Pre .NET 4.O

Prior to  ASP.NET 4.0 (and especially with MVC) when a user outputted information to a webpage they used <%= Server.HtmlEncode(modelViewStore.Content) %>

The reason for the Encoding is primiarily to prevent XSS (cross site script injection) whereby someone may try to inject some client side script or HTML Markup to vandalize a site or to steal valuable information.

This approach has a few shortcommings; like,

* Users may forget the encoding
* bit verbose

.NET 4.0

A new nugged has arrived:

<%: modelViewStore.Content %>

Ever wondered how to display the correct cursor in an application that is databinded to async methods?

Pretty easy solution, just databind the cursor on the window itself.

Here's how:

• Add an IsBusy property on the DataContext (and implement INotifyPropertyChanged on it)
• Add the following to your window xaml

[code:c#]

xmlns:valueConverters="clr-namespace:XXX.ValueConverters"
Cursor="{Binding IsBusy, Converter={valueConverters:CursorExtensionConverter}}" 

[/code]

• Create the following ValueConverter

[code:c#]

public class CursorExtensionConverter : MarkupExtension, IValueConverter
{
    public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
        if (value != null && ((bool)value))
            return Cursors.Wait;           
        else
            return Cursors.Arrow;
    }

    public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }

    public override object ProvideValue(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
    {
        return instance;
    }

    private static CursorExtensionConverter instance = new CursorExtensionConverter();
}

[/code]

Note: Use of MarkupExtension