming into your application. For
example, if you wanted custom authentication facilities for your application, the best technique
would be to intercept the request when it comes in and process the request in a custom HTTP
module.
How do you turn off cookies for one page in your site?
Since no Page Level directive is present, I am afraid that cant be done.
Which method do you use to redirect the user to another page without performing a round
trip to the client?
Server.Transfer and Server.Execute
What property do you have to set to tell the grid which page to go to when using the Pager
object?
CurrentPageIndex
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Should validation (did the user enter a real date) occur server-side or client-side? Why?
It should occur both at client-side and Server side.By using expression validator control with the
specified expression ie.. the regular expression provides the facility of only validatating the date
specified is in the correct format or not. But for checking the date where it is the real data or not
should be done at the server side, by getting the system date ranges and checking the date
whether it is in between that range or not.
What does the "EnableViewState" property do? Why would I want it on or off?
Enable ViewState turns on the automatic state management feature that enables server controls
to re-populate their values on a round trip without requiring you to write any code. This feature is
not free however, since the state of a control is passed to and from the server in a hidden form
field. You should be aware of when ViewState is helping you and when it is not. For example, if
you are binding a control to data on every round trip, then you do not need the control to maintain
it's view state, since you will wipe out any re-populated data in any case. ViewState is enabled for
all server controls by default. To disable it, set the EnableViewState property of the control to
false.
Response.Dedirect() :client know the physical location (page name and query string as well).
Context.Items loses the persisitance when nevigate to destination page. In earlier versions of IIS,
if we wanted to send a user to a new Web page, the only option we had was Response.Redirect.
While this method does accomplish our goal, it has several important drawbacks. The biggest
problem is that this method causes each page to be treated as a separate transaction. Besides
making it difficult to maintain your transactional integrity, Response.Redirect introduces some
additional headaches. First, it prevents good encapsulation of code. Second, you lose access to
all of the properties in the Request object. Sure, there are workarounds, but they're difficult.
Finally, Response.Redirect necessitates a round trip to the client, which, on high-volume sites,
causes scalability problems. As you might suspect, Server.Transfer fixes all of these problems. It
does this by performing the transfer on the server without requiring a roundtrip to the client.
Can you give an example of when it would be appropriate to use a web service as opposed
to a non-serviced .NET component?
Can you give an example of what might be best suited to place in the Application_Start
and Session_Start subroutines?
The Application_Start event is guaranteed to occur only once throughout the lifetime of the
application. It's a good place to initialize global variables. For example, you might want to retrieve
a list of products from a database table and place the list in application state or the Cache object.
SessionStateModule exposes both Session_Start and Session_End events.
1. Simplicity. There is no need to write possibly complex code to store form data between page
submissions.
2. Flexibility. It is possible to enable, configure, and disable ViewState on a control-by-control
basis, choosing to persist the values of some fields but not others.
There are, however a few disadvantages that are worth pointing out:
1. Does not track across pages. ViewState information does not automatically transfer from page
to page. With the session
approach, values can be stored in the session and accessed from other pages. This is not
possible with ViewState, so storing
data into the session must be done explicitly.
2. ViewState is not suitable for transferring data for back-end systems. That is, data still has to be
transferred to the back
end using some form of data object.
Describe session handling in a webfarm, how does it work and what are the limits?
ASP.NET Session supports storing of session data in 3 ways, i] in In-Process ( in the same
memory that ASP.NET uses) , ii] out-of-process using Windows NT Service )in separate memory
from ASP.NET ) or iii] in SQL Server (persistent storage). Both the Windows Service and SQL
Server solution support a webfarm scenario where all the web-servers can be configured to share
common session state store.
1. Windows Service :
We can start this service by Start | Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services | . In that we
service names ASP.NET State Service. We can start or stop service by manually or configure to
start automatically. Then we have to configure our web.config file
<CONFIGURATION><configuration>
<system.web>
<SessionState
mode = “StateServer”
stateConnectionString = “tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424”
stateNetworkTimeout = “10”
sqlConnectionString=”data source = 127.0.0.1; uid=sa;pwd=”
cookieless =”Flase”
timeout= “20” />
</system.web>
</configuration> </SYSTEM.WEB>
</CONFIGURATION>
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Here ASP.Net Session is directed to use Windows Service for state management on
local server (address : 127.0.0.1 is TCP/IP loop-back address). The default port is 42424. we can
configure to any port but for that we have to manually edit the registry.
Follow these simple steps
- In a webfarm make sure you have the same config file in all your web servers.
- Also make sure your objects are serializable.
- For session state to be maintained across different web servers in the webfarm, the application
path of the web-site in the IIS Metabase should be identical in all the web-servers in the webfarm.
Which template must you provide, in order to display data in a Repeater control?
You have to use the ItemTemplate to Display data. Syntax is as follows,
< ItemTemplate >
< div class =”rItem” >
< img src=”images/<%# Container.DataItem(“ImageURL”)%>” hspace=”10” />
< b > <% # Container.DataItem(“Title”)%>
< /div >
< ItemTemplate >
What property must you set, and what method must you call in your code, in order to bind
the data from some data source to the Repeater control?
Set the DataMember property to the name of the table to bind to. (If this property is not set, by
default the first table in the dataset is used.)
DataBind method, use this method to bind data from a source to a server control. This method is
commonly used after retrieving a data set through a database query.
ASP.NET automatically deletes a user's Session object, dumping its contents, after it has been
idle for a configurable timeout interval. This interval, in minutes, is set in the
<SESSIONSTATE>section of the web.config file. The default is 20 minutes.
How do you turn off cookies for one page in your site?
Use Cookie.Discard property, Gets or sets the discard flag set by the server. When true, this
property instructs the client application not to save the Cookie on the user's hard disk when a
session ends.
What tags do you need to add within the asp:datagrid tags to bind columns manually?
Which method do you use to redirect the user to another page without performing a round
trip to the client?
Server.transfer
What is the transport protocol you use to call a Web service SOAP ?
HTTP Protocol
What tags do you need to add within the asp:datagrid tags to bind columns manually?
Set AutoGenerateColumns Property to false on the datagrid tag and then use Column tag and an
ASP:databound tag
Which control would you use if you needed to make sure the values in two different
controls matched?
CompareValidator is used to ensure that two fields are identical.
What are the various ways of securing a web site that could prevent from hacking etc .. ?
1) Authentication/Authorization
2) Encryption/Decryption
3) Maintaining web servers outside the corporate firewall. etc.,
When you’re running a component within ASP.NET, what process is it running within on
Windows XP? Windows 2000? Windows 2003?
On Windows 2003 (IIS 6.0) running in native mode, the component is running within the
w3wp.exe process associated with the application pool which has been configured for the web
application containing the component.
On Windows 2003 in IIS 5.0 emulation mode, 2000, or XP, it's running within the IIS helper
process whose name I do not remember, it being quite a while since I last used IIS 5.0.
When multiple versions of the .NET Framework are executing side-by-side on a single computer,
the ASP.NET ISAPI version mapped to an ASP.NET application determines which version of the
common language runtime is used for the application.
The tool can be launched with a set of optional parameters. Option "i" Installs the version of
ASP.NET associated with Aspnet_regiis.exe and updates the script maps at the IIS metabase
root and below. Note that only applications that are currently mapped to an earlier version of
ASP.NET are affected
What is a PostBack?
The process in which a Web page sends data back to the same page on the server.
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What is ViewState? How is it encoded? Is it encrypted? Who uses ViewState?
ViewState is the mechanism ASP.NET uses to keep track of server control state values that don't
otherwise post back as part of the HTTP form. ViewState Maintains the UI State of a Page
ViewState is base64-encoded.
It is not encrypted but it can be encrypted by setting EnableViewStatMAC="true" & setting the
machineKey validation type to 3DES. If you want to NOT maintain the ViewState, include the
directive < %@ Page EnableViewState="false" % > at the top of an .aspx page or add the
attribute EnableViewState="false" to any control.
What is the < machinekey > element and what two ASP.NET technologies is it used for?
Configures keys to use for encryption and decryption of forms authentication cookie data and
view state data, and for verification of out-of-process session state identification.There fore 2
ASP.Net technique in which it is used are Encryption/Decryption & Verification
What three Session State providers are available in ASP.NET 1.1? What are the pros and
cons of each?
ASP.NET provides three distinct ways to store session data for your application: in-process
session state, out-of-process session state as a Windows service, and out-of-process session
state in a SQL Server database. Each has it advantages.
2. The State Server simply stores session state in memory when in out-of-proc mode. In this
mode the worker process talks directly to the State Server
3. SQL mode, session states are stored in a SQL Server database and the worker process talks
directly to SQL. The ASP.NET worker processes are then able to take advantage of this simple
storage service by serializing and saving (using .NET serialization services) all objects within a
client's Session collection at the end of each Web request
Both these out-of-process solutions are useful primarily if you scale your application across
multiple processors or multiple computers, or where data cannot be lost if a server or process is
restarted.
Name and describe some HTTP Status Codes and what they express to the requesting
client.
When users try to access content on a server that is running Internet Information Services (IIS)
through HTTP or File Transfer Protocol (FTP), IIS returns a numeric code that indicates the status
of the request. This status code is recorded in the IIS log, and it may also be displayed in the
Web browser or FTP client. The status code can indicate whether a particular request is
successful or unsuccessful and can also reveal the exact reason why a request is unsuccessful.
There are 5 groups ranging from 1xx - 5xx of http status codes exists.
101 - Switching protocols.
200 - OK. The client request has succeeded
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302 - Object moved.
400 - Bad request.
500.13 - Web server is too busy.
VaryByParam: A semicolon-separated list of strings used to vary the output cache. By default,
these strings correspond to a query string value sent with GET method attributes, or a parameter
sent using the POST method. When this attribute is set to multiple parameters, the output cache
contains a different version of the requested document for each specified parameter. Possible
values include none, *, and any valid query string or POST parameter name.
VaryByHeader: A semicolon-separated list of HTTP headers used to vary the output cache.
When this attribute is set to multiple headers, the output cache contains a different version of the
requested document for each specified header.
The Repeater class is not derived from the WebControl class, like the DataGrid and DataList.
Therefore, the Repeater lacks the stylistic properties common to both the DataGrid and DataList.
What this boils down to is that if you want to format the data displayed in the Repeater, you must
do so in the HTML markup.
The Repeater control provides the maximum amount of flexibility over the HTML produced.
Whereas the DataGrid wraps the DataSource contents in an HTML < table >, and the DataList
wraps the contents in either an HTML < table > or < span > tags (depending on the DataList's
RepeatLayout property), the Repeater adds absolutely no HTML content other than what you
explicitly specify in the templates.
While using Repeater control, If we wanted to display the employee names in a bold font we'd
have to alter the "ItemTemplate" to include an HTML bold tag, Whereas with the DataGrid or
DataList, we could have made the text appear in a bold font by setting the control's ItemStyle-
Font-Bold property to True.
The Repeater's lack of stylistic properties can drastically add to the development time metric. For
example, imagine that you decide to use the Repeater to display data that needs to be bold,
centered, and displayed in a particular font-face with a particular background color. While all this
can be specified using a few HTML tags, these tags will quickly clutter the Repeater's templates.
Such clutter makes it much harder to change the look at a later date. Along with its increased
development time, the Repeater also lacks any built-in functionality to assist in supporting paging,
editing, or editing of data. Due to this lack of feature-support, the Repeater scores poorly on the
usability scale.
However, The Repeater's performance is slightly better than that of the DataList's, and is more
noticeably better than that of the DataGrid's. Following figure shows the number of requests per
second the Repeater could handle versus the DataGrid and DataList
Can we handle the error and redirect to some pages using web.config?
Yes, we can do this, but to handle errors, we must know the error codes; only then we can take
the user to a proper error message page, else it may confuse the user.
CustomErrors Configuration section in web.config file:
The default configuration is:
< customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="Customerror.aspx" >
< error statusCode="404" redirect="Notfound.aspx" / >
< /customErrors >
If mode is set to Off, custom error messages will be disabled. Users will receive detailed
exception error messages.
If mode is set to On, custom error messages will be enabled.
If mode is set to RemoteOnly, then users will receive custom errors, but users accessing the site
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locally will receive detailed error messages.
Add an < error > tag for each error you want to handle. The error tag will redirect the user to the
Notfound.aspx page when the site returns the 404 (Page not found) error.
[Example]
[Web.Config]
The DataGrid provides the means to display a group of records from the data source (for
example, the first 10), and then navigate to the "page" containing the next 10 records, and so on
through the data.
