Loosely Coupled Human Code Factory

PADNUG, Kelly White on MVVM

adron.nospam@nospam.adronbhall.com (Adron) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:34:25 -0800

Tonight PADNUG has Kelly White doing a presentation on MVVM. That?s Model View View-Model, and looks to be an interesting presentation. Kelly?s been working with MVVM for some time now so I?m sure it?ll be an interesting presentation. I think I myself might even throw some questions his way. So be sure to swing out to the west side for the presentation. For more information check out the meeting information.

Rocking the Code @Webtrends

adron.nospam@nospam.adronbhall.com (Adron) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:30:00 -0800

Ok, I have some cool code bits, announcements, and other such things. Some of the code bits will be here "Developer Document", the blog entry for the first example I've written up is here "SDK, ADO.NET DataTable/DataSet, and Code Bits", and then of course the regular sundry of my writings.

There has been an on and off demand internally for some additions to the Webtrends SDK for our DX Web Services offerings, so I added some bits. The following are a list of the features:

Map to DataTable/DataSet from Data Transfer Object. Alright, I'm going to do a little explaining on this topic. The DataTable is the standard, years old ADO.NET DataTable that someone can put in with other DataTables in the DataSet. It basically provides the data pulled from the DX web services in a flattened easy to use DataTable format.
Profile & Report Listing Factory. I added a profile and report listing factory for pulling lists from the DX web services. This seemed like a no brained, it just needed to be available.
I also refactored the Report Factory Methods to accept a string or Uri Object Parameter to retrieve a report from. This way, if another tool creates a Uri then it can be used directly instead of parsing it apart only to hand of the values to have the factory parse it back together.
Last but not least, available in bite size assembly format. Check out the Webtrends Developers' Website for the bits.

I've Been Pondering Android, But Now?

adron.nospam@nospam.adronbhall.com (adron) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:28:00 -0800

This is a serious smackdown ad, I LOVED it. I've been pondering dropping the iPhone as it has never felt robust, but the Windows Mobile was just a disgrace. Now though, WOW! Between the ad & the seriousness of Android coming to other phone platforms I am honestly getting pretty stoked. The development environments are better (I mean, Object C, come on), there are multiples to choose from, the platform is open. Sounds like Windows stomping Macintosh those years ago. Cept' this time it is Google vs. Apple. It is about time this battle got real!! I'm looking forward to it with bated breath. :)

So with that, it just kicked off the motivation to start doing some real Mobile Dev. Yes, I will probably get some iPhone Apps built, but my focus will definitely be Android.

My Agile Efforts

adron.nospam@nospam.adronbhall.com (Adron) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:53:00 -0800

I recently watched a video presentation of Alistair Cockburn, who is a fairly major name in the Agile Development Community. It pushed me to put this entry together for future discussion that I intend to kick off (at least on this blog & the few readers I have). I have worked on the following Agile Projects:

