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How to Configure IIS Express to Accept SSL Client Certificates

Developing applications with SSL client certificates are a challenge because there are so many little things that can go wrong. You quickly want to open the debugger, but that can be a challenge in itself, especially when the whole chain only works on a remote server. A much simpler way is to use IIS Express with a configuration that accepts SSL client certificates. This setup allows you to debug your application on your local machine without the need to configure the full IIS – at least as long as the errors are in your application.

Working Effectively with Cookies in Google Chrome

I use the built-in developer tools of Google Chrome whenever I develop web applications. They offer me nearly everything I need for debugging and to solve problems with CSS. However, there is one spot where those tools fall short: Cookies.
You can see the cookies and modify them. But in comparison to the other parts it feels clumsy and complicated.

My Highlights of NDC Oslo 2017

The 10th edition of the NDC (Norwegian Developers Conference) in Oslo was the best I ever attended. Kjersti and her team made everyone welcome and created a friendly and familiarly atmosphere. This is no easy task, especially not with 2000 attendees. But even at this size you always felt a personal touch and if you needed something, you would always find one of the organizers.

Between the talks you had enough time to meet with old friends and make new ones. Talking in person to people you know from Twitter is a great way to connect on a different level. And let's not forget the food. The NDC has plenty and if you don't like a dish, you have other offerings that should meet your taste.

Export all Saved Passwords from Google Chrome

Google Chrome lets you save your passwords in its password store. While this is a convenient function, it may not be the most trustworthy one. If you trust Google and only use one computer, this may be fine. However, should you try to move your passwords into a service like 1Password, Last Pass or the KeePass application, you will figure out a small problem: The dialog to access your passwords allows you to view only one password at a time:

Chrome saved passwords

Boost your Debugging Speed with OzCode

In a perfect world, no one needs to debug. All code is covered by tests and if something goes wrong, it's just adding yet another test. It's a whole other story in legacy code, where the debugger is your only chance to figure out what is going on. A tool like OzCode will make debugging a whole lot faster.

Activating FILESTREAM on SQL Server

SQL Server has a great feature called FILESTREAM. It allows applications to store unstructured data (like images or PDF files) on the file system while keeping the transactional capabilities of the database. It's a straight forward task to activate this feature while you install SQL Server. But it gets tricky when you have a pre-installed server.

Let Death Code Die

Let's talk about some of the more annoying habits many programmers have: the inability to delete code. Code is kept around as if their life depends on it, even when its purpose is long gone. They do all possible things so they don't have to delete anything. They comment code out, put unreachable conditions around it or throw files out of a solution (in Visual Studio), just to keep the file in a place where no one is looking. All this is clutter and needs to go away.

A Quick Fix for SQL Server Error 15023

Backup and restore are simple tasks in SQL Server. The only problem is the user mapping that may no longer work when you restore the database to a different server. If you try to remap the user, you may end up with an error like this one:

error 15023