Visual Studio (2005 & 2008) Compile Completed Alert? - visual-studio

Does anyone know of any kind of plugin or alert system which will let me know when my compiles are completed? Some of the solutions I work with are gigantic and sometimes the compiles can take 5-20 minutes (depending on the PC). Thus I would like to do something else in the meantime, but I don't want to keep checking back to see if the compile is done. Is there any way to have a windows alert, or flash the screen when the compile is done?
It would let me browse the internet whilst waiting for the compile to finish without worrying that its been complete and I'm just wasting time.

Another way is a sound cue. Control Panel + Sound, Sound tab. In the Program Events list, locate the "Microsoft Visual Studio Macros" group, assign sounds to "Build Failed" and "Build Succeeded".

OnBuildDone
Private Sub BuildEvents_OnBuildDone( _
ByVal Scope As EnvDTE.vsBuildScope, _
ByVal Action As EnvDTE.vsBuildAction) _
Handles BuildEvents.OnBuildDone
'Alert that we finished building!
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("Build is complete!")
End Sub
http://visualstudiohacks.com/general/customize-your-project-build-process/

Growl
http://www.growlforwindows.com
+ visual studio plugin
http://www.growlforwindows.com/gfw/plugins/visualstudio
All the power of a notification system, including history, network broadcast, etc.
The same exits for snarl, another notification system on pc, same capabilities I guess

You could use the Post Build Event Commands.
Here's a tutorial

Related

Visual Studio 2015 :is there any "post-debug" event?

I have an application that interacts with another one, suspending it while not used. If I end the debugging abruptly the suspended process will stay alive in the background and needs to be terminated.
I did some research and looks like none of the people found a solution that is applicable to Visual Studio 2015, in particular the macro solution will not work since looks like a dropped feature since VS2010...
My current solution is to run the proper taskkill command as a post-build action and within the startup code of the program.
I'm looking for a more elegant way of killing it, so a "post-debug" event like the one portrayed by the macro below would be perfect:
Private Sub DebuggerEvents_OnEnterBreakMode(
ByVal Reason As EnvDTE.dbgEventReason,
ByRef ExecutionAction As EnvDTE.dbgExecutionAction) Handles DebuggerEvents.OnEnterBreakMode
If (Reason = dbgEventReason.dbgEventReasonStopDebugging) Then
KillLeftoverProgram()
End If
End Sub
So is there any way to execute a cleanup shell command after using the stop button?

VB6 application won't run in some computers, in others it runs fine

I have a VB6 application, the installer is compiled using INNO Setup.
The installer runs fine. But in about 10% of computers when the user clicks the Icon to run the installed app, it doesn't start, no error message, only a Beep sound.
This is happening on XP and also Win 7.
I develop in XP and Win 7 and the application works OK, so I haven't been able to reproduce the issue.
The installer registers all ocx and dlls needed (afaik). (Well not completely all, it assumes MS run-time components should be there, but I guess an error message should show up if something is missing)
I was thinking some kind of user permissions, UAC, but even users in the admin group have had the issue.
Could you point me to what possible issues to look for and test in order to patch the app.
Thanks!
[FOLLOW UP]
Thanks to the tips, found out the manifest is causing the problem. I use it to make the controls look better:
http://www.vbaccelerator.com/home/vb/code/libraries/xp_visual_styles/using_xp_visual_styles_in_vb/article.asp
Now I'm trying to discover why. I have another application with the same manifest and that one works ok.
Haven't been able to get feedback on the event viewer yet.
The "beep crash" often points to an error in an application manifest such as an XML syntax error or namspace conflict. Event Logs will often provide a hint about this.
But I've found that people often try to use the Common Controls 6.0 Library without ensuring proper library loading sequence.
Before any Forms are openend you should load shell32 and then comctl32. The easiest way is a couple of no-op calls in Sub Main:
Option Explicit
Private Declare Sub InitCommonControls Lib "comctl32" ()
Private Declare Function IsUserAnAdmin Lib "shell32" () As Long
Private Sub InitCommonControlsVB()
IsUserAnAdmin
InitCommonControls
End Sub
Private Sub Main()
InitCommonControlsVB
Form1.Show
End Sub
Without this your program will usually work fine in Vista or Win7, but will fail on some XP service pack and patch levels. Part of this is due to changes over time in the Fusion subsystem that handles SxS activation and comctl32.dll patches.
Ignore those saying you need to call InitCommonControlsEx(), it isn't necessary unless you are constructing and using Win32 controls directly instead of VB6 and COM controls.
A few things to try to narrow it down:
Check the Windows Event Log for crash events
Check the Windows Event Log (in the Application section) for crash reports from your application. You can quickly get to the log viewer on Windows XP by clicking Start > Run, typing eventvwr and pressing Enter. On Windows 7, you can type "event viewer" in the search box that is in the Start menu. You can filter the events to only show error events from your program.
You might find a few error events on one of the computers where this problem has already occured, because it sounds like the error reporting feature is turned off on these computers (in which case "hard crashes" like access violations are logged in the Event Log instead of displaying an error dialog to the end-user, as long as a debugger isn't installed on the computer).
Make sure "Error Reporting" is turned at the OS level
As mentioned in the previous section, it sounds like the error reporting feature is turned off on these computers. In that case, a crash won't display any kind of message to the end-user at all and the application will just vanish suddenly. In Windows XP, you can check this setting (and turn it on) as follows:
Right-click "My Computer" and select Properties.
Open the Advanced tab and click the Error Reporting button.
Select the Enable Error Reporting option.
Click OK to all the open windows.
Add trace code to your application
You could also add some trace code to your application's start-up code, such as code to display a message box or write a message to the Windows Event Log or to a log file as soon as your application starts (for example, in the Form_Initialize event of your main form, or in a Sub Main routine).
This way you will be able to tell whether your application is crashing before or after the VB6 runtime is loaded: if you try to start the application and it disappears/crashes, and your startup message isn't logged, then you know it's crashing before it even has a chance to get to your application's startup code, which could indicate that a dependency of the VB6 runtime or the VB6 runtime itself is not installed properly.
Note that Windows XP and Windows 7 both ship with the VB6 runtime pre-installed, but it's possible for misbehaving installers to overwrite or remove files that are part of the VB6 runtime.

