Client Reports with ASP.net

Create ASP.net Web Forms application. Create Student and StudentFacade class like below. Build the project.

Add a folder called Reports. This folder will contain only the reports that the application will needed. Add new *.rdlc report to reports folder, using report wizard view. Set the data set properties like below.

In the next few pages customize the report design and finish the wizard.
Add new web form called Report.aspx and from the tool box add script manager and report viewer.

In the code behind file of the Report.aspx, in Page_Load method add the following code.

Now run the application and navigate to Report.aspx file. The report will be displayed.

Create and dpeloy SSRS Report

What is *.rdl and *.rdlc report?

*.rdlc files means client reports which we can create through the Visual Studio. But *.rdl files mean the reports that we can design using BIDS and published to reporting server. But *.rdlc files can not published to the reporting server directly. In this post I have have described how to create *.rdl report and access it from the ASP.net web application.

Create the Report

Create a table called Student and it's design should be like below. Enter some data to the table.

Open BIDS. Create Report Server Project like below.

In the solution go to Reports folder and Add New Report.

This will open a wizard which can create a report. We need to provide the data source connection for the report.By clicking on the edit button we can provide the connection.

In the next page, by using Query Builder we can create the relevant SQL statements and also we can run those SQL statements and test the correct data has retrieved. 

After add the query string, in the next few pages we can design the report like; a tabular report, the details that we are going to show, table style and report name. After finished the report wizard, the design view of the report will be displayed. We can do further designing works in there. Also we can have a preview of the report that we created. This will retrieve the actual data from the data base.

Now the report design is finalized.

Deploy *.rdl report in to Report Server

Open reporting services configuration manager and connect to the reporting server.

Go to Report Manager URL.

In there create a new folder and upload the report in to that folder. U can upload more reports to that folder and each one will be displayed. If you click on that particular report, then you can have a nice view of that report.

Access the report using ASP.net Web Application

Create ASP.Net web forms application. Add as aspx page called Reports. From the tool box , add Report Viewer and Script Manager to the page.

In the Reporting Services Configuration Manager go to Web Service URL.

In the code behind file of the Reports web form, add following code.

ServerReport.ReportPath is the path of the report that we can access through the Reports Web Service. If you go to the Reports Web Service you can see the reports that you have deployed to the reporting server, like below.

Now run the ASP.net web application and go to Reports page. Finally you can access the deployed report.

TFS Branching

The key goal of branching is to provide isolation between parallel streams of work. Branching enables parallel development by providing each development activity a self-contained snapshot of needed sources, tools, external dependencies and process automation. Having more branches increases complexity and merge costs.

You can have different kinds of branches like Dev, Stable, Release, Feature and etc. We can add permissions to each branch. We have to merge the changes from child to parent branch and vise versa.
You can refer Branching and Merging Guide for more details about these new features in TFS.

In this post I'll explain how to do a Basic Branch Plan using Team Foundation Service.

Below is the structure of Basic Branching of source code.

You need to install TfsBranchToolVSExtension.vsix. To do that download the source code from codeplex. Rebuild the TfsBranchToolVSExtension using Visual Studio 2012. You must have installed,

• TFS 2012 Object Model (OM) 
• Visual Studio 2012 SDK

After build the project go to bin folder and install the TfsBranchToolVSExtension.vsix file into Visual Studio 2012.
Go to a project collection in Source Control Explorer. There will be only your solution folder and the build process templates. For this demo I have created my project collection in  Team Foundation Service.

Apply initial branching structure like below.

In the dialog you can select Basic, Feature or MainOnly branching structures. But if you want more branching types you have to do appropriate changes for the downloaded codeplex project. For this demo, select Basic Branch plan and apply it.

After the branch plan has applied, new branches(Dev and Main) will be added like below.

For more details about Branching Plans, go through the Branching and Merging Guide.

Web Sockets

According to w3c web socket is, "An API that enables Web pages to use the Web Sockets protocol for two-way communication with a remote host".

HTTP is a request reply protocol.When client loads a page, it'll only load the page. But using Ajax, we could do the periodic polling. That means, according to the user events, page will load new data from the server. But still the HTTP request is started by the client.

Long polling is a technology that enable the server to send data to the client. The client send an HTTP request, server holds that request until there is data to return. Client sends a new request as soon as the previous request completes.

But there are issues with these technologies like, High latency(Periodic polling), Unintuitive (Long polling), Bandwidth overheads and scale out issues.

Using Web Sockets we can create a TCP socket connection between client and the server. That means, a persistent connection between client and the server and any party can send data to other party at any time.

Advantages

• New inter-operable technology, undergoing standardization
• Full duplex bidirectional connection
• W3C java-script API
• Secure connection
• High performance (Low latency, Low bandwidth overhead)
• Cross - domain connection

Data Driven Coded UI Tests

Coded UI is automated tests which driven through the application UI. The coded UI test performs actions on the user interface controls for an application and verifies that specified controls display the correct values.

Assume you have a WPF application like below. You can enter the name and then press Go button. Then it'll show a label which has Hello Dilan like below.

Assume you have below UI steps like LaunchApplication, EnterTheName, AssertTheLabelValue and CloseApplication.

When you create a Action Record method like EnterTheName then Visual Studio will generate a class called EnterTheNameParams. Also for the assertions like AssertLabelValue Visual Studio will generate a class like AssertLabelValueExpectedValues. So you can create a test method like below.

After create a Coded UI test, you need to run that for different sets of data to test different conditions. To do that we can use a data source like CSV, Excel, XML, SQL Express and etc.
If you have VS 2010 open Test View window. In the properties of test, you can add a data connection string. So the rest of the code will generate by Visual Studio.

But if you have VS 2012, the Test Window has deprecated. So you have to manually add the data source and add the relevant attributes. For example, I have used Data.csv file like below.

Add Data.csv file in to the project.

Then insert the DataSource attribute directly in the code, in the line immediately above your test method. Also change the code to retrieve the values from data-source.

You don't have to add any loop to run the test for each condition. Coded UI will automatically handle that. So this test will be run for thee times, because there are three rows in the data source.