Paulo Morgado : Tools

Typemock Is Launching The ASP.NET Bundle – Get Free Licenses

Paulo Morgado — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:57:00 GMT

Typemock is launching a new product for ASP.NET developers – the ASP.NET Bundle - and for the launch they are giving out FREE licenses to bloggers and their readers.

The ASP.NET Bundle is the ultimate ASP.NET unit testing solution, and offers both Typemock Isolator and Ivonna, the ASP.NET Isolator add-on, for a discounted price.

ASP.NET Bundle launch giveaway:
For the ASP.NET Bundle launch Typemock are giving away free licenses to bloggers and their readers.

How do I get the free license?

Are you a blogger, webmaster, or internet columnist? Get your free license by helping Typemock launch their new ASP.NET Bundle, the ultimate ASP.NET unit testing solution.

Post the text below on your blog (as is, with links) and tell them about it . If you are in the first 60 to mail us after posting, your license will be on its way!

If you have an ASP.NET dedicated blog, you'll get a license automatically (even if more than 60 submit) during the first week of this announcement.

8 bloggers will also get an additional 2 licenses (each) to give away / raffle to their readers or friends.

A few simple requirements:

You must own a website, blog space or internet column, older than 2 months, or get permission from the owner of such a site.
Your post must include the text below (including the links) between *Begin* and *End*.

*Begin*

Unit Testing ASP.NET? ASP.NET unit testing has never been this easy.

Typemock is launching a new product for ASP.NET developers – the ASP.NET Bundle - and for the launch will be giving out FREE licenses to bloggers and their readers.

The ASP.NET Bundle is the ultimate ASP.NET unit testing solution, and offers both Typemock Isolator, a unit test tool and Ivonna, the Isolator add-on for ASP.NET unit testing, for a bargain price.

Typemock Isolator is a leading .NET unit testing tool (C# and VB.NET) for many ‘hard to test’ technologies such as SharePoint, ASP.NET, MVC, WCF, WPF, Silverlight and more. Note that for unit testing Silverlight there is an open source Isolator add-on called SilverUnit.

The first 60 bloggers who will blog this text in their blog and tell us about it, will get a Free Isolator ASP.NET Bundle license (Typemock Isolator + Ivonna). If you post this in an ASP.NET dedicated blog, you'll get a license automatically (even if more than 60 submit) during the first week of this announcement.

Also 8 bloggers will get an additional 2 licenses (each) to give away to their readers / friends.

Go ahead, click the following link for more information on how to get your free license.

*End*

Once you post this in your site, just drop them a line at asp@typemock.com with your name and the post URL to get your free license.

Hurry up – this offer is limited to the first 60 bloggers, or to ASP.NET dedicated bloggers who will post this in the first week.

Make sure to follow their Blog, Site or Twitter for updates on this event.

Help Typemock Launch Its New Visual Basic .NET Friendly API And You Might Get A Free License

Paulo Morgado — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:32:00 GMT

Typemock is announcing today a new version of Typemock Isolator (5.2).

One of the coolest features in the new version is the inclusion of a new VB .NET unit testing API. This 'VB friendly' API was designed and written in VB.NET, for VB.NET developers. It uses the strengths of the VB.NET language to allow easy and intuitive use of the isolation API, for easier unit tests on any piece of .NET code.

If you are you a blogger, webmaster, or internet columnist, you can get your free personal license by helping Typemock launch their new 5.2 version for Isolator - the best tool to unit test VB.NET applications.

Although this version is targeted to unit test VB.NET applications, C# applications with unit tests built using Visual Studio 2005 can also benefit from this API.

How can you get the free license?

Post the text below on your blog (as is, with links) and tell them about it . If you are in the first 25 to mail them after posting, your license will be on its way!

If you have a VB.NET dedicated blog, you'll get a license automatically (even if more than 25 submit) during the first week of this announcement.

A few simple requirements:

You must own a website, blog space or internet column, older than 2 months, or get permission from the owner of such a site.
Your post must include the text below (including the links) between *Begin* and *End*.

*Begin*

Programming Visual Basic applications?

Typemock have released a new version of their unit testing tool, Typemock Isolator 5.2.
This version includes a new friendly VB.NET API which makes Isolator the best Isolation tool for unit testing A Visual Basic (VB) .NET application.

Isolator now allows unit testing in VB or C# for many ‘hard to test’ technologies such as SharePoint, ASP.NET MVC, partial support for Silverlight, WPF, LINQ, WF, Entity Framework, WCF unit testing and more.

