BillKrat

Living on the bleeding edge means we have to bleed occasionaly so I wasn't totally surprised when my modeling project wouldn't load under the VS2010 Release candidate - but I was concerned about the hemorrhage this was causing as I not only had days of work invested in UML diagrams for my personal project (http://ehr.codeplex.com/) but also weeks of work invested for my current contract.  

So when a co-worker told me about the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Architecture Model Upgrade Tool I was ecstatic!   I was relieved when upon upgrade completion I found that all of my diagrams opened up - I was now able to continue forward instead of losing countless time rebuilding old diagrams from print-outs.

Note: I did have some inconvenience during the first upgrade and used lessons learned to streamline the second.   Some tips follow:

1.  I didn't keep the default install path.   I selected the root folder of my documentation (Modeling is the Beta 2 and ModelingRC was the new diagrams moving forward).

2.  Since I was under source control on both projects I was sure to reset the readonly flag on all files in the Beta 2 Modeling folder (the second time).   Since I couldn't "check out" all files from the solution because I couldn't load the project to do so - my first attempt failed to upgrade because the files were readonly and I ended up going back and forth until I got through all of the failed files.   

3.  By installing to the root folder I was able to use the /upgrade /recursive command line which simplifies the switches required to run the upgrade utility.  

 
Note: I had to insert a space between /upgrade and /recursive 

Tags: vs2010, uml, headbanger
Categories: Visual Studio 2010

Things were starting to move rather smoothly, my base classes seemed to be pretty solid and all that remained was to add CRUD capabilities to CloudBlockBlob objects (Tables and Containers are done). 

I setup my unit test to create a new container for my Blob and I was greeted with a foreboding "One of the request inputs is out of range" with the inner exception reporting "The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request"; another head-banging session was about to begin....

Line 209 below is where the fun started, my container ("Images") didn't exist and the baseclasses are smart enough to create the container if it isn't available.   What had me chasing my tail for a while was "what input was wrong".   The short version - Azure only accepts lower case!!

Once I figured this out I updated by baseclasses to ensure that key points would convert to lowercase so that I would no longer be greeted by this obscure message in the future - I can use whatever I like and it will ensure nothing reaches the backend in anything other than lowercase.

 

  189 /// <summary>

  190 /// Determines whether this instance [can create cread update delete

          BLOB from file name].

  191 /// </summary>

  192 [TestMethod]

  193 [DeploymentItem("Images\\Jesus.jpg")]

  194 [DeploymentItem("Images\\AngelRays.jpg")]

  195 public void CanCreateCreadUpdateDeleteBlobFromFileName()

  196 {

  197     string imageName = "Jesus.jpg";

  198     string imageName2 = "AngelRays.jpg";

  199 

  200     string container = "Images";

  201 

  202     Assert.IsTrue(File.Exists(imageName));

  203 

  204     string fullName = new FileInfo(imageName).FullName;

  205     string fullName2 = new FileInfo(imageName2).FullName;

  206 

  207     //::::[ CREATE ]:::::

  208 

  209     string uniqueName = client.CreateBlob(container, fullName);

  210     Assert.IsNotNull(uniqueName);

  211 

  212 

  213     // ::::[ READ ]::::::

  214 

  215     using (MemoryStream stream = client.ReadBlobStream(container, uniqueName))

  216     {

  217         Assert.IsNotNull(stream);

  218         Bitmap image = new Bitmap(stream);

  219 

  220         // Save image as file

  221         image.Save("_"+imageName, ImageFormat.Jpeg);

  222         Assert.IsTrue(File.Exists("_"+imageName));

  223     }

  224 

  225     // ::::[ UPDATE ]:::::

  226 

  227     client.UpdateBlob(container, uniqueName, fullName2);

  228     using (MemoryStream stream = client.ReadBlobStream(container, uniqueName))

  229     {

  230         Assert.IsNotNull(stream);

  231         Bitmap image = new Bitmap(stream);

  232 

  233         // Save image as file

  234         image.Save("-" + imageName, ImageFormat.Jpeg);