My most recent project utilizing Agile Processes was at Webtrends for my stint in Engineering late 08 and earlier 09. I worked on a team to build web services for Webtrends data access for customers.
- The team consisted of three people, one being a team lead. Our primary use of Agile was somewhat limited as it was a new process for the team. We performed continuous builds via Team Foundation Server and test driven development when feasible. We were limited in using TDD to some degree as a large part of the work was configuration based for server configuration and required a large degree of integration tests more than isolated unit tests. In addition to TDD we also utilized user stories, burn down charts, and to some degree kanban style prioritization. The project was a rocking success, and is now offered as a Webtrends offering and documented, discussed, blogged and continuously maintained and advanced. Even though I am on a different team now working directly with customers to implement integrations with these REST based web services, the engineering team continues forward with more Agile practices being used daily, including paper prototyping, furthering the unit testing majority of the teams, and more.
After* and before* the Webtrends engagement I helped to initiate Agile in a development group of 4 people at Axiom Group (now Axiom EPM) to build a Excel UI to SQL Server for accounting data storage, manipulation, analysis, trending, and retrieval. I helped get the group kick started, and the software that was released is now called Axiom Planning.
- The team of 4, split into two pairs, and we did pairing & individual development. Other agile software methods used were rapid learning, extensive test driven development, continuous integration (w/ TeamCity), unit tests in builds w/ good coverage (the logical kind), mocking (for databases), self organizing team, paper prototyping, and direct daily communication with customer representatives. We also as pairs and as a team used refactoring heavily. In addition heavy utilization of design patterns and domain driven-design was used in close collaboration with the customer.
In 06 & 07' I worked with Centerstance Consulting on a project which started Waterfall and moved to Agile during the course of the engagement. We started off a team of 5 developers, grew to about 16 at one point, and shrunk down toward the completion of the overarching architectural design to about 8-12 again.
- The teams ranged from 4-5 people per team with a team lead, to two teams with two sub-teams split with a team lead each doing their own respective stand ups (SCRUM style), a continuous integration was setup, unit & integration testing was eventually put into place across a wide spectrum of the code base. Mocking, faking where appropriate, and general unit testing took place, with business analysts acting as customers.
For Ghallt Enterprises I served as CTO with a business partner, leading efforts among remote teams, utilizing Agile practices (yeah, remotely, I know, it seems crazy) to develop social media software. Methods included continuous integration, build management, pair development, code review & refactoring on a regular basis, and other practices. Even though this is a company that a friend and I started, it served to provide a catalyst for me to push forward extensively into Agile Processes. The level of progress, quality of code, and other characteristics that are inherent to effective Agile Processes were of a level that left no reason to endeavor toward traditional style project planning or Waterfall style approaches.

I?ve worked with others to mentor and experiment with pair development, continuous integration, unit testing, and other processes to enhance and streamline the software development life cycle.

* I write after and before Webtrends because I left Webtrends in 08' to work the Axiom effort, upon kicking that off, I then headed back to Webtrends to work on the then new Web Services with REST Architecture Project.

Busy Busy Me

adron.nospam@nospam.adronbhall.com (Adron) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:47:00 -0800

Wow. Today has been one of those, "go here, go there, do this, do that, quick hurry, finished, done, thanks, awesome, bang" type of days. Getting a lot accomplished, but also so busy it is hard to see the finished efforts for all the new efforts coming by way.

Lunch 2.0

Today I did manage to make it to my first Lunch 2.0, saw some familiar faces and some new faces I haven't met. One of these new people that I met was Eric M. Curtis, the creative director & interface designer for rgb Design Studio.

Business Development

I also had a morning coffee at a ridiculously early 7:10am today with some un-named sources. We discussed some new upcoming analytics business opportunities that may be heading Webtrends way and the recent large event in the analytics industry, the acquisition of Omniture by Adobe. This of course is on my mind as I have developed tons of Flash & AIR tagging solutions over the last few months, which now gives me pause. Many in the industry wait with bated breath as to the path Adobe will now take with this acquisition. As many in the industry have already stated, it is a somewhat strange pairing and not to jump on that bandwagon, but it does seem that way.

In Other News

I have a number of projects I am working on, all which will benefit Webtrends Analytics customers as well as people in the analytics industry in general. A few blog entries (which you'll have to read on the Webtrends Blog or the Webtrends Developer?s Blog), and a whole bunch of awesome technical bits, code snippets, and other code based sundry. So stay tuned, more to come. :)

OMFG, Please Make the Tests Work FIRST!

adron.nospam@nospam.adronbhall.com (Adron) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:51:52 -0800

Alright Mr & Ms Developer. This hasn?t happened in a while, since most of my work as of late has been green field (i.e. brand new development). But in the past, oh boy have I gotten some pure crap. I am a bit arnery today, so just bare with me, I need to rant a bit.

When I am handed code to fix, maintain, alter, or read for any reason I would love to have unit tests come along with it. If someone then promises to provide unit tests for the code they are writing that is being handed off to me, I expect the unit tests to run, execute isolated, and throw green lights across the board. However there are a billion different things I run into all the time that frustrate me to no end. If you promise me unit tests, do NOT . . .

[RANT ON]

DO NOT give me unit tests that take 13 steps to setup, fake data INSERTs against an un-configured or even pre-configured database. That is NOT isolated and it makes them almost entirely useless to me. It might be great for your own personal testing, but it doesn't help me understand the isolated unit of work, the separation of concern, or anything else about the actual code.