Note that the first 25 bloggers who blog this text in their blog and tell us about it, will get a Free Full Isolator license (worth $139). If you post this in a VB.NET dedicated blog, you'll get a license automatically (even if more than 25 submit) during the first week of this announcement.

Go ahead, click the following link for more information on how to get your free license.

*End*

Once you post this in your site, just drop them a line at vb@typemock.com with your name and the post URL to get your free license.

Hurry up – this offer is limited to the first 25 general bloggers, or to VB.NET dedicated bloggers who will post this in the first week.

Disclaimer: This is an offer from Typemock as announced at http://blog.typemock.com/2009/01/get-free-isolator-licnese-for-helping.html. I’m just a fan.

Saved By The .NET Framework Cleanup Tool – Again!

Paulo Morgado — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:23:29 GMT

I don’t know what’s wrong with my XP system (besides the fact that I’m still using it) but I couldn’t install .NET 3.5 without removing .NET 2.0 and now I couldn’t install apply SP1 without removing .NET 3.0 and 3.5.

Fortunately, I was rescued by Aaron Stebner’s .NET Framework cleanup Tool – both times.

Kudos Aaron!

Typemock Isolator 5.1 Released

Paulo Morgado — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:41:57 GMT

This major version adds static method support and non-public method faking to the AAA API. Check out the release notes.

I don’t like the reflective approach to testing private methods.

With the new additions to the AAA API, testing this class:

public class MyClass
{
    public string Public()
    {
        return this.Private();
    }

    private string Private()
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

can be done like this:

[TestMethod]
[Isolated]
public void PrivateTest()
{
    MyClass fake = Isolate.Fake.Instance<MyClass>();

    Isolate.WhenCalled(() => fake.Public()).CallOriginal();

    Isolate.NonPublic.WhenCalled(fake, "Private").WillReturn("FAKE");

    string fakePublic = fake.Public();

    Assert.AreEqual("FAKE", fakePublic);

    Isolate.Verify.WasCalledWithExactArguments(() => fake.Public());

    Isolate.Verify.NonPublic.WasCalled(fake, "Private");
}

I would like it better if it was like this:

[TestMethod]
[Isolated]
public void PrivateTest()
{
    MyClass fake = Isolate.Fake.Instance<MyClass>();

    MyClass_Accessor fakeAccessor = MyClass_Accessor.AttachShadow(fake);

    Isolate.WhenCalled(() => fakeAccessor.Private()).WillReturn("FAKE");

    Isolate.WhenCalled(() => fake.Public()).CallOriginal();

    string fakePublic = fake.Public();

    Assert.AreEqual("FAKE", fakePublic);

    Isolate.Verify.WasCalledWithExactArguments(() => fake.Public());

    Isolate.Verify.WasCalledWithExactArguments(() => fakeAccessor.Private());
}

Looks almost the same but there aren’t any method names in the test code.

They were able to do it for Natural Mocks. I’m sure they will eventually do it for AAA.

Faking Output Parameters With Typemock Isolator

Paulo Morgado — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:51:40 GMT

Some time ago I was asked if it was possible to fake output parameters with Typemock Isolator.

It’s actually very easy using any of the APIs.

Given this class:

public class MyClass
{
    public bool MyMethod(string input, out int output1, out double output2)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

Using the new AAA API, it's as clean as:

[TestMethod]
[Isolated]
public void TestMethodIsolated()
{
    MyClass target = Isolate.Fake.Instance<MyClass>();

    string input = "test value";
    int expectedOutput1 = 1;
    double expectedOutput2 = 2;

    Isolate.WhenCalled(() => target.MyMethod(input, out expectedOutput1, out expectedOutput2)).WillReturn(true);

    int output1;
    double output2;
    bool result = target.MyMethod(input, out output1, out output2);

    Assert.IsTrue(result);
    Assert.AreEqual<int>(expectedOutput1, output1);
    Assert.AreEqual<double>(expectedOutput2, output2);
}

Using Natural Mocks, it's as easy as:

[TestMethod]
[VerifyMocks]
public void TestMethodNatural()
{
    MyClass target = RecorderManager.CreateMockedObject<MyClass>();

    string input = "test value";
    int expectedOutput1 = 1;
    double expectedOutput2 = 2;

    using (RecordExpectations recorder = RecorderManager.StartRecording())
    {
        recorder.ExpectAndReturn(target.MyMethod(input, out expectedOutput1, out expectedOutput2), true);
    }

    int output1;
    double output2;
    bool result = target.MyMethod(input, out output1, out output2);

