Now that I'm diggging a little deeper into my pet project web site, I'm learning how I really use the data. The Get() methods provided by .netTiers are great but I thought I would have more. I started looking at my database starting with the aspnet_Membership tables. I would expect unique indexes on something as obvious as the email column but it is not there. Same goes for other obvious columns in these microsoft-provided tables. So I add unique indexes to the membership tables. Of course, I do the same for my own custom tables and find that some of the text or varchar(max) have to be changed. No biggie but another step I have to take.

Now that the database is set, I need to regen the .netTiers templates, rerun the GrantUser stored proc, build the .netTiers stuff and copy it into the /bin of my project. Not hard work but just tedious to get each step completed and move on to the next one. All this so my .Get methods are consistent with my usage of the library.

All this so I can get my validators working - I really hate validators.

Yesterday, I was reading the MSDN FLASH email newsletter and saw a listing for another SQL injection article. Since one of Wayne's sites was recently hacked, I thought I would read it. The article is clear and gives explicit steps to take. Since I had only done one of the three things (SQL stored procs), I thought I would mess with the last one: execute permissions only.

Wayne pointed me to a stored proc to grant permissions to a user. Since users and roles are one of those areas that after you have them set up correctly, you don't mess with them, I stumbled my way through creating a user. I ran the stored proc (which will have to be run after every .netTiers generation), modified my sql connection in web.config and tried my pet project site. I get an error about SELECT statements and permissions. .netTiers was supposed to be configured in web.config to use stored procs but apparently not. So I change the file, build, and still get the error. Someone, somewhere is caching something. Close everything done. Reopen. Change web.config and checkin with comment. Test again and it works.

This is a really bad way to find a problem. It's getting to the point that I need someone to check my security changes so this type of thing isn't missed.

Volume 14 of Make Magazine has an interesting article on free web sites - web site builders that also host the end resulting web site.

Here is my latest article on 15seconds.com: http://www.15seconds.com/issue/080529.htm titled "Implementing the .netTiers Template Library as a .NET Website's Data Layer - Part I"
 

Now I'm trying to get all my blogs tied together. Most are DasBlog so no big deal only what is the endpoint? The documentation lists blogger.aspx off the root but the file isn't there. Apparently from the forums I'm not the only one with the issue. However, I thought I bet it is there virtual. So I enter that in the address bar and I get a response of web service methods available. Nice - why doesn't the documentation say the page isn't there but the dll will respond.

I get an email every friday about the new events for families on the weekend on www.neighborhood-kids.com. The design is great. I love it, but my eyes and mind do skip over things in the page just assuming they are pretty but useless. Then I noticed the clock at the top of the page was right about the time. Wow, that is cool. I'm going to have to pay closer attention to what is technically happening on web sites.

Living in the northwest is wonderful but when spring and summer start to show up (meaning the sun makes a regular appearance), I totally loose all motivation. My brother from England worked a summer for Boeing in Seattle a few years ago. He was shocked that people didn't do any work in the summer. I was always luck at Microsoft to not have a summer ship date. That would have totally sucked.

How can I think about writing code and the project when the sun is out just laughing at me, taunting me to come out.

There are a few times in my life when a project phase just goes on forever. Back in my Microsoft days, I hated the last stages of the ship cycle. People were burned out, higher-ups were already on to the next phase. Front-line devs, testers, pms, and writers were either too burned out to function or too hyped up to listen. The mid-level guys were running interference every which way. The bell-curve was watched and the marketing dicks were breathing down everyone's throat and lord help you if you broke the build. I was thrilled when my boss finally made the rounds to ask if I thought the product was ready to ship. He asked everyone personally instead of some meeting where the team bully could badger me into saying something I would regret.

And here I am with my own project in the end of one of the first phases and I trudge on. I'm not near enough done. No ship award in my near future.