Richard Adleta

Automating NuGet Packing and Publishing with MSBuild

2011-06-27T15:14:00.000-07:00

We’ve setup a NuGet Gallery and now we wanted to have our builds automatically package and publish to the NuGet Gallery.

The below is more or less the step-by-step process to get it up and running in an automated way.

Step 1 Create your NuSpec for your .csproj. The documentation on NuGet documents is pretty good for this step.

The gist is you will need to have the .nuspec file in the same directory as the .csproj file. You will have to modify this file and ensure you’ve populated all the correct tags as mentioned in the NuGet documents.

Note: An error message will appear when trying to package if something is missing.

Step 2 Modify your .csproj file and add the below snippets. They are generically written so they should fit right into your msbuild file fine. Obviously, edit when appropriate should your msbuild file already be customized.

Edit: Make sure you update the My_Nuget_Gallery_Service_Url token in the script to point to your gallery.

Note: You will need to run nuget setApiKey before this will work as it relies on the API Key for the NuGet Gallery already to be stored locally. This is handy as you can login as your Build Service Identity and run the command. It will then publish as that user from then on out.

Step 3 Run it via MSBUILD.

All you need to do on your build sever is execute the below command:

Edit: Make sure you update the tokens to be the correct values for your project.

How to execute ROBOCOPY.EXE from a bat file using the Windows batch command plug-in in Jenkins

2011-06-24T12:49:00.001-07:00

It’s ugly as hell. The snippet is below.

Getting Started with Visual Studio 2010 and Web Deployment Tool

2011-06-10T14:01:00.001-07:00

I wanted to jot a couple notes about the process which took me a few minutes to figure out.

Step 1 is setup and configure Package/Publish Settings.

Open Visual Studio 2010
Open your Web Project
Open Solution Explorer
Right-Click on your Web Project
Click on Package/Publish Settings

At this point, you should see the below.

You need to make sure you set the “IIS Web site/application name to use on the destination server” to the «Web Site»/«Virtual Directory» path. If you are updating a Web Site just leave it to be the web site name in IIS.

This is very important. If this doesn’t match the target, then your deployment will fail unless you customize the deployment further.

You’ll want to repeat this process for all your difference Configurations. By default, Visual Studio gives you Debug and Release. Most people, will add one per environment to the list (i.e. Development, Integration, QA, Staging, Production, etc.)

Step 2 add a Parameters.xml file to the root of your Web Project in Visual Studio 2010. This allows you to setup parameters, which the deployment process will use when it’s processing your deployment. An example of what I used is below.

Parameters.xml
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<parameters>
  <parameter name="Application Path"
             description="Full site path where application will be created."
             defaultValue="$(DeployIisAppPath)"
             tags="IisApp">
    <parameterEntry kind="ProviderPath"
                    scope="iisApp"
                    match="$(DeployIisAppPath)"/>
  </parameter>
  <parameter name="Application Physical Path"
             description="Physical path where files for this Web application will be deployed."
             defaultValue="c:\inetpub\wwwroot\$(DeployIisAppPath)"
             tags="PhysicalPath">
      <parameterEntrykind="DestinationVirtualDirectory"
                     scope="$(DeployIisAppPath)"
                     match="" />
  </parameter>
</parameters>
 

You’ll note I used $(DeployIisAppPath) several times within the file. This refers back to the “IIS Web site/application name to use on the destination server” setting in your Package/Publish Settings in your Web Project.

Note: At the point of this writing, I haven’t experimented much with these settings, so feel free to tweak away.

Step 3 create your package. The simple way is to right-click your Web Project in Visual Studio and click Build Deployment Package.

This will create the package in the folder you set in the Package/Publish Settings for your Web Project.

You can use MSBuild from the command line. This comes in handy when you want to setup a build server to execute the Build and Package processes. The command line parameter looks like the below.

"c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319
\msbuild" .\MyWeb\MyWeb.csproj /t:Build,Package /p:Configuration=Release;DesktopBuildPackageLocation=C:\output\MyWeb-Release.zip

It’s import to note a couple things about the above command line.

I’m running on 64-bit Windows, so my Framework folder is Framework64. You might need to change this if you’re running 32-bit Windows.
I’m telling msbuild to run Build and then Package with the /t argument. Case sensitive.
I’m telling msbuild which configuration to run with /p argument.
I’m telling msbuild where to put the package by specifying the DesktopBuildPackageLocation with the /p argument.

Feel free to tweak this away it was hand to get something going on my side and may or may not be helpful to you.

After you run either of the above, you should have a package zip file and several other files in the directory.

Note: If you copy the package zip around you must include the other files with it to get the deploy to work correctly, so don’t forget them.

