Hope you can make it.  Details are here:

http://www.meetup.com/The-San-Francisco-ExtJS-Meetup-Group/events/28760211/

The Presentation was broken down into three parts. 

Part 1

Created a windows razor project that cached in image on a web site using best practices for threading and locking.  The code and project to do this are below:

var downloadByteArray = HttpContext.Current.Cache[cacheName] as byte[];
 if (downloadByteArray == null)
 {
     // make sure multiple requestors are not filling up the cache
     lock (LockVal)
     {
         downloadByteArray = HttpContext.Current.Cache[cacheName] as byte[];
         if (downloadByteArray == null)
         {
             Thread.Sleep(sleep * 1000);

             string imageLocation = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~") + imageUrl;

             downloadByteArray = File.ReadAllBytes(imageLocation);
             if (cacheExpiresSeconds > 0)
             {
                 HttpContext.Current.Cache.Insert(cacheName, downloadByteArray,
                                                  null,
                                                  DateTime.Now.Add(new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, cacheExpiresSeconds)),
                                                  TimeSpan.Zero, CacheItemPriority.NotRemovable, null);
                 CacheInsertCounter = 9999; // any touch of this increments the global counter
             }
         }
     }
 }

Part 2

Tips from Steve Souders

Part 3

Sprite Library from Microsoft Example: 

Error during serialization or deserialization using the JSON JavaScriptSerializer. The length of the string exceeds the value set on the maxJsonLength property.

I then tried to set the web.config property that everyone seems to reference on the web as follows:

<system.web.extensions> 
    <scripting> 
        <webServices> 
            <jsonSerialization maxJsonLength="2147483645" recursionLimit="100"> 
            </jsonSerialization> 
        </webServices> 
        </scripting> 
</system.web.extensions> 

However, I kept getting the same error over and over.  So, I used the technique suggested in this article

http://thoughtfulcode.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/custom-jsonresult-class-for-asp-net-mvc-to-avoid-maxjsonlength-exceeded-exception/

by Brian Reiter to create an override of the JsonResult class.  That actually worked for me, however unfortunately, it does not show the shape of the data that is currently being returned by MVC3.  That is, MVC3 currently returns a JsonResult as follows:

return Json(new
{
    total = blobs.Count,
    data = blobs.ToList()
}, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);

return new LargeJsonResult() { Data = output, MaxJsonLength = int.MaxValue };

return
   new LargeJsonResult
       {
           MaxJsonLength = 20000000,
           JsonRequestBehavior = JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet,
           Data = new
                      {
                          total = blobs.Count,
                          data = blobs.ToList()
                      }
       };

First step, is to go to the NuGet.org web site and click on Install.

Accept the default:

Run Visual Studio 2010 again, then go into Tool/Extension Manager and select “Automatically check for updates to installed extensions” as follows:

Then, go to View / Other Windows / Package Manager and you will get the Nu-Get prompt.

Now, you’ have the NuGet prompt as follows.

At the PM prompt, to install scaffolding, start typing the following:

Install-Package mvc  {then press tab for auto expansion}

You’ll get a list of all packages that begin with mvc as follows:

I choose MvcScaffolding, press enter and.. you’ll get the error that you need to have a project open.  Of course, because it wants to add it to your project.

Now, let me add a real project with a simple class called MyTeam

public class MyTeam
    {
        
        [Key]
        public int ID { get; set; }

        [Required]
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string City { get; set; }
        public DateTime Founded { get; set; }
    }

Now, when I re-run the last command, I get all my Controllers and Views.

Hope this helps, I have a lot more to learn now.

* I’m adding this comment after the post has been written to let anyone coming here know of another great post that goes further to explain no only what I’ve done here, but also two other ways including Mock and using Json Serialization.  The Post is written by Ashic Mahtab, aka “HeartattacK” on the forums.  His well written and informative article is here:  ASP.NET MVC – Unit Testing JsonResult Returning Anonymous Types.

This post will show how to return a simple Json result from an ASP.NET MVC 2.0 web project.  It will show how to test that result inside a unit test and essentially pick apart the Json, just like a JavaScript (or other client) would do.  It seems like it should be very simple (and indeed, once you see the answer it is), however there are lots of length discussions on the forums about this with all kinds of positives and negatives.  The one I based my solution on is from Stack Overflow and is here..  My personal length discussion that did not really yield a satisfactory answer is here.

If you follow my method, you’ll be able to unit test a JsonResult created by an MVC asp.net web application.

