I SO Love the power of the search.... "Team Foundation" menu doesn't appear in VB6 (Fixed)

In my last post (Visual Studio Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider RTM), I mentioned that I was finally able to download and install the RTM version of the TFS MSSCCI Provider. But that it didn’t appear to be working in my VB6 environment...

After a quick google, I found the below info. This was just the thing I needed.

I now have my "Team Foundation" menu in my VB6 IDE. Rock on!

VSS 2005 And VB6 (http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=103065&SiteID=1)

"AndreaMasi

Thanks for the suggestions, after some trouble I found that the VSS addin setting is store in a ini file ! and unistalling VSS (6.0) the ini file is modified..

Here the settings in vbaddin.ini :

[Add-Ins32]
vbscc=1 "
 
My vbaddins.ini didn’t have the vbscc line in it at all. Could have been when I uninstalled VSS6 to install VSS2005...

Just adding that one line added the "Source Code Control" to the listed items in my VB6 Add-in Manager list (and the =1 turns it on by default).

You’ve got to love the power of the internet search. Five minutes and my problem was solved...

One thing to note, the vbaddin.ini lives in your %windows% folder (C:\Windows, C:\WinNT, etc)

Technorati Tags: TFS, MSSCCI, Visual Studio, VB6, Vbaddin.ini

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider RTM

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider

"Enables integrated use of Team Foundation Version Control with products that don’t support Team Explorer integration."

The TFS MSSCCI Provider is now officially released.

Installing now...

Well trying to anyway. The setup is complaining about a bad cab file, "The cabinet file_DE4122DA27BBE897D870DBB37A5A532C required for this installation is corrupt...", etc, etc.

I tried redownloading it (after clearing my IE cache) and still no joy.

Maybe a reboot will help. Be back in a bit...

Technorati Tags: TFS, MSSCCI, Visual Studio

Update #1 4/6/2006 @ 7:53 PM PDT:
Nope, still no joy. But luckily, for my sanity’s sake, I’m not the only one getting this error (forum post)...

Update #2 4/7/2006 @ 8:07 AM PDT:
The official word, from the forum, is that the download is bad... They are supposed to be reposting the file today.

Update #3 4/7/2006 @ 6:56 PM PDT:
The file has been fixed (download it here) and now installs like a charm.

I’m able to switch VS2003 to use it, but it doesn’t seem to be working in VB6. I’m not getting the "Team Foundation" menu that I expected (show here, Installing and configuring the VB6 MSSCCI provider).

I’ll play with it some more and see. I’d really like to get it working as having it working in VB6 is one of my last requirements before pushing hard for going live with TFS...

TextBox.AppendText

Langleyben Leon - WinForm TextBox.AppendText

"Apparently this point is commonly overlooked:

Avoid using TextBox.Text += ... construct to build long content.

Use TextBox.AppendText instead. AppendText internally set selection after last character in Textbox and then replace selection with supplied text using SendMessage API. This method is more effective by order of multitude. Note that after AppendText invocation textbox scrolled down to the last line. This is making difference in textboxes with long content (and scrollbar)." (Leached in full)
sigh... So much to learn...

The TextBox.AppendText sounds like a very cool method, a perfect way to streamline one of my common textbox usage senarios ...

I think I need to get a USB jack installed in my head so I can upload all this crud directly into my brain. A mini-USB jack isn’t too big... ;)

Technorati Tags: WinForm, Textbox.AppendText, .Net

MageUI Can Be Your ClickOnce Stage To Production Friend...

The Problem Solver - ClickOnce and real deployment

"In the real world deployment to clients directly from a development environment is not exactly the normal or advised way to go. Yet ClickOnce deployment, neat as it is, seems to assume that you deploy straight from development to a production environment. In most applications I work on we take a more sane approach and development deploys to a test/acceptance environment. Only after tests have concluded is the software released to the live production environment.

Yet in the case of ClickOnce you need to specify the install location in Visual Studio 2005, hardly the tool to move an assembly from test/acceptance into a production environment.
 
