patterns & practices - GAX Extensions Library

New Post: Installing GAX 2008 on VISTA/SP1 for VS2005

bjanderson70 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:14:43 GMT

I
am running Vista SP1. I downloaded the latest GAX - Feb 2008 ( http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=df79c099-4753-4a59-91e3-5020d9714e4e&DisplayLang=en) installed it, and then installed the GAT for VS2005 --- no issues.

However, I am not seeing the Guidance Package projects nor Guidance Package Manager on VS2005 Tools->Guidance Package Manager as described in the readme manual. Actually, no guidance automation at all.

When I attempt to repair the GAX it complains that I do not have Visual Studio installed ( doesn’t say which one). My suspicions are that it is referring to VS2008. Also, I was unable to UNINSTALL it. I had to resort to Register removal.

Did I miss a step? Anybody have any remedies/thoughts ? My customer is not running VS2008 so I don’t want to install this in order to get GAX running.

General Information:
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

Version 8.0.50727.867 (vsvista.050727-8600)

Microsoft .NET Framework

Version 2.0.50727 SP1

Thanks in advance,

NEW POST: Documentation

Yogudada — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:50:24 GMT

This is really great that the source code is provided.

Any chance you could release any unit tests etc. I'm sure you guys have tested the library ;-)

NEW POST: Unable to uninstall of GAX

makaveli_0000 — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:02:35 GMT

Issue resolved using this thread:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2863266&SiteID=1

NEW POST: Unable to uninstall of GAX

makaveli_0000 — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:59:05 GMT

There is not a single instance of Guidance Automation Extension listed in my Control Panel.
The folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft Guidance Automation Extensions also has two .rft and one .chm file.

Yet, when I attempt to run the GAX Feb 2008 installer, I get the following error:

"You must uninstall your current version of the GAX prior to installing this version"

Any ideas how to completely remove this previous version?

NEW POST: Guidance automation extensions exception

ranjith — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:06:31 GMT

Hi,

I just installed GAX(Guidance automation extensions) april 2007 msi. When i tried to open a new SCSF project it throws an exception as shown below.

Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.ActionExecutionException: An exception occurred during the binding of reference or execution of recipe CreateSolution. Error was: Action InstallCommunityControls failed to execute:
Command "Tools.InstallCommunityControls" is not valid..
You can remove the reference to this recipe through the Guidance Package Manager. ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80004005): Command "Tools.InstallCommunityControls" is not valid.
at EnvDTE._DTE.ExecuteCommand(String CommandName, String CommandArgs)
at Intel.TMG.UI.FW.GuidanceAutomation.Actions.InstallCommunityControlsAction.Execute()
at Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.Recipe.Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.Services.IActionExecutionService.Execute(String actionName, Dictionary`2 inputValues)
at Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.Recipe.Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.Services.IActionExecutionService.Execute(String actionName)
at Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.Recipe.Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.Services.IActionCoordinationService.Run(Dictionary`2 declaredActions, XmlElement coordinationData)
at Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.Recipe.ExecuteActions(IDictionaryService readOnlyArguments, IDictionaryService arguments, ITypeResolutionService resolution)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.Recipe.UndoExecutedActionsAndRethrow(Exception ex)
at Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.Recipe.ExecuteActions(IDictionaryService readOnlyArguments, IDictionaryService arguments, ITypeResolutionService resolution)
at Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.Recipe.Execute(Boolean allowSuspend)
at Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.GuidancePackage.Execute(String recipe, IAssetReference reference, IDictionary arguments)
at Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.GuidancePackage.ExecuteFromTemplate(String recipe, IDictionary arguments)
at Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.VisualStudio.Templates.UnfoldTemplate.ExecuteRecipe(Boolean executeActions)
at Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.VisualStudio.Templates.UnfoldTemplate.RunFinished()

What happens is, VS throws such an exception and then closes the project that i tried creating automatically. The other things is, if i now go and see the location where i tried creatin gthis project all the source files have been created successfully.

I can now open the project from within VS2005 using Open Project and it opened successfully. From now on i do not have any problem with running the project solution, adding view, modules etc.

Seems like the problem is only with the creation of the solution. Can you please help on this. reinstalling GAx which never helped. Then i added the registry entry AutoRun under Current users which too never helped( Saw in one of the posts in MSdn forums)

Please advice.

-Ranjith

NEW POST: BaseGlobalsEntryAction

2face — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:08:10 GMT

Hi,

I was walking through the extensions library and something confused me about the BaseGlobalsEntryAction class

In the GetValue method there is:

return dictservice.GetValue(this.propertyValue) ?? this.propertyValue;

Am I right that you get the value based on the value or is it supposed to be dictservice.GetValue(this.propertyName) instead?
If it is right the way it is, why do you do it this way?

Mike

COMMENTED ISSUE: Deployment to GAC

jezzsa — Mon, 07 May 2007 08:14:30 GMT

It appears that GEL has some bazaar dependencies that prohibit its use when deployed to the GAC. These include: EnvDTE 7.0.3300.0 Microsoft.Data.ConnectionUI.Dialog 8.0.0.0 But can we qualify these dependencies are really needed? Of course one workaround is to deploy these dependencies to the GAC when installing GEL. Other is to avoid deploying to GAC and only deploy to PublicAssemblies folder, which probably makes sense considering its use for recipes. If that is the case, a notice should be loud and clear about where it can and should be installed. Comments: ** Comment from web user: jezzsa **

I guess in retrospect. that the real issue here is what was this library designed for?

