Beloved MessageBox
Windows Forms programmers have it so easy. With a single line of code they can pop
up a dynamically configured message box any time they feel like it. As you likely
know, such a simple feature isn’t nearly so easy for us Web developers. To achieve
similar functionality, we’ve got to deal with JavaScript, postbacks, and other related
headaches. That is, unless you use one of these free controls.
I have created a free MessageBox control, along with a Confirmation
Button and a popup Window Opener control. They're
all rolled up along with the free source code and an article that describes how
it all works in detail. Have a look and try it out. Let me know what
you think!
http://SteveOrr.net/articles/ClientSideSuite.aspx
Saravana Kumar has provided a nice, basic custom Web control that
should take care of most MessageBox needs. You can display a basic
alert message with an OK button, or you can display a confirmation message with
OK and Cancel buttons. You can display the message when the form loads in the browser,
or when the user hits the Submit button. You can also choose to execute custom client-side
scripts upon user confirmation.
http://www.microsoft.com/india/msdn/articles/119.aspx
Mono Software is generous enough to provide a free Dialog
component that claims to “free you from the nightmare of ever-changing client-side
scripts and bad-looking dialog boxes.” Judging by the industry standard-looking
dialog boxes that are far more flexible than anything you’ll be able to display
with basic JavaScript, the claim seems to be true. You can also display InputBoxes,
a long-time friend of classic VB developers. In addition, the messages can be set
to automatically display upon various server-side events.
http://www.mono-software.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=244&tabindex=4
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
Alex Kwok has been gracious enough to provide a free component
for handling FTP transfers — because the current implementation
of .NET has a mysterious hole where this functionality should be. This FTP client
appears to have all the basic functionality you’d expect, such as uploading and
downloading files, listing directories, and deleting and renaming files. A healthy
dose of sample code is also available.
http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/dotnetftp.asp
GotDotNet.com
provides another great example of an FTP client component. It allows
you to upload, download, manage directories, and perform most other basic file operations.
The VB.NET source code is freely available and well written. Sample code for using
the control is also included in the download. An online forum lists many discussion
topics about the component in case you’d like to learn more about the inner workings
and how to extend it.
http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/UserSamples/Details.aspx?SampleGuid=DD5E4A38-7F5B-45E0-9C36-64B987947C20