Next time we want to publish a new release of RSS Bandit. What do you think, what do you like? Do you want the "Update All Feeds" button back on the main toolbar? Should we provide an option to support also the older W2K style toolbar rendering?

[DllImport("wininet.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto , SetLastError=true)]
public static extern bool InternetGetCookie (
  string url, string name, StringBuilder data, ref int dataSize);

That's it. To wrap the call we define a wrapper function:

private static string RetrieveIECookiesForUrl(string url) {
    StringBuilder cookieHeader = new StringBuilder(new String(' ', 256), 256);
    int datasize = cookieHeader.Length;
    if (!InternetGetCookie(url, null, cookieHeader, ref datasize)) {
        if (datasize < 0) 
            return String.Empty;
        cookieHeader = new StringBuilder(datasize); // resize with new datasize
        InternetGetCookie(url, null, cookieHeader, ref datasize);
    }
    return cookieHeader.ToString();
}

OK, now we have the cookie content string, that looks usually like this: "KEY=Value; KEY2=what ever". Now we simply create managed cookies by creating instances of System.Net.Cookie. But stop! Did we really have to parse the cookie content string (aka cookie headers) to create the instances?

Again, good news: no, we did not have to do this. There is already build in support provided by the CookieContainer class we also need to set on the HttpWebRequest! The code:

public static CookieContainer GetCookieContainerForUrl(Uri url) {
    CookieContainer container = new CookieContainer();
    string cookieHeaders = RetrieveIECookiesForUrl(url.AbsoluteUri);
    if (cookieHeaders.Length > 0) {
        try { container.SetCookies(url, cookieHeaders); } catch (CookieException){}
    }
    return container;
}

Done

Attention to all BlogWorks XML users: if you want to migrate to dasBlog, please feel free to contact me for the .NET migration tool. If there are multiple requests I would add the code to the GDN fileshare. Don't reinvent the wheel.

Strait adrenaline. Inspired by a TV spot this week I visited the ghostrider site: special care to the trailers! Unbelievable that this is reality, not a stunt! I didn't recommend to drive this style, but you can get the kick...

Funny e-Mail client. Accidently found IncrediMail. And I thought, only Mac users really have fun with their machines and programs. On my machine I had some trouble importing my contacts and mails from Outlook 2003, it crashs each time I tried, maybe I should give the next Beta a chance.

Royalty-free stock photo agency iStockPro has introduced a nifty Browse by Color dialog which lets you find photos that match your layout's color scheme. Neat!
[Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report]

Right, neat! Some examples: sample 1, sample 2.

... to see, if I can post from w.bloggar also with categories.

Just testing the mail a blog post feature of dasBlog, if it works, this entry should show up in a few minutes.

If you got some problems the next few hours/days with this site: I'm about to switch my web host provider from Brinkster (that with ads on the right border), new WebHost4Life (thanks again to Thoemmi.NET).

In den nächsten Stunden und Tagen kann es hier zu einigen Unregelmäßigkeiten kommen (Verfügbarkeit, etc.). Bin grad dabei meinen Web Hoster zu wechseln. Alt, derzeit: Brinkster (mit der komischen Werbung rechts), neu WebHost4Life (danke nochmal an Thoemmi.NET).

Hey, cool: die Wettervorhersage per RSS Feed, z.Bsp. für Memmingen [via Schockwellenreiter]

Brinkster [www.brinkster.com] host my web site(s) now for years. It seems I have to look for another free service more seriously now. Problems arising again and again. Some other people [e.g. diveintomark] like to have GoogleAds. But I don't like any ad on my pages while Brinkster force all free accounts to have one now. It is the ugly damn thing at the right side hiding all my shortcuts and links! And not to forgot: Brinkster don't like any .asp page with an embedded On error resume next if it is not switched back within the same function with a On error goto 0. This makes the simple use of any third party free .asp software a hard try and error upload task. No ftp upload/mail support on free accounts are just more points on the list.

Das Wochenende hat uns von den Temperaturen her schon auf den Winter eingestimmt, aber dafür hatten wir den schönsten Sonnenschein während unseres heutigen Spaziergangs am See (Schachen, Anlegestelle). Unsere Kids und und auch unser Besuch aus Giesen war sichtlich angetan von der wunderschönen Herbststimmung. Hier nochmals: schön daß Ihr hier wart, Jutta, Olin, Fellice und Florence! Und Dir Olin: alles Gute in Boston!

Neither SharpReader nor RSS Bandit renders my business card nicely. They both strip out or otherwise deactivate the CSS tags that are used in rendering the card. So go my web site if you want to see the card "for real". Raises an interesting question. How much support should syndication feeds like RSS have for look and feel? [Harry Pierson's DevHawk Weblog]

I think the main goal of a RSS Reader is to syndicate feed informations, with stress on information. So a consistent GUI is more important than to get an idea of the personal preferences of colors/design of each individual. But there are always links within the detail view: at the top to the main blog page, and within Read On... directly to the post itself.

Don't think so: Outlook 2003 Sucks Ass. Bigtime. [Chris Pirillo] I'm not always with Microsoft, but I really like Outlook2003 (compared to v.2000). I'm happy with the hotmail account integration, search folders, per account signatures, my last beta of Cloudmark Spam filter still runs, the new GUI. I don't like: my rules does not apply/work in Offline mode, archived mails (.pst) are incompatible with 2000 archives. Constructional criticism is a better base to discuss on.

Takes me a half hour today to figure out how to get the assembly attribute AssemblyKeyName to work. The normal provided MSDN docs are always describing the way how to use the AssemblyKeyFile attribute and simply hint: "... or install the key into the CryptoServiceProvider (CSP)". I didn't like the idea to provide the company keypair file to each dev.Machine. So here it is:

once> sn.exe -k companyKeyPair.snk
each dev.client> sn.exe -i companyKeyPair.snk CompanyKey

AssemblyInfo.cs: AssemblyKeyName("CompanyKey")]

Posted my piece of code to embed the IE WebBrowser control in .NET without wrapping DLL's [.NET] as a GDN User Sample In general it is a rework of the code posted here, but with some extensions I needed and without saving static html to temporary file to navigate to later. The crux of matter is how to define the correct Interop for IHTMLDocument2.Write().
Here is my working solution:

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace System.Windows.Forms.Html {
  [InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsDual), ComVisible(true),   Guid(@"332C4425-26CB-11D0-B483-00C04FD90119")]
  interface IHTMLDocument2 {
    ...     
    ///

    
    /// Write complete html doc content including markup.
    ///


    /// object[] containing the string(s)
    ///
    ///
    /// IHTMLDocument2 document = control.GetDocument();
    /// if (document != null) {
    /// document.Open("", null, null, null);
    /// object[] a = new object[]{"Hello world"};
    /// document.Write(a);
    /// document.Close();
    /// }
    ///
    ///
    void Write(
      [In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.SafeArray)] object[] psarray);
    ...
  }
}

May be there is an Interop Guy that is able to solve it in a more elegant way? Currently IJW. This functionality is covered by the control itself. Usage of that feature of IE Control looks like this:

htmlControl.Html = myHtmlString;
htmlControl.Navigate(null);

With this approach you will also get the NavigateXYZ() events to listen for further usage.

Two days ago we had the first snow this year. Yes, it was October, the 8. Unbelievable after that hot summer time. So it seems the winter season follows immediately the summer this year