[Mono-list] Mono Success Story!

[Abe Gillespie]

Sorry for the dupe, All.  I sent this first one out from the wrong  
email address but looks like the mods eventually let it through anyway.

-Abe

On May 28, 2008, at May/28/08 10:24 AM, Abe Gillespie wrote:

> I just wanted to write Miguel et. al and thank everyone for the
> amazing product that is Mono!
>
> My company, Obtuse Software, recently rolled out their online store
> which is 100% powered by Mono (you can see the Mono badge proudly
> displayed at the bottom of every page).  Some key points about the
> site and its Mono utilization:
>
> o PostgreSQL database backend connected by Npgsql.
> o Webforms authentication with various Web.config <location>s.
> o Logging via log4net.
> o Google Checkout integration using the Google Checkout .Net API.
> o The purchased software is built on-the-fly by kicking off an
> external NAnt build process.  NAnt builds both a license assembly and
> the NSIS Windows installer.
>
> The whole system is all Linux (CentOS) / all awesomeness.  This is my
> first production use of Mono and it has been a great joy.  Mono's
> ASP.NET has been greatly improved since my last failing attempt at a
> Mono site (somewhere back around Mono 1.1.x).  Mono sensing updates to
> assemblies, .aspx files, and the Web.config is a big help.
>
> Now, of course, the entire experience wasn't w/o problems:
>
> o log4net's config doesn't work when embedded into the Web.config
> file.  I had to use a separate config file and use log4net's
> XmlConfigurator.Configure(FileInfo pathToConfig)
> o It's difficult to predict the root directory of the webapp.  I'm
> using Mono's ASP.NET auto-configuration so I *think* what happens is
> Mono configures the "~" path (as in, Server.MapPath("~")) relative to
> the first .aspx page that's loaded.  But I probably can just fix this
> by specifically configuring the webapp in the Apache config file.
> o We're using https for our site and have found that Mono cannot
> handle loading the same webpage using both http:// and https://  For
> example, if I load http://www.mysite.com/default.aspx, and then  
> later https://www.mysite.com/default.aspx
> , it barfs.  It looks like it stays configured to whatever was first
> loaded (if http first, then only http works / if https first, then
> only https works).  Now this is also not a big deal since I just need
> to stratify the webapp into separate http and https pieces and use
> Apache to setup different VirtualHosts.
> o Mono doesn't let you change around the .aspx page on-the-fly like MS
> ASP.NET does.  For example, if you have a button with an OnClick
> method like:  <asp:Button id="fooButton" OnClick="FooClick"
> runat="server" /> you cannot remove the OnClick attribute w/o
> recompiling on Mono, MS you can.
> o Had to use the deprecated ServicePointManager.CertificatePolicy
> method for SSL communication with Google.  Mono does not yet implement
> the newer method using ServerCertificateValidationCallback.
>
> Other than these few small hindrances, Mono worked great.  Thank you,
> again, for such a quality product!
>
> -Abe
>
> PS - If you're interested in what Obtuse Software does, you can
> checkout the press release here:  http://www.obtusesoft.com/pr.html
> zigGIS (Obtuse Software's inaugural product) is an Open Source GIS
> extension to ESRI ArcMap.
> _______________________________________________
> Mono-list maillist  -  Mono-list at lists.ximian.com
> http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/mono-list