Righthand's blog

ClickOnce and DevExpress components deployment

Miha Markic — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:22:00 +0300

Let’s say you’ve build a WinForms application and put some DevExpress (or any other 3rd party controls installed in GAC I suppose) controls in there. At some point you have to deploy the application and let’s say you’ll use ClickOnce technology. Its easy, go to Project Properties/Publish tab, select where to publish and click Publish button. The next step is to try the application and of course you try it at your development computer – it works, no surprise there. However, when your client runs it on his computer it will most probably throw some sort of exception at the very beginning. Besides the obvious Murphy law involvement, why’s that? After all it worked on *development* computer.

There are two problems in this process.

1. ClickOnce doesn’t include 3rd party assemblies by default. This is probably true for all 3rd party assemblies that reside in GAC on development computer or in other words, those which are marked with CopyLocal=false (I admit it, I never researched in details). It should include those who are marked CopyLocal=true. Now, if you look at your Application Files in Publish tab of Project Properties you’ll see that all three DevExpress assemblies are marked with Publish Status = Prerequisite (Auto) flag – it means that your application expects those assemblies already installed on target machine:

To include them in your deployment package change their Publish Status flag to Include. Like this:

All required assemblies will be published to client’s computer and the application will work, or at least will work as good or as bad as on development computer.

2. Your testing process isn’t good. You should always test deployment scenarios on non-development machine(s). VMWare Workstation is of great help. Besides the great virtualization desktop platform it also support integration in Visual Studio itself so you can pretty easily launch application in guest OS or even remotely debug it and even record the session. The other virtualization option on desktop is MS’ VirtualPC, an inferior application but free. You could use virtualization servers as well (MS HyperV, VMWare Server, etc.).

That’s it.

A better call to Control.Invoke

Miha Markic — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:20:00 +0300

Whenever one needs to interact with WinForms UI from within another thread (the one that didn't create the UI controls) one has to rely on the Control.Invoke (or BeginInvoke/EndInvoke pair) method. Otherwise one gets an InvalidOperationException exception with message “Cross-thread operation not valid: Control ‘name here’ accessed from a thread other than the thread it was created on”. This happens because WinForms (and .net framework in general) isn’t thread safe.

Let’s say I want to know how many controls are on the form. I’d do it like this (Form f holds the instance of the Form created in some thread):

public static int GetControlsCount(Form f)
{
    if (f.InvokeRequired)
        return (int)f.Invoke(new Funcint>(GetControlsCount), f);
    else
        return f.Controls.Count;
}
...
int count = GetControlsCount(f);

This way the method GetControlsCount is thread safe. That’s fine. But what should I do if I require to access many methods in such a thread safe way (I’ll blog about the reason I need it in a future post)? Creating this kind of wrapper for every different method I need to call would be kind of boring at best and difficult to maintain, don’t you think?

So I created a generic method instead, like this:

public static TRet InvokeSync(Control control, Func func)
{
    if (control.InvokeRequired)
        return (TRet)control.Invoke(func);
    else
        return func();
}
...
int count = InvokeSync<int>(f, () => f.Controls.Count);

This is much better because I don’t need to create a wrapper for each method – instead I merely provide a delegate (of type Func in my case). There are two drawbacks to this approach.

1. It won’t work with different number of parameters nor it will work with methods (= actions) that don’t return a value. The only workaround is to create various similar methods that accepts different argument number and return either a result or no result (void). Here is a bunch of such variations:

public static void InvokeSync(Control control, Action action)
{
    if (control.InvokeRequired)
        control.Invoke(action);
    else
        action();
}
public static void InvokeSync(Control control, Action action, T argument)
{
    if (control.InvokeRequired)
        control.Invoke(action, argument);
    else
        action(argument);
}
public static TRet InvokeSync(Control control, Func func, T argument)
{
    if (control.InvokeRequired)
        return (TRet)control.Invoke(func, argument);
    else
        return func(argument);
}
public static TRet InvokeSync(Control control, Func func, T1 argument1, T2 argument2)
{
    if (control.InvokeRequired)
        return (TRet)control.Invoke(func, argument1, argument2);
    else
        return func(argument1, argument2);
}

