Another quick solution to a frustrating problem: I recently started getting an error, “The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process”, when compiling a solution in Visual Studio 2008 on Windows 7. I don’t recall encountering this error when running Visual Studio 2008 on Windows XP, although others have reported running into this issue on that configuration, as well.

While debugging the error, I realized that Visual Studio itself (devenv.exe) was locking a debug dll from one project and then trying (and failing) to move it into the “bin” folder of the web project in my solution. Weird.

After some searching, I found that a lot of people recommended running a pre-build step on the project that contained the file lock to rename lock file(s) before trying to move the file(s). Not only did this not seem like a clean solution to me, it also did not solve my problem.

It just so happens that the solution itself is really simple. Right-click on the reference in your web project and click on “Properties”. Change “Copy Local” to “False” and then rebuild your solution. This obviously won’t work for all cases, but it works for me.

Just a quick note for myself (and also for those of you who might be looking for a solution to a frustrating problem): If you are developing with the Cassini web server on Windows 7 and notice *major performance problems when using Firefox to load the local site, try out this fix. It worked for me!

http://joshclose.net/?tag=cassini

If the upcoming 3.0 release of the full ExtJS library wasn’t enough to get you excited, yesterday’s announcement of the release of a new lightweight core library, Ext Core, should be enough to get your pulse up. Ext Core looks to fill the void that exists between a full Ext application (basically a desktop class application built in JavaScript) and more traditional web sites with multiple pages and fairly simple needs.

The full Ext library is a bit heavy for basic web sites so, up until now developers have had to go with other JavaScript libraries to fill this need (I’ve generally stuck with jQuery). The release of Ext Core, however, allows developers to utilize their knowledge of and experience with Ext in places where it was otherwise not possible.

And if you are worried about licensing, worry no more:

Ext Core is released under a permissive MIT license – there is no cost to use Ext Core – it’s free for everyone.

And in traditional Ext style, the code is beautifully-written (at least what I’ve been able to peruse so far) and well-documented.

In my opinion, Ext has been overlooked as of late because of the much-publicized licensing debacle. I still consider it the best JavaScript library out there for writing desktop class web application. I hope that this release will get it some much deserved support from the larger web development community.

When I first started digging deep into writing complex applications with JavaScript, one of the biggest hurdles that I had to overcome was figuring out how to debug my code. At the time, the tools available were (to say the least) lacking. Since then, the tools have improved dramatically.

With the pre-release versions of Internet Explorer 8 that are already out (the release candidate is the most recent version), web developers now have a solid way to debug JavaScript in the world’s most-used browser. In Firefox, Firebug still reigns as the best web development tool out there. Safari has its own set of developer tools, although they still aren’t widely available in the Windows versions of the browser (that is, unless you download a WebKit nightly – which you should do). And Opera has had pretty solid development tools for sometime now.

So, the state of web development tools is looking pretty good. Finally!

A List Apart just published a guide to advanced debugging of JavaScript. If you’re still trying to figure out how best to debug your JavaScript code, the article is a must read. It is the best overview of this topic that I’ve seen.

I’ll be at the Web Directions North conference here in Denver today through Thursday of this week.

If you haven’t heard about the conference yet, take a look at the schedule at the conference site. There are some great workshops and sessions, with some presenters that I highly recommend seeing. And, oh yeah, there is a party on Thursday night at an "undisclosed location" downtown.

If you do happen to be attending, get in touch with me on Twitter (nateirwin).

Using <a href=””></a> links to call JavaScript functions can be a bit trickier than you might think. The issues that I’ve run into are generally Internet Explorer-specific (aren’t they all?). While troubleshooting these issues, I’ve discovered a syntax that seems to solve all of the problems:

<a href=”javascript:void(0)” onclick=”yourFunction();return false”>Click Here</a>

Hopefully this helps someone.

There’s an opening for a GIS Software Developer position in Fort Collins, Colorado. I’m familiar with this position, and know that it involves working on some pretty interesting projects. Here are the details:

Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1490

GIS Software Developer position (Research Associate III Special) available with the Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, to be assigned at the National Park Service in Fort Collins, Colorado. Position is contingent on the availability of funds.

The National Park Service (NPS) is looking for an experienced GIS Software Developer to design and develop web-based GIS solutions using primarily ESRI technologies in a Microsoft .NET environment. Developer will participate in the transformation of applications to a SOA framework. Developer will be a key member of the small, agile development team comprised of intelligent, motivated technical professionals. Excellent opportunity to develop and apply a variety of cutting edge technologies.

