I'm getting started with Visual Studio automation and wrapping my head around its object model. In the Visual Studio automation MSDN docs describing the relationship between EnvDTE.DTE and EnvDTE80.DTE2, there is the following advice:
However, the addition of the EnvDTE80 assembly provides a replacement top-level object, which is named DTE2 and supersedes the DTE object. Although both objects act—and are programmed—similarly, DTE2 contains new functionality and hosts new and updated objects and collections.
When you create new automation applications, we recommend that you create references to both objects—to the DTE2 object to provide access to the new functionality and to the DTE object to provide access to the rest of the core functionality. We also recommend that whenever possible you use the new objects and collections in DTE2 instead of those in DTE.
I don't understand the section I've bolded in the quote above. EnvDTE80.DTE2 implements EnvDTE._DTE, so surely 100% of the functionality of EnvDTE.DTE is accessible through an EnvDTE80.DTE2 object.
What am I missing?
Related
I'm trying to get reporting services on asp.net working for the first time. I want to use my existing .Net business object library as the datasource. The objects I wish to use as datasets are all collections created using "Inherits List(Of ", eg
Public Class clsBooking
Inherits List(Of clsBooking)
After instantiating a ReportViewer control, I can successfully select my .Net library as the datasource and then a list of datasets appears as expected. I can't work out why some are appearing in the list and not others - they are all created using "Inherits List Of(". (Of course it is the ones I need which aren't appearing!) I can't find any good information on what exactly is required in the business object to make it usable as a dataset, just that it must be Enumerable.
After hours of faffing and frustration, I worked out that objects only appear in the Report Wizard list of available datasets if they contain a constructor without any parameters (ie Sub New()). So even if you only want to use the constructor with the parameters, you still must create a useless waste-of-time parameter-less constructor.
I am trying to use Entity Framework 4.0 for an asp .net application. As of now, it will be old style code behind files and without unit testing but in the future I may use MVP and unit testing but as of now, it is not a concern for me. I am using Database First approach. Here is a model ( I could not post image as I need reputation to post image)
Table: Application (ApplicationID, Name, Hidden)
Table: User (UserID, ApplicationID, Username, IsActive)
Table: Role (RoleID, ApplicationID, Name)
Table: UserRole (UserRoleID, RoleID, UserID)
I have been reading a lot about Entity Framework and how to use it but still could not get a very basic idea about some stuff. Where do I write a code like this for Application, User, Role, UserRole etc?
public List<Application> GetAllUnhiddenApplications()
{
List<Application> applist = null;
using (CustomAppsPortalEntities ctx = new CustomAppsPortalEntities())
{
applist = (from app in ctx.Applications
where app.Hidden == false
orderby app.Name
select app).ToList();
}
return applist;
}
I have separated Context and Entities in separate projects Project.Data and Project.Entities respectively. My question is if above code belongs to BLL (class name ApplicationBLL) or DLL (ApplicationDLL)? From past 2 days, I have been searching lots of SO questions, blogs, tutorials and different people have different approach. Here is my dilemma.
If I put the code in Data layer, then in the business layer, I have to create a "pass through" function like ApplicationBLL.GetAllUnhiddenApplications which will return ApplidationDLL.GetAllUnhiddenApplications. I have to repeat it for all the queries and basically whole BLL will eventually become "pass through" layer for DLL. Can you give me a concrete example of what Business layer will be used for in reference to above schema?
If I put the code in Business layer, then linq will exist in Business layer which eventually will be converted to SQL by Entity Framework so it is like exposing query logic to Business Layer.
Our Environment
Our environment is fast paced and want to complete this project as soon as possible with the moderately proper approach where there is a separate layer but in the future when we find time, we may refactor the code and make it really robust but it is not a concern as of now but if the time permits, we want to implement best practices right now versus refactoring code in the future.
The above code would typically be in the BL layer. Using linq in your BL layer is fine because your linq queries are still data persistence ignorant. From linq queries perspective, it's querying objects from entity framework.
What you might be missing is a "repository pattern" and "unit of work patter". The repository pattern acts as an interface to entity framework. It allows you to interact with EF objects like in-memory collections. Typically I keep all repositories in one project and reference accordingly. To give you an example, Microsoft Spain provides a n-tierd example,
http://microsoftnlayerapp.codeplex.com/
It's very over engineered, but I believe it will give you what your looking for.
Many people argue that EF IS the DLL.
Typically, I set my projects up something like this...
D ---> Presentation Layers (MVC, WCF, WinForms, etc)
A |
T V
A ---> Business Logic Layer
|
M V
O ---> Entity Layer / DLL
D
E
L
The Data Models project is really just a collection of POCO's that can be used in any of the other projects.
The Entity Layer is your EDMX file and Context.
It should be fine to access the context in the Entity/DLL layer, since .Net has abstracted everything out for you.
If you think about it, the whole reason to abstract out a DLL layer is so that you can change databases without having to change the BLL. With EF, you can change a database in 1 step and everything should still work.... as long as your schema stays the same.
From a C# TBB used by a Modular Page Template in SDL Tridion 2011, is it possible to access the User object who initiated the Publishing action?
Looking at the TOM.NET 6 Programmers Reference Guide, it seems that the property I need is the Creator property of the PublicationTransaction object, but I can’t find a way to access that from a C# TBB, I don’t see an obvious way to get the current PublicationTransaction from the engine or package objects, and I can only find a way to get a list of PublicationTransaction objects using the PublishEngine object.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Have a look at these two blog posts from Mihai Cadariu:
How to look up the current Publish Transaction (based on a trick from Chris Summers)
Create a new Publish Transaction based on an existing one
With those two you should be able to find what you need.
