30 Simple Steps to Creating Sandbox Test Accounts.

I struggled all day trying to use the sandbox for PayPal then I found this forum article.
Thanks to Rob McColl for posting this. I found it so helpful that I have posted it here so others could benefit from it. If you come across articles, tips, tricks let me know and I will post them as well. You can email them to me at susan@clinchportal.com or chris.williams@clinchportal.com

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http://www.paypaldeveloper.com/pdn/board/message?board.id=sandbox&message.id=6035#M6035

After 6 hours of pain with PayPal support (or lack thereof) I present the following 30 step process to creating, confirming, and verifying test accounts through the broken Developer Central Sandbox.

I hope this helps other people, and that the years of life I've lost over the last several hours is worth it.

To Setup Sandbox and Get Test API Credentials:

Prerequisites:
* Create a user account to access the Developer Central Sandbox.
* Log in to the Sandbox account
* Create a Test Account of type 'seller'.
- This will throw an error message on saving, but it will still create the account. Click the Test Accounts tab to see the account it created.

Create Confirm the email address:
1. Create business test account (done in prerequisite above)
2. Log into PayPal Sandbox with test business account details created earlier.
3. Go to Profile Tab
4. Go to Email
5. Choose the email address and click 'Confirm'
6. Go back to the Sandbox Test Environment and click the Test Email tab
7. Open the email with subject line 'Activate Your PayPal Account'
8. From the email body, select the confirmation URL and paste into new browser window - it will load the PayPal site (in sandbox mode).
9. Log in with business account.
10. From the landing page, click the 'confirm email' link in the 'To Do List' box.
11. Click the 'click here if a link doesn't appear in the email' link.
12. Paste in the confirmation number from the email in step 8, and click confirm. A confirmation of success should be displayed.
13. Click Continue.

Create Bank Accounts For Test Business Account:
14. Click the Profile tab
15. Click Bank Accounts link
16. Create a fake bank account. Test Bank. Use BSB 242-200 for Australia. Any random integer for account number, so long as it's not already being used by another PayPal account. I ended up having to mash the keypad until I found an unused number.
17. Confirm the bank account by clicking the 'confirm' link after the step above.
18. Step 17 loads another page where you need to click 'Submit'.
19. Step 18 loads another page where you need to click 'I Agree'.
20. The account should now be verified.
21. Click the Profile Tab again.
22. Click API Setup
23. Click Request API Credentials
24. Select API Signature
25. Click I Agree, Click Submit.
26. Copy the details to a safe place for later reference.

Developer Central Sandbox
27. Go back to the Developer central sandbox and login with your account details created in the prerequisite section of this document (i.e., not your test business account, but your actual Developer Central Sandbox account).
28. The Test business account should now be verfied.
29. Click API Credentials tab.
30. The API credentials obtained in step 26 should appear.

Fiddler 2 plug-in for viewstate

This is useful as it decodes the viewstate for you in fiddler when you click on the page. There is also a stand-alone tool. Both are available at:

http://www.binaryfortress.com/aspnet-viewstate-helper/

If you come across some useful tools email me at chris@clinchportal.com or susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them to the blog.

Debugging Flash

I know this is not specifically ASP.NET but its something that I found a pain.
I have some flash components that interact with my ASP.NET pages. I found this tool called Flash Tracer that is a plug-in to firefox. Here is the link that describes where to get it and how to set it up:

http://hubflanger.com/flash-player-9-debug-tracer/

Enumerating SQL Servers from .NET 2.0

I ran into a situation where I was not sure of the name of the SQL Server I would be using on a hosted site. I found this code that helped to find a list of them all.

http://dotnetslackers.com/SQL/re-20320_Enumerating_SQL_Servers_from_NET_2_0.aspx

Hope this helps you too.

String Formatting Reference

I keep going back here all the time looking up the how to write format string. For this reason, I thought I would pass on the link:

http://idunno.org/archive/2004/07/14/122.aspx

Hope you find this useful.

