Currently our flash front-end uses some quite big 3rd-party AS2 libraries which are referenced to Neutron projects (see the note below). The classes within the libraries participate in code complete operations, so it takes some time for IntelliSense database initialization while the project is loading.

Note: Neutron supports Zip reference feature that allows you to link an external library as a zip file, and Neutron automatically unzips and references classes within.

Actually, such possibilities are not needed for our server-side .NET part of the team. Most of them never touch the AS2.0 code. All they need is to compile this code while rebuilding the entire solution.

Well, that can be easily switched off. To disable IntelliSense database creation on project loading go to ‘Tools’ -> ‘Options’ in the main Visual Studio 2005 menu. Select ‘Projects and Solutions’ -> ‘Neutron Project Settings’ in the appearing Options dialog, and uncheck ‘Enable IntelliSense’ checkbox. Next time the projects will be loaded without IntelliSense initialization phase.

In addition, on this option page you can set the path, where MTASC compiler is located. That can be useful if you want to compile with HAMTASC instead. See How To: Substitute MTASC with HAMTASC tutorial.

Also, you can manage cache directory for ZIP references used in your Neutron project.

Enjoy!

~ Dmitry

I googled some blog posts on this subject. The first article proposed to use Windows Installer. From my point of view it is too complicated. After that I read about programmatic modifying the GAC with the Fusion APIs (C++ example and managed one). Smells like a hack. Rejected as well.

And then I found the awesome post which describes a really good solution of my problem: you can use System.EnterpriseServices.Internal.Publish class to install your assembly into the GAC and uninstal it back!

You just need to write a line of code:

new System.EnterpriseServices.Internal.Publish().GacInstall(”myassembly.dll”);

Enjoy!

~Dmitry

Well, that is good but it is done for Visual Studio Codename Orcas only. The latest VS SDK 4.0 RTM for Visual Studio 2005 announced a little bit earlier still uses CTC but it includes VSCT compiler in pre-release state. You can find it here: C:\Program Files\Visual Studio 2005 SDK\2007.02\Prerelease\.

This post demonstrates how to add VSCT support for Whidbey (VS 2005) projects.

To demonstrate this we will use the C# Reference.MenuAndCommands sample included into Visual Studio SDK Version 4.0. You can find it in that directory: C:\Program Files\Visual Studio 2005 SDK\2007.02\VisualStudioIntegration\Samples\IDE\CSharp\Reference.MenuAndCommands\. At the end of this tutorial, we will get this sample working with VSCT instead of CTC. Follow instructions below.

1. Before we will substitute CTC with VSCT let’s see how it looks now. Press F5 to run the MenuAndCommands sample in experimental hive and see some menu items added under main menu item ‘Tools’. Note command ‘C# Command Sample’ – it will be our marker in this tutorial.

 
2. The first thing we should care about is to obtain VSCT analogue for our CTC file. The easiest way to do that is to build the project to get .cto file compiled from current .ctc file and then create a .vsct file from an existing .cto file using VSCT.exe utility. I have used the following command to perform the conversion from <project_root>\obj\Debug\ directory where two input files PkgCmd.cto and PkgCmd.ctsym are located.

>   “C:\Program Files\Visual Studio 2005 SDK\2007.02\Prerelease\VSCT\VSCT.exe” PkgCmd.cto PkgCmd.vsct -SPkgCmd.ctsym

3. Now let’s replace CTC part of the MenuAndCommands sample project with VSCT analogue. Create new folder VSCTComponents under project root directory and copy just generated PkgCmd.vsct file from obj\Debug\ there. Then make it part of the project. To be sure that we have no CTC here let’s remove all from CtcComponents folder except image GenericCmd.bmp, because it is still needed. Let’s also replace the text of the button ‘C# Command Sample’ with ‘C# Command Sample (VSTS)’ to have some differences in resulting UI. See what we have now.

 
Note: you can easily add IntelliSense for .vsct files via browsing for C:\Program Files\Visual Studio 2005 SDK\2007.02\Prerelease\VSCT\VSCT.xsd file in ‘Schemas’ property in Properties window (accessible by F4).

4. Rebuild the solution and then execute ‘devenv.exe /rootsuffix Exp /setup’ command to refresh Visual Studio UI. Then press F5 to see the result – all menus disappeared. To get all back in VSCT incarnation of menu items we need to write some code right in MenuAndCommands.csproj project file. To do that unload the project and open it for editing using ‘Edit MenuAndCommands.csproj’ command.

5. Add the following line importing .targets file as it is shown on the picture below. I have prepared the VSCT_overrides.targets file, so you just need to download it and save in the project root directory.

6. Now our PkgCmd.vsct file declared as <None Include=”VSCTComponents\PkgCmd.vsct” /> in MenuAndCommands.csproj file. Replace this line with the following code. Child node ResourceName specifies the name of CTO object which will be merged into assembly resources with.

 
7. Save the changes and reload the project. Select ‘Load project normally’ option in the Security Warning dialog which will be appeared. Rebuild the project and see results in output window. There are 4 errors that occurred due to automatic generation.