  235         Assert.IsTrue(File.Exists("-" + imageName));

  236     }

  237     byte[] bytes1 = File.ReadAllBytes("_" + imageName);

  238     byte[] bytes2 = File.ReadAllBytes("-" + imageName);

  239     Assert.AreNotEqual(bytes1.Length, bytes2.Length);

  240 

  241 

  242     //:::[ DELETE ]:::::

  243     bool deleted = client.DeleteBlob(container, uniqueName);

  244     Assert.IsTrue(deleted);

  245 

  246     var deletedFileIsNull = client.ReadBlob(container, uniqueName);

  247     Assert.IsNull(deletedFileIsNull);

  248 }

Source code available at http://EHR.CodePlex.com  (GWN.Contrib.Azure project) 

Tags: azure, headbanger, exception
Categories: Azure | Visual Studio 2010 | EHR

I did some head-banging this morning while writing a unit test for Azure table storage CRUD operations.   My WebRole application uses the PersonDataSource (line 8) as an ObjectDataSource and works without issue so I was perplexed as to why my unit test kept crashing on line 40.   The UpdateItem(testdata) was successfully executing but the value was not being updated to "TestOrganization" as expected.

What I found was that my item (TItem) parameter was being reset to default items on line 330 (image below) effectively overwriting my changes with original values.    However, if I ran my Cloud application it successfully updated the data (PersonDataSource as ObjectDataSource).   

I discovered that I was being returned the reference of the item that was read previously (line 25 above) which meant I was passing around a reference so line 330 below effectively replaced it with the original contents thus entry = item.  This wasn't a problem with the ObjectDataSource because I trust that ASP.NET creates a new instance and populates it with form values prior to sending it to the ObjectDataSource.

I resolved the issue by updating my TableServiceEntity base class to implement ICloneable so that I don't have to manage it at higher levels.    All of my table entities, i.e., EHRPerson will be POCO so this should work well.  

Source code available at http://ehr.codeplex.com/ (GWN.Contrib.Azure project) 

 

Tags: azure, crud, unit test
Categories: Azure | Visual Studio 2010 | EHR

Source code available at http://EHR.CodePlex.com  

There seem to be plenty of examples for working with Azure blobs (which is great because it is my next step) but I found information on tables to be lacking.   Particularly CRUD operations outside of read and write.  

Once I had the fundamentals down I found there were a number of mistakes one could make that would result in a ResourceNotFound error.    My goal is to abstract the complexities away into base classes and keep it simple in the parent classes - important because the Electronic Health Record system will have numerous tables (based on Microsoft HealthVault classes - highly normalized).

The following is the minimal code required to get an application running with an ObjectDataSource (using GWN.Contrib.Azure project) - all code and default.aspx form below:

The base classes actually handle all of the wire-up and plumbing however the ObjectDataSource requires strongly typed objects (not generics) to bind to so I had to provide wrapper methods in my PersonDataSource above (lines 11-22).   If you are not using an ObjectDataSource no lines of code are required.

Default.aspx and code-behind  ---  everything is handled by the ObjectDataSources

http://EHR.Codeplex.com change set 41556  (change set noted because it is only a proof of concept app and will go away once the Azure business/data layers are completed)

