Smart Client Software Factory & Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 – Workarounds for Visual Basic Known Issues

NOTE: A new version of Smart Client Software Factory was published. This new version is for Visual Studio 2008. Please check this post for more information.

Now that we have SCSF installed in Orcas B2, we are able to apply workarounds for the known issues (Visual Basic).

Note: For C# know issues, click here.

> Symptom: When adding a WPF view with presenter, Visual Studio crashes.

Problem

We believe that the problem has to do with the Target Framework as in C#, but we are not sure.

Workarounds

• Workaround 1: Update manually in the project’s properties page the Target Framework, setting it to 3.0 or 3.5 (this would have to be done before adding a WPF View so that it doesn’t crash)

Fig. 1 | Target Framework in VB.NET project

• Workaround 2: Modifying the projects’ templates inside the guidance package to include the TargetFramework directive. If we follow this approach, solutions will be coupled to a specific framework version. Note: having this directive in the template and unfolding it in VS2005 doesn’t cause problems.
  (Note: Before, visit this post: How-To: Installing Smart Client Software Factory May 2007 source code and customizing the Guidance Package in Visual Studio Orcas Beta 2)

Fig. 2 | Module.vbproj.template

> Symptom: Form1 is not a member of Shell

Fig. 3 | Error Message : ‘Form1’ is not member of Shell

Problem

The MainForm set to the project is Form1 instead of ShellForm.

Workarounds

• Workaround 1: Manually, by replacing the “Form1” with a “ShellForm”

Fig. 4 | Application.Designer.vb

• Workaround 2: Modifying the Guidance Package’s Application.myapp.template:
  (Note: Before, visit this post: How-To: Installing Smart Client Software Factory May 2007 source code and customizing the Guidance Package in Visual Studio Orcas Beta 2)

Fig. 5 | Application.myapp.template

> Symptom: After adding a WPF View and compile the solution, a warning appears.

Problem

The file which contains the WinFx targets is being imported more than once.

So far we were only able to fix this manually. However, we could search for a way to make the Guidance Package get the environment (whether it’s running Orcas Beta2 or not) and, in case it’s running Orcas B2, skip adding the import line.