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Stadium3 Release : 3.3.1983.4381

May 28, 2012

Build 3.3.1983.4381 is available for download. It includes:

  • Designer – Fix for error that occurred when ‘Events’ window was closed 
  • Date format for all date fields can now be set to ‘dd/MM/yyyy’

All date fields till now have always been displayed in ‘yyyy/MM/dd’ format. This can now be changed to ‘dd/MM/yyyy’ by adding below setting in web.config:

  <appSettings>     …………………..

    <add key=”DateFormat” value=”dd/MM/yyyy”/>

</appSettings>

Please note that Sql server queries work with format ‘yyyy/MM/dd’. If you are using the new format, all sql queries will have to be modified to use ‘convert’ function. Stadium format conditions with date values will also have to be changed to conform to dd/MM/yyyy format.

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Stadium4 Release : 4.1.2119.4736

May 28, 2012

Build 4.1.2119.4736 is available for download. It includes:

  • Designer – Fix for error that occurred when ‘Events’ window was closed
  • Chart control – Small changes to visual display
  • Grid control – Height and width in percentages now work
  • Menu item editor – Auto populates ‘Text’ property when ‘DestinationPage’ is selected
  • Date Format – Date format for all date fields can now be set to ‘dd/MM/yyyy’

All date fields till now have always been displayed in ‘yyyy/MM/dd’ format. This can now be changed to ‘dd/MM/yyyy’ by adding below setting in web.config:

<appSettings>     …………………..

<add key=”DateFormat” value=”dd/MM/yyyy”/>

</appSettings>

This setting will be in web.config file for a clean install but needs to be added for an upgrade.

Please note that Sql server queries work with format ‘yyyy/MM/dd’. If you are using the new format, all sql queries will have to be modified to use ‘convert’ function. Stadium format conditions with date values will also have to be changed to conform to dd/MM/yyyy.

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Stadium4 Release : 4.1.2110.4717

May 16, 2012

Build 4.1.2110.4717 is available for download. It includes:

  • Command editor – Ordering of stored procs is per schema now
  • Application name is now populated automatically when uploading a sap file
  • DataGrid dropdown columns can have different values based on data in another column
  • Fix for detailsview readonly field becoming editable when page is refreshed
  • Maintenance message is now not displayed when assigning access rights to a role in an application
  • Treeview node click event is fired when loading page if SelectedNodePath has been set by default
  • Button – BackColour property works now
  • Panels with percentages for width and height works correctly now
  • Grid borders now display correctly in IE 8.0
  • Cross-site scripting security fixes
  • Chart – Border property has been removed
  • Chart – Default colour palette has been changed

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Stadium3 Release : 3.3.1977.4368

May 15, 2012

Build 3.3.1977.4368 is available for download. It includes:

  • Fix for detailsview readonly field becoming editable when page is refreshed
  • Maintenance message is now not displayed when assigning access rights to a role in an application
  • Treeview node click event is fired when loading page if SelectedNodePath has been set by default
  • DataGrid dropdown columns can have different values based on data in another column

Posted in Stadium3Release | 1 Comment »

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Stadium as a Test Management Tool

May 8, 2012

Test Management is a crucial task and is necessary for every software development organisation’s QA process. It involves many tasks including writing Test Cases, documenting Test Run Results, logging Issues and producing Test Summary Reports.

It is necessary to find software that can manage these simple, yet crucial, tasks. I did some research on the test management tools that are available on the market. Most tools require you to purchase a license which does not come at a cheap price for commercial users. So, I thought, what can be better than using our in-house product, Stadium, as a Test Management tool?

The versatility of Stadium has brought a whole new level in this scenario.

I started by listing out the tasks that a typical Test Management tool should do. Among the main tasks are:

  • Creating and Maintaining Test Cases
  • Documenting Test Results
  • Logging Issues
  • Generating Reports

Next, I created database tables that would store all the information. For example, a TestCase table would consist of the following fields:

  • Test ID
  • Description
  • Pre-Requisites
  • Steps
  • Expected Results
  • Stadium Version

The last step is to set up the pages in Designer. Look at the screenshots to see Digiata’s very own Test Management tool!

1.       Test Case Management

Users can view Test Cases that are added previously and filter according to keywords they prefer.

They can also add their own set of Test Cases.

The tool also allows users to update existing Test Cases.

2.       Test Run Management

Users can view latest Test Runs according to the date that the tests were executed and status of the Test Cases.

While running the tests, they can log the status in the following page.

3.       Issue Tracking

The tool allows users to view status of the Issues that were logged previously.

Users can log new Issues for Failed Test Cases.

Users can update the Issue status. For example, if an Issue is being fixed by the developer, the status can be changed to Dev. Other status for Issues includes – Ready (If the fix is ready to be tested) and Closed (If the Issue has been fixed).

4.       Viewing Reports

Users can view Test Result summary on the Reports Page. It consists of a pie chart displaying the status and a list of Test Cases according to their status.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

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Error – System.InvalidOperationExceptionOperation is not valid due to the current state of the object

April 11, 2012

Please note there was a recent microsoft security update that changed the default limit of form fields on pages to 1000. If a page exceeds this amount, you are likely to see below error:

System.InvalidOperationExceptionOperation is not valid due to the current state of the object.

