Bernhard Elbl's Blog

Solution: Mapped SkyDrive folder is slow in Windows Explorer

Bernhard Elbl — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:27:51 +0000

After mapping my SkyDrive in Windows Explorer, it is was unacceptable slow. After turning off the following setting, everything is working well.

Solution
Open Internet Options in IE, “Tools”> “Internet Options”
Click the “Connections” tab, then “LAN Settings”
Uncheck “Automatically detect settings”

Found at…
http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21954

HOWTO: Detect design mode in WPF, ASP .NET and Windows Forms applications

Bernhard Elbl — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:21:35 +0000

If you want to detect the design mode in code, I’m using the following method, that is working fine for WPF, ASP .NET and Windows Forms applications. It’s easy, stable, bug free and has a very good performance.

static class Util
{
    /// 
    /// Contains true, if we are in design mode of Visual Studio
    /// 
    private static bool _designMode;

    /// 
    /// Initializes an instance of Util class
    /// 
    static Util()
    {
        // design mode is true if host process is: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Express Versions (C#, VB, C++) or SharpDevelop
        var designerHosts = new List() { "devenv", "vcsexpress", "vbexpress", "vcexpress", "sharpdevelop" };
        var processName = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName.ToLower();
        _designMode = designerHosts.Contains(processName);
    }

    /// 
    /// Gets true, if we are in design mode of Visual Studio etc..
    /// 
    public static bool DesignMode
    {
        get
        {
            return _designMode;
        }
    }
}

I always had troubles by using the built-in methods of .NET Framework like the System.ComponentModel.Component.DesignMode property. For ASP.NET and WPF there exist other methods to determine the design mode. For me the above one replaces all others and works like a charm.

RibbonGenerator for Visual Studio 2010 Express Editions: Windows Ribbon for WinForms

Bernhard Elbl — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:22:56 +0000

Yes, RibbonGenerator is also working with Express Editions of Visual Studio 2010, but in version 2.6 of the Ribbon library you need some extra effort to bring the tool up to work.

Requirements:

Windows 7 SDK
Visual C++ 2010 Express
Visual C# or Basic 2010 Express

Note: You must have Visual C++ 2010 Express Edition installed because it contains the link.exe file that is need to generate .ribbon files.

Manual Registration of Custom Tool

Because the RibbonGenerator setup is not included in compiled format and because the Express Editions does not support setup projects, it is necessary to register the custom tool manually.

Start the “.\RibbonLib_v2.6\RibbonGenerator\RibbonGenerator.sln” solution and ignore all errors
Compile it
Install the RibbonGenerator.dll into the GAC using gacutil.exe in Visual Studio 2010 Command Prompt (Run as Administrator)
gacutil – i RibbonGenerator.dll
Register the custom tool in Express Edition of Visual Studio 2010. The simplest way is to modify the existing .reg in the RibbonGenerator source folder. Choose the x64 reg file if you have a 64bit operating system. .\RibbonGenerator\RegisterCustomTool_VS2010.reg
.\RibbonGenerator\RegisterCustomTool_VS2010_x64.reg
Let take a look into the second one

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\CLSID\{B64582D9-A489-42F4-BA55-BB6039D82916}]
@="RibbonGenerator"
"InprocServer32"="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\mscoree.dll"
"Class"="RibbonGenerator.CustomTool"
"Assembly"="RibbonGenerator, Version=1.0.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=3cf107c5d7e68b1c"
"ThreadingModel"="Both"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Generators\{164B10B9-B200-11D0-8C61-00A0C91E29D5}\RibbonGenerator]
@="Ribbon Generator"
"CLSID"="{B64582D9-A489-42F4-BA55-BB6039D82916}"
"GeneratesDesignTimeSource"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Generators\{E6FDF8B0-F3D1-11D4-8576-0002A516ECE8}\RibbonGenerator]
@="Ribbon Generator"
"CLSID"="{B64582D9-A489-42F4-BA55-BB6039D82916}"
"GeneratesDesignTimeSource"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Generators\{FAE04EC1-301F-11d3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}\RibbonGenerator]
@="Ribbon Generator"
"CLSID"="{B64582D9-A489-42F4-BA55-BB6039D82916}"
"GeneratesDesignTimeSource"=dword:00000001

All we have to do now, is to place the correct keys for Express Editions

For Visual Studio 2010 (64bit Operating System)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0

For Visual C# 2010 Express (64bit Operating System)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VCSExpress\10.0

For Visual Basic 2010 Express (64bit Operating System)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VBExpress\10.0

RibbonGenerator Details: Windows Ribbon for WinForms

Bernhard Elbl — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:46:35 +0000

Let take a look into the details of RibbonGenerator of Windows Ribbon for WinForms

What is RibbonGenerator doing?
It generates .ribbon files that contains the definition of the commands and controls and can be used to display a Ribbon control on a Windows Form.

What type of application is RibbonGenerator?
There two applications available that can be used to generate .ribbon files.

A custom tool that can be used directly inside Visual Studio and
A console application that can be used from command line

Both application are having the same functionality.

How is RibbonGenerator generating .ribbon files?
Because there is no API available, the tool is “just” executing a .bat file. It is a custom .bat file. The content is created by the tool. After the first invocation the “template.bat” is placed in the following folder:
C:\Users\\AppData\Local\RibbonGenerator
You can customize it. When you delete it, it will be recreated after the next invocation of RibbonGenerator.

What does this .bat file doing?
Let take a look into the template.bat file.

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0\bin\UICC.exe" "{XmlFilename}" "{BmlFilename}" /res:"{RcFilename}"
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0\bin\rc.exe" /v "{RcFilename}"
cmd /c "("%VS100COMNTOOLS%..\..\VC\bin\vcvars32.bat") && ("%VS100COMNTOOLS%..\..\VC\bin\link.exe" /VERBOSE /NOENTRY /DLL /OUT:"{DllFilename}" "{ResFilename}")"

UICC.exe (available in Windows 7 SDK) is executed to generate a resource definition script file of the Ribbon XAML
rc.exe (available in Windows 7 SDK) is executed to generate a .res file – a windows resource file
link.exe (available in Visual Studio 2010 or Visual C++ 2010 Express)) is executed to generate an unmanaged .dll file. This file is the .ribbon file that can be used by Ribbon control!

The placeholder in there beginning with an “{” are all replaced by the tool. All files that are created will be deleted at the end of the generation process. Only the .ribbon file ({ResFilename} will not be deleted.

Quickstart Tutorial: Windows Ribbon for WinForms

Bernhard Elbl — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 07:43:43 +0000

Here I will show you how you can start using the Windows Ribbon from CodePlex.

Prepare your developer machine

Installation of Windows 7 SDK is required to create and modify the ribbon on a developer machine.

1. Download latest version of RibbonLib from CodePlex

You can find the library here: http://windowsribbon.codeplex.com/

2. Build the RibbonGenerator setup and install it.

Start the Visual Studio 2010 Solution of RibbonGenerator, set the build configuration to Release and build it twice!
After the second build it will compile without errors! This is an official Visual Studio 2010 bug and we have to live with it.

.\RibbonLib_v2.6\RibbonGenerator\RibbonGenerator.sln

Now you can install the new setup file that you will find here…

.\RibbonLib_v2.6\RibbonGenerator\RibbonGenerator.Setup\Release\RibbonGenerator.Setup.msi

3. Compile a Ribbon.dll

To get a compiled version of Ribbon.dll start the sample solution and build it using Visual Studio

.\RibbonLib_v2.6\Ribbon-cs.sln

4. Create a new Windows Forms application containing the Ribbon Control.

Add the Ribbon to your Toolbox doing a right-click on Toolbox / Choose Items
.\RibbonLib_v2.6\Ribbon\bin\Release\Ribbon.dll

Drag/Drop the Ribbon to your form

For your body you can add a Panel control and set the DockStyle property to Fill

Add a new Xml file to your Project and rename to Ribbon.xml

Add the following content to the file.

Set the CustomTool of the Ribbon.xml in the File Properties to RibbonGenerator to generate a .ribbon file.

Now you need to specify the .ribbon file in the Ribbon control properties on your form. The name must be the full name including the namespace.

That’s all. So have a lot of fun playing with the samples included in the download package too.

Suppress Warnings for XML comments

Bernhard Elbl — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:12:29 +0000

Here i will show you, how you can suppress warnings for XML comments after a Visual Studio build.

Background

If you have checked the "XML documentation file" mark in the Visual Studio project settings, a XML file containing all XML comments is created. Additionally you will get a lot of warnings also in designer generated files, because of the missing or wrong XML comments. While sometimes warnings helps us to improve and stabilize our code, getting hundreds of XML comment warnings is just a pain.

Warnings

Missing XML comment for publicly visible type or member …
XML comment on … has a param tag for ‘…’, but there is no parameter by that name
Parameter ‘…’ has no matching param tag in the XML comment for ‘…’ (but other parameters do)

Solution

You can suppress every warning in Visual Studio.

- Right-click the Visual Studio project / Properties / Build Tab

- Insert the following warning numbers in the "Suppress warnings": 1591,1572,1571,1573,1587,1570

ASP .NET RequiredFieldValidator in Validation Application Block of Enterprise Library 4.0

Bernhard Elbl — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:23:17 +0000

The Validation Application Block included in Enterprise Library 4.0 is a really cool block. I firstly tried to find the RequiredFieldValidator equivalent to ASP .NET. The fact is in the VAB there is only a StringLengthValidator which can be used for this task. There is a possibility to bend this validator to act exactly like the ASP .NET RequiredFieldValidator does.

Configure a ‘RequiredFieldValidator’ with Validation Application Block

1. Use the Configuration Utility to add a StringLengthValidator and rename it to ‘Required Validator’.

2. Configure the StringLengthValidator like in the following way.

Remarks

You can add an addtional StringLengthValidator to validate for the max length of the string.

Workaround: The object cannot be added to the ObjectStateManager because it already has an EntityKey. Use ObjectContext.Attach to attach an object that has an existing key.

Bernhard Elbl — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:53:30 +0000

I started using the ADO .NET Entity Framework in a new ASP .NET Project. I´m always creating my applications in a multi-layered architecture. The Attach/Detach functionality of EF is the instrument to go here. But soon i got a curious exception while adding a newly created entity that does not exists in the database before.

The object cannot be added to the ObjectStateManager because it already has an EntityKey. Use ObjectContext.Attach to attach an object that has an existing key.

What has happened?
Look at this simple EF diagram. We have a Address and a Country entity type. Country contains all countries in the world. Address can be added, modified, and deleted, while Country only will be referenced.

Newly created Address
Address references existing Country

In a multi-layered environment the method to save the address could look like…

public void AddAdress(Address address)

{ 
    // Add business rules and validation here… 
  
    // Everything is fine, so save the changes now 
    using (openorgaEntities context = new openorgaEntities()) 
    { 
        context.AddToAddress(address); 
        context.SaveChanges(); 
    } 
}

But the AddAddress method will fail and shows the error message as already shown above.

The object cannot be added to the ObjectStateManager because it already has an EntityKey. Use ObjectContext.Attach to attach an object that has an existing key.

After googling the web for more information i found the following post in Microsoft forum.

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3945102&SiteID=1

The solutions provided in the post are working, but i feel they are all either bad or only working in specific cases.

The workaround solution:

I wrote an RelationshipManager based helper utility class, that is doing a workaround. Lets take a look to the following illustration.

The workaround is

to remove all relationships first and remember them,
then i add or attach the entity object
and in the end i attach every existing related entity object and recreate all relationships.

Note: I assume here that an Entity already having an EntityKey is an existing entity, while all others are newly created entity objects. This may not be true, in all entity models. So please, check if this is the case also in your model!

Implementation of EntityHelperUtil

The class is having 3 public methods:

AddObject replaces the ObjectContext.AddObject method
Attach replaces the ObjectContext.Attach method
AddObjectOrAttach is combination of both

Additionally the EntityHelperUtil has two methods doing the main work.

AddRelationships – Attaches and adds the entity object and every related objects.
RemoveRelationships – Removes every relation between the entity objects.

Source of EntityHelperUtil.cs

using System; 
using System.ComponentModel; 
using System.Collections; 
using System.Collections.Generic; 
using System.Linq; 
using System.Data; 
using System.Data.Objects; 
using System.Data.Objects.DataClasses; 
using System.Text; 
using System.Reflection; 
  
namespace openorga 
{ 
    /// 
    /// Attach helper for entity framework 
    /// 
    public static class EntityHelperUtil 
    { 
        /// 
        /// Adds or attaches an entity object to the context 
        /// 
        public static void AddObjectOrAttach(ObjectContext context, string entitySetName, EntityObject entity) 
        { 
            if (entity.EntityKey == null) 
            { 
                AddObject(context, entitySetName, entity); 
            } 
            else 
            { 
                Attach(context, entity); 
            } 
        } 
  
        /// 
        /// Adds an entity object to the context 
        /// 
        public static void AddObject(ObjectContext context, string entitySetName, IEntityWithRelationships entity) 
        {            
            // remove all relations 
            List<RelationsShipMapping> map = new List<RelationsShipMapping>(); 
            RemoveRelationships(map, entity, -1); 
  
            // add the entity 
            context.AddObject(entitySetName, entity); 
  
            // recreate all relationships 
            AddRelationships(context, map); 
        } 
  
        /// 
        /// Attaches an entity object to the context 
        /// 
        public static void Attach(ObjectContext context, EntityObject entity) 
        { 
            // remove all relations 
            List<RelationsShipMapping> map = new List<RelationsShipMapping>(); 
            RemoveRelationships(map, entity, -1); 
  
            // attach the entity 
            context.Attach(entity); 
  
            // recreate all relationships 
            AddRelationships(context, map); 
        } 
  
        /// 
        /// Attaches all related entity object and recreates all relationships 
        /// 
        static void AddRelationships(ObjectContext context, List<RelationsShipMapping> map) 
        { 
            int layer = -1; 
  
            // loop through all layers 
            do 
            { 
                layer++; 
  
                // return all entity object from a specific layer 
                IEnumerable<RelationsShipMapping> rs = from r in map 
                                                      where r.Layer == layer 
                                                      select r; 
  
                // check if there are no further related entity objects 
                if (rs.Count<RelationsShipMapping>() == 0) 
                    break; 
  
                // move through the remembered mappings of the current layer 
                foreach (RelationsShipMapping mapping in rs) 
                { 
                    // check if we need to attach the related entity object 
                    IEntityWithKey entityWithKey = mapping.TargetEntity as IEntityWithKey; 
                    if (entityWithKey != null && entityWithKey.EntityKey != null) 
                        context.Attach(entityWithKey); 
  
                    // check if it´s a EntityCollection or EntityReference relationship 
                    if (!mapping.IsReference) 
                    { 
                        // add the related collection entity object 
                        MethodInfo mi = typeof(RelationshipManager).GetMethod("GetRelatedCollection").MakeGenericMethod(mapping.TargetEntity.GetType()); 
                        object col = mi.Invoke( 
                            mapping.Entity.RelationshipManager, 
                            new object[]{ mapping.RelationshipName, mapping.TargetRole }); 
                        MethodInfo miAdd = col.GetType().GetMethod("Add"); 
                        miAdd.Invoke(col, new object[] { mapping.TargetEntity }); 
  
                    } 
                    else 
                    { 
                        // set the related reference entity object 
                        MethodInfo mi = typeof(RelationshipManager).GetMethod("GetRelatedReference").MakeGenericMethod(mapping.TargetEntity.GetType()); 
  
                        EntityReference er = (EntityReference)mi.Invoke( 
                            mapping.Entity.RelationshipManager, 
                            new object[]{ mapping.RelationshipName, mapping.TargetRole }); 
  
                        er.GetType().GetProperty("Value").SetValue(er, mapping.TargetEntity, null); 
                    } 
                } 
            } 
            while (true); 
  
        } 
  
        /// 
        /// Removes all related entity objects 
        /// 
        static void RemoveRelationships(List<RelationsShipMapping> map, IEntityWithRelationships entity, int layer) 
        { 
            // the layer represents the stack in the relationships 
            // for example: the related entities to main entity object is layer 0, 
            // and the related entites to the related entites is layer 1, etc… 
            layer++; 
  
            // get a collection of all related conceptual entities. 
            IEnumerable<IRelatedEnd> en = entity.RelationshipManager.GetAllRelatedEnds(); 
  
            foreach (IRelatedEnd end in en) 
            { 
                // check if the relation is an EntityCollection 
                IEnumerable col = end as IEnumerable; 
                if (col != null) 
                { 
                    string colRelationshipName = (string)col.GetType().GetProperty("RelationshipName").GetValue(col, null); 
                    string colSourceRoleName = (string)col.GetType().GetProperty("SourceRoleName").GetValue(col, null); 
                    string colTargetRoleName = (string)col.GetType().GetProperty("TargetRoleName").GetValue(col, null); 
  
                    IEnumerator enu = col.GetEnumerator(); 
  
                    List<IEntityWithRelationships> mem = new List<IEntityWithRelationships>(); 
                    while (enu.MoveNext()) 
                    { 
                        IEntityWithRelationships item = (IEntityWithRelationships)enu.Current; 
  
                        // check if the relationship is already added the map 
                        int alreadyExists = (from c in map 
                                            where c.RelationshipName == colRelationshipName && c.TargetRole == colSourceRoleName 
                                            select c).Count(); 
                        if (alreadyExists > 0) 
                            continue; 
  
                        // remember the relationships and add it to the map 
                        RelationsShipMapping mapping = new RelationsShipMapping(); 
                        mapping.Layer = layer; 
                        mapping.RelationshipName = colRelationshipName; 
                        mapping.TargetRole = colTargetRoleName; 
                        mapping.Entity = entity; 
                        mapping.TargetEntity = item; 
                        mapping.IsReference = false; 
  
                        map.Add(mapping); 
  
                        mem.Add(item); 
  
                        RemoveRelationships(map, item, layer); 
                    } 
  
                    // remove the entity collection relationships 
                    foreach(IEntityWithRelationships item in mem) 
                    { 
                        end.Remove(item); 
                    } 
                } 
  
                // check if the relation is an EntityReference 
                EntityReference er = end as EntityReference; 
                if (er != null) 
                { 
                    System.Reflection.PropertyInfo pValue = er.GetType().GetProperty("Value"); 
                    IEntityWithRelationships value = (IEntityWithRelationships)pValue.GetValue(er, null); 
                    if (value == null) 
                        continue; 
  
                    if (er != null) 
                    { 
                        // check if the reference is already added the map 
                        int alreadyExists = (from c in map 
                                            where c.RelationshipName == er.RelationshipName && c.TargetRole == er.SourceRoleName 
                                            select c).Count(); 
                        if (alreadyExists > 0) 
                            continue; 
  
                        // remember the relationships and add it to the map 
                        RelationsShipMapping mapping = new RelationsShipMapping(); 
                        mapping.Layer = layer; 
                        mapping.RelationshipName = er.RelationshipName; 
                        mapping.TargetRole = er.TargetRoleName; 
                        mapping.Entity = entity; 
                        mapping.TargetEntity = value; 
                        mapping.IsReference = true; 
  
                        map.Add(mapping); 
  
                        // remove the entity reference relationships 
                        pValue.SetValue(er, null, null); 
  
                        RemoveRelationships(map, value, layer); 
                    } 
                } 
            } 
        } 
  
        /// 
        /// Used to remember relationships in the entity object 
        /// 
        class RelationsShipMapping 
        { 
            public int Layer; 
            public string RelationshipName; 
            public string TargetRole; 
            public IEntityWithRelationships Entity; 
            public IEntityWithRelationships TargetEntity; 
            public bool IsReference; 
        } 
    } 
}