Rob Aquila's Blog

If you are using MSBuild to deploy your database changes as described in a pervious post , it can really start to slow down your builds as you add more databases that need to be updated. One way to get around this is to reuse the script that was used to deploy the first database on all the other databases...

Continue reading "MSBUILD DBPro Deploy Tip"

In this sample I’m going to show how to use a pattern called virtual proxy as a lazy loading strategy. There are many times when you want to load a parent object that contains child objects. It is often the case that you don’t want to actually load up those children from the database until...

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With the release of DBPro GDR there is now a command line deployment tool call VSDBCMD.exe. This tool can be used to import a database schema into a .dbschema file or deploy a database from an existing .dbschema. A .dbschema file can also be created by building a database project within visual studio...

Continue reading "Using VSDBCMD and MSBUILD to Build and Deploy DBPro Projects"

I currently use the copy command in msbuild to copy files out to machines in a deploy build. I would match rather have a way to sync those directories with a source rather than just consistently dump files out to a target directory. Using the msbuild copy command will copy the files but it will not remove...

Continue reading "Using MS Deploy Instead of the Copy Command In MSBuild"

Microsoft release RC1 of its new web deployment tool called MS Deploy a few days ago and I have been playing around with it. Here is a quick summary and reference of the basic commands to help you get started. Command-Line Syntax msdeploy.exe -verb: < verbName > -source: < provider > [= <...

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I have completed the first phase of developing an application similar to the TFS Build Notification Screen that is meant to be installed on a developer's machine to monitor the status of build definitions. The TFS Build Notification Tray sits on the taskbar and displays updates for the configured project...

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If you have trouble connecting to Team Foundation Server 2008 after you install it on Windows Server 2008 it's mostly likely because your firewall is blocking http ports 8080, 8090, and 8081. I ended up creating a new private inbound rule called Team Foundation Server HTTP Ports in windows firewall allowing...

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When trying to hit an asp.net page that consumes a Web Service I ran into this error. System.InvalidOperationException: Types 'Client.WebReference1.ClassA' and 'Common.ClassA' both use the XML type name, 'ClassA', from namespace 'http://localhost/WebServices'. Use XML attributes to specify a unique XML...

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As you are probably aware, Visual Studio Team System Test Edition allows you to create web tests . Basically these are tests that a user records in the browser while navigating through a web application. These can then be played back along with a suite of tests to verify a web application's behavior...

Continue reading "Update The Web Server Parameter In MSBuild For Team System Web Tests"

I have been working on an application that will allow people to quickly look at a screen and determine the current status of the builds running in Team Foundation Server 2008. This is an idea based off of having a lamp attached to your continuous build process so that everyone knows the current build...

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