Feature Requests

Comet (Push or Reverse Ajax) Support

scorpion4000 — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:32:03 GMT

Wikipedia: Comet is a programming technique that enables web servers to send data to the client without having any need for the client to request it.

It allows creation of event-driven web applications which are hosted in the browser.

No more: "Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

hitchhiker999 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:17:40 GMT

I run a handful of large websites using .net - I love .net, I love C#

In asp.net 4, please give us the name of the 'object reference' that's not set to an instance of an object :)

I beg you, my life would change, as so would many others. If you're worried about some reflection cost, or whatever, at least make detailed errors an option.

I appologise if this is already included, i couldn't search for it - the term is way too common!

Frank.

SFTP?

alasaadi — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:00:44 GMT

I would really like to see .NET framework support SFTP!

Automaticly HTML encode text

jgsnell — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:32:55 GMT

I'd like a property on all controls that display text, label, textbox, checkbox, etc.. that will automaticly HTML encode the text during the control's render. It'd be nice if this was defaulted to True.

Now I have to do a server.HTMLencode(string) on all my text fields and turn off pagevalidation otherwise I get the

a potentially dangerous request.form value was detected from the client

whenever people try entering in < and > symbols

Boolean Format String - Yes/No instead of True/False

Vader82 — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:51:11 GMT

There exist quite a variety of built-in format strings for the various types in the .NET runtime. For integers, decimals, floats, dates, etc things are quite happy as you can build up exactly the format you're looking for quite quickly. But the built-in formatting for boolean values are simply true/false. From a boolean algebra perspective, thats all anyone should ever need. But if you're working with preferences-type information (email a customer when a specific even occurs, does a particular item have a particular feature) boolean values can indicate more of yes/no type data rather than true/false. Sematically they're the same, but in terms of "looking right" yes/no is "more correct"

Currently in order to get this feature in a datagrid I need to do several things:

1. Create a template column with a blank label

<asp:TemplateColumn HeaderText="Preference">
   <ItemTemplate >
       <ASP:Literal id="myPreferenceInstance" runat="server" />
   </ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateColumn>

2. Create an event handler that runs for every row in the datagrid which finds the control and inserts the appropriate yes/no string.

        public void DoExtraBinding(object sender, DataGridItemEventArgs e)
        {
            if (e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.Item || e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.AlternatingItem)
            {

                bool somepreference = DBConv.ToBoolean(DataBinder.Eval(e.Item.DataItem, "PreferenceFromDataBaseTable"));

                Literal myPreferenceInstance= (Literal)e.Item.FindControl("myPreferenceInstance");

                if(somepreference)
                    myPreferenceInstance.Text = "Yes";
                else
                    myPreferenceInstance.Text = "No";

            }
        }

While I realize that this is a solution, and that a better one might exist, I haven't been able to find it. What would be really elegant, however, is this:

<Asp:BoundColumn HeaderText="Preference" DataField="PreferenceFromDataBaseTable" DataFormatString="{0:yn}" />

This is of course, assuming that {0:yn} is the particular syntax necessary in order to achieve printing of yes/no rather than true/false based upon the value of the variable.

I did some research into trying to do this myself by writing some custom formatting strings and formatting providers, but from my rather limited understanding of how all that works, it didn't seem like I would be able to actually use the custom formatting string within an ASP.NET page unless it was built into the framework somehow, and I don't know enough about the internals of ASP.NET to do that myself.

I hope this snippet makes it to the right developer at Microsoft who can do something to make our lives out here in the trenches a bit easier.

Thanks,

Mike Sandford

The ability to 'peek' items with sliding expiration in the cache

waleefi — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:48:55 GMT

This is something that I wanted for a long time, really wish to see this in the upcoming release of ASP.NET.

In a few words, I cache items in the ASP.NET cache with sliding expiration, in some cases I need to peek an item (i.e. get its value) without affecting the sliding expiration time. I really need this.

I asked a question about this long time ago:

http://forums.asp.net/p/1277310/2432439.aspx

ASP.NET exception debugging and .NET Framework source stepping

justing — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:06:55 GMT

In order to pop up into the VS debugger when an exception happens in an ASP.NET application, you need to enable "Just My Code" in debugger options (because otherwise the top-level exception handler for custom error pages will swallow the exception and the debugger never sees it).

But enabling Just My Code disables the ability to step into the .NET Framework source, and enabling stepping into .NET Source in turn disables Just My Code (and hence disables ASP.NET debugging of exceptions).

Frequently I need to step into framework source to understand a problem better, and I almost always want to catch unhandled exceptions in the debugger. But it's a big hassle to have to constantly toggle those settings during every debug session.

Can this be fixed so that I can just leave ASP.NET Exception debugging and .NET Framework Source Stepping enabled all the time?

