Brian H. Madsen - .Net Powered by Caffeine : Visual Studio 2005

Visual Studio Gallery - addins, tools, templates etc for VS2005 and VS2008

Brian Madsen — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:20:00 GMT

I'm sure that for many people this isn't news but i figured i'd regurgitate it anyways as i seem to loose some of my tools whenever i move onto another project (as i'm mainly client bound) and keep forgetting where i got them from.

So, not to self (and others): www.visualstudiogallery.com - tons of addins, tools and templates for Visual Studio 2005 and 2008.

Visual Studio 2008 rocks..plain and simple as that..it's THE best development IDE around and it has a phenomenal amount of support from third party vendors.

Some of the tools i use are:

ReSharper - www.jetbrains.com/resharper
- Simply just cannot live without this tool. Productivity is up (clients are happy) and it seems to suit my habits/behaviors (i'm happy) within the Visual Studio IDE. It's worth its price.
GhostDoc - www.roland-weigelt.de/ghostdoc
- Another tool that not just adds method level documentation for me but it also makes me consider more carefully what i'm naming my methods. Great free tool.
Visual Studio 2008 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 1.2 - http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/details.aspx?FamilyID=7bf65b28-06e2-4e87-9bad-086e32185e68&displaylang=en
- I know i've been dissapointed with this release, but it still features heavily in my work
PowerCommands for Visual Studio 2008 - http://www.visualstudiogallery.com/ExtensionDetails.aspx?ExtensionID=df3f0c30-3d37-4e06-9ef8-3bff3508be31
- This toolset adds quite a lot of features to the right-click context menu in VS2008 (including Open Command Prompt)

I've been using others here and there - mostly because it's either been a requirement from the team i've worked with, or because it's simply just been installed. But those tools above are pretty much a constant standard when i install Visual Studio.

Run IT on a Virtual Hard Disk

Brian Madsen — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 12:50:11 GMT

I don't know how often i've had to delay playing with a new piece of released technology, just because I was in the middle of another set of tests and simply didn't have the time to create my own virtual server environment again to accommodate the platform i want to test.

Here's a bit of good news - Microsoft VHD (www.microsoft.com/vhd) is a set of virtual hard disks available for download which already has the necessary bits installed.

Currently there's a range of virtuals available:

Biztalk Server 2006	System Center Essentials 2007
Exchange Server 2007	System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007
Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 2	Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite
ISA Server 2006	Visual Studio 2005 Team System
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional	Windows Server 2008 Beta 3
Office Sharepoint Server 2007	Windows Server 2003 R3
SQL Server 2005	Windows Vista
SQL Server 2005/Exchange 2007

Just download either Virtual PC or Virtual Server 2005 (which is free btw), and you're ready to go!

Defy All Challenges - Microsoft Visual Studio

Brian Madsen — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 14:28:20 GMT

I caught a glimpse at this ad today on one of the sites i frequent when i'm terribly bored. It looked pretty cool and eventhough i'm rarely in the habit of clicking on ads i just had to check it out - so, mission accomplished for the marketing department ;)

What it brought me to was somewhat of a surprise:

Without revealing all too much (you have to see this to make your own judgement..seriously) there's quite a few videos on the site..so go, have a laugh.

Granted, it's about Visual Studio...and yes, i'm a VS-tart big time...and yes, it's MSFT...hmm ok i'm biased but it still rocks!!

One of the features i will reveal is the ability to view and rate videos on the site - which pretty much is showed to you in a futuristic "gaming" style UI..you can pan around, when you choose a feature you're moved across the landscape..all in all it's a very pretty (and addictive) site.

One thing though - and here i'm going to smack the marketing department...it's a great looking site, seriously...but Flash?? maybe using another technology would have been more..errr...suitable? a damn good job is done with the site..seriously it's got eye-candy and i'm a sucker for it...but...you...are...showing...off...the...wrong...technology!!!

It pretty much shows how big MSFT really is...a keyword has been forgotten here...it's called (Yes, spell it with me!!) C-O-M-M-U-N-I-C-A-T-I-O-N...somebody should probably have checked out what's on the horizon in terms of technology before decking out and showing how great a site you can make...with....Flash :(

Defy All Challenges - Microsoft Visual Studio

Web Development Learning Series - by Frank Arrigo

Brian Madsen — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 05:56:52 GMT

it's absolutely brilliant!

Microsoft has just released a new portal for Web Development.

Microsoft Web Development Learning Series which caters seriously for, well you guessed it, web development.

It addresses some rather curious topics, such as ASP.Net for PHP developers, ASP.Net for JSP developers, ASP.Net for Cold Fusion developers.

there's a whole host of hands-on-labs, live and on-demand web casts.

this is, by far the most usefull web site i've found so far (saw it on Frank's blog, obviously) to take a developer through the learning curve that is ASP.Net 2.0.

i'd even recommend it to the hard-core, already experience, developer as a refresher course :) never know what you haven't been exposed to yet or may have forgotten.

