WebDev Masters

ASP.NET is one of the most superior and dynamic web applications which has been developed by software giant Microsoft. This application framework is a favorite among programmers in developing web applications and services and dynamic website. What makes ASP.NET so special is its n-Tier architecture. In any application development, the most important feature is the architecture. The performance of the application and its scalability along with future development issues of the application are decided by the architecture to a greater extent. An ASP .NET consulting company will tell you more about the advantages of multiple layers n-Tier architecture.

It is the n-Tier architecture which breaks the solution process into different projects as per the business requirements. It is easy to work with and also reduces complexity nature of a business. Hire the service of a .NET consulting company who understands you complex business requirements. There are three layers in an n-Tier application viz., the presentation tier, the business tier, and lastly the data tier. One layer has to interact with the layer immediate below and each layer performs designated functions. The presentation tier displays user interface to the end user or the programmer. This layer or tier is used by programmers for designing purpose. In ASP.NET it includes server controls, ASPX pages, and user controls.

The business layer acts as mediator through which the data from presentation layer is transferred. The architecture in ASP.NET includes the use of OleDb objects or SqlClient for retrieving, updating and deleting data from Access databases or SQL Server and the retrieved data is passed on to the presentation layer in a DataSet or DataReader object. The data layer after getting the data from the business layer sends the data to the database or vice versa. This data layer is sub divided into BLL (business logic layer) and DAL (data access layer). In ASP.NET it uses OleDb or SqlClient for retrieving data and sending it to BLL.

Thus the n-Tier architecture in ASP.NET backs a uniformed approach in application designing. So consult an ASP.NET consulting company for an end product, which is robust and dynamic.

ASP.NET is one of the most superior and dynamic web applications which has been developed by software giant Microsoft. This application framework is a favorite among programmers in developing web applications and services and dynamic website. What makes ASP.NET so special is its n-Tier architecture. In any application development, the most important feature is the architecture. The performance of the application and its scalability along with future development issues of the application are decided by the architecture to a greater extent. An ASP .NET consulting company will tell you more about the advantages of multiple layers n-Tier architecture.

It is the n-Tier architecture which breaks the solution process into different projects as per the business requirements. It is easy to work with and also reduces complexity nature of a business. Hire the service of a .NET consulting company who understands you complex business requirements. There are three layers in an n-Tier application viz., the presentation tier, the business tier, and lastly the data tier. One layer has to interact with the layer immediate below and each layer performs designated functions. The presentation tier displays user interface to the end user or the programmer. This layer or tier is used by programmers for designing purpose. In ASP.NET it includes server controls, ASPX pages, and user controls.

The business layer acts as mediator through which the data from presentation layer is transferred. The architecture in ASP.NET includes the use of OleDb objects or SqlClient for retrieving, updating and deleting data from Access databases or SQL Server and the retrieved data is passed on to the presentation layer in a DataSet or DataReader object. The data layer after getting the data from the business layer sends the data to the database or vice versa. This data layer is sub divided into BLL (business logic layer) and DAL (data access layer). In ASP.NET it uses OleDb or SqlClient for retrieving data and sending it to BLL.

Thus the n-Tier architecture in ASP.NET backs a uniformed approach in application designing. So consult an ASP.NET consulting company for an end product, which is robust and dynamic.

Sometimes it’s useful to enable visitors to your site to upload content, for example, photos, which can then be displayed on the site.

Folders on a website, for example, an images folder will typically have permissions of 755, which means that normal visitors to the site will be unable to upload content into the folder. They will receive an error message if they try to do so.

In order to allow a file upload, one solution is to temporarily change the permissions on the folder to 777 before the upload is made, and then to change them back to 755 after the upload has been made.

The following PHP script shows how you can do this using PHP’s ftp_site command. This script only changes the permissions one way (to 777), it doesn’t change them back. You would need to extend the script or write another one to do this. The line that reads $mod = ’0777′; // permissions to be set is the one that determines what the permissions are going to be set to.

Note: Please note that for display purposes, I have used square brackets ‘[' instead of angle brackets for tag names. In order to use the script you will need to change the square brackets back to angle brackets.

