Friday, June 8, 2012

Site is under maintenance, please visit later: - ASP.NET trick

24 x 7 uptime guaranteed



As a web site owner we all boast about 24 x 7 uptime. But somewhere down below in our hearts we know it’s difficult. We need to bring down the website for maintenance, fixingdefects, upgrading etc.

Easy way…

As an innocent c# ASP.NET developer you would think how about just stopping IIS web server, do your activity(maintenance, fixing defect etc.) and then start the IIS again.



While this looks to be a but obvious way of solving the problem but it’s not the best way if we consider the end user perspective. The end user would see an ugly screen as shown below leading to more confusion.



Rather than end user seeing that kind of absurd screen how about showing something more better and informative like: - “Site is under maintenance and will be live till 3:00 AM”.

Going offline graciously:-App_Offline.htm

Also I would like to highlight here it’s not about showing the error message but technically we would like to ensure that the following things happen in IIS:-
  • Application domain under which the website is running is brought down.
  • All incoming request coming to the ASP.NET site needs to stopped.
  • All request to be routed to the temporary page which is created.
  • After maintenance the application domain should be loaded and the incoming request should be processed in a normal manner.
Thanks to Microsoft they always understand our needs. The proper way of approaching this problem is to create a simple “App_offline.htm” file in your application root directory. In this “App_offline.htm” you can put your user friendly message which the end users can see when the site is under maintenance.
Once done you can delete the file and your web site app domain is loaded and the normal life continues.






You can visit my site for
C# and .NET interview questions and in case you are a fresher you can attend FREE C# training by clicking on C# training videos.

Take a quick look as revision for practical video on "Site is under maintenance"

Monday, June 4, 2012

C# and .NET interview advice for freshers: - Not getting a job for a year should I put fake experience, switch to DBA or pay money for getting a job?

As a .NET interview questions author I always get lots of emails. One of the common things which people ask should I put a fake experience. Below is an answer to one such email.

Sir I've completed b.tech in 2011 ,,,,and searching for a job,,,, I was trained on .NET from NIIT institute ,,,, I've faced some .NET interviews but they are asking for money to pay them,,,,

If someone says pay money to get a job that means they do not need you, you are kind of a baggage on them. Also beware it can be a fraud also. Lately lot of small size software companies and training institutes who are not doing well have turned up to these kind of activities.


When we say we are doing a job, means we are helping company to grow and company pays money in return. So people who are asking for money straight say No No , if that means sitting at home for some time that’s fine, enjoy family.

and other side i am jobless till now and its been 1year,,,and now i don't understand what to do now to see my self as a engineer

If you are jobless for a year you need to see what’s going on wrong. Do connect me personallyfor a mock on .NET interview so that I can personally judge to see what is wrong.

IT market is not so bad. It must be a bit strict for fresher’s but not that horrible as you see. See one is that you are jobless for a year and the other is that in this 1 year you have been to at least 15 interviews and you got till the last round. So if you belong to later part of it that means you are doing well and you should get a job soon.

I personally understand what it means to be at home for a year. But believe me when you get good positions in life ahead you will cherish this struggle and you will be proud of the same.

How about switching to DBA

Courtesy: - http://everydayclimb.files.wordpress.com/

There's a saying in Hindi,DusrokagharSuhanalagtahai( The other side of the grass is always green). .NET, c# has large number of jobs as compared to DBA. Definitely DBA has its own Niche but the numbers of jobs are less. So if for C# you have 100 jobs then for DBA you will have 10. In those 100 c# jobs the number of applicants will be 1000 while in DBA it will be 10.

So one scores high in the number of jobs while the other has less competition. My suggestion would be you have already been trained in NIIT , you are already in full swing of searching a job , stick to .Net for now. You can switch to DBA later when you have a job on hand.

Will a fake 1 year experience help me?


For one Lie you will have to tell 100 Lies ahead. Smaller companies look for people who can code and complete their project. Bigger and mid-level companies look for experience. So start with smaller companies, do not expect sky rocketing salary, be truthful, show your expertise by showing some sample projects. Let them you are serious as well as competent.

I know you will not believe as you are jobless for a year but TRUTH finally wins.

C# interview questions: - What’s the difference between String and String Builder?



Also visit my site for more C# training.