Blake Niemyjski

  • Tips & Tricks: Manually uninstalling CodeSmith.

    I've come across a few issues, where a CodeSmith install might become corrupt when going from a beta to RTM. The following guide will show you how to successfully remove CodeSmith from your computer. Please allow 10 to 15 minutes of your time to complete this guide. Please note: This guide could be used to uninstall other .net applications.

    1. You will need to download the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility. After you have installed this application you will need to launch the following executable: C:\Program Files\Windows Installer Clean Up\msicuu.exe. After the application is launched you will want to Select CodeSmith from the list and click remove. This will remove CodeSmith from the Installer Database. The installer database holds a record of each application you install on your computer.
    2. Next we will need to remove all the CodeSmith assemblies that are located in the GAC. Open up Windows Explorer and browse to: C:\Windows\assembly.
    3. Now you will need to right click all the CodeSmith.* assemblies and select uninstall.
    4. Next we will remove the configuration and program directories. The following directories will need to be deleted, please note the below paths are working paths for Windows Vista.
      • C:\ProgramData\CodeSmith
      • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\CodeSmith
      • C:\Users\<user>\Documents\CodeSmith (If you want to remove your templates).
      • C:\Program Files\CodeSmith
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\CodeSmith (if you’re running 64bit)
      • C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\CodeSmith Professional 5.0
      • C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\CodeSmith Standard 5.0
    5.   You can now install a fresh copy of CodeSmith!
  • CodeSmith 5.0 RTM available now

    Over the past year the CodeSmith team has been hard at work on CodeSmith 5.0. This release contains many fixes, performance enhancements and other enhancements over the previous versions. Below is a list of some of the major changes between CodeSmith 5.0 and CodeSmith 4.0. I have highlighted some of my favorites below.

    5.0.0 Final

      * Added a tab for editing variables in the CodeSmith Project settings dialog.
      * Made it so that any .csp variables are automatically used when there is a string matching the variable value in the property values.
      * Made it so that variables are automatically created for connection strings stored in .csp files so that the connection string isn't repeated.
      * If you choose to remove all settings during uninstall, it will automatically try to deactivate your license.
      * Added more info about the current license to the about dialog.
      * Made schema explorer designers load their data sources async so that the UI would not lock.
      * Fixed bug where wrong data source was selected when the designer was opened.
      * Fixed error when adding references to Visual Studio project.

    Beta 2

      * Changed all SchemaExplorer designers to display in Object (Owner) format so that you can type the first couple letters to jump to the object you are looking for.
      * Added ability to override plural/singular forms of words to the StringUtil.ToPlural and StringUtil.ToSingular methods.
      * Added ability to specify Filter="SomeTableSchemaProperty" on ColumnSchema directives which will filter the list of columns in the designer based on the table selected in the specified property.
      * Added new RegisterReference method to CodeTemplate to indicate which assemblies your generated code relies on so that they can be automatically added in Visual Studio.
      * Performance improvements in adding files to the project system in Visual Studio.
      * Added a menu item for managing data sources to the Visual Studio CodeSmith menu.
      * Added step to the uninstall process to remove all samples and config files.  It will also automatically deactivate your license so you can use it on another machine.
      * Added syntax highlighting for the VB keyword "Infer".
      * Various improvements to the OracleSchemaProvider including full extended property support.
      * Made deleting items in the csmap editor more intuitive.
      * Changed ColumnSchema designer to use a treeview so that all columns for all tables aren't loaded at once.
      * Fixed issue with duplicate CSP item templates in the C# project system and missing in VB project system.
      * Fixed error with editing empty CSP files.
      * Fixed issue with beta license that was causing the application to freeze on startup when behind a firewall.
      * Fixed a bug with email addresses in the bug report form.

    Beta 1

      * Added ability to deep load all schema information at once which results in huge performance improvements.  This is used by setting the DeepLoad attribute on any SchemaExplorer property in your template.  This would typically be used when you know you are going to use all of the schema information from a database.
      * Ability to use .net 3.5 features in templates including LINQ.  This is accomplished by setting the CompilerVersion attribute on CodeTemplate to "v3.5".
      * CodeSmith Projects now have a single file output mode to generate all template outputs into a single file.
      * Added Ability to generate individual project outputs.
      * Changed Manage Outputs dialog to make it easier to manage outputs and added an options dialog for changing project settings.
      * Made it so that files being generated from a CodeSmith Project are checked out of source control before being edited.
      * Improved the custom tool upgrade process so that it works 100% in all scenarios without having to make manual changes afterward.
      * CodeSmith Projects can now add files to Visual Studio as code behind files to other generated files.
      * CodeSmith Projects can now set a generated files build action.
      * Added ability to resolve assemblies located in paths relative to the template now using Path attribute.  Looks in template folder and \bin folder by default.
      * Optimized template caching algorithm allows for much improved performance.
      * Templates use partial classes now so you can have partial class code behinds and have access to template properties from the code behind file.
      * Added template metadata caching.
      * Added GetPropertyAttribute and SetPropertyAttribute to CodeTemplate.
      * Property attribute values are added for any non-recognized attributes on Property, XmlProperty and CodeTemplate directives.
      * Made all SchemaExplorer objects serializable.
      * Fixed bug with refreshing SchemaExplorer objects where it would not show all extended properties of the object after refresh.
      * Re-organized all sample templates and projects into a more logical folder structure.
      * Added new NHibernate templates in both C# and Visual Basic.
      * Made various improvements to the Plinqo templates.
      * .netTiers updated to the 2.3 Beta version of the templates.
      * Added VB versions of many sample templates and projects.
      * Added a couple new maps and ActiveSnippets.
      * Included the latest version of the NuSoft framework templates.

