I have a complex NAnt build script, which contains a lot of *.build and *.include files with many targets inside, which in their turn are called both via depends and via call. I'd like to have a visual representation in a tree-like form of what calls what. It should also be an easy way to regenerate it because the script is growing further.
Is there any ready-made tool or some API (preferably .NET-based) I can use for this purpose?
There's NAntBuilder although it seems to be expensive (with a free trial). I've never used it personally so I couldn't recommend it either way.
I've not found one, but my general mantra is "get your designer out of my face". Imagine a database diagram in Sql Management Studio or in the EF Design Surface if you've got 30 or 50 tables. Generally my mental map is better organized.
Probably the best way to initially visualize the dependencies is to run the build and watch the task names appear in the output.
Related
We have a number of interconnected tt's in our project. Is there a way to find template code which is never used?
At least in theory, I could hack into Template, make it mark control blocks somehow and write usage data to a file for later analysis (much like Devel::Cover does). But maybe there's already a tool for that? I haven't found one though.
Here's a useful post on this topic but not quite what I want.
Well, I've been following the NerdDinner tutorial online and I've completed it to a T.
Now I've implemented a project of my own using pretty much the same architecture.
I notice my process is:
Create database.
Create DBML.
Create |TableName|Repository.cs class with data access methods.
Create partial |TableName| class to handle validation.
Rinse and repeat for all tables.
By the time I'm done I'm exhausted and I haven't really done anything except drag and copypaste code and change variable names.
What am I missing here. Where can I improve this boilerplate haze I'm in?
Edit: Sans creating my own T4 template, is there a tool that will help me?
See Visual Studio Templates.
I haven't used them, but I assume if you take the time to customize them, you'll be able to make Visual Studio generate a lot of what you already do instantly specifically using the T4 template language/interpreter thats embedded in Visual Studio.
I haven't used it much but perhaps you could create a codesmith template to handle this. http://www.codesmithtools.com/
I have seen it used to good effect with Nettiers and in some other scenarios.
Have a look at this for ideas. It uses a generic repository and the unit of work pattern.
http://elegantcode.com/2009/12/15/entity-framework-ef4-generic-repository-and-unit-of-work-prototype/
Also here.
Advantage of creating a generic repository vs. specific repository for each object?
I've implemented something based on these ideas. You may also want to look at using a service layer more interfaces etc than the nerd dinner example shows.
As good as the tutorial is, it isn't IMO really fit for use in an enterprise application as it is still quite tightly coupled.
Hope this helps.
I use my own tool for that: http://github.com/Necroskillz/NecroNetToolkit
It basically bypasses all the steps that u mentioned (except validation, because I have validation on my view models).
While its not directly MVC focused, I've enjoyed using NetTiers http://nettiers.com for this kind of foundation. We start with the Db tables and indexing and then generate the stored procedures and their related data and service layer code. After that we add our own custom stored procedures, creating a rich (and easily understood) foundation. Future changes are easily accommodated through this mechanism.
We also bolt the code generation into our Nant build procedures, providing a very quick way of updating all of the mundane 'plumbing' code, allowing us to concentrate on the interesting stuff.
We've just started working with MVC and have found the netTiers service layer works nicely with it - time will tell as our MVC experience grows. I hope that helps!
Create a framework!
Today, I had a training on "Microsoft Workflow Foundation".
While I think the idea is neat, I still see it as a Proof Of Concept and not as a real-life solution. Building an entire application without having to type a single line of code (or only a few of them) seems just wrong.
Have you ever used this technology and if so, can it really fit to big company projects ? What drawbacks/advantages have you got using it ?
I don't see it replacing an entire application, but more likely used in the architecture of an application to make it easier to maintain and build, since business logic is separated out.
In previous application I've built, we used our own workflow solution to make our site easier to maintain and also to add new content and controls quickly without recompiling & redeploying.
MWF can definitely have a place in even small applications, depending on it's needs.
Workflow is just a part of a larger application, just like your entire app isn't WPF or ADO. And it is certainly used in real applications and very useful. Things to look for where it is a good fit are items that behave as small projects in an applications like a sales orders, hiring a new person or building a house. All thee have a start, go through multiple steps, have an ending and you are likely to manage multiple in your application. Describe the "project" steps in one or more workflows and start one for each occurrence.
