Charlie Calvert's Community Blog

Charlie is Moving On

2010-08-31T21:38:56Z

After four wonderful years, I’m leaving my position as a Community Manager at Microsoft. I’ve had a wonderful time working with the C# and the .NET communities and will miss you all.

I have no immediate plans to continue this blog elsewhere, but if I do engage again online you will probably be able to pick up the thread on my Elvenware site. It is currently very out of date, but hopefully I will find time to refresh it over the coming months:

http://www.elvenware.com/charlie

Thank you for all your support and enthusiasm! Please continue to enjoy writing code and continue to explore the wonderful world of computers!

- Charlie Calvert

IronRuby 1.0 Release Candidate 2

2010-02-11T05:41:05Z

The IronRuby team is pleased to announce version 1.0 RC2!

http://ironruby.net/download

Direct download link:

http://ironruby.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=36931#DownloadId=105584

This release is also accompanied by a preview release compatible with .NET 4.0 RC:

http://ironruby.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=40175

As IronRuby approaches the final 1.0, these RCs will contain crucial bug fixes and enhancements that IronRuby requires to be a fast and compatible 1.0. Now that IronRuby is in the release-candidate stage, your feedback is even more important. Please use these new binaries as much as you can and report any issues you find here:

http://ironruby.codeplex.com/WorkItem/Create.aspx.

Note: The actual version of the assemblies is "0.9.4.0"; they will be updated to "1.0.0.0" when the last anticipated RC of IronRuby 1.0 is released.

Community Convergence LXII

2010-02-11T05:36:51Z

Welcome to the sixty-second community convergence. This is the RC release issue with links to the latest Visual Studio code.

Iron Python 2.6.1 RC Now Available

2010-02-10T23:45:03Z

IronPython 2.6.1 comes in two flavors – one that runs on top of .NET 4.0 RC, and one that runs on any other framework starting with .NET 2.0 SP1. They can be downloaded here:

IronPython 2.6.1 RC1 for .NET 2.0 SP1: http://ironpython.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=40144
IronPython 2.6.1 RC1 for .NET 4.0 RC: http://ironpython.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=40146

Note: The .NET Framework 4.0 RC is required for the latter release and can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a9ef9a95-58d2-4e51-a4b7-bea3cc6962cb&displaylang=en

VS 2010 RC Released

2010-02-09T06:51:37Z

Microsoft has shipped the RC for Visual Studio 2010 / .NET Framework 4! The RC will be made available to the public on Wednesday, February 10, 2010.

New Articles on MSDN: ClickOnce, Office 2007 Business Applications

2010-02-03T23:32:01Z

The following new articles have appeared on MSDN:

Community Convergence LXI

2010-02-03T17:48:00Z

Welcome to the sixty-first community convergence. I’ve highlighted three new articles by HimaBindu Vejella on IDE enhancements, some articles by C# team member Eric Lippert, and one by Jason Zander, the General Manager for Visual Studio.

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 IDE Enhancements: Part One
Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 IDE Enhancements: Part Two
Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 IDE Enhancements: Part Three
Eric Lippert: Style follows semantics
Eric Lippert: Calling constructors in arbitrary places
Jason Zander: Favorite VS2010 Features: Dependency Graphs and DGML

Community Convergence LX

2010-01-27T21:57:00Z

Welcome to the sixtieth community convergence. I’m going to continue to keep this short, but I plan to update more frequently.

Eric Lippert: Why are unused using directives not a warning?
Sam Ng: The Pain of deploying Primary Interop Assemblies
Scott Hanselman: DynamicQueryable makes custom LINQ expressions easier
Scott Hanselman: How many PCs have the .NET Framework installed?
Scott Guthrie: About Technical Debates
Scott Guthrie: ASP.NET MVC 2: Model Validation

Help Me Get Started Using Visual Studio

2010-01-22T19:32:14Z

If you are new to Visual Studio, you might be interested in these links:

Community Convergence LIX

2010-01-22T04:11:38Z

Welcome to the fifty-ninth Community Convergence – now shorter than ever! Below you will see the top links for this week.

Alexandra Rusina

Getting Information About Objects, Types, and Members with Expression Trees

Eric Lippert

Kirill Osenkov

Unable to cast COM object … to IVsGlobalUndoCapableUndoManager

Article Published on Creating a LINQ Provider

2010-01-19T02:05:00Z

Pedram Rezaei has written a detailed and code centric article on how to create a LINQ provider similar to the LINQ to SQL provider. This article has large amount of specific technical information in it of interest to developers who want to tackle this complicated but very rewarding task.

SoCal Code Camp at California State, Fullerton

2010-01-07T06:02:10Z

Just a reminder that there will be a code camp coming up in Southern California on January 30th and 31st. Follow this link for details:

http://www.socalcodecamp.com/

SoCal Rock and Roll Code Camp: Yeah… It’s like that!

Error Loading Projects: ResetSkipPkgs

2010-01-04T19:56:44Z

If you are having trouble loading projects and perhaps get an error message like this: “Project ‘X’ could not be opened because the Microsoft Visual C# 2008 compiler could not be created.”

Try passing in these parameters when starting the IDE: devenv /resetskippkgs. This can fix a problem that occurs because you were prompted to stop loading a package and either intentionally or unintentionally clicked the OK button.

More information from MSDN

Feedback Wanted: Links to C# Tech Info

2009-12-09T05:58:57Z

A couple of us are working on finding a way to surface key links to information in the MSDN library. Perhaps later we will also link to information found throughout the community websites. If we can find the right approach, we might canonize these categorize and links on the Learn page of the C# Dev Center.

Below you will see a work in progress outlining one possible way to start to surface this information, along with a proposed set of initial links to information about that the various proposed categorize. Hopefully you will find this information interesting in and of itself. However, I would before I work too hard on it, I would like to get feedback from you on the structure of this data and the tentative links included here. If you have any comments on what you see here, please take a moment to reply to this post with your thoughts.

I think the categories laid out here are fairly self explanatory. I would only point out that the work shown below merges two different approaches to categorizing the information on MSDN:

The first five big bullets categorize data by scenario. For instance, the work with scenarios such as: I want to “Work with data,” “Get Started,” “Learn about C#,” “Learn the Tools”, “Learn about Web Development.”
The final category drops the scenario approach and simply lists the technologies that Microsoft spends so much time publicizing.

It is my thought that some developers will think in scenarios, and some in technologies, and some will think in one way or the other depending on the circumstances. The categorization shown below is to designed to accommodate developers from both schools of thought. But I don’t mean to prejudice you by talking about what I’ve tried to do here. Just tell me what you think, if you have any impulse at all to provide feedback. At this stage, I’m not wedded to any of this, I’m just interested in hearing what you think. Thanks for whatever thoughts you might have on this subject.

Index

Working with Data
Getting Started
- New to Development
- New to C#
The C# Language
- Basics and Specification
- Samples and Walkthroughs
Tools
Web Development
Microsoft Technologies

The Links

Working with Data

Microsoft White Papers.url

MSDN SQL Server Dev Center.url

SQL Server Books Online.url

TechNet SQL Server Dev Center.url

What's New (SQL Server 2008).url


Getting Started New to C# Creating Your First C# Application.URL Getting Started with Visual C#.URL How Do I in C#.URL Introduction to the C# Programming Language.URL New To Development Development for Beginners Tools, Lessons, Resources on MSDN.url Kid's Corner Learning Computers and Development on MSDN.url Windows Development for Beginners.url
The C# Language How Do I in C#
Language Basics and Specification C# Keywords.url C# Language Features (C#).url C# Operators.url C# Preprocessor Directives (C#).url The C# Language Specification.url
Samples and Walkthroughs C# Tutorials (C#).url Visual C# Sample Applications.url Visual C# Walkthroughs.url Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 Walkthroughs.url

Microsoft Technologies

ClickOnce ClickOnce Deployment for Windows Forms Applications.url ClickOnce Deployment Overview.url ClickOnce Deployment Walkthroughs.url
LINQ Anders Hejlsberg on Language Integrated Query.URL Enumerable Members (System.Linq).URL IQueryProvider Members (System.Linq).URL Language-Integrated Query (LINQ).URL LINQ Home Page.URL Queryable Members (System.Linq).URL Standard Query Operators Overview.URL System.Linq Namespace ().URL System.Linq.Expressions Namespace ().URL
Office Excel Developer Center.url How-to Center.url Interactive Developer Map.url Microsoft Office Development.url Office Business Applications.url Understanding Office Development.url Welcome to the Microsoft Office Word 2007 Developer Reference [Word 2007 Developer Reference].url
SharePoint Learn Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, developer, SDK, tutorials, videos, articles, books.url Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies.url SharePoint Developer Center 2010, 3.0, 2.0, downloads, tools, SDK.url SharePoint Products and Technologies (2010).url Welcome to the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK.url
Windows Communication Foundation Basic WCF Programming.url Getting Started Tutorial.url Guide to the Documentation.url Windows Communication Foundation.url
Windows Forms ClickOnce Deployment for Windows Forms Applications.url Enhancing Windows Forms Applications.url Getting Started with Windows Forms.url What's New in Windows Forms for the .NET Framework 3.5.url Windows Forms Reference.url
Windows Presentation Foundation Application Development.url Getting Started (WPF).url Graphics and Multimedia.url Windows Presentation Foundation.url WPF Fundamentals.url
Windows Workflow Services Overview.url System.Workflow.Runtime.Hosting Namespace ().url Windows Workflow Foundation Overview.url Windows Workflow Foundation Tutorials.url Windows Workflow Foundation.url

Tools


Visual C# 2008 Express Edition.URL
Visual Studio Software Development Kit (SDK).url
Visual Studio.url

Web Development


Web Development.url

ASP.NET

ASP.NET Overview.url
ASP.NET Walkthroughs by Scenario.url
The Official Microsoft ASP.NET Site.url
Visual Web Developer.url

HTML

Behaviors.url
HTML and DHTML Overviews and Tutorials.url
HTML and DHTML Reference.url
Quick Reference Guides.url

Internet Information Services

Deploying Web Sites on IIS 7.0 The Official Microsoft IIS Site.url
Developing on IIS 7.0 The Official Microsoft IIS Site.url
Using Visual Studio 2008 with IIS 7.0 Development Tools Developing on IIS 7.0 The Official Microsoft IIS Site.url

Silverlight

Getting Started with Silverlight.url
Silverlight 3.url
Silverlight 4.0.url
Silverlight Overview.url
The Official Microsoft Silverlight Site.url
XAML.url

Webcast: Lighting Up the New Visual Studio 2010 Editor with Rich Extensions (Level 200)

2009-12-08T19:02:47Z

Microsoft Events on MSDN will be hosting a webcast on Wednesday, December 09, 2009 10:00 AM Pacific Time. The event is designed to familiarize you with the new editor extensions that the WPF redesign have helped make possible. You can find more webcasts, videos, virtual labs and podcasts by following this link.

Official Publication of Creating Windows Azure Applications with Visual Studio Videos

2009-11-30T18:15:14Z

Though they were previewed earlier this month, we have now officially released the first of Windows Azure series of How Do I videos. Below you find a list of the videos that have been created, along with links to their location in the How Do I Video library.

The Developing Windows Azure Applications with Visual Studio Video Series

In this series of videos Jim Nakashima shows how to develop Windows Azure applications with the tools provided in Visual Studio.

All these videos were created by Charlie Calvert

#1 | Windows Azure: Getting the Tools, Creating a Project, Creating Roles and Configuration
(14 minutes, 26 seconds)

#2 | Running and Debugging a Windows Azure Application Locally with Visual Studio
(6 minutes, 11 seconds)

#3 | Deploying Windows Azure Applications from Visual Studio
(6 minutes, 56 seconds)

Videos of C# Authors at PDC

2009-11-24T08:04:16Z

Here are links to a few short video interviews by prebynski with C# MVPs and luminaries speaking while they attended PDC 2009 last week in Los Angeles. This is a chance to hear the interests and opinions of folks who are immersed in the culture and technology surrounding C#. All three of these interviewees are with authors who are currently working on new books about C#. Hear their take on new technologies such as Azure and Dynamic in C#, as well as their thoughts on the latest developments in existing technologies such as LINQ, WPF and Silverlight.

Community Links LVIII

2009-11-20T17:12:00Z

Data Microsoft SQL Server Library SQL Server Books Online SQL Server Online Resources CTP, Troubleshooting Microsoft MSDN SQL Server Online Resources CTP, Troubleshooting Microsoft TechNet What's New (SQL Server 2008)
GettingStarted Creating Your First C# Application Development for Beginners Tools, Lessons, Resources on MSDN Getting Started with Visual C# Introduction to the C# Programming Language Windows Development for Beginners
Language C# Keywords C# Language Features (C#) C# Operators C# Tutorials (C#) How Do I in C# The C# Language Specification Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 Walkthroughs
Technologies ClickOnce ClickOnce Deployment for Windows Forms Applications ClickOnce Deployment Overview ClickOnce Deployment Walkthroughs LINQ Anders Hejlsberg on Language Integrated Query Enumerable Members (System.Linq) IQueryProvider Members (System.Linq) Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) LINQ Home Page Queryable Members (System.Linq) Standard Query Operators Overview System.Linq Namespace () System.Linq.Expressions Namespace () Office Excel Developer Center How-to Center Interactive Developer Map Microsoft Office Development Office Business Applications Understanding Office Development Welcome to the Microsoft Office Word 2007 Developer Reference [Word 2007 Developer Reference] SharePoint Learn Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, developer, SDK, tutorials, videos, articles, books Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies SharePoint Developer Center 2010, 3.0, 2.0, downloads, tools, SDK SharePoint Products and Technologies (2010) Welcome to the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK WindowsCommunicationFoundation Basic WCF Programming Getting Started Tutorial Guide to the Documentation Windows Communication Foundation WindowsForms ClickOnce Deployment for Windows Forms Applications Enhancing Windows Forms Applications Getting Started with Windows Forms What's New in Windows Forms for the .NET Framework 3.5 Windows Forms Reference WindowsPresentationFoundation Application Development Getting Started (WPF) Graphics and Multimedia Windows Presentation Foundation WPF Fundamentals WindowsWorkFlow Services Overview System.Workflow.Runtime.Hosting Namespace () Windows Workflow Foundation Overview Windows Workflow Foundation Tutorials Windows Workflow Foundation
Tools Debugging in Visual Studio Debugging LINQ Debugging Managed Code Visual C# 2008 Express Edition Visual Studio
Web Asp.Net ASP.NET Overview The Official Microsoft ASP.NET Site Visual Web Developer HTML Behaviors HTML and DHTML Overviews and Tutorials HTML and DHTML Reference Quick Reference Guides InternetInformationServices Deploying Web Sites on IIS 7.0 The Official Microsoft IIS Site Developing on IIS 7.0 The Official Microsoft IIS Site Using Visual Studio 2008 with IIS 7.0 Development Tools Developing on IIS 7.0 The Official Microsoft IIS Site Silverlight Getting Started with Silverlight Silverlight 3 Silverlight 4.0 Silverlight Overview The Official Microsoft Silverlight Site XAML Web Development

Community Convergence LVII

2009-11-16T21:14:17Z

Welcome to the fifty-seventh issue of Community Convergence. In this post I’ll focus on new articles from the C# team, as well as events taking place at PDC.

From the C# Team

Eric Lippert

Closing over the loop variable considered harmful
Three Umpires (The Compiler Calls ‘em as it Sees ‘em)
Simple names are not so simple
Simple names are not so simple, Part Two, plus, volcanoes and fried foods
I have a Fit, but a lack of Focus.

Kirill Osenkov

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 Known Issues – Part 2
A million-dollar pen vs. a pencil
Bezier Curves and Car Manufacturers
Irony (.NET compiler construction framework)

Luca Bolognese

Luca at PDC 2009 next week

Dustin Campbell

Naming Anonymous Types with Generate from Usage

Sam Ng

Charlie Calvert

From others at Microsoft

Mitsu

Read/Write selector in C# 3 then C# 4

Jason Zander

Scott Guthrie

Scott Hanselman

Brad Abrams

Dan Fernandez

Downloads and Announcements

Video: Azure Services in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2, Part III

2009-11-16T16:23:00Z

This is the first of three videos showing how Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 provides support for the development and deployment of Azure Services applications. In these short How Do I Videos, I filmed Jim Nakashima as he demonstrated practical techniques for quickly deploying applications to the cloud. These videos will eventually be published in the How Do I section of the C# Dev Center. I’m hosting them here for now, so that they will be available in time for PDC.

Azure Services in Visual Studio Part III

Download the Videos

Click the links below to download the videos to your local machine and view them at their native 1024 X 768 resolution.

Video: Azure Services in Visual Studio Beta 2, Part II

2009-11-15T16:10:49Z

This is the second in a series of three videos showing how Visual Studio 2010 provides support for the development and deployment of Azure Services applications. In these short How Do I Videos, I filmed Jim Nakashima as he demonstrated practical techniques for quickly deploying applications to the cloud. These videos will eventually be published in the How Do I section of the C# Dev Center. I’m hosting them here for now, so that they will be available in time for PDC.

Azure Services in Visual Studio Part II

Download the Videos

Click the links below to download the videos to your local machine and view them at their native 1024 X 768 resolution.

To see the post which embeds the first video in this series, click here.

Videos: Azure Services in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 with Jim Nakashima, Part I

2009-11-15T04:41:53Z

Azure Servies in Visual Studio Part I

Download the Videos

Click the links below to download the videos to your local machine and view them at their native 1024 X 768 resolution.

The second post in this series is available here.

Microsoft SDK for Facebook Released

2009-11-11T06:03:00Z

Microsoft has created an SDK to make it easier for you to write Facebook applications.

Resources

Read the announcement.
Find out more about the .NET Facebook SDK

HDI Video: Generate from Usage in Visual Studio 2010 with Karen Liu

2009-11-07T23:45:00Z

Karen Liu, the Lead Program Manager for the Visual C# and Visual Basic IDEs, has created a new video on Generate from Usage (GFU), a feature found in Visual Studio 2010, Beta 2. This post recaps what is included in the video, including the sections that show how GFU can be used to enhance test first development. The video is shot in both VB and C#. Since this is a C# blog, I’ll show only C# code, and will translate the VB code that Karen shows into C#.

Download the source code from the LINQ Farm

Generate from Usage (GFU) is a new feature in 2010 that allows you to write code that consumes a library or API before that API even exists. Using Visual Studio menus or shortcuts, you can automatically generate classes, constructors, methods, fields and properties from the code you typed in the editor.

As the video begins, Karen first types in the code to initialize a class called Automobile that does not yet exist:

Code Snippet
 var myCar = new Automobile(Make: "Honda", Model: "Accord");
 

Notice that the class name Automobile is not colored in teal, which is Visual Studio’s way of telling you that it does not yet it exist. When seen inside Visual Studio, the word Automobile will also have red squiggly (or wavy) underline, and a small blue smart tag under the letter A, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The red squiggle is Visual Studio’s way of telling you that the type Automobile will not compile. The blue smart tag under the letter A let’s the user know that an expansion tip is available by simultaneously pressing the Control key and a period (Ctrl + .).

The smart tag under the letter A is Visual Studio’s way of telling you to press the control and period keys to bring up a special expansion tip, as shown in Figure 2. Here we see two options, one for directly creating a class called Automobile, and the other for bringing up a dialog which allows us to define or tweak the details of the type of we create.

Figure 2: Viewing an expansion tip in Visual Studio.

You can also bring up the options to create a new class or type by right clicking on the word Automobile and selecting Generate from the popup menu, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: A second way to generate a class is to right click the word Automobile and choose Generate from the popup menu.

If you select the option to create a new class, then Visual Studio will automatically generate a new file called Automobile.cs and place inside it a new class called Automobile. The entire generated file is shown in Listing 1.

Listing 1: The code generate when you choose to create a new class based on an undefined identifier in Visual Studio 2010.

Code Snippet
 using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
 
namespace DeleteMe
{
    class Automobile
    {
    }
}
 

You can now go back to your original source file where you will see that there is still a red squiggly and blue tool tip, as shown in Figure 4. These hints are shown because we have not yet created a constructor for the Automobile class. If we again press control plus period, then the option to generate these code elements is made available to us, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Selecting the smart tag a second time brings up an option to automatically generate the constructor and associated fields for your class.

The code that is generated by selecting the expansion tip is shown in Listing 2. Notice that on lines 10 and 11 fields were created for your class and on lines 16 and 17 code was generated inside the constructor for initializing them. A comment in the form of a TODO item is also added to your class. These TODO items are visible in the Visual Studio Task List. You can access the Task List by choosing View | Task List from the menu, or by pressing Ctrl+W, T. Be sure to choose the Comments option from the drop down at the top of the Task List.

Listing 2: The code for the Automobile’s constructor is automatically generated by the IDE.

Code Snippet
 using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
 
namespace GenerateFromUsageSample
{
    class Automobile
    {
        private string Make;
        private string Model;
 
        public Automobile(string Make, string Model)
        {
            // TODO: Complete member initialization
            this.Make = Make;
            this.Model = Model;
        }
    }
}
 

Karen next types in code for a TurnLeft method, and for a property called IsFacingNorth. As she types each item, a smart tag appears, and again she has the option to press Ctrl+. to automatically generate code for the Automobile class. The code typed in the program’s entry point is shown in Listing 3, and the code generated by the IDE is shown mostly in Listing 4. Notice, however, that code for a private object called distance was automatically generated in the Main method. The IDE actually gives you the option to create either a private field, as shown here, or a public property.

Listing 3: The complete code for Karen’s first sample includes a constructor, a method called TurnLeft, and a property called IsFacingNorth.

Code Snippet
  
namespace GenerateFromUsage
{
    class Program
    {
        private static object distance;
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var myCar = new Automobile(Make: "Honda", Model: "Accord");
            myCar.TurnLeft(distance);
            myCar.IsFacingNorth = true
        }
    }
}
 

Listing 4: The code generated by the IDE for the TurnLeft method and the IsFacingNorth property.

Code Snippet
 using System;
 
namespace GenerateFromUsage
{
    class Automobile
    {
        private string Make;
        private string Model;
 
        public Automobile(string Make, string Model)
        {
            // TODO: Complete member initialization
            this.Make = Make;
            this.Model = Model;
        }
 
        internal void TurnLeft(object distance)
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }
 
        public bool IsFacingNorth { get; set; }
    }
}
 

When looking at Listing 4, notice that code for generating a NotImplementedException is automatically generated in the TurnLeft method. The IDE was also smart enough to discern that the IsFacingNorth property returns a bool. All the lines of code shown in Listing 4 were generated by typing just three lines of code in the main method found in Listing 3.

The C# Side

In the second part of the video Karen shows how you can use generate from usage (GFU) to enhance your experience when creating unit tests. Many theorists advocate using a test first methodology in which you first create a test, and then write the code that you want to test. You will see that GFU can be used to make this style of development quite natural and simple to use inside of Visual Studio.

NOTE: This section of the post requires high end versions of Visual Studio that contain the test wizards. Even if you don’t have those tools, you can still follow along to see how Generate from Usage can be used in all versions of Visual Studio to make it easier to create unit tests.

Begin by starting a new console application called Customer. Choose Tests | New Test from the Visual Studio menu. Select Basic Unit Test from the dialog, and name it Customers, as shown in Figure 5. When you press OK in the Add New Test dialog you will be prompted for the name of your unit test project. Type in CustomerTests. When you are done, the Solution Explorer for your project should look as it does in Figure 6.

Figure 5: Create a new unit test project that will house a file called Customers.

Right click on the Customer node in the solution explorer and choose Add | New Folder to create a new directory called Models. When you are done you should see a new node in the solution explorer, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: This solution contains two projects, one a simple console application called Customer that contains a folder called Models. The other project is called CustomerTests and it is designed to hold unit tests.

I want to check if my Customer list is create correctly. In the Customers file from your test project, create a method called IsCustomerListValid. Inside the method create code to initialize a CustomerList object, as shown in Listing X.

Listing 5: A simple unit test with the code to initialize a class called CustomerList. Note that the CustomerList is not colored in Teal, since its declaration has not been created yet.

Code Snippet
 using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;
 
namespace CustomerTests
{
    [TestClass]
    public class Customers
    {
        [TestMethod]
        public void IsCustomerListValid()
        {
            CustomerList cust = new CustomerList();
        }
    }
}
 

At this stage, there is no CustomerList, so in Visual Studio you will again see the red squiggles and the blue smart tag, just as I showed in Figure 2. Without needing to take your hands off the keyboard, you can press control plus dot to bring up the expansion tips as in Figure 2. This time select New Type. A dialog comes up like the one shown in Figure 7. In the dialog we can change the accessibility, the kind of code to generate and the project file and directory where we want to place it. Set the Access to public and the Kind to class. Use the Project drop down to select the Customer project and the the Create new file drop down to select the Model directory. Type in CustomerList.cs as the name of the file to create.

Figure 7. Selecting the kind of type that you want to create, as well as the project, folder and file in which you want to place it.

When you press OK in the Generate New Type dialog, the new type will be created, and the IDE will add the using directive and the correct references. You can now fill out your test and your generated class as shown in Listing 6 and 7. Note that we have used generate from usage to enhance the CustomerList class with a method called Add. I then manually wrote code to create a list into which the text we pass can be inserted.

Listing 6: A simple unit test.

Code Snippet
 using Customer.Models;
using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;
 
namespace CustomerTests
{
    [TestClass]
    public class Customers
    {
        [TestMethod]
        public void IsCustomerListValid()
        {
            CustomerList cust = new CustomerList();
            cust.Add("Karen");
            Assert.IsNotNull(cust);
        }
    }
}
 

Listing 7: The using directive, namespace, CustomerList class and header for the Add method were auto-generated. I manually created the list and inserted the call to Add an item into it.

Code Snippet
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 
namespace Customer.Models
{
    public class CustomerList
    {
        List<string> list = new List<string>();
 
        public void Add(string p)
        {
            list.Add(p);
        }
    }
}
 

You can now use the Test | View menu to bring up the Test List Editor and Test View to select and run your test.

Summary

In this post you got a second look at the code used in Karen Liu’s generate from usage video. You saw that GFU can be used to create classes, constructors, parameters, properties and fields. You also explored the powerful Generate New Type dialog which gives you the flexibility to choose the kind of type you want to create, as well as the project, directory and file in which you want to insert it. Finally, you saw that generate from usage can be powerful aid when you are engaged in test first development.

Resources

Classic, Lightweight and ScriptFree MSDN Library Views

2009-11-07T00:58:56Z

There have been a number of changes to the MSDN library of late, and to the way it is integrated with Visual Studio 2010. Kathleen McGrath and Mark D'Urso have created a nice little video that walks you through some of the new features such as the classic, lightweight and script-free views, as well as the new feedback mechanism. If you have questions about how the new features in the library work you might find that this is a useful way to spend 9 minutes and 36 seconds.

You might also enjoy Kathleen’s video interview with Ryan Linton. It focuses on using help from inside Visual Studio.

Charlie Calvert's Community Blog

Charlie is Moving On

IronRuby 1.0 Release Candidate 2

Community Convergence LXII

Iron Python 2.6.1 RC Now Available

VS 2010 RC Released

New Articles on MSDN: ClickOnce, Office 2007 Business Applications

Community Convergence LXI

Community Convergence LX

Help Me Get Started Using Visual Studio

Community Convergence LIX

Article Published on Creating a LINQ Provider

SoCal Code Camp at California State, Fullerton

Error Loading Projects: ResetSkipPkgs

Feedback Wanted: Links to C# Tech Info

Index

The Links

Webcast: Lighting Up the New Visual Studio 2010 Editor with Rich Extensions (Level 200)

Official Publication of Creating Windows Azure Applications with Visual Studio Videos

The Developing Windows Azure Applications with Visual Studio Video Series

Videos of C# Authors at PDC

Community Links LVIII

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ClickOnce

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Office

SharePoint

WindowsCommunicationFoundation

WindowsForms

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Web

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Community Convergence LVII

From the C# Team

From others at Microsoft

Video: Azure Services in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2, Part III

Azure Services in Visual Studio Part III

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Other Posts in this Series

Video: Azure Services in Visual Studio Beta 2, Part II

Azure Services in Visual Studio Part II

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Videos: Azure Services in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 with Jim Nakashima, Part I

Azure Servies in Visual Studio Part I

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Microsoft SDK for Facebook Released

Resources

HDI Video: Generate from Usage in Visual Studio 2010 with Karen Liu

The C# Side

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