Jay Smith

Executor: Where did my keywords go?

jay@jaysmith.us — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:05:22 -0400

I use Executor (http://executor.dk) and love it. Well, most of the time I do. Every once in a while it seems to freak out and looses all of it’s settings including keywords. Loosing the setting are no big deal, but the keywords?

I have use various methods to resolve this in the past, remove and re-install etc. Last week it happened again. Removing and re-installing did not help at all, it just looked blank.

Executor does such a great job of just working in the background and requires very little attention I had not explored it’s vast features. Well, this time I found that all of the default keywords could be restored by importing them from the original files that were used during install.

On the keywords tab context menu is “Import keyword from file…” which allowed me to import see the standard.exc which was all the missing keyword AND a windowskeywords.exc with added some I did have before.

I also noticed a “Export keywords..” with once I had them all setup the way I wanted I promptly used to export them all to a file of my choosing to make it easier to fix next time.

“Import from start-menu…” also looks very interesting and I am sure will save me some typing in the future.

Delete Team Foundation Server Work Item with WitAdmin

jay@jaysmith.us — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:26:00 -0400

I have been keeping my source control in Team Foundation Server for years, but have faultered when it comes to using Work Items. Oh, I have tried a few time and then stopped for various reasons. Today I thought it would be good to clean up the old work items and try again. This turned out to be a bit of an issue. There is not right-click delete, selection all and then choose delete from the action menu.

So how do you delete a Work Item?

I finally found it the WitAdmin command line tool, part if the Team Foundation Server Power Tools, allows you to destroy work items by id.

Usage: witadmin destroy /collection: collectionUrl /id: id

Example: witadmin destory /collection:http://tfs.example.com:8080/DefaultCollection /id:112345

This allowed me to delete the work items, good thing was that I didn't have that many to delete.

TFS Remove Local Files for Branch

jay@jaysmith.us — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:57:53 -0400

Since I am the build manager for my team and have to touch every release I get a lot of files on my hard drive that I don’t need anymore. I mean when we are on release 15.2 do I really need a local copy of release 8 or 10, or 14 for that matter. I used to just delete the local copies, but TFS still thinks you have them and starts acting up. Of course there is a way to delete them via Source Control Explorer but it is not very obvious. I found the solution on a post titled “TFS Top Tip #11 –Removing source control files from your local file system” by Martin Woodard.

It appears that if you do a Get Specific Version and specify Changeset of 1 the files will be deleted locally and the server will know it. Changeset 1 is a special Changeset that only contains the root ($/). So by getting Changeset 1 you basically get nothing, there were no files in the source control tree when this Changeset was created.

This is definitely not as easy a deleting a branch in git, but I does help me keep my release folders cleaned up. Thanks Martin for posting this.

Clear Cache and Clear Clipboard Commands

jay@jaysmith.us — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 09:34:54 -0400

Recently I need to do a couple of things programmatically for a build task and wanted catalog the command to make it easier for me and others to find them in the future.

Clear Internet Explorer Cache

This command is very useful if you are developing a SharePoint feature that relies on JavaScript. I created one that worked with the JSGrid in Microsoft Project Server to keep users from being able to submit their Timesheet if the date they entered hours on was past the end date of the Task or if the sum of hours entered for that task was greater than the available hours. So, this was a JavaScript solution to inspect items on the JSGrid on the Timesheet page. To make sure I was getting the most current version of the JavaScript files I used the following command as a Post Build event in Visual Studio to clear the browser cache before the debug session started.

C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 8

Clear The Windows Clipboard

This one I came across when trying to figure out why cut/paste operations on my install of Windows 7 is so slow. Unfortunately this didn’t speed up the clipboard but I wanted to keep it around anyway. Comes in handy when I forget to clear a photo or large document from the clipboard. Here is the command.

cmd.exe /c “echo off | clip”

Share Yours!

Do you have a command/snip-it that helps you get things done? Share them in the comments.

0 to 60 with Highway.Data Video Available!

jay@jaysmith.us — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 15:33:03 -0400

My buddy, Shawn, over at UserGroup.tv as hanging out at the Northwest Arkansas TechFest this year and he videoed on my my talks. The one on Highway.Data. Highway.Data is an abstraction layer of Entity Framework (and soon Nhibernate) that makes working with data access much easier. It’s built in repository, unit of work and query specification really bring EF, or any ORM for that matter, to a well rounded tool for you tool belt.

This is the second video for me on UserGroup.tv and thanks to Shawn for hosting them. You can check out the videos of other presentations by me and others by going to UserGroup.tv.

Thanks, Shawn!

Enotita: Northwest Arkansas Christian Music Festival

jay@jaysmith.us — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:07:00 -0400

Two of my passions is my faith and music. I just found out there is going to be first annual Christian Music Festival in Northwest Arkansas called Enotita. The word 'enotita' is taken from the Greek for unity. There will be a different worship band on stage each hour representing various churches from all over Northwest Arkansas. There will also be a campfire area for times of peace and reflection. Backyard Burgers will be selling food from 5-8 PM.

WHAT: Enotita – Northwest Arkansas Christian Music Festival
WHEN: October 6, 2012 from 4-10 PM
WHERE: 8522 West Wagon Wheel Rd in Springdale, AR [MAP]
Admission: Free

I am praying that they may all be one – just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they too may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.” John 17:21

You can find our more about the event on facebook (http://facebook.com/enotita2012) and follow them on Twitter (http://twitter.com/enotita2012). You can also contact Allegra Hanson (enotitanwa@gmail.com), the Event Coordinator, at the Agape Bible Church.

Domain Events Made Easy with JaySmith.DomainEvents

jay@jaysmith.us — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:30:00 -0400

Today I want to present a new library that I have developed to ease the implementation of domain events in my current projects. This is largely based on Udi Dahan’s blog series on domain events. This blog will be a walk through of how to add the library to a console application, create a domain object, domain event, domain event handler and raise the event. My goal is to make adding support for Domain Events to an application easy so you can spend more time working in the problem domain not wasting time wiring up infrastructure.

