Layout of an edmx diagram in VS2012 - visual-studio

I have an entity framework diagram that has been generated from my database and updated several times. Upon adding new tables the placement of them seems to be a bit random and it has led to a pretty messy picture (example below). Is there a way of getting it to auto-rearrange them?
I'm more interested in finding out how it decides where to place a new table, if anyone happens to know...? This is more curiosity than an actual problem I suppose.

This may be unrelated, but to find a certain table, I have found myself opening the edmx.diagram file with a text editor and searched for the table.
When I have found it, I have modified the nodes and set PointX="0" and PointY="0".
Then I had opened the diagram again in visual studio, having the table in question in the topleft corner.

Try moving some related tables to a new diagram by right-clicking on the table and selecting "move to another diagram". thereafter right-click in a blank space, diagram, layout diagram to rearrange the tables.

Related

Coordinating highlighting between two tables

The challenge is this: 2 coordinated tables, 1 with an overview that is laid out on a grid, the other contains detailed information about the cells in the first table. (This overview is used for other information as well, which has been removed from the minimal example below.) Mousing over either one will highlight both. Clicking on the overview table will hide or show the rows of the data view.
The problem is that the data is being defined by a JSON data object and the order of that object is very important. It's important that the data is mapped to the overview without reordering either. There may be cells not represented in the data view that are in the overview and nothing bad should happen.
http://fiddle.jshell.net/g8z5h/14/
The problem is using select all lets d3 define the order things will be taken. I need to coordinate the mapping myself. I'm hoping there's an elegant solution to this that doesn't involve writing separate mouseover and mouse click functions.
You can use a key function to tie the selection to your data:
http://bost.ocks.org/mike/selection/#key
http://bost.ocks.org/mike/constancy/#key-functions

ADO.Net Entity Data Model Designer: Disable auto-layout?

ADO.Net Entity Data Model Designer (VS2010) is making me INSANE -- hopefully someone has dealt with this and knows how to make it stop.
When initially putting together a complex data model, it's perfectly fine that Designer figures out on its own where the lines delineating associations are placed. However, eventually, I wind up meticulously placing those lines myself for the sake of readability.
But if I finish my layout, and then decide to, say, add a property to an existing entity, Designer redoes my entire layout, or at least every association line that leads to or from that entity.
Is there some way to disable or otherwise get around this automatic layout feature?

VtChart changes not saving in MS VB6

I'm working on some legacy code. I have a user control with a VtChart (VCI First Impression Library) in it and I'm trying to make changes to it, namely, adding another series to the control. However, every time I make changes to the control, close the form editor, then reopen it, the changes are gone.
I can't find any documentation on this control, so thought I'd ask the community, any ideas?
Ah! Found my answer. Since VtChart is connected to a grid (F1Book), the SsLinkRange needs to correspond to the number of columns needed in the chart. For example, if you want 3 columns, SsLinkRange should be A1:C10, where A and C is the column range. If the SsLink properties don't match it won't save the settings.
This is an very obscure problem, but I'll post this answer anyways for archiving.

Visual Studio - Splitting so that Design mode is on top

VS2008 seems to have a new feature that allows one to split a website into the source code and design aspects on the same page. This feature seems great, however it defaults to having the design part on the bottom half of the screen and the code part on the top half.
Unfortunately, my brain doesn't work this way and it ends up being more of a hassle than to just continue switching back and forth when needed like I've done in the past.
Is there a way to swap them so that the design part is on the top and the code part on the bottom? Most other tools in VS are drag and droppable, so I can't see why not, but I'm not finding the setting anywhere. I did a quick google search and found a way to make the split vertical, but thats not what I'm looking for. I'm just looking for the same horizontal split with the design part on top.
Thanks
Here's an alternative approach that may help. If it's a traditional .aspx page (one that has a codebehind), you can open both documents simultaneously. Then right click one in the tab area at the top and select New Horizontal Tab Group. You can manipulate it so that the design window is on top of the code window.
I would be very surprised if this possible, since I have never seen a window configuration that changes the vertical alignment of the Objects and Events drop-down-lists.
I could be wrong, though.
It does seem rather strange - in the xaml designer you can split the screen whichever way you want as there is a button to switch the position of the panes. The options for the html designer only seem to allow a vertical or horizontal split though, there isn't anything in there specifying whether to have code or design at the top, it does seem a little backwards as I imagine most people find it more natural to have the visual designer at the top with the code below.

