To simply quote and link: Unfortunately, this is where the SharedSizeGroup method breaks down. If you want to have a shared Grid that uses the whole available width and automatically adjusts when that space changes you're going to need a different method. A column set to * in a shared group acts just like an Auto column and won't fill or stay within the given space. Taken from John Bowen's blog. 
I am not much of an art guy, but this thing just blew me away. Not so much the animation itself (it is very original, but... not an art guy) as the volume of effort and work this had to require. Just watch it, it is worth it.BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
Forced to wait for the tenth and final novel of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, due to be published this year, I've started to read the books placed in the same universe written by Steven Erikson's friend, Ian Cameron Esslemont. The first of these books is Night of Knives, which is rather short compared with Erikson's novels or, indeed, with the second Esslemont book, Return of the Crimson Guard, which I am reading now.Ok, so I am doing a lot of Access for a friend. And I got into a problem that I was sure had a simple solution somewhere. Apparently it does not. The documentation for the issue is either not existant or buggy and the "helping" comments usually are trying to tell you you are wrong without trying to give a workable solution or directing you to some commercial solution. So this is for the people trying to solve the following problem: You have images embedded in an Ole Object field in a table, the images are jpg or whatever format and they appear to the table editor as Package and you want to display those images in an Image control in an Access Form via VB, without binding anything. Also, I am using Access 2007.
' Declarations that should go at the beginning of your code file
' ==========================
Const BlockSize = 32768
Const UNIQUE_NAME = &H0
Private Declare Function GetTempPathA Lib "kernel32" _
(ByVal nBufferLength As Long, _
ByVal lpBuffer As String) As Long
Private Declare Function GetTempFileNameA Lib "kernel32" _
(ByVal lpszPath As String, ByVal lpPrefixString As String, _
ByVal wUnique As Long, ByVal lpTempFileName As String) _
As Long
' ==========================
' Get a temporary file name
Public Function GetTempFileName() As String
Dim sTmp As String
Dim sTmp2 As String
sTmp2 = GetTempPath
sTmp = Space(Len(sTmp2) + 256)
Call GetTempFileNameA(sTmp2, "", UNIQUE_NAME, sTmp)
GetTempFileName = Left$(sTmp, InStr(sTmp, Chr$(0)) - 1)
End Function
' Get a temporary file path in the temporary files folder
Private Function GetTempPath() As String
Dim sTmp As String
Dim i As Integer
i = GetTempPathA(0, "")
sTmp = Space(i)
Call GetTempPathA(i, sTmp)
GetTempPath = AddBackslash(Left$(sTmp, i - 1))
End Function
' Add a trailing backslash is not already there
Private Function AddBackslash(s As String) As String
If Len(s) > 0 Then
If Right$(s, 1) <> "\" Then
AddBackslash = s + "\"
Else
AddBackslash = s
End If
Else
AddBackslash = "\"
End If
End Function
' Write binary data from a recordset into a temporary file and return the file name
Function WriteBLOBToFile(T As DAO.Recordset, sField As String)
Dim NumBlocks As Integer, DestFile As Integer, i As Integer
Dim FileLength As Long, LeftOver As Long
Dim FileData() As Byte
Dim RetVal As Variant
On Error GoTo Err_WriteBLOB
' Get the size of the field.
FileLength = T(sField).FieldSize()
If FileLength = 0 Then
WriteBLOBToFile = Null
Exit Function
End If
'read Package format
Dim pos As Integer
pos = 70 ' Go to position 70
Do ' read a string that ends in a 0 byte
FileData = T(sField).GetChunk(pos, 1)
pos = pos + 1
Loop Until FileData(0) = 0
Do ' read a string that ends in a 0 byte
FileData = T(sField).GetChunk(pos, 1)
pos = pos + 1
Loop Until FileData(0) = 0
pos = pos + 8 ' ignore 8 bytes
Do ' read a string that ends in a 0 byte
FileData = T(sField).GetChunk(pos, 1)
pos = pos + 1
Loop Until FileData(0) = 0
' Get the original file size
FileData = T(sField).GetChunk(pos, 4)
FileLength = CLng(FileData(3)) * 256 * 256 * 256 + _
CLng(FileData(2)) * 256 * 256 + _
CLng(FileData(1)) * 256 + CLng(FileData(0))
' Read the original file data from the current position
pos = pos + 4
' Calculate number of blocks to write and leftover bytes.
