C#

Sorting out the DLL hell, Part 3: The Code

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[Update, February 8, 2016: there is a new version of code from this post. Please check https://vjeko.com/dynamically-loading-assemblies-at-runtime]

Okay here we go. In this post I deliver the promised code that handles automatic deployment of all your assemblies to client and server, as needed.

For any of you who haven’t read the last two posts, I am talking about automatically deploying .NET assemblies to clients and server, from the database, on demand, at runtime.

This will be heavy on code, so fasten your seatbelt and brace for impact.

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Off-topic: A C# lesson learned about conditional operators

  • Reading time:3 mins read

If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand, that’s an unwritten rule-that-rules-them-all of programming. You absolutely love to apply syntactical stunts to impress your coworkers, especially if you do C# and they don’t, don’t you?

One of those stunts (at least from C/AL) perspective is a C-language type common feature known as conditional operator. It allows you to write this:

a = b ? c : d;

when you would normally (in C/AL, for example) get more eloquent:

if (b == true)
{
    a = c;
} else {
    a = d;
}

This (b == true) could have been replaced with just (b), but I put it there for clarity.

But! (There is always a “but”!)

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Client Extensibility Demos

  • Reading time:2 mins read

On Monday, June 15th I have delivered another session in Microsoft’s Road to Repeatability series of online demos about technical NAV features, this time covering Client Extensibility. The session went through both the .NET and JavaScript aspects of client extensibility, and again – I promised to post all of the demos and content from the session on my blog.

So, here it is, given as-is, with no guarantees or strings attached, just the plain content for you to see if you can make any sense out of it.

Now my to-do list has grown quite big with the stuff that I want to blog, and it includes presenting and explaining most of the concepts I showed in my presentation. So, keep your fingers crossed that I find just enough time to blog about all those small things that have found their way into my presentation, but never into real blog posts that take them inside out and explain in-depth what they are and how really they work.

Of course, you are still free to use any of this in any real, or unreal life scenarios.

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Server Extensibility Demos

  • Reading time:1 min read

Yesterday, as a part of Microsoft’s Road To Repeatability program, I delivered a live meeting session about server extensibility in NAV in which I focused on certain areas of .NET Interoperability and Web Services that in my opinion align well with the R2R message.

As promised, here are the materials from the presentation:

I provide this as-is, with no comments, documentation or anything – you are free to use any of these materials in your projects, and I welcome your questions here about presentation content and demos. I’ll do my best to answer them on my earliest convenience.

I hope you enjoyed the presentation yesterday (if you were attending) and that you find these materials useful.

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Control Add-ins and Version Compatibility–Update

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Yesterday I posted a quick tip, which quickly got some comments about it being wrong. Since I know people who commented were unlikely to say something incorrect, I went to check on, because I myself experienced difficulties that made me write that post.

So, I analyzed to see who’s right and who’s wrong, or better yet – to see why different people might get different results.

Here’s the results.

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Control Add-ins and Version Compatibility

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(Update, 20.4.2015: As it turns out – this post is not entirely accurate, as pointed out by Johannes Sebastian. Please read the next post to learn more about which parts are, and which aren’t correct.)

Control Add-ins written in C# are not cross-version compatible. You cannot use an assembly compiled for 2013 R2 with 2015 (or the opposite way around, or any other version combination for that matter) without recompiling it with correct extensibility framework assembly reference.

Control Add-ins written in JavaScript don’t have to be recompiled, are mostly interchangeable, and are (so far) guaranteed to be forward compatible. You can always use a version built for 2013 R2 in 2015. You can use a version built for 2015 in 2013 R2, but the opposite way around is only true if you don’t use any of the new JavaScript extensibility features not supported in earlier versions.

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Overloading Methods With JavaScript Control Add-ins

  • Reading time:3 mins read

Switching from C# to JavaScript to develop your control add-ins might get you scratching your head more often that your scalp, or nails for that matter, might be happy with.

One of those is overloading. In C#, this is a no-brainer:

However, when you want to do that in JavaScript, if you are not a JavaScript developer, making this work is not as straightforward as a regular JavaScript Joe would find it.

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Passing JSON from JavaScript to C/AL

  • Reading time:4 mins read

Yesterday, I said I was closing this year of blogging, but I wasn’t really. Closing a year with 39 posts, and leaving a question lingering, wouldn’t be too fair, would it? If you read my last postabout how to pass objects from C/AL to JavaScript, you must have wondered if it’s possible to also pass objects from JavaScript back to C/AL.

Wonder no more. It is. And here’s how.

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Read more about the article NAV TechDays 2014 Pre-conference goodies

NAV TechDays 2014 Pre-conference goodies

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So, NAV TechDays 2014 have started, again, with the pre-conference sessions that were all sold out and packed full.

Today I had an extraordinary pleasure to teach the advanced .NET Interoperability concepts to 15 people that came from all over the world, from Brazil to Australia. It was an interesting workshop, challenging – I must say (thanks to Rafael who made me improvise a solution to a typical DotNet limitation), and I am looking forward to delivering two more sessions about .NET and Control Add-ins tomorrow, and on Friday.

As promised, I am making the materials from the presentation available for the download, in case you want to learn the same stuff the attendees learned today.

Continue ReadingNAV TechDays 2014 Pre-conference goodies