|
Vitter.com is one of those projects that I love to hate. I have had the domain name
vitter.com since 1996 and over the course of those eleven years I have probably
redesigned this Web site at least a dozen times. This current version of the vitter.com
web site was started in January 2007 and took several weeks to complete. Most of
that time was spent in writing the C# code and T-SQL stored procedures that power
the blogs and other dynamic features. Here are some more details about the services,
tools and technologies behind vitter.com: |
|
Development Tools: |
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
I wrote all of the HTML and C# code behind for vitter.com using Visual Studio 2005.
In addition to using the Visual Studio IDE I relied heavily on Microsoft's Enterprise
Library including the Data library (for data access of course) and their Anti-Cross
Site Scripting library. This version of the vitter.com site also introduces Microsoft's
killer new AJAX 1.0 release for some whiz bang client side and async server processing.
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Not much to say about SQL Server 2000 other than it happens to be the RDBMs used
by vitter.com. Hopefully I will be able to upgrade to SQL Server 2005 soon and take
advantage of some of its new features. I am connecting to the database using the
Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data library.
Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
Although I am still using SQL Server 2000 I used SQL Server 2005's Management Studio
tool to create tables and stored procedures for the site since it is far superior
to Enterprise Manager.
Adobe Photoshop
All of the images on vitter.com were edited using Photoshop 6.0 (I have been too
cheap to upgrade to CS so far). Most, but not all of the photographs were shot using
my Canon Digital Rebel but you can find out more about this in the
Photography
section of the site.
FreeTextBox 3.1.3
FreeTextBox is a fantastic .Net component that can be dropped right onto an ASPX
page and used to edit HTML. As the name implies the component is free although there
is also a professional version available for a fee. Currently I am using FreeTextBox
in the administrative portion of the site to create and edit blog entries.
CSS Tab Designer v2
CSS Tab Designer is another awesome free tool that I used to build the tabs on the
header of every page of this site. Simply open one of the sample projects, select
the style of tab you want, modify the links and copy the code produced into your
project. It took me less than 10 minutes to create the tabs for this site and the
only real work I had to do was to convert the links to <asp:hyperlink> controls
and move the style information into the site's stylesheet. |
|
Hosting Service: |
Server Intellect
I have been hosting vitter.com with Server Intellect since March 2005 and I couldn't
be happier. I pay $14.95 a month for a shared hosting plan that includes: 1000 MB
of space, 25 GB of bandwidth, a SQL Server database (up to 250 MB in size), and
full support for ASP.net 1.1 and 2.0 with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Server Intellect
has the best combination of tools, service and overall value that I have experienced
in the hosting business. |
|
|
|
If you have questions or comments the easiest way to contact me is to use this online
Contact Form |
|