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If you are developing some application and use Visual Source Safe as version control software then you probably needed (at least one time) to retrieve all files from your project for specific day from the past.
Visual Source Safe does not allow you to do this from its GUI but there is a DOS command that can help you.

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

Block IP address with Windows Firewall 2008

This procedure helped us when someone wanted to hack our server (taken from original post). If you ever feel that someone may be trying to break into your server or know an IP address that you want to block from accessing your server there is a built in firewall on all of our 2008 DDS servers. You can use this firewall to block either a range of IP addresses or a single address.

1. Log into your server via RDP.
2. Click on start > administrative tools > windows firewall with advanced security
3. On the left side of the firewall window click on the inbound rules option.
4. On the right side of the screen click on New Rule.
5. Click on the custom radio button and then click next.
6. Make sure the All programs radio is selected then click next.
7. On the protocol and ports options leave everything at its defaults and click next.
8. On the scope screen you will see two boxes the top one is for local IP addresses and the bottom is for remote IP addresses. In this scenario we are trying to block an outside (remote) IP from accessing anything on the server so we will need to add the IP address to this section only as it will not be a local IP address.
9. Click on the radio that says these IP addresses in the remote section as shown below:
   
10. Click on the Add button.
11. In the next window we will be adding a single IP address to the rule, you can also add an entire range at this point if you wish.
    
12. Click ok, click next.
13. Make sure you select the Block the connection radio on the next screen and then click next.
14. Leave all of the options on the next screen checked this will be sure to block the IP no matter the connection they are trying to use. Click next.
15. Name the rule on the next screen something you can remember in case you wish to remove or edit it in the future. Click finish and thats it

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);
      }
    }
  }
}

This post describes how to align items in a container so the two neighbour items are always aligned with equal distance. Solution should be flexible, meaning that when items are changed or when container is resized items should keep equal distance in between. Reader should have some basic knowledge about C# and XAML for Silverlight.

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

Just open your csproj project file in notepad and find MvcBuildViews and set value to True.

<MvcBuildViews>true</MvcBuildViews>