Step 4 is go to your IIS target server and setup the Web Site or Virtual Directory. Ensure you setup the name of the Web Site or Virtual Directory to match the one you populated in the Package/Publish Settings in your Web Project.

You will need to ensure you .NET Framework version is configured on your Application Pool to match your web sites target framework.

Note: The web deployment does not initially create the Web Site for you on the destination server. This must be done by other means.

Step 5 ensure the destination server has the Web Deployment Tool installed and configured properly.

By default, the Web Deployment Remote service is Disabled and stopped on the server. You must enabled it and start it.

Step 6 follow these instructions on how to install a package using the included CMD file.

Voila! You have from start to finish setup and running with Visual Studio 2010 and Web Deployment Tool process.

about.me/richardadleta

2011-03-07T20:15:00.001-08:00

TedC sent me over to about.me. I opened my own page. It’s fancy with the UI widgets. If you add several services it’ll let you link to other social content generators (e.g. twitter, blogspot, linkedin, etc.) No much else there, yet.

It' seems like the biggest use is putting your name on a page then getting the best picture of yourself and making it the background.

One more web site with my profile information. Sigh.

Now to find a pretty background… :)

Finding a Blog Editor

2011-03-05T20:46:00.001-08:00

I'm trying to find a good blog editor. I started by trolling google for a blog editor and ran across several. Usage is premium. It has to be simple, easy and quick.

I just downloaded the Chrome Plug-in called ScribeFire. (It's what I'm using to write this post.) I noticed it supports other browsers. So far, it's not bad, but then as I’m linking to the download page… BAM! It doesn’t let me highlight text and link it. I have to insert link, fill out form and submit. Boo! Uninstall.

While I was wasting my time with ScribeFire, I had the Windows Live Writer downloading in the background. I installed it and I have to say I’m actually impressed. It’s nice. It does what I want and the interface is pretty. I’ll stick with this one for a bit and see how it goes.

UPDATE: I found some nice Plugins for Windows Live Writer.

Tips on Writing Faster

2011-03-05T20:29:00.000-08:00

Helpful post on how to write faster. Worth reading considering how much writing we have to do on any given day.

Legacy DOS Script: Loop Over Directories

2010-12-16T19:01:00.001-08:00

Simple little script to loop over all sub-directories:

FOR /D %%f IN (".\*") DO ECHO %%f

ASP.NET httpRuntime element executionTimeout attribute appears to not work on IIS 7 and Windows 2008 R2.

2010-11-15T06:17:00.000-08:00

This was driving me nuts. I was getting 'System.Web.HttpException: Request timed out.' from a long running ASP.NET web request.

I tried setting the executionTimeout in the web.config file, but to no success. It just didn't appear to honor it.

After a lot of digging, I found a post mentioning something new in the IIS 7 infrastructure. It appears there is a new Ping function of IIS to determine if the work process is still active. You have to either disable the Ping by setting the Ping Enabled to false in the Advanced Settings of the Application Pool. Or, you have to increase the Ping Maximum Response Time (seconds) to a higher value than 90 seconds (it's default.)

I went with increasing the Ping Maximum Response Time (seconds) to a much higher value and presto, success.

Installing the first Atlassian Bamboo Remote Agent on Windows 2008

2010-10-14T05:10:00.000-07:00

Summary

The below instructions are step by step to install Atlassian Bamboo Remote Agent on Windows 2008 server. You'll need to replace the «token» in the below instructions to match your setup.

Installation Instructions

Add «service_account» to the Administrators group
Ensure Java JRE 6 or JDK 6 or later is installed (e.g. jdk-6u14-windows-i586.exe)
Create a folder c:\program files\atlassian bamboo
Copy atlassian-bamboo-agent-installer-2.5.5.jar to c:\program files\atlassian bamboo

Run As Administrator Command Prompt

CD c:\program files\atlassian bamboo
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\java" -Dbamboo.home=C:/Bamboo/agent1 -jar atlassian-bamboo-agent-installer-2.5.5.jar http://«bamboo_host»/agentServer/ installntservice

Change the Bamboo Remote Agent service to run as the «service_account»
Start the Bamboo Remote Agent service

Agile Data

2010-09-02T04:35:00.000-07:00

Must read Agile Data: Techniques for Successful Evolutionary/Agile Database Development.

Scrum Guide Diagram from Microsoft

2010-09-01T05:47:00.000-07:00

I found the below diagram of Scrum Guide in the Microsoft Visual Studio ALM Rangers' Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference download.

Very nice overview. Surprising coming from Microsoft. Guess Scrum is mainstream now.

NAnt Intro

2010-08-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

I found a decent (dated) intro to NAnt. I don't know if I agree with some of his statements in certain situations, but it's fair enough for someone coming into NAnt world.