Steps to getting this working:

Add Domain Events package for StructureMap to application
Create Bootstrapper class to initialize StructureMap
Create a Domain Object
Create Application class to contain our main application logic
Define a Domain Event
Define a Domain Event Handler
Raise the Event

Create New Console Application

Open Visual Studio and create a new Console Application targeting .NET 4.0/4.5.

Add the JaySmith.DomainEvents.StructureMap package via nuget. This will install all necessary dependencies including StructureMap. StructureMap is my IoC of choice. I will be doing a future post on how to use JaySmith.DomainEvents with your IoC of choice.

Create Bootstrapper to initialize StructureMap

   1:  public static class Bootstrapper

   2:  {

   3:      public static void Initialize()

   4:      {

   5:          ObjectFactory.Initialize(x => x.Scan(scan =>

   6:              {

   7:                  scan.TheCallingAssembly();

   8:                  scan.WithDefaultConventions();

9:

  10:                  scan.AssembliesFromApplicationBaseDirectory();

  11:                  scan.LookForRegistries();

12:

  13:                  scan.ConnectImplementationsToTypesClosing(typeof (IDomainEventHandler<>));

  14:              }));

  15:      }

  16:  }

Most StructureMap users will not that for a default configuration lines 7 and 8 are all that are usually required. Domain Events uses Common Service Locater to do resolution for finding implementations of event handlers and the Domain Events StructureMap package contains a registry that needs to be loaded. So lines 10 and 11 tell StructureMap to load assemblies in the base directory which is where the JaySmith.DomainEvents.StructureMap.dll will be and then it tells it to look for registries. This will allow the library to wire up the StructureMapAdapter for Common Service Locator. You don’t have to understand how this works to utilize the library. I just wanted to point out why the extra configuration is needed.

Line 13 is also required, it tells StructureMap how to locate instances of IDomainEventHandler<T>. This will make more sense when we start creating the handler. I am looking for a way to move this to my StructureMap registry to it doesn’t have to be manually added here. If anyone knows how to do that drop me a line.

Create a Domain Object

Let go ahead and create a domain object for our application. We are going to have a Person object that looks like the following:

   1:  public class Person

   2:  {

   3:      public Person(string firstName, string lastName)

   4:      {

   5:          FirstName = firstName;

   6:          LastName = lastName;

   7:      }

8:

   9:      public string FirstName { get; set; }

  10:      public string LastName { get; set; }

11:

  12:      public string FullName

  13:      {

  14:          get { return string.Format("{0} {1}", FirstName, LastName); }

  15:      }

  16:  }

We need to model the behavior that is interesting to our application. We are going to be interested in when someone changes their last name. This can happen for any number of reasons and our system want to be able to handle that. So let’s add a method to allow us to change the last name.

   1:  public void UpdateLastName(string newLastName)

   2:  {

   3:      LastName = newLastName;

   4:  }

This may seem a little over simplified but we will be adding more code to this method shortly.

Create Application class to contain our main logic

Now that we have a Person object and we want to change the last name of a user in the system we need to write the code to do that. Here I want to create a class to encapsulate the application logic.

   1:  public class MyApplication

   2:  {

   3:      public void Run()

   4:      {

   5:          var person = new Person("Kristina", "Parker");

   6:          person.UpdateLastName("Smith");

   7:      }

   8:  }

Here we see that we have a person “Kristina Parker” who for whatever reason, in this case she married me , changed her name to “Smith”. Our code reflects this change by calling the UpdateLastName method. This keeps our domain object up to date, but what if other parts of the system need to do something when a Persons last name changes?

We could put that logic in the UpdateLastName method but over time this method would get very long and hard to maintain. It also doesn’t help us keep with SRR (The Single Responsibility Principle). I would be awesome if we could just raise an event that the last name has changed and those other things just happened. This is where the domain event comes in.

Before we do that we need to wire up our MyApplication class in out program main so our application actually executes.

Your Program class should like the following:

   1:  public class Program

   2:  {

   3:      public static void Main(string[] args)

   4:      {

   5:          Bootstrapper.Initialize();

6:

   7:          var app = ObjectFactory.GetInstance<MyApplication>();

   8:          app.Run();

9:

  10:          Console.Read();

  11:      }

  12:  }

Here initialize our IoC with Bootstrapper.Initialize() and then we get an instance of our application class and then call run. If we build and execute the application at this point it will execute just fine, the person object will be created and the last name will change. Now we want to create that domain event so we can notify other parts of the system that something interesting has happened.

Define a Domain Event

The Domain Event is responsible for modeling any information that an Domain Event Handler might need to do its job. Here is the PersonLastNameChangedEvent:

   1:  public class PersonLastNameChangedEvent : IDomainEvent

   2:  {

   3:      public Person Person { get; set; }

   4:      public string OldValue { get; set; }

   5:      public string NewValue { get; set; }

6:

   7:      public PersonLastNameChangedEvent(Person person, string oldValue, string newValue)

   8:      {

   9:          Person = person;

  10:          OldValue = oldValue;

  11:          NewValue = newValue;

  12:      }

  13:  }

The class implements the IDomainEvent interface. This is necessary for the Domain Events library. I usually provide an instance of the object that has changed to allow handlers to have full access to any information they may need. I also like to provide the old and new values of what changed and providing a constructor just eases the creation of the object. There is no requirement on how you name the class for the event but I recommend using a name that represents what happened in the system. In this example we used the name of the class the event occurs in and then the name of the event. This allows you to quickly see where this event actually gets raised; When the LastName is changed on the Person object.

Define a Domain Event Handler

Now that we have have a Domain Event there needs to be something that can handle that event when it occurs.

   1:  public class PersonLastNameChangedHandler

   2:              : IDomainEventHandler<PersonLastNameChangedEvent>

   3:  {

   4:      public void Handle(PersonLastNameChangedEvent args)

   5:      {

   6:          var oldLastName = args.OldValue;

   7:          var newLastName = args.NewValue;

   8:          var fullName = args.Person.FullName;

9:

  10:          Console.WriteLine("Last Name changed from {0} to {1}",

  11:                  oldLastName, newLastName);

  12:      }

  13:  }

To implement a Domain Event Handler for the PeronLastNameChangedEvent we create a class that implements IDomainEventHandler<PersonLastNameChangedEvent>. You can have more than one class that handles this event. IDomainEventHandler has one method that must be implemented named Handle.