As this is a very common occurrence I believe far more developers could benefit from using workflow in their applications.
Lately I've been using it to replace those parts of the codebase that are really messy as far as the branching and looping logic is concerned. When you can visualize that stuff in a picture, and just create some custom activities to perform your logic, it makes knowing exactly what is going on much easier.
The entire application wasn't rewritten, for example there's really no reason to do any CRUD type operations with workflow, but its been very helpful for some of the "heavy lifting" operations.
Scaffolding, what is it? Is it a Rails-only thing?
Scaffolding generally refers to a quickly set up skeleton for an app. It's not rails-only since other platforms have it as well. It's also not generally meant to be a "final" system; merely the first, smallest way to do it.
From Wikipedia:
Scaffolding is a meta-programming
method of building database-backed
software applications. It is a
technique supported by some
model-view-controller frameworks, in
which the programmer may write a
specification that describes how the
application database may be used. The
compiler uses this specification to
generate code that the application can
use to create, read, update and delete
database entries, effectively treating
the template as a "scaffold" on which
to build a more powerful application.
Just like a real scaffolding in a building construction site, scaffolding gives you some kind of a (fast, simplified, temporary) structure for your project, on which you can rely to build the real project.
It can be (and is today) used to describe many things - from abstracting DB layers, to web apps folder structures, and to generating and managing project dependencies .
It is not something that is specific to any language / technology, just like the term skeleton or boilerplate is platform agnostic.
It is just a term borrowed from real scaffolding (like mentioned above).
You build some fast, simplified, (sometimes external, sometimes temporary) structure that will help you to build the real, more complex, finalized structure under, above, inside or outside of that temporary structure .
.. And just like the real scaffolding, the scaffolding structure is meant to support the building process of the project, rather than the project itself (with some exceptions).
Scafolding is usually some type of code generation where you point it at a database, and the technology creates basic CRUD (create, read, update, delete) screens.
I believe that Wikipedia and some answers here provides a narrow and restricted view. Scaffolding is not just for CRUD operations on top of a database. Scaffolding has a broader objective to give you a skeleton app for any kind of technology.
Yeoman is a modern and useful tool for scaffolding. Using their own words:
The web's scaffolding tool for modern webapps
What's Yeoman?
Yeoman helps you to kickstart new projects, prescribing best practices
and tools to help you stay productive.
To do so, we provide a generator ecosystem. A generator is basically a
plugin that can be run with the yo command to scaffold complete
projects or useful parts.
Through our official Generators, we promote the "Yeoman workflow".
This workflow is a robust and opinionated client-side stack,
comprising tools and frameworks that can help developers quickly build
beautiful web applications. We take care of providing everything
needed to get started without any of the normal headaches associated
with a manual setup.
With a modular architecture that can scale out of the box, we leverage
the success and lessons learned from several open-source communities
to ensure the stack developers use is as intelligent as possible.
As firm believers in good documentation and well thought out build
processes, Yeoman includes support for linting, testing, minification
and much more, so developers can focus on solutions rather than
worrying about the little things.
That's it. Use scaffolding to create a quick-start application to work as an example or the foundation of your solution. It makes you productive faster them building things from scratch.
It is not a rails only term although I think it originated there (at least that is where I first heard it.)
Scaffolding is a framework that allows you to do basic CRUD operations against your database with little or no code. Generally, you then go through and add the code to manage the data the way you want replacing the scaffolding. It is generally only intended to get you up and running quickly.
No it is used in other technologies also such as ASP.NET MVC
it creates a basic layout from some predefined code which programmers uses in almost every project , Eg: for database data access it can make a crud method for create, read, update, delete operations
OR you might use it to create layout for your View/Html Code
Scaffolding is writing any piece of code that would not be part of the business logic but would help in unit testing and integration testing.
This is a software engineering term and not bound to any framework or programming language.
No, scaffolding is not the term for the specific platform, however many know this term in the context of Ruby on Rails or .NET
There are also plenty of tools that perform javascript scaffolding:
divjoy.com
flatlogic.com
scaffoldhub.com
yeoman.io
Those tools are also known as code-generators
Scaffolding is the term used when you don't want to create all parts of the structure such as models, views, etc. and want to generate them all in one go. A lot of frameworks use this technique, I studied about it while doing odoo but most of the references given were to ruby on rails :)
I package our server releases into zip files using a batch file (Windows), running the command-line version of WinZip. Previously we did this sort of thing "by hand" but I developed the process of automating it with a batch file.