The basic function you need in your TBB is this:
public PublishTransaction GetPublishTransaction(Engine engine)
{
String binaryPath = engine.PublishingContext.PublishInstruction.
RenderInstruction.BinaryStoragePath;
Regex tcmRegex = new Regex(#"tcm_\d+-\d+-66560");
Match match = tcmRegex.Match(binaryPath);
if (match.Success)
{
String transactionId = match.Value.Replace('_', ':');
TcmUri transactionUri = new TcmUri(transactionId);
return new PublishTransaction(transactionUri, engine.GetSession());
}
return null;
}
It might also be worth noting that the property engine.PublishingContext.PublishInstruction.RenderInstruction.BinaryStoragePath will return something different when rendering the coder in PreviewMode or from the Template Builder compared to when the code is running in the Publisher. To see the PublishTransaction URI in the BinaryStoragePath, you must attach your Visual Studio TBB Debug Project to the TcmPublisher.exe process in order for there to actually be a PublishTransaction object present, otherwise the BinaryStoragePath will just contain a generic path like ../preview.
I am creating some hack kind of thing in existing android code to verify database creation and its accessibility across layers in application.
For this I have modified an existing function of .java file but I am facing an issue while calling constructor of SQLiteOpenHelper.
The signature is SQLiteOpenHelper(Context context, String name, SQLiteDatabase.CursorFactory factory, int version)
And I don't know how to create this Context instance. From googling I am seeing it is being some kind of activity class instance.
What ways are there to create this Context instance? Do we have to have activity class implemented?
Have a look at this question. It shows how to obtain a reference to the current Context object statically.
The gist of it is that you have to store a reference to the context that can be accessed statically from other sections of code.
P.S. You can't really "create" a context. That is something that is provided to you by the Android platform.
Just call:
this.getApplicationContext()
from wherever you are trying to create the instance of SQLiteOpenHelper.
I was going through Unity 2.0 to check if it has an effective use in our new application. My application is a Windows Forms application and uses a traditional bar menu (at the top), currently.
My UIs (Windows Forms) more or less support Dependency Injection pattern since they all work with a class (Presentation Model Class) supplied to them via the constructor. The form then binds to the properties of the supplied P Model class and calls methods on the P Model class to perform its duties. Pretty simple and straightforward.
How P Model reacts to the UI actions and responds to them by co-ordinating with the Domain Class (Business Logic/Model) is irrelevant here and thus not mentioned.
The object creation sequence to show up one UI from menu then goes like this -
Create Business Model instance
Create Presentation Model instance with Business Model instance passed to P Model constructor.
Create UI instance with Presentation Model instance passed to UI constructor.
My present solution:
To show an UI in the method above from my menu I would have to refer all assemblies (Business, PModel, UI) from my Menu class. Considering I have split the modules into a number of physical assemblies, that would be a dificult task to add references to about 60 different assemblies. Also the approach is not very scalable since I would certainly need to release more modules and with this approach I would have to change the source code every time I release a new module.
So primarily to avoid the reference of so many assemblies from my Menu class (assembly) I did as below -
Stored all the dependency described above in a database table (SQL Server), e.g.
ModuleShortCode | BModelAssembly | BModelFullTypeName | PModelAssembly | PModelFullTypeName | UIAssembly | UIFullTypeName
Now used a static class named "Launcher" with a method "Launch" as below -
Launcher.Launch("Discount");
Launcher.Launch("Customers");
The Launcher internally uses data from the dependency table and uses Activator.CreateInstance() to create each of the objects and uses the instance as constructor parameter to the next object being created, till the UI is built. The UI is then shown as a modal dialog. The code inside Launcher is somewhat like -
Form frm = ResolveForm("Discount");
frm.ShowDialog();`
The ResolveForm does the trick of building the chain of objects.
Can Unity help me here?
Now when I did that I did not have enough information on Unity and now that I have studied Unity I think I have been doing more or less the same thing. So I tried to replace my code with Unity.
However, as soon as I started I hit a block. If I try to resolve UI forms in my Menu as
Form customers = myUnityContainer.Resolve<Customers>();
or
Form customers = myUnityContainer.Resolve(typeof(Customers));
Then either way, I need to refer to my UI assembly from my Menu assembly since the target Type "Customers" need to be known for Unity to resolve it. So I am back to same place since I would have to refer all UI assemblies from the Menu assembly. I understand that with Unity I would have to refer fewer assemblies (only UI assemblies) but those references are needed which defeats my objectives below -
Create the chain of objects dynamically without any assembly reference from Menu assembly. This is to avoid Menu source code changing every time I release a new module. My Menu also is built dynamically from a table.
Be able to supply new modules just by supplying the new assemblies and inserting the new Dependency row in the table by a database patch.
At this stage, I have a feeling that I have to do it the way I was doing, i.e. Activator.CreateInstance() to fulfil all my objectives. I need to verify whether the community thinks the same way as me or have a better suggestion to solve the problem.
The post is really long and I sincerely thank you if you come til this point. Waiting for your valuable suggestions.
Rajarshi
As I can see from this code
Form customers = myUnityContainer.Resolve<Customers>();
all your code need to know about the customer - is that it's a Form class. So if you use xml configuration for unity you can do the following:
<type type="Form" mapTo="Customer" name="Customer">
</type>
And then you'll be able to resolve it like this:
Form customers = myUnityContainer.Resolve<Form>("Customer");
and there is no need to refference your UI assembly. Offcourse it should be presented in the bin directory or GAC. In this case if you'll develop new Assembly - all you need is to change config and put in in bin or gac.
If you want to make unity configuration from db then you'll have to add referrence to your ui, becouse you'll have to call Register("Customer").