The Handle method is pasted an instance of IDomainEvent that represents the Event that was raised. In this case it is an instance of PeronsLastChangedEvent. As you can the handle has full access to any information contained in the DomainEvent class.

In this example we write out a message to the console, your handler will probably do much more interesting things than this. I hope you are starting to see how powerful this can become.

Raise the Event

We have created a Domain Object, Defined a Domain Event, and created a Domain Event Handler but the event still isn’t firing. We have add the code to actually raise the event.

To raise the event when the Persons last name changes we want to modify the Person.UpdateLastName method to to the following:

   1:  public void UpdateLastName(string newLastName)

   2:  {

   3:      var oldLastName = LastName;

   4:      LastName = newLastName;

5:

   6:      var lastNameChangedEvent =

   7:          new PersonLastNameChangedEvent(this, oldLastName, newLastName);

   8:      DomainEventManager.Raise(lastNameChangedEvent);

   9:  }

We have added line 3 to capture the current LastName before we change it. In line 6 and 7 we instantiate the PersonLastNameChangedEvent providing the required information. Finally on line 8 we use the DomainEventManager to raise the event.

Executing the code now will raise the event and you will see the message from the Event Handler printed into you console window.

Summary

I hope this walk through gives you a good feel of just how easy it is to add Domain Events to an application. If you have any questions, critics, or suggestions please do not hesitate to contact me. If you run into any issues please log them on the project site located on github. The source code is also available there and I do accept updates from the community.

Clear Internet Explorer Cache Command Line

jay@jaysmith.us — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 15:22:57 -0400

During a recent project where I was creating a SharePoint feature I had the need to clear the browser cache before starting a new debug session. The feature was all JavaScript and I wanted to be sure I was getting the latest version. So, I added this command to the post build event.

InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 8

I have also used this in trouble shooting browser issues with clients, the easiest way to know for sure they have cleared their browser cache.

How to Upload a Document with Properties using SharePoint 2010 Client Object Model

jay@jaysmith.us — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:41:00 -0400

Today I came across the need to be able to upload documents to a SharePoint list. Not so bad, I have done this before, but this time I also need to populate some custom metadata about the document. After a lot of looking, searching and exceptions I finally found the answer and here it is.

Add References to Microsoft.SharePoint.Client Library

Install-Package Microsoft.SharePoint.Client

Define a form

The important part I always forget is the enctype=”multipart/form-data”.

 1: <form id="formUpload" method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data ">

 2:     <input type="file" id="fileUpload" name="fileUpload" runat="server"/>

 3:     <input type="submit" value="upload"

 4:         OnServerClick="btnUploadTheFile_Click" runat="server"/>

 5: </form>

The btnUploadTheFile_Click Handler

 1: private void UpLoadToSharePoint()

 2:  {

 3:     var fileName = Path.GetFileName(fileUpload.PostedFile.FileName);

 4:     var fileStream = new FileStream(fileUpload.PostedFile.FileName, FileMode.Open);

 5:     var byteStream = new byte[fileStream.Length];

 6:     fileStream.Read(byteStream, 0, byteStream.Length);

7:

 8:     var serverRelativeUrl = "/MySite/MyDocumentLibrary/" + fileName;

9:

 10:     var fileCreationInformation = new FileCreationInformation

 11:     {

 12:         Content = byteStream,

 13:         Overwrite = true,

 14:         Url = serverRelativeUrl

 15:     };

16:

 17:     var file = _sharePointList.RootFolder.Files.Add(fileCreationInformation);

 18:     file.ListItemAllFields["Column 1"] = "Value 1";

 19:     file.ListItemAllFields["Column 2"] = "Value 2";

 20:     file.ListItemAllFields.Update();

21:

 22:     _sharePointContext.ExecuteQuery();

 23: }

Summary

This simple example shows how easy it is to upload a file to a SharePoint document list and provide additional column information.

Domain Events TechFest Update

jay@jaysmith.us — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 09:00:00 -0400

Last Friday I presented on Domain Events at the Northwest Arkansas Techfest and there was a lot of interest and good discussions. Thanks to everyone who attended the session. I have updated the nuget packages to the latest release and have created some initial documentation located here. From there you can find links to the project site (full source available) and wiki.

The source also includes an example application as well as the demo script for the demo I used in my presentation. The demo script is step by step instructions to re-create the demo from the presentation.

As I mentioned in the session this code is publicly available and I do accept feature and pull request, see the project wiki for how you can contribute.

How-To: Community Leadership Town Hall

jay@jaysmith.us — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 18:00:35 -0400

How to Host a Community Leadership Town Hall

I was recently asked if I would be hosting a Community Leadership Town Hall in Tulsa again this year. I will not be attending so I thought I would share what is needed and how to host a Community Leadership Town Hall in case there are others that would be interested in doing so.

Things you need:

Category Signs: Membership, Leadership, Speakers, Sponsors, Meetings, Other
4x4 or 3x3 Sticky Notes, enough for everyone to write topics, questions, etc.
Pens, I usually have a bundle of about 20 pens
Color Coding Labels, i.e. dots used for voting

Room Setup

Stick up the Category signs around the room. Be sure to allow enough room for people to walk around and look over each others shoulders. These areas get pretty crowded during the Topic\Question and Voting sections.

Get 4 chairs that you can setup in the center of the room. This is the fish bowl and is where the main discussions will happened once the topics are organized. This is also a good way to keep the discussion close to microphones if you plan on recording it.

Introduction

Time: 5 Minutes

In this section of the event you want to welcome everyone and let them know how the night will go. You can also ask if any of them are familiar with Open Space Technology events. This is a variation of that formula. This event is going to be only as good as what the attendees put into it, stress that and let them know they have a critical part to play in making it a success.

Topics\Questions

Time: 10 Minutes

Let them know that you will give them 10 minutes to write down questions or topics they would like to discuss. They don’t have to lead the discussion, just have the need or knowledge to share. Tell them they will need to write down the Topic\Question\Idea on a sticky note and then stick it on the wall under the Category that if best fits into. The things you want on the sticky notes; The topic/question and who wrote it. This helps later when you ask them to go over it in more detail and to take a set in the fish bowl to start the discussion.