NumBlocks = FileLength \ BlockSize
LeftOver = FileLength Mod BlockSize
' Get a temporary file name
Dim Destination As String
Destination = GetTempFileName()
' Remove any existing destination file.
DestFile = FreeFile
Open Destination For Output As DestFile
Close DestFile
' Open the destination file.
Open Destination For Binary As DestFile
' SysCmd is used to manipulate the status bar meter.
RetVal = SysCmd(acSysCmdInitMeter, "Writing BLOB", FileLength / 1000)
' Write the leftover data to the output file.
FileData = T(sField).GetChunk(pos, LeftOver)
Put DestFile, , FileData
' Update the status bar meter.
RetVal = SysCmd(acSysCmdUpdateMeter, LeftOver / 1000)
' Write the remaining blocks of data to the output file.
For i = 1 To NumBlocks
' Reads a chunk and writes it to output file.
FileData = T(sField).GetChunk(pos + (i - 1) * BlockSize _
+ LeftOver, BlockSize)
Put DestFile, , FileData
RetVal = SysCmd(acSysCmdUpdateMeter, _
((i - 1) * BlockSize + LeftOver) / 1000)
Next i
' Terminates function
RetVal = SysCmd(acSysCmdRemoveMeter)
Close DestFile
WriteBLOBToFile = Destination
Exit Function
Err_WriteBLOB:
WriteBLOBToFile = Null
Exit Function
End Function
Dim id As String
id = DLookup("ID", "MyTableQueryWithFormCriteria", "")
Dim rs As DAO.Recordset
Set rs = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset("SELECT Picture FROM MyTable WHERE ID=" & id)
Dim filename As String
filename = Nz(WriteBLOBToFile(rs, "Picture"), "")
imgMyImage.Picture = filename
I have been trying to build this setup for a project I made, using WiX, the new Microsoft paradigm for setup packages. So I did what any programmer would do: copy paste from a previously working setup! :) However, there was a small change I needed to implement, as it was a .NET4.0 project. I built the setup, compiled it, ran the MSI and kaboom!Action 15:34:48: FetchDatabasesAction.
Action start 15:34:48: FetchDatabasesAction.
MSI (c) (A0:14) [15:34:48:172]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\DOCUME~1\siderite\LOCALS~1\Temp\MSI21CF.tmp, Entrypoint: FetchDatabases
MSI (c) (A0:68) [15:34:48:204]: Cloaking enabled.
MSI (c) (A0:68) [15:34:48:219]: Attempting to enable all disabled privileges before calling Install on Server
MSI (c) (A0:68) [15:34:48:251]: Connected to service for CA interface.
Action ended 15:34:48: FetchDatabasesAction. Return value 3.
DEBUG: Error 2896: Executing action FetchDatabasesAction failed.
The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2896. The arguments are: FetchDatabasesAction, ,
Action ended 15:34:48: WelcomeDlg. Return value 3.
MSI (c) (A0:3C) [15:34:48:516]: Doing action: FatalError
which specifies for the MSI installer which version of the .NET framework to use for the custom action. Not specifying it leads to a kind of version autodetect, which takes into account the version of the msiexec tool rather than the custom action dll. It is highly recommended to not omit it. The problem I had was that I had changed the target of the custom action to .NET 4.0 and had also changed the config file to:
<startup>
<supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/>
</startup>
<startup>
<!--<supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/>-->
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0.30319.1"/>
</startup>
As you can see, there is an extended supportedRuntime syntax in the 4.0 case, but that is not really relevant. The thing that makes it all work is useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy="true"!
<startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy="true">
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.0"/>
<supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727" />
</startup>
If you have a T4 Template .tt file that throws a weird Compiling transformation: Invalid token 'this' in class, struct, or interface member error that seems to come out of nowhere, try to delete extraneous spaces.
The word that I think best describes the book is "naive". That's not necessarily a bad thing; people have been hooked by naive stories since forever. Isaac Asimov had some very simplistic plots where everything was going well for the main character. The Harry Potter series was also what I could call naive; didn't hurt it much. From the same perspective I can say that The Vorkosigan Saga, which now spans about twenty novels and short stories, had its share of success (and three Hugo awards) no matter what the writing style. That writing style should have evolved anyhow as each book was written.Update: Thanks to Tim Fischer from Tangible, I got to solve all the problems described in the post below using VolatileAssembly and macros like $(SolutionDir) or $(ProjectDir).