Once I dropped a ListBox and DetailsView on my .ASPX page I clicked on the data binding tab of each control (shown on the top right hand corner of the ListBox above) and created two ObjectDataSources with both of them bound to the same PersonDataSource.   The odsList binds to the Read() method (in the baseclass) and the odsDetails binds to the CreateItem, ReadItem, UpdateItem and DeleteItem methods shown in the first image above. Attempting to bind to the generic baseclass methods generated errors noting this was not permittted so I created the wrapper methods and all was well.   Note:  When creating the ObjectDataSources using the wizard VS2010 RC doesn't like to show all of the available classes the first time you select the dropdown list.  I had to show the list, close everything back to the control and then restart the process; VS will then consistently show all classes permitting you to access the PersonDataSource which resides in a separate project (below) - feature or bug??? ObjectDataSource DELETE BUG:   **UPDATED** Unlike it's Insert and Update counterparts the Delete method would consistently send the PersonDataSource DeleteItem method an empty item (line 20 in the first image).  It had been a while since worked with ObjectDataSources so I figured maybe I was missing something but after a few hours of research and trying different things came to the conclusion it was a bug.   My work-around was to tap into the odsDetails_Deleting method and manually instantiate the PersonDataSource, grab the selected value and call the DeleteItem() method on it.    This results in the PersonDataSource being called twice with the second results (empty value) being ignored by the base classes. Posted by Microsoft on 2/23/2010 at 1:19 PM The behavior you are seeing is actually the way that data controls in ASP.NET work. Our controls basically build an object from the controls that are on the page. In the case of an update there are controls on the page (TextBox, CheckBox, etc) that when the page is posted back retain their state. We take the values of these and build a new object from that state. In the case of a delete operation since there are no controls that retain state between pages we do not have the data necessary to reconstruct the object. You can run into a similar problem with update operations if you only have controls for SOME of the properties. The properties for which you do not have controls will not have their state retained. To work around this there is a DataKeys property on the data control. You can specify a list of all the columns that you would like persisted by specifying them in this property. We keep this state all the time so it allows you to control how much state you want us to keep between postbacks.

Head Banger

The following method in my DataContextBase (GWN.Contrib.Azure) was the source of hours of lost work.  Instead of doing the following I created an IQuerable<TItem> List<TItem>() method in the base classes to handle its functionality - this worked great and the coding went on.   When I was done I reset the development storage, which effectively wiped out all of the existing data, and my application would not recreate the table (ResourceNotFound error)!!! 

public IQueryable<TItem> List
{
   get
   {
        // The string name must match property name
        return this.CreateQuery<TItem>("List");
   }
}

This is why change set 41551 on the following link EHR CodePlex project notes that change set 41130 is the last functional link.  I had to download 41130 to regenerate the tables and confirm my application started working again (and it did).  I reset the Data Storage again and rolled up my sleeves - I ended up gutting everything until I came to the above code snippet and when I restored it to the above the table started generating again!! 

Moral to the story was that the above property is important to the CreateTablesFromModel method (in the DataSourceBase static constructor).

Note: currently the base classes blow by errors (won't crash the application).  I have TODO: statements where I will be logging the errors to Azure since preliminary research indicates this is the only way our application can communicate issues to us.   Work in progress - I have Blobs to work on!!

Source code available at http://EHR.CodePlex.com  

Tags: azure, objectdatasource, bug
Categories: Azure

Microsoft Bug Report  ID: 533542
Title: Linq query against TableStorageRoleProvider results in InvalidOperation if role is not found

If you ended up here looking for a reason for your ResourceNotFound error your search may have just started.  I've encountered this for having my Cloud project settings configured for "DataConnection" where the app was looking for "DataConnectionString" and not deriving my table class from TableServiceEntity.  Today I'm getting it because of an InvalidOperationException.

With a basic understanding under my belt for adding a table and record to Azure it is time to build base classes for CRUD operations.   The perfect starting point for this seems to be the PersonalWebSite application from the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit as it holds the code for all basic operations.   I loaded the solution and executed it to receive the following message:

Figure A. 

I find as I step through the code that the Global.asax is attempting to access roles Administrators, Friends and admin - if they don't exist it will create them.   THE PROBLEM IS that if the role doesn't exist, the linq query (Figure C line 480) throws an actual invalid operation error - NOT - a DataServiceClientException as expected.   To verify this I clicked on the ASP.NET Configuration button (arrow in Figure B, which is configured in Web.Config to use TableStorageRoleProvider) and added the Administrators role - it worked as expected and then crashed on the Friends role.

Figure B.  
Figure C.

It appears that DataServiceClientException is derived from InvalidOperation but in our case the error is an actual InvalidOperationException as shown below - the code will never return false allowing continued operation of the program which will create the role.  