Voting

Time: 10 Minutest

During the voting each person should read over the sticky notes posted and if they feel strongly about a topic they can vote on it by putting one of their dots on it. Once time is up have everyone return to their sets.

Tally

Time: 5 Minutes

Now you need to look over each category and find like items. Those that are similar or have a common theme and group them together. Once you finish that make a tally of which sticky notes have the most votes, counting similar themes as a single item. Organize the sticky notes in order from largest number of votes to smallest. This is now your agenda for the rest of the event. You want to do this quickly since everyone else is sitting around waiting, help can make this go faster.

The Fish Bowl

The fish bowl is where the real discussion happens. This is also a great way to control the amount of time spent on each topic making sure that everyone topics get a chance to be covered. Remember the 4 chairs? Ask the person that wrote the sticky to take a seat. Explain the fish bowl, only those seated in a chair can comment and one chair must remain empty at all times. Simple rules but it can make for some confusion. This is much like Survivor, if someone new shows up (sits in the empty chair) someone must vote themselves off the island (leave their chair). A great way to wind the discussion down and keep it on time is to pull the empty chair away every 5 minutes. Remember one chair must remain empty, since the empty chair is gone, someone has to get up. Continue this until there is one person and one chair left. When they finish, they have to get up the discussion is over.

Reset the chairs and start the next topic.

Summary

This a great open format for experts and those interested in a topic to share information. The events I have hosted in Houston, Dallas, and Tulsa have not only been informative they have been a lot of fun. You can also get a sponsor to cover food if you want to offer a meal to you attendees. This is an attendee lead event and the more input you get from them the better the event is. You job for hosting a Community Leadership Town Hall is well to host. You are just there to get everyone else talking, and they will just give them the floor and see what happens.

Northwest Arkansas Techfest Update

jay@jaysmith.us — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 12:18:40 -0400

This Friday, August 24, 2012 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

I will be presenting two sessions at this years Northwest Arkansas Techfest. If you haven’t already head on over to http://nwatechfest.com and register. This year is looking like it will be even bigger than events in the past. Go out and support your local technology conference and help make this an awesome event.

Here is the information about the sessions I will be presenting.

0 to 60 With Highway.Data

In this session we will take an look at Highway.Data and how it makes it easy to get up and running with Entity Framework. Highway.Data is part of the Highway Framework being developed by Tim Rayburn and Devlin Liles. This framework pulls together all the best practices of their Entity Framework 4.1 Expert's Cookbook book into a framework that makes consuming data much easier. This session will cover the newly release version 2.0 of Highway.Data.

Track: Big and Small Data
Time: 1:00 PM

Domain Eventing, Using Domain Events to create more composable applications.

In this session I will present a strategy I have implemented for using events in the domain model to make applications more composable. Domain Events allow you define system events and then implement handlers that take action when those events occur.

Track: Advanced Development
Time: 2:00 PM

I’d love to have you stop my one of my sessions and give feedback on the content and direction. Each of my sessions is already or working toward creating a reusable library that will be made available via nuget. So, your input at this stage can influence future releases.

User Group Radio Fades into the Sunset!

jay@jaysmith.us — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 18:01:52 -0400

Several years ago I started a podcast with the goal of interviewing community leaders and sponsors help get the word out about best practices and how a community leader could connect with potential sponsors. I know sounds like a good idea, right? Well truth be told I found I don’t have the discipline or time to dedicate to create a quality show so after only a few shows they stopped. I have kept the site up in the hopes that I would be motivated to get back to it. But there have developments in my life over the last year that have pulled me further away from community. The User Group Radio domain is about to expire and I am going to let it.

So, as User Group Radio fades into the sunset a chapter is closed on my community involvement. Who knows what the future holds. I still believe that there is a need for community leaders to be able to share best practices with each other to ease the pain of onboarding new leaders but also have come to the reality that community leaders have precious little time to dedicate to these efforts.

Thanks to those who allowed me the privilege of interviewing you and I apologize to those who I interviewed that the show never was released.

SQL Saturday Oklahoma City August 25, 2012

jay@jaysmith.us — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 12:53:21 -0400

August 25, 2012 – Oklahoma City, OK

And the events keep rolling! Kristin Ferrier just emailed me regarding SQL Saturday Oklahoma City. Here are the details…

SQLSaturday is a training event for SQL Server professionals and those wanting to learn about SQL Server.

This event will be held August 25, 2012 at 13301 South Pennsylvania Avenue, Oklahoma City, OK 73170.

Admittance to this event is free, but we do charge a lunch fee of $10.00 (optional) so that we can provide a lunch - not pizza! Also, please understand that lunch fees are not refundable and that any left over food will be donated.

For more information about Speakers, Sessions, and to register visit the SQL Saturday OKC site.

Northwest Arkansas TechFest August 24, 2012

jay@jaysmith.us — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:15:02 -0400

August 24, 2012 8:15 AM – 5:00 PM
University of Arkansas Global Campus Fayetteville, AR

Mark Brandon, directory of NWA TechFest 2012, has announced that the next installment of the Northwest Arkansas TechFest will be on August 24, 2012 at the University of Arkansas Global Campus in downtown Fayetteville, AR. The event is currently seeking speakers, sponsors, and attendees.

Topic areas for this years event are:

Advanced Development
Mobile Development
Big and Small Data
Collaboration/Content Management
IT Pro
UI/UX Design
Cloud
Tech Entrepreneurship Resources in NWA

You can follow the Northwest Arkansas TechFest on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or http://nwatechfest.com.

If you are a speaker and interested in submitted topics you can do so via the “Call for Speakers OPEN!” link on the http://nwatechfest.com home page.

Dallas TechFest 2012 Call For Speakers

jay@jaysmith.us — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 15:22:47 -0400

Teresa Burger announced the Dallas Techfest 2012 call for speakers. The event will be held on August 24th and 25th, 2012 at the University of Texas at Dallas. Same location as last year. If you are interested in speaking contact Teresa Burger t.burger@live.com.

I am sure there will be future announcements for attendees so stay tuned.