[?php

// Set up variables
$host = 'www.xyz.com'; // host (website) that contains the folder you want to change
$user = 'username'; // username to log onto the host
$password = 'password'; // password to log onto the host
$folder = 'public_html/test/'; // folder name to change
$mod = '0777'; // permissions to be set

// connect to FTP site
$conn = ftp_connect("$host");
if (!$conn)
{
echo 'Error: Could not connect to ftp server';
exit;
}

// log in to FTP site
@ $result = ftp_login($conn, $user, $password);
if (!$result)
{
echo "Error: Could not log on as $user";
ftp_quit($conn);
exit;
}

// try to change the permissions on the directory
if (ftp_site($conn, 'CHMOD '.$mod.' '.$folder)) {
echo "Successfully changed permissions";
}
else {
echo "There was a problem changing the permissions";
ftp_quit($conn);
exit;
}

// close the connection
ftp_close($conn);

?]

The script is fairly straight forward. You initially set up a few variables for the host name and stuff like that, you then connect to the FTP site, log on to the site, change the permissions of the folder, and then finally log off.

The path to the folder (assigned to $folder) will be something like ‘public_html/…/’. Check with your ISP if you’re not sure what this is.

For websites driven by database, the programming language is the key to optimum performance. And ASP.NET is one programming language which is tried, tested, and trusted by programmers when it comes to providing optimum solution. It is a dynamic programming language which is being increasingly used ever since its introduction in 2002. Website development has never been the same with ASP.NET. With its popularity rising, there has also a growth in the number of companies offering asp net consulting. Developed by Microsoft, this language is the first choice for many companies in developing web applications.

Innovative and intuitive web pages can be developed using this innovative technology. A .NET consulting company provides you dynamic, high performing, and good looking website with the help of this programming language. Apart from developing dynamic web applications, ASP.NET can be used in creating mobile games applications, ecommerce shopping carts, custom software applications, web solutions and online product development. So the range of its usability is wide and varied. Another advantage of this programming language is that it also supports other languages such Visual Basic, C#, and JavaScript.

ASP.NET is also used in creating enhanced security applications. Its area of usage is even more expanded as it offers HTML functionalities as well as source code. Getting the source code on server also becomes an easy task for programmers using this language. This is exactly the reasons why programmers all over the world have started relying on this highly versatile language which is supported by new tools and technologies.

Many organizations also look toward the services of an ASP.NET consulting company as they want their websites and web application to fully functional and user friendly. Websites have begun to play an important role in the effective running of business for any organization. This is why many business setups want to have dynamic pages for their sites. Programmers using ASP.NET can also create complicated and big applications by writing fewer codes. It also enables them to develop a well-designed server-side multi-feature programming model. So consult a company offering ASP.NET programming for developing better web and other applications.

If you want to build a user-management system – or work on someone else’s – you should know a few basics about how passwords are encrypted or hashed. In other words, how are they made safe for storage?

What is a Hash?

Before a password is stored, it is typically converted into a “hash.” This isn’t technically a form of encryption, because it is a one way process. Once a password has been hashed… there’s no going back.

For example, if I hash the phrase “Bananas,” I might get back this garbled mess of characters – “1ee31b77d0697c36914b99d1428f7f32.”

The reason we do this is so that someone who views the database – a hacker or maybe a dishonest systems adminstrator – can’t figure out your password. He or she will see the hash and have no idea what the password is.

The script that checks your password when you log in knows how the hash was created – so it can recreate that hash if you give it the same password. The hash it creates based on your input can then be checked against the one in the database to see if you entered the real password.

Ok, How Do We Create a Hash?

There are two major functions for creating hashes in php – md5() and crypt().

md5 is the simpler function, so we’ll start there. You simply call the function like so…

md5(“Password String”);

This returns the encrypted hash. If you called md5(“Bananas”), you would always get “1ee31b77d0697c36914b99d1428f7f32″ back as a result. You would then store that phrase in the database to check the password in the future.

Crypt is a bit more complicated. With md5, you always get the same result. With crypt, you can use different encryption keys or “salts” to get different results. You can encrypt something with crypt like this…

crypt(“Password String”);

or

crypt(“Password String”, “Salt”);

If you do not provide a salt or encryption key, them PHP creates one for you. This changes the way the word is hashed. So if you called crypt(“Bananas”) twice, you would get two different results. Here’s some extra reading on how to use crypt to hash and encrypt a password in PHP.

So Which is Better?

That’s debateable. In most cases, crypt uses the same hashing algorithm that md5 does. Neither is necessarily “stronger” than the other.

The one advantage that crypt does has is that it can a different encryption key or salt each time. The same password can have a different hash if it is created with a different salt.

