Visual Studio

Netviewer extensions

It doesn’t take much to create a Netviewer extension:

  1. Derive a class from Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI.ModuleInit
  2. Create a constructor with a [ServiceDependency()] WorkItem argument
  3. Modify your ProfileCatatalog.xml

The class would look like this:

namespace NetviewerLibrary
{
	#region -- Using directives --
	using System;
	using System.Reflection;
	using Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI;
	using d = System.Diagnostics.Debug;
	#endregion

	public class Init: ModuleInit
	{
	    public Init([ ServiceDependency()] WorkItem rootWorkItem)
	    {
		   d.WriteLine( "Init");
	    }
	}
}

This code is using a pattern from the Microsoft Enterprise Library version 2.0 (no longer supported by Microsoft) for setting up an external library to be invoked by an application. The external library in this case is your extension, the application is Netviewer. All it takes for Netviewer to invoke the extension is a class derived from Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI.ModuleInit and create a constructor with an Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI.ServiceDependency argument. In line 10 a Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI.ModuleInit-derived class is declared and at line 12 you can see the constructor. If your extension is compiled to an assembly called ‘NetviewerLibrary1’, you include your extension in the ProfileCatalog.xml file and add your command to IngrViewer.exe.config, Netviewer will invoke your extension.

This is the ProfileCatalog.xml :

<SolutionProfile xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/pag/cab-profile/2.0">
  <Section Name="Apps">
    <Modules>
      <ModuleInfo AssemblyFile="GTechnology" />
      <ModuleInfo AssemblyFile="NetviewerCommand.dll" />
    </Modules>
  </Section>
</SolutionProfile>

This is not very useful other then illustrating what it takes for Netviewer to invoke your extension. Netviewer works with commands, and each extension can have one more or of it. The ProfileCatalog.xml is where you define your extensions, the IngrViewer.exe.config is where you define your commands. In order to do something useful, we need to add our command to IngrViewer.exe.config and extend our code with a command handler:

This is the line in IngrViewer.exe.config which adds the command:

<command name="NetviewerCommand1" autocreate="true" tooltip="NetviewerCommand1" label="CustomCommand1" />

This is the code:

namespace NetviewerLibrary
{
  #region -- Using directives --
  using System;
  using System.Reflection;
  using Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI;
  using Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI.Commands;
  using Intergraph.OneMobile.Infrastructure.Interface;
  using d = System.Diagnostics.Debug;
  #endregion

	public class Init: ModuleInit
	{
		public WorkItem WorkItem{   get; set;   }

		public Init([ ServiceDependency()] WorkItem rootWorkItem)
		{
			d.WriteLine( "Init");
			this.WorkItem = rootWorkItem;
		}

		public override void Load()
		{
			d.WriteLine( "Load");

			base.Load();

			ControlledWorkItem workItem = this.WorkItem.WorkItems.AddNew();
			workItem.Controller.Run();
		}
	}

	public partial class MyController :
		Intergraph.OneMobile.Infrastructure.Interface.WorkItemController
	{
		[ CommandHandler( "NetviewerCommand1")]
		public void MyCommand_Handler( object sender, EventArgs eventArgs)
		{
			d.WriteLine( "MyCommand_Handler");
		}
	}
}

If you now run Netviewer, there will be an extra button with a label “NetviewerCommand1” and if you click it, your commandhandler will be invoked.

Netviewer command

Netviewer command

Now let’s turn this extension in something useful, for instance placing a pinpoint. We want our command to ask the user to click in the Window and then place a pinpoint at the cursur. To do so, we need to extend our code with the following:

  1. A reference to the Netviewer MapviewService instance for setting up eventhandlers
  2. A Commandhandler for a left-mouse click
  3. Infrastructure code

The modified code looks like this:

namespace NetviewerLibrary
{
  #region -- Using directives --
  using System;
  using System.Reflection;
  using Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI;
  using Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI.Commands;
  using Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI.EventBroker;
  using Intergraph.OneMobile.Infrastructure.Interface;
  using Intergraph.OneMobile.Map.Interface.Constants;
  using Intergraph.OneMobile.Map.Services;
  using Intergraph.Controls.oneViewer;
  using d = System.Diagnostics.Debug;
  #endregion

  public static class Global
  {
    public static int CallCount {   get; set;   }
  }

 public class Init: ModuleInit
 {
    public WorkItem WorkItem      {   get; set;   }

      public Init([ ServiceDependency()] WorkItem rootWorkItem)
      {
        d.WriteLine( string.Format( "{0}.{1} ({2}):{3}", GetType().Name, System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod().Name, Global.CallCount++, string.Empty));

        this.WorkItem = rootWorkItem;
      }

      public override void Load()
      {
        d.WriteLine( string.Format( "{0}.{1} ({2}):{3}", GetType().Name, System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod().Name, Global.CallCount++, string.Empty));

        base.Load();