With the above problem resolved I ran into authentication errors.   This led to other errors which I confirmed to be incompatibility with the Visual Studio 2010 RC.

Excerpt from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd573348.aspx follows:

Note The samples included with the Windows Azure SDK will not run on the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 CTP. New samples for the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 CTP are available for download. These samples run only in the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 environment.

We'll see if they run on in the Visual Studio 2010 RC environment.

Tags: azure, error
Categories: Azure

Living on the bleeding edge has more rewards (coding gets easier and easier) than injury but today I had to do a wee bit of bleeding....   Numerous hours spent on my first stab at saving a Person record in the Azure cloud.   It wasn't the "ResourceNotFound" errors that caused the most blood loss, they were contributed to simple mistakes on my part such as configuring DataConnection in the Cloud settings while using DataConnectionString in code and not deriving my Person class from TableServiceEntity.  

It was the obscure "Non-static method requires a target" error after finally getting to a point where I could submit my changes via SaveChanges() that had an artery going --- wasn't sure what it meant or how to stop the bleeding....   Since I just upgraded to Visual Studio 2010 RC (from Beta 2 which resulted in me losing all of my UML diagrams as they are not compatible with RC) I couldn't be totally sure that the problem wasn't associated with the upgrade.

To get past these I found it easiest to locate the most basic lesson I could find in the Azure training package and then ensure it ran successfully, I then proceeded to copy/paste the code into my solution but it didn't resolve this error.

Bing'ing the issue reveal enough information to learn that others have experienced this issue if they have a property that is based on an interface or if it returns null (reflection crashes and burns without much indication why).   Since the MicrosoftVault SDK Person field has deep levels of derived base classes I decided at this stage of the game to go with a new EHRPerson POCO and see if I could successfully save a record.

This solved the problem!   With "Create" nicely out of the way it is time to move on to the other CRUD operations.  The bleeding has stopped (for now)

Source code snippets follow for the main components Full Source Available HERE Change set:41130

Default.aspx.cs (code behind) 

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data.Services.Client;
using System.Linq;
using EHREntities.ServiceContext;
using GWN.EHR.Entities;
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure;

namespace GWN.EHR.CloudWebRole
{
 public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
 {
        CloudStorageAccount account = null;
        PersonDataContext context = null;

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            account = CloudStorageAccount.FromConfigurationSetting("DataConnectionString");
            context = new PersonDataContext(account.TableEndpoint.ToString(), account.Credentials);

            txtID.Text = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();

            GetList();
        }

        protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            var statusMessage = String.Empty;
            try
            {
                context.AddPerson(new EHRPerson
                {
                    Name = txtName.Text ,
                    ID = txtID.Text,
                    Organization = txtOrganization.Text,
                    PersonType = txtPersonType.Text,
                    ProfessionalTraining = txtTraining.Text,
                });
                GetList();
            }
            catch (DataServiceRequestException ex)
            {
                throw;
            }
        }

        public void GetList()
        {
            lstPersonList.DataSource = context.PersonList.ToList<EHRPerson>();
            lstPersonList.DataBind();
        }
 }
}

EHRPerson.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient;

namespace GWN.EHR.Entities
{
    /// <summary>
    ///
    /// </summary>
    public class EHRPerson : TableServiceEntity
    {
        public EHRPerson()
        {
            PartitionKey = "Person";

            // Row key allows sorting, so we make sure the rows come
            // back in time order.
            RowKey = string.Format("{0:10}_{1}",
                DateTime.MaxValue.Ticks - DateTime.Now.Ticks,
                Guid.NewGuid());
        }

        public string ID { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string Organization { get; set; }
        public string ProfessionalTraining { get; set; }
        public string PersonType { get; set; }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return string.Format("{0}: {1}, {2}", Name, Organization, ID);
        }
    }
}

