Visual Studio 2005

Visual Source Safe 2005 - Internet Plug-in woes

Eric Hammersley — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 01:51:00 GMT

Yeah, I'm guilty. I tried VSS 2005. To be absolutely honestly I have stayed away from VSS for so many years because I had no interest in losing my projects to corruption. This fear led me to be a Sourcegear Vault user, which by the way is a very nice product. Never the less I figure VSS 2005 must be better than it's previous release, VSS 6, so I decided to give it a shot on a small project. It went pretty well until I stumbled into the Internet Plug-in setup with SSL.

VSS 2005, which it seems to look quite a bit like VSS 6 has some new functionality, most notably the Internet Plug-in. This enables you to access VSS over HTTP protocol via web services. Now, I'm used to this, it's how Vault works, but the configuration was less than forgiving.

To start it off you need to create a new VSS database. This is simple enough since the VSS Admin tool gives you a nice wizard to help you out. This connects you to the database and displays the users in the main admin interface pane. Seems simple enough.

Next I click on Server Settings and enabled the Internet Plug-in without SSL. Bam, the VSS Admin tool says I need to connect to my database via its UNC path. Ok, so that tells me I have to share it. I open up Explorer and share the folder. Mind you I AM reading the instructions as I'm doing this even though it may appear as though I'm not. I share the folder and switch back to the VSS Admin interface, click the menu and choose to Open a new VSS database. Bam, can't, it's already open. Ok, so I need to close it. Well, this isn't that easy. The database that's open has a default set to automatically open on startup that you can't deselect. You need to add the database to the list, with a different name since it already exists in the list, but this time by UNC path. Move the default open selection to the new UNC path listing and close and re-open the admin tool. *sigh*

Ok, now I'm connected to the database by UNC path so I go back into Server Settings and enable the Internet Plug-in without SSL. After a silly amount of time waiting on it to complete the change it clears and the attempt to open the VSS database via the Internet Plug-in from Visual Studio works.

So... being the curious sort I decided to enable SSL on the Internet Plug-in. Wow was that an evolution. Right off I can tell you that enabling SSL makes VSS a very touchy beast. Unless the SSL cert is just perfect it will fail and the admin tool will just report that it couldn't be enabled. No other errors or detailed information is provided, just that it failed. That's when Google and the Microsoft Newsgroups came in. Alin Constantin, an MS guy that I'm guessing works in the VSS group, posted a nice write-up on his site with the steps required to get this to work. He also outlines what criteria have to be met in order for SSL to be enabled. Something neither the help nor the KB does in any way.

You can find Alin's document here Installing and configuring Microsoft Visual SourceSafe for Internet (Remote) access

Now, thanks to Alin, it works with SSL enabled. There was a little pain involved but no where near what I've gone through with other apps. If you are installing VSS 2005 I recommend you read Alin's document above before you attempt to enable the Internet Plug-in.

Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition (5-user) RTM on MSDN Downloads

Eric Hammersley — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 13:49:00 GMT

For all you “small-shops” out there with one of the Team Edition MSDN subscription they have posted the RTM of Team Foundation Server. True to their word they have a workgroup edition for shops w/ 5 or less users. Check MSDN downloads.

Visual Studio 2005 ACE Award - Thanks Microsoft

Eric Hammersley — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 18:48:00 GMT

I'm not entirely sure what qualified me for this but I received it today. Here's a cut from the e-mail.

Dear Eric Hammersley,

Thank you for being a great contributor to Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

You have been nominated to receive the Award for Customer Excellence. This award recognizes your extraordinary contribution to the Visual Studio 2005 product and will be shipped to you without charge.

I don't know, perhaps everyone got one of these. All I know is that I never win anything. ;-) Thanks Microsoft, I really appreciate it. I'm not sure I deserved it but obviously someone thought so.

Oh, if you're curious here is what it looks like.

How to manipulate the new VS/VWD built-in web server

Eric Hammersley — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 01:19:00 GMT

Scott Guthrie posted a great article on “How to Run a Root “/” Site with the VS/VWD 2005 Local Web Server”

What I found interesting, and what I wanted to mention is the ability to fire the built-in server by hand. Check out the article and play with the new WebDev.WebServer.EXE. Pretty neat trick.

Also found this neat trick over on Robert McLaws blog. “ASP.NET 2.0 Web Server Here Shell Extension”. He has actually set it up so you can right click on a folder and start a new development web server on the fly. Pretty slick stuff.

Guidelines in Visual Studio 2002, 2003 and 2005 text editors (Thanks to Channel 9 and Sara Ford)

Eric Hammersley — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:02:00 GMT

Ever since I fired up Netbeans for the first time I have wanted the 80 column guideline it has in the text editor window. Sure, there’s a control at the bottom of the text editor window that tells you where your cursor is column wise but honestly, a faint line right up column 80 works best.

Of course not everyone likes doing this but I’ve found that my code is the most readable visually and printed if I force breaks at 80 columns, or perhaps 120 columns. Now, thanks to a Channel 9 post here and the original post by Sara Ford here I now know how to add guidelines in Visual Studio. Why this isn’t an option in Tools… Options is beyond me. Apparently it has been a hack for the past several versions.

Here’s how you do it. Close Visual Studio and open up regedit. Navigate to the key below inserting the version number of your VS install where appropriate (ie. for Visual Studio 2005 you’ll find an “8.0” key under the VisualStudio branch).

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER]\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\Text Editor

Now, create a new REG_SZ (String) value named “Guides” under the Text Editor branch.