        ControlledWorkItem workItem = this.WorkItem.WorkItems.AddNew();
        workItem.Controller.Run();
      }
  }

  public partial class MyController :
    Intergraph.OneMobile.Infrastructure.Interface.WorkItemController
  {
    #region -- Properties --
    public IMapViewService  MapviewService    {   get; set; }
    public string      OldMapLocateMode  {   get; set; }
    #endregion

    [ CommandHandler( "NetviewerCommand1")]
    public void MyCommand_Handler( object sender, EventArgs eventArgs)
    {
      d.WriteLine( string.Format( "{0}.{1} ({2}):{3}", GetType().Name, System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod().Name, Global.CallCount++, string.Empty));

      this.MapviewService.SetStatusBar( "Click to place pinpoint");

      SwitchMapMode  ( );
      SetupEventSink  ( );
    }

    [ EventSubscription( EventTopicNames.MapViewLoaded)]
    public void MapViewLoaded_Handler( object sender, EventArgs eventArgs)
    {
        d.WriteLine( string.Format( "{0}.{1} ({2}):{3}", GetType().Name, System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod().Name, Global.CallCount++, string.Empty));

        this.MapviewService = WorkItem.Services.Get();
    }

    private void SwitchMapMode( )
    {
      d.WriteLine( string.Format( "{0}.{1} ({2}):{3}", GetType().Name, System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod().Name, Global.CallCount++, string.Empty));

      this.OldMapLocateMode = this.MapviewService.GetMapMode( );
      this.MapviewService.SetMapMode( Intergraph.Controls.oneViewer.MapModes.Custom);
    }

    private void SetupEventSink( )
    {
      d.WriteLine( string.Format( "{0}.{1} ({2}):{3}", GetType().Name, System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod().Name, Global.CallCount++, string.Empty));

      this.MapviewService.RedlineLButtonDown    += new Intergraph.Controls.oneViewer.RedlineButtonEventHandler( MapviewService_RedlineLButtonDown );
    }

    void MapviewService_RedlineLButtonDown( object sender, Intergraph.Controls.oneViewer.RedlineButtonEventArgs e )
    {
      d.WriteLine( string.Format( "{0}.{1} ({2}):{3}", GetType().Name, System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod().Name, Global.CallCount++, string.Empty));

      string  point    = string.Format( "{0}, {1}", e.XWorldPos, e.YWorldPos);
      string  pointType  = "UOR";
      string  fontName  = "G_MapPins";
      short  fontSize  = 24;
      string  fontColor  = "FF0000"; // --- Red
      string  charValue  = "F";    // --- Solid filled push pin

      this.MapviewService.PlaceLocationPinAtPoint(
                    point,
                    pointType,
                    fontName,
                    fontSize,
                    fontColor,
                    charValue,
                    "POI");
      StopCommand( );
    }

    private void StopCommand()
    {
      d.WriteLine( string.Format( "{0}.{1} ({2}):{3}", GetType().Name, System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod().Name, Global.CallCount++, string.Empty));

      RestoreMapMode  ( );
      ReleaseEventSink( );

      this.MapviewService.SetStatusBar( string.Empty);
   }

    private void RestoreMapMode( )
    {
      d.WriteLine( string.Format( "{0}.{1} ({2}):{3}", GetType().Name, System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod().Name, Global.CallCount++, string.Empty));

      this.MapviewService.SetMapMode( this.OldMapLocateMode);
    }

    private void ReleaseEventSink( )
    {
      d.WriteLine( string.Format( "{0}.{1} ({2}):{3}", GetType().Name, System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod().Name, Global.CallCount++, string.Empty));

      this.MapviewService.RedlineLButtonDown -= new Intergraph.Controls.oneViewer.RedlineButtonEventHandler( MapviewService_RedlineLButtonDown );
    }
  }
}

After running this command, a pinpoint is placed to indicate some point of interest :

pinpoint

pinpoint

You can download the complete source for this example over here.

Debugging G/Technology 10.2 with Visual Studio

In an earlier post Stephan mentions that it was not possible to debug G/Technology 10.2 in “edit and continue” mode. You could only attach Visual Studio to the G3E.exe and debug. But you cannot break the code and then make a small change. For every change you need to close G3E.exe, compile your project, start G3E.exe and attach Visual Studio again. When you try to start-up the 10.2 G3E.exe in debugging mode from Visual Studio we got the following error message:

Exception start debugging g3e.exe from visualstudio

But here is the way to do that. The first thing you have to do is adjust the G3E.exe.config located in the \GTechnology\Program directory. You should add the following three lines  after the <configuration> tag.