DO NOT give me unit tests that outright fail immediately. If they all fail that means you have NOT finished your work. It means your code doesn't work. Please, make the tests work right, make the code work right before passing the buck. Note: I said please! :)

DO NOT write a unit test for something that checks the length of a string when you need to check the content of the string. Don't check that something is a number when the method adds two numbers, instead check to see if the numbers are aggregated correctly.

DO NOT tell me you have 100% code coverage and then hand me tests that basically asset that a mocked method executes on an object. OF COURSE THE METHOD EXECUTES, YOU ARE MOCKING IT!!!

DO NOT give me unit tests that test so far across boundaries that isolation is lost by so many degrees it would take many minutes, if not hours, to figure out what the test doesn't work.

[Rant Off]

In all honesty I would rather get code and just be told the truth; ?X tests do not work anymore?, ?I could not figure out a way to test this so I did this dumb partial test thing?, or simply ?I was screwing around so I didn?t get full coverage, to make management shush up I did a quick assert fake to get the rest of the coverage?. I'm a developer too, I will understand and probably have no problem at all that something is not completely done, partially done, or you hit a stumbling block. I do it all the time, I also make a point to lay it out the way it is. No point in beating around the bush.

Keep in mind, if your management thinks you need to slave away and be forced to lie about things, you can probably go work somewhere else within a few weeks. Even in this crappy market there is barely any reason to allow bad management to treat develops like crap or to mismanage projects. So don't take the bull and just make sure to keep things on the up and up with your fellow developers. i.e. DON'T lie about your unit tests! Cheers!

Excel Helper Utilities Library Part Four

adron.nospam@nospam.adronbhall.com (Adron) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:37:00 -0800

Over the last few entries I've added various pieces of functionality to the Excel Helper Library. Well, I decided to put together and offer the the documentation I've created, the assembly, and the solution files themselves via my site. Here's everything that is included so far.

The image above shows the page where the assembly, documentation, and visual studio solution links are available. Below I have a shot of the *.chm file and the html based documentation. Click either image to get at either of those forms of documentation.

Now don't think I am finishing this series here, I will absolutely be adding more functionality and capabilities to the Excel Helper. Each step will have added code and information right here on my blog.

Stay tuned for more, specifically what I intend to build next, but am not promising, is some ribbon functionality addins. Currently I'm finalizing what architecture I'll be using for the Excel Ribbon addin. So stay tuned, more coming.

Be sure to give this article a kick

Excel Helper Utilities Library Part Three

adron.nospam@nospam.adronbhall.com (Adron) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:06:21 -0800

Obviously I've missed my self made time schedule of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for these entries, so bare with me while I get em' published as fast as possible. With that written . . .

Welcome to part three of the Excel Helper Utilities Library series. In this entry I will cover the extension of the ExcelHelper class created in Part Two. The first method is one I wrote ages ago for VB.NET, but I've added here for the C# helper. As always, tests first.

[Test]

public void GetColumnLetterA()

    string twentySeventColumn = ExcelHelper.GetExcelColumnLetter(1);

    Assert.AreEqual(twentySeventColumn, "A");

[Test]

public void GetColumnLetterB()

    string twentySeventColumn = ExcelHelper.GetExcelColumnLetter(2);

    Assert.AreEqual(twentySeventColumn, "B");

[Test]

public void GetColumnLetterAa()

    string twentySeventColumn = ExcelHelper.GetExcelColumnLetter(703);

    Assert.AreEqual(twentySeventColumn, "AAA");

. . . and the implemented code . . .

/// <summary>

/// This method gets the appropriate "A" thru "ZZZ" column header for Excel based

/// on a passed in long data type.

/// </summary>

/// <param name="columnIndex">Pass in a long type to derive the appropriate column header letter.</param>

/// <returns>A string of the appropriate "A" thru "ZZZ" header letter.</returns>

public static string GetExcelColumnLetter(int columnIndex)

    int dividend = columnIndex;

    string columnName = String.Empty;

    while (dividend > 0)

        int mod = (dividend - 1)%26;

        columnName = Convert.ToChar(65 + mod) + columnName;

        dividend = ((dividend - mod)/26);

    return columnName;

The next thing I wanted was a column range set, basically something that would return "A:A" if I passed it the start column index and ending column index. Easy enough, again, tests first.

