.NET

nAML: A New Revolutionary Way to Model Your .NET Applications!

Mohammad Ashraful Alam — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:35:10 GMT

Understanding the architecture and code in software application plays as major factors while building good software products. Having an easy to understand visual notation, not only helps architects to model the system efficiently, but also helps developers to quickly implement that, as well as it helps the re-engineering process to easily adopt the architectural model with respect to new requirement.

A new visual modeling technique, termed as “nAML” (.NET Application Modeling Language) is being introduced which overcomes the limitation of typical modeling languages by providing revolutionary way within a single space to describe an application system with its structural and behavioral, as well as physical and logical components. It illustrates real world samples, from user interface experience, .NET specific language (such as C#) classes to database level SQL commands, to let software architects and developers to have a clean model for the future system. One of it’s the most powerful objectives of this new visual language is the besides an easy way to model the system, the target model will require near to zero knowledge on notation semantics from reader aspect.

Primary Objectives

The primary objectives of nAML can be considered as follows:

Provides a single space to visually describe one or more application systems with structural and behavioral components.
Provides a single space to visually describe one or more application systems with logical and physical components.
Provides a single space to visually describe one or more application systems from top to low level.
Provides a single space to visually describe a part or whole of one or more application systems.
Extremely simple and easy understand and learn from readers and designers perspective.
Concentrates on .NET applications, with its related logical and physical entities (user interface, application logic, business logic, database etc).

Links and Downloads

Here is the nAML project site: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/nAML
Download the latest specification, examples and Visio 2003 Stencil for nAML tutorial from here.
Download Visio 2003 Stencil for nAML from here.

Technorati Tags: architecture,modeling,.net,asp.net,development

Using .NET 2.0 Generics for Custom Entity Collection

Mohammad Ashraful Alam — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:12:59 GMT

Generics is a new feature in .NET 2.0 which allows us to create a data structure without committing to a specific data type. In the early age of .net 2.0 (i.e. .net 1.x), while using custom entity model in our application data architecture, we had to create a separate class regarding the collection for each of custom entity.

The custom entity

public class SystemUser
{
    public string _Name, _Password;

    public SystemUser(string name, string password)
    {
        _Name = name;
        _Password = password;
    }

    public string Password
    {
        get { return _Password; }
        set { _Password = value; }
    }

    public string Name
    {
        get { return _Name; }
        set { _Name = value; }
    }

The old age custom entity collection class

For a custom entity "SystemUser" we had to create a separate collection class as below:

public class SystemUserCollection: CollectionBase
{
    public SystemUser this[ int index ]
    {
        get{return ( (SystemUser) List[index]);}
        set{List[index]=value;}
    }
    
    public int Add(SystemUser value)
    {
        return (List.Add(value));
    }
    
    public int IndexOf(SystemUser value)
    {
        return (List.IndexOf(value));
    }
    
    public void Insert(int index, SystemUser value)
    {
        List.Insert(index, value);
    }
    
    public void Remove(SystemUser value)
    {
        List.Remove(value);    
    }
    
    public bool Contains(SystemUser value)
    {
        return (List.Contains(value));    
    }
  
}

Custom entity collection using .net 2.0 generics

The generics in .net 2.0 made developers life extremely easy, we can create a common collection class for all custom business entity with respect to common collection based functionality.

/// <summary>
/// This is the helper collection class, that holds

generic type data.
/// This type will be used to manipulate generic class.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="GenericType"></typeparam>
public class CustomCollection<GenericType> : CollectionBase
{
        /// <summary>
        /// Adds an object to the collection.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="GenericObject"></param>
        public void Add(GenericType item)
        {
            InnerList.Add(item);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Removes an object from the collection.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="index"></param>
        public void Remove(int index)
        {
            InnerList.RemoveAt(index);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets and sets the appropriate object

in the specified index.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="index"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public GenericType this[int index]
        {
            get { return ((GenericType)List[index]); }
            set { List[index] = value; }
        }

}//end of GenericCollection<GenericType>

Using generic collection

Generic collection classes can be used in the following way:

public static CustomCollection<SystemUser>

GetSampleGenericCollection()
{
    SystemUser user1 = new SystemUser("ashraf", "12345");
    SystemUser user2 = new SystemUser("ehsan", "12345");
    SystemUser user3 = new SystemUser("tuhin", "12345");
    SystemUser user4 = new SystemUser("rabbi", "12345");