Fortunately there is a tool for the job and it is Mage, or MageUi depending on your preferences and needs. Mage is the command line utility to use when updating or creating a manifest, use this to automate the deployment of ClickOnce applications. To get started MageUi is the more interesting of the two.
 
..."


I’m digging ClickOnce, but have been wondering how to best tweak the process to allow deployment from Test/QA/Stage to Production. It sounds like Mage/MageUI solves a big piece of the puzzle.

Deploy to Stage from Visual Studio. Test, etc. Then from Stage, use Mage to update the manifest and move the files to Production.

Sounds workable to me...

Technorati Tags: Visual Studio 2005, ClickOnce, Mage, MageUI

VSSConverter GUI

Eyal’s Posts - VSSConverter GUI

"If you’re going to migrate your SourceSafe repository to Team System, you’ll eventually meet VSSConverter. VSSConverter is a command line utility that uses xml configuration files to transfer SourceSafe projects to TFS.

If you don’t like command line utilities then you’ve come to the right place. I’ve written a GUI frontend to VSSConverter that is called..well.. VSSConverterGui .

To use the tool, you should get familiar with the VSSConverter docs. I also suggest reading the following: Step by Step: Migration process from VSS to Team Foundation.

If you found this useful or (more likely) found some bugs, drop me a line in the comments section.

Download: VssConverterGui.zip
Note: Extract and place in the same location as VssConverter.exe
 

 
..."

VERY cool. The VSSConverter command line is not hard, but is still a pain. The hardest part is the xml config editing... Making sure the tags are right, etc, etc.

This tool looks to help with that a GREAT deal.

(via Rob Caron - VSSConverter GUI)

Related Past Post XRef:
TFS VSS Mirgation and Team Build Config

Technorati Tags: Team Foundation Server, TFS, Visual Studio Team Suite, VSSConverter

NDepend V2 (beta1) Released

"NDepend analyses .NET assemblies of an application and generates reports containing design quality metrics, warnings and diagrams. More on reports in the Sample Reports section.

The VisualNDepend tool allows analysing all these data thanks to an interactive view. Such view can be tuned according to numerous software metrics. Here are some screenshots of VisualNDepend. The sample analyzed application is the 15 main assemblies of the .NET Framework 2.0 (2.8M IL instructions):




NDepend 2.0 supports the Code Query Language (CQL) (1.0 specification available here). Basically, NDepend considers your code as a database and CQL allows to query and check some assertions on this database. As a consequence, CQL is similar to SQL and support the SELECT TOP FROM WHERE ORDER BY pattern.

..."
 
Patrick emailed me this morning to let me know that he’s released NDepend 2.0 (beta1).

There’s just something about treemaps that I dig...

Anyway, in v2 he’s also introduced CQL. CQL (as it says above) is a way to query your code. To run SQL like statements against your code to help to analysis it. Now that’s just cool.

If you are interested in truly seeing your code, then check out this tool.

On a side note, Patrick’s also released a new book, "Practical .NET 2 and C#2"... (Added to my Amazon Wish List [cause my wife has put a lock on my book spending for a bit... Yeah, I know, "she’s fired"  ;) ])

Related Past Post XRef:
NDepend
More Code Metric Tools
NDepend 1.0

Technorati Tags: NDepend, Code Metric, .Net

"How to configure the size limit for both (.pst) and (.ost) files in Outlook 2003"

Support.Microsoft.com - How to configure the size limit for both (.pst) and (.ost) files in Outlook 2003

"...Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 supports both American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and UNICODE personal folders (.pst) and offline folder (.ost) files. This article describes how to use the following four registry entries to limit the size of both the .pst and the .ost files:


•The MaxFileSize registry entry
•The WarnFileSize registry entry
•The MaxLargeFileSize registry entry
•The WarnLargeFileSize registry entry

The MaxFileSize registry entry

The MaxFileSize registry entry determines the absolute maximum size that both the .pst and the .ost files can grow to. After this maximum size is reached, Outlook 2003 does not permit the size of the file to grow beyond this size.
 