[Test]

public void GetColumnLetterSetAandA()

    const string columnStart = "1";

    const string columnEnd = "4";

    const string expectedValue = "A:D";

    string returnedValue = ExcelHelper.GetExcelColumnSet(columnStart, columnEnd);

    Assert.AreEqual(expectedValue, returnedValue);

[Test]

public void GetColumnLetterSetAandAaa()

    const string columnStart = "1";

    const string columnEnd = "703";

    const string expectedValue = "A:AAA";

    string returnedValue = ExcelHelper.GetExcelColumnSet(columnStart, columnEnd);

    Assert.AreEqual(expectedValue, returnedValue);

[Test]

public void GetColumnLetterSetAandZ()

    const string columnStart = "1";

    const string columnEnd = "26";

    const string expectedValue = "A:Z";

    string returnedValue = ExcelHelper.GetExcelColumnSet(columnStart, columnEnd);

    Assert.AreEqual(expectedValue, returnedValue);

. . . and the implementation . . .

/// <summary>

/// This method returns the ("A:ZZZ") part of the Range("A:ZZZ") column interface.

/// </summary>

/// <param name="firstColumn">Enter the first column to start the range with.</param>

/// <param name="secondColumn">Enter the second column to end the range with.</param>

/// <returns>A string formatted as A:ZZZ is returned from this method.</returns>

public static string GetExcelColumnSet(string firstColumn, string secondColumn)

    int firstColumnValue = Convert.ToInt32(firstColumn);

    int secondColumnValue = Convert.ToInt32(secondColumn);

    return GetExcelColumnLetter(firstColumnValue) + ":" + GetExcelColumnLetter(secondColumnValue);

That is the short and sweet of this entry. I have to catch a bus and get a move on, but the next entry will be a few cell manipulations to simplify capturing and putting things in the cells in Excel.

If you visit, please give this entry a kick over at

Blog Entry Roundup

adron.nospam@nospam.adronbhall.com (Adron) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:20:08 -0800

A few of the good blog entries I have had the pleasure of reading the last few weeks.

Writing Great Unit Tests: Best and Worst Practices by Steve Sanderson. This entry is just an overview of unit testing, but really well written. Also Steve placed a few nice charts in defining unit & integration tests. The combination just made for a nice refresher, or for the test newbie, a great introduction.

Gergely Orosz has some articles on NHibernate versus Entity Framework performance; Thoughts on ranking ORM tools, NHibernate vs Entity Framework: a performance test, and Nhibernate vs Entity Framework ? a revised performance comparison. The interesting conclusion is that there is no good effective way to compare ORM platforms. I suppose, it best to compare on the specific metrics you desire in an ORM platform, then choose.

The REST for ASP.NET MVC SDK entry is a good read. First off it states what it is and why you would want to use it, which would be helpful for many. It caught my eye solely because I would have loved to have the functionality 10 months ago for a project, instead of manually developing all the bits. At least it is out now and I will surely be using it as such.

Last but not least, there is the Facebook & ASP.NET MVC entry. This is a useful entry, being I have just jumped onto a project doing some Facebook Development this is a very helpful entry in getting up to speed.

Excel Helper Utilities Library Part Two

adron.nospam@nospam.adronbhall.com (Adron) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:35:00 -0800

In the last entry I covered a range of utility class methods including appropriate unit tests. Today I want to cover the first steps into the twisted world of Excel Development with C#. Note, there are many things I probably will not mention that are pivotal to this code working. Namely the order in which Excel objects & framework interfaces and components are instantiated are of massive importance within managed code. So if you are following along, first do the exact example here and then step on to changes. That way you will have working code before arbitrarily having non-working code.

As always, tests are first. In this entry I will actually step from test, to code, then green light the test for each part versus writing all the tests and then working through the methods. That way I can cover each method and the purpose of the method.

Before even jumping straight into tests we will need to add two specific assemblies that are needed to test Excel appropriately; Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel and Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.v9.0. (Click the images to see larger images)

Now to get started with Excel unit tests, we really do need to use the Excel Assemblies we've added because mocking just doesn't cut it. Because of the legacy code & other such droves of complexities, it is extremely hard to really mock accurately. One really needs to know when the actual application is behaving appropriately under load & use from software written to use it. With that said, here's my first few tests & setup code.