Suppress All Upper Case In Visual Studio 2012

jay@jaysmith.us — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:21:57 -0400

Richard Banks has posted a solution to make Visual Studio 2012 stop yelling at you. In his post titles “How To Prevent Visual Studio 2012 ALL CAPS Menus!” he gives you the registry key to create to make them normal again. Thank you Richard!

I have created a registry file to import to make the task easier.

VS2010_SuppressUppercaseConversion.reg

Getting Started with RoundTable: Squire

jay@jaysmith.us — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:53:00 -0400

This blog is part of a series on getting started with RoundTable: Squire and covers getting everything installed. The next post in the series will walk you through the steps necessary to use Squire to start learning the C# programming language.

What is Squire?

Squire is a Round Table project that was created as a learning tool for those new to C# development. It is used as part of the Round Table training approach much like Katas in martial arts. Squire uses Kihons, a Japanese term meaning “Basics” or “Fundamentals” to provide repeatable exercises that help you learn the C# language.

Round Table Members believe that mentoring is central to learning, and even though working with Squire alone can certainly help you get a jump start with learning programming with C# we believe that establishing a relationship with a mentor is the best way to accelerate your learning. Round Table Craftsman is not only about practicing techniques, but is also about fostering the correct sprit and attitude to develop a well rounded technical expert.

Steps to get started:

Install SharpDevelop
Install nUnit
Download Squire
Start Learning

Install SharpDevelop

SharpDevelop is a free integrated development environment (IDE) for C#, VB.NET and Boo projects on the Microsoft’s .NET platform. The Round Table team chose SharpDevelop because it is free, and integrates with nUnit and is a full development environment. This lowered the barriers of entry, mainly cost for those interested in learning programming with C#.

Download SharpDevelop and install it with the typical settings. At the time of this post the current version is 4.2 RC.

Install nUnit

nUnit is a unit-testing framework for all .NET languages which was initially ported from JUnit. nUnit integrates directly with SharpDevelop allowing you to execute the test and see the results without leaving the SharpDevelop IDE.

Download nUnit and install it with the typical settings. At the time of this post the current version is 2.6.

Get a Copy of Squire

Download Squire and extract it to a location on your hard drive.

Start Learning

Ok, that’s it, you now have all the tools installed necessary to start learning the C# programming language using Squire. The next post in this series will cover opening the Squire solution and running through an exercise (kihon).

Nwa .NET User Group May Meeting: Powershell for Developers

jay@jaysmith.us — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:40:38 -0400

The next Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group meeting will be held May 8, 2012 at 6:00 PM at Rockfish in Rogers. Jon Parker will be presenting on PowerShell for Developers.

Please RSVP before noon on May 8th so we can order enough food for everyone.

New Location:

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 100
ROGERS, AR 72758

Meeting Information

Title: PowerShell for Developers

About the Presenter: Jon Parker

Jon has been programming since 2001 at BYU-Idaho. He discovered .Net in 2003 and hasn’t looked back since. While Jon started out with web programming, his current passion is tweaking applications for speed. Jon boasts taking a 30 min Unix C process to .Net that now runs in < 3 min.

Jon is currently employed at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. He is married and has 1 child. In his spare time he codes (of course) and builds tree houses.

Agenda

6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
6:15 PM - 8:10 PM - Main Presentation
8:10 PM - 8:30 PM - Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 100
ROGERS, AR 72758

Tech Adventure Club In NWA

jay@jaysmith.us — Tue, 01 May 2012 08:55:54 -0400

Send you kids to camp, Tech Adventure Camp! A college of mine has put together an awesome tech camp for kids. They will be learning Web Development, Programming with Python, and Graphic Design over a three week period. If you children (ages 7 to 16) are interested in technology then check the Tech Adventure Club out.

Tulsa School of Dev 2012

jay@jaysmith.us — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:10:53 -0400

Friday, April 13th, 2010

Topics include:

WCF Web HTML5 Gov2.0
ESB /SOA Architecture .NET
SQL Server Entity Framework
WordPress Javascript
Windows Phone Windows 8 Metro
Netduino Fez Panda
and more…

Register Now

Some tracks have prerequisites. Please check the details of your selected track for more information.With the Windows 8 and MicroElectronics tracks you will need to install and/or buy items before coming to conference. Check your tracks at Tulsa School of Dev website for more information.

Microsoft Releases Windows 8 Consumer Preview

jay@jaysmith.us — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:40:00 -0400

Today Microsoft has released a consumer preview of the Windows 8, the next version of the Windows Operating System. Download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview here.

Microsoft Developer Evangelist Jennifer Marsman has posted an awesome list of resources to help you get started developing applications for Windows 8.

I have also gathered some useful links for Windows 8 on http://delicious.com/jay.smith/Win8.

Nwa GiveCamp 2012 - March 30, 2012 to April 1, 2012

jay@jaysmith.us — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:54:00 -0400

The 2nd Annual Northwest Arkansas GiveCamp is on it’s way.

This year it will be from March 30, 2012 to April 1, 2012 and will be hosted at the Center for NonProfits located in Rogers, AR.

What is a GiveCamp?

GiveCamp is a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and database administrators donate their time to create custom software for non-profit organizations. This custom software could be a new website for the nonprofit organization, a small data-collection application to keep track of members, or a application for the Red Cross that automatically emails a blood donor three months after they’ve donated blood to remind them that they are now eligible to donate again. The only limitation is that the project should be scoped to be able to be completed in a weekend.

During GiveCamp, developers are welcome to go home in the evenings or camp out all weekend long. There are usually food and drink provided at the event. There are sometimes even game systems set up for when you and your need a little break! Overall, it’s a great opportunity for people to work together, developing new friendships, and doing something important for their community.

At GiveCamp, there is an expectation of “What Happens at GiveCamp, Stays at GiveCamp”. Therefore, all source code must be turned over to the charities at the end of the weekend (developers cannot ask for payment) and the charities are responsible for maintaining the code moving forward (charities cannot expect the developers to maintain the codebase).

Participating in NWA Give Camp last year was perhaps the most exciting professional experience of my life. The creativity, energy, commitment, and talent were inspiring! The recipient charities were so grateful and excited to see their projects being born.

