Rename a XSD

Yesterday I tried to rename a DataSet. To lazy to recreate it. Have you ever tried to rename a DataSet?

It seems easy enough. Press F2 in the Solution explorer and type in a new name. Open the XSD and do a find and replace of the old name with the new name, there done right?

Not exactly when you try to generate the class it may get generated with the old name. Your solution ends up looking like this:

  • MyNewDataSetName.xsd
    • MyOldDataSetName.vb
    • MyNewDataSetName.xsx

So what is the solution? The problem is in the Project File. There's an attribute on the file node called LastGenOutput it is holding the old DataSetName. See below.

Delete this attribute and you will be fine.


 
          RelPath = "MyNewDataSet.xsd"
      BuildAction = "Content"
      Generator = "MSDataSetGenerator"
      LastGenOutput = "MyOldDataSet.cs"
    />
 


           

Visual Studio Command Prompt

Here is another useful tip from Mark Comeau, this guy needs his own Blog. Then again I'm glad he hasn't got one. What would I write about. :)

Do you find yourself in the Visual Studio Command Prompt from time to time? Of course you do. Do you get to it via:

Start->Programs->Visual Studio .Net 2003->Visual Studio .Net Tools->Visual Studio .NET 2003 Command Prompt

Hopefully you have a shortcut that is closer to your desktop or start menu.

When you open it what directory are you in? Do you have to then use your vast knowledge of command line directory traversal to get to your source code or whatever it is your looking for?

Would you like to right click on a directory in windows explorer and open a Visual Studio Command Prompt already set to that directory?

Just add these entries to your registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\cmd_vs]
@="Open VS Command Prompt Here"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\cmd_vs\command]
@="cmd.exe /k \"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\\Common7\\Tools\\vsvars32.bat\""

If you would like the same functionality from a Drive also add this to your registry.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Drive\shell\cmd_vs]
@="Open VS Command Prompt Here"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Drive\shell\cmd_vs\command]
@="cmd.exe /k \"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\\Common7\\Tools\\vsvars32.bat\""


Thanks Mark thats a good one.


 

Partial Classes

I'm really liking this idea of Partial Classes that is coming in .Net 2.0.

When I first heard about it, I thought “now that is going to be confusing“. But I've been playing with it in Whidbey and I think it's going to be cool. Both VB.NET (When do we get to stop calling it VB.NET and just call it VB again)  and C# allow you to split your class across two files. Although the syntax is slightly different.

C# - Each part of the class has the same definition as seen below

  • public partial class MyClass
  • public partial class MyClass

VB.NET - There is a main class and all others expand on that like this

  • Public Class MyClass
  • Expands Class MyClass

For those who are wondering, The two files must reside in the same assembly. They are actually combined at compile time.

I have been thinking about how useful this will be. Here are some of the uses I can see for Partial Classes.

  1. That section of code generated by the designer that you shouldn't touch, can go in another file (And in Whidbey it will)
  2. Extending a Typed Dataset or any other auto generated class (This is the same basic reason as number 1)
  3. Code Behind, I assume the ASP.NET team will use partial classes to implement code behind
  4. Multiple developers, two developers can work on different areas of a class at the same time without worrying about merging changes. Therefore it could be used to logically divide a class, think of it like regions on steroids.

What else? I'm curious to hear about others peoples ideas for Partial Classes.

 

Source Safe Performance

Here are a couple of good tips for making source safe run a little better over the network.

I have seen these before but a client (Mark Comeau) recently reminded me of them.

  1. Change your VSS Folder for temporary files to be local. It will default to where the VSS Database is installed. Tools->Options...-> General Tab
  2. Put your ss.ini on your local machine. This file normally is in the \users\ You can move it locally and change the \users.txt file to tell Source Safe where you put it.

Less network chatter means a better response time when using Source Safe over the network.

 

 

Whidbey

Next Tuesday (Dec 9th) Object Sharp is hosting a free half day seminar on VS.NET 2.0 (Code Named Whidbey).  We'll show a lot of the new features in the IDE like snipits, expansions, snap lines and smart tags. We'll show you new features in C# and VB.NET, also ADO.NET and ASP.NET.

