Visual Studio 2012 Generator Project - visual-studio-2012

I'm looking for a way to make a project build and run as part of the build process in a solution.
Here's what I need:
First it compiles the "Generator Project", and in case of errors, it stops compiling.
Then it runs the "Generator Project", which creates some .cs files in other projects.
Then it compiles the rest of the projects.
I can see two ways of solving this.
Create and manually run the "Generator Project" when changes are made.
Construct a custom MSBuild script to do what I need.
While those two solutions work, I was hoping it might be possible to do it some easier/simpler way?

It occurs to me that you might solve your problem by using T4 Templates in the generator project (GP), then include the target .cs files generated by the templates as links into the other projects (OTP), and finally add a reference to the GP on each of the OTP so that the custom build order gets honored. I hope it makes sense.

Related

Setting up a modular project in Android Studio

I'm coming from the Visual Studio world of solutions, where each solution can consist of multiple projects that can refer to each other.
What I want to do is create a modular Android project in Android Studio such that all my code doesn't live in one huge app project. However, it seems terribly difficult to do this, so much so that I am sure I am doing something wrong.
I created a blank project called MyProject. This creates a project with the name MyProject and a package com.sohum.myproject. There is a single app project contained within containing no source files.
I now want to add another module under the same namespace (e.g. com.sohum.myproject.library1). However, it seems when I try to add a new module via the menu, I can only do so into a com.sohum.library1 project. How do I get it to use the same package as the project?
My end goal is to have all my modules under the com.sohum.myproject package, referencing each other. For example:
com.sohum.myproject.application will be the entry point. It might depend on com.sohum.myproject.library1 and com.sohum.myproject.someotherlibrary. And I would like to see all of these modules when I open the MyProject file.
You can click File > New > New Module. Then choose Android Library and enter the details.
Reference: https://developer.android.com/studio/projects/android-library
Another way is to set up the project in a subpackage when creating it.
For example, create a project MyProject in a root directory. Call the application Application and rename the package to be com.sohum.myproject.app instead of just com.sohum.myproject. Now any new modules created will be added below the com.sohum.myproject package space.