    Download Links Available Below:

    Professional: http://www.codesmithtools.com/download/codesmithprofessional-50.msi
    Standard: http://www.codesmithtools.com/download/codesmithstandard-50.msi
    Zip: http://www.codesmithtools.com/download/codesmith-50.zip 

  • Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 RTM

    I was so happy to see that Microsoft has finally release Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. It contains so many improvements and bug fixes; you can view the full list of the enhancements at Scott Guthrie's blog.

    "Unlike other Service Packs from Microsoft, the SP1 of.Net Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 not only contains bug fixes and improvements, it also contains new technologies such as ADO.Net Entity Framework v1, ADO.Net Data Services v1, ASP.Net Dynamic Data and the framework and tools support for working with SQL Server 2008 that was RTM'ed last week.

    Here are some useful download links:

    While downloading and installing the SP1 of.Net Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 you can take your time to read the posts I've written during the beta time frame:

    Overview of the Service Pack 1

    ADO.Net Entity Framework

    ADO.Net Data Services

    ADO.Net Sync Services

    SQL Server 2008 and Data Access Technologies

  • Speaking at the Madison .NET User Group

    Date:     Wednesday, July 30, doors open at 5pm

    Topic:     Code Generation

    Speaker:     Blake Niemyjski

    Location:     Herzing College, East Madison Campus, 5218 East Terrace Drive, 53718

    Description:    

    Blake Niemyjski is a full time student studying Computer Science and Mathematics. His previous studies included RSA Encryption and Number Theory. This coming year he will be attending UW-Madison to continue his education. Since the late 90's Blake has had a curiosity in developing software with the goal of making software that helps the masses accomplish tasks. As a hobbyist developer turned student and professional developer, Blake has had a passion to continue his knowledge into the unknown and creating technologies of the future.

    Some of Blake's past and current work includes the development on various Windows featured communities: bink.nu, windowscoding.com, hypervoria.com, open source communities: (e.g. nettiers.com, communityserverlive.com), charities (e.g. wearemicrosoft.com) and other commercial entities including, globalgrind.com, CodeSmith Tools LLC and more.

    Blake will be covering Code Generation using CodeSmith's upcoming release CodeSmith 5.0. The presentation will cover the following:

    • How-to create templates that use Data Sources, XML, SQL, etc...
    • Tips and Tricks used by senior fellow CodeSmith users
    • Demos on Data Access Generation using nHiberate and .netTiers
    • How templates can make your life easier and save you money
    • CodeSmith 5.0 specific features
    • An overview of what happens under the hood, CodeDOM, etc.


    Meeting Agenda:

    • 5:00pm, Networking with sponsors and members
    • 5:30pm, Free pizza and soda
    • 6:00pm, Introduction and start main presentation
    • 7:45pm, Break off into Special Interest Groups
    • 9:00pm, Give away prizes and Wrap up meeting

     

  • Microsoft StyleCop: Source Code Analyzer for C#

    Here is a cool internal tool used by Microsoft that is now seeing daylight Smile.

     

    "We are very excited to announce the release of a new developer tool from Microsoft, Source Analysis for C#. This tool is known internally within Microsoft as StyleCop, and has been used for many years now to help teams enforce a common set of best practices for layout, readability, maintainability, and documentation of C# source code.

    StyleCop is similar in many ways to Microsoft Code Analysis (specifically FxCop), but there are some important distinctions. FxCop performs its analysis on compiled binaries, while StyleCop analyzes the source code directly. For this reason, FxCop focuses more on the design of the code, while StyleCop focuses on layout, readability and documentation. Most of that information is stripped away during the compilation process, and thus cannot be analyzed by FxCop.

