Development Matters Blog

Working with Share and Branch options in VSS for Dexterity projects sometimes requires working with nested projects like on the picture below:

If we try to connect to the nested project through Dexterity, we will find ourselves in a situation that we cannot see the nested project. However, there is a way to load it, but there is no way to see it in the Projects window. Look at the following text.

Open the Dexterity project. Follow the path File -> Options -> Source Control. Click the  ellipsis near the Project Name. We are not able to see the nested projects.

Now, close the window Projects and enter the whole path Project/Project v.0.1.0 in the text field near the project name.

If we click the  ellipsis near the Project Name, the window Projects will open and we will be able to see the same list of projects as earlier. If we click the button Validate Connection, we will receive the following message:

But, this time, we do not follow this message and give up from loading data from this project on VSS. If we enter the proper name of a project as we have already done, the Dexterity will recognize it and load data from the nested project despite the message which warns us that we are on the wrong way.

Wheaton, IL — April 13, 2010 — Merit Solutions, Inc., a 2009 Microsoft Dynamics President’s Club member and provider of Microsoft Dynamics business applications and custom software development, is proud to announce the successful go-live of Oy Finn-Tack Ltd’s (Finn-Tack) new Microsoft Dynamics AX customizations. Over the last 28 years, Finn-Tack has grown to include three production plants, two warehouses, and 900+ retailers worldwide. In order to facilitate future growth and increase customer satisfaction across locations, Finn-Tack recognized the need to offer credit options to some of their customers.

After discovering limitations in their current system that would not meet their business process needs, Finn-Tack turned to the Merit Solutions Development Team. Through custom coding, the team was able to extend Microsoft Dynamics AX to enable a revolving credit option to Finn-Tack’s customers. This meant their customers could now make purchases as often as they wanted, up to a certain credit limit. It then allowed them to decide when to pay off invoices, with minimum monthly payment installment options.

Learn more about Finn-Tack’s Microsoft Dynamics AX Customizations.

The new Visual Studio 2010 RC brings significant changes in the domain of the coded UI tests. You can realize that if you try to build a test project in this new environment as you probably get more than 1000 errors. A few errors seem to happen a few hundred times each:

• Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITesting.UITestControlProperties’ is inaccessible due to its protection level.
• The name ‘HtmlProperties’ does not exist in the current context.
• The name ‘UITestControlProperties’ does not exist in the current context.
• The name ‘WinProperties’ does not exist in the current context.

However, you can upgrade your project with an automatic upgrade script to move your automation:

1. Launch the Visual Studio Command Prompt from Start Menu > All Programs> Microsoft Visual Studio 2010> Visual Studio Tools
2. Run the script

UITestUpgrade.exe < folder to upgrade>

The upgrade tool will fix all of the changes listed below:

• All of the folders under the specified folder(s) is searched recursively and all projects under it upgraded.
• If a project is under source control, the upgrade tool will perform a check out and make changes.
• Tool will create a backup folder with all contents of the specified folder.

The Release Candidate (RC) version of Visual Studio 2010 has been released by Microsoft and is now available for download. From a tester’s point of view, Visual Studio 2010 Beta is a revolutionary step from Microsoft with a bunch of new stuff in Coded UI test for automation testers.

Visual Studio 2010 RC made some significant improvements of which I chose following:

Pause playback to wait for certain event

This capability was not available in VS 2010 Beta 2 and it was noticeably lacking. For example, it was impossible to wait for the form, message, progress bar to disappear etc.

This was accomplished with a modification of the UITestControl class. In the RC, you can use the appropriate UITestControl methods from the list.

1. WaitForControlReady() – This waits for the control to be ready to accept mouse/keyboard input.
2. WaitForControlEnabled() – This waits for the control to be enabled.
3. WaitForControlExist() – This waits for the control to exist on the UI.
4. WaitForControlNotExist() – This waits until the control ceases to exist on the UI.
5. WaitForControlPropertyEqual(string propertyName, object propertyValue) – This waits for the specified property of the control to have the given value.
6. WaitForControlPropertyNotEqual(string propertyName, object propertyValue) – This waits for the specified property of the control to not have the given value.
7. WaitForControlCondition(Predicate conditionEvaluator) – This waits until the specified predicate returns true.

Read the rest of this entry »

During a table upgrade, we are met with the task of creating and deleting tables on SQL using Dexterity code.

The process of deleting tables requires deleting both the table and its stored procedures, but the process of creating tables does at the same time create a table and its stored procedures on SQL. Also, if we try to create the stored procedures after creating a table, the result will be failed.

The whole process of creating a table is done in one line:

open table TableName;

The following few lines will try to create stored procedures:

l_result = Table_CreateProcedures(ProductID, table CSCIVCatalogNotes);

if l_result <> 0 then

                error “Stored procedures were not successfully created for table CSCIVCatalogNotes.”;

end if;

However, if we try to create stored procedures after we create the table on SQL, we will always get the error message. The main reason is that stored procedures are already created.