Cheers and happy coding.

Visual Studio 2005 code snippets

Brian Madsen — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:11:16 GMT

Microsoft released a whole bunch of code snippets and i think it's gone pretty much unnoticed.

A whole range of them are available in neat categories on the MSDN web site:

Application Code Snippets
For working with Isolated Storage, ClickOnce tasks, Console Applications and Process Management.

Collections and Arrays Code Snippets
For tasks like creating, iterating, locating elements, and sorting collections like arrays and dictionaries.

Connectivity Code Snippets
For checking network status, downloading a file via HTTP, performing serial port operations, sending email and more.

Crystal Reports Code Snippets
For common reporting tasks such as printing a Crystal Report, setting report parameters, and configuring report data access.

Database Code Snippets
For performing a variety of common tasks around ADO.NET data access.

File System Code Snippets
For performing a number of tasks around reading, writing, and managing files.

Math Code Snippets
For calculating monthly payments, depreciation, sines, cosines, and random numbers.

Operating System Code Snippets
A large collection of snippets for Event logging, Message Queues, Process management, registry access, windows services, getting system information and more.

Security Code Snippets
For working with hashes, decrypting, encrypting, and getting a user’s name.

Smart Devices Code Snippets
For performing common tasks on Smart Devices.

Windows Forms Code Snippets
For working with the clipboard, fonts, sounds, GDI drawing, and general Windows Form and control creation.

XML Code Snippets
For reading and writing XML, selecting nodes, performing XSL transforms, and other XML oriented tasks.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718338.aspx

For those that doesn't know what a code snippet is and how it's used then it's really very simple.

a code snippet is a piece of code which has been written previously and can be inserted from a snippet library. Most used to use macros to perform operations (i use a Logitech G15 keyboard and have 54 keys bound to a range of macros - yes i know it's a gaming keyboard..but the G-Keys are handy). Now, for those that i like to re-use at home as well as at work i've put into the snippet library and can simply just copy the files onto a usb drive and take them with me to work.

You can bring up the Snippet Manager by pressing CTRL+ K, CTRL+ B (that's the default so if you've changed it you know best which key it is).

The snippet manager basically just indexes/collates your snippets as they aren't part of Visual Studio but sitting on your local disk as you can see in the "Location" bar above the folders.

"My Code Snippets" doesn't contain any snippets when you first install Visual Studio but that's where i've stored all of mine.

you can import folders and manage them via the snippet manager.

Anyways, this wasn't meant to be a snippet tutorial - just a friendly community announcement :)

Reflector 5.0 has been released

Brian Madsen — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 08:39:26 GMT

It's here - Reflector 5.0 has been released and i'm sure a lot of people has been waiting patiently for it.

On Lutz Roeder's site you can find links to Reflector and the different add-ins that's available.

I'm not entirely sure but i don't think there's anything that matches up to Reflector in doing what it does. It's a brilliant class browser with quite a few features added in.

Good work Lutz for giving us another great tool to work with.

Click here for download links

Jetbrains - resharper 2.5.1

Brian Madsen — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:15:03 GMT

One of the few tools that i've found i just simply can't live without is JetBrain's ReSharper for Visual Studio 2005.

Some of the features are just outright brilliant!

Let me list those that are, without a doubt, my favorites:

Status indicator
this one is active at all times and is shown on the right hand side of the code window by displaying a small bar with little red (errors) or orange (warnings) lines/indicators and a status indicator at the top which shows you straight away how many errors and warnings there is in the file. By simply clicking on any of the red/orange indicators in the bar you can navigate quite easily to the part of the code where the error/warning is. Especially handy in large files and if you work in a team (can see straight away what to amend when you're gotten the latest version out of VSS).

Auto-insertion of using directives
this feature lets you automatically insert those pesky using directives as you code, without having to navigate to the top of the file. A helpful notification appears at the top of your code with an option to add the directive by pressing ALT+ENTER. all this without leaving the code you're writing. Not only does it keep up to date with .Net framework directives but also with those you have added yourself. Excellent timesaver!

Code refactoring
Another absolute MUST have in addition to the inbuilt refactoring features of VS2005. When you refactor with ReSharper, not only does it do the job for you, but as you press the command you also get a small pop-up window with a list of the parameters you want to include in the constructor. It also converts interfaces to abstract classes flawlessly and vice versa. Again, Excellent timesaver!

