As I build more sites I start using more and more Session.Item(”ItemName”) identifiers in my code to pass parameters from page to page and data control to data control. There comes a point where you start not remembering exactly how you named something or even what Session Items you’ve stored in the first place.

I’d think it would be a helpful feature to be able to add the Session Items you’ve set and used in a website into a control panel like a snippet of code. I’d imagine it functioning similarly to how the Manage Styles panel displays the CSS styles that are available. Instead of the styles being listed each Session Item identifier would be listed.

Another nice feature to add to that would be a panel that would display the set values you’ve captured already in your code when testing or running the site in debug mode. What I’ve usually done to accomplish this is to place a hidden label for each Session Item that displays the set value if it exists. Sometimes I’ll make the font color on these labels white so they don’t show up to the site visitor, but if I drag my mouse over the area and the text and background colors reverse I can see the values clearly. If I’m not worried about the visitor seeing the values I’ll setup a CSS style that displays the label in a small font and very light gray or blue color.

Post from: EveryJoe

Managing Session Parameters in Visual Web Developer Express 2008

One challenge I came across this morning with Visual Web Developer Express 2008, is that I wish it would show me a preview of ALL the CSS formatting that I have setup in my style sheet.

I’ve got some formatting setup for my H1, H2, H3 tags but I don’t see a preview of them in this list.

That’s kind of annoying don’t you think? Is there something I’m not doing or some setting I don’t have configured properly to see them?

If anyone has a tip, let me know.

The other thing I was thinking about is that I’d like a little CSS initial setup wizard that would let me build the basics of my stylesheet visually.

This would let me organize and come up with a nice color palette and font size collection that really compliment each other.

Does that exist? Let me know what you do and how you use CSS for your websites.

Post from: EveryJoe

Organization and Usage of CSS Styles in Visual Web Developer Express 2008

My boss experienced an weird problem with his installation of Visual Web Developer Express 2008.

When he tried to view a web user control page in the design mode the application only displayed a blank white page. If he clicked on the “Source” view, all the code was there that was expected. Combing through the code didn’t produce anything that should have resulted in the error of things not loading.

It turns out the error was due to confusion on web user controls that also reference a CSS stylesheet. The rendering engine kind of gets choked on what’s going on. Jeff King, Program Manager for Visual Studio Web Tools, states that the quick fix is to just move the CSS style reference to the bottom of the page.

Sure enough everything worked.

For more details and an explanation of what’s occuring by Jeff King, visit the post on his website for all the information you need.

Image Source: Jeff King’s site

Post from: EveryJoe

Disappearing Web User Control in Design View