Posts filed under 'Tips & Tricks'
Free add-on for Visual Studio 2008 for Flex developers
For flex developers, now you can get the free add-on for Visual Studio 2008.
Ensemble Tofino for Visual Studio is a plugin that enables .NET developers to create Flex front ends for their applications in the same IDE that they normally use. Instead of using a separate text or XML editor and manually invoking the compiler, they can move smoothly between MXML and .NET file types within Visual Studio, and invoke Flex build and run commands from Visual Studio menus.
What you can do with the Ensember Tofino
- Create new projects in a solution using the Visual Studio wizard approach.
- Run Flex applications from within Microsoft Visual Studio.
- Set breakpoints at code locations in “.as” or “.mxml” files.
- Step into code while in break mode.
- Inspect local variables while in break mode.
- Build errors are reported in the Visual Studio error list, and are linked to the source location.
- Browse ActionScript types from referenced components (SWCs) in the Visual Studio object browser.
- Navigate types and members in ActionScript files via drop-downs in the ActionScript code window.
- Simple installation; Tofino includes the Adobe Flex SDK.
- Adds links to relevant Adobe LiveDocs and PDFs for Flex to Visual Studio Help.
The good news is: Ensemble Tofino is available for free. Download Tofino.
Add comment November 20, 2008
Tips on Virtual PC 2007: Disable time syncrhonization
Came across this blog post by the Virtual PC Guy, and quite an interesting reading - How to disable the time synchronization. By default, when you built your VPC and installed it with the virtual machine additions, you will allow the time synchronization. This is quite useful at certain situations that you dont want your VPC’s time to synchronize.
What you need to do is, just change the .vmc file for your VPC.
Open the .vmc file in notepad and find the <integration> elements. Then add the following elements within the <integration> elements,
<components>
<host_time_sync>
<enabled type=”boolean”>false</enabled>
</host_time_sync>
</components>
The complete configuration, should look like this:
Add comment November 20, 2008
Use Threat Modeling Tool and Team Foundation Server together
From my previous post, I mentioned about using the SDL Threat Modeling Tool v3 to identify and mitigate potential security issues early.
You can actually setup the Threat Modeling Tool to use Team Foundation Server as bug tracking system. Here is the instructions:
1. Launch Threat Modeling Tool.
2. Go to Actions, select “Show Bug Tracking Settings“
3. At the “Bug Tracking Settings“, enter the uri that point to your Team Foundation Server. ex: http://tfsrtm08:8080
4. For the Product setting, enter the team project name. ex: AWC-Online.
5. For the Issue type setting, enter the work item type. ex: Bug
[ you can also your your own template to add in more values, ex: Priority, Traige]
6. Once you have done, click “OK” to exit the setting dialog.
7. Now you can go ahead to add a bug from your Threat Modeling Tool.
8. Enter the description for the threat, then click “Add Bug”. A bug workitem will be created and published to Team Foundation Server.
9. When you go to Team Explorer and bring out all the Active Bugs, you will notice the bug you created is appeared here.
Add comment November 19, 2008
Threat Modeling in Application Development Process
Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) is the software security assurance process that introduces security and privacy early and throughout the development process.
SDL Threat Modeling Tool v3 is the core element in the SDL, as it allows software architects to identify and mitigate potential security issues early, when they are relatively easy and cost-effective to resolve.
You can download the SDL Threat Modeling Tool v3, it is still in beta version.
You may find the demo and tutorial on the tools from here.
To learn more about the SDL Process Guidance, please read this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/84aed186-1d75-4366-8e61-8d258746bopq.aspx
For more information about the SDL, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/sdl
1 comment November 19, 2008
Can’t Create Chinese Resource file Resource.zh.resx under App_GlobalResources
Creating ASP.NET website, you can create a mulitple languages site by using the resource files. When you try to create chinese resource file to store the chinese version of the text for your site, you will receive error message “The namespace “Resources” already contains a definition for “Resource”““
The reason is because you have name the resource file as Resource.zh.resx, and ASP.NET can’t recognize .zh .
So, instead of using “Resource.zh.resx”, so you should use “Resource.zh-cn.resx“
Now, you should be able to compile and run your website.
Add comment November 10, 2008
Video Recording with Windows Media Encoder
Sometimes you might thinking of recording some demo walkthroughs, presentations from your desktop. There are a lot of video recording tools you can use, some free some is chargeable.
In this post, I am showing how to do video recording with Windows Media Encoder, which is free for downloading.
1. Download and install the Windows Media Encoder from this site: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5691BA02-E496-465A-BBA9-B2F1182CDF24&displaylang=en
2. Launch Windows Media Encoder, a “New Session” dialog will be prompted
3. Select “Custom session”
4. Click “Properties” below the menu toolbar.
5. At the “Session Properties” panel, under “Sources” tab, select “Video” and “Audio”.
6. From the drop-down-list, you may select the input that you would like to capture video and audio.
7. Click “Apply” to save your setting.
8. Click “Output” tab, select the “Archive to file” checkbox. Enter the file name.
9. Click “Apply” to save your setting.
10. Click “Compression” tab, select the distribution method and encoding settings for your content.
11. Click “Apply” to save your setting.
12. Once you done with you settings, click “Start Encoding”.
13. Now you can start the recording session.
14. Once you have finished recording, go back to Windows Media Encoder, and click “Stop”.
Hope this is helpful for you.
Add comment October 27, 2008
Error installing Windows Mobile Device Center in Windows Server 2008
If you try to install Windows Mobile Device Center in Windows Server 2008, you likely will face the error, “The update could not be installed because at least one Windows component required by Windows Mobile Device Center is missiong“
Solution:
You need to install the “Desktop Experience” feature prior to Windows Mobile Device Center installation.
Here is the instruction:
1. Go to Administrative Tools, select Server Manager.
2. At the left panel, right mouse click Features, and select Add Features.
3. Select “Desktop Experience” from the features list.
4. Click Next.
5. Click Install.
6. Restart is required for your server. After restart, a configuration will be done in your server.
7. Now you are install Windows Mobile Device Center
Add comment October 22, 2008
Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Explorer
Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Explorer is a simplified Visual Studio Team System 2008 environment used solely to access Team Foundation Server services.
You can use the Team Explorer as a standalone rich client to access Team Foundation Server, which allows you to perform tasks like source control, work item tracking, build management, and detailed reports showing bug trends, project velocity and quality indicators.
If you are project managers who use Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Project for project planning, tracking…you are able to access Team Foundation Server. You just need to install Team Explorer, this will be a plug-on for your Microsoft Excel/Project. After you have install the Team Explorer, you will find the extra menu “Team” at your toolbar.
You can click “Choose Team Project”, a “Connect to Team Foundation Server” dialogue will be prompted. From here, you can select which team project you would like to connect.
You can download the Team Explorer installer from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0ED12659-3D41-4420-BBB0-A46E51BFCA86&displaylang=en
Add comment October 15, 2008
TF15013: The requested Team Foundation Server is not registered with the proxy server
Finally my Team Foundation Server proxy 2008 is up, after few days troubleshooting. Just want to share some solutions for those who is facing the same problem.
The error I was getting:
The source control proxy ‘xxx’ is not responding, so the request will be sent to the main server. Please verify your settings.
Additional information:
TF15013: The requested Team Foundation Server is not registered with the proxy server.
Solution 1: Team Foundation Server Topology
Team Foundation Server Proxy should be deployed in a domain environment.
For information about Team Foundation Server Topologies , Refer to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms400668(VS.80).aspx
Solution 2: Verify the Proxy.config configured correctly
By default, after you installed the Team Foundation Server proxy, you need to change the server name in the proxy.config file (The default proxy installation directory is …\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server\Web Services\VersionControlProxy. )
This is the correct configuration to register your Team Foundation Server:
<Server>
<Uri>http://ApplicationTierServerName:8080</Uri>
<Server>
Wrong configuration:
<Server>
<Uri>http://ApplicationTierServerName:8080/VersionControl</Uri>
<Server>
For more information, see this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms400735.aspx
Solution 3: Make sure the services are running
For Team Foundation Server, make sure these services are running
- ASP.NET State Service
- Windows Sharepoint Services Timer
- SQL Server services
- Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler
For Team Foundation Server proxy, make sure the ASP.NET state service is running
Solution 4: Grant permission for TFSProxy service account to access Team Foundation Server
1. At Team Foundation Server
2. Open Visual Studio 2008
3. Go to Team Explorer
4. Right-click TFS server node, select Team Foundation Server settings > Group Membership
5. At the dialog box, click New
6. Enter a new group name, example: TFS Proxy
7. Select the new group, and click Properties.
8. Add the [domainname]/tfsproxy to the group
9. Add the newly created group to the Team Foundation Server Valid Users
To verify your TFS proxy statistics
1. Try access http://localhost:8081/VersionControlProxy/V1.0/ProxyStatistics.asmx at your TFS proxy server.
2. Click QueryProxyStatistics
3. Click Invoke
4. You will see the result like the screenshot at below
For more troubleshooting guides, you may read this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms400681.aspx
Add comment October 10, 2008
Error 28002 Team Foundation Server Installation
If you are doing a Team Foundation Server deployment using domain account, you might likely get the TFS “Error 28002″. For my scenario is, I installed TFS on a separate server and the Active Directory was on another server
The primary reason is because, the DNS is not configure properly.
1. First, remember to turn on the DNS server on the Domain Controller
2. Next we setup the Internal Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties on the TFS to use the following DNS server address of the Domain Controller.
For example: at the domain controller, set the DNS server as192.168.168.2, then point the Preferred DNS Server of the TFS to 192.168.168.2
3. Try to install the Team Foundation Server again or click “Retry” at where you just stopped at your TFS installation.
The installation completed and finished!!
Add comment October 7, 2008
