DDITDev : Jason

LINQ to SQL and multiple result sets in Stored Procedures

dditweb — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:34:18 GMT

In this post I'm going to demonstrate how you would return and consume multiple result sets from a stored procedure in LINQ to SQL.

Imagine you have a stored procedure like this one below. Very simple – it’s just returns all customers and all orders.

In my LINQ to SQL Data Context, I have the following tables.

As well as the stored procedure definition.

Simple enough so far!

The first thing we need to do is create a partial class and define a new method returning type ‘IMultipleResults’. I’ve defined the one below to accept one parameter, which is a customerId.

You’ll notice that there’s a few attributes you need to add.

1. Function – this is the name of the stored procedure that will be called. It’s the same one we defined in our data context above. Note: the actual stored procedure name is irrelevant - it must be the name you have given the stored procedure on the data context (which will be the same 99% of the time I’d imagine.)

2. ResultType – This is the mapping that basically says “Make the first result type of ‘Customer’ and the second result type of ‘Order’”.

Once we’ve defined this method, we can go ahead and consume it from our UI and/or OM as shown below.

As shown above, you call the method you defined, passing in a customer id in this case, which returns you a type of IMultipleResults. From there it’s just a case of calling the ‘GetResult’ method making sure to pass in the type of the object you want.

The results are shown below!

I hope this helps!

Jason

VS2008 Tip - Remove unused 'using' statements

dditweb — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:51:00 GMT

Did you know that VS2008 has a great feature to remove any unused 'using' statements in your code?

Simply right click anywhere in your code file, select 'Organize Usings' and select 'Remove Unused Usings'.

You then end up with only the using statements you are actually using! (no pun intended ;))

Other options include sorting your current using statements, or removing and sorting at the same time..

Hope this helps!

Jason

UPDATE - One of my colleagues just pointed out that you can also do this (as well as some other great stuff) for all files in your project(s) using the PowerCommands for VS2008 add-in. Thanks Rick!

Working with Virtual Machines in PowerShell, SCVMM and C#

dditweb — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:09:05 GMT

Lately I've been experimenting with SCVMM and PowerShell, and I wondered how hard it would be to automate the creation of a Virtual Machine via C#.

Well the good news is that's it not that hard at all!

In this post I'm going to demonstrate how to:

Create a new VM
Get an existing VM / Get all existing VMs
Delete an existing VM

So let's get started!

Prerequisites

In order to build and run your project, you will need to have the following installed and configured:

Windows PowerShell
System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)
Visual Studio 2008
.NET Framework 3.5 (included with VS2008)

You'll also need to have some defined templates in SCVMM, with operating systems installed.

Creating the Application

The first thing you need to do is to create windows forms app (I've called mine "VMManager") and add the required references which can be found in the following folders:

C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\
C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007\bin\

When finished, your list of references should look like this:

Next we need to create a basic UI for testing. Mine looks like this:

Basically, it's just a textbox to enter the name of the new VM we want to create and a listview to display the list of VMs we have created.

Next we need to add a new class to the project, which we'll call 'PowerShellHelper.cs'. This class should look like this:

   1: using System;   2: using System.Collections.Generic;   3: using System.Linq;   4: using System.Text;   5: using System.Management.Automation.Runspaces;   6:     7: namespace VMManager   8: {   9:     internal class PowerShellHelper  10:     {  11:         public static Runspace InitPowerShell()  12:         {  13:             RunspaceConfiguration config = RunspaceConfiguration.Create();  14:             PSSnapInException ex = null;  15:    16:             config.AddPSSnapIn("VirtualMachineManagerSnapIn", out ex);  17:             if (ex != null)  18:                 throw ex;  19:    20:             return RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(config);  21:         }  22:     }  23: }

Add another class called 'ExtensionMethods.cs' to contain our (suprise!) Extension Methods. It should look like this:

   1: using System;   2: using System.Collections.Generic;   3: using System.Linq;   4: using System.Text;   5:     6: namespace VMManager   7: {   8:     public static class ExtensionMethods   9:     {  10:         public static bool EqualsIgnoreCase(this string s, string stringToCompare)  11:         {  12:             return s.Equals(stringToCompare, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase);  13:         }  14:     }  15: }

We also need to add another class, this time calling it 'VMHelper.cs'. Inside this class we're going to add a fair bit of code, so I'm going to break it down into sections.

First off, we need to add a few private methods to do most of the work for us:

1. GetCommandPipe - This returns a PowerShell command pipeline

   1: /// <summary>   2: /// Creates a command pipeline   3: /// </summary>   4: /// <param name="runspace"></param>   5: /// <returns></returns>   6: private Pipeline GetCommandPipe(Runspace runspace)   7: {   8:     return runspace.CreatePipeline();   9: }

2. GetVM - This queries the SCVMM server and returns an instance of a VM

   1: /// <summary>   2: /// Gets a VM object by name   3: /// </summary>   4: /// <param name="vmName"></param>   5: /// <param name="runspace"></param>   6: /// <returns></returns>   7: private VM GetVM(string vmName, Runspace runspace)   8: {   9:     //get the VM  10:     VM vm = null;  11:     Command getVM = new Command("get-vm");  12:     getVM.Parameters.Add("VMMServer", this.VMMServer);  13:     getVM.Parameters.Add("Name", vmName);  14:    15:     using (Pipeline pipeline = GetCommandPipe(runspace))  16:     {  17:         pipeline.Commands.Add(getVM);  18:         Collection<PSObject> result = pipeline.Invoke();  19:         vm = (Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager.VM)result[0].BaseObject;  20:         pipeline.Stop();  21:     }  22:    23:     if (vm == null)  24:         throw new NullReferenceException(string.Format("No VM found with name: {0}", vmName));  25:    26:     return vm;  27: }

3. GetProcessorType - This queries the SCVMM server and returns a ProcessorType instance

   1: /// <summary>   2: /// Gets the processor type   3: /// </summary>   4: /// <param name="processorTypeName"></param>   5: /// <param name="runspace"></param>   6: /// <returns></returns>   7: private ProcessorType GetProcessorType(string processorTypeName, Runspace runspace)   8: {   9:     //get the ProcessorType  10:     ProcessorType processorType = null;  11:     Command getProc = new Command("get-processortype");  12:     getProc.Parameters.Add("VMMServer", this.m_SCVMMServer);  13:    14:     using (Pipeline pProcType = GetCommandPipe(runspace))  15:     {  16:         pProcType.Commands.Add(getProc);  17:    18:         Collection<PSObject> results = pProcType.Invoke();  19:         if (results.Count == 0)  20:             throw new NullReferenceException("No proc types found!");  21:    22:         foreach (PSObject item in results)  23:         {  24:             ProcessorType p = (ProcessorType)item.BaseObject;  25:             if (p.Name.EqualsIgnoreCase(processorTypeName))  26:             {  27:                 processorType = p;  28:                 break;  29:             }  30:         }  31:    32:         pProcType.Stop();  33:     }  34:    35:     if (processorType == null)  36:         throw new NullReferenceException(string.Format("No Processor Type found with for following configuration: {0}.", processorTypeName));  37:    38:     return processorType;  39: }

4. CreateHardwareProfile - This creates a new HardwareProfile, containing the hardware configuration for the new VM

   1: /// <summary>   2: /// Creates a hardware Profile   3: /// </summary>   4: /// <param name="processorType"></param>   5: /// <param name="ramMB"></param>   6: /// <param name="runspace"></param>   7: /// <returns></returns>   8: private HardwareProfile CreateHardwareProfile(ProcessorType processorType, int ramMB, Runspace runspace)   9: {  10:     //create the hardware profile  11:     Command createHardware = new Command("New-HardwareProfile");  12:     createHardware.Parameters.Add("VMMServer", this.m_SCVMMServer);  13:     createHardware.Parameters.Add("owner", @"domain\user"); // must be replaced with a valid SCVMM admin account  14:     createHardware.Parameters.Add("CPUType", processorType);  15:     createHardware.Parameters.Add("Name", m_HardwareProfileName);  16:     createHardware.Parameters.Add("MemoryMB", ramMB);  17:     createHardware.Parameters.Add("Jobgroup", m_JobGroup);  18:    19:     using (Pipeline pCreateHardware = GetCommandPipe(runspace))  20:     {  21:         pCreateHardware.Commands.Add(createHardware);  22:         pCreateHardware.Invoke();  23:         pCreateHardware.Stop();  24:     }  25:    26:     //get the hardware profile  27:     HardwareProfile hardwareProfile = null;  28:     Command getHW = new Command("Get-HardwareProfile");  29:     getHW.Parameters.Add("VMMServer", this.m_SCVMMServer);  30:    31:     using (Pipeline hardwarePipeline = GetCommandPipe(runspace))  32:     {  33:         hardwarePipeline.Commands.Add(getHW);  34:         Collection<PSObject> profiles = hardwarePipeline.Invoke();  35:         foreach (PSObject item in profiles)  36:         {  37:             HardwareProfile hw = (HardwareProfile)item.BaseObject;  38:             if (hw.Name.EqualsIgnoreCase(m_HardwareProfileName))  39:             {  40:                 hardwareProfile = hw;  41:                 break;  42:             }  43:         }  44:    45:         hardwarePipeline.Stop();  46:     }  47:    48:     if (hardwareProfile == null)  49:         throw new NullReferenceException(string.Format("No Hardware Profile found with name: {0}.", m_HardwareProfileName));  50:    51:     return hardwareProfile;  52: }

5. GetTemplate - Gets a Template object from the SCVMM Server based on the name

   1: /// <summary>   2: /// Gets an OS template   3: /// </summary>   4: /// <param name="OSTemplate"></param>   5: /// <param name="runspace"></param>   6: /// <returns></returns>   7: private Template GetTemplate(string OSTemplate, Runspace runspace)   8: {   9:     // Get a template  10:     Template template = null;  11:    12:     Command getTemplate = new Command("get-template");  13:     getTemplate.Parameters.Add("VMMServer", this.m_SCVMMServer);  14:    15:     using (Pipeline pTemplate = GetCommandPipe(runspace))  16:     {  17:         pTemplate.Commands.Add(getTemplate);  18:    19:         Collection<PSObject> templates = pTemplate.Invoke();  20:         foreach (PSObject item in templates)  21:         {  22:             Template t = (Template)item.BaseObject;  23:             if (t.Name.EqualsIgnoreCase(OSTemplate))  24:             {  25:                 template = t;  26:                 break;  27:             }  28:         }  29:    30:         pTemplate.Stop();  31:     }  32:    33:     if (template == null)  34:         throw new NullReferenceException(string.Format("No Template found with name: {0}.", OSTemplate));  35:    36:     return template;  37: }

6. AddVirtualHardDisk - Adds a new virtual hard disk to the server - used for creating a D: drive

   1: /// <summary>   2: /// Add a virtual hard disk (D: Drive for example)   3: /// </summary>   4: /// <param name="diskSizeGB"></param>   5: /// <param name="runspace"></param>   6: private void AddVirtualHardDisk(int diskSizeGB, Runspace runspace)   7: {   8:     Command newVirtualHardDisk = new Command("New-VirtualHardDisk");   9:     newVirtualHardDisk.Parameters.Add("JobGroup", m_VirtualHardDiskJobGroup);  10:     newVirtualHardDisk.Parameters.Add("Bus", "0");  11:     newVirtualHardDisk.Parameters.Add("Lun", "1");  12:     newVirtualHardDisk.Parameters.Add("IDE", true);  13:     newVirtualHardDisk.Parameters.Add("Dynamic", true);  14:     newVirtualHardDisk.Parameters.Add("VMMServer", this.m_SCVMMServer);  15:     newVirtualHardDisk.Parameters.Add("Filename", m_VmName + "_disk_1.vhd");  16:     newVirtualHardDisk.Parameters.Add("Size", (diskSizeGB * 1024));  17:    18:     using (Pipeline pNewHardDisk = GetCommandPipe(runspace))  19:     {  20:         pNewHardDisk.Commands.Add(newVirtualHardDisk);  21:         pNewHardDisk.Invoke();  22:         pNewHardDisk.Stop();  23:     }  24: }

7. GetBestHost - This method queries the available hosts managed by SCVMM, and return the host deemed most suitable for the new VM to be created on

   1: /// <summary>   2: /// Gets the best rated host for the requested vm   3: /// </summary>   4: /// <param name="hardwareProfile"></param>   5: /// <param name="totalHardDiskSize"></param>   6: /// <param name="runspace"></param>   7: /// <returns></returns>   8: private Host GetBestHost(HardwareProfile hardwareProfile, long totalHardDiskSize, Runspace runspace)   9: {  10:     string hostname = string.Empty;  11:    12:     //get all host groups  13:     HostGroup hostGroup = null;  14:     Command getHostGroup = new Command("Get-VMHostGroup");  15:     getHostGroup.Parameters.Add("VMMServer", this.m_SCVMMServer);  16:    17:     using (Pipeline hostGroupPipeline = GetCommandPipe(runspace))  18:     {  19:         hostGroupPipeline.Commands.Add(getHostGroup);  20:         Collection<PSObject> foundhostGroups = hostGroupPipeline.Invoke();  21:         hostGroup = (HostGroup)foundhostGroups[0].BaseObject;  22:    23:         hostGroupPipeline.Stop();  24:     }  25:    26:     if (hostGroup == null)  27:         throw new NullReferenceException(string.Format("No Host Group could be found on server: {0}.", this.m_SCVMMServer));  28:    29:     //get vm host ratings  30:     Command getHostRating = new Command("Get-VMHostRating");  31:     getHostRating.Parameters.Add("VMHostGroup", hostGroup);  32:     getHostRating.Parameters.Add("HardwareProfile", hardwareProfile);  33:     getHostRating.Parameters.Add("VMName", m_VmName);  34:     getHostRating.Parameters.Add("DiskSpaceGB", totalHardDiskSize);  35:    36:     using (Pipeline hostsPipeline = GetCommandPipe(runspace))  37:     {  38:         hostsPipeline.Commands.Add(getHostRating);  39:         Collection<PSObject> foundhosts = hostsPipeline.Invoke();  40:    41:         foreach (PSObject item in foundhosts)  42:         {  43:             ClientObject client = (ClientObject)item.BaseObject;  44:             hostname = client.Name;  45:             break;  46:         }  47:    48:         hostsPipeline.Stop();  49:     }  50:    51:     Host host = null;  52:     Command getHost = new Command("Get-VMHost");  53:     getHost.Parameters.Add("VMMServer", this.m_SCVMMServer);  54:    55:     using (Pipeline hostPipeline = GetCommandPipe(runspace))  56:     {  57:         hostPipeline.Commands.Add(getHost);  58:         Collection<PSObject> hosts = hostPipeline.Invoke();  59:    60:         foreach (PSObject item in hosts)  61:         {  62:             Host h = (Host)item.BaseObject;  63:             if (h.Name == hostname)  64:             {  65:                 host = h;  66:                 break;  67:             }  68:         }  69:    70:         hostPipeline.Stop();  71:     }  72:    73:     if (host == null)  74:         throw new NullReferenceException(string.Format("No Host could be found with name: {0}.", hostname));  75:    76:     return host;  77: }

8. CreateVM - 'Just like it says on the can', it creates the VM!

   1: /// <summary>   2: /// creates the actual vm   3: /// </summary>   4: /// <param name="host"></param>   5: /// <param name="template"></param>   6: /// <param name="hardwareProfile"></param>   7: /// <param name="runspace"></param>   8: private void CreateVM(Host host, Template template, HardwareProfile hardwareProfile, Runspace runspace)   9: {  10:     Command newVM = new Command("new-vm");  11:     newVM.Parameters.Add("Template", template);  12:     newVM.Parameters.Add("VMHost", host);  13:     newVM.Parameters.Add("HardwareProfile", hardwareProfile);  14:     newVM.Parameters.Add("Name", m_VmName);  15:     newVM.Parameters.Add("Description", string.Format("VM created by '{0}' on {1}", Environment.UserName, DateTime.Now));  16:     newVM.Parameters.Add("Path", host.VMPaths[0]);  17:     newVM.Parameters.Add("Owner", @"domain\user");  18:     newVM.Parameters.Add("StartVM", true);  19:     newVM.Parameters.Add("JobGroup", m_VirtualHardDiskJobGroup);  20:    21:     using (Pipeline pNewVM = GetCommandPipe(runspace))  22:     {  23:         pNewVM.Commands.Add(newVM);  24:         pNewVM.Invoke();  25:         pNewVM.Stop();  26:    27:         if (pNewVM.Error.Count > 0)  28:             throw new Exception("Could not create vm. Error is: " + pNewVM.Error.ReadToEnd().ToString());  29:     }  30: }

Next we need to add our public methods. These are the methods we're going to expose to the UI

1. CreateVM - This creates the VM and copies all associated files to the host

   1: public void CreateVM(string vmName, string processorType, string OSTemplate, int ramMB, int diskSizeGB)   2: {   3:     // Code to actually create a VM   4:     using (Runspace runspace = PowerShellHelper.InitPowerShell())   5:     {   6:         m_VmName = vmName;   7:         m_JobGroup = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();   8:         m_HardwareProfileName = "Profile" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString();   9:         m_VirtualHardDiskJobGroup = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();  10:    11:         try  12:         {  13:             runspace.Open();  14:    15:             //get processor type  16:             ProcessorType processor = GetProcessorType(processorType, runspace);  17:    18:             //create the hardware profile  19:             HardwareProfile hardwareProfile = CreateHardwareProfile(processor, ramMB, runspace);  20:    21:             //get the template  22:             Template template = GetTemplate(OSTemplate, runspace);  23:    24:             //add the extra virtual hard disk (D: Drive)  25:             AddVirtualHardDisk(diskSizeGB, runspace);  26:    27:             //get the total hard disk space requested  28:             double virtualHardDiskSize = 0;  29:    30:             //loop through each virtual hard disk in the template and add the disk size  31:             foreach (VirtualHardDisk hardDisk in template.VirtualHardDisks)  32:                 virtualHardDiskSize += (((double)hardDisk.Size) / 1024 / 1024 / 1024);  33:    34:             //add the extra virtual hard disk (d: drive?)  35:             virtualHardDiskSize += (diskSizeGB);  36:             virtualHardDiskSize = Math.Ceiling(virtualHardDiskSize);  37:    38:             //get the best host  39:             Host host = GetBestHost(hardwareProfile, (long)virtualHardDiskSize, runspace);  40:    41:             //create the vm  42:             CreateVM(host, template, hardwareProfile, runspace);  43:         }  44:         catch (Exception ex)  45:         {  46:             //todo: additional logic here?  47:             throw ex;  48:         }  49:         finally  50:         {  51:             //close the runspace  52:             runspace.Close();  53:         }  54:     }  55: }

2. Delete VM - Deletes the VM from the host and removes all associated files.

   1: public void DeleteVM(string vmName)   2: {   3:     // Code to actually delete a VM   4:     using (Runspace runspace = PowerShellHelper.InitPowerShell())   5:     {   6:         try   7:         {   8:             runspace.Open();   9:    10:             //get the VM  11:             VM vm = GetVM(vmName, runspace);  12:    13:             if (vm != null)  14:             {  15:                 //you cannot delete a vm that is running.  16:                 //loop whilst the vm is not powered off (stopped)  17:                 int loopCount = 1; //max loop count = 12 - try for 1 minute only  18:                 while (vm.Status != VMComputerSystemState.PowerOff && loopCount <= 12)  19:                 {  20:                     Command stopVM = new Command("Stop-VM");  21:                     stopVM.Parameters.Add("VM", vm);  22:    23:                     using (Pipeline pStop = GetCommandPipe(runspace))  24:                     {  25:                         pStop.Commands.Add(stopVM);  26:                         pStop.Invoke();  27:                         pStop.Stop();  28:                     }  29:    30:                     //sleep for 5 seconds and check the status again  31:                     Thread.Sleep(5000);  32:    33:                     ///append the loop count  34:                     loopCount++;  35:                 }  36:    37:                 //delete the vm  38:                 Command deleteVM = new Command("Remove-VM");  39:                 deleteVM.Parameters.Add("VM", vm);  40:    41:                 using (Pipeline pDelete = GetCommandPipe(runspace))  42:                 {  43:                     pDelete.Commands.Add(deleteVM);  44:                     pDelete.Invoke();  45:                     pDelete.Stop();  46:                 }  47:             }  48:         }  49:         catch (Exception ex)  50:         {  51:             //todo: additional logic here?  52:             throw ex;  53:         }  54:         finally  55:         {  56:             //close the runspace  57:             runspace.Close();  58:         }  59:     }  60: }

Creating the VM

Now that we've got our classes defined, let's add some code to the application to call the public methods we defined earlier and create our VM!

Modify the click event of your button to include the following code: (NOTE: you will have to modify line 5 to match the Template you have created. The list of processor Types are available in SCVMM - I have merely selected one for the purposes of this article, but you can choose whichever one that best suits your needs)

   1: private void btnCreateVM_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)   2: {   3:     string vmName = txtVMName.Text;   4:     string processorType = "1-processor 1.80 GHz Pentium 4";   5:     string osTemplate = "Win Server 2003";   6:     int ramMB = 512;   7:     int diskSizeGB = 10;   8:     9:     VMHelper helper = new VMHelper("your_SCVMM_server");  10:     helper.CreateVM(vmName, processorType, osTemplate, ramMB, diskSizeGB);  11: }

Compile the solution and run the app (making sure you've updated the code to reflect your SCVMM server and domain accounts. If all goes well you should see your VM bring created in SCVMM!

Getting all existing VMs

Modify the 'VMHelper.cs' class to include the following methods:

   1: /// <summary>   2: /// Gets a list of VMs   3: /// </summary>   4: /// <param name="runspace"></param>   5: /// <returns></returns>   6: private List<VM> GetVMs(Runspace runspace)   7: {   8:     List<VM> vms = new List<VM>();   9:    10:     //get the VM  11:     VM vm = null;  12:     Command getVM = new Command("get-vm");  13:     getVM.Parameters.Add("VMMServer", this.m_SCVMMServer);  14:    15:     using (Pipeline pipeline = GetCommandPipe(runspace))  16:     {  17:         pipeline.Commands.Add(getVM);  18:         Collection<PSObject> result = pipeline.Invoke();  19:         foreach (PSObject item in result)  20:         {  21:             vms.Add((VM)item.BaseObject);  22:         }  23:           24:         pipeline.Stop();  25:     }  26:    27:     return vms;  28: }

   1: public List<VM> GetVMs()   2: {   3:     using (Runspace runspace = PowerShellHelper.InitPowerShell())   4:     {   5:         try   6:         {   7:             runspace.Open();   8:     9:             return GetVMs(runspace);  10:         }  11:         catch (Exception ex)  12:         {  13:             //todo: additional logic here?  14:             throw ex;  15:         }  16:         finally  17:         {  18:             //close the runspace  19:             runspace.Close();  20:         }  21:     }  22:       23:     return null;  24: }

Now we need to modify the UI. Add an additional method called GetVMs:

   1: private void GetVMs()   2: {   3:     listView1.Items.Clear();   4:     listView1.View = View.Details;   5:     6:     listView1.Columns.Add("Name");   7:     listView1.Columns.Add("Status");   8:     9:     VMHelper helper = new VMHelper("your_SCVMM_server");  10:     List<VM> vms = helper.GetVMs();  11:       12:     foreach (VM vm in vms)  13:     {  14:         ListViewItem lvi = new ListViewItem(vm.Name);  15:         lvi.SubItems.Add(vm.Status.ToString());  16:    17:         listView1.Items.Add(lvi);  18:     }  19: }

Then modify the form_load event to call the GetVMs() method:

   1: private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)   2: {   3:     GetVMs();   4: }

Also, add the call to GetVMs to the button click event. This will cause the list to refresh once the VM is created.

Run your app and you should see a list of the existing VMs! :)

Deleting an existing VM

Deleting an existing VM is quite straightforward. We simply need to pass the name of the VM to remove and issue the command.

Let's add another button to the form called 'btnDelete'. Your form should look similar to this:

Add the following code to the click event of btnDelete: (NOTE: you will need to modify the server name in the VMHelper constructor - line 7)

   1: private void btnDelete_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)   2: {   3:     if (listView1.SelectedItems.Count > 0)   4:     {   5:         string vmName = listView1.SelectedItems[0].Text;   6:     7:         VMHelper helper = new VMHelper("your_SCVMM_server");   8:         helper.DeleteVM(vmName);   9:    10:         GetVMs();  11:     }             12: }

Now run the app. To delete a VM, simply select it in the list view and click the delete button!

Conclusion

By combining PowerShell with SCVMM, automating the creation of Virtual Machines becomes fairly straightforward. Mix in C#, and you have an excellent platform to build upon.

I hope this article has given you some good insights and enables you to get started building VM tools with these great technologies.

Jason

Creating Arcs and Changing Centers with Expression

dditweb — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:32:43 GMT

I know I had a hard time trying to work this out when I was starting to use Expression, so I thought it might be useful to share! Thanks Tim!

Creating Arcs and Changing Centers with Expression

Jason

SQL Server Management Studio - Quick Tip

dditweb — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:37:25 GMT

Just a quick tip I thought I would share...

When working in SQL Server Management Studio, an easy way to hide the results of a query is to press CTRL + R. Press it again to toggle showing the results.

Jason

Quality & Trust

dditweb — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 20:13:33 GMT

Recently we had a new release of an application that didn't go as well as planned, which I'm sure a lot of you can probably relate to - after all, how many rollouts do go as planned?

This new release contained miles of bug fixes and enhancements and was being touted as a major step forward. Lots of work had been put into making this release "a fresh start", enabling an excellent foundation for us to build on in future versions - something the previous versions were lacking.

So from a development point of view this new release was a great success.

However, even though we (the developers) were pleased, once we rolled it out we began to notice a few problems, mainly related to the different environments (dev, test, live). You know - the errors that seem to "work fine on my machine" but crash horribly on the server.

Whilst we have since resolved the errors and the application is now working great, the questions remain - did we take a step forward in the eyes of the user? Will they overcome the inconvenience we caused them during the upgrade now that they see the benefits of the new version? etc, etc

Yes, I think so. BUT - we have tarnished a fragile relationship. The relationship the users have with us. They depend on the application to work, and work well, hence they depend on us. They trust us. They trust us to make sure each new version is better than the last. They trust us to make sure every release is smooth and seamless. They trust us to make sure we performed in-depth testing.

So did we break that trust? Did we deliver the quality the users have the right to expect?

I hope not, but if we did - trust is something that's going to take a while to rebuild - perhaps a lot longer than it will take to rebuild the application alone.

Jason

What do you want? ;)

dditweb — Wed, 09 May 2007 21:29:28 GMT

Yesterday my manager sent an email around to the team asking for ways we could better utilize the blog and how we could 'do more blogging'.

Needless to say, his email got me thinking...

How do we - an internally facing team - better connect with customers? What sort of stuff should we write about which benefits you?

So much of what gets blogged about seems to be regurgitated information. How do we create original, yet thought provoking posts?

I know I've got a few ideas, and hopefully you should start to see them come out in the next few weeks, but I'd really like your input.

What would you like us to write about? What sort of things as a web developer would you be interested in knowing more about?

Let us know and we'll see what we can do!

- Jason

Reflector 5.0 released!

dditweb — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:23:00 GMT

If you're serious about developing in .NET, you MUST have this tool!

Scott Hanselman has a great post detailing the new features here:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Reflector5ReleasedWorldDominationAssured.aspx

You can download it from here

- Jason

Windows Live Writer Plugins & Dirty Diapers!

dditweb — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 04:00:00 GMT

I've been playing around with Windows Live Writer for a little while now (since it first came out in beta!) and the more I use it, the better it seems to get (in case you haven't used it, I encourage you to check it out).

The only "problem" I've had so far is my lack of understanding on how to create plugins for it. Well my friends - I've worked it out and I intend to share it with you now!

Oh! Before I go any further, let me explain the title of this post...

I've been wanting to write this post for a little while now, but this is the first chance I've had to sit down and have some "time to myself". My wife and I welcomed our new baby daughter into the world a few weeks ago and since then my world has been turned upside down! When I'm not changing diapers, or bonding my her and my wife, I like to try and catch up on the little sleep I seem to be getting at the moment! But just for you (OK.. and me!) I have managed to escape to my office for a while and finally get this article "out the door"... ;)

Anyway, let's get going!

The first step to writing a plugin was working out what I wanted it to do. I finally settled on creating a plugin to insert a thumbnail image of any given web page and have it appear as an image in your blog post.

I was going to write this post about how you create a plugin yourself, but I thought the best way to show you would be to provide the source code for my plugin!

A few points worth mentioning...

When creating a plugin, make sure you add a reference to the WindowsLive.Writer.Api.dll file located in the Program Files\Windows Live Writer directory.
Make sure you add attributes to your class describing the plugin. This is how Windows Live Writer "learns" about your plugin. Mine looks like this:

[InsertableContentSource("Website Image"),
                  WriterPlugin("32a77b7a-5ea4-47be-84fc-ff7471384e10", 
                  "InsertWebsiteImagePlugin",
                  ImagePath = "Web.png", 
                  PublisherUrl = "http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonward/", 
                  Description = "Inserts a thumbnail image of a website into the Live Writer Window"), 
                  LiveClipboardContentSource("html", "text/html"), 
                  UrlContentSource("http://(.*)", 
                  ProgressCaption = "Capturing Website Image..", 
                  RequiresProgress = true)]
    public class InsertWebsiteImage : SmartContentSource

So what's the plugin called and where can I get it?

It's called "Insert Website Image" and you can download it from here!

All source code can also be downloaded from here!

Hope this helps,
Jason

p.s - I've hosted all the source code on codeplex, so if you'd like to contribute to this plugin or perhaps even add your own plugin to this project, please let me know!