Preferences from for MEF plugin - visual-studio-2010

I make my application with VS2010 and .NET 4 with MEF for plugin framework. I see few examples in Google, for example this, it's good.
I want to call preferences form from each plugin when user select plugin from list.
My plugins may return various variable of unknown type (for main program). For example, next timer start time, processed data count, errors descriptions...
How to implement this feature?

Related

How do I debug code in a separate project (in same solution) that a Blazor app references?

I'm trying to port my console app over to a Blazor app. Everything worked fine inside the console type project, but it's not inside the Blazor project so I'm trying to troubleshoot. The app calls some things from a separate "class library" type project within the same solution.
The troubleshooting process itself is having issues of its own though. After a little bit of confusion I realized that the breakpoints set inside the referenced class library type project's code are not being hit.
Checking to console, I see it gives the error:
L: Unable to insert breakpoint at FtxApi.FtxWebSocketApi/<Test>d__5:MoveNext ():15
Is there anything I need to do (project settings or something) for the debugger to hit these? Or is it not supported at the moment?
Right now I'm just using a lot of Console.Writeline sort of as a workaround/replacement. And I noticed that the Console.Writelines inside the referenced class library type project are being called.. but only up to a certain method call that comes from a third party package. Execution seems to return from that point (nothing is called after it). Not sure what's going wrong there - more troubleshooting is needed, which brings us back to the breakpoints not firing (ideally I'd be able to make use of them).
I understand Blazor is new (and I'm an absolute beginner at using it), so not everything needs or is going to be perfect. I'm asking about the breakpoints kind of out of curiosity (I'd like to get them working but no big deal otherwise).
What I'd really like some insight into is: What might be going on with the code seemingly stopping execution / returning at that one particular method call? The method I'm calling is WebSocket.Open(), from the package WebSocket4Net. As mentioned above, I've tested this before (in a Console app) and it worked fine, so I'm guessing it's somehow related to Blazor which I'm unfamiliar with. I'm unsure how to get any more info to help debug this problem. Any help appreciated.
Edit:
I managed to find a solution to my problem without the use of debugging tools like breakpoints and such (I just used Console.Writeline a lot). I guess Blazor does not support some websocket implementations or something, because I found this error: System.PlatformNotSupportedException: Operation is not supported on this platform. blazor.webassembly.js:1 at System.Net.Sockets.Socket coming from websocket.Open(). I managed to get it working by implementing System.Net.Websockets instead, similar to this. Though my troubleshooting is over (for now), I'm still wondering if it's somehow possible to use breakpoints inside other referenced projects.
There are 2 solutions:
Solution 1: Right-click at Solution, choose Properties, choose Common Properties, Choose Multiple startup project, choose Action Start for Foo.Client, Foo.Server, Foo.Shared . Something like this
See https://blog.magnetismsolutions.com/blog/paulnieuwelaar/2015/04/07/debug-multiple-projects-at-the-same-time-in-visual-studio
Solution 2: Compile SharedProject, attacht PDB for debugging.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/debugger/how-to-debug-an-executable-not-part-of-a-visual-studio-solution?view=vs-2019

Is there any class count limit in MFC project compiled with /CLR

With the risk to fall into too specific question...
Given a C++ MFC (mixed, not shaked) project compiled with /CLR, I have 200 classes already defined.
When I add a new empty class to this project, an error raises when I compile and execute in debug mode.
An unhandled exception of type 'System.IO.FileLoadException' occurred
in Unknown Module.
Additional information: Could not load file or assembly 'ProjectA,
Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its
dependencies. Could not find or load a type. (Exception from HRESULT:
0x80131522)
ProjectA is the name of the MFC project itself. There is no reference to any ProjectA assembly on project configuration, and there is no reference to another custom assembly.
This project only have references to some .NET Framework assemblies, in order to allow that some of custom defined classes in the project can use CLR classes.
Then, the question is...
Do you know whether there is any limitation of class number on a MFC C++ project?
EDIT:
As I say in comments, in release mode the compilation succeed without errors.
Also, I clean, build, clean, close Visual Studio, reboot computer... and the problem still appears.
If I keep in 200 classes, there is no error. When I go to 201, the error appears.
Currently I'm trying to reproduce in a new default MFC project, adding classes till arrive to 200, to confirm that there is a real limitation.
EDIT 2: ERROR FIXED
Great. #MSX and #frymode show me how avoid the error with his comments.
In the Visual Studio development environment (source / source):
Open the project's Property Pages dialog box.
Click the C/C++ folder.
Click the Code Generation property page.
Modify the Enable String Pooling (/GF) property.
Thank you guys!
The /GF hack is a known workaround for this problem. It is however not a correct one, you are putting a band-aid on a heavily bleeding wound. Pretty important that you heal the problem instead of putting a patch on it, this heavily affects the way your program runs at runtime as well.
The problem maker is the <Module> class, an internal class that the C++/CLI compiler generates. You can see it with ildasm.exe or a good decompiler. This class is required as a home for declarations in your program that are not class members, valid in native C++ but not supported by the CLR. Which demands that every variable or function declaration is a member of a class. The C++/CLI compiler solves it by moving such a declaration into the <Module> class.
There is however a limit on the number of members in a class, they are represented in the metadata of the .NET assembly with a metadata token. An index into other tables. The upper byte identifies the table number, the lower bytes are the index in the table.
You exceeded that limit. This is bad.
A problem with the /clr compile option is that it works too well. It is capable of compiling any C++03 compliant native C++ code to MSIL. Such code will be just-in-time compiled to machine code by the jitter, just like normal managed code. It is however not verifiable code and it doesn't act like managed code at all, you can blow up your program with pointer fumbles just as easily. And above all, it is not code that's optimized with the native C++ back-end. Only the jitter optimizer has a shot at improving that code, it cannot do nearly the quality job that the native C++ optimizer can do, given that it runs with a hard upper limit on how much time it can spend on doing that job.
Have a look-see with a decompiler to see what ended up in that <Module> class. That's going to be overwheliming at first, you know you've got a big one right now. You fix this problem by spending more time segregating the code into the managed parts and the native parts. Where the native code should be compiled without /clr in effect. It is a per-source file setting, you can even switch back-and-forth in a single source code file with #pragma managed. The simplest way to segregate is by keeping your native code in its own library or DLL.
This link shows that there's no limit to the number of types you can have in a namespace (not a project). Considering, that a namespace can be split across different assemblies, you could, at least in theory, have an unlimited number of types. However, this post affirms that the maximum number of classes in a .DLL
is 16777215. Probably, you'll run out of memory before you reach that number of classes :)
Just for information: there seems to be a limit to the number of fields per class, though.
P.S.:
Here's the solution to your problem taken from this link
Open the project's Property Pages dialog box.
Click the C/C++ folder.
Click the Code Generation property page.
Modify the Enable String Pooling property.

