Martin Normark's Blog (Page 3)

Request for service: Cloud Product Integrator

I need a better name for this service. But I won’t come up with it, as it isn’t a service I’ll offer. When I got started in the computer industry 12 years ago by starting by own business, I did on-site IT infrastructure setup, maintenance and also

work

Beware of the Gate Keepers

Gate keepers are everywhere. They’re the ones who keep denying and dismissing you and your ideas, even though you lay out in clear form the idea or plan you have, and explain why it might work and what the benefits are. The problem with gate keepers is that they’

blog

Why I blog

I started this blog 8 years ago with the intention of sharing code I was working on, troubles in programming I encountered and solved for others to benefit, and to show something I was passionate about. I regret that I didn’t commit to do this regularly, and that I

design

Smooth transition from Launch Image to View Controller in iOS

The LaunchImage in iOS is a static image (or a screen) being shown at launch of the app and it dissappears in a couple of seconds, and then showing your default view. For Høst [http://hoest.ag] I wanted to display a nice photo I took a couple of years

log dashboard

What is Accessible Log Entries Worth to You?

It’s just about as bad as it can get, unless you’ve actually done something to make it better. You know how much hassle you need to go through to find out what happened yesterday at 2am in the reporting module that runs every night to index data and

code quality

The Best Code Documentation 'Tool' Ever Made

Code Documentation is dreaded by most programmers, and people even question its value. What good is it to have a separate document that describes what the code does, when you can just look at the code? Of course, code documentation is about outlining the design decisions and how the implementation

API

How To Receive E-mails in ASP.NET MVC using MailGun

Mailgun has a fantastic API for doing a lot of stuff with e-mail. Not only is it a breeze to use their dedicated SMTP service to send a lot of e-mails with great deliver-ability – it is also very powerful for routing e-mails back to your application. There’s a lot

API

How To Use the Google Search Suggestions API (AutoComplete) from C#

Google is currently receiving a lot of negative mentions for their lack of providing keywords [http://searchengineland.com/post-prism-google-secure-searches-172487] to website owners. Keywords used by visitors is such valuable information when running a website, and especially if you rely on that website for income! I figured it’s about time

ASP.NET MVC

Entity Framework Migrations "Cheat Sheet"

I’m a big fan of Entity Framework [http://www.nuget.org/packages/EntityFramework/5.0.0] (Code First [http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/07/16/code-first-development-with-entity-framework-4.aspx] , aka. Magic Unicorn Edition [http://www.hanselman.com/blog/EntityFrameworkMagicUnicornAndMuchMoreIsNowOpenSourceWithTakeBacks.aspx] ), and in particular I am really beginning to like

API

Twitter Streaming API + SignalR + Google Maps = Powerful Stuff!

I’ve been playing around with a variety of APIs every once in a while. It is great fun to hack around with the enormous amounts of real data that are out there, and it’s always easy to get crazy ideas with it. Whenever you build something, the lack

ASP.NET MVC

Backbone and ASP.NET MVC: Use Nullable types as Id

As a side note to my blog post about renaming the idAttribute in Backbone [https://martinnormark.com/backbone-asp-net-mvc-rename-idattribute] when using it with ASP.NET (MVC), this post continues with the Id attribute [http://backbonejs.org/#Model-idAttribute]. The Id attribute in Backbone is very important. Backbone uses it to determine if

ASP.NET MVC

3 Reasons Why Dedicated ViewModels in ASP.NET MVC is a MUST

I’d argue that using dedicated view-models in ASP.NET MVC (or any other MVC framework) is one of the things that has changed the way I work for the better. And for the better I mean more maintainable code, better designed code, more robust code — just better in all

ASP.NET MVC

Backbone and ASP.NET MVC: Rename the ID attribute

In Backbone, a model’s ID attribute is vital in the way Backbone handles models and collections. In a collection, you can call get with an ID and you’ll get back the model. The thing is, naming conventions across languages does not always agree. In .Net properties are named