Join us this year for an experience you won’t forget! The food is pretty good, too! Karen – System Analyst

Get Involved!

Attending a GiveCamp is a great way to give back to the community in a way that impacts in a huge way. For a single weekends efforts you could be the difference in a charity being able to achieve it’s goal for the year, or even the foreseeable future. You can volunteer at http://nwagivecamp.org, better yet build a team and adopt a charity. Challenge other departments in your company to get more people involved and make it fun. I guarantee this will be one of the most rewarding weekends you have experienced as a technical professional. You can make a difference!

Arkansas User Group Meetings–February 2012

jay@jaysmith.us — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:44:30 -0400

Here is the listing of all the User Group meeting in February 2012 that I know of. If you know of a User Group meeting in the area please add to the comments.

Little Rock .NET User Group

Exploring iOS Development - Chris Varn

Mobile development is a necessity to stay relevant in today’s day and age. iOS, along with Android, is the leading platform for mobile development. Join us as we discuss the mobile landscape and where iOS fits. We will explore the differences between Objective-C and C# and what it takes to get started in iOS development. We will then go through the process of writing an app.

When: February 9, 2012 – 6:00 PM
Where: Pulaski Technical College - Lecture Room B Campus Center - 3000 West Scenic Drive North Little Rock, AR 72118

Fort Smith .NET User Group

Ruby on Rails on Windows – Taylor Otwell

If you're a Windows person, getting started with Rails hasn't always been easy. Thankfully, that has changed! We'll quickly walk through installing Ruby, Rails, and Git on your machine. Then, we'll take a look at some of the slick features of the Ruby on Rails web framework while making a few comparisons to ASP.NET MVC. Finally, we'll deploy a simple application to the cloud using Git and Heroku!

New Location: ABF General Office
When: February 13, 2012 – 6:00 PM
Where: ABF General Office - 3801 Old Greenwood Rd Fort Smith, AR 72903

Northwest Arkansas Project Management Institute

The Art of Stakeholder Management – James T. Brown Ph.D, PMP, PE, CSP, President SEBA Solutions Inc.

Great project managers know that success goes beyond the triple constraint deliverables and includes managing stakeholder expectations. Three aspects of managing stakeholder expectations are:

Know your stakeholders
Know what you are supposed to deliver from the perspective of the stakeholder
Hold your stakeholders accountable to the realities of the project (regardless of the position of the stakeholder, the attitude of the stakeholder, or the availability of the stakeholder).

This presentation provides tactics to identify, herd and lead stakeholders to ensure a successful project deliverable with minimum project manager stress level.

When: February 20, 2012 – 6:00 PM
Where: NWACC Jack Shewmaker Center – 1100 SE Eagle Way Bentonville, AR 72712

Northwest Arkansas .NET User Group

Model-View Patterns: Making Sense of MVC, MVP and MVVM – Rob Vetter

The separation enforced by 'Model View' patterns can quickly transform your application into a maintainable, modular and rapidly developed package. New features are easily added, new screens are a snap, testing is enhanced and developers and designers can more easily work simultaneously.

Come compare the Model-View-Controller (MVC), Model-View-Presenter (MVP) and Model-View-View-Model (MVVM) patterns. In this session, we'll...

Explore the foundation, benefits and drawbacks of each pattern at an architectural level
Contrast differences between each pointing out applicable situations where each may apply
Walk through a variety of examples on the Microsoft platform, including Microsoft MVC, ASP.Net, Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation

You'll walk away with a clear understanding of each pattern, with examples that you can implement in your projects.

When: February 28, 2012 – 6:00 PM
Where: University of Phoenix - 1800 S. 52nd St, Suite 100 Rogers, AR 72758

Northwest Arkansas SQL Server User Group

Entity Framework for DBA’s – Rob Vetter

While most enterprise applications are object-oriented, the data upon which they depend is not. Often, binding these two platforms together can result in significant amounts of lost productivity and a less than optimal solution.

To resolve these shortcomings, Microsoft has created the ADO.NET Entity Framework and is now strongly recommending that development teams implement it in their applications.

As a DBA, you’ll need to understand how the Entity Framework works and how it affects your role as a DBA.
In this session, we’ll…

Explore the Entity Framework 4.0, its related components and show how it all works
Demonstrate the various ways to build a business object model (Entity Data Model) and map it to an underlying database
Walk through a variety of examples of how to interact with the model, including LINQ, Entity SQL and Stored Procedures
Show how the Entity Framework can generate select, insert, update and delete SQL statements on the fly
Explore the Entity Framework’s impact on permissions, connections, transactions, performance, security and concurrency

You’ll walk-away with a clear understanding of how the Entity Framework 4.0 works, why developers and architects want to implement it and how it affects your role as a DBA.

When: February 29, 2012 - 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Where: University of Phoenix - 1800 S. 52nd St, Suite 100 Rogers, AR 72758

LINQ: Exception, Null or Object?

jay@jaysmith.us — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:11:17 -0400

I have run into a problem. LINQ didn’t behave as I had expected when trying to query an object from a list. So I set out to figure out what I didn’t know. Turns out I am not alone in this since I have been asked about it several times. This post will look at what you can expect to happen when you query a list of objects that does not contain the item you are looking for. This can produce three different outcomes depending on the way you approach it. You will either get an exception, a null object or an empty object.

Before we begin we need a class to give us some useful data to query against.

I created a real simple Item object with just an id and name, as well as, a simple class to build up a IQueryable<Item> for us to run some LINQ queries against.

   1:      public class Item

   2:      {

   3:          public int Id { get; set; }

4:

   5:          public string Name { get; set; }

   6:      }

7:

   8:      public class ItemData

   9:      {

  10:          public IQueryable<Item> GetItems()

  11:          {

  12:              var users = new List<Item>

  13:                  {

  14:                      new Item {Id=1, Name = "Item 1"},

  15:                      new Item {Id=2, Name = "Item 2"},

  16:                      new Item {Id=3, Name = "Item 3"},

  17:                      new Item {Id=4, Name = "Item 4"},

  18:                      new Item {Id=5, Name = "Item 5"},

  19:                  };

20:

  21:              return users.AsQueryable();

  22:          }

  23:      }

Single

var single = items.Single(x => x.Id == 10);

Single returns the single, specific item from a sequence of values that matches your query. Single throws an exception if there is not exactly one element in the sequence. In my testing when looking for an item not in the sequence it threw [System.InvalidOperationException] = {"Sequence contains no matching element"}.