2. Passing Control parameter (which is required to do the synchronization) is such pre .net 3.5-ish. Instead extensions methods can be used, like this:

public static class Extender
{
    public static TRet InvokeSync(this Control c, Func func)
    {
        if (c.InvokeRequired)
            return (TRet)c.Invoke(func);
        else
            return func();
    }

    public static void InvokeSync(this Control c, Action func)
    {
        if (c.InvokeRequired)
            c.Invoke(func);
        else
            func();
    }
}

So the final version of the call to InvokeSync looks even nicer:

int count = f.InvokeSync<int>(() => f.Controls.Count);

That’s it.

InvokeSyncExtender.zip (572.00 bytes)

Packing assemblies to a single file for Righthand.Dataset.Visualizer

Miha Markic — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:51:00 +0300

A while ago I’ve created Righthand.DataSet.Visualizer, an advanced DataSet visualizer. Today I’ve added support for displaying a single table as well. It wasn’t a big deal but I guess people will find it useful.

Now, there is one things I weren’t too happy about until today: I reference a lot of DevExpress assemblies and I have to redistribute all those assemblies along mine two (my visualizer comes in form of two assemblies). Which makes a lot of assemblies in total and even worse, if two visualizers use slightly different DevExpress versions you are in for a trouble.

So I’ve decided to pack everything to a single file. ILMerge, a free assembly merging tool from Microsoft, won’t work for me since it has problems with reference to Microsoft.VisualStudio.DebuggerVisualizers even though I don’t want to redistribute it. So I tried Xenocode Postbuild for .NET which does all sort of hacky things with .net assemblies, it even allows to create a setup that doesn’t require .net framework installed at the target machine. Among other features (obfuscation, optimization, etc.) it provides an assembly merging option that I successfully used in my case. Here are the required steps for my case:

1. Start Xenocode Postbuild for .NET, click on Application tab. Use Add… button to add required assemblies to pack together (you can add assemblies individually or pick most important ones and then use Scan Dependencies button to add referenced ones):

2. If you want only to pack assemblies then use Null – For test and debugging purposes or any other preset you want, just make sure you set other options appropriately.

3. On the Protection tab I did uncheck all metadata obfuscation (since I am not after obfuscation here) by right clicking on the root node and selecting Unselect Tree menu item. I don’t use any Disassembler Suppression either. I left moderate code obfuscation (level 3 in scale 0..4), just for testing – this option shouldn’t cause any trouble since it should keep functionality the same. If there are problems with the later it means that the tool sucks heavily.

4. Clear all checkboxes in Optimize tab.

5. On the Output tab I made sure that Single application executable option in Link and Code Generation group is selected and Righthand.DebugerVisualizer.Dataset.Visualizer assembly is the main one. I also selected .\Setup for the output folder.

6. By clicking Xenocode Application button the final, single file, output is written to the disk.

And that’s it. I got a single file with all required assemblies packed together. Just that easy. Note that I intentionally used only a fraction of Postbuild power.

If you use frequently Postbuild you should also consider using Final Builder tool, an automated build and release management tool that supports Postbuild out of the box (I am sure other such tools support Postbuild as well).

And finally, here is the updated visualizer:

RightHand.DebugerVisualizer.Dataset.Visualizer 0.9.14.zip (7.60 mb)

Let me know if there are any problems or if you have any improvement wish.

