<add name="ContactEntities" connectionString="Data Source=|DataDirectory|DB.sdf" providerName="System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0" />

<system.data>
    <DbProviderFactories>
      <remove invariant="System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0" />
      <add name="Microsoft SQL Server Compact Data Provider 4.0" invariant="System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0" description=".NET Framework Data Provider for Microsoft SQL Server Compact" type="System.Data.SqlServerCe.SqlCeProviderFactory, System.Data.SqlServerCe, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91" />
    </DbProviderFactories>
</system.data>

If you have read Phil's post by now, you might know the difference of all the above options. Here, as we are deploying SQL CE 4.0 database we will also check SQL Server Compact also. Click OK button to add all the required dependencies. As soon as you click OK button you will notice that a new folder named _bin_deployableAssemblies gets added to the solution explorer.

After adding all the dependencies you then need to build you web application which then copies all the dependencies to the project's or web application's bin folder. While deploying the application we will place each file with similar directory structure in the BIN folder on the hosting web server where ASP.NET MVC 3, SQL CE 4.0 and EF 4.1 is not installed. Just in case if you are wondering on how to deploy EF 4.1, then there is no other thing to be done to deploy EF 4.1, a DLL named EntityFramework inside the bin folder will do the work for us.

Note: I have made no changes to the directory structure while placing files at the remote hosting server.

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What MSDN has to say about Extension Methods

Extension methods enable you to "add" methods to existing types without creating a new derived type, recompiling, or otherwise modifying the original type. Extension methods are a special kind of static method, but they are called as if they were instance methods on the extended type.

A friend of mine started blogging a months ago and he wrote a blog post showing the usage of Extension Methods. I do some of the search and I found a website called ExtensionMethod.NET with a nice collections of extension methods. You can submit your own extension methods to share with other people among the community. ExtensionMethod is a initiative project started by Fons Sonnemans and Loek van den Ouweland.

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If you have long URLs and other and want to create short URLs then Bit.ly API can help. I wrote a wrapper class which can let me create short URLs in jiffy. I was working on Bit.ly API to create my short URLs with a click of a button (that's for my personal use). Therefore, I ended up with a 'short' class to create shor URLs using Bit.ly API. What you need is a login and an apikey, which you can have one for yourself by signing up for a free account. You can find your apikey here after login. The class gives you two ways to make short URL, one with XML and the other with plain TEXT. I haven't write anything for JSON as it was not required at all to me in any ways. I am using plain TEXT for this example. You can read Bit.ly API official documentation for more information.

The below class can be used to create short URLs using Bit.ly API, reverse the short URLs and get the original URL. Also if you are not aware you can have a QR code of your short URL. Read more about QR Code here. If you are using Bit.ly or Goo.gl to shorten your URLs then you can have the QR code image by adding .qrcode in the end of the short URL (See in the code example below)

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;

namespace Bitly.API
{

    public class BitlyData
    {
        #region Properties

        public static string APIKEY { get; set; }
        public static string LoginName { get; set; }

        public static string StatusCode { get; set; }
        public static string StatusDesc { get; set; }
        public static string ShortURL { get; set; }
        public static string LongURL { get; set; }
        public static string HashCode { get; set; }
        public static string GlobalCode { get; set; }
        public static string NewHash { get; set; }

        #endregion
    }

    public class Bitly
    {

        #region Bit.Ly Variables

        private static string URL = "http://api.bit.ly/v3/shorten?login=";

        private static string BitResponse = "";

        #endregion

        #region Enums

        public enum Format
        {
            XML,
            JSON,
            TXT
        }

        #endregion

        #region Sample Response
        //        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
        //<response>
        //    <status_code>200</status_code>
        //    <status_txt>OK</status_txt>
        //    <data>
        //        <url>http://bit.ly/ekYLee</url>
        //        <hash>ekYLee</hash>
        //        <global_hash>gBH72m</global_hash>
        //        <long_url>http://midnightprogrammer.net/post/Windows-7-Development-Working-With-Task-Dialog-Class.aspx</long_url>
        //        <new_hash>1</new_hash>
        //    </data>
        //</response>

        #endregion

        public static string ShortURL(string LongURL, Format ReqFormat = Format.TXT)
        {
            string sURL = string.Empty;
            string BitLyURL = URL + BitlyData.LoginName + "&apikey=" + BitlyData.APIKEY + "&longUrl=" + LongURL + "&format=";

            if (ReqFormat == Format.JSON)
            {
                throw new NotImplementedException("This method is not implemented yet!");
            }

            if (ReqFormat == Format.XML)
            {
                BitResponse = new WebClient().DownloadString(BitLyURL + "xml");
                string Response = BitResponse;

                XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
                doc.LoadXml(Response);
                XmlNodeList XlistResponse = doc.GetElementsByTagName("response");

                foreach (XmlNode XResnode in XlistResponse)
                {
                    XmlElement ResElm = (XmlElement)XResnode;

                    BitlyData.StatusCode = ResElm.GetElementsByTagName("status_code")[0].InnerText;

                    if (BitlyData.StatusCode != "200")
                    {
                        BitlyData.StatusDesc = ResElm.GetElementsByTagName("status_txt")[0].InnerText;
                        return BitlyData.StatusDesc;
                    }
                }

                if (BitlyData.StatusCode == "200")
                {

                    XmlNodeList XlistData = doc.GetElementsByTagName("data");

                    foreach (XmlNode XDatanode in XlistData)
                    {
                        XmlElement DataElm = (XmlElement)XDatanode;

