Indian railway should shut down their web sites

I think Indian railway should shut down their web sites (all), but specially www.irctc.co.in a web site where you can book your ticket.

This is the worst web site I ever came across. if you think that in place of booking ticket at railway reservation center and wait for hrs in a queue, lets book a ticket online to save all this time, then I will say you are wrong its better to book a ticket at reservation center than a web site

First of all this web takes long time to load, then again long time more than a 1-2 min to login, then you need to search your train, there it again takes time..., then you need to select a train and check the availability, if it available then say book ticket and then enter the name of passengers and also identity details of one passenger, then confirm that and then say book, then it will redirect you to payment page and again you need to select different payment gate way and then do the payment... and then take a print , big thing if you do not have a printer connected to your machine then ... ??? since there is no option to save the ticket. :( only print

You must be thinking that above process must be taking not more that 5 min? yes you are right this should not take but since this is a India railway web site it take more time... like for every post back it take more than 1-2 min, so calculate the post backs and multiply it by 1.5 (average) its more than 30 min

The most horrible thing I face in this is Session Expiry , I don't understand what are their session expiry policies, within a min or 2 the session get expire and you need to login again to web site and .... Start you process again from first step (login), means if you are in between the process of confirm the ticket and do the payment if your session get expire or timeout occurs for the post back event then...; you will get a nice Error message and ask you to go to home page where you need to login again and again start the entire cycle

Let me tell you in my last 2 years use of this web site I never able to book a ticket without getting any error and in less than 1/2 hr for a ticket.

Other things I you can notice that the looks are also not so good , see the image quality of the top banner its so bad...

One more important thing I forgot to mention, this is not a 24 hr service , after 11:00 PM you can not use this web site for booking

I do not understand where is problem is ? in technology ? server capacity ? or the system architecture? answer is NO.. then ?

why a big organization like Indian Railway which is own by the Government of India can't have a simple plain web site where one can book a ticket in 5 min, can search the train easily, can get accurate time table for trains ???

the Answer is YES they can...

but only problem is THEY DON'T WANT THAT...

How to delete workspace from TFS (Team Foundation Server)?

Now its long time I’m working on TFS, everyday leaning something new as it’s creates new problem for me. (It’s really a sweet product, but only if you are good in command prompts use and expert to use TFS)

Yesterday due to some locking and conflict issues I need to delete a workspace on one machine. Initially I was searching Visual studio for any option to delete it something like Right click delete optionJ, unfortunately there is no option like this; I don’t understand why Microsoft is not providing nice GUI interface for TFS management just like other Microsoft servers. Command prompt is only way to do any TFS management related operations.

Ok so next problem is- the command to delete or unlock the workspace?
Some MSDN and Google search solves the problem. Here are the TFS commands which you can use on “Visual studio Command prompt”

List the Workspace names, owners etc

• tf workspaces /server: ServerName /owner:*
• tf workspaces /server: ServerName /owner: OwnerName

Delete the workspace

• tf workspace /server: ServerName /delete WorkspaceName

Remember after deleting workspace you can not recover it…
you can find more workspace related commands at

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/54dkh0y3(VS.80).aspx

Easy steps to install Team Foundation Server 2005

finally installation of my TFS 2005 completed successfully. I was trying to install TFS 2005 from last 2 days but every time it gives me some error or some new requirement. from my total experience I summarised the steps here.

This is only for New BOX and single server deployment

1. Install Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or 2003 R2 with SP2
   • Install IIS from windows components. enable ASP.NET, do not enable FrontPage extensions.
2. Install MS SQL Server 2005 with all features.
   • Make sure that all services in MS SQL server set to Start automatically.
3. Install Windows SharePoint service 2.0 with SP2
   • DO not configure WSS and select farm installation type
4. Install MS SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2
5. Install .NET Framework 2.0 Service pack 2
6. Create 2 accounts on server TFSSERVICE and TFSREPORTS (if you have a domain and using active directory then create these account in Active directory)
7. Now time to start installation of TFS. if you are using domain controller then login in as domain admin and not local admin.
8. Insert the TFS CD/DVD and start the installation.
   • First it will check the server health and necessary components, its nothing but what we did in above steps, if everything is fine then it will ask for login for services , enter TFSSERVICE login details then report service login details, enter TFSREPORTS then SMTP ( you can skip this for now)
   • Start installation
   • Finish installation
9. Install Team Explorer.
10. If you want to access TFS in Internet Explorer then download Team System Web Access Tool from Microsoft downloads site free of cost and install it, (chose different web site normally port 8090 or any other port and not default 8080)
11. Install Team Foundation Server 2005 Service Pack 1
12. Done !!! your server is ready to use.

DO Read TFS Installation guide (which comes in DVD or you can download new version from Microsoft web site) carefully before starting installation.

ASP .NET 3.5 Namespaces

Commonly Used Types and Namespaces

System.Web
HttpApplication
HttpCookie
HttpRequest
HttpResponse
HttpRuntime
HttpServerUtility

System.Web.ApplicationServices NEW
AuthenticationService NEW
ProfileService NEW
RoleService NEW

System.Web.Caching
Cache

System.Web.ClientServices NEW
ClientFormsIdentity NEW
ClientRolePrincipal NEW
ConnectivityStatus NEW

System.Web.ClientServices.Providers NEW
ClientFormsAuthenticationMembershipProvider NEW
ClientRoleProvider NEW

System.Web.Compilation
BuildProvider

System.Web.Configuration
WebConfigurationManager NEW

System.Web.Hosting
ApplicationManager

System.Web.Management
WebBasedEvent

System.Web.Security
FormsAuthentication
FormsIdentity
Membership
Roles

System.Web.SessionState
HttpSessionState

System.Web.UI
Control
MasterPage
Page
ScriptManager NEW
System.Web.UI
UpdatePanel NEW
UpdateProgress NEW
UserControl

System.Web.UI.HtmlControls
HtmlButton
HtmlControl
HtmlForm
HtmlInputControl

System.Web.UI.WebControls
Content
DetailsView
FormView
GridView
LinqDataSource
ListView
LogIn
Menu
ObjectDataSources
TreeView
Wizard

System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts
WebPart

*New - New namespaces in .NET framework 3.5

Source:http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework

PUG Community Day - December 2007

The second PUG Community Day (formally known as PUG Meet) was a big success. On 15th December around 40 people turned up for this and the feedback was really good. In this meet, we saw one 60 year old attendee with 30+ years of experience.

This time we had 3 tracks
The day began with Mobile and Embedded Device Track. In this track Mayur Tendulkar (Microsoft India) took a session on Managed Windows Mobile Development. In his session, he explained about Windows Mobile platform considerations for mobile development like memory, screen, disconnected environment, etc.

In second track i.e. Developer Track, Ravi Patel (MVP – ASP.Net) took a session on What Is New in ASP.Net 3.5. In his session, he demonstrated some nice demos on ASP.net Controls, AJAX, and Web Services in Visual Studio 2008.

In third track i.e. IT Pro track, Vikram Pendase (eZon Solutions), took a session on IIS7.0. In his session, he explained IIS7 installation, new features of IIS7 etc… He also showed some nice demos pertaining to IIS 7.0 like Authentications, SSL Certificates Installation, etc…

All in all, this was a successful event. We want to thank all the people involved in this community activity.
Photos are available at http://maheshm.spaces.live.com/photos/cns!809C8F1C43EFFD14!244/

We're planning to continue this initiative and the next PUG Community Day is planned on 5th Jan 2008. We are trying to add more tracks like SQL and Student track too…