I’ve connected with a lot of professionals through social networks (for instance  twitter and linkedin), I also collaborate in open source projects in sites such as codeplex and github. The  tools provided by those networks allow me connect with people as near as home or as far as another continent,  keeping track of any interaction, learning and sharing knowledge.

But what happens with real human interaction, putting a face to each of those user names, In-Person networking?

My experience as an Offshore Project Manager at HexaSystems Corporation has shown me that when you can meet these digital connections and at least have a face to face conversation, the trust in the relation increases and therefore is more valuable for you and your business.

So a good approach could be to first establish In-Person connections and continue the relation through online tools. This is where Microsoft WPC helps. An annual conference where Microsoft brings its partners the opportunity to experiment with new technologies, acquire knowledge and make connections between partners and Microsoft staff.

These year WPC offers a new tool called WPC Connect Wall where you can build partner relationships, discover new opportunities to drive innovation, and even search and schedule meetings with the people you are looking for.

So it seems that the best networking is a result of the combination of the “old” In-Person way of  establishing connections  and the “2.0″ online approach.

Hope it helps!

#in

netDumbster: we have released version 1.2 of this .Net Fake SMTP Server so useful for unit tests and also released a nuget package wich you can find here: http://goo.gl/2FEw9

Hexa.Core: our implementation of the Domain Driven Design Architecture. Also providing a set of helper classes for ASP.Net and WCF development

Hexa.xText:  a .Net command line tool to extract text from source files for later translation, just like the GNU xgettext does.

HiringBox: a website that offers free and easy access to job opportunities, discount coupons, training, and social service needs.

Also and the most important thing I’ve been doing is preparing the bed room for our first child… Victoria!!!

#in

I currently use Hudson CI for continuos integration therefore I needed to generate Gallio reports in xml  format, so I made some simple modifications, specially in how the Gallio task is called:

<Gallio IgnoreFailures=”true” Files=”@(TestFiles)” ReportDirectory=”$(TestResultsDirectory)”  ReportTypes=”html;xml”>
<Output TaskParameter=”ExitCode” PropertyName=”ExitCode” />
</Gallio>

You can download the msbuild file here: BuildAndTest

Hope it helps.

So what can you do if you want to set some dynamic settings (i.e Connection String settings)?

First of all you must use the ServiceDefinition.csdef file and add the dynamic settings there.

Next tell your app to read the connection string from that file instead of the config file. To accomplish that task create the following classes:

using System.Linq;

using cfg = System.Configuration;
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime;

namespace Azure.Configuration
{
public class ConfigurationManager
{
private static Settings _settings = new Settings();
public static Settings Settings
{
get
{
return _settings;
}
}

public static ConnectionStrings ConnectionStrings
{
get
{
return new ConnectionStrings();
}
}
}

public class Settings
{
public string this[string key]
{
get
{
if (RoleEnvironment.IsAvailable)
{
return RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue(key);
}
else
{
if (cfg.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.AllKeys.Contains(key))
return cfg.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[key];
}
return string.Empty;
}
}
}

public class ConnectionStrings
{
public string this[string key]
{
get
{
if (RoleEnvironment.IsAvailable)
{
return RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue(key);
}
else
{
if (cfg.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings[key] != null)
return cfg.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings[key].ConnectionString;
}
return string.Empty;
}
}
}
}

Then you can just call ConfigurationManager.Settings[{key}] to get the vaue for a given key or ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings[{connection string name}] to get a connection string.

You’ll need to add  a reference to Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime which is included in the Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio

Hope it helps…

So how can you find out what tables are causing the issue? The answer is simple, run the following query and you’ll have the list of tables to fix:

SELECT name
FROM sys.objects
WHERE type = ‘U’
AND object_id NOT IN
(SELECT object_id FROM sys.indexes WHERE index_id = 1)

Hope it helps…

What about the quality of the applications you develop? How do you control that any change in source code won’t affect the rest of the application or cause another bug?

The answer is pretty simple, use the TDD technique and create tests for everything: your core framework, business layer objects, repositories, web services, etc…

To create these tests there are plenty of unit testing frameworks. @HexaSystems we prefer MBUnit or NUnit.

Tip: 
Teach your developers, not just how important is to actually create the tests, but to run them before any change is committed to the source version control system of your choice.

Hope it helps…

You can follow their progress @facebook. or their webpage: www.hiringbox.com

I first will tell you that a good version control, bug tracking and project management platform must be in place. We @HexaSystems recommend the following free tools:

1. Source Control: VisualSVNServer
2. Bug Tracking and Project Management: Redmine

Both systems work together and let you keep track of any changes in the projects code, milestones, versions, etc…

But remember you always need to improve your management skills therefore I recommend the following blog:
Project Shrink

Hope it helps!!!

netDumbster is a .Net Fake SMTP Server clone of the popular Dumbster (http://quintanasoft.com/dumbster/)

netDumbster is based on the API of nDumbster (http://ndumbster.sourceforge.net/default.html) and the nice C# Email Server (CSES) writen by Eric Daugherty.

Hope it helps!!!

var query = nhib.Arms.Where(a => a.LeftHand.Thumb.Length == 1 || a.RightHand.Thumb.Length == 1);

Thumb alias was always taken as part of the a.LeftHand association path, therefore leading to wrong results.

I’ve worked on patch and test to fix this issue, so Thumb alias is once part of the a.LeftHand association path and once as part of the a.RightHand association path.

You can find a patch file for this issue here: http://github.com/cmendible/nhibernate-contrib/downloads#download_31118

Or you can also download pruiz’s already patched version of nhiberante-contribut project here: http://github.com/pruiz/nhibernate-contrib/commit/eada73cce086a6457e5e64b0413b97a8f53863ac

Hope it helps!!!