Mar
26
2009

Determining Win32 API Support in the .NET Framework

From time to time .NET developers will need to use a native Win32 API to get some platform specific work done. One of the first things I ask myself when I start writing out Interop signatures is "Does the .NET framework already support this?". The breadth of classes in the framework can be daunting and it's not always easy to answer that question. Often the conversations and references online revolve around the native API so that isn't always a help. Searching the MSDN docs can also lead to dead ends as the concepts and naming conventions are often modernized in the framework.

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Mar
25
2009

Universal .local Addresses for Testing

When developing web applications I like to use FQDN when testing locally. Primarily because it more closely matches the deployed state of the application. Cookies have specific rules when sub-domains come into play and you're much more likely to catch any variances. Traditionally I'd set just edit the hosts file on my dev machine (at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc on most machines) like so:

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Mar
18
2009

Manually Creating a Visual Studio .accessor File

Visual Studio 2008 offers a great suite of testing tools for developers. One of the the nicest things is the ability to generate reflection based accessor assemblies that let you access the private members of classes. There is still opendebate about the benefit of testing private methods but for some things -- especially security related -- where it makes a great deal of sense. Getting at those private methods however is not the easiest thing to do.

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Feb
23
2009

How to Report an Error

Capturing error details and exceptions is critical to the diagnosis of runtime errors. Without specific details, developers are left to guess and take shots in the dark about the potential problems leaving customers with a sour experience. It's surprising how many developers creating commercial grade software simply do not know how to capture exception details from an application. This article will cover some general techniques that apply to all software -- and some that apply to the tools available with DeployLX.

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Feb
18
2009

Filter Tests with xUnit and TeamCity

As part of our migration to TeamCity and our Continuous Integration efforts we've integrated our xUnit.net tests into the build and test process. One of the primary limitations I've found with xUnit is the inability to batch tests outside of the IDE. During development it's easy to run only a specific set of tests ala R#. However as part of the build process don't have that luxury.

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