Note: make sure you use ‘Normal’ level of MSBuild build output verbosity.
 
8. You can easily fix them by adding 4 IDSymbol tags under according GuidSymbol tags or just download fixed version of PkgCmd.vsct file I have prepared. Then build the project again and verify that all errors go on.

 
9. Rebuild the solution and then execute ‘devenv.exe /rootsuffix Exp /setup’ command to refresh Visual Studio UI. Then press F5 to see the result – menus appeared again. Note the changed text ‘C# Command Sample (VSTS)’.

Enjoy!

~Dmitry

This tutorial will demonstrate how to substitute MTASC with HAMTASC.

Actually, it is very easy in Neutron. There are a few steps to do:

1. Open Hello World sample in Visual Studio 2005 and compile it. As you can see in Output window screenshot below, HelloWorld project has been successfully built with MTASC:

2. Now let’s substitute MTASC with HAMTASC compiler. You can set the path to the compiler in Visual Studio under Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> ActionScript Project Settings -> MTASC path. Browse the HAMTASC executable file mtasc.exe and then press OK to apply the changes. 

3. Build the project again, but this time with HAMTASC compiler:

4. As you might know HAMTASC uses some additional compilation options, which can be added to compilation command thanks to Neutron Project Properties:

This release includes the following fixes/enhancements:

• Fixed: Visual Studio would freeze when compiling a large project
• Fixed: Go to Definition for functions with parameters didn’t make correct selection
• Fixed: multiple Zip files with same name will cause issues
  • Neutron supports Zip reference features that allows you to link an external library as a zip file and Neutron automatically unzips and references classes within. If you had multiple projects referencing zip file with the same name, AS classes would be unzipped into the same folder. This release resolves this issue
• Fixed: HTML template file validation in Project Properties->Run for ‘Run in default application … ’ option
• Compilation process now shows output line by line
• Parsing performance optimization — significant improvements when parsing large libraries to display IntelliSense 
• Added checkbox to enable/disable IntelliSense
• Added default empty class to ActionScript Library template
• Added UI for changing the Zip reference cache path and clearing cached libraries (under Tools->Options->Projects’n'Solutions->ActionScript Project Settings->Reference Cache)
• Added browse button for “main class” in Project Properties
• Other minor bug fixes and changes

~Mike

I didn’t watch all of them, but those few that I watched are done very well.

~Mike

• above posts talk about functionality present in debug version of Flash player to log errors to a text file

• Description
• Description of ver 2
• Latest download (ver 2.1)
• There are some issues with “No trace output with Flash Debug Player 9.0r28“

~Mike

Working on SharpStyle Neutron I very often need to open the Visual Studio IDE under as named experimental hive. MSDN describes the concept of Visual Studio Experimental Build in following way:

To safeguard Visual Studio from applications you develop that might change it, the Visual Studio SDK provides an experimental build of Visual Studio. You develop new applications by using Visual Studio as usual, but run them with the experimental build.

The experimental build is nothing more than Visual Studio with another registry hive called the experimental hive. Having two side-by-side registrations of Visual Studio helps protect your Visual Studio installation from any harm that the experimental software could cause.

To start Visual Studio by using the experimental registry hive, run the following command from the Visual Studio command prompt:

“<Visual_Studio_Install_Path>\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe” /RootSuffix Exp

As you can see every time I need to run the Visual Studio in experimental hive I have to execute the command above or use the shortcut located in Start -> Programs -> Visual Studio 2005 SDK -> 2007.02 -> Tools -> Start Visual Studio 2005 under Experimental hive.

One day I spent a lot of time to do such procedure many and many times. And the first improvement was an assigning the shortcut key for the shortcut.

Well, it works much better that going through the Start->Programs… every time. I used this solution but problem was not solved.

To open the solution in normal registry hive you can just double click on .sln file or select from context menu item ‘Open’ or item ‘Open With’ and then select the program you want the file be opened with. I prefer the last way because I often edit the files in different editors.

So the common case is following. I navigate to the folder where .sln file located, right click on it to open in… yes … in experimental build of Visual Studio! So now I have to press the CTRL+SHIFT+E to run the experimental build of Visual Studio and then I have to use File->Open and navigate to the folder I was again. Not very comfortable scenario.

I start thinking and have found the simple and going solution – add a new subitem  to ‘Send To’ context menu item. To add new command in ‘SendTo’ menu all of you need is to create the shortcut to command you want in this path:

C:\Documents and Settings\<Your_Account>\SendTo\

I just copied the shortcut from “Start -> Programs -> Visual Studio 2005 SDK -> <VSSDK_Version> -> Tools -> Start Visual Studio 2005 under Experimental hive” and renamed it to “Devenv Exp”. Now to open the solution in experimental hive I just right click on .sln file and select Send To -> Devenv Exp.

Enjoy!

~Dmitry

Following the steps from this article (Macromedia – Developer Center Embedding Macromedia Flash Player in a C# Application) produce the following errors:

• There is a popup stating that VS ”Failed to import the ActiveX control.  Please ensure it is properly registered“
• If you examine Error List, under Warnings, you will see the following

Could not resolve dependent COM reference “stdole, Version=7.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a”.  