C#: Convert System.TimeSpan to long format (wordy version)

2010-07-01T01:33:00.000-07:00

I found a nice VB.Net method which did close to what I wanted, so I tweaked it a little to offer a nice TimeSpan format alternative.

Free IE Tester

2010-05-13T05:46:00.001-07:00

A co-worker recently sent me a link to My DebugBar's IETester. It's a handy application allowing you to test your web sites against different versions of IE. Enjoy!

T-SQL for SQL Server 2005 to Shrink database to smallest size possible.

2010-04-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

How can you shrink a SQL Server 2005 database to the smallest size possible? Using the below script will do the trick.

Thanks to Pinal Dave for help with log portion!

CSV Microsoft Encoding a la C# .NET

2010-04-25T16:53:00.000-07:00

Small, little method to do CSV encoding of values. It's brute force, but works.

A quick example of how to xmlpoke using NAnt an appSettings value that does not exist.

2010-04-21T22:35:00.000-07:00

The below is an example of how to use NAnt to xmlpoke a new appSettings key and value xml element into a web.config. The same could be used for an app.config as well. In fact, it could be used generically on how to poke completely new XML elements into any XML document.

Free ASP.NET Progress Bar Control for Long Running Process: Essential Objects Progress Bar

2010-01-24T21:23:00.000-08:00

I came across Essential Objects' Progress Bar control, which just so happens to be free. It allows you to have a nifty progress bar for any ASP.NET long running processes. Very handy.

Free .NET Profiler: EQATEC Profiler

2010-01-22T11:22:00.000-08:00

Need a solid, easy-to-use .NET profiler? Check out EQATEC Profiler.

I had to track down a recent DotNetNuke issue and EQATEC Profiler allowed me to do so quickly. Note, I had to use these instructions on how to make it work with ASP.NET.

ManicTime: Track Application Usage Statistics

2010-01-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

I'm exploring the concept of application usage tracking on my machine to better understand what I do everyday. In doing so, I ran across ManicTime. I'm going to give it a try and see what it yields.

UPDATE: Love this tool. After two weeks of use, I'm able to generate pretty pictures and statics of my usage. It even tracks web site usage. This has been handy as we use Atlassian's Jira (web based tool) for our bug tracking.

Programmer Fonts: Consolas

2009-12-25T01:42:00.000-08:00

Up until now, I've used the Proggy Clean font for quite a bit when doing development. I like its small and compact presentation.

When I was rebuilding my computer, I ran across the Consolas font from Microsoft. I'm going to give it a small try and see how it stands up as a good programmer font.

How to remotely kill an active Remote Desktop Session?

2009-12-03T05:59:00.001-08:00

I found these to be pretty decent instructions.

Development Tools Mash Up

2009-10-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I've moved this list over to my web site. Go there to see the updated list.

This is my growing list of tools that I'm using or have used in the past. Hopefully, you'll enjoy the list and check one or two of them out.

Windows 7 Utilities

Virtual CloneDrive --- Works with Windows 7 and is freeware. Great to mount ISOs.

Microsoft Web Developer

MetaEdit 2.2 --- Allows you to view and edit IIS metabase 3.0, 4.0, and (not supported) 5.0/6.0.

UML Tools

TopCoder UML Tool --- An UML Tool that's pretty and free. I love using it to think through the architectural design of an application.

Programmer Fonts

Proggy Clean -- Compact programmer font; I appreciate its presentation and have used it a lot in the past.
Consolas -- Microsoft font; I'm currently using this one to constrast against Proggy Clean.

Source Control

VisualSVN Server --- SubVersion Server provides an easy way to create and maintain SubVersion repositories. I'm using it at home and love it.
TortioseSVN --- A SubVersion client; most notably known for its Windows Explorer integration. It's the best SubVersion client I've used to date. (I've tried a handful.)

References

Here's a short list of other developers who have lists of their favorite development tools:

ASP.NET Membership and Profile Mismatch ApplicationId

2009-10-03T15:14:00.000-07:00

I've been wading through the Membership and Profile features built-in to ASP.NET. In doing so, I ran into a little nasty (yet avoidable) issue. If you override the AspNetMembershipProvider and set the ApplicationName, but don't override the AspNetProfileProvider then the Profile and Membership data will mis-match as the ApplicationId will be different. The gotcha is that it will not error out. You will just see data start being generated for two different applications in the database.

In my instance, I had set the Membership provider to ApplicationName = "foo", so the Membership data in aspnet_Users was properly linking to my ApplicationName set. Unfortunately, I did not setup the same setting for Profile data. This meant that every time I manipulated the Profile data it ended up setting up a new ApplicationName = "/" and storing all data to that application. The Profile feature is smart enough to create the user for the data, so it'll additionally duplicate the user.

