SystemWidgets - Taming IS Operations

PainlessSVN 1.2.0 - in progress

Hector Sosa, Jr — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:57:00 GMT

The reason I haven't been posting, is because I've been hard at work with PainlessSVN 1.2.0. I've been fixing the install script, so that I can add some new stuff. The only thing that I can say, is that this next version will come with Subversion server. You can choose not to install Subversion. If you do install it, the install script will configure it for you. The script will also do the following:

Create the repository root directory
Set svnserve.exe to run as a service
Configure the PainlessSVN console to pick up the svnserve settings automatically

There's actually quite a bit more, but this all that I'm going to say for now.

PainlessSVN is getting its own site

Hector Sosa, Jr — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:10:00 GMT

I had the http://painlesssvn.com domain pointed to a page to this site. I'm in the process of moving it off this website, and onto its own webiste. The new site is now up. I'm slowing moving PainlessSVN and Subversion content over there.

http://painlesssvn.com

Text File Splitter 2 is finally out

Hector Sosa, Jr — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:19:00 GMT

I released Text File Splitter 2 about a week ago. Had to fix a couple things right away, so the version number is 2.0.2 at the moment.

I was finally able to add the autoupdate feature. This feature can be used in two ways:

1) Through the menu

You will see some action on the right hand side of the form like this:

2) Running the wyUpdate.exe program manually

You will see this dialog right after you run wyUpdate.exe:

The best thing about the auto update is that you have the ability to update the program even if it is not working.

I'm in the process of fleshing out the Software Development Kit (SDK) for Text File Splitter.

Text File Splitter 2 - giving you the command line

Hector Sosa, Jr — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:39:00 GMT

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!

Text File Splitter 2 - working on command line console.

Hector Sosa, Jr — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:50:00 GMT

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.

WANdisco Subversion Social website

Hector Sosa, Jr — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:40:00 GMT

I stumbled onto WANdisco's new Subversion community site:

It has some features similar to Facebook. I already signed up and lurk there regularly.

Text File Splitter 2 - Almost done!

Hector Sosa, Jr — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:04:00 GMT

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.

Text File Splitter 2 - More MEF goodness

Hector Sosa, Jr — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:04:00 GMT

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.

Text File Splitter 2 - File Pattern Tokens and MEF

Hector Sosa, Jr — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:52:00 GMT

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:

Text File Splitter 2 - More...

Hector Sosa, Jr — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:27:00 GMT

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.

Text File Splitter 2 - A bit more

Hector Sosa, Jr — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:39:00 GMT

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:

Text File Splitter 2 - Work in Progress

Hector Sosa, Jr — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:15:00 GMT

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!

microISV-In-A-Box for DotNetNuke - My Wish List

Hector Sosa, Jr — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:01:00 GMT

I had somebody ask me for specs on Twitter about the modules that I would like to see. I call this list the Micro Independent Software Vendor (mISV) pack.

I don't have the time to create something like this, but I do know that there is serious interest in having an integrated solution like I outline below.

Customer Licensing Center

Gives the ability for customers to see what licenses they currently own
Allows admins to import sales/licensing information from external license tracker systems.
Allows admins to match imported customers to existing accounts, or create new ones.

License Dispenser for DNN Portal

Allows admins to setup a license dispensing system, either custom or 3rd party liscening schemes.
Allows admins to do online activation of their software.
Integrates with gateways like FastSpring, Plimus, eBay, and Google Checkout.
Integrates with customer licensing center.

Opt-In Email Marketing

Allows admins to send reminders to customers for any expiring license subscriptions.

I think this can be already be done with DataSprings Opt In Email module.

Ticket/Case System

Allows admins to integrate with their DotNetNuke portal
Allows integration with their current version control system

There are many good stand-alone web products in this category, but I find it infuriating having to send customers to a separate web app. Heck, even a module that has the basic functions in DNN would be welcome. I created a prototype that would read tickets from JIRA. Unfortunately, I don't have the code anymore.

CRM System

Allows admins to integrate with their DotNetNuke portal
Allows integration with the ticket/case system, and the licensing center.

Again, there are many good web and desktop solutions, but I want to see this in my DotNetNuke portal. I REALLY hate sending customers to a separate web app for this.

Robust KB App

I have found that I like InstantKB.NET a whole lot. I would love to have this integrated with DotNetNuke as well. My dream scenario would be integrate with a forum, where there would be a button for "Create KB Article" which would copy the contents of the thread and start a new article.

