SharePoint 2010 / Visual Studio 2010 – Organizing Project Structures

As I have become more comfortable with the new SharePoint development framework, one thing I had trouble with was how to best organize a project within Visual Studio 2010. While there are plenty of examples on how to develop within the new framework, I haven’t been able to find any good resources or documentation that go into how to best organize your project. After consulting with some co-workers, I have come up with the following generic structure for WebPart projects and UI projects.

• WebPart Projects – This is typically a project that requires more control over resources and how they get deployed. In this case I use SharePoint Mapped Folders to organize my solution. You can create these at any level and even create multiple levels, but I like the idea of mimicking the actual SharePoint 14 “hive” hierarchy starting with the TEMPLATES folder.
• UI (MasterPage, Layout, and Branding) Projects -  These are types of resources that I’d like to be more easily accessible by designers and site owners. In this case, I use Module folders to organize my solution. MasterPages are mapped to the site Master Page Gallery _catalogs/masterpage. Layouts, images, and css are deployed to a document library (i.e. the “Style Library” found on Publishing Portals).

Important: Regardless of how you plan on organizing your projects, make sure that you always deploy your resources within a folder with your project name. This lessens the chance of your resources getting overwritten since they would reside in a unique location.  For example, in the WebPart project below, I have a folder under CONTROLTEMPLATES called “Acme.Intranet.WebParts”. In the case of the UI project, I use Modules, so I would need to map these using the Url property of the Module node in the Elements.xml file.

Visual Studio 2010 / SharePoint 2010 CKSDEV (Community Tools for SharePoint Development Edition)

One thing I was missing with the new Visual Studio 2010 toolset for SharePoint 2010 was some of nice functionality that WSPBuilder provided. I don’t always want to deploy the whole solution. Sometimes I just want to update the assemblies for an existing solution in the GAC or move over a few images or ascx files. Fortunately, all of this is available with CKSDEV extension for Visual Studio 2010.

Download CKSDEV (Community Tools for SharePoint Development Edition)
http://cksdev.codeplex.com/

Project Level

Item Level

Change tab order of documents being opened in Visual Studio 2010

At some point between 2003 and 2008, Microsoft changed the default order of where tabs appeared in Visual Studio. In the old version, new document tabs would appear to the right. The new version switched this behavior. I always preferred the old order and now it is an option.

Tools –> Options –> Environment –> Documents

Visual Studio - Object is in a zombie state.

I just got this message during some ASP.NET debugging on Visual Studio 2008. Since Microsoft is doing it, perhaps I'll start adding these types of messages. ;)

 

Microsoft Visual Studio

Cannot detach from one or more processes:

[4742] WebDev.WebServer.EXE: Object is in a zombie state.

Do you want to terminate them instead?

FontConverter.ConvertFromInvariantString - Add Italics

I didn't find the MSDN documentation very complete when it came to this. It was fairly obvious that I could feed "Verdana, 15.75pt" into the ConvertFromInvariantString method and get the right font returned, but I wasn't sure how to make that Italic. Since I am using this to skin my application, I wanted to put this string in a config file.

FontConverter fc = new FontConverter();Font headerFont = (Font)fc.ConvertFromInvariantString("Verdana, 15.75pt, style=Italic");

Prevent DataGridViewImageColumn from showing a red x

When you use a DataGridViewImage column within a DataGridView, a red "x" will show up if you do not anything bound to the row in question. What this means is that if you have an edit row at the end, it will show the red "x". Unfortunately, neither the official documentation for DataGridViewImageColumn in MSDN nor the forum are very clear on this. I gleaned off one of the last posts which recommended creating a new blank bitmap. Instead, I set my cell value to the value of the image I already set up in designer. For a DataGridView that is not getting databound, you will need to put this in the form load.

private void myGrid_DataBindingComplete(object sender, DataGridViewBindingCompleteEventArgs e)
{
//assumes that image column is first column
myGrid.Rows[myGrid.Rows.Count - 1].Cells[0].Value =
((DataGridViewImageColumn) myGrid.Columns[0]).Image;
}

Visual Studio Project Template GUIDs - (What's up with those "project not supported" errors?)

