Refactoring in Visual Basic with Refactor!

Lisa Feigenbaum, a Program Manager on the Visual Basic Team, she shows us how to use Refactor!, the free add-in for Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 that provides over 30 refactorings for Visual Basic. Lisa walks us through all the new refactorings that were added for the latest version of Visual Basic 2008

Watch the screencast(WMV)

Visual Studio 2005 Support for SQL Server 2008, Community Technology Preview

This CTP resolves a problem that when you try to open a database connection to SQL Server 2008 by using Visual Studio 2005 design tools, you may receive the following error message:
“This server version is not supported. Only servers up to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 are supported.”
This CTP addresses this issue, and enables the following Visual Studio functionality for SQL Server 2008 CTP5 :

• Server Explorer successfully connects to SQL Server 2008, and database objects such as stored procedures and table data can be viewed and edited. Note that table schemas still cannot be viewed or edited in this release.
  
• SQL CLR projects that target SQL Server 2008 CTP5 can be created and deployed to the server.
  
• T-SQL and SQL CLR debugging are now enabled for SQL Server 2008 CTP5.
  Data binding features in Client and Web Projects are enabled.

This CTP does not support the following features for SQL Server 2008 Nov CTP:

• Creating and editing table schemas in Table Designer or Database Diagrams. The table designer feature in SQL Server Management Studio 2008 can be used to edit table schemas in SQL Server 2008 CTP5.

Download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e1109aef-1aa2-408d-aa0f-9df094f993bf&displaylang=en

Speeding up Visual Studio 2005 Tips

thekua.com@work has a couple of tips on how to speed up Visual Studio 2005

here is one of them:

Turn off the VS2005 File Navigator - With resharper installed,
you don’t need VS2005 to update the list of methods and fields at the top of the
file (CTRL-F12 does this nicely). I’ve hardly even noticed the small panel that
sits at the top of the file you’re editing but apparently it takes quite a lot
of effort for VS2005 to keep it up to date. Disable the Navigation Bar checkbox
under Tools … Options … Text Editor … All Languages … Display.

Read the other ones here: http://www.thekua.com/atwork/?p=29

Oracle 11.0.5.10 Data Access Components (ODAC) Beta Tools for .NET

Download Includes

Oracle Data Provider for .NET 1.x 11.1.0.5.10 Beta
Oracle Data Provider for .NET 2.0 11.1.0.5.10 Beta
Oracle Providers for ASP.NET 11.1.0.5.10 Beta
Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio .NET 2003 11.1.0.5.10 Beta
Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2005 11.1.0.5.10 Beta
Oracle Services for Microsoft Transaction Server 11.1.0.3.0 Beta

Download it here: http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/windows/odpnet/index_11gbeta.html


What's new?

Oracle Data Provider for .NET Features
Instant Client Support: Smaller ODP.NET client installation
User-Defined Types: Map Oracle objects and collections to .NET custom types and support REFs to object types
ADO.NET 2.0 Bulk Copy: Upload large data sets into Oracle from .NET
RAC Faster Connection Failover: ODP.NET will more quickly clean up the
connections to a downed RAC node -->
Process Database Down Events: ODP.NET automatically frees connections of a downed Data Guard instance
Windows-Authenticated User Connection Pooling: Windows-authenticated connections can now be pooled.
Connection Pool Performance Counters: Monitor connection pool status

Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio .NET Features
Visual Studio 2005 integration with Server Explorer, Data Sources Window, Dataset Designer, TableAdapter Configuration Wizard and more
Improved ASP.NET web developer support
Oracle Database script project to provide source control of Oracle scripts
SQL script editor
Built in support for executing SQL*Plus scripts
Explain plan support
Integration with Query Designer
New designer for granting/revoking privileges on schema objects
User-Defined Types: Create, explore, modify UDTs; custom class code generation for .NET applications
Data Window and Query Window enhancements

Oracle Providers for ASP.NET Features
Membership Provider: Stores and retrieves registered user information in the Oracle database
Role Provider: Stores and retrieves user role information in the Oracle database
Site Map Provider: Stores and retrieves site map information in the Oracle database
Session State Provider: Stores and retrieves session state information in the Oracle database
Profile Provider: Stores and retrieves user profile information in the Oracle database
Web Events Provider: Stores and retrieves ASP.NET health monitoring event information in the Oracle database
Web Parts Personalization Provider: Stores and retrieves personalization data in the Oracle database
Cache Dependency Provider: Automatically invalidates ASP.NET cached data based on changes made to the base data in the Oracle database

Dot Net PDF Cheat Sheets

.NET Format String Quick Reference
Current Version: 1.1» Download Now (PDF, 123 KB)

ASP.NET 2.0 Page Life Cycle & Common Events
Current Version: 1.0» Download Now (PDF, 64KB)

Visual Studio 2005 Built-in Code Snippets (C#)
Current Version: 1.0» Download Now (PDF, 56 KB)