I'm trying to find a way to generate an enums class dynamically from lookup tables in a database and still have the convenience of a normal class (i.e. intellisense).
I've spent the past few hours trying to figure out how to get a custom BuildProvider to work inside an ASP.NET Web Application. The code works perfectly in a Web Site. I then found an article on MSDN that says
Adding a customized BuildProvider class to the Web.config file works in an ASP.NET Web site but does not work in an ASP.NET Web application project. In a Web application project, the code that is generated by the BuildProvider class cannot be included in the application. For more information, see Compiling Web Application Projects.
Does anyone know if it is possible to generate code dynamically and still be able to 'use' it at design time? Using a web site is not an option. I need to use a web project.
Thanks!!
what is the point of an enum class for a dynamic lookup table? your code references will always be static anyway...
if the initial population of the lookup table is static, make an enum for that and don't reference any other values in the code
If MSDN is saying you can't do it, I'd take another approach. Maybe write a small Console application that writes your Enums.cs file and run it through the "Pre-build event command line". Then, every time you build the web application, the Enums class gets recreated and should be accessible through Intellisense.
Haven't done this myself. Hope it helps.
Related
Hi I have created a user control which is inside a folder called Controls and the class is a partial class which inherits from Web.UI.UserControl. Now from my page which is one level up I just try to access the method inside the usercontrol and so trying to cast it as the type of user control.
But I get build errors. It just cannot recognize that class. I get Type not defined error. But at times it has recognized the class. Dont know why it does that.
Hi Finally I was able to resolve the issue by converting to web application from a website. Now it works exactly as desired. I think there are problems with visual studio website apps. As far as I have read websites do not have as robust support as web app has. So thankyou all for your comments. Finally the flakiness is gone.
I am inheriting some ASP.NET code (I am an OS guy, not a web dev (yet ;-)). The solution has been re-factored and there are multiple projects (libraries and asp.net sites) in it. Aside from the libraries, there are two asp.net projects (called MAINSITE and SUBSITE). Only MAINSITE is being used as the official site (as an asp.net site), and MAINSITE has a depency on the code in the SUBSITE asp.net site, but doesn't use the site itself. I am trying to figure out how to clean this up and convert SUBSITE into a library.
My quick question is, whenever I debug the MAINSITE (set as default), it runs two asp.net processes: MAINSITE and SUBSITE. And so, at the very least, how can I avoid this? Is there a quick/temporary solution to this?
My detailed question is this:
What makes an asp.net site an asp.net site? For instance, in C the difference between an dll and exe could be defined (superficially anyway) as the presence of a main, and potential export information for the library (among other things, of course). If I were to convert an exe to dll I might:
1. remove the main code
2. make sure the public interface was correct (and exported correctly)
3. convert the makefile to build a dll rather than an exe.
Can someone point me to some similar steps for asp.net to .net lib?
Maybe:
1. get rid of index.aspx
2. get rid of web.config
3. any *.cs files to remove?
4. how do I change the properties?
5. any gotchas?
Thanks so much for your help.
Details: Visual Studio 2008/.NET 3.5
There are many, many components to make an application run as an ASP.Net application. However, in terms of your actual Web Application project, there's really not that much difference between it and generic library code except for the fact that much of your code relies on the existence of the HttpApplication runtime.
Any code that utilizes the System.Web (especially System.Web.UI) is going to be suspect in terms of having this dependency. For example, all the code in page or webcontrol event handlers (Init, Load, PreRender, etc.) relies on the fact that there is an HttpHandler (running inside an HttpApplication) raising these events. If you run the same WebControl out of a library that's not in an ASP.Net project, none of this will ever happen and the control will be useless. However, that exact same library would be quite functional if executed in the context of an ASP.Net process.
It really boils down to what process you're running the library in. In most cases, ASP.Net processes are spawned by IIS, although it is possible to host an ASP.Net process in other types of programs as well.
There isn't a simple 5-step process for converting a web project to a library unfortunately. But as a rule of thumb, webcontrols, .aspx and .ascx codebehind aren't going to convert.
For a more detailed look at what makes code into an ASP.Net program, see Rick Strahl's "A Low level look at ASP.Net".
If you go to "File" > "New" > "New Project..." and then click on the (assuming you're using C#) "Visual C#" in the list on the left, you're given the ability to create a "Class Library" project. You can extract all the relevant code to one of these and then reference in in your "MAINSITE".
You will need to reference it in the "References" section of your MAINSITE project and may need to import your library project using the import keyword.
I'm working on a web site written using asp.net WebForms. I'd like two wrap test cases around some of the more interesting subroutines. How can I instantiate the class that comes from the .aspx file in my test project so I can manipulate it under nUnit?
