DonXML Blog

Paschal L  asked for an example of creating BarCodes using .Net and SharpVectors.  What you need to start with is some markup language to describe you BarCodes.  In this example I’ll use a Code39 BarCode and XML developed by Krysalis.  The XML looks like this:

Check it out, I got my very own action figure:

I know it has been a while since my last post, but things have been busy, and very interesting.  There are a bunch of general discussion boards out there for us developers, but here’s another that most people don’t know about, the GotDotNet Off Topic Discussions Board.  A few of the regulars from DotNetWeblogs stop by, plus a host of others.  If you want to find out what some of your fellow .Netters are thinking about today, stop by and give it a browse.  Topics range from future technologies, to what music people are listening to, to intellectual questions like “What’s my Worth?”. 

It's not often that DB's world and mine cross , but his latest blog is right in line with my feelings. We got to get out of the XML mime types hell if we are ever gonna accomplish our vision. DB's goals are with SOAP in mind. Mine is for a rich multi-namespace XML based UI. The current mime type hell is a hindrance to both. We need to get a posse together and fix this. Sounds like Mark Nottingham and DB are working to get this going. Count me in.

DonXML

Saw Kirk's blog on MIA web logs and and my name to the list of folks that are waiting for Dimitre's weblog. Dimitre was a fixture on the VBXML boards, and did a lot to teach XSLT to the early adopters. Thanks for all your help Dimitre, Don XML

Scott mentions DotMenu and it is pretty cool. If you get a chance stop by and check out some experimental work my friend Chris (CMI Studios) and I worked on for a new navigational system. It was originally nicknamed XBox, but we changed it to HotBox because of the MS gaming platform. It is a bit old, but makes use of some cool IE 5.5+ features (so it will not work in any other browser). The idea was to create a menu system that let you navigate via a map of the site, but also was hidden when not needed. But in the end it was too advanced for most sites, and add a bunch of bloat to every page.

If you are using CrystalReports for your report generation, I'd suggest checking out using XML and PDF instead. The way I architected my latest app was an n-tier approach that uses a Dal that returns datasets to a Lob layer that converts them to custom collections that are serializable. One of the cool advantages was when it came to writing reports. Since both the DataSets and the Custom Collections are interchangeable with XML, the majority of the data acquisition piece was already done. All I need to do was transform it into something that could print easily, and maybe something that could be saved (for nightly batch reports).

For any of the .Net folks out there that are interested in Web Standards, I started a thread on the W3C's Evangelist Mailing List looking for Web Standards Bloggers.  What I'd eventually like to see is something like DotNetWeblogs, but for W3C related bloggers hosted on the W3C site.  Most of the what I've found doesn't have RSS feeds, but for now you can get a list of Standards Evangelist sites off of Ed Nixon's site.