If you've been a loyal Reflector user, you've probably been exposed to the debacle surrounding RedGate's decision to no longer offer a free version. Since then, the race has begun for a replacement with a provider that would stand by their promises to the community. Mono has an ongoing free alternative, which has been available for a long time. However, other vendors are stepping up to the plate, with their own offerings.
If Not Reflector, Then What?
One of these vendors is Telerik. In their recent Q1 2011 release of JustCode, Telerik offers a decompilation utility rivaling what we've become accustomed to in Reflector. Not only does Telerik offer a usable replacement, but they've (in my opinion), produced a product that integrates more naturally with visual Studio than any other product ever has. Telerik's decompilation process is so easy that the accompanying demo in this post is blindingly short (except for the presence of verbose narrative).
If you want to follow along with this demo, you'll need to have Telerik JustCode installed. If you don't have JustCode yet, you can buy it or download a trial at the Telerik Web site .
A Tall Tale; Prove It!
With JustCode, you can view code in the .NET Framework or any other 3rd party library (that isn't well obfuscated). This demo depends on LINQ to Twitter, which you can download from CodePlex.com and create a reference or install the package online as described in my previous post on NuGet. Regardless of the method, you'll have a project with a reference to LINQ to Twitter. Use a Console Project if you want to follow along with this demo.
Note: If you've created a Console project, remember to ensure that the Target Framework is set to .NET Framework 4. The default is .NET Framework 4 Client Profile, which doesn't work with LINQ to Twitter. You can check by double-clicking the Properties folder on the project and inspecting the Target Framework setting.
Next, you'll need to add some code to your program that you want to inspect. Here, I add code to instantiate a TwitterContext, which is like a LINQ to SQL DataContext, but works with Twitter:
var l2tCtx = new TwitterContext();
If you're following along add the code above to the Main method, which will look similar to this:
using LinqToTwitter;
namespace NuGetInstall
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var l2tCtx = new TwitterContext();
}
}
}
The code above doesn't really do anything, but it does give something that I can show and demonstrate how JustCode decompilation works.
Once the code is in place, click on TwitterContext and press the F12 (Go to Definition) key. As expected, Visual Studio opens a metadata file with prototypes for the TwitterContext class. Here's the result:
Opening a metadata file is the normal way that Visual Studio works when navigating to the definition of a type where you don't have the code. The scenario with TwitterContext happens because you don't have the source code to the file. Visual Studio has always done this and you can experiment by selecting any .NET type, i.e. a string type, and observing that Visual Studio opens a metadata file for the .NET String type. The point I'm making here is that JustCode works the way Visual Studio works and you'll see how this can make your job easier.
In the previous figure, you only saw prototypes associated with the code. i.e. Notice that the default constructor is empty. Again, this is normal because Visual Studio doesn't have the ability to decompile code. However, that's the purpose of this post; showing you how JustCode fills that gap.
To decompile code, right click on TwitterContext in the metadata file and select JustCode Navigate -> Decompile from the context menu. The shortcut keys are Ctrl+1. After a brief pause, accompanied by a progress window, you'll see the metadata expand into full decompiled code. Notice below how the default constructor now has code as opposed to the empty member prototype in the original metadata:
And Why is This So Different?
Again, the big deal is that Telerik JustCode decompilation works in harmony with the way that Visual Studio works. The navigate to functionality already exists and you can use that, along with a simple context menu option (or shortcut key) to transform prototypes into decompiled code.
Telerik is filling the the Reflector/Red Gate gap by providing a supported alternative to decompiling code. Many people, including myself, used Reflector to decompile code when we were stuck with buggy libraries or insufficient documentation. Now we have an alternative that's officially supported by a company with an excellent track record for customer (developer) service, Telerik. Not only that, JustCode has several other IDE productivity tools that make the deal even sweeter.
Joe
Not too long ago, Microsoft released, NuGet, an automated package manager for Visual Studio. NuGet makes it easy to download and install assemblies, and their references, into a Visual Studio project. These assemblies, which I loosely refer to as packages, are often open source, and include projects such as LINQ to Twitter. In this post, I'll explain how to get started in using NuGet with your projects to include: installng NuGet, installing/uninstalling LINQ to Twitter via console command, and installing/uninstalling LINQ to Twitter via graphical reference menu.
Installing NuGet
The first step you'll need to take is to install NuGet. Visit the NuGet site, at http://nuget.org/, click on the Install NuGet button, and download the NuGet.Tools.vsix installation file, shown below.
Each browser is different (i.e. FireFox, Chrome, IE, etc), so you might see options to run right away, save to a location, or access to the file through the browser's download manager. Regardless of how you receive the NuGet installer, execute the downloaded NuGet.Tools.vsix to install Nuget into visual Studio.
The NuGet Footprint
When you open visual Studio, observe that there is a new menu option on the Tools menu, titled Library Package Manager; This is where you use NuGet. There are two menu options, from the Library Package Manager Menu that you can use: Package Manager Console and Package Manager Settings.
