This article will show you how to create fancy buttons using CSS sliding doors technique. It is much better to use this technique than to use image buttons because you can apply the style to any link and at the same time you don't have to create an image for each button. I posted this one on Morning Break weblog but due to its popularity I decided to publish it here.

What is sliding doors technique?

The technique is very simple. If we want to have a dynamic-width button, we have to find a way to stretch it horizontally. We will accomplish this if we create two background images that will define the button: one for the left side and one for the right side - like in the example below.

  LEFT                                                                                                           RIGHT

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.NET Framework 3.0 introduced a feature called extension methods. This allows you to add your custom methods to existing objects in .NET Framework. In this example, I'll show you how to generically create HTML table from DataTable object on the server, without a line of HTML code. The code from this article is available for download.

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Last time I presented you 3 must-have IE add-ons that I use for design and development. This time I'll show you 13 helpful Firefox add-ons that I also use.

1. CSSViever

This is a simple hover CSS property viewer. Simple, but yet - very useful.

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Every developer has their own tools that they use in work. Those tools make work easier and when we get used to exploiting them, life becomes unimaginable without them. Whether debugging web applications or going deep with CSS, browser add-ons become irreplaceable in work.

I will show you my must-have IE add-ons and I strongly recommend you to try those (if you haven't already). Although many developers use FireFox because it has a large number of add-ons, the tools I'm going to show you may change the way you think about development with Internet Explorer. I use both browsers because that way I have all I need for development.

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When I decided to run a new blog, I was in a dilemma whether to write engine from scratch or to use some existing solution. Since I wanted to do it fast, I started to search and BlogEngine.NET grabbed my attention. It is an open source project written in ASP.NET 2.0, which was a good starting point for me. Since I use Microsoft technologies in my everyday work it was easy to customize the solution.

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