Category: Visual Studio

SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) – Download Multiple RDL files

ssrs dashboardI needed to migrate multiple SSRS reports (.rdl’s) between environments (production -> qa ->development) and didn’t want to download/upload each individual report. I searched but couldn’t find a solution built into SSRS report manager, so I began my Google search. I found a solution on Code Project (SSRS Downloading .RDL Files) that worked after some tweaking.

This project written in C# using Visual Studio 2010, and all I really needed to change was the URL to the SSRS web service to get the project up and running. Some of the other changes I made included building the folder structure as it is on the SSRS server and only saving the .rdl files.

Here’s what I came up so far:
SSRSExtractor.zip

After I ran the project and downloaded all the reports really fast, I still had to manually upload the ones I needed to migrate. When I have time hopefully I can implement uploading to an SSRS server into the project.

Configuration Manager not visible in Visual Studio

advanced build configuration

I needed to debug a windows service using Visual Studio, and was able to use the Attach to Process… feature in the IDE. Even though Visual Studio was attached to the executable, it still didn’t stop at any breakpoints. I thought I could fix this by using Build->Configuration Manager to change the Configuration from Release to Debugmode, but the Configuration Manager option wasn’t available. After searching the internet, I found a forum, with a solution that worked for me.

I solved the problem by using the following menu options:
Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> General

“Show advanced build configurations” was unchecked, once I checked this option the Build->Configuration Manager was available again.

Here are some useful collection types commonly used in .NET

This is a question that was asked during an interview and I didn’t know the correct answer, so I thought I would add the information I found to “My Online Notepad“. Maybe it can also help someone else.

  • Hash Tables – A collection of key/value pairs that are organized based on the hash code of the key. The Dictionary(Of TKey, TValue) and ConcurrentDictionary(Of TKey, TValue) classes have similar functionality as the Hashtable. The elements of Hashtable are of type Object, so boxing and unboxing typically occur when you store or retrieve a value type.
  • Queues – A first-in, first-out collection of objects. This is useful if you want to access the information in the same order that it is stored in the collection. There are three primary operation that can be performed on Queues and its element: Enqueue, Dequeue, Peek
  • Stacks – A simple last-in-first-out (LIFO) non-generic collection of objects. There are three primary operation that can be performed on Stacks and its element: Push, Pop, Peek
  • Dictionaries – A collection of keys and values. Typically provides better performance than a Hashtable for value types.
  • Lists – A strongly typed list of objects that can be accessed by index. Provides methods to search, sort, and manipulate lists.

XML documentation parse error (warning in Visual Studio)

I was working with a VB.NET project today and noticed the following warning:

XML documentation parse error: Whitespace is not allowed at this location. XML comment will be ignored.

After a quick search on the web I found the problem was using the ‘&’ character which is a reserved character for XML documentation. So my solution was to change ‘&’ to ‘and’ but I also found that placing the comment inside of <![CDATA[ Comments ]]> works. Here’s an example of my comment:

''' 
''' This is a comment with an ampersand & causes a warning in Visual Studio.
''' 
''' 
''' 
''' 
Public Property s1() As String
	Get
		Return ""
	End Get
End Property

.NET ToString Format Specifiers

Standard Numeric Format Specifiers
(C) Currency: . . . . . . . . ($123.00)
(D) Decimal:. . . . . . . . . -123
(E) Scientific: . . . . . . . -1.234500E+002
(F) Fixed point:. . . . . . . -123.45
(G) General:. . . . . . . . . -123
(default):. . . . . . . . -123 (default = ‘G’)
(N) Number: . . . . . . . . . -123.00
(P) Percent:. . . . . . . . . -12,345.00 %
(R) Round-trip: . . . . . . . -123.45
(X) Hexadecimal:. . . . . . . FFFFFF85

Standard DateTime Format Specifiers
(d) Short date: . . . . . . . 6/26/2004
(D) Long date:. . . . . . . . Saturday, June 26, 2004
(t) Short time: . . . . . . . 8:11 PM
(T) Long time:. . . . . . . . 8:11:04 PM
(f) Full date/short time: . . Saturday, June 26, 2004 8:11 PM
(F) Full date/long time:. . . Saturday, June 26, 2004 8:11:04 PM
(g) General date/short time:. 6/26/2004 8:11 PM
(G) General date/long time: . 6/26/2004 8:11:04 PM
(default):. . . . . . . . 6/26/2004 8:11:04 PM (default = ‘G’)
(M) Month:. . . . . . . . . . June 26
(R) RFC1123:. . . . . . . . . Sat, 26 Jun 2004 20:11:04 GMT
(s) Sortable: . . . . . . . . 2004-06-26T20:11:04
(u) Universal sortable: . . . 2004-06-26 20:11:04Z (invariant)
(U) Universal full date/time: Sunday, June 27, 2004 3:11:04 AM
(Y) Year: . . . . . . . . . . June, 2004

Standard Enumeration Format Specifiers
(G) General:. . . . . . . . . Green
(default):. . . . . . . . Green (default = ‘G’)
(F) Flags:. . . . . . . . . . Green (flags or integer)
(D) Decimal number: . . . . . 3
(X) Hexadecimal:. . . . . . . 00000003