I lost the BizArk framework when I changed web hosts, but it is back now. Check out the full list of features on the BizArk page.

There are a few updates since the last release, but unfortunately I don't remember what they are (I made the updates a long time ago, but haven't gotten around to posting them). I believe that I've fixed some problems with the ConvertEx class as well as added some new functionality to it. I've also added some useful extension classes and fixed some problems with the splash screen not working quite right under certain circumstances.

I was in need of an image visualizer for Visual Studio today and I was dismayed that I wasn't able to find one that I could just download and install. Don't get me wrong, I found plenty of image visualizers, but they all required me to compile it myself. So I decided to go ahead and build one myself.

The image visualizer includes the following features:

• Scrolls if the image is too large
• Zoom the image from 10% to 300%
• Change the background of the frame from light to dark
• Includes the following information about the image
  • Height
  • Width
  • Image type
  • Horizontal resolution
  • Vertical resolution
  • Size in memory (an approximation)
• Quick access to features via keyboard shortcuts

[Download]

The source code is also available.

On March 30th, Microsoft released the MVC (Model-View-Controller) framework for ASP.Net (see the press release). Apparently they have also just licensed the source code under MS-PL (see ScottGu's Blog post), which is an open source license (could this be an April Fool's joke?).

WebForms in ASP.Net is a decent framework for building web applications. WebForms allows you to build web applications in a manner similar to building WinForm applications. This is a powerful concept and one that has made many developers lives better. However, it comes with some cost, especially to how much control you have over the end result.

MVC is an alternative to WebForms that provides the developer more control over how content is rendered, not to mention using a well known, yet underused pattern for building applications with a user interface. One of the features of this pattern is the ability to unit test your code, which can be very difficult to do in WebForms.

Here's the description of ASP.Net MVC from the Microsoft download page:

ASP.NET MVC 1.0 provides a new Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework on top of the existing ASP.NET 3.5 runtime. This means that developers can take advantage of the MVC design patterns to create their Web Applications which includes the ability to achieve and maintain a clear separation of concerns (the UI or view from the business and application logic and backend data), as well as facilitate test driven development (TDD). The ASP.NET MVC framework defines a specific pattern to the Web Application folder structure and provides a controller base-class to handle and process requests for “actions”. Developers can take advantage of the specific Visual Studio 2008 MVC templates within this release to create their Web applications, which includes the ability to select a specific Unit Test structure to accompany their Web Application development.

The MVC framework is fully extensible at all points, allowing developers to create sophisticated structures that meet their needs, including for example Dependency Injection (DI) techniques, new view rendering engines or specialized controllers.

As the ASP.NET MVC framework is built on ASP.NET 3.5, developers can take advantage of many existing ASP.NET 3.5 features, such as localization, authorization, Profile etc.

For convenience, here are some of the resources available out there for ASP.Net MVC:

• Download ASP.Net MVC
• Official MVC Site
• MSDN documentation
• Free ASP.NET MVC eBook Tutorial by Scott Guthrie (part of a larger book on MVC coming out soon)

From Mix 09 (list of all videos). I haven't seen all these videos yet, but here are the ones on MVC:

• Microsoft ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC): Ninja on Fire Black Belt Tips
• See a walkthrough of several tips and tricks for getting the most out of the ASP.NET MVC framework.
• Choosing between ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC
• Come hear about the key concepts and features behind the two primary user interface technologies available for ASP.NET: MVC and Web Forms. Learn the pros and cons of both MVC and Web Forms, how to determine the best choice for a specific project, various techniques and patterns used to build MVC applications vs. Web Forms applications, and the implications for using each approach.
• File|New -> Company: Creating NerdDinner.com with Microsoft ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC)
• No slides. Just code. Start with File|New and build a real Web site with ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, Authentication, Authorization, MVC, Microsoft SQL Server and jQuery in sixty-five minutes or less.
• ASP.NET MVC: America's Next Top Model View Controller Framework
• See how to build a simple application that highlights some of the key capabilities of ASP.NET MVC. Also, learn how to improve productivity using some of the cool new tooling features.