CCNetConfig

I have been on vacation this past week and have been hard at work (hmmmm, I may need to rethink my vacations) with some changes in CCNetConfig. There are some big changes in this coming release. First is the Update System. The update system has had an almost complete revamp. You will be able to check for Release builds only, Beta builds only or both Beta and Release builds. This is possible because I am now using the Rss Builds Publisher to generate an Rss feed for Release Builds, Beta Builds and a combination of both. Embedded in these Rss feeds is information that CCNetConfig uses to determine if there is an update available, where to get the update and a description of the update. The description is currently built from the change set comments so release builds will be a manual process of adding a description, at least for now. Once CCNetConfig confirms there are updates available, a new dialog will be displayed to the user.



Other changes in 0.4 is the addition of user settings. This will allow you to change where you want to back up your changed configuration files, what type of updates you want to check for, set up proxy server information for checking for updates, and the ability to hide CC.NET components.

You will be able to set how many backup files you want to keep. You will also be able to view the backed up config file or restore the backup.


On the update options tab you can select what type of release to check for. If you want to check for updates automatically when CCNetConfig starts. You will also be able to check for updates if you need to use a proxy server.


On the components tab is where you will be able to choose to hide components that you do not use or do not have the plugin for installed in your CC.NET directory. The list shows the components name, their type (Source Control, Trigger, PublisherTask, Labeller, State), The assembly name (not shown in screen shots), the component namespace (not shown in screen shots) and the versions of CC.NET that the component is support in. Plug-ins are in a separate group from the Core CC.NET components. This is so if you do not have any of the plug-ins, they are easy to find to hide them.

I hope to have a working beta available by the end of the weekend. I will post about it when I do actually check in the code.

It looks like the April 2nd date of the release was pushed back to April 24th. I guess I will have to wait to start using the new API to submit a release to CodePlex. That will give me more time to play around with the beta of the CodePlex Client tool that is currently in beta. I wonder if you will be able to associate work items to the newly created release via these APIs. When I create a production release, it would be nice to be able to go get all the work items associated with the non-production releases for the same major & minor builds and automatically re-associate them to the production release. That way users can see all the features, tasks and issues that are in this production release.

Another thing I hope is possible in the API is getting the release Id after it is created. This would be something that could be taken advantage of in RSS Builds Publisher. When a new release is created, the rss item can point the user directly to the release.

Hopefully we will get a full list of features soon...

The CodePlex team have released Beta 1 of their command line client to check out source from CodePlex projects. It doesn't look like it supports anonymous  connections, at least that I can see. I tried getting the source of a project that I am not a developer on and it did not retrieve any source code.

Checking out a project has a feel like other source control clients.
[code language="batch"]cpc co MyProjectName[/code]

you can get a list of the projects you have developer access to by doing
[code language="batch"]cpc listprojects myCodePlexUserName[/code]

It also supports merging and diff tools, check out the links about the client for more info. This looks very promising, I am glad to see that the CodePlex team is listening to the users and building the tools to make CodePlex a place that developers want to host their projects. Great Work CodePlex Team!

Brian Harry has announced that Microsoft has acquired DevBiz Business Solutions, the makers of TeamPlain web access for TFS. There is some info here along with some screenshots. TeamPlain will be re-branded as Microsoft Visual Studio Team System Web Access. After Microsoft runs TeamPlain through their release process it will be released as a VSTS Power Tool. In the mean time, TeamPlain is available to users who have a TFS CAL, you can download it here. You can read the official press release here.

Martin Woodward announced that Teamprise is giving users of CodePlex a free license fir tge Teamprise client suite. If you want to take advantage of this offer, see the sign up page. If you don't know what Teamprise is, it offers three clients to help talk to Visual Studio Team Foundation Server from outside of Visual Studio.

