We are developing a EDI application using BizTalk 2010 and Visual Studio 2010. Because of our complex requirements, we are making extensive use of the custom XSLT feature provided by the BizTalk mapper instead of the mapper GUI.
Although I find it much easier to implement the logic we need, developing in XSLT is cumbersome because of the lack of any sort of validation of the Paths in our XSLT files. We are getting our paths by copying the "Instance XPath" property out of the schema and altering them to be in the proper format. We sometimes make mistakes in this process and we don't know how to validate that our paths are correct.
Is there something we are missing or is there a tool that we can use to validate the Paths in our XSLT files against our input schema?
There is no way to validate you xpaths (and test your map) without an instance.
In addition to manually test your map inside Visual Studio, you can create Unit Tests using a BizTalk test project or BizUnit.
Related
I've generated pseudo-localized versions of an app's resource files (for example Order Summary and Payment is localized as [[[[[Òŕd̂ër̊ S̀úm̂m̈år̀ý ân̈d̊ P̀áŷm̈e̊ǹt́]]]]]) so that we can test for localizability bugs ahead of getting actual translations.
I have named them using the qps-ploc resource identifier to match the existing pseudo-locale identifier, e.g. my pseudo-localized version of Details.resx is named Details.qps-ploc.resx.
However when I add these resx files to the project, Visual Studio ignores them. If I rename them using a "real" language code (such as Details.fr-FR.resx) then Visual Studio does create a subfolder named with this language code and builds the satellite assembly.
So it looks to me like Visual Studio rejects qps-ploc (without even a build warning). Am I missing something or can anyone suggest a way to get these qps-ploc resources built as part of my Visual Studio project?
The qps- locales work fine in my ASP.NET web application with .resx files (not compiled resource dll), however, I did find this MS article on enabling pseudo locales in the registry. Perhaps it will help.
Using Pseudo-Locales for Localization Testing
Additionally, you may wish to create custom locales, as given in this MS article:
How to: Create Custom Cultures
Best regards.
I am new to Visual Studio Extensibility and want to make an addin/extension which shall do the following:
It should read all the files with a specific file extension (assume "*.ump").
It should process the text/code/whatever in the files.
It should create new Class/Code file with some code in it. [The code will be produced in step 2, just need to know how to do it?]
Yet, I have been racking my brains through extensibility, saw the single file generators .... and addins which go through ProjectItems and can detect the file extension,
BUT I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO FIND a complete tutorial, guide or explanation as to how or what to do!!
Please help...
You don't want to read all files with a specific file extension in Visual C++ project nor standard Visual C# project. You may do that with hand-made MSBuild project (included in the solution).
In Visual C++ projects, there is a way to define custom tools. They are run as separate processes, so you can implement them in anything you want. Studio will ask you whether you want to define a tool (they are defined in special xml files; studio has dialog for editing them) when you add a file with extension unknown to it. In Visual C# projects, just manually write a MSBuild tasks and insert them into the project.
Do whatever you want. IIRC the generated files will have to be included in the project though. Well, for MSBuild, just tweak the project to your heart's desire, but in Visual C++ they have to.
You can combine MSBuild (csproj,vbproj) and VisualC++ projects in a single solution, so I recommend using separate.
If you ever find out you need to compile for different target where you can't use Visual Studio, you'll be glad that you have stand-alone tool you were just calling from Studio and not something that embeds in it.
I'm writing a custom tool for Visual Studio and am currently using the IVsSingleFileGenerator interface. This works for the most part, but now I'd like to generate more than one file output.
Does anyone know how do go about doing this? I'm really hoping there is just a different interface to implement.
Creating a Custom Tool to Generate Multiple Files in Visual Studio 2005
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/VsMultipleFileGenerator.aspx
Is it possible to run T4 code generation without needing Visual Studio 2010? Basically I have to build an in house ORM (don't ask..if I had a choice I wouldn't). I was planning to use subsonic as a base but change some things and how they work. However my main question is can I run T4 from an external application that I write, so I can use the features of T4? Or am I better off doing it myself (which I doubt)?
TextTransform.exe will do what you want for simple scenarios:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb126245.aspx
Here is how to run a T4 template from your own code for templates created in VS 2010:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee844259(VS.100).aspx
And here is how to run a T4 template from your own code for templates created in VS 2008:
http://www.capprime.com/software_development_weblog/PermaLink,guid,104d9faf-5780-42ca-88e5-c04cb88f61b3.aspx
There will be some issues running Subsonic T4 templates outside Visual Studio:
How can I automate the t4 code generation for SubSonic
I would stick to T4 rather than roll your own template engine.
T4 is a part of Visual Studio. If your ORM tool can assume that Visual Studio is available, T4 is a good choice. You have an option of redistributing the Visual Studio shell, which also includes T4, with your application. Alternatively, you can use preprocessed templates to compile the templates into executable code generators. In compiled form, these templates don't require Visual Studio, but also cannot be modified.
Oleg
AFAIK T4 templates are invoked from within Visual Studio IDE.
Building an ORM needs more than text templates. I suggest you look into AtomWeaver (at http://www.atomweaver.com) which is a code generator that lets you build models from individual building blocks (called "Atoms"). These Atoms are smart templates that act both as text templates but also as mini-programs, allowing you to do much more that simple string substitution.
You can develop your own "Atoms" that transform a database structure into source code. Then, for each new database, you combine these Atoms to build your schema, and fire up the generator to obtain the source code. Because what you've built was actually a model of your DB, you can later make any changes and regenerate your code.
AtomWeaver implements ABSE, a kind of model-driven software development (has nothing to do with UML or MDA). Learn the mechanics of ABSE at http://www.abse.info
AtomWeaver is presently in public beta. There isn't much documentation at this point, so you may have a hard time getting up to speed with it.
There is a command line utility called TextTransform.exe you can use to generate code for a T4 template. I can't comment on if it is the right tool for building a ORM, but I like it well enough for generating state machines from an XML file.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb126245.aspx
I've updated my default templates in Visual Studio for classes, interfaces, code files, etc. I removed the default namespaces and added a copyright header blurb.
Is there a way to use a variable or something in the template so I don't have to zip/unzip and re-run the vs installer to change the copyright header? (I'm a consultant, the code-owner isn't always me or my company).
Yes, you can. The documentation for this sort of thing is part of the Visual Studio SDK. There are already many variables you can use.
If you find you want to get fancy, look into the Guidance Automation Toolkit. A template using GAT can accept user input as well as information from the project and environment, can unfold one or more templates, filling in placeholders with the data gathered, and then can execute various actions against the unfolded templates, the project, or whatever.
You can get the complete example implemented here: Multi-Project Templates with Wizard: Visual Studio 2010 Sample