If you have any links, tips, tricks, etc that you think the group would find useful please pass them on to me at chris.williams@clinchportal.com or chrisw_88@hotmail.com

ASP.NET 2.0 Chat that uses Membership functionality

A friend of mine Anthony Ng (http://www.funkylists.com/) sent this to me. It looks quite useful
so I thought I would pass it along.

AspxChat - generic MsAjax-based chatting control for ASP.Net 2

• Uses standard ASP.Net 2.0 Membership functionality to manage users, which allows a seamless integration into existing applications that use Membership without a single line of code
  


• Utilizes Microsoft AJAX Extensions to present a user interface in asynchronous fashion, that is: without continuous page refreshes
  


• Provide a simple administrative interface for users in Administrator role
  


• Provide a generic voting functionality with a Yes/Now poll
  


• Uses implicit localization feature of ASP.Net 2.0 to present a user interface in different languages (English, Ukrainian and Russian localization included)
  


• Uses ASP.Net 2.0 Themes feature to fine tune user interface
  


• Provide a default page with a standard ASP.Net 2.0 Login control to enable using AspxChat as a stand-alone application
  


• AspxChat is configurable with a standard web.config file (presently only 2 parameters can be customized: history depth and default name for non-authenticated users)
  

If you have any tips, tricks, coding samples or source code you think the group would find useful please email them to me at chris.williams@clinchportal.com or chrisw_88@hotmail.com

Issue Downloading Orcas

I tried downloading Orcas from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5d9c6b2d-439c-4ec2-8e24-b7d9ff6a2ab2&DisplayLang=en but part 5 seems to be corrupt.

I tried the Microsoft online Chat but was told to call tech support that told me to go to support.microsoft.com still no luck.

If anyone actually has a working version of this part or an alternate download for the alpha please email me at chrisw_88@hotmail.com For now, I am trying out the express edition at:http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/future/default.aspx I am actually trying to play with SilverLight so I am hoping that the Web Developer version works with it. Please pass this on to all the C# developers you know. For more information or if you have any tips, tricks, events that you think other C# Guild members would benefit from, please email me at chrisw_88@hotmail.com

2-way databinding cascading lists within a FormView

A few people have asked me for some sample code on how to do 2-way databinding.
I found this article and it has a couple code examples:

Demo for 2-way databinding cascading lists within a FormView

Please continue to email me your tips at chrisw_88@hotmail.com and I will be placing them on either of these blogs depending on their context.

C# Guild

If you are working with C# you may want to check out the C# Guild. We are modelling it after the Fantasy World Guilds, where people meet to build and train each other, meet with like minded people and possibly help each other find opportunites and solve their problems.

Its all about comradery. You can check out the blog at: http://csharpguild.blogspot.com/

More will follow over the next few months. If you would like more information on the guild and/or would like to help out on its creation please email me at chrisw_88@hotmail.com

CSS Tips and Tricks Blog

I have noticed that people are sending me a lot of CSS Tips and Tricks and although related
to .NET are more generic. I have created a new blog at:

http://clinch-css.blogspot.com/

Please continue to email me your tips at chrisw_88@hotmail.com and I will be placing them on either of these blogs depending on their context.

Url Encode vs HtmlEncode

Some newer developers are getting confused with URL Encoding and Html Encoding.
Below is a good article to explain the difference.

http://aspnetresources.com/blog/encoding_forms.aspx

Please continue to email me your tips at chrisw_88@hotmail.com and I will be placing them on either of these blogs depending on their context.

Sort Your Data with the DataView

I have had questions on how to sort data in a dataview.
Here is a good article to explain the process:

http://www.knowdotnet.com/articles/dataviewsort.html

Please continue to email me your tips at chrisw_88@hotmail.com and I will be placing them on either of these blogs depending on their context.

Setting the DataList's SelectedIndex Programmatically

There have been a number of emails asking how to set the selected index of a datalist programmatically. Here is a link to a good article on how to do it:



http://scottonwriting.net/sowblog/posts/363.aspx


Please continue to email me your tips at chrisw_88@hotmail.com and I will be placing them on either of these blogs depending on their context.

