Mastering Visual Studio 2017 – If you are new to Visual Studio (or even if you have used Visual Studio from the beginning) there is a fantastic book authored by Kunal Chowdhury that belongs on every good developer’s bookshelf. The book titled Mastering Visual Studio 2017 (get it on Amazon) is a page turner, and definitely makes for very good reading. (more…)
Parallels Desktop 10 – Do you love your Windows Applications and wish you could run them on your Mac? Well as some of you might or might not know, Parallels Desktop is the perfect solution for you. I write software for a living, so I am what I guess you would call a power user? Nevertheless, I wanted to see how well Parallels Desktop would perform. How would it perform if I wanted to write software using Visual Studio 2013 on my Mac. (more…)
Acunetix WVS – I have been checking out Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner and the awesome features it provides. As a software developer, I can definitely see a benefit to the guys and girls of my trade. Acunetix WVS audits your website security by running a host of tests. It then provides a concise report of issues it found. Not only does it do this, but it also suggests changes you need to make to fix the issues found. (more…)
As a software developer, my goal is to try and be as close to the best at what I do. I then got to thinking… what is it that encompasses ‘what I do’? There is no template that will fit every software developer out there, but for me an on-line presence was an important part of this. Unfortunately for me at the time I had to feel my way around this aspect of my professional life. There were no guides or definite ‘how to’ tutorials marketed specifically to me, a software developer. (more…)
CodeSmith Generator Projects allow developers to manage a batch of CodeSmith Generator templates and outputs. All this is done in a single CodeSmith Generator Project file (.csp). This is great for when you need to generate several code templates that are logically grouped together by their implementation. Think of data layers that can be generated with a single click to create multiple classes driven from a specific database. The possibilities are endless. In this article I will show you a simple implementation of a CodeSmith Generator Project. (more…)
Visual Studio Integration - In the previous article I showed you how to create a quick template in CodeSmith Generator Studio. If you remember how easy it was to do, you will most certainly love this article on integrating CodeSmith Generator inside Visual Studio. It is just as easy. Ultimately,…
CodeSmith Generator – I love automating repetitive tasks when programming. Sometimes this isn’t as easy as it sounds. I have specific Visual Studio Templates for specific projects. As I build on the previous template (Improve or expand), I create a new template and export that. There is however one thing that I do a lot, and that is create classes that post specific XML to SYSPRO via WCF or Web Services. Obviously I have been creating a reusable and generic set of classes that allow me to post to SYSPRO using the various business object XML’s. This is a work in progress as there are many business objects. One thing I do is create a class with a set structure. CodeSmith Generator allows me to automate this process. The review below will outline a very basic CodeSmith Generator template. Obviously this is just scratching the surface and I hope to expand on this post in later articles. (more…)
USB Security Suite – I am always wondering how far a person could (should) take the security of your laptop or personal computer. The question you should be asking yourself is how sensitive the data is on your PC? I say that you can’t be secure enough. Personally, I wouldn’t want anyone snooping around on my personal computer (or even my work laptop). I also know that viruses are spread via removable drives and thumb drives. This is why I have invested in good antivirus software and I keep my OS up to date with the latest patches and updates. I was therefore really impressed with USB Security Suite by Dynamikode. USB Security Suite eliminates the risks from pen drives, external hard disks, memory card readers, etc. adding an additional layer of security to your PC. (more…)
DevExpress – December is a month of giving and if you are looking to fill the gift stocking of that special developer someone, have a look at the new release of DevExpress. I have been lucky enough to explore the product for the past while. As usual, DevExpress come out tops with some awesome new features.
The suite is too large to review in its entirety in only one article, but I really want to highlight some of my absolute favourite features (By the way, I’m using Visual Studio Ultimate 2013). All right then buckle up, and let’s go. (more…)
Crypto Logger For Net – If you have been developing software for any length of time, you will know that at some point or another you will be required to log application events such as errors or other information. This is especially true if you are creating an application without a user interface such as a Windows Service. Many times you can revert to writing your own implementation of a logging framework, but this takes time to do. So what options are left? (more…)