The NPS program in Ft. Collins, CO. performs inventory and monitoring in national parks throughout the U.S. Developer support for the program is obtained through an agreement with Colorado State University. Work will be on-site in Ft. Collins, population 130,000, which has received numerous national awards and recognitions as one of the best places to live.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in GIS, Computer Science or related field.
• Three years demonstrated experience in web-based and desktop GIS application development.
• Experience as GIS developer for enterprise-level GIS applications.
• Experience using ArcGIS Server, ArcGIS Desktop, ArcSDE, ArcIMS and ArcInfo.
• Application development experience with SQL Server, XML and C# in a .NET environment.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS (Not Required):

• Experience working in remote sensing application development.
• Experience with service oriented architecture (SOA).
• Experience devising WSDL and SOAP specifications.
• Experience working in an agile development environment.
• Experience in enterprise database development with SQL Server or Oracle.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Design, develop, and deploy customized web-GIS solutions and services using ArcGIS Server, ArcGIS Desktop, ArcSDE, and SQL Server.
• Develop custom viewers, tools, databases and services in a .NET environment using C#, XML and SQL.
• Participate in transformation of existing spatial applications to a SOA framework.
• Provide user support, training and technical communication to multiple audiences.
• Work closely with business analysts to design GIS services that meet functional requirements.

BACKGROUND CHECK:

Colorado State University is committed to providing a safe and productive learning and living community. To achieve that goal, we conduct background investigations for all final candidates being considered for employment. Background checks may include, but are not limited to, criminal history, national sex offender search and motor vehicle history.

SALARY:

Commensurate with experience and qualifications. Range $68,000-$72,000.

BENEFITS:

Work will be on-site in Ft. Collins, population 130,000, which has received the following awards and recognitions: Best Places to Live (Money Magazine), Best Places for Business and Career (Forbes Magazine), one of 18 Perfect Towns (Outside magazine) and 100 Affordable Communities/Best Places to Raise Your Family (Frommer’s). See http://www.ftcollins.com/fastfacts/#honors for a complete list of Fort Collins’ awards.

Colorado State University offers a generous benefits package, including 24 days of paid vacation leave, tuition credits, excellent health insurance (including vision and dental), retirement plans with 9% matching. For more information on Administrative Professional benefits, visit http://www.hrs.colostate.edu/benefits/afap.html.

APPLICATION:

Prospective candidates should apply online at https://welcome.warnercnr.colostate.edu/jobs/ no later than December 22, 2008 for full consideration. Each of the items below must be uploaded individually as a Word Document (.doc), PDF (.pdf), or Rich Text Format (.rtf). Please note that incomplete applications cannot be considered. Remove all social security numbers and birthdates from application materials. A complete application consists of:

1. LETTER OF INTENT – a letter stating your interest in the position;
2. CV – resume;
3. TRANSCRIPTS – copy of transcripts for each degree earned listed in the qualifications;
4. DEGREE CONFERRAL – if transcripts do not include confirmation that degree was awarded, include a copy of diploma;
5. REFERENCES – contact information for professional references, including at least one supervisor; and
6. STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONS – a letter responding to the minimum and desirable criteria in the announcement.

See complete listing of CEMML available positions at http://www.cemml.colostate.edu. Application materials will not be transferred from one position to another.

Direct inquires to:
CEMML Human Resources
1490 Campus Delivery
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1490
Phone: 970.491.2748
E-mail: CEMML_Jobs@Mail.ColoState.Edu

Colorado State University is committed to creating a university community which values and supports diversity; individuals who contribute to such diversity are strongly encouraged to apply.

Colorado State University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and complies with all Federal and Colorado State laws, regulations, and executive orders regarding affirmative action requirements. The Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity is located in Room 101 Student Services. In order to assist Colorado State University in meeting its affirmative action responsibilities, ethnic minorities, women and other protected class members are encouraged to apply and to so identify themselves.

POSITION #: NPS/GIS/12/22/08

I’m a little late on this one, but I was just reading through some queued blog posts and discovered that Ext has teamed up with CacheFly to host their JavaScript library.

This is big news. I still haven’t quite figured out why Google doesn’t serve Ext through their “AJAX Libraries API” (I assume it has something to do with Ext’s licensing), but now that we can get it from somewhere else, this is no longer a worry.