Using Ado.Net we can explicit control over the number of records returned from the data source,
as well as how much data is to be cached locally in the DataSet.
1.Using DataAdapter.fill method give the value of 'Maxrecords' parameter
(Note: - Don't use it because query will return all records but fill the dataset based on value of
'maxrecords' parameter).
2.For SQL server database, combines a WHERE clause and a ORDER BY clause with TOP
predicate.
3.If Data does not change often just cache records locally in DataSet and just take some records
from the DataSet to display.
Server.Transfer() : client is shown as it is on the requesting page only, but the all the content is of
the requested page. Data can be persist across the pages using Context.Item collection, which is
one of the best way to transfer data from one page to another keeping the page state alive.
Response.Dedirect() :client knows the physical location (page name and query string as well).
Context.Items loses the persistence when navigate to destination page. In earlier versions of IIS,
if we wanted to send a user to a new Web page, the only option we had was Response.Redirect.
While this method does accomplish our goal, it has several important drawbacks. The biggest
problem is that this method causes each page to be treated as a separate transaction. Besides
making it difficult to maintain your transactional integrity, Response.Redirect introduces some
additional headaches. First, it prevents good encapsulation of code. Second, you lose access to
all of the properties in the Request object. Sure, there are workarounds, but they're difficult.
Finally, Response.Redirect necessitates a round trip to the client, which, on high-volume sites,
causes scalability problems. As you might suspect, Server.Transfer fixes all of these problems. It
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does this by performing the transfer on the server without requiring a roundtrip to the
client.
Response.Redirect sends a response to the client browser instructing it to request the second
page. This requires a round-trip to the client, and the client initiates the Request for the second
page. Server.Transfer transfers the process to the second page without making a round-trip to
the client. It also transfers the HttpContext to the second page, enabling the second page access
to all the values in the HttpContext of the first page.
Yes, We can create user app domain by calling on of the following overload static methods of the
System.AppDomain class
1. Public static AppDomain CreateDomain(String friendlyName)
2. Public static AppDomain CreateDomain(String friendlyName, Evidence securityInfo)
3. Public static AppDomain CreateDomain(String friendlyName, Evidence securityInfo,
AppDomainSetup info)
4. Public static AppDomain CreateDomain(String friendlyName, Evidence securityInfo, String
appBasePath, String appRelativeSearchPath, bool shadowCopyFiles)
What are the various security methods which IIS Provides apart from .NET ?
a) Authentication Modes
b) IP Address and Domain Name Restriction
c) DNS Lookups DNS Lookups
d) The Network ID and Subnet Mask
e) SSL
Two attributes in the section affect the Web garden model. They are webGarden and cpuMask.
The webGarden attribute takes a Boolean value that indicates whether or not multiple worker
processes (one per each affinitized CPU) have to be used. The attribute is set to false by default.
The cpuMask attribute stores a DWORD value whose binary representation provides a bit mask
for the CPUs that are eligible to run the ASP.NET worker process. The default value is -1
(0xFFFFFF), which means that all available CPUs can be used. The contents of the cpuMask
attribute is ignored when the webGarden attribute is false. The cpuMask attribute also sets an
upper bound to the number of copies of aspnet_wp.exe that are running.
Web gardening enables multiple worker processes to run at the same time. However, you should
note that all processes will have their own copy of application state, in-process session state,
ASP.NET cache, static data, and all that is needed to run applications. When the Web garden
mode is enabled, the ASP.NET ISAPI launches as many worker processes as there are CPUs,
each a full clone of the next (and each affinitized with the corresponding CPU). To balance the
workload, incoming requests are partitioned among running processes in a round-robin manner.
Worker processes get recycled as in the single processor case. Note that ASP.NET inherits any
CPU usage restriction from the operating system and doesn't include any custom semantics for
doing this.
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All in all, the Web garden model is not necessarily a big win for all applications. The
more stateful applications are, the more they risk to pay in terms of real performance. Working
data is stored in blocks of shared memory so that any changes entered by a process are
immediately visible to others. However, for the time it takes to service a request, working data is
copied in the context of the process. Each worker process, therefore, will handle its own copy of
working data, and the more stateful the application, the higher the cost in performance. In this
context, careful and savvy application benchmarking is an absolute must.
Changes made to the section of the configuration file are effective only after IIS is restarted. In IIS
6, Web gardening parameters are stored in the IIS metabase; the webGarden and cpuMask
attributes are ignored.
ViewState value is temporarily saved in the client's browser.ViewState can be disabled for a
single control, for an entire page orfor an entire web application. The syntax is:
Next >>
When was .NET announced?
Bill Gates delivered a keynote at Forum 2000, held June 22, 2000, outlining the .NET 'vision'. The
July 2000 PDC had a number of sessions on .NET technology, and delegates were given CDs
containing a pre-release version of the .NET framework/SDK and Visual Studio.NET.
What is IL?
IL = Intermediate Language. Also known as MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language) or CIL
(Common Intermediate Language). All .NET source code (of any language) is compiled to IL. The
IL is then converted to machine code at the point where the software is installed, or at run-time by
a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler.
What is reflection?
All .NET compilers produce metadata about the types defined in the modules they produce. This
metadata is packaged along with the module (modules in turn are packaged together in
assemblies), and can be accessed by a mechanism called reflection. The System.Reflection
namespace contains classes that can be used to interrogate the types for a module/assembly.
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Using reflection to access .NET metadata is very similar to using ITypeLib/ITypeInfo to
access type library data in COM, and it is used for similar purposes - e.g. determining data type
sizes for marshaling data across context/process/machine boundaries.
Reflection can also be used to dynamically invoke methods (see System.Type.InvokeMember ) ,
or even create types dynamically at run-time (see System.Reflection.Emit.TypeBuilder).
Partial Assembly reference: We can dynamically reference an assembly by providing only partial
information, such as specifying only the assembly name. When you specify a partial assembly
reference, the runtime looks for the assembly only in the application
directory.
We can make partial references to an assembly in your code one of the following ways:
-> Use a method such as System.Reflection.Assembly.Load and specify only a partial reference.
The runtime checks for the assembly in the application directory.
-> Use the System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadWithPartialName method and specify only a partial
reference. The runtime checks for the assembly in the application directory and in the global
assembly cache
What is side-by-side execution? Can two application one using private assembly and other
using Shared assembly be stated as a side-by-side executables?
Side-by-side execution is the ability to run multiple versions of an application or component on the
same computer. You can have multiple versions of the common language runtime, and multiple
versions of applications and components that use a version of the runtime, on the same computer
at the same time. Since versioning is only applied to shared assemblies, and not to private
assemblies, two application one using private assembly and one using shared assembly cannot
be stated as side-by-side
executables.
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What's the difference between the Debug class and Trace class?
Documentation looks the same. Use Debug class for debug builds, use Trace class for both
debug and release builds.
What is serialization?
Serialization is the process of converting an object into a stream of bytes. Deserialization is the
opposite process of creating an object from a stream of bytes. Serialization / Deserialization is
mostly used to transport objects (e.g. during remoting), or to persist
objects (e.g. to a file or database).
Note that the numeric label (1.3.1) is just a caspol invention to make the code groups easy to
manipulate from the command-line. The underlying runtime never sees it.
I can't be bothered with all this CAS stuff. Can I turn it off?
Yes, as long as you are an administrator. Just run: caspol -s off
Heap:
A portion of memory reserved for a program to use for the temporary storage of data structures
whose existence or size cannot be determined until the program is running.
Un-Managed Code:
Code that is created without regard for the conventions and requirements of the common
language runtime. Unmanaged code executes in the common language runtime environment with
minimal services (for example, no garbage collection, limited debugging, and so on).
MSIL or native code as well as metadata, enables the operating system to recognize common
language runtime images. The
presence of metadata in the file along with the MSIL enables your code to describe itself, which
means that there is no need for type libraries or Interface Definition Language (IDL). The runtime
locates and extracts the metadata from the file as needed during
execution.
Value Type:
Value types are allocated on the stack just like primitive types in VBScript, VB6 and C/C++. Value
types are not instantiated using new go out of scope when the function they are defined within
returns.
Value types in the CLR are defined as types that derive from system.valueType.
A data type that fully describes a value by specifying the sequence of bits that constitutes the
value's representation. Type information for a value type instance is not stored with the instance
at run time, but it is available in metadata. Value type instances can be treated as objects using
boxing.
Un-Boxing:
The conversion of an object instance to a value type.
What is JIT and how is works ?
An acronym for "just-in-time," a phrase that describes an action that is taken only when it
becomes necessary, such as just-in-time compilation or just-in-time object activation
What is namespace used for loading assemblies at run time and name the methods?
System.Reflection
Explain encapsulation ?
The implementation is hidden, the interface is exposed.
What data type should you use if you want an 8-bit value that's signed?
sbyte.
What is the difference between the value-type variables and reference-type variables in
terms of garbage collection?
The value-type variables are not garbage-collected, they just fall off the stack when they fall out of
scope, the reference-type objects
are picked up by GC when their references go null.
What happens when you encounter a continue statement inside the for loop?
The code for the rest of the loop is ignored, the control is transferred back to the beginning of the
loop.
How can you sort the elements of the array in descending order?
By calling Sort() and then Reverse() methods.
What's the .NET datatype that allows the retrieval of data by a unique key?
HashTable.
Will finally block get executed if the exception had not occurred?
Yes.
What's a delegate?
A delegate object encapsulates a reference to a method. In C++ they were referred to as function
pointers.
What's the difference between the Debug class and Trace class?
Documentation looks the same. Use Debug class for debug builds, use Trace class for both
debug and release builds.
What are three test cases you should go through in unit testing?
Positive test cases (correct data, correct output), negative test cases (broken or missing data,
proper handling), exception test
cases (exceptions are thrown and caught properly).
What's the implicit name of the parameter that gets passed into the class' set method?
Value, and it's datatype depends on whatever variable we're changing.
Can you declare the override method static while the original method is non-static?
No, you can't, the signature of the virtual method must remain the same, only the keyword virtual
is changed to keyword override.
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Can you override private virtual methods?
No, moreover, you cannot access private methods in inherited classes, have to be protected in
the base class to allow any sort of access.
Can you prevent your class from being inherited and becoming a base class for some
other classes?
Yes, that's what keyword sealed in the class definition is for. The developer trying to derive from
your class will get a message: cannot inherit from Sealed class WhateverBaseClassName. It's
the same concept as final class in Java.
Can you allow class to be inherited, but prevent the method from being over-ridden?
Yes, just leave the class public and make the method sealed.
Why can't you specify the accessibility modifier for methods inside the interface?
They all must be public. Therefore, to prevent you from getting the false impression that you have
any freedom of choice, you are not allowed to specify any accessibility, it's public by default.
If a base class has a bunch of overloaded constructors, and an inherited class has another
bunch of overloaded constructors, can you enforce a call from an inherited constructor to
an arbitrary base constructor?
Yes, just place a colon, and then keyword base (parameter list to invoke the appropriate
constructor) in the overloaded constructor definition inside the inherited class.
What's the .NET class that allows the retrieval of a data element using a unique key?
HashTable.
Will the finally block get executed if an exception has not occurred?
Yes.
What's an interface?
It's an abstract class with public abstract methods all of which must be implemented in the
inherited classes.
Why can't you specify the accessibility modifier for methods inside the interface?
They all must be public. Therefore, to prevent you from getting the false impression that you
have any freedom of choice,
you are not allowed to specify any accessibility, it's public by default.
Can you declare an override method to be static if the original method is non-static?
No. The signature of the virtual method must remain the same, only the keyword virtual is
changed to keyword override.
Can you write a class without specifying namespace? Which namespace does it belong to
by default?
Yes, you can, then the class belongs to global namespace which has no name. For commercial
products, naturally, you wouldn't want global namespace.
What is a formatter?
A formatter is an object that is responsible for encoding and serializing data into messages on
one end, and deserializing and decoding messages into data on the other end.
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Different b/w .NET & J2EE ?
Differences between J2EE and the .NET Platform
Vendor Neutrality
The .NET platform is not vendor neutral, it is tied to the Microsoft operating systems. But neither
are any of the J2EE implementations
Many companies buy into J2EE believing that it will give them vendor neutrality. And, in fact, this
is a stated goal of Sun's vision:
A wide variety of J2EE product configurations and implementations, all of which meet the
requirements of this specification, are possible. A portable J2EE application will function correctly
when successfully deployed in any of these products. (ref : Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition
Specification, v1.3, page 2-7 available at http://java.sun.com/j2ee/)
Overall Maturity
Given that the .NET platform has a three year lead over J2EE, it should be no surprise to learn
that the .NET platform is far more mature than the J2EE platform. Whereas we have high volume
highly reliable web sites using .NET technologies (NASDAQ and Dell being among many
examples)
The .NET platform eCollaboration model is, as I have discussed at length, based on the UDDI
and SOAP standards. These standards are widely supported by more than 100 companies.