Failed to create the wrapper assembly for type library “AxShockwaveFlashObjects”. Exception of type ‘Microsoft.Build.Tasks.ComReferenceResolutionException’ was thrown.

The referenced component ‘AxShockwaveFlashObjects’ could not be found. Failed to create the wrapper assembly for type library “AxShockwaveFlashObjects”. Exception of type ‘Microsoft.Build.Tasks.ComReferenceResolutionException’ was thrown. 

I found the following Unable to add Flash 8 control in VS2005 – Tentative workaround blog post from 2005-12-07, but the instructions there didn’t work. After doing a few more searches I found the following forum page in French (translated page / original page)

Here is what needs to be done:

• Open Visual Studio 2005 command prompt and execute the following:
  • aximp.exe -source “C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash\Flash9b.ocx”
• This will generate the following files. Items in bold are the important ones:
  • AxShockwaveFlashObjects.dll
  • AxShockwaveFlashObjects.pdb
  • ShockwaveFlashObjects.dll
  • AxShockwaveFlashObjects.cs

• In Visual Studio, add the references to the 2 dlls generated by aximp (I copied them from “C:\Program FIles\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC” to the root of the project): 

• Add namespaces to the imports section

using AxShockwaveFlashObjects;
using ShockwaveFlashObjects;

• And here is some sample code to display SWF

AxShockwaveFlash axShockwaveFlash = new AxShockwaveFlash();
axShockwaveFlash.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(50, 50);   

this.Controls.Add (axShockwaveFlash);
//this.Show(); // Avoids InvalidActiveXStateException.

axShockwaveFlash.Movie = "D:\\test.swf";
//* it is important to set Size after specifying Movie property
//* if Size is specified before, it is ignored
axShockwaveFlash.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(20, 20);
axShockwaveFlash.Play();

References:

• Macromedia – Developer Center Embedding Macromedia Flash Player in a C# Application to Display Stock Information – an outdated article about embedding Flash Player in a C# Application using Visual Studio 2003
• Unable to add Flash 8 control in VS2005 – Tentative workaround – post from 2005-12-07 that outlines the issue. Provided workaround didn’t work for me. Might be related to the fact that I have Service Pack 1 for VS installed
• Add Flash to Your .NET WinForms to Create Skinable UIs – an older article from 2004 with source code. Didn’t try it.
• Re Faied to import the ActiveX control. (Load Macromedia Flash) – MSDN Forums – post on MSDN forums with a link to the following article: User Interface Controls in Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic 2005. Article talks about upgrading VB6 project to VB.NET 2005.

~Mike

We will be using Powerflasher SOS.

Powerflasher SOS (SocketOutputServer) is an XML Socket server with a graphic user interface. Connected clients can send messages to SOS. These messages are shown in SOS. Further on commands from SOS to Client can be sent. These are freely configurable.

It requires JavaVM starting from 1.3: http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp

This tutorial will demonstrate the following steps:

• Download and run Powerflasher SOS
• Create new ActionScript Application
• Write code that will allow our application to “trace” to Powerflasher SOS using XMLSocket
• Specify additional compilation parameter: -trace “Main.myTrace”. Compiler will replace all “trace()” statements with a call to Main.myTrace which will send messages over XMLSocket to SOS
• We will then add
  • new ActionScript Class
  • two SWF files that will serve as ON/OFF states
• We will then show the following
  • Loading resources
  • MovieClip.onRollOver, MovieClip.onRollOut events

Source code is here.

Click the image below to launch:

Here is the code for your reference:

class Main
{
    private static var sock : XMLSocket;
    static function main()
    {
        Stage.align = "TL";
        Stage.scaleMode = "noScale";

        if (_root.enableTrace == "true")
        {
            enableTrace();
        }
        trace("main() called");
        var app : App = new App();
        app.Start();
    }
    private static function enableTrace() : Void
    {
        sock = new XMLSocket();
        sock.connect("localhost", 4444);
        trace("connected");
    }
    public static function myTrace(obj : Object, fullclass : String, file : String, line : Number) : Void
    {
        sock.send("msg: " + obj + " (class: " + fullclass + ", line: " + line + ")\n");
    }
}

class App
{
    public function App()
    {

    }
    public function Start() : Void
    {
        var button : MovieClip = _root.createEmptyMovieClip("button", _root.getNextHighestDepth());
        button._x = 20;
        button._y = 20;

        var imageOn : MovieClip = button.createEmptyMovieClip("imageOn", button.getNextHighestDepth());
        imageOn.loadMovie("smiley_happy.swf");

        var imageOff : MovieClip = button.createEmptyMovieClip("imageOff", button.getNextHighestDepth());
        imageOff.loadMovie("smiley_sad.swf");

        button.onRollOver = function()
        {
            trace("");
            this.imageOff._visible = false;
        }

        button.onRollOut = function()
        {
            trace("");
            this.imageOff._visible = true;
        }
    }
}

~Mike