ASP.Net web application template missing from Visual Studio

I recently installed Visual Studio 2005 on a Virtual PC and opened an existing solution from Source Control and got an application type not supported error for one of the projects in the solution (it was an ASP.NET Web Application project). It seems to be a common problem, and a lot of people are able to easily resolve it by recreating the Project and Item template caches using the following command:

devenv /installvstemplates

Another possible cause for this issue could be that the templates are not in the right place - occasionally they are installed under My Documents.

To make sure they are in the right place, in VS go to Tools..Options..Projects and Solutions and make sure the project and item templates are in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\. (that's where the above script will put them).

If you still have an issue you can download and install the VS 2005 Update to Support Web Application Projects here.

...after that File..New..Project should now show "ASP.NET Web Application" and "ASP.NET Web Service".

Floppy disk = SAVE

Right now I'm working on a SilverLight scheduling application for a 3-day event this January. I'm working on the "Save" functionality, where an attendee can store the itinerary of sessions they would like to sign up for. Most of the attendees for this conference are software engineers, architects and developers, probably familiar with the MS Office suite of applications where the Save button is a 12x12 pixel image of a floppy disk:

There is a lot of value in that image, since anyone who has used MS Office products, will intuitively recognize it as a save button, without a second thought. Lotus apps use the same symbol for saving, as well as many others. It's right up there with the red stop sign octagon, or the man/woman pictogram symbol on restroom doors when it comes to instant understanding of a graphic symbol.

But I'm sure there's a better visual representation of the Save function than something as obsolete as a 3.5" floppy - I mean I haven't had a floppy drive on my computer since 3 machines ago. Plus, why does a 3.5" floppy mean "Save" anyway?

The attendees for our conference are all familiar with software development, and one of the ubiquitous symbols in software application maps and network diagrams is the 3-D cylinder, which represents a database/datastore. So here's my thoughts on an equally intuitive Save icon.

For our application, that's exactly what we're doing - storing it in a database.

Another feature is the ability to email your itinerary to another attendee - again, "Email" functionality has been represented in multitudes of applications with the obvious envelope graphic, and that's such a simple, intuitive indicator that I wouldn't think of messing with that. We have a bit more graphical capabilities, so here's my treatment of Email functionality:

Moving Functoids & Links to new page

I had a complex map and wanted to make it easier to read by separating links and functoids into several pages within that map. BizTalk makes it extremely simple, but it took me a few minutes to get it...

1) Create a new destination page within the map.

2) Select the desired functoids and it's links from the old page.

3) Drag the functoid and links to the new destination page tab and keep holding the left mouse button down... you should see the arrow & grey box cursor... if you get the circle with the slash through it, you didn't correctly select all the functoids and links.

4) Now the new empty page is activated... but don't just drop the functoids on the tab, move the cursor back up into the grid, then drop them on the grid... they now are moved to the new page.

NHL Points projecter

Here is a js utility that will project the total points at the end of the season based on the team's current record. Next step is to find a good feed for team records.

RangersPenguinsIslandersFlyersBruinsSabresCanadiensMaple LeafsSenatorsLightningThrashersPanthersHurricanes>CapitalsBlue Jackets
Wins:
Losses:
OT Losses:
SO Losses:
Projection Text:

Expression Blend 2 Resize Page Canvas

Using Expression Blend 2 September Preview, I needed to make my application larger than the default size of 640 x 480. After changing the main canvas's height and width to 800 x 600, the XAML validated, but when I went to deploy, I got the message "The name 'Initialize Component' does not exist in the current context". In fact, even once I switched back to 640 x 480 mode, I still got this message.

The default .html file in the project has a css style sheet that has 640 x 480 coded in it that also needs to be revised. But even if this changed, the error message remained.

What I found was that this style sheet needs to be revised in Visual Studio first, then built in Visual Studio before you even touch Blend if you need to change from the original size defaults.