How to build your own climbing wall & the art of route setting

Daniel_Walzenbach — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 10:14:00 GMT

Lately I’ve been toying around with the idea of setting up my own climbing gym – potentially in Germany – but, who knows… South America might also be a nice place to climb judging from South America’s topography While I still need to figure out a couple of issues (the biggest ones are location and financing at the moment) I wanted to share a couple of great resources on how to build your own indoor climbing wall and how to set routs on your wall/in your gym.

Also, in addition to the two books above, some great links on the topic:

How to Build a Climbing Wall - https://www.indoorclimbing.com/climbing_walls.html
blog on route-setting - https://www.routesetter.com
Walltopia (climbing walls, holds, ...) - https://walltopia.com

Cheers! Daniel

Free download: Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools

Daniel_Walzenbach — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:40:44 GMT

If you are the .NET Developer using Visual Studio 2010 you’ll love the Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools!

Visual Studio 2010 Productivity Power Tools

A set of extensions to Visual Studio Professional (and above) which improves developer productivity.

Document Well 2010 Plus (More Info)
One of the key pieces of feedback that we have received over several versions of Visual Studio is that users want to be able to customize the behaviour of their document tabs. From the ordering of tabs to the position of the close buttons, user can now configure dozens of different options for their tabs. Go to Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Document Tab Well to configure these options as you prefer:

Tab Well UI

Scrollable tabs
Maintain spatial consistency of the documents that are included in the document well.

Vertical tabs
Document tabs are shown vertically, allowing you to fit more tabs than are normally visible when shown horizontally.

Pinned tabs
Allows you to pin tabs to keep them always visible and available.

Show close button in tab well
Similar to Visual Studio 2008, will show a close button in the document well that will close the active tab.

Tab Behavior

Remove tabs by usage order (LRU)
When a new tab is inserted and existing tabs don't fit in the document well, instead of removing the tab at the end of the well it will remove the least recently used tab. This ensures that frequently used tabs are readily available.

Show pinned tabs in a separate row/column
Pinning tabs can quickly cause you to run out of space for regular tabs. The option allows you to always show pinned tabs in a separate row (or column, if displayed vertically) from regular tabs.

Sorting

Sort tabs by project
Tabs will be sorted by the project they belong to, thus keeping them always together in the document tab well.

Sort tabs alphabetically
Tabs will be sorted alphabetically. When Sort By Project is turned on, tabs will be sorted first by project and then alphabetically.

Sort tab well dropdown alphabetically
The drop down menu at the right end of the document well is sorted alphabetically. This option allows ordering as the tabs are laid out in the document well.

Tab UI

Color tabs according to their project or according to regular expressions
This option permits tabs to be colored according to the project they belong to. This is particularly useful when sorting tabs by project, as it allows you to immediately identify different groups of project documents.
You can also configure regular expressions and assign a color to each one. If the name of a tab matches the configured regular expression, it will be colored with the assigned color.

Miscellaneous options that modify tab UI

Show document/toolwindow icon in tab

Show close button in tab

Modify dirty indicator style
This option allows you to select from a set of different dirty indicators that you might prefer over the asterisk.

Modify minimum and maximum tab size
Allows you to modify minimum and maximum tab size. Try setting minimum and maximum sizes to the same value, and you will have evenly spaced tabs.

Searchable Add Reference Dialog
The new Add Reference dialog makes it faster and easier for you to find the reference that you are looking for and add it to your VB, C# or F# project. From the Solution Explorer, simply right click on the References node, select the Add Reference command to see the updated Add Reference Dialog.

Highlight Current Line
As the resolution of monitors increases, it’s becoming more difficult to find the caret in the code editor. The highlight current line extension makes it easy to find the caret by highlighting the line that the caret is on in the editor. You can even configure the default colour by changing the setting for “Current Line (Extension)” and “Current Line Inactive (Extension)” in Tools Options Fonts & Colors.

HTML Copy
This extension provides support for the HTML Clipboard format when copying code from the editor. This means that you’ll no longer have to go fix up the formatting of your code when you paste it into a TFS bug form or any other HTML based control.

Triple Click
It’s never been easier to select a line of code from the mouse by simple triple-clicking anywhere on the line.

Fix Mixed Tabs
Some developers prefer tabs, others prefer spaces, and nobody likes mixing tabs & spaces. This extension promotes developer harmony by warning as they are open or save a file that has a mixture of tabs & spaces. The information bar also provides an easy way to fix the file to suit your preference.