How to Unit Test a C++/WinRT Component? Preferably with Code Coverage

I'm in the process of writing some new C++/WinRT based components in order to replace some much older C++/CX code. The goal is to be able to use third-party C++ tools that don't understand CX (static code analyzers, etc).
However the first step in the journey is to ensure I can properly unit test my own code. Unit testing C++/CX code typically used the "C++ Unit Test App" project type, which is C++/CX based and has its own issues (lack of code coverage support, run all required before tests show up in the explorer, stability, etc)
Browsing through the available project types in Visual Studio 2017, I did not see a unit test project template for C++/WinRT based projects. Is my only option to use the "C++ Unit Test App" template with all its failings, or is there another way to build tests for a C++/WinRT library?
Perhaps there is a way to configure either the "Native Unit Test Project" or "Google Test" project templates to support what I'm looking for?
Ideally what I'm looking for is something that doesn't require launching a UI, is pure C++(/WinRT), and supports Visual Studio's Code Coverage Analysis.
There is no unit test project that is specific to C++/WinRT, much like there isn't one for other libraries like STL. I would recommend Catch2 as it supports C++17 (a requirement for C++/WinRT) and works well on Windows. It is also what we use for testing C++/WinRT itself. Catch2 is nice because it helps you create a simple console app that acts as the test driver that includes all of the tests.
For code coverage I don't have a strong recommendation, but if you are using Visual Studio then you might want to try VSInstr. It can be used for code coverage and produces a report that can be viewed with Visual Studio.
Make sure your code is built using the /profile linker option. This will ensure that profile hooks are included in a dedicated section of the PE file. Next, run vsinstr to instrument any of the binaries you're interested in (that were previously built with /profile):
vsinstr /coverage tests.exe
Now run vsperfcmd to begin collecting coverage data:
vsperfcmd /start:coverage /output:report
Run the code as normal. For Catch2, you can simply run the executable at the command line. Then you need to stop the collection as follows:
vsperfcmd /shutdown
And you're done. You can now view the report in Visual Studio:
devenv report.coverage
Hope that helps. Again, this is not specific to C++/WinRT and since C++/WinRT is a header-only library you are liable to get a lot of noise that is unrelated to your specific project. I haven't found a good way to deal with that yet.
Expanding on my comment to #KennyKerr's answer for those that are interested...
If you are planning on using Catch2 as recommended, then the C++/WinRT Windows Console Application template is a great starting point. Pretty much all you have to do is tweak the main() to setup Catch2 and start writing your test cases. My only complaint is that the C++/WinRT templates don't allow you to add Windows Runtime Component project references via the UI (must be done by editing the vcxproj). There is probably a similar problem adding NuGet package references.
As noted in my comment above, there is a Catch2 test adapter for Visual Studio 2017/2019 in the marketplace. Be aware that it requires a .runsettings file to enable the adapter and to tell it which projects are Catch2 test applications (via a regex). Without a properly configured runsettings, it will not find your tests. I also had to increase the discovery timeout, otherwise it "forgot" my tests occasionally.
With regards the code coverage, when using Visual Studio you can configure the code coverage to include/exclude functions in the .runsettings file. See Microsoft's Site for details. For myself I added the following in the CodeCoverage section and it works pretty well so far:
<Functions>
<Include>
<Function>.*YourNamespaceHere.*</Function>
</Include>
<Exclude>
<Function>winrt.*GetRuntimeClassName</Function>
<Function>winrt::impl.*</Function>
<Function>winrt::(?!YourNamespaceHere).*</Function>
</Exclude>
</Functions>
For those that are trying to test a C++/WinRT Windows Runtime Component like me, and have code that is not exposed as part of the WRC interface, here is what I did to make that testable...
Create a C++ Shared Items Project
Move all of the code for your Windows Runtime Component (WRC) project into the shared items project, and out of the WRC project. Going forward, only add/remove files from the shared project. That way you don't have to touch the WRC or Test projects when files are added/removed.
Add a reference to this shared items project in both your original WRC project, and your test project
Make sure your test project and WRC project are configured similarly with respect compile settings and project/NuGet references
Edit the test project and ensure the RootNamespace is configured the same as the WRC project (probably has to be done via your favorite editor). This is required otherwise the generated headers will be prefixed with the namespace, and thus won't be found by the shared code.
(Optional for Code Coverage) In the test project, enable profiling (Linker > Advanced > Profile > Yes)
You should now be able to write tests that exercise the private code. As to whether or not this is the best approach, I leave to the reader. It works for me, and the code I'm testing is simple enough that I'm not overly concerned with the project definitions not aligning perfectly. Your mileage may vary.
I will note that the above can also be used to make the "Native Unit Test Project" work with C++/WinRT, you just have the extra steps of integrating the C++/WinRT bits into the test project first.

dotCover not showing all of the projects in a solution

Let me start by saying I'm new to both ReSharper and dotCover and that I'm using v10.0.2 of both.
The attached screenshot shows solution explorer in VS and the coverage tree for a set of tests.
Whenever I run coverage, it always shows the same subset of assemblies in the coverage tree. Importantly, all of the tests shown are for code in either the Services or Infrastructure assemblies, neither of which show in the coverage tree.
Clearly, the product is not doing something right or I'm not.
Why are only some of the assemblies shown in the coverage tree?
Why aren't any of the assemblies covered by the tests I'm running
shown in the coverage tree?
How do I make it work properly?
EDIT
If it makes any difference, I'm using xUnit and have the xUnit running extension installed in ReSharper and the tests themselves run just fine.
This is due to shadow copying - when enabled, dotCover expects .pdb files to be copied too, and the standard shadow copy that xunit performs doesn't do this. If you disable shadow copy in the Unit Testing options page, it'll work fine. I think the xunit runner can be updated to fix this.
The YouTrack issue that describes what's going on is here: DCVR-7976
In my case the *.pdb files where deleted by a post-build event. After changing that, coverage-analysis worked again.
This post from the support forum of jetbrains helped me