When T4 (Text Template Transformation Toolkit) appeared as a third party toolkit that you could install on Visual Studio 2008, I thought to myself that it is a cool concept, but I didn't get to actually use it. Now it is included in Visual Studio 2010 and I had the opportunity to use it in a project.
The idea is to automatically create code classes and other files directly in Visual Studio, integrated so that the files are generated when saving the template. All in all a wonderful idea... but it doesn't work. Well, I may be exaggerating a bit, but my beginning experience has been off putting. I did manage to solve all the problems, though, and this is what this blog post is about.
First of all, there is the issue of intellisense. I am using ReSharper with my Visual Studio, so the expectations for the computer knowing what I am doing are pretty high. In the .tt (the default extension for T4) files you don't have any. The solution for this is to use the Tangible T4 editor (I think they were going for a fifth T here) that comes as a Visual Studio addon for VS2008 and VS2010. Fortunately, there is a free version. Unfortunately, it doesn't do intellisense on your own libraries unless you buy the priced one. Also, the intellisense is years behind the one provided by ReSharper or even the default Visual Studio one and the actions one can do automatically on code in a T4 template are pretty limited.
The second problem was when trying to link to an assembly using a relative path to the .tt file. The Assembly directive supports either the name of an assembly loaded in the GAC or a rooted path. Fortunately, the VS2010 version of the T4 engine supports macros like $(SolutionDir). I don't know if it supports all Visual Studio build macros in the link, but the path ones are certainly there.
Here is how you use it. Instead of
<#@ Assembly Name="Siderite.Contract.dll" #>
use
<#@ Assembly Name="$(SolutionDir)/Assemblies/Siderite.Contract.dll" #>
The third problem was that using an assembly directive locked the assembly used until you either reopened the solution or renamed the assembly file. That proved very limiting when using assemblies that needed compiling in the same solution.
This can be solved by installing the T4 Toolbox and using the VolatileAssembly directive. Actually, on the link above from Oleg Sych you can also find a bit advising using the T4 toolbox VolatileAssembly directive in the Assembly Locking section.
Here is how you use it. Instead of
<#@ Assembly Name="$(SolutionDir)/Assemblies/Siderite.Contract.dll" #>
use
<#@ VolatileAssembly
processor="T4Toolbox.VolatileAssemblyProcessor"
name="$(SolutionDir)/Assemblies/Siderite.Contract.dll" #>
As you can see you need to specify the processor (the VolatileAssemblyProcessor would have been installed by the T4 Toolbox) and you can use macros to get to a relative rooted path.
So thanks to the eforts of Oleg and Tim here, we can actually use T4. It would have been terribly akward to work with the solution in the obsolete section below. The Tangible guys have a learning T4 section on their site as well. I guess that using the resources there would have spared me from a day and a half wasted on this.
The following is obsolete due to the solutions described above, but it is still an informative read and may provide solutions for similar problems.
Tips And Tricks:
Problem: the T4 generated file has some unexplained empty lines before the start of the text.
Solution: Remove any spaces from the end of lines. Amazingly so, some white space at the end of some of the lines were translated as empty lines in the resulting .tt.
Problem: The code is not aligned properly
Solution: Well, it should be obvious, but empty spaces before the T4 tags are translated as empty spaces in the resulting .tt file. In other words, stuff like <# ... should not be preceded by any indenting. It will make the template look a bit funny, but the resulting template will look ok. If you dislike the way the intending looks in the template, move the indent space in the tag, where it will be treated as empty space in the T4 code.