Ctrl + Click Go To Definition
This extension gives the editor a web browser by adding clickable hyperlinks to symbols in your code as you hold down the Ctrl key.

Align Assignments
This extension is useful for making your code a little more readable by aligning the assignments when you type Ctrl+Alt+] such that it takes this:

And turns it into this:

Please note: This may conflict with your formatting settings. E.g. in C# you will need to disable: Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#->Formatting->Spacing->"Ignore spaces in declaration statements"

Enjoy!

Daniel

.NET FX 4 is now available in 10 additional languages

Daniel_Walzenbach — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:07:00 GMT

After successfully getting all VS languages out the door, we released 10 additional languages for .NET Framework 4 (and 7 of those additional languages for VS 2010 Tools for the Office System 4.0 Runtime) the other day.

.NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer)

ARA	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919f-b21f31ab88b7&displaylang=ar
DAN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919f-b21f31ab88b7&displaylang=da
NLD	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919f-b21f31ab88b7&displaylang=nl
FIN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919f-b21f31ab88b7&displaylang=fi
ELL	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919f-b21f31ab88b7&displaylang=el
HEB	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919f-b21f31ab88b7&displaylang=he
HUN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919f-b21f31ab88b7&displaylang=hu
NOR	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919f-b21f31ab88b7&displaylang=no
PTG	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919f-b21f31ab88b7&displaylang=pt-PT
SVE	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919f-b21f31ab88b7&displaylang=sv

.NET Framework 4 (Web Installer)

ARA	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992&displaylang=ar
DAN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992&displaylang=da
NLD	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992&displaylang=nl
FIN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992&displaylang=fi
ELL	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992&displaylang=el
HEB	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992&displaylang=he
HUN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992&displaylang=hu
NOR	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992&displaylang=no
PTG	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992&displaylang=pt-PT
SVE	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992&displaylang=sv

.NET Framework 4 Language Packs

X86

ARA	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6fd7e428-0aa8-40e3-a48d-0df2d76e24a8&displaylang=ar
DAN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6fd7e428-0aa8-40e3-a48d-0df2d76e24a8&displaylang=da
NLD	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6fd7e428-0aa8-40e3-a48d-0df2d76e24a8&displaylang=nl
FIN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6fd7e428-0aa8-40e3-a48d-0df2d76e24a8&displaylang=fi
ELL	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6fd7e428-0aa8-40e3-a48d-0df2d76e24a8&displaylang=el
HEB	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6fd7e428-0aa8-40e3-a48d-0df2d76e24a8&displaylang=he
HUN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6fd7e428-0aa8-40e3-a48d-0df2d76e24a8&displaylang=hu
NOR	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6fd7e428-0aa8-40e3-a48d-0df2d76e24a8&displaylang=no
PTG	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6fd7e428-0aa8-40e3-a48d-0df2d76e24a8&displaylang=pt-PT
SVE	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6fd7e428-0aa8-40e3-a48d-0df2d76e24a8&displaylang=sv

X86/x64

ARA	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a4c6414-7f64-47a5-ae20-218403137957&displaylang=ar
DAN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a4c6414-7f64-47a5-ae20-218403137957&displaylang=da
NLD	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a4c6414-7f64-47a5-ae20-218403137957&displaylang=nl
FIN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a4c6414-7f64-47a5-ae20-218403137957&displaylang=fi
ELL	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a4c6414-7f64-47a5-ae20-218403137957&displaylang=el
HEB	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a4c6414-7f64-47a5-ae20-218403137957&displaylang=he
HUN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a4c6414-7f64-47a5-ae20-218403137957&displaylang=hu
NOR	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a4c6414-7f64-47a5-ae20-218403137957&displaylang=no
PTG	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a4c6414-7f64-47a5-ae20-218403137957&displaylang=pt-PT
SVE	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a4c6414-7f64-47a5-ae20-218403137957&displaylang=sv

.NET Framework 4 Client Profile (Standalone Installer)

ARA	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5ad0459-cbcc-4b4f-97b6-fb17111cf544&displaylang=ar
DAN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5ad0459-cbcc-4b4f-97b6-fb17111cf544&displaylang=da
NLD	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5ad0459-cbcc-4b4f-97b6-fb17111cf544&displaylang=nl
FIN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5ad0459-cbcc-4b4f-97b6-fb17111cf544&displaylang=fi
ELL	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5ad0459-cbcc-4b4f-97b6-fb17111cf544&displaylang=el
HEB	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5ad0459-cbcc-4b4f-97b6-fb17111cf544&displaylang=he
HUN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5ad0459-cbcc-4b4f-97b6-fb17111cf544&displaylang=hu
NOR	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5ad0459-cbcc-4b4f-97b6-fb17111cf544&displaylang=no
PTG	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5ad0459-cbcc-4b4f-97b6-fb17111cf544&displaylang=pt-PT
SVE	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5ad0459-cbcc-4b4f-97b6-fb17111cf544&displaylang=sv

