.NET Tools

I just wanted to show everybody what I was working on tonight. I got the console program working with all the splitting strategies. That was a lot of fun. Since I was in a roll, I went ahead and implemented the feature where the GUI will give you the commandline for the current settings.

Here is the GUI all setup:

Now click on the "Get CommandLine" button and you get this:

I also started filling out the SDK. All in all, I had a very fun night coding this. It really helped me forget (at least for a few hours) the blown engine in our Dodge Durango.

Cheers!

The GUI is now done. I'm working on the command line console. I'm working really hard in keeping the same command-line swtiches that were used in version 1.5.1. Since there is no GUI in the console, I'm including the finished GUI screenshot:

After I get this released, I will add functionality to have the GUI to create a command-line for the user.

The UI design has been frozen. I need a couple more tweaks and it will be completely designed and coded. Here's a screenie of the UI having a directory as the source, and the split by line splitting strategy selected:

I created a new forum group just for Text File Splitter. I already posted a Visual Studio template to create new file pattern tokens on the File Patten Tokens forum. This will install a generic template in Visual Studio 2008, for people who want to create custom tokens. It will look like this once it is installed, from the Add New Item menu:

I will be doing the same for File Splitting Strategies very soon.

I now have the basic infrastructure to load file splitting strategies using MEF. Here's a screenshot of the split by line strategy selected in the UI:

So, with a bit of C# programming, you should be able to create your own file splitting strategies.

I got the basic functionality of the file pattern tokens dialog done. I added one more feature that I still need to implement. I wanted to give users the ability to type in their own file names, so that they can see how the file pattern will affect the file name. Here's a screenshot of what I have so far:

I'm hoping to have most of the file splitting stragegies on version 1.5.1 implemented before Christmas.

I finally nailed a good UI for the File Pattern configuration. On top of that, I made these tokens to be plugins using MEF. This means that others will be able to create File Pattern tokens to handle naming file chunks. Here's the latest screenshot of the main window, and the File Pattern Token drop down dialog:

I'm testing a drop-down dialog for the File Pattern functionality:

I'm also experimenting with a new icon. This is pretty close to what I want, but it still needs work.

I'm still having pain from the surgery, and I woke just a little while ago. I couldn't go back to sleep, so I decided to work on Text File Splitter 2 UI some more. This is pretty close the final form. I'm still trying to figure out how to show tokens for the file pattern. I'm currently leaning towards popping up a dialog with a list of tokens and explanations.

Each splitting strategy will have its own custom configuration control. That's why the panel below the "Configure Strategy" header is empty. I'm going to use MEF, to allow people to create their own custom splitting strategies in C#. Hopefully, people will start sharing strategies with others, and create some cool stuff with it. This means that I will create a mini-SDK for this with sample code, when I get done.

Anyways, here's the latest screenshot:

I finally got a chance to start working on the next version of Text File Splitter. I'm almost done with the UI. Here's a screenshot of what I have so far:

This is by no means the final UI, just want I'm working on right now. I really want to blow everybody's socks away with this release. Stay tuned!

Justin (who didn't leave a last name) left a comment on how to debug MMC 3.0 snapins in Windows 7 x64 and Visual Studio 2008. I want to put this on its own blog post, so that I can find it easier. I'll just repost Justin's comment here:

I recently struck this problem with VS2008 on Windows 7 x64 as well.
I eventually found a solution :)

The solution is to directly use the 32 bit version of mmc at this path:
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\mmc.exe rather than the one in System32.
you still need the -32 flag as in your screenshot.

When you try and debug via "C:\Windows\System32\mmc.exe -32" what actually happens is the debugger attaches to the 64bit version which starts the 32bit version(in SysWOW64) and then closes itself hence why it stops debugging immediately.

You can start the snapin that you are debugging on the command line. This is extremely convinient. Here's a screenshot with Justin's findings:

This is on the project's properties page, on the "Debug" tab.

Now, if I could just figure out how to get the keyboard shortcuts back. They disappeared a couple days ago, and haven't been able to get them back. *boggle*

I installed a bunch of stuff last night. Stayed up until 2:00 AM getting them ready and mostly configured. So here's a list of what I was working with:

FinalBuilder
.NET Reactor
Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
Clarius Visual T4

.NET Reactor was the one that gave me the most hassle. Thankfully, the company now has an automated page to recreate your license. I still need to document how to get these installed without hassle.

Now come the hard part. I need to go through the build system for PainlessSVN and make sure that it is working. I will probably need to tweak all of the different project types. FinalBuilder, .NET Reactor, and Inno Setup all have their own project files.

This next few days will be interesting...