    Assert.IsTrue(result);
    Assert.AreEqual<int>(expectedOutput1, output1);
    Assert.AreEqual<double>(expectedOutput2, output2);
}

It's also possible using Reflective Mocks:

[TestMethod]
[VerifyMocks]
public void TestMethodReflective()
{
    MockObject<MyClass> targetMock = MockManager.MockObject<MyClass>();

    string input = "test value";
    int expectedOutput1 = 1;
    double expectedOutput2 = 2;

    targetMock.ExpectAndReturn(
        "MyMethod",
        new DynamicReturnValue(delegate(object[] parameters, object context)
            {
                parameters[1] = expectedOutput1;
                parameters[2] = expectedOutput2;
                return true;
            }));

    int output1;
    double output2;
    bool result = targetMock.Object.MyMethod(input, out output1, out output2);

    Assert.IsTrue(result);
    Assert.AreEqual<int>(expectedOutput1, output1);
    Assert.AreEqual<double>(expectedOutput2, output2);
}

All you have to do is choose which one you like most.

Clone Detective For Visual Studio

Paulo Morgado — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:41:36 GMT

Clone Detective is a tool that integrates with Visual Studio and uses the ConQAT (Continuous Quality Assessment Toolkit) to analyze C# projects and search for duplicated source code.

Watch the videos and see if this is the tool you were looking for.

StyleCop 4.3 Is Out

Paulo Morgado — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:36:21 GMT

The StyleCop team announced the release of a version 4.3 of the StyleCop tool. You can get it from here.

On this version there are some bug fixes, new rules and documentation.

Also in this version, the list of errors and warnings goes to the Errors List window like with the compilers. I whish that the errors and warnings would also be sent to the Output window.

SDK documentation on how to author custom rules and integrate the tool with custom build environments is expected soon.

Lutz Roeder’s .NET Reflector Is Now Red Gate’s .NET Reflector

Paulo Morgado — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:34:29 GMT

Let’s face it, if you don’t know .NET Reflector, you can never claim to be a .NET developer.

Today Red Gate announced the acquisition of Lutz Roeder’s .NET Reflector.

On .NET Reflector’s page, Red Gate states that “will continue to maintain a free version for the benefit of the community”.

You can read an interview with Lutz Roeder and James Moore (general manager of .NET Developer Tools at Red Gate) at simple-talk.

James doesn’t know yet how to improve Reflector, but I do. Reflector needs a major improvement on UI usability and performance. Let’s see if I can come up with a list:

For me, search as you type is not a good idea as it is in Reflector.
Still in the search theme, search as you type would be nice for the active code window.
I cannot understand why changing any of the options fires a total repaint and lost of the view of the active code item.
Settings like code, documentation and number formatting should possible to change on the fly with a simple toolbar click.

I’m sure Red Gate is more than capable of taking good care of .NET Reflector.

Typemock Racer Alpha Is Out

Paulo Morgado — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:50:01 GMT

Typemock has released an alpha version of its newest product: Typemock Racer.

Typemock Racer is the tool that uses dynamic and static analysis to find deadlocks in .NET code that had been previously announced by Roy Osherove.

Typemock Isolator 5.0 Is Out With Its New AAA API

Paulo Morgado — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:33:30 GMT

Typemock has released version 5.0 of its unit testing tool: Isolator. Check out the release notes.

This new version comes with a new API: Arrange Act Assert:

I’ll have to say that I liked Isolator better over Isolate.

Also new in this version is the inclusion of the help file in the installation package.

VHD Resizer: Tool For Resizing VHD Files

Paulo Morgado — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:13:50 GMT

While installing SQL Server 2008 in a Virtual PC virtual machine I run out of disk space.

Looking around, I found this great tool: VHD Resizer. Registration is required to download the tool.

Testing With Multiple Versions Of Internet Explorer

Paulo Morgado — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:35 GMT

On a previous post I mentioned IETester.

Jorge Moura mentioned TredoSoft’s MultipleIEs and a list of web browsers.

DebugBar, Companion.JS And IETester

Paulo Morgado — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:30:00 GMT

Some days ago a colleague of mine pointed out to me this tool (IETester) that allows testing the different rendering and JavaScript engines of Internet Explorer (5.5, 6, 7 and 8beta1) side by side with the installed version.

I haven’t tested IETester yet, but I found two other tools in the site that caught my attention: DebugBar and Companion.JS.