.NET Framework 4 Client Profile (Web Installer)

ARA	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5765d7a8-7722-4888-a970-ac39b33fd8ab&displaylang=ar
DAN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5765d7a8-7722-4888-a970-ac39b33fd8ab&displaylang=da
NLD	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5765d7a8-7722-4888-a970-ac39b33fd8ab&displaylang=nl
FIN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5765d7a8-7722-4888-a970-ac39b33fd8ab&displaylang=fi
ELL	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5765d7a8-7722-4888-a970-ac39b33fd8ab&displaylang=el
HEB	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5765d7a8-7722-4888-a970-ac39b33fd8ab&displaylang=he
HUN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5765d7a8-7722-4888-a970-ac39b33fd8ab&displaylang=hu
NOR	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5765d7a8-7722-4888-a970-ac39b33fd8ab&displaylang=no
PTG	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5765d7a8-7722-4888-a970-ac39b33fd8ab&displaylang=pt-PT
SVE	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5765d7a8-7722-4888-a970-ac39b33fd8ab&displaylang=sv

.NET Framework 4 Client Profile Language Packs

X86

ARA	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b060a9f9-6fac-42a4-b60b-b476a2f4f987&displaylang=ar
DAN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b060a9f9-6fac-42a4-b60b-b476a2f4f987&displaylang=da
NLD	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b060a9f9-6fac-42a4-b60b-b476a2f4f987&displaylang=nl
FIN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b060a9f9-6fac-42a4-b60b-b476a2f4f987&displaylang=fi
ELL	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b060a9f9-6fac-42a4-b60b-b476a2f4f987&displaylang=el
HEB	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b060a9f9-6fac-42a4-b60b-b476a2f4f987&displaylang=he
HUN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b060a9f9-6fac-42a4-b60b-b476a2f4f987&displaylang=hu
NOR	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b060a9f9-6fac-42a4-b60b-b476a2f4f987&displaylang=no
PTG	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b060a9f9-6fac-42a4-b60b-b476a2f4f987&displaylang=pt-PT
SVE	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b060a9f9-6fac-42a4-b60b-b476a2f4f987&displaylang=sv

X86/X64

ARA	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6aa229cc-85e2-4cca-9add-e8e75a615bc3&displaylang=ar
DAN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6aa229cc-85e2-4cca-9add-e8e75a615bc3&displaylang=da
NLD	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6aa229cc-85e2-4cca-9add-e8e75a615bc3&displaylang=nl
FIN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6aa229cc-85e2-4cca-9add-e8e75a615bc3&displaylang=fi
ELL	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6aa229cc-85e2-4cca-9add-e8e75a615bc3&displaylang=el
HEB	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6aa229cc-85e2-4cca-9add-e8e75a615bc3&displaylang=he
HUN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6aa229cc-85e2-4cca-9add-e8e75a615bc3&displaylang=hu
NOR	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6aa229cc-85e2-4cca-9add-e8e75a615bc3&displaylang=no
PTG	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6aa229cc-85e2-4cca-9add-e8e75a615bc3&displaylang=pt-PT
SVE	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6aa229cc-85e2-4cca-9add-e8e75a615bc3&displaylang=sv

Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime

ARA	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=06C32242-2289-4471-93AA-CE96AA5CBC36&displaylang=ar
DAN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=06C32242-2289-4471-93AA-CE96AA5CBC36&displaylang=da
NLD	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=06C32242-2289-4471-93AA-CE96AA5CBC36&displaylang=nl
FIN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=06C32242-2289-4471-93AA-CE96AA5CBC36&displaylang=fi
HEB	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=06C32242-2289-4471-93AA-CE96AA5CBC36&displaylang=he
NOR	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=06C32242-2289-4471-93AA-CE96AA5CBC36&displaylang=no
SVE	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=06C32242-2289-4471-93AA-CE96AA5CBC36&displaylang=sv

Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime Language Packs

ARA	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9daf1ab1-f4ab-4663-a069-228504f0fc0a&displaylang=ar
DAN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9daf1ab1-f4ab-4663-a069-228504f0fc0a&displaylang=da
NLD	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9daf1ab1-f4ab-4663-a069-228504f0fc0a&displaylang=nl
FIN	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9daf1ab1-f4ab-4663-a069-228504f0fc0a&displaylang=fi
HEB	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9daf1ab1-f4ab-4663-a069-228504f0fc0a&displaylang=he
NOR	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9daf1ab1-f4ab-4663-a069-228504f0fc0a&displaylang=no
SVE	https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9daf1ab1-f4ab-4663-a069-228504f0fc0a&displaylang=sv

Cheers!

