Lately I discovered a very interesting way to accomplish this task, which is based on the Cache server object and the timeout expiry it provides.

The idea in general is to insert an object to the cache, set a timeout period for that object equal to how frequent you want your method to be called, and then catch the ‘event’ that is raised when the object is disposed from the cache.

So this is how we begin :

Insert that dummy ’timer’ object into the cache when the application starts.
This can be easily accomplished by adding the following code to the Global.asax file of your application

    void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        InitiateBackupUtility();
    }

    private void InitiateBackupUtility()
    {
        if (null == HttpContext.Current.Cache[CacheItem])
        {
            // Add the dummy value to the cache so it would call our timed method when expires
            HttpContext.Current.Cache.Add(CacheItem, "Value", null,
                DateTime.MaxValue, TimeSpan.FromDays(1),
                CacheItemPriority.Normal, new CacheItemRemovedCallback(CacheItemRemoved));
        }
    }

Now, the code above has registered the callback called ‘CacheItemRemoved’ to the expiry of the object.
That is, the method CacheItemRemoved will be called every time our object expires, that is, every time our timer ticks.

Let’s have a look :

    /// <summary>
    /// This function will be called when the cache item times out 
    /// (we don't really care about the parameters for our purpose)
    /// </summary>
    public void CacheItemRemoved(string key, object value,
                                    CacheItemRemovedReason reason)
    {
        // This is your timed function call
        DoWork();

        // This will help us keep the timer ticking
        SimulateHttpRequest();
    }

Well, keeping the timer ticking is actually a little tricky.
Normally you would expect that we just re-add that item to the cache.
Well, Unfortunately, the HttpContext is only avalible on requests, and this is not a request, but a callback.

Yes, you guessed right. we are going to simulate a Http-Request to our own application.
The good news is, it’s as simple as that :

    private void SimulateHttpRequest()
    {
        System.Net.WebClient wc = new System.Net.WebClient();
        wc.DownloadData(appDomain + "RestoreCacheItem.aspx");
    }
 
    void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (Request.Url.AbsoluteUri == appDomain + "RestoreCacheItem.aspx")
        {
            InitiateBackupUtility();
        }
    }

You see, the Application_BeginRequests catches our request to that false page, and calls the method that enters that timer key into the cache again, now, all you have to do is provide appDomain, which is a string containing the absolute path to your application.

Enjoy!

Making the ASP.NET GridView confirm on delete :

1. Catch the RowDataBound event of your GridView.
2. Check if the currently added row is a data row
3. Add the confirm behaviour to your LinkButton Attributes.

code :

protected void MyGridView_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
   // Check that the current row is a real data row
   if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow)
   {
      // Adding the onclick attribute to the delete link - 3 is the delete button index.
      (MyGridView.Rows[e.Row.RowIndex].Cells[3].Controls[0] as LinkButton).
      Attributes.Add("onclick", "return confirm('Are You Sure?');");
   }
}

I wonder if mentioning that i’m not the typical blogger, or that i never thought i would start one myself, would sound too banal. I can’t even figure out the reason i made a decision to start one.

I’m not willing to admit that I’m seeking acknowledgement for anything that i encounter in my private life, I actually didn’t quite feel like anyone is going to read any of this, until the moment i started typing the first word of this very first post.

On the other hand, I can’t actually convince myself that I’m not seeking recognition among other web developers, and to broaden my professional and eventually business-related world.

What i’m trying to say is – I started a blog while definitely looking for something.

And here I am – looking at my brand new wordpress blog page that has nothing in it but the following sentence :

Sorry, You are looking for something that isn’t there.