I wish that there was a clearer way to identify and avoid this issue for first timers to the data. My issue was compounded by the code that I was using below to setup the default Profile data to include the UserId. (This provides the cleanest way I have found to date to use the LinqDataSource without much code by using the asp:ProfileParameter.) See code snippets below for examples.

My New Favorite Screen Capture Tool: Jing

2009-09-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

Jing is my new favorite screen capture tool. Features:

Easy to use.
Compressed image capture. Smaller image size than ALT+Print Screen capture.
Allows arrows, boxes, and text updates to the screenshot.
Saves your screen capture history.
Accessible on the web, too. Haven't used this functionality, but it's possible.
It's FREE!

Hudson and Continuous Integration Jokes

2009-09-24T06:44:00.000-07:00

Thom Rossi sent me this humorous joke built into a plug-in for Hudson. It's a little tongue-in-cheek humor, but still funny.

On a related note, I hadn't heard of Hudson before, so it's something I'll like to dig into at some point to see how it stacks up against other build systems that have support for .NET.

Scott Hanselman's 2009 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows

2009-09-15T05:19:00.000-07:00

James Bright passed the link to the Scott Hanselman's 2009 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows. It's my new favorite post to check in on every now and again. Very good information!

Add to Context Menu Quick Delete Folder

2009-09-10T18:56:00.001-07:00

Need a fancy and quick way to permententally delete a folder in Windows. Then paste the below into a .REG file and then when you RIGHT-CLICK on a folder you can 'Quick Delete' the folder.

TreeSize Free

2009-09-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

TreeSize Free is very helpful in free up space on your harddrive. And it's free!

Boosting Tortoise SVN Performance

2009-09-01T05:32:00.000-07:00

This blog provides a very good write up of how to boost the Explorer integration with Tortoise SVN.

Using Visual Studio Command-Line (devenv.com) starts failing on Setup projects with ERROR: Unrecoverable build error

2009-08-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

I wanted to provide notice that we are currently seeing all builds failing on the build server that runs the builds via CruiseControl.NET as a domain account. Here is a write of what we know so far:

The errors produced by the command-line execution of Visual Studio (devenv.com) for every MSI, which state: ERROR: Unrecoverable build error
The issue cannot be reproduced when you log into Build Server and open the solution via Visual Studio (devenv.exe) and perform the compile.

I’ve resolved the issue. Here is the write up from a discussion I found about it:

I tried both the suggested remedy from the kb article and registering ole32.dll and still did not have success. I run devenv from the command line from my continuous integration server and one day it just started failing. No code had changed, it just started failing.

I searched all over and finally found someone in the same position that said they fixed it by deleting the user profile for the account that runs the build. I tried this today and it totally fixed the issue. Looks like MS doesn't cleanup the temp folders when running and after thousands of builds it can no longer scratch temp data to disk. I found one directory with over 65055 directories in it. lol Needless to say deleting the user profile directory took almost and hour.

So I did the following:

Deleted the directory: C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp
Logged in as ccnet user
Restarted the CruiseControl.NET service

This resolved the issue.

Lighting fast search in Outlook 2007

2009-08-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

Lookout will do it. Here is how to install:

Close Outlook 2007
Download Lookout and install it.
Patch it with a hot fix by copying lookout.dll into the install directory.
Hack it by copying the inventures_olk.dll from this zip into the install directory.
Open Outlook 2007

Much thanks to this post!

Enjoy!

Process Explorer

2009-08-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

In the Windows environment, its nice to have Process Explorer to see what's running in the background.

How to setup NTLM integration with Jira

2009-05-14T05:28:00.001-07:00

Here are the notes of setting up NTLM integration with Jira 3.13.4:

Downlaod 0.5.2 NTLM Plugin for Jira
Download jcifs-1.2.25.jar (Note: Only this version works. I ran into an issue with the 1.3.8 version that caused a null reference exception.)
Following the installation instructions within the 0.5.2 NTLM Plugin (See install. and readme. within the zip.)
Note you will need to copy the jcifs-1.2.25.jar and blah to the C:\Program Files\JIRA-Enterprise-3.13.4\atlassian-jira\WEB-INF\lib directory or wherever your install is located at within your machine.
Note when modifying ntlm_ldap.properties you must specify the details to be extactly the same as what's generated when using the Administration --> System --> LDAP

Configuring Jira to use Gmail via SMTP

2009-05-13T10:45:00.001-07:00

Here is the notes from work to setup SMTP for Jira on Windows:

Download openssl
Run: openssl s_client -connect smtp.gmail.com:465> gmail.pem
Edit gmail.pem with notepad
Remove everything exception of "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----" to "-----END CERTIFICATE-----" (the BEGIN and END portion must be retained)
Save it
Run: keytool -import -file gmail.pem -alias smtp.gmail.com -keystore "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_05\lib\security\cacerts"
keytool comes with Java in the bin dir
lib\security\cacerts is within the Java install dir
Edit C:\Program Files\JIRA-Enterprise-3.13.4\conf\server.xml
Obviously file is relative to your install
Add the below node to Context element but change relevant settings:
<resource name="mail/GmailSmtpServer" class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> auth="Container"
type="javax.mail.Session"
mail.smtp.host="smtp.gmail.com"
mail.smtp.port="465"
mail.smtp.auth="true"
mail.smtp.user="MyGmailAccount@gmail.com"
password="MyPassword"
mail.smtp.starttls.enable="true
mail.smtp.socketFactory.class="javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory"
/>
Save file
Move
Files:
javamail-1.3.3.jar
activation-1.0.2.jar
From: c:\Program Files\JIRA-Enterprise-3.13.4\atlassian-jira\WEB-INF\lib\
To: c:\Program Files\JIRA-Enterprise-3.13.4\common\lib
Restart Atlassian JIRA service
Go to Adminstration in JIRA web
Go to Mail Servers
Configure the SMTP
Use JNDI setting: java:comp/env/mail/GmailSmtpServer
Pray to God it works!

References:

http://www.customware.net/repository/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=36470958

http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/docs/latest/smtpconfig.html#SMTP+over+SSL

http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Connecting+to+SSL+services

xCode Plug-in: Completion Dictionary

2009-03-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

Nothing like adding a little code snippet support for xCode via the Completion Dictionary Plug-in.

PowerCommands VS.NET Add-in

2009-03-16T10:26:00.001-07:00

Some very handy additional commands for VS.NET come with the PowerCommands Add-in. My favorite is Collapse All Projects which is nice when you use very large solution files.

UPDATE: The Undo Close functionality to be buggy.

Free Diff Merge Tool: P4Merge

2009-02-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

I’ve been using a free merge tool called P4Merge and it’s a lot better than the built in one that comes with TortoiseSVN. It seems like it’s a lot more intelligent and figures out when the conflicts are just two adds vs two modifications. Thus, it saved me so much time when doing a merge because I just opened, reviewed, and saved the file with the tool when it was in conflicted state and it had resolved already most of my issues without me doing anything. A lot better than the other tools I’ve used. Obviously, you still need to review each conflict but it should made it a lot easier than previously.

Note that when you run the install just unselect all the other items except for the merge tool.

You’ll need to modify your TortoiseSVN settings:

Right-click anywhere in file explorer
Click TortoiseSVN
Click Settings
Click Diff Viewer
Select External and enter: C:\Program Files\Perforce\p4merge.exe %base %mine
Click Merge Tool
Select External and enter: C:\Program Files\Perforce\p4merge.exe %base %theirs %mine %merged
Click OK or Apply

BugTracker.NET Credit

2009-01-28T09:17:00.000-08:00

Fun, fun! I got mentioned in the credits for the BugTracker.NET release for a feature I submitted.

A generic ConfigurationElementCollection implementation

2009-01-08T06:36:00.001-08:00

Some quick untested and uncompiled code that I modified from Microsoft, which wanted to save for later reference:

ConfigurationElementCollection class:



public class ConfigurationElementCollection<element_type>
  : ConfigurationElementCollection
  where ELEMENT_TYPE : ConfigurationElement, IUniqueConfigurationElement
{

    public ConfigurationElementCollection()
    {
    }

    public override ConfigurationElementCollectionType CollectionType
    {
        get
        {
            return ConfigurationElementCollectionType.AddRemoveClearMap;
        }
    }

    protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()
    {
        return new ELEMENT_TYPE();
    }

    protected override Object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)
    {
        return ((ELEMENT_TYPE)element).Name;
    }

    public ELEMENT_TYPE this[int index]
    {
        get
        {
            return (ELEMENT_TYPE)BaseGet(index);
        }
        set
        {
            if (BaseGet(index) != null)
            {
                BaseRemoveAt(index);
            }
            BaseAdd(index, value);
        }
    }

    new public ELEMENT_TYPE this[string Name]
    {
        get
        {
            return (ELEMENT_TYPE)BaseGet(Name);
        }
    }

    public int IndexOf(ELEMENT_TYPE url)
    {
        return BaseIndexOf(url);
    }

    public void Add(ELEMENT_TYPE url)
    {
        BaseAdd(url);
    }

    protected override void BaseAdd(ConfigurationElement element)
    {
        BaseAdd(element, false);
    }

    public void Remove(ELEMENT_TYPE url)
    {
        if (BaseIndexOf(url) >= 0)
            BaseRemove(url.Name);
    }

    public void RemoveAt(int index)
    {
        BaseRemoveAt(index);
    }

    public void Remove(string name)
    {
        BaseRemove(name);
    }

    public void Clear()
    {
        BaseClear();
    }

}

IUniqueConfigurationElement interface:



public interface IUniqueConfigurationElement
{
    string Name { get; }
}

CCNetConfig

2008-09-30T05:33:00.000-07:00

Found a really useful tool called CCNetConfig for editing CruiseControl.NET ccnet.config files.