The batch file has become quite complicated because our product is complicated (i.e., Which sections are we releasing this time? Are we releasing the config files as well?) and I'm starting to run into some frustrating limitations with batch files.
Would PowerShell be a good thing to investigate as an "upgrade" to the batch file? Or is that complete overkill given that most of what it would be doing is firing off DOS commands?
Bonus: can PowerShell consume .NET assemblies? As in, could I start doing the zipping with SharpZip?
If you have a working solution, then you don't need to go to powershell. Having said that, if you plan to make changes or improve the process then I would highly recommend powershell as the way to go. Powershell can access .Net assemblies...mostly. Some assemblies are structured in a way that makes it more difficult than others.
You can check here for some resources if you decide to look at powershell.
Initially I was really excited about PowerShell. Finally a powerful native shell on Windows. However, I quickly realized that compared to your favorite unix shell PowerShell is just way too verbose. Even doing simple stuff takes way too much typing compared to what you can do with bash and GNU tools for Win32.
I like the idea, that the shell knows about different types, but if I need to do that much additional work, I prefer just getting the necessary data with the various unix stream editors.
EDIT: I just had another look at PowerShell, and I have to admit, that it does have some really useful features that are not available for the traditional unix style tools.
For one the PowerShell owns all the commands which means that it can provide a much more coherent set of features. Parameters are treated uniformly, you can search for commands, parameters and so forth using wild cards which is really useful.
The second great feature is that PowerShell lets you enumerate sources which are normally not available to stream editors such as the Windows registry, the certificate store and so forth. Of course you can have tools that does this for you and present it as text, but the PowerShell approach is just really elegant IMO.
Take a look at PowerShell Community Extensions (PSCX), its FREE and it has Zip cmdlets:
Write-Zip
Write-BZip2
Write-GZip
http://www.codeplex.com/PowerShellCX
You should watch this presentation/discussion with Jeffrey Snover, PowerShell creator and architect. If you're not amazed by the technical details (lots of "wow" moments to be had), you'll be amazed by Jeffrey's enthusiasm :). Once you get the basics, it's easy to be very productive with PowerShell.
The answer is YES - PowerShell can use .NET assemblies. There is a bit of funny business involved in v1 if you need to wire up delegates and v2 makes that much more clean.
Just call LoadFile / LoadAssembly to get the appropriate libraries in memory and away you go
[Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile('/path/to/sharpzip.dll')
$zip = new-object ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.Zip.FastZip
$zip.CreateZip('C:\Sample.zip', 'C:\BuildFiles\', 'true', '^au')
# note - I didn't actually test this code
# I don't have SharpZip downloaded - just read their reference.
Also note that the PowerShell Community Extensions support various compression methods like write-zip.
I've tried to replace one of the lengthy build batch files I use with power shell. I found it a pain: at least at that time, documentation focused on the funny verbiage and what cool, perly things you can do with it, but lacked in the "getting simple things done" category. I got it working, but the error handling was to shaky.
YMMV, try powershell, you might enjoy it. But try it before updating your build batches.
My solution: use a C# console application. I've got serious logging, exception handling, can use my utility functions, and if something doesn't work I have a real debugger. It's the first solution I like to modify.
I'm not sure about powershell, but might I recommend using something like IronPython (if you want to have access to the .NET libraries) or plain python? You get a full-blown programming language with very few limitations.
On the one hand, if it works, just leave it. But it sounds like this is something you'll be adding to over time, and of course your eventual successor/coworker who needs to edit the batch file will also need to understand it. If you're from a programming background then you may well find the power of Powershell makes your script a lot shorter and easier to read/maintain (for example, even just having full if statements and for/while loops). On the other hand if you're not overly familiar with programming, a lot of people find Powershell a bit daunting at first glance.
Regarding the .NET part, Powershell is built on top of .NET so yes, you can access .NET assemblies (but you should always see if there's a cmdlet available first).
I would recommend a book called "The Powershell Cookbook" by Lee Holmes, published by O'Reilly. It provides "recipes" which you can use for common tasks; this will probably speed up your time to implement the script, and it'll teach you Powershell along the way.