Microsoft, along with IBM and Ariba, are the leaders in this area. Sun is a member of the UDDI
consortium and recognizes the importance of the UDDI standards. In a recent press release,
Sun's George Paolini, Vice President for the Java Community Development, says:
"Sun has always worked to help establish and support open, standards-based technologies that
facilitate the growth of network-based applications, and we see UDDI as an important project to
establish a registry framework for business-to-business e-commerce
But while Sun publicly says it believes in the UDDI standards, in reality, Sun has done nothing
whatsoever to incorporate any of the UDDI standards into J2EE.
Scalability
J2EE
Framework Support
The .NET platform includes such an eCommerce framework called Commerce Server. At this
point, there is no equivalent vendor-neutral framework in the J2EE space. With J2EE, you should
assume that you will be building your new eCommerce solution from scratch
Moreover, no matter what [J2EE] vendor you choose, if you expect a component framework that
will allow you to quickly field complete e-business applications, you are in for a frustrating
experience
Language
In the language arena, the choice is about as simple as it gets. J2EE supports Java, and only
Java. It will not support any other language in the foreseeable future. The .NET platform supports
every language except Java (although it does support a language that is syntactically and
functionally equivalent to Java, C#). In fact, given the importance of the .NET platform as a
language independent vehicle, it is likely that any language that comes out in the near future will
include support for the .NET platform.
Some companies are under the impression that J2EE supports other languages. Although both
IBM's WebSphere and BEA's WebLogic support other languages, neither does it through their
J2EE technology. There are only two official ways in the J2EE platform to access other
languages, one through the Java Native Interface and the other through CORBA interoperability.
Sun recommends the later approach. As Sun's Distinguished Scientist and Java Architect Rick
Cattell said in a recent interview.
Portability
The reason that operating system portability is a possibility with J2EE is not so much because of
any inherent portability of J2EE, as it is that most of the J2EE vendors support multiple operating
systems. Therefore as long as one sticks with a given J2EE vendor and a given database vendor,
moving from one operating system to another should be possible. This is probably the single
most important benefit in favor of J2EE over the .NET platform, which is limited to the Windows
operating system. It is worth noting, however, that Microsoft has submitted the specifications for
C# and a subset of the .NET Framework (called the common language infrastructure) to ECMA,
the group that standardizes JavaScript.
J2EE offers an acceptable solution to ISVs when the product must be marketed to non-Windows
customers, particularly when the J2EE platform itself can be bundled with the ISV's product as an
integrated offering.
If the primary customer base for the ISV is Windows customers, then the .NET platform should
be chosen. It will provide much better performance at a much lower cost.
This Java approach has three problems. First, it requires a lot of code on the presentation tier,
since every possible thin client system requires a different code path. Second, it is very difficult to
test the code with every possible thin client system. Third, it is very difficult to add new thin clients
to an existing application, since to do so involves searching through, and modifying a tremendous
amount of presentation tier logic.
The .NET Framework approach is to write device independent code that interacts with visual
controls. It is the control, not the programmer, that is responsible for determining what HTML to
deliver, based on the capabilities of the client device.. In the .NET Framework model, one can
forget that such a thing as HTML even exists! Contd ....
Conclusion
Sun's J2EE vision is based on a family of specifications that can be implemented by many
vendors. It is open in the sense that any company can license and implement the technology, but
closed in the sense that it is controlled by a single vendor, and a self contained architectural
island with very limited ability to interact outside of itself. One of J2EE's major disadvantages is
that the choice of the platform dictates the use of a single programming language, and a
programming language that is not well suited for most businesses. One of J2EE's major
advantages is that most of the J2EE vendors do offer operating system portability.
Microsoft's .NET platform vision is a family of products rather than specifications, with
specifications used primarily to define points of interoperability. The major disadvantage of this
approach is that if is limited to the Windows platform, so applications written for the .NET platform
can only be run on .NET platforms. Their are several important advantages to the .NET platform:
* The cost of developing applications is much lower, since standard business languages can be
used and device independent presentation tier logic can be written.
* The cost of running applications is much lower, since commodity hardware platforms (at 1/5 the
cost of their Unix counterparts) can be used.
* The ability to scale up is much greater, with the proved ability to support at least ten times the
number of clients any J2EE platform has shown itself able to support.
* Interoperability is much stronger, with industry standard eCollaboration built into the platform.
Assemblies
Defines the concept of assemblies, which are collections of types and resources that form logical
units of functionality. Assemblies are the fundamental units of deployment, version control, reuse,
activation scoping, and security permissions.
Application Domains
Explains how to use application domains to provide isolation between applications.
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Runtime Hosts
Describes the runtime hosts supported by the .NET Framework, including ASP.NET, Internet
Explorer, and shell executables.
Cross-Language Interoperability
Explains how managed objects created in different programming languages can interact with one
another.
Because the common language runtime supplies a JIT compiler for each supported CPU
architecture, developers can write a set of MSIL that can be JIT-compiled and run on computers
with different architectures. However, your managed code will run only on a specific operating
system if it calls platform-specific native APIs, or a platform-specific class library.
JIT compilation takes into account the fact that some code might never get called during
execution. Rather than using time and memory to convert all the MSIL in a portable executable
(PE) file to native code, it converts the MSIL as needed during execution and stores the resulting
native code so that it is accessible for subsequent calls. The loader creates and attaches a stub
to each of a type's methods when the type is loaded. On the initial call to the method, the stub
passes control to the JIT compiler, which converts the MSIL for that method into native code and
modifies the stub to direct execution to the location of the native code. Subsequent calls of the
JIT-compiled method proceed directly to the native code that was previously generated, reducing
the time it takes to JIT-compile and run the code.
What meant of assembly & global assembly cache (gac) & Meta data.
Assembly :-- An assembly is the primary building block of a .NET based application. It is a
collection of functionality that is built, versioned, and deployed as a single implementation unit (as
one or more files). All managed types and resources are marked either as accessible only within
their implementation unit, or as accessible by code outside that unit. It overcomes the problem of
'dll Hell'.The .NET Framework uses assemblies as the fundamental unit for several purposes:
• Security
• Type Identity
• Reference Scope
• Versioning
• Deployment
Global Assembly Cache :-- Assemblies can be shared among multiple applications on the
machine by registering them in global Assembly cache(GAC). GAC is a machine wide a local
cache of assemblies maintained by the .NET Framework. We can register the assembly to global
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assembly cache by using gacutil command.
We can Navigate to the GAC directory, C:\winnt\Assembly in explore. In the tools menu select the
cache properties; in the windows displayed you can set the memory limit in MB used by the GAC
MetaData :--Assemblies have Manifests. This Manifest contains Metadata information of the
Module/Assembly as well as it contains detailed Metadata of other assemblies/modules
references (exported). It's the Assembly Manifest which differentiates between an Assembly and
a Module.
GUIDs can be created in a number of ways, but usually they are a combination of a few unique
settings based on specific point in time (e.g., an IP address, network MAC address, clock
date/time, etc.).
Describe the difference between inline and code behind - which is best in a loosely
coupled solution
ASP.NET supports two modes of page development: Page logic code that is written inside
runat="server"> blocks within an .aspx file and dynamically compiled the first time the page is
requested on the server. Page logic code that is written within an external class that is compiled
prior to deployment on a server and linked ""behind"" the .aspx file at run time.
Before Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) can be executed it, must be converted by the
.NET Framework just-in-time (JIT) compiler to native code. This is CPU-specific code that runs on
the same computer architecture as the JIT compiler. Rather than using time and memory to
convert all of the MSIL in a portable executable (PE) file to native code. It converts the MSIL as
needed whilst executing, then caches the resulting native code so its accessible for any
subsequent calls.
What is manifest?
It is the metadata that describes the assemblies.
What is metadata?
Metadata is machine-readable information about a resource, or ""data about data."" Such
information might include details on content, format, size, or other characteristics of a data
source. In .NET, metadata includes type definitions, version information, external assembly
references, and other standardized information.
Static assemblies
These are the .NET PE files that you create at compile time.
Dynamic assemblies
These are PE-formatted, in-memory assemblies that you dynamically create at runtime using the
classes in the System.Reflection.Emit namespace.
Private assemblies
These are static assemblies used by a specific application.
An application uses a private assembly by referring to the assembly using a static path or through
an XML-based application configuration file. While the CLR doesn't enforce versioning policies-
checking whether the correct version is used-for private assemblies, it ensures that an
application uses the correct shared assemblies with which the application was built. Thus, an
application uses a specific shared assembly by referring to the specific shared assembly, and the
CLR ensures that the correct version is loaded at runtime.
In .NET, an assembly is the smallest unit to which you can associate a version number;
Eg:-
Consider the following declaration of a value-type variable:
int i = 123;
object o = (object) i;
Boxing Conversion
UnBoxing :- Unboxing is an explicit conversion from the type object to a value type
Eg:
int i = 123; // A value type
object box = i; // Boxing
int j = (int)box; // Unboxing
Reference Type :Variables of reference types, referred to as objects, store references to the
actual data. This section introduces the following keywords used to declare reference types:
* Class
* Interface
* Delegate
Enum->An enum type is a distinct type that declares a set of named constants.They are strongly
typed constants. They are unique types that allow to declare symbolic names to integral values.
Enums are value types, which means they contain their own value, can't inherit or be inherited
from and assignment copies the value of one enum to another.
What is namespaces?.
Namespace is a logical naming scheme for group related types.Some class types that logically
belong together they can be put into a common namespace. They prevent namespace collisions
and they provide scoping. They are imported as "using" in C# or "Imports" in Visual Basic. It
seems as if these directives specify a particular assembly, but they don't. A namespace can span
multiple assemblies, and an assembly can define multiple namespaces. When the compiler
needs the definition for a class type, it tracks through each of the different imported namespaces
to the type name and searches each referenced assembly until it is found.
Namespaces can be nested. This is very similar to packages in Java as far as scoping is
concerned.
What is MSIL?.
When compiling to managed code, the compiler translates your source code into Microsoft
intermediate language (MSIL), which is a CPU-independent set of instructions that can be
efficiently converted to native code. MSIL includes instructions for loading, storing, initializing, and
calling methods on objects, as well as instructions for arithmetic and logical operations, control
flow, direct memory access, exception handling, and other operations. Before code can be run,
MSIL must be converted to CPU-specific code, usually by a just-in-time (JIT) compiler. Because
the common language runtime supplies one or more JIT compilers for each computer architecture
it supports, the same set of MSIL can be JIT-compiled and run on any supported architecture.
When a compiler produces MSIL, it also produces metadata. Metadata describes the types in
your code, including the definition of each type, the signatures of each type's members, the
members that your code references, and other data that the runtime uses at execution time. The
MSIL and metadata are contained in a portable executable (PE) file that is based on and extends
39
the published Microsoft PE and common object file format (COFF) used historically for
executable content. This file format, which accommodates MSIL or native code as well as
metadata, enables the operating system to recognize common language runtime images. The
presence of metadata in the file along with the MSIL enables your code to describe itself, which
means that there is no need for type libraries or Interface Definition Language (IDL). The runtime
locates and extracts the metadata from the file as needed during execution.
In .NET we have objects called Trace Listeners. A listener is an object that receives the trace
output and outputs it somewhere; that somewhere could be a window in your development
environment, a file on your hard drive, a Windows Event log, a SQL Server or Oracle database,
or any other customized data store.
All Trace Listeners have the following functions. Functionality of these functions is same except
that the target media for the tracing output is determined by the Trace Listener.
Method Name
Result Fail Outputs the specified text with the Call Stack.
Write Outputs the specified text.
WriteLine Outputs the specified text and a carriage return.
Flush Flushes the output buffer to the target media.
Close Closes the output stream in order to not receive the tracing/debugging output.
This case-sensitive attribute 'debug tells ASP.NET to generate symbols for dynamically
generated files and enables the
debugger to attach to the ASP.NET application. ASP.NET will detect this change automatically,
without the need to restart the server. Debug Mode for ASP.NET Webservices - Debugging an
XML Web service created with ASP.NET is similar to the debugging an ASP.NET Web
application.