Adding the below setting to the web-config file overcomes this limitation,  in this example it is increased to 2000.

<appSettings>
     ………………
     <add key=”aspnet:MaxHttpCollectionKeys” value=”2000″ />
</appSettings>

More information can be found at:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8832470/operation-is-not-valid-due-to-the-current-state-of-the-object-error-during-pos

Note: This setting has been added to the default web.config file, but for upgrades we don’t replace the web.config file so it will have to be added manually.

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Stadium3 Release : 3.3.1970.4353

April 4, 2012

Build 3.3.1970.4353  is available for download. It includes:

  • Users can specify a custom setting for URL property of RSSFeedViewer control
  • Added MaxHttpCollectionKeys setting to default web.config
  • Fix for issue that was causing dependant values to be lost when opening Chid Grid Editor
  • Fix for issue that occurred when using GridIterator and IterateCurrentPageOnly in combination
  • Fix for script error when clicking on button on messagebox

Posted in Stadium3Release | Leave a Comment »

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Stadium4 Release : 4.1.2084.4655

April 4, 2012

Build 4.1.2084.4655 is available for download. It includes:

  • A better looking chart control
  • Datainput fields have new width property
  • Install now adds all neccessary security rights to configuration folder
  • Added MaxHttpCollectionKeys setting to default web.config
  • Users can specify a custom setting for URL property of RSSFeedViewer control
  • Fix for format conditions on grid not working
  • Fix for issue with RDL viewer not working
  • Fix for issue with menu displaying incorrectly
  • Fix for server side paging
  • Fix for issue that occurred when using GridIterator and IterateCurrentPageOnly in combination
  • Fix for issue that was causing dependant values to be lost when opening Chid Grid Editor
  • Fix for formatconditions not working when grid has filter
  • Fix for menu item seperator property not working

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A look at LightSwitch

April 3, 2012

I have spent some time looking at LightSwitch, a Microsoft product that is in some ways similar to Stadium.

How does it create value?
The primary aim of LightSwitch is to create business applications in a rapid manner.

Target users

LightSwitch is primarily targeted at developers who need to rapidly produce business applications.  It is very much part of Visual Studio and the application designer uses the Visual Studio IDE.

There are however contradicting statements from Microsoft regarding the target user:

Marketing saying it is aimed at at non-developers:

http://bit.ly/HbylAG

Jason Zander, corporate vice president of the Visual Studio Team in the Developer division says it is aimed at developers:

http://bit.ly/HM5rdv

Microsoft is sending out a very confusing message but my impression is that it is definitely aimed at developers. In order to achieve anything substantial, coding is required.

Data and Screens

LightSwitch is focussed on building business applications and most business applications consist of at least two things:

  • Data
  • Screens

There is a clear split between these two in LightSwitch. User first defines the data for an application by creating an ‘entity’.

Entity

This ‘entity’ can be linked to a new table in the database or an existing table. The user can then design the screen and link to it to the entity.

I like this clear separation between data and screens.

Screen designer

LightSwitch’s screen designer does not have a WYSIWYG editor and I find the model very confusing. Here is an example of how the model looks:

It is not easy to map the design time concepts to the final screen and this requires some serious effort.

Screen templates
When user creates a new screen, user can choose from a list of templates. This is a great way the speed up the design process and I like this approach.

Business Logic
In order to specify business logic, code must be written, as specified below:

‘Our goal with LightSwitch is to remove a lot of the “plumbing” work and instead allow you to concentrate on the core business logic of your application so that the code you write is exactly what you want to write and no more.’

Web application
The final web application is a Silverlight 4.0 application and can be hosted in a browser or a desktop application. I am baffled why Silverlight and not HTML 5.0?

Here is how the the final output looks like:

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Report Viewer Timeouts

March 2, 2012

Stadium has a Report Viewer control that allows a user  to view a report that is being hosted by Reporting Services.

The benefit of using Reporting Services Reports is that they are much more visually appealing, may contain graphs, and off various methods of exporting the data (Excel, PDF, CSV etc.) in an efficient manner.

Once you’ve uploaded the report on the Reporting Services Server and tested that it successfully generates you may find that the report still fails to generate from within Stadium with the error:

 ”An error has occurred: Request timed out.”

You have probably checked that the timeout values for both the SQL queries within the report as well as the timeout value on the Stadium’s Report Viewer control are set to a sufficiently large number to prevent timeouts but you still get the error.

This error is occurring because the ASP.NET request to the Reporting Services Server is timing out. The ‘ExecutionTimeout’ setting in web.config can be changed/added to prevent this timeout.

The execution time-out refers to the number of seconds an ASP.NET page is given before the operation is assumed to have failed and the page terminated. In the example web.config file below the executionTimeout is set to one hour.

<system.web>
<httpRuntime executionTimeout=”3600″ />
<sessionState timeout=”60″ />
…

Further information : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e1f13641(v=VS.90).aspx

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