Monday, May 29, 2006
If you do test driven development, chances are that you have a standard folder structure that is generated by a nant script, it probably looks something like this:

Inside your src folder are you app and test directories. All of your test projects are placed in the test directory and all of your application source code is placed in the app directory.

Knowing that this is the case, we can easily set up a project template using Visual Studio 2005 to create our test projects for us. In the end we won't have to keep deleting the nasty class1.cs file that Visual Studio creates for us and we also won't have to constantly add references to external tools that we may be using for testing purposes (NUnit, RhinoMocks, etc.).

The first thing you need to do to setup your project template is to create an empty class library project in your src/test directory using visual studio 2005.

Next delete class1.cs, you will now have an empty class library, this by itself isn't very interesting but we know that we have a Nant script that will generate our default folder structure for us. Knowing this, we can create a project that will reference our testing tools relative from our src/test directories.

To do this, right click your testing project and select "add reference", navigate to your tools directory and add references to NUnit, RhinoMocks and any other 3rd party tools you would like to use.

Now, in Visual Studio 2005 select "File->Export Template" and export your testing project template. Select the wizard defaults until the finish button, a folder now opens up with your testing project template. Close the folder as it is just showing you the user created templates you already have.

The next time you need a testing project, your testing project template will be available to you in VS2005. All you have to do is right click you solution and select "Add New Project" you will then notice that your testing project template is available to you.




Notice that now we have an optimal testing project, even if we start a new project or a new solution, the project template we just created will look at the tools directory, this is works great since your Nant script should always generate the same folder stucture. We can now resume our regularily scheduled testing.
Monday, May 29, 2006 3:34:33 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [3]  | 
Sunday, May 28, 2006
The guys who put together the Calgary Code Camp did a spectacular job. The whole thing ran very smoothly and I hope that the Edmonton Code Camp can have as much success.

I was actually really impressed with the Edmonton contingent that showed up. We ended up cleaning up on the swag, check out the t-shirt I won, I pledge to wear it to at least 5 edmug events this year.

There were a couple things I learnt from the code camp:

- Have a breakfast/snack for attendees

- Have presentations with a lot of code examples.

- Offer more than one track to attendees.

- The presentations are always going to run late.

- Make sure there are pens.



Sunday, May 28, 2006 6:48:09 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [3]  | 
Thursday, May 18, 2006

The date for the Edmonton Code Camp has been finalized! The code camp is going to be taking place on Saturday, September 30th, 2006 at the Edmonton Public Library in the Edmonton room.

I will also be announcing the first confirmed speaker shortly.

Thursday, May 18, 2006 6:23:26 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Tuesday, May 16, 2006

At work we are currently developing a Windows Service, I noticed that when you install the service using the InstallUtil it doesn’t set a service description for you.

To add one add the following code to your ProjectInstaller class (this is created by clicking “Add Installer” in your windows service design view) just under the InitializeComponent method:

Public Overrides Sub Install(ByVal stateServer As IDictionary)

         MyBase.Install(stateServer)

         Me.AddServiceDescription()

End Sub

 

Public Sub AddServiceDescription()

         Dim service As RegistryKey = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("System").OpenSubKey("CurrentControlSet").OpenSubKey("Services").OpenSubKey(Me.ServiceInstaller1.ServiceName, True)

         service.SetValue("Description", "My service description.")

End Sub

This block of code will go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\YourWindowsService and create a service description key for you based on your service name.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 9:26:59 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [1]  | 
Sunday, May 14, 2006

I know that it is early in the year twenty O six but I am already proclaiming jPod by Douglas Coupland to be the best (and also my favorite) book of the year. A lot of things in the book remind me of my work day at TG and of the tech industry as well. You will relate to a lot of things in this book if you are a programmer. 

Anyway, go buy the book. It is better than reading this.

Fun
Sunday, May 14, 2006 4:36:21 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
I have been playing with Ruby a lot lately just for fun. I was pumped today to see Don Box on his blog that there is a Ruby programming IDE and debugger for Visual Studio 2005. Awesome!
Tuesday, May 09, 2006 2:55:48 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [3]  | 
Monday, May 08, 2006

Left side = Justice from Gray's Matter
Right side = Mike Score from A Flock of Seagulls

Ouch!

Fun
Monday, May 08, 2006 3:40:50 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [3]  | 
Sunday, May 07, 2006

We got word today that our next speaker has confirm for May 25th! The next speaker is...Rod Paddock of Dash Point software, CoDe Magazine and CodeBetter.com. I must say this is pretty cool, I am a fan of CoDe Magazine, it is a great magazine for .NET developers and their user group support is awesome.

Sunday, May 07, 2006 5:04:57 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Wednesday, May 03, 2006

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present than the first meeting of the Edmonton .Net User Group. Jean-Paul Boodhoo came in and gave a killer talk on Test Driven Development using .NET. A lot of light bulbs went off for me during the talk. Jean-Paul is a first class presenter and person and if you can convince him to speak to your user group it will pay off.

On the drive to the talk, one thing that really inspired me was Jean-Paul's statement that we are the next generation of developers and that the same old group of presenters are getting outdated. It kind of changed the way I am going to go about looking for presenters for future meetings.

Be sure to download the code from the presentation here and try and complete the solution. Later you can compare what you came up with to the finished product.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006 4:52:46 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [2]  | 

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