Here’s something that all you, my fellow C# developers, will find useful. Yesterday a company called Browserling announced that they’re launching a network of online developer tools.

If you haven’t heard about Browserling then you should check them out. They’re a friendly and fun cross-browser testing service and they’ve created and open-sourced over a hundred projects, including browserify for node.js.

Online developer tools network is a collection of websites where each website focuses on a single category of developer tools. Right now there are four websites in the network and they’re releasing 30 more websites over the next couple of years.

• Online String Tools – A collection of online string utilities
• Online JSON Tools – A collection of online JSON utilities
• Online XML Tools – A collection of online XML utilities
• Online CSV Tools – A collection of online CSV utilities

All websites in the network are ad-free. The reason why Browserling built this network is because their developers got fed up with other online services that offer similar tools. They were often filled with ads, popunders, blinking buttons and other crap. Browserling’s developers had had enough of this and they decided to create their own utilities that just work in your browser and do the right thing.

Let’s take a look at each site in more details.

Online String Tools

String Tools for Developers

Online String Tools has hundreds of tiny string utilities for converting strings, generating strings, encoding/decoding strings, filtering and replacing strings and more. All string utilities work right in your browser. There is no server-side processing going on and everything is super fast.

Online JSON Tools

JSON Tools for Developers

Online JSON Tools has two dozen utilities for working with JSON config files and JSON documents. Just like string tools, JSON tools work in your browser and are powered by modern JavaScript code, which makes them very fast. You can convert JSON to various data formats, encode and decode JSON, and compress, validate and prettify JSON.

Online XML Tools

XML Tools for Developers

Similar to string and JSON tools, this website offers two dozen utilities for working with XML configuration files and XML documents. All tools on this website also work inside your browser and nothing gets sent to the server. You can pretty much do all XML tasks with these tools. For example, you can compress XML, prettify XML and validate XML documents, and you can also convert XML to other data formats, such as YAML, TSV, CSV, JSON and Base64.

Online CSV Tools

CSV Tools for Developers

Online CSV Tools offers over two dozen different utilities for working with CSV data files. All CSV data processing happens in the browser and it’s super fast. You can convert CSV to a bunch of other data formats, like JSON and YAML, then you can work with CSV columns and rows. You can insert rows, swap columns, as well as change CSV delimiter and change quoting of CSV fields.

What’s next?

Browserling loves marathons. They will be adding 30 more websites to their network over the next 5 years. Here are some of the other sites they will be launching:

• Online BROWSER Tools – A collection of browser/web developer tools
• Online YAML Tools – A collection of Yet Another Markup Language tools
• Online TSV Tools – A collection of Tab Separated Values tools
• Online IMAGE Tools – A collection of image editing tools
• Online AUDIO Tools – A collection of audio editing tools
• Online PDF Tools – A collection of PDF editing tools
• Online CRYPTO Tools – A collection of cryptography tools
• Online RANDOM Tools – A collection of randomization tools
• Online FILE Tools – A collection of file editing tools
• Online TIME Tools – A collection of various time and date tools
• Online LIST Tools – A collection of tools for working with data lists
• Online CSS Tools – A collection of CSS tools
• Online JS Tools – A collection of JavaScript tools
• … and more websites!

If you found these tools useful, please follow Browserling on Twitter and follow Browserling on Facebook.

When you download XML text from the Web, you may find “garbage characters” in the start of your XML string.  For example, I encountered this result when I downloaded an XML string using WebClient.DownloadString method:

<Root><Item>Hello, World</Item></Root>

What you are likely seeing is a Byte Order Mark (BOM), which is a Unicode character that indicates the endian-ness (byte order) of a text file or stream.  The BOM is optional and will appear at the start of the text stream, if at all.  The BOM may also indicate in which of the several Unicode representations the text is encoded.

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Want insight into the design and development of C#?  Then check out these blogs by key members of the Microsoft C# development team:

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Of course you know that XML denotes element names with greater-than and less-than symbols, such as:

<name>value</name>

Therefore, to avoid confusing the XML parser, the greater/less symbols (and the ampersand, an HTML special character) must be encoded.

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When building your first .NET web service, you may be in for a rude awakening when you discover the concept of “partial trust.” Your previously bullet-proof code will suddenly fail in a flurry of exceptions thrown by seemingly innocuous commands such as reading files or accessing the Registry. This article provides a brief overview of Code Access Security and describes how to modify and test your code to work in a partial trust environment.
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Recently I posted a list of the Best C# Blogs. Today we recognize the best C# Web sites.

Following (in alphabetical order) are the best C# sites active on the Web today. Also included is the “About” section of the site (edited for space and clarity). Please comment if you can recommend other excellent C# web sites that didn’t make my list.

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Reading the contents of a web page is easy in C# with the System.Net.WebClient class:

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You can use the following JavaScript code in a web page to determine which versions of .NET are installed on a client PC:

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