Upgraded BlogEngine from 1.4.5 to 1.5

Miha Markic — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:43:00 +0300

I have just upgraded BlogEngine.net, an excellent blog engine which hosts this blog, from 1.4.5 to 1.5. The process was more or less smooth as I'll describe in next points:

Download Blogengine.net Web from download page.
Read upgrade tutorial.
Make a backup of current installation and database if you are using it.
Delete all files and folders except for App_Data.
Copy new files.
Copy extensions, widgets and other custom data from backup you made in #3.
Upgrade database structure with script found in Setup/SQLServer folder (or any other if you are using other database).
Open web.config and replace the connectionString (I am using SQL Server as a storage).
Replace all occurences of defaultProvider attribute to "DbBlogProvider" (blogProvider, membership, roleManager).
Make sure App_Data is writable for Blogengine.net.

I think that's pretty much it for my upgrade process.

Modern bicycle equipment

Miha Markic — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:25:00 +0300

I have been bicycling for almost two decades now. I started with a Cannondale M700 cross country not-suspended mountain bike which I still own and use for non demanding terrain such as roads.

Every (mountain) bicycle should have a bicycle computer and looking back I still remember my first bicycle “computer”, a cheap wired one, I can’t remember the manufacturer. Bicycle computers evolved since then and so did other technologies. Looking at my current bicycle equipment yields this picture, originally drawn by Tevž, my six year son and modified by me (added equipment and descriptions):

The blue arrows shows wireless communication while the orange boxes describes the equipment which consists of two groups:

1. Bicycle computer: Garmin Edge 305 device which is a GPS receiver combined with heart rate and cadence (pedal rotations) monitoring and barometric sensor for altitude reading as well. The communication with monitors is through ~~proprietary~~ ANT+ wireless protocol so no wires are involved (barometric sensor is built in). The base unit shows all kind of data based on those four inputs and it has quite enough of memory as well – so I can store routes to my PC. It doesn’t feature navigation though – you’d need to buy a newer and more expensive 705 model, for that.

2. Pocket PC which serves three purposes: it plays music or podcasts to the Motorola Rokr S9 bluetooth headset (depends on my mood), it allows me to use headset in hands free mode to make or receive phone calls and finally, it transmits all sort of data (i.e. position obtained by GPS sensor – not Garmin’s but its own) back to my server. Or better, it could transmit since I haven’t found time yet to implement it. Sure, I could use one of the applications available out there but then I’d have to send the data to their server which I don’t want to.

So, once I finish a daily exercise I transfer the data stored in Edge 305 to my PC through USB cable using Sport Tracks application. Sport tracks is an excellent application that keeps track of your exercises and it is not bound to bicycling in any way. It is a topic of a post on its own but if you want to keep a logbook of your exercises you should really take a look – it is free. Anyway, here is a screenshot of my last exercise as shown by Sport Tracks:

Is there anything I am missing in my equipment? Sure, there are some things I’d like to happen or to have.

Garmin’s monitoring equipment should use bluetooth protocol so I could read them from any computer. This is unlikely going to happen but at least it is using standardized protocol ANT+. There is at least one standalone receiver with software made for iPhone out there.
Edge unit should implement bluetooth protocol so I could read data directly from it to my Pocket PC. Either this or #1 which is better.
One day I’d like to mount a power meter as well but there are two economical obstacles: those are very expensive ($1500+) and I’d have to buy Edge 705 unit as well to read its data.

My favorite features in upcomming Visual Studio 2010/.net 4.0

Miha Markic — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:48:00 +0300

The following two are my favorite features comming with .net 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010:

parallel extensions - a great and easy way to utilize those idle cores in your multi core machines. It might be as easy as adding an AsParallel() extension method to a LINQ query. I even did a bunch of presentations on the topic, the last one at NT Konferenca 2009.
code contracts - improving the code in both design time (static analysis!) and runtime (note: albeit this feature is a part of .net 4.0 beta you have to download the package to install design time support for Visual Studio 2010 beta. This step is supposed to be redundant for RTM or sooner).

Perhaps there are other better features however these two are the ones I am most interested *currently*. So, what are yours?