If soley for use from GAT packages then, then it should only be deployed privately in same folder as GAT package using it. (This will avoid multiple copies and DLL hell in PublicAssemblies folder.)

If it intended for use by factories in general (which is it useful for), then I think its needs to be split into: functionality that is specific to GAT packages, and functionality that can be used from DSL's too (like the UI editors, DTE helpers etc). The shared functionality for use by DSL *needs* to be deployable to GAC, since all DSL's have to be deployed to GAC.

There is no good workaround at present since just deploying it to PublicAssemblies folder will cause DLL hell for all factories doing this (multiple versions of GEL in same physical directory).
Following GAX's assumptions here on this is not safe, you will only ever have one version of GAX installed on the machine, and therefore installing GAX assemblies to PublicAssemblies cache is OK.
That is a not a safe assumption for GEL.

Service Factory has already proven this mistake. But this is expected since service factory is first factory to use DSL's and share functionality from GEL. Perhaps its time to review?

COMMENTED ISSUE: Deployment to GAC

jezzsa — Mon, 07 May 2007 06:50:25 GMT

Just another comment, from an issue I am also running into.

If the PublicAssemblies folder is the recommended place to install this assembly, then multiple versions of it are not possible (i.e. DLL Hell).

I notice that the 'Service Factory' installs this assembly to the PublicAssemblies folder (version 1.0).
Now if I want to use a different version say (1.3) in my factory, the last factory installed wins - right? (-> dll hell)
You cant assume only one factory is installed per machine.

If you really want people to use this assembly in their factories, GAC deployment, can be the only option really.
You cant assume it will only be used in GAT packages. Factories of today use DSL's, and therefore need to load these types from GAC.

COMMENTED ISSUE: Deployment to GAC

jezzsa — Mon, 07 May 2007 06:13:25 GMT

Thanks Chris,
understood EnvDTE is required. but check the version. the version required here is 7.0.3300. Shouldn't this be a more recent version? Like the version for VS2005 (EnvDTE 8.0.0.0)?

I'll give you a usage sceanrio.
I have a DSL I want to use the 'ClassBrowserEditor' from this library as the UITypeEditor on a domain property.
Since DSL assemblies are deplyed to the GAC, I would have to deploy RecipeFramework.Extensions.dll also to the GAC.
But it wont load from the GAC with these bazaar dependencies.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

ctavares — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 21:37:41 GMT

This library contains various utility classes to supplement those already included with the Guidance Automation Extensions (GAX) to Visual Studio 2005.

Project Home Page
The GAX Extension Library (GEL) contains a number of resuable actions, editors, value providers and other assets that can be used to build guidance packages using the Guidance Automation Toolkit.

This library is used by several guidance package releases from patterns & practices, and is available to anyone who wishes to use it for their own guidance package development as well.

Release Map
V1.0 - Used by Web Service Software Factory December 2006 and Enterprise Library 3.0 Dec2006 CTP.

V1.1 - Used by Web Client Software Factory January 2007.

V1.2 - Updated to work with GAX 1.2, and including some bug fixes supplied by the Smart Client Software Factory team (thanks guys!).

V1.3.1 - Updated to include submissions from the Web Service Software Factory team.

Source code checked in

ctavares — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 21:10:26 GMT

Updated version #

Source code checked in

ctavares — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:45:39 GMT

ProjectEditor classes removed

UPDATED WIKI: Home

ctavares — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 16:25:27 GMT

CREATED RELEASE: V1.3.1 Production

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 07:00:00 GMT

A new release that removes some things from the (now pulled) V1.3 release that weren't ready for public consumption.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

ctavares — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 23:07:52 GMT

This library contains various utility classes to supplement those already included with the Guidance Automation Extensions (GAX) to Visual Studio 2005.

Project Home Page
The GAX Extension Library (GEL) contains a number of resuable actions, editors, value providers and other assets that can be used to build guidance packages using the Guidance Automation Toolkit.

This library is used by several guidance package releases from patterns & practices, and is available to anyone who wishes to use it for their own guidance package development as well.

Release Map
V1.0 - Used by Web Service Software Factory December 2006 and Enterprise Library 3.0 Dec2006 CTP.

V1.1 - Used by Web Client Software Factory January 2007.

V1.2 - Updated to work with GAX 1.2, and including some bug fixes supplied by the Smart Client Software Factory team (thanks guys!).

V1.3 - Another code submission from a p&p factory team, this time we've got a bunch of new classes from the Web Service Software Factory. Thanks!

Source code checked in

ctavares — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 22:39:40 GMT

Forgot to rev the assembly version.

Source code checked in

ctavares — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 22:19:48 GMT

Added new functions from WSSF folks.

CREATED RELEASE: V1.3 Production

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 07:00:00 GMT

This new release contains a bunch of new files offered up by the Web Service Software Factory team. Most of the functionality is new. There are some new classes that duplicate existing functionality in the library, but go through the VSIP IVsHierarchy interface instead of the DTE interface. This is somewhat of an experiment; the VSIP interfaces appear to be more reliable than the DTE interface.

NEW POST: Documentation

ctavares — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 20:01:48 GMT

We don't have any docs yet, unfortunately. This is kind of a side project, and doesn't have any budget, so we can't afford writers.

It came out of the Web Service Software Factory project initially, but other factory projects in p&p started using it too. We though having a single distribution point (i.e. codeplex) would make it easier to manage the dependencies.

I'm absolutely thrilled that other folks can take advantage of GEL too.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

ctavares — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:21:59 GMT