Chris May

NAnt is a tool that can help you build your .net applications. 

You can get really detailed with it, but what if you just want to set it up to quickly build projects/solutions or run automated builds.  This is especially useful if you are rebuilding 1 project that you are in the process of testing so you don't have to wait for VS to figure out if any of the referenced projects need to be rebuilt.

Well, with a few quick steps you can have this.

After downloading NAnt you need to create a little batch file somewhere in your PATH (for example, c:\windows).  Name the file nant.bat and put this in it:

@echo off
"C:\apps\nant\nant-0.86-beta1\bin\NAnt.exe" %*

You will obviously want to replace my path with your own path to your nant exe that you downloaded.

Then add an entry to your PATH system variable to the directory that contains devenv.com.  For me this path is:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\ide\

Then you just need to add a .build file to your project.  I name it the same as my project name but you can do whatever you want.

This build file should contain the following XML:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="ProjName" default="build" basedir=".">
  <target name="build">
    <exec failonerror="true" program="devenv.com" commandline="ProjName.vbproj /build Debug" />
  </target>
</project>

Rename ProjName as needed in this file as well.

Then all you need to do is navigate to the folder that contains the .build file from a command line and run:

nant

It will scan for the build file, and use devenv.com to build it.

You can also use this to build solutions, just change the .vbproj file to a .sln file.

Too many to list.

Some of my favs are on this list, like Launchy and SnippetCompiler.

Yahoo has released a tool called YSlow that helps developers identify why a specific website is loading slow.

Take a look at this screen cap (click to enlarge):

 

This looks really cool. 

You can download it here for free.

Included Refactorings

		Add Validator			Create Overload			Encapsulate Field
		Extract ContentPlaceHolder			Extract ContentPlaceHolder (create master page)			Extract Method
		Extract Property			Extract Style (Class)			Extract Style (id)
		Extract to User Control			Flatten Conditional			Inline Temp
		Introduce Constant			Introduce Local			Introduce Local (replace all)
		Move Declaration Near Reference			Move Initialization to Declaration			Move Style Attributes to CSS
		Move to Code-behind			Rename			Reorder Parameters
		Replace Temp with Query			Reverse Conditional			Safe Rename
		Simplify Expression			Split Initialization from Declaration			Split Temporary Variable
		Surround with Update Panel

 

UPDATE:  It seems that installing this may have removed some of the features of the old Refactor! that I was frequently using (?).  I used to use the "Surround With-->Region" all the time.  Now that is gone.  I will have to investigate.

nSoftware just released a product called IBiz Integrator for Quickbooks, which is supposed to enable one to integrate their applicaiton with Quickbooks via QBXML.

A comprehensive suite of Internet-enabled components for QuickBooks (QBXML) Integration. Includes easy-to-use components for accessing QuickBooks constructs and automating accounting tasks.

Should be work looking into for QB applications.

Rob McLaws has this cool extension that lets you click on a folder and run a webserver from it.

The article, with some comments on alternative ways to do it, or ways to improve it can be found here.

http://weblogs.asp.net/rmclaws/archive/2005/10/25/428422.aspx

From the page:

I've been doing some web development work again lately, and I haven't wanted to screw with setting up IIS on my virtual machine. The .NET Framework 2.0 comes with a built-in webserver, based on the old Cassini web server. So I wanted to be able to easily set up any directory to have its contents served up on an as-needed basis. The result is an addition to the Windows Explorer right-click menu, as shown below:

This is enabled by a simple modification to the registry. You can take the text below and dump it into a file named "WebServer.reg", and then run it, to immediately get the item in the context menu.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\VS2005 WebServer]
@="ASP.NET 2.0 Web Server Here"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\VS2005 WebServer\command]
@="C:\\Windows\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\v2.0.50727\\Webdev.WebServer.exe /port:8080 /path:\"%1\""

There are a couple caveats to this tool, however:

1. The web server does not randomly assign a port number, so it has to be hard-coded into the registry.
2. The web server does not automatically assign a virtual directory, so it will always be "http://localhost:port"
3. A command prompt window will be spawned, and cannot be closed without closing the web server process.

Moving foward, there are a couple of options to fix these issues:

1. Someone who knows more about variables in the registry can help me fix issues #2 and #3
2. I can build a wrapper executable that solves all three problems
3. Microsoft can put in a DCR and fix it before it goes gold in a few days.

#3 is not likely, so I'd love to hear what you think. Hope this trick is useful.

 

This is a well known log analyzer application that can provide a nice web interface for viewing we stats.

http://awstats.sourceforge.net/ 

"Refactor!" has the ability to turn your fields into public accessible properties, but it kinda sucks because 1) you have to do it 1 at a time, and 2) the naming convetion is all wrong. 

