In case you need to read or write from/to MS Office System Files (e.g Access 2007 or Excel 2007) .This set of components from Microsoft can make your life easer .Connectivity to MS SharePoint Services and text files is also supported.

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; Windows Vista; Windows XP Service Pack 2

Download Data Connectivity Components

[Via Access Team Blog]

NxBRE is the open-source rule engine for the .NET platform and a lightweight Business Rules Engine that supports two different approaches:

• The Inference Engine, which is a forward-chaining (data driven) deduction engine and that supports concepts like Facts, Queries and Implications and like Rule Priority, Mutual Exclusion and Precondition (as found in many commercial engines). It is designed in a way that encourages the separation of roles between the expert who designs the business rules and the programmer who binds them to the business objects.
• The Flow Engine, which uses XML as a way to control process flow for an application in an external entity. It is basically a wrapper on C#, as it offers all its flow control commands (if/then/else, while, foreach), plus a context of business objects and results. It is a port of JxBRE to .NET’s C#.

NxBRE is released under LGPL license in order to allow users to legally build commercial solutions that embed NxBRE.

Download NxBRE

Tom Hollander has posted that the second CTP of Enterprise Library 3.0 is now available to download on CodePlex community site.

New In This Release

• Validation Application Block
  • Near-complete validator library
  • Configuration tool support
  • ASP.NET integration
  • Winforms integration
  • Quickstarts and preliminary documentation
• Data Access Application Block
  • TransactionScope enlistment
• Logging Application Block
  • Rolling Flat File Trace Listener
  • WCF integration
• Application Block Software Factory
  • VB code generation
• Configuration Tool
  • Selectable assembly sets

Technorati tags: dotnet, c#, development, library

The CTP of Enterprise Library 3.0 was released last Friday.One of the new application blocks it contains is a Validation Application Block for validating classes in your applications.David Hayden wrote 4 tutorials on how to use it:

• Validation Application Block in Enterprise Library 3.0 - Using Validation Facade Class - Part I
• Validation Application Block in Enterprise Library 3.0 - ValidationFactory Class - Part II
• Validation Application Block Ruleset in Enterprise Library 3.0 - Enterprise Library 3.0 Tutorials - Part III
• Validation Application Block - Rules in External XML Configuration File - App.Config Web.Config - Enterprise Library 3.0 - Part IV

Technorati tags: validation, dotnet, c#, tutorial

Inspired by PHP String Functions that are missing in .Net.

Below is a list of the method names and descriptions in the string library.

• Base64StringEncode: Base64 encodes a string.
• Base64StringDecode: Decodes a Base64 string.
• CaseInsenstiveReplace: A case insenstive replace function.
• ReplaceFirst: Replaces the first occurence of a string with the replacement value. The Replace is case senstive. [The inclusion of this method and ReplaceLast was suggested by a reader's comment.]
• ReplaceLast: Replaces the last occurence of a string with the replacement value. The replace is case senstive.
• FilterWords: Removes all the words passed in the filter words parameters. The replace is NOT case sensitive.
• HasWords: Checks the passed string to see if it contains any of the passed words. Not case-sensitive.
• HtmlSpecialEntitiesEncode: A wrapper around HttpUtility.HtmlEncode.
• HtmlSpecialEntitiesDecode: A wrapper around HttpUtility.HtmlDecode.
• MD5String: MD5 encodes the passed string.
• MD5VerifyString: Verifies a string against the passed MD5 hash.
• PadLeftHtmlSpaces: Left pads the passed string using the HTML non-breaking space ( ) for the total number of spaces.
• CaseInsenstiveReplace: Performs a case insenstive replace.
• PadLeft: Left pads the passed string using the passed pad string for the total number of spaces. (It will not cut-off the pad even if it causes the string to exceed the total width.)
• PadRightHtmlSpaces: Right pads the passed string using the HTML non-breaking space ( ) for the total number of spaces.
• PadRight: Right pads the passed string using the passed pad string for the total number of spaces. (It will not cut-off the pad even if it causes the string to exceed the total width.)
• RemoveNewLines: Removes the new line (\n) and carriage return (\r) symbols.
• Reverse: Reverses the passed string.
• SentenceCase: Converts a string to sentence case.
• SpaceToNbsp: Converts all spaces to HTML non-breaking spaces.
• StripTags: Removes all HTML tags from the passed string.
• TitleCase: Converts a string to title case.
• TrimIntraWords: Removes multiple spaces between words.
• NewLineToBreak: Converts each new line (\n) and carriage return (\r) symbols to the HTML
  tag.
• WordWrap: Wraps the passed string at the passed total number of characters (if cuttOff is true)or at the next whitespace (if cutOff is false). Uses the environment new linesymbol for the break text.

Technorati tags: string, php, dotnet, c#, library