Do note that the following steps work great in conjunction with Visual Studio T4 Templates, whereby multiple .config files (e.g. Web.Dev.config, Web.Test.config) can be generated from a master template to reflect different connection strings, etc. Oleg Sych has a nice write-up on this. Hint: hand-edit your .csproj file and use the DependentUpon element to keep your project view clean in Visual Studio—multiple .tt files can be nested under the main .tt file.

1. Make a copy of DefaultTemplate.xaml and check it in. Let’s call it BatchFilePostBuild.xaml.
2. Open BatchFilePostBuild.xaml in the designer and add 2 new Arguments:
   • BatchFile (Direction = In, Argument type = String, Default value = [blank])
   • BatchFileArguments (Direction = In, Argument type = String, Default value = [blank])
3. Expand “Run On Agent”. Drag “InvokeProcess” from the Toolbox and place it after “Try Compile, Test, and Associate …”
4. In the Properties pane for InvokeProcess:
   

   Property	Value
   Arguments	BatchFileArguments
   EnvironmentVariables	New Dictionary(Of String, String) From {{"SourcesDirectory", SourcesDirectory}, {"BinariesDirectory", BinariesDirectory}}
   FileName	BatchFile.Replace("$(SourceDir)", SourcesDirectory)

5. Double-click InvokeProcess:
   • Drag “WriteBuildMessage” from the Toolbox and place it under stdOutput. Set Importance = High, Message = stdOutput.
   • Drag “WriteBuildWarning” from the Toolbox and place it under stdError. Set Message = stdError.
6. Save and check in BatchFilePostBuild.xaml.
7. In Team Explorer, create a new build definition, with its process template being BatchFilePostBuild.xaml.
8. In the Process tab, there will be 2 properties under Misc:
   

   Property	Value
   BatchFile	Here you can specify the path and file name to your batch file relative to $(SourceDir). Refer to the folder structures in the Workspace tab.
   BatchFileArguments	A list of arguments separated by spaces. In your batch file, they will be %1, %2, %3, and so on.

9. Create and check in your batch file. In this batch file you will be able to refer to %SourcesDirectory% and %BinariesDirectory%, in addition to %1, %2, %3, etc. above. Assuming %1 is the environment type (e.g. “Test”) and %2 is the server name, here are some useful commands:
   

   Clean target folder	del /s /q "\\%2\path\to\remote\folder\*"
   Copy directory structure	xcopy "%BinariesDirectory%\path\to\folder\*" "\\%2\path\to\remote\folder" /s /y
   Copy Web.Test.config to the Test server	copy /y "%BinariesDirectory%\_PublishedWebsites\MyProject\Web.%1.config" "\\%2\path\to\remote\folder\Web.config"
   Start remote Windows service	sc \\%2 start "My Windows Service"
   Stop remote Windows service	sc \\%2 stop "My Windows Service"
   Dirty wait for around 30 seconds	ping 127.0.0.1 -n 30 > NUL

private Task<WebResponse> GetWebResponseAsync(string url)
{
    var webRequest = WebRequest.Create(url);
    return Task.Factory.FromAsync<WebResponse>(
        webRequest.BeginGetResponse,
        webRequest.EndGetResponse,
        null);
}

public void Run(string url)
{
    Task.Factory.StartNew(StartBusyIndicator)
        .ContinueWith(task => GetWebResponseAsync(url)).Unwrap()
        .ContinueWith(task => Console.WriteLine(task.Result.Headers))
        .ContinueWith(task => StopBusyIndicator());
}

Otherwise we’d have to handle the result of the async call either in callbacks or in event handlers—messy.

There are two caveats, though, when using Task.ContinueWith(). The first is that we have to sometimes use .Unwrap(). The second is that we have to handle exceptions in the next .ContinueWith(). Otherwise, our exceptions will just get swallowed.

So now:

public void Run(string url)
{
    Task.Factory.StartNew(StartBusyIndicator)
        .ContinueWith(task => GetWebResponseAsync(url)).Unwrap()
        .ContinueWith(task =>
        {
            if (task.IsFaulted) // handle errors
            else Console.WriteLine(task.Result.Headers);
        })
        .ContinueWith(task => StopBusyIndicator());
}

There goes our pretty code. Also, imagine the duplication if we do this for every .ContinueWith().

And so, inspired by Stephen Toub’s Processing Sequences of Asynchronous Operations with Tasks, I’ve written drop-in replacements for .ContinueWith() and .Unwrap() that will bubble up exceptions to a .Finally() extension method. Now our code can be clean again:

public void Run(string url)
{
    Task.Factory.StartNew(StartBusyIndicator)
        .Then(task => GetWebResponseAsync(url))
        .Then(task => Console.WriteLine(task.Result.Headers))
        .Finally(ExceptionHandler, StopBusyIndicator);
}

Do help yourself to the full source and example usage at github:gist.