I've finally finished the book WPF in Action with Visual Studio 2008 by Arlen Feldman and Maxx Daymon. Simply put, it was a great book. Most of the programming books focus too much on structure, resulting in very comprehensive information, but giving one little in the way of actual work. WPF in Action is describing features while using them in a few applications that are built almost entirely out of code printed in the book. I think this is the second book any beginner in WPF should read, the first being one of those boring comprehensive ones :)
The final chapter of the Fullmetal Alchemist story has been released today. Have the Elric brothers regained their bodies? Have they sacrificed everything in that Japanese way we so love? Did they get to yet another place filled with Nazis, turned vampire and got to be characters in an Uwe Boll movie? You will have to read the manga to find out! :) The good news it that following the link above you can do just that!I won't get into explaining in detail what the dynamic keyword does in .Net 4.0, enough to say that it is enabled by the DLR (Dynamic Language Runtime) and it allows an object to have a type determined at runtime, not at compile time. I will use this feature to select the appropriate method for a specific type.
void DoSomething(object o) {
Console.WriteLine("I'm an object");
}
void DoSomething(int o) {
Console.WriteLine("I'm an int");
}
void Test() {
int i=1;
object o=i;
DoSomething(i);
DoSomething(o);
}
void DoSomething(object o) {
Console.WriteLine("I'm an object");
}
void DoSomething(int o) {
Console.WriteLine("I'm an int");
}
void Test() {
int i=1;
object o=i;
dynamic d=o;
DoSomething(i);
DoSomething(o);
DoSomething(d);
}
public static class RequestHandler
{
static RequestHandler()
{
checkDynamicPattern();
}
[Conditional("DEBUG")]
private static void checkDynamicPattern()
{
PatternChecker.CheckImplementation(typeof(RequestHandler));
}
[DynamicPattern("getObjectsHandle")]
[DynamicPatternIgnore(typeof(BaseDeleteRequest))]
[DynamicPatternIgnore(typeof(DeleteUsersRequest))]
[DynamicPatternIgnore(typeof(DeleteCategoriesRequest))]
[DynamicPatternIgnore(typeof(DeleteDataRequest))]
[DynamicPatternIgnore(typeof(DeleteApplicationsRequest))]
[DynamicPatternIgnore(typeof(GetEntityRequest))]
[DynamicPatternIgnore(typeof(BaseObjectActionRequest))]
[DynamicPatternIgnore(typeof(GetEntitiesRequest))]
[DynamicPatternIgnore(typeof(GetEntityByIdRequest))]
[DynamicPatternIgnore(typeof(BatchOperationRequest))]
public static BaseEntitiesResponse GetObjects(BaseRequest request, Coordinator coordinator)
{
return getObjectsHandle((dynamic)request, coordinator);
}
private static BaseEntitiesResponse getObjectsHandle(BaseRequest request, Coordinator coordinator)
{
throw new ArgumentException("Cannot find a suitable getObjects method for type of request " +
request.GetType());
}
private static BaseEntitiesResponse getObjectsHandle(GetApplicationRequest request,
Coordinator coordinator)
{
DataObject entity = coordinator.ApplicationManager.GetObject(request.Id,
request.IncludeOptions);
return getEntitiesResponse(entity);
}
var custom=obj as ICustom<T>; so you are forced to use GetType() and then some weird methods that interogate the Type object. You can do it with the dynamic pattern.
checkIfCustom(obj);
private void checkIfCustom(object obj) {
dynamicCheckIfCustom((dynamic)obj);
}
private void dynamicCheckIfCustom(object obj) {
//do nothing
}
private void dynamicCheckIfCustom<T>(ICustom<T> iCustom) {
doSomethingWith(iCustom);
}
This will be a short post to describe my own stupidity. I was testing the new Entity Framework Plain Old CLR Objects (POCO) support and so I made a small test to:Well, there are a lot of good reasons why that could happen because of your bad code, but this time it is a plain ugly Microsoft bug. You see, the code in the RaisePostBackEvent method in the TreeView control first checks if the control has an Adapter and if not, it just does its thing. If there is an Adapter, it tries to cast it to a IPostBackEventHandler and then fires the RaisePostBackEvent event there. However, if the TreeView control has an adapter and it is not a RaisePostBackEvent, nothing happends!
protected virtual void RaisePostBackEvent(string eventArgument)
{
base.ValidateEvent(this.UniqueID, eventArgument);
if (base.IsEnabled)
{
if (base._adapter != null)
{
IPostBackEventHandler handler =
base._adapter as IPostBackEventHandler;
if (handler != null)
{
handler.RaisePostBackEvent(eventArgument);
}
}
else ...
Wow, long title. The problem, however, is simple: when adding an inline Javascript script block that changes the window.location or window.location.href properties, FireFox and Chrome do not retain the original URL of the page in the browser history. The Back button doesn't work correctly.I am only linking to this blog post that shows how to instantiate the converters directly in the binding, without having to define a resource just for that.