<?xml version="1.0?" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy="true">
    <supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/>
  </startup>

After that you must adjust the Path-variable. Or check if the path is already set in you system settings. The following path needs to exist in the path variable for a 64bit environment it is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intergraph. If you are using a 32bit environment you should lose the (x86) part.

Set the path variable

After setting the path, it is important to reboot the machine! Now you can fully debug your applications in Visual Studio.

If you are not an administrator on you machine and cannot change the path variable for some reason, you could also add the path to your working folder in Visual Studio. But if you have multiple projects defined in Visual Studio, you should change this for all projects.

Debug, without admin rights

Debugging Netviewer serverside pages

If you need to build server side pages in Netviewer, changes are likely that you want to debug them. First thing to do is to change the output-path of your assembly to C:\Program Files\Intergraph\GTechnology\Program\GViewerApp\bin like in the following figure:

Visual Studio output path

This figure shows the properties page of a project, and while the path isn’t complete visible, it should be C:\Program Files\Intergraph\GTechnology\Program\GViewerApp\bin, the bin folder of your application. Next step to do is make sure that the aspx-page in the GViewerApp folder matches the one in your project. You can either copy it or even better create a symbolic link to your original source using the fsutil command (see notes for an example). If you now start a debug session using F5, your breakpoints won’t be hit because you are using the Visual Studio built in webserver which uses an url like http://localhost:1399/ and Netviewer is using IIS. You can check the url netviewer client is using is by entering a string like http://G01/GViewer directly into Internet Explorer, where G01 should be replaced by your server. If you entered the right url, the following screen shows up :

Intergraph Netviewer client url from Internet Explorer

netviewer from ie

If you then select ‘OK’, Netviewer client will start. In order to debug your serverside pages, you need to attach the debugger to the process which is serving http://G01/GViewer. This is process ‘w3pw.exe’ running with credentials as set in your application pool :

Intergraph Netviewer application pool

Netviewer application pool

The process to attach to is the w3wp.exe executable running with the credentials as set in the IIS application pool :

Visual Studio attach to process

Attach to process

As you can see, the username matches the identity in my application pool which is G01\Stephan. If you now start a debug session, breakpoints probably won’t be hit because there are some more steps we need to take care off. The next step is enable debugging in IIS :

Enable debugging Internet Information Services Windows Server 2003

Enable debugging IIS

This figure shows the ‘Configuration’ dialog of the GViewer-IIS node. You can reach this by opening Internet Information Services (IIS), right mouse click the GViewer Virtual Directory, select the ‘Virtual Directory’-tab and then select the ‘Configuration’-tab which shows the ‘Application Configuration’ dialog. Make sure you select both checkboxes in the ‘Debugging flags’ section.
We also need to let ASP.Net compile webpages with debugging enabled. For IIS, ASP.Net is just a plugin to handle pages with an .aspx extension and it’s configuration is apart from IIS. In order for ASP.Net to generate debugging symbols when your pages are compiled, you need to add the following line to Web.Config located in
C:\Program Files\Intergraph\GTechnology\Program\GViewerApp, just after the system.web node:

<system.web>
  <compilation debug="true" />
</system.web>

Debugging should now work. If you select button ‘Attach’ from the ‘Attach to process’ screen, invoke a clientside function which posts back to your server page your breakpoints should be hit :

Breakpoint hit Netviewer aspx page

Breakpoint hit Netviewer aspx page

The ‘Single File Page’ model

One thing which also might help is to develop your ASPX-pages with all your server-side code in the aspx page itself. That way, you don’t need to place a custom dll in the GViewerApp bin folder and temper with it. This technique is called the Single File Page Model, an aspx-page using this technique looks like this :

<%@ Page Language="C#" %>

<script type="text/C#" runat="server">
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Page_Load");
    }

    protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        this.Label1.Text = "Netviewer Rocks!";
    }
</script>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
    
    </div>
        <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" OnClick="Button1_Click" Text="Button" />
        <asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text="Label"></asp:Label>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

You need to place this file in the GViewerApp folder. If you now attach Visual Studio to process ‘w3wp.exe’ and open your .aspx file, your breakpoints will be hit :

Breakpoint hit single file model Intergraph Netviewer server

Breakpoint hit single file model

In my experience, that’s the most convenient way to debug ASPX pages. You just need to place the .aspx-page in the GViewerApp folder, attach Visual Studio to the w3wp.exe process and you’re ready to go. You can also change code in the aspx without having to restart the server, ASP.Net will recompile it runtime.