I won't discuss Package Manager Settings in this post, except to give you a general idea that, as one of a set of capabilities, it manages the path to the NuGet server, which is already set for you.
Another menu, added by the NuGet installer, is Add Library Package Reference, found by opening the context menu for either a Solution Explorer project or a project's References folder or via the Project menu. I'll discuss how to use this later in the post.
The following discussion is concerned with the other menu option, Package Manager Console, which allows you to manage NuGet packages.
Gettng a NuGet Package
Selecting Tools -> Library Package Manager -> Package Manager Console opens the Package Manager Console. As you can see, below, the Package Manager Console is text-based and you'll need to type in commands to work with packages.
In this post, I'll explain how to use the Package Manager Console to install LINQ to Twitter, but there are many more commands, explained in the NuGet Package Manager Console Commands documentation. To install LINQ to Twitter, open your current project where you want LINQ to Twitter installed, and type the following at the PM> prompt:
Install-Package linqtotwitter
If all works well, you'll receive a confirmation message, similar to the following, after a brief pause:
Successfully installed 'linqtotwitter 2.0.20'.
Successfully added 'linqtotwitter 2.0.20' to NuGetInstall.
Also, observe that a reference to the LinqToTwitter.dll assembly was added to your current project.
Uninstalling a NuGet Package
I won't be so bold as to assume that you would only want to use LINQ to Twitter because there are other Twitter libraries available; I recommend Twitterizer if you don't care for LINQ to Twitter. So, you might want to use the following command at the PM> prompt to remove LINQ to Twitter from your project:
Uninstall-Package linqtotwitter
After a brief pause, you'll see a confirmation message similar to the following:
Successfully removed 'linqtotwitter 2.0.20' from NuGetInstall.
Also, observe that the LinqToTwitter.dll assembly no longer appears in your project references list.
Sometimes using the Package Manager Console is required for more sophisticated scenarios. However, LINQ to Twitter doesn't have any dependencies and is a very simple install, so you can use another method of installing graphically, which I'll show you next.
Graphical Installations
As explained earlier, clicking Add Library Package Reference, from the context menu for either a Solution Explorer project or a project's References folder or via the Project menu opens the Add Library Package Reference window. This window will allow you to add a reference a NuGet package in your project.
To the left of the window are a few accordian folders to help you find packages that are either on-line or already installed. Just like the previous section, I'll assume you are installing LINQ to Twitter for the first time, so you would select the Online folder and click All.
After waiting for package descriptions to download, you'll notice that there are too many to scroll through in a short period of time, over 900 as I write this. Therefore, use the search box located at the top right corner of the window and type LINQ to Twitter as I've done in the previous figure. You'll see LINQ to Twitter appear in the list.
Click the Install button on the LINQ to Twitter entry. If the installation was successful, you'll see a message box display and disappear quickly (or maybe not if your machine is very fast or you blink at that moment). Then you'll see a reference to the LinqToTwitter.dll assembly in your project's references list.
Note: While running this demo, I ran into an issue where VS had created a file lock on an installation folder without releasing it, causing an error with "packagename already exists. Skipping..." and then an error describing that it couldn't write to a destination folder. I resolved the problem by closing and reopening VS.
If you open the Add a Library Package Reference window again, you'll see LINQ to Twitter listed in the Recent packages folder.
Summary
You can install NuGet via the on-line home page with a click of a button. Nuget provides two ways to work with packages, via console or graphical window. While the graphical window is easiest, the console window is more powerful. You can now quickly add project references to many available packages via the NuGet service.
Joe
If you ever receive an Error 1053 for a timeout when starting a Windows Service you've written, the underlying problem might not have anything to do with a timeout. Here's the error so you can compare it to what you're seeing:
---------------------------
Services
---------------------------
Windows could not start the Service1 service on Local Computer.
Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------
Searching the Web for a solution to this error in your Windows Service will result in a lot of wasted time and advice that won't help. Sometimes you might get lucky if your problem is exactly the same as someone else's, but this isn't always the case. One of the solutions you'll see has to do with a known error on Windows Server 2003 that's fixed by a patch to the .NET Framework 1.1, which won't work. As I write this blog post, I'm using the .NET Framework 4.0, which is a tad bit past that timeframe.
Most likely, the basic problem is that your service is throwing an exception that you aren't handling. To debug this, wrap your service initialization code in a try/catch block and log the exception, as shown below:
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.ServiceProcess;
namespace WindowsService
{
static class Program
{
static void Main()
{
try
{
ServiceBase[] ServicesToRun;
ServicesToRun = new ServiceBase[]
{
new Service1()
};
ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
EventLog.WriteEntry("Application", ex.ToString(), EventLogEntryType.Error);
}
}
}
}
After you uninstall the old service, redeploy the service with modifications, and receive the same error message as above; look in the Event Viewer/Application logs. You'll see what the real problem is, which is the underlying reason for the timeout.
Joe