Beginning Windows Phone 7 Development - Part 1

Understanding the development environment

To begin developing applications for Windows Phone 7 devices, you will first need to download and install some development tools for the same. You can find the Windows Phone Developer Tools at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=04704acf-a63a-4f97-952c-8b51b34b00ce. The package installed from the App Hub includes everything you need to start developing for Windows Phone 7 including Visual Studio 2010 Express, Microsoft Expression Blend and Windows Phone Emulator among other tools. It is also recommended to download and install the Windows Phone Developer Tools January 2011 Update from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=23854 after installing the Windows Phone Developer Tools.

FTP Task error in SQL Server SSIS Package.

If you have created a SSIS Package in SQL Server and you use a FTP Task to upload a file to a FTP server and encounter the error "An error occurred in the requested FTP operation. Detailed error description: 200 Switching to Binary mode. 553 Could not create file" then you are not alone!

Even though the error message itself leaves you clueless, the solution is very simple! Just set the 'Remote Path' property of your FTP Task to "/". That's it - just setting the remote path to / will solve your problem and will take your troubles away!

Enjoy,
Paras

Turn on IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults while connecting to a WCF service from a client.

While using a client to connect and fetch data from a WCF service, you may encounter an error and see the following message displayed on the screen:

Error: The server was unable to process the request due to an internal error.
For more information about the error, either turn on IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults (either from ServiceBehaviorAttribute or from the configuration behavior) on the server in order to send the exception information back to the client, or turn on tracing as per the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 SDK documentation and inspect the server trace logs.System.Exception {System.ServiceModel.FaultException}

This happens when any type of error occurs calling a WCF endpoint from a client. The client sees this generic message, as given above, for security reason. If you want to see the full details of the error in the client, you will need to modify the config file of the WCF Host to include full exception details when sending the error to the client.

1.<configuration>
2.<system.serviceModel> 
3.  <services> 
4.    <!-- Step 1. Add a behaviorConfiguration attribute --> 
5.    <service 
6.      name="Microsoft.WCF.Documentation.SampleService" 
7.      behaviorConfiguration="metadataAndDebug"> 
8.      <host> 
9.        <baseAddresses> 
10.          <add baseAddress="http://localhost:8080/SampleService" /> 
11.        </baseAddresses> 
12.      </host> 
13.      <endpoint 
14.         address="mex" 
15.         binding="mexHttpBinding" 
16.         contract="IMetadataExchange" 
17.      /> 
18.    </service> 
19.  </services> 
20.  <behaviors> 
21.    <serviceBehaviors> 
22.      <!-- Step 2. Add a new behavior below.--> 
23.      <behavior name="metadataAndDebug"> 
24.        <serviceMetadata  httpGetEnabled="true" httpGetUrl=""/> 
25.      <!-- Step 3. Add a <serviceDebug> element --> 
26.    <serviceDebug httpHelpPageEnabled="true" includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true" /> 
27.      </behavior> 
28.    </serviceBehaviors> 
29.  </behaviors> 
30.</system.serviceModel> 
31.</configuration>

Please note that there is an inherent security issue if this setting is left to 'true' for your production environment. Please see the MSDN article here for more details.

Unable to add data connection. Could not load file or assembly

If you receive an error message similar to "Unable to add data connection. Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Sdk.Sfc, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified" and you are looking for a solution to the same, then you have come to the right place.

The following helped me solve this problem:

Install the following from the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack, August 2008 site:

1) Microsoft SQL Server Management Objects, and
2) Do a repair install on Microsoft SQL Server System CLR Types

This should solve the problem you are having.

Happy debugging!

Visual Studio 2005 debugger does not attach to application

This issue happens with IE8 as the browser used for debugging. IE 8 has a feature called Loosely-Coupled Internet Explorer (LCIE) (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/readiness/developers-existing.aspx#lcie) which results in IE running across multiple processes.

Older versions of the Visual Studio Debugger get confused by this and cannot figure out how to attach to the correct process.

To overcome this issue, you need to disable the process growth feature of LCIE by following the steps below:
1) Open RegEdit
2) Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Internet Explorer -> Main
3) Add a DWORD under this key called TabProcGrowth
4) Set TabProcGrowth to 0

If you run into the same problem on Vista or newer, you will also need to turn off protected mode.

Following the above steps should resolve your issue.

Regards,
Paras Wadehra

Response.Redirect does not work in AJAX callback functions

If you can't seem to use Response.Redirect in UpdatePanel's AJAXified callback function, add the following in your web.config file in the appropriate place:

<configuration>
<system.web>
<httpmodules>
<add type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptModule, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" name="ScriptModule">
</httpmodules>
</SYSTEM.WEB>
</configuration>

Try now, and it works!

--
Paras Wadehra

Failed to access IIS metabase.

If you get an error saying "Failed to access IIS metabase." when you try to browse to a .Net App in the browser, it means that you installed IIS after you had ASP.Net installed.

To fix this problem all you need to do is run this command (on a command prompt) on your computer: %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis.exe -i

This will reinstall ASP.Net for use with IIS and in most cases fixes the error.

For reference, the full error that I received was as follows:

Failed to access IIS metabase.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironmentException: Failed to access IIS metabase.
The process account used to run ASP.NET must have read access to the IIS metabase (e.g. IIS://servername/W3SVC). For information on modifying metabase permissions, please see http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=267904