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.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

By Javier Callico on 8/18/2009 12:00 AM

Since the buildpublisher task copies all files on the source directory, including the .cs files, a custom MSBuild script is needed to take advantage of the _CopyWebApplication option which will only copy the runtime files. An additional step is required to copy any other required assembly on the bin directory since only the application's main assembly is originally copied when using the _CopyWebApplication option.

Read More »

By Javier Callico on 8/3/2009 12:00 AM

Using the FOR command and an unzip program, like the free 7-Zip, all the files in a given folder can be easily unzipped (using C:\Temp in this example):

for /f "tokens=*" %%G in ('dir /b "C:\Temp\*.zip"') do "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" e -y "C:\Temp\%%G"

Read More »

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.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

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...

Read More »

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.

Read More »

By Javier Callico on 1/27/2009 12:00 AM

Today I needed to delete all foreign key contrains in a SQL 2005 database in order to be able to sync it using the Visual Studio Data Compare Tool. I found a script doing almost what I needed but after running it I noticed that it also dropped indexes and defaults in all the schemas. I made some changes to accomplish the following:

1- Drop foreign key contrains only.

2- Filter by schema.

3- Don't execute the drop statements automatically just print them.

Read More »