Daniel

How to insert binary data (like images/documents) into a SQL Server database with SQL Server Management Studio?

Daniel_Walzenbach — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:57:00 GMT

If you quickly want to insert some binary data (like images, word documents, pdfs) into a database writing a front-end application for this talk might be a bit of an overkill… Fortunately, this is a pretty straight-forward talk in SQL Server Management Studio :-)

The following example updates the Categories table of the good ol’ Northwind database to store the images, updates two categories with images and adds another category and an image.

/* Add anadditional column to the Categories table to store the image */

ALTER TABLE dbo.Categories ADD
CategoryPicture VARBINARY(MAX) NULL
GO

/* update thetable to insert some images */

UPDATE Categories
SET CategoryPicture =
(SELECT * FROMOPENROWSET(BULK N'C:\Temp\Beverages.jpg', SINGLE_BLOB) AS CategoryImage)
WHERE CategoryID = 1

UPDATE Categories
SET CategoryPicture =
(SELECT * FROMOPENROWSET(BULK N'C:\Temp\Condiments.jpg', SINGLE_BLOB) AS CategoryImage)
WHERE CategoryID = 2

/* Insert a new category with an image */

INSERT INTO Categories(CategoryName, CategoryPicture)
Values ('Another Category', (SELECT * FROM OPENROWSET(BULK N'C:\Temp\AnotherCategory.jpg', SINGLE_BLOB) AS CategoryImage))

Enjoy!

Daniel

How to extract string resources from .NET assemblies?

Daniel_Walzenbach — Tue, 18 May 2010 22:14:00 GMT

It’s the fun time of the product cycle where we are - with the exception of a couple of DCRs* – feature complete and preparing to hand over our strings to the Loc team. To make sure that the strings don’t contain literal or grammatical errors the PMs review them together with our technical writers (the guys who write the msdn content). Once that’s done the strings are handed over to the Loc team, get translated and checked back in into our branch.

To find all strings (at least all of which are embedded in resources) I wrote a small WPF program which reflects over our assemblies, extracts the embedded strings and shows them in a grid (from where I can easily copy & paste everything into Excel. If I’d need this functionality more often I’d probably write a small console application instead which I then could reuse in a PowerShell script).

Here is what I did (Stop bothering me, give me a direct download!):

Imports System.Reflection
Imports System.Globalization
Imports System.Threading
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.IO

Class MainWindow

Private Sub btnOpenFolder_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs) Handles btnOpenFolder.Click

        ' Hook up the AssemblyResolve Event - which occurs when the
        ' resolution of an assembly fails - to the method AssemblyResolve
        ' This is important if your assemblies reference others which are
        ' located in a different path and can't be found
        ' https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.appdomain.assemblyresolve.aspx
        AddHandler AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve, AddressOf AssemblyResolve

' Extract all the embedded resources from a given path
Dim AssemblyInfos = ExtractResourceFromAssembly(GetFiles(txtPath.Text))

        ' and bind the extracted strings to a DataGrid
        DataGrid1.AutoGenerateColumns = True
        DataGrid1.ItemsSource = AssemblyInfos

End Sub

'''

''' Walks over a path and returns a list of files ending with .dll
'''

    ''' The path containing the assemblies.
    ''' All list of files ending with .dll
    '''
    Private Function GetFiles(ByVal path As String) As List(Of String)

        If path.Length = 0 Then
            MessageBox.Show("You have to enter a path.")
            Return Nothing
        End If

        Dim query = From file In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles(path, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchAllSubDirectories)
                    Where (file.EndsWith(".dll"))
                    Order By file

Return query.ToList

End Function

'''

''' Extracts all string resources from a list of assemblies and returns them as a list of AssemblyInfo-Objects holding the extracted strings.
'''

    ''' The list of assemblies.
    ''' A List of AssemblyInfo-Objects holding the extracted strings.
    '''
    Private Function ExtractResourceFromAssembly(ByVal fileNames As List(Of String)) As List(Of AssemblyInfo)

