Building a Logging Framework in ASP.NET 1.x – Part 1

One of the most enjoyable aspects of system architecture is designing new frameworks for new applications. This is the point in time of the design process where you can be the most creative and bring new design patterns and new knowledge to the table to continually build most robust, scalable and stable applications.

There are of course a few key staple infrastructures that need to be in place in nearly every application. Sometimes it’s fun to change it up and design these pieces in different ways to keep things fresh. There’s only so many ways you can create a login form for example.

One of the key foundation pieces to nearly any application is logging. Logging can be implemented in a myriad of different ways, depending on the scope of the application. Certain pieces are not always needed and sometimes using the built in .NET tracing is sufficient. Personally I always want full control over my logging needs so I always create my own logging framework from scratch.

The main purpose of most logging frameworks is to capture exceptions. Handling exceptions is paramount is application maintenance: If you cannot track down your bugs efficiently your application and end-user performance will suffer greatly. You therefore need a descent exception logging mechanism which will allow you to pinpoint errors in your application hastily.

Secondary logging purposes include tracing or debug statements. This can help expedite the development process by creating custom messages around complex algorithms which can help remove a lot of trial-and-error debugging and testing.

The purpose of this tutorial is to design a basic yet useful logging framework which is Object Oriented and expandable to larger scale needs should your application require it. Part 1 of this tutorial will focus on implement most of the foundation of the logging framework and the basics of how to use it. The second and final part of this tutorial will put the logging framework into a basic ASP.NET application structure and show you how to use the logging framework in a more real-world structure.

Understanding Web.Config in ASP.NET 1.x

Understanding Web.Config in ASP.NET 1.x

With every ASP.NET application there is a root Web.Config file which resides in the website root directory and controls many complex aspects of your application. One of the troubles with this configuration file is that it covers many areas and has many options and parameters which are difficult to remember and sometimes confusing to understand the impact they will have on your application.

Part of the reason for lack of understanding is the fact that a default Web.config file is provided with a newly created ASP.NET application. Most of the time you can simply leave it alone and your application will run just fine. However it’s still important to understand what each entry in the default Web.config file means and even more important to know how to customize it to suit your needs.

The purpose of this tutorial is to serve as a quick reference for the options available in the Web.config file, and also to inspect some of the more commonly used configuration elements, thus creating a greater understanding of the flexibility available.

Custom ASP.NET Web Menu Control – Part 2

Welcome to the second and final part of this 2 part tutorial regarding creating a custom menu using ASP.NET’s Web Control Library projects.  During Custom ASP.NET Web Menu Control Part 1 we implemented a sample ASP.NET application and created a new Web Control Library project and created our own custom control which was responsible for displaying clickable menu items.

The menu items were fully customizable and could be coded for in the code-behind files of WebForms added to our sample project. We also built the ability to perform basic UI operations such as bolding the menu items and rendering the menu items either horizontally or vertically.

In this second part of the tutorial we fill focus on one of the more complex topics of custom web controls, which is linkage to the Visual Studio designer. To really make a custom control flow like a regular web control it needs to have the capability of being visually manipulated at design time by setting properties through the properties window.

We will expand upon our example built in Custom ASP.NET Web Menu Control Part 1 and add in the following features:

1. Add a Designer class to render design time presentation
2. Change the control name
3. Demonstrate how to render custom HTML for the Visual Studio designer
4. Add a font size property

Note: Visual Studio.NET running ASP.NET 1.x is required for this tutorial. Both VB.NET and C# code samples will be provided