Markus Tamm

In the last few weeks I had to develop a MSI setup for our software. So this post is mainly about WiX. Handling all the verbose Xml from WiX was a real pain in the past. Luckily there is a C# based framework called WixSharp (Wix#) from Oleg Shilo.

Wix# – managed interface for WiX (Oleg Shilo)

Wix# (WixSharp) – managed interface for WiX (The Code Project)

Custom Dialogs

• wix custom dialog for config edit (Stackoverflow)
• Adding a Custom Dialog To Your Wix Installer (Kevin Miller)
• Making a custom setup dialog using WiX 3.0 (Jan Schepens)
• Adding and Customizing Dialogs in WiX 3 (Dizzy Monkey Design)

Localization

• Think Localized (Tramontána)
• Localization (WiX Wiki at MindCapers)

Custom Actions

• How to Manage Custom Actions? (Tramontána)
• WiX and DTF: Using a Custom Action to list available web sites on IIS (Jon Arild Tørresdal)
• WiX and DTF: Debug a Managed Custom Action and how to generate an MSI log (Jon Arild Tørresdal)
• Managed Code CustomActions, no support on the way and here’s why. (Rob Mensching)

Misc

• Pre-build/Post-build Event Command Line Dialog Box (msdn)
• Detecting if IIS is installed (wix-users)

WPF / Silverlight

• New Utility, Links and Tutorials for Path-Based Layout (Christian Schormann)
• Ball Watch Tutorial 1: Creating a Watch Application (Michael S. Scherotter)
• Ball Watch Tutorial 2: Tracing Visual Elements (Michael S. Scherotter)
• Ball Watch Tutorial 3: Animating the Second Hand (Michael S. Scherotter)
• Ball Watch Tutorial 4: Using an Dash Pattern for Second Marks (Michael S. Scherotter)
• Ball Watch Tutorial 5: Creating Concentric Circles (Michael S. Scherotter)
• Ball Watch Tutorial 6: Animating Day and Night (Michael S. Scherotter)
• Ball Watch Tutorial 7: Binding the Date Indicator (Michael S. Scherotter)
• Ball Watch Tutorial 8: Preparing the Watch for Submission (Michael S. Scherotter)

.NET

• Writing to an XML File With Attributes (Deborah Kurata)
• Sqlite-Csharp and NHibernate (Rob Ashton)
• readonly keyword (nmarun)

Agile

• Handling Team Changes (Vikas Hazrati)

VS2010

• Major UI Upgrade for Visual Studio 2010 (Jonathan Allen)
• VS 2010 and Expression Tree Visualization (Patrick Smacchia)

.NET

• Comparing .Net IoC containers, part seven: MEF (Anthony Steele)
• Simplified MEF: Dynamically Loading a Silverlight .xap (defwebserver)
• Code Contracts Part 5 – Abstract Types and Interfaces (Kevin Hazzard)
• Reading an XML File (Deborah Kurata)
• Writing to an XML File (Deborah Kurata)
• When to use the SetUp attribute (Dror Helper)

Database

• SQL SERVER – Subquery or Join – Various Options – SQL Server Engine knows the Best (Pinalkumar Dave)
• SQL SERVER – Subquery or Join – Various Options – SQL Server Engine Knows the Best – Part 2 (Pinalkumar Dave)
• Backup a Single Table in SQL Server using SSMS (Greg Low)

VS2010

• Visual Studio [Ultimate] 2010 Visualization & Modeling Feature Pack RTM now available on MSDN Subscribers Download (Greg Duncan)

Agile

• Simplicity Quotes (J.D. Meier)
• The Best Code You Will Ever Write (John Sonmez)

Career

• Is Arrogance a Factor in Success? (Phil Haack)

Misc

• What is the Difference Between Innovation and Creativity? (Paul Sloane)

.NET

• Topshelf – .net service host
• Topshelf (Dru Sellers)
• Topshelf Isolated Services (Dru Sellers)
• Topshelf - Command Line Syntax
• Controlling Application Lifetime In Topshelf (Kevin Miller)

WPF / Silverlight

• WPFPerf Performance Profiling Tools for WPF 4 is now available! (Jossef Goldberg)

.NET

• Parallel Programming in .NET Framework 4: Getting Started (Alexandra Rusina)
• Tips & Tricks – Working with Event Handler (KUNAL CHOWDHURY)
• NHibernate stump the expert (OREN EINI AKA AYENDE RAHIEN)
• From Dev To Production Through Build Pipelines and Teamwork (Sam Newman)
• C# 4.0/BCL 4 Series:Dynamic Primitive Type Part 2 (Sam Gentile)
• C# 4.0/BCL 4 Series:SortedSet<T> in Framework 4 (Sam Gentile)
• Include for LINQ to SQL (and maybe other providers) (Damien Guard)
• Using Sandcastle to build code contracts documentation (Gunnar Peipman)
• Code Contracts: How they look after compiling? (Gunnar Peipman)
• C# 4.0 AccessPrivateWrapper – Instantiate and Access Private/Internal Classes and Members via dynamic + reflection (Anoop Madhusudanan)
• C# & SqlDependency – Monitoring your database for data changes (Richard Mccutchen)
• Is your test method self-validating ? (mehfuzh)
• The Unit Testing Water Cooler (Tal Druyan)