    The ultimate goal of StyleCop is to allow you to produce elegant, consistent code that your team members and others who view your code will find highly readable. In order to accomplish this, StyleCop does not allow its rules to be very configurable. StyleCop takes a one-size-fits-all approach to code style, layout, and readability rules. It is highly likely that you will not agree with all of the rules and may even find some of the rules annoying at first! However, the majority of teams using this tool within Microsoft have found that after a short adjustment period, they came to appreciate the rules enforced by StyleCop, and even began to find it difficult to read code not written in this style. 

    StyleCop comes with a set of default rules analyzers covering approximately 200 best practice rules. These rules are fully compatible with the default layout settings in Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008.

    Specifically, these rules cover the following, in no particular order:

    • Layout of elements, statements, expressions, and query clauses
    • Placement of curly brackets, parenthesis, square brackets, etc
    • Spacing around keywords and operator symbols
    • Line spacing
    • Placement of method parameters within method declarations or method calls
    • Standard ordering of elements within a class
    • Formatting of documentation within element headers and file headers
    • Naming of elements, fields and variables
    • Use of the built-in types
    • Use of access modifiers
    • Allowed contents of files
    • Debugging text

    After installation, StyleCop can be run from within the Visual Studio IDE, and can also be integrated into MSBuild-based command line builds" (Microsoft StyleCop).

    Download ( Microsoft StyleCop )

  • How-to: Run Windows Live software on 64bit Windows

    I'm guessing that many of you have attempted to download the latest version of Windows Live Messenger or other Windows Live Software but have been prompted with the following error:

    "Sorry, Windows Live programs cannot be installed on Windows Server, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, or Windows operating systems earlier than Windows XP Service Pack 2."

    You're not alone, as I have received the same error when trying to install the latest version on Windows Server 2008 64bit.

    The folks at Microsoft included support in the installer for all operating systems during the Windows Live beta(s). However when Messenger 8.5 went RTM, they removed support for all of the operating systems mentioned above. Many are outraged that Microsoft took this stance because they supported it while it was in beta, and then launch and say we don't support it and won't ever support it.

    "A special note for those of you running Messenger 8.5 Beta on Windows XP 64-bit or Windows 2003 Server: the final version of Messenger 8.5 will not install or run on your OS. We don’t want you to get stuck out in the cold so you will not receive the mandatory upgrade to the final version. However, these operating systems won’t be supported by future Messenger versions. You may stay on your current beta version, or to get to a more stable final version we recommend that you uninstall Messenger 8.5 and go back to Messenger 8.1." ( Windows Live Messenger Blog ).

    Many are wishing Microsoft would remove this limitation from the Windows Live installer. For more information visit the messengergeek blog.

    Luckily there is an easy work around to installing Windows Live on Windows 64bit operating systems and Windows Server operating systems if you have a 32bit windows operating system available. Just follow the steps below and you will be up and running in a few minutes with the latest version of Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Writer and various other Windows Live programs.

    1. Download the installer on your 32bit Windows machine from http://get.live.com. Note: I used Windows XP Service pack 3.
    2. Run the Installer (WLinstaller.exe). Note: It will download and install the latest version of Windows Live onto your machine.
    3. Go to the following folder(C:\Program Files\Common Files\WindowsLiveInstaller\MsiSources or C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\WindowsLiveInstaller\MsiSources\).
    4. Copy or email the executables of the various Windows Live programs installers to your Windows 64bit or Windows Server operating system. Below is a list of applications names that correspond to the filename (diTii.com ).

    Windows Live Writer
    Install_{9176251A-4CC1-4DDB-B343-B487195EB397}.msi
    Windows Live Messenger
    Install_{508CE775-4BA4-4748-82DF-FE28DA9F03B0}.msi
    Windows Live Sign-In Assistant
    Install_{AFA4E5FD-ED70-4D92-99D0-162FD56DC986}.msi
    Windows Live Mail
    Install_{EDB619FD-4E71-403C-8E99-DFC9CF9DD345}.msi
    Windows Live Toolbar
    Install_{C6876FE6-A314-4628-B0D7-F3EE5E35C4B4}.msi
    Windows Live Photo Gallery
    Install_{AA436FBD-2595-479B-8DDE-E9C36F50D99D}.msi

    1. Finally install the above msi's onto your machine. You should now be on the latest and greatest version of your favorite software.

     

  • .netTiers 2.3.0 Beta 1

    The .netTiers team released .netTiers 2.3.0 Beta 1 the other day.  .netTiers 2.3.0 is a maintenance release containing many bug fixes and patches. We have also added various requested features like Enterprise Library version 4 as well as support for Visual Studio 2008.

    You can download the 2.3.0 Beta 1 templates at the following locations. You can download it the following locations: SVN, Google code, or www.nettiers.com. Please submit all bug reports to http://code.google.com/p/nettiers/issues/list.

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