PersonDataContext.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure;
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient;
using Microsoft.Health.ItemTypes;
using GWN.EHR.Entities;

namespace EHREntities.ServiceContext
{
 public class PersonDataContext : TableServiceContext
 {
       public IQueryable<EHRPerson> PersonList
        {
            get
            {
                return this.CreateQuery<EHRPerson>("PersonList");
            }
        }

       public PersonDataContext(string baseAddress, StorageCredentials credentials)
            : base(baseAddress, credentials)
        {
        }

        public void AddPerson(EHRPerson person)
        {
            this.AddObject("PersonList", person );
            this.SaveChanges();
        }
 }
}

WebRole.cs

using System.Linq;
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Diagnostics;
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime;
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure;
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient;
using EHREntities.ServiceContext;

namespace GWN.EHR.CloudWebRole
{
        public class WebRole : RoleEntryPoint
        {
            public override bool OnStart()
            {
                DiagnosticMonitor.Start("DiagnosticsConnectionString");

                // For information on handling configuration changes
                // see the MSDN topic at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=166357.
                RoleEnvironment.Changing += RoleEnvironmentChanging;

                // This code sets up a handler to update CloudStorageAccount instances when their corresponding
                // configuration settings change in the service configuration file.
                CloudStorageAccount.SetConfigurationSettingPublisher((configName, configSetter) =>
                {
                    // Provide the configSetter with the initial value
                    configSetter(RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue(configName));

                    RoleEnvironment.Changed += (anotherSender, arg) =>
                    {
                        if (arg.Changes.OfType<RoleEnvironmentConfigurationSettingChange>()
                            .Any((change) => (change.ConfigurationSettingName == configName)))
                        {
                            // The corresponding configuration setting has changed, propagate the value
                            if (!configSetter(RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue(configName)))
                            {
                                // In this case, the change to the storage account credentials in the
                                // service configuration is significant enough that the role needs to be
                                // recycled in order to use the latest settings. (for example, the
                                // endpoint has changed)
                                RoleEnvironment.RequestRecycle();
                            }
                        }
                    };
                });

                /// Create data table from MessageDataServiceContext
                /// It is recommended the data tables should be only created once. It is typically done as a
                /// provisioning step and rarely in application code.
                var account = CloudStorageAccount.FromConfigurationSetting("DataConnectionString");

                // dynamically create the tables
                CloudTableClient.CreateTablesFromModel(typeof(PersonDataContext),
                                                       account.TableEndpoint.AbsoluteUri, account.Credentials);

                return base.OnStart();
            }

            private void RoleEnvironmentChanging(object sender, RoleEnvironmentChangingEventArgs e)
            {
                // If a configuration setting is changing
                if (e.Changes.Any(change => change is RoleEnvironmentConfigurationSettingChange))
                {
                    // Set e.Cancel to true to restart this role instance
                    e.Cancel = true;
                }
            }
        }
    } 

Tags: azure, error
Categories: Azure

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
   - George Santayana

Our newly activated open source Electronic Health Record System (http://ehr.codeplex.com/) will be based on MVP-VM.  The architecture will implement both MVP and MVVM as intended while combining them for reasons noted in this blog.

History would tell us that the evolution of architecture (because of smart controls, newer technologies and limitations of older architectures) evolved as follows: 

MVC -> Presentation/Application Model ->  MVP  ->  Supervising Controller/Passive View

Understanding that the PresentationModel and MVVM are synonymous, the question to ask yourself when deciding to use MVVM alone is "what were the limitations that inspired the birth of MVP via the Potel and Twisting the Triad papers?".   For our environment the answer  was simple - we need a presenter. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although the following equation is true there are subtle differences that warranted a new name for the reasons John Gossman notes.  We'll reference authoritative sources on the differences.

Presentation Model = Application Model = MVVM  

In John Gossman (founding father of MVVM) "PresentationModel and WPF" John writes:

• "On naming, my opinion at this point is the the Model-View-ViewModel pattern is a WPF-specific version of the PresentationModel pattern.  PresentationModel is a lot easier to say and to write, and is more widely known...but for now I'm sticking to M-V-VM terminology in my own thinking in order to capture the WPF-ness and to avoid any interpretation conflicts."