The process of deleting a table from SQL requires deleting stored procedures:

local long          status;

status = Table_DropProcedures(ProductID, table NameOfTheTable);

If the value of the variable status is equal to 0, stored procedures are successfully deleted and now we need to delete the table from SQL. We can do it this way:

Local text sCode;

Local long status;

status = SQL_Connect(SQL_connection);

if (status = 0) then

                            sCode = ” use ” + DatabaseName;

                            sCode = sCode + ” drop table PhisicalNameOftheTable “;

                            status = SQL_Execute(SQL_connection, sCode);

                            {— If status is equal to 0 the table is successfully deleted. —}

end if;

status = SQL_Terminate(SQL_connection);

The whole story is important especially for a process of upgrading tables, because if we do not delete stored procedures and just drop and create tables, some of the old stored procedures can stay and mix with the new ones, so real damage can be made.

Continuing our series, The Benefits of Offshore Development and Local Project Management, we would now like to discuss the benefit of access to a diversified team of highly skilled professionals.

When you utilize Merit Solutions Development Services, you have direct access to a highly-skilled team with proven technical, functional and domain expertise. Our 15+ software engineers work under 4 separate Team Leaders (Technical Team Lead, Development Team Lead, QA Team Lead, and SharePoint / CRM Team Lead). Each Belgrade-based Team Lead is managed in a very hands-on way by our US-based Director of Development, a top-notch programmer from Serbia who was instrumental in structuring our development division. In most cases, a project will blend consultants and engineers from the U.S. (analysis) with team members in Belgrade (design, coding, testing). So, our overall costs include a blend of both of these engineering locations. As mentioned before, each software engineer is English fluent, and capable of communicating directly with all of our clients.

This direct access to developers leverages our strong project management expertise, reducing the risks of miscommunication and ensuring the highest possible software development quality.

We are back for our next installment of “The Benefits of Offshore Development and Local Project Management.”

In our previous posts, we have discussed the benefits of our “nearshore location” in Eastern Europe, and the ability to take advantage of our scalable resources. In this article, we will discuss the benefits of our 24/7 virtual operations.

There is a natural time differential of 7 hours between our onshore (Chicago) and offshore (Belgrade) locations. This development model translates into a virtual 24/7 kind of operation for our projects. Leveraging our distributed resources in both locations, we are able to provide clients with maximum visibility into our software development lifecycle. We also ensure that team members, regardless of location, have overlapped work timings for day-to-day communication. We utilize video conferencing, instant messaging, web portals, and other online collaboration tools to maximize internal productivity. This enables fast and efficient client communication.

Last week, we started this series to emphasize the benefits of offshore development combined with local project management. (View the first article for benefits related to our office locations.) We call it a Hybrid Development Model, which allows us to deliver the highest quality development services to our clients at a fraction of the cost by providing the cost benefits of off-shore development services, while affording them the convenience and peace of mind of working directly with a US-based firm.

This week, we have a new benefit: scalable resources.

The Merit Solutions Development Team is composed of English-speaking and University-educated software engineers, so there is no loss in translation that is typical of other offshore development services. Our engineers have multiple skills, which allows us to utilize certain resources only when they are needed. This not only enables us to consistently deliver high quality services for large customizations, but also to effectively perform the smaller projects that often come up in Microsoft Dynamics customers’ environments.  We can scale down because there is very low overhead associated with project management and communication burdens compared to typical outsourced development.

Over the coming months, we will be writing a series of articles detailing the benefits of our Offshore Development combined with Local Project Management.

To start this series, here are 2 benefits specific to our office locations:

1. Since our development lab is located in Eastern Europe, we actually consider it ‘near shore’. The 7-hour time difference gives us enough daily overlap to collaborate efficiently across teams. There are three hours naturally overlapping in the business day, and it is easy to stretch it to five or six hours. This gives us no ‘drop off’ in collaboration between team members at different locations. And with both teams utilizing the same processes and systems, we have been able to develop a proven methodology that works.
2. With a software development lab in Eastern Europe, we are able to take advantage of a less penetrated market. It is a non-traditional region for outsourcing as compared to India or China, which enables us to consistently hire and retain the top 5% of talent. Our relationships with the US Commercial Service and local Embassies enable us to obtain visas when we need to get our developers to the US as projects sometimes demand. As contrasted to other offshore development organizations in India and China, this provides a productivity advantage, and can substantially reduce project risk.

Be sure to check back in the future for more benefits of Offshore Development and Local Project Management.

Microsoft Dynamics AX is a compelling and attractively priced solution to companies now facing a technological crossroad and need to update legacy systems.

To lower the cost and make migrations easier when upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics AX, we utilize the straightforward migration methodology supported by Microsoft tools. Using the Sure Step migration process together with the new Migration Tool for Microsoft Dynamics AX,  we can help companies speed up the implementation process.

Our proven processes lessen the risks inherent in many implementations, providing increased transparency, delivering improved accuracy, and easing the pain that can take place when migrating to a new system.