Updates?

GeekyMonkey · March 16th, 2006, 07:02 AM

I downloaded the code for the book, and tried running chapters 10-12. I can't get any of these to run. I've tried both the VB and C# versions. The C# versions are totally incomplete and what is there is extremely low quality.

My question: Are you going to finish this thing and give us example code that actually works?

andeezlemoyo · April 7th, 2006, 11:18 PM

Amen to that !!! chapters 10 - 12 are what I really need. I'll think twice before buying another wrox book.

jminatel · April 10th, 2006, 02:17 PM

GeekyMonkey or andeezlemoyo: do either of you have a specific example or two of broken code or the types of errors you are seeing that we can use as a starting point to help get this fixed? We want to help but we don't have much to go on from these posts.

Jim Minatel
Senior Acquisitions Editor
Wiley Technology Publishing
WROX Press
Blog: http://wroxblog.typepad.com/
Jim's Book of the week: No book this week - Donate to the Red Cross!

kjt · April 11th, 2006, 08:26 AM

Trying to compile the code for Chapter 12, the "Custom Control Case Study", you get the following error:
"File 'WebUserControl.ascx' was not found"
The aspx pages have only a couple of lines - not what you would expect from the case study provided in the book.
The aspx code pages as part of a proper working project are really crucial for this book as it seems to leave them out - quite disappointing.
Please can you try and get the real code that was used to write the book?
Thanks,
Kieran Toon

kjt · April 11th, 2006, 10:13 AM

If you get the following error when running one of the examples, just delete the ASPNETDB.MDF file under the App_Data folder

Procedure or Function 'aspnet_PersonalizationPerUser_GetPageSettings' expects parameter '@TimeZoneAdjustment', which was not supplied

I needed to do this to get one of the examples in Chapter 5 working.
Compiling and running the application out of debug mode might also help.

GeekyMonkey · April 17th, 2006, 05:02 AM

Unfortunately this book seems to be written by a VB only programmer who doesn't have a clue about C#. The code examples in the book that are supposed to be in C# are a mix of C# and VB which comes no where close to compiling. He just gave up instead of releasing working sample C# code. I think Wrox must have pushed him to get C# into the description to get more people to buy this piece of rubbish.

GeekyMonkey · April 17th, 2006, 08:35 AM

Jminatel - I could write an entire book about the errors in this book and error and omissions in the source code. Sorry if I've been rude, but every time I pick this thing up I get angry. I was most interrested in chapeter 9. A quick glance thru and I saw this on p277

Code:

string strTestControl = Me.ControlToValidate;

This line is half vb and half c#. There are many more examples of syntax problems in the c# code.

I've deleted the source code from my computer (because it was rubbish) but to answer your quesion I just downloaded again http://media.wiley.com/product_ancil..._Web_Parts.zip.

First off - the directory structure when you unzip everything is wrong. Opening the projects gives errors because the related projects aren't in the right place.

Now let's try the website in chapter 11. Here he doesn't even try to include c# code. I'M flexible. I'll proceed in VB. But I get a database connection error. I add these lines to web.config to fix it: (my own knowledge - beginners would be stuck at this point)

Code:

<connectionStrings>
        <clear/>
        <add name="LocalSqlServer" connectionString="data source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Integrated Security=SSPI;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|aspnetdb.mdf;User Instance=false" />
    </connectionStrings>

There's no reason this shouldn't have been there in the download.

Now I get error:

Quote:

quote:Procedure or Function 'aspnet_PersonalizationPerUser_GetPageSettings' expects parameter '@TimeZoneAdjustment', which was not supplied.

so I take this out of the stored procedure parameters:

Code:

@TimeZoneAdjustment INT

and add this instead

Code:

    DECLARE @TimeZoneAdjustment INT
    SET @TimeZoneAdjustment = 0

Now I get error:

Quote:

quote:@CurrentTimeUtc is not a parameter for procedure

so I add this parameter

Code:

@CurrentTimeUtc DATETIME

. Again - beginners would not be able to solve this problem.

Now it runs and I get a Customize button. Clicking this does nothing. What the F!!! I went thru all that hassle to get this running and now look at the souce files - there are only 2 VB files with 3 empty functions total!

Try chapter 12 by opening Chapter12.sln. It Builds! Fantastic! Let's see what it does. Open the VB project and there's a source file with a CustomerInformation WebPart control. Now I want to see the C# version. It contains a single source file Address.cs which has 2 empty functions!

jminatel · April 17th, 2006, 08:41 AM

GeekyMonkey: No need to apologize to me, I've got thicker skin than that and I suspect Peter the author does too. I'm sorry we haven't been able to address this yet. Peter's usually very responsive, I've been trying to get him but he does do a lot of travel for training and consulting. I'll keep after him until we can get this resolved.

Jim Minatel
Senior Acquisitions Editor
Wiley Technology Publishing
WROX Press
Blog: http://wroxblog.typepad.com/
Jim's Book of the week: No book this week - Donate to the Red Cross!

GeekyMonkey · April 17th, 2006, 09:34 AM

Let's try Chapter 10. I know how to fix the connection string problem now. Now I get the error:

Quote:

quote:A ConsumerConnectionPoint has already been added with ID 'default'. Parameter name: connectionPoints

. I figured it out - it's because this function must be in both of the C# and VB Dlls that are included in the project. I'll remove the C# one (since it probably doesn't work anyway).

Now I get an error because the ASPX file registers both of these DLLs. I'll have to remove this line as well, and also change the cc2 to cc1 in the FirstSample VB page.

I also have to exclue FirstSampleCS.aspx trying to get it to compile. Still no good. I now look to Chapter10Project\Chapter10\Chapter10CustomControls VB\bin\Debug. Here I find binary files for chapter 11!

I give up.

[email protected] · April 18th, 2006, 05:20 AM

Looking at the problems, it appears that most of the issues are around the C# code--so I'll do that first.

When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

- Sherlock Holmes, as recorded by Sir A. C. Doyle in "The Blanched Soldier"