Error was:

Database analysis in progress File ../data/status.dat is already open Cannot rebuild the database while Visual SourceSafe is being run. Make sure all users have exited SourceSafe and try again.

Solution

Make sure there are no users connected to the VSS database (running ssexp, ssadmin, etc), that users cannot connect to the database using the web service (they connect only for short times, so it’s hard to see them listed as logged in with ssadmin), and that VSS LAN Service is stopped (use net stop ssservice), as it may keep a connection open to the database.

To use the command-line, you must set the Environment Variable for SSDIR to the location of your working SourceSafe database, such as \\Dev1\VSS where Dev1 is the name of the server and VSS is the name of the share where the database is located. You may also need to add ss.exe path to your PATH variable – it is usually in folder: c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual SourceSafe\

This is the command:

ss Get "$/your_vss_folder" -R -Vd15-03-2009;2:00a

or just without an hour

ss Get "$/your_vss_folder" -R -Vd15-03-2009

• First parameter is folder under your Visual Source Safe project
• -R means to get all files recursively
• -V means date and in this example we get all files for 15.3.2009

It already went over simple generator functionality and new features are adding.

QR Codes Generator and API

Basically, beside QR Code generation, we are offering as addition:

• Tracking of generated QR Codes – for marketing managers ti know which locations work best (i.e. posters with printed QR Code)
• Dynamic QR Codes – if some QR Code is already printed you can make it point to completely different URL without changing the printed code
• Adding your logo inside QR Code (with readability testing) – branding feature
• All types of content are supported (hyperlinks, custom text, vCard, Bizcard, Mecard,  vCalendar, social networks – Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Geo locations and maps, SMS messages, phones,…)
• Strong use of API – automating generation process and possibility to use from your application/website – this is what we will talk about a little bit more in this article…

Using API is not complicated at all, we wrote a tutorial which is easy to understand.

Here is an example how you can have instantly QR Code image on your website:

This are direct links:

• Hello World custom text
• Google Maps location of company’s office
• QR Code generator URL

This how it could look like inside your website (just put this hyperlink inside your IMG tag)

<img src="http://qrcode.good-survey.com/api/v2/generate?content=
http%3a%2f%2fmaps.google.com%2fmaps%3ff%3dq%26q%3d46.043286%2c14.492791300000022%
26q%3d30%2bTeslova%2bUlica%252c%2bLjubljana%2b1000%252c%2bSlovenia&
format=png&padding=2&size=10&em=byte&ec=m" alt="Avivo location" />

http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.xml?screen_name=avivo&include_rts=true

Where avivo is Twitter username (replace with yours)

Check API Rate limitation (anonymous: 150 requests/hour, authenticated: 350 requests/hour)

http://api.twitter.com/1/account/rate_limit_status.xml

• Current page
• Record to display per page

It returns chosen records and also total count as output parameter if you need to display this information or calculate how many pages you have in paging control.

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[YourProcedureName]
  @CurrentPage int,
  @RecordsPerPage int,
  @Count int OUTPUT
AS
BEGIN
  -- The number of rows affected by the different commands
  -- does not interest the application, so turn NOCOUNT ON
  SET NOCOUNT ON

  -- Determine the first record and last record
  DECLARE @FirstRecord int, @LastRecord int

  SELECT @FirstRecord = (@CurrentPage - 1) * @RecordsPerPage
  SELECT @LastRecord = (@CurrentPage * @RecordsPerPage + 1)
  SET @Count = (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM YourTable);

  WITH TempResult as
  (
    SELECT	ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY Field1 DESC) as RowNumber,
            Field1,
            Field2
    FROM    YourTable
  )
  SELECT  TOP (@LastRecord - 1) *
  FROM    TempResult
  WHERE   RowNumber > @FirstRecord AND
          RowNumber < @LastRecord

  -- Turn NOCOUNT back OFF
  SET NOCOUNT OFF
END

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data;
using System.Text;
using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace Avivo.Web.Common
{
  public static class ModelStateDictionaryExtensions
  {
    /// <summary>
    /// Copy validation message from one field to another
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="modelState">model state</param>
    /// <param name="source">field to copy from</param>
    /// <param name="target">field to copy to</param>
    public static void CopyMessage(this ModelStateDictionary modelState, string source,
      string target)
    {
      if (modelState.ContainsKey(source) && modelState.Errors.Count > 0)
      {
        modelState.AddModelError(target, modelState.Errors[0].ErrorMessage);
      }
    }
  }
}

