After comparing a bit, I came to NLog and tried integrating this in my project. My project being build in Visual Studio 2010 has support for those nice web.config’s that can be transformed/malformed/adjusted while publishing. This was very necessary because my debug (local) build uses a different SQL instance than my production build.

So I just wanted to show you how I configured NLog in my web.config. It might be obvious for some people, but for others it might not.

In my normal web.config I added the following lines. First I added a new section row to my configSections.

After that I went and added the normal NLog configuration to my web.config.

 insert into Log (TimeStamp, Level, Logger, Message, UserIdentity, CallSite) values(@time_stamp, @level, @logger, @message, @useridentity, @callsite);

This is the information for my debug environment. Because my laptop run SQL express, it connects to that instance.

This is my web.config.release :

It changes the connectionstring when I publish my release version. I love that feature of Visual Studio 2010!

I am using a XmlReader for this and I noticed that there arent really many usable examples on the internet about this, so here is just a small example I created to show how you could read a RSS feed.

Sample after the break…

// File to open up, can be an URL too
string XmlFileUrl = @"c:feed.xml";
using (XmlReader reader = new XmlTextReader(XmlFileUrl))
{
	// Initialize a list for storage of the items
	List items = new List();
	// boolean to see if a node was opened before
	bool openItem = false;
	RssItem item = new RssItem();

	// Loop the reader, till it cant read anymore
	while (reader.Read())
	{
		// An object with the type Element was found.
		if (reader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element)
		{
			// Check name of the node and write the contents in the object accordingly.
			if (reader.Name == "item")
			{
				item = new RssItem();
				openItem = true;
			}
			else if (reader.Name == "title" && openItem)
				item.title = reader.ReadElementContentAsString();
			else if (reader.Name == "link" && openItem)
				item.link = reader.ReadElementContentAsString();
			else if (reader.Name == "description" && openItem)
				item.description = reader.ReadElementContentAsString();
		}
		// EndElement was found, check if it is named item, if it is, store the object in the list and set openItem to false.
		else if (reader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.EndElement && reader.Name == "item" && openItem)
		{
			openItem = false;
			items.Add(item);
		}
	}
}

The RssItem class I created is just a simple class containing a couple of properties:

public class RssItem
{
	public string title { get; set; }
	public string pubDate { get; set; }
	public string link { get; set; }
	public string description { get; set; }
}

The method requires 3 parameters:

1. An image object. I hope you know how to load a file in an Image object (hint: FromFile).
2. A Resolution object, being nothing more than a small class I created, which also contains the width and the height.
3. The mode you want to use for resizing the image. I explained the modes in the enum listed below.

It probably isnt the neatest code you’ve ever seen, so if you have any comments, please let me know. Code and more explanation after the break…

///
/// Method resizes the image so it fits the wanted resolution best.
///
///The image to be resized
///The resolution which the image should be when the method is ready.
///The mode for resizing the image.
public static System.Drawing.Image Resize(System.Drawing.Image image, Resolution targetResolution, ResizeMode resizeMode)
{
	int sourceWidth = image.Width;
	int sourceHeight = image.Height;

	int targetWidth = targetResolution.Width;
	int targetHeight = targetResolution.Height;

	// Supplied image is landscape, while the target resolution is portait OR
	// supplied image is in portait, while the target resolution is in landscape.
	// switch target resolution to match the image.
	if ((sourceWidth > sourceHeight && targetWidth < targetHeight) || (sourceWidth < sourceHeight && targetWidth > targetHeight))
	{
		targetWidth = targetResolution.Height;
		targetHeight = targetResolution.Width;
	}

	float ratio = 0;
	float ratioWidth = ((float)targetWidth / (float)sourceWidth);
	float ratioHeight = ((float)targetHeight / (float)sourceHeight);

	if (ratioHeight < ratioWidth)
		ratio = ratioHeight;
	else
		ratio = ratioWidth;