If you have used Visual Studio 2005 long enough and have had to debug on various machines with various configurations, it is very likely that your Visual Studio environments aren't exactly the same and have different service packs and extensions. One of the errors I commonly get is something to the affect that the "project type is not supported." Unfortunately, the message is very cryptic and provides no information by resolving the issue.

Basically what this means is you are missing project templates for the project type you are trying to load. This could be the notorious Web Application Project type that was not a default project type in Visual Studio 2005 or it could be something like the Visual Studio extensions for .NET Framework 3.0. Either way you need to find out what project type you are missing and then get it installed.

Check your csproj file

1. Open the csproj file in Notepad.
2. Find the node . It is under .
3. This is the GUID that corresponds to a project template type.
4. If you are fortunate enough to have access to the machine where the project was created, you can open the registry and then find what type of project template it is. Otherwise you can try Google or consult my ongoing list below.

Check your Registry

1. Open Start - Run, type regedit, and click OK.
2. Navigate to: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Projects
3. Here you will find a list of all your project templates that are installed. (Note: These are all installed in "[Install Directory]\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates")
4. The Default string value data is the name of the project you need. You can usually

Alternate Resolution

If you have access to both machines you are trying to synchronize, one alternative is to open Visual Studio and click on About Microsoft Visual Studio from the Help menu. From here you can compare versions and installed products. However, you may end up spending a lot of time installing various products when you only need one thing installed.

Get List of Installed Visual Studio Project Templates using C#

This is a little C# code snippet you can use to get a list of installed project templates:

using Microsoft.Win32;

private string GetProjectTemplateTypes()
{
string projectTemplateRegDir = @"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Projects";
string[] projectGuids =

Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(projectTemplateRegDir).GetSubKeyNames();
string projectTemplateList = "";
foreach (string projectGuid in projectGuids)
{
projectTemplateList +=
projectGuid + "\t" +

Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(projectTemplateRegDir +

"\\" + projectGuid).GetValue("") + "\r\n";
}
return projectTemplateList;

}

Visual Studio Project Template GUID List

This is a list of project templates I have installed on my machine. This is not a complete list, but gives you all of the basic ones plus some of extras like .NET 3.0 templates. If you have any new ones, please send them and I will add them.