I think you will really enjoy this informal look at the next wave from a developers perspective.

Come on out. It's free and you just might learn something. You can register here.

 

VB who knew?

I haven't written anything in my Blog for quit some time. Mostly because I have been preparing for presentations. We helped Microsoft with their Bigger Better Basic cross Canada tour last month. I spoke in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver. It was great. We met lots of wonderful people who were all very excited about Web Services and Client Applications. I'm sure you can tell by the name that the show was for VB developers. My colleagues will tell you it's pretty humorous to say the least that I would wind up speaking to VB developers about how great VB.NET is to develop in.

At one time I would have nothing to do with VB. It was not Object Oriented, that was enough right there. ADO was not great, ASP was not great. It was just too hard to do anything. Well I'm hear to tell you, “VB has come a long way baby“. I was speaking with someone at the show on this very subject. They said “If you told me 1 year ago VB would one day have Generics I wouldn't have believed it”

I still prefer the syntax of C#. In a paste life I was a C developer so I am used the the sparse syntax and I like curly brackets. However, although I still find VB a bit verbose for my taste. I have been developing an application with it and it's a good language, VB.NET has a lot going for it.

EnforceConstraints

Have you ever tried to update a Dataset and received this message?

Failed to enable constraints. One or more rows contain values violating non-null, unique, or foreign-key constraints.

Not a problem in a small DataSet. But if your Dataset is more complex sometimes it's not easy to see the problem right away.

There is a property on the DataSet called EnforceConstraints. When you set this to true the DataSet will try to enforce all the constraints in the DataSet (Not null columns, Foreign keys, unique keys) The problem with this exception is, it tells you very little. You know you have violated a constraint, but which one? The way to find out is to look at the row and column errors.

Below is a method that will attempt to apply contraints and write the errors out to the output window. I hope someone out there finds it useful.

Public Sub GetDataSetErrors(ByVal ds As System.Data.DataSet)

 

Public Shared Sub GetDataSetErrors(ByVal ds As System.Data.DataSet)

 

Try

ds.EnforceConstraints =

True

Catch ex As Exception

Debug.WriteLine("DataSet errors: " & ds.DataSetName)

 

For Each table As DataTable In ds.Tables

 

Dim ErrorRows As DataRow()

ErrorRows = table.GetErrors()

 

For Each row As DataRow In ErrorRows

Debug.WriteLine("Table: " & table.TableName)

Debug.WriteLine(" Row Error: " & row.RowError)

 

Dim ErrorColumns As DataColumn()

ErrorColumns = row.GetColumnsInError()

 

For Each column As DataColumn In ErrorColumns

Debug.WriteLine("Column: " & column.ColumnName)

Debug.WriteLine(" Error: " & row.GetColumnError(column))

 

Next

 

Next

 

Next

 

End Try

 

End Sub

PDC Aftermath

It's now the Monday after PDC. I just woke up.

What a week! I didn't get a blog entry in on Tursday it was a very busy day. Talked to some ADO Microsofties about DataSets and Object Spaces. Sat in one a few last sessions. Did some shopping. Headed for the airport. For the next 12 hours we travelled.

Now I have to sit down and watch all the presentations I wanted to go to but couldn't get into, or picked something else.

I hope the DVD comes soon.

 

Bigger Better Basic

Over the next month we are co-presenting with Microsoft at their cross Canada tour called Bigger Better Basic . ObjectSharp will be in 5 cities Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.

Come on out.

Food at PDC

I can't go all week without mentioning the food, here. I took a couple of pictures to get the point across. Check out my pictures. it will help you visualize.

I took a picture of the lunch and breakfast hall. I got as much in as I could with my camera. Imagine seating 8000 for lunch. It's quit amazing to watch, the staff here at the conference centre are great.

All around the conference centre there are tables full of food. There are two pictures of these also. They are always full of muffins, bagels, chips, chocolate bars, granola bars and fruit. There must be 10 of them set up. Next to these are giant coffee urns and barrels full of pop juice and water.

No one is going hungry here!