DebugBar is like other tools I use [^] with a few differences. DebugBar is an explorer bar (and docks on the left side of IE) and can’t be undocked but has a JavaScript console and tracks only the HTTP/HTTPS traffic that belongs to the visible web browser tab (IE 7). DebugBar can also spy on other instances of IE like Document Explorer or FeedDemon.

Companion.JS is a Firebug-like tool and was the one that liked the most because it gave me something that I hadn’t: something that kills those annoying scripting error dialogs.

Both DebugBar and Companion.JS claim to be JavaScript debuggers but I couldn’t find any way for setting breakpoints or running scripts step by step. Probably because I have Visual Studio installed on this machine.

Microsoft Source Analysis for C# (aka StyleCop)

Paulo Morgado — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:12:22 GMT

I’ve learned from a fellow GASPer of the release of Microsoft Source Analysis for C# (aka StyleCop).

It’s still a work in progress but it’s already very useful.

Typemock Developers Community Site Updated

Paulo Morgado — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:54:19 GMT

Typemock has updated its Developers Community Site with new sections.

Besides the forums, there's a new add-ons page where anyone can share her/his tools or snippets (I guess I'll have to brush up my Typemock Snippets For Visual Studio to add there) and an experts page (guess who's there).

Internet Explorer vs. FireFox

Paulo Morgado — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:32:54 GMT

Until recent I had never used FireFox (FF) because Internet Explorer (IE) was good enough for me.

I don't do much web page development and because I own licenses for Visual Studio (VS), HTTPWatch and IEWatch (tried the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar but it keeps bowing up and killing IE and I've seen Nikhil Kothari's Web Development Helper installed and doesn't work well when non US English characters are displayed) I never needed anything else.

Over the years I've seen all the campaigning against IE and promoting FF as a better, more standards compliant, more secure and what else.

A few days back I had to do some work with ASP.NET validation summary and validators and needed to check if it worked on FF.

Talk about disappointment:

FireBug is by far no better than the tools I've been using.
FF needs its own proxy configurations - For me, any application running on Windows that needs its own proxy settings it's just a badly developed application.
(I'm sure I'd find much more if I used it.)

IE isn't a good developer tool yet (not even in IE8 at this time [^]) and it should have been for a long time. Or, at least, VS should have better support HTML and CSS debugging.

But, on the other hand, Windows Internet Explorer is just another application built on top of the Web Browser Control[^] (which is part of the IE installation, but can be used by itself). You can build any Windows application that uses a Web Browser Control (I've built more than one). Looks like the same is not as simple with FF [^].

I don't intend to start a web browser war. I just wanted to state my disappointment. I guess FF fans set my expectation too high.

.NET Reflector 5.1.2.0 Released

Paulo Morgado — Sun, 18 May 2008 23:38:29 GMT

Get it from here.

Typemock Isolator v4.2.4 Released

Paulo Morgado — Sun, 18 May 2008 23:37:52 GMT

Typemock released version 4.2.4 of its Isolator mock framework.

You can check out the release notes in The Typemock Insider blog and download it from the Typemock Isolator Download page.

Rendering ASP.NET Validators And Validation Summary Property As HTML Attributes

Paulo Morgado — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:34:00 GMT

Yesterday I blogged about the cause of ASP.NET validators and validation summary slowness.

At that point I wasn't aware of the existence of the XHTML conformance configuration (thanks Nuno).

With the XHTML conformance configuration set to Legacy, the rendering of controls works like it worked in ASP.NET 1.1.

The Cause Of ASP.NET Validators And Validation Summary Slowness

Paulo Morgado — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:17:00 GMT

When building ASP.NET pages, if you use too many validators and validation summaries your pages can become very slow. Have you ever wondered why?

Lets build a simple page web page with a few validators. Something like this:

The page is composed of:

2 TextBoxes
1 RequiredFieldValidator for each TextBox
1 RangeValidator for each TextBox
1 CompareValidator
1 ValidationSummary
1 Button

ASP.NET renders the ValidationSummary as a DIV and each validator as a SPAN and uses expando attributes to add properties to those elements.

According to the documentation, expando attributes are set dynamically from JavaScript to preserve XHTML compatibility for the rendered control's markup.

The problem is that all that JavaScript makes the HTML document larger and slower to execute than if the properties were rendered in HTML as attributes of the elements.

For such a small page, the difference in size approaches 2k bytes. If you add a few dozen validators to he page, the slowness is noticeable.

I'm all in favor of strict standards and standards compliance, but in this case, I wish XHTML would allow arbitrary attributes.