Edit: What I really want to do is test the utility methods and event methods that are in the code-behind. I don't want to post to the page and read the response. I want to unit test the Methods, not the Page.
UPDATE Make sure you have setup your project to be an ASP.NET web project, not an asp.net web site. You can then mark your page class with the appropriate NUnit attributes and test the output dll for your project with NUnit.
Here is a Microsoft article that explains unit testing in asp.net:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404696(VS.80).aspx
You can instantiate it just like any other type:
YourPage page = new YourPage();
Now getting the lifecycle to run will be quite another matter.
I'm currently using Microsoft Code Contracts in an ASP.NET MVC application without any issues but I can not seem to get it quite running in a basic ASP.NET Web site. I'm not entirely sure it was made to work with this type of project (although it shouldn't matter) so I wanted to bring it up to everyone.
I can compile the contracts just fine but the code skips over them since I'm assuming it hasn't been enabled through the Properties Page like you would do in other project types (ie ASP.NET MVC). I've gone to the property page of the project (which displays a dialog instead of the typical properties page) in my ASP.NET web site but it does not yield the same menu options and as such, doesn't have a section devoted to Code Contracts.
Also, I have Microsoft Code Contracts properly enabled within a class library project that I use to separate my business logic from the web site. The contracts compile fine but when a contract is violated, it throws a rather uninformative "Exception of type 'System.ExecutionEngineException' was thrown" error with no inner exception. My contract specifies a message to display upon violation but it is nowhere within the exception. It simply halts the execution of the process (which I believe is the default functionality for Microsoft Code Contracts).
I can't find anywhere that explicitly states that a particular project type can or can't (or shouldn't) be used with Contracts so I just wanted to see if anyone has had this issue.
Thanks for any help!
I had the same problem and this is how I solved it:
In the Referenced Class Libraries, right click -> properties -> code contracts.
Make sure "perform contract checking" is checked. I had mine set to "Full"
Contract Reference Assembly: make sure it is set to "Build"
Save your changes.
In the Referenced Class Libraries that have no contracts in their code, set the Contract Reference Assembly to "Do Not Build".
Then in the MVC project, have the Code Contracts "perform contract checking" checked. I had mine set to "Full".
Hope that helps somebody.
This sounds less like a Contracts and more like a build/config issue. Have you tried to deploy a prebuilt website? Are you sure that your website code sees the contracts code? Is the ASP.NET runtime using the CLR 4.0, or does it see the earlier Microsoft.Contracts.dll? Etc.
I have a class declared in the App_Code folder. The class contains a public shared method that returns a type Portfolio.
When I try to call this method to initialize an object of type Portfolio in one of the ASCX controls, i get a "Value of type Jaguar.Portfolio cannot be converted to Jaguar.Portfolio" message.
This is a "Website" project. I have tried using CType and DirectCast and I still get the same compilation error when I try to build the site.
I am using the line of code listed below in the code behind file of the ascx control
Dim pObjSvc As Jaguar.Portfolio = ClassName.GetPortfolio
Do you have a webpage or a user control also called Portfolio? You may have a name space collision where it's confused between which Portfolio object to use. If this is the case, you'll need to change the name of the Class/Module or the control's or page's code behind class and you should be all set.
There seems to be someone else with the same problem out there:
ASP Net - value of type "MyNamespace.MyClassName" cannot be converted to "MyNamespace.MyClassName"
I have a ASP.Net application that uses
assemblies from several other
solutions. When testing the
applications on my machine I build all
the referenced assemblies using nmake.
The latest assemblies get placed in a
common directory that is referenced by
my ASP.NET app.
Occasionally I receive the following
error: value of type
"MyNamespace.MyClassName" cannot be
converted to "MyNamespace.MyClassName"
(there are a lot of these for
different classes) when doing a debug
build. I have tried the following with
no luck:
Build the ASP.Net application Rebuild
the ASP.Net application Close VS and
build the ASP.Net application Close
VS.Net as rebuild the asp.Net
application IISreset and build/rebuild
the application
It seems the only thing that works is
if I run nmake to build all my referenced assemblies, I can then
build the ASP.Net application.
Any ideas as to what causes this? Is
there an easier way to fix it?
Sadly, the author of the question did non find a definitive answer. But perhaps it contains a hint which could be helpful to find the solution.
UPDATE: I'm not sure if that is even possible in a ASP.NET website, but maybe you accidentally added a reference to a (temporary) assemmbly of the project itself? That would explain the error. Try also to remove the contents of bin and obj folder.
Just a debugging tip:
Try to rename the Portfolio class and recompile. Maybe there is an old assembly somewhere or some other code in .vb your files which contains a class with the same name?
I have seen situations similar to this when an aspx page was created with the same name as a business object class. Do you have some some aspx page with a code-behind class of Portfolio as well?