    CustomCollection<SystemUser> mySystemUserCollection

= new CustomCollection<SystemUser>();

    mySystemUserCollection.Add(user1);
    mySystemUserCollection.Add(user2);
    mySystemUserCollection.Add(user3);
    mySystemUserCollection.Add(user4);

    return mySystemUserCollection;

}

Download code:

Technorati Tags: .net,coding,programming,C#,sample

ASP.NET Role Based Security: The Basics

Mohammad Ashraful Alam — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:31:40 GMT

Authentication and authorization is the two basic part of the user-end security in asp.net web applications. After to successful authentication of a user, authorization takes the place according to which the authenticated user are allowed to access to the corresponding resources in the web application.

Role based security is very basic requirements in the current trend of web applications. Mostly there are two roles involved, which are registered user and the admin users. However in a web application a user can have multiple roles which can be authorized on page and page control level. Today we'll check a basic sample which includes page based authorizations for specific roles.

To implement the basic role based security, there are three points to be considered. In this example we are considering two different roles "member" and "admin". There are two separate folders named "member", which can be accessed by any logged in user, including admin users and "admin", where only the user who contains the "admin" role can access the child resources (page, images etc).

1. Defining the authorization regions in web.config

The following xml tags are required to be added under the "configuration" node of the web.config.

Defining security authorization for "member" users

  <location path="member">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <deny users="?"/>
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
  </location>

Defining security authorization for "admin" users

  <location path="admin">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow roles="admin"/>
        <deny users="*"/>
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
  </location>

2. Authenticating the user

After the successful authentication, the following codes are required to establish the form based authentication for the corresponding user.

//Authenticating the user Identity.

System.Web.Security.FormsAuthentication.RedirectFromLoginPage

("member1", this.CheckBox1.Checked);

3. Implementing the role based security

The "Application_AuthenticateRequest" event which was defined in the "Global.asax" file, will include the appropriate codes regarding the role info of the logged in user, which will be accesses each time for any web request in this web application. This can be done in either "cache" or "cookie" mechanism.

Cache based mechanism

protected void Application_AuthenticateRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e)

{

if (HttpContext.Current.User != null)

{

if (HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated)

{

if (HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.AuthenticationType != "Forms")

throw new Exception("Only forms authentication is supported, not " +

HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.AuthenticationType);

System.Security.Principal.IIdentity userId = HttpContext.Current.User.Identity;

//if role info is already NOT loaded into cache, put the role info in cache

if (System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Cache[userId.Name] == null)

{

string[] roles;

if (userId.Name == "admin1")

roles = new string[1] { "admin" };//this info will be generally collected from database

else if (userId.Name == "member1")

roles = new string[1] { "member" };//this info will be generally collected from database

else

roles = new string[1] { "public" };//this info will be generally collected from database

//1 hour sliding expiring time. Adding the roles in chache. This will be used in Application_AuthenticateRequest event located in Global.ascx.cs file to attach user Principal object.

System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Cache.Add(userId.Name, roles, null, DateTime.MaxValue, TimeSpan.FromHours(1), System.Web.Caching.CacheItemPriority.BelowNormal, null);

}

//now assign the user role in the current security context

HttpContext.Current.User = new System.Security.Principal.GenericPrincipal(userId, (string[])System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Cache[userId.Name]);

}

Cookie based mechanism

protected void Application_AuthenticateRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e)

{

if (HttpContext.Current.User != null)

{

if (Request.IsAuthenticated == true)

{

if (HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.AuthenticationType != "Forms")

throw new Exception("Only forms authentication is supported, not " +

HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.AuthenticationType);

//Create/Retrieve cookie and initizalyze the role info in the current security context

string userInformation = String.Empty;//where the cookie info will be placed

string[] roles;//where the user role will be placed

// Create the roles cookie if it doesn't exist yet for this session.

if ((Request.Cookies["cnstUserRole"] == null) || (Request.Cookies["cnstUserRole"].Value == ""))

{

if (HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name == "admin1")

roles = new string[1] { "admin" };//this info will be generally collected from database

else if (HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name == "member1")

roles = new string[1] { "member" };//this info will be generally collected from database

else

roles = new string[1] { "public" };//this info will be generally collected from database

// Create a string to persist the role and user id

userInformation = roles[0] + ";" + Context.User.Identity.Name;

// Create a cookie authentication ticket.

