Version 0.9.2 of MySQLSchemaProvider for CodeSmith and MySQL 5.0 is now available for download.  Changes include:

• Updated GetTableKeys() to provide not only the foreign keys for the table but also the foreign keys of other tables that point to the given table. Code update graciously provided by Dug Steen.  Thanks!
• Added .NET 2.0 version for CodeSmith 3.2.5 or higher
  
• .NET 1.1 version requires CodeSmith 3.1.6

Keep in mind that the version requirements are for the assemblies that ship with the current download.  If you are using a previous 3.xx version of CodeSmith, you can simply recompile from the source code and it should work.

Read the announcement here.

Yahoo! has released a free library of AJAX-enabled UI components, including a set of core utilities for animation, drag-and-drop, events, DOM, as well as calendar, slider, and treeview controls.  The components are both free and open-source under a BSD license.

Also noteworthy is the new Yahoo! Design Pattern Library.  Here they attempt to demonstrate UI best practices for the Web including breadcrumbs, pagination, and other common UI elements.  This is their first installment of what they promise to be a monthly installment of the latest Web patterns and practices.

For you geeks out there.  Today is Valentine's Day.  Yes, slap yourself in the forehead.  These are no substitutes for REAL cards and flowers, but maybe you can appease your spouse or loved one with one of these e-cards while you scramble to the nearest store on your lunch break and fight all the other procrastinators over the last clump of wilted weeds meant to pass as flowers.

Family Life E-Cards

CrossCards

123Greetings Valentine's Cards

Great news for ASP.NET developers.  After joining Microsoft, Matt Hawley had to stop distributing his great ASP.NET server controls.  After 10 long months, he's finally been given permission to start distributing them again.  My company and I have used his pop-up calendar control.  I also use Unleash It (unaffected by the blackout) to deploy web applications, and it is fantastic.  Thank you Matt, and thanks for listening, Microsoft!

Here are a few links you might find useful:

Godbit Project - "Theology + Technology"

If Jesus Had a Website - "Helping Church Websites Improve Their Digital Home"

So You Want a Church Website? - "Resources for the Accidental Church Webmaster"

Mobile Ministry Magazine - "Using technology and the scripture to equip men and women to minister the Gospel to the nations."

SonSpring - One of the authors for Godbit Project.  "SonSpring is a small, Christian web design and graphics studio that specializes in creating sites for churches and non-profit organizations. The mission statement and fervent prayer is that the utmost would be done to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ through use of website development."

ComponentArt announced yesterday their new beta Web.UI 2006 suite.  Included are two new controls: WebChart Lite for ASP.NET and Splitter for ASP.NET.  I had a chance to install the beta today and play around with the demos.  Once again, ComponentArt have outdone themselves.

WebChart Lite has all the features and API of its WebChart for ASP.NET big brother, but only supports 2-D charts.  Actually, from what I've seen, WebChart Lite will generate 3-D charts, but they are rendered with ComponentArt watermark.  I think it is outstanding that ComponentArt chose to provide WebChart Lite to its Web.UI subscription customers.  I'll also add that the licensing for the full version is quite reasonable when compared to some of the other charting components on the market.

The new Splitter control is very impressive.  With it you can create resizable panels that can be split horizontally and vertically, and can also collapse and expand.  The Splitter "panes" can have minimum and maximum heights and widths, or can fill the entire window area.  Layouts can be changed dynamically.  The demos provided look like an RSS reader or e-mail client.  There aren't any online demos yet, but if you download the beta you can view the demos locally.  I can think of quite a few areas in my own applications where I'll be using this new control.

Web.UI 2006 will also include ASP.NET 2.0 versions of their controls with support for new features such as skins, themes, and the ASP.NET 2.0 navigation architecture.  Way to go, ComponentArt!

A minor release, but looks like some major improvements, such as a new SQL Server 2005 provider that takes advantage of some new features for better performance.

I've plugged Paul Wilson's O/R Mapper before, but I don't think it would hurt to reiterate that it is a fantastic tool.  I strongly encourage you to take it for a real test run (read: complete a small but real-world application with it).  Reading the feature list and taking it for a quick spin just won't do it justice.  If you've not used an O/R mapper before, it takes a little time to adopt the right mindset.  However, I think the benefits will become very clear once you see what it is capable of.  The beauty of WilsonORMapper is in its simplicity. 

I also recommend you try Paul Welter's CodeSmith templates for WilsonORMapper.  You can point CodeSmith at your database and generate a complete set of business classes ready to handle just about everything you need to do.  I have not yet tried the new CodeSmith templates from Jason Bunting.

Full list of changes can be found on Paul's blog.

I am very pleased to announce that www.ChristianASP.NET is now running on mojoPortal! 

The great news is that I now have discussion forums, which is a goal I have had for ChristianASP.NET from the beginning.  The bad news is, if you've registered for an account on this site in the past, you will need to register again.  I don't have any plans at this time to convert old user accounts.

Joe Audette and other contributors have done an outstanding job and a great service to the ASP.NET community over the last couple of years with the development of mojoPortal.  mojoPortal has been designed to run not only on Windows but also on Linux and Mac OS/X using Mono.  It features a pluggable data access layer and comes with support for MS SQL, MySQL and PostgreSQL.  Other application features include:

• Html Content Management
• Blogs
• RSS Feed Aggregator
  
• Event Calendar
• Search
• Image Gallery
• File Manager
• Localization
• Skinnable Design
• Host Multiple Sites From One Database

mojoPortal is a fantastic open-source alternative with a very bright future ahead.  I know that Joe has been hard at work to incorporate some of the latest ASP.NET 2.0 features, including updated Master Pages, Themes and skins.