How to copy hibernate.config to the VSTS Output Folder?

VSTS is now included by default in the standard/professional version of vs.net 2008. Until now i was using NUnit + TestDriver.net, etc.

I've decided to test VSTS and found 1 big problem : my nhibernate.config file was not copied to the output directory of the test output folder. I was expecting this to be automatically since I've set the "Always Copy" in the build property for the file.

Doing some basic Google searches I've noticed I am not the only guy having this problem.

The solution is to open the "localtestrun.testrunconfig" file which is added automatically to the solution by VSTS, go to "Deployment" and then add the file you want to deploy/copy.










Once this is done, the hibernate.config file copied every time we run a test. This can be seen in the image below. VSTS creates 1 output folder for each test run.

Code Generation 2008 : more than just content

The conference is now over.

Besides the fact of being a very good conference, one the most important things is that during the conference I've met wonderful people. Not only we had a lot of fun together but also we discussed some very interest topics.

Pedro Molina , me , Alejandro Silva and Gaston Milano

It's was amazing to see how much we had in common and how much effort we had wasted trying to solve all of us the same stuff. We are working in our little isolated island without having ways to correctly shared/reuse some of the common concepts in our tools/products.

Besides there deep technical knowledge and wonderful ideas, the most important thing was that we had a lot of fun together.

Another person which I was very pleased to met from Microsoft was Jean-Marc Prieur (picture, and yes, the guy in the background is Steve Cook).

He was "extremely" helpful, always open to new ideas , listened far beyond the extend of his responsibility, stayed "after" the conference to keep listening.
"Chapeau!!!".

Later during next week I will write down more stuff related to my point of view of some very specific stuff I've learn.

DSL : Model References (Backplane)

A couple of months ago I've wrote this MSDN Forum post where I was a little bit confused (and surprised) with the way of solving DSL Model References.

Edward Bakker finally found out that in Rosario the VSX team is actually giving a standard solution for this problem. Here is a detail BLOG entry about his findings, which I found very interesting.

What I wonder is when (and package into what product? I hope/think it should be the SDK), this improvement will be available.I've tried to google based on "Microsoft.VisualStudio.ToolIntegration.Backplane.dll" and Edward's blog was the only result.

I will try to find this information in Code Generation conference which I will be attending this week.

ObjectDataSource : Manually controlling the sorting expression.

By default the GenWise ASP.NET Templates uses the object datasource SortParamterName. When that property is used , the objectdatasource will manipulate internally the sort expression (change to asc , desc) .

  269     ObjectDataSource runat="server" ID="ObjectDataSource1" TypeName="BOLayer.CustomerFactory"

  270                 SelectCountMethod="Count" EnablePaging="True" UpdateMethod="Save" DeleteMethod="Delete"

  271                 SortParameterName="pSortExpression" MaximumRowsParameterName="pMaxResult" StartRowIndexParameterName="pFirstResult"

  272                 SelectMethod="GetAll">

  273                 

  274                     Parameter Name="pSortExpression">Parameter>

  275                     Parameter Name="pCriteria">Parameter>

  276                 

  277                 

  278                     Parameter Name="CustomerID">Parameter>

  279                 

  280             ObjectDataSource>

For more advanced sorting scenarios you might want to manually control what's passed to the pSortExpression method parameter. This can be done in the following way :

Subscribe to the ObjectDataSource Selecting method (genwise does that automatically)

   44 ObjectDataSource1.Selecting += new ObjectDataSourceSelectingEventHandler(ObjectDataSource1_Selecting);

  253    protected void ObjectDataSource1_Selecting(object pSender, ObjectDataSourceSelectingEventArgs pEventArgs)

  254         {

  255             if (pEventArgs.ExecutingSelectCount)

  256                 pEventArgs.InputParameters.Remove("pSortExpression");

  257             else

  258                 pEventArgs.InputParameters["pSortExpression"] = _newSortExpression;

  259 

  260             pEventArgs.InputParameters["pCriteria"] = Browse1_GetCriteria();

  261         }

Where does _newSortExpression come from ? 

  198         string _newSortExpression = null;

  199         protected void Browse1_Sorting(object pSender, GridViewSortEventArgs pEventArgs)

  200         {

  201             // Calls this method to adapt the sort syntax (required for Composite sorting).

  202             _newSortExpression = WebUtils.SortExpressionTransformer(pEventArgs);

  203             pEventArgs.Cancel = true;

  204         }

SortExpression Tranformer takes the ObjectDataSource parameters and manipulates them to make them compatible with the GenWise Factories sorting syntax.

Below is the code of this method:

   63   public static string SortExpressionTransformer(GridViewSortEventArgs pEventArgs)

   64     {

   65         if (pEventArgs == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("pEventArgs");

   66 

   67         if (pEventArgs.SortDirection == SortDirection.Ascending)

   68         {

   69             return pEventArgs.SortExpression;

   70         }

   71 

   72         string newSortExpression = pEventArgs.SortExpression;

   73         string DESC = " DESC";

   74 

   75         if (pEventArgs.SortDirection == SortDirection.Descending)

   76         {

   77             if (pEventArgs.SortExpression.Contains(","))

   78             {

   79                 // Case : We have a composite sorting ( Field1,Field2) 

   80                 newSortExpression = string.Empty;

   81                 string[] sortParts = pEventArgs.SortExpression.Split(',');

   82                 for (int i = 0; i <> 
   83                 {
 
   84                     string sortPart = sortParts[i];
 
   85 
 
   86                     int sortDirectionIndex = sortPart.IndexOf(DESC);
 
   87                     bool isDescending = (sortDirectionIndex > -1);
 
   88 
 
   89                     string property = sortPart;
 
   90                     if (isDescending)
 
   91                     {
 
   92                         // sta : udpate templates.
 
   93                         //property = sortPart.Substring(0, (sortPart.Length - sortDirectionIndex + 1));
 
   94                         property = sortPart.Substring(0, (sortPart.Length - sortDirectionIndex + 1 + DESC.Length));
 
   95                     }
 
   96 
 
   97                     if (i > 0) newSortExpression += ",";
 
   98                     newSortExpression += property;
 
   99 
 
  100                     // Only add the DESC to all except the last (Last one will be controlled automatically by the object datasource.
 
  101                     if (!isDescending)
 
  102                     {
 
  103                         if (i < (sortParts.Length - 1))
 
  104                             newSortExpression +=  DESC ;
 
  105                     }
 
  106                 }
 
  107                 pEventArgs.SortExpression = newSortExpression;
 
  108             }
 
  109         }
 
  110         return newSortExpression;
 
  111     }
 

GenWise generated project added to vs.net solution using Source control.

Several customers have asked me how they can integrate an existing GenWise project into their vs.net solutions. To be more specific, GenWise already generates 100% compatible project files, so what's the problem?

Well, If you want to add the generated project into an existing solution and at the same time you can to keep that solution in source safe ( or in sourcegear vault which I use and recommend) then you might hit some little problems.

Problem #1 : Every time you regenerate the project is seen as a "new" project for the solution.
The reason behind this is that when you add the project to the solution the .proj file is modified with specific source control information + and ID (Guid) is given, etc.
To solve this problem you can "copy/paste" this information from the "modified" version of the project file INTO the GenWise project, so when you re-generate you don't loose this info .

Click on the image to enlarge an example for the solution to problem #1.




Problem #2 : After you have added the project to a source control provider ( vss or vault) all the files will be automatically read-only (by default) so you need to explicity do a complete project check out before you use the regenerate options from GenWise.