Phil Haack did a post about SemVer 2.0, a formal specification for public API versioning. I think it’s a novel idea as it puts a name and formal structure to what a lot of dev shops I know have been doing. It also allows packaging tools to standardize, like the work Phil talks about with NuGet.
I have added “integrating SemVer and NuGet into CI” to my very long list of things to do for my main side project. That list just keeps on growing.
Sorry, I can’t reproduce that.
I hate saying those words. It seems like a cop out, like I am giving up on the problem. How do you tell someone that you can’t reproduce their issue? Do you ask for more details? Do you just leave it up to the user because you think it is an isolated user issue?
I always ask for more info. The problem is sometimes I don’t know what to ask for. On a web app, if I don’t get an error log I have to ask for browser info from the user and this is an exercise in and of itself. I need to be aware of browser plugins, state of cache (last time cleared), the user and steps used to trigger the issue… and more. After I get the basics necessary for most browser based issues, I start asking more questions specifically related to the scenario that is bombing. Here in lies the problem. Asking users for info usually results in surface data that don’t help get down to the nuts and bolts of the problem. Also, I don’t have a test lab readily available to me so spinning up a browser configured like the user is not possible.
It is hard to get the info you need without stepping through a debug session to see what is going on. I sometimes have to result to adding additional instrumentation to code to hopefully get better error messages or state info, but this requires a push to production and the user having to wait until all of this is done. So, how can I analyze an issue without this information?
I know there are solutions out there that will record live user sessions in production and even record the stack trace down to the method that caused the issue. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to any of these tools. I guess I will have to just get better at asking questions that even tech illiterate users can follow.
Today I received an error while trying to browse an ASP.NET website application locally, “HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.”
Fortunately, I found an excellent post on troubleshooting IIS issues, Troubleshooting IIS7 503 “Service unavailable” errors with startup debugging by Mike Volodarsky. I am just documenting some of the things that were a little different for me. I am running Windows 7 and IIS 7. I downloaded Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows 8 from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/hardware/hh852363 and only installed the debugger to the default location. This made the path to the debugger executable C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Debuggers\x64\ntsd.exe. I used regedit to add the w3wp.exe Registry Key (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\w3wp.exe) with the Debugger string value of C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Debuggers\x64\ntsd.exe -server npipe:pipe=w3wp -g. I also added C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Debuggers\x64\windbg.exe to my Path to make it easy to start in command line.
Unfortunately, I didn’t need to go through all of that. I never got the debugger to attach because the Worker Process wouldn’t start. After some experimenting I decided to change the Application Pool for my web application and the app came up. I looked at the old Application Pool and noticed something that didn’t hit me before. I spent 2 hours researching and poking around and my real error in this instance was the Application Pool I created for my web application was assigned to my local Windows account. When I was forced to update my password the password did not update on the Application Pool. So, updating the password fixed my issue. I have since created a new Windows account specifically for this web app that doesn’t have a password that expires.
Anyway, it was a nice exercise getting windbg up and running. Maybe I will really need it one day.
Fun Stuff!
*Safety Note: Use the Windows Debugger Install instructions above at your own risk. It may affect your Visual Studio Debugger.
This is more of a “what I’m thinking” post than something full of good information. I am trying to frame my idea of feature specifications and I need to answer some questions. This seemed like as good a place as any to store my questions, but you are more than welcome to provide answers and opinions. Continue reading
We had to do a restore of a production database and it made me remember a book I read that you may enjoy. It’s called The Phoenix Project. It’s not the best written book, a little unbelievable and hokey at times, but I honestly couldn’t put it down (I’m a tech geek). I have never read a book like it.
It’s about DevOps yet, it’s a novel not a tech book. It leans more on the Ops perspective, is a retelling of The Goal, and is rooted in Kanban and Manufacturing Operations. Yet, it’s something I believe anyone working in Enterprise IT can relate to.
The Kindle version is only $10. If you read it let me know what you think as DevOps is something I am passionate about and I’d like to hear your perspective.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Phoenix-Project-Helping-Business/dp/0988262592
http://itrevolution.com/ – Author’s website
I worked in an open office (non-cubicle) floor plan once as a call-in Tech Support Rep for AOL. It was noisy, but we all had headsets on with noise cancelling microphones. This wasn’t a job where concentration really matter. We just followed on screen prompts and basically guessed at what may be wrong with someone’s issue. Well my current employer is moving to a new building with an open floor plan. I heard someone talking about concerns over potential noise levels in our new space. Thinking about this made me do a little research. They mentioned that there may be noise generators or other noise cancelling techniques employed, but I have my doubts on their effectiveness in an open space when sound sources are right next to you.
In my research, I also found it interesting that someone put a number, although subjective, on the effect of open floor plan noise to productivity.
https://www.facebook.com/TED/posts/10152742192960652
http://www.ted.com/talks/julian treasure the 4 ways sound affects us.html
I wonder how accurate any of this is?