Handling Multiple Configuration Files in Visual Studio .NET Installer Projects

2008-01-04T06:21:00.000-08:00

I wanted to remember this nice post on how to do it.

Spring Framework

2007-12-20T08:37:00.000-08:00

The Spring Framework looks interesting stack of techologies.

PHP compiler for .NET

2007-12-20T08:35:00.000-08:00

Phalanger the PHP compiler for .NET.

SqlMetal is now LINQ to SQL classes in Visual Studio .NET 2008

2007-12-17T08:17:00.000-08:00

So, I looked at SqlMetal and thought it was real interesting, and even found a nice tutorial.

In the new Visual Studio .NET 2008, you just have to do two things to use the new features that are similar to SqlMetal:

Ensure that your project is set to Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 in the Project Properties
Then just Add an Item... and select the LINQ to SQL Classes item

That's it and now your rolling with LINQ and SQL. Ya!

LinqPAD

2007-12-17T08:16:00.001-08:00

LinqPAD is a nice tool to learn Linq .NET.

Jolt Awards

2007-12-10T12:50:00.000-08:00

The Jolt Awards look interesting...

Microsoft Silverlight

2007-11-02T06:57:00.001-07:00

I am starting to dig into Microsoft Silverlight. I'm really interested in a rich-UI framework that is cross platform.

Here is a list of resources I have found that seem worth having:

Here is a nice visual overview of Silverlight
Discussion about the disappointment with the lack of input controls in v1 and subsequently in v1.1 they are starting to be added
Here is the Silverlight Architecture from Microsoft

Windows Forms Friendly Error Handling

2007-10-24T11:37:00.001-07:00

A nice little example.

The Servant Notes

2007-10-23T08:56:00.001-07:00

I'm participating in a book discussion of James C. Hunter's The Servant. Here a couple notes I've taken on it (thus far):

Ch. 1

Management is not something you do to other people
You manage things, you lead people
(Def.) Leadership: The skill of influencing people to work enthusiastically toward goals identified as being for the common good
(Def.) Power: The ability to force or coerce someone to do your will, even if they would choose not to, because of your position or your might.
(Def.) Authority: The skill of getting people to willingly do your will because of your personal influence.
Authority is about who you are as a person, your character, and the influence you've built with people.
Power erodes relationships
When power must be exercised the leader should reflect on why resorting to power was necessary
Behavior is choice
(Def.) $25,000 Challenge: The idea that for the right motivation anyone can modify their behavior
Challenge for the leader is to pick the character traits that need work and apply [edit] the $25,000 Challenge to them
Key then to leadership is accomplishing tasks at hand while building relationships
Without trust, it is difficult if not impossible to maintain a good relationship

Peopleware Notes

2007-10-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

Found a nice summary of Peopleware.

Sorting and Classifying E-mail

2007-10-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

This was interesting read as it describes the way FogBugz sorts and classifies incoming e-mail.

Baltimore Marathon

2007-10-16T05:27:00.000-07:00

So, I ~~ran~~ ~~jogged~~ hobbled one leg of the Baltimore Marathon. It was fun to be involved in something that so many other people were participating in at the same time. And the encouragement from the bystanders only help all the more so.

Here are a couple of the painful lessons I learned as to not repeat again:

Make sure to actually train before hand
Wear sunglasses if you route runs east for any period of time
Wear performance socks to prevent blisters
Make sure that you park in a location that is not blocked by the race route

One can only guess how I learned these lessons.

Bug Tracking Comparison

2007-10-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice comparison between different bug tracking applications (its compared to BugZero).

Allowing Visual Studio .NET Add-ins to load via a network share

2007-09-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

We recently migrated to using a central file storage for our My Documents and this now means the the My Documents/Visual Studio 2005/Add-ins now lives on a network share. To allow .NET to load the add-ins you have to run CasPol.exe to change the permissions on the drive.

The below will grant full trust (least secure) privileges to the share. Read more about it here.


C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727>CasPol.exe -m -ag 1.2 -url file://machineNameGoesHere/shareName/* FullTrust

Happy coding!

Flash + OpenSource + Charts

2007-09-07T13:05:00.001-07:00

This is very cool.

UPDATE: It needs a native .NET API, maybe I'll create one and submit it.

UPDATE: I've submitted a first draft of a .NET web control. Hope to see it show up soon on the site.

IIS MetaEdit

2007-08-29T07:09:00.000-07:00

Found a tool for editing the IIS 5.0 MetaBase.