Troubleshooting

  • If using the code-behind model, you might need to restart GNetviewer for the breakpoints to be hit and to be able to overwrite files in the GViewerApp\bin folder
  • If the process ‘w3pw.exe’ doesn’t show up in the process list and Netviewer is started, there is no session yet. You need to start Netviewer client for new HTTP requests to be send to IIS which will start a new worker process ‘w3wp.exe’. This is your new session.
  • In order to quickly see if your breakpoints are hit, you can enter a url like http://g01/GViewer/QuickSearch.aspx directly in Internet Explorer. If you then select a button causing a postback and your environment is setup right, breakpoints are hit and you can step through your code
  • When attaching the debugger, you may need to select the type of code to debug. Visual Studio doesn’t always select the right type :
    Select code type to debug

    Select code type to debug

  • If you have a aspx-page outside of the GViewerApp application, you need to copy it for your changes to take effect, which leaves you with 2 versions of a file. You can avoid this by creating a symbolic link from your copy to your source :
    $fsutil hardlink create DekkingsProfiel.aspx "C:\Users\Stephan\Wrk\sde01_one\Gasunie\Ga
    sUnie.NetViewer.Dekkingsprofiel\Pages\DekkingsProfiel.aspx"

    Windows now creates a symbolic link to your source-aspx, and it looks like there are 2 seperate aspx-files, but if you edit either one of them both are changed since there’s really only one version. This way, the version in in GViewerApp always matches your development version.

Debugging Oracle PL/SQL from Visual Studio

Product components (lower part)

I use TOAD for my day-to-day Oracle development, but I find it’s debugging experience very poor compared to Visual Studio. Using ODP.Net version 11 you can use Visual Studio to debug Oracle PL/SQL. Here’s how to do it.

First you need to install ‘Oracle Data Access Components for Oracle Client 11.2.0.2.1’ or higher. You can download this from Oracle and you should get file ODTwithODAC112021.zip. Extract the file and double click setup.exe. After this, you’ll see the following screen :

Oracle Data Access Components for Oracle Client 11.2.0.2.1

Oracle Data Access Components for Oracle Client 11.2.0.2.1

Select ‘Oracle Data Access Components for Oracle Client 11.2.0.2.1’ as done in the screen and select ‘Next’. The ‘Available Product Components’-screen shows up :

Product components (upper part)

Product components (upper part)

Product components (lower part)

Product components (lower part)


You only need so select the following :

  • Oracle Data Provider for .Net 11.2.0.2.0
  • Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio 11.2.0.2.0
  • Oracle Instant Client 11.2.0.2.

Note:You probably don’t need the ‘Oracle Instant Client’ since you already got sqlplus, but the installer won’t let you deselect it. Select next and let the software install.

After you have installed it, you need to modify the new installed tnsnames.ora which is empty. I just created a symbolic link from to my original tnsnames.ora, that way I only need to maintain one (1) single tnsnames.ora. You can create junctions with the mklink windows command or the junction tool from sysinternals.

Once this is done, you should be able to debug Oracle PL/SQL code using Visual Studio.

I have installed a local Oracle XE database with a G/Technology instance on it, and I want to step through package GPTUtils.PostProcess (‘COMPONENT’).

Connect to your server

From within Visual Studio 2010, open Server Explorer (View->Server Explorer)  and right mouse click ‘Data Connections’ and select the ‘Add Connection’ entry :

Data Connections

The ‘Add Data Connection’-dialog appears. On the ‘Add Data Connection’ dialog, enter the credentials for your Oracle instance and hit ‘Test Connection’ to check it :

Add Dataconnection

After you verified Visual Studio was able to connect to your database, close the ‘Add Data Connection’ dialog and expand the server explorer node with your packages :

Browse packages


Debug GPTUtils.PostProcess

We now want to enter package GPTUtils.PostProcess(‘COMPONENT’) to see what it actually is doing, so I browse to package ‘GPTUtils’, right mouse click method ‘PostProcess’ and select ‘Run debug’. The ‘Run Procedure’-dialog appears enabling you to enter arguments. Enter ‘COMPONENT’ and hit ‘OK’:

Run procedure

Run procedure

A debug session is now started and you can view the call stack, set breakpoints, evaluate variables and use Visual Studio keyboard shortcuts :

GPTUtils.PostProcess (‘COMPONENT’) debugged

‘DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE’ statements are written to your output window, but they not immediately visible and you need to select the right output. Despite this, I find the Visual Studio debugging experience much more better and productive compared to TOAD’s one.

Some additional notes :

  • To be able to debug your PL/SQL code, you need to have it compiled with debug information. If you haven’t, Visual Studio will ask you to do this.
  • You need to have a static ipadress. I used the Micosoft Loopback adapter.
  • Any existing Oracle connections will need to be recreated

My software configuration looks like this :

  1. Windows 7 64 bit
  2. Oracle11R2g XE 32 bit (file OracleXE112_Win32.zip)
  3. Visual Studio 10 Service pack 1
  4. ODP.Net 11.2.0.3, 32 bits (file ODTwithODAC112021.zip)