Next, double click the new Guides key and insert the following text as its string value.

RGB(R,G,B) c1, c2… cn

where R, G, and B are the RGB values for the color you want the guideline to be. Mine is set to 255,128,128 which gives you a faint red line that almost appears semi-transparent. The values c1… cn are the column numbers you want guides to appear at. NOTE: the column values you set in the registry are 0 (ZERO) based. IOW, if you want guides at column 80 you’ll need to set it at 79. You can have guidelines at as many columns you like, thus the cn. :-) Mine is set to 79, 119 because I want guide lines at 80 columns and 120 columns.

To bring it all together mine says.

RGB(255,128,128) 79, 119

I’ve attached a couple of images below to help visualize the whole process. Click the image for a larger view.

Screen shot of registry location and string value to insert.

Screen shot of the 80 column guideline (VS2005).

Missing an item template in Visual Studio 2005? Try this...

Eric Hammersley — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 17:14:00 GMT

NOTE: This is not in reference to Web Templates. In VS2005 Web Projects are created through a different menu item. If you here because you cannot find the web project templates make sure you select New... Web Site from the File menu.

Twice I’ve installed Visual Studio 2005 (I use the Software Developer flavor, if that matters) and in the end I’ve been missing an item template or two.

Example… I create a new Class Library project, right click the project and choose Add. The dialog box that appears gives me a list of installed Item Templates. After staring at it for several minutes I decided I was missing “Class”, the template to create a new class file. Of course I could just choose Empty file and go on… but who wants to do that. ;-)

Here’s what I think happened. Visual Studio has a cache on disk of all the installed item templates. My guess is that my cache got messed up. This didn’t just happen once however, it has happened twice now. How do you fix it? Well, here you go.

First, close Visual Studio. Open a new ‘Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt’. Once there type the following command at the prompt, press enter and wait…

devenv /installvstemplates

This will rebuild your item and project template cache. Works like a charm.

EDIT: This doesn't appear to be working for a lot of people. I apologize for that. Don't let it discourage you from trying however I do not have any other solutions. If someone does please post and I'll include it in the article.

EDIT2: There are many good solutions in the comments below. Read on and most likely you will find your solution.

Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Beta 3 is up on MSDN Downloads

Eric Hammersley — Sat, 24 Sep 2005 00:01:00 GMT

Everyone has been talking about it for days. As of now Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Beta 3 is available for download from MSDN downloads.

Initial Observations - Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite RC1

Eric Hammersley — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 19:00:00 GMT

One of the first places I went was unit testing. I really like what Microsoft has done by pushing the unit testing framework into the IDE and providing the tightly coupled code coverage tools along with it. This is probably my top “most-used” feature of the new Visual Studio 2005 product.

First off the namespace of the UnitTesting framework has been changed in RC1 so any testing you’ve written in Beta 2 or earlier will not compile. They have also changed the stub and methods for setup and teardown of your test methods. I did not test if the previous Initialize() or TearDown() worked as before, I just adopted their new way of doing it. This isn’t a big deal but like I’ve said many times before… it’s beta code, deal with it. Although I didn’t notice any changes with their PrivateAccessor generator I went ahead and regenerated my Accessors and Test stubs under their new format. No big deal.

The next thing I noticed is that it didn’t recognize my old test metadata file. This is the file that provides you with all the handy test grouping in Test Manager. The new bits created a new test metadata file for me. I initially shrieked but quickly realized I could just import my old file, delete it from source control and upload my new file. Problem solved and no metadata lost. There’s a toolbar button in Test Manager for importing your old file.

Next is speed. WOW, what an improvement. Just as an example I have a project with around 500 or so tests. Not a lot but enough that in Beta 2 it took almost 3 and a half minutes to complete a full test run with instrumentation. Now my 500 tests run in a lightning 30 seconds with full instrumentation. Not bad at all!

Finally, code coverage color highlighting in your code and your sanity. Your code used be to highlighted with a decisive green for covered, blue for partial and red for not covered. A color scheme that made sense to me. Now… the default is baby blue for covered (?!?), an almost peach for partial and a sickly red for not covered. I have no idea where this scheme came from. I will say one thing though. The previous defaults of green, blue and red were harsh to look at for extended periods of time where as the new colors are very soft and pleasing. You can however change the colors very easily in Tool…Options under settings for the Text Editor. I’m not complaining about the new colors except I got used to the old ones and when I saw all my code go blue I thought I was in trouble.

On a final note remember if you are developing with a Beta 2 Go-Live license this version is not for you as it is not covered under the Go-Live license terms. I don’t know why I feel the need to say that every time but somehow it seems important to me.

Visual Studio 2005 - Post-RTM updates to be fed from Microsoft Update

Eric Hammersley — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 16:53:00 GMT

Remember the “Check for updates” link in the Visual Studio 2003 installer that never worked? Well, after installing the new Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite RC this morning I decided to click the “Check for Service Releases” link in the installer to see what happened.

The link redirected me to the “Microsoft Update” site. Now mind you this is NOT Windows Update but in fact Microsoft’s solution to a unified update site for all Microsoft products. I myself don’t use it, yet at least, but it makes sense to me that they integrated Visual Studio 2005 into it. I just found this interesting and thought I would share.

Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite RC (Release Candidate) posted on MSDN Downloads

Eric Hammersley — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 04:58:00 GMT

Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite RC1 has been released to MSDN downloads.

NOTE: If you are developing against the Beta 2 Go-Live license you are not covered by this RC. (Read: You’ll have to wait)