Saqib Ullah

Difference between Netmodule and Assembly file

technetbytes — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:17:10 +0000

Hello geeks after a long time, I write some thing that basically tell what the actually difference between .net assembly and Netmodule file. I illustrate this blog by using the following piece of code block.

using System;

public class CSharpHelloWorld

{

public CSharpHelloWorld() {}

///

public void displayHelloWorld()

{

Console.WriteLine(“Hello World, from C#!”);

}

.Net Assembly File

Basically .Net assembly is a compile library that contains code in CIL (Common Intermediate Language) form, which is generated form actual source code and assembly manifest that is a metadata for assembly. It’s practically possible that assembly consist of more than one files e.g. resource file, .netmodule file.

Figure 1: [CSharpHelloWorld.dll] Contain assembly manifest and metadata

Netmodule File

Netmodule is a unit of compilation. Basically code file is a single module. This is the feature of the specific compiler to compile the source code into assembly or a netmodule. Netmodule only contain type metadata and compiled code (netmodule does not required assembly manifest information). But there is a limitation with netmodule files; it has to be required assembly linking for execution [you can use /addmodule switch of compiler to link the netmodule into assembly].

Figure 2: [CSharpHelloWorld.netmodule] Contain only metadata information.

Note:-

Type the following command on Visual Studio Command prompt to generate netmodule file

csc.exe /t:module HelloWorld.cs

This blog contain only initial level of information. *

SOA Definition Confusion

technetbytes — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:02:14 +0000

After view and review of dozens of dozens of blogs and articles about SOA I concluded that lot of bloggers and writers still defining SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) definition with their own way and every definition are perfect with the respect of respective environments. I want to define SOA in my own words.

“SOA is all about the granularity of Organization IT assets.”

If assets are coarse-grained its mean greater flexibility and reusability of assets across different organization department internally and by external business partners as well. In short term all services should be coarse-grained rather then fine-grain. By coarse-grained we achieve loose coupling between services.

SOA Dimensions

technetbytes — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:44:50 +0000

Analysts and architects should consider the following point when they go for SOA project.

Not only create pieces of software (try to break up systems into reusable services).
Select best practices from organizational and technical sides.
Apply new thinking and best practices into project.
Select mature technologies (design models, messaging and architecture services).
Create business-oriented services, later will be utilized in enterprises.

Allow your framework to load custom assemblies

technetbytes — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:44:59 +0000

Hello geeks after a long gap I come back with a very arousing blog. When ever you see .Net Framework or any Microsoft patterns & practices library configure, they allow the developer to load the external components through some configurations in Web.config or App.Config file and that will be later called by the framework at runtime. Ok let take an example of Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Logging.Formatters.ILogFormatter Interface that require to format a LogEntry in a way suitable for wire transmission and when you open your configuration file you will find the following key.

name=”Text Formatter” />

What that mean, when Enterprise library going to write log it will automatically use the above specify TextFormatter for text logging. Microsoft Enterprise library has the provision for the developer to create custom formatter by implementing ILogFormatter Interface.

Now you have an idea what I am going to implement. Let suppose I have a Theme Configuration management framework for my Windows application and my framework disclose some interfaces for custom implement like IGUIControl.

namespace ThemeFramework

{

public interface IGUIControl

{

void Render();

void Draw();

}

If you want to develop a control for my framework you need to implement the IGUIControl interface for creating GUI controls, so it’s also the responsibility of the developer to Implement IGUIControl and configure it so Theme framework get that assembly. Here I only explain the static factory function of my framework that load all define assemblies from configuration file. Generic knowledge is prerequisite.

public static T[] LoadInstances() where T : class

{

//You can use any other way read from configuration file.

//It utilize the .net 2.0 feature. The main target is to get all assemblies names.

Settings.Default.Reload();

StringCollection TypeColl = Settings.Default.Types;

List components = new List();

foreach (string TypeInfo in TypeColl)

{

try

{

string[] typeInfo = TypeInfo.Split(‘,’);

string assemblyName = typeInfo[1];

string typeName = typeInfo[0];

if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(assemblyName) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(typeName))

{

continue; // invalid type info

}

assemblyName = assemblyName.Trim();

typeName = typeName.Trim();

string exeDir = Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.ExecutablePath);

if (!File.Exists(Path.Combine(exeDir, assemblyName + “.dll”)))

{

continue; // invalid type information

}

Assembly assem = Assembly.Load(typeInfo[1].Trim());

// Dynamic instance creation

T instance = assem.CreateInstance(typeInfo[0].Trim()) as T;

if (instance != null)

{

components.Add(instance);

}

catch(Exception ex)

{ }

}

return components.ToArray();

}

In preceding code I use Settings.setting class for loading assembly’s names, you can use any other provider to get all custom assemblies names from configuration files. After that I try to find the give assembly in the application execution folder and load it into generic List array.