Slice.ca - Finally an ASP.NET 2.0 website done properly

Finally a site that is implementing ASP.NET 2.0 the way it should be.
Be sure to check out http://www.slice.ca.

You have seen the ad campaigns they are everywhere. "

If I wanted to become more literate I would watch a book"
"I watch slice but don't tell anyone, this isn't going to be in an ad is it?"

This website is awesome, I am addicted to it already, be sure to check out the latest gossip, have a little fun playing games and doing quizzes, you can even check out some advice but my favorite are the videos.

Here is my favorite clip so far: Three Takes hosts and their vices I guess you could say my vice is slice.

But seriously, from a developer point of view, this website is using Ajax when necessary, not over kill like some sites. It balances flash when needed. Takes advantage of all cache levels. Implements master pages and uses themes, and had minimized the use of tables to a tight site.

This is definitely a development wonder. So be sure to check it out.

ASP.NET Training Videos

The following are links to free ASP.NET Training Videos

http://www.asp.net/learn/videos/default.aspx?tabid=63#beginners

If you know of any more training videos for ASP.NET please send them to me at chrisw_88@hotmail.com and I will add them to this blog.

Viewstate decoder

Here are two viewstate helpers:

This one allows you to take the viewstate in your page and paste it into this online viewstate decoder. It will decode as string or as a tree. This is the one I use.
http://ignatu.co.uk/ViewStateDecoder.aspx

This ones is really good if you want it to scan a lot of pages at once. You open up your web browser and it will look at each link you go to:
http://www.binaryfortress.com/aspnet-viewstate-helper/

This one is a firefox plug-in:
http://ashishware.com/ViewStatePeeker.shtml

If you have any other links or tip, tricks you would like to share please email them to me at Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them.

The 'name' does not exist in this context

Sometimes Visual Studio 2005 will hiccup and you will get the error:

"The 'name' does not exist in this context"

I fixed it by doing the following:

• Exclude file from project


• Build


• Exit VS 2005


• Open VS 2005


• Add back to project and build again

This fixes it. The other alternative is to reference the control directly in the content placeholder.
You can check out the Microsoft Forums posting for it at:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PageIndex=2&SiteID=1&PostID=200532
If you have any tips, tricks, fixes that you think would help others please email them to me at chrisw_88@hotmail.com and I will post them here.

Good AJAX Websites

Scott Gu's Ajax Blog
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/02/12/free-asp-net-ajax-1-0-how-do-i-videos-updated-for-final-release.aspx

Default button in ASP.NET 2.0

Its easier to make the enter key run a button for controls in a block.
Here is a link to a sample:

http://dotavery.com/blog/archive/2006/02/08/7783.aspx

If you have any additional tips, tricks etc that you would like me to post to my blog, please email them to me at chrisw_88@hotmail.com

Custom XML Schema Generator

I found this it and thought it may be useful in getting around the ASP.NET Dataset issue where it ignores namespaces in the xml files. But unfortunately it ignores namespaces too. But possibly it can be modified to support it. If someone manages to modify it to support such things please let me know and I can post it here.

http://www.123aspx.com/redir.aspx?res=29483

If you have found any other generators or know of a workaround to the Dataset namespace ignoring issue let me know.

If you have any additional tips, tricks etc that you would like me to post to my blog, please email them to me at chrisw_88@hotmail.com

ClientScriptManager.RegisterForEventValidation !!!

It seems in .NET 2.0 it is more picky on doing postbacks from controls. Here is an article that gives a sample on how to use ClientScriptManager.RegisterForEventValidation so you avoid this mess.

http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t115194-sample-usage-of-clientscriptmanagerregisterforeventvalidation.html


The other option is to add the following to the <@ page directive:

EnableEventValidation="false"

If you have any additional tips, tricks etc that you would like me to post to my blog, please email them to me at chrisw_88@hotmail.com

Flash and Firefox popup blocker issue

If you open a window on press its considered spyware but if you do it on release its ok.

Although not specifically ASP.NET 2.0 I figured this may help out some developers doing flash and .NET.

If you have any additional tips, tricks etc that you would like me to post to my blog, please email them to me at chrisw_88@hotmail.com