How to run a CMD command as a CCNet Prebuild Task without additional bat files

I have had a problem for ages with when a build fails in CCNET is runs the file merge tasks that are part of my publishers to include the nunit test results. I finally got around to implementing something to delete those results xml files before the build runs. Originally I was just going to add it to nant but I found in the CCNET docs that there is now a prebuild section. One of the tasks included with the CCNET is an exec but it is not very clear on how to use CMD instead of creating a separate batch file. Luckily someone else figured this out at posted it to the mailing list @ http://groups.google.com.ag/group/ccnet-user/browse_thread/thread/d3f19074845bacf7/f58fa4bf7e221b3d?lnk=gst&q=prebuild+&rnum=9#f58fa4bf7e221b3d

Just in case the link goes away, below is how to do it.

<prebuild>
    <exec>
        <baseDirectory>C:\Temp</baseDirectory>
        <executable>CMD</executable>
        <buildArgs>/C RD "%ccnetworkingdirectory%" /S /Q</buildArgs>
    </exec>
</prebuild>


Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 Ways to Put Your Remote Server to Good Use

Lifehacker posted some good uses for a remote server. I am going to try setting up the Internet Jukebox (#4). I have been wanting to do this for a bit but just have not looked too much into it. If time permits in between Halo 3 sessions, I am going to try to set this up this weekend.


Windows Vista: Restore Run Command on Start Menu

If you are like me and still use the run command quite a bit, here is how to add it to the start menu. Even if you don't add it to the start menu, the windows key+r shortcut still works.

http://lifehacker.com/software/windows-tip/restore-the-run-command-to-the-vista-start-menu-303964.php


AJAX Links

MS ASP.NET AJAX Web Site

ASP.NET Ajax Extender for multi-column widget drag & drop

ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions Update Panel - Multiple Update Panels

ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions Update Panel - Nested Update Panel

Microsoft AJAX Update Panel - Great on Looks, Poor on Performance

Compress Asp.net Ajax Web Service Response - Save Bandwidth

Inline Script inside an ASP.NET AJAX UpdatePanel

Dan Wahlin's AJAX Articles

Scott Gunthrie's September 23rd Links

Scott Gunthrie's September 16th Links

Scott Gunthrie: LINQ to SQL (Part 9 - Using a Custom LINQ Expression with the control (contains links to parts 1-8)

Scott Gunthrie's August 30th Links

 


Control multiple computers with a single keyboard and mouse

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/dual-monitor/hack-attack-control-multiple-computers-with-a-single-keyboard-and-mouse-254648.php

I can attest that Synergy2 works extremely well. I have used it on 3 system to control all of them with one keyboard. The setup was extremely easy. Basically install on all of the machines and then on the computer with the keyboard/mouse setup which computers are to the left/right of the computer.

I also configured the ctrl+alt+del keystroke to be something besides ctrl+alt+pause/break which is the full screen shortcut for remote desktop. There are instructions on the synergy web site for how to configure keyboard shortcuts.

The one issue that I cannot get around is that you can't auto start Synergy on Vista so you have to login and manually start it. Not a big deal for me since Vista is my computer with the keyboard/mouse hooked up.


Pretty cool videos

Funny video of a Super Mario Brothers play: http://me.scottwater.com/days/20070211.aspx#171

Donkey Kong: http://www.gamebrink.com/arcade-games/594-donkey-kong-video-2879


WEB farm - Load Balancing in Asp.net

Pretty good article on different concepts for implementing load balancing in asp.net.

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/gopenath/Page107182007032219AM/Page1.aspx


LINQ Links

I have been looking into LINQ lately and have run across a ton of links that look useful. Unfortunately I have not had much time to actually play with LINQ but I thought I would pass along that links that I have been gathering for others.

Building an RSS Feed using LINQ to XML and LINQ to SQL

LINQ to Entities Web Cast

Nested Selects in LINQ to SQL

The C# ?? null coalescing operator (and using it with LINQ)

LinqDataSouce - DataItem in code behind

Dynamic String based Queries in LINQ - Dynamic Expression API

101 LINQ Samples

Lambda Expressions and Expression Trees

LINQPad (Query Manager using LINQ)

LINQ to SQL Web Cast and LINQ to SQL Web Cast Source Download

A Little LINQ

Hanselminutes Podcast 79 - LINQ to XML

Improving LINQ Code Smell with Explicit and Implicit Conversion Operators

Trying Out Persistence Ignorance with LINQ (Part I)

Trying Out Persistence Ignorance with LINQ (Part II)

DotNetRocks Shows: 270, 271, 274

LINQ To SQL Debugger Visualizer Revisited - Same Concerns Better UI

DataContext.Log - Logging LINQ To SQL Output to Console or Debugger Output Window

LINQ To SQL - Lazy Loading Properties and Specifying PreFetch When Needed - Sweet Query and Performance Control

Code Generation using CodeSmith - v4.1 - Visual Studio 2008 Support and LINQ to SQL Templates

DLinq (Linq to SQL) Performance: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5


Windows Vista Error Reporting

Have you ever had a program in Windows Vista crash and all of a sudden your system is dog slow. When a program crashes, Microsoft launches DW20.exe in the background to capture the error as part of the windows error reporting setup. This is a great idea in concept but for some reason DW20.exe always seems to take > 50% of the available CPU and drags the whole system to a crawl. I just found that you can adjust the settings for windows error reporting. There is a good explanation of the different settings at http://www.realtime-vista.com/administration/2007/03/windows_error_reporting_option.htm.


Visual Studio 2005 Productivity Tips

 

Great link that Scott Gunthrie posted to an article on vs2005 productivity tips. http://www.chinhdo.com/chinh/blog/20070920/top-11-visual-studio-2005-ide-tips-and-tricks-to-make-you-a-more-productive-developer/

For tip #3, I would also add in a ctrl+[ shortcut that builds the current project for the file that is open. For large solutions that have several projects that are not required to be built in order for you to test out new functionality this is a great time saver. Yes you could use the alt+b, alt+u combination but this gets really old really quick when doing dev work all day long. In order to set this you need to select the command Build.BuildSelection in the command list under the keyboard options in vs. By default ctrl+[ is used for something like previous color but I never use that shortcut before so I didn't mind overriding it.

Tip #6 is a great productivity tip. I use it all the time instead of F5 since normally when I want to debug I have already built the projects and am encountering errors that I need to trace through. No sense in rebuilding the projects and going thru another JIT compile if the source code has not changed at all.

The collapse all project in solution explorer macro in tip #12 is something that I could really use. I can't count the times that I have done this manually and it is a pain to do in larger projects.