I came cross an interesting blog entry that said that Windows Server 2008 will have SP1 label already applied to it. Take a look at http://blogs.msdn.com/iainmcdonald/archive/2008/02/15/windows-server-2008-is-called-sp1-adventures-in-doing-things-right.aspx
Now, how will this effect people's rule not to install a Microsoft server, until SP1 is released (or did the rule implement this version scheme due to that rule :)
Firefox team released a public Beta 3 of the new version of Firefox 3 browser. Here are some first impressions
Some minor annoyances
Sara Ford's Tips Blog is an excellent source of tips. This one especially helpful for me.
Sara Ford's WebLog : Did you know... You can use Shift+ESC to close a tool window - #142
I stumbled upon an excellent utility for WCF Testing that comes with Visual Studio 2008 - WCFTestClient.
The tool is an simple way to test WCF clients HTTP and TCP bindings. Some things are not supported, however, for basic WCF Testing, this definitely beats the old ASMX test page.
Note: Also check out the WCFSvcHost utility from Visual Studio to host an arbitrary WCF Service.
I finally got a chance to release a binary of the latest Query ExPlus v.2.0.2.8
I didn't put time into the project for a while, however, some developers in the community did, and I'd like to extend my appreciation to those guys.
The new functionality since last version is:
The project is still a one executable 172KB in size. The only prerequisite is the .NET 2.0 framework
You can access the project homepage on Source Forge
http://sourceforge.net/projects/queryexplus
The direct download link for the release is
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=176790&package_id=206668&release_id=567994
The download is available as either compressed executable or compressed source
One of the requests that I've received from other developers is the ability to use SCSF for developing a module without including the shell in the solution. We develop a large number of modules independently in different groups and having the shell be a part of every module was getting to be a problem.
The only issue that I was getting with getting this to work was that SCSF guidance package would fail in ViewTemplateCS when I would right click on a folder and tried to add a new view to the project.
To solve the issue, I was made a small tweak to the source in the ViewTemplateReferenceCS.cs. (The code comes with the SCSF, however, you will have to install it separately after the SCSF is installed) The culprit is the function ContainsRequiredReferences(Project project) Specifically the call to ContainsReference(project, prjCommon.Name)
Since the common project is not in the solution, the call failed with Null Reference exception. All I had to do was to change the last line of the function to be ContainsReference(project, "Infrastructure.Interface"); Then recompile the GuidancePackage solution and place the Microsoft.Practices.SmartClientFactory.GuidancePackage.dll into the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Smart Client Factory\Guidance Package folder.
I've encountered a problem trying fix the WCF / WPF Visual Studio 2005 Integration components after I've installed Visual Studio 2008.
Installing a VS 2008 will install .NET 3.0 SP1 and remove the installation of .NET 3.0. When trying to install the WCF / WPF Extension, installation display's a message
Setup has detected that a prerequisite is missing. To use Visual Studio 2005 extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (WCF & WPF), November 2006 CTP you must have the .NET Framework 3.0 runtime installed. Please install the .NET Framework 3.0 runtime and restart setup
You really can't install .NET 3.0 since a newer version (.NET 3.0 SP1) is already installed.
I found a solution on the MS Forums http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2550726&SiteID=1
It involves either going creating a registry key to full the installers into thinking that SP1 is installed. To fix the issue, add the following value to the registry:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{15095BF3-A3D7-4DDF-B193-3A496881E003}] "DisplayName"="Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0"
Thanks Erich for the solution.