IGUIControl[] dogs = FrameworkTest. LoadInstances<IGUIControl>();

foreach (IGUIControl control in loadControls)

{

Control.Draw();

}

Above code snippet load all assemblies that implement IGUIControl and call it Draw() method to draw the entry control.

Visual Studio 2005 SDK 2007.02 Error with IronPython Project

technetbytes — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:38:41 +0000

Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.

The above error has been occurred when I try to open an IronPython project in Visual Studio 2005 at following file location position C:\Program Files\Visual Studio 2005 SDK\2007.02\VisualStudioIntegration\Common\Source\CSharp\Project\Automation\OAProject.cs at line 189:

///

/// Gets a collection of all properties that pertain to the Project object.
///

public virtual EnvDTE.Properties Properties
{
get
    {
    object outputProperties = null;
    IVsExtensibility3 vsExtensibility3 = this.project.GetService(typeof(IVsExtensibility)) as IVsExtensibility3;
    vsExtensibility3.GetProperties(this, this.project.NodeProperties, out outputProperties);
    return (EnvDTE.Properties)outputProperties;
    }
}

Old code
I reply the above code with following line.

/// Gets a collection of all properties that pertain to the Project object.
///

public virtual EnvDTE.Properties Properties
{
get
    {
      return new OAProperties(this.project.NodeProperties);
    }
}

New Code
Now open the IronPython Window application now its fine and have fun with IronPython plenty of blogs will come on IronPython and Python.

Get list of types from assembly in IronPython

technetbytes — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:47:21 +0000

This is my first coding blog for IronPython in which I convert my old blog List of all Form from an Assembly in IronPython code. I use Visual Studio 2005 IronPython Console template so you need to add the following lines of code explicitly when use are writing code on command prompt to add reference of System.dll

import clr

clr.AddReference(“System”)

Here are the few bytes that IronPython developers use when they want to get a list of types from particular assembly.

from System import *
from System.Reflection import *

def GetTypeList(assemblyName, assemblyVersion):

_assemblyname = AssemblyName()

_assemblyname.Name = assemblyName

v = Version(assemblyVersion)

_assemblyname.Version = v;

assembly = Assembly.Load(_assemblyname)

Console.WriteLine(“Listing all types in {0}”, assembly.FullName)

Console.WriteLine()

types = assembly.GetTypes()

for type in types:
Console.WriteLine(type)

GetTypeList(‘IronMath.dll’,’1.1.0.0′)
Console.ReadLine();

In the preceding codes I test the IronMath.dll itself with it version ‘1.1.0.0’. For C# version of this code read this blog.

Hello world!

technetbytes — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:38:40 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

List of all controls in a particular form from an Assembly

technetbytes — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:39:59 +0000

Yesterday I wrote a piece of code that gets a list of all form types in a specific assembly. Today I share another piece of code snippet that gets list of all controls in the specific assembly form.

///

/// Get list of all controls on the form.
///

/// Assembly name.
/// Assembly version.
public void GetControlList(string assemblyName, string assemblyVersion)
{

   Assembly assembly = null;
   AssemblyName asmName;
    asmName = new AssemblyName();
    asmName.Name = assemblyName; //Hello.exe
   Version v = new Version(assemblyVersion);
    asmName.Version = v;
    assembly = Assembly.Load(asmName);
   Console.WriteLine(“Listing all types in {0}”, assembly.FullName);

     Type[] types = assembly.GetTypes();
      foreach (Type t in types)
       {

        if (t.BaseType == typeof(System.Windows.Forms.Form))
        {
         Form o = Activator.CreateInstance(t) as Form;
         Console.WriteLine(“Form Name is {0} and Control Count are {1}”, o.Name, o.Controls.Count);
        }
      }
}

List of all Form from an Assembly

technetbytes — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:44:46 +0000

Many of the geeks sometime required to get a list of all form type in give assembly or a specific assembly in .Net. I have right a small code snippet that done this job for me, so I thought I must share it with you guys.

///

/// Get list of all Form type in the give assembly.

///

/// Assembly name.

/// Assembly version.

public void GetFormList(string assemblyName, string assemblyVersion)

{

//Assembly asm = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();

Assembly assembly = null;

AssemblyName asmName;

asmName = new AssemblyName();

asmName.Name = assemblyName; //Hello.exe

Version v = new Version(assemblyVersion);

asmName.Version = v;

assembly = Assembly.Load(asmName);

Console.WriteLine(“Listing all types in {0}”, assembly.FullName);

Type[] types = assembly.GetTypes();

foreach (Type t in types)

{

if (t.BaseType != null)

{

if (t.BaseType == typeof(System.Windows.Forms.Form))

{

Console.WriteLine(“Form Type: {0}”, t);

}