Wow... it took a little while but I finally got finished updating our site with dasBlog 1.9, the newest version after about a year of development.  We have to give it the team for their outstanding work!  Many Kudos!

What took so long was upgrading the solution to .NET 2.0 since the application comes as a 1.1 app.  For some help to upgrade the solution to the .NET Framework 2.0 see this helpful post:  http://www.dasBlog.us/viewtopic.php?t=244

Let me know if anyone needs any help with this...

Ed B.

Say you built an application that connects to TFS and you want a dialog box to appear if a user is not authorized to connect to TFS. To do this is quite simple.  There are two methods you might have seen when you are playing with the TeamFoundationServer object, Authenticate() and EnsureAuthenticated(). The difference between the two is Authenticate will always call the server and EnsureAuthenticated will only be called if the user has not already authenticated to the server. You should use the EnsureAuthenticated method as a performance point since you only want the call to go to the server if the user has not authenticated. Notice we are using the TeamFoundationServer constructor instead of the Factory; you can use the factory if you wish. The deciding point that you need to decide is if you want to reference the same object on subsequence calls and without the need to re-authenticate. Remember the factory method will return a cache instance of the object.

TeamFoundationServer tfs = new TeamFoundationServer(TFSServerName,new UICredentialsProvider());

tfs.EnsureAuthenticated();

If the user presses cancel on the dialog box then a UnauthorizedException will be thrown ,so handle it gracefully.

Ed K.

Here is a simple example of how to connect to a Team Foundation Server and display some of its properties.

To start we need to fire up VS 2005 and create a new console application.

Now that we have a new project we need to add a reference to Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.

Now we can access the TeamFoundationServer object. To create an instance of the object we will use the TeamFoundationServerFactory, we are using the factory so that we create a cache version of the object for subsequence calls.

 TeamFoundationServer tfs = TeamFoundationServerFactory.GetServer("FriendlyNameOfYourTFSServerOrURL");

Now lets display some data:

Console.WriteLine("The Authenticated User is: {0}", tfs.AuthenticatedUserDisplayName);
Console.WriteLine("TeamFoundationServer Name: {0}", tfs.Name);
Console.WriteLine("TeamFoundationServer Object GUID: {0}", tfs.InstanceId);
Console.ReadLine();

Here is the OutPut:

Thats it! Very simple and fun.

Ed K.

To build on Ed B's post of Hillarious Error, check this one out. We found this one today. Can you spot the not.

Ed K.

So, Wow... All of y'all that happen to use Facebook they have released an initial API that you can use to make applications that will read data from it once Facebook users have logged in and approved to use either your web or desktop application.  Pretty cool I think!

http://developers.facebook.com/index.php

I haven't dived too much into it since I am getting ready to leave out of town for Labor Day Weekend but at first glance:

1. One thing I don't like is that it uses the REST protocol.  For more info about it check out the Wiki on it:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer  It's pretty much making a POST of XML and then returning
2. They do say that they have plans on supporting SOAP:  http://developers.facebook.com/faq.php
3. I also noticed two guys have already made a VB.NET and a C# library to use.  I haven't looked at them yet and will take a look at them to see how well they did.  Obviously, I'll use the VB one :)  If I don't happen to think they will be useful for me, then I'll just create a Facebook.NET Library for it or just wait for them to implement SOAP so we can just use web services.
4. You can't get the entries of the logged in user's wall (or whichever user they choose to view.)  You can only get the wall count.  Boo!

Once again, it's a very early implementation.  I'm going to have to blame all those people who have nagged me for three years while I was in college about not having a MySpace and a Facebook because I broke in and now I'm glued on checking mine everyday.  I have gotten to meet up with a lot of people though that I haven't talked to in a long time.

Have a safe and fun Labor Day Weekend!  I'll be heading to Austin!

Ed B.

So... I was working with a client's application the other day and I got one of the funniest errors I have ever seen in my life.  Gotta love it!

If you ever see this error (or similar) then you really need to think about maybe refactoring a little... Anybody care to guess the complexity of this method?