Convert HTML to .aspx?

aliasncnu — Thu, 29 May 2008 01:30:19 GMT

Hello,

is there this kind of tool available in the market?

I have found several ones, but they all out of date.

Regards,

Ricky.

Controls that render standards compliant xhtml.

mrgruby — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:34:32 GMT

For instance, wouldn't it be cool to be able to drag a menu control onto your design and have it render a nice ul/li menu, right out of the box? Also, you should be able to have full control over it, same as the ListView. I think this should be done with all the controls, where it makes sense. I mean, for instance, the GridView is fine like it is. It's primary use is to display data from some data source. It renders tables, and displaying data is what tables are for.

Forget CSS friendly control adapters. In my oppinion, that project died more than a year ago. The fact that this project was even started, only shows the need for new controls. I have no idea why Microsoft didn't do something about this when they prepared .NET 3.5...

So, all the controls that render layout code, e.g. Menu, Login, CreateUserWizard etc, should be re-written....

Device funcionality access from web app

rajlaad — Fri, 01 May 2009 01:26:40 GMT

Hi,

W3C WebApps group is in the process of defining new features in DOM/Javascript that would allow access to device native funcionality such as camera, voice, GPS, etc. When would ASP.NET support this new specification? How much device native funcionality would be supported?

Thanks & Regards,

- Raj

Session Events

IceMage — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:14:26 GMT

Code behind helps in making ASP.NET handle more like an application. I'd like to see session events and code-behind to help accomplish this, which would greatly help in making the entire session feel more like an application to the developer, etc. etc.

Event handlers should include at least

Session Load (The session is being created.)
Session Close (The session is being closed forcibly, e.g., user logged off)
Session Unload (The session is unloading for some reason, either expiring, or was closed forcibly)
Session Expires (The session has expired and will no longer be valid)
Session Refresh (User browser activity, e.g., following a link or a post-back.)

We should be able to set up session timers as well, to run code if the user is away for an extended period of time.

Any thoughts?

YouTube APIs in ASP.NET

hoby333 — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 02:04:38 GMT

Hello Programmers, Urgent... I've read many scripts and codes to upload Videos to my YouTube account,I can't get it done right till now. I read different code in Documentation and other codes to use in ASP.NET

. Ineed you help please,I'm creating a new website which wl enable users to upload Videos directly to my YouTube account and with ClientLogin .

I need anyone sends me the whole code that wl first

1- How to upload Video to my YouTube account with

* DirectUpload >> I want to upload a copy of Videos on my Web Server

* ClientLogin >> all Videos wl be uploaded to my account on YouTube

2-How to get the Video URL adter uploading to save it in my SqlServer,so I can play any of them according to what User wl select,,, I'm creating my website with ASP.NET3.5 in VB.NET ,Sql Server2005

Membership Provider should allow users to login with Email Address+Password instead of Username+Password

LeMerovingian — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 05:48:12 GMT

I like the membership/role providers but I don't like the fact that by default you have to login with a username and password. I think there should be a base option to login with Email address and password instead, as this seems more logical in a lot of scenarios. One of the main issues with the current setup............

1. You register with a website.
2. The username you wanted is not available so you choose a near match or something completely different.
3. You come back to login to the website a few weeks later but have forgotten your password.
4. You are asked to enter your username to retrieve your password, but you have forgotten your username (as the one you usually use was not available).

I know there are a number of work arounds for this situation as I have had to implement them. I just think that the next release should give us the choice. I think that Email addresses are a much better choice for logging in because they are always unique and it is harder for people to forget than a username.

cheers

gimme a "with" keyword in C#

hlaford — Wed, 02 Oct 2002 17:52:40 GMT

i think the with contruct is sorely missing in c#.

add line drawing capability, dynamic object size

dmcdivitt — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:04:07 GMT

Reports have no line drawing capability. Static lines can be placed on the report, but end points cannot be set via function. The size of textboxes and other objects cannot be set via function. This should be possible and it should be possible to resize and match objects dynamically. For instance if a textbox grows, it should be possible to resize lines or other textboxes to match.

Power Point as Silverlight Content Generator

clintonG — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:01:28 GMT

It seems to me that new companies, new jobs and new markets would emerge if developers had classes in the framework which enabled us to programmatically control PPT slides and slide shows. I think it would be significantly useful to use PPT to generate content with Silverlight in this context.

The emerging markets for digital signage and interactive TV are here and now.

Newlines should not automatically be added to TITLE tag

tuano007 — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:31:11 GMT

If you set page title in a codebehind:

page.Title = "My title";

the rendered html is:
<title>
My title
</title>

when it should be

<title>My title</title>

This is less than ideal for some SEO optimization. On a large scale, though, it's an example of ASP taking full control of our HTML away from us. A language should not be making this kind of decision.