        Dim ci As CultureInfo = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture
        Dim assemblyInfos As New List(Of AssemblyInfo)
        Dim rm As System.Resources.ResourceManager

For Each file In fileNames

' Load the assembly
Dim _assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(file)

' Retrieve all the resources ending with ".resources"
Dim _resourceNames = _assembly.GetManifestResourceNames.Where(Function(n) n.EndsWith(".resources"))

For Each resourceName In _resourceNames

' remove the ".resources" from the end of the string
resourceName = resourceName.Remove(resourceName.Length - ".resources".Length, ".resources".Length)

                ' create the respective ResourceManager
                Try
                    rm = New System.Resources.ResourceManager(resourceName, _assembly)

' and get the the ResourceSet
Dim resourceSet = rm.GetResourceSet(ci, True, False)

If resourceSet IsNot Nothing Then

Dim id As IDictionaryEnumerator = resourceSet.GetEnumerator()

While id.MoveNext()

                            If id.Value.GetType.ToString = "System.String" Then
                                assemblyInfos.Add(
                                        New AssemblyInfo With {
                                            .Path = file,
                                            .Assembly = _assembly.ManifestModule.ScopeName,
                                            .Resource = resourceName,
                                            .Name = id.Key.ToString,
                                            .Value = id.Value.ToString}
                                        )
                            End If

End While

resourceSet.Close()

End If

                Catch ex As Exception
                    assemblyInfos.Add(
                        New AssemblyInfo With {
                            .Path = file,
                            .Assembly = "Error",
                            .Resource = ex.Message}
                        )

End Try

Return assemblyInfos

End Function

Private Function AssemblyResolve(ByVal o As Object, ByVal e As ResolveEventArgs) As Assembly
Dim aName As New AssemblyName(e.Name)

        Dim path1 = "The path where referenced assemblies are located."
        Dim p1 = Path.Combine(path1, aName.Name + ".dll")
        If (File.Exists(p1)) Then
            Return Assembly.LoadFile(p1)
        End If

Return Nothing

End Function

End Class

Public Class AssemblyInfo
    Public Property Path As String
    Public Property Assembly As String
    Public Property Resource As String
    Public Property Name As String
    Public Property Value As String
End Class

To make things as easy as possible I uploaded the solution to MSDN Code Gallery.

Enjoy!

Daniel

* Design Change Request: Once a product is code complete the team focuses solely on bug-fixing and stabilizing the product and no new features are getting added. The only exception is when we learn (e.g. through a focus group working with the early product) that we’ve missed an important scenario/security issue/etc.

WCF RIA Services v1.0 released to web

Daniel_Walzenbach — Tue, 18 May 2010 04:42:00 GMT

Yes, we are done with v1.0 !! An hour ago we released WCF RIA Services V1 to the web. Both the WCF RIA Services Toolkit and WCF RIA Services V1.0 for Silverlight 4 and Visual Studio 2010 are live on the Microsoft Download site :-)

The official product information is available on https://silverlight.net/riaservices as well as a Channel 9 video with Dinesh and Nikhil announcing WCF RIA Services v1.0.

Enjoy!

Daniel

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET FX 4 available in Japanese, German and French

Daniel_Walzenbach — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:00:00 GMT

Being a German working for Microsoft in the US I am extremely excited to announce that the Japanese, German, and French versions of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 are now available for MSDN subscribers!! It’s been a long journey, and it is truly rewarding to know that many of our international customers will now be able to experience this incredible product in their native language (and there is more to come :-) ).

Here are the SKUs available for download as of 5 pm (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada).

.NET Framework 4 Client Profile (x86 and x64) LangPack - Japanese, German, French
.NET Framework 4 Client Profile (x86) LangPack - Japanese, German, French
.NET Framework 4 Full (x86 and ia64) LangPack - Japanese, German, French
.NET Framework 4 Full (x86 and x64) LangPack - Japanese, German, French
.NET Framework 4 Full (x86) LangPack - Japanese, German, French
Report Viewer 2010 Redistributable (x86) LangPack - Japanese, German, French
Visual Studio 2010 Express (x86) - DVD (Japanese, German, French)
Visual Studio 2010 FSharp 2.0 Runtime (x86) LangPack - Japanese, German, French
Visual Studio 2010 Integrated Shell (x86) - Japanese, German, French
Visual Studio 2010 Isolated Shell (x86) - Japanese, German, French
Visual Studio 2010 Premium (x86) - DVD (Japanese, German, French)
Visual Studio 2010 Professional (x86) - DVD (Japanese, German, French)
Visual Studio 2010 Remote Debugger (ia64) - Japanese, German, French
Visual Studio 2010 Remote Debugger (x64) - Japanese, German, French
Visual Studio 2010 Remote Debugger (x86) - Japanese, German, French
Visual Studio 2010 Tools for the Office System 4.0 Runtime (x64) LangPack - Japanese, German, French
Visual Studio 2010 Tools for the Office System 4.0 Runtime (x86) LangPack - Japanese, German, French
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate (x86) - DVD (Japanese, German, French)
Visual Studio Agents 2010 (x86) - DVD (Japanese, German, French)
Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010 (x86) - DVD (Japanese, German, French)
Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 (x86 and x64) - DVD (Japanese, German, French)
Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 (x86) - DVD (Japanese, German, French)

