tony patton

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Employ refactoring via Visual Studio to write better code

Refactoring is the practice of making your code cleaner and clearer without affecting the functionality. Find out what's included in Visual Studio's Refactor menu, and discover a couple of Visual Studio add-ins that bring refactoring to the Visual Basic community. by Tony Patton

Tags: Developer, Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Visual Basic, Code, Feature, Refactoring, Refactor, Refactor Menu, Visual Studio IDE, Microsoft Development Tools, Programming Languages, Development Tools, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-08-04

Drive online business with landing pages

Tony Patton outlines the elements of an effective landing page and discusses the importance of testing these pages. by Tony Patton

Tags: Web, Page, Tony Patton, E-mail, Channel Management, Corporate Communications, Web Site Development, Web Technology, Online Communications, Marketing, Internet

Blog posts 2008-07-29

Can you be a self-respecting Web developer without knowing HTML?

Tony Patton says he can't accept a so-called Web developer who doesn't fully understand the technology used to create their applications. How much do you think a Web developer needs to know about HTML? by Tony Patton

Tags: Web Developer, Web, HTML, Tony Patton, Ian Lloyd

Blog posts 2008-07-22

Seamlessly integrate applications with eBay using its Windows SDK

The eBay Windows SDK allows you to easily access eBay data within your application. Tony Patton gives you an overview of the functionality provided by the eBay Web services API. by Tony Patton

Tags: Item, API, SDK, Microsoft Windows, eBay Inc., Windows SDK, eBay Windows SDK, eBay Web Service API, API Version, eBay.Service.Core.Sdk.ApiContext, Pagination, Page Number, eBay Developer Forums, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-07-10

Easily test Web services with soapUI

The soapUI tool makes it much easier to test Web services during development. It's also useful for interacting with third-party Web services to get a better idea of what to expect and what to include in the response. See how to put soapUI to work. by Tony Patton

Tags: Web, Web Service, Tool, soapUI, soapUI Tool, SoapUI, Validation Option, Download Page, Pro Version, Cloud Computing, Web Services, Channel Management, Enterprise Software, Software, Marketing, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-07-03

Download files over the Web with .NET's WebClient class

The System.Net namespace includes the WebClient class for uploading and downloading files via HTTP. You can copy or read files with only a few lines of code. Tony Patton details how the WebClient class helped him solve a recent problem. by Tony Patton

Tags: Web, Namespace, Data, Class, Site, File, Error, WebClient, WebClient Class, System.Net Namespace, Stream, String, imageAddress, currentLine, .Net, Channel Management, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Marketing, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-06-27

Using Google as an application platform

Find out why Google Apps is a powerful alternative to more established products such as Microsoft SharePoint and IBM Lotus Notes. And, if Google Apps doesn't offer the applications you need, see why the Google App Engine might fit the bill. by Tony Patton

Tags: Google Inc., Google Apps, Google App Engine, Google Apps Google Apps, Google Sites, Google Apps Initiative, Standard Edition, Cloud Computing, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-06-24

A .NET primer on reference types and value types

Working with reference types and value types is usually not given much thought during daily programming chores; but if you ever choose to pursue .NET certification, you should be familiar with both types. Tony Patton provides you with a solid background in these programming basics. by Tony Patton

Tags: Method, Reference, Class, Type, Object, Class Type, ByRef, Person, Person Class, SwapPeople, SwapValue, person1.FirstName, person1.LastName, person1.Title, person2.FirstName, person2.LastName, person2.Title, Console.WriteLine, Integer, ByVal, .Net, C#, Application Servers, Microsoft Development Tools, Development Tools, Programming Languages, Middleware, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Enterprise Software, Software, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-06-16

Keeping up with development technology at TechEd 2008

Bill Gates kicked off last week's TechEd North America 2008 Developers conference in Orlando, FL by talking about the fact that he's taking a less active role at Microsoft to spend more time as a philanthropist. Even though this was old news, I learned plenty of new information during the...

Tags: Developer, Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Silverlight, Product, Microsoft Corp., Conference, Silverlight 2 Beta 2, Microsoft Sync Framework, Microsoft Development Tools, Enterprise Software, Development Tools, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Software, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-06-09

Use soft hyphens to properly display text

The soft hyphen feature of HTML is available to ensure the proper presentation of text on a Web page. Tony Patton describes how to use this rather obscure HTML feature. by Tony Patton

Tags: Web, HTML, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Web Browser, Hyphen, Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1, Nobr Element, Web Browsers, Channel Management, Internet, Marketing, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-05-31

Remote debugging with Visual Studio 2008

I recently examined the JavaScript debugger features in Visual Studio 2008 that aid in locating problems in Web pages. But if you often have to track down bugs in an application installed on another machine, you should check out Microsoft's remote debugger tool with Visual Studio 2008. Here's a closer...