FormsAuthenticationTicket ticket = new FormsAuthenticationTicket(

1, // version

User.Identity.Name, // user name

DateTime.Now, // issue time

DateTime.Now.AddHours(1), // expires every hour

false, // don't persist cookie

userInformation

);

// Encrypt the ticket

String cookieStr = FormsAuthentication.Encrypt(ticket);

// Send the cookie to the client

Response.Cookies["cnstUserRole"].Value = cookieStr;

Response.Cookies["cnstUserRole"].Path = "/";

Response.Cookies["cnstUserRole"].Expires = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(1);

}//if role cookie not found in local pc

else//we are getting the role info from cookie

{

// Get roles from roles cookie

FormsAuthenticationTicket ticket = FormsAuthentication.Decrypt(Context.Request.Cookies["cnstUserRole"].Value);

userInformation = ticket.UserData;

//info[0] contains the single role and info[1] contains the user name

string[] cookieInfo = userInformation.Split(new char[] { ';' });

roles = new string[1] { cookieInfo[0] };

}

//now assign the user role in the current security context

Context.User = new System.Security.Principal.GenericPrincipal(Context.User.Identity, roles);

}//if (Request.IsAuthenticated == true)

}

Download source code:

Technorati Tags: asp.net,security,programming,coding,C#,.net

Simple C# Delegate Sample

Mohammad Ashraful Alam — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:47:18 GMT

New developers often ask me about C# delegate, as they got a bit confused about the basic concept and specially maximum of the reference contains and discussed from an advanced view. Well I think delegate is really simple, when you grab it's basic idea.

So what is delegate?

Basically it is similar like the old "C" age function pointer, where functions can be assigned like a variable and called in the run time based on dynamic conditions. C# delegate is the smarter version of function pointer which helps software architects a lot, specially while utilizing design patterns.

At first, a delegate is defined with a specific signature (return type, parameter type and order etc). To invoke a delegate object, one or more methods are required with the EXACT same signature. A delegate object is first created similar like a class object created. The delegate object will basically hold a reference of a function. The function will then can be called via the delegate object.

Sounds easy? If not lets have a look in the code snippets below.

1. Defining the delegate

public delegate int Calculate (int value1, int value2);

2. Creating methods which will be assigned to delegate object

//a method, that will be assigned to delegate objects
//having the EXACT signature of the delegate
public int add(int value1, int value2)
{
    return value1 + value2;            
}
//a method, that will be assigned to delegate objects
//having the EXACT signature of the delegate
public int sub( int value1, int value2)
{
    return value1 - value2;            
}

3. Creating the delegate object and assigning methods to those delegate objects

//creating the class which contains the methods 
//that will be assigned to delegate objects
MyClass mc = new MyClass();

//creating delegate objects and assigning appropriate methods
//having the EXACT signature of the delegate
Calculate add = new Calculate(mc.add);
Calculate sub = new Calculate(mc.sub);

4. Calling the methods via delegate objects

//using the delegate objects to call the assigned methods 
Console.WriteLine("Adding two values: " + add(10, 6));
Console.WriteLine("Subtracting two values: " + sub(10,4));

Pretty simple, huh? Happy coding!!

Download source code:

Technorati Tags: C#,programming,sample,snippet,coding

The .NET Framework 3.5 At a Glance

Mohammad Ashraful Alam — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:46:54 GMT

All .NETTERS! Download the pdf poster here by which you can see .net 3.5 at a glance!

Check Paul's blog for a quick note!

Creating a Performance Benchmark Framework for Your .NET Codes

Mohammad Ashraful Alam — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 10:32:48 GMT

Performance is a one of the basic requirements in the most of the current trend of web applications. While designing software architecture, there are several technologies kept available for the designers. Among these available options, some of techniques may includes multiple solutions, combining of those can create a case, where the basic performance output can't be determined based on the common sense and/or in depth knowledge on the corresponding topics. In short, based upon different options the software architect needs to determine the appropriate object model which fits best with the current application requirement.

The Object Model

There are three layers of our test framework object model, as follows:

The Program Class: This is the starter class, which creates the requires instances to start the test operation. The corresponding caller method initializes the Runner class along with the number of iterations to be performed for each test case.

The Runner Class: The runner class includes one or multiple methods, which calls a bunch of methods of executor class, each of which contains required functionalities to call the test cases appropriately.

