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Stormwind Project - Maturity Point

2008-07-18T13:18:31Z

I've been doing Stormwind work since 4th September, 2007 . The projects we are managing in Stormwind started around the beginning of 2006, though. It's been a very rewarding experience all over. When we started (me and Claudio Figueiredo ), we were not aiming at something as big as what we have now. I just wanted to do a brief summary on the whole experience before it gets lost in the midst of time. Childhood When Stormwind started, we were very worried about the actual infrastructure for the community,...(read more)

WCF Service Extreme Make-over - Part 3

2008-07-16T15:08:25Z

IMPORTANT: It's really important that you read part 1 and part 2 before reading Part 3. I'll assume you did, so a lot might not make any sense unless you've read it. Introduction So in the previous two posts, we've established how we wanted to use and host our WCF Services, and how we actually hosted them. Just some things to remember: Our Service should be usable by it's URL alone, which is configured using an AppSettings value with Key of "IMathServiceUrl". We want to access this service using...(read more)

WCF Service Extreme Make-over - Part 2

2008-07-16T15:01:58Z

IMPORTANT: It's really important that you read this post before reading Part 2. I'll assume you did, so a lot might not make any sense unless you've read it. Introduction Ok, in last post we decided on the following desired features for our WCF Services: No more Service References and we'll share contract assemblies between client and host. No more funky XML Config files that span multiple screens. Calling services should be simple and straightforward, with as little configuration as possible. Hosting...(read more)

Have control over both ends for WCF Service? Or just enforcing security and behavior? - WCF Service Extreme Make-Over Part 1

2008-07-16T15:01:03Z

Introduction So, WCF is a pretty standard way of using remote calls in .Net at this point. The general usage pattern that we've seen around is: Create a WCF Service Application (usually ASP.Net) to be the host Create the service contract Implement the service Add a Service Reference to the client, which in turn creates a Proxy (A.K.A. Frankenstein) While there's nothing wrong with this approach, I've worked in several projects where the team tried to implement a SOA ish(links to a presentation on...(read more)

Asp.Net Action Filters - Can't test them? Stormwind comes to your help!

2008-07-13T21:28:31Z

Once more my friend Claudio Figueiredo amazed me coming up with a brilliant solution to a problem that was starting to shadow an otherwise brilliant implementation of the MVC Pattern. The new ASP.Net MVC Framework allows you to specify Action Filters. You can learn more about them in his post here (and check his solution to this problem as well). These Action Filters are brilliant, in which they allow us amazing possibilities like logging actions when needed, caching Action Results, or anything that...(read more)

Expression Tree + Reflection + C# 3.5

2008-07-09T22:47:00Z

I've been trying to do something like this since C# 1.1. Tonight I got to do it: SomeCode.DoSomethingInProperty(cust => cust.Orders); My problem has always been that I couldn't (using delegates before) get what property you want to use. I could resort to reflection trickery and use the string property, but that's just not Refactoring friendly, now is it? Today I learned how to it (using this article as reference: http://blog.naxsoft.com/archives/488/reflection-on-c-35 ). Here it goes: public string...(read more)

That's the company I work for - WOW!

2008-07-05T21:20:00Z

My good friend Claudio Figueiredo just pointed me in the direction of this pearl . Things like that look like just some random guys in ThoughtWorks being funny, but it isn't. I have worked for TW for 5 months now, and I don't see myself working for another company ever again (at least not in the foreseeable future). The dynamics we have in the company, the amazing value that we deliver to clients every iteration (or week if you will) and the INCREDIBLE people that work for this company, just make...(read more)

Want to check ASP.Net MVC out?

2008-06-30T14:01:41Z

My good friend Claudio Figueiredo is writing a superb series on all sorts of stuff on the new ASP.Net MVC. I definitely advise anyone interested in it to check the posts out. So far he's blogged the following posts: ASP.Net MVC Experiences ASP.NET MVC Experiences - Part 1, The Setup ASP.NET MVC Experiences 2, Overview I'll keep checking the series and post here whenever he updated it. Good job, man! Keep it up! #160...(read more)

NRoR or IronRoR?