Controller Side (Server)

Let’s get started. First thing we need to do is have a controller that return a JsonResult.  Below is the one I’m currently working on.  Let me show the code, then explain it.

public ActionResult Get(FormCollection form)
       {
           var query = new FolderPairQuery();
           if (form["query"] != null)
           {
               query = form["query"].FromJson<FolderPairQuery>();
           }

           if (form["start"] != null && form["limit"] != null)
           {
               query.Start = Convert.ToInt32(form["start"]);
               query.Limit = Convert.ToInt32(form["limit"]);
           }

           var results = FolderPairManager.I.Get(query);
           return Json(new
                           {
                               success = true,
                               rows = results,
                               total = query.OutputTotal
                           }, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
       }

This code is actually part of the file FolderPairController.cs.  It returns an ActionResult (which in this case is JsonResult that derives from ActionResult).  All the way to the return statement is just stuff that I do in my code to pull apart the passed in Request variables and process them.  I only leave them in for context.  It does not matter how you get your “results” and “total”, it just matters that you do. Then, the return statement is the part that is of interest.  It’s basically returning an anonymous class which is actually a JsonResult.  In System.Web.Mvc.Controller.cs, you will see that Json is defined as:

protected internal JsonResult Json(object data, JsonRequestBehavior behavior);

Unit Test Side (Client)

[TestMethod]
public void InsertControllerTest()
{
    var pairName = string.Format("FolderPair {0}", 
        (new Random().Next(1, 10000)));
    var folderPairResults =
        new List<FolderPairResult>()
            {
                new FolderPairResult
                    {
                        ActionTypeId = 1,
                        CheckFileContent = true,
                        ActiveForRunAll = true,
                        ExcludeHiddenFiles = true,
                        ExcludeReadOnly = true,
                        ExcludeSystemFiles = true,
                        FolderPairName = pairName,
                        LeftFolder = "left",
                        RightFolder = "right",
                        SaveOverWrittenRecycleBin = true,
                        UsersId = 1
                    }
            };



    string jsonInsert = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(folderPairResults);

    var form =
        new FormCollection
            {
                {"data", jsonInsert}
            };


    using (var controller = new FolderPairController())
    {

        controller.Insert(form);
    }

    // verify it got inserted.
    var queryObj = new FolderPairQuery { FolderPairName = pairName };
    string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(queryObj);
    var formGet =
        new FormCollection()
            {
                {"query", json}
            };

    using (var controller = new FolderPairController())
    {
        var jsonResult1 = controller.Get(formGet) as JsonResult;
        Assert.IsNotNull(jsonResult1,"jsonResult1 is null which is bad");
       
       
            List<FolderPairResult> folderPairResults1 =
                (List<FolderPairResult>)
                (jsonResult1.Data.GetType().GetProperty("rows")).GetValue(jsonResult1.Data, null);
            bool success =
                (bool)
                (jsonResult1.Data.GetType().GetProperty("success")).GetValue(jsonResult1.Data, null);
            int total =
                (int)
                (jsonResult1.Data.GetType().GetProperty("total")).GetValue(jsonResult1.Data, null);

            Assert.IsTrue(folderPairResults1.Count == 1, "Not one item returned");
            Assert.IsTrue(folderPairResults1[0].FolderPairName.Equals(pairName),
                "Wrong pairname returned");
    }
}

The technology pairing I’ve chosen is Microsoft’s .Net platform with MVC on the server, and ExtJS on the client.  Though it’s possible to still use ExtJS with standard html/aspx pages, I’ve found the best combination is to use 100% JavaScript on the client (ExtJS) and have all the server side technology be 100% service based.  I’ve used LINQ2SQL extensively as well as Entity Framework in the latest Visual Studio 2010 release.

The learning curve was quite steep to actually be able to efficiently build highly flexible, highly scalable applications using these technologies, but now that I know it, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m considering putting together a series of 4 Day Classes around the country (or even world) that would basically teach people the methods and patterns I’ve learned and essentially leap frog a development team into being able to quickly do what it has taken me years to figure out.  I’ve been fortunate enough to know the top 1% instructors and I’m sure with the right incentive, can get them to join me in both putting together these classes as well as teaching them.

So, my question is:

I really appreciate your feedback.  If I go down this path, it will be a lot of work and it would be nice to know if people are really interested.  I know for myself, I’ would have gone to something like this 2 years ago and it would have saved me a lot of time.

Thanks for your feedback.

