Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - Posts

Speaking At PASS 2008 In Seattle

I just got back word from my buddy Brian, that we were invited back to PASS. This will be my forth year speaking at this conference and even though Brian and I keep the same title of our session, "Hacking SqlServer" every year is diffrent due to new threats and technologies. This means that we are continually implementing new tactics and technologies within our demos to help form opinions within our audiances if certain practices are safe or not. This year I will probably put LINQ to the test for our hacking dual demo and Brian may flash some new features of SQLServer 2008.

Generic "HasValue" And Policy Activity Gotcha

Recently I noticed this error, Cannot evaluate property "HasValue" because its target object is null. I did not get it at compilation of my workflow project, but running a workflow application. I use generic data types whenever possible, and I use the "HasValue" property as well, so when I started getting this error I was not sure where to start looking. Fortunately, this error means exactly what it says and since I cannot debug to the point where it occurs it probably means it is happening within a WF rule or condition.

Normally if you have code that looks like if(NewPerson.IsMarried.HasValue && NewPerson.IsMarried.Value == true) it will process fine, however if you use generic data types regularly like me within policy activities you will come across the same error message like above. Fortunately, the way around this issue is to simply use the null condition so that your policy's business rules look similiar to this... if(NewPerson.IsMarried!=null && NewPerson.IsMarried.Value == true)

Jacksonville .Net Code Camp 2008, Suggest A Topic!

The official site for Jacksonville's 2008 Code Camp is up! The actual event is scheduled for August 23, 2008. Check out the site and add suggestions of topics that you are interested in learning more about.