• Teamprise plug-in for Eclipse - A plug-in to TFS that gives you full IDE integration inside an Eclipse based IDE.
• Teamprise Explorer - A stand-alone GUI client for TFS that will runs using native look and feel on multiple platforms including Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X, GTK Linux, Solaris etc etc
• Teamprise Command Line Client - A command line client for TFS familiar in operation to Microsoft's tf.exe only ours runs from any platform with the necessary Java JRE

There is an update to CCNetConfig that is available only via updates. This will increase the version to 0.3.11.1. This update fixes the issue that has been reported with people using Windows 2000 where they are unable to select a version from the Open/Save File Dialog. Windows 2000 seems to display a combobox a little differently when you call CreateWindowEx then Windows XP. Windows 2000 takes the height and uses that to include the dropdown list, where XP does not. So the height of the combobox has been increased. If you are using Windows XP, you will not notice a change, but Windows 2000 users will now be able to select a version.

Jim Newkirk, the CodePlex Product Unit Manager, posted some more information on some of the new features that will be coming on April 2nd in response to my last post on this topic. I asked what is going to be different about the CodePlex Source Control block compared to the TFS Source Control block. Here is what Jim pointed out:

• There is no need to provide your credentials to request a specific change set
• The CodePlex service will determine by name which TFS server your project is hosted on. There is no need to provide the URL.
• You do not need to install Team Explorer on your build machine.

There is the proof that the CodePlex team is listening to what features are needed by the developers of the projects on CodePlex. I am very happy that I picked CodePlex when I started this project and with the features and changes they keep making just keeps showing me that I made the right decision. Great Work CodePlex Team, keep the features coming.

For those interested, once I have specifics on the CodePlex Source Control block I will add support in CCNetConfig. I will be moving CCNetConfig, RssBuildsPublisher and MSBuildExtendedTasks to the new Source Control block once it is supported. I will post more on the exact changes that I will be making to the build process for these projects once the CodePlex Team releases the new features.

 

I am trying to get my license to display in the Installer dialog. The WiX documentation says that you have to copy the license.rtf file to the working directory when running light. I am using the WixUI_FeatureTree UI and MSBuild to do the actual build. I have the license.rtf in the same directory as the MsBuild script but it isn't reconizing the license file. Do I have to copy the license file to the same directory as light? If any one has any info that can help resolve the please post a comment to this post.

I received an email from Jim Newkirk, the CodePlex Product Unit Manager, in response to questions on the API. He told me that on the April 2nd release date they will also be releasing the following:

• A .NET wrapper which calls the web services
• MSBuild Tasks to create a release and upload files
• An API to retrieve the zip file for a particular source code change set that can be called without credentials
• A Source Control Block to be used in CruiseControl.Net to make it easy to integrate with CodePlex.

Looks like I'll be adding another Source Control provider to CCNetConfig. Honestly, I don't know why they are releasing the source control block. There is already a TFS source control plugin, and it is even hosted on CodePlex. Also I think I read on the ccnet-dev maillist ( or somewhere ) plans to support TFS out of the box. If that is true, what is going to be so different about the CodePlex SourceControl Block that can't be done with the current plugin or the one out of the box (I think i read version 1.3)?

 

I hope this isn't some sick April fools joke. But according to the Planned Release Date for the API to Submit Release feature request it should be available for use on April 2nd. I would like to think that it is a Birthday present to me a day late, and I think I will continue to think that. Thanks to all the people that voted for that feature.

This is a Huge feature release! This means that a MSBuild task, NAnt task, CC.NET publisher or whatever can submit the release to CodePlex. I hope that it returns the ReleaseId so the RssBuildsPublisher can use it too. Look at me thinking all over the place. I'll blog more about this as soon as I have any other information on it.

A production, stable release of CCNetConfig is now available for download. Very few changes since the last Release Candidate. Only real changes are the addition of the RssBuildsPublisher plugin support and a bug fix to the Open/Save file dialog (that was fixed in an update right after the RC).

