Ezequiel Jadib’s Blog

After publishing an alpha version, a beta version and a RC 1 version I’m glad to announce that the final version of Smart Client Software Factory for Visual Studio 2008 has been published on MSDN.

What is new in this release?

• The April 2008 release of Smart Client Software Factory includes support for Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5. This release does not support Visual Studio 2005.
• April 2008 Guidance Package can run side-by-side with May 2007 Guidance Package.
• The April 2008 release requires Guidance Automation Extensions 1.4.
• Support for Enterprise Library 3.1.
• We fixed a few bugs that were identified by the community. These are some of the bugs fixed:
  • WPF C# View is not being disposed correctly
  • View does not properly dispose
  • Install fails when VB is not installed
  • ShowViewInWorkspace Id
  • Error with WPF SmartParts and ISmartPartInfoProvider Title is required
  • Visual Basic Version of the SCSF has a missing code in the view’s dispose method
  • App.config is not using the signed assemblies (PublicKeyToken is null)

How to enable a May 2007 solution

If you have a May 2007 solution and you want to enable it to use this new guidance please read this page.

Known Issues

In this page you will find the list of known issues that exists in Smart Client Software Factory - April 2008.

Downloads

Smart Client Software Factory - April 2008

Smart Client Software Factory Source Code - April 2008

Smart Client Software Factory Documentation - April 2008 (CHM format)

Documentation

Documentation on MSDN (HTML format)

Feedback

Feel free to give us your feedback on the discussion board. If you see issues, please post them to the Issue Tracker.

More Information of this release

For more information about this new release please read Blaine’s post and Michael’s post.

Enjoy this new guidance.

Some time ago, I wrote a post about How to update the installer to run Smart Client Software Factory in Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2.

Now I’m proud to announce that we shipped an Alpha version of Smart Client Software Factory for Visual Studio 2008. As Blaine announced before, in order to run this new release you will require an upgrade of GAX/GAT to the February 2008 release.

For more information about this new release you can read the following posts:

• SCSF April 2008 Alpha for Visual Studio 2008 Published to CodePlex by Blaine
• Smart Client Software Factory April 2008 Alpha Available by Michael
• Alpha version of SCSF April 2008 that supports Visual Studio 2008 is now available by Sebastian
• Versión Alpha de SCSF April 2008 con soporte para Visual Studio 2008 ya está disponible by Mariano (in Spanish)

Note: This is not the final release and still has known bugs. Use at your own risk

Download SCSF April 2008 Alpha Release and give us your feedback on the discussion board.

Luciano Panaro has written a blog post where he shows how to modify the SCSF Guidance Package to store the solution’s global values (which are originally stored in the .sln file) in a xml file.

It is a good example of how to face a gp customization.

Hope you find Luciano’s post useful.

Scenario

Imagine that you want your master page to use an image. You create a WCSF project, and you then add the image to your project and modify the master page.

Now imagine that every WCSF project you are going to create will use that master page with that image. It would be a waste of time to do the same process (adding the image and then modifying the master page) every time you created a project

You decide that the best solution is to add the image to the guidance package, hence when the solution is unfolded you don't have to do the process described before.  

Adding the image to the WCSF Guidance Package

1. Go to %WCSFSourceCodeDir\GP\WebClientFactory\ and open WebClientFactory Guidance Package.sln. (To install the source code go to %programfiles%\Microsoft Web Client Factory\Source Code and execute the WebClientFactorySourceInstall.msi file).
2. In Templates\Solutions\Projects\WebProjects create a folder called Images.
3. Add an image into the Images folder. Change the Build Action property to Content and the Copy to Output Directory property to Copy if newer.

   

4. Add the image to the WebUI.vstemplate as shown below:

<Folder Name=”Images”>
        <ProjectItem ReplaceParameters=”true” TargetFileName=”header.gif”>header.gif</ProjectItem>
</Folder>

5. Modify the MasterPage. Go to Templates\Solutions\Projects\WebProjects\Shared and open Default.master. Add the following code into the Header div:

<img src=”..\images\header.gif” />

6. Register the package.

Issue

When you try to use the custom package you get this weird error:

Workaround

Set the ReplaceParameters argument to false in the WebUI.vstemplate (see Step 4 above) as shown below:

<Folder Name=”Images”>
        <ProjectItem ReplaceParameters=”false” TargetFileName=”header.gif”>header.gif</ProjectItem>
</Folder>

Register the package and have fun!