Joshua Folkerts

A Little Enum to help find EPiServers built in properties

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:25:00 GMT

Seems like every site I work on, I find myself always forgetting the property names on the PageData object that are not strongly typed. So I decided to write an Enum that will help in the process. If i forgot any, please let me know.

This helps me in doing something like the following

Hope you find it useful.

Page Type Tabs Available For EPiServer

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:40:00 GMT

Since I started developing in EPiServer, I have always found how nicely written their framework is. One thing i have noticed though, is the fact that you really can't hook into their "Create New", "Delete Page" pages. I have also had an issue that there is not a way to group PageTypes in the admin mode or Create new screen.

I have been working on a project at work where there are a boat load of PageTypes and it has become quite tiresome searching for the right PageType. You know the PageType exists, you just can't find it in the list. So I decided to dig into the create new page and find a way to group these PageTypes and allow searching as well in case they do not want to use the tabs. The only issue that i have found so far is there is no admin/edit interface to group PgeTypes but that is okay with me since i am a coder. I have although created the same thing without using PageTypeBuilder but as mentioned earlier, I am a coder so I chose to use this blog and spend more time with this project.

Using PageTypeTabs

In order to use PageTypeTabs, you will need to make sure you hae reference PageTypeBuilder in your project. This code does use PageTypeBuilder to find the proper PageTypes based on the classes we marked with a PageTypeTab Attribute.

Creating a Tab

Adding PageTypeTab Attribute To Our PageType Class

Now that we have our PageTypeTab created, we need to assign it to a PageType by adding an attribute to the PageType class we created using PageTypeBuilder. Below, you will see find the syntax of adding the attribute to the class.

Adding Virtual Path Mapping

Now that wasn't so hard now was it? It is the same process as adding a Tab to a PageTypeProperty in PageTypeBuilder. Is isn't by accident, I used some of Joel's framework to architecture to make it as common as possible so you don't have to do it another way all the time.

There is one last step to do and that is tap into the create new page url and show our page instead of EPiServers page. The following code will need to be added to the episerver.config file in order for us to intercept the createnew page url.

What We've Achieved (Search built in)

Get The Files

Download PageTypeTabs (includes PageTypeBuilder 1.3.1)

Insite Creation Modules

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 17:48:00 GMT

I have had a bout load of requests from people wondering where the modules are for Insite Creation that i have developed over the years. Below you will find a link to a zip that that contains all my modules.

Since my full time job is developing mostly in EPiServer CMS, I have changed my blog over to EPiServer in order to demonstrate the power and capabilities of the CMS. So not to leave you without the modules. Here is the link for the modules that you can download.

DOWNLOAD ALL MODULES

Extended PageTypeBuilder Mismatch Control

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:53:00 GMT

As most of the EPiServer developers know, Page Type Builder(PTB) is making is way into most of the projects now. PTB allows developers to define EPiServer page types in code which eliminates the need to synchronize page types between different servers.

Eirk Nodin wrote a wonderful plugin that displays mismatches between Page Type Builder and EPiServer. While working on a project, a project that hade more the 30 pagetypes and hundreds of properties for these pagetypes. It became quite tedious to delete mismatched properties one-by-one. So to make this process alittle more simplistic, i added a checkbox and a button to the plugin to delete multiple mismatches at once. This really will be helpful in development situations where you have multiple developers working on the same project and one removes properties that are no longer needed. This will cause a bit of a hassle when one developer hasn't updated their code before another build. I hope you all find this helpful.

You can view the original blog post here.

You can download the updated plugin here.

Just Finished Upgrading My WHS

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:31:00 GMT

Well, I have just completed my Hp Media Smart Window Home Server Upgrade. It was quite a fun little project. I learned alot in the process in which I had to go online to find some documentation in regards to upgrading my memory for the server. I have had the server for about 3 years now with the standard 500GB HDD and 512 MB RAM. It was sufficant for what I needed it for but now that I am working for a company (Blend Interactive) and learning new technologies every day, I decided to use the home server as a testing server. With the capabilities that i has, i can harness all the .net technologies as well as sql server and everything else. I also use WHS(Windows Home Server) very religiously for my computer backups. I am handling about 68 GB worth of backups.

WHS normally keeps backups for 3 months but I have it setup to handle all my backups from day ONE. So with that being said, windows home server has a fun Add-In called WHIIST for configuring your home server to run as a fully functional web server.

So, What i did, was throw a new module of Ram into the WHS to upgrade it to 2GB since i found out after installing it couldn't handle the 4GB Stick and added another 500GB HDD to the system. Now with this, I can mirror my other drive add set the certain share folders to mirror. This saves me alot of time from coping files from the WHS to the External NAS device.