Is there an equivalent of DoEvents in Visual Studio macros?

I've got a long-running macro, in which I write periodic messages to Output just so that the user know somethings happening. The problem is that the output doesn't get shown until the macro has finished (unless you have the Continue Waiting? dialog box open, strangely enough).
Is there anyway to 'flush' the event queue?
If you reference Windows Forms you can access Application.DoEvents as normal.
I have the main IDE responding to windows updates and closes in real time while the macro is still running with only
DTE.SuppressUI = False
Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000)
As such I suggest using a standard DoEvents & Sleep(55) loop for a 250 milliseconds or so when you want to ensure the UI is updated should do the trick, along with the SuppressUI=False.

Referencing functions within VB6 User Controls

I'm having an issue referencing public procedures of User Controls that I've created within a VB6 project.
A simple example (exe), I have a form with a button and a user control:
Option Explicit
Private Sub Command1_Click()
UserControl1.updateMessage ("TIME NOW: " & DateTime.Time)
End Sub
The User Control code is as follows:
Option Explicit
Public Sub updateMessage(ByVal newMessage As String)
Label1.Caption = newMessage
End Sub
This exe compiles and works fine, and when I'm typing updateMessage in the Form, it appears in the intellisense list with the appropriate requirements. The issue I have is when I'm wanting to "go to the definition" of updateMessage, instead of going to the appropriate section of the code within the User Control, the message always returns with:
"Cannot jump to 'updateMessage' because it is in the library 'Unknown1' which is not currently referenced."
where the numbered suffix of "Unkown1" changes from time to time.
It seems that if there were no reference to this procedure, then it would not appear in the intellisense and the project shouldn't compile. When running this with MZTools (though the error appears regardless of this plug-in being installed), I can go into the updateMessage procedure, and use it to find all procedures calling this function, so the link between the two should exist (although I'm not sure if MZTools just finds using a text-matching pattern).
If anyone out there could shed some light on this matter, it would be very much appreciated, and save this poor VB6 developer a lot of hassle!
I have SP6 installed (build 9782) of VB6 and am running XP SP3 on an HP dx2400.
Yes, this is extremely annoying and I'm convinced it's a bug in VB6. I say this because, if you locate the updateMessage method in the object browser and double-click on it, you are taken to the definition. So, the compiler actually does know where the definition is, it just refuses to take you there with Shift+F2.

Can I create a Visual Studio macro to launch a specific project in the debugger?

My project has both client and server components in the same solution file. I usually have the debugger set to start them together when debugging, but it's often the case where I start the server up outside of the debugger so I can start and stop the client as needed when working on client-side only stuff. (this is much faster).
I'm trying to save myself the hassle of poking around in Solution Explorer to start individual projects and would rather just stick a button on the toolbar that calls a macro that starts the debugger for individual projects (while leaving "F5" type debugging alone to start up both processess).
I tried recording, but that didn't really result in anything useful.
So far all I've managed to do is to locate the project item in the solution explorer:
Dim projItem As UIHierarchyItem
projItem = DTE.ToolWindows.SolutionExplorer.GetItem("SolutionName\ProjectFolder\ProjectName").Select(vsUISelectionType.vsUISelectionTypeSelect)
(This is based loosely on how the macro recorder tried to do it. I'm not sure if navigating the UI object model is the correct approach, or if I should be looking at going through the Solution/Project object model instead).
Ok. This appears to work from most UI (all?) contexts provided the solution is loaded:
Sub DebugTheServer()
DTE.Windows.Item(Constants.vsWindowKindSolutionExplorer).Activate()
DTE.ActiveWindow.Object.GetItem("Solution\ServerFolder\ServerProject").Select(vsUISelectionType.vsUISelectionTypeSelect)
DTE.Windows.Item(Constants.vsWindowKindOutput).Activate()
DTE.ExecuteCommand("ClassViewContextMenus.ClassViewProject.Debug.Startnewinstance")
End Sub
From a C# add-in, the following worked for me:
Dte.Windows.Item(Constants.vsWindowKindSolutionExplorer).Activate();
Dte.ToolWindows.SolutionExplorer.GetItem("SolutionName\\SolutionFolderName\\ProjectName").Select(vsUISelectionType.vsUISelectionTypeSelect);

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