Now I will start working on version 0.4, which will include modifying the build script to correctly identify a release and debug build, new update system that will allow you to choose between Final and Beta releases. The update system will use the RssBuilsPublisher generated file to track the updates. Also, I will be adding the ability to hide triggers/tasks/publishers/plugins etc.

I have posted a new build of RssBuildsPublisher on CodePlex. This build will break your configuration if you have used previous builds unless you make changes to the configuration. I have removed the 'Format' from any property element in the the publisher. Also the urlFormat property has been renamed to itemUrl. This is a more descriptive name for the property especially after the 'format' was removed.

New $( ) Properties are now supported in 0.1.0.4. You can now use any standard property in the RssBuildsPublisher as a value for another property. You can see all the $( ) Properties that are supported on the RssBuildsPublisher Wiki.

 

Major Nelson has announced that Castlevania : SOTN is coming to XBOX Live Arcade next week. There are a ton of screen shots on flickr or you can read the press release. Looks like I'll have to run out and get some more Microsoft Marketplace Points... I have to get TMNT ( Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ) for XBLA as well.

If you subscribe to the nightly builds feed you might have noticed a new build yesterday. This build adds a category collection which adds categories to each feed item. Also added were the descriptionHeader and descriptionFooter. These are used to build the description for each item. Between the header and footer is the modification comments. This allows you to create additional information for the description of the item. For example, if you host your project on Codeplex, you could create a link in the description to the Last Changeset by doing the following:

http://www.codeplex.com/rssbuildspublisher/SourceControl/DownloadSourceCode.aspx?changeSetId=$(LastChangeNumber)

This will give the user the ability to download the source for that changeset directly from the feed. $(LastChangeNumber) comes from ThoughtWorks.CruiseControl.Core.IIntegrationResult. Any property in IIntegrationResult can be called using $(PropertyName). The publisher will call the ToString() method on the value of the property so if the value is something like an array or a collection you might get a value you didn't expect. I may add a type of macro to get the value of a collection as well but as of now you can not get values from a collection, except values in IntegrationProperties. You can access the values from this IDictionary the same way you access the properties in IIntegrationResult.

Supported Properties Supported by IIntegrationResult:

• ArtifactDirectory
• BuildCondition
• EndTime
• ExceptionResult
• Failed
• Fixed
• IntegrationRequest
• Label
• LastCnageNumber
• LastIntegrationStatus
• LastModificationDate
• LastSuccessfulIntegrationLabel
• ProjectName
• ProjectUrl
• StartTime
• StatisticsFile
• Status
• Succeeded
• TaskOutput
• TotalIntegrationTime
• WorkingDirectory

Here is an example rssBuild publisher block: [code language="xml"] 25 $(ProjectUrl) http://mydomain.com/builds/$(Label)/$(ProjectName).$(Label).zip http://mydomain.com/builds/$(Label)/$(ProjectName).$(Label).zip Nightly Builds for {0} Build Report for $(ProjectName) $(ProjectName) $(Label)

$(ProjectName) $(Label) Binaries
$(ProjectName) $(Label) Source
$(ProjectName) $(Label) Installer

[/code]

The RssBuildsPublisher is now up on codeplex. There is an initial release up there now. I have made some additions to it to allow any property that is part of IIntegrationResult . Everything is parsed and if the publisher finds $(Label) for example, it replaces that with the actual value. This extends the possibilities of what you can set the values to dynamically. It also looks in the IntergrationProperties property for the key as well.

You can also subscribe to the nightly build rss feed for the RssBuildsPublisher and stay up to date on the changes. The rss feed is generated by RssBuildsPublisher.

The CCNet instance that builds CCNetConfig now uses the Rss Builds Publisher plugin to generate an rss feed of the nightly builds. Once I tweak this feed I will set up a feed for the releases as well. The feeds contain an enclosure of the binaries for that release, contains an rss extension that contains integration information and the description is built from the modification comments.

