http://aspalliance.com/author.aspx?uId=1 AspAlliance articles by Steven Smith Kanban is a system for improving existing production processes. Learn more about the process, and how to get started applying it, in this brief overview. http://aspalliance.com/2089_Getting_Started_with_Kanban Steven Smith Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT When designing your software systems, favor the use of classes to model behavior within the system over the overuse of flags in your data model. The resulting design will be more flexible, less tightly coupled, and easier to maintain. http://aspalliance.com/2087_Represent_Behavior_with_Classes_not_Flags Steven Smith Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT This article demonstrates a simple way to quickly retrieve the length of MSMQ queues from an ASP.NET MVC application using C#. http://aspalliance.com/2086_Get_MSMQ_Queue_Counts_in_C Steven Smith Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT This article will show you how to install and get started quickly using WebMatrix 2. http://aspalliance.com/2084_Getting_Started_with_WebMatrix_2 Steven Smith Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT Enumerations provide far more readable code than magic strings or magic numbers. However, often developers try to stretch enums beyond their intended use. This article describes how to appropriately extend enums, and how to move beyond enums when the needs of the system require it. http://aspalliance.com/2075_Moving_Beyond_Enumerations Steven Smith Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT Some objects in your application simply describe attributes of other objects. These objects can be modeled as Value Objects, immutable and without identity. In this article, Steve introduces Value Objects and shows an example of how to implement them in a simple design. http://aspalliance.com/2068_Working_With_Value_Objects Steven Smith Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT Sometimes you need to reset the password of a SQL Server database installation. This article shows you how. http://aspalliance.com/2066_How_to_Reset_a_SQL_Server_sa_Password Steven Smith Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT The SOLID acronym describes five object-oriented design principles that, when followed, produce code that is cleaner and more maintainable. The last principle, the Dependency Inversion Principle, suggests that details depend upon abstractions. Unfortunately, typical project relationships in .NET applications can make this principle difficult to follow. In this article, I'll describe how one can structure a set of projects in a Visual Studio solution such that DIP can be followed, allowing for the creation of a SOLID solution. You can download the sample solution and use it as a starting point for your new solutions if you like. http://aspalliance.com/2064_Creating_a_SOLID_Visual_Studio_Solution Steven Smith Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT Microsoft Platform Ready provides technical and marketing resources for companies building applications for the Microsoft platform. Currently they are working with The Code Project on a promotion that will pay $250 USD to companies for their FIRST Windows Azure Application that is verified compatible using the Microsoft Platform Ready testing tools. The contest is valid only through 21 June 2011 12:00 PST in the US only, but the walkthrough I’m about to show will work for any company who wishes to confirm and verify to customers that their application is running correctly on Windows Azure. http://aspalliance.com/2059_Deploy_and_Test_an_Azure_App_with_Platform_Ready Steven Smith Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT Web Performance Tests provide a simple means of ensuring correct and performant responses are being returned from your web application. Testing a wide variety of inputs can be tedious without a way to separate test recording and input selection. Data binding provides a convenient and simple way to try an unlimited number of different inputs as part of your web performance tests using Visual Studio 2010. http://aspalliance.com/2056_Binding_Data_to_Web_Performance_Tests Steven Smith Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT