Powertoys WebLog : _Productivity Tools (Non-VS)

WDriven - Use Word Templates to Integrate with TFS Server

Powertoys — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 23:40:50 GMT

WDriven is a Microsoft WORD document template integrated with Microsoft Team Foundation Server. It enables you to communicate and collaborate on Visual Studio 2005 Team System projects from within Microsoft Word.

Through VSTS Smart Tags, you can add/edit/track work items.
Tables of Items gives you an overview on all the works items referred by your documents.

WDriven doesn't impose any special format on your word documents. You can add Work Item Tracking to your existing regular doucment easily.

DotNetIdeas > Home.

PureText 2.0 to cut out pasting to notepad

Powertoys — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 03:58:27 GMT

I downloaded this time-saving utility after reading about it in Duncan Mackenzie's blog (Removing Word's Formatting from text before pasting into .Text or other apps...). I put applications on a two-week probation period before choosing to keep them or not, but this one was an instant winner. Like Michael Swanson, I used Notepad to scrub text (Sanitize Your Clipboard Text). If Steve had a PayPal donation button, I'd use it. He has several other apps that are probably worth examining, too.

Rob Caron : PureText 2.0.

HelpStudio Lite to Author Help Content in VS 2005

Powertoys — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 03:59:00 GMT

From the MSDN Forums...

The VS 2005 SDK contains a new tool for authoring Help and integrating it with VS 2005. The tool is called HelpStudio Lite. It is lightweight version of the full HelpStudio product, developed by Innovasys.

HelpStudio Lite is recommended for anyone extending VS 2005 - for example, by creating add-ins, controls, or packages. You will likely also want to author and include Help content with your extensions to VS. You can use HelpStudio Lite to author your content and compile it to the Help 2.5 (hxs) format, so it can be integrated with VS 2005.

The HelpStudio Lite documentation includes details on how to create deployment projects for your content (your hxs files). There are a couple options. One option is to use the Help Integration Wizard to create a VS setup project, which can be compiled into an Windows Installer package (msi or msm). Another option is to incorporate the InnovaHxReg tool (included with HelpStudio Lite) into your setup. You can invoke InnovaHxReg to register your content and merge it with existing VS 2005 content.

If you have existing Help 2.x files for VS 2003, you can upgrade them to work with VS 2005 by importing your collection into HelpStudio Lite and then compiling the HelpStudio Lite project. Similarly, you can import HTMLHelp 1.x (chm) files into HelpStudio Lite projects.

Here are some related links for more information.
HelpStudio Lite Press Release
Visual Studio Extensibility Center
Download the VS 2005 SDK

FlashControl to add Flash in Asp.Net 2.0

Powertoys — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 02:59:00 GMT

From the mailbag...

FlashControl is a simple way to include Flash movies in your ASP.NET 2.0 projects ! This free server control can be added in Visual Studio 2005 Toolbox so you can just drag and drop it in your aspx pages.
FlashControl manage all Flash properties (FlashVars, Loop, Menu, Scale, BgColor, SwLiveConnect, Quality, Play, Base, Align, SAlign, WMode, ...) and has full Visual Studio 2005 designer support (Smart Tag, Custom Designer, Custom Property Editor) !

With FlashControl you can target specific HTML output : Internet Explorer Windows (object tag) and/or Netscape/Mozilla, IE MAC (embed tag) or use Automatic browser detection (FlashControl will automatically choose to render object tag or embed tag depending on browser capabilities).

http://www.flash-control.net/

Treemap Visual View of Hard Drive Contents

Powertoys — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 23:41:00 GMT

Not exactly developer related, but I was having a lot of fun just seeing what's taking up so much of the space on my laptop this Holiday season. This tool is great for doing just that and a little bit of early spring cleaning.

http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

PageMethods: Well-defined URLs for your ASP.NET sites and applications

Powertoys — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 06:45:00 GMT

Via Fabrice

PageMethods for Visual Studio 2005 has just been released. This version offers the same support as the version for VS 2003, plus some additional features.
PageMethods proposes a new code model that enables well-defined URLs and simplifies working with hyperlinks for your ASP.NET sites and applications.

PageMethods enables reliable URLs.
Linking to a web page is very easy, both in simple HTML and in ASP.NET. Linking to a page that really exists, passing the right parameters, and parsing these parameters, is a bit different.
PageMethods takes care of your URLs. It proposes a solution to define structured URLs for each of your pages, as well as a clean and simple way to call them.
The idea is based on strict page inputs and declarative parameter binding. With PageMethods, each page exposes a set of methods that represent the different ways to call the page. All you have to do to start benefiting from sharp, reliable URLs is to add methods to your pages, and mark these methods with attributes provided by PageMethods.

Here is how you would declare a page method:

[PageMethod]
protected void DisplayCustomer(int customerID)
{
...
}

Here is how you would refer to the page declaring this method:

MyHyperLink.NavigateUrl = MyPageMethods.Customers.CustomerPage.DisplayCustomer(1234);

Check out: http://metaSapiens.com/PageMethods

RE: Paint.NET, the open source MS Paint killer

Powertoys — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:14:34 GMT

Not exactly developer related, but this is the best free lightweight imaging tool I've found. I've been using it for the last year, but this post on download squad reminded me that I should post it here.
Josh

[Via Download Squad]

Okay, it doesn't take much to be an "MS Paint killer," and probably any one of Paint.NET's features could have netted that title. Paint.NET could better be described as a simple image and photo editing tool that sits somewhere in the middle ground between MS Paint and, say, Paint Shop Pro. It supports layers, history, common effects, and familiar tools like magic wand, clone brush, and recolor. As of version 2.5, released on Saturday, Paint.NET sports more selection features, spline and curve tools, a 3D zoom/rotate tool, improved font rendering, faster performance, lower memory usage, and an extensible file format API. Paint.NET is an open source project, distributed under the MIT license, and is a small download if you already have the .NET framework.

[Via Digg]

Read

Right Click -> New Microsoft Visual Studio Solution

Powertoys — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 08:43:00 GMT

Via Robin Curry

File this one under “Why didn’t I think of that?!”

Peter Provost created a ShellNew extension for Visual Studio Solutions to allow you to right click and add a new solution to any folder without the heavy-handed way Visual Studio does it. Nice!

Install Instructions: http://www.peterprovost.org/archive/2005/10/25/8982.aspx

Snippy - Edit and Create VS 2005 Code Snippets

Powertoys — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 01:51:00 GMT

Via VS Editor Team:

We have released a new powertoy Snippy. It is a Code Snippet editor that will allow you to create new code snippets or modify existing ones. Please let us know if you have any problems installing or using it. There are two versions posted, one for the Beta2 version of the .NET Framework and another one for the current release candidate.

Check out the project hosted on Gotdotnet Codegalleries here: http://www.gotdotnet.com/codegallery/codegallery.aspx?id=b0813ae7-466a-43c2-b2ad-f87e4ee6bc39

Josh

Windows Clippings 1.0 for Cleaner Screen Grabs

Powertoys — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 21:24:00 GMT

Kenny Ker recently posted a tool that generates window screen grabs with JUST the window and none of the background for the window.

Getting ‘clean’ images of these windows can be hard if the background does not match whatever color you will be rendering the image onto. Inevitably you need to position the window over a white background before pressing the PrtScn key. This is just a pain. To solve this problem and just generally make it far easier and simpler to create a ‘clipping’ of a window I wrote the Window Clippings application.

Here is an example of an Alt+PrtScn of a Windows Media Player skin:

And here are the results of using Window Clippings. In this case I chose to produce a JPEG with a red background.

Great work Kenny! Find the download and a lot more information on his blog: http://weblogs.asp.net/kennykerr/archive/2005/09/30/426280.aspx

VS 2005 Wish - Use MSBuild for VC++ Projects without VCBuild???

Powertoys — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 04:30:00 GMT

This blog has been pretty quite of late and I would attribute that to many tool vendors ramping up plans around the upcoming release of VS 2005. We at Microsoft are no exception. In the last few days I've heard of numerous "aftermarket solutions"/powertoys that I know you guys are going to love that go on top of our development platform.

One such project has been detailed here. Craig would like to estimate user interest in this idea and collect some feedback while he continues development. Feel free to reply on his blog.

Building VC projects with msbuild (without using vcbuild)

Along with DDCPX engineering improvements, I've begun spending time looking for useful tools for the VS developer community. One project I have begun is msbuild/vcbuild related. For those who aren’t familiar with msbuild, msbuild is destined to be the official build engine for MS. Instead of using makefiles or sources files, msbuild uses XML based configuration files which execute various tasks. The XML format for msbuild is used in the .(vb|cs)proj files produced by Whidbey so msbuild can be used directly with these files for command line builds.

As many people have noticed in the Whidbey betas, C# and VB project files both use msbuild XML elements. However, C++ is not fully integrated with msbuild; there are no cl or link tasks. Instead, executing msbuild blah.vcproj causes msbuild to invoke vcbuild to do the actual processing. Since this will not be changed prior to Whidbey RTM, I am working on a tool that converts .vcproj files to msbuild formatted files. Thus, a user could convert his .vcproj file to a msbuild formatted file that uses cl and link tasks (as opposed to the standard vcbuild task). Passing this file to msbuild would consequently build your C++ project without using vcbuild.

At this point, I'm continuing my prototype while I measure community interest in such a tool. So, if you are interested, please leave a comment or send me an email.

http://blogs.msdn.com/clichten/archive/2005/06/07/Building_VC_projects_with_msbuild_and_not_using_vcbuild.aspx

- Josh

gotdotnet CodeGallery for ongoing Sample Sharing and Development

Powertoys — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 22:39:00 GMT

Via Korby

I am proud to announce the public release of CodeGallery, the newest member of the gotdotnet family. Gotdotnet.com is the community website where professional Windows and .NET developers from around the world can contribute and consume code samples, snippets, scripts, and developer tools, as well as participate in ad hoc collaborative development projects with friends and colleagues. Whether you're new to computers or a hardcore developer, gotdotnet has something for you.

My boss, Sandy Khaund broke the news about the launch of CodeGallery on his blog. He writes, "[CodeGallery is] focused on the experience of community feedback. While Workspaces concentrates on the joint development of code and code check-in process, CodeGallery limits code activity to upload and download and instead orients the collaboration around idea sharing and feedback from members about the uploaded items. Each CodeGallery project is a “micro-community” on GotDotNet that is focused on collaborative feedback and code, documentation and idea sharing. To support this, we [provide] customization, message board creation, online reporting, bug tracking and message boards that enable members to work together in evolving a project whether it is code, documentation or conceptual."...

CodeGallery--Continuous Feedback-Driven Development
As mentioned, this is the newest member of the gotdotnet family. At CodeGallery, you can download an application, its source code, or both. You can evaluate the application, discuss the latest online version with its creator and other users, as well as create bugs that the owner can fold into the next version of their application. CodeGallery is a great place to see how some of the best developers in the world develop software, find useful utilities and take advantage of reusable code.

Check it out today and feel free to leave Korby and the team feedback.

VS Content Installer Power Toys

Powertoys — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 20:25:00 GMT

Via Craig

The first release of the VS Content Installer Power Toys are now available. You will need a recent build of VS (I tested with the August CTP, but the July version may also work) to use these tools. Remember, they are still a beta build, so not everything will work as expected. But here is what is available:

Content Builder - easily create VSI files with an easy to user wizard interface
Content Uninstaller - remove content installed through the Content Installer
Code Library Installer - install libraries for use within the Add Reference dialog box
Debugger Visualizer Installer - install debugger visualizers (both in DLL and CS form)
Help Installer - install help topics which are automatically included into the MSDN help browser
Samples Installer - install samples
Snippet Directory Installer - an extension of the the snippets installer, but gives you a bit more control in how the files are installed

The content installer also has 4 starter kits (2 for C#, 2 for VB) to help you create your own custom installers. There is also a starter kit (in C#) that will help create plugins into the content builder to automatically upload content to content hosting web sites. Unfortunately, there are no content hosting web sites that support automatic upload yet, but I am working on that - I am currently working on a starter kit to create web sites that host VSI content, just run the starter kit template and you have a full web site that supports uploading, downloading, content rating, etc. More information on this in the next few weeks.

This MSI will also place IntelliSense XML files for programming the Content Installer, unfortunately, because of a recent change in VS, this may not work as it should. But you should be able to move the xml file yourself to the correct location.

I plan on making the source code available to these tools soon.

You can download the msi to install the power toys at http://www.gotdotnet.com/workspaces/workspace.aspx?id=6b1aceda-e613-4dac-beeb-0cd8ad8f2d41

VC++ Powertoys from GDN

Powertoys — Mon, 15 Aug 2005 20:19:00 GMT

I don't know how I missed these, but there exists a collection of VC++ powertoys on the GDN site. The full descriptions are found in this document, but I've copied them down here as well.

Name - Description

Delta - Watch a directory (either local or remote) and see when items in it get changed.
FindDir - Find a directory on a server
Windows Installer Log Parser - Graphical Viewer for log files generated from Windows Installer Setups (verbose log file). Also has a quiet mode to generate an HTML page that annotates the log.
Depends - Scans a Windows Module and builds a hierarchical tree diagram of all dependant modules
Window Control - COM Object allowing simple manipulation of windows via scripting languages. Eg setting window text, moving, clicking, activating and showing / hiding windows
SpCheck - Service Pack Checker will check the origin of many different components on a system
Err - Lookup Error Constants in a number of NT Tables
ProcWait - Waits for 1 or more processes to terminate and inherits their return values. Useful for synchronization scripts
C++ IFilter - C++ IFilter for Indexing Service. Makes searching C++ code extremely fast (usually used in conjunction with a search utility such as ci.exe or srch.exe provided)
Ci - Command-line search tool for Indexing Service (see C++ IFilter)
Srch - Graphical search tool for Indexing Service (see C++ IFilter)
Wear - Reports all matches for an exe in the path
JumpWin - Move an application from 1 monitor to another (when using multimon) at the touch of a key.
Remoted - Software Switchbox. Control multiple computers by moving your mouse to the edge of a screen.
Backinfo- Generates a wallpaper with System Data (eg machine name)
KAPIMon - This does not work on XP (will crash the machine). Debugging Framework based on Kernel and User API Hooks.
SmartAny - Never leak a resource again! This template library for generic resource management makes resource management a breeze!

GRETA - This is a great regular expression library that supports full Perl 5 syntax.

Remoted and JumpWin are my personal favorites.

Download the package today: http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/cplusplus/powertools/powertools.zip

Enjoy,

josh

Merge Multiple .NET Assemblies into One with ILMerge

Powertoys — Mon, 16 May 2005 21:50:01 GMT

Someone from MSR forwarded me the link to ILMerge. It lets you combine multiple assemblies into one without opening up the source code. Enjoy - josh
From the ILMerge Site
ILMerge is a utility that can be used to merge multiple .NET assemblies into a single assembly. It is freely available for use from the Tools & Utilities page at the Microsoft .NET Framework Developer Center. Its license does allow commercial usage! If you have any problems using it, please get in touch. (mbarnett _at_ microsoft _dot_ com)

ILMerge takes a set of input assemblies and merges them into one target assembly. The first assembly in the list of input assemblies is the primary assembly. When the primary assembly is an executable, then the target assembly is created as an executable with the same entry point as the primary assembly. Also, if the primary assembly has a strong name, and a .snk file is provided, then the target assembly is re-signed with the specified key so that it also has a strong name.