Look at ASP.NET MVC4 Beta!

Microsoft has released ASP.NET MVC4 Beta officially and Jon Galloway announced regarding of it in his blog with introduction to ASP.NET web API.

Top Most Features

•     ASP.NET Web API
•     Refreshed and modernized default project templates
•     New mobile project template
•     Many new features to support mobile apps
•     Recipes to customize code generation
•     Enhanced support for asynchronous methods

Also you can build ASP.NET MVC project with Nuget Package
For more details and installation tips look at http://www.asp.net/mvc/mvc4

Swap VIP in Window Azure

Swap VIP is very good feature available in Window azure, I would like to described here about that with good reference link.

What is SWAP VIP ?
There are 2 type of environment on which you can deploy on window azure application.

Staging
In other word you can say testing environment, having similar configuration as per production. Before deploying to production (where actual user will use your application) you can deploy to staging to fix bugs, test security issues, configuration problem etc.

Production
It is actual environment where you can move tested staging application which will be used by real users. (you can directly deploy your application if you are confident on your testing!!)

In sort Swap VIP is azure feather to move application from staging to production by just one click!

How to use Swap VIP?
After testing your application just click on Swap VIP as per shown in above fig.and click ok and it will transfer from staging to production with zero downtime of your original application!

What will happen while swapping?
If you have notice DNS when you have created staging would be as per below.
ID + Cloudapp.net

and in production DNS would be actual URL with something like myapp.cloudapp.net
When you going to swap azure will just transfer this DNS entry.

Reference Links

• More info on SWAP VIP on msdn
• Swap VIP with screenshots
• Step by Step: Publishing your application and Swap VIP
• Make sure about your configuration setting when you will swap VIP
• Deploying application using azure management portal
  

Step by Step : Upload asp.net web application to Window Azure

Window Azure is in demand for cloud hosting to host asp.net web application and make scalable that application as per retirements, so I would like to describe here step by step to upload asp.net application on window azure. so let's start!

1. Create New Project > ASP.NET web application

   
   

2. Create New Cloud Project and Just click OK without selecting anything

   

3. Go to Cloud Project > Right click on Roles Folder > Add web role from solution as per below fig.

   
   

4. Here you can configure your cloud project with .csdef config file (you can also add stratup task in that.)
   

   
   

5. Build Solution then right click on Cloud Project and click Publish, it will open dialog as per below.
   
   

6. Here i will go through "Create Service package only" which will create published files to upload manually on window azure portal, if you want details on 2^nd option then please refer this link for Getting Started with the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio
   
   

7. Click on "Configure Remote Desktop" if you want RDP connection to that application and chose certificate and credentials as per below
   
   

8. Click Ok on both dialogs and it will generate 2 files which we need to upload on Window azure portal
   

   
   

9. Create "New Hosted Service" on azure portal then fill details, choose certificates and browse 2 published files in step-9 and click ok
   

   
   
   
   cheers!
   

Alternate way to set default browser in VS2010

If you are using Visual studio on daily basis for development then you are familiar about to change default browser setting as per shown in below fig.

Right click on any aspx page and click "browse with" will open window with installed browser list and you can set default browser for that application.

But if you are working with MVC3 application where aspx page is not available then how you can change this setting? because browse with option only available with aspx or html page

Some person prefer to add extra aspx page or html page to application change this setting, however i explore alternate way to do this as per below..

Following are steps i have followed to change my default browser to chrome

1.     Open the web project properties
2.     Go to Web tab
3.     In Start Action section select Start external program and then add chrome executable path and the url as       Command line arguments.
4.     In Servers section set specific port to the same port set in the URL in step 3.

KeyTips plugin : Add keyboard support to Web application

It is very useful to add keyboard support to commercial application interface where user can able to fill up details and navigate throughout application without using mouse. Till now this type of accesskey only available with window application but now it is also possible with web application interface as well with KeyTips Jquery Plugin.

The KeyTips (formerly the Access Key Highlighter plugin) provides various options for highlighting access keys on web forms when the user presses their browser's access key shortcut key, e.g. Alt for Internet Explorer and Safari, Shift+Alt in Firefox.
Visit the KeyTips jQuery demo page and hold down ALT + Shift (Alt for IE) to see the key tips.

Following are steps to add this jquery plugin to your application

If you look at source code you found accesskey attributes in all fields which will be used to with combination with ALT + SHIFT (ALT for IE and safari)



You can also add this Jqeruy plugin by Nuget


AJAX wrapper on basis of this jquery plugin also available at codeplex