Tags: Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-05-27

Visual Studio 2008 simplifies JavaScript debugging

One of the more cumbersome development tasks is debugging client-side JavaScript code. Tools such as Firebug are helpful, but in the case of Firebug, you're forced to use Firefox. Thankfully, Visual Studio 2008 provides a robust and developer-friendly environment for debugging JavaScript. Simplification Whenever I hear developers discuss...

Tags: Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, JavaScript, Debugger, Breakpoint, Breakpoints, Figure B, Microsoft Development Tools, Scripting Languages, Development Tools, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Web Development, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-05-15

Friendlier source code with two Firefox add-ons

While Internet Explorer is popular with users, Firefox is the best browser for Web developers. I continue to discover and take advantage of the myriad of add-ons available for Firefox. I recently discovered two tools -- View formatted source and View Source Chart -- for viewing and working with the...

Tags: Web, TechRepublic Inc., Source Code, Mozilla Firefox, Page, Web Browser, Tool, Add-on, CSS Rule, Figure D, CSS, Web Browsers, Productivity, Scripting Languages, Software/Web Development, Web Development, Internet, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-05-12

Silverlight 2.0 offers paradigm shift from predecessor

Most Web developers know better than judging a Microsoft product by its first iteration. For this reason, I was intrigued by the recent beta release of Silverlight 2.0. Silverlight provides a platform for Rich Internet Applications RIAs to build dynamic user interfaces that are platform and browser...

Tags: User Interface, Microsoft Silverlight, Windows Presentation Foundation Windows Presentation Foundation, .Net, Microsoft Windows, Middleware, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Operating Systems, Software, Enterprise Software, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-05-05

Develop secure software using the Microsoft SDL process

Microsoft has put its first-hand knowledge of dealing with buggy software to very good use by releasing the Trustworthy Computing Security Development Lifecycle SDL to the general public. The document is based on the same process used internally at Microsoft. The Microsoft SDL documents a process for...

Tags: Software, Application, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft SDL, Developer Education, Software Development, Security, Software/Web Development, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-04-28

Demonstrate your .NET 3.5 prowess with certifications

I talked to several developers recently who are wondering about Microsoft .NET 3.5 certification and how it relates to their .NET 2.0 and .NET 1.1 certs. Here's an overview of where Microsoft is going with its .NET certification and what a developer with .NET 1.1 or 2.0 certification should plan...

Tags: Certification, Exam, Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, Microsoft Corp., .NET 2.0 Exam, TS, .Net, Application Servers, Middleware, Quality, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Enterprise Software, Software, Business Operations, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-04-21

Create custom Visual Studio 2005 code snippets

Visual Studio 2005's built-in code snippets are great, but you can extend the concept by creating custom code snippets to easily reuse common code blocks in your application. This tutorial walks you through the process of creating custom code snippets. Creating the file Code snippets are defined in...

Tags: Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Snippet, CodeSnippets Element, Code Element, Microsoft Development Tools, XML, Development Tools, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Web Development, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-04-18

Take advantage of code snippets in Visual Studio 2005

The auto-complete features of Visual Studio .NET are wonderful if you are a Visual Basic developer, but C# developers sorely missed out on the feature. (Of course, C# developers who never use Visual Basic may be unaware of its existence.) Fortunately, Visual Studio 2005 brings auto-complete for code snippets to...

Tags: Folder, Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft Visual Basic, Snippet, CodeSnippets Element, Declarations Element, Code Element, Microsoft Development Tools, C#, Programming Languages, Development Tools, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-04-15

Customize your Web browsing experience with Greasemonkey

After I wrote about the Firefox add-on Chickenfoot, TechRepublic members e-mailed me to point out other tools provide similar functionality. Based on member feedback, Greasemonkey is one of the more popular add-ons. Discover how you can use Greasemonkey to extend and customize the Web browsing experience. Extensibility Greasemonkey...

Tags: Web, Script, Greasemonkey, Wrapper, Channel Management, Web Browsers, Marketing, Internet, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-04-14

Don't sweat migrating legacy .NET projects to Visual Studio 2008

I'm always a bit apprehensive when moving to a new development tool or a new version of an existing tool because of the possibility of breaking existing code and projects. Little did I know that migrating to Visual Studio 2008 would be such a breeze. Visual Studio...

Tags: Project, Microsoft Visual Studio, Solution, Microsoft .NET, Version, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, Conversion, Solution File, Wizard, Microsoft Development Tools, Development Tools, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Tony Patton

Blog posts 2008-04-07