Note: I got a comment that this can also be forced using command line: msiexec /i vsextwfx.msi WRC_INSTALLED_OVERRIDE=1
Thanks
There is a bug in the SCSF implementation that views even though closed, will not terminate the workitems. This was described on codeplex in the following thread: http://www.codeplex.com/smartclient/Thread/View.aspx?ThreadId=4370
Here is my workaround:
In the View.Designer.cs
protected override void Dispose(bool disposing) { if (disposing) { if (_presenter != null) { _presenter.OnCloseView(); // <<<<<<<<======= Workaround _presenter.Dispose(); } if (components != null) components.Dispose(); } base.Dispose(disposing); }
In the ViewPresenter.cs
bool Closing = false; public void OnCloseView() { if (!Closing) { Closing = true; if (WorkItem.Status != WorkItemStatus.Terminated) WorkItem.Terminate(); base.CloseView(); } }
The code will force the workitem to be terminated after the view is closed
This is something that is totally cool. You can use Visual Studio 2008 and a lot of the new functionality and cross compile it to .NET 2.0 and run it on the older framework. For Example, You can use Var objects, Simple Property Declarations, Property Constructors, Lambda expressions
Here's an example program that can be compiled with VS 2008 to the .NET 2.0 framework
static class Program { private class Client { public string Name { get; set; } public string Address { get; set; } } private static List<Client> clients = new List<Client> { new Client() {Name = "Name1", Address = "Address1" }, new Client() {Name = "Name2", Address = "Address2" }, new Client() {Name = "Name3", Address = "Address3" }, new Client() {Name = "Name13", Address = "Address13" }, new Client() {Name = "Name123", Address = "Address123" } }; [STAThread] static void Main() { List<Client> ClientsWith1 = clients.FindAll(c => c.Name.Contains("1")); ClientsWith1.ForEach(c => { var NewClient = new { Name = c.Name, Address = c.Address }; Console.WriteLine(NewClient.ToString()); }); Console.ReadKey(); } }
Here's the output
{ Name = Name1, Address = Address1 }
{ Name = Name13, Address = Address13 }
{ Name = Name123, Address = Address123 }
And it works without .NET 3.5 installed.
For those interested, Here's a Reflected code
internal static class Program { // Fields private static List<Client> clients; [CompilerGenerated] private static Predicate<Client> CS$<>9__CachedAnonymousMethodDelegate2; [CompilerGenerated] private static Action<Client> CS$<>9__CachedAnonymousMethodDelegate3; // Methods static Program() { List<Client> <>g__initLocal4 = new List<Client>(); Client <>g__initLocal5 = new Client(); <>g__initLocal5.Name = "Name1"; <>g__initLocal5.Address = "Address1"; <>g__initLocal4.Add(<>g__initLocal5); Client <>g__initLocal6 = new Client(); <>g__initLocal6.Name = "Name2"; <>g__initLocal6.Address = "Address2"; <>g__initLocal4.Add(<>g__initLocal6); Client <>g__initLocal7 = new Client(); <>g__initLocal7.Name = "Name3"; <>g__initLocal7.Address = "Address3"; <>g__initLocal4.Add(<>g__initLocal7); Client <>g__initLocal8 = new Client(); <>g__initLocal8.Name = "Name13"; <>g__initLocal8.Address = "Address13"; <>g__initLocal4.Add(<>g__initLocal8); Client <>g__initLocal9 = new Client(); <>g__initLocal9.Name = "Name123"; <>g__initLocal9.Address = "Address123"; <>g__initLocal4.Add(<>g__initLocal9); clients = <>g__initLocal4; } [STAThread] private static void Main() { if (CS$<>9__CachedAnonymousMethodDelegate2 == null) { CS$<>9__CachedAnonymousMethodDelegate2 = delegate (Client c) { return c.Name.Contains("1"); }; } if (CS$<>9__CachedAnonymousMethodDelegate3 == null) { CS$<>9__CachedAnonymousMethodDelegate3 = delegate (Client c) { Console.WriteLine(new { Name = c.Name, Address = c.Address }.ToString()); }; } clients.FindAll(CS$<>9__CachedAnonymousMethodDelegate2).ForEach(CS$<>9__CachedAnonymousMethodDelegate3); Console.ReadKey(); } // Nested Types private class Client { // Fields [CompilerGenerated] private string <Address>k__BackingField; [CompilerGenerated] private string <Name>k__BackingField; // Properties public string Address { [CompilerGenerated] get { return this.<Address>k__BackingField; } [CompilerGenerated] set { this.<Address>k__BackingField = value; } } public string Name { [CompilerGenerated] get { return this.<Name>k__BackingField; } [CompilerGenerated] set { this.<Name>k__BackingField = value; } } } }
hey
I had to write a custom download component to download modules for a ClickOnce deployed application. The actual downloading is simple, the tricky part was creating the manifest and make sure that I only download files that are required.