I start out by creating the test class and creating a public property to act for all tests as the actual Excel Application under test.

[TestFixture]

public class ExcelHelperTests

    public Application ExcelApplication { get; set; }

Next I create two tests for setup and teardown of the Excel Application object. In addition to the basic Excel Application object, one thing I have learned about Excel from experience, is that one needs to go ahead and immediately add a workbook. If there is no workbook, Excel can throw all sorts of odd errors that provide very little insight into what is going on. So just remove that possibility by adding that default workbook.

[TestFixtureSetUp]

public void CreateExcelAppAppropriately()

    ExcelApplication = new Application();

    ExcelApplication.Workbooks.Add(Type.Missing);

    ExcelApplication.Visible = true;

[TestFixtureTearDown]

public void QuitExcelAppAppropriately()

    foreach (Workbook workbook in ExcelApplication.Workbooks)

        workbook.Close(false, false, Type.Missing);

    ExcelApplication.Quit();

Now that this is setup I can really test how the class will react and behave under test with Excel. Just to make sure, I verify that the appropriate Excel Application object is created and has a single workbook that was added in the fixture setup.

[Test]

public void InitializeDefaultWorkbook()

    Assert.GreaterOrEqual(1, ExcelApplication.Workbooks.Count);

Next on the list is finally getting to the real nitty gritty of the Excel Helper class I'm creating. My first test to begin this class is as follows.

[Test]

public void ExcelHelperInstantiation()

    var excelHelper = new ExcelHelper(ExcelApplication);

    Assert.IsNotNull(excelHelper);

    Assert.IsNotNull(excelHelper.ExcelApplication);

With these tests throwing errors I'm now ready to add my initial class skeleton.

/// <summary>

/// This class provides helper utility methods for Excel 2007 that cover common

/// needs such as creating a new worksheet, or getting an insantiated instance

/// of an existing worksheet.

/// </summary>

public class ExcelHelper

    /// <summary>

    /// This class has a single constructor used to

    /// setup the needed Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application

    /// object for use.

    /// </summary>

    /// <param name="excelApplication">Pass the active Excel Application

    /// object.</param>

    public ExcelHelper(Application excelApplication)

        ExcelApplication = excelApplication;

    /// <summary>

    /// This property is set to the active application the class

    /// executes methods against.

    /// </summary>

    public Application ExcelApplication { get; set; }

Run the test now and you should get a green light. Moving along I added a test for the first method I want, a way to retrieve a Worksheet that already exists in Excel. First my test looks something like this.

[Test]

public void GetWorksheet()

    var newWorksheet = ExcelApplication.Worksheets.Add(Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,

                                                             Type.Missing) as Worksheet;

    const string newWorksheetName = "UniqueName";

    newWorksheet.Name = newWorksheetName;

    Worksheet foundNewWorksheet = new ExcelHelper(ExcelApplication).GetWorksheet(newWorksheetName);

    Assert.IsNotNull(foundNewWorksheet);

    Assert.AreEqual(foundNewWorksheet.Name, newWorksheet.Name);

I get a red light and then implement the code to return a Worksheet Object based on the passed in worksheet name. It fails, since the method isn't created, so I create the method.

/// <summary>

/// This method retrieves a specific worksheet by name.

/// </summary>

/// <param name="worksheetName">Pass the name of the

/// worksheet to retrieve.</param>

/// <returns>The Worksheet Object of the requested

/// worksheet, or if not found null.</returns>

public Worksheet GetWorksheet(string worksheetName)

    Worksheet foundSheet = null;

    foreach (Worksheet sheet in ExcelApplication.Worksheets)

        if (sheet.Name == worksheetName)

            foundSheet = sheet;

    return foundSheet;

Next test is for creating a new Worksheet, and adding it to the Excel Workbook.

[Test]

public void NewWorksheet()

    const string newWorksheetName = "UniqueName";

    new ExcelHelper(ExcelApplication).NewWorksheet(newWorksheetName);

    bool foundWorksheet = false;

    foreach (Worksheet worksheet in ExcelApplication.Worksheets)

        if(worksheet.Name == newWorksheetName)

            foundWorksheet = true;

    Assert.IsTrue(foundWorksheet);

Red lighted, so I add the method.