1. XmlReader provides a fast, forward-only, read-only cursor for processing an XML document
stream.
2. XmlWriter provides an interface for producing XML document streams that conform to the
W3C's XML standards.
Both XmlReader and XmlWriter are abstract base classes, which define the functionality that all
derived classes must support.
Code that runs outside the CLR is referred to as "unmanaged code." COM components, ActiveX
components, and Win32 API functions are examples of unmanaged code.
What is encapsulation ?
Encapsulation is the ability to hide the internal workings of an object's behavior and its data. For
instance, let's say you have a object named Bike and this object has a method named start().
When you create an instance of a Bike object and call its start() method you are not worried about
what happens to accomplish this, you just want to make sure the state of the bike is changed to
'running' afterwards. This kind of behavior hiding is encapsulation and it makes programming
much easier.
class Moon:Planet
{
//Not allowed as base class is sealed
}
What is GUID and why we need to use it and in what condition? How this is created.
A GUID is a 128-bit integer (16 bytes) that can be used across all computers and networks
wherever a unique identifier is required. Such an identifier has a very low probability of being
duplicated. Visual Studio .NET IDE has a utility under the tools menu to generate GUIDs.
Managed code is compiled for the .NET run-time environment. It runs in the Common Language
Runtime (CLR), which is the heart of the .NET Framework. The CLR provides services such as
security,
memory management, and cross-language integration. Managed applications written to take
advantage of the features of the CLR perform more efficiently and safely, and take better
advantage of developers existing expertise in languages that support the .NET Framework.
Unmanaged code includes all code written before the .NET Framework was introduced—this
includes code written to use COM, native Win32, and Visual Basic 6. Because it does not run
inside the .NET environment, unmanaged code cannot make use of any .NET managed
facilities."
using System;
namespace SampleMultiCastDelegate
{
class MultiCast
{
public delegate string strMultiCast(string s);
}
}
namespace SampleMultiCastDelegate
{
using System;
using System.Threading;
namespace SampleMultiCastDelegate
{
MultiCast.strMultiCast myDelegate;
}
}
}
The PID (Process ID) a unique number for each item on the Process Tab, Image Name list. How
do you get the PID to appear? In Task Manger, select the View menu, then select columns and
check PID (Process Identifier).
In Linux, PID is used to debug a process explicitly. However we cannot do this in a windows
environment.
Microsoft has launched a SDK called as Microsoft Operations Management (MOM). This uses the
PID to find out which dll’s have been loaded by a process in the memory. This is essentially
helpful in situations where the Process which has a memory leak is to be traced to a erring dll.
Personally I have never used a PID, our Windows debugger does the things required to find out.
NET FrameWork
<< >>
All the assemblies that need to be shared across applications need to be done through the Global
assembly Cache only. However it is not necessary to install assemblies into the global assembly
cache to make them accessible to COM interop or unmanaged code.
There are several ways to deploy an assembly into the global assembly cache:
· Use an installer designed to work with the global assembly cache. This is the preferred option
for installing assemblies into the global assembly cache.
· Use a developer tool called the Global Assembly Cache tool (Gacutil.exe), provided by the .NET
Framework SDK.
· Use Windows Explorer to drag assemblies into the cache.
GAC solves the problem of DLL Hell and DLL versioning. Unlike earlier situations, GAC can hold
two assemblies of the same name but different version. This ensures that the applications which
access a particular assembly continue to access the same assembly even if another version of
that assembly is installed on that machine.
An interface is a description of some of the members available from a class. In practice, the
syntax typically looks similar to a class definition, except that there's no code defined for the
methods — just their name, the arguments passed and the type of the value returned.
So what good is it? None by itself. But you create an interface so that classes will implement it.
But what does it mean to implement an interface. The interface acts as a contract or promise. If a
class implements an interface, then it must have the properties and methods of the interface
defined in the class. This is enforced by the compiler.
What is the difference between XML Web Services using ASMX and .NET Remoting using
SOAP?
ASP.NET Web services and .NET Remoting provide a full suite of design options for cross-
process and cross-plaform communication in distributed applications. In general, ASP.NET Web
services provide the highest levels of interoperability with full support for WSDL and SOAP over
HTTP, while .NET Remoting is designed for common language runtime type-system fidelity and
supports additional data format and communication channels. Hence if we looking cross-platform
communication than web services is the choice coz for .NET remoting .Net framework is requried
which may or may not present for the other platform.
.NET Remoting relies on the pluggable implementations of the IFormatter interface used by the
System.Runtime.Serialization engine to marshal data to and from messages. There are two
standard formatters, System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter and
System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter. The BinaryFormatter and
SoapFormatter, as the names suggest, marshal types in binary and SOAP format respectively.
For metadata, .NET Remoting relies on the common language runtime assemblies, which contain
all the relevant information about the data types they implement, and expose it via reflection. The
reliance on the assemblies for metadata makes it easy to preserve the full runtime type-system
fidelity. As a result, when the .NET Remoting plumbing marshals data, it includes all of a class's
public and private members; handles object graphs correctly; and supports all container types
(e.g., System.Collections.Hashtable). However, the reliance on runtime metadata also limits the
reach of a .NET Remoting system—a client has to understand .NET constructs in order to
communicate with a .NET Remoting endpoint. In addition to pluggable formatters, the .NET
Remoting layer supports pluggable channels, which abstract away the details of how messages
are sent. There are two standard channels, one for raw TCP and one for HTTP. Messages can
be sent over either channel independent of format.
Security
Since ASP.NET Web services rely on HTTP, they integrate with the standard Internet security
infrastructure. ASP.NET leverages the security features available with IIS to provide strong
support for standard HTTP authentication schemes including Basic, Digest, digital certificates,
and even Microsoft® .NET Passport. (You can also use Windows Integrated authentication, but
only for clients in a trusted domain.) One advantage of using the available HTTP authentication
schemes is that no code change is required in a Web service; IIS performs authentication before
the ASP.NET Web services are called. ASP.NET also provides support for .NET Passport-based
authentication and other custom authentication schemes. ASP.NET supports access control
based on target URLs, and by integrating with the .NET code access security (CAS)
infrastructure. SSL can be used to ensure private communication over the wire.
Although these standard transport-level techniques to secure Web services are quite effective,
they only go so far. In complex scenarios involving multiple Web services in different trust
domains, you have to build custom ad hoc solutions. Microsoft and others are working on a set of
security specifications that build on the extensibility of SOAP messages to offer message-level
security capabilities. One of these is the XML Web Services Security Language (WS-Security),
which defines a framework for message-level credential transfer, message integrity, and
message confidentiality.
As noted in the previous section, the .NET Remoting plumbing does not secure cross-process
invocations in the general case. A .NET Remoting endpoint hosted in IIS with ASP.NET can
leverage all the same security features available to ASP.NET Web services, including support for
secure communication over the wire using SSL. If you are using the TCP channel or the HTTP
channel hosted in processes other than aspnet_wp.exe, you have to implement authentication,
authorization and privacy mechanisms yourself.
One additional security concern is the ability to execute code from a semi-trusted environment
without having to change the default security policy. ASP.NET Web Services client proxies work
in these environments, but .NET Remoting proxies do not. In order to use a .NET Remoting proxy
from a semi-trusted environment, you need a special serialization permission that is not given to
code loaded from your intranet or the Internet by default. If you want to use a .NET Remoting
client from within a semi-trusted environment, you have to alter the default security policy for code
loaded from those zones. In situations where you are connecting to systems from clients running
in a sandbox—like a downloaded Windows Forms application, for instance—ASP.NET Web
Services are a simpler choice because security policy changes are not required.
Early binding implies that the class of the called object is known at compile-time; late-binding
implies that the class is not known until run-time, such as a call through an interface or via
Reflection.
Early binding is the preferred method. It is the best performer because your application binds
directly to the address of the function being called and there is no extra overhead in doing a run-
time lookup. In terms of overall execution speed, it is at least twice as fast as late binding.
Early binding also provides type safety. When you have a reference set to the component's type
library, Visual Basic provides IntelliSense support to help you code each function correctly. Visual
Basic also warns you if the data type of a parameter or return value is incorrect, saving a lot of
time when writing and debugging code.
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Late binding is still useful in situations where the exact interface of an object is not known at
design-time. If your application seeks to talk with multiple unknown servers or needs to invoke
functions by name (using the Visual Basic 6.0 CallByName function for example) then you need
to use late binding. Late binding is also useful to work around compatibility problems between
multiple versions of a component that has improperly modified or adapted its interface between
versions.
Strong names are implemented using standard public key cryptography. In general, the process
works as follows: The author of an assembly generates a key pair (or uses an existing one), signs
the file containing the manifest with the private key, and makes the public key available to callers.
When references are made to the assembly, the caller records the public key corresponding to
the private key used to generate the strong name.
Weak named assemblies are not suitable to be added in GAC and shared. It is essential for an
assembly to be strong named.
Strong naming prevents tampering and enables assemblies to be placed in the GAC alongside
other assemblies of the same name.
How does the generational garbage collector in the .NET CLR manage object lifetime?
What is non-deterministic finalization?
The hugely simplistic version is that every time it garbage-collects, it starts by assuming
everything to be garbage, then goes through and builds a list of everything reachable. Those
become not-garbage, everything else doesn't, and gets thrown away. What makes it generational
is that every time an object goes through this process and survives, it is noted as being a member
of an older generation (up to 2, right now). When the garbage-collector is trying to free memory, it
starts with the lowest generation (0) and only works up to higher ones if it can't free up enough
space, on the grounds that shorter-lived objects are more likely to have been freed than longer-
lived ones.
Non-deterministic finalization implies that the destructor (if any) of an object will not necessarily
be run (nor its memory cleaned up, but that's a relatively minor issue) immediately upon its going
out of scope. Instead, it will wait until first the garbage collector gets around to finding it, and then
the finalisation queue empties down to it; and if the process ends before this happens, it may not
be finalised at all. (Although the operating system will usually clean up any process-external
resources left open - note the usually there, especially as the exceptions tend to hurt a lot.)
How is the using() pattern useful? What is IDisposable? How does it support deterministic
finalization?
The using() pattern is useful because it ensures that Dispose() will always be called when a
disposable object (defined as one that implements IDisposable, and thus the Dispose() method)
goes out of scope, even if it does so by an exception being thrown, and thus that resources are
always released.
What are PDBs? Where must they be located for debugging to work?
A program database (PDB) files holds debugging and project state information that allows
incremental linking of debug configuration of your program.There are several different types of
symbolic debugging information. The default type for Microsoft compiler is the so-called PDB file.
The compiler setting for creating this file is /Zi, or /ZI for C/C++(which creates a PDB file with
additional information that enables a feature called ""Edit and Continue"") or a Visual
Basic/C#/JScript .NET program with /debug.
A PDB file is a separate file, placed by default in the Debug project subdirectory, that has the
same name as the executable file with the extension .pdb. Note that the Visual C++ compiler by
default creates an additional PDB file called VC60.pdb for VisulaC++6.0 and VC70.PDB file for
VisulaC++7.0. The compiler creates this file during compilation of the source code, when the
compiler isn't aware of the final name of the executable. The linker can merge this temporary
PDB file into the main one if you tell it to, but it won't do it by default. The PDB file can be useful
to display the detailed stack trace with source files and line numbers.
The permission sets in .NET include FullTrust, SkipVerification, Execution, Nothing, LocalIntranet,
Internet and Everything. Full Trust Grants unrestricted permissions to system resources. Fully
trusted code run by a normal, nonprivileged user cannot do administrative tasks, but can access
any resources the user can access, and do anything the user can do. From a security standpoint,
you can think of fully trusted code as being similar to native, unmanaged code, like a traditional
ActiveX control.
GAC assemblies are granted FullTrust. In v1.0 and 1.1, the fact that assemblies in the GAC seem
to always get a FullTrust grant is actually a side effect of the fact that the GAC lives on the local
machine. If anyone were to lock down the security policy by changing the grant set of the local
machine to something less than FullTrust, and if your assembly did not get extra permission from
some other code group, it would no longer have FullTrust even though it lives in the GAC.
What is the difference between a Debug and Release build? Is there a significant speed
difference? Why or why not?
The Debug build is the program compiled with full symbolic debug information and no
optimization. The Release build is the program compiled employing optimization and contains no
symbolic debug information. These settings can be changed as per need from Project
Configuration properties. The release runs faster since it does not have any debug symbols and
is optimized.