Therefore it is near impossible to create a dictionary of known hashes. With md5, this can be done easily – because each password phrase has only one possible hash value.

A dictionary like this would make a hacking attempt much easier than if the computer had to physically hash and check each possible phrase. Here’s some more reading on the difference between md5 and crypt.

Good luck hashing, and remember – the best way to learn php is to try new things. So go practice.

Wikipedia says; “a dashboard is an executive information system user interface that (similar to an automobile’s dashboard) is designed to be easy to read. For example, a product might obtain information from the local operating system in a computer, from one or more applications that may be running, and from one or more remote sites on the Web and present it as though it all came from the same source.”

As stated above, main purpose of a dashboard is to present related data to user. A digital dashboard should present most meaningful data in one or two pages so that user can see every information he wants without doing so much navigation. Asp.Net technology which offers a powerful platform for web based solutions can be used for this functionality.

Another definition comes for Widget; “In computer programming, a widget (or control) is an element of a graphical user interface (GUI) that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user, such as a window or a text box. The defining characteristic of a widget is to provide a single interaction point for the direct manipulation of a given kind of data. In other words, widgets are basic visual building blocks which, combined in an application, hold all the data processed by the application and the available interactions on this data.”

Combining extensibility of a widget with a digital dashboard and Asp.net can provide better solution than tradational static dashboards. User can add widgets dynamically, edit them or rearrange them. User can add new dashboards, put new or existing widgets to his asp.net dashboard to have best relational information system.

Another benefit of this solution is dynamism. Adding widgets dynamically into an Asp.Net dashboard, show different values can create an analysis system instead of just presenting related data.

As a result, today’s presenting related data and monitoring requirements can be resolved easily with dynamic – widget based – asp.net dashboard. Unlike static dashboards dynamic – widget based – asp.net dashboard can provide beter user experience, freedom to both developers and users. If you are a developer who uses Asp.Net and want to add digital dashboards, choosing dynamic Asp.net dashboard model with a free data visualization software bundle will increase your productivity and decrease your maintenance costs.

We discussed there that HTTP Basic Authentication has a number of drawbacks, and that you can avoid those with PHP-based authentication.The PHPLib features sophisticated classes for handling user authentication and permission management. The PHPLib authenticates sessions; thus it depends on the Session class.

On those pages in which you need authentication, the following page_open() call should be made to instantiate a session and authentication object:

page_open(array(“sess” => “Session_Example”, “auth” => “Auth_Example”));

Being based on sessions introduces a number of advantages for the authentication:

The username and the authentication element are sent only once, at the login. Once authenticated, the server stores the authentication data inside the session, and doesn’t transmit username or authentication element again.This is different than in HTTP Basic Authentication, where the username and password are transmitted in the HTTP headers of each request. But it also means that, if you lose the session, you lose the authentication.

The authentication procedure on the server can be complex. It can use any database or any other mechanism you can think of.The authentication is handled by an undefined function of the Auth class (auth_validatelogin()) and you have to implement it. 214 Chapter 6 Database Access with PHP
It’s not limited to a whole directory, but can be different for individual files of the application, and can even implement authentication levels inside a script. It’s possible to hide parts of the script from users who are not allowed to access them.
Users who aren’t known to the system can register themselves before logging in. A registration form is offered and the PHPLib will automatically create a standard entry in the user database.
Authentication via PHPLib works even with the CGI version of PHP.
You can log users out cleanly.This means that you can give your users the chance to terminate the current sessions (a logout button).
Users can be logged out automatically after a certain idle time. Doing so provides additional security for your application, because you can prevent session hijacking after a longer idle time.

The documentation of the frameworks that can help the developers in writing better code as well as create the applications that have better efficiency and are easier to test, debug, maintain and extend as well. The continuous development of the best-practice techniques & tools with one of the leading software companies in our industry has been quite interesting in the experience. Most of this work is the outside the actual sphere of ASP.NET as well as web development, that concentrates more on the Windows Forms applications that are built by using .NET 2.0. With this area, the standard design patterns that have evolved over many years, are increasingly being refined and put into practice.

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The best thing that has changed is the ability to write the “real code” in the .NET languages like Visual Basic .NET and C#, rather than the unidentified mix of the script & COM components upon which classic ASP is dependant. It is for sure that out of more than 250 patterns listed on the websites such as the Pattern-Share community, some should be useful in the ASP.NET applications. Still, a search of the web says that, while there is abundant of material in the design patterns in general, and also their use in executable and Windows Forms applications-there is very little that concentrates directly on the usage of the standard design patterns with ASP.NET.