VS2010

• How To Enable Visual Studio 2010 Log (Shai Raiten)

Agile

• Agile Scrum, Or Not-So-Agile Scrum? (Kelly Waters)
• 3 Take Aways from Shrek Forever After (J.D. Meier)

Misc

• Delete all data in database (when you have FKs) (niikola)

WPF / Silverlight

• AutoPropertyChanged – type-safe INotifyPropertyChanged implementation (WPFanatic)
• ExpressionTree visualizer in WPF (gjvdkamp)

.NET

• Introduction to Event Driven Programming in C# (Richard Mccutchen)
• Understanding basic JSON (Dennis Delimarsky)
• The Dangers Of AutoMocking Containers (Derick Bailey)
• Simplify Your Unit Tests With Auto Mocking: Part 1 – Helper Methods (Derick Bailey)
• Simplify Your Unit Tests With Automocking: Part 2 – Establishing Context (Derick Bailey)

VS2010

• What’s new in Code Analysis for Visual Studio 2010 (Duke Kamstra)
• How to write custom static code analysis rules and integrate them into Visual Studio 2010 (Duke Kamstra)

.NET

• C#: Using a dictionary instead of if statements (Mark Needham)
• Model Based Apps and Frameworks (Chad Myers)
• Generics and Default Values (BlackWasp)
• Using the dynamic Keyword in C# to Improve Object Orientation – A Follow-up (Peter Ritchie)

VS2010

• It’s there some new “testing” stuff in VS2010? Yep! Tons! And here’s a free webcast to show you all about it… (Greg Duncan)
• Using Parameter Info (Zain Naboulsi)

Misc

• Running TeamCity from Amazon EC2 – Cloud based scalable build and continuous Integration (Roy Osherove)
• SELECT * FROM XML (Jacob)
• WiimoteLib Future (Brian Peek)

WPF / Silverlight

• Silverlight 4 Binding and StringFormat in XAML (Matthias Shapiro)

.NET

• Static constructor in C# (Mattia Baldinger)
• LINQ for the Beginner (logicchild)
• JSON vs. XML from a .NET developer’s perspective (Dennis Delimarsky)

Career

• Improving Your Presentation Skills (Jaclyn Wells)

Misc

• Architecture Review: Mock-Driven Three-Layer Architecture (James Shore)
• How To Be A Real Elite Programmer And Make Sure Everybody Knows It (Alan Skorkin)

WPF / Silverlight

• Silverlight MultiBinding solution for Silverlight 4 (Colin Eberhardt)
• Binding to Silverlight ComboBox and Using SelectedValue, SelectedValuePath and DisplayMemberPath (John Papa)
• How to select a ListItem on Hover (Mark Monster)
• Control templates in WPF (Dennis Delimarsky)
• Quick and easy scalable rounded bevels (Phil Middlemiss)

.NET

• Protecting your .NET applications (Suprotim Agarwal)
• Creating a Fluent Interface with C# (Deran Schilling)
• Design Patterns In C# – Singleton Design Pattern (Richard Mccutchen)
• Design Patterns In C# – Prototype Design Pattern (Richard Mccutchen)
• Design Patterns In C# – Factory Design Pattern (Richard Mccutchen)
• Introduction to unit testing in .NET (Dennis Delimarsky)

VS2010

• Visual Studio Virtual Tour – 4 Days, 4 Hours, 4 Topics, for Free (Greg Duncan)
• Visual Studio 2010 Extension Manager (and the new VS 2010 PowerCommands Extension) (Scott Guthrie)
• Pinning Projects and Solutions with Visual Studio 2010 (Scott Guthrie)
• How Do I: Using IntelliTrace in Visual Studio 2010 (Chris Koenig)
• New IDE Features in Visual Studio 2010 for C# Developers (Kirill Osenkov)
• VS 2010 productivity improvements – Part I (Soma Segar)

Agile

• Information is the Most Transient Form of Power (J.D. Meier)
• Letting Go of Attachment, from A to Zen (Lori Deschene)
• The True Cost of Quality (John Sonmez)
• Agile Retrospectives (Mark Levison)

Misc

• “If you want users to RTFM, write a better FM” (Greg Duncan)
• Poka-Yoke in UI design (Janko Jovanovic)

WPF / Silverlight

• Control styles in WPF (Dennis Delimarsky)

.Net

• C# 4.0/BCL 4: What’s New Series (Sam Gentile)
• MEFedMVVM changes >> from cool to cooler (marlon grech)
• C# Optional Parameters (BlackWasp)
• Build Tools Roundup For .NET Systems (Derick Bailey)
• Lambda Expressions: Zip (Deborah Kurata)
• Unit testing with NServiceBus (NServiceBus)

Misc

• Multiple Startup Projects (Zain Naboulsi)
• What Every Developer Should Know About URLs (Alan Skorkin)