How to enable HTTP Compression in IIS 6.0 for ASP.NET

2007-08-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

Here is my simple guide to setting it up.

Step 1: Configuring Web Service Extensions in IIS Manager

Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
Right-click the Web Service Extensions
Click on Add a new Web Service extension...
Enter Extension Name (recommend Http Compression)
Click Add...
Select C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\gzip.dll (alter path to your windows install directory as appropriate)
Check the Set extension status to Allowed
Click Ok
In Web Service Extensions you should now see Http Compression and its status of Allowed

Step 2: Configuring the IIS Metabase xml file

The metabase.xml file is located at c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\MetaBase.xml and contains the compression configuration.

Stop IIS
Run below commands from the command prompt OR edit the metabase.xml to match the below modified version of the configuration.
Start IIS

The original configuration without changes looks like this:


<IIsCompressionScheme Location ="/LM/W3SVC/Filters/Compression/deflate"
HcCompressionDll="%windir%\system32\inetsrv\gzip.dll"
HcCreateFlags="0"
HcDoDynamicCompression="TRUE"
HcDoOnDemandCompression="TRUE"
HcDoStaticCompression="FALSE"
HcDynamicCompressionLevel="0"
HcFileExtensions="htm
html
txt"
HcOnDemandCompLevel="10"
HcPriority="1"
HcScriptFileExtensions="asp
dll
exe"
>
</IIsCompressionScheme>
<IIsCompressionScheme Location ="/LM/W3SVC/Filters/Compression/gzip"
HcCompressionDll="%windir%\system32\inetsrv\gzip.dll"
HcCreateFlags="1"
HcDoDynamicCompression="TRUE"
HcDoOnDemandCompression="TRUE"
HcDoStaticCompression="TRUE"
HcDynamicCompressionLevel="0"
HcFileExtensions="htm
html
txt"
HcOnDemandCompLevel="10"
HcPriority="1"
HcScriptFileExtensions="asp
dll
exe"
>
</IIsCompressionScheme>
<IIsCompressionSchemes Location ="/LM/W3SVC/Filters/Compression/Parameters"
HcCacheControlHeader="max-age=86400"
HcCompressionBufferSize="8192"
HcCompressionDirectory="%windir%\IIS Temporary Compressed Files"
HcDoDiskSpaceLimiting="FALSE"
HcDoDynamicCompression="FALSE"
HcDoOnDemandCompression="TRUE"
HcDoStaticCompression="FALSE"
HcExpiresHeader="Wed, 01 Jan 1997 12:00:00 GMT"
HcFilesDeletedPerDiskFree="256"
HcIoBufferSize="8192"
HcMaxDiskSpaceUsage="100000000"
HcMaxQueueLength="1000"
HcMinFileSizeForComp="1"
HcNoCompressionForHttp10="TRUE"
HcNoCompressionForProxies="TRUE"
HcNoCompressionForRange="FALSE"
HcSendCacheHeaders="FALSE"
>

The modified configuration to correctly configure compression looks like this:


<IIsCompressionScheme Location ="/LM/W3SVC/Filters/Compression/deflate"
HcCompressionDll="%windir%\system32\inetsrv\gzip.dll"
HcCreateFlags="0"
HcDoDynamicCompression="TRUE"
HcDoOnDemandCompression="TRUE"
HcDoStaticCompression="TRUE"
HcDynamicCompressionLevel="10"
HcFileExtensions="htm
html
txt
ppt
xls
xml
pdf
xslt
doc
xsl
htc
js
css"
HcOnDemandCompLevel="10"
HcPriority="1"
HcScriptFileExtensions="asp
dll
exe
aspx
asmx"
>
</IIsCompressionScheme>
<IIsCompressionScheme Location ="/LM/W3SVC/Filters/Compression/gzip"
HcCompressionDll="%windir%\system32\inetsrv\gzip.dll"
HcCreateFlags="1"
HcDoDynamicCompression="TRUE"
HcDoOnDemandCompression="TRUE"
HcDoStaticCompression="TRUE"
HcDynamicCompressionLevel="10"
HcFileExtensions="htm
html
txt
ppt
xls
xml
pdf
xslt
doc
xsl
htc
js
css"
HcOnDemandCompLevel="10"
HcPriority="1"
HcScriptFileExtensions="asp
dll
exe
aspx
asmx
ashx"
>
</IIsCompressionScheme>
<IIsCompressionSchemes Location ="/LM/W3SVC/Filters/Compression/Parameters"
HcCacheControlHeader="max-age=86400"
HcCompressionBufferSize="8192"
HcCompressionDirectory="%windir%\IIS Temporary Compressed Files"
HcDoDiskSpaceLimiting="FALSE"
HcDoDynamicCompression="TRUE"
HcDoOnDemandCompression="TRUE"
HcDoStaticCompression="TRUE"
HcExpiresHeader="Wed, 01 Jan 1997 12:00:00 GMT"
HcFilesDeletedPerDiskFree="256"
HcIoBufferSize="8192"
HcMaxDiskSpaceUsage="100000000"
HcMaxQueueLength="1000"
HcMinFileSizeForComp="1"
HcNoCompressionForHttp10="FALSE"
HcNoCompressionForProxies="FALSE"
HcNoCompressionForRange="FALSE"
HcSendCacheHeaders="FALSE"
>

Here is a couple of commands you can run to automatically update your compression configuration to get the above settings:


cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/DEFLATE/HcFileExtensions "htm" "html" "txt" "ppt" "xls" "xml" "pdf" "xslt" "doc" "xsl" "htc" "js" "css"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/DEFLATE/HcScriptFileExtensions "asp" "dll" "exe" "aspx" "asmx"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/DEFLATE/HcDoDynamicCompression "TRUE"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/DEFLATE/HcDoOnDemandCompression "TRUE"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/DEFLATE/HcDoStaticCompression "TRUE"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/DEFLATE/HcDynamicCompressionLevel "10"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/GZIP/HcFileExtensions "htm" "html" "txt" "ppt" "xls" "xml" "pdf" "xslt" "doc" "xsl" "htc" "js" "css"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/GZIP/HcScriptFileExtensions "asp" "dll" "exe" "aspx" "asmx" "ashx"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/GZIP/HcDoDynamicCompression "TRUE"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/GZIP/HcDoOnDemandCompression "TRUE"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/GZIP/HcDoStaticCompression "TRUE"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/GZIP/HcDynamicCompressionLevel "10"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/Parameters/HcDoDynamicCompression "TRUE"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/Parameters/HcDoOnDemandCompression "TRUE"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/Parameters/HcDoStaticCompression "TRUE"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/Parameters/HcNoCompressionForHttp10 "FALSE"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/Parameters/HcNoCompressionForProxies "FALSE"
cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set W3Svc/Filters/Compression/Parameters/HcNoCompressionForRange "FALSE"

Note: I tried adding the .AXD extension for Web Resources and it works util I tried using AJAX.ASP.NET. The ScriptManager in AJAX library does its own Gzip compression of its .AXD files. This custom behavior causes the response to be double Gzip encoded resulting in a corrupted response. So far, I found no way to disable the ScriptManager from performing the compression of its own the resources. So sad. Seems like the ASP.NET team forgot to discuss with the IIS team what it was capable of doing.

Step 3: Check to make sure it works

I recommend using YSlow (FireFox Plug-in) and FireFox to check to see it your getting the compression for your web site and its components (css, js, etc.) You should now see that your page and its associations are now compressed. I did notice that small files (<3k) didn't seem to get compressed.

ASP.NET and Ajax

2007-08-29T03:49:00.001-07:00

I found a third-party component (Ajaxium) which makes the entire page use Ajax for all post-backs.

ASP.NET and Gzip Compression

2007-08-29T03:38:00.000-07:00

Found an interesting article discussing how to accomplish compression on JavaScript resources.

As it turns out, IIS 5.0 might be able to handle gzip compression natively for Aspx, which I found reading the ASP.NET: 10 tips for Writing High Performance Web Sites. For configuring IIS 6.0 I found this article and this other one helpful.

For some performance statistics on http compression check this out.

Visual Studio 2005: Web Deployment Projects

2007-08-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

I've got to read this sometime.

Massively GRANT permissions

2007-08-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

The below little SQL Server 2005 script will generate GRANT T-Sql statements for all objects in the database. Fun stuff. There has to be a way to do this through the administration tools quickly... But, until I find it.


SELECT
CASE
 WHEN type IN ('U','TF','FN','IF') THEN 'GRANT ALL ON ' + name + ' TO PUBLIC'
 WHEN type IN ('P') THEN 'GRANT EXEC ON ' + name + ' TO PUBLIC'
END sql
FROM sys.all_objects WHERE schema_id = [change me] AND type IN ('U','TF','IF','FN','P')

Need to make sure you change the 'schema_id' to the schema_id of the database you want to run the script on. Oh, and the types are probably not complete, so BEWARE. All you have to do is then take the output and run it. Fun, fun and no hard type etc.

The script would also be handy for generating other broad categories of T-Sql for any objects in the database. Nothing though any DBA couldn't do in 5 minutes.

DISCLAIMER: Blah, blah, blah this is for development purposes only and you should do better than just granting ALL access to the PUBLIC. Done.

Info on Visual Studio .NET code name "Orcas"

2007-05-25T06:27:00.000-07:00

Found some cool information on Visual Studio .NET code name "Orcas". Its a pretty detailed list of the feature improvements.