Parallel Programing in .net 4.0/Visual Studio 2010 presentation slides (NT Konferenca 2009 version, in Slovene)

Miha Markic — Sat, 30 May 2009 11:59:00 +0300

Here are the slides used in my Parallel programming in .net 4.0/Visual Studio 2010 presentation (Slovene language) on NT Konference 2009. I hope you had good time during the presentation.

Parallel Extensions.zip (283.15 kb)

Running Visual Studio 2010 beta under VMWare Workstation 6.x

Miha Markic — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:23:00 +0300

There are some graphical problems, probably due to new Visual Studio’s WPF UI, when running shinny new Visual Studio 2010 beta under VMWare Workstation: things like menus disappearing, strange artifacts appearing, etc.

Luckily the solution to this is very simple:

make sure the virtual machine is turned off
open virtual machine settings, go to Hardware tab and select Display
Turn off Accelerate 3D graphics (DirectX 9.0c) option and that’s it.

Picture quality might be a bit lower but at least everything will work. Btw I’ve installed Visual Studio 2010 in both Windows XP x86 and Windows 7 x64 virtual machines and it works just fine when graphics acceleration is turned off.

Visual Studio 2010 beta is up for MSDN subscribers

Miha Markic — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:37:23 +0300

Go grab your copy from MSDN downloads for subscribers. General public will get it in a couple of days. Via Soma.

Time remaining to complete the download for me: 20mins.

Using XtraChart ASP.NET control in an ASP.NET MVC project

Miha Markic — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:09:00 +0300

The problem

These days I am building an ASP.NET MVC project that requires charting. The problem is that there are no native ASP.NET MVC charting controls out there. The only one I am aware of is the one from Syncfusion . The problem with it is that it is in a beta and I didn’t have time to test it out. BTW, Syncfusion is the only 3rd party control provider (in beta though) for ASP.NET MVC AFAIK.

The solution

Anyway, back to my problem – charting in ASP.NET MVC. It is quite obvious that I have to use an ASP.NET control for the job. And since I already own and I am used to XtraCharts I’ve decided to give it a try (alternatives include use of Microsoft’s free ASP.NET Chart Control (which works in ASP.NET MVC for sure) and other ASP.NET charting controls might work as well). And guess what: XtraCharts works without many problems. As an image provider that is – I don’t need callbacks nor I think they are supported in this scenario.

Creating a test project

There are couple of extra steps necessary to use XtraCharts in ASP.NET MVC project. Here are steps necessary to create a test project.

Requirements: XtraCharts v9.1.

1. Drop a WebChartControl toolbox item (residing in DX.9.1.: Data Toolbox’ tab) on the Index view (I tested with the view (aspx) but it should work with partial view (ascx) as well). You’ll get this code:

<%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage" %>
<%@ Register Assembly="DevExpress.XtraCharts.v9.1.Web, Version=9.1.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b88d1754d700e49a"
Namespace="DevExpress.XtraCharts.Web" TagPrefix="dxchartsui" %>
<asp:Content ID="indexTitle" ContentPlaceHolderID="TitleContent" runat="server">
Home Page
asp:Content>
<asp:Content ID="indexContent" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">
<h2><%
   1: = Html.Encode(ViewData["Message"]) 































































































































%>h2>































































































































<p>































































































































To learn more about ASP.NET MVC visit <a href="http://asp.net/mvc" title="ASP.NET MVC Website">http://asp.net/mvca>.































































































































p>































































































































<dxchartsui:WebChartControl ID="WebChartControl1" runat="server">































































































































dxchartsui:WebChartControl>































































































































asp:Content>

It might happen that all the necessary assemblies won’t be referenced automatically. In this case add manually these (v9.1.x) assemblies:

DevExpress.Web
DevExpress.Charts.Core
DevExpress.XtraCharts

2. Adjust WebChartControl’s settings either directly or through designer (yes, you can use its designer!). I’ll create a 3D pie chart with a single series bound to Name/Value pair. Disable both EnableCallbacks and EnableViewState.