Unit testing
what application development process is sane and sound without some serious Unit testing? IMHO, none..it's as much part of the development process as breathing is part of living. ReSharper has by far the best third-party Unit testing features i've ever worked with. Plus coupled with dotTrace Profiler you can easily throw some performance benchmarking in with the lot. Invaluable!

Code generation
Working on some serious coding? well helps at hand for sure! ReSharper's code generation helps tremendously by assisting you with some of the more tedious (and time consuming) jobs there is - such as remembering to implement ALL methods from your interfaces - ReSharper does that for you, and wraps them neatly inside a region so you can easily find them. Next it also comes in handy when you have to set up delegates - again it does this for you, you only have to ask.

Those features above are fantastic - and frankly, the last couple of weeks i've been without and i was starting to feel naked (you do NOT want to see that!) without it. I've now gotten my hands on version 2.5.1 (i was previously on an older version and again JetBrains beats any other add-in to the punch by far) and are feeling nicely clothed again.

You quickly realise how much you depended on having sound coding habits and work habits when you start using this tool - now you just have to rely on making your code sound, ReSharper does the thinking for you by taking away all the menial tasks and making you more productive.

Not only is it non-intrusive but compared to some other add-ins i've worked with, it's hardly a strain on my PC.

A tool i can seriously recommend! Well done JetBrains and thanks for bringing the fun back into crunching code!

SQL Server 20045 Express SP2 December CTP

Brian Madsen — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 09:03:20 GMT

A note to fellow developers - the SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Service Pack 2 December CTP is available (since 19th of December that is) and i suggest getting hold of it as it will (so far) run on Vista.

Click here to download

Visual Studio 2005 Powertoys

Brian Madsen — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 08:40:00 GMT

I forgot to mention this one - fortunately i was reminded about the release on Jannik Anker's blog. Overview Visual Studio 2005 IDE Enhancements are a set of Visual Studio extensions that are designed to make you more productive. These enhancements are...(read more)

Calling Visual Studio 2005 fix for Vista - when can we expect a fix?

Brian Madsen — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 13:17:00 GMT

hmmmmmm...i'm going to look for a way to get some information on when the Visual Studio development team is going to fix the issues Vista has with Visual Studio 2005. Just had an unexpected crash and now i can't open up my solution again. great...back...(read more)

Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Team Suite Service Pack 1

Brian Madsen — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 12:49:00 GMT

If you're running MS Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite you need to get hold of Service Pack 1 which has been released.

You can get it from here

Cheers and happy coding!

free single-user license OnTime 2006

Brian Madsen — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 01:12:00 GMT

Another one of those add-ins..when will it ever stop? well, easy answer here is, never. Eventhough Visual Studio comes packed with features and tools, there's always some clever soul who comes up with a way to extend it to suit our greedy developer needs.

For some time, i've used Axosoft's OnTime, to keep track of bugs and requested features. And luckily for a one user license it's free.

www.axosoft.com

it has some nice features, but if you intend to use it at work i'd recommend flicking an expense request to your manager so you can enjoy the full power of OnTime.

it comes in three flavours, OnTime VS.Net Client, OnTime Web Client and OnTime Windows Client. The pretty much cover what you need to keep track of your bugs and features.

One of the things i'm VERY happy about is the fact that it is VERY easy to use and quickly saves you time, helps you manage your bugs and features as well as allowing for reporting to be done.

to get a quick overview of some of the benefits of OnTime 2006:

http://www.axosoft.com/Products/OnTi...n=otm_overview

cheers and happy coding...

p.s. OnTime 2007 Beta 2 has just been released

Visual Studio GUI tips #2

Brian Madsen — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 12:55:00 GMT

Back to Visual Studio again - it is afterall my personal favorite development GUI (go figure, durr!!).

One of the few tricks to helping you out is how to create a tasklist - it can be useful if you get a call, just as you're in the middle of some code, for a change to a particular method or piece of business logic.

can't rummage around for a pen (it fell on the floor, behind the desk!!) and your system resources are running low - well pick an excuse..doesn't really matter..

i've found it easy to simple do this:

Code:

//TODO: TL is again asking for changes to the layout on the report page. do X, Y and Z....

then, simply press CTRL+W,T (that's CTRL and W together, release W and press T while still holding CTRL down) and you'll get a nice handy tasklist.

can also use it for code that you want to re-visit later on, or use it as a reminder..again, pick a reason..

Lastly, another tip for storing quick snippets for re-use. simply dock your Toolbox (usually found on the left hand side per default), highlight a piece of code and drag it there. Voila, you now have stored the snippet for re-use.

cheers and happy coding...

Visual Studio 2005 GUI tips

Brian Madsen — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 21:43:00 GMT

One of my favorite small features in Visual Studio 2005 is the way you can very easily get an overview of what active tools you have running and what files you have running.

i've found this very helpful when the application's been large, spanning many projects and i've had to open up 10-20 files. Suddenly you're lost and you start either #1 closing down files or #2 looking for the one that's hiding in the tab bar of your coding window.