I also added a New Linksys Wireless N with Gigaports to the network for maximum connection speeds. Since my WHS comes with a gigabit port, i am harnessing the speed of this as well. So that concludes my upgrade. Below are th following photos that shows some of the upgrades done to my Windows Home Server.

Show Desktop Icon in Windows 7 Toolbar

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:40:00 GMT

So after spending some time here and there purusing the internet for a way to get my "Show Desktop" icon back into my quicklaunch bar in Windows 7. I finally stumbled upon a short snippet of code that allow you to show the icon in your quicklaunch bar in Windows 7.

Solution:

Paste following code in Notepad and save the file with name "Show Desktop.scf"

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
Now you have to copy this new file and paste in "Quick Launch" toolbar. You can do it in 2 ways:
1. Drag-n-drop the new file to Quick Launch toolbar.
2. Type "%appdata%\Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\Quick Launch" in RUN dialog box and press Enter. It'll open Quick Launch folder. Paste the file in this folder.

You can also use the shortcut keys of "Win+D" or "Win + M"

Hope you found this as usefull as i did.

Flight Simulator X: Acceleration Pak

Tue, 12 May 2009 23:33:00 GMT

Here is the fix for the activation error you might recieve when installing Microsoft Flight Simulator X w/ Acceleration Pak.

1) with regedit, located this entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CONTROL\CLASS\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

2) edit your UpperFilters key. For FSX and their validatin system, they
expect it only reads "PartMgr". In your case, there is great chance it shows
something more. In my case, it was reading:

GoBack2
PartMgr
SiRemFil

3) change the registry to read only "PartMgr"

4) start FSX, you should now be prompted with the activation dialog, proceed
and let FSX start, then exit FSX.

5) edit back the registry key with your previous content

6) exit regedit, and start FSX again, it should all be fine by now!

My Application in Progress : JF SQL Profiler

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:00:00 GMT

JF SQL Profiler is a custom application that will save me time and by time i mean LOTS of time. What it essentially does it grabs all the information based on the scheme of a database stored in MSSQL. It is setup to handle SQL 2000, 2005, and 2008. Since i am an asp.net developer, i was spending alot of time writing the same object classes and methods such as update, create, delete, select in my object based on the table schema. The JFSQLProfiler creates objects and CRUD Methods based on the schema of your table. It will generate all the code in the object as you can see from the screen shot. It is setup to hand both .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.5. Below you will see some of the powerful functionality that this piece of software I wrote has. Eventually, once i have it exactly how i want it, it will be put out for all to use.

JF AJAX Events Calendar

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 23:43:00 GMT

Back in the classic ASP days, I had developed an events calendar for a company to allow there customer to view what was happening with them through out the months. Since then, asp.net 1.1 and 2.0 came out allowing developing an asp.net events calendar a lot easier then back in the classic days.

So a while back, I decided to develop one in asp.net 2.0 and AJAX to use for my personal and professional use.

I was browsing around the internet and came across a web scheduler by infragistics. Wow, it is extremely powerful and pretty much similar to Microsoft office calendar. I have changed my calendar to kind of represent an office 2007 Calendar but really dumbed down. I used asp.net 2.0 to develop this web events calendar to help other get a grasp on how to program there own or just use the one supplied in the download. The code is pretty straight forward and I am by no means a professional programmer so I am sure there are easier ways of programming this but the code is small and the total application is 3.66 MB. Due to the images, which you can do without and just use regular server side buttons, this application is small and gets the job done.

I will support my application as long as the code stays in tack. If changes have been made, I will try to help but with no guarantees. I would appreciate you leaving comments on how well you like or dislike the JF Events Calendar so please feel free to post your comments. Thanks

CHANGE LOG:

05.09.2007
Made allot of changes to the Version of ASP.Net today. I decided to do away with the Ajax version but might bring it back in the future. Some of the changes I mad were:

Added Day view to the calendar that pertains to the particular day you select on the calendar.
Changed appearance of Calendar to now use splitter to hide left side navigation if you choose to.
Added a Tasks list to the application.

05.08.2007

Made change to the ASP Version . You can now add links to the event depending on what you want. Options include HTTP:// or MailTo:. Both are located in drop down of the links field.

05.07.2007

Updated Software to now validate Subject field and both time fields. Ajax version has validate call-outs and .NET version uses asp.net validators.

On adding a new item. Date is automatically filled with todays date. on both versions.