For example if you have a private integer called myInt then your property will be MyInt1.  Not exaclty what I am looking for.

So I updated my 2002 macro for creating these properties.  It should allow you to follow a variety of naming conventions "m_XXX", "ciXXX", "strXXX" etc.

Just include the macro below, then just highlight your private fields, and run the macro.

   ' highlight the private properties
    Public Sub AddClassProperties()

        Dim oTextSelection As TextSelection = DTE.ActiveWindow.Selection
        Dim iLinesSelected = oTextSelection.TextRanges.Count
        Dim colPropertyList As New Collection()
        Dim iIndex As Integer
        Dim oStart As EditPoint = oTextSelection.TopPoint.CreateEditPoint()
        Dim oEnd As TextPoint = oTextSelection.BottomPoint

        'Create an Undo context object so all the changes can be
        'undone by CTRL+Z
        Dim oUnDo As UndoContext = DTE.UndoContext

        'Supress the User Interface. This will make it run faster
        'and make all the changes appear once
        DTE.SuppressUI = True

        Try

            oUnDo.Open("Comment Line")

            Dim sProperty As String
            Dim sLineOfText As String

            Do While (oStart.LessThan(oEnd))

                sLineOfText = oStart.GetText(oStart.LineLength).Trim
                '*** do some kind of simple check to make sure that this line
                '*** isn't blank and isn't some other kind of code or comment
                If (sLineOfText.IndexOf(" As ") >= 0 And ( _
                    (sLineOfText.IndexOf("Public ") >= 0) Or _
                    (sLineOfText.IndexOf("Private ") >= 0) Or _
                    (sLineOfText.IndexOf("Dim ") >= 0) Or _
                    (sLineOfText.IndexOf("Protected ") >= 0) Or _
                    (sLineOfText.IndexOf("Friend ") >= 0) Or _
                    (sLineOfText.IndexOf("ReDim ") >= 0) Or _
                    (sLineOfText.IndexOf("Shared ") >= 0) Or _
                    (sLineOfText.IndexOf("Static ") >= 0) _
                    )) Then

                    sProperty = oStart.GetText(oStart.LineLength).Trim.Replace(" New ", " ").Replace("()", "")

                    colPropertyList.Add(sProperty)
                End If

                oStart.LineDown()
                oStart.StartOfLine()

            Loop

            If colPropertyList.Count > 0 Then

                For Each sProperty In colPropertyList
                    Call InsertProperty(sProperty)
                Next

            Else
                MsgBox("You must select the class properties")
            End If

        Catch ex As System.Exception

            Debug.WriteLine(ex)
            If MsgBoxResult.Yes = MsgBox("Error: " & ex.ToString & vbCrLf & "Undo Changes?", MsgBoxStyle.YesNo) Then
                oUnDo.SetAborted()
            End If

            Return
        Finally

            'If an error occured, then need to make sure that the undo context is cleaned up.
            'Otherwise, the editor can be left in a perpetual undo context
            If oUnDo.IsOpen Then
                oUnDo.Close()
            End If

            DTE.SuppressUI = False
        End Try


    End Sub

    Private Sub InsertProperty(ByVal sProp As String)
        Dim oTextSelection As TextSelection = DTE.ActiveWindow.Selection
        Dim sMember As String = sProp.Substring(sProp.IndexOf(" ")).Trim
        Dim sDataType As String
        Dim sName As String
        Dim i As Integer
        Dim iAscVal As Integer

        i = sMember.IndexOf("(")
        If Not i = -1 Then
            sMember = sMember.Substring(0, i)
        End If

        i = sMember.IndexOf("=")
        If Not i = -1 Then
            sMember = sMember.Substring(0, i)
        End If

        sDataType = sMember.Substring(sMember.IndexOf(" As ") + 1)

        For i = 0 To sMember.Length - 1
            'iAscVal = Asc(Mid(sName, i, 1))
            iAscVal = Asc(sMember.Chars(i))
            If iAscVal > 64 And iAscVal < 91 Then
                sName = sMember.Substring(i)
                Exit For
            End If
        Next i

        sName = sName.Substring(0, sName.IndexOf(" As ") + 1).Trim

        If sName.Length = 0 Then
            MsgBox("Unable to process the class property: " & sMember & ".  This is usually caused by an incorrect naming convention (e.g. not cxName)")
            Return
        End If

        sMember = sMember.Substring(0, sMember.Length - sDataType.Length).Trim

        With oTextSelection
            .MoveToPoint(.ActivePoint.CodeElement(vsCMElement.vsCMElementClass).GetEndPoint(vsCMPart.vsCMPartWhole))
            .LineUp()
            .EndOfLine()

            .Text = "Public Property " & sName & "() " & sDataType
            .NewLine()
            .Text = "Return " & sMember
            .StartOfLine(vsStartOfLineOptions.vsStartOfLineOptionsFirstText)
            .StartOfLine(vsStartOfLineOptions.vsStartOfLineOptionsFirstColumn, True)
            .Copy()
            .LineDown(False, 3)
            DTE.ExecuteCommand("Edit.Paste")
            .Text = "Me." & sMember & " = Value"
            .LineDown(False, 2)
            .NewLine(2)

        End With

    End Sub

 

 

Update1: When using code that you cut and paste from here, you might need to first paste it into Word or Wordpad.

