Silverlight: Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component

While developing some user controls in Silverlight I have come with a situation,
for example when dragging a Chart control in the Visual Studio 2010 designer where I get something like:

Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component

I have been looking for a solution but have not found anything yet.
The only workaround has been:  
a) Close all windows. Do a Clean and a Rebuild or Close Visual Studio and open it again.

Split Config files in several files

In .NET Framework 2.0 the attribute configSource was added to several elements of the .NET config files so you could use external files.

Sadly those attribute are not available for the system.serviceModel.However I found this post that shows a interesting workaround.

You can modify your serviceModel file to look like this:

<configuration>
 
  <system.serviceModel>
    <services configSource="Services.config" >
    </services>
 
    <bindings configSource="Bindings.config">
    </bindings>
 
    <behaviors configSource="Behaviors.config">
    </behaviors>
 
  </system.serviceModel>
 
</configuration>

And then you can put your configuration settings in separate files like the following:

Behaviors.config

<configuration>
 
  <system.serviceModel>
    <services configSource="Services.config" >
    </services>
 
    <bindings configSource="Bindings.config">
    </bindings>
 
    <behaviors configSource="Behaviors.config">
    </behaviors>
 
  </system.serviceModel>
 
</configuration>

For more details see the full post by Pablo Cibraro

Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:portType

During a Silverlight migration project from VB6 I was trying to add a WCF reference,
everything seemed to work in the wizard but no code was generated.

After reviewing the Warning messages, i found that some said:

Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:portType

What I did to solve this issue?

1. Right click on your service reference

2. Select Configure Service reference

3. Uncheck the option that says Reuse types in referenced assemblies.

4. Press OK

After that VS generated the code and I could use the WCF service.

IIS 6 Metabase and IIS 6 Configuration Compatibility

I have a silverlight application that I was trying to publish from Visual Studio to my local IIS and I got this problem:

For the record I have Windows 7.

So you can write on the Search program and Files “ Turn Windows Features on or off”

And then select

How to create an adding that add context menu for certain files types in Visual Studio

Recently I was looking for a way to create an Adding that will add a Context Menu only when I Right Click on .xaml files.

I know there a many ways now, but I still love using VS studio addins for some simple tasks.

In case you are wondering how to do that 

I found this great article: http://davedewinter.com/2008/03/22/dynamic-menu-commands-in-visual-studio-packages-part-2/

Code compiles but System.IO.FileNotFound Exception is thrown

We have seen a situation that can be a little annoying.
I usually find that situation in ASP.NET projects, but it can also happen in Winforms.

The issue is like this:

• You have a VStudio Solution
• You have added all the needed references
• All your code compiles

BUT

When you run the application it terminates at a certain point with a
FileNotFound exception indicating that the assembly blablabla  or one of its
dependencies could not be loaded.

Whats hapenning!!!

Do this:

1) Look at the bin\debug or bin\release and make sure that the assembly is in those directories.

2) If the assembly is not there, then go to the project references in the solution explorer, right click and select properties and set the Copy Local Setting

Where is my DXCore

I’m an enthusiastic user of DXCore and I have been working on some extensions of my own. But I could not find the DXCore or DevExpress menu.

Well there is a hack for that.

Please invoke the Registry editor, add the "HideMenu" DWORD value to the following Registry key, and set its Value to 0:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Developer Express\CodeRush for VS\9.1
This should make the "DevExpress" menu visible.

Look at the post for more details and keep enjoying DXCore.

A Better Visual Studio!

Recently I discovered in MSDN a great addition, a must to for all C# developers. CodeRush Express.

This product was build by DevExpress and it just make it perfect your experience with Visual Studio.

For example finding symbols or files, tabbing between references, and more than 20 differente refactorings!!!!

Take at look at this new extension! It’s a absolutely a must.

Get path of ASP.NET web application that is running

If you have your ASP.NET application for example in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\WebApplication1 and you want to programmatically get that path just use something like:

string AppPath = Request.PhysicalApplicationPath;

Resizing Forms in C#

In the VB6 world it was very common to use “Resizer” OCXs that you just put on your forms and that they handle all the proportional resizing needed if you changed your form.

It was very simple and easy.

However when I started looking for something like that in .NET it was quite hard to find. So finally I got to ComponentSource and found some alternatives and I evaluated them:

All of them seem to work. So it really up to your company preferences, budget and the level of support you desire. I haven't made tests like how it behaves if you have thirdparty components or activex ??? maybe I'll review that later.