<%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage" %>
<%@ Register Assembly="DevExpress.XtraCharts.v9.1.Web, Version=9.1.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b88d1754d700e49a"
Namespace="DevExpress.XtraCharts.Web" TagPrefix="dxchartsui" %>
<asp:Content ID="indexTitle" ContentPlaceHolderID="TitleContent" runat="server">
Home Page
asp:Content>
<asp:Content ID="indexContent" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">
<h2><%
   1: = Html.Encode(ViewData["Message"]) 































































































































%>h2>































































































































<p>































































































































To learn more about ASP.NET MVC visit <a href="http://asp.net/mvc" title="ASP.NET MVC Website">http://asp.net/mvca>.































































































































p>































































































































<dxchartsui:WebChartControl ID="someChart" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" EnableCallbacks="false"































































































































DiagramTypeName="SimpleDiagram3D" Height="200px" Width="300px">































































































































<SeriesSerializable>































































































































<series argumentdatamember="Name" labeltypename="Pie3DSeriesLabel" name="Series 1"































































































































pointoptionstypename="PiePointOptions" seriesviewtypename="Pie3DSeriesView" valuedatamembersserializable="Value">































































































































<view hiddenserializablestring="to be serialized">view>































































































































<label hiddenserializablestring="to be serialized" linevisible="True" overlappingoptionstypename="OverlappingOptions">































































































































<fillstyle filloptionstypename="SolidFillOptions">































































































































<options hiddenserializablestring="to be serialized">options>































































































































fillstyle>































































































































label>































































































































<pointoptions hiddenserializablestring="to be serialized">pointoptions>































































































































<legendpointoptions hiddenserializablestring="to be serialized">legendpointoptions>































































































































series>































































































































SeriesSerializable>































































































































<SeriesTemplate LabelTypeName="Pie3DSeriesLabel" PointOptionsTypeName="PiePointOptions"































































































































SeriesViewTypeName="Pie3DSeriesView">































































































































<View HiddenSerializableString="to be serialized">































































































































View>































































































































<Label HiddenSerializableString="to be serialized" LineVisible="True" OverlappingOptionsTypeName="OverlappingOptions">































































































































<FillStyle FillOptionsTypeName="SolidFillOptions">































































































































<Options HiddenSerializableString="to be serialized">Options>































































































































FillStyle>































































































































Label>































































































































<PointOptions HiddenSerializableString="to be serialized">































































































































PointOptions>































































































































<LegendPointOptions HiddenSerializableString="to be serialized">































































































































LegendPointOptions>































































































































SeriesTemplate>































































































































<Diagram RotationMatrixSerializable="1;0;0;0;0;0.5;-0.866025403784439;0;0;0.866025403784439;0.5;0;0;0;0;1">































































































































Diagram>































































































































<FillStyle FillOptionsTypeName="SolidFillOptions">































































































































<Options HiddenSerializableString="to be serialized">Options>































































































































FillStyle>































































































































dxchartsui:WebChartControl>































































































































asp:Content>

3. Add the following registration on the top of the page:

<%@ Register Assembly="DevExpress.XtraCharts.v9.1, Version=9.1.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b88d1754d700e49a"
Namespace="DevExpress.XtraCharts" TagPrefix="dx" %>

and change nodes of type to type . Otherwise you’ll have a naming conflict.

<%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage" %>
<%@ Register Assembly="DevExpress.XtraCharts.v9.1.Web, Version=9.1.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b88d1754d700e49a"
Namespace="DevExpress.XtraCharts.Web" TagPrefix="dxchartsui" %>
<%@ Register Assembly="DevExpress.XtraCharts.v9.1, Version=9.1.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b88d1754d700e49a"
Namespace="DevExpress.XtraCharts" TagPrefix="dx" %>
<asp:Content ID="indexTitle" ContentPlaceHolderID="TitleContent" runat="server">
Home Page
asp:Content>
<asp:Content ID="indexContent" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">
<h2><%
   1: = Html.Encode(ViewData["Message"]) 































































































