Sealed: It can be applied on a class and methods. It stops the type from further derivation i.e no
one can derive class
from a sealed class,ie A sealed class cannot be inherited.A sealed class cannot be a abstract
class.A compile time error is thrown if you try to specify sealed class as a base class.
When an instance method declaration includes a sealed modifier, that method is said to be a
sealed method. If an instance method declaration includes the sealed modifier, it must also
include the override modifier. Use of the sealed modifier prevents a derived class from further
overriding the method For Egs: sealed override public void Sample()
{ Console.WriteLine("Sealed Method"); }
Virtual & Override: Virtual & Override keywords provides runtime polymorphism. A base class can
make some of its methods
as virtual which allows the derived class a chance to override the base class implementation by
using override keyword.
class Rectangle:Shape
{
public override void Display()
{
Console.WriteLine("Derived");
}
50
}
Explain the importance and use of each, Version, Culture and PublicKeyToken for an
assembly.
This three alongwith name of the assembly provide a strong name or fully qualified name to the
assembly. When a assebly is referenced with all three.
PublicKeyToken: Each assembly can have a public key embedded in its manifest that identifies
the developer. This ensures that once the assembly ships, no one can modify the code or other
resources contained in the assembly.
Version: The version number of the assembly.It is of the following form major.minor.build.revision.
Public: Allows class, methods, fields to be accessible from anywhere i.e. within and outside an
assembly.
Private: When applied to field and method allows to be accessible within a class.
Protected: Similar to private but can be accessed by members of derived class also.
Internal: They are public within the assembly i.e. they can be accessed by anyone within an
assembly but outside assembly they are not visible.
/*
*/
1. Combine fragments from different documents without any naming conflicts. (See example
below.)
2. Write reusable code modules that can be invoked for specific elements and attributes.
Universally unique names guarantee that
such modules are invoked only for the correct elements and attributes.
3. Define elements and attributes that can be reused in other schemas or instance documents
without fear of name collisions. For
example, you might use XHTML elements in a parts catalog to provide part descriptions. Or you
might use the nil attribute
defined in XML Schemas to indicate a missing value.
Essentially Metadata maintains details in form of tables like Methods Metadata tables , Properties
Metadata tables , which maintains the list of given type and other details like access specifier ,
return type etc.
Now Manifest is a part of metadata only , fully called as “manifest metadata tables” , it contains
the details of the references needed by the assembly of any other external assembly / type , it
could be a custom assembly or standard System namespace .
Now for an assembly that can independently exists and used in the .Net world both the things
( Metadata with Manifest ) are mandatory , so that it can be fully described assembly and can be
52
ported anywhere without any system dependency . Essentially .Net framework can
read all assembly related information from assembly itself at runtime .
But for .Net modules , that can’t be used independently , until they are being packaged as a part
of an assembly , they don’t contain Manifest but their complete structure is defined by their
respective metadata .
Ultimately . .Net modules use Manifest Metadata tables of parent assembly which contain them .
a. Check up the total space if there’s any free space on the declared list .
b. If yes add the new item and increase count by 1 .
c. If No Copy the whole thing to a temporary Array of Last Max. Size .
d. Create new Array with size ( Last Array Size + Increase Value )
e. Copy back values from temp and reference this new array as original array .
f. Must doing Method updates too , need to check it up .
What is Boxing and unboxing? Does it occure automaatically or u need to write code to
box and unbox?
Boxing – Process of converting a System.ValueType to Reference Type , Mostly base class
System.Object type and allocating it memory on Heap .Reverse is unboxing , but can only be
done with prior boxed variables.
Boxing is always implicit but Unboxing needs to be explicitly done via casting , thus ensuring the
value type contained inside .
ADO.NET
Next>>
53
Explain what a diffgram is and its usage ?
A DiffGram is an XML format that is used to identify current and original versions of data
elements. The DataSet uses the DiffGram format to load and persist its contents, and to serialize
its contents for transport across a network connection. When a DataSet is written as a DiffGram,
it populates the DiffGram with all the necessary information to accurately recreate the contents,
though not the schema, of the DataSet, including column values from both the Original and
Current row versions, row error information, and row order.
When sending and retrieving a DataSet from an XML Web service, the DiffGram format is
implicitly used. Additionally, when loading the contents of a DataSet from XML using the
ReadXml method, or when writing the contents of a DataSet in XML using the WriteXml method,
you can select that the contents be read or written as a DiffGram.
The DiffGram format is divided into three sections: the current data, the original (or "before") data,
and an errors section, as shown in the following example.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<diffgr:diffgram
xmlns:msdata="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-msdata"
xmlns:diffgr="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-diffgram-v1"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<DataInstance>
</DataInstance>
<diffgr:before>
</diffgr:before>
<diffgr:errors>
</diffgr:errors>
</diffgr:diffgram>
<DataInstance>
The name of this element, DataInstance, is used for explanation purposes in this documentation.
A DataInstance element represents a DataSet or a row of a DataTable. Instead of DataInstance,
the element would contain the name of the DataSet or DataTable. This block of the DiffGram
format contains the current data, whether it has been modified or not. An element, or row, that
has been modified is identified with the diffgr:hasChanges annotation.
<diffgr:before>
This block of the DiffGram format contains the original version of a row. Elements in this block are
matched to elements in the DataInstance block using the diffgr:id annotation.
<diffgr:errors>
This block of the DiffGram format contains error information for a particular row in the
DataInstance block. Elements in this block are matched to elements in the DataInstance block
using the diffgr:id annotation.
Which method do you invoke on the DataAdapter control to load your generated dataset with
data?
You have to use the Fill method of the DataAdapter control and pass the dataset object as an
argument to load the generated data.
Default :
The row the default version for the current DataRowState. For a DataRowState value of Added,
Modified or Current, the default version is Current. For a DataRowState of Deleted, the version is
Original. For a DataRowState value of Detached, the version is Proposed.
Original:
The row contains its original values.
Proposed:
The proposed values for the row. This row version exists during an edit operation on a row, or for
a row that is not part of a DataRowCollection
These properties ensure predictable behavior, reinforcing the role of transactions as all-or-none
propositions designed to reduce the management load when there are many variables.
Atomicity
A transaction is a unit of work in which a series of operations occur between the BEGIN
TRANSACTION and END TRANSACTION statements of an application. A transaction executes
exactly once and is atomic — all the work is done or none of it is.
Operations associated with a transaction usually share a common intent and are interdependent.
By performing only a subset of these operations, the system could compromise the overall intent
of the transaction. Atomicity eliminates the chance of processing a subset of operations.
55
Consistency
A transaction is a unit of integrity because it preserves the consistency of data, transforming one
consistent state of data into another consistent state of data.
Consistency requires that data bound by a transaction be semantically preserved. Some of the
responsibility for maintaining consistency falls to the application developer who must make sure
that all known integrity constraints are enforced by the application. For example, in developing an
application that transfers money, you should avoid arbitrarily moving decimal points during the
transfer.
Isolation
A transaction is a unit of isolation — allowing concurrent transactions to behave as though each
were the only transaction running in the system.
Isolation requires that each transaction appear to be the only transaction manipulating the data
store, even though other transactions may be running at the same time. A transaction should
never see the intermediate stages of another transaction.
Transactions attain the highest level of isolation when they are serializable. At this level, the
results obtained from a set of concurrent transactions are identical to the results obtained by
running each transaction serially. Because a high degree of isolation can limit the number of
concurrent transactions, some applications reduce the isolation level in exchange for better
throughput.
Durability
A transaction is also a unit of recovery. If a transaction succeeds, the system guarantees that its
updates will persist, even if the computer crashes immediately after the commit. Specialized
logging allows the system's restart procedure to complete unfinished operations, making the
transaction durable.
What is a Dataset?
Datasets are the result of bringing together ADO and XML. A dataset contains one or more data
of tabular XML, known as DataTables, these data can be treated separately, or can have
relationships defined between them. Indeed these relationships give you ADO data SHAPING
without needing to master the SHAPE language, which many people are not comfortable with.
The dataset is a disconnected in-memory cache database. The dataset object model looks like
this:
Dataset
DataTableCollection
DataTable
DataView
DataRowCollection
DataRow
DataColumnCollection
DataColumn
ChildRelations
ParentRelations
Constraints
PrimaryKey
DataRelationCollection
DataView: The way we have views in database, same way we can have DataViews. We can use
these DataViews to do Sort, filter data.
DataRow: To represent each and every row of the DataRowCollection, we have DataRows.
PrimaryKey: Dataset defines Primary key for the table and the primary key validation will take
place without going to the database.
Constraints: We can define various constraints on the Tables, and can use
Dataset.Tables(0).enforceConstraints. This will execute all the constraints, whenever we enter
data in DataTable.
DataRelationCollection: as we know that we can have more than 1 table in the dataset, we can
also define relationship between these tables using this collection and maintain a parent-child
relationship.
A .Net Framework data provider is used to connecting to a database, executing commands, and
retrieving results. Those results are either processed directly, or placed in an ADO.NET DataSet
in order to be exposed to the user in an ad-hoc manner, combined with data from multiple
sources, or remoted between tiers. The .NET Framework data provider is designed to be
lightweight, creating a minimal layer between the data source and your code, increasing
performance without sacrificing functionality.
The .NET Framework includes the .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server (for Microsoft
SQL Server version 7.0 or later), the .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB, and the .NET
Framework Data Provider for ODBC.
57
The .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server: The .NET Framework Data Provider
for SQL Server uses its own protocol to communicate with SQL Server. It is lightweight and
performs well because it is optimized to access a SQL Server directly without adding an OLE DB
or Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) layer. The following illustration contrasts the .NET
Framework Data Provider for SQL Server with the .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB.
The .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB communicates to an OLE DB data source
through both the OLE DB Service component, which provides connection pooling and transaction
services, and the OLE DB Provider for the data source
The .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB: The .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE
DB uses native OLE DB through COM interoperability to enable data access. The .NET
Framework Data Provider for OLE DB supports both local and distributed transactions. For
distributed transactions, the .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB, by default, automatically
enlists in a transaction and obtains transaction details from Windows 2000 Component Services.
The .NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC: The .NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC
uses native ODBC Driver Manager (DM) through COM interoperability to enable data access.
The ODBC data provider supports both local and distributed transactions. For distributed
transactions, the ODBC data provider, by default, automatically enlists in a transaction and
obtains transaction details from Windows 2000 Component Services.
The .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle: The .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle
enables data access to Oracle data sources through Oracle client connectivity software. The data
provider supports Oracle client software version 8.1.7 and later. The data provider supports both
local and distributed transactions (the data provider automatically enlists in existing distributed
transactions, but does not currently support the EnlistDistributedTransaction method).
The .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle requires that Oracle client software (version 8.1.7
or later) be installed on the system before you can use it to connect to an Oracle data source.
.NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle classes are located in the System.Data.OracleClient
namespace and are contained in the System.Data.OracleClient.dll assembly. You will need to
reference both the System.Data.dll and the System.Data.OracleClient.dll when compiling an
application that uses the data provider.
Choosing a .NET Framework Data Provider
.NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server: Recommended for middle-tier applications using
Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 or later. Recommended for single-tier applications using Microsoft Data
Engine (MSDE) or Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 or later.
Recommended over use of the OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (SQLOLEDB) with the .NET
Framework Data Provider for OLE DB. For Microsoft SQL Server version 6.5 and earlier, you
must use the OLE DB Provider for SQL Server with the .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE
DB.
.NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB: Recommended for middle-tier applications using
Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 or earlier, or any OLE DB provider. For Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 or
later, the .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server is recommended. Recommended for
single-tier applications using Microsoft Access databases. Use of a Microsoft Access database
for a middle-tier application is not recommended.
.NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC: Recommended for middle-tier applications using
ODBC data sources. Recommended for single-tier applications using ODBC data sources.
.NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle: Recommended for middle-tier applications using
Oracle data sources. Recommended for single-tier applications using Oracle data sources.
Supports Oracle client software version 8.1.7 and later. The .NET Framework Data Provider for
Oracle classes are located in the System.Data.OracleClient namespace and are contained in the
System.Data.OracleClient.dll assembly. You need to reference both the System.Data.dll and the
System.Data.OracleClient.dll when compiling an application that uses the data provider.
58
Can you explain the difference between an ADO.NET Dataset and an ADO Recordset?
