Back in 2013, I released my MarkEmbling.Utils package containing a bunch of extension methods, helpers and so on which I often re-use across various projects. Since then, a lot has changed in the .NET world and the time has come for me to revisit this package, giving it some much-needed attention and correcting a few decisions which in hindsight were not the best choices.

Whilst working in various different .NET-based projects, I can find myself doing the same things over and over again. Quite often, this can be copied and pasted from one project to another or re-implemented slightly differently from one project to another. I don't think this is the best approach, so I've decided to start bringing together all these bits and pieces to form MarkEmbling.Utils.

Last weekend I found myself needing to make use of the Google Spreadsheet API using a service account to manage spreadsheets belonging to users of a Google Apps domain from within a .NET application.

In December I posted about MongoDB and using it within .NET applications. I had always intended to post one (or more) follow-up posts but various things conspired against me causing it never to happen. Well, now that time is over and I thought it was about time I explored another MongoDB .NET driver.

I've noticed with interest the 'NoSQL' movement which seems to have arrived recently and have on the whole ignored it. I generally find myself getting on well with relational databases and based on that fact (and the fact they are so commonly used), I have not looked into any of the alternatives. However, I have recently read various articles talking in particularly about CouchDB and MongoDB and after reading a little bit about both, I decided to give MongoDB a closer look.