PainlessSVN 1.1.0 has launched!

Hector Sosa, Jr — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:58:00 GMT

I'm happy to announce that version 1.1.0 has been released. This version includes the following:

NEW - Automatic Subversion server discovery
NEW - Automatic PainlessSVN configuration, if server is found in above step
NEW - Configuration wizard
NEW - More information on objects selected in treeview, on the contents pane
NEW - Status of svnserve Windows service, if any is found

Go to the Downloads page to get your free trial. I reset the trial, so people who have previously tried it, can have another 30 days.

Cheers!

Almost done with PainlessSVN 1.1.0!

Hector Sosa, Jr — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:30:00 GMT

I just finished fixing some bugs, and put finishing touches on PainlessSVN 1.1.0. This has been long in coming, and I'm very happy with the results. I am now concentrating on the installation script and testing it in different versions of Windows. I'm hoping that this takes no longer than a week (hopefully, less than that). I will reset the trial, so that people who have previously downloaded, can trial again.

Here are few screenshots of the new UI in Windows 7 Ultimate x64:

PainlessSVN Roadmap

Hector Sosa, Jr — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:47:00 GMT

I've decided that I have to be better at releasing things. I have several completed enhancements for PainlessSVN, but I have held back, because I wanted a lot of other ones to be done. No more. I will release a new version, when I do a bug fix or a single feature is completed and tested.

Proposed Roadmap:

PainlessSVN 1.1

Automatic Subversion server discovery
Automatic PainlessSVN configuration, if server is found in above step
Configuration wizard
More information on objects selected in treeview, on the contents pane
Status of svnserve Windows service, if any is found

These enhancements are done and have been sitting in my repository for a couple months. Just need to get this packaged for release. This will be done very soon, as soon as I get all of my release tools configured.

PainlessSVN 1.2

PainlessSVN Solo (Standard) released
Start and Stop Windows service for svnserve
The ability to create a Windows service for svnserve, if none is found

This code is also already written, and sitting in my repository. I still need setup the release bits for PainlessSVN Solo.

PainlessSVN 1.3

Repository grouping by Realms
Path-based security

These are about 50% done. The other 50% is for actually editing the Realms' information and configuring the path-based security. I haven't decided if I want to tackle drag-n-drop in this release yet, as I want to just put out what I already have coded.

PainlessSVN 1.4

Import of dump files

This code is done, but needs an UI. That will take some time to get right.

PainlessSVN 1.4+

This is code that I haven't written yet, but here is some of the stuff that I want to tackle:

Manage common actions done by hook scripts with a UI
Plugin system for custom server actions. Basically custom dlls that are usually done with hook scripts, but done with plugins instead
Enabling and configuring SSH on the server for svn+ssh:// protocols
Enabling and configuring SASL security
Downloading and installation of a Subversion distribution, ie Tigris, CollabNet, and SlikSVN
Editing and syntax-hilighting for already existing hook scripts
Create a better backup experience for repositories.

This is a lot of work for a single person, but it should keep me busy.

Debuging MMC 3.0 snapins in 64-bit OSes

Hector Sosa, Jr — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:12:00 GMT

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*

Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) viewer

Hector Sosa, Jr — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:39:00 GMT

I'm an IT guy at heart. I came up through the operations side of Information Services, mostly because my degree is in Managment Information Systems (MIS). As an operations guy, I'm always on the lookout for utilities that will make my life at my desk easier.

Well, I came across one utility that literally left me dumb-founded, total mind screeching to a halt stuff. NirSoft has created a viewer for BSOD mini-dumps. Holy Freaking Cow Cheez Whiz! I wish I would have know about this one years ago, when BSOD happened several times a day.

I actually had a BSOD on my day job's workstation yesterday. I'm going to be playing with this baby tomorrow!

Multi-Monitor taskbars

Hector Sosa, Jr — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:18:00 GMT

I really needed to have taskbars across both of my monitors, especially since these things are huge (28"). I checked Scott Hanselman's utility list and tried UltraMon and DisplayFusion. Both left me wanting. I was browsing through the SuperUser questions, when I found that somebody had asked about multiple taskbars on Windows 7.

The utility mentioned over there is Actual Multiple Monitors. This one has Aero Peek, and will let you have a start button on both taskbars. Shweet! It's not free, but it does what I wanted. I will be sending them money ASAP.