Let’s take a look at the differences between ADO Recordset and ADO.Net DataSet:
1. Table Collection: ADO Recordset provides the ability to navigate through a single table of
information. That table would have been formed with a join of multiple tables and returning
columns from multiple tables. ADO.NET DataSet is capable of holding instances of multiple
tables. It has got a Table Collection, which holds multiple tables in it. If the tables are having a
relation, then it can be manipulated on a Parent-Child relationship. It has the ability to support
multiple tables with keys, constraints and interconnected relationships. With this ability the
DataSet can be considered as a small, in-memory relational database cache.
2. Navigation: Navigation in ADO Recordset is based on the cursor mode. Even though it is
specified to be a client-side Recordset, still the navigation pointer will move from one location to
another on cursor model only. ADO.NET DataSet is an entirely offline, in-memory, and cache of
data. All of its data is available all the time. At any time, we can retrieve any row or column,
constraints or relation simply by accessing it either ordinarily or by retrieving it from a name-
based collection.
3. Connectivity Model: The ADO Recordset was originally designed without the ability to operate
in a disconnected environment. ADO.NET DataSet is specifically designed to be a disconnected
in-memory database. ADO.NET DataSet follows a pure disconnected connectivity model and this
gives it much more scalability and versatility in the amount of things it can do and how easily it
can do that.
4. Marshalling and Serialization: In COM, through Marshalling, we can pass data from 1 COM
component to another component at any time. Marshalling involves copying and processing data
so that a complex type can appear to the receiving component the same as it appeared to the
sending component. Marshalling is an expensive operation. ADO.NET Dataset and DataTable
components support Remoting in the form of XML serialization. Rather than doing expensive
Marshalling, it uses XML and sent data across boundaries.
5. Firewalls and DCOM and Remoting: Those who have worked with DCOM know that how
difficult it is to marshal a DCOM component across a router. People generally came up with
workarounds to solve this issue. ADO.NET DataSet uses Remoting, through which a DataSet /
DataTable component can be serialized into XML, sent across the wire to a new AppDomain, and
then Desterilized back to a fully functional DataSet. As the DataSet is completely disconnected,
and it has no dependency, we lose absolutely nothing by serializing and transferring it through
Remoting.
One of the key features of the ADO.NET DataSet is that it can be a self-contained and
disconnected data store. It can contain the schema and data from several rowsets in DataTable
objects as well as information about how to relate the DataTable objects-all in memory. The
DataSet neither knows nor cares where the data came from, nor does it need a link to an
underlying data source. Because it is data source agnostic you can pass the DataSet around
networks or even serialize it to XML and pass it across the Internet without losing any of its
features. However, in a disconnected model, concurrency obviously becomes a much bigger
problem than it is in a connected model.
In this column, I'll explore how ADO.NET is equipped to detect and handle concurrency violations.
I'll begin by discussing scenarios in which concurrency violations can occur using the ADO.NET
disconnected model. Then I will walk through an ASP.NET application that handles concurrency
violations by giving the user the choice to overwrite the changes or to refresh the out-of-sync data
and begin editing again. Because part of managing an optimistic concurrency model can involve
keeping a timestamp (rowversion) or another type of flag that indicates when a row was last
updated, I will show how to implement this type of flag and how to maintain its value after each
database update.
59
Is Your Glass Half Full?
There are three common techniques for managing what happens when users try to modify the
same data at the same time: pessimistic, optimistic, and last-in wins. They each handle
concurrency issues differently.
The pessimistic approach says: "Nobody can cause a concurrency violation with my data if I do
not let them get at the data while I have it." This tactic prevents concurrency in the first place but it
limits scalability because it prevents all concurrent access. Pessimistic concurrency generally
locks a row from the time it is retrieved until the time updates are flushed to the database. Since
this requires a connection to remain open during the entire process, pessimistic concurrency
cannot successfully be implemented in a disconnected model like the ADO.NET DataSet, which
opens a connection only long enough to populate the DataSet then releases and closes, so a
database lock cannot be held.
Another technique for dealing with concurrency is the last-in wins approach. This model is pretty
straightforward and easy to implement-whatever data modification was made last is what gets
written to the database. To implement this technique you only need to put the primary key fields
of the row in the UPDATE statement's WHERE clause. No matter what is changed, the UPDATE
statement will overwrite the changes with its own changes since all it is looking for is the row that
matches the primary key values. Unlike the pessimistic model, the last-in wins approach allows
users to read the data while it is being edited on screen. However, problems can occur when
users try to modify the same data at the same time because users can overwrite each other's
changes without being notified of the collision. The last-in wins approach does not detect or notify
the user of violations because it does not care. However the optimistic technique does detect
violations. Contd....
In optimistic concurrency models, a row is only locked during the update to the database.
Therefore the data can be retrieved and updated by other users at any time other than during the
actual row update operation. Optimistic concurrency allows the data to be read simultaneously by
multiple users and blocks other users less often than its pessimistic counterpart, making it a good
choice for ADO.NET. In optimistic models, it is important to implement some type of concurrency
violation detection that will catch any additional attempt to modify records that have already been
modified but not committed. You can write your code to handle the violation by always rejecting
and canceling the change request or by overwriting the request based on some business rules.
Another way to handle the concurrency violation is to let the user decide what to do. The sample
application that is shown in Figure 1 illustrates some of the options that can be presented to the
user in the event of a concurrency violation.
When users are likely to overwrite each other's changes, control mechanisms should be put in
place. Otherwise, changes could be lost. If the technique you're using is the last-in wins
approach, then these types of overwrites are entirely possible.For example, imagine Julie wants
to edit an employee's last name to correct the spelling. She navigates to a screen which loads the
employee's information into a DataSet and has it presented to her in a Web page. Meanwhile,
Scott is notified that the same employee's phone extension has changed. While Julie is correcting
the employee's last name, Scott begins to correct his extension. Julie saves her changes first and
then Scott saves his.Assuming that the application uses the last-in wins approach and updates
the row using a SQL WHERE clause containing only the primary key's value, and assuming a
change to one column requires the entire row to be updated, neither Julie nor Scott may
immediatelyrealize the concurrency issue that just occurred. In this particular situation, Julie's
changes were overwritten by Scott's changes because he saved last, and the last name reverted
to the misspelled version.
So as you can see, even though the users changed different fields, their changes collided and
caused Julie's changes to be lost. Without some sort of concurrency detection and handling,
these types of overwrites can occur and even go unnoticed.When you run the sample application
included in this column's download, you should open two separate instances of Microsoft®
60
Internet Explorer. When I generated the conflict, I opened two instances to simulate two
users with two separate sessions so that a concurrency violation would occur in the sample
application. When you do this, be careful not to use Ctrl+N because if you open one instance and
then use the Ctrl+N technique to open another instance, both windows will share the same
session.
Detecting Violations
The concurrency violation reported to the user in Figure 1 demonstrates what can happen when
multiple users edit the same data at the same time. In Figure 1, the user attempted to modify the
first name to "Joe" but since someone else had already modified the last name to "Fuller III," a
concurrency violation was detected and reported. ADO.NET detects a concurrency violation when
a DataSet containing changed values is passed to a SqlDataAdapter's Update method and no
rows are actually modified. Simply using the primary key (in this case the EmployeeID) in the
UPDATE statement's WHERE clause will not cause a violation to be detected because it still
updates the row (in fact, this technique has the same outcome as the last-in wins technique).
Instead, more conditions must be specified in the WHERE clause in order for ADO.NET to detect
the violation.
The key here is to make the WHERE clause explicit enough so that it not only checks the primary
key but that it also checks for another appropriate condition. One way to accomplish this is to
pass in all modifiable fields to the WHERE clause in addition to the primary key. For example, the
application shown in Figure 1 could have its UPDATE statement look like the stored procedure
that's shown in Figure 2.
Notice that in the code in Figure 2 nullable columns are also checked to see if the value passed in
is NULL. This technique is not only messy but it can be difficult to maintain by hand and it
requires you to test for a significant number of WHERE conditions just to update a row. This
yields the desired result of only updating rows where none of the values have changed since the
last time the user got the data, but there are other techniques that do not require such a huge
WHERE clause.
Another way to make sure that the row is only updated if it has not been modified by another user
since you got the data is to add a timestamp column to the table. The SQL Server(tm)
TIMESTAMP datatype automatically updates itself with a new value every time a value in its row
is modified. This makes it a very simple and convenient tool to help detect concurrency violations.
A third technique is to use a DATETIME column in which to track changes to its row. In my
sample application I added a column called LastUpdateDateTime to the Employees table.
There I update the value of the LastUpdateDateTime field automatically in the UPDATE stored
procedure using the built-in SQL Server GETDATE function.
The binary TIMESTAMP column is simple to create and use since it automatically regenerates its
value each time its row is modified, but since the DATETIME column technique is easier to
display on screen and demonstrate when the change was made, I chose it for my sample
application. Both of these are solid choices, but I prefer the TIMESTAMP technique since it does
not involve any additional code to update its value.
One of the keys to implementing concurrency controls is to update the timestamp or datetime
field's value back into the DataSet. If the same user wants to make more modifications, this
updated value is reflected in the DataSet so it can be used again. There are a few different ways
to do this. The fastest is using output parameters within the stored procedure. (This should only
return if @@ROWCOUNT equals 1.) The next fastest involves selecting the row again after the
61
UPDATE within the stored procedure. The slowest involves selecting the row from another
SQL statement or stored procedure from the SqlDataAdapter's RowUpdated event.
I prefer to use the output parameter technique since it is the fastest and incurs the least
overhead. Using the RowUpdated event works well, but it requires me to make a second call from
the application to the database. The following code snippet adds an output parameter to the
SqlCommand object that is used to update the Employee information:
oUpdCmd.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@NewLastUpdateDateTime",
SqlDbType.DateTime, 8, ParameterDirection.Output,
oUpdCmd.UpdatedRowSource = UpdateRowSource.OutputParameters;
The output parameter has its sourcecolumn and sourceversion arguments set to point the output
parameter's return value back to the current value of the LastUpdateDateTime column of the
DataSet. This way the updated DATETIME value is retrieved and can be returned to the user's
.aspx page. Contd....
Saving Changes
Now that the Employees table has the tracking field (LastUpdateDateTime) and the stored
procedure has been created to use both the primary key and the tracking field in the WHERE
clause of the UPDATE statement, let's take a look at the role of ADO.NET. In order to trap the
event when the user changes the values in the textboxes, I created an event handler for the
TextChanged event for each TextBox control:
// do a Find)
dsEmployee.EmployeeRow oEmpRow =
(dsEmployee.EmployeeRow)oDsEmployee.Employee.Rows[0];
oEmpRow.LastName = txtLastName.Text;
Session["oDsEmployee"] = oDsEmployee;
This event retrieves the row and sets the appropriate field's value from the TextBox. (Another way
of getting the changed values is to grab them when the user clicks the Save button.) Each
TextChanged event executes after the Page_Load event fires on a postback, so assuming the
user changed the first and last names, when the user clicks the Save button, the events could fire
in this order: Page_Load, txtFirstName_TextChanged, txtLastName_TextChanged, and
btnSave_Click.
62
The Page_Load event grabs the row from the DataSet in the Session object; the
TextChanged events update the DataRow with the new values; and the btnSave_Click event
attempts to save the record to the database. The btnSave_Click event calls the SaveEmployee
method (shown in Figure 3) and passes it a bLastInWins value of false since we want to attempt
a standard save first. If the SaveEmployee method detects that changes were made to the row
(using the HasChanges method on the DataSet, or alternatively using the RowState property on
the row), it creates an instance of the Employee class and passes the DataSet to its
SaveEmployee method. The Employee class could live in a logical or physical middle tier. (I
wanted to make this a separate class so it would be easy to pull the code out and separate it from
the presentation logic.)
Notice that I did not use the GetChanges method to pull out only the modified rows and pass
them to the Employee object's Save method. I skipped this step here since there is only one row.
However, if there were multiple rows in the DataSet's DataTable, it would be better to use the
GetChanges method to create a DataSet that contains only the modified rows.
If the save succeeds, the Employee.SaveEmployee method returns a DataSet containing the
modified row and its newly updated row version flag (in this case, the LastUpdateDateTime field's
value). This DataSet is then merged into the original DataSet so that the LastUpdateDateTime
field's value can be updated in the original DataSet. This must be done because if the user wants
to make more changes she will need the current values from the database merged back into the
local DataSet and shown on screen. This includes the LastUpdateDateTime value which is used
in the WHERE clause. Without this field's current value, a false concurrency violation would
occur.
