Mauricio Rojas Blog

ActiveX Controls in .NET and the Enabled bug

Mrojas — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:04:00 GMT

We found and interesting bug during a migration. The issue was that when there was an iteration through the controls in the forms, and you set the Enabled property, the property didn't get set.

After some research my friend Olman found this workaroung

foreach(Control c in Controls)
{
ctrl.Enabled = true;
if (ctrl is AxHost) ((AxHost)ctrl).Enabled = true;
}

Install Assembly in GAC with C#

Mrojas — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:42:00 GMT

Do you want to create a program to install your assembly in the GAC using C#. Well if you had that requirement or you are just curious, here is how.

I read these three articles:

Demystifying the .NET Global Assembly Cache

GAC API Interface

Undocumented Fusion

What I wanted just a straight answer of how to do it. Well here is how:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Text;

using System.GAC;

//// Artinsoft

//// Author: Mauricio Rojas orellabac@gmail.com mrojas@artinsoft.com

//// This program uses the undocumented GAC API to perform a simple install of an assembly in the GAC

namespace AddAssemblyToGAC

    class Program

        static void Main(string[] args)

            // Create an FUSION_INSTALL_REFERENCE struct and fill it with data

            FUSION_INSTALL_REFERENCE[] installReference = new FUSION_INSTALL_REFERENCE[1];

            installReference[0].dwFlags = 0;

            // Using opaque scheme here

            installReference[0].guidScheme = System.GAC.AssemblyCache.FUSION_REFCOUNT_OPAQUE_STRING_GUID;

            installReference[0].szIdentifier = "My Pretty Aplication Identifier";

            installReference[0].szNonCannonicalData= "My other info";

            // Get an IAssemblyCache interface

            IAssemblyCache pCache = AssemblyCache.CreateAssemblyCache();

            String AssemblyFilePath = args[0];

            if (!System.IO.File.Exists(AssemblyFilePath))

                Console.WriteLine("Hey! Please use a valid path to an assembly, assembly was not found!");

            int result = pCache.InstallAssembly(0, AssemblyFilePath,installReference);

            Console.WriteLine("Process returned " + result);

            Console.WriteLine("Done!");

And here's the complete source code for this application: DOWNLOAD SOURCE CODE AND BINARIES

Useful MSBuild Custom Tasks

Mrojas — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:48:00 GMT

I present here the implementation of some useful tasks
In Artinsoft we perform massive migrations of VB6 code to VB.Net
and C#.

And sometimes after migration there are customizations to be
performed on the code, to add new functionality or to set certain new
properties.

The idea was to provide a couple of very simple and puntual MSBuildTask
to illustrate how easy it is to create custom tasks and to provide a starting
point to create new one.

You can freely use this code, just keep this comments and remember this is just
a sample code. There are not warranties. ;) And i made it a rush I know it could have
been written better

Artinsoft
mrojas@artinsoft.com

The implemented tasks are:

RemoveCOMReference	Removes COMReferences from your project. COM references are for when you are using things thru Interop
FixOutputPath	Resets the output paths to bin\Release and bin\Debug
AddProjectReference	Add a reference to another project. A nice feature is that it generates RelativePaths the way Visual Studio does
AddSimpleReference	Add a reference to a very simple references like the ones you add when you click Add Reference and add System.EnterpriseServices
ChangeCurrentBuildSetting	This can be used for a lot of things. For example to turn on or off the RegisterForComInterop setting To set conditional compilation variables To set debug info to pdbonly The sky is the limit jeje

The following is a sample project file

<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

<!-- make sure that the Assembly is in a place where msbuild can find it, a simple way is just to put it

in the same directory of your .proj file -->

<UsingTask TaskName="SomeUsefulTasks.MSBuild.RemoveCOMReference"    
  AssemblyFile="SomeUsefulTasks.dll"/>

<UsingTask TaskName="SomeUsefulTasks.MSBuild.FixOutputPath"         
  AssemblyFile="SomeUsefulTasks.dll"/>

<UsingTask TaskName="SomeUsefulTasks.MSBuild.AddProjectReference"   
  AssemblyFile="SomeUsefulTasks.dll"/>

<UsingTask TaskName="SomeUsefulTasks.MSBuild.AddSimpleReference"    
  AssemblyFile="SomeUsefulTasks.dll"/>

<UsingTask TaskName="SomeUsefulTasks.MSBuild.ChangeProjectBuildSetting"    
  AssemblyFile="SomeUsefulTasks.dll"/>

   <ItemGroup>

    <VSProjects Include="$(Start)\**\*.*proj" />

  </ItemGroup>

<!--

Run with 
MSBUILD SampleProject.proj /target:COMReference /p:Start="C:\MyCode"

-->

  <Target Name="COMReference">

    <RemoveCOMReference SourceFiles="@(VSProjects)" ComReferenceName="MSXML2" />

  </Target>

<!--

Adds a project reference

Run with

MSBUILD SampleProject.proj /target:AddProjectReference /p:Start="C:\MyCode" /p:ProjectPath="C:\MyCode\MyNewSuperProject\Project1.csproj"

-->

   <Target Name="AddProjectReference">

      <AddProjectReference SourceFiles="@(VSProjects)"  AbsolutePathToProject="$(ProjectPath)"/>

   </Target>

<!-- 
Adds a reference to a standard assembly

Run with

MSBUILD SampleProject.proj /target:AddSimpleReference /p:Start="C:\MyCode" /p:Reference="System.EnterpriseServices"

-->

<Target Name="AddSimpleReference">

      <AddSimpleReference SourceFiles="@(VSProjects)" Reference="$(Reference)" />

</Target>

<!-- 
Resets the OutputPaths to .\bin\Debug and .\bin\Release

Run with

MSBUILD SampleProject.proj /target:FixOutput /p:Start="C:\MyCode" /p:Reference="System.EnterpriseServices"

-->

<Target Name="FixOutput">

    <FixOutputPath SourceFiles="@(VSProjects)"  />

</Target>

<!--

Adds a reference to a standard assembly

There are several options here for example to set the project debug info to pdb-only do this:

Run with

MSBUILD SampleProject.proj /target:ChangeSettingToPDBOnly /p:Start="C:\MyCode"

Or run with

MSBUILD SampleProject.proj /target:ChangeSettingAddAConstant /p:Start="C:\MyCode"

Or run with

MSBUILD SampleProject.proj /target:SettingComInterop /p:Start="C:\MyCode"

-->

<Target Name="ChangeSettingToPDBOnly">

      <ChangeProjectBuildSetting

          SourceFiles="@(VSProjects)"

          ConfigurationType="All"

          Setting="DebugType"

          NewValue="pdbonly" />

</Target>

<Target Name="ChangeSettingAddAConstant">

      <ChangeProjectBuildSetting

          SourceFiles="@(VSProjects)"

          ConfigurationType="All"

          Setting="DefineConstants"

          NewValue="MYNEWVAL"

          Add="True"/>

</Target>

<Target Name="SettingComInterop">

      <ChangeProjectBuildSetting

          SourceFiles="@(VSProjects)"

          ConfigurationType="All"

          Setting="RegisterForComInterop"

         NewValue="true" />

</Target>

</Project>

DOWNLOAD CODE AND BINARIES

Get Relative Path

Mrojas — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:24:00 GMT

I had the requirement of creating a MSBuild custom task that opens a .csproj
adds a reference to another project.

The problem I faced is that references in VisualStudio are generated as relative paths,
so I needed something to help me generate relative paths.

After some Googleing I finally found this code. It was in a long forum discussion
and was posted by a guy named something like Marcin Grzabski. And here it is for posterity.

        private static string EvaluateRelativePath(string mainDirPath, string absoluteFilePath)

            string[]

            firstPathParts =

             mainDirPath.Trim(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar).Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar);

            string[]

            secondPathParts =

             absoluteFilePath.Trim(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar).Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar);

            int sameCounter = 0;

            for (int i = 0; i < Math.Min(firstPathParts.Length,secondPathParts.Length); i++)

                if (

                !firstPathParts[i].ToLower().Equals(secondPathParts[i].ToLower()))

                    break;

                sameCounter++;

            if (sameCounter == 0)

                return absoluteFilePath;

            string newPath = String.Empty;

            for (int i = sameCounter; i < firstPathParts.Length; i++)

                if (i > sameCounter)

                    newPath += Path.DirectorySeparatorChar;

                newPath += "..";

            if (newPath.Length == 0)

                newPath = ".";

            for (int i = sameCounter; i < secondPathParts.Length; i++)

                newPath += Path.DirectorySeparatorChar;

                newPath += secondPathParts[i];

            return newPath;

And to use is just do somelines like:

            String test = EvaluateRelativePath(@"E:\Source_Code\Code\ProjectsGroup1\Project1", @"E:\Source_Code\Code\ProjecstGroup2\Project2");

//This will genearate something like ..\..\ProjectGroup2\Project2

Pretty Printers / Format Code / for C# VB.NET

Mrojas — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:49:00 GMT

In my past life I spent a few eons writing Java code. And it wasn't bad. We had nice tools like Jalopy! that allowed us to have
code in a very standard way.

And I missed that. I've been looking around for something similar but I havent found anything like that :(

Until I found a great post from Chris Eargle, he improved the original solution from Kelvinpinch

Well here's the code.

Public Sub FormatSolution()
     Dim sol As Solution = DTE.Solution
     For i As Integer = 1 To sol.Projects.Count
          FormatProject(sol.Projects.Item(i))
     Next
End Sub

Private Sub FormatProject(ByVal proj as Project)

     For i As Integer = 1 To proj.ProjectItems.Count
          FormatProjectItem(proj.ProjectItems.Item(i))
     Next
End Sub

Private Sub FormatProjectItem(ByVal projectItem As ProjectItem)

     If projectItem.Kind = Constants.vsProjectItemKindPhysicalFile Then

          If projectItem.Name.LastIndexOf(".cs") = projectItem.Name.Length - 3 Then
               Dim window As Window = projectItem.Open(Constants.vsViewKindCode)
               window.Activate()
               projectItem.Document.DTE.ExecuteCommand("Edit.FormatDocument")
               window.Close(vsSaveChanges.vsSaveChangesYes)
          End If
     End If

'Be sure to format all of the ProjectItems.
     If Not projectItem.ProjectItems Is Nothing Then
          For i As Integer = 1 To projectItem.ProjectItems.Count
               FormatProjectItem(projectItem.ProjectItems.Item(i))
          Next
     End If

'Format the SubProject if it exists.

     If Not projectItem.SubProject Is Nothing Then
          FormatProject(projectItem.SubProject)
     End If
End Sub

To use it perform the following steps:

Go to the VS IDE Tools Option
Then Select the Macros option and select Macros IDE...
This will open the macros IDE
In the Macros IDE navigate to the Module1, and Insert the code

To run the Macro go to Tools\Macros\Macro Explorer

And select FormatAll :)

And last but not least if you want to runit from the command line just do:

devenv /command "Macros.MyMacros.Module1.FormalAll" MyProject.csproj or

devenv /command "Macros.MyMacros.Module1.FormalAll" MySol.sln or

ActiveX exceptions when running in .NET

Mrojas — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:11:00 GMT

During migration to C# or .NET it is easier to keep the same ActiveX.
The VBCompanion does a great work in migrating the ActiveX control using the .NET ActiveX wrappings and fixing all method calls.
Sadly sometimes those ActiveX do not work properly in .NET.

Well we have good news.
Recently my friend Jose David (who we keep bothering because he is now
a Project Manager and now he only programs in MS Excel and MS Project, I added the MS by his request :P) fixed a curious bug
we had with an aplication we migrated from VB6 to C#.

The thing is that the aplication had an ActiveX control with a strange runtime behaviour.
We migrated the application keeping the ActiveX control and in most ocasions it worked ok.

But randomly it started throwing exceptions.

During the testing he discovered that if he repeated the steps slowly the bug did not reproduced.

So his idea was that it was due a garbage collection issue. And SURPRINSINLY he was right :P

He added this:

System.GC.Collect();
System.GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();

And the application started to work.

It seems like some of the COM objects needed a little more time for releasing all references :)

IsMissing migration in VB.NET or C#

Mrojas — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:43:00 GMT

Recently we added some support for migrating the IsMissing function to VB.NEt or C#

The thing is. In VB6 the IsMissing Function is TRUE only if you have something like:

Public Sub Foo(Optional str)

Where you dont specify the variable type, or if you have

Public Sub Foo(Optional str as Variant)

And is IsMissing is FALSE for any other case. Including Optional variables whose definition type is not Variant.

So let's see some examples to illustrate the idea:

Example 1:

Public Sub Foo(str, a As Integer, b As Integer, Optional c As Integer)
    MsgBox (str & "Foo Is missing a " & IsMissing(a))
    MsgBox (str & "Foo Is missing b " & IsMissing(b))
    MsgBox (str & "Foo Is missing c " & IsMissing(c))
End Sub

It occurs that IsMissing is really FALSE in all cases. So it is equivalent to:

Public Sub Foo(str, a As Integer, b As Integer, Optional c As Integer)
    MsgBox (str & "Foo Is missing a " & false)
    MsgBox (str & "Foo Is missing b " & false)
    MsgBox (str & "Foo Is missing c " & false)
End Sub

Example 2:

Public Sub Goo(str, a As Integer, b As Integer, Optional c As Object, Optional d As Byte, Optional e)
    MsgBox (str & "Goo Is missing a" & IsMissing(a))
    MsgBox (str & "Goo Is missing b" & IsMissing(b))
    MsgBox (str & "Goo Is missing c" & IsMissing(c))
    MsgBox (str & "Goo Is missing d" & IsMissing(d))
    MsgBox (str & "Goo Is missing e" & IsMissing(e))
End Sub

All cases EXCEPT "e" are equivalent to FALSE

Public Sub Goo(str, a As Integer, b As Integer, Optional c As Object, Optional d As Byte, Optional e)
    MsgBox (str & "Goo Is missing a" & false)
    MsgBox (str & "Goo Is missing b" & false)
    MsgBox (str & "Goo Is missing c" & false)
    MsgBox (str & "Goo Is missing d" & false)
    MsgBox (str & "Goo Is missing e" & IsMissing(e))
End Sub

So if you are migrating your VB6 Code to C# put attention to these little details it can save you a lot of time.And remember that this is just one feature of VBCompanion tool ;)

Internet Explorer Runtime Error Do you Wish to Debug?

Mrojas — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:37:00 GMT

Hi, for several months I lived with an extremely unconfortable bug.
On some pages IE will display an alert dialog indicating

Error
A Runtime Error has occurred.
Do you wish to Debug?
Line: blablabla
Error: blablalba

Well finally I looked in google and found this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822521

So if anybody had to live with this bug like me, I hope this helps him

Debugging AJAX

Mrojas — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:00:00 GMT

AJAX applications are great
Their coolness factor is high, and your clients
will be trilled by the new interactivity of your pages
But as a developer when you have a problem with
AJAX it could be hard to track. Because there is
a lot going on behind the scenes
Some of our costumers migrate their ASP applications to
to ASP.NET and it's natural that they want
some AJAX in it.
So I found a GREAT GREAT application for AJAX debugging
It's called fiddler. I cannot describe it all for you so go its site and watch the videos
The tool is just amazing :)
It really can see everything that the browser
receives and sends and more.
A definitive must Fiddler

MSBuild and Visual Studio

Mrojas — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:50:00 GMT

One of my purposes for this year was to start
using more the MSBuild
Saldly I'm still not as good on it as I expected
This link provided some interetings points MS Build and VS

Case Sensitive SQL Server

Mrojas — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:29:00 GMT

Recently a friend at work had a problem querying a SQL server that indicated that the column name was wrong.

The only thing wrong was the the case. For example he had COLUMN1 instead of Column1. I had never seen that problem in SQLServer.
I had seed that in Sybase but not in SQLServer. He solved that by changing the database collating sequence to something like this:

alter database database1 collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AI

the CI in the collating indicates Case Insensitive

For more information on SQL Server collations check: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa258233(SQL.80).aspx

And you determine your current database collation use a code like this:

USE yourdb>
GO

print 'My database [' + db_name() + '] collation is: ' + cast( DATABASEPROPERTYEX ( db_name(), N'Collation' ) as varchar(128) )

print 'My tempdb database collation is: ' + cast( DATABASEPROPERTYEX ( 'tempdb', N'Collation' ) as varchar(128) )

Track Changes in VSS (Visual Source Safe)

Mrojas — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:18:00 GMT

MS VSS (Visual SourceSafe) is not really my preferred Source Control application, but
sometimes in your company that is what is available and you need to used it to have
at least some versioning of the code.

But haven't you had a situation where last week everything worked and
now everything is broken. And now is up to you to determine what went
wrong? I have it all the time.

VSS have some search tools but I really do not enjoy using them.
The Code Project Site provides an excellent tool called VssReporter

Do take a look at it, it makes it more easy to track changes. :)

Get GUIDs/CLSIDs from Exe, dll, ocx, tlb, etc

Mrojas — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:08:00 GMT

A simple way of getting the GUID from an exe, dll, ocx, tlb is using the TLBINF32.dll

This file is in the system path and it must be registered
(Remember to use regsvr32 if you haven't registered).

            TLI.TLIApplicationClass a = new TLI.TLIApplicationClass();
            try
            {

                TLI.TypeLibInfo inf = a.TypeLibInfoFromFile(@"c:\windows\system32\MSHFLXGD.OCX");
                MessageBox.Show(
                "TypeLibrary Name " + inf.Name + "\r\n" + //name of (Type Library)
                "Tlb ID " + inf.GUID + "\r\n" + // GUID for Library
                "LCID " + inf.LCID + "\r\n" + // Language / Country
                "Major Version "+ inf.MajorVersion + "\r\n" + // Major Version
                "Minor Version "+ inf.MinorVersion); // Minor Version
                for (short i = 1; i < inf.TypeInfoCount; i++)
                {

TLI.TypeInfo inf2 = inf.TypeInfos[i];
MessageBox.Show("CLSID " + inf2.Name + " - " + inf2.GUID,i + " of " +
inf.TypeInfoCount);

                }
            }
            catch (Exception ee)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("No guid");
            }

cfgrid or ext grid change column align

Mrojas — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:42:00 GMT

If you are using Coldfusion MX 8 cfgrid or the excelent Ext library and
you want to change the aligment for the column then a simple way
to do that is:

Add an style block like

.x-grid-col-0 {text-align:center}
.x-grid-col-1 {text-align:left}
.x-grid-col-2 {text-align:right}

And that's all just remember to change .x-grid-col-n change the n for the column you want to modify.

Clean Up your Coldfusion application

Mrojas — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:56:00 GMT

Currently I'm working in some tools to clean
your code, whether it is VB, ASP or Coldfusion.

Mostly simple tools, but for now if you are a
ColdFusion Developer I want to recommend a nice
application called CF Project Cleaner
This tools lends you a hand so you can
get rid of unused files. The tool is not perfect. But it is always handy
to review your code.