Once both the Nightly Build and the Release Build Feeds are up and running I will be changing the Updater to use these feeds. Which means you will have the option of getting updates from either the stable releases or the development builds. These changes will not happen until after the first production release, which I hope to have out by the end of the month. Other changes that will happen after the 0.3 Final release include the ability to not show specific tasks, triggers, publishers, source control providers, etc. that you do not use or have the plugin installed for. This means if you only use Subversion for source control, then you can hide all the other source control providers and only the Subversion provider will be available in the source control drop down.

Since the Updates will have more information then is available in the current method, more information will be displayed to you when there are updates available. For example, if getting updates from the Nightly builds, the modification notes can be displayed to you as well as the build date/time.

Update: This is ( or will be later today when I post the code and activate ) a project on CodePlex. Also the files below have been updated. There was a bug in adding the namespaces and removing the old items. This is corrected in the files below. There is also an msbuild file included to build the project. The assemblyInfo file has been removed, it is auto-generated by the msbuild script.

Here is the Rss Builds Publisher for CCNet. It is about as flexible as I could think of to make it. It supports generating the feed item based on the BuildCondition, and will only add the item if the Status = Success. You can specify to add an enclosure file to the item as well. The latest versions of CCNetConfig already support the RssBuildsPublisher.

[code language="xml"] utf-8 http://ccnetconfig.org/builds/debug/{1}/{0}.{1}.zip NightlyRss http://ccnetconfig.org/ 25 True http://ccnetconfig.org/builds/debug/{1}/ {0} Nightly Builds Nighlty Build Feed for {0} ForceBuild some value some value [/code]

Property Name	Description
fileName	This is the name of the file that will be used. You can specify {0} to insert the project name.
addEnclosure	True will add an enclosure to the item.
maxHistory	The maximum number of items to keep in the main feed. Everything else is moved to {fileName}.history.xml file.
channelUrlFormat	The Url that is used for the feed home. {0} = ProjectName, {1} = Label
urlFormat	url format used to create the link for the item. {0} = ProjectName, {1} = Label
feedImage	The image to add to the feed channel.
feedTitleFormat	Format string used to create the title for the feed. {0} = ProjectName, {1} = Status, {2} BuildCondition
feedDescriptionFormat	Format string used to create the description for the feed. {0} = ProjectName, {1} = Status, {2} BuildCondition
buildCondition	BuildCondition used to determine when to add items.
feedElements	A list of Xml Elements that are added to the feed channel.
itemElements	A list of Xml Elements that are added to the feed item.
rssExtensions	A list of namespaces that are added to the feed.

CCNetRssBuildsPublisherPlugin.zip (38.43 KB) : Source

CCNetRssBuildsPublisherPlugin-bin.zip (17.22 KB) : Binaries

I wanted to post about this yesterday. Shortly after the RC yesterday, a bug was found in the Open/Save file dialog. If you go in to "My Computer" an unhandled exception is thrown. This is because of the checking that the file dialog does when looking at CCNet configuration files. I fixed the bug as soon as I was made aware of it. Instead of putting a new full release on codeplex, I just published it as an update. If you are behind a proxy and can not get the updates you can get the release in the builds archive.

I am also working on a publisher for CCNet that will generate an RSS feed of all successful builds. I am not sure if I will release this publisher, as I am not sure how flexible it will be. If it flexible enough for anyone to use it will be posted here for download. Once this publisher is complete, I will probably be changing the Updater to use the RSS feed for gathering the updates. I will post more on this in the future, first I have to get the feeds generated.

Version 0.3.10.1 has been released. This should be the final release candidate before a production release. You can get the latest binaries, source and installer from the CodePlex project or if you are running a previous version, you should be prompted during the next start up of the update. Here's a list of bug fixes and changes.