Single with DefaultIfEmpty

var singleDefaultIfEmtpy = items.DefaultIfEmpty(new Item()).Single(x => x.Id == 10);

So what changes of we add the .DefaultIfEmpty(new Item()) to the query? None at all, it still throws [System.InvalidOperationException] = {"Sequence contains no matching element"}.

SingleOrDefault

Next up is SingleOrDefault; returns a single, specific element of a sequence, or a default value if that element is not found.

var singleOrDefault = items.SingleOrDefault(x => x.Id == 10);

This one is a little better, it doesn’t throw an exception it returns null. Why didn’t it return an empty Item object? You’d think that would be the default and that it could figure it out because it knows what type of object we are querying for. Nope, if you don’t specify the default value you get null.

SingleOrDefault with DefaultIfEmpty

Ok, so lets specify a default value with .DefaultIfEmpty.

var singleOrDefaultIfEmpty = items.DefaultIfEmpty(new Item())

                .SingleOrDefault(x => x.Id == 10);

I expected to get a new Item object, but guess what I got null. I couldn’t figure out why, the documentation states ‘The SingleOrDefault method does not provide a way to specify a default value. If you want to specify a default value other than default(TSource), use the DefaultIfEmpty(Of TSource)(IEnumerable(Of TSource), TSource) method as described in the Example section.’

I did that yet I still got a null, and not an empty Item object. Hopefully, you guys can tell me why.

First and FirstOrDefault, Last and LastOrDefault

First, FirstOrDefault and Last and LastOrDefault gave the same results as their respective counterparts. It appears that the OrDefault doesn’t mean anything.

Where

Let’s look at using Where(), cause hey let’s be honest this is the way I write most of my queries anyway. Where by itself returns IQueryable<T> which what we expect, but let’s look at what happens when use DefaultIfEmpty by itself and with First and FirstOrDefault.

Where with DefaultIfEmpty

var whereDefaultIfEmpty = items.Where(x => x.Id == 10)

                .DefaultIfEmpty(new Item());

Hey, we are finally starting to get some results, this returned a new Item object.

Where with First

Ok, so what if we put First?

var whereFirst = items.Where(x => x.Id == 10).First();

Oh, here is our old friend InvalidOperationException, no joy!

Where with First and DefaultIfEmpty

So, for fun let’s see if adding the DefaultIfEmpty makes a difference.

var whereFirstDefaultIfEmpty = items.Where(x => x.Id == 10)

                .DefaultIfEmpty(new Item())

                .First();

This return a new Item object. Ok, so now we are starting to see when DefaulIfEmpty helps. Remember just using it with First without Where just threw an exception.

Where with FirstOrDefault

var whereFirstOrDefault = items.Where(x => x.Id == 10).FirstOrDefault();

This behaved no different than just using FirstOrDefaul(x=> x.Id == 10), we got a null.

Where with FirstOrDefault and DefaultIfEmpty

Ok, so DefaultIfEmpty made a difference when using First, let’s hope it does the same for FirstOrDefault.

var whereFirstOrDefaultIfEmpty = items.Where(x => x.Id == 10)

                .DefaultIfEmpty(new Item())

                .FirstOrDefault();

Eureka! A new Item object.

Summary

From what I was able to figure out reading the online documentation and my own testing it I recommend using DefaultIfEmpty() with Where() alone or with FirstOrDefault. But remember using it with Single, SingleOrDefault, First, FirstOrDefault, Last, or LastOrDeafult will not get you the default object, you will either get an InvalidOperationException or null.

Now that I understand how and when DefaultIfEmpty makes a difference I can create LINQ queries that return the results I expect and I will be able to predict if I will get an Exception, Null or Object.

If you have experienced something different, disagree, or have a better way to approach this please post a reply. The discussion just makes all of us better.

Definitions of Designations

jay@jaysmith.us — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:10:06 -0400

Saw this on Google+ posted by Eric Miao and just had to share it. I am not sure where he got it but it sure made me laugh.

Definitions of Designations

Project Manager is a Person who thinks nine women can deliver a baby in One month.
Developer is a Person who thinks it will take 18 months to deliver a Baby.
Onsite Coordinator is one who thinks single women can deliver nine babies in one month
Client is the one who doesn’t know why he wants a baby.
Marketing Manager is a person who thinks he can deliver a baby even if no man or woman are available
Resource Optimization Team thinks they don’t need a man or woman; they’ll produce a child with zero resources
Documentation Team thinks they don’t care whether the child is delivered, they’ll just document 9 months
Quality Auditor is the person who is never happy with the PROCESS to produce a baby
Tester is a person who always tells his wife that this is not the Right baby
HR Manager is a person who thinks that a donkey can deliver a human baby in given 9 months

First WP7 Application: Dominionizer

jay@jaysmith.us — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:42:00 -0400

Dominionzier

Over that last several months Chris Koenig and myself have been working on a Windows Phone 7 application that helps ease the task the picking the kingdom cards for playing the game of Dominion. Version 1.0 to the market place and received certification in 3 days and it went live over the weekend.

It has been an awesome project to work on and we have a few features we want to add in version 2.0. Currently supported cards sets: Dominion, Intrigue, Seaside, Alchemy, Prosperity, and Cornucopia, as well as the three promo cards.

I want to thank Chris for all of his support and patience while working with me on the project. If you are a fan of Dominion please check out.

Description from Windows Phone Market Place

Dominionizer is an application to help ease the task of picking the 10 kingdom cards needed to play the card game Dominion.

Diminionizer supports the following Dominion, Intrigue, Seaside, Alchemy, Prosperity, and Cornucopia, as well as the three promo cards.

Settings allow you to control which sets are included in random selection. Other options allow you to apply rules to how the cards are picked, current rules allow for Require 2-5 Cost Cards and Require Reaction To Attack.