Roadmap for Text File Splitter

Hector Sosa, Jr — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:03:00 GMT

The current codebase for Text File Splitter has reached the point where it is too hard to maintain. About 90% of the new feature requests are non-trivial to implement, and I decided to rewrite it instead. I use this new code base for both Text File Splitter and the new Text File Mechanic.

This means that there will not be any updates until I release 2.0. Version 1.5.1 will be the last release under the current codebase.

Text File Splitter 2.0

Separate executables for the UI and Console apps
UI will have a text box that will give you the command-line to use for the current UI selections.
Automatic detection of file encoding
Very simple action system (Actual scripting in Text File Mechanic)

Text File Mechanic will be a paid app, but it will only be $9.95. I'm hoping that this is low enough that it will become an impulse buy.

The last of my dev environment is now installed

Hector Sosa, Jr — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:11:00 GMT

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...

PainlessSVN saves the day!

Hector Sosa, Jr — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:36:00 GMT

I'm finally done with moving to the new house. So now I've turned my attention to setting up my development environment again. I got ~~all~~ the majority of my dev tools setup and running correctly. I created the directory structure for all the PainlessSVN stuff, but I couldn't remember what was the actual repository name. I spent about 20 minutes trying to guess the name. Arrrgh!

I remoted into the server where I have the Subversion software installed, and downloaded PainlessSVN. I installed it, configured it, and had it running in less than a minute.

Bingo! I saw the names of all my repositories, and I was able to recreate my working copy. Wow, that was easy!

So now, I'm ready to start working on PainlessSVN again. I have some very nice things in the pipeline. I think I'm going to scale back on the features, so that I can release something to the public. I think that I will put the new configuration wizard into the release build, and release that to the public.

I don't have a time frame, other than it will be ready when it is ready.

Recovering from disaster...

Hector Sosa, Jr — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:11:00 GMT

I've had several catastrophic hardware failures in a row, which have crippled my ability to work on any of my projects. So here's what happened...

About 3 weeks ago, the in-house email server power supply failed. The ball bearing on the main fan gave out. I replaced the power supply, but then the server did not boot up. I went and replaced the motherboard. No dice again. At this point, I just gave up and moved the different email domains into Google Apps. So the email stuff is working again, except for the SMTP parts. Google Apps SMTP is a giant pain in the ass, and I haven't been able to get that to work at all.

The second failure happened when I was trying to recover the data in the hard drives for the email server. I had SQL Server 2008 running there, so I needed to get the database files off them. I was in the process of plugging the hard drives, one at a time, into my workstation, when I accidently dropped the workstation case. This killed the boot drive and a few of other drives. By kill, I mean that the platters were turned to shards, totally unrecoverable.

My code is safe as I had backups of that, and the repositories are on a Subversion server in my LAN. However my development environment is a total loss. All of my virtual images are gone, and so are my local Subversion working copies. I had the vitrual images in a separate drive, and the working copies in another drive. Both of these drives also failed.

I'm still trying to sort through what drives are working and which ones are not. I bought a new boot drive and installed Windows 7 Ultimate, so that I could at least browse the Internet and email at home.

I decided to just hold off on recreating my development environment, until we move into our new house. The house is supposed to be finished this Friday, September 4th. I will be getting my own office, and hopefully a new workstation. We are getting the tax credit for new home buyers, but most of it is going to be used for new furniture, since all of our stuff is over 15 years old.

It may not be until October 2009, before I can get my development environment up to speed. I will know more, after September 10th, which is the day we are supposed to be getting the keys for the new house.

Realm grouping - a more intuitive way

Hector Sosa, Jr — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 10:58:00 GMT

I've been working on making the repository UI more intuitive. I wanted the UI to make sense at first glance. I believe I got the Subversion Realms working in an intuitve way now.

Notice that all of the repositories with the same realm are now under the same realm node. The Subversion Red-Book explains that repositories in the same realm should point to the same password and authorization file. I'm reflecting that best practice here.

Also notice that the second repository has a custom post-commit hook. This repository is using the rss hook that is in the "Subversion C# hooks" download page.

Path-based authorization

Hector Sosa, Jr — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:31:00 GMT

I finally got reading the Subversion authz file working (at least the basic UI layout). This screenshot is done against one of my live Subversion servers:

So my next step is reading the actual path permission in code, then figuring out how to do an UI for that. The "kernel" that drives PainlessSVN is actually open sourced and it's called SVNManagerLib. I'm hosting it over at CodePlex. Writing this code is not that hard compared to all the UI tricks that I need to use to present this to users.