Developers using Ext can instantly take advantage of fast delivery and caching by pointing to the resources on CacheFly. Here are the urls for ext-all.js and ext-all.css:

 <script type="text/javascript" src="http://extjs.cachefly.net/ext-2.2/ext-all.js"></script>
 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://extjs.cachefly.net/ext-2.2/resources/css/ext-all.css" />

And CacheFly will also host your custom build of Ext, so if you aren’t using some of the controls in your application, go and build your own Ext using the Build It! tool. You’ll be given the choice to dump the build on CacheFly.

Json.Net is a great little library that “makes working with JavaScript and JSON formatted data in .Net simple”. I’ve been using Json.Net for quite some time now, but have restricted my use mostly to building JSON strings in C# and pushing them down to the client. It works well for this, although I’ll admit that I don’t think that manually building JSON strings in C# will ever be anything other than tedious.

Well, today I starting working on a query framework for NPMap, and decided that JSON was the easiest (and most efficient) way to pass parameters for the queries up to the server. You see, the user interface allows the user to query one or more database entities and choose one or more (or all) fields from each entity to include in the query. So I decided to send up an array of JavaScript objects that looked a little something like this:

[
     {
          "entity": "Battlefields",
          "fields": "BattlefieldCode, BattlefieldName, StartDate, EndDate"
     },
     {
          "entity": "CivilRightsSites",
          "fields": "SiteId, StartDate, EndDate"
     }
]

But how to deserialize that JSON string into something I can use on the server? Enter Json.Net.

First I created a class to hold each of the JavaScript objects:

public class QueryEntity
{
     public string entity {get; set; }
     public string fields {get; set; }
}

Next I deserialized the JSON string into a list of QueryEntity objects:

List<QueryEntity> entities = (List<QueryEntity>) JavaScriptConvert.DeserializeObject(json, typeof(List<QueryEntity>));

And finally I iterated through the objects:

foreach (QueryEntity obj in entities)
{
     string entity = obj.entity;
     string fields = obj.fields;
}

And that’s it. Json.Net saves the day again!

I finally did it. I pulled the trigger and switched nateirwin.net to WordPress. I’ve used open source Asp.Net blog engines (first dasBlog and then BlogEngine.Net) since the inception of this blog, but finally decided to move to the best supported blog engine out there. Why?

Well, first of all I am ready for a simple blogging experience. I simply don’t have the time to “tweak” and “hack” anymore. When I first started writing back in the Fall of 2006, I had much more time on my hands. Nowadays I’m trying to juggle multiple projects and at least keep some semblance of a personal life going. Secondly, I really want to start playing around with platforms other than Asp.Net, and PHP seemed like a good place to start.

So what does this mean for the blog? Well, now that I don’t have to put a lot of time into maintaining the blog, I’ll hopefully be able to post more often. I’m also planning on posting much more code, including some fully-working demo projects.

Now that that’s out of the way, I’ll outline what I had to do to get all of my content from BlogEngine.Net into WordPress. It was actually pretty simple.

First of all, I used the “Export to BlogML” tool in BlogEngine.Net to get all of my posts (including categories, comments, and tags) out of the system and into a format that I could easily transfer. BlogML is…

an open format derived from XML to store and restore the content of a blog.

I then followed this post from Aaron Lerch’s blog to walk me through importing the content into WordPress. A couple of high-level points:

1. Download the latest import module from the tools section of Aaron Lerch’s site (here’s a direct link to the download).
2. Update the “PATH_TO_CURRENT_DIRECTORY” section to the path that you’re using.
3. Download the Php.XPath library from Sourceforge.
4. Upload “blogml.php” and “XPath.class.php” to your “/wp-admin/import” directory.
5. Go to the “Manage>Import” section in the WordPress admin area and click on “BlogML”.
6. Now you need to go back into the “blogml.php” file and comment out the section shown in the syntax box below(thanks to this post for pointing this out).
7. Next, simply go back to the “Manage>Import” section and load the BlogML file. When the operation is successfully finished, you should download the CSV file that is created in the process, as you can use this to create redirects in your .htaccess file from the old urls to the new urls.

//include_once(’import.php’);
//if(function_exists(’register_importer’)) {
    $blogml_import = new BlogML_Import();
    register_importer(’blogml’, ‘BlogML’, (’Import posts, comments, users, and categories from a BlogML file’), array ($blogml_import, ‘dispatch’));
//}

And that’s it. You are now good to go.