Imagine if you would, a modified game of Jeopardy hosted by Alex Trebec of course. This game is all about getting changes to production and a smart Dev is in the hot seat.
Dev: Can I have Daily Production Pushes for $200?
Alex: You just deployed a new code change to production, it is causing major issues with performance and you need to roll it back. How do you roll back the troublesome change without having to roll back the entire release? (Jeopardy theme music playing)…
Dev: What is a Feature Toggle.
Alex: Correct.
Dev: Can I have Daily Production Pushes for $500?
Alex: You just started work on a new feature that is no where near ready and you check in your changes to source control. The powers that be want to push to production the branch you’ve checked in the new feature… and they want to do it NOW! How do you push the branch and not expose the unfinished feature changes without having to revert the feature and other work mixed in between your feature changes?
Dev: What is a Feature Flag.
Alex: Correct.
Dev: Can I have Daily Production Pushes for $1,000?
Alex: Daily Double
Alex: Marketing wants to be able to turn a feature on and off for customers depending on their transaction volume. How do you accomplish it?
Dev: What is a Ticket Flag.
Alex: Correct.
Alex: You are our Production Jeopardy Champion?
Welcome to my temporary home. Normally, I blog at charlesbryant.com, but because my former host basically SUCKS!!!!! I have to start all over again and I don’t feel like the hunt for a host, WordPress setup, config and repost of all of my blog posts manually. So, here I am. Hopefully, I can easily get these posts to their permanent home without a fight.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope that I helped you in some way. Drop me a line in the comments if you would like to discuss anything I have posted.
NUnit in Visual Studio 2012/2013
I normally us MSTest as I like the integration with Visual Studio. At work we do a lot of NUnit and it just feels dirty having to run my tests outside of Visual Studio (we don’t have a runner for VS). Well we finally got a VS upgrade and I was able to install the NUnit Test Adapter for Visual Studio 2012 and 2013, http://nunit.org/index.php?p=vsTestAdapter&r=2.6.2.
I just installed it through the Extension Manager with Nuget, easy peasy. Now I can run NUnit tests without having to run the NUnit GUI or command line manually. Tests will appear in the VS Test Explorer so organizing, running and debugging tests is incredibly simplified.
Dev Life
This was a blast from the past from a draft post from January 2013 when unit tests in Visual Studio was becoming easier to deal with. Below we review the current state of automated testing in Visual Studio.
As developers, we thrive on tools that simplify our workflows and integrate seamlessly into our development environments. Back in the day, running NUnit tests without a dedicated Visual Studio runner felt clunky and disjointed. Fast forward to today, Visual Studio has matured into an incredibly robust IDE for automated testing, offering rich support for various frameworks like MSTest, NUnit, and xUnit, all within the IDE itself. Let’s explore how modern Visual Studio takes automated testing to the next level.
One of the major advancements in Visual Studio since the olden days is the seamless integration of test adapters via the NuGet package manager. For example, installing the NUnit Test Adapter or xUnit.net Test Adapter is as simple as adding the package to your test project. Once installed, tests are automatically discovered by the Visual Studio Test Explorer. No additional configuration is required, and the days of running separate GUIs or command-line tools are long behind us.
The Visual Studio Test Explorer has become the central hub for managing and executing tests. It’s packed with features:
Debugging unit tests is now as straightforward as debugging application code. Simply set breakpoints in your test or application code and run the test in debug mode from the Test Explorer. Visual Studio’s rich debugging tools, including watch variables, call stacks, and IntelliTrace (in Enterprise), make diagnosing issues a breeze.
Understanding how well your tests cover your codebase is critical. Visual Studio provides built-in tools for:
With .NET Core and .NET 6+, Visual Studio supports cross-platform testing, allowing you to run and debug tests on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Additionally, automated tests integrate seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or other CI platforms. Test results can be published as part of your build and deployment workflows, ensuring quality gates are met.
While MSTest remains the native framework for Visual Studio, NUnit and xUnit are popular for their flexibility and extensive ecosystem. All three frameworks are first-class citizens in Visual Studio, making it easy to choose one based on your project’s needs or team preferences.
Here’s a quick guide to setting up automated testing in Visual Studio:
Automated testing in Visual Studio has come a long way since the early days. Whether you’re building enterprise-grade software or experimenting with side projects, Visual Studio’s modern testing tools streamline the process, reduce context switching, and let you focus on delivering quality code.
Gone are the days of manually running tests in external tools. With Visual Studio, everything you need for automated testing is right at your fingertips, making it an indispensable tool for modern developers. We can also mimic a lot of this functionality in VS Code so .NET developers have options. What are your favorite testing features in Visual Studio or VS Code?
Decoupled Logic 