C#

Entity Framework: Update single column

Yesterday I blogged about how to delete a detached entity [https://martinnormark.com/entity-framework-delete-record-by-id-detached-entity]using Entity Framework 5 by only using its Id. A common practice in many applications today is to not actually delete the entity from the database, but instead mark it as deleted and make sure your

C#

Entity Framework: Delete Entity by Id - Using Detached Instance

Entity Framework [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/ef.aspx] 5, with the Code First [http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/468777/Code-First-with-Entity-Framework-5-using-MVC4-and] approach can do some pretty powerful things without much effort. Create your model classes, and it spins up a brand new and shiny database for you. But sometimes

ASP.NET MVC

Backbone.js Compatible Routes for, non-Web API, ASP.NET MVC projects

Backbone.js [http://backbonejs.org/] has become my JavaScript MV* framework [http://addyosmani.com/blog/understanding-mvc-and-mvp-for-javascript-and-backbone-developers/] of choice (you do use a JavaScript MV* framework, tostructure JavaScript [https://martinnormark.com/10-ways-structure-javascript], right?). I find myself using ASP.NET MVC for less and less that has something to do with views,

career

How To Hit Back When Your Boss Uses Salary Statistics To Negotiate

You sit in a meeting with your boss, negotiating your salary. Of course, you’re the awesome developer and feel like you should be paid 10x as much as the guy sitting next to you [http://blogs.construx.com/blogs/stevemcc/archive/2011/01/22/10x-productivity-myths-where-s-the-10x-difference-in-compensation.aspx] . You know that

.NET

Use Recurly.js with ASP.NET (MVC), C# with this Nu Get library

Recurly [http://recurly.com/] is a full suite recurring payment service that lets you easily create subscription plans, billing cycles, handle customers, revenue etc. They made payment integration dead easy with their awesome JavaScript library called Recurly.js [http://js.recurly.com/] that you can use to inject a payment

ActionFilters

Unit Testing ASP.NET MVC Controller Action contains specific ActionFilter Attributes

ActionFilters [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd410209.aspx]in ASP.NET MVC are great. You can now easily share logic between controllers without having to inherit from a base controller, that does the common work. I have a content heavy application that supports a set of layouts. Each layout

design

Make features obvious -- forcing usage is even better

When creating software, make your features obvious. A long time ago, Facebook introduced friendlists – a feature where you can group friends by any name you want.Along comes Google+, and have a feature called circles that, unlike Facebook’s lists, are very obvious and an integral part of the design

ASP.NET MVC

ASP.NET MVC Localize Numeric (data-val-number) Validation

Another buggy experience in ASP.NET MVC. This has to do with validation, more specifically numeric validation. Whenever you have a numeric property on your view models, ASP.NET MVC automatically adds some implicit validation to ensure that whatever entered in fact is a numeric value. Might be good in

JavaScript

10 Ways to (re) Structure JavaScript

Structuring JavaScript can be a job in itself if you don’t look out. I was attending the virtual jQuery Summit 2011, and one of the talks were called ‘ Structuring Your DOM-based Application [http://speakerdeck.com/u/garann/p/sneaking-structure-into-your-dom-based-application] ‘ byGarann Means [http://twitter.com/#!/garannm]. Her talk really took

Closures

JavaScript Bundling Issues When Using Unfinished Closures

We all know it’s a good idea to bundle JavaScript files into as few script includes as possible to minimize HTTP request [http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html#num_http]. And – we all know you should write your code inside closures [http://reallifejs.com/the-meat/getting-closure/im-still-using-that/], to

ASP.NET MVC

ASP.NET MVC 3 Windows Authentication problem - redirects to Account/Login

ASP.NET MVC 3 has its quirkiness here and there. Sometimes it’s a lack of support for something, and other times it’s downright buggy. An issue I came across recently, is something to do with Windows Authentication. There’s a lot of resource on the web on how

C#

Make CSS inline in C# and ASP.NET using PreMailer.Net

Being able to make CSS inline is something you need all the time when sending HTML e-mails. HTML E-mails simply don’t render perfectly in all e-mail clients if you don’t make all your styles inline. Campaign Monitor introduced the ability to make CSS inline years ago [http://www.