ASP.NET Debugging : Visual Studio

CannonPI teaser video

Tom — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:58:01 GMT

There is a new video up on youtube that is the beginning of many more videos. You should check it out and look for for more coming soon.

Also, see if you recognize any of the people in this, feel free to post here who you think they are.

Feedback and Microsoft

Tom — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

There are a lot of different ways that feedback can get to Microsoft and a lot of different ways that it can be handled. For suggestions for making our products better, one of the best methods is to use Microsoft Connect.

One of the things that aren’t know as well is that when our developers look at the data from Connect, they look at how many votes an item has to help them understand how many people are affected by this issue.

So I would suggest you post your issues and suggestions to Connect and also get the word out about the issue. If you have one that you think I may be interested in helping to drive, feel free to let me know either through a comment on my site or by using the Contact Me and sending me an email. Be sure to include the connection (“Visual Studio” for example) and the ID and title of the item so I can find it. I will review the post and if I think it is important to more people, I will blog about it on here and get others to check it out and hopefully vote on it.

ASP.NET Tip: Letting Microsoft know about your problems/requests

Tom — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Not sure if everyone knows of the various options that there are for communicating with Microsoft so I wanted to let you know about some of them here.

Bugs or problems

You can log these on the various forums that we have, the forums are found here. Also, if it is a bug, you can enter it on our Connect site. You can find the various products by going to the Connect Directory and finding the one you are interested in. For ASP.NET or Visual Studio, it is this one.

Blogs

You can always get to us by using the various blogs of different Microsoft employees. For a list of a lot of useful people, check out my Blog Roll on the right. Or check out this post for other useful bloggers, Important blogs to visit regularly.

Usability Research

Another great way to get involved is to participate in a usability study. Everyone isn’t able to do this, but it can be a great way to get your thoughts and opinions heard. For more information, go here.

One other side-note, if you are a gamer, you can check out the Playtest site. Where you can help test things and also get free software.

The PDC this year…

Tom — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Not sure how many people are planning on attending the PDC (Professional Developers Conference) this year, but it is going to be a fantastic conference.

We announced some huge announcements on the PDC web site. http://www.microsoftpdc.com/

We have a major lineup of executive keynote speakers representing most of the core Microsoft businesses.
We’ll have 20+ Windows 7 sessions, and we’ll be giving out the Win7 bits.
We also announced our in-depth symposia sessions including parallel computing and S+S.

If you have any questions about the PDC, feel free to check out the site listed above, or you can Ask the Brain.

The conference runs from October 27th to October 30th with the pre-conference on October 26th. You can see the full agenda here.

We have also just announced that all partners and customers attending the PDC will receive a very special gift this year: a 160GB external USB2 hard drive with all of the bits! That is a very cool gift and very useful as well. I’d love to hear if anyone is going or thinking about going to the PDC!

.NET 3.5 SP1 Source released

Tom — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:00:00 GMT

If you remember my previous blog about Debugging .NET Framework Source Code, well we have now updated the source to include 3.5 SP1. You can check out the announcement here.

With this, we are releasing the source to the following files:

mscorlib.dll
system.dll
system.data.dll
system.drawing.dll
system.web.dll
system.web.extensions.dll
system.windows.forms.dll
system.xml.dll
Microsoft.Visualbasic.dll
System.Web.Routing.dll
System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.dll
System.Web.Abstractions.dll
System.Web.DynamicData.Design.dll
System.Web.DynamicData.dll
System.Web.Extensions.Design.dll

In the future, look for WPF sources also available.

So why would you want to use this instead of just using the .NET Reflector?

Well, let’s take a look at an example:

This is a huge difference if you ask me. Not only do you see the true code as it was created, but you also can see comments and descriptions of what the code is doing.

You can find the steps on how to configure this here or look at the RSCC web site.

Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1

Tom — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:00:00 GMT

The next service pack is finally available. If you are using .NET 3.5, or want to use any of the new features that we have been talking about being added in this service pack, I’d strongly recommend you upgrade to this. You can download it here.

So what are the new features in this, well for a Service Pack, quite a lot. Check them all out:

ASP.NET Dynamic Data, which provides a rich scaffolding framework that enables rapid data driven development without writing code, and a new addition to ASP.NET AJAX that provides support for managing browser history (back button support). For more information, see What’s New in ASP.NET and Web Development.
Core improvements to the CLR (common language runtime) that include better layout of .NET Framework native images, opting out of strong-name verification for fully trusted assemblies, improved application startup performance, better generated code that improves end-to-end application execution time, and opting managed code to run in ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) mode if supported by the operating system. Additionally, managed applications that are opened from network shares have the same behavior as native applications by running with full trust.
Performance improvements to WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), including a faster startup time and improved performance for Bitmap effects. Additional functionality for WPF includes better support for line of business applications, native splash screen support, DirectX pixel shader support, and the new WebBrowser control.
ClickOnce application publishers can decide to opt out of signing and hashing as appropriate for their scenarios, developers can programmatically install ClickOnce applications that display a customized branding, and ClickOnce error dialog boxes support links to application-specific support sites on the Web.
The Entity Framework is an evolution of the existing suite of ADO.NET data access technologies. The Entity Framework enables developers to program against relational databases in according to application-specific domain models instead of the underlying database models. For more information, see Getting Started with the Entity Framework. The Entity Framework introduces some additional features, including support for new SQL Server 2008 types, default graph serialization of Entities, and the Entity Data Source. This release of the Entity Framework supports the new date and file stream capabilities in SQL Server 2008. The graph serialization work helps developers who want to build Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services that model full graphs as data contracts. The Entity Data Source provides a traditional data source experience for ASP.NET Web application builders who want to work with the Entity Framework.
LINQ to SQL includes new support for the new date and file stream capabilities in SQL Server 2008.
The ADO.NET Data Services Framework consists of a combination of patterns and libraries, which enable data to be exposed as a flexible REST (Representational State Transfer)-based data service that can be consumed by Web clients in a corporate network or across the Internet. The ADO.NET Data Services Framework makes data service creation over any data source. A conceptual view model of the underlying storage schema can easily be exposed through rich integration with the ADO.NET Entity Framework. Services created by using the ADO.NET Data Services Framework, and also compatible Windows Live (dev.live.com) services, can be easily accessed from any platform. For client applications that are running on Microsoft platforms, a set of client libraries are provided to make interaction with data services simple. For example, .NET Framework-based clients can use LINQ to query data services and a simple .NET Framework object layer to update data in the service.
Windows Communication Foundation now makes the DataContract Serializer easier to use by providing improved interoperability support, enhancing the debugging experience in partial trust scenarios, and extending syndication protocol support for wider usage in Web 2.0 applications.
The .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server (SqlClient) adds new support for file stream and sparse column capabilities in SQL Server 2008.

As for Visual Studio 2008, the Service Pack can be found here.

The following technologies have been tested and verified to work with SP1:

Silverlight 2 SDK Beta 2 & Silverlight Tools Beta 2. (If Silverlight Tools Beta 2 is already installed, you must upgrade it after you install Visual Studio 2008 SP1. To upgrade, use the installer on the Silverlight Tools Beta 2 page on the Microsoft Download Center Web site.)
MVC Preview Release #3
ASP.NET Extensions/Dynamic Data Preview
VC 2008 Feature Pack
VB PowerPack Controls (2.0 & 3.0)
Expression Studio 2 (RTM)
SQL Server 2008
.NET Framework 3.5 SDK
XSLT Profiler
VSTA 2.0 SDK
Visual Studio 2008 SDK

If you encounter issues installing SP1, uninstall technologies and/or development add-ins not listed above, and then try SP1 Setup again.

Visual Studio 2008 Web Server Here shell extension

Tom — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:00:00 GMT

This has to be one of the coolest shell extensions that I have seen yet. It is right up there with the Command Prompt Here one.

This adds a addition to the right-click menu for a folder for “ASP.NET Web Server Here”.

All the information, including the files are located here. The original version of this, which works with Visual Studio 2005 can be found at Web Server Here Extension

Hotfixes on Code Gallery

Tom — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:00:02 GMT

As first reported by Soma, we are now going to use the MSDN Code Gallery to make hotfixes available. In the past, you could get some from the Connect site but it was hard to discover the fixes. So now all Visual Studio and .NET product updates are going to be available in one place, on Code Gallery. There is no requirement to log-in, you can download any fix you like.

This also means that you have the ability to comment on any fix as well via the Code Gallery forums. For one way to find some of these, just use this link which is using the tag: Hotfix.

What Future Update are you looking forward to most?

Tom — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:00:00 GMT

There are so many updates coming in the near future, I'd love to hear which one you are most excited about. I'll give a brief list here, but feel free to include other things also if you are so inclined.

ASP.NET Dynamic Data

ASP.NET MVC

ASP.NET AJAX

ADO.NET Data Services

Silverlight 2.0 Overview

DeepZoom

For me, I think that the integration of Silverlight, especially DeepZoom, with ASP.NET is going to be something that can change things. I think it will transform how we use the web and what the choices are for browsing large amounts of data.

Documentation, and Where to Find It

Tom — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:00:11 GMT

There are a lot of places to look for Microsoft documentation currently online. Depending on the area that you are focused in, you may have to visit any of a number of sites to get the information that you require.

One of the best places to start is with the ASP.NET Wiki. This site was designed to collect all the different links from around the Microsoft web properties dealing with ASP.NET and bring them together in one place.

If you can't find it there, here are some other places to look that will have a lot of information on different topics:

Of course, you can also look at the various blogs that are out there and get a lot of information from them. See my previous post here for links to some of them.

Cannot create/shadow copy 'File Name' when that file already exists

Tom — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:34:00 GMT

The two common errors are

Cannot create/shadow copy 'File Name' when that file already exists.
Usually get this message usually when in a debug/edit/debug cycle after successfully building a C# solution and pressing F5 to debug it.

Exception Details: System.IO.FileLoadException: Cannot create/shadow copy 'File Name' when that file already exists.

If you wait a few moments before pressing F5 after a build, ASP.NET seems to have the time to complete whatever it needs to do. This is running Visual Studio 2005/ASP.NET on localhost.
Unable to copy file obj\Debug\xyz.dll to bin\Debug\xyz.dll. The process cannot access the file bin\Debug\xyz.dll because it is being used by another process.
Workarounds

The best solution is to do the following, since VS basically locks the file and you cannot use third party resources to unlock it. Just use VS! In the Properties of a project in your IDE you have Build Events. Basically, you can write scripts during pre and post builds of a project. Add these lines in the pre-build event command line, which basically unlocks the DLL within Visual Studio.
```
 IF EXIST $(TargetPath).LOCKED  (del $(TargetPath).LOCKED)
  ELSE (IF EXIST $(TargetPath) (move $(TargetPath) $(TargetPath).LOCKED))
```
Re-compiled and your unable to copy DLL error will not occur.

More workarounds can be found on:

http://www.connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/Workaround.aspx?FeedbackID=227522

ASP.NET Tips: Expression Web vs Visual Studio

Tom — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:00:00 GMT

So there are now two different editors that are out from Microsoft. There is Visual Studio which has been around for a long time and now a new tool called Expression Web. So which should you use?

Well it all comes down to what you are going to be doing.

Expression

If you are creating a lot of HTML pages and designing them and working with client-side scripting, then Expression Web is the tool for you. The entire Expression Suite is geared towards Graphic Designers. It has tools for everything from creating images, to creating web pages and even Silverlight or Videos.

Visual Studio

If, on the other hand, you are doing a lot of work that involves code-behind (connecting to databases, calling web services and things like that, then Visual Studio is the tool for you. It can do the same stuff that Expression does, but since it isn’t focused on it as much, we can separate the two.

Hope that helps to clear up the story between these two. Please keep in mind that these tools are designed to be used with each other. So both can open the same files and make changes. This allows the Graphic Designers and the Web Developers to work together on the site at the same time which can really help enable your developers.

ASP.NET, Visual Studio and Vista

Tom — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:00:00 GMT

I know that Vista has been out for a while, but just in case people are looking for information on how to use ASP.NET 1.1, Visual Studio 2005, or Visual Studio 2003 on Vista, here are some very helpful links.

Of course the best option is to upgrade to Visual Studio 2008, but I understand that it isn’t always an option for everyone.

Hope that these links help.

Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework SP1 Beta

Tom — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:22:42 GMT

Just in case anyone hasn't heard yet, we have released a beta of Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. This was announced by Soma here.

There are many new things coming in this Service Pack that Soma goes into describing. They include:

Various fixes to issues found by Microsoft and our Customers
Support for the ADO.NET Entity Framework and SQL Server 2008
Improved performance in Visual Studio
Team System improvements
Improved graphics features in .NET 3.5
More .NET 3.5 controls
Improved start-up performance for .NET 3.5
.NET Framework Client Profile
Dynamic Data

You can download the Beta from here.

Useful Debugging tools from CodePlex

Tom — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:13:16 GMT

So I was looking around CodePlex the other day and I came across some really useful tools up there that I thought I would share. Not all of these will apply to everyone, but they can be really useful things and I would recommend you to check them out and see if they apply to what you are creating.

Some of these I have played around with, but not all of them.

Managed Stack Explorer is really useful for getting callstacks, especially if you are experiencing a hang. You can get the stacks from all threads and see what is hung. This is a very lightweight solution and allows easy troubleshooting.

The Open Debugger Extension is a new debugger extension that is being worked on mostly by the guys from the NTDebugging blog. There are plans to do some really neat things in this extension (Note, I already mentioned this in a previous post).

VMExplorer is the next one I really want to look at, but it is a little limiting for me as I do the bulk of my work against dump files and this is for a live process. But it could be very useful to use before having to call into support.

Visual Log Parser sounds like a very exciting project. I have used LogParser for a long time and anything that makes those files easier to parse is welcomed by me.

If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to add a comment.