By Javier Callico on 3/11/2010

There are plenty of good Dependency Injection Container implementations out there. The selection of an IoC container is not only defined by the developer's preference, which can swing the vote big time since most developers swear by their favorite container, but also of other factors like standards in the organization, the usage of another product which already supports, or favors, a given IoC implementation, etc.

The usage of an IoC container should always be abstracted, making the process of switching between implementations fairly simple, or at least, the refactoring needed to accomplish this task will be minimal compared to the one needed if you were using references to a specific container all over your codebase.

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By Javier Callico on 2/5/2010

I'm not a fan of meta posting but this information was so valuable to me that I wanted to keep track of it on my blog just in case something happens to the original article.

If you are one of the unlucky few (I would like to think there are no many of us) still using Visual Source Safe in 2010, then I bet that you've needed to get a version of your project at a given point in time. It happened to me today again and instead of setting with the "Sorry, SS doesn't support that" I set up to find a solution.

I found an old post by Brennan Stehling with the exact instructions to get a point in time snapshot using Visual Source Safe or using Brennan words: Get by date.

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By Javier Callico on 1/28/2010

Today, when writing a function that opens an image, adds a simple text on the top corner and streams the resulting image to the client I noticed that the original image used as template couldn't be renamed or deleted after the code ran for the first time and for as long as the web application remained running. Restarting the web application makes the problem to go away until of course the offending code runs again.

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By Javier Callico on 6/29/2009

After installing and configuring CruiseControl.NET on my Windows XP development station I was getting a File not Found (HTTP 404) error when trying to see the details of a given build, i.e. selecting Latest Build from the main menu.

Since these URLs don't point to a file in specific but to a "fake" location that is in place handled by CruiseControl.NET I wasn't sure if there was something wrong with the directories I was using on my project's configuration.

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By Javier Callico on 6/4/2009

First things first: If you think .pdb files are only used when debugging your application locally and are not needed when deploying production binaries, please read the following article by John Robbins: PDB Files: What Every Developer Must Know.

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By Javier Callico on 5/27/2009

This is one of these things that bother you but not enough to make you take any action about them.

Ever since I started using Visual Studio I've been bother by the fact that if your solution contains multiple web projects, when debugging, an instance of "ASP.NET Development Server" is started for every one of them, even if you have selected a "Single startup project" on your Solution properties.

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By Javier Callico on 3/25/2009

I'm currently multitasking: writing this post and also running the uninstaller for the Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR.I was very excited with all the new features, already planning in my mind how I was going to create new database projects as part of my solutions, how I was going to stop using SQL Management Studio to write stored procedures, how I was going to start deploying my SQL changes as part of my releases until I actually installed the application and tried to use the functionality I need the most from the VS Database Edition: Schema and Data comparisons.After trying for several hours to make it work, excusing the application and blaming the “learning curve” for the lack of progress I just decided to wait until the next version of the GDR is released.Too many things just don’t work when comparing schemas; maybe too much attention was paid to the “new” features and the “old” features that...

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By Javier Callico on 1/30/2009

I took an old script I had and modified it to:

- Include Schema support.
- Replace the old DBCC DBREINDEX statement with ALTER INDEX ALL.
- Rebuild the indexes online if the Enterprise edition was installed.
- Generate information about the tables processed.

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By Javier Callico on 7/3/2008

When you try to compile in .Net 2.0 (and up) web pages created using .NET 1.1 and automatically migrated by Visual Studio you may receive an error like this: The name "SampleControl" does not exist in the current context.

If you try to declare the control in your code-behind file you will receive the following error: The type "SamplePage" already contains a definition for "SampleControl".

The solution is very simple - but hard to find - and involves making the Page class partial and moving all control declarations to a .designer file.

This can be done automatically with the following steps:

1- Right click on the .aspx file for the codebehind file that doesn't compile.2- Choose the 'Convert to Web Application' option.This will create a .designer file, and the page will compile.

...

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By Javier Callico on 2/10/2008

Last week I found this site on digg.com it caught my attention and since I was busy at that moment I saved it on my del.icio.us bookmarks to check it out later.This Sunday I had an extra free time - since there is not much to do outside when it feels like -28C outside - and decided to go back to the article.Well this is excellent reference material for any developer/software architect. The video tutorials are excellent and guide you step by step in understanding and implementing the given pattern.Here is the link to the article: http://sourcemaking.com/design-patterns-and-tips...

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