I added my resume to the site primarily because I wanted to take
advantage of the style I've set on the site. So I went "old school"
and created a simple table-based output, and simply copied and
pasted the data in. When it was all done, it looked just fine on
the screen, but I needed to do some tweaking to its printed appearance
and to address the very low comfort level I had with having my
entire curriculum vitae (another term for a resume; commonly, "C.V.")
out there for all the world to see.

PRINT CSS 

One of the coolest thing about cascading style sheets (CSS) is they
mustn't necessarily apply to the screen. For example, you can create a
separate CSS solely for print output which might be used to strip
out a background image or headers or footers from the print output.
Please refer to the hot-to on print CSS for detailed information on
this subject. You won't regret it!

SECURITY

I didn't feel comfortable having my entire C.V. posted to the site. So
I created a "switch" to turn the display on and off. Very simply, I
made the table control itself a server control, and set its visibility
in the code behind. So the only way the resume would be visible would
be if I "flipped the switch" in the codebehind, viewed it locally,
"flipped it back," and then simply posted to the production server
as normal, making sure I'd double-check the resume web form once the
post was complete to make sure I didn't leave it visible.

The concept matured somewhat by setting the "switch" in a configuration
file. Now I don't have to bother with the codebehind. I could simply
access the appropriate configuration and away I'd go. 

Then I got pretty sick with it - I created a series of "switches" in
a configuration file that applied solely to the resume, and toggled
whether to display my contact information, to display employers'
name/location data, to display educational institutions' names/
location data, and finally to display miscellaneous information I may
or may not include in a particular C.V., depending on the position.

Here's how this was done:

In .NET, one may have multiple configuration ("config") files below the
machine level. You can have a single main config that sits in the
application root directory, or you can have a config for each directory
if you'd like. These config files are really XML files that follow a
specified schema. The node we're interested in is the <appSettings>
node, which appears beneath the <configuration> node, like this:

	<?xml version="1.0"?>
	
	<configuration xmlns=". . .">
		<appSettings>
			<!--comments go in like this-->
		</appSettings>
	</configuration>

The values you place beneath the <appSettings> node are key/value
pairs. Here are the values I used:

	<configuration xmlns=". . .">
		<appSettings>
			<!--Resume-->
			<add key="ResumeIsVisible" value="True"/>
			<add key="ResumeContactInformationIsVisible" value="False"/>
			<add key="ResumeEmployerAndInstitutionInformationIsVisible" value="False"/>
			<add key="ResumeMiscInformationIsVisible" value="False"/>
		</appSettings>
	</configuration>

As you can see above, I have four entries in my config. Note that
each key is prefixed with "Resume." This way there's no ambiguity
about what section the key belongs to. Now I just need to be able
to access these values from within the code and we'll be all set. 
These key/value pairs may be accessed through a special class in
the System.Web namespace. The full path of the class is:

	System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager

The <AppSettings> node is accessible under this 
WebConfigurationManager class. If you import this class into your
codebehind, like this:

	Imports System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager

it makes it easier to access the key you set. Now, with your Imports
statement in place, you can access the data you put in your config.
Here's how I access the value for "ResumeIsVisible", which is the
first key I included above:

        'set whether the resume should be visible or not
        
        If Not CBool(AppSettings("ResumeIsVisible")) Then
            'make the content invisible
            tblOuter.Visible = False

            'redirect to the error page - better than having them look at a blank form.
            Response.Redirect("~/error.aspx")
        Else
            'make content visible.
            tblOuter.Visible = True
        End If

Here, all I've done is used the value I associated with my 
"ResumeIsVisible" key to determine whether or not I want the table to
be visible. Notice that I converted the value to a Boolean in the code,
because the value in the config is stored as a string, and I wanted to
be sure it would be evaluated properly.

As for the other key/value pairs, I simply set visibility on particular
table rows or labels. For example, some of the miscellenous information
important to a few imployers is in its own section, but a highlight
bullet is included up in my "Profile" section. So I wanted to make sure 
that bullet is absent if the "misc" table row is supposed to be omitted. 

Another method I used here was changing the text of particular labels.
This became important where I had the employer's name in a row in column
"A" and the dates of employment in a corresponding row in column "B."
I wanted the dates to remain visible but just the employer name to be
changed. Placing each employer's name in an <asp:Label> control was my
answer. Here's what the code looked like:

 	'set whether resume location information should be visible or not
       
        If Not CBool(AppSettings("ResumeEmployerAndInstitutionInformationIsVisible")) Then
            'make the employer and institution content invisible
            lblInstitution1.Text = "Institution Name Withheld"
            lblInstitution2.Text = "Institution Name Withheld"
            lblEmployer1.Text = "Employer Name Withheld"
            lblEmployer2.Text = "Employer Name Withheld"
            lblEmployer3.Text = "Employer Name Withheld"
        Else
            'make employer and institution content visible.
	    . . .
	End If

Note the name of each label. Even though it goes against good programming
technique, this is one situation where you don't want your label name
to be too descriptive. If you went with "lblSuperGiantCorp" instead of
"lblEmployer1", a check of your Web Form's source code would give you
up immediately.

	<tr>
	   <td><span id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_lblSuperGiantCorp">Employer Name Withheld</span></td>
        </tr>

duh. :-)

	
That should be it for now! Contact me using the site's contact form if 
you have questions. Feel free to use the code in your projects. A shout
out in your project would be thoughtful. Also, drop me a line and let me
know how you might have tweaked things to better suit your needs. 
Finally, I wouldn't profess to be THE expert on matters represented in
my code -- so drop me a line if you have constructive suggestions, too. 
I'd like to hear from you!
  

Best,

halfgk


copyright 2007 halfgk.com