The Runner Base Class: One important issue with respect to the runner class is, we need to have a way to keep track to execution time for each run and finally we need to determine the average execution time. For this purpose, to perform required initialization and support common reporting feature of test cases, we considered a base class, which includes all tracking data to isolate individual test cases and reporting functionalities. We have used C# delegate to have a very structured and reusable object model regarding this common functionalities. The methods of the inherited class uses this features accordingly.

The Executor Class: The executor class contains the very basic codes with respect to a particular test case.

The Sample Codes

The Program Class

class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Output.WriteLine("Test starts: " + DateTime.Now.ToString());
            //----------------------------------------
            SampleRunner s1 = new SampleRunner(10);
            s1.RunBenchmarks();
            //----------------------------------------
            Output.WriteLine("Test ends: " + DateTime.Now.ToString());
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }

The Runner Base Class

public class SampleRunnerBase
    {
        protected delegate void DoWork(string text);
 
        long _Start;
        long _Stop;
        double _Total = 0;
        double _TotalSecs;
        double _TotalAvgSecs;
        int _Repeats;
        protected int _RepeatsToDo; 
 
        public SampleRunnerBase(int repeats)
        {
            _RepeatsToDo = repeats;
        }
 
        private void Init()
        {
            _Total = 0;
            _TotalSecs = 0;
            _TotalAvgSecs = 0;
            _Repeats = _RepeatsToDo;
        }
 
        private void ReportResults()
        {
            _TotalSecs = _Total / 10000000;
            _TotalAvgSecs = _Total / 10000000 / _RepeatsToDo;
 
            Output.WriteLine("Avg: " + _TotalAvgSecs + " s");
        }
 
        protected void RunBenchmark(DoWork func, string text)
        {
            if (null != func)
            {
                Init();
                while (_Repeats-- > 0)
                {
                    _Start = DateTime.Now.Ticks;
                    func(text);
                    _Stop = DateTime.Now.Ticks;
                    _Total += _Stop - _Start;
                }
                ReportResults();
            }
        }
    }

The Runner Class

public sealed class SampleRunner : SampleRunnerBase
    {
        public SampleRunner(int repeats)
            : base(repeats)
        {
        }
 
        public void RunBenchmarks()
        {
 
            Output.WriteLine("Running Simple Sample Benchmark");
            Output.WriteLine("--------------------------------");
            RunSample1();
            RunSample2();
        }
 
        private void RunSample1()
        {
            Output.WriteLine("Running Sample 1");
            SampleExecutor runner = new SampleExecutor();
            RunBenchmark(new DoWork (runner.DoSample1), "");
        }
 
        private void RunSample2()
        {
            Output.WriteLine("Running Sample 2");
            SampleExecutor runner = new SampleExecutor();
            RunBenchmark(new DoWork(runner.DoSample2), "");
        }
 
    }

The Executor Class

public class SampleExecutor
    {
        public void DoSample1(string text)
        {
            //do something
        }
 
        public void DoSample2(string text)
        {
            //do something
        }
    }

Download source code:

Technorati Tags: Performance,.net,C#,Testing,Framework,Benchmark

Performing Long Running Operation with Asynchronous Page in ASP.NET 2.0

Mohammad Ashraful Alam — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 07:29:04 GMT

Technorati Tags: asp.net,async,web service,performance,database

There are few cases in current web applications, where it involves long running operations. For instance, a system admin uploads 1 gig of data in the system, which will be processed by the system for 30-40 minutes to be splitted and putted properly in the database system, as well as notifying other system user regarding the availability if data.

In the traditional approach of web application, the user has to wait for the whole time until the whole process needs to be completed. The modern age of web application includes a technique where the user doesn't required to be wait to complete the whole process with the current page, where as they can move on other page (or even can close the browser) or if they resides on that page the system will show a simple progress bar , which stops when the data processing (or the long running operation) completes. The corresponding technique that implies this usability feature is using an asynchronous model.

Before the asp.net 2.0 ages, creating an asynchronous model was very complex and time consuming along with several over-heads. ASP.NET 2.0 comes with a new nice feature, where we can declare and use a page easily in asynchronous style. Besides the easy implementation model, ASP.NET asynchronous page utilizes ASP.NET threads efficiently. While calling a long running database query or web service, at the moment the request reaches at the asynchronous point, the corresponding asynchronous operation starts without keeping the current ASP.NET allocated, and thus lets the thread to be returned back to the thread pool. As soon as the asynchronous process completes, another ASP.NET thread get allocated and continues accordingly. This model really improves the utilization of ASP.NET thread pool and thus improves the scalability of the corresponding web applications. More can be found here.