%>h2>































































































































<p>































































































































To learn more about ASP.NET MVC visit <a href="http://asp.net/mvc" title="ASP.NET MVC Website">http://asp.net/mvca>.































































































































p>































































































































<dxchartsui:WebChartControl ID="someChart" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" EnableCallbacks="false"































































































































DiagramTypeName="SimpleDiagram3D" Height="200px" Width="300px">































































































































<SeriesSerializable>































































































































<dx:series argumentdatamember="Name" labeltypename="Pie3DSeriesLabel" name="Series 1"































































































































pointoptionstypename="PiePointOptions" seriesviewtypename="Pie3DSeriesView" valuedatamembersserializable="Value">































































































































<view hiddenserializablestring="to be serialized">view>































































































































<label hiddenserializablestring="to be serialized" linevisible="True" overlappingoptionstypename="OverlappingOptions">































































































































<fillstyle filloptionstypename="SolidFillOptions">































































































































<options hiddenserializablestring="to be serialized">options>































































































































fillstyle>































































































































label>































































































































<pointoptions hiddenserializablestring="to be serialized">pointoptions>































































































































<legendpointoptions hiddenserializablestring="to be serialized">legendpointoptions>































































































































dx:series>































































































































SeriesSerializable>































































































































<SeriesTemplate LabelTypeName="Pie3DSeriesLabel" PointOptionsTypeName="PiePointOptions"































































































































SeriesViewTypeName="Pie3DSeriesView">































































































































<View HiddenSerializableString="to be serialized">































































































































View>































































































































<Label HiddenSerializableString="to be serialized" LineVisible="True" OverlappingOptionsTypeName="OverlappingOptions">































































































































<FillStyle FillOptionsTypeName="SolidFillOptions">































































































































<Options HiddenSerializableString="to be serialized">Options>































































































































FillStyle>































































































































Label>































































































































<PointOptions HiddenSerializableString="to be serialized">































































































































PointOptions>































































































































<LegendPointOptions HiddenSerializableString="to be serialized">































































































































LegendPointOptions>































































































































SeriesTemplate>































































































































<Diagram RotationMatrixSerializable="1;0;0;0;0;0.5;-0.866025403784439;0;0;0.866025403784439;0.5;0;0;0;0;1">































































































































Diagram>































































































































<FillStyle FillOptionsTypeName="SolidFillOptions">































































































































<Options HiddenSerializableString="to be serialized">Options>































































































































FillStyle>































































































































dxchartsui:WebChartControl>































































































































asp:Content>

4. Under Models folder create RhData class that will hold data:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
namespace MvcApplication10.Models
{
public class RhData
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Value { get; set; }
}
}

5. Add class Index.aspx.cs next to Index.aspx file. This will serve as codebehind file. Also add Page_Load method, create and bind data to chart right in there. Note that you have to declare chart instance field as well since the designer won’t do it for you.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using MvcApplication10.Models;
namespace MvcApplication10.Views.Home
{
public class Index: ViewPage
{
protected global::DevExpress.XtraCharts.Web.WebChartControl someChart;
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
List data = new List();
data.Add(new RhData { Name = "One", Value = 1 });
data.Add(new RhData { Name = "Two", Value = 2 });
someChart.DataSource = data;
someChart.DataBind();
}
}
}

Note: The proper MVC to provide data way would be through the model, however for the sake of simplicity I took this shortcut. The binding itself has to be done in Page_Load event.

6. Wire up the code behind class to the view by adding CodeBehind attribute and modifying Inherits one.

<%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master" Inherits="MvcApplication10.Views.Home.Index" CodeBehind="Index.aspx.cs" %>

The result

If everything goes well you should see such output.

This will do just fine until there is an MvcXtraChart control I guess.

XtraChartsMvc.zip (241.46 kb) (Updated) Note: Built with DevExpress v9.1.3.0. If you use other version then you should run DX' ProjectConverter tool or just do a search and replace of "9.1.3.0" with your version.