Compile Errors Galore - Cannot build some ServiceStack solutions download from GitHub

This is just odd.
I'm getting a build error in ServiceStack.Text after just bringing down the latest build from GitHub.
if (endpointUrl.IsNullOrEmpty() || !endpointUrl.StartsWith("http"))
return null;
Error 1 No overload for method 'IsNullOrEmpty' takes 0 arguments
ServiceStack\src\ServiceStack.Common\Messaging\ClientFactory.cs 10 18
ServiceStack.Common
I'm also getting bunch of other build errors:
Error 35 'int' does not contain a definition for 'Times' and no extension method 'Times' accepting a first argument of type 'int' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) ServiceStack.Redis\src\ServiceStack.Redis\Messaging\RedisMqServer.cs 192 37 ServiceStack.Redis
and after downloading the ServiceStack branch, I even tried opening ServiceStack-master\src\ServiceStack.sln and tried to build and it's totally broken:
I don't know what's going on here, there can't possibly be this many build errors if any right? I pray not but it seems as such.
Purpose of this post, what I'm asking about and need help clarifying and resolving (mythz???)
I need input from ServiceStack here on the following:
1) are the builds really this broken? Am I imagining this?
2) The branch stucture on GitHub is all over the place meaning I'm finding dup project folders all over and I do not know what this ServiceStack branch is as in it's src folder has a ton of projects there, different versions, as well as doesn't have projects like ServiceStack.Text, etc. so I don't know what's going on here. I want to use the basic core of service stack but there's like repeated stuff everywhere overall on GitHub. I need ServiceStack to clear all this up for me.
Here is my code, so you can see for yourself, it doesn't build.
This one won't build in terms of the ServiceStack projects - it's my solution in which I'm simply trying to include the ServiceStack projects I need along with my own projects that are using ServiceSTack. All I did was downoad those individual projects from https://github.com/ServiceStack then added them to my solution and made sure that any references to each other were now Project references, no longer binary..I removed the binary refs and readded them as project refs. So for example ServiceStack.Common depends on ServiceStack.Text but it was referencing it via binary so I removed it and readded the reference to ServiceStack.Text as a project ref now because in the end we plan on being able to look at and work with the base Stack code. The errors I posted above are happening in this Solution for ServiceStack related projects.
This one won't build - it's a download of the ServiceStack branch master (originally folder name is ServiceStack-master, I removed the -master)
UPDATE: yes I confirmed it's a bad build checked in on the GitHub site (refering to the ServiceStack branch master right above here). I had to remove unused using statements that were causing the build to fail and one of these was a dup using statement causing part of the build failure. I am surprised at this...this stuff should build and people should be checking in code that BUILDS successfully! common! Yes mythz, any dev trying to consume your API would be pissed that there are so many build erros all the time, I can't even get our protype going because this is not the only solution that won't build. First we had the Examples solution all breaking and now the core. I'm willing to fix these if I can but I honestly can't believe it's been a mountain to try to even use this API because of these checked in builds that are failing.
This one Will build because it was Nuget down, so ServiceStack is referencing other layers via binary references in the lib folder so this builds...probably builds here because someone has a working set of builds across all core projects but the stuff on the site for download is not the same revision and broken when you try to use them as project references (source code)?? Just my conclusion as it's only building IF you are using binary references to the lib folder. We want the source, not the binaries to work inside our solution so this is a brick wall for me
There are a lot of big changes happening on master right now - it will be unstable for a while.
I suggest you branch from the v3-fixes tag or pull the references from nuget.
#CoffeeAddict
Yesterday, the mythz answered about these problems in your previous question
"#CoffeeAddict like I said before, ServiceStack's is undergoing significant re-factoring and master in alpha and not for public use. While everything still builds for me and tests still pass in CI, it will be frequently unstable until its in beta. You're likely mixing v3 with v4 dlls which are technically incompatible. The release on NuGet is off the v3 branches of each project, that's what you should checkout if you want to build from src. Any contribs should be done to v3-fixes only - see Contributing docs for more info. – mythz 9 hours ago"