In Martin Fowlers "Presentation Model", 2004 article he defines the Presentation Model as follows:

• "Presentation Model pulls the state and behavior of the view out into a model class that is part of the presentation. The Presentation Model coordinates with the domain layer and provides an interface to the view that minimizes decision making in the view. The view either stores all its state in the Presentation Model or synchonizes its state with Presentation Model frequently
  
  Presentation Model may interact with several domain objects, but Presentation Model is not a GUI friendly facade to a specific domain object. Instead it is easier to consider Presentation Model as an abstract of the view that is not dependent on a specific GUI framework. While several views can utilize the same Presentation Model, each view should require only one Presentation Model."

In Martin Fowlers "Gui Architectures", 2006 article he states the following about Application and Presentation Models:

• "The main difference between using an application model and classic MVC is that we now have an intermediate class between the domain model class (Reader) and the widget - this is the application model class. The widgets don't access the domain objects directly - their model is the application model." - para below figure 9.
  
• "Application models allow us to separate behavior and state that's particular to the UI from real domain logic." - 2nd para above Figure 11
  
• "Directly updating the widgets like this is not part of Presentation Model, which is why the visual works application model isn't truly a Presentation Model. This need to manipulate the widgets directly was seen by many as a bit of dirty work-around and helped develop the Model-View-Presenter approach".  - para below figure 11.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So why a new name - MVPVM?

"to avoid any interpretation conflicts" - John Gossman

Why is MVPVM necessary?

Short version - for reusability and to have a clear separation of concerns.

Longer version - For all the reasons we evolved to both MVP and MVVM; they are still valid and the same problems are still being solved.  The only difference is that neither can solve the problem alone "easily".

What is the problem being solved?

We are using MEF/PRISM/Unity for the dependency injection of reusable components.  We may have a need to update the widget (view) directly depending on the complexity of the requirement (will one line of code remove the need for complex bindings); we want an extensible framework that will provide us the option.  Let's use the following Visual Studio 2010 use case diagram as the basis of this discussion.

 

Reusable component:  Person View; it is a UserControl that is resolved (instantiated) by the applicable presenter (its relation to the presenters are not shown in diagram to reduce complexity) 

Business rules:  Only the Admin Staff can view the Social Security Number field of the Person View. 

Assumption: There will be numerous business rules that will affect the behavior of the view.

THE PROBLEM / SOLUTION SCENARIO

We're starting our sprint and I'm handed the "Add Patient" requirement.  It has a business rule that states only Admin Staff can have access to the SSN field.  The user wants a list of patients sorted by last name so that they can verify that the patient in question is not already in the system.  This list should be tied to a lookup field that will locate records in the list as the user types the letters of the name.

I would start by grabbing the available reusable views, user controls created by designer(s), to compose my main screen with.  In our example we'll focus solely on the "Person View".   From the use case diagram I can see that this view has a "Person View model" that it binds to with a provision for the SSN Visibility rule; the Person View will reflect the state of this behavior {collapsed, hidden, visible} effectively showing/hiding the SSN field based on its settings.

Problem:  I can see by the high level use case that I won't be the only presenter that implements this view (and view model).  I can't pollute the ViewModel with any business logic or data access logic.

Solution:  Have my presenter retrieve Patient Records (where personType=Patient) and use it to populate a ListBox.  The presenter will subscribe to the selected index change event of this ListBox via the EventAggregator and when the presenter is notified that a user has changed a patient it will update the PersonViewModel fields as applicable.   The presenter will set the SSNVisibility property to "Visible" and our job with the PersonView and it's view model is done.  

Could a switch statement for visibility be placed on the PatientViewModel?  Yes and it will also have to know who the actor (parent) is that is consuming it.   Can it retrieve the user record?  Yes and it would require knowledge of the patient's primary key.   Will every process require data access to get the record?   Probably not - the information could reside in another control.  

In our environment we want to remain loosely coupled to minimize, if not remove, any impact on other users of a view (and its view model).