Once the cards are picked you may swap a card out for a different randomly selected card by tap-hold and selecting Swap Card. If you can't remember what a card does you can also tap-hold and select View Card to see the card information.

Screenshots

The main screen displays the randomly picked cards along with cost, potion cost, and an icon to indicate which set the cards came from. If you do not like a card you can use the hold menu to swap the card for a different card, or view an image of the actual card.

Settings allow you to control which sets are used for the card selection, and rules allow you to control how the cards are picked. If you want to make sure you have an even spread of cost you can turn on the Require Two to Five Cost Cards rule. If you don’t want to have an attack card without a way to defend yourself turn on the Require Reaction To Attack rule.

Microsoft MVP: ASP.NET/IIS Awarded; Again!

jay@jaysmith.us — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:31:42 -0400

Microsoft once again has chosen to award me with the MVP Award for ASP.NET/IIS. Once again I find myself very honored and humbled to be recognized for my efforts in the community. I have always said that even if I am not an MVP I will continue to go out and foster community wherever I can, and I will, but not just yet.

I want to thank the Northwest Arkansas Technical community, hey they have to put up with me . They have been a great source of ideas and inspiration and I would go to bat for any of you. Thanks for listening to me rant, and for sometimes telling me to shut up .

Thanks again to Microsoft for the honor of being an MVP and thanks to the community for helping me get there.

Introduction to Agile Software Development Video on UserGroup.tv

jay@jaysmith.us — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:44:00 -0400

The video recording of my presentation: Introduction to Agile Software Development at the Tulsa School of Dev has been posted on User Group TV website.

Thanks to Shawn Weisfeld for all the time and money he has put into finding a way to bring community event to a broader audience.

Speaking at Tulsa Techfest–October 7th 2011

jay@jaysmith.us — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:52:00 -0400

It is time for the Tulsa Techfes! Woo Hooo!

This time around I will be leading a Community Leadership Town Hall the night before and presenting two sessions. This has always been an awesome event and I am sure this year will not be much different.

Session Info:

Developer Productivity Tips: How to Get Things Done

This session is a collection of tips and strategies I have learned that has helped me be a more productive person. Topics will range from better ways to handle the onslaught of incoming email to being more productive with you development tools.

Topics in this session:

Going Mouse-less
Customize your world
Developer Tools
Inbox Zero
5 Sentences or less
Clean Workspace

The Creamy Goodness of NuGet

NuGet has quickly become one of my favorite extensions for Visual Studio. Not only has it made it easy to add commonly used OSS libraries to your projects it has made them discoverable.

About NuGet: NuGet is a free, open source developer focused package management system for the .NET platform intent on simplifying the process of incorporating third party libraries into a .NET application during development.

There are a large number of useful 3rd party open source libraries out there for the .NET platform, but for those not familiar with the OSS ecosystem, it can be a pain to pull these libraries into a project. NuGet automates most of this and makes it easy to add libraries for common task.

Here is what you will learn:

What is NuGet?

How to add packages to your project
How to update packages in your project
How to host your own package repository
How to create and publish your own packages

Jay Smith

Executor: Where did my keywords go?

Delete Team Foundation Server Work Item with WitAdmin

TFS Remove Local Files for Branch

Clear Cache and Clear Clipboard Commands

Clear Internet Explorer Cache

Clear The Windows Clipboard

Share Yours!

0 to 60 with Highway.Data Video Available!

Enotita: Northwest Arkansas Christian Music Festival

Domain Events Made Easy with JaySmith.DomainEvents

Create New Console Application

Create Bootstrapper to initialize StructureMap

Create a Domain Object

Create Application class to contain our main logic

Define a Domain Event

Define a Domain Event Handler

Raise the Event

Summary

Clear Internet Explorer Cache Command Line

How to Upload a Document with Properties using SharePoint 2010 Client Object Model

Add References to Microsoft.SharePoint.Client Library

The btnUploadTheFile_Click Handler

Domain Events TechFest Update

How-To: Community Leadership Town Hall

How to Host a Community Leadership Town Hall

Room Setup

Introduction

Topics\Questions

Voting

Tally

The Fish Bowl

Summary

Northwest Arkansas Techfest Update

This Friday, August 24, 2012 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

0 to 60 With Highway.Data

Domain Eventing, Using Domain Events to create more composable applications.

User Group Radio Fades into the Sunset!

SQL Saturday Oklahoma City August 25, 2012

August 25, 2012 – Oklahoma City, OK

Northwest Arkansas TechFest August 24, 2012

August 24, 2012 8:15 AM – 5:00 PM University of Arkansas Global Campus Fayetteville, AR

Dallas TechFest 2012 Call For Speakers

Suppress All Upper Case In Visual Studio 2012

Getting Started with RoundTable: Squire

What is Squire?

Steps to get started:

Install SharpDevelop

Install nUnit

Get a Copy of Squire

Start Learning

Nwa .NET User Group May Meeting: Powershell for Developers

Tech Adventure Club In NWA

Tulsa School of Dev 2012

Friday, April 13th, 2010

Microsoft Releases Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Nwa GiveCamp 2012 - March 30, 2012 to April 1, 2012

The 2nd Annual Northwest Arkansas GiveCamp is on it’s way.

What is a GiveCamp?

Get Involved!

Arkansas User Group Meetings–February 2012

Little Rock .NET User Group

Exploring iOS Development - Chris Varn

Fort Smith .NET User Group

Ruby on Rails on Windows – Taylor Otwell

Northwest Arkansas Project Management Institute

Northwest Arkansas .NET User Group

Model-View Patterns: Making Sense of MVC, MVP and MVVM – Rob Vetter

Northwest Arkansas SQL Server User Group

Entity Framework for DBA’s – Rob Vetter

LINQ: Exception, Null or Object?

Single

Single with DefaultIfEmpty

SingleOrDefault

SingleOrDefault with DefaultIfEmpty

First and FirstOrDefault, Last and LastOrDefault

Where

Where with DefaultIfEmpty

Where with First

Where with First and DefaultIfEmpty

August 24, 2012 8:15 AM – 5:00 PM
University of Arkansas Global Campus Fayetteville, AR