Category Archives: Wndows Forms

Forms-based desktop applications

SQL Server Indexed Views and View Performance

SQL Server allows you to index views, which caches the results; what’s more, indexed views may automatically be included in queries at SQL Server’s discretion — no application changes required. Wow! Continue reading

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Visual Studio Automatic Version Numbering

Visual Studio (2010+) allows you to specify that it should generate (incremental) build versions for your projects. The syntax is quite simple (for AssemblyInfo.cs), but there are a few caveats to know. Continue reading

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Finding Circular Dependencies in SQL Server

SQL Server doesn’t allow a cycle of foreign keys, nor two or more paths to cascadingly delete rows from a table. Thankfully, there’s a script you can use to detect at least table reference cycles. Continue reading

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Integrating NUnit with CruiseControl.NET

Interested in using CruiseControl.NET to execute NUnit tasks and integrate the results in the dashboard, without using the nunit task type? You can do it through exec, if you merge the results. This article outlines how. Continue reading

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Fetching Connection Strings from App.Config in a Library via ConfigurationManager

System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager doesn’t (easily) allow you to read connection strings from an App.Config file inside a library. You need to add a few extra steps to pull this off, like using KeyValueConfigurationElement. Continue reading

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Using NInject For Compile-Time AOP

An update to my aspect-oriented design pattern for compile-time checking: you can implement aspects as interfaces with singular implementations, and use Ninject to inject the interface implementations. Smooth, easy, and it works! Continue reading

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Creating Background Applications in C#

How can you create a .NET application that runs in the background, without a console or any forms? Just create a Windows Application type application, and make sure no windows appear. That’s it! Continue reading

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Sending Multiple Updates Through the Updater Block

Adding multiple updates to an updater block manifest is actually quite easy. Simply package every update into its own manifest XML file, reference the manifests from the main/index manifest, and update the ID of the main/index manifest so that clients can tell that changes occurred. That’s it! Continue reading

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An Overview of the Updater Application Block

The Updater Application Block from Microsoft’s Enterprise Library is not immediately obvious in design. How does it work? We go through the basics. It’s a client-server architecture, which exposes an XML file containing a list of updates — what to download, and what to execute when that’s done. It uses BITS for passive transferring. Continue reading

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Fixing ApplicationBlocks.Updater Exception in x64

Microsoft Enterprise Library’s Update block throws an exception in 64-bit machines; this is because of the BG_BASIC_CREDENTIALS struct that uses a field offset of 4 instead of 8. Change it to eight, and your exception will vanish. Continue reading

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