I am using an GeneraApplicationManifest MSBuild task to generate an application manifest. The documentation is very easy to follow.
The generated manifest will include a Hash value. It is fairly simple to compute the same hash value manually and be able to validate it.
private bool HashChanged(string fileName, string originalHashValue) { byte[] Hash = Convert.FromBase64String(originalHashValue)); byte[] newHash; SHA1Managed sha = new SHA1Managed(); FileStream strm = null; try { strm = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read); newHash = sha.ComputeHash(strm); } finally { if (strm != null) strm.Close(); } if (Hash.Length != newHash.Length) return true; for(int i = 0; i< Hash.Length; i++) { if (Hash[i] != newHash[i]) return true; } return false; }
Another small batch file hook for those running subversion on windows. This hook will allow users to update a log message on the old check-in.
Note: Property changes are not versioned, so you will permanently loose the old message.
Place this in a pre-revprop-change.cmd
-------------
IF %5 EQU M GOTO CONT1
GOTO FAIL
:CONT1
IF %4 EQU svn:log GOTO OK
:FAIL
echo "Changing revision properties other than svn:log is prohibited" >&2
exit 1
:OK
exit 0
------------
My application is distributed via ClickOnce and a requirement is to be able to provide endpoint overrides for multiple environments. Here's what was done to create the solution
Smart Client Software Factory includes a service called EndpointCatalog. It allow for easy management of endpoints with environment overrides. Start by adding a
private void AddServices() { IEndpointCatalog catalog = WorkItem.RootWorkItem.Services.Get<IEndpointCatalog>(false); if (catalog == null) { IEndpointCatalogFactory catalogFactory = new EndpointCatalogFactory("Endpoints"); catalog = catalogFactory.CreateCatalog(); WorkItem.RootWorkItem.Services.Add<IEndpointCatalog>(catalog); }
This will read the endpoint catalog from the application.config file , section Endpoints. Here is a partial app.config
<configSections> <section name="Endpoints" type="Microsoft.Practices.SmartClient.EndpointCatalog.Configuration.EndpointSection, Microsoft.Practices.SmartClient.EndpointCatalog" /> </configSections> <Endpoints> <EndpointItems> <add Name="DataService.DataClient" Address="http://server/DataService.svc" UserName="default-user-name" Password="default-password" Domain="default-domain"> <NetworkItems> <add Name="QA" Address="http://qa.server/DataService.svc"/> <add Name="UAT" Address="http://uat.server/DataService.svc"/> </NetworkItems> </add> </EndpointItems> </Endpoints>
The endpoints section defines an endpoint, and an override for each environment. The catalog will return the override if it exists, or the original entry if it does not.
To create the WCF client, I created the following function.
T CreateWCFClient<T, Ti>() where T : ClientBase<Ti>, new() where Ti : class { try { T client = new T(); if (endpointCatalog.EndpointExists(typeof(T).FullName)) { client.Endpoint.Address = new EndpointAddress (endpointCatalog.GetAddressForEndpoint(typeof(T).FullName, Environment)); } return client; } catch (Exception) { throw; } }
_DataWebService = CreateWCFClient<DataService.DataClient, DataService.IDataClient>();
Something new I've just added to my blog webpage, the "Chat with me" link. It is in the right top corner of the site.
You can implement this functionality by http://settings.messenger.live.com/applications/websettings.aspx
