What is XHTML Used for?

XHTML is an effective way to combine store authored content that may require manipulation when presented back to the user through a web browser.
If you just need to present static content, then HTML is good enough, but if you want to be able to mix-in dynamic content with your static, authored content, then XHTML is the way to go.

XHTML is HTML, except with XML rules enforced. Here is a good
explanation of the differences between HTML and XHTML:
http://www.w3schools.com/XHTML/xhtml_html.asp

The Document Object Model (DOM) is a cross-platform and
language-independent convention for representing and interacting with
objects in XML, XHTML or HTML.

Authored content, as it applies to systems I've worked with, is a
combination of words, images and formatting that can be saved in a
file system or database and presented to users
as they navigate through a web site. The authored content that I've
worked with is mostly static, and is saved as XHTML so that dynamic
elements can be added where appropriate, then presented back to a user through a web browser.

Dynamic content is content that is built from data. Most of this
time, the data will come from a systems database, but the data could
just as easily come from internal or external services. Charts and reports are good
example of dynamic content.

The main benefit of XHTML is that if you store authored content to a
file or a database as XHTML, you can be confident that when you read
your system can be load it into a DOM object. This means that you can
allow users to author their own HTML documents, enforce XHTML standard
when you store the data and avoid run-time issues when mixing in
static authored content with dynamic content. By loading it into a DOM
object we are able to leverage the DOM object to manipulate the HTML. Manipulating a DOM object is much simpler doing text manipulations on raw HTML.

A Quick Tip for Solving - A name was started with an invalid character - When Publishing to IIS

I went to publish a new web service that I built the other day on a client machine that I have never used before. When I went to publish what amounts to a Hello World starter service, I got the following message:

Figure 1: The Error

The first thing I did was go to the properties window of the Virtual Directory I created in IIS. I noticed on the ASP.Net tab that ASP.Net version was set to version 1.x. I selected version 2.x of ASP.Net instead, and clicked OK to exit out of the properties window.

Figure 2: Virtual Directory Properties Window in IIS

I then went to the command window and typed iisreset to make sure the changed took place.

Figure 3: Performing an iisreset

I navigated to my service again, got the ever-familiar SOAP wsdl and proxy generation message. Success!!! This is the type of thing that I call the hidden checkbox factor. Most of my time in Windows, IIS, ASP.Net, and .Net in general is spent finding the hidden checkbox that is not set write and is consequently making my life painful. If I just removed the pain for even one person out there, then my job is done! Enjoy!

Figure 4: Magic! My service works!

No Olympics for Chicago

I love this picture from the Chicago Tribune:



It's unfortunate that we didn't get the bid for the 2016 Olympics, but maybe it's for the best.

If you've ever been to the new Soldier Field (a.k.a. Soldier'ssss) you know that the crowd control situation is border-line dangerous and it takes at least an hour, (and sometimes longer), to get from your seat to your car. The walkways are fenced in and are way too narrow for the amount of people trying to exit. This is something that could easily be fixed, and for a small fraction of money than it would take to host the olympics.

And don't even get me started on the Eisenhower expressway with it's center-lane exits ramps.

If we concentrated a little effort, (and money), on making Chicago a better place, we'd get far more bang for our buck than we would from a 2 week event.

Silverlight Resources

I recently upgraded from Silverlight 2 to Silverlight 3. I had no problems with the update or converting my solutions. In fact, a couple of nagging bugs in Silverlight 2 that were fixed with Silverlight 3 - I liked that!

I am constantly on the hunt for good Silverlight resources. Here are a few sites that have helped me with my understanding:

• 
  Microsoft's Silverlight Site:
  http://silverlight.net/getstarted/
  


• 
  Wikipedia has a nice overview of what Silverlight is, how it works and how it has evolved:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Silverlight
  


• 
  Joe Stegman does a nice job explaining Silverlight browser compatibility in this article:
  http://blogs.msdn.com/jstegman/archive/2008/12/21/silverlight-browser-support.aspx
  


• Scott Gu provides an excellent tutorial – even though this tutorial was written for Silverlight 2, all of the concepts translate directly to Sivlerlight 3 and the samples will work in Silverlight 3
  http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/pages/silverlight-2-end-to-end-tutorial-building-a-digg-search-client.aspx