For the past year or so, I’ve been working on a project that uses Microsoft’s ASP.NET MVC for providing data to our pure JavaScript application.  That is, there are no web forms, no dynamic HTML generation, just 100% JavaScript running on the client.  I’m using a library called ExtJS which gives us high quality “forms like” user interactions and MVC for getting the data.  That is, the Application looks like this:

The data retrieval URL used by the JavaScript look like:

http://www.mycompany.com/data/Company/Get

And, the JSON that comes back using either FireBug or Fiddler looks like this:

Problem is that it’s hard to read the JSON data.  Firebug does a reasonable job of formatting, but it’s still not perfect.  Up until now, the way I always have formatted the data is to type into bing or Google “format json” and the first reasonable choice has been http://jsonformat.com/.  Cutting and pasting my data into it shows:

However, my new favorite JSON Formatter  makes the data look like this:

( http://www.bodurov.com/JsonFormatter/ )

(more information at: http://blog.bodurov.com/Formatter-and-colorer-of-raw-JSON-code)

And, it’s available as simple html you can run on your own server here at codeplex:

http://www.codeplex.com/QuickJsonFormatter/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=10136

IMHO, much cleaner, shows me the data both before and after, as well as colorizes it which always makes me happy.

So, as is normal, when I learn something new, the most obvious things just don’t seem to work.  In this case, I’m just trying to make a web page that shows a list of data on a page.  I’m not going to try and teach MVC here, but if you are like me and struggled with this, this should help you get through some of the tough spots. My plan is to start a new MVC project with Visual Studio and show you what is necessary to generate the list.  Instead of going after a database, I’m going to use an simple business object class so you can run this without connecting to a database.  Not sure about you, but I never seem to be able to get the databases from example code working.  Scott Guthrie uses the Northwind databases Product table, and after spending about 15 minutes searching, all I could find was a Northwind database from sqlserver 2000 that does not have a Product table.  With my demo, you won’t have to worry about that.  By the way, here is the project if you want to download it in action.

So, Here we go.  First thing, Open Visual Studio 2008 and create a new MVC Project (not a web site, this will give you a csproj type file)

Answer the next question YES because of course you want a Test Project.

You should get a Solution that looks like this:

Now, Add the business object that I will be using for this rest of this demonstration.  It’s in the project file, our you just download it here (put this in your Models Directory).

Now, let’s create the MVC Controller.  Highlight the Controller’s Folder and say Add Item (TMI if I show you that).  Here is the dialog.  Create the name of your controller with the syntax {Name}Controller.  In my case, the name is EmailListControler.cs.

Add the following code to your EmailListController.cs file to retrieve some data and return it as a View (which will be processed by the View Page coming up).

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace Solution.Controllers

{

    public class EmailListController : Controller

    {

        public ActionResult Index()

        {

            var businessObject = new BusinessObject();

            List<BusinessObjectItem> members = 

                businessObject.GetMembers();

            return View("Index", members);

        }

    }

}using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace Solution.Controllers

{

    public class EmailListController : Controller

    {

        public ActionResult Index()

        {

            var businessObject = new BusinessObject();

            List<BusinessObjectItem> members = 

                businessObject.GetMembers();

            return View("Index", members);

        }

    }

}

Then, create a new folder called EmailList under the Views folder.

Then, create a MVCViewPage in the EmailList folder called Index.aspx.

(Actually, choose MVC View Content Page, not MVC View Page)

Then, chose the Master Page to use as follows (there is only one):

The View will be referring to the ViewData.Model which somehow is associated with how the code behind is implemented. Make sure you have the ViewPage look like the following and the data type specified as below.  This is the file Index.aspx.cs which is in your email directory.

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace Solution.Views.EmailList

{

    public partial class Index :

        ViewPage<IEnumerable<BusinessObjectItem>>

    {

    }

}

Now, for the Index.aspx file which is also in your Views/EmailList directory, enter the following between the content tags.

<table border="1">

    <tr>

        <td>

            <strong>Name</strong>

        </td>

        <td>

            <strong><strong>Email Address</strong>

        </td>

    </tr>

    <% foreach (var emailItem in ViewData.Model)

       { %>

    <tr>

        <td>

            <%= emailItem.Name %>

        </td>

        <td>

            <%=emailItem.Email %>

        </td>

    </tr>

    <% } %>

</table>

Notice that you have intellisense working on your foreach items.

Finally, go to your Master Page and add a link for this new EmailList as follows.  That is, change the file /Views/Shared/Site.Master

<ul id="menu">              

    <li><%= Html.ActionLink("Home", "Index", "Home")%></li>

    <li><%= Html.ActionLink("About Us", "About", "Home")%></li>

    <li><a href="/EmailList">Email List</a></li>

</ul>

As you can see, I don’t quite grock the ActionLinke parameters so I just put in a standard anchor tag.  Please comment below on what it should be to be able to reference /EmailList and I will update the article.  For now, lunch is coming and I need to run.

When you finally run that app, you get this for your new output.  Notice the New Email List Tab.

That’s it for now.  Hope this helps!