	Bitmap newImage = null;

	switch (resizeMode)
	{
		case ResizeMode.Normal:
		default:
			{
				int destWidth = (int)(sourceWidth * ratio);
				int destHeight = (int)(sourceHeight * ratio);

				newImage = new Bitmap(destWidth, destHeight);
				using (Graphics graphics = Graphics.FromImage((System.Drawing.Image)newImage))
				{
					graphics.InterpolationMode = InterpolationMode.HighQualityBicubic;
					graphics.DrawImage(image, 0, 0, destWidth, destHeight);
				}

				break;
			}
		case ResizeMode.Crop:
			{
				if (ratioHeight > ratioWidth)
					ratio = ratioHeight;
				else
					ratio = ratioWidth;

				int destWidth = (int)(sourceWidth * ratio);
				int destHeight = (int)(sourceHeight * ratio);

				newImage = new Bitmap(targetWidth, targetHeight);

				int startX = 0;
				int startY = 0;

				if (destWidth > targetWidth)
					startX = 0 - ((destWidth - targetWidth) / 2);

				if (destHeight > targetHeight)
					startY = 0 - ((destHeight - targetHeight) / 2);

				using (Graphics graphics = Graphics.FromImage((System.Drawing.Image)newImage))
				{
					graphics.InterpolationMode = InterpolationMode.HighQualityBicubic;
					graphics.DrawImage(image, startX, startY, destWidth, destHeight);
				}

				break;
			}
		case ResizeMode.Stretch:
			{
				newImage = new Bitmap(targetWidth, targetHeight);
				using (Graphics graphics = Graphics.FromImage((System.Drawing.Image)newImage))
				{
					graphics.InterpolationMode = InterpolationMode.HighQualityBicubic;
					graphics.DrawImage(image, 0, 0, targetWidth, targetHeight);
				}
				break;
			}
		case ResizeMode.Fill:
			{
				newImage = new Bitmap(targetWidth, targetHeight);

				int destWidth = (int)(sourceWidth * ratio);
				int destHeight = (int)(sourceHeight * ratio);

				int startX = 0;
				int startY = 0;

				if (destWidth < targetWidth)
					startX = 0 + ((targetWidth - destWidth) / 2);

				if (destHeight < targetHeight)
					startY = 0 + ((targetHeight - destHeight) / 2);

				newImage = new Bitmap(targetWidth, targetHeight);
				using (Graphics graphics = Graphics.FromImage((System.Drawing.Image)newImage))
				{
					graphics.InterpolationMode = InterpolationMode.HighQualityBicubic;
					graphics.DrawImage(image, startX, startY, destWidth, destHeight);
				}

				break;
			}
	}

	return (System.Drawing.Image)newImage;
}

The resizeMode parameter is of the type ResizeMode, which is nothing more than a simple enumeration, like this:

///
/// Modes available for the resize method of images.
///
public enum ResizeMode
{
	///
	/// This will resize images to the resolution nearest to the target resolution. Images can become smaller when using this option
	///
	Normal = 1,
	///
	/// This will stretch an image so it always is the exact dimensions of the target resolution
	///
	Stretch = 2,
	///
	/// This will size an image to the exact dimensions of the target resolution, keeping ratio in mind and cropping parts that can't
	/// fit in the picture.
	///
	Crop = 3,
	///
	/// This will size an image to the exact dimensions of the target resolution, keeping ratio in mind and filling up the image
	/// with black bars when some parts remain empty.
	///
	Fill = 4
}

And the targetResolution parameter, is a simple class containing some properties like Name, Width and Height.

This method seems to do everything I need, if you need anything more, or any information about this code, just email me or reply here.

