This is the first in a three part series related to HTML encoding blocks, aka the <%: ... %> syntax.

In my last post, I presented a general overview of the CodePlex foundation and talked a bit about what it means to the .NET OSS developer, admittedly without much in the way of details. I plan to fix some of that in this post.

UPDATE: Be sure to read my follow-up post on this topic as well.

My last post on the new dynamic keyword sparked a range of reactions which are not uncommon when discussing a new language keyword or feature. Many are excited by it, but there are those who feel a sense of…well…grief when their language is “marred” by a new keyword.

UPDATE: Looks like the CLR already has something similar to what I did here. Meet the latest class with a superhero sounding name, ExpandoObject

The .NET Framework provides support for managing transactions from code via the System.Transactions infrastructure. Performing database operations in a transaction is as easy as writing a using block with the TransactionScope class.

When building a web application, it’s a common desire to want to expose a simple Web API along with the HTML user interface to enable various mash-up scenarios or to simply make accessing structured data easy from the same application.

In a recent post, The Law of Demeter Is Not A Dot Counting Exercise, I wanted to peer into the dark depths of the Law of Demeter to understand it’s real purpose. In the end I concluded that the real goal of the guideline is to reduce coupling, not dots, which was a relief because I’m a big fan of dots (and stripes too judging by my shirt collection).

One of the complaints I often here with our our default view engine and Pages is that there’s all this extra cruft in there with the whole page directive and stuff. But it turns out that you can get rid of a lot of it. Credit goes to David Ebbo, the oracle of all hidden gems within the inner workings of ASP.NET, for pointing me in the right direction on this.

Note, this blog post is based on Preview 1 of ASP.NET MVC 2 and details are subject to change. I’ll try to get back to normal ASP.NET MVC 1.0 content soon. :)

UPDATEThis post is now obsolete. Single project areas are a core part of ASP.NET MVC 2.

UPDATE: This post is outdated. ASP.NET MVC 2 RTM was released in March.

A member of the Subtext team discovered a security vulnerability due to our integration with the FCKEditor control as well as the FreeTextBox control. This vulnerability would potentially allow unauthenticated users to upload files using the file upload tools included with these editors.

Recently I read a discussion on an internal mailing list on whether or not it would be worthwhile to add a null dereferencing operator to C#.

Ok, I haven’t had a good track record with making up jokes before. Just see exhibit A,this groaner of an MVC joke.

When you visit Norway, it takes a week to recover. Ok, at least when I visit Norway, it takes a week. But that’s just a testament to the good time I had. As they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but what happens in Oslo gets recorded as a .NET Rocks Live episode.

In my last post, I wrote about the hijacking of JSON arrays. Near the end of the post, I mentioned a comment whereby someone suggests that what really should happen is that browsers should be more strict about honoring content types and not execute code with the content type of application/json.

A while back I wrote about a subtle JSON vulnerability which could result in the disclosure of sensitive information. That particular exploit involved overriding the JavaScript Array constructor to disclose the payload of a JSON array, something which most browsers do not support now.

Every now and then some email or website comes along promising to prove Fred Brooks wrong about this crazy idea he wrote in The Mythical Man Month (highly recommended reading!) that there is no silver bullet which by itself will provide a tenfold improvement in productivity, reliability, and simplicity within a decade.

A little while ago I announced our plans for ASP.NET MVC as it relates to Visual Studio 2010. ASP.NET MVC wasn’t included as part of Beta 1, which raised a few concerns by some (if not conspiracy theories!) ;). The reason for this was simple as I pointed out: