Tools
There are 24 entries for the tag
Tools
I'm working hard to bring you a PDA (Windows Mobile) version of SmartBiller and the next version of desktop SmartBiller.
Here's what's coming:
PDA version
Synchronization API
Synchronization Server and Cost Center
Data import (to load clients, project and categories)
Extra fields for entries
Bug fixes
We are expecting to have the next version ready in December 2009. Watch this space.
Tags: .NET, C#, Tools, SmartBiller
This morning i have received an email from Craig who has suggested a very simple solution to enable proxy in GO Contact Sync. The trick is to created a config file GOContactSync.exe.config in installation directory and put this content in:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<system.net>
<defaultProxy enabled="true"
useDefaultCredentials="true">
<proxy bypassonlocal="true"
proxyaddress="http://proxy:80/" />
</defaultProxy>
</system.net>
</configuration>
Then replace "http://proxy:80/" with...
I'm happy to announce a release of SmartBiller - a time tracking tool for consultants. It's implemented as an application which sits in the system tray and you just double-click its icon to start a timer.
There are 2 flavours available: Free and Professional. Professional edition comes with Plugin API so you can extend the application and integrate it with other systems. Free edition naturally has some limitations - namely number of timers you can run simultaneously, number of clients, projects and tasks. There's no time limit though. See feature comparison table.
Give it at try and see how you spend your day at work or on your...
I'm happy to announce a new release of ClassFromConfig - v1.4.0! Lots of improvements there. I had to rewrite the code generation code almost from scratch so it is more managable and easy to extend later on.
Changes include:
Rewritten the code generator engine to be more managable.
Added lost of tests.
Added "options file" support which enables to store ConfigFromClass settings in project .config file.
Added ability to update config file and automaticallt register generated custom sections.
Added support for default collections
...
Hi,
I've released GO Contact Sync v1.0.0.3 where expiration date is removed. So it will work without any limits.
I'm still in the process of migrading GO Contact Sync to open source (have decided to go with sourceforge.net), so those of you who have errors with synchronizing will have to wait a bit longer.
Tags: Tools, Google, Outlook, .NET, C#, Open Source
It's been awhile since my last update. Lots of things happened during this time. I may write about some of them in my next posts as it relates to why i'm writing the following:
I had some good feedback about GO Contact Sync over past few months. Thanks guys. I also got some error reports (yes, there were error belive it or not :). Some of the errors are quite tricky to tackle as it involves a Google account and an Outlook Contacts folder both which are unique to a particular user. You can guess that replicating the same error is not easy. Plus i...
I have just released the first beta of GO Contact Sync tool (G stands for Google and O stands for Outlook ;) - this was previously announced as Google Contact Sync.
So, the features are:
Synchronizes your contacts between Microsoft Outlook and Google Mail.
Supports contact categories and contact photos.
Multiple sync options to suite your needs.
Automatic sync (on an interval)
Accessible via system tray
Here's what the settings window looks like:
This beta will expire on 31st of December 2008. This doesn't...
As you may have already heard, Google has released their own browser - Google Chrome. It's a beta at this stage, but what's there now is quite impressive: the main thing that cought my attention is the way they're handing JavaScript. Essentially they are compiling JavaScript into machine code, which yeilds a much faster performace.
So, i've run some javascript tests and was amaised by the results: Chrome performed about 30 times faster than IE and almost 2 times faster than Firefox 3!
Javascript performance comparison
...
I have finally integrated FxCop into my automated build process. Now i can see FxCop summary and detailed reports on the CruiseControls.NET dashboard.
Initially I was misguided somewhat by CruiseControl.NET's documentation when it said
We don't currently support running FxCop directly from CruiseControl.NET, but we plan on enabling this in a later release.
It seemed that the only way FxCop could be used with CC.NET is via NAnt.
However it turned out to be very easy to do it just via Executable Task. Here's what i did:
Added FxCop project file to my solution (so i could select which assemblies to...
An update on the development progress of Google Contacts Sync. It's taking longer than anticipated, partly because i've got lot's of other projects on hand at the moment and partly because i'm adding support for contact categories ("groups" in Google terms) and for pictures. It's almost there and beta will (hopefully) be available early August.
Tags: Tools, Google, Outlook
Inspired by Google Calendar Sync i have started developing a tool for syncronizing Outlook Contacts with Google Contacts. A beta version is on it's way by the end of June i hope. Let me know if you're interested in getting a copy of the beta (or the RTM) when it's released - i'll send you a notification.
Tags: Tools, Google, Outlook
Recently i have discovered Google Calendar Sync - a tillte tool from Google that can syncronize Outlook Calendar with online Google Calendar:
(Above: Options window)
It sits in the system tray and does what it says it does: syncs Outlook Calendar and Google Calendar.
Not only it's cool, it's also useful :) as a backup for your calendar.
Follow this link for setup instructions and download
Tags: Tools, Google, Outlook
I have finally migrated ClassFromConfig project to SourceForge.net
Now there's version control (Subversion), Issue Tracker, Wiki, Forum and more. So, if you want to contribute to the project - let me know.
As for the update - it's a minor release, which includes:
ability to load linked config files (via configSource attribute).
node collection can now be any tag (not limited to "<add ...", can use "<item ...", etc.) - must be at least 2 in the config to recognise it as a collection.
I've got several enhancements on my to-do list:
Ability to create nested classes...
Recently I was working on a project that involved "scraping" information from a website. A did a bit of research for available libraries that provide the toolset to do these efficiently.
I found Html Agility Pack, created by Simon Mourier. It's a parser that transforms any real world HTML into valid XML, from which you can then extract information by using XPath.
I also had to use a FormProcessor add-on for Html Agility Pack to simulate login process.
These tools proved to be very useful.
Tags: .NET, C#, Open Source, Tools
Problem
Automatic database updates in a Continuous Integration Server (i use CruiseControl.NET) has always been a missing link for me. There are two aspects of it:
unit-testing database-dependant classes.
publishing database changes to the staging environment (mainly for web project).
Unit testing database-dependant classes (i use NUnit) can be easily solved by just having our MDF file (in case of SQL Server database) in the source control repository (i use Subversion). Making changes to the database is easy, and those changes will be unit-tested by our CI Server when we comming...
Better later than never: Happy New Year!
And as a New Year gift to you all i'm pleased to announce a release of ClassFromConfig version 1.3 with support for supports custom sections, e.g if you had
<configuration> <ErrorReporter fromAddress="email@domain.com" fromName="Error Reporter" subject="Error: {0}, {1}" floodSubject="Error Flood" enabled="true" ...
I have updated ClassFromConfig to version 1.2. Now it supports connection strings, e.g if you had
<connectionStrings> <add name="MyConnection" connectionString="..."/></connectionStrings>
in your config, you could access it as follows:
Config.ConnectionStrings.MyConnection
Unfortunately there was a problem in previous releases. It was a "works on my machine" syndrome. Doh! Luckily it was discovered, thanks to Gabriel.
Anyway, check out ClassFromConfig - it'll save you time.
Tags: .NET, C#, Open Source, Configuration, Tools
Recently I have installed CruiseControl.NET – a continuous integration server. It was a good move. My previous encounter with continuous integration involved just a set batch scripts. Although I could do just fine with batch scripts, I feel much better now when I have a proper build server setup. My build server consists of the following components:
CruiseControl.NET – continuous integration server.
Subversion – version control system.
MSBuild – my build tool of choice.
NUnit – unit testing framework.
CruiseControl.NET
CruiseControl.NET is and continuous integration server and it’s an integral...
An update to my previous post:
I have updated ClassFromConfig to automatically recognise value types.
Types that it can recognise:
Boolean
Integer
Double
DateTime
String array (String[])
I'm planning to add generation of connection string properties, e.g if you had
<connectionStrings> <add name="MyConnection" connectionString="..."/></connectionStrings>
in your config, you could access it as follows:
Config.ConnectionStrings.MyConnection
Tags: .NET, C#, Open Source, Configuration, Tools
.NET configuration is great.
But i don't really like working with ConfigurationManager.AppSettings, because i get annoyed:
that i have to remember key names
that i may accidentally make typos in the key names, and then spend time looking for it.
I'd rather have a class with all my configuration items presented as properties, so i can enjoy intellisence when reading my app settings.
There are two options here:
Write a simple wrapper class that reads app settings and provides access to those via properties
Write a custom configuration provider with would...
I didn't write anything in September because my wife and i had our first baby born on the fifth - a little boy. It took about a month to get used to the new way of life. In a word: it's great! Absolutely unimaginable experience! I'm looking forward to the many years raising the baby.
I'm now trying to get back doing things i did before the baby and, surprisingly, i can!
Anyway, i have been researching some options for converting RTF (of any other Word-compatible format) files to PDF via command line. I need to automate some PDF creation on the...
Came across Nini - .NET configuration library.
Might find it useful as some stage.
Tags: .NET, Configuration, Tools
Looking at HTML code highlighting options i found these:
http://www.manoli.net/csharpformat/ - online tool that allows you to format your C#, VB, HTML, XML, T-SQL or MSH (code name Monad) code for publishing on a web site or in a blog.
http://code.google.com/p/syntaxhighlighter/ - JavaScript syntax highlighting.
http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/CSharpColorizer.asp - automate posting of formatted and colorized C# source code in four different ways (source in C#)
http://www.actiprosoftware.com/.../CodeHighlighter/ - free (no source though) web control with lots of supported languages.
http://projectdistributor.net/...projectId=11 - currently supports 23 languages by default and...
To find out what program/process is using a particular file use Unlocker
Simply right click the folder or file and select Unlocker
Tags: Windows, Tools