Error Message:  "No overload for method MethodName takes '125' arguments."

Cyclomatic Complexity:  121 (extremely bad)
Maintenance Complexity:  13,031 (very very bad)

[Stats care of the wonderful tool:  CodeRush]

Ed B.

Just to save you a lot of time and hassle with a BizTalk installation... the computer name has to be 15 characters or less!  I guess only those of us with long names ever run into these kinds of problems :)

Ed B.

Here is a great post by Tim Rayburn on this issue. Here: http://www.timrayburn.net

It's inevitable... members of a development team are going to work really long hours.  Especially around crunch time!!!  We all know how it is!

It's both fun and frustrating to work at an organization who is growing in their software development lifecycle, process framework, and project management processes.  Almost everyone I have talked to describes places that have a less than perfect process in place for effective project management.  Even when there are policies in place, some of the times it's not even followed!

Has this ever happened to anyone?:  A resource is allocated for three different projects at a given time that have a total of nearly 90 hours of work in any given week?  And... that resource is also assigned with application management for production defects?

One of the things that makes a project run smoother is better resource allocation.  The critical path gets affected when resources are being shared between projects and application maintenance.  It's one of the "risks" that should be documented!

WARNING:  I am not a project manager.  This opinion is definitely coming from the development side of things :) I feel so bad for project managers at times.  I know that they care about just making sure that the project has a "green" light at all times and that everything will be finished on time (or early) with no defects!  I'm proud to say that I'm one of the members of the development staff that definitely strives for those same goals.

So... until later... keep being that Super Developer Resource!

Ed B.

So many people think that I work for DevExpress because of how much I rant and rave about CodeRush and Refactor Pro!

I'm telling you... CodeRush and Refactor Pro are definitely two of my most favorite tools!  But I really don't work for DevExpress... I'll blog later on both of them and some of the tools that I use from day to day that are built upon DX Core which is the foundation for both of their products and many other small tools.  If you haven't looked in DX Core (which is free) and you build or will build a Visual Studio add-in then you should definitely give it a shot.

My next plan for a coding tool that I could use from day to day is adding comments to code files in the format that I always use.  There is actually a tool that uses DX Core that does this called CR_Commenter but the bad thing:  It's only for C# code.  I thought about rewriting it for VB developers (and myself.)

Ed B.

So have you ever had the need to restore a SQL database because someone hit the delete button on a table or the whole Database? Well, my friend I have seen this happen several times. Here is some code to restore your database back to a certain point in time.

Start Server in single user mode :
sqlservr -m

RESTORE DATABASE YourDB

So this is the other Ed.  Ed B.  The Toy Boy as I am lovingly called.  I suppose I get my nickname because I like new gadgets and gizmos.  I also get my name from the constant search and discovery of new tools and components that make my life (and the rest of our lives) as developers better.

My professional objective in life is to provide more productivity and efficiency to people, developers, and processes.  I won't get all philisophical but I think that is how mankind will prosper :)

Enough of that!  From time to time, I'll add new commentary about new tools that I have found and ones that I use from daily in my developer life and in school.  There are some that I absolutely love more than anything else and just can't live without... some people even think I work for these companies since I am such a proponent! (I don't)

So until later, be more productive and efficient in your development!

Ed B.

Dallas Code camp was great! Good speakers and awesome content. My only suggestion would be to make the tracks a little longer, I wanted to learn more in-depth and I always ask crazy amounts of questions. I never know if speakers like or hate me when I ask questions, I make ‘em think J.

Anyways, here are the tracks I went to:

Programming with the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) - David Walker

Good overview as to what to expect with WCF. I like the easy configuration of remoting and the ability to switch to web services. If anyone has done remoting in 1.1, you know the headache of configurations and implementation. WCF looks very promising.

