Tools for .Net Developers

In this post, i am going to show two tools for .Net developers

1) Ants profilder

2) MZ tools

Ants profiler for .Net applications
I have used this application for my Asp.net application and suggesting to all .net developers. Good tool to view the performance bottlenecks. During the performance profiling, Profiler records the frequency and time it takes with graph for each line of code to be executed, as you are using your application. Detailed results will then reveal the slowest lines of code and methods, allowing you to quickly identify performance bottlenecks and optimize your .NET application accordingly.
Type of application. It supports
1) Asp.net web application. you can use in both asp_net.exe and w3wp.exe. I am meaning both in IIS5 & IIS 6

2) .Net desktop application

3) .Net windows service

4) Com+ server application

Tips for Asp.net developers
Incase if you are using IIS6, some times you cannot debug with IIS hosting environment. If you surrounded with that problem, just change the IIS working to asp_net.exe mode and restart www services.

How to change

1) Open Internet Information services Manager

2) Right click on "Web sites" folder

3) GO to Service tab.

4) Check the option button "Run www service in IIS5.0 isolation mode"

5) Restart www services
After changing to isolation mode, go to Ants profiler click on the "start the profiler" link. It will open the wizard. Read the instruction and proceed further.

Installation Tips:
While installing the applicaiton, check VS-Addins option in installation wizard. You will get visual studio add-in. From IDE itself you can profile the application.
* You can't debug the application while profiling. Please read more on help file
It is not a freeware. But you can install 14 day trail version and can profile the applications.

download link

http://www.red-gate.com/products/ants_profiler/index.htm

MZ tools for Visual Studio
And one more tiny tool for .Net developers is MZ tools. This tool will help you to find dead code in your application & unused variables. After installing you will get the Add-on into your IDE. From there you can find all the options and utilities
By using this tool you generate,
1) XML documention

2) Html documention

3) code summary details

This tool will help developers to maintain the code neatly.
* This is not a freeware, but you can get trail version.

download link
http://www.mztools.com/index.aspx

Vista on XP operating system

This is very cool software which will give you the vista look and feel on windows XP operating system. Its free application. You can install without any license. Download the software from below link

http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/en.id.130.htm

File size is 28 mb.

Before installing just read the below precaution steps

1. Don't install another application like a BricoPack (ShellPack, XPize ...) with the Vista Inspirat 2 BricoPack ! It could damage your operating system or could make it impossible to return to Windows XP's default appearance.
2. Don't install a Microsoft Service Pack (SP1 or SP2) over a BricoPack. You must uninstall the BricoPack first and then install the Service Pack. After that, if you want to, you can of course reinstall the BricoPack.
3. Don't install a BricoPack on a "light" or "gold" version of Windows XP. These are already modified. The installation of a BricoPack will make your system unstable.
4. If you wish to unistall the BricoPack, go to "Start Menu >> BricoPack >> Vista Inspirat 2 >> Vista Inspirat 2 Config" then click on "remove". It's the only way to obtain a clean uninstallation of the pack. The "System restauration" doesn't uninstall the BricoPack perfectly.

Enjoy the new look and feel :)

Microsoft's BI Suite and SoftArtisans's OfficeWriter

Microsoft has delivered full BI Suite from end to end. End to end means like loading the data, Analysing &Reporting and Performance scorecards. Basically Micorsoft BI falls under the following work load.

1. Data Warehouse
2. Analysis and Reporting
3. Performance Management
   

Data Warehouse
Data warehouse is a storgae which facilitates data for Analysis and Reporting. In broader scope, data warehouse means, To Extract data from sources, Transform the data, and To load the into database, simply "ETL". Microsoft has a full fidelity ETL tools with MS SQL Server 2005 called SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) which is the replacement of existing Data transformation services(DTS) in sql server 2000. By using the SSIS object model we can program it and load the data in to database base.

Analysis and Reporting
Microsoft ship the SSAS and SSRS services with SQL Server 2005. The developers can leverage the services by using the object model of SSAS and SSRS. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services offers a comprehensive, server-based solution that includes traditional managed reports, interactive reports, and embedded reports.

Performance Management
Performance measurement is the process of assessing progress toward achieving predetermined goals. Performance management is building on that process, adding the relevant communication and action on the progress achieved against these predetermined goals.

RDL( Report definition language)
The xml based language to define the report in SQL Server Reporting Services. The RDL will contain report format, data source and report parameters.

SoftArtisan's OfficeWriter
SoftArtisan's OfficeWriter is third party tool to build the report by using SSRS. It is like Front face of SSRS. The Business Users can define the report template in Excel or Word without developer help. This software leverages the RDL and storing the Word and Excel file template as a 64 bit serialized stream in RDL.
You can view more details about SoftArtisan's OfficeWriter in the below Link which has been published in Microsoft's SQL Server Developer center.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa964136.aspx#sqlsrsandow_topic1