/// <summary>

/// This method creates a new worksheet with the name

/// specified.

/// </summary>

/// <param name="name">Pass the name you want the new

/// worksheet to have.</param>

/// <returns>Returns the new Worksheet object.</returns>

public Worksheet NewWorksheet(string name)

    var returnToThisWorksheet = ExcelApplication.ActiveSheet as _Worksheet;

    var returnSheet = ExcelApplication.Worksheets.Add(

                          Type.Missing,

                          Type.Missing,

                          Type.Missing,

                          Type.Missing) as Worksheet;

    returnSheet.Name = name;

    if (returnToThisWorksheet != null) returnToThisWorksheet.Activate();

    return returnSheet;

Now that I've simplified the methods to create and retrieve a worksheet from Excel, I want to add some functionality around determining if a Worksheet already exists within a workbook. This is usually a common need within Excel and I find many examples are simply a foreach loop stepping through each Worksheet until it found or did not find the Worksheet it is looking for. This is a perfect example of something that would be better as a method.

First the test, which I'll make a static method in case one wants to call this method without instantiating?

[Test]

public void IsExistingWorksheetName()

    var newWorksheet = ExcelApplication.Worksheets.Add(Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,

                                                                         Type.Missing) as Worksheet;

    const string newWorksheetName = "UniqueName";

    newWorksheet.Name = newWorksheetName;

    ExcelHelper.IsExistingWorksheetName(newWorksheetName, ExcelApplication.Worksheets);

?and a test for a static method?

[Test]

public void IsExistingWorksheetNameInstantiatedMethod()

    var newWorksheet = ExcelApplication.Worksheets.Add(Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,

                                                              Type.Missing) as Worksheet;

    const string newWorksheetName = "UniqueName";

    newWorksheet.Name = newWorksheetName;

    ExcelHelper helper = new ExcelHelper(ExcelApplication);

    Assert.IsTrue(helper.IsExistingWorksheetName(newWorksheetName));

    foreach (Worksheet sheet in ExcelApplication.Worksheets)

        if (sheet.Name == newWorksheetName)

            sheet.Delete();

    Assert.IsFalse(helper.IsExistingWorksheetName(newWorksheetName));

As I finished this test and got a red light I realized, I needed to assure the other tests cleaned up after themselves like this one does with the deletion of the Worksheet. I then went back and add the snippet

foreach (Worksheet sheet in ExcelApplication.Worksheets)

    if (sheet.Name == newWorksheetName)

        sheet.Delete();

to each of the tests that needed it. After the tests where appropriately refactored I ran the tests to assure they still where all green lights except for the one I just created. I then jumped back into my ExcelHelper Class and created the methods I just wrote tests for.

        /// <summary>

        /// This method checks for existing names to prevent identical name collisions within the

        /// worksheet collection.

        /// </summary>

        /// <param name="worksheetName">Pass in the worksheet name to check for.</param>

        /// <param name="existingWorksheets">Pass in the Excel worksheets collection to search in.</param>

        /// <returns>Return true if existing worksheet name is found, false if no existing worksheet names.</returns>

        public static bool IsExistingWorksheetName(string worksheetName, Sheets existingWorksheets)

            foreach (_Worksheet worksheet in existingWorksheets)

                string existingWorksheet = worksheet.Name;

                if (worksheetName == existingWorksheet)

                    return true;

            return false;

        /// <summary>

        /// This method checks for existing names to prevent identical name collisions within the

        /// worksheet collection.

        /// </summary>

        /// <param name="worksheetName">Pass in the worksheet name to check for.</param>

        /// <returns>Return true if existing worksheet name is found, false if no existing worksheet names.</returns>

        public bool IsExistingWorksheetName(string worksheetName)

            return IsExistingWorksheetName(worksheetName, ExcelApplication.Worksheets);

For this entry we've covered appropriate tests and methods for getting an Excel Worksheet, creating a new Excel Worksheet, and finding out if a Excel Worksheet Name is already taken. In my next entry on this topic I'll keep adding more Excel Helper Methods that will help make Excel Addin Development easier.