NHibernate config:

<hibernate-configuration xmlns="urn:nhibernate-configuration-2.2">
  <session-factory>
    <property name="connection.driver_class">
      NHibernate.Driver.OracleDataClientDriver
    </property>
  </session-factory>
</hibernate-configuration>

C# code:

var result = nhibernateSession
    .CreateSQLQuery("select GetSomeValue(:p_parameter1) from dual")
    .SetParameter("p_parameter1", parameter1)
    .UniqueResult();

// GetSomeValue returns a scalar of datatype number; result will be object of type Decimal

var someValue = Convert.ToInt32(result);

NHibernate config:

<hibernate-configuration xmlns="urn:nhibernate-configuration-2.2">
  <session-factory>
    <property name="connection.driver_class">
      NHibernate.Driver.OracleDataClientDriver
    </property>
  </session-factory>
</hibernate-configuration>

NHibernate mapping:

<hibernate-mapping xmlns="urn:nhibernate-mapping-2.2" assembly="SampleProject" namespace="SampleProject">
  <sql-query name="GetEmployeesByDepartmentId">
    <return class="Employee" />
    { call GetEmployeesByDepartmentId(:p_departmentid) }
  </sql-query>
</hibernate-mapping>

C# code:

var employees = nhibernateSession
    .GetNamedQuery("GetEmployeesByDepartmentId")
    .SetParameter("p_departmentid", departmentId)
    .List<Employee>();

To execute a stored procedure that has no out parameters:

nhibernateSession
    .CreateSQLQuery("call DoSomething(:p_parameter1)")
    .SetParameter("p_parameter1", parameter1)
    .ExecuteUpdate();

ORA-00603: ORACLE server session terminated by fatal error
ORA-00600: internal error code, arguments: [ktcirs:hds], [0×00F7D8078], [0×006F10BF0], [0×01B8C8078], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], []
ORA-00600: internal error code, arguments: [ktcirs:hds], [0×00F7D8078], [0×006F10BF0], [0×01B8C8078], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], []
Process ID: 4084
Session ID: 125 Serial number: 369

The solution

1. Install 64-bit Oracle Client 11.1.0.6.0 (win64_11gR1_client.zip) but do not install Oracle Services for Microsoft Transaction Server.
2. Install only OraMTS using 64-bit Oracle Data Access Component 11.2.0.2.1 (ODAC112021Xcopy_x64.zip).

What’s the problem, BTW?

“Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 introduce new MSDTC changes that do not interoperate with older versions of Oracle Services for MTS. Oracle Services for MTS 10.2.0.4 and higher, with the exception of 11.1.0.6, support these new changes on Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 or higher.” Source: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/windows/index-089915.html

rsync -IrW --stats --exclude=.svn /path/to/project/dir/ //testsrv/whatever

If for some reason your development environment is Windows you might be tempted to use rsync on Cygwin. That’s works fine (albeit with a very noticeable performance lag), but there is actually a native Windows alternative to rsync:

robocopy \path\to\project\dir \\testsrv\whatever /MIR /XD .svn

Robocopy has long been available on NT 4.0 via the Windows Resource Kit, and is included in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008.

If not for memory, there would be no such thing as the past. It is literally all in the mind.

Easy enough to comprehend, but extremely difficult to internalize.

The least fundamentally flawed are those armed with full knowledge of exactly how much and in what way they are fundamentally flawed. Inhabiting unhappy middle ground would be those who are aware that they’re fundamentally flawed, but now how so.

If it is indeed possible not to be fundamentally flawed, then that would be the biggest fundamental flaw of all.

using System.Windows.Controls;

...

private void LayoutRoot_MouseRightButtonDown(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
    e.Handled = true;
}

private void LayoutRoot_MouseRightButtonUp(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
    var contextMenu = new ContextMenu();

    var menuItem = new MenuItem();
    menuItem.Header = "First menu item";
    menuItem.Click += menuItem_Click;
    contextMenu.Items.Add(menuItem);

    contextMenu.IsOpen = true;
    contextMenu.HorizontalOffset = e.GetPosition(null).X;
    contextMenu.VerticalOffset = e.GetPosition(null).Y;
}

private void menuItem_Click(object sender, System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    System.Windows.MessageBox.Show("First menu item was clicked");
}

Notes

• If you don’t include a reference to System.Windows.Controls, you won’t be able to compile, with the error “‘System.Windows.Controls.MenuItem’ does not contain a definition for ‘Header’ and no extension method ‘Header’ accepting a first argument of type ‘System.Windows.Controls.MenuItem’ could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)”
• Ensure that System.Windows.Controls.Toolkit (if present) is version 4.0.5.0. If it’s version 2.0.5.0, you’ll get runtime error “Unknown parser error: Scanner 2148474880. [Line: 818 Position: 596]”