2008-06-22T01:17:00Z

Now that 's good news! #159...(read more)

Asp.Net MVC Release 3

2008-06-22T01:04:00Z

Yes, I am late in my blog reading, but I gotta tell you guys, after reading Scott Gu's blog post on Asp.Net MVC I was more impressed than I imagined I would be ( read it here ). There are so many features I'd love to have at the projects I'm working on right now. I'm even considering converting a MonoRail project I have into an Asp.Net MVC one. One thing I couldn't figure out yet is this new MVC integration with IoC Containers. I mean, when using MonoRail the integration with Windsor makes it easy...(read more)

Table Height of 100%?

2008-06-07T12:00:16Z

Want to have a table with 100% height and not sure how to do it? JQuery comes to the rescue!!! Just do it like this: < html > < head > < script type ="text/javascript" src ="yourScriptPath/jquery-1.2.6.min.js" ></ script > <script> $( function (){ function refreshTableHeight(){ var windowHeight = $(window).height(); $( '#mainTable' ).height(windowHeight); } refreshTableHeight(); $(window).resize( function (){ refreshTableHeight(); }); }); </ script > </ head...(read more)

Stormwind.NMVP

2008-06-07T11:49:47Z

This week I learned that there are still people using NMVP, which is really cool. One of those people asked me if I would release another version of NMVP soon. Well, I'm not sure how soon, but there are plans of releasing an improved version of NMVP. To make things easier on users of NMVP to communicate with the team, we've set up two channels. Wiki We've set up a wiki at http://using.stormwindproject.org:8081/display/nmvp/Home . It's still very incomplete, and it's just a place where you can see...(read more)

2 more releases - Stormwind.NAnt

2008-05-28T23:27:26Z

Releases 0.2.0.0 and 0.2.1.0 of Stormwind.NAnt are out! You can check the releases , and release notes for 0.2.0.0 and 0.2.1.0 . These releases build on the foundation of Stormwind.NAnt to add two nice methods to it: WithNAntExe and WithWorkingDirectory. Excerpt from using.stormwindproject.org: WithNAntExeIn Usage SvnClient.WithNAntExeIn(string nantPath) Input string nantPath - This parameter specifies the path that the NAnt exe file is. Description Specifies a path for the NAnt executable. Throws...(read more)

Heavyweight champion for Stormwind and Stormwind.NAnt

2008-05-27T00:50:35Z

Stormwind gets another sponsor We just got another heavyweight sponsor, and this time it's literal: Atlassian is our new sponsor. These guys make amazing software, some of which you might know: Jira , Confluence , FishEye and others . They are not just a great software development company, but they are a company that gives back to the community that supports them. They are sponsoring Stormwind.Project with full enterprise licenses for all their products, without any expiration date. That's a lot...(read more)

Stormwind.Svn

2008-05-25T01:27:38Z

Introduction Ever wondered how to connect to a Subversion repository using .Net? So do we! I'm working in a project that needs SVN Connectivity features. "How hard could it be, right?" was my first thought, before spending the next 2 days trying to figure out an easy way of doing that. All the pain went away when I stumbled on this gem: IronSvn . This very nice project allows us an easy way to connect to SVN using Managed C++ Code. Yes, that's right! That means no interop/PInvoke crap. Kudos to this...(read more)

CI All Around

2008-05-20T00:27:35Z

My good friend, Claudio Figueiredo , reminded me that I shouldn't choose a tool that's so important to us without trying a few of them (god damn you for giving me more work, though, lol). So I decided on trying JetBrains TeamCity , as JetBrains has been a sponsor of Stormwind Project since the very beginning. Introduction First of all, I liked the tool very much. It's very easy to configure, it's intuitive and I got my pipeline of builds very quickly. Hmmm... I see a catch coming... You are right,...(read more)

Stormwind.Accuracy, Using Accuracy and a Build Server made of Bamboo

2008-05-19T00:03:00Z

More exciting news today! Another Release of Accuracy This one is just a refactoring release (moved some actions to the correct namespace). The new version is 0.1.1.20 and you can get it here: binaries and references . Using Accuracy Today I've started writing the contents of the using.stormwindproject.org wiki on how to use Stormwind.Accuracy . You can check it out at http://using.stormwindproject.org:8081/display/accuracy/Home . Right now the page on AccuracyStarter is 20%-30% done, and the Test...(read more)

