Tag: Visual Studio

How to connect to an AD Domain Secured SQL Server from a non-domain PC

The following are instructions for setting up a connection to an Active Directory (AD) Domain secured SQL Server using either SQL Server Management Studio or Visual Studio. This is especially applicable when not using a domain attached PC.

Step-by-step guide

Continue reading “How to connect to an AD Domain Secured SQL Server from a non-domain PC”

Setting up external URL access to your Team Foundation Server 2010

I came across a great blog outlining all the steps to setting up alternative URLs for Team Foundation Server 2010 (TFS), Team Web Access and the Reporting server too.

It’s well written and easy to follow and can be found here http://www.tjopsta.net/2010/04/16/how-to-change-team-foundation-server-2010-urls-for-use-externally/

Understanding CA2214 code analysis warnings using ViewModels

If like me you didn’t understand the the rest of the message and it’s implications here is a simple explanation and answer.

When an object that implements an inherited class (e.g. a ViewModel that inherits from ViewModelBase) is constructed, the constructors in the base class or classes are executed first.

However as the base classes execute methods or events, if these implemented methods or events are overridden, by a more derived class, then the base could call these and not it’s intended base methods. This could cause some unexpected behaviour.

If you make calls to potentially override-able methods yourself (e.g. RaisePropertyChanged) , you probably intended to and know full well what the consequences are. So why the annoying message?

Well, CA2214 is warning you that this may become a problem if anyone decides to inherit from your class (e.g. your ViewModel). As this is probably not something that you want or intend in your project, you can eliminate this warning by simply sealing your class!

    public sealed class MainViewModel : ViewModelBase

This will ensure that your class cannot be inherited from. This should make the warning go away.

If you are writing your own base class or a class that is to be inherited from, then don’t call override-able methods in your constructors!

Hope that helps! hhhmmmmm

How to easily add open source libraries to .NET projects using NuGet

I have just come across one of the best Visual Studio extensions called NuGet (http://nuget.org/).

It makes it incredibly easy to add available libraries, including such things as JavaScript libraries like jQuery. Not only that, but it will work out any dependencies, download those and then warn you if any get updated.

The easiest way to get going is to add it to Visual Studio using the ‘Extension Manager’ which you will find under the ‘Tools’ menu. It’s called ‘NuGet Package Manager’.

Once installed, it is simplicity itself to add a reference and download the binaries, dependencies and code for a useful library (such as MVVM Light or jQuery).

  1. Right-click on the references folder in your solution.
  2. Select ‘Manage NuGet Packages…’image
  3. and voila…search for new libraries or check for updates. If NuGet finds any updates then you will get an alert when VS2010 starts.

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Potential TFS connection Problem TF30063

There is one fly in this ointment that took me a little time to resolve. A bug in NuGet can force the connection to your TFS server to be dropped. The only way out is to restart Visual Studio.  the solution to this turns out to be extremely trivial.

All you need to do is add your TFS server URL to the Intranet security group in Internet Explorer!

The credit for resolving this must go to the very brilliant effort by Miha Markic. See his blog about it at http://blog.rthand.com/post/2011/08/26/Fixing-combination-of-NuGet-and-Team-Foundation-in-workgroup-configuration-401-Unauthorized.aspx