The code that I find mostly is the following (I editted a bit, to match my coding style):

Global.asax
[csharp] protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Application["SessionCount"] = 0;
}

protected void Session_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Application.Lock();

int sessionCount = 0;

if (Int32.TryParse(Application["SessionCount"].ToString(), out sessionCount))
sessionCount++;

Application["SessionCount"] = sessionCount;
Application.UnLock();
}

protected void Session_End(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

Application.Lock();

int sessionCount = 0;

if (Int32.TryParse(Application["SessionCount"].ToString(), out sessionCount))
sessionCount–;

Application["SessionCount"] = sessionCount;
Application.UnLock();
}
[/csharp]

The thing I am wondering about is, what happens when the site gets a lot of load. Does locking the Application object make the site slower? Because I noticed that when you lock the Application object, no pages get served to users.

What happens with multi-threaded web applications? Are all threads blocked during the lock?

I don’t know the answer yet, but I think this is a nice thing to try to find out.

Please don’t ask me why I need this, but it is a terrible solution for something that would sound so simple.

The only way to solve this problem (which I saw) was opening each individual file, load them in an XmlDocument object and track down the elements and attributes I needed using xPath.

Only halfway the script the memory consumption of the tool goes through the roof (around ~1.4GB), at least on our Windows 2003 server, where the application is running.

When I run that application on my Windows Vista x64 machine, there is no problem at all and the memory consumption is at ~20MB.

I tried finding memory leaks in my application, by using a couple of different profile applications, but they didn’t detect any large memory leaks, that could cause these problems.

What the heck is going on?

*sigh*: somehow the server puts all the 70.000 XML files in 5 files, and that way it creates 5 files of around 800MB. I disabled that script and now the memory consumption on the server is also back to normal.

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

For example, I like the option I added to this blog to attach files to a post and have a nice file list beneath my post listing the files. There is no real option in BlogEngine.NET to do this, so I added this feature in the latest release of BE (1.3.1.0).

Here’s a screenie of the admin screen and a sample post:

If you are a BlogEngine.NET user and you would like to attach files to your post, just gimme a sign and I will see if I can supply some sources. Maybe it’s not the nicest solution, but I requested this option on their forums too.

Next to work I got a couple of projects that keep me busy at home too. There’s computer stuff:

Getting my server to run fluintly on MacOS-X
Because that stupid HyperV kept crashing on me lately, I got the idea to actually install MacOS-X on my server, to see how it performs. My server is a pretty hefty beast, running a nice Quadcore Q9450 CPU and 12 GB of RAM. I got it installed yesterday and it seems pretty stable, accept some ‘minor’ issues (will post that later on).

If you want to read more of my wining, click ‘more’….

Silverlight
As I am always trying to learn new techniques, I tried the Silverlight 2.0 beta and I want to develop a nice replacement site for my daughters’ websites. At the moment both my daughters have a website, but I want to integrate that in a nice new Silverlight based website.

Grand Theft Auto IV
I only had time to play 5 to 10 minutes of play since I got this game. It looks pretty nice, but I wonder if it will interest me as much as its predecessor.

Call of Duty 4
Even less play time on this game the last month or so. I downloaded the new map-pack, but I didn’t even play those maps yet.

Next to computer stuff, there’s also more…real-life work to do:

Tidy up my garden
I need to do loads of stuff in my garden. Move the sandbox-play-thing of my oldest daughter (not as easy as it sounds). I want to extend my garden to actually use the last 4 meters of it, because it is a waste of space at the moment and I also want to put up a terrace-roof over half my terrace, but again… too little time, to much work.

Some small jobs in the house
You know, paint some fences, do some floor maintenance, etc etc.

Check out the following link:
improve.dk – XmlDocument fluent interface.

You can download the class mentioned in the post here. At the bottom of the post.

This is a bit of sample code.

XmlOutput xo = new XmlOutput()
	.XmlDeclaration()
	.Node("Error").InnerText("Exception occured: " + ex.Message);
return xo.GetXmlDocument();

It seems that XNA GS 2.0 could not handle the virtual adapters installed on my development system. I deinstalled VMWare and all was fine!

If you want to know what my problem was, read it here.