But there's an easier way.

Simply press CTRL+TAB, release TAB and you'll get a nice overview of files and tools you have open. Simply just use the arrow keys (while still keeping CTRL down) and locate the file you need - then release CTRL. and voila you're at that file/tool.

Happy coding...

Visual Studio 2005 Add-ins

Brian Madsen — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 21:40:00 GMT

Since Visual Studio is my prefered development tool i've installed tons of add-ins over the past few years..

most has been raved about from one end of the world to another but i've shifted through quite a few so far but some of my favorite ones (which are always on my little trusted microsoft usb key (whooping 32mb of space)) i'm listing here below:

GhostDoc - www.roland-weigelt.de/ghostdoc
CodeKeep - www.codekeep.net
SlickEdit Gadgets - www.slickedit.com/content/view/441

and one of my favorite sites, dedicated to Visual Studio is www.visualstudiohacks.com - which is run by James Avery (who incidentially also authored a book of the same title. eg. Visual Studio Hacks, by o'Reilly).

CodeKeep error surfacing..

Brian Madsen — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:07:00 GMT

Well, one of my favorite Visual Studio add-ins, CodeKeep, is throwing an error whenever i try to "keep" or view any of my snippets.

it's most frustrating because i've been using it for quite a while without any issues, but all of a sudden its throwing a tantrum :(

the error is:

I enlisted a very smart guy, James Avery (http://dotavery.com/blog/Default.aspx) who runs a pretty good site for Visual Studio (www.visualstudiohacks.com) which incidentially is also the title to a cool book he's written. i'd seriously recommend ANY serious geek to get hold of that book....Anyways, back to Mr. Avery...he pointed me in the direction of proxies and firewalls..so tomorrow i'm off to check with the IT Admin at work to tell him to turn it off for me...Thanks James..

Update: solution to this is to circumvent the proxy, or have your IT Administrator setup the proxy so that the www.codekeep.net domain is excempt.

Thanks to James for being a sport and giving me the tips for this solution.

VS2005 Start Page items..

Brian Madsen — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 14:35:00 GMT

Some time back I mentioned the start page in VS 2005 and where it got the information from..what i didn't mention was that you can actually decide that yourself.

the default address is: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=45192&clcid=409

which defaults to an RSS feed. So why not change that and actually get the information that you want displayed there?

Nothing is more simple...just open up VS2005 and go to Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Startup and you can choose pretty much any RSS feed you want + the frequency that you want to update the list.

See, how simple was that..god i love VS2005.

Mitch Wheat throws a gem out there

Brian Madsen — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:10:00 GMT

Mitch Wheat throws a curve ball for sure...

Mitch Wheat - VS2005 Tips and Tricks - Visual Studio 2005 IDE Productivity Tiips and Tricks

there's actually even a few tricks in that list that i didn't know about..

Nice Mitch..

just be fast to read it (this is a plug at Mitch himself to change his blog software) as it'll eventually be pushed off screen since you can't link directly to a post on his blog.

New idea - let readers suggest a topic to be covered

Brian Madsen — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:43:00 GMT

Sometimes you can get rather frustrated, that the exact scenario you're trying to solve a problem with, isn't documented on MSDN - or you end up finding 100s of tutorials which never really works in your case.

So, why not try something new - suggest a topic and i'll write up an article/tutorial/solution for it.

very simple - just bear in mind that i don't have unlimited resources at my disposal so i cant set up an enterprise environment, running a specific ERP together with a cluster of Oracle or SQL Servers.

also, please don't suggest anything even remotely related to MONO, MySQL or something that even touches on any Linux flavour...i left that world behind many years ago and i'm not going back.

To be on the same page - i'll list the platforms:

.Net
C#
.NET
SQL Server
.NET
Visual Studio
.Net

That pretty much sums it up...

I've put up a page for suggestions here

First request has come through - How to validate fields in a GridView.

Now i'm pretty sure there's other examples out there for this, but it's a place to start.

Note: Due to the high amount of spam directed at this post - i have disabled comments from it - if you have any questions or suggestions please just forward me an email through the contact section.

ASP.Net 2.0, ValidationGroup property article

Brian Madsen — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 17:05:00 GMT

Well, i was bored tonight (plus i have a pounding headache) so decided to fiddle around a bit and build the foundation for a larger article.

As i was putting the images and code together i thought i might as well write up a very small article for the ValidationGroup property.

It can be found here.

Anyways, no heckling is allowed...don't like the way i use the property, don't read the article :) j/k..anybody come up with another way of utilising the ValidationGroup property feel free to comment and/or send me a mail.