The WarnFileSize registry entry
The WarnFileSize registry entry determines the maximum data that both the .pst and the .ost files can have. After this maximum data is reached, neither the .pst nor the .ost files are permitted to add any more data. However, the size of the physical file may still increase because of internal processes.

In the following table, the MaxLargeFileSize registry entry and the WarnLargeFileSize registry entry refer to a UNICODE formatted (new Large format) file, and the MaxFileSize registry entry and the WarnFileSize registry entry refer to an ANSI formatted (an earlier Microsoft Outlook format) file. The UNICODE values are set in megabyte (MB) increments, while the ANSI values are set in byte increments.

..."

Outlook 2003’s PST size limits has come up a couple times in the last few weeks, so I’m keyed to watch for related posts... This KB article is one that I wanted to remember and be able to find (and so is posted to my remote memory store).

I’ve heard that sometimes Outlook 2003, even when freshly installed and with a Unicode PST, can still limit nag when getting close to the 2GB.

I’ve personally created a PST with 3GB of data, so wasn’t able to reproduce the issue.

Anyway, I’m keeping my eyes open for additional related posts...

(via http://del.icio.us/tags/Outlook/ - http://del.icio.us/duane7/Outlook/

Related Past Post XRef:
"Repairing Outlook 2003 PST Files and Size Limits by Mr. Tweak"

Technorati Tags: Outlook 2003, PST, Kb832925

"Time Zones in the .NET Framework" - With Code Sample

BCLTeam’s WebLog - Time Zones in the .NET Framework

"The single most requested individual feature for the Base Class Libraries that has not been delivered yet is for support for Time Zones other than Local and UTC. This is a feature we are actively exploring for the next release of the .NET Framework.

 

To tide people over, we recently released an updated sample that supports the following scenarios:

-Enumeration of Time Zones from the Windows Registry.

-Conversion of a DateTime instance between Time Zones.

 

The sample can be downloaded from here:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/5/5/4555538c-6002-4f04-8c58-2b304af92402/converttimezone.exe

 

The sample is similar to one that was available in the SDK previously. However, the previous sample did not adjust conversions for Daylight Savings Time. This sample does account for Daylight Savings time in the same way that the DateTime class itself accounts for it for local times. In fact, we used some of the same testing code to verify it.

 

..."

Timezones... sigh. Being in the EDD field, timezones & daylight savings time come up alot. Personally I think it’s time we kill Daylight Savings Time, but until then (and even after... sigh), I’ll have to deal with it.

Having it baked into the .Net Framework would help a great deal.

The above C# sample is pretty cool in that it avoids using interop to get its job done.

Technorati Tags: C#, Time Zones, DateTime, .Net Framework

Virtual Server 2005 R2 - Enterprise Edition - Now Free

Virtual Server 2005 R2 - Enterprise Edition

"Download the Enterprise Edition of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2. Virtual Server R2 is a cost-effective and well supported server virtualization technology for the Windows Server System™ platform. As a key part of any server consolidation strategy, Virtual Server increases hardware utilization and enables organizations to rapidly configure and deploy new servers."

As has been hotly rumored, Microsoft has freed Virtual Server 2005 R2.

Yep, free as in pizza (it’s too early for beer... I think... ;)

Now that’s cool. And since it’s not bundled into Windows, it won’t get MS in trouble with *.World?

Time to get my Dev/QA Lab setup with this. Just need to grab some hardware...

Technorati Tags: Virtual Server 2005 R2

Wake on LAN C# 2.0 CodeKeep Snippet

CodeKeep - Snippet: Wake On LAN (WOL) (C#)

"Description: Shutting down a machine after maintenance is pretty simple to do using the ExitWindowsEx API, but waking a machine up requires some WOL functionality. Bret coded a solution for this in managed code (.NET Framework 2.0).