                        BitlyData.ShortURL = DataElm.GetElementsByTagName("url")[0].InnerText;
                        BitlyData.LongURL = DataElm.GetElementsByTagName("long_url")[0].InnerText;
                        BitlyData.HashCode = DataElm.GetElementsByTagName("hash")[0].InnerText;
                        BitlyData.GlobalCode = DataElm.GetElementsByTagName("global_hash")[0].InnerText;
                        BitlyData.NewHash = DataElm.GetElementsByTagName("new_hash")[0].InnerText;
                    }
                }
            }

            if (ReqFormat == Format.TXT)
            {
                if (ReqFormat == Format.TXT)
                {
                    BitResponse = new WebClient().DownloadString(BitLyURL + "txt");
                    string Response = BitResponse;

                    BitlyData.ShortURL = Response;
                }
            }

            return sURL = BitlyData.ShortURL;
        }

        public static string ReverseShortURL(string ShortURL)
        {
            HttpWebRequest Webrequest = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(ShortURL);
            HttpWebResponse Webresponse = (HttpWebResponse)Webrequest.GetResponse();
            Uri uri = Webresponse.ResponseUri;
            return uri.AbsoluteUri;
        }

        public static string GetQRCodeURL(string ShortURL)
        {
            string QRCodeURL = string.Empty;
            QRCodeURL = ShortURL + ".qrcode";
            return QRCodeURL;
        }
    }
}

In the above class you can see that the second parameter is accepting TXT by default. So, if you call the method with or without the second parameter it will still work with the default parameter TXT. The enumeration called Format contains all the possible format of all the formats which is accepted by Bit.ly API. The second parameter in the class above should be removed if you plan to use the above code with the lower versions of .NET i.e. 3.x / 2.0

Sample Usage .NET 3.x / 2.0

Bitly.API.BitlyData.LoginName = "LOGIN NAME GOES HERE";
Bitly.API.BitlyData.APIKEY = "API KEY GOES HERE";
Console.WriteLine("Short URL: "+Bitly.API.Bitly.ShortURL("http://midnightprogrammer.net/post/9-Promises-Should-Be-Taken-Before-Choosing-IT-Profession.aspx", Bitly.API.Bitly.Format.TXT));
Console.WriteLine("Reverse URL: "+Bitly.API.Bitly.ReverseShortURL("http://bit.ly/eZ1kdb"));
Console.WriteLine("QRCode Image URL " + Bitly.API.Bitly.GetQRCodeURL("http://bit.ly/eZ1kdb"));

Sample usage .NET 4.0

Bitly.API.BitlyData.LoginName = "LOGIN NAME GOES HERE";
Bitly.API.BitlyData.APIKEY = "API KEY GOES HERE";
Console.WriteLine("Short URL: "+Bitly.API.Bitly.ShortURL("http://midnightprogrammer.net/post/9-Promises-Should-Be-Taken-Before-Choosing-IT-Profession.aspx", Bitly.API.Bitly.Format.TXT));
Console.WriteLine("Reverse URL: "+Bitly.API.Bitly.ReverseShortURL("http://bit.ly/eZ1kdb"));
Console.WriteLine("QRCode Image URL " + Bitly.API.Bitly.GetQRCodeURL("http://bit.ly/eZ1kdb"));

I have tested my code with Console Application, but you can test it with web or Windows form application. Note that the default parameters are only accepted if you are working with .NET 4.0 and not by the lower versions of .NET. If you wish to use the second parameter in .NET 4 then also it will work, but not using it with lower version will give you error.

I hope this class helps someone around the globe!

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I wrote a blog post on how you can add a custom Jumplist on your Windows form application for Windows 7 platform using the Windows 7 API Code Pack, but that is for Windows Form applications running on Windows 7. 

WPF makes Jumplists more simpler. You need not to add any API reference or any other reference in your project. You can just make the use of Jumplists for better navigation for your users. 

If you are using WPF then, there is a simple way to add Jumplists. I will show how you can have a pre-defined jumplists for your application. The main part of the application in which we have to focus is App.xaml. All work related to jumplist will be done here. For instance use the below code to add calculator to the jumplist.

<JumpList.JumpList>
        <JumpList ShowFrequentCategory="True" ShowRecentCategory="True">
            <JumpTask Title="Calculator"
                      Description="Open Calculator"
                      ApplicationPath="calc.exe"
                      IconResourcePath="calc.exe"/>
        </JumpList>
</JumpList.JumpList>

You know why there is Title and Description. The ApplicationPath will have the fully qualified name of the application path or just the name of the programs that can be executed with their name. IconResourcePath will have a fully qualified path of the icon. If your application have an icon embedded in the application, then you can just set the application exe path or name else you can have a fully qualified path of the icon file.

To add a new Jumplist, add a new <JumpTask> tag with the above mentioned tags and for every Jumplist item you need to do the same.

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A number of existing APIs are deprecated in .NET Framework 4.0. A complete listing of deprecated APIs in .NET Framework 4.0 can be found here at MSDN:

• Obsolete Types in the .NET Framework 4
• Obsolete Members in the .NET Framework 4

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