VB6 silently deleting huge chunks of control data from forms

My project has maybe 130 controls (total of all labels, textboxes, etc.) in an SSTab (4 tabs). The project loads fine, it runs fine, I don't see a single error or warning at any point, but when I save the form with the SStab on it, the SStab data isn't saved (it is completely gone). Normally the relevant portion of the .frm file looks like this:
Begin TabDlg.SSTab SSTab1
Height = 8895
[1550 more lines of code for all the controls]
Width = 540
End
Begin VB.Menu FileMenu
But lately it's getting cropped to:
Begin TabDlg.SSTab SSTab1
Begin VB.Menu FileMenu
This is very frustrating! In my VB IDE, the frame, sstab, and all the controls are there, editable, running/compiling fine, no error messages at any point, but when you save the file, 1550 lines of precious sstab data just disappears - again, with no warning or error messages. So if you exit and restart the IDE, you get a form load error because 60% of the code is now missing. The log file points to the first error it finds (in this case a Begin TabDlg with no End) - there's no other info in it. (The log file was generated after the code was deleted and saved, so it makes sense that it wouldn't be helpful.)
When I first posted this question, I thought it had to do with the number of controls, because it appeared after I added a control, and in my first few tests, seemed to disappear when that control (or other controls) was deleted. Now I can't seem to get that form to save under any circumstances, even when I delete many controls (bringing the number of controls far below where it was when it was last stable).
I also tried deleting the SStab and moving all the controls to 4 different frames. I successfully did that in the IDE, but when I saved, a huge chunk of the data (starting with a slider control) was missing. So I have no fraking idea what is going on.
The problem is reproducible on two different PCs, so it doesn't appear to be a hardware/corrupt software VB install issue.
Has anyone else run into something like this?
Create a UserControl for each tab. That makes editing MUCH easier. It also allows you to nicely modularize the code, so each tab lives in its own file, and it'll allow you to reuse tabs elsewhere if you want.
Sounds horrible, never heard of anything like that.
Presumably you aren't getting an error log file from VB6 when you load the form into the IDE before it gets corrupted? The log file has the same filename as the form file but with a .log filename extension. For example, if errors occurred when loading Myform.frm, Visual Basic would create a log file named Myform.log. The error messages you might see there are documented in the manual.
Have a look in the Windows Event Log, see whether it records any interesting problems against the VB6 IDE?
Are you using any weird controls? Maybe one of them is somehow corrupting the FRM or FRX. FRM files are just text as you obviously know & the format is documented in the VB6 manual. Can you see any corruption in the FRM in a text editor? If you remove any properties defined in the FRX, does it still fail.
I think I would try creating a new project and a new form, and then use the IDE to copy and paste all the control definitions into it - no code. Play with the new form, see whether it has the same problem. Maybe you can recreate the form this way without the problem. If the new form does have the problem, do the same thing but only take half the controls. Maybe you can find a problem control by "binary search".
I get the same problem when attempting to save a form when the .FRM is writable but the .FRX is read-only
Not sure if this is the issue, but on a VB6 form, there is a limit to 255 (or is it 256) named controls. Perhaps you are running into that?
One way around that limitation is to use control arrays. For example, if you had 10 labels, instead of label1, label2, label3, etc, you could do label(0) through label(9), and use up only one named control.
The other thing worth mentioning about the SSTAB is the way it shows/hides controls. While it may appear that the controls are on separate tabs, what is really happening is that the controls are getting moved waaaayyyyy to the left (and consequently out of view). Perhaps with so many components, the SSTAB is choking on this in the IDE as it tries to render the controls in design view?
Again, not sure if this is the issue, but I know these two tidbits are relatively unknown.
So the SAVE function is not working.
I suspect one of the components you are placing on the tab strip is the culprit.
So ..
1) Take an inventory of each and every kind of component you are placing on the form
2) eliminate one (kind), SAVE
3) Did it SAVE?
-> Yes = that was the problematic control
-> No = return to step 2, but pick another kind
Of course, its important to remove all controls of a certain kind in step #2 (for example, ALL labels, or ALL textboxes, etc).
I have never heard of this happening however.
You are not alone! I've seen this problem. . .in fact I'm dealing it right now, which is what brought me to this site.
I've been working with VB since '94 (VB3) and I first saw this problem about 5 or 6 years ago, while using VB6. My solution then, was not unlike some of the suggestions that you have recieved from the good folks who've responded above: throw out the existing file and rebuild the form in a new file. I did that back and the affected form has worked ever since.
My current problem is appearing in another, much newer form, and the replace/rebuild option (performed about a month ago) only worked for about three weeks. Now the problem is back and each new iteration of the file gets corrupted very quickly. Following the reply above regarding the total number of allowable controls, I'm looking into just how many controls I have. . .and, as it happens, I was in the process of consolidating the primary the buttons and menus into control arrays, simply because it was going to streamline their management.
I can also confirm your observations about moving the project to a second PC. . . I've done that too, and problem persists. Moreover, I can add that I have moved the project from one shared storage system to another to no avail. (The original storage location was on a drive mounted to a Win-tel system and the new location is on a UNIX-based NAS!)
Just rebuilt the file again and checked: Controls.Count = 62, so I am no where near the 255 control limit mentioned previously. This is indeed strange! (Not to mention furstrating!)

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