To make a web page asynchronous, we just have to put a property in the page directive as follows:

<%@ Page Async="true" ...

There are two different implementation model for ASP.NET 2.0 asynchronous pages, with respect to database and web-service call.

Implementation model for database

The implementation model for database query requires a "PageAsyncTask" class to be set with few event handler methods such as "Begin Event Handler", "End Event Handler", "Timeout Event Handler" etc. This task should be registered as an Asynchronous tasks to continue and complete the asynchronous scenario properly.

public partial class AsyncPageTask : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    private SqlConnection _connection;
    private SqlCommand _command;
    private SqlDataReader _reader;
 
    IAsyncResult BeginAsyncOperation(object sender, EventArgs e, AsyncCallback cb, object state)
    {
        Response.Write("Starts at: " + DateTime.Now.ToString());
 
        _command = DAL.GetCommandForInsertRecord();
        _connection = _command.Connection;
        return _command.BeginExecuteReader(cb, state);
    }
 
    void EndAsyncOperation(IAsyncResult ar)
    {
        _reader = _command.EndExecuteReader(ar);
        Response.Write(" Ends at: " + DateTime.Now.ToString());
    }
 
    void TimeoutAsyncOperation(IAsyncResult ar)
    {
 
    }
 
    public override void Dispose()
    {
        if (_connection != null)
            _connection.Close();
        base.Dispose();
    }
 
    protected void btnClick_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Response.Write("Hello ");
        PageAsyncTask task = new PageAsyncTask(
            new BeginEventHandler(BeginAsyncOperation),
            new EndEventHandler(EndAsyncOperation),
            new EndEventHandler(TimeoutAsyncOperation),
            null
        );
        RegisterAsyncTask(task);
    }
 
}

Implementation model for web service

The implementation model for web service call is much more simpler than the database query. Ii just includes creating an web service instance, followed by calling the MethodName"Async" (for instance, if the web method name is "HelloWorld" then its asynchronous method name is "HelloWorldAsync". Besides the calling the asynchronous method for a web service method, we can register it's complete event handler to perform some post completion tasks.

protected void btnClick_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Response.Write("Starts at: " + DateTime.Now.ToString());
        MyWebService.WebService MyWS = new MyWebService.WebService();
        MyWS.HelloWorldCompleted += new MyWebService.HelloWorldCompletedEventHandler(MyWS_HelloWorldCompleted);
        MyWS.HelloWorldAsync();
    }
 
    void MyWS_HelloWorldCompleted(object sender, MyWebService.HelloWorldCompletedEventArgs e)
    {
        Response.Write(" Ends at: " + DateTime.Now.ToString());
    }
 
Download Source code: 

Efficient Batch Operation From ASP.NET 2.0 Using SQL Server 2005 XML Data Type

Mohammad Ashraful Alam — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:52:50 GMT

One of the good practice while developing high performance web application is to reduce the database roundtrip as much as possible. In the current trend of web applications, its a very common to enable users to delete multiple items in a list user interface at a time.

To perform this type of batch delete operation, one common mistake that happens by beginner developers are to calling the data access method repetitively for each item with in a loop as below:

For Each row As GridViewRow In gvEmployees.Rows
            ' Access the CheckBox 
            Dim cb As CheckBox = CType(row.FindControl("chkEmployeeSelector"), CheckBox)
            If cb IsNot Nothing AndAlso cb.Checked Then
                ' First, get the EmployeeID for the selected row 
                Dim employeeId As SqlInt32 = CType(gvEmployees.DataKeys(row.RowIndex).Value, SqlInt32)
 
                ' Deleting a employee... 
                DAL.Employee.Delete.(employeeId) 
 
            End If
Next

A good approach regarding this issue is to send all of the employee id's at a time to the database stored procedure, so that all the deletion operation can be handled at a time, and thus reducing the cost with respect to database roundtrip! BUT one basic problem with this approach is SQL Server doesn't support array, and thus we can't pass the list of ID's as an array! Then?

Oh yes! We have XML data type available is SQL Server 2005, well we can utilize that concept easily. How? Easy! Just to create the list as an xml and then pass to the corresponding stored procedure. The stored procedure will extract the xml accordingly and perform required operation individually on each item.