Reporting Violations
If a concurrency violation occurs, it will bubble up and be caught by the exception handler shown
in Figure 3 in the catch block for DBConcurrencyException. This block calls the
FillConcurrencyValues method, which displays both the original values in the DataSet that were
attempted to be saved to the database and the values currently in the database. This method is
used merely to show the user why the violation occurred. Notice that the exDBC variable is
passed to the FillConcurrencyValues method. This instance of the special database concurrency
exception class (DBConcurrencyException) contains the row where the violation occurred. When
a concurrency violation occurs, the screen is updated to look like Figure 1.
The DataSet not only stores the schema and the current data, it also tracks changes that have
been made to its data. It knows which rows and columns have been modified and it keeps track
of the before and after versions of these values. When accessing a column's value via the
DataRow's indexer, in addition to the column index you can also specify a value using the
DataRowVersion enumerator. For example, after a user changes the value of the last name of an
employee, the following lines of C# code will retrieve the original and current values stored in the
LastName column:
The FillConcurrencyValues method uses the row from the DBConcurrencyException and gets a
fresh copy of the same row from the database. It then displays the values using the
DataRowVersion enumerators to show the original value of the row before the update and the
value in the database alongside the current values in the textboxes.
User's Choice
Once the user has been notified of the concurrency issue, you could leave it up to her to decide
how to handle it. Another alternative is to code a specific way to deal with concurrency, such as
always handling the exception to let the user know (but refreshing the data from the database). In
this sample application I let the user decide what to do next. She can either cancel changes,
cancel and reload from the database, save changes, or save anyway.
63
The option to cancel changes simply calls the RejectChanges method of the DataSet and
rebinds the DataSet to the controls in the ASP.NET page. The RejectChanges method reverts the
changes that the user made back to its original state by setting all of the current field values to the
original field values. The option to cancel changes and reload the data from the database also
rejects the changes but additionally goes back to the database via the Employee class in order to
get a fresh copy of the data before rebinding to the control on the ASP.NET page.
The option to save changes attempts to save the changes but will fail if a concurrency violation is
encountered. Finally, I included a "save anyway" option. This option takes the values the user
attempted to save and uses the last-in wins technique, overwriting whatever is in the database. It
does this by calling a different command object associated with a stored procedure that only uses
the primary key field (EmployeeID) in the WHERE clause of the UPDATE statement. This
technique should be used with caution as it will overwrite the record.
If you want a more automatic way of dealing with the changes, you could get a fresh copy from
the database. Then overwrite just the fields that the current user modified, such as the Extension
field. That way, in the example I used the proper LastName would not be overwritten. Use this
with caution as well, however, because if the same field was modified by both users, you may
want to just back out or ask the user what to do next. What is obvious here is that there are
several ways to deal with concurrency violations, each of which must be carefully weighed before
you decide on the one you will use in your application.
Wrapping It Up
I have split the topic of concurrency violation management into two parts. Next time I will focus on
what to do when multiple rows could cause concurrency violations. I will also discuss how the
DataViewRowState enumerators can be used to show what changes have been made to a
DataSet.
C# and VB.NET
Next>>
C# allows multiple interface inheritance. It means that a class can implement more than one
interface. The methods declared in an interface are implicitly abstract. If a class implements an
interface, it becomes mandatory for the class to override all the methods declared in the interface,
otherwise the derived class would become abstract.
Can you explain what inheritance is and an example of when you might use it?
The savingaccount class has two data members-accno that stores account number, and trans
that keeps track of the number of transactions. We can create an object of savingaccount class
as shown below.
We can write our own definition of a method that already exists in a base class. This is called
method overriding. We have overridden the deposit( ) and withdraw( ) methods in the
savingaccount class so that we can make sure that each account maintains a minimum balance
of Rs. 500 and the total number of transactions do not exceed 10. From these methods we have
called the base class's methods to update the balance using the base keyword. We have also
overridden the display( ) method to display additional information, i.e. account number.
Unlike C++, C# does not support multiple inheritance. So, in C# every class has exactly one base
class.
Now, suppose we declare reference to the base class and store in it the address of instance of
derived class as shown below.
In C#
Hiding is also called as Shadowing. This is the concept of Overriding the methods. It is a concept
used in the Object Oriented Programming.
E.g.
public class ClassA {
public virtual void MethodA() {
Trace.WriteLine("ClassA Method");
}
}
Why is the XML InfoSet specification different from the Xml DOM? What does the InfoSet
attempt to solve?
"The XML Information Set (Infoset) defines a data model for XML. The Infoset describes the
abstract representation of an XML Document. Infoset is the generalized representation of the
XML Document, which is primarily meant to act as a set of definitions used by XML technologies
to formally describe what parts of an XML document they operate upon.
The Document Object Model (DOM) is one technology for representing an XML Document in
memory and to programmatically read, modify and manipulate a xml document.
Infoset helps defining generalized standards on how to use XML that is not dependent or tied to a
particular XML specification or API. The Infoset tells us what part of XML Document should be
considered as significant information.
Contrast DTDs versus XSDs. What are their similarities and differences? Which is
preferred and why?
Document Type Definition (DTD) describes a model or set of rules for an XML document. XML
Schema Definition (XSD) also describes the structure of an XML document but XSDs are much
more powerful.
The disadvantage with the Document Type Definition is it doesn’t support data types beyond the
basic 10 primitive types. It cannot properly define the type of data contained by the tag.
An Xml Schema provides an Object Oriented approach to defining the format of an xml
document. The Xml schema support most basic programming types like integer, byte, string, float
etc., We can also define complex types of our own which can be used to define a xml document.
Xml Schemas are always preferred over DTDs as a document can be more precisely defined
using the XML Schemas because of its rich support for data representation.
What happens when you encounter a continue statement inside the for loop?
The code for the rest of the loop is ignored, the control is transferred back to the beginning of the
loop.
How can you sort the elements of the array in descending order?
By calling Sort() and then Reverse() methods.
Will finally block get executed if the exception had not occurred?
Yes.
What's the C# equivalent of C++ catch (…), which was a catch-all statement for any
possible exception?
A catch block that catches the exception of type System.Exception. You can also omit the
parameter data type in this case and just write catch {}.
What's the implicit name of the parameter that gets passed into the class' set method?
Value, and it's datatype depends on whatever variable we're changing.
So how do you retrieve the customized properties of a .NET application from XML .config
file? Can you automate this process?
Initialize an instance of AppSettingsReader class. Call the GetValue method of
AppSettingsReader class, passing in the name of the property and the type expected. Assign the
result to the appropriate variable. In Visual Studio yes, use Dynamic Properties for automatic
.config creation, storage and retrieval.
Why is it not a good idea to insert code into InitializeComponent method when working
with Visual Studio?
The designer will likely through it away, most of the code inside InitializeComponent is auto-
generated.
An array has a rank that determines the number of indices associated with each array element.
The rank of an array is also referred to as the dimensions of the array. An array with a rank of one
is called a single-dimensional array. An array with a rank greater than one is called a multi-
dimensional array. Specific sized multidimensional arrays are often referred to as two-
dimensional arrays, three-dimensional arrays, and so on.
When you create a jagged array you declare the number of rows in your array. Each row will hold
an array that will be on any length. Before filling the values in the inner arrays you must declare
them.
Note that while declaring the array the second dimension is not supplied because this you will
declare later on in the code.
Jagged array are created out of single dimensional arrays so be careful while using them. Don’t
confuse it with multi-dimensional arrays because unlike them jagged arrays are not rectangular
arrays.
What is a delegate, why should you use it and how do you call it ?
A delegate is a reference type that refers to a Shared method of a type or to an instance method
of an object. Delegate is like a function pointer in C and C++. Pointers are used to store the
address of a thing. Delegate lets some other code call your function without needing to know
where your function is actually located. All events in .NET actually use delegates in the
background to wire up events. Events are really just a modified form of a delegate.
It should give you an idea of some different areas in which delegates may be appropriate:
If you define integer variable and a object variable and a structure then how those will be
plotted in memory.
[C#]
[Serializable]
public struct Int32 : IComparable, IFormattable, IConvertible
So , it’s a struct by definition , which is the same case with various other value types .
70
Object – Base class , that is by default reference type , so at runtime JIT compiler
allocates memory on the “Heap” Data structure .
True or False: To test a Web service you must create a windows application or Web
application to consume this service?
False.
2.Synchronous Call
Application has to wait until execution has completed.
<DYNAMICDISCOVERY
xmlns="urn:schemas-dynamicdiscovery:disco.2000-03-17">
<EXCLUDE path="_vti_cnf" />
<EXCLUDE path="_vti_pvt" />
<EXCLUDE path="_vti_log" />
<EXCLUDE path="_vti_script" />
<EXCLUDE path="_vti_txt" />
</DYNAMICDISCOVERY>
Note that VSDISCO files are disabled in the release version of ASP.NET. You can reenable them
by uncommenting the line in the <HTTPHANDLERS>section of Machine.config that maps
*.vsdisco to System.Web.Services.Discovery.DiscoveryRequestHandler and granting the
ASPNET user account permission to read the IIS metabase. However, Microsoft is actively
discouraging the use of VSDISCO files because they could represent a threat to Web server
security.
<%
Response.Cache.SetNoStore ();
Response.Write (DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString ());
%>
SetNoStore works by returning a Cache-Control: private, no-store header in the HTTP response.
In this example, it prevents caching of a Web page that shows the current time.
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(Namespace="http://tempuri.org/",
IsNullable=false)]
public class AuthToken : SoapHeader { public string Token; }}
In this case, when you create an instance of the proxy in your main application file, you'll also
create an instance of the AuthToken class and assign the string:
Service1 objSvc = new Service1();
processingobjSvc.AuthTokenValue = new AuthToken();
objSvc.AuthTokenValue.Token = <ACTUAL token value>;
Web Servicestring strResult = objSvc.MyBillableWebMethod();
What is WSDL?
WSDL is the Web Service Description Language, and it is implemented as a specific XML
vocabulary. While it's very much more complex than what can be described here, there are two
important aspects to WSDL with which you should be aware. First, WSDL provides instructions to
consumers of Web Services to describe the layout and contents of the SOAP packets the Web
Service intends to issue. It's an interface description document, of sorts. And second, it isn't
intended that you read and interpret the WSDL. Rather, WSDL should be processed by machine,
typically to generate proxy source code (.NET) or create dynamic proxies on the fly (the SOAP
Toolkit or Web Service Behavior).
What is a Windows Service and how does its lifecycle differ from a "standard" EXE?
Windows service is a application that runs in the background. It is equivalent to a NT service.
The executable created is not a Windows application, and hence you can't just click and run it . it
needs to be installed as a service, VB.Net has a facility where we can add an installer to our
program and then use a utility to install the service. Where as this is not the case with standard
exe
Note The tlist.exe file is typically located in the following directory: C:\Program Files\Debugging
Tools for Windows
d. At the command prompt, type tlist to list the image names and the process IDs of all
processes that are currently running on your computer.
Note Make a note of the process ID of the process that hosts the service that you want to
debug.
2 At a command prompt, change the directory path to reflect the location of the windbg.exe file on
your computer.
Note If a command prompt is not open, follow steps a and b of Method 1. The windbg.exe file is
typically located in the following directory: C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows.
3 At the command prompt, type windbg –p ProcessID to attach the WinDbg debugger to the
process that hosts the service that you want to debug.
Note ProcessID is a placeholder for the process ID of the process that hosts the service that you
want to debug.
Use the image name of the process that hosts the service that you want to debug
You can use this method only if there is exactly one running instance of the process that hosts
the service that you want to run. To do this, follow these steps:
1 Click Start, and then click Run. The Run dialog box appears.
2 In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK to open a command prompt.
3 At the command prompt, change the directory path to reflect the location of the windbg.exe file
on your computer.
Note The windbg.exe file is typically located in the following directory: C:\Program
Files\Debugging Tools for Windows.
4 At the command prompt, type windbg –pn ImageName to attach the WinDbg debugger to the
process that hosts the service that you want to debug.
NoteImageName is a placeholder for the image name of the process that hosts the service that
you want to debug. The "-pn" command-line option specifies that the ImageName command-line
argument is the image name of a process.
back to the top
Start the WinDbg debugger and attach to the process that hosts the service that you want to
debug
Note The windbg.exe file is typically located in the following directory: C:\Program
Files\Debugging Tools for Windows
3 Run the windbg.exe file to start the WinDbg debugger.
4 On the File menu, click Attach to a Process to display the Attach to Process dialog box.
5 Click to select the node that corresponds to the process that hosts the service that you want to
debug, and then click OK.
6 In the dialog box that appears, click Yes to save base workspace information. Notice that you
can now debug the disassembled code of your service.