So, this is how you can extend Min and Max functions into MinOrDefault and MaxOrDefault;

public static class IEnumerableExtensions
{
  public static int MinOrDefault(this IEnumerable source,
    Func selector, int defaultValue)
  {
    if (source.Any())
      return source.Min(selector);

    return defaultValue;
  }

  public static int MaxOrDefault(this IEnumerable source,
    Func selector, int defaultValue)
  {
    if (source.Any())
      return source.Max(selector);

    return defaultValue;
  }
}

Usage example:

  YourDataContext db = new YourDataContext();
  int maxVisits = db.SomeEntityTables.MaxOrDefault(x => x.SomeFieldYouSearchForMaximum, 0);

Ideas

• using Canvas and positioning items with absolute coordinates – items are always fixed, coordinates need to be calculated, so it is the least flexible approach, no
• using StackPanel with items that have margin – margins need to be recalculated when an item is added or removed or when container is resized, maybe
• using Grid with predefined rows and columns – notice predefined, means less flexibility, but offers equal size rows/columns, maybe
• using a custom control – making Grid more dynamic but extending number of rows/columns when items are added, yes

Custom Control: EqualDistanceStackPanel

As written before, custom control should extend Grid to become more flexible

public class EqualDistanceStackPanel : Grid
{
}

EqualDistanceStackPanel should implement ItemsSource and ItemTemplate just like ItemsControl

#region ItemsSource
public IEnumerable ItemsSource
{
  get { return (IEnumerable)GetValue(ItemsSourceProperty); }
  set { SetValue(ItemsSourceProperty, value); }
}

public static readonly DependencyProperty ItemsSourceProperty =
  DependencyProperty.Register("ItemsSource", typeof(IEnumerable),
  typeof(EqualDistanceStackPanel), new PropertyMetadata(ItemsSourceChanged));

private static void ItemsSourceChanged(DependencyObject d,
  DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
  var panel = d as EqualDistanceStackPanel;
  if (panel != null)
  {
    if (e.OldValue != null)
    {
      panel.ClearItems();
    }
    if (e.NewValue != null)
    {
      panel.BindItems(e.NewValue as IEnumerable);
    }
  }
}
#endregion

public DataTemplate ItemTemplate
{
  get;
  set;
}

ClearItems method deletes all previous elements from the panel and BindItems attaches fresh controls from item template.

protected void ClearItems()
{
  this.Children.Clear();
}

protected void BindItems(IEnumerable items)
{
  if (this.ItemTemplate == null)
  {
    return;
  }

  //Create and attach children
  foreach (var item in items)
  {
    var element = this.ItemTemplate.LoadContent() as FrameworkElement;
    element.DataContext = item;
    this.Children.Add(element);
  }

  //Realign in container
  Refresh();
}

How should the custom control look in XAML? EqualDistanceStackPanel gets a collection of items, e.g. of UIElement type.

<Grid xmlns:c="clr-namespace:Avivo.Controls">
  <c:EqualDistanceStackPanel ItemsSource="{Binding Items}" Orientation="Vertical">
    <c:EqualDistanceStackPanel.ItemTemplate>
      <DataTemplate>
        <ContentPresenter Content="{Binding}" />
      </DataTemplate>
    </c:EqualDistanceStackPanel.ItemTemplate>
  </c:EqualDistanceStackPanel>
</Grid>

Example

Ruler has been made to demonstrate the usage of EqualDistanceStackPanel. Numbers are bound to the control and ticks are bound to another control using the same binding collection. Left image represents container height 300px and right when resized to 460px – elements are automatically aligned with equal distance.

Try demo, resize browser to see the effect. This control has been originally developed for custom chart axes in QR Code Statistics application. EqualDistanceStackPanel control is lightweight, works for the statistics application and should be improved for general usage.

Source code

• Source code, Visual Studio sample Silverlight and web project

References

• Using DataTemplates in custom controls

This is a trick we used:

http://api.twitter.com/users/show/[your Twitter username].json

So this is an example call

http://api.twitter.com/users/show/avivo.json

You can find your ID at the bottom (see the orange box):