 

Tags: use case, mvpvm
Categories: MVPVM

You'll probably receive the following error if you have Expression Blend (in my case Blend 3) and Visual Studio 2008 installed on your development box and now you are attempting to compile the newly downloaded WPFToolkit.   The problem is that Design and Extensibility references are pointing to two separate folders, one to Visual Studio and the other to Expression Blend.  Since the Project is called VisualStudio.Design (there is also an Expression.Design) it is safe to assume we should have both assemblies pointing to the same folder (Visual Studio); once you do this you will be able to compile with no issues.

1. Remove the Design Extensibility from references
2. Add the Extensibility assembly from the Visual Studio folder as indicated by the arrow. 

Tags: wpftoolkit, compile
Categories:

I'm not sure what I did to start receiving the error "the OutputPath property is not set for this project" but I suspect it had something to do with me trying to move the EHRDataProviderRole out of the root into a peer folder with the CloudDataProvider (which I just learned is refered to as a Database - I assumed it to be a provider).   This did not go well so I had to recreate the EHRDataProviderRole (back in the root) and then manually attach it to the database again.

The fix actually came from the following link Jamie Laflen MSFT

The only difference was that I had both a Debug and Release configuration.   I also had the following: <OutputPath>bin\Debug\</OutputPath> in both locations.  I changed the "bin" to a period as shown by the two arrows below and then all was well.

Tip: I started by right clicking on the project and selecting "Unload".  I then right clicked on the unloaded project and selected "Edit" as shown in the bottom pane. 

Tags: azure, bug
Categories: Azure

I'll place the .targets files in the root of my source folder (where all my third-party source code files reside).

To easily edit the project file simply right click on the project and "Unload" it.  Once unloaded you can right click on the unloaded project and select "Edit" (reference right pane in the image below).   Note that I have a snippet in my Toolbox so that I can simply go to the end of the project file and insert the location of my CopyToBin.Desktop.Targets file.   I'll then "Reload" the project

I'll do the above steps for all of the Unity projects and then build the project.   The resulting DLLs will be copied to the Binaries\Desktop folder where I can now transfer them to the applicable PRISM folder.

PRISM stores the Unity files in it's LIB\Desktop\Unity folder.  You'll have to delete the existing files and copy the newly created Unity DLLs from the Binaries folder to the above PRISM folder (later I'll have a batch file do this).

You are now ready to load the PRISM solution and compile it.  There are only a few differences in Unity 1.2 and Unity 2.0 that will break the build.

1. Two projects will complain that you require a reference to System.Xaml (assuming you are also upgrading PRISM to VS2010).
2. There are a few Mock objects that do not implement interfaces correctly - simply implement the interfaces as applicable.
3. There will be two sections where you'll have to remark out code for objects that no longer exists (this is okay - I verified it with the PRISM team)

You should now be able to build PRISM using the newly compiled Unity 2.0 DLLs.

Note: To build MEF under VS2010 you'll need to follow the few steps I noted in the MEF Developers forum (CLICK HERE)

Once I have all of my projects setup with the new CopyToBin.Desktop.target I can run the batch files I created.   The first, BuildBinaries.cmd, will launch the Visual Studio 2010 command window - its contents follow:

@ECHO OFF
echo Type - and hit ENTER
call %comspec% /k ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat"" x86

This batch file is the one provided by Visual Studio which sets up the environment (otherwise the second batch file won't find MSBuild).   It effectively opens a Visual Studio Command window so that you can easily run the second batch file "-.cmd"  (dash - keep it quick/simple). 

The -.cmd batch file is based on folder structures compatible with the third-party applications.  The batch file will change directories to each of the applicable solutions and then run MSBuild against it.

Note: I renamed the folders since doing the above screenshot to ensure I wouldn't have to modify the batch file later (I'll just simply ensure updates use the names used).

The end results is a I have a Binaries folder that is populated with all of the Third-Party DLLs that I will be using for my application.  When new releases are provided I simply have to ensure they compile and then run my batch file again.

Tags: prism, msbuild, ehr
Categories: CompositeWPF | EHR