Some Top Must-Have Tools for an ASP.NET Developer
Posted by: Suprotim Agarwal ,
on 1/31/2008,
in
Category ASP.NET
Abstract: Of all these years, working as a .NET developer, I have collected and compiled a set of tools that will help you out in your ASP.NET projects, the same way as it has done for me. Since the number of utilities in my Software folder will take more than one post to mention, I have decided to pick up a few of them, which are used frequently in my ASP.NET projects.
Some Top Must-Have Tools for an ASP.NET Developer
Of all these years, working as a .NET developer, I have collected and compiled a set of tools that will help you out in your ASP.NET projects, the same way as it has done for me. Since the number of utilities in my Software folder will take more than one post to mention, I have decided to pick up a few of them, which are used frequently in my ASP.NET projects.
Convert C# to VB.NET and VB.NET to C#
This is one tool that is needed (or will be needed) by every ASP.NET developer out there. I have personally tried out many convertor tools but the ones mentioned over here work well for me.
Instant C# & Instant VB.NET – One of my personal favorites, I have used this desktop tool from quiet some time and the results are also quiet up to the mark. The demo version offers 1000 lines of project conversions or 100 lines of snippet conversions.
Code Convertor(beta) - This product from telerik converts VB.NET to C# and vice versa. Just copy and paste the code in the textarea and select the desired language from the combobox given below the textarea and click on ‘Convert Code’. The site also contains a utility where you can convert multiple files.
The Labs Convert C# to VB.NET - This code conversion tool is based on source code from the #develop editor, a free open source alternative to Visual Studio .NET. Simply paste in your C# code below, and click on the ‘Convert To VB.NET’ button. The code will be automatically converted to its equivalent in VB.NET
The Labs Convert VB.NET To C# - This code conversion tool is based on source code from the #develop editor, a free open source alternative to Visual Studio .NET. Simply paste in your VB.NET code below, and click on the ‘Convert To C#’ button. The code will be automatically converted to its equivalent in C#.
Color Picker
I have personally at innumerable occasions felt the need of a tool which could grab the pixel under your mouse and give you the hex code or RGB value of the color. One such tool is ColorPix.
ColorPix - ColorPix is a color picker which need not be installed in order to use it and is completely free to use. It grabs the pixel under your mouse and transforms it into a number of different color formats. You can also use the maginifier to zoom into a portion of your screen. It gives you the option to copy the pixel value to the clipboard.
Screen Mockup’s
MockUpScreens – Creating mockup’s before the coding starts is one of the very common steps we follow in our Software Life Cycle. It saves us time as we can quickly show our clients, the look and feel of the application and get an approval for the same. With MockupScreens you can quickly create screen mockups of your application. MockupScreens helps you to sketch screen mockups of your application and organize them in scenarios. To be honest, I have never used it but have bookmarked it on a colleague’s recommendation. I plan to use it soon and will post a review on the same.
Testing .NET Web apps
WatiN – (pronounced as What-in) – This .NET web application testing tool provides an easy way to automate tests with Internet Explorer. This tool, recommended to me by one of my colleagues (Govind Kanshi) at Microsoft, contains a rich feature set. Apart from automating ASP.NET testing, the tool also supports AJAX.NET, popup pages, iframes and works on IE6 and IE7. Most of all, the source is available for you to customize the product as per your needs. Read the license agreement on the site.
Generate Documentation
Sandcastle – Produces MSDN style documentation reflecting over the source assemblies and optionally integrating XML Documentation Comments.
Other Utilities
ASP.NET/JavaScript Calendar – The compiled assemblies of eworldui are free to use. The money part comes in when the source code is to be modified. However I have used the assemblies and they expose most of the properties out of the box. So unless you decide to change the source code, you should be ok working with just the assemblies for free :)
Regular Expression Builder – The Regulator is an advanced Regular expression testing tool, featuring syntax highlighting and web-service integration with Regexlib.com's database of online regular expressions
Web Development Helper – A plugin for IE with tools to allow viewing information about the current page such as view state, trace. Also aids in testing with some other cool benefits.
Template driven code generators – This tool from CodeSmith contains many templates to generate code. The tool also contains templates for generating code for proven architectures like CSLA, NHibernate, .netTiers etc.
Best Practice Analyzer for ASP.NET - The ASP.NET Best Practice Analyzer (alpha release) is a tool that scans the configuration of an ASP.NET 2.0 application and identifies problematic configuration settings in the machine.config or web.config files associated with your ASP.NET application.
AJAX.NET - Library for AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML with XmlHttpRequest).
ASP.NET Colorful StarterKit – Allows you to create, modify, and use ASP.NET 2.0 Skins, Styles, and Themes to define the Graphic User Interface of your Web site
Kupload - ASP.NET file upload component with pure HTML real time progress bar
Web Client Software Factory – Provides architectural guidance to help customers build composite web clients using ASP.NET, AJAX, Workflow Foundation(WF) etc.
Well that was quiet a list. I hope you try them out and post your comments over here for others to benefit. I hope this article was useful and I thank you for viewing it.
This article has been editorially reviewed by Suprotim Agarwal.
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Suprotim Agarwal, MCSD, MCAD, MCDBA, MCSE, is the founder of
DotNetCurry,
DNC Magazine for Developers,
SQLServerCurry and
DevCurry. He has also authored a couple of books
51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls and
The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.
Suprotim has received the prestigious Microsoft MVP award for Sixteen consecutive years. In a professional capacity, he is the CEO of A2Z Knowledge Visuals Pvt Ltd, a digital group that offers Digital Marketing and Branding services to businesses, both in a start-up and enterprise environment.
Get in touch with him on Twitter @suprotimagarwal or at LinkedIn