Custom building SGEN assemblies and including in installer

I've been rather confused by some SGEN stuff. I've enable the generation of serialization assemblies for one of my projects. Originally I got the follow error which I believe I've solved by doing some caspol stuff on a remote assembly.
Unable to load one or more of the request types. Retrieve the
LoaderExceptions propery for more information
Now however, I don't get an assembly generated. Adding some debugging/verbose output provides the message "SS.dll does not contain any types that can be serialized using XmlSerializer". I've read that this is because of a proxy switch applied by VS. The odd thing is it doesn't seem to be a problem with any other project.
So if I disable the proxy switch (example here) it seems to work. The linked build events however seem to do all projects. I don't know enough about MSBuild to tweak to just a single project, does anyone know what I need to change?
Additionally, if this change is made, is there a way I can automatically include this in a installer (VDProj)? I can't statically link to the SS.XmlSerializers.dll because the each dev uses a custom path.
Discovered the following post which talks about adding the <SGenUseProxyTypes>Off</SGenUseProxyTypes> to the csproj file which seems to work :)

Why is VS2010 looking for framework source code when Just My Code is enabled?

Googling this yields lots of entries on HOW TO step through Framework code. I'm trying to find out how NOT TO step into.
First check: Yes, "Enable Just My Code" is checked in the Tools->Options->Debugging. That is supposed to keep VS2010 from looking for source code when you are stepping through a framework function (or anything else that you don't have the source to, as I understand it.)
It's not. I'm trying to step through my code, using F11, and, if I get careless and don't switch to F10 (to step over a function call) when I get to a function that is in a library, then it throws up a dialog asking where the source for that call is, and when I cancel out of it (since I don't have the source), it aborts my Debug, and I have to start all over.
How can I avoid this behavior. As I understand the documentation, this is NOT the way it is supposed to work. And where do we go for support when it's not working?
You can do this by simply not loading symbols for the framework.
In the Symbols window, there is an option for "Automatically symbols for:" depending on the option you choose you can explicitly exclude those modules, or only specify your own modules.
I assume you are using the All modules, unless excluded option, so you should exclude the framework modules.
If you actually own the framework you can also add a StepThrough attribute to any framework functions you want to step through. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.debuggerstepthroughattribute.aspx.

Is there a tool that will track/log managed code?

I'm working on a bug where we have a use case that works, and a subtly different use case that doesn't. The code base has next to no logging, and I don't want to spend time now sprinkling logging throught the code base, though I do have time budgeted to do that at a later date.
Is there a tool that logs a program's actions ie, logs each function call?
Apparently Appsight does do this but costs 100,000's.
You could try using our logging tool SmartInspect together with the aspect oriented programming (AOP) framework PostSharp. By using our aspect library, you can automatically instrument and log all method calls, exceptions and even field/property changes.
A solution that doesn't require any code change / recompile would be to use a tool that's based on the .NET Profiling API, which injects its hooks at runtime.
The only free-open-source project i know that traces not just method entry/exit but also the return values/method parameters is SAE (Simple Assembly Explorer). When you open it up, just navigate to your exe, right click on it, and choose Profile.
There are some limits to this tool - specifically, it won't print out the values of generic types, and the text output is not indented/prettified.
Runtime Flow (developed by me) can log each function call with parameters for .NET 2.0 - 4.0 applications without any additional instrumentation.

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