The issue is the following: I have developed an app which has to be tailored to multiple customers (actually, just string/color/UI-related resources need to be customized). It should also be noted that other customizations may be implemented on the webservice-side.
The result of such an operation has to be a new app (with a new name) to be submitted to the store.
Is this contemplated by Windows Store policies?
What approaches can I follow?
A first approach which comes to my mind is straightforward but error-prone and verbose:
creating an app which performs the following operations:
Makes a copy of the solution
Retrieves all the solution resources
Allows the user to customize the resources
Builds in output the new app version (solution) with the overrides
If the "user" that will do the customization is a developer, meaning someone who knows how to use Visual Studio, I'd suggest creating a Visual Studio template project.
You can easily export your existing app project as template (Microsoft provides a basic step-by-step explanation at How to: Create Project Templates, and I've once written a blog post that contains a more detailed tutorial: Creating template projects).
Either way, the result is a .VSIX file that can be installed as Visual Studio Add-In. With that, any developer that has the project template installed can choose it from the File -> New -> Project... dialog in Visual Studio - a new project will be created including all the files from the original project, the developer can then adapt the resource files and build the project into a new App.
Related
Once an html page has been put together it starts to acquire dependencies on Angular and typescript.
This is not ideal for the web designer who really just wants to be able to view and modify their design. Usually this involves data elements too.
In our team the designer needs to be able to continue to work with html and stylesheets; they are not a separate contracted resource.
Is there a way to set up a project so that the web designer does not need to concern themselves with npm packages, Angular versions and data sources?
I have since had an idea...
As it happens I am a Linux user, the designer is a Mac user. I am wondering if it would be possible to create a project consisting of symlinks to html with typescript stubs.
A mock datasource might also be a viable solution.
I am using Visual Studio 2013 and TFS for source control. My solution contains json files with the translations for my app made with the mvvmcross framework. The mvvmcross JsonLocalisation plugin recommends to link the translation files from a commen location to the different projects needing them.
When trying to shelve or check-in these changes, TFS complains about the translation files not being available in the platform projects.... Do any of you guys have a nice solution to that (one that doesn't include branching)?
I'd really like to avoid branching because I then need to merge the files to all my platform projects on every change I make.
How do you solve that using TFS?
I am now certain branch/merge is the best option in TFS. File linking is NOT supported by TFS. I ended up putting my json translation in a resource folder outside the platform specific projects (Droid, Windows Phone and WPF). Then I branched that directory to mentioned projects.
The process for changes are now as follows. Changes made to translation files in i.e. Droid projects must be;
Checked-in in Droid project
Merged from Droid to CommonResource
Checked-in in CommonResource
Merged from CommonResource to WindowsPhone and WPF
Checked*in in Phone & WPF
It makes it a bit more cumbersome compared to File-linking but it'll work...
Best regards
You should package your files for distribution as a NuGet package.
If you create a nuget package you can automate the update and control of the files while making them an external dependency. You then publish your nuget package to a repository (UNC or ProGet) and reference from VS.
If you edit the files you create a new versions package and deploy then update the solutions. You can automate this by having a CI build that created your nuget from the files automatically and publishing.
Look at how the Node, Angular, and other JavaScript nuget packages are composed.
The new Netbeans 7.3 Beta 2 adds a really nice feature for creating an HTML5 application. It also provides a great way to create a Java Server based Web Application. But there does not appear to be any way, within the Netbeans IDE, to take advantage of both technologies in one project.
Is there a way combine these two type of projects, so there is only one web directory structure with both the HMTL5, js, and web services files?
This is definitely planned for the next release, but it is not yet possible in NetBeans 7.3. You can follow this enhancement request to see progress in this area: http://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=222236. If you'd like to experiment with this, you can build NetBeans with the patch attached to that issue.
Does anyone know how to include NUnit (for example) as one of the available test types in the Visual Studio 2010 "New Project" dialog for MVC projects and / or as an installed template in the New Project window?
From memory, it requires a number of steps including playing with the registry, copying files to specific folders, secret incantations and ritual sacrifice.
Suggestions appreciated.
See Creating Project and Item Templates on MSDN.
I'm using the Crystal Reports Viewer 11 ActiveX control in an Access form (version 2007, 2003 format). Everything works well on my development machine, where I have CRXI installed. I copied the referenced DLL to the client's machine, but when I try to register it, it says "Can't find module" (I double- and triple-checked my spelling) and when I try to open the form it tells me "ActiveX component can't create object" when the code tries to create a new instance of the report object. I suspect there are more dependency files required by the DLL, but I'm a little at a loss as to what ones and how I go about finding out. Although I'm using the CR control, I assume this would apply to any ActiveX control throwing this error. Thanks.
There should be a runtime distribution document in your Crystal Help files - from past experience (Crystal 8.5) there are multiple files that you have to distribute and register.
I'm answering my own question in case someone finds this via a search in the future. I don't have the Access Package & Deploy wizard David mentioned above (okay, I probably have it but couldn't find it readily) but I image it would probably do what I needed, so I recommend anyone try that first. Instead, I was able to create a setup to install tghe needed files using the Visual Studio Installer and the Crystal merge modules; note that while it wasn't difficult, nor was it pleasant.
I downloaded and installed Visual Studio Installer 1.1 from MSDN. This creates a new project type in Visual Studio 6.0 (in particular, I used InterDev 6.0) that creates a Windows Installer (*.msi) setup file. Because one of the Crystal merge modules requires the Crystal license key and VSI doesn't support merge module parameters, I also had to use Orca, a merge module editor, available from the Microsoft Windows SDK (also available on the Microsoft download site). I recommend reading through the SDK and Orca pages on MSDN for more info. Using Orca, I was able to put my key code and recompile the merge module, so I don't have to deploy my key to my users, and my users don't have to enter one.
Again, the Package & Deployment Wizard is probably a better option, but when faced with using merge modules, as with Crystal, this method will get the job done.