There was a connect issue opened about this: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=282655

Their answer in the connect issue is dancing around the issue--at least give us a way to control whether or not the newlines are added, and leave them by default. Or when 3.5 came out this could have been fixed then.

Maybe I'm missing a larger design concept here?

Thanks,

New Validator Controls

desertfoxaz — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:34:51 GMT

This would be helpful to have two of the following validator controls:

A LengthValidator control to validate the length of an entry in a multi-line textbox (textarea).
An Ajax validator (e.g. to validate an entry against a database value).

I've seen various implementations of these controls, I have yet to find a version of a length validator that works well with Ajax.

Thanks

Typed GridView replaces FindControl

aboreham — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:57:43 GMT

If you like this idea you can rate it here: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=386643

NOTE: I'm only using the GridView as an example. This would be useful for any templated control, e.g. Repeater, ListView, etc.

Imagine you have a GridView with a TemplateField containing a label called lblHelloWorld.

Now, at the moment, in code behind in the RowDataBound event of the GridView, to get this label you have to write:

Dim lblHelloWorld As Label = e.Row.FindControl("lblHelloWorld")

My suggestion is to do something like the Typed DataSets... and in the page's code behind (designer file / partial class), create a typed version of the Gridview with its containing controls all explicitly defined.

Ultimately, it would mean that in the RowDataBound event of the GridView, to get the label, you would simply use:

e.Row.lblHelloWorld

As the "Row" property would be a typed gridview row (like a typed datarow in ADO.NET)

This would be very useful. At the moment, you have to run the solution to work out if you misspelt the name of the control in the FindControl command. Having a "typed gridview" removes the need for FindControl and validates the code using intellisense.

Need a specialized Exception for CheckVirtualFileExists

skumar2003 — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:47:07 GMT

I wish that there were specialized exceptions for the various types of exceptions thrown by the ASP.NET pipleline rather than the basic HttpException which doesn't help with handling different types of exceptions.

Today, one has to scan the message for clues for the type of exception and act accordingly.

Thanks.

Shiv

Repeater Control

scripter26 — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 22:05:07 GMT

The Repeater control is in my mind a very very useful and powerfull tool that if beefed up could do away with the Gridview.

The repeaters ability to take on the shape and design of your liking makes more flexible in that area but at the same time features like the SelectedRow event with the GridView can make the functionality of the Gridview more powerful.

What I am suggesting is combining the functionality of the Gridview with the flexibility of the Repeater.

one good example of that is.

I had a database that I wanted to display multiple rows on the page. due to how the database was setup I could not use the gridview although was able to use the repeater to display the items i needed. The downside to that was with the gridview I would have been able to selectedrow event and now I am not able to. Long story short Microsoft did real good with their controls but could have combined alot of these controls to make dare I say it "Super Controls"

TabView Control

bmains — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 19:22:31 GMT

Hello,

I know in the Microsoft Web Controls had a multipage control, where it had tabs and shows the content of the tab, and I know that some of those controls were moved over to the .NET 2.0 controls in the framework (like treeview), but I would like to see this multipage control moved over, like a TabView control, which would be similar to the multiview structure, but shown with clickable tabs.

Testing for null or empty IList.

JByrd2007 — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:20:32 GMT

I'd like to see a static method added to the List<T> (and possibly other controls) that returns a boolean value representing whether the List<T> instance is null or empty. I created a helper method like this myself that checks to see if the list passed to it is null or has no elements inside:

public static bool IsNullOrEmpty<T>(List<T> list)

{

return ((list == null) || (list.Count == 0));

}

Ideally, it would be nice to have something that tests to see if the List<T> is equivalent to default(List<T>) as well.

Hope this helps!

Jon

Positioning problem

aminsadeghi — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 14:33:14 GMT

I get a positioning problem when I place a PlaceHolder after a BulletedList:

<asp:BulletedList ID="BulletedList1" runat="server">

<asp:ListItem>Yahoo</asp:ListItem>

<asp:ListItem>Mahoo</asp:ListItem>

<asp:ListItem>Wahoo</asp:ListItem>

</asp:BulletedList>

<br />

<asp:PlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolder1" runat="server"></asp:PlaceHolder>

This results the Placeholder to take two rows of empty spaces when it gets executed as HTML. It's only solved when I delete <br /> in source code which results the two controls to align vertically in design view. This can make confusion when I'm working in design view.

Thanks

Client side reporting control

shoaib.mehmood — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 07:09:52 GMT

i would really like to see a client side reporting control. Normally shared hosting packages do not allow SQL Reporting. Besides users on hosted websites need to view and print reports. SQL Reporting is server side. Even if the use clicks on print button, the report will print on the server. This is a very common feature and we have to rely on third party softwares or create our own. It will be really appreciated if a good control is packaged with VS.