well looks like when I had downloaded all the stack branches, at the time earlier today contributors had checked in broken builds. Fabulous.
I just got latest early this morning, and appears people must have fixed the build and checked some stuff back in for various core projects. Now it builds.
Suggestion to mythz, get CI in place NOW. Don't wait for v4. This cost me a freakin day of trying various things to get this stuff to build and the problems were across several projects. This shouldn't happen, setup CI please. It's 2am and nobody using this project should have to deal with it.
I will contribute but first I had to get a full build to work! Not too happy as no dev would be wasting an entire day getting ServiceStack to build.
To compile v3:
Would someone with true knowledge post PROPER instructions on compiling v4 or v3? I had no luck with the build.bat files for v3 or v4, and opening solutions will not compile for most.
git clone servicestack, servicestack.text, redis, ormlite
make a new directory and copy from under src so you have these:
ServiceStack
ServiceStack.Client
ServiceStack.Common
ServiceStack.Interfaces
ServiceStack.OrmLite
ServiceStack.Redis
ServiceStack.Server
ServiceStack.Text
open csproj for ServiceStack.Interfaces ... right click properties, go to the signing tab, click the combo, new, type in your own signing pfx, I used servicestackInterfaces.pfx (doesn't matter) and make up a password.
Compiles fine, since it has not much referenced.
saved solution as ServiceStackV3 in folder C:\2015\SSv3compile
add csproj ServiceStack.Text, set signature, compiles ok
add csproj ServiceStack.Common, set signature, remove references, add references using solution for interface, text, compiles ok
add csproj ServiceStack.Client, set signature, remove references, add references using solution for interface, text, compiles ok
add csproj ServiceStack, set signature, remove references, add references using solution for client, common, interface, text, compiles ok
add csproj ServiceStack.OrmLite, set signature, remove references, add references using solution for common, interface, text, compiles ok
add csproj ServiceStack.Redis, set signature, remove references, add references using solution for common, interface, text, compiles ok
add csproj ServiceStack.ServiceStack.Server, set signature, remove references, add references using solution for Servicestack, ServiceStack.Client, ServiceStack.Common, ServiceStack.Interface, ServiceStack.Text, ServiceStack.Ormlite, ServiceStack.Redis
compiles ok
have some more trouble compiling the tests...
and finding so many tweaks and changes which are for me maddening to find
(endless agentransack searching for "namespace ISomethinMissing" in *.cs
... there seems to be namespace ServiceStack with cs code contained in projects other than Servicestack...
isn't that VERY improper? (now you require both DLLs? why not one?)
whatever...its free and works for what I wanted.
looks like there is some code leakage from v4...
after getting my head around v3, not sure I want to buy v4 - I will probably buy it in the future, I expect, and hope someday I can just clone and compile from the solution
ANyway, I love servicestack and have been
replacing old webservices
and the config nightmares of WCF with great happiness...
I say it is well worth the initial hassle.
I put this all in code block because I found the editor wouldn't accept this simple text when it was in a numbered list. whatever.

Script Create Package for Windows Store apps

I am maintaining a set of eleven Windows Store apps. I would like to automate the "Create Package" task, which I am currently doing through the wizard in Visual Studio, in order to produce test packages (signed with my test certificate).
Is there a way to script this task? I was thinking probably using MSBuild or PowerShell, my goal is to have a single script to run that would generate all my app packages and copy them all to a given target directory.
I found some documentation about using the wizard on MSDN, but nothing about scripting the task.
Any ideas?! Thanks.
MSBuild will create app packages for you, in the AppPackages folder. You can also do it manually using MakeAppx, but I've found it to be a bit more cumbersome.
Some things to note: There is a build target called Publish you should use (/t:Publish) when making the actual packages. You should look into the different command-line switches, such as DebugSymbols.
You'll likely want to use the 32-bit MSBuild, as I've had issues with the 64-bit and things like the Multilingual App Toolkit. Also in regards to the MApp Toolkit, make sure you do a full rebuild before building your app package. If an entry is not in a given language and is in another, the entry for the secondary language will be used, so you can end up with multiple languages all popping up on the same page.
Hope this helps and happy coding!

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