WCF buzz word of the day:

WCF A,B,C’s

(A)ddress

(B)inding

(C)ontext

Practical Business Application of DNN - Jason Kergosien

DNN rocks, enough said. I love DNN because it is designed so well and the community support is awesome. I see DNN becoming a huge contender against SharePoint Portal, well, at least the current version of SharePoint. The track offered a very high level view of the features, the main thing I took from this session was the fact that there is a DNN users group here in Dallas J J http://dallas.dnnug.net/. I will be a regular at this group from now on.

I was only able to go to two tracks due to the wife wanting me to spend more time with her and less time with computer stuff…… anyone have that problem?

In closing, great job Dallas Code Camp and great job Omar for making it happen. I look forward to the next one. Hopefully, I will not be so busy with projects that maybe I can be a speaker. Here are the topics that I plan on speaking about when I get the time:

• Dot Net Nuke
• Team Foundation Server / VSTS 2005
• Design Patterns by the Gang of Four
• Principles of OOP and how it can help achieve a better SOA.

Ed K.

A.K.A. Eddie Kisinger

A.K.A. Edward Kisinger

A.K.A. CodeMonkey

J

Debugging .Net assemblies can be tricky in BizTalk 2004. When working with Orchestrations you need to make sure that the version of the Orchestration dll and .Net assembly corresponded. There are two way in which to do this and be able to debug successfully.

1. If your Orchestration project and .Net assembly project are in the same solution. Build/Rebuild solution that contains the Orchestration project and your .Net assembly project. Make sure your .Net assembly project is in debug mode. This can be configured in the 'Configuration Manager". Then, Delete their dll from GAC and install the new ones. Now you can debug by attaching to the process "BTSNTSvc.exe".

2. If your Orchestration project and .Net assembly project are in different solutions then you will need to change the versioning from the default VS configuration. To change this, open your projects "AssemblyInfo.cs" file and change [assembly: AssemblyVersion("X.X.X.*")] to a hard coded value such as[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.0.1")]. Make sure your .Net assembly project is in debug mode. This can be configured in the 'Configuration Manager". Then, Delete their dll from GAC and install the new ones. Now you can debug by attaching to the process "BTSNTSvc.exe".

Ed K.

Tired of installing dll's to the GAC via command prompt or drag and drop to assembly folder?

Well have I got a solution for you. Follow these steps:

1. Create a command file with this information

@echo off

@echo *****************************************************************

@echo ** Add to register

@echo *****************************************************************

:Again

@if .%1.==.. goto Xit

@dir %1 /b

@C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\gacutil /i %1

@Shift

@goto Again

:Xit

@echo *****************************************************************

@Pause

2. Click start - run and type in "sendto"

3. Drag and drop the command file to that location

4. BANG! Now you can simple right click a file and select "Send To" -- "InstallToGac.cmd"

BizTalk guys should really appreciate this one :)

Enjoy,

Ed K.

If you have a computer that you want to join a domain and the computer is connected via VPN you need to do the following steps. Hopefully this will helps someone, unlike me, I had to figure this out myself after search google high and low with no help.

1. Connect your site to site VPN.
2. Configure your VPN appliance to use the targeted domains IP as the DNS
3. Join the domain form the computer properties the usual way except, instead of using the pre-2000 domain name ie "Network", you need to use the fully qualified name ie "MyNetwork.com"

Now if newly joined PC is on a different subnet than you Domain Controller you will need to do this in order to access internal servers/PCs via a remote connection by name:

Go to <root system Dir>\System32\Drivers\etc\    Look for the file name "hosts". In that file you will need to map your Servers/PCs name and IP address.

Keep in mind if you join your PC to a domain while at the domain site and not thru VPN, then take it offsite, you will not need to do these steps. This is only for joining a PC connected via VPN that has never been joined before.

Ed K.

Don't you just hate it when your programming partner works on a segment of code that
you depend on and he goes and makes a typo and checks it in, then it takes you 2
days to figure out the problem. This ones for you Ed B.

Well, we finally got the domian name we wanted, after waiting till some squater forgot to renew it :). So, our blog is up and we will be posting day to day stuff...sometimes it will be code, daily thoughts, ramblings and even crap that we want to be able to google later on.

Ed K