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Configure a service to start with the WinDbg debugger attached
You can use this method to debug services if you want to troubleshoot service-startup-related
problems.
1 Configure the "Image File Execution" options. To do this, use one of the following methods:
• Method 1: Use the Global Flags Editor (gflags.exe)
a. Start Windows Explorer.
b. Locate the gflags.exe file on your computer.
Note The gflags.exe file is typically located in the following directory: C:\Program
Files\Debugging Tools for Windows.
c. Run the gflags.exe file to start the Global Flags Editor.
d. In the Image File Name text box, type the image name of the process that hosts the service
that you want to debug. For example, if you want to debug a service that is hosted by a process
that has MyService.exe as the image name, type MyService.exe.
e. Under Destination, click to select the Image File Options option.
f. Under Image Debugger Options, click to select the Debugger check box.
g. In the Debugger text box, type the full path of the debugger that you want to use. For
example, if you want to use the WinDbg debugger to debug a service, you can type a full path
that is similar to the following: C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows\windbg.exe
h. Click Apply, and then click OK to quit the Global Flags Editor.
• Method 2: Use Registry Editor
a. Click Start, and then click Run. The Run dialog box appears.
b. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK to start Registry Editor.
c. Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may
require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve
problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
In Registry Editor, locate, and then right-click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File
Execution Options
d. Point to New, and then click Key. In the left pane of Registry Editor, notice that New Key #1
(the name of a new registry subkey) is selected for editing.
e. Type ImageName to replace New Key #1, and then press ENTER.
Note ImageName is a placeholder for the image name of the process that hosts the service that
you want to debug. For example, if you want to debug a service that is hosted by a process that
has MyService.exe as the image name, type MyService.exe.
f. Right-click the registry subkey that you created in step e.
g. Point to New, and then click String Value. In the right pane of Registry Editor, notice that New
Value #1, the name of a new registry entry, is selected for editing.
h. Replace New Value #1 with Debugger, and then press ENTER.
i. Right-click the Debugger registry entry that you created in step h, and then click Modify. The
Edit String dialog box appears.
j. In the Value data text box, type DebuggerPath, and then click OK.
Note DebuggerPath is a placeholder for the full path of the debugger that you want to use. For
example, if you want to use the WinDbg debugger to debug a service, you can type a full path
that is similar to the following: C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows\windbg.exe
2 For the debugger window to appear on your desktop, and to interact with the debugger, make
your service interactive. If you do not make your service interactive, the debugger will start but
you cannot see it and you cannot issue commands. To make your service interactive, use one of
the following methods:
• Method 1: Use the Services console
a. Click Start, and then point to Programs.
b. On the Programs menu, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services. The Services
console appears.
c. In the right pane of the Services console, right-click ServiceName, and then click Properties.
Note ServiceName is a placeholder for the name of the service that you want to debug.
d. On the Log On tab, click to select the Allow service to interact with desktop check box under
Local System account, and then click OK.
• Method 2: Use Registry Editor
75
a. In Registry Editor, locate, and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ServiceName
Note Replace ServiceName with the name of the service that you want to debug. For example,
if you want to debug a service named MyService, locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MyService
b. Under the Name field in the right pane of Registry Editor, right-click Type, and then click
Modify. The Edit DWORD Value dialog box appears.
c. Change the text in the Value data text box to the result of the binary OR operation with the
binary value of the current text and the binary value, 0x00000100, as the two operands. The
binary value, 0x00000100, corresponds to the SERVICE_INTERACTIVE_PROCESS constant
that is defined in the WinNT.h header file on your computer. This constant specifies that a service
is interactive in nature.
3 When a service starts, the service communicates to the Service Control Manager how long the
service must have to start (the time-out period for the service). If the Service Control Manager
does not receive a "service started" notice from the service within this time-out period, the Service
Control Manager terminates the process that hosts the service. This time-out period is typically
less than 30 seconds. If you do not adjust this time-out period, the Service Control Manager ends
the process and the attached debugger while you are trying to debug. To adjust this time-out
period, follow these steps:
a. In Registry Editor, locate, and then right-click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
b. Point to New, and then click DWORD Value. In the right pane of Registry Editor, notice that
New Value #1 (the name of a new registry entry) is selected for editing.
c. Type ServicesPipeTimeout to replace New Value #1, and then press ENTER.
d. Right-click the ServicesPipeTimeout registry entry that you created in step c, and then click
Modify. The Edit DWORD Value dialog box appears.
e. In the Value data text box, type TimeoutPeriod, and then click OK
Note TimeoutPeriod is a placeholder for the value of the time-out period (in milliseconds) that
you want to set for the service. For example, if you want to set the time-out period to 24 hours
(86400000 milliseconds), type 86400000.
f. Restart the computer. You must restart the computer for Service Control Manager to apply this
change.
4 Start your Windows service. To do this, follow these steps:
a. Click Start, and then point to Programs.
b. On the Programs menu, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services. The Services
console appears.
c. In the right pane of the Services console, right-click ServiceName, and then click Start.
Note ServiceName is a placeholder for the name of the service that you want to debug.
Disabled: - There is no transaction. COM+ does not provide transaction support for this
component.
Not Supported: - Component does not support transactions. Hence even if the calling
component in the hierarchy is transaction enabled this component will not participate in the
transaction.
Supported: - Components with transaction type supported will be a part of the transaction if the
calling component has an active transaction.
If the calling component is not transaction enabled this component will not start a new
transaction.
76
Required: - Components with this attribute require a transaction i.e. either the calling
should have a transaction in place else this component will start a new transaction.
Required New: - Components enabled with this transaction type always require a new
transaction. Components with required new transaction type instantiate a new transaction for
themselves every time.
Can we use com Components in .net?.How ?.can we use .net components in vb?.Explain
how ?
COM components have different internal architecture from .NET components hence they are not
innately compatible. However .NET framework supports invocation of unmanaged code from
managed code (and vice-versa) through COM/.NET interoperability. .NET application
communicates with a COM component through a managed wrapper of the component called
Runtime Callable Wrapper (RCW); it acts as managed proxy to the unmanaged COM component.
When a method call is made to COM object, it goes onto RCW and not the object itself. RCW
manages the lifetime management of the COM component. Implementation Steps -
Create Runtime Callable Wrapper out of COM component. Reference the metadata assembly Dll
in the project and use its methods & properties RCW can be created using Type Library Importer
utility or through VS.NET. Using VS.NET, add reference through COM tab to select the desired
DLL. VS.NET automatically generates metadata assembly putting the classes provided by that
component into a namespace with the same name as COM dll (XYZRCW.dll)
.NET components can be invoked by unmanaged code through COM Callable Wrapper (CCW) in
COM/.NET interop. The unmanaged code will talk to this proxy, which translates call to managed
environment. We can use COM components in .NET through COM/.NET interoperability. When
managed code calls an unmanaged component, behind the scene, .NET creates proxy called
COM Callable wrapper (CCW), which accepts commands from a COM client, and forwards it
to .NET component. There are two prerequisites to creating .NET component, to be used in
unmanaged code:
1. .NET class should be implement its functionality through interface. First define interface in
code, then have the class to imlpement it. This way, it prevents breaking of COM client,
if/when .NET component changes.
2.Secondly, .NET class, which is to be visible to COM clients must be declared public. The tools
that create the CCW only define types based
on public classes. The same rule applies to methods, properties, and events that will be used by
COM clients.
Implementation Steps -
1. Generate type library of .NET component, using TLBExporter utility. A type library is the COM
equivalent of the metadata contained within
a .NET assembly. Type libraries are generally contained in files with the extension .tlb. A type
library contains the necessary information to allow a COM client to determine which classes are
located in a particular server, as well as the methods, properties, and events supported by those
classes.
2. Secondly, use Assembly Registration tool (regasm) to create the type library and register it.
3. Lastly install .NET assembly in GAC, so it is available as shared assembly.
What benefit do you get from using a Primary Interop Assembly (PIA)?
PIAs are important because they provide unique type identity. The PIA distinguishes the official
type definitions from counterfeit definitions provided by other interop assemblies. Having a single
type identity ensures type compatibility between applications that share the types defined in the
PIA. Because the PIA is signed by its publisher and labeled with the PrimaryInteropAssembly
attribute, it can be differentiated from other interop assemblies that define the same types.
Remoting FAQ's
When would you use .NET Remoting and when Web services?
Use remoting for more efficient exchange of information when you control both ends of the
application. Use Web services for open-protocol-based information exchange when you are
just a client or a server with the other end belonging to someone else.
What is a formatter?
A formatter is an object that is responsible for encoding and serializing data into messages on
one end, and deserializing and decoding messages into data on the other end.
Choosing between HTTP and TCP for protocols and Binary and SOAP for formatters, what
are the trade-offs?
Binary over TCP is the most effiecient, SOAP over HTTP is the most interoperable.
How can you automatically generate interface for the remotable object in .NET with
Microsoft tools?
Use the Soapsuds tool.
How can objects in two diff. App Doimains communicate with each other?
.Net framework provides various ways to communicate with objects in different app domains.
First is XML Web Service on internet, its good method because it is built using HTTP protocol and
SOAP formatting.
If the performance is the main concern then go for second option which is .Net remoting because
it gives you the option of using binary encoding and the default TcpChannel, which offers the best
interprocess communication performance
What is the difference between .Net Remoting and Web Services?
Although we can develop an application using both technologies, each of them has its distinct
advantages. Yes you can look at them in terms of performance but you need to consider your
need first. There are many other factors such authentications, authorizing in process that need to
be considered.
Point Remoting Webservices
If your application needs
Yes, Choose Web Services
interoperability with No because it is more flexible in
other platforms or that they are support SOAP.
operating systems
If performance is the You should use the TCP
main requirement with channel and the binary No
security formatter
Complex Programming Yes No
Supports a range of state
Its stateless service
management, depending on
management (does not
State Management what object lifetime scheme
inherently correlate multiple
you choose (single call or
calls from the same user)
singleton call).
It can access through TCP or It can be access only
Transport Protocol
HTTP channel. through HTTP channel.
WinForms FAQ :
What base class do all Web Forms inherit from?
System.Windows.Forms.Form
What is the difference between Debug.Write and Trace.Write? When should each be used?
The Debug.Write call won't be compiled when the DEBUGsymbol is not defined (when doing a
release build). Trace.Write calls will be compiled. Debug.Write is for information you want only in
debug builds, Trace.Write is for when you want it in release build as well.
Can you write a class without specifying namespace? Which namespace does it belong to
by default??
Yes, you can, then the class belongs to global namespace which has no name. For commercial
products, naturally, you wouldn't want global namespace.
You are designing a GUI application with a windows and several widgets on it. The user
then resizes the app window and sees a lot of grey space, while the widgets stay in place.
What's the problem?
One should use anchoring for correct resizing. Otherwise the default property of a widget on a
form is top-left, so it stays at the same location when resized.
How can you save the desired properties of Windows Forms application?
.config files in .NET are supported through the API to allow storing and retrieving information.
They are nothing more than simple XML files, sort of like what .ini files were before for Win32
apps.
So how do you retrieve the customized properties of a .NET application from XML .config
file?
Initialize an instance of AppSettingsReader class. Call the GetValue method of
AppSettingsReader class, passing in the name of the property and the type expected. Assign the
result to the appropriate variable.
Why is it not a good idea to insert code into InitializeComponent method when working
with Visual Studio?
The designer will likely through it away, most of the code inside InitializeComponent is auto-
generated.
What's the difference between Move and LocationChanged? Resize and SizeChanged?
Both methods do the same, Move and Resize are the names adopted from VB to ease migration
to C#.
With these events, why wouldn't Microsoft combine Invalidate and Paint, so that you
wouldn't have to tell it to repaint, and then to force it to repaint?
Painting is the slowest thing the OS does, so usually telling it to repaint, but not forcing it allows
for the process to take place in the background.
Before in my VB app I would just load the icons from DLL. How can I load the icons
provided by .NET dynamically?
By using System.Drawing.SystemIcons class, for example
System.Drawing.SystemIcons.Warning produces an Icon with a warning sign in it.
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When displaying fonts, what's the difference between pixels, points and ems?
A pixel is the lowest-resolution dot the computer monitor supports. Its size depends on user's
settings and monitor size. A point is always 1/72 of an inch. An em is the number of pixels that it
takes to display the letter M.
Compiled by Maheshkumar.R
SRC: collection from websites, googlin, Mostly from Mumbai groups…………………..
http://spaces.msn.com/members/cyberiafreak