Application End:

The method below converts a .net generic list to a xml representation of list of Id's which is passed to stored procedure to perform required batch operation:

public static string FormatXMLForIdArray(System.Collections.Generic.List<SqlInt32> idsToList)
    {
        //converting the list to xml first 
        StringBuilder xmlString = new StringBuilder();
        for (int i = 0; i < idsToList.Count; i++)
        {
            xmlString.AppendFormat("<Id>{0}</Id>", idsToList[i]);
        }
 
        return xmlString.ToString();
    } 

Stored Procedure End:

ALTER PROCEDURE spr_Employee_DeleteEmployeeList 
@EmployeeSystemUserIdList xml 
AS 
 
 
DELETE App_Employee 
WHERE EmployeeSystemUserId in 
( 
    SELECT ParamValues.EmployeeSystemUserId.value('.','Int') as Id 
    FROM @EmployeeSystemUserIdList.nodes('/EmployeeSystemUserId') as ParamValues(EmployeeSystemUserId) 
) 
 

Few Words From A Fresh MVP

Mohammad Ashraful Alam — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 04:39:00 GMT

One of the famous quotes of Socrates that drives me all the time is: "Know Thyself". Around the world there are lots of things which might be in your interest on not. Knowing yourself doesn't only mean to find your choices, it also includes the facts, which don't belong to your choice as well as!

Knowing what I don't know

Well, so I need to know myself. As a technical guy, how do I know where I can be the best fit or where I can be comfortable to explore my ideas to create new but necessary things? One of our favorite poets, Rabindranath Thakur told "It's very natural to be ignorant about something. But it often happens that, we don't know what we don't know!". In this very dynamic era of technical world, it is very much true. Technology is changing very frequently, so as professionals, always we need to find out best fits among all of the changes. To knowing about "what I don't know" was my first step to go forward. Of course, community contents, such as forums, articles, blogs, newsgroups was a great resource for me in that case, by getting informed what the experts and professionals are thinking about the latest software releases and development practices. Going thru among those, I got the basic idea about what I don't really know!

Learning in-depth where I can be a best fit

After experimenting and picking my choices, the next phase starts! I need to learn those in more detail. One of my most favorite quote about IT professionals is "To fit with current tech trend, we need to know something about everything and we need to know everything about something!". In real tech world, the term "everything" can't be limited within a specific boundary. So it's better to consider the term, "everything" is "as much as possible".

Implementation

Now the third phase to explore as a good professional, appears. Use what you have learned in your projects/works. But apart from simply putting the learned things should not be the "only" concern for a developer. While implementing any external content that I just learned, I tried to keep my eyes open to examine it's affect in the production environment.

Turning to personal contribution over the contents

Either comparing with other alternative solutions or analyzing the solution with respect to other dependencies, I often got some new ideas, thoughts, techniques to modify the used solution for the current project or for the future project with different context. This process not only makes me intimate with the contents in more details, but also opens several doors to provide the best solution in appropriate context. Apart from my personal usage, these alternative or better solutions can also be a valuable resource to my community friends, along with providing them a way to think more about it!

The four phases, which I just mentioned are my usual way to expand my knowledge (and thus myself) in most comfortable scenario. Thanks God, technology is changing very frequently, and thus always I can discover myself in an infinite loop!

My MVP 2007 Award

Once upon a time, I was a freelance newspaper journalist. I first used PC when I was in the second semester in my Bachelor in Computer Science degree! As usually, I was a bit afraid, whether i will be able to fit in this "unknown" area. The continuous process to knowing me opened doors for me to find myself to be fitted here. Besides my reference books, my community friends were a great resource for me.

Passing previous 7 years was a great adventure for me! Getting matured with the community contents and tutorial stuffs, one day I found that, besides getting, I can put my contents to my community friends as well as. The most interesting thing I felt, that, besides getting contents from the community, there is a big "joy" to share own contents in return.

Microsoft awarded me first time as a MVP "Most Valuable Professional" in "Visual ASP.NET" category for 2007, with respect to my community contributions over the last year 2006. My MVP profile can be seen here.

Of course it was a big surprise for me to find myself in an expert community. Apart from other benefits, I feel the best thing, to get a broader scope to get in touch with the Tech gurus. Thanks to Microsoft to provide me a new path to go forward with more perfection!

Cheers!