Enjoy!

Daniel

How to enable remote connections in SQL Server 2008?

Daniel_Walzenbach — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:36:00 GMT

You experience the following error message:

A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server)

How to solve this issue?

There are a couple of things that might be going on here… (All of the following configurations are made on the computer running your SQL Server 2008 instance)

Allow remote connections to this server

The first thing you want to check is if Remote Connections are enabled on your SQL Server database. In SQL Server 2008 you do this by opening SQL Server 2008 Management Studio, connect to the server in question, right click the server…

… and open the Server Properties.

Navigate to Connections and ensure that Allow remote connections to this server is checked. Check if this solves the problem. If it does, here you go, continue with whatever you were doing and have a nice day.

Protocols for MSSQLServer

If you’re still running in issues let’s dig a bit deeper. The next good thing to check is the SQL Server Network Configuration. Open the SQL Server Configuration Manager, unfold the node SQL Server Network Configuration and select Protocols for MSSQLServer (or whatever the name of your SQL Server instance is).

Make sure that TCP/IP is enabled and try again. Even though I hope that this resolved your problems there might still be an issue with…

The Firewall

If there is still no communication happening between your computer and the remote SQL Server you most likely need to configure your firewall settings. A good first step is to figure out which port is being used by TCP/IP (and which you need to open in your firewall). You can do this by right clicking TCP/IP and selecting Properties.

Click on the tab IP Addresses and voilà – Port 1433 it is :-) That was easy enough and all there is left to do is to allow inbound TCP/IP traffic on Port 1433 in your firewall. In Windows 7 this works something like this. Open the Control Panel and navigate to Windows Firewall.

Click on Advanced Settings on the left hand side and you should see the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. Select the Inboud Rules on the left hand side and click on New Rule… on the right hand side.

This opens the New Inbound Rule Wizard which you can use to allow inbound traffic on Port 1433 for TCP/IP (and which is exactly how you configured your SQL Server in the steps above). Just follow the steps outlined below and you should be good :-)

That’s it, success! From here you should be able to access your SQL Server remotely. Enjoy!

Cheers!

Daniel

P.S. There's a good article on msdn on this topic if you're looking for additional information >> Configuring the Windows Firewall to Allow SQL Server Access.

Update (June 14th, 2010):

If you're running into SQL Server Error Code 26 check out SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified
If you're running into SQL Server Error Code 10060/SQL Server Error Code 10061 check out SQL Server Error: 10060 \ SQL Server Error: 10061

How to use String.Format in PowerShell?

Daniel_Walzenbach — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:45:28 GMT

Hah! (We’re back ;-) ) It’s as easy as that:

PS > [string] :: Format( "Hello {0} {1} :-)", "Daniel", "Walzenbach")     
Hello Daniel Walzenbach :-) 

Needless to say that other formatting – like Currency formatting – works as well

PS > [string] :: Format( "{0:C}", 1234567890)     
$1,234,567,890.00 

Check out Formatting Types on the .NET Framework Developer's Guide or SteveX Compiled - String Formatting in C# (nice cheat sheet) for more examples.

Cheers!

Daniel

EOS 5D Mark II Firmware Upgrade 2.0.4

Daniel_Walzenbach — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:38:22 GMT

Canon ran into some audio-issues with their latest firmware update but were super quick to fix this issue :-)

There was a phenomenon in which the manual recording settings made in C1/C2/C3 were changed and sound could not be recorded if manual sound recording was used in the C1/C2/C3 settings and the camera was subsequently turned off (or if Auto Power Off was activated). This does not occur in modes other than C1/C2/C3.

Get the new firmware update here >> EOS 5D Mark II Firmware Update Version 2.0.4.

Cheers!

Daniel