Link: http://www.codekeep.net/snippets/57f1c93c-ecde-4f3a-889c-03ca674c17f7.aspx"

This is something I might be able to use...  Originally posted in this post on Bart’s blog.

Technorati Tags: CodeKeep, C#, Wake On LAN, WOL

DriverPacks.Net - Windows XP Device Drivers

DriverPacks.Net

"I’ve started these DriverPacks because I wanted to achieve a Uniform UXPCD. Why in the world would you want support for all available hardware, I hear you thinking. Well, that’s easy to explain: to be able to use these unattended Windows XP installation CD’s on any computer (of course one that’s capable of running Windows XP).

So in that thread at MSFN.org I asked how I could do that. Of course people were laughing at me (a quote: "I think you’d be naive to think you’d be able to fit the (latest) drivers of every device made since XP was launched, on the one cd").

After a while I decided to just try it, and I started the DriverPack Sound. It was a hell to get it fully working, but the positive feedback kept me continuing. Later DriverPack LAN was added and also DriverPack MassStorage (this last one was started by RyanVM). In January ’05 I released DriverPack WLAN, which contains about 250 drivers (at that time)! This one has without a doubt the largest collection until now. In February, DriverPack Graphics has become available. This one has been split into two parts: A and B. DriverPack Graphics A supports the ATI Radeon series and the nVidia GeForce and Quadro series, while DP Graphics B supports all other graphics cards. Recently DriverPack Chipset has been added to the list! DriverPack Sound has also been split into two parts (A and B) because of its size. DriverPack CPU, a tiny DriverPThis (nearly) completes the circle: all important device drivers are now available in the form of DriverPacks!

Each of these DriverPacks support the widest variety of controllers in their category: even brands of whom you’ve never heard are included! At the moment there is support for hundreds of devices (Chipset, Graphics (A and B), LAN, MassStorage, Sound (A and B) and WLAN).
 
...
 
Currently there are 8 DriverPacks available:

• DriverPack Chipset
  
• DriverPack CPU
  
• DriverPack Graphics
  
• DriverPack LAN
  
• DriverPack MassStorage
  
• DriverPack Sound
  
• DriverPack WLAN

and to slipstream them, you will also need:

• DriverPacks BASE

which includes all required documentation, batch files for automatic slipstreaming and an UpdateChecker."

Nice... This looks like a great place to start and end your Windows XP Hardware Driver searches.
It’s NOT a link to Manufacture site, but actual driver download site. And not just any driver, but all the given drivers as a single "pack." We’re talking hundred’s of MS’s (Gig’s?) of drivers all packed up nice and neat for you.

(via DIGG - Almost ALL Windows Drivers For All Of You Who Hate Searching)

Technorati Tags: Windows XP, DriverPack, Hardware Device Drivers

MSBuild Community Tasks Project

msbuildtasks - MSBuild Community Tasks Project

"Mission

The MSBuild Community Tasks Project is an open source project for MSBuild tasks. The goal of the project is to provide a collection of open source tasks for MSBuild.
...

The latest binaries, source and installer for Windows can be found in this directory of the Tigris file-sharing area.

• MSBuild.Community.Tasks.msi - MSBuild Community Tasks Setup
  
• MSBuild.Community.Tasks.v1.1.0.145.zip - MSBuild Community Tasks v1.1.0.145 Source

..."

More MSBuild coolness.

There are a number of interesting Tasks in the project... Subversion users might be interested in the SVN related Tasks...

(via Paul Welter’s Weblog - MSBuild Community Tasks Project releases new version)

Related Past Post XRef:
Auto Increment Visual Studio 2005 Version Build and Revision via MSBuild Task
More on the Solution Build Framework (SBF) (MSBuild Tasks) From MS UK
MS SDC.Tasks, a MSBUILD tasks library with over a hundred new tasks...

Technorati Tags: MSBuild, Msbuildtasks, MSBuild Community Tasks Project