• 7953 Ability to change configuration version w/out saving
• 8166 Add FinalBuilderTask
• 8168 Filter Publishers/Triggers/Tasks based on Version
• 8179 Add CCNet Version 1.2.1 to list of supported versions
• 8198 Filter SourceControl/Labellers/Sate object based on version
• 8199 Configuration Properties ToolStrip button has invalid caption.
• 8262 Bug saving ccnet.config file with empty <triggers/> node
• 8647 Url encoding not supported in TrunkUrl for SubversionSourceControl
• 8686 MultiSourceControl doubles the sourceControls set each time it's loaded
• 8707 CCNetConfigType Attribute Added to multi-source control items
• 8734 Bug saving ccnet.config file with empty <triggers/> node
• 8820 UI saves <tagBaseUrl> element as <tagBasUrl>

Simone Chiaretta has some very nice things to say about CCNetConfig. If you don't already subscribe to his blog you should check it out. He is an active community member and one of the developers of SubText ( not the blog engine this site runs off of, but it was one I considered ;) ). I appreciate the wonderful comments made about CCNetConfig and I am glad there are others besides me that find it a useful tool. Let me also take this time to thank everyone that has submitted bugs and features requests. Without the feedback from you, the application would not have evolved in to the useful tool that it is. Please keep it coming.

Don't ask me why the Yoda quote for the title... I think the line "This is not an very sophisticated application, but it's very powerful and effective in its simplicity" is what made me think of it. It reminded me of Yoda, a very small, old creature, but more powerful then most Jedi.

The latest bits of MSBuild Extended Tasks supports the March CTP of Sandcastle. Previous versions of Sandcastle will probably cause an error when generating documentation.

Ok, it seems this (and this) weren't actually fixed in 0.3.9.2. This should now be fixed in 0.3.9.3.

The latest Sandcastle CTP was released yesterday. Download from Microsoft. There are a lot of changes and fixes. Some of these changes will break MSBuild Extended Tasks so I will be installing the CTP as soon as possible and make the changes.

What's New in the March CTP:

1. Added 4 new transforms under production tools folder. They are ApplyVSDocModel.Xsl, ApplyPrototypeDocModel.xsl, CreateVSToc.xsl and CreatePrototypeToc.xsl.
2. Deleted 3 transforms under production tools folder. They are AddOverloads.xsl, ReflectionToChmContents.xsl and ReflectionToHxSContnets.xsl.
3. Added Build_sandcastle.bat under Examples/Sandcastle folder. This batch file will generate chm/Hxs build from test.cs. Usage - Build_sandcastle.bat [vs2005/prototype].
4. Perf improvements during CHM generation.

Issues fixed that were submitted by customers:

1.    Sandcastle: MSHelp Index, apiname attributes: namespace and type name of members isn't showing up

2.    Sandcastle: MSHelp F Index does not have an entry for typename.membername

3.    Sandcastle:Issues with Sandcastle and .NETCF

4.    Sandcastle: ApplyVsDocModel - Missing items: constructorsTopicTitle, membersTopicTitle, etc.

5.    Sandcastle: not showing the "obsolete" messages for items with an ObsoleteAttribute.

6.    Sandcastle: The <br/> and <hr/> HTML tags are getting stripped in Prototype transforms

7.    Sandcastle:  error message of ResolveReferenceLinksComponent is not correct

8.    Sandcastle: property keyword is missing in managed cpp syntax

9.    Sandcastle: apiIcon template issue

10.  Sandcastle: Javascript error on members page in vs2005 transform

11.  Sandcastle: December CTP - Wrong icons shown on member pages

12.  Sandcastle: suggestion for GetMsdnUrl()  method

13.  Sandcastle: MrefBuilder fails when /internal+ switch is used on

14.  Sandcastle: The reference_content.xml file is missing some keys

15.  Sandcastle: syntax for Indexed Properties is not correct in managed cpp

16.  Sandcastle: When using firefox the method signatures is being displayed in very small font size

17.  Sandcastle: Is it possible to get rid of fully qualified type names?

18.  Sandcastle: February CTP should have a version number higher than 2.2.61208.0

19.  Sandcastle:Split the big framework reflection data file per assembly for shipping.

20.