New DNS provider

Oh yeah... updated my DNS provider to DNSimple.  Was extremely easy to set up and would highly recommend if you're just looking to point a URL to an IP address.

DateRanges in C#

Been playing around a bit with GitHub to try to get the feel for Git terminology, branching/merging, etc.  My repo(s) can be found at: https://github.com/Kritner/

Was kind of surprised to find out there is no DateRange class within .net.  I attempted to create the starts of one here: https://github.com/Kritner/Common/  Currently only includes DateRange - could contain more stuff at some point.

Getting my Surface Pro 3 tomorrow hopefully I'll have more of a chance to randomly type in a compiler while watching TV once it's here! :3

Growing up... or something

I would like to try to start blogging more, though I'm not sure what about.  Getting closer to 30 years old and Kristen and I have finally had to buy our first washer and dryer - I feel like an adult :P

This week, after 5 years with Peregrin, I have put in my 2 weeks notice while accepting an amazing offer as a Senior Web Developer at another company.  The company sounds like a great opportunity to continue learning, as well as offering my own knowledge and experience to them.  I feel that I needed to leave Peregirn in order to keep relevant, in order to start anew, and to keep growing.  I will miss Peregrin and the employees, but it is simply time to move on.

Up next, I will be concentrating on the furthered development of my front end skills, as well as continue studying for my next certification.  I might attempt to do blog posts about tutorials and/or things I would like to learn about next.  Guess we shall see.

Pushing out a new build of the website tonight hopefully.  Attempting to get a small handle on bootstrap, since I'm not very versed in the front end stuff, hoping this will help out in that regard!

Haven't done an autodeployed build since Team Foundation Services changed their pricing structure from non-existent to existent, so hopefully this works.

Stuff and things

So we've been doing a lot of .net development lately at the ol' shop.  I'm now certified in MS SQL 2008 development, next up is .net! :)

Been trying to learn a bit more about api and ajaxy type stuff - though it's been around for quite some time, with the stuff I've been exposed to at work and in school I haven't had much chance to learn the *new* old stuff.

I am currently working on an API that will help with unspoiled node tracking for the MMORPG Final Fantasy 14.  So far I have gotten the in game clock time calculation worked into the API.

Next up on the learning agenda is to figure out authentication and authorization when it comes to api.  I noticed that with the new web api 2 provided by .net there are new built in functions to make it easier, but still quite a learning process for me.  Once I get the authorization set up on the API, I'll have to figure out how to authenticate from my website hosted on a separate subdomain.

Speaking of domains and subdomains, I have purchased a domain from GoDaddy.com for the purpose of attempting to get an SSL certificate in order to encrypt data for use with the web api.

When I'm not working on the web api, you can usually find me on the hyperion server as "Kritner Swiffertail" in FFXIV.

My first ASP.NET application/Masterpage

I had been having a few issues when attempting to get asp.net applications working on my web server - not knowing much of anything about asp.net, I was under the assumption it would be similar to the ColdFusion I am used to; it was not.

The thing I didn't understand, which this entry exists to remind me (and potentially any youse out there), is AppPools.  IIS seems to by default assign your web root to an appPool - the default (at least for me) being .NET framework 2.0.  It is as simple as changing the Default website to a new appPool using the 4.0 framework right?  Almost...

Having changed the default appPool to 4.0 framework I was now successfully compiling the standard "Hello World" .aspx - but getting run-time errors when attempting to integrate a master page into my site.  A master-page is a 'template' of sorts that can be used to create similar layout/functionality across numerous sites.  The run-time error was explaining that my MasterPage.master could not be found at ~/MasterPage.master - but it was there!

Luckily my wife Kristen was there (who does know ASP.net) to let me know that if I have my application within a directory in of itself, but the application is set up in a separate directory, then the "~/MasterPage.master" reference is relative to the application, not necessarily the directory that you are working in.

Simple fix?  Create a new application pool on the directory where my code is actually hosted.  Yay! Now everything is working without run time errors!

Flex Email address validation component

I was attempting to find a decent email validation component for flex - one with validators built in and all the bells and whistles.  I wasn't able to find one at a quick glance, so I put this guy together, and it seems to actually be working so far :O

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
 Created By:  Russ Hammett
 Create Date: 2012-01-03
 Description: Text input that validates an email address.
      use "required" to control if the email address
      is required.
      
      access the public variable isValidEmail to determine
      if validation passed on the email address
 Modified By: Russ Hammett
 Modify Date: 2012-01-06
 Modify Desc: Updated validateEmail function to be public and
      update errorString accordingly when validation fails or passes.
-->
<mx:TextInput xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
  maxChars="50" 
  creationComplete="onCreationCompleted();"
  focusOut="validateEmail();" >
 
 <mx:Script>
  <![CDATA[
   import mx.events.ValidationResultEvent;
   
   private var _isValidEmail:Boolean = true;
   
   public function set isValidEmail(value:Boolean):void
   {
    _isValidEmail = value; 
   }
   [Bindable]
   public function get isValidEmail():Boolean
   {
    return _isValidEmail;
   } 
   
   [Bindable]
   public var required:Boolean = false;
   
   /**
    *  On Creation Completed
    * */
   private function onCreationCompleted():void
   {
    if (required)
    {
     emailValidator.enabled = true;
    }
    else
    {
     emailValidator.enabled = false; 
    }
    
   }
   
   /**
    *  Validate Email
    * */
   public function validateEmail():void
   {

    var vldEmail:ValidationResultEvent;
   
    if (this.length > 0)
    {
     emailValidator.enabled = true;
     vldEmail = emailValidator.validate(this.text);
     
     if (vldEmail.type == ValidationResultEvent.VALID)
     {
      isValidEmail = true;
      this.errorString = '';
     }
     else
     {
      isValidEmail = false;
      this.errorString = vldEmail.message;
     }
     
    }
    else
    {
     emailValidator.enabled = false;
     
     if (required)
     {
      emailValidator.enabled = true;
      vldEmail = emailValidator.validate(this.text);
      
      isValidEmail = false;
      this.errorString = vldEmail.message;
     }
     else
     {
      isValidEmail = true;
      this.errorString = '';
     }
    }
   }
   
  ]]>
 </mx:Script>
 
 <mx:EmailValidator 
  id="emailValidator" 
  source="{this}"
  property="text"
  required="{required}"
  requiredFieldError="Email Field is Required."
  invalidCharError="Invalid characters in your email address." 
  invalidDomainError= "The domain in your email address is incorrectly formatted." 
  invalidIPDomainError="The IP domain in your email address is incorrectly formatted." 
  invalidPeriodsInDomainError="The domain in your email address has consecutive periods." 
  missingAtSignError="Missing an at character in your email address." 
  missingPeriodInDomainError="The domain in your email address is missing a period." 
  missingUsernameError="The username in your email address is missing." 
  tooManyAtSignsError="Too many at characters in your email address." /> 

</mx:TextInput>

Thanks http://www.bloggersentral.com/2009/04/how-to-show-code-in-blog-post.html#free for teaching me how to paste code (and making it look pretty) in blogger..