Accuracy and using.stormwindproject.org

2008-05-18T02:57:19Z

Well I have some good news today! Accuracy 0.1.0.18 First, Accuracy has reached a point where we can release it. Version 0.1.0.18 ( binaries and references ) is just out of the oven. Get it while it's hot! This version includes several syntax improvements, all of which I plan on publishing in the Accuracy wiki in using.stormwindproject.org . Version 0.1.0.18 is not yet production ready, not because it's not stable, but because we haven't captured the minimum amount of automations that I think are...(read more)

Not sure which CI Server to use?

2008-05-18T00:03:18Z

We've been using CruiseControl.Net for our builds in Stormwind Project . Even though I like CCNet a lot, it's coming to the point where we need more from our CI Server. We were going to build this ourselves as plug-ins for CCNet. That's a lot of work though, so I started to think about trying other build servers. I, then, stumbled on this gem: CI Feature Matrix . It's a MASSIVE comparison of Build Servers all around by ThoughtWorks and CodeHaus . If you're not sure which one to pick, or just would...(read more)

Looking for a VPS Hosting?

2008-05-14T23:36:00Z

KickAssVPS is an active sponsor of Stormwind Project . Without their support much of what we do would be impossible. My post is not about their attitude towards us, which is by itself amazing, since they are granting us expensive resources (A VPS with a Dual Core CPU and 2gigs of Ram, with unlimited traffic) for free. My post is about the incredible service they provide, even without us paying a dime. Yesterday we had a problem in our build server that really got to us. Whenever we opened IE we would...(read more)

Mingle and Open Source

2008-05-13T23:14:36Z

Introduction We just started using Mingle to manage Stormwind Projects , as a way to get more organized and keep going forward at a steady rate. I expected it to be a little rough around the edges, because I've only used the 1.0 version of Mingle . Boy, was I wrong! Mingle 2.0 delivers the most pleasant user experience I've ever had (bite that Apple). It just does everything exactly as you'd expect it to, and a lot of stuff that you didn't expect but when it does, you get pleased! Very good job,...(read more)

JsUnit + Accuracy

2008-05-10T16:15:43Z

After I got my tests passing in JsUnit , I decided I needed to automate the execution of the JavaScript Unit Tests for Fjords(more on that in a later post). So, the only way I could think of doing that was to drive the browser to the JsUnit Test Runner page and type the correct parameters. Thank god I have an amazing Browser Driver called Stormwind.Accuracy. Introduction You can check how the JsUnit test runner looks here . But in the local version you get to choose the path to the test (in a textbox)....(read more)

JSUnit

2008-05-10T01:30:02Z

These days I've been doing more and more JScript, thanks to JQuery and ExtJs . I've been moving more and more of the application logic to the client side. That has some advantages and some disadvantages, which are clearly out of the scope of this post. The main disadvantage for me has always been that it's hard to unit test JavaScript. Until yesterday I thought it was impossible, but not anymore. Enter JSUnit . Introduction JSUnit allows you to easily unit test your JavaScript code. There are a few...(read more)

ExtJs + Monorail + Community Contributions = Success!

2008-05-08T23:39:16Z

I tend to write titles using additions and equals... Hmm... Guess I like simple math... Who knows? Anyway, I want to stress out today how cool I find Monorail right now! I always thought it was a cool framework, but after I wired my controllers through Windsor (which allowed me to use my repositories, services and factories in the controllers), got Restful APIs in my controllers (yes, you read that right, and I'm telling you how) and got ExtJs wired up, I've been thrilled with it! So, without further...(read more)

Amazing Results

2008-05-07T20:41:51Z

It's been only 2 days after I first implemented my new exception throwing mechanism , and I already feel an enormous difference. It's not just having the exceptions with better messages per se, it's actually having to think why I'm throwing that exception and how would I tell whoever is getting that exception what he/she must do in order to fix the wrong behavior. Amazing! I love tools that make me think even more about stuff I'm doing. #143...(read more)