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A very useful document- Enterprise Solution Patterns Using Microsoft .NET discusses about the diversity of the design patterns, how they are documented and how are they useful in .NET Enterprise Applications. Though, the article does not solely aim at ASP.NET, but has plenty of ASP.NET coverage.

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Design Patterns:

There is much of the general material available on the aims and the documentation of the design patterns for the executable applications. Many people find the term “design patterns” little un-understanding, not due to the way they are usually described as well as documented, but as most of the developers use informal patterns everyday while writing codes. Some statements like try…catch, using, and switch (Select Case) follow the standard patterns that the developers have learnt over the passage of time.

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With this, the patterns can be either Informal Design Patterns, such as the use of standard code constructs, best practice, well structured code, common sense, the accepted approach, and evolution over time. Or they can be Formal Design Patterns documented with sections such as “Context”, “Problem”, “Solution”, and a UML diagram.

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The Formal Patterns usually have the specific aims that solve the specific issues, whereas the informal patterns tend to provide the guidance that is more general in nature.

Looking for best cheap web hosting plans including PHP & FTP? First take a look at some important features which must be considered when choosing your web hosting company:

Reliability and uptime: Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. It is very important your service be uptime (functioning and available for use). It means you can access your account whenever you want to update your web pages, and users can enter your website whenever they refer to your site address. If your hosting service is not uptime it can be catastrophic!

Disk space: Web hosting space is the amount of room that the web host provides to store your HTML, graphic, video/audio and other files. This figure is most commonly stated in gigabytes. If you don’t know how much space you need for your website, you can choose a web host with unlimited disk space, which allows you to build as many web pages as you want.

Bandwidth: Bandwidth (or data transfer) refers to the amount of data that is accessed by your visitors. Web hosts define bandwidth as the total amount of data access from your server over a month’s time. This figure is most commonly expressed in gigabytes. If you don’t know how much bandwidth you need for your website, you can pick a web host with unlimited data transfer, which allows you to support as many visitors as you want.

Ease of Control Panel: It is important that the control panel is easy to use and all information can be accessed easily.

If you are a beginner it is generally hard to you to pick the right web hosting service. There are many websites which display a couple of web hosting companies as the best and leave people confused without being helpful. To make things even more confusing, some hosting companies are cheating and lying to their customers!

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Threehosts.com is a reliable website to help you have the best choice. Their experts have been evaluating web hosting service providers for years, and now they provide you with the most reliable results. They present the information in an easy to understand format that helps the consumer make the best choice within just a few minutes. This is their purpose, to help you make the right choice the first time.

There you can reach the three reputable companies that are leaders in the web hosting industry. They are all easy-to-use and affordable.

http://www.threehosts.com/php-ftp

Microsoft NET Framework Development

The Microsoft net framework development is critical for developing some of the most advanced web based applications. Popularly known as asp.net, the program allows web developers to develop dynamic applications to link employees, customers and business as well. Equipped with better security features, asp.net is a strong network that enables much better monitoring of your business. Besides, it has a considerably enhanced value in the World Wide Web environment. On account of this, asp.net has virtually one of the most sought after web application products in the web development market. Webmyne offers asp.net web development and application services to business owners to help them secure customized asp.net solutions as per their business requirements.

NET Development Product Applications

We have developed product applications that are based on different technology and hardware. Our net development framework is capable of supporting a large number of languages which helps businesses to cater to clients with varied interests. Additionally, we have created Web Forms that are highly flexible website pages which could be stored in the server to provide rich performance.

Features offered by our asp.net applications

Our asp.web development and applications are based on Objected Oriented Programming (OOP), because of which there is absolutely no need to add the source code (.VB or CS). Typically, the coding is encrypted in the DLL or library file. Apart from this, our asp.net products have two other important components which are mentioned below.

Common Language Runtime (CLR)
Framework Class Libraries (FCL)

Because of these two elements, our web products are able to generate rich applications with a professional touch.

Webmyne is a reputed web application development company with a global presence. Our team of designers, developers, consultants and engineers is capable of creating robust and dynamic asp.net frameworks according to your business needs. And when it comes to quality, we deliver the best and the latest in the industry at the most reasonable prices.