Update2: When using this macro, you need a space (new line) between the last private field variable and your end of class line.

I was just reading this site:

http://www.bearcanyon.com/dotnet/#AssemblySettings

I downloaded the sample code (link below).  It is supposed to allow you to have a config file per assembley e.g. MyAssembly.dll.config. 

I haven't looked at the code, but I guess you would just write something that uses reflection to find the assembly name, and then look for an xml file to read.

AssemblySettings.zip (10.5 KB)

 

This will provide the necessary functions to implement ICloneable as well as a type specific Clone method.

        
        Public Function Clone() As ClassName
            Dim bFormatter As New System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter
            Dim stream As New System.IO.MemoryStream()
            bFormatter.Serialize(stream, Me)
            stream.Seek(0, System.IO.SeekOrigin.Begin)
            Dim newClone As ClassName
            newClone = CType(bFormatter.Deserialize(stream), ClassName)
            Return newClone
        End Function
        Private Function ICloneableImplementation() As Object Implements System.ICloneable.Clone
            Return Me.Clone
        End Function

I wrapped this into a snippet that you can import into Visual Studio 2005.

Implement ICloneable.snippet (1.84 KB)

AcctSync is a .NET SDK for integrating stuff into quickbooks.

Update: I first made this post in 2003, but I have another client that is going to be looking to do something with Quickbooks.  Might want to revisit this component in the near future.

This whitepaper: Troubleshooting .NET Applications - Knowing Which Tools to Use and When talks about different methods for debugging .net applications, and talks about the various tools available to aid in the debugging efforst.

NUnit is good, but I think something that is more focused on Acceptance Testing or Functional Testing would be better suited.

TestComplete and to a possibly lesser extent, WebKing seem to focus on these more.

In addition, I might be able to use the MS ACT for this.
This guy thinks that FIT(.net version?) and the FitNesse framework are the ways to go.

Microsoft has it's own Testing Patterns and Practices section.

If all else fails... here are tons of links about functional testing.

NUnit is supposed to help with TDD and writing test scripts. I also found a link to ASP.NET addin which I guess I'll need for working with ASP.NET.(?)

Here is another MSDN article... but there is a newer on in the lastest MSDN magazine... but I guess that isn't online.

Here it is.

Here is an article that I would have loved to have read like a year ago.

nTierGen is another data access layer generator, but it generates a bunch of SPs as well as the DAL.

ORM.Net is a pretty cool looking tool that builds a framework for accessing data w/o SPs.

It might be bad in that you would have all this propritary code in your product, so if you wanted to move away from it later, you would have to rewrite a bunch of stuff.

This is a company that sells a tournament bracket componet. Looks cool.

Here are some charting components:

• Dundas
• Infragistics
• dotNetCharting
• TeeChart
• Mycos Chart
• ComponentOne
• Nevron
• ScarletTech
• Chart Director
• Aspose
• ASP.NET Charting

This article shows a little about how to use hotareas on an image returned by the MapPoint.NET webservice.

GenX allows you to export your data to excel, XML, HTML, Word and comming soon, PDF.

It's cheap too, but I don't think you can do functions in excel with it.

Here are some products that are going to be coming out soon (Jan 2004).

The ones that appear interesting to me are the "ASP.NET Forums Configurator" and the "WebSense" (web.config intellisense).

The Scrolling Grid PLUS is supposed to merge the scrolling grid with their GenX product. I'm going to look at it and will post if it looks cool.

For $10 these guys are selling a scrolling datagrid that extends the existing datagrid.

Pretty cool, and cheap.

Here is a pretty nice, and free, javascript menu generator.

Works with a range of browsers (even opera).

It looks like this "Shareware Tracker" will automatically submit your program to a bunch of sites.

Adverageous.com is selling a packaged ASP.NET Forums into DNN for 50 bucks. Maybe they will port this to Rainbow, or maybe I could?

Export Technologies has a free Rich Textbox Control for download.

This is a .NET component that you can put on your site to allow customers to contact you for live questions/service.

Pretty cool, and you can install a client app to do it as well, so you don't have to actually be on the site. But it costs 200+ bucks.