{059D6162-CD51-11d0-AE1F-00A0C90FFFC3}	Project Converter
{06A35CCD-C46D-44D5-987B-CF40FF872267}	Visual Studio Deployment Merge Module Project
{07CD18B1-3BA1-11d2-890A-0060083196C6}	Macro Solution
{147FB6A7-F239-4523-AE65-B6A4E49B361F}	Visual Studio Tools for Office CSharp Project
{14822709-B5A1-4724-98CA-57A101D1B079}	Workflow Visual C# Project
{20D4826A-C6FA-45DB-90F4-C717570B9F32}	Legacy Smart Device C# Project
{2150E333-8FDC-42a3-9474-1A3956D46DE8}	Solution Folder Project
{23162FF1-3C3F-11d2-890A-0060083196C6}	Macro Project
{2606E7C9-5071-4B63-9A83-C66A32B1669F}	Visual Studio Tools for Office VisualBasic Project
{3114F5B0-E435-4bc5-A03D-168E20D9BF83}	Smart Device Visual Basic Virtual Project for .Net Compact Framework v2.0
{349c5851-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21}	Web Application Project Factory
{349c5853-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21}	C# Web Application Project Templates
{349c5854-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21}	VB Web Application Project Templates
{349c5855-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21}	J# Web Application Project Templates
{35F59093-63D9-4a89-B699-B64FAADAEEFB}	Smart Device Visual Basic Virtual Project for .Net Compact Framework v1.0
{3b0d21b2-944d-4169-b2d5-f85948276507}	VDT Project Flavor CS Templates
{3EA9E505-35AC-4774-B492-AD1749C4943A}	Visual Studio Deployment Cab Project
{4D628B5B-2FBC-4aa6-8C16-197242AEB884}	Smart Device C# Project
{4F174C21-8C12-11D0-8340-0000F80270F8}	#6025
{54435603-DBB4-11D2-8724-00A0C9A8B90C}	Visual Studio Deployment Project
{66355F20-A65B-11D0-BFB5-00A0C91EBFA0}	VJ6 Project System
{68B1623D-7FB9-47D8-8664-7ECEA3297D4F}	Smart Device Visual Basic Project
{7C3490A3-8632-43C5-8A60-07DC2F450870}	#118
{8040559B-8C3E-411d-BB63-674DC53550CD}	Smart Device C# Virtual Project for .Net Compact Framework v2.0
{82c448b6-9d85-47d0-a1bc-01c5d8802d46}	VDT Project Flavor VB Templates
{84F32C53-93DA-46fd-993C-0C1875CBF4E6}	Smart Device C# Virtual Project for .Net Compact Framework v1.0
{8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}	#10006
{8BC9CEB9-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}	Exe Projects
{8BC9CEB9-9B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}	Crash Dump Projects
{8BC9CEBA-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}	#10008
{978C614F-708E-4E1A-B201-565925725DBA}	Visual Studio Deployment Setup Project
{999D2CB9-9277-4465-A902-1604ED3686A3}	Report Model Project
{A2FE74E1-B743-11d0-AE1A-00A0C90FFFC3}	Miscellaneous Files Project
{AB322303-2255-48EF-A496-5904EB18DA55}	Visual Studio WinCE Deployment Project
{B900F1C2-3D47-4FEC-85B3-04AAF18C3634}	Visual Studio Smart Device Cab Project
{BAA0C2D2-18E2-41b9-852F-F413020CAA33}	Visual Studio Tools for Office Project
{BDD4A1A1-7A1F-11D0-AC13-00A0C91E29D5}
{c252feb5-a946-4202-b1d4-9916a0590387}	VDT Project Flavor
{CB4CE8C6-1BDB-4DC7-A4D3-65A1999772F8}	Legacy Smart Device Visual Basic Project
{d183a3d8-5fd8-494b-b014-37f57b35e655}	Data Transformations Project
{D1DCDB85-C5E8-11d2-BFCA-00C04F990235}	Solution Items Project
{D24BA5B7-7536-40BB-A637-5337AA82183D}	Visual Studio Deployment Tier Project
{d2abab84-bf74-430a-b69e-9dc6d40dda17}	Analysis Services Project
{D59BE175-2ED0-4C54-BE3D-CDAA9F3214C8}	Workflow Visual Basic Project
{E24C65DC-7377-472B-9ABA-BC803B73C61A}	#2143
{E502E3C0-BAAE-11D0-88BF-00A0C9110049}
{E6FDF86B-F3D1-11D4-8576-0002A516ECE8}	#2346
{F14B399A-7131-4c87-9E4B-1186C45EF12D}	#5001
{F184B08F-C81C-45f6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}	#2143
{FAE04EC0-301F-11d3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}	#2346
{FB4431D6-6095-4d6f-8D01-6135C978F700}	Enterprise Template Project
{FE3BBBB6-72D5-11d2-9ACE-00C04F79A2A4}	Design Time Policy Project Aggregator

Visual Studio 2005 SP1 - Installation Woes - "did not pass the digital signature check"

I got this error the other day trying to install Visual Studio 2005 SP1:










Error 1718. File C:\Windows\Installer\2ce9ba.msp did not pass the digital signature check. For more information about a possible resolution for this problem, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73863

The following steps from Microsoft Support worked for me:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Safer\CodeIdentifiersNote Before you modify this key, we recommend that you back up this key. To do this, right-click CodeIdentifiers, and then click Export. Save the file to a location where you can find it on the computer.
3. Change the PolicyScope registry value. To do this, double-click PolicyScope, and then change the setting from 0 to 1. Note: If this registry value does not exist, create a new DWORD value.
4. Close Registry Editor.
5. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK to open a Command Prompt window.
6. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   net stop msiserverThis command stops the Windows Installer service if the service is currently running in the background. When the service has stopped, close the Command Prompt window, and then go to step 7.Note If you receive the following message at the command prompt, close the Command Prompt window, and then go to step 7:
   The Windows Installer service is not started
7. Try installing again!