I should read about this more, http://www.sybase.com/products/mobilewireless/anywhere

This is a pretty cool menu creator. Again, it's kinda expensive ($100 or so), but looks good.

As you can see here, this tool from vbCity, called PrettyCode.Encoder is really slick.

Check out the colored HTML pages here.

Here is another date and time selector. The time portionn of it is kinda weak, but it does do nice auto completion. Maybe something to look at in the client side script.

This control package is the first one I have see that has a seperate popup menu for the Time element of a Date Time. I'm more interested in Time than Date at this point, so this looks interesting.

This site has a pretty nice date picker control, along with a few others, such as a control that does a countdown to an event.

When you start to type in the textbox, a listbox appears and tries to narrow down its list based on your entries. It is supposed to be OSS, and available here.

This control is pretty slick, but kinda expensive at 90 bucks for a single license.

Here is a thread about skinning a DNN site.

Just what it says CheapDevTools.com

I didn't download either of these, but apparently they are available here

This tool is an ASP.NET control that you can drop into a page to provide the user with a WYSIWYG editor.

I have been using Weblog Expert Lite on my server. It's pretty nice, but it doesn't know that "aspx" is a "page" and so some of the stats arn't as interesting as they could be. I might buy the full version for 79 bucks or something, but there are some free alternatives such as http://awstats.sourceforge.net and http://www.analog.cx. Analog can work with this thing called Report Magic to make some nice reports, and it's written in C, while AWStats is done in Perl. I don't know if I want to install the Perl runtime on my machine.

This article shows how to use Visio Enterprise Architect to build code from a UML diagram.

This article shows how to build .NET code with the CodeDOM.

This article shows how to use an addin that creates strongly typed collections

This one is really sweet!

To be honest, I didn't check out the others, as they all wanted a ton of $$

http://www.saurik.com/net/exemplar/

But this one kicks ass!

These few links point to some decompilers for the .net framework.

• http://www.remotesoft.com/salamander
• http://www.saurik.com/net/exemplar
• http://www.lesser-software.com/en/content/products/LSW%20DotNet-Tools/LSW_DotNet_Reflection_Browser.htm
• http://www.aisto.com/roeder/dotnet

I downloaded, and have started messing around with vim, jEdit, and AnyEdit.

I don't know about VIM, but it looks like jEdit might be able to do what I am looking for via plugins, mainly "jBrowse" and "CodeAid". I believe these are built to work with java source code files, but if the plugins are open source, I could change them to do what I want.

AnyEdit talks about having built in support for this kind of stuff via external config files, but there are none for download, as it looks like the product is still in beta.

This site, MetaBuilder.com has a bunch of free controls, including source code. One of the controls was a combo box of sorts, that has an auto complete feature.

This is a macro to insert a region into your code.

In the event that this page goes away, you can find the macro right here , all you have to do is look at the HTML source, its commented.

This article and code is for a tool that helps build and test regular expressions.

Never had to do much with reg exps, but if I ever had to really do something heavy, this would be a great tool.

SPInfoke is a tool that allows you to call SPs as static methods in a .NET class. I guess it won some awards and stuff, but I don't think (just from looking at the article) that is is nearly as good as the tools from Ellkey.com who's StoredProcToDotNet.htm wraps the SQLHelper classes in the MS Application Blocks for Data Access. They also offer a SP generator called the StoredProcBuilder.

This control is pretty awsome. It basically allows you to have intellisense or autocomplete type lookups from your applications and datagrids.

Pretty cool, but $500/developer is kinda stiff.

This article talks about generating .NET code, mainly the strongly typed dataset, from XSLT. I was skimming it because I didn't really need the primer on XSLT, but I never saw where he got his XML file from to transform. I didn't see anything about automating this either... I don't really use the DataSet very much. I use the DataReader and DataTable more. I don't understand why you can drag a table onto a designer to get its schema, but you can't do the same for stored procedures that return data. Oh well.

This control is pretty cool. I might consider it.

This collection of ASP.NET controls looks interesting, and its under $100 bucks.

Suprising that they don't have a demo for all of them but they look pretty cool.

Microsoft Application Blocks for .NET

Some people have released some VS.NET 2003 addins, dubbed PowerToys. There are some that are very useful, and I am going to participate in the development with the team. You can join in the open sourced effort at the following locations:

VSCMDShell Window

Custom Help Builder

VSWindowManager

VBCommenter

VSEdit

VSTweak

I found this pretty slick Date Picker Control from TrueGeeks.com. It uses dropdowns, and is smart on the client side to change the dropdowns so when you select Feb as the month, it will only show you 28 days in the Day dropdown, unless you are on a leap year, then it will give you 29.

Here are some pages that will